Fred
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Posts posted by Fred
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I'm not saying I disagree, and I do agree their maintenance is poor compared to other parks, indicating its definitely down to their own routines rather than manufacturers faults.
But compared the Alton Towers, instead of making operational cutbacks to spare any losses, Thorpe have invested even more money on extra theming and additional events.
I hate to say but I think the route cause probably lies with Merlin. They'll most certainly be the ones who decide ticket prices, and maintenance budgets. Not to mention Alton Towers Operations team is somewhere around 5x the size of Thorpe's, I'm not saying they should be the same size as obviously AT is much bigger, but they definitely shouldn't get priority treatment just because they're No. 1 by default.
I just genuinely think the operations team at Thorpe do care about the state of the park and image, but are heavily moderated by Merlin's watchful eye, and sometimes are forced into making decisions that don't always sit right. Then when you look at AT, and their Ops team I think the Fanta branding on Oblivion says it all really...
Cos this board is so rubbish, I cant just show the quote I wanted without deleting the quote box, so bare with.
Towers had temporary, very big "show off" cutbacks instead of the entire season closed attractions like thorpe. But still, had extra money put into terry, and have more events than thorpey.
Do agree with majority of what you said - merlin sets the budgetting, they agree to the entry prices (it's the parks decisions what they charge within guidelines - for instance, towers have put up their entrance prices but reduced the cost of the 2nd day to make 2 days incredibly appealing). Marketing is a seperate thing though, thank god for varney eh?
EDIT: Ooh it posted your quote twice. Effort going to edit it and make it look nice, this is YOUR FAULT IP board.
Edit edit: Deleted.
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There's three different ones it seems - the station, the area one (unsure if it's different now, after they lacked it for a couple of years) and the one easily available to download.
Either way, they're all bloody good.
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Merlin Annual Pass holders get a preview day on Tues 24th Feb, in hourly timeslots.
Anyone available to go?! I want someone to come with!
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Should stop looking at this topic in the early morning, always always see those webcams at night (and therefore nothing)
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I remember the days of running two trains, having to wait for the train to hit lift2 to dispatch, and then still getting the other train out before it stopped fully in the brake run
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The ride doesn't need announcements, no ride needs announcements. They just decide to do it.
Don't see Nemesis or Oblivion having continous PA announcements, which surely they'd need to being a same product ultimately. Coaster at a theme park.
Turn down the microphone volume, it's very easy. Any manager can do it at that park, heck even a host could if they wanted to and could access it.
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As I said, the best staff had to be working on it, they even pulled you from another area
Dream Team!It's a shame that apparently the staff are unable to put in the effort anymore, but it's to be expected. Judging from what I saw at Thorpe Park last year, it seems the staffing has gone completely downhill at Merlin. Cannot say anything for Alton Towers because I haven't been there for over half a decade.
Also, just remembered that I saw Train 1 (Which I believe was the 3rd train) Roll-Back in 2008 during testing, so it's been on it's way out for some time and I guess the maintanence / staffing aspects meant it was no longer worth it.
The roll-back was more likely due to cold or new wheels haha.
The concentration since merlin has appeared has gone from throughputs to a heavy push on customer service. Some rides, you just cannot do that customer service without affecting throughputs.
Stupid really, cos half the staff just end up doing neither. Seeing as they're all paid minimum wage, they'd much rather race against each other and smile at a guest than do a full on happy conversation with a guest and not much else.
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Useful, thanks!
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One thing I did notice is they are doing the 2 meals for £12 but no longer give annual pass discount on that, not sure if thats somthing which will come in at all parks. I Guess 2 meals for £6 is still good.
No that's just chessington. They've done it for a couple of years with both F&B and retail outlets. Don't allow AP/Staff discount on "offers" - sometimes makes it cheaper to buy them seperately, with the discount. Have to watch out, chessie is a bastard for it.
It won't be spreading to the other parks, thank god.
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You couldn't get any more in your face than original source. Dr pepper has done just as bad.
None of the cussons rides did well. Awful blatant advertising.
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ERT doesn't run in Feb Half term, scarefest, Adrenaline week or fireworks!
In other news, towers2 next day tickets have been reduced this season it seems, to £4.80 (including VAT). Last year, they reduced it from 7.50ish to a fiver. So, second reduction in a year! woo!
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Ricky - it does say they'll release them soon. I imagine after feb half term.
They need to hurry up and decide, though they change their minds too often anyway.
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Yeah that's definitely a misprint.
Smiler won't be available on fastrack for the fair majority of the season. Maybe from Sept, depending on how well the ride is running operationally. The place isn't thorpe, and doesn't try and destroy it's reputation or operations with fastrack.
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That's not the queue - that is just a pathway to a fire escape from the station.
The queue I was on about is literally just out of shot in that picture - it'd be underneath, as if you're looking straight down.
The graveyard stuff has only recently vanished though - they still had the majority of the theming back in 08, however they seemingly were mostly removed when abdab was stupidly put in the queueline. Would be great to get it back into a graveyard style.
As for queueing in the crypt area, I still believe they should do. There's no reason they shouldn't. Get a proper batching system in, loading up the bays properly, and having people queue up the ramp and through the crypt. Oh wells..
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The queue used to go beside the actual break run and station though - looking down from the exit ramp, you used to be able to see the old queue fences.
Brickwork - the queue used to have bricks surrounding the paths, and you could see the 2nd version of the queue going differently to the current queue path. This was removed when they tore up the concrete and brickwork.
Basically, there's been 3 versions of vampires queue!
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SAW won't change... only a bit of the preshow and stuff. But they couldn't change it from anything else than a dark theme.
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The queue used to go through the gates, down the steps.. it somehow appeared underneath the actual break run running alongside the building, then somehow appeared at the merge point.
I've tried for years to work out how the queue originally went. Never managed to make sense of it, noone seemingly remembers either. They changed it quite quickly to use a path similar to currently (though I believe that was even changed during the fastrack addition - you used to be able to see the queue route before they got rid of the brickwork).
In summary: don't think anyone knows.
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No, vines are the ivy. That's the stuff which covered the buildings surrounding vampire, which we've seen be removed in previous pictures. How old are you btw?
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There ya go. Concept art is a wonderful thing, makes depth charge look sexy.
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But my point is, people pay £43 for entry then the come on a peak day and only get on 4/5 rides which is bad value for money...
You'd have to really not plan your day too well to only do 4/5 rides on a peak day, particularly at certain parks. Making full use of the opening times, and you won't need fastrack. Towers you're almost guaranteed to get on more than 5 rides during peak, unless they had a powercut, even on the days with 30k on park.
I went on an extremely busy day at thorpe, on a 6pm ride close during schools weeks. Queued almost 2hrs for swarm, arrived at 11am, and yet still managed to do 8 rides in a day.
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I'm sure you're aware that each morning every ride has to undergo the
checks? H&S comes into this, and if the checks are all passed OK, a
ride can open and operate. If not, then it's a shame for the visitors
until they sort it.
Being pedantic, it's due diligence every company should be doing daily to show they're trying to identify issues and resolve them. It's not something they have to do, and H&S doesn't get actively involved in it (though they may suggest what to check for) but it's something that'd be caught up on if they didn't have an accurate and regular record of checks taking place should an incident occur.
Vampire
in Chessington World of Adventures
Posted
The system died I believe, definitely wasn't turned off due to locality.