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Fright Nights 2014


JoshC.

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Don't think it out performs itself. 4 hours of decent running really shouldn't mean the ride is down for a few days and if that is the cause then it really means it should leave. In 2012 it was dismantled mid September with a sign saying it wouldn't open till the 2013 season. It did open again for FN on around the 19th October that year. So that was down to something else. Last year I think it made it through the first weekend and died in the quiet week in between.

But remember back in 2012, samurai DID reopen, but on the worst possible cycle ever. It was so dull, and even though they decided to have the mist, it looked boring, and was so boring to ride. Was going so slowly it was unbelievable.

If samurai is closed for a couple of weeks, then does reopen. I reckon it will be on a bad cycle to try and keep it running. I would rather it just got replaced, it's been down so much lately and slammer appears to have a better reliability than it now...

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Well it doesn't sound like a very good day today judging by Twitter and Facebook pages (and the new queue times page).

 

Overselling Fastrack (causing a 90 minute queue on MBV and some people with Fastrack's to be kept waiting an hour), four rides closed all day, The Swarm broken down earlier, Stealth broken down now and nothing being done about queueline smokers!

 

I'm sorry, but Thorpe have been operating a park for YEARS.  Anyone who knew anything about running a park would no the limit of Fastracks that can be sold by now!  They said they would improve the issue this year, clearly not as they have put new Fastrack banners around the park to sell more, and are clearly not limiting them enough (if at all)!

 

I am starting to get tired of Thorpe now.  The preview evening proved that they can run the park fantastically when they want to (I.e. when there are celebrities there), so this sort of performance is frankly p!ss poor!  If the park is like this tomorrow then I will not be happy.  £49.99 or a £10 annual pass fee for this?!  What a joke!

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Well it doesn't sound like a very good day today judging by Twitter and Facebook pages (and the new queue times page).

 

Overselling Fastrack (causing a 90 minute queue on MBV and some people with Fastrack's to be kept waiting an hour), four rides closed all day, The Swarm broken down earlier, Stealth broken down now and nothing being done about queueline smokers!

 

I'm sorry, but Thorpe have been operating a park for YEARS.  Anyone who knew anything about running a park would no the limit of Fastracks that can be sold by now!  They said they would improve the issue this year, clearly not as they have put new Fastrack banners around the park to sell more, and are clearly not limiting them enough (if at all)!

 

I am starting to get tired of Thorpe now.  The preview evening proved that they can run the park fantastically when they want to (I.e. when there are celebrities there), so this sort of performance is frankly p!ss poor!  If the park is like this tomorrow then I will not be happy.  £49.99 or a £10 annual pass fee for this?!  What a joke!

Thorpe parks facebook team are pathetic:

THORPE PARK Official Hi Roanne, Thank you for your feedback. Our Fastrack system is an optional facility in which guests can purchase tickets to help minimise the wait time for our mazes. These Fastrack have allocated time slots in which certain allocations are sold. Therefore there is only a limited number of Fastrack for each maze. Guests with these tickets do not automatically get instant access to these maze, and are advised that a wait is involved. Our mazes team dispatch the maze in proportion for Fastrack and non Fastrack holders and so that the Fastrack queue does not extend the main queue line. I apologise that you do not feel that this was effective and that the queue lines was extended as a result of Fastrack ticket holders. Please be assured that I have passed your comments on to ensure that the dispatching of both queues is being carried out fairly.

Read that. 'Apparently' fastracks do not extend the main queue waiting time. Utterly pathetic, especially as thorpe are doing a 2:8 main queue to fastrack ratio at this current time.

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Thorpe parks facebook team are pathetic:

THORPE PARK Official Hi Roanne, Thank you for your feedback. Our Fastrack system is an optional facility in which guests can purchase tickets to help minimise the wait time for our mazes. These Fastrack have allocated time slots in which certain allocations are sold. Therefore there is only a limited number of Fastrack for each maze. Guests with these tickets do not automatically get instant access to these maze, and are advised that a wait is involved. Our mazes team dispatch the maze in proportion for Fastrack and non Fastrack holders and so that the Fastrack queue does not extend the main queue line. I apologise that you do not feel that this was effective and that the queue lines was extended as a result of Fastrack ticket holders. Please be assured that I have passed your comments on to ensure that the dispatching of both queues is being carried out fairly.

Read that. 'Apparently' fastracks do not extend the main queue waiting time. Utterly pathetic, especially as thorpe are doing a 2:8 main queue to fastrack ratio at this current time.

WHAT?!  That's worse than Oakwood!  Do they not realise that's wrong?  I'd like to see anyone who sees Thorpe through rose tinted glasses try to defend THAT!

They said on this site that they weren't going to oversell this year!  Lying to loyal fans.

 

Before I send an angry Tweet to them, do you mean 8 normal queue to 2 fastracks?  As that would still be too many!

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WHAT?!  That's worse than Oakwood!  Do they not realise that's wrong?  I'd like to see anyone who sees Thorpe through rose tinted glasses try to defend THAT!

They said on this site that they weren't going to oversell this year!  Money grabbing greedy...!

 

Before I send an angry Tweet to them, do you mean 8 normal queue to 2 fastracks?  As that would still be too many!

Bear in mind I'm only going off the facebook page. However, on Thursday, the BWP wait was painfully slow despite a short queue because of about a hundred celebrities who were just going straight through. Studio 13 was also moving up slowly due to press, so I can only imagine how bad it is today.

