Ian-S

LOL that's what the guy was doing at Brighton one summer, running the ride up until the point where the track was missing. H&S wasn't very pleased...

I'm not saying it is, you / fast trackers have paid extra for quick entry, they should have a unified system that is setup able to accommodate this, not one that has different procedures from ride to ride. I've never been on fright night so don't know what it's like, but to be honest we go to theme parks to ride the roller coasters, not play on the side attractions, I can do that at our local travelling circus, that's just me though lol.

Red Bull Rocket - the ride. Makes you go super fast, literally gives you wings at the top, and leaves you buzzing for hours after, just like the legal high drink itself.

If Merlin really want to push fast track and VIP then they should considering adjusting their popular rides to account for it by doing what the operators on Inferno and Colossus were doing over the weekend and having a section of the cattle pen blocked off so that this row of seats is where the Fast trackers and VIP's sit, it was working quiet well, if there was no-one waiting they'd let an extra two/four through from the cattle pen to fill in the vacant seats. I only saw this system fail once when some spotty teenager decided to remove the plank blocking off the pen and 'queue' in the closed access hole, but one of the ride operators was on the ball and stopped him barging his way onto the ride in place of some poor sod more deserving (I actually mean that with sincerity, there was this really big, obviously physically disabled guy waiting patiently and the kid obviously had no intention of waiting his turn). What I mean is though, that there is is a specific queue seperate from the main queue feeding only those seats on the train, on most rides I saw the fast track queue feeds into the main one at some point in the process, they should keep the two systems totally separate with the flexibility built in that if there's FT/VIP waiting, the ride operator can let other on, it would mean rebuilding all the queuing systems though, and probably wouldn't be too popular with the folk who think fast track / VIP means instant access. I've never understood the obsession of front row riding, best place is always the back lol, only advantage of the front is you get a nice view for a few seconds at thtop lol.

I'm not sure how it was before but they it looked like they were setting up a small booth area in the corner of the inferno shop and doing some work on the inferno exit by the shop, couldn't really see where IAC will exit. We are by coincidence planning a return trip on the 27th as my son has an inset day, and my son has already said he wants to go through the maze....

There's a way to get the wristbands off if you're quick and the glue hasn't fully cured, the guy in the office put my sons height one on slightly too tight and I was able to get it off to readjust it on Sunday, but it only works when it's cold or hasn't been pushed together properly. I guess like the guy at Thorpe last year, one bad apply has been caught and they're super suspicious of everybody now, I noticed at busy times some ride operators were checking both writs bands and badges, but I think I'd still rather keep mine in my wallet than risk it round my neck but that probably comes from experience of loosing those dam laynard things more often than not in an old job.

They probably dare not admit to being VIP.... Or perhaps consider an internet forum discussion on the merits of VIP is beneath them....

Yeah that get's me too, not the in-your-face-I'm-a-vip thing, I've worked in industries much worse, but the risk, when we got our MAP's the first thing I did was clip the pass in the laynard and throw it at the wall see how it stood up, pass popped out easier than hot knife through butter so I decided there and then the passes would be kept securely in my wallet in my pocket and not round our necks.

I think his point is when there is no main queue, why go up the fast track? Like you said elsewhere, if there's no queue, there's no point using the VIP system as you risk loosing out, I saw it twice, once on Stealth and one on Zodiac, not casting any aspersions about you, but some of the VIP crowd seem a little short in the common sense department, which can sometimes bugger it up for people like you who have it.

ROFL what you've described is a little familiar, I wondered up and the chain wasn't across, one of the ride ops just waved me and a few others through, while some people in the fast track queue looked a little annoyed...

What's the rules with regard to VIP Fast track? Do they go to the regular fast track queue or the ride exit? I saw people doing both over the weekend.

I don't like it, it's too smash bang look at me, I know it's a theme park but it could have been set out better, we got lost trying to find Loggers Leap while trying to navigate by the map on Saturday. Unfortunately smash bang look at me is somewhat typical of today's marketing mentality, since the very vast majority of Thorpe's target audience likely have the attention span of a gold fish and require constant flashy stimulation to keep them interested (I am relatively local, but live in the target demographic, the number of people on our estate who are regular visitors, but NOT annual pass holders is astronomical). They should have done two, a to scale one KISS principle for us old folk, and the flash bang one for next gen.

Haha my excuse is I've only rediscovered roller coasters in the last few months, so I've no clue of how things operated pre-flotation.

You mean no shareholders to pay off....

You'd be surprised, especially considering what I heard one person complaining about in Client Services over the weekend.

Give fans the chance to paint the rides in the closed season.... 'We're looking for wizards willing to spread a little magic over the resort in the off season, come down to Thorpe Park this weekend, bring old clothes and be prepared to get messy while experiencing the operations of our top attractions from a totally different perspective'. I'm sure if they sold it right they could even get people to pay for the privilege, after all people pay to walk up the hill lift of Swarm. Perhaps not, I'd expect that to be a H&S nightmare.

Your necks are all getting stronger, that's why it's appearing smoother Although first time I went on I thought it was going to give me a free vacestomy they did the restraints up so tight, and I'm not exactly well built, can't imagine how uncomfortable it would be for my brother-in-law.

I took my phone onto the flying fish at half term without realising there was a no camera rule, that experience alone was enough to tell me never to attempt to film onride again, not because anybody took me to task, but simply because it was so extremely difficult to keep hold of my phone, and that ride isn't excty g-inducing. I totally agree there should be a 100% ban on them and anybody caught escorted off the premises, not a total ban, but just kicked out for the remainer of the day to teach them a lesson, a very long time ago I was standing next to someone who got hit by a stone thrown up by a racing car and they were blinded for life, if a tiny stone can do that, imagine what something the size of a phone would do to you head. There's a massive untapped revenue stream there for the parks if they wanted to exploit it, and priced it right. X is about the only coaster where the risk is virtually zero though, since nobody can see the ride lol.

Perhaps I just have different expectations, we only went up the front once and it wasn't any smoother, and I didn't consider the back any rougher than what I expected, but before Feb half term the last real coaster I went on was the corkscrew in 1983, so erm lol

As normal a minority give the majority a bad name, kudos to you for your common sense approach, I too saw VIP people queuing at the exit gate when there was no queue, but we kind of got the last laugh in that case because the ride operator didn't see them and set the ride going, so they had to wait for the next go, when if they'd just walked around to the proper entrance, they'd have got on with us lol.

We went on it 5 times over the weekend and didn't whack our heads once, is it a particular problem then?

Yeah I took one over then top of the fence, I'll see if I can find it later.

The benefit of having someone in the family who has no qualms in tapping someone on the shoulder and asking a question... My son noticed the new paint too today, saw a guy in an H&S jacket with engineer on his back, and a pair of bins round his neck examining one of them, so he walks up and says "why did you only re-paint the joints during the winter, are you lazy?". Startled guy turns round and explains they had replaced the retaining bolts during winter maintenance, and he assumes they painted only the ones they'd replaced, so it would be easier for him to find them when doing spot checks, but he did agree it would have looked better if they'd repainted the whole ride. So there you go, direct from the horses mouth, fortunately an 11 year old is lucky enough to get away with asking that

Judging by photo's on google there's a rather large part missing

As I posted in the annual pass day thread, that mini is in the entrance queue area: