Matt N

Big one most likely, though previously was Wild Mouse. 

Either Big One or Megaphobia

Mingo also has a more recent issue of removing seats off of things like Flip Flop and Pterodactyl, further reducing throughputs.
 
Guess the caravan park been a bit quiet with the poor weather. But those throughputs are god awful no matter what way its spun as "only" 40 minutes. Would've been far less and a far higher ride count if things were run even slightly better, but sounds like maintenance wise there's a lot of issues with stuff breaking down often.

It's coming back yknow 😉

If Rocky Express doesn't win this then this website deserves to be destroyed.

Things are about to pick up pace very, very quickly 😏

In a pretty swift move, track has arrived for Seaworld Orlando's new rollercoaster which has the code name 'Bobsleigh'. And what is perhaps more surprising is that this family rollercoaster will be yet another B&M. Track has arrived on site and white track has also been seen at B&M's production facilities. 
 
It is rumoured that a lot of the ride will be indoors.
 

What a detailed history! I don't think it would be even possible for me to have anything similar to this. Not sure if we're counting trips or individual visits but if so I have been to the Walt Disney World parks the most (but I did work there for 3 months) - individual trips would probably either be Drayton Manor or Alton Towers with Disneyland Paris also being up there. I would probably say the coaster I have ridden the most would be Nemesis and then I think Expedition Everest must also be up there due to the single rider line being magic.

Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but one thing I personally like doing at theme parks is timing ride throughputs and observing the operations on rides. With this in mind, I decided to make a thread for like-minded people who are interested in throughputs and operations to share their throughput timings and operational insights from parks around the world. Whether your timings and operational insights are from Chessington, Europa Park, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Oakwood or anywhere else in the world, I’d love to hear about them and I’m sure many others would too!
 
My reason for deciding to create this thread is because I have some throughput timings and operational insights of my own to share. Currently, I’m coming towards the end of a trip to Florida, so I thought I’d share some of the throughput timings and general operational insights I was able to log at Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa.
 
For various reasons, I could not time throughputs quite as comprehensively as I would normally like on this trip; things like metal detectors and themed queues obscuring sight of the rides at Universal and queues that were often too short to get a comprehensive average at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens meant that I had to rely more on chance occasions where I was standing within eyeshot of a ride at Universal in particular and as such, the averages are often based on lower amounts of dispatches than the 10 I normally aspire towards. Nonetheless, here are some of the throughput timings and general insights I was able to gain from Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa.
 
Islands of Adventure
Flight of the Hippogriff (Theoretical: 993pph on 2 trains) - 951pph (2 trains, 12th June 2023, average of 3) Note: I did not ride this, but I got a good vantage point from the queue line of Hagrid’s. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 12 trains) - 1,617pph (unknown number of trains, 12th June 2023, average of 10) Incredible Hulk (Theoretical: 1,920pph on 3 trains) - 1,138pph (possibly only running 2 trains (as I did not stack, which I didn’t think was possible on 3), 12th June 2023, average of 4), 1,608pph (unknown number of trains, 21st June 2023, average of 3) VelociCoaster (Theoretical: 1,800pph on 4 trains) - 1,489pph (unknown number of trains, 17th June 2023, average of 3), 1,566pph (4 trains, 21st June 2023, average of 6) Universal Studios Florida
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (Theoretical: 1,850pph on 7 trains) - 1,329pph (unknown number of trains, 13th June 2023, average of 3) SeaWorld Orlando
Ice Breaker (Theoretical: 650-750pph on 2 trains) - 564pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 2) Kraken (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and stacking on the brake run was routine. According to the dispatch timer in the station, the ride’s average park time seemed to be around 3 minutes. (16th June 2023) Mako (Theoretical: 1,680pph on 3 trains) - 960pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 4). In terms of general insights, there was quite often a gap in the station between trains and the dispatch timer showed the train being parked for as little as 60 seconds on some occasions. Manta (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and 1 station, and stacking seemed fairly common. (16th June 2023) Pipeline The Surf Coaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 474pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 7) Busch Gardens Tampa
Cobra’s Curse (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 trains) - 527pph (unknown number of trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 2) Iron Gwazi (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 493pph (2 trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 5). In terms of general insights, stacking was routine and park times in the station averaged around 2.5 minutes according to the station dispatch timer, sometimes going as high as 3 minutes. Kumba (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 3 trains) - I did not get a reading for this, but the ride was seemingly only running 1 train. (22nd June 2023) Sand Serpent (Theoretical: 1,120pph on 10 cars) - 331pph (4 cars, 22nd June 2023, average of 4) Scorpion (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 357pph (1 train, 22nd June 2023, average of 2) I hope you find this interesting; I know I certainly found this data interesting to gather! If I’m able to do any notable readings at Universal tomorrow, I’ll report back, but as my Florida trip is mostly over, I thought I’d report my current findings.
 
