Fred
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Posts posted by Fred
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Its not just the chain lift.
It puts more where and tear of the carriage.. = Meaning it needs to be looked at sooner = Money buying worn out bits...
Thorpe use the term energy efficiency.. they dont care about the wear and tear cos they have soooo much time to sort that out
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I learnt about greyouts, redouts and blackouts from the oblivion queue line.
I'm still trying to locate the number for their psychologist.
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I do love Thorpes excuse for not running two trains. Energy efficiency.. yes if you were sending them completely empty, but considering the cost of that lifthill chain isn't really costing that much in the scale of things... it's far better to have guest satisfaction over saving the pennies.
The throughput argument was fun btw.
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Weird that EDF decided to have a whole 2/3 and a half years rather than full seasons (until January shut down!).
Imagine London Eye itself is still very EDFy until January.
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I've got a horrible feeling that Legoland are just going to start ripping out all of the good stuff that takes me back to childhood! I'll explain below:
- Jungle Coaster - GONE - Atlantis Submarine Voyage now stands in its place.
Oopsy - Hotel stands in it's place! Atlantis stands where Dino Dipper used to be before it was moved into Knights Kingdom!
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Surely it's no different to getting rained on?
Nah, chlorinated water corrodes. Plus it'd be a heavier jet stream. Chessington isn't helped by the lack of cover on the bottom - one shot into those electrics will guarantee a good hour or so downtime.
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Apologies if this has been answered but I can't see it...
Does anyone know why Chessington have changed all the electronic information signs at the ride entrances?
Before they used to scroll along, now they are smaller signs with just the waiting time permanently displayed.
I guess everyone would just prefer to know how long the wait is without having to wait for the "Welcome to Chessington...." blurb first, but I just wondered what prompted the change.
The small boards will have signage around them. Chessie has decided to put the signs in beforehand.
These boards are all linked up - you can change them from a central point (or from the rides themselves.. unsure if they have those yet) and then they'll show absolutely everywhere.
Alton got this first with the new boards and CBeebies Land. The remainder of the rides will have the same entrance boards from next year I believe. Should lead to better Queue Time information (or at least not having boards saying other things!)
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I'd do differently - start in Dark Forest, skyride over to Valley, then head around the park from there. Oblivion is quietest mid-afternoon, same as The Smiler.
All rides are on full capacity during Scarefest, even on the quiet period. Air would go onto two stations once it gets a 10min queue.
Though.. rides remain on full capacity throughout the year. Air runs on one station until a 10-15min queue, and Oblivion runs single Shuttle operation (only one of the two station bays) when it's really quiet. Other than that, everything remains at full capacity, even on a stupidly quiet day like this week. This isn't Thorpe Park!
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Swarm can dispatch the second the previous train leaves the lifthill.
What's the point of dispatching in the inline twist versus in the final brake run? Doesn't make operations any faster or better does it? Really confused as to why they dispatch it so early instead of giving riders an extra 10/15 seconds to get on and operations being as equally decent.
You're an idiot. As long as the following train doesn't have to sit on the brakes then OF COURSE it makes it go quicker. 15 seconds adds up over the hour, and the day. Look at the London Underground where every single second counts.
You only need them to send 4 trains 15 seconds quicker and then you've got an additional 28 riders out than you would've done (as loading is less than 60 seconds on Swarm).
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Skyway has been closed for a few weeks. This ride is currently not in possession of Chessington's in-house engineers anymore, so you can't really blame the park for being responsible for its downtime.
.....yes you can. There'll be a reason why it's not even in the hands of the in-house engineers at the moment. And that'll ENTIRELY bubble down to Chessington itself.
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Thorpes Fastrack systems are utter cack.
They're planning on using Reserve'n'Ride for the mazes this year BTW. They haven't announced it yet, but they fully intend on doing so.
Screw you all in the main queue!!!!!
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Or show them on your mobile and they work too (unless you haven't bought tickets through their website)
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Visited Chessie twice this year, really enjoyed both times. Vampire operations were good (in terms of.. they were working to the pretty much to the speed they used to back in 08). The Park just has some nice vibe to it, and everyones friendly to chat to. Bubbles is better as the result of lighting changes which means it's not lit up like a christmas tree.
Chessies becoming a firm favourite of mine. Still dislike Zufari, still has so much work to make it better (bye lemur, hello stuff that actually happens), but its getting there.
No safari on both of my trips though, lols.
Would adore to see operations on Vampire which leads to a train being dispatched as the other is on lift2 though.. or close to that. On my last occasion it was on the lifthill as the other hit the brakes - still a VAST improvement over the past few years, but could be better!!!
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Throughput on Topspins are ****. Rameses without a doubt wont be getting more than 300 per hour. 450 in a queueline does not a popular ride make.
Duel would have a 0min queue throughout, yet get throughputs of a MINIMUM 900 people per hour if the park has queues elsewhere. Does that mean it's unpopular?
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Top of that page (not easy to miss): http://www.thorpebreaks.co.uk/annualpass.html
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Or Towers opening their HIGHEST CAPACITY RIDES an hour after park opens (Congo River and Skyride!)
Skyrides been open since 10 for a couple of months now. It's only the water rides and barely rode first thing which are closed til 11 (A reminder: Rapids, Flume, Terra, Ripsaw and Hex).
As for ERT.. there's no Early Rider for Annual Passholders at Chessie.
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For any of you complaining.
You're an idiot.
Got no time for people who bully.
- Mer, Fin The Human, pluk and 2 others
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I think the extention of the hotel plus investment in the theming of the park kinda shows that they are intending to keep it nowadays. At least it's more secure than it's ever been.
Of course you can't blame the engineers. It's definitely all down to budgets and staffing.
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Ticket machines were fine. Internet, and therefore card machines, were not
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- Ticket machines broke on Friday, meaning that nobody (aside from annual passholders and prebooked tickets) could get in for an hour and a half! Didn't affect me, but I think they used it as an excuse to not open The Smiler on time.
Ticket machines were working fine. They had no internet across park until 5pm - so all card payments were done manually, and you couldn't pay by card across the theme park!
(plus stuff like queue time boards weren't really working etc)
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Knew Lightwater was suffering.. turns out they must be going completely down the swanney.
Hope all the staff get jobs in Mingo and turn that place around. Although it doesn't have any of the charm that Lightwater has.
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That's cos Americans don't have a word for theme park. They call them amusement parks.
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At the end of the day, the coasters have it cos you just can't take your bags on (cos it'd be potentially dangerous). Loggers wont injure people carrying bags on so that's why that happens.
Most parks make you carry bags on water rides, including Disney and Universal. So shush.
Alton Towers General Discussion
in Alton Towers
Posted
Towers are closed so you can't wander around...
Air runs two crafts on one station... Again, it's not Thorpe Park (Oblivion on 1 shuttle operation is still 4 shuttles at a minimum).
Ripsaw - it'll depend entirely on the operator and if the fountains can reach (as they change the height of them from time to time). In scarefest they're more likely to soak you, particularly as it gets dark cos they can't see the fountains as well
If you make the full use of your 11 hours during Scarefest, then you'll be bound to get on pretty much all rides, particularly on the first week of the event.