Ian-S

I'm going to be the oddball here and put forward the opinion that not only do I believe Galactica is far better than Air, but it also offers a superior virtual reality experience for riders compared to Ghost Train.
 
Haven ridden both Galactica and Ghost Train approximately 10 times each over the course of 2016, there has never been a moment where I am worried or concerned I will get a bad experience with Galactica because it all boils down to two simple words - reliability & re-rideability.
 
To me, I have seen a far more complete and enjoyable experience with Galactica for a few reasons. Not only do I believe the footage used is more fun and even thrilling, but the quality of it too. Far more exciting things happens with Galactica when you fly through the portals to 4 different worlds, the audio is loud enough so you can hear the brilliant music and voiceover in perfect synchronisation with the visual content making it more exciting, and I have had no glitches occur on my screen out of all the 9 times I have ridden it. I don't know if I have been incredibly lucky having no issues, or I'm not seeing the problems other people are having.
 
Compare this to Ghost Train where the content begins well with human characters interacting and talking to you, but it falls flat very quickly in the second half where simply put, a few creatures simply stare at you so you can admire the incredibly low resolution textures used on their faces, aliasing that makes my 14 year old PS2 system look impressive and then some lovely green smoke to fill in the waiting time whilst the system breaks down on a daily basis. And to top it all off, to be thrown into the ground filled with fire and magma which is not convincing one little bit and finishes the ride rather boringly.
 
Not once have I had a single issue that is hardware related to the Samsung Gear VR headsets used for both visual and audio wise on Galactica, mainly because I believe there is only a single cable providing the headsets and headphones power that is not as susceptible to wear and tear compared to Ghost Train. There are no extra cables needed to sync the headsets to the control unit to keep the content in sync with the movement of the train, all of this is done via the units in-between the seats and is communicated to the headsets via Bluetooth. Not only does this ensure there are less cables, but it makes the system more reliable for long-term use.
 
Again, look at Ghost Train. How many cables power these headsets alone? 5 or 6 isn't it? And when you use them, almost every time there is a hardware issue somewhere; whether it's the connection between the headset and the black lighthouse box on the ceiling becoming weak resulting in a glitchy as hell visual signal, audio being too quiet through the headphones, or the left and right channels getting mixed up, or even not working at all and is covered in a bag.
 
Lastly, the biggest advantage with Galactica over Air and Ghost Train is that the VR experience is optional. People who are complaining about wanting Air back and Galactica's VR removed, all I ask is currently, what has been lost or taken away from Air that you want back so badly? Sure, the queues might be slower, there's no longer a single rider queue and the faff involved with the headsets might be a nuisance to some. But honestly, is there anything else that has been taken away?
 
The fact the experience is entirely optional (from June onwards) is a selling point for Galactica. You can still have the same old experience of Air if you choose without the headsets with the same track layout, the same scenery (plus the portal), the same speed, the same beautifully themed concrete tunnel and the same experience if you choose. But for those who want to try something different and immerse themselves in an entirely new environment in space or want to see what VR on a coaster is like, this is the ideal ride that suits both audiences. Ghost Train is entirely dependant on using VR and that's a big problem I see with the experience, because you are forced to wear them which narrows down your market to a selected group of people who will ride it only for the VR experience, nothing else which sadly over time the popularity will diminish for it. So I honestly don't see what the fuss is over with wanting Air back over Galactica except for betting back a slightly quicker queue.
 
To conclude, Galactica is a great example of what VR can be when done (for the most part) correctly and I will stand by this until I am proven otherwise. I'm not saying Galactica is perfect in anyway and it does need some enhancements made to make it even more enjoyable for riders, but it's a vast difference compared to the frankly abysmal experience you could sometimes get with Ghost Train. Also, when you consider Galactica and the Rollercoaster Restaurant combined is an investment that is under £2M with generally quite favourable reviews from riders and guests in comparison to Ghost Train which cost over £13M (projected) that has opened up to generally very negative reviews due to reliability, quality and hardware issues, this is a perfect example of how money is not everything when it comes to who can provide the better experience.
 
As I said at the beginning, Galactica wins hands down as a better experience compared to both its predecessor and its rival and I hope the virtual reality stays with minor enhancements made to make it even better, because feedback has been considerably more favourable compared to it’s “future for theme parks across the world” rival embarrassment and I would recommend Galactica over it to anyone who has never experienced virtual reality before.

A sword? A real sword?  Do schools not realise that even professional multi million pound film and TV productions use fake items made of rubber because the risk is considered just far too high to use real ones?  Jesus H ****ing Christ if they gave you a real one I'd be talking to solicitor because that's a serious failure in duty of care.