If you have any throughput timings and/or general operational insights from a recent park visit that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about them in this thread!

Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but one thing I personally like doing at theme parks is timing ride throughputs and observing the operations on rides. With this in mind, I decided to make a thread for like-minded people who are interested in throughputs and operations to share their throughput timings and operational insights from parks around the world. Whether your timings and operational insights are from Chessington, Europa Park, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Oakwood or anywhere else in the world, I’d love to hear about them and I’m sure many others would too!
 
My reason for deciding to create this thread is because I have some throughput timings and operational insights of my own to share. Currently, I’m coming towards the end of a trip to Florida, so I thought I’d share some of the throughput timings and general operational insights I was able to log at Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa.
 
For various reasons, I could not time throughputs quite as comprehensively as I would normally like on this trip; things like metal detectors and themed queues obscuring sight of the rides at Universal and queues that were often too short to get a comprehensive average at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens meant that I had to rely more on chance occasions where I was standing within eyeshot of a ride at Universal in particular and as such, the averages are often based on lower amounts of dispatches than the 10 I normally aspire towards. Nonetheless, here are some of the throughput timings and general insights I was able to gain from Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa.
 
Islands of Adventure
Flight of the Hippogriff (Theoretical: 993pph on 2 trains) - 951pph (2 trains, 12th June 2023, average of 3) Note: I did not ride this, but I got a good vantage point from the queue line of Hagrid’s. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 12 trains) - 1,617pph (unknown number of trains, 12th June 2023, average of 10) Incredible Hulk (Theoretical: 1,920pph on 3 trains) - 1,138pph (possibly only running 2 trains (as I did not stack, which I didn’t think was possible on 3), 12th June 2023, average of 4), 1,608pph (unknown number of trains, 21st June 2023, average of 3) VelociCoaster (Theoretical: 1,800pph on 4 trains) - 1,489pph (unknown number of trains, 17th June 2023, average of 3), 1,566pph (4 trains, 21st June 2023, average of 6) Universal Studios Florida
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (Theoretical: 1,850pph on 7 trains) - 1,329pph (unknown number of trains, 13th June 2023, average of 3) SeaWorld Orlando
Ice Breaker (Theoretical: 650-750pph on 2 trains) - 564pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 2) Kraken (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and stacking on the brake run was routine. According to the dispatch timer in the station, the ride’s average park time seemed to be around 3 minutes. (16th June 2023) Mako (Theoretical: 1,680pph on 3 trains) - 960pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 4). In terms of general insights, there was quite often a gap in the station between trains and the dispatch timer showed the train being parked for as little as 60 seconds on some occasions. Manta (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and 1 station, and stacking seemed fairly common. (16th June 2023) Pipeline The Surf Coaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 474pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 7) Busch Gardens Tampa
Cobra’s Curse (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 trains) - 527pph (unknown number of trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 2) Iron Gwazi (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 493pph (2 trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 5). In terms of general insights, stacking was routine and park times in the station averaged around 2.5 minutes according to the station dispatch timer, sometimes going as high as 3 minutes. Kumba (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 3 trains) - I did not get a reading for this, but the ride was seemingly only running 1 train. (22nd June 2023) Sand Serpent (Theoretical: 1,120pph on 10 cars) - 331pph (4 cars, 22nd June 2023, average of 4) Scorpion (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 357pph (1 train, 22nd June 2023, average of 2) I hope you find this interesting; I know I certainly found this data interesting to gather! If I’m able to do any notable readings at Universal tomorrow, I’ll report back, but as my Florida trip is mostly over, I thought I’d report my current findings.
 
