Mark9

Ooh... Gamechanger much.

Isn't the Six Flags system flash-pass where an extremely limited number of them are handed out so the park can control how many people go to a ride at any particular point. I admit I know very little about how the system actually runs but I've never heard that it effects the queue lines in an adverse way. Fastrack is always a contentious issue and I know I've been outspoken about in the past. I believe it to be too cheap for what it is offering and is in too high quantity meaning that whenever something does go wrong (for instance, The Smiler today) then the park falls into chaos. Guest Services answer to everything is to give out free fastrack to anyone who makes a complaint. They then help bump up the queues even more. Then sellers are sent to all entrances to sell even more of the things. And then parks offer free fastrack for Oblivion if you prebook tickets for a group of four people. It just becomes a vicious circle where the only answer to anything is fastrack. Even if our parks built a ride like Euro-Mir or Silver-Star they would fastrack the hell out of it so that a ride capable of getting 1,800 an hour, still has a 90 minute queue because no one seems to give a damn about the actual operation of the attractions anymore. It's a ridiculous situation.

I don't really understand why they restrict the capsule in the first place. Surely you buy the thing with the idea that anywhere that does a machine should serve you the drink. We got refused at The Smiler for example, in a two hour queue in the boiling sun. Just seems like a very odd policy to sell you the thing but only let certain places refill it.

Park closes at 10:30. I'm not really in the mood to begrudge the park for not opening that extra half hour when a month ago they weren't even doing this event in the first place.

It comes from Pixar's reputation in the industry They famously said they would never do sequels unless they felt the story was strong enough and yet three years into the tennies and we've seen one film that isn't a sequel/prequel. I'm glad the majority enjoy it though because as I say its a good film and some of the new characters in it such as the Librarian and Art are brilliant. I just don't think it added anything to Mike or Sully's character. They couldn't go anywhere because they can only dovetail into Monsters Inc.

Whats a seasoned Pixar fan anyway? Someone who got Toy Story on video for Christmas in 1996, watched it twice before 6am that day and then ever since has been counting down the days till the next Pixar release and forever being blown away by A Bugs Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall.E, Up and Toy Story 3?! Monsters University is a great film, it's just not an outstanding Pixar film. And when its a company like Pixar, which has delivered utter perfection on every technical level, it must be slightly concerning when the Disney corner is trouncing them with Tangled and Wreck it Ralph, far superior films and more enjoyable and not relying on a sequel to bring in the dollars.

Anyone able to provide a lift from Staines for moi?!

Anyone with Europa Parks top three rollercoasters in their top ten is obviously the coolest

The best thing about this topic is Merry-Go-Girl's avatar. :-D

Blah Blah investment plan, blah blah, runaway train and falls closed because of near year round opening blah blah. What a load of rubbish. Can this park do anything right at the moment?

Tell me about it. That poor guy at the front showing his backside to the world. Swedes

Maybe one day I will. I think of it as a time tunnel to my past, when I was 24, living in Caterham and had no money.

Fixed

The memory cheats.

When you were born, you were the:5,120,362,965thperson alive on Earth80,089,880,072ndperson to have lived since history began Part of the 5 BIllion people club. It was cool back then.

It is the fault of the guests. They are the ones happy enough to part with their money to use the system. We aren't like the Belgians who go to the extremes of boycotting parks because fastrack systems teach impatience and the idea that you buy your way to the front. As I have said before, fastrack is fine to a point but not at the scale the park sells it at. Tommy had a good idea at the park that depending on how busy the park is, the prices should move around to accommodate it. You want to skip the (artificially increased) 2 hour queue? Fine, but its going to cost you £20 to do so. I'd guarantee you there are people out there that would do it. That's the kind of system that should be in place, particularly on the Smiler.

Outrageous really. I don't mind queuing for rides, particularly really good rides like The Smiler or Nemesis because I know the experience at the end is worth it. But if my queue is being artificially increased on the scale that you say it is then I won't bother visiting the park again this season. Particularly as I know across the pond, there are parks like Europa Park where I can get on better rides like Blue Fire and Wodan, safe in the knowledge that I haven't had 600 people who are too lazy or impatient to wait with the rest of us peasants queue-jump their way to the front.

You're right they won't. Just charge way too much for the event to start with instead.

The company that built a low capacity roller coaster, then ensured they got fastrack onto it as quick as possible, compounding the problem of having a late opening roller coaster, increased demand in the park and then sending Fastrack sellers into other rides queue-lines to fleece its guests that don't pay for fastrack of any chance of a decent ride count. I don't put anything past them.

The first I am in PortAventura, the second I'm at Disneyland Paris. So in other words, Thanks a bloody lot. I"ll remember this Peaj.

Watching a conga line of people with fastrack, waltzing into the Smiler fastrack queue line would speak otherwise.

Exactly. Whilst Thorpe continue cramming people into shipping containers, we can enjoy the wonders of Belle Rock or Colosseo and enjoy a top quality theme park in the process. If anything, Thorpe's doing you all a favour. Nah. In years gone by, The Swarm would have been a top rate hit, but last year, Thorpe proved that building a top quality rollercoaster isn't always giving to reward. I think that ride taught the park some valuable lessons, cramming lots of rollercoasters in a short space of time can only go so far.

The Smiler is a good ride. However. I've now ridden it on 3 trains, 4 trains and 5 train operation and have queued exactly the same amount each time I've ridden. And I can honestly say I prefer it on three trains because at least back then, they weren't flooding the ride with fastrack's and the queue moved consistently. The park have in their hands a fantastic ride which is long, enjoyable, fun and full of variety. But I don't want to ride it anymore and it says a lot on how much they are overselling fastrack itself when there is a 15 minute fastrack queue for Oblivion and they have half the ride to themselves as it is, on a ride that is supposed to get 1800 people an hour. Either the park has given up trying to run their rides properly or the overselling of fastrack has become so severe that the highest throughput rides in the park can no longer handle the fastrack allocation. So for now, I'll stick with Nemesis and Air, as far away from The Smiler as it is because those two don't feel the effects of a ride that is being flogged beyond its reach.

Conclusion:- Get new friends.

If Corkscrew could last 28 years, I can see Colossus still doing its thing when its 21