Hello! I'm Fred! I last logged in on this forum in 2014 LOL and this is weird.

 

My name isn't actually Fred but I did it to hide my identity whilst I worked at the theme parks. Oooooh

 

I like trains, theme parks and trains in theme parks!

Thanks for that post Mer - It's always good to see how far we've come on from utter rubbish music in the past few years.

 

Still got some way to go in some areas, but this is definitely a track to be proud of going.

Phantasialand is one of the easiest to get to by public transport too. Flight into cologne (there's approximately 4 million flights to cologne from across the UK every day), then a simple 2 trains and a bus (taking a whole 45 minutes in total from plane to park) and you're there. Proper cheap too.

Cheapest way is to drive there - very easy to eurotunnel and then drive (about 2.5hrs after reaching france). I stayed on their on-site hotel which is very reasonably priced.

 

You'll easily cover the park on two days. I got a bit bored after the first day really, and just spent the second day constantly reriding their quality rides.

I'm a bit late to the discussion - but London Eye pays amazingly compared to Sealife/Dungeons/Shrek next door - all of which pay their hosts £6.50 per hour.

 

London Eye most staff are permanent and on a salary basis, purely from the days of it being BA sponsored, so they still 'benefit' from that.

Ride Access Passes and Carer Passes are not the same thing, they have different requirements and conditions, and when I say it's Merlin policy, I don't know how hard is it for people to understand, Merlin operate the parks, so it is their policy. Individual parks have their own management teams who make decisions on a day to day basis yes, but those decisions are based on policy handed down to them by Merlin, the parks themselves are merely subsidiaries of the larger company.

I'm definitely talking about the Ride Access Passes - they're not Merlin Policy. Each park themselves choose what who they can allow for Ride Access stuff, who needs to accompany them etc. (Lego wheelchairs use main queue on most rides, Thorpe used to only allow a maximum one helper onto rides whereas Alton it's 3... stuff like that).

 

The only thing I think which is a universally adopted policy is the admissions free carer ticket - anyone with DLA/proof of disability can get a free carer, and that seems to be the case throughout all Merlin attractions so is therefore probably a Merlin admissions policy. But Ride Access isn't standardised, so isn't Merlin policy.

They can't open beyond 9pm I believe.. so that's the latest possible.

 

7pms were quiet.. however they should be at 7 or 8 in the height of summer. Gives incentive to visit, gives incentive to stay over, gives a lot for people to do in the evening if staying over. They can always reduce staffing as it gets quieter to save on costs.

 

Maybe one day..

Now why is this key? Because it's Merlin rules that any disabled guest under 18, no matter their disability, must be accompanied by an adult onto the ride, having attended Thorpe with my cousin who's wheelchair bound, this was made very clear to me, they cannot ride alone.

Whut? That's not Merlin policy.

 

Each park is different, but Alton's is... Disabled guests need to be accompanied by at least one helper (over age of 14). They're there to assist of loading and unloading of ride, reassurance should the ride break down and to assist in evacuations.

Luckily Fury's queue is miles away from any such noise - so the atmosphere needs to return (why remove speakers?!).

 

Truckers obviously you can't hear anything. But I'd much rather remove Truckers than sort out the noise of lift2

Use your fingers - you can manually release it using your middle fingers.

 

Staff these days are bloody useless!

Yup, and as for May I can only presume it'll increase again (Easter was 'extended' back to 5:30 throughout, May Half Term is now 6pm...).

 

It's better to have 5pm on website and then update closer to the time, than have 6pm and reduce closer.

Anyone want to stick up for Merlin on this one? 

Well to be fair they are building Shrek's Adventure elsewhere.....

Always happens at the start of the season during wet weather. I'm sure a cleverer B&M inverter type worker can tell you where the rust comes from.

The track. Obviously.

 

Oxidation of the steel creates rust, the wheels run over it when wet and ends up in the drip trays. That then ends up pouring onto whoever is sitting on the ride.

 

Happens on all rollercoasters, but you only ever notice it on inverters cos the track is above you.

 

Thorpe like to keep the ride open and force everyone to wear ponchos. Towers closes the ride (hence it being closed first day of Half Term. The first rainy day of main season will also have Nemesis closed this year too.. unless it rains on Friday). Happens every year when the ride hasn't run for a while.

Maybe the new sign is deliberate with the hint of edge behind it?

 

That'd be quite cool. I like stuff like that which are deliberately done to add a bit of substance to the park. Disney style.

 

Maybe.

The Blades been confirmed as being open at Towers, leading to a presumably full ride availability this Sat (unless Rapids are delayed).

 

Meanwhile, the rides confirmed being closed at thorpe remain too large for comfort.

 

Shame.

Looks lovely! What are you all moaning about?

 

I do enjoy a bit of wood on cladded building. There's some sort of great feeling about it.

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Way too many staff members on it and not enough people riding. I'm surprised it's opening during off peak at all to be honest.

I'm in half mind as to whether it's a good thing Sub Terra is open from 12 everyday, or whether it should be just Weekends and school holidays only. As good as the attraction is, it gets a maximum 0 minute queue outside of holidays, and everyone knows it costs a fortune to run.

 

Thorpe has had cuts for years, we've just been used to it. Towers seemingly do their cuts in a far more blatant way.

If only towers could now learn from all their other mistakes and start running their park like the world class resort it deserves to be.

I'm sure they would love to, if they had the money to run the place!

AIR was in a horrific state over Feb HT with restraint issues and questionable wheel standards. This was on one of the two trains, the other one looked spotless. 

Spotless = cleanliness. Winter Maintenance = full strip down and rebuild of trains. That's what happened.

Why DO Thorpe Park open for the main season 1 1/2 weeks before Alton Towers?

I always wondered why. Perhaps an extra week and a half would make all the difference.

Gate figures. It boosts their gate numbers (remember they had their extension of days open right at the very end of last year? Any coincidence if it shows low visitor numbers for 2014?).

Cuts are big. 12noon opening on some rides this year apparently. Wonderful way to treat their paying guests.

 

But yes Blade, I hope they remove it quickly if they don't want it anymore. Nothing worse than it standing there empty.

Blade will be closed all season under the guise of 2017 coaster but is in fact cost cutting.

The original plan was apparently June closure. But yup. A whole one member of staff is a huge saving. Love it.

Where have I said anything different? They have stripped and rebuilt every train - doesn't mean it'll look clean though, as that'll be up to rides staff. Numpty.

 

Anyway yes, onto those that have visited thorpe. They might know what they're talking about in their posts.

Haha well in my experience (other parks may operate this differently or dependent on each ride) VIPs often just come up the exit on their own accord when they deem the Fastrack queue to be too long for them. It's a big grey area in terms of a queueing system.

There is no grey area - they get fastrack, so join fastrack queues where they exist. Where they don't exist they have a certain way of entering, as labelled in their guide.

 

Hosts/Staff not obeying by these rules or not understanding them are where the issues lay. It's that which causes so much confusion and hatred of the pass, and the staff by the VIP holders too. You need consistency in Theme Park operations, and when it's a costly product even more so.

The cars would be ready to go by this point. If the track was still not a complete circuit, that's the hold up. 

Nah stuff that, run it anyway.