If you have any throughput timings and/or general operational insights from a recent park visit that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about them in this thread!

It’s time to update my top 10’s again.
 
Coasters: 
1/ Steel Vengeance 
2/ Velocicoaster 
3/ Zadra 
4/ Toutatis
5/ Mako
6/ Iron Gwazi 
7/ Taron
8/ Oziris 
9/ Nemesis mk1
10/ Hyperion 
 
European Parks:
1/ Europa Park
2/ Phantasialand 
3/ Energylandia 
4/ Disneyland Paris 
5/ Parc Asterix 
6/ Alton Towers
7/ Toverland 
8/ Liseberg 
9/ Efteling 
10/ Tivoli Gardens 
 
And now. Theme park hotels.
1/ Ling Bao, Phantasialand 
2/ Grand Curiosa Hotel, Liseberg 
3/ Efteling hotel, Efteling 
4/ Plopsaland Hotel, Plopsaland 
5/ Newport Bay, Disneyland Paris 
6/ Cite Suspendue, Parc Asterix 
7/ Splash Landings Hotel, Alton Towers 
8/ Legoland Hotel, Legoland Windsor
9/ El Paso, Port Aventura 
10/ Shark hotel, Thorpe Park 
 
Top 10’s a personal preference and based on numerous circumstances and things on the day.
 

Doesn't sound like massive improvements then if it's less than a week, but very good to know they're actively working on making the experience better. What's everybody's guesses on what 'improvements' these are going to be?

Apparently Ghost Train is closing for improvements from Tuesday to Friday next week, according to Thorpe Park on their Facebook group.

Construction is moving along nicely:
 
 

It will be far less intense than Ride to Happiness. 

Just finished off on Ghost Train.
 
I'm going to be honest, it was slightly underwhelming. I spent the whole ride waiting for something big to happen, and nothing did, it just kinda felt a bit strung out towards the end. 
 
If it was a scene in the London Dungeons and other similar attractions, I’d say it would fit very well but as a ride by itself I believe it doesn’t offer enough.
 
If someone wants to spoiler tag this feel free, I’m not sure how much info counts as a spoiler.

I think the issue that this project always faced is that once you removed the VR and got rid of Derren Brown, there was only so much you could have done to improve the ride without spending huge amounts of money completely gutting the building.
 
Unlike most dark ride systems, the ride system was very bespokely tailored to DBGT and the very specific sequence of events that happened within it. With something like Duel, for instance, the ride system itself had no particular quirks that were tailored to The Haunted House as it was per se, so Merlin were able to make The Curse at Alton Manor into a pretty different ride without performing any overly radical work.
 
With DBGT, on the other hand, the very design of the ride system meant that the same basic structure of the original attraction would always need to be followed. Riders would need to sit on a train, be rushed out of the train for a live action sequence of some sort and then sit on another train to return to the offload station. And with the design of the ride vehicle not really providing much scope for added physical theming due to the VR being the originally intended vehicle for storytelling, that made the park's options very limited in terms of what they could actually do with the train portions in particular.
 
With this in mind, I think it was complicated for Thorpe Park to make a new ride out of it because in the absence of a huge budget to demolish the whole thing and start again, the basic building blocks of the ride experience would always have needed to remain exactly the same, which would have limited the park's options massively.

Some minor spoilers
 
I don't even know where to start. Granted, the removal of VR now makes the story far more palatable. The preshows were done very well and set up what could have been an excellent experience. But it didn't deliver...
I kept expecting this big scare moment and it never arrived. 
I am very suprised the fakeout shop remains but I guess that was a pricey addition to the last round of fixes?
 