A sword? A real sword?  Do schools not realise that even professional multi million pound film and TV productions use fake items made of rubber because the risk is considered just far too high to use real ones?  Jesus H ****ing Christ if they gave you a real one I'd be talking to solicitor because that's a serious failure in duty of care.

As Ian S has said, I really don't care what religion you are, as long as you don't try converting me. I do enjoy RS class at school and I think it's vital to see what other religions believe in, rather than just learning about Christianity.
The Americans abolishing it from their curriculum was very controversial and maybe the lack of cultural understanding resulting from it has led to the much higher level of racism and general hate over there. 
Another opinion I have is not to have religious schools, whether Catholic, Islamic or any other. I think it promotes segregation and discourages diversity. By all means we should learn about them, but in a totally non biased way. 

My Nan used to say "God sends us these tests, to test your faith" whenever a young naive me would ask if God was so great why does he allow cancer and war, she was mega religious, went to Church every Sunday, belted her daughters for dressing inappropriately, you know all the things a God fearing deciple does.
 
Then her son died of cancer, he youngest daughter had a heart attack, and eventually her eldest daughter (my Mum) died of cancer too, you don't mention God whenever you're in her presence now if you know what's good for you.
 
But whatever floats your boat, like a persons sexuality, I don't care what you do or what you believe in so long as you respect my choices and don't try to sell me what you're drinking (by you I meant generally, not anybody here), my Aunt on my wife's side is an ordained minister, she knows my views and I hers and we get on just fine because she doesn't try to convert me and I don't diss her God in her presence.
 
Having said that, I never miss an opportunity to wind up the local Jehovah's Witness whenever they come knocking.

So the reason why children are starving in Africa is because the parents have children they cannot afford to feed.
The reason they cannot afford to feed them could be because they did not plan to have the child in the first place (lack of education maybe..?)
 
In this country if a girl who cannot afford to feed and look after themself, let alone a child, was to get pregnant and continue to have the child, they would eventually get help with looking after the child financially.
If all of this support was suddenly taken away, then eventually we would have a situation like Africa where children starve.
 
To make you think.

But back on topic.
I am not religious in the slightest.
Religion causes arguments which can turn into war.
I can't see the point in believing in something that has not been proven to exist.
In this World and this country there are enough rules to abide by without living life by even more restrictions.
 
Tom.

My Nan used to say "God sends us these tests, to test your faith" whenever a young naive me would ask if God was so great why does he allow cancer and war, she was mega religious, went to Church every Sunday, belted her daughters for dressing inappropriately, you know all the things a God fearing deciple does.
 
Then her son died of cancer, he youngest daughter had a heart attack, and eventually her eldest daughter (my Mum) died of cancer too, you don't mention God whenever you're in her presence now if you know what's good for you.
 
But whatever floats your boat, like a persons sexuality, I don't care what you do or what you believe in so long as you respect my choices and don't try to sell me what you're drinking (by you I meant generally, not anybody here), my Aunt on my wife's side is an ordained minister, she knows my views and I hers and we get on just fine because she doesn't try to convert me and I don't diss her God in her presence.
 
Having said that, I never miss an opportunity to wind up the local Jehovah's Witness whenever they come knocking.

Ah yes, let's give this two year old cancer because of what your ancestors did okay okay cool. 

Atheist for the same reasons Whatever stated, I really dislike the "prime directive" type excuses various religions come up with to justify the horrible things that go on, you're being punished for the sins of your father, God observes he doesn't interfere, all infidels must convert or be cast out etc etc.
 
That's not a nice message to send, and I don't need a pretend benevolent "god" to tell me to be nice to people, and let's not forget we'd be a lot further along technology wise had the Church not banned scientific study.

Atheist for the same reasons Whatever stated, I really dislike the "prime directive" type excuses various religions come up with to justify the horrible things that go on, you're being punished for the sins of your father, God observes he doesn't interfere, all infidels must convert or be cast out etc etc.
 
That's not a nice message to send, and I don't need a pretend benevolent "god" to tell me to be nice to people, and let's not forget we'd be a lot further along technology wise had the Church not banned scientific study.

Yeah it was quite a shame, I was looking after Guest Services for the entire park on certain days which was great. It was the best job I had for sure. I wouldn't be where I am if I didn't work there and I wouldn't be where I am if they didn't sack me either! 

Any more staff being let go across the company, who were already paid a fraction of what their jobs were actually worth, and I don't know if their attractions would be able to function properly at all.
 
I don't quite believe that Merlin have taken the right steps because they rarely are pragmatic at operational level and even their cost cutting has been randomly organised. I remember budgets for some other park departments were suddenly scaled up last season to impress guests for the summer,  only to know be cut right down again for this coming season and firing long serving staff. Regardless, Merlin continue to spend huge amounts of money building new parks and their current goal to expand into India & other parts of Asia.
 
