Fred

Yeah that's bollocks, it was down the entire day when I visited on an after dark event 2nd week in August.

Never understood that argument - Legoland and Chessie tame their rides right down to suit families. Towers have exactly the same style rides with the same height restrictions, yet are insane fun. Heave ho compared to Longboat Invader, for example. Plus, everyone has to try out Frog Hopper. It's incredibly thrilling, far far more than you're expecting particularly if you're used to Berry Bouncers/Scarab Bouncers.

Maintenance budgets aren't unlimited - we know this looking throughout entire of Chessington. Chances are, if it was like it was 4yrs ago, it'll be down to one guy maintaining the entire water systems at the park. So he needs to do daily checks on those first then fixing effects come as a last resort.

They used to run with 5 platform staff during the days of 3 train operation. It could be relatively easily done to ensure smooth operation of 3 trains on that ride - it'd require investment - properly aligning airgates, a decent exit system which allows guests to be safe and get off the platform quickly, and perhaps a baggage operation or just decent staff. Unfortunately, investment would never happen, so we're stuck with whatever pressures the management put on their staff to do their jobs efficiently, which judging by this thread is non-existant.

All they need to do is use those BIG and VISABLE queue boards stating obviously "Ride is UNAVAILABLE, try other rides and return later" and that would be sufficient enough.

That'd be internal H&S - not external, just to point out. External H&S won't give a crap, the ride system tells you if bars are open, and as they're hydraulic it'd be rather obvious if they failed. A simple tap to ensure it's not releasing is sufficient enough to please HSE if they ever were interested (never would be). Everything the park does could be resolved, somethings will be more difficult than others, but ultimately this'll probably bubble down to money. Just because it makes money or brings in money doesn't mean it's diverted into a maintenance budget big enough to run properly.

Must be your face! Sounds good. Now, write more and more!!!

Fastrack is a problem, which the park may identify as a problem. It just needs to do something about it. Towers, last year, had a problem with fastrack, people mentioning that it had consistently big slow queues, devaluing fastrack, and particularly over scarefest creating stupidly huge main queues. As a result, they listened. Upped fastrack prices, reduced allocation, or more noticably removed free fastrack for hotel guests which'll help the issue incredibly. Guest Services used to issue priority passes, nowadays they issue complimentary fastrack, which comes out of a quota system. This would mean in theory that they'll run out of fastrack to issue - or at worst highlight the issue with giving complimentary fastrack as they're now all accounted for having come out of the fastrack system rather than paper as before. Perhaps, based on how the change works at towers, and seeing if it affects the revenue streams, thorpe may well adapt this approach in future to reduce those complaints, increase value for money for fastrack as there's less people using it, and reduce main queue times as they're moving far more smoothly.

Ripsaw is exactly the same model, built a year after.. it's all down to maintenance and staff knowing what they're doing. Rameses won't need any changing, it just needs harnesses.. though it'd be nice if they ramped up the speed and got in Huss to reprogramme the thing!

I imagine that's purely down to being able to fix the issue - either waiting on parts, or spare time allowing for them to fix it.

Does magic hours not allow the entire park to be open in Paris then? That's a mega shame. Glad to hear Buzz is decent though, went on it in Florida and thought it happened to be the worst recent attraction. Doesn't help my gun broke and gave me 999,999 in the second scene anyway.

Getting rid of their enchanted forest for more Woods stuff? Fair enough. It seems to work well. There are rumours to extend the duplo valley as well, guests seem to love non-rides!

It was meant to be a crashed boat? Well, that's me being ignorant for 10yrs.

Indeed - ToTT is seemingly staying exactly the same. That video was the preshow played past two or so years. Carnival seemingly has a backstory for once, and Sanctuary sounds like it may update itself slightly now smilers open.

No, he rode the smillar. As he said.

Yup. However there's a difference between doing the normal, and power hours. Power hours are deliberately trying to hit the highest throughput possible, and it takes it out of you and requires an incredibly amount of effort to ensure the guests are getting on as quickly as possible and everythings checked quickly. Usually there's less interaction, less emphasis put onto the guests, so whilst it's going quickly, they're not hitting the highest throughputs and somethings will then slow you down. You cannot simply go full pelt throughout entire day.

Nah, it never looked like that. Ever. Now, forget that image. And all other images of it when new.

Towers have only just released their app again, so I imagine thorpes will come soony. I imagine they've all used the same company, which hasn't gone to plan and ended up in the situation we're in now - getting an app at the end of the season.

Expecting the staff to be able to work at full pelt the entire day is completely unrealistic. Yes, work fast and have throughputs. That should be normal. Power hours are when they're trying their absolute best to hit the rides maximum potential - Nemesis and Air staff at towers do it rather often, usually an hour or two a day over busy periods. The rest of the time is just quick, but at a calmer pace than power hours.

First time emotions.. Just wait til you've ridden it 10 times... then you'll realise..

Oakwood is fantastic. It seriously is worth the mega treck to the park, purely for those two coasters. They're. So. God. Damn. Reridable. Speed was closed when I last visited, but nay cared. 4 times on Mega, brilliant!

So glad Depth Charge managed to survive thorpes "destroy all non-thrill rides" phase.

Oatcakes are seriously amazing. Seriously amazing. Wouldn't have them for breakfast though. A perfect lunchtime snack though.

New ride hype? But... does it beat Nemesis?!

Proper love the B&M and Vekoma intermingleness.