Everything posted by Mark9
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Ride Accidents
I almost had someone try and get a hat at Fury on the first drop. He then threatened to punch me and my colleague for trying to stop him.
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Cedar Point
It happened on the one in Georgia, in fact two people have died via that Batman. Each time, the people have jumped fences to get personal items.
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Phantasialand
That looks stunning.
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Closed Rides
Of course you don't and I thank my lucky stars you aren't an operator making the decision. And having operated many rides, I can tell you thats baloney. Rides do break down more in the rain. To answer the second question, a few years back I was stuck on Detonator for 15 minutes with Marc during thrill chill and we got free return tickets for the inconvenience to our day. Sometimes its express pass/exit passes, sometimes they give out free day return tickets.
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The Smiler Incident 02/06/2015
Ah those internet warriors. Lets face it if they aren't moaning how Towers should be shut down they'd be moaning about something else more trivial like queue times or price to get in.
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Closed Rides
So say you're an operator on.. well we're say Colossus but what whatever and you see torrential rain outside and you decide, well we're keep it open because even though standing in the rain and travelling through the rain at speed on basically an open top car are completely different things, you're a stubborn operator and it looks nice on a queue time website to have everything running. And then your ride breaks down. And it can't be resolved. And because you've taken a decision to keep it open in spite of seeing the rainy conditions, you've essentially sent 28 people out into the rain, stranded on the lift hill where it takes 40 minutes to an hour to be evacuated. There's no cover up there so it's just the train and the elements. So because of you, not only have you got 28 people soaked to the bone, you need to get all the managers over, the guest service team to distribute free tickets (maybe even annual passes), warm blankets, hot coffee and potentially hold the ride up further once the rain goes causing even more annoyance because you thought the running of a ride was more important then guest comfort. Lets face it, our parks are good at running their rides in the rain anyway so most of it is a moot point, but on rides like Storm Surge (which it turns out wasn't guest comfort anyway, just my suggestion) that lift hill is long and sitting on a boat that's filling more and more with rain water can't be much fun.
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Closed Rides
No. Guests are... odd creatures and will tolerate waiting but when they get to the seat 'oh the seats wet.' Trust me on this, Storm Surge being closed is for the guests own good.. in fact.. no don't do the obvious joke Mark.
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Closed Rides
Isn't it more guest comfort on Storm Surge. You do spend a long time on Storm Surge going up the lift hill.
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Walt Disney World Resort
It's only half the story. When people go to Florida, people tend to do everything. Very few just go and do Universal or just do Disney, hence why Disney will still growth in spite of what looks like smaller additions. I agree with others that Epcot and Hollywood Studios need something, Animal Kingdom ironically enough is my favourite of the four and a lot of the stuff there is in preparation for Pandora and the new night time show. New dining places, new toilet facilities, relocating Festival of the Lion King. And Magic Kingdom wasn't expecting that kind of growth. Although Seven Drawfs Mine train was never conceived as the next big thing, the guests are seeing it as a major addition. I think come Frozens opening at Epcot, a lot of that will change.
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The Smiler Incident 02/06/2015
I don't think we're anywhere near the same ball park as Seaworld. The way Towers dealt with the Smiler incident straight away has meant that there is quite a lot of good will towards them. People are returning, even the injured have been pretty open in saying that they don't blame the park and just want to know what happened. It's not the same as people watching Blackfish and assuming Seaworld just kill whales for fun. I think people will still ride whatever the Smiler becomes. Maybe not at first, but over time it will return to normal levels.
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Project WC16 - New for 2016
Like theming, like ride or is it too early to pun about?
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Chessington General Discussion
True although at least Disneyland Paris only have them around Ratatouille. Can't beat that authentic theming.
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Closed Rides
Has this topic falled through time from 2009 or something. Unreliability and Thorpe go together like hand and glove.
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Rant
So I was attacked by a crazy man on the way to work on Sunday. He snapped my headphones and kind of clawed at my face. And now yesterday, a man was attacked with a knife at Kings Cross and I kept help feeling guilty that I didn't report what happened to me. There's a high chance it's a different man but I can't help the feeling in the back of my mind that I shouldn't have just let it go.
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Universal Studios Japan
No one really commented on this before so I'll give an opinion. It's nice to see the Dive machine and flying coasters selling more and more right now it seems that life found a way. For a while we seemed to just be seeing hyper coasters but now the other models are selling it's good. There it is.
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Project WC16 - New for 2016
Disagreed. Build a ride that people don't know they want and people come. People don't have fond memories of Professor Burps Bubbleworks, Fifth Dimension, Forbidden/Terror tomb or Haunted House at AT for no reason. These were rides that people rode in their youth, weren't build to fulfil a function and were rides that captured peoples imaginations. Reason being, they were rides that took risks, weren't fitting a convention and were built because the designers wanted to build something story driven and completely different. The problem I can see with WC16 all is that thanks to social media we are seeing every aspect of this thing from the ground up. We've gone beyond secrets, I'm sure everybody has heard rumours about what the ride is going to be about and what it actually is so all elements of surprise have already gone. The fact people have already written this thing off as a let-down just says it all.
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Rate the above person's signature
2/10. Stop trying to inspire me.
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Closed Rides
Wouldn't it be great if all these problems could be sorted. I never think of it as complaining though because if people are that burnt by visits, they would never go back. In spite of all the issues, you still enjoy the place and thats the most important thing.
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Project WC16 - New for 2016
The comment about Hex I can just about take but then saying the Haunting is preferable...
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Dollywood
That looks great. It's amazing that when Six Flags do it I can't stand them, but Dollywood makes one and suddenly I'm all ears.
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Rameses Revenge
Pretty much. The ride system only holds one car outside the loading platform so if there's a delay, the one behind it will just whack into it. Come to think of it, there used to be five cars on Toadies during busy periods.
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Project WC16 - New for 2016
Overhype much . Tell ya what, if it even matches Ratatouille or Pirates of the Caribbean, I'll buy you a pint.
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Samurai
Most of the rides that I fell in love with have either been ruined by management or already gone. I'll always have my memories of that fantastic red and black gondola spinning away in Mystic East however I've never got on with Samurai at Thorpe. Only a couple of times has it ever shown the pace or thrill of when it was back at Chessington. It's become a bit of an embarrassment and its really kind of astounding that it and Slammer still get money pumped into them.
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Rant
I hear you man. I hate the keyboard warriors who seem to be on a constant mission to shame everyone and everything or to cause unnecessary arguments.
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Samurai
Just bin the bloody thing.