The crash still affected Alton Towers' attendance badly so further budgeting was understandable, to be honest I'm more accepting of the closed things than most. Hex was in an awful state, Sub Terra should never have existed and had problems, Charlie was a rubbish project from the start - although out of these only Hex was closed for cost saving and the others would have shut anyway. I think it better to save thousands on closing a whole attraction that's in too poor a show-condition to keep going, one that can be brought back to life fairly simply, and then not skimp out on the rest of the offering; instead of slashing everything. Sad to hear though how it seems this year, across all Merlin parks, the slashing is now in full force.
 
Within the company there are many places the costs could have been covered, without butchering the parks and their own reputation. Yet the company is determined to continue its growth rate and refuses to slow to recover from this difficult period, at the cost of all its quality and despite the fact its already damn enormous. I believe it was clearly all heading this way before The Smiler accident too, in fact The Smiler accident was a result of the company's increasingly awful bottom end control under such rapid expansion.

After a trial last year, contactless payment & Apple Pay / Android Pay will be accepted on at least the 5 big coasters (Munich Looping, Wilde Maus XXL, Ice Mountain, Alpine Thriller, Christmas Coaster) & possibly other rides too.

Tokens (they are actually paper receipts)

It would be good but I think you've got more chance of seeing a flying pig pass you on the tophat of Stealth than the park being cleaned up.
 
 

Ive not suggested that, even the most 'accomplished' parks leave major rides SBNO but usuaully always scheduled or discreet, and not as often as Merlin are now. For a company as large and profitable as Merlin to leave popular rides SBNO to save money (Alton Towers) or because they've cheaped out on maintenance for so long (Thorpe Park) is very telling of how they fund their parks and this kind of action will only run the parks increasingly into the ground.
 
We are all here on a Thorpe Park forum because we have a passion for the place and theme parks surely - so of course people ought to speak out if they are seeing the park run hard into the ground. In a sense Merlin have a duty of care to the place, theyre the third operator to run it, but of course that idea won't gel with them as they just see it as a popular 'brand' in their UK empire. Which is a shame, because it means the solid, fun attractions die like this, while the new ones are the likes of I'm A Celebrity, Angry Birds Land and a flawed Derren Brown's Ghost Train.
 
If their system of running the parks was working on the whole and things like Loggers shutting down was just a mistake then thats one thing, but it's clearly not, that's why I say people shouldn't be naively optimistic, that's all. Also their PR cloud of confusion and lies about the situation is concerning, they had no idea when Loggers closed if it were coming back or not and it certainly isn't currently being refurbished, and no plans to refurbish it existed at the time of its closure. So I disagree with what was said.
 
Also Benin is spot on.

It would be good but I think you've got more chance of seeing a flying pig pass you on the tophat of Stealth than the park being cleaned up.
 
 

Perhaps anything related to Loggers is having to wait until the Flumes at Alton are dismantled?  I mean I know Merlin make some strange decisions but surely even they are not dumb enough to ignore the obvious, ride a needs new xyz (pumps?), ride b has perfectly good ones and is already earmarked for removal, why invest in new pumps for ride a when you can scavange the parts from ride b?

Just for clarity, are you saying that you would consider it okay for Loggers to sit SBNO for five years?
 
I think we'll have to agree to disagree if that's the case.

So I guess Trump will start his presidency as he run his campaign and one of his first acts will be to evict an innocent black family from their home... no?
 
too soon? I'll show myself out

So I guess Trump will start his presidency as he run his campaign and one of his first acts will be to evict an innocent black family from their home... no?
 
too soon? I'll show myself out

I know that Chessington's was always included in the Merlin pass, not sure on the others.
 
How they can justify charging passholders more for things given the frankly appalling state of their theme parks this year is beyond me.

That's the thing, a slight upcharge would be bad enough, but £16 is just blatantly exploiting passholders and getting them to pay again, despite having already purchased a pass.
 
If they said it was free to enter the Zoo/Sea Life, but that the Christmas aspects required a fee, then I'd have no issue whatsoever.  The way they're doing it is a blatant money-making scheme which, despite being covered in T&C's, is still absolutely the wrong thing to do given that people have already paid for the MAP's, and the Zoo & Sea Life were always included in the Merlin pass, just as they are for the rest of the year.

Yeah, I still disagree with the FN passholder charge but then with the way they "coped" with crowds during half term, the last thing they need is to be any busier!
 
It worked fine every other year, it was simply that passholders could gain entry but the grotto wasn't included (think there was an option to pay).  There's no justifiable reason to change this, other than they want to squeeze even more money out of passholders.