Ian-S

Meanwhile at Island Beats...
 

Went last night Park felt busier then it ever has done before for summer nights However I walked on every ride Except for stealth Where I had to wait for one train. I was too tired that my ride count are rides which were close to the entrance As I couldn't be bothered to walk! XD so here is my ride count Arrived at 8.00pm Got on 
 
Swarm-3 once backwards
Flying Fish-1 6 laps or something like that lost count Actually
Storm surge-1
Teacups-1
King's pig wild hog dodgems-1
Stealth-4
IMO considering I spent 15 mins of that time eating and I didn't get to my first ride till 810pm I think the ride count isn't too bad 
Wonder how busy tonight will be though for the vamps! 
It's still a great event though guys!!
And rides Open included All coasters Storm surge tidal wave detonator Dodgems and teacups Those were all I can see! and About buses just so everyone knows the last bus to stains goes at 11.15pm I case anyone's wondering! 

Sounds like a plan, I can just hear the Great Escape music playing while we tunnel our way in, just make sure you measure things correctly, we don't want to come up under Tomb Blaster and inadvertantly cause them to have to do more fixing on that instead, we need to arrive precisely under Falls big drop.

Anyone that ever rode, or has seen the pictures of Dragon River/Falls, will agree how splendid and spectacular an otherwise run of the mill log flume could be. The fact the bosses at Merlin (not Chessington, as they don't give a crap on such things) are content with it's current state speaks volumes. They should be utterly ashamed of themselves for failing at exactly what a theme park is.
 
Chessington; you are an absolute dump of a park that needs someone to bring it back to the standard in which it once was. Paramount will be a huge kick in the face for you, and it doesn't matter how many hotel extensions, or re-themed attractions due to urgent H&S concerns that you rush through, people will see every disgusting flaw that you are pretending don't exist (rant over).

In fairness, there isn't much that can be done if a train is broken and cannot be used...
 
Big difference between being lazy and being unable to actually use...

I think they have to be booked online, but it would be worth contacting them directly about this as I'm not entirely sure.

STOP PRESS! Altitude and Ian-S agree on something!

A rhetorical question I guess, but simply charging a fair entrance price that's enough to cover costs, and not devaluing yourself with a ludicrously inflated price which is then battered down to outright cheapness by an all encompassing voucher system. Everyone then feels ripped off.
 
Those who think that they do not profit from inflated queue times are being incredibly naive for such intelligent people. I simply do not care (and nor do everyday visitors) how it comes about, which department has this or that responsibility for whatever aspect of the circumstances that lead to it happening. By design or by incompetence, it does happen and it should not happen. I've seen it repeatedly with my own eyes. 
 
It'll be the next thing that comes to bite them in the media. Just the sort of thing Watchdog would love...

No, but it is common for the Fastrack team to stand at the entrance of rides and lie..sorry, exaggerate about queue times.

the queue time on saw said 40 minutes, once and even I could see from the entrance there was blatently not a queue that long, barely anyone waiting in the outdoor queue; so the fast track salesman stood almost blocking the entrancing trying and succeeding selling fast track vouchers to unfortunate guests; when I decided to queue wasn't any more than 15/20 minutes altogether.
 
similar with The Swarm where there was essentially no queue at all before the baggage room, and there was someone selling fast tracks then... so thorpe must pressure their staff so much for sales targets, presumably, that the staff have no morals and will happily sell the fast track tickets knowing the queue isn't as long as advertised (and not inform anyone of the incorrect time!
 
Also in regards to amount of trains... thorpe always seems to be the worst when it comes to one train operation... as far as I'm aware it's down to cost of staff to maintain/check the trains... as when I had a behinds the scenes tour of stealth and Q&A, it was brought up, and apparently it takes 2 hours to check one stealth train every morning, and then every so often more significant checks need to be made, hence why most of the time a second train is added later in the morning, and some midweek days it's on one train so the other can be prepared ready for a busier day(s); which this seems fair enough to an extent, but if more money was spent on maintenance staff, maybe most ride could be on two trains from opening even on quieter days (like alton towers)... as one train operation can turn a nice off peak day into hell!

He seemed really calm in the interview and made sure Leah's privacy wasn't invaded, there was also a point where they asked him about fair ground rides and he immediately said they aren't the same so you can't really compare so he seems to know some stuff. The constant close ups on his finger and knees weren't the nicest thing to see in the morning though

Maybe they'll demolish the existing theming in Tomb Blaster, not bother to replace it and finish the project and open it up unfinished and bare next year..?
De ja vu it seems?

I think they are being greedy.

I must be getting old, my response is to say it's all just an expensive gimmick and I'll stick with my Magnum thanks. 

That's it, ban all buses! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-33406558 

It's just very very unrelated to the subject matter and comes off a bit very oddly. Had you said thank goodness Towers, or a theme park company didn't share his opinion, it would;ve made alot more sense and may have had some impact on the conversation.
 
PS Most rides have generators that can last for between 3-5 hours.

Most rides do not have a backup generators but I know saw has one to power the vertical lift evac tower

The problem is, we/you're not most people... I don't bother clicking on the link, but just looking at the comments of these pages that get shared just make me want hit my head against the wall about how misinformed and easily led they are to jump on the bandwagon about things without properly thinking and finding out first; saying that, I blame the newspapers and other organisations on Facebook etc. that share the scaremongering stories more than most of the stupid people on Facebook.

No you're not being harsh, I blame the nanny state telling everybody what to do, people then become susceptible to being easily manipulated and tend to over-react to 'small' events (not including smiler here) and as you say buy into scare mongering.
I was quiet surprised by who I got grief off the other week for going.

I know Towers are subject to budget cuts, but a roller coaster powered by Mark9 pedalling a bike or something is taking cost cutting to a whole new level...

STOP PRESS! Altitude and Ian-S agree on something!

You mean like this?
 

I think it's time for the park to start being a little less corporate in their responses to these none stories that have nothing to do with the original incident and go on the offensive with a bit of public truth telling.

STOP PRESS! Altitude and Ian-S agree on something!

STOP PRESS! Altitude and Ian-S agree on something!