My only positive from it was the retheme of the loading platform was well done. Oh and I was out of the sun for an hour.
 

I just went on it. I have no idea how anyone has given this a good review. It was so bad.
 
I'll do a proper spoiler review later, but in short it felt like a lot of overacting whilst basically nothing happened.  The new theming was bare at best. Terrible.
 
I would love to know what people who enjoyed it saw in this attraction, but I am legitimately baffled as to how it could be considered by anyone to be anything above 'dire'.

Spoiler thoughts from me:
 
 
Some non-spoiler bits, found out during the Press Night:
-Kieron Smith, Global Artistic Director for The Dungeons, was described as the "writer and director" of Ghost Train. What they means exactly I'm not sure, but in any case, it means that this has had significant input from someone who is in charge The Dungeons, which are very successful, and what this attraction should aim to be like.
 
-The park acknowledge this will take some time to perfect. As with things like this, there will be a need to be responsive to guest and actor feedback, and things like timings, scripts, etc may need to be tweaked. The park will do this.
 
-Not having the restriction of an IP means it is easier to change / update the story too.
 
-A general consensus from everyone I spoke to who rode it was that it was perhaps the best they could have done given the constraints they had. There's a "ride system" in place, but it is minimal and restrictive, and was designed for a very specific purpose. The building was designed for that ride system. Replacing the ride system is pipe dream worthy at this stage. But what they've with it, and what they've turned Ghost Train into, is (as I've already said), on the higher end of what they could have done. They could have done more, but they've done a good job.

Alright, here we go. My written review of Ghost Train, as it was opening day 2023.
 
Spoiler-free review:
Wow, okay. I'm going to throw it out there and say: it's incredible. Honestly, it's incredible. From the outset I was extremely dubious (as you can see from my earlier posts) that enough would have been changed inside the attraction to warrant this rebrand. To be perfectly honest, I thought it was going to just be a reskinned version of Derren Brown's Ghost Train - but that's exactly what it isn't.
 
Ghost Train manages to fuse eeriness, a little bit of comedy to get you to let your guard down, and then slaps you with more eeriness. What it does, it does very bloody well - especially given the fact that this attraction was not designed to be what it is now.
 
Ghost Train now has a cohesive story from start to finish (something that DBGT was always heavily lacking, and the park trying to shoehorn plothole solutions always just make the storyline even more confusing), and the set design is immense.
 
It's a shame that I live so far away from the park these days as I definitely already want to go back to give it another few more rides before I give a final review, but after already queuing for about 2-2 and a half hours for Ghost Train today... I think I'm alright until the hype dies down a little 😂
 
Alright, here comes the spoilers. DO NOT READ PAST THIS SECTION IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE STORYLINE. I have also included my criticisms in this section as I didn't want to spoil the story:
 
 
Overall, it's an incredible attraction and they've finally nailed what they were trying to do all along. Hopefully it sees some longevity, but it really is even more actor-heavy than Derren Brown ever was which is worrying. It seems we were fully staffed today, but will it have the same impact on an off-peak Tuesday? Only time will tell.
 
As I said the other day, do not compare it with The Curse. They are two very different attractions - but as far as this attraction is concerned as it's own standalone thing... it's fantastic.

I’ve ridden it, 
It’s good, however it’s not a ride anymore and a lot of the GP will expect a ride or the VR. None which is clear from the outside of the attraction.

Great actors, story and effects and sets. 
 
It’s good for a couple of years at a push but a waste of space for such a prominent ride. They obviously didn’t design the ride for this, hence why I don’t think it can work for a long time. It’s shoe horned in, long term use the building with modifications to the size. But build ride hardware inside, minimising the physical building being wasted, but unlimited space to build a massive dark ride.

Very very brief thoughts from me as I am exhausted
 
It's good fun. It's an actor led, story driven, Dungeons-esque experience. It's an improvement on DBGT and more rideable, but it doesn't have strong rerideability. It's on the higher end of what they could have done with the ride system in place.
 
I have concerns about how it will run with full groups of paying guests. But that will be seen in time.
 
Theming is good for the most part. Story is clear and straightforward. There's some cool, simple effects. 
 
It's up there as one of the better incarnations of the ride (probably joint with the 2017 version when all effects worked for me). It's not perfect, but it's a good, well rounded addition to the park's line up. 
 
Fuller review with spoilers to follow.

Wahoo, now open. Few comments from me.
 
Park did a little opening ceremony, which was nice. Even though Jumanji is open for hotel guests (9am-10am), it was still good for something to recognise the significance of the new area. Short speech done, area opened. So to ride Mandrill Mayhem you need to join a virtual queue. This does create a massive bottle neck right off the bat but 20 minutes later there's no one waiting outside to get their QR codes scanned. Its launch day was quiet in the park with only the Jumanji rides having any significant wait times (for reference, Vampire was less than 10 minutes all day). This ran out around 3:30pm so just as a warning, on a busy day it could run out a lot earlier.
 

 
The most we waited for Mandrill was 30 minutes and the team working it were doing the best with the limited capacity. They made a point of filling every seat, deliberately holding back single riders to pair them up with groups of three or other single riders. This being an intense, geek heavy day there was a lot of single riders so I wonder if this will continue on a more traditional park day. 
 
The station is fine, the thing I like is that unlike the Swarm where you just wait on either side of the station (and one is significantly longer then the other), here you are pre batched and let pretty much straight onto the ride. But this does create a bigger problem where the train is still for several moments as you can't get onto the platform until a staff member opens a gate. There were points that the staff were only one on each side, its a lot of work for one person. Again, low capacity ride being made lower. Trains felt exactly like the other Wing-riders, it begs the question, could The Swarm be a 1.2 metre ride or is there something I'm missing?
 

 
The ride itself is surprisingly good. I had reservations about this being a proper lower tier B&M but actually its a pretty varied ride experience. The spike for example as you launch out the station is full of hang time particularly in the back part of the ride. The launches feel really nice, sitting between Mack and Intamin. The turns are full of whip. I love the turn coming out of the station heading in(or out) or the zero g roll. It's so snappy. The Zero G roll is really good. It's taken at the perfect pace and is in the perfect location over the entrance to the area. The helix around the monument is surprisingly forceful on the right hand side of the train. The backwards return journey is lovely too. We had 6 rides overall and it was pretty unanimous in that this is a perfect fit for Chessington and a good step up ride for those that want a bit more then Dragons Fury but aren't quite ready for Thorpe. I think one of its main positives is a weird one in that the earlier B&M Wing-riders were very graceful rides, The Swarm for example has a natural flow and each element works in conjunction with the next. It always feels in control. The newer ones such as Fenix at Toverland and Mandrill have jerkier elements and feel less refined weirdly. And I kinda like that. So yes, a nice surprise. It has all the strengths that you'd expect from a B&M in that it's reliable and efficient and is a strong Premier ride for the park. It perfectly fits in next to Vampire, Kobra and Dragons Fury and I'm very happy and hope it brings the park the success to take it through the next decade. 
 
Ostrich Stampede isn't great to be honest. Takes way too long to load and only one has twenty seconds of really good jumping energy. The rest is a bit meh with you just spinning around. Mamba Strike was much better and weirdly jerky and seemed to be the busier of the two rides. Both of these rides were doing the job well of support flat rides and makes the area feel more complete and rounded. 
 
So to conclude it was a successful launch for a park that really needed the investment. With Croc Drop two years ago, Blue Barnacle, Trawler Trouble and Barrel Bail Out last year and now Jumanji, the ride offering has seen significant and much needed changes and I hope to see this continue. I love Chessington and I do bring out the rose tinted glasses out for it. it has so much potential that has been locked away for what feels like two decades. This needs to be the start of something because Chessington can be a great park again.

Thank God it’s been delivered on a closed day