Saying that though, last year I was in the saw alive queue, and being one of the first we thought it was going to be a short wait. But the staff decided it would be better to keep putting fastracks through until they were all gone. My wait was at least 60mins when should have been 15mins maximum.

Quote from facebook member: It is not! The dispatching at Studio 13 for the main queue line is 2 people to 6/8 fastpasses. And when the dispatcher was trying to make the queue number up, they asked only fastpass and disabled...not the main queueline where they were lots of pairs waiting. Totally annoying!

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Bear in mind I'm only going off the facebook page. However, on Thursday, the BWP wait was painfully slow despite a short queue because of about a hundred celebrities who were just going straight through. Studio 13 was also moving up slowly due to press, so I can only imagine how bad it is today.

Saying that though, last year I was in the saw alive queue, and being one of the first we thought it was going to be a short wait. But the staff decided it would be better to keep putting fastracks through until they were all gone. My wait was at least 60mins when should have been 15mins maximum.

Quote from facebook member: It is not! The dispatching at Studio 13 for the main queue line is 2 people to 6/8 fastpasses. And when the dispatcher was trying to make the queue number up, they asked only fastpass and disabled...not the main queueline where they were lots of pairs waiting. Totally annoying!

That's not annoying, it's absoloutely diabolical!  How many years have they been running this park?  And they STILL can't get it right.

Money, money, money!

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But in the end though, we have to remember that Thorpe IS a business and not a charity, and they'll try to squeeze every penny out of you till there's none left ( hence paying ten quid for fright nights, smaller drink cartons for AP holders with a small charge, fastracks, I'm pretty sure these aren't the only ones). And if we do complain, fastracks are thrown at us, which means that they are worth nothing so for every one they are selling four pounds ninety nine is probably made of each one, and that's JUST fastracks. And if they can get away with it, they will.

Rant over.

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Just got back from TP. Well what can I say, over an hour wait on MBV and Studio 13 with Fastrack having paid £25 for directors cut as I knew with the 90min-2hr General queue we wouldn't get it all done. They were getting the ratios completely wrong - general queue, disabled, VIP and Fastrack - those queues we waited an hour plus were letting in more general queue than Fastrack!!! They had it right on BWP and SA as only waited 15 mins with a 2 hour general queue. Everyone was behind on thier Fastrack because of waiting over an hour to get in.

Saw wasn't running a few times not sure about other rides as we spent 5 hours queuing for mazes! Didn't event get on CITW as whilst waiting again for ages in Fastrack it was shut so we gave up and headed to our next maze on the list.

Wasn't that impressed with studio 13, thought it was pretty crap to be fair. But I was so pissed off with waiting so long I built it up and expected more!

Really not impressed with the queue times, it's only going to get worse as it gets nearer to halloween, I thought going early would be better! Also a lot of kids there more than last year!

Even ride times were up to 60/85/90 mins with no let up so you couldn't even ride those whilst the mazes were busy.

Sort it out Thorpe Park!! A stroppy email coming your way tomorrow!

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Fastrack is meant to be 25% of the wait of the normal queue(well its more complicated but it works out as the equivalent of that, there abouts). The main queue should always have a higher allocation, regardless of the wait of the fastrack people. If Thorpe have oversold them, then Thorpe should be held responsible rather than ruining the peoples day who didn't pay. To complain at them for that is fine as it is their fault however to say that the main queue was being let in more isn't really a valid argument. Thorpe will defend themselves by saying that they limit the number of people they let in the park so I would suggest commenting on bad ride operations rather than saying it had way too many people. Saying those things will probably lead to a more satisfying answer as the other points will yield a generic response. Enjoy your priority passes (it will make sense to you in about 8 days).

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This is nothing new of course, Saturdays of fright nights are always an utter fiasco due to the park's total inability to cope with high guest numbers as rides and mazes alike crumble under the weight of oversold fastrack.

To be honest I find the idea of fastrack users waiting an hour pretty funny, just goes to show how broken the whole system is, I feel sorry for those in the main queue though.

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RnR will only ever work on the mazes and will just result in slightly longer queues else where so it shouldn't be too noticable. However it will still suffer the everybody is waiting effect so virtual queues will go up to a possible 3/4 hours and also the mazes will loose some people it deals with at the end of the day as RnR doesnt let you wait if your reserved time is after closing. So best of luck trying to get all the mazes done.

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Does anyone know the exact dates that RnR is testing? Praying it's not on my visit :/

Next weekend, 17th, 18th and 18th...

What's stopping Thorpe Park from over-shooting with RnR? They could well alocate 150 people to a time slot, making the wait long for RnR, Fastrack AND normal queue... Hoping they don't...

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First off, I don't think Fastrack is necessarily the main problem - Priority Passes are a bit contributor to it all.  They can be used as Fastracks whenever guests want, and it doesn't come out of Fastrack allocation for the day, automatically making it a lot more difficult.  Since the Fastrack queue is meant to be 1/3 of the normal waiting time, putting more people in then there should be pressurises the system.  To say Thorpe oversell Fastrack however is, in my opinion, silly..  Fastrack also has the issue that if a ride is not running at its best (say, the staff are a bit slow, there were troubles getting guests on, a slight delay, whatever), the Fastrack system doesn't take that into account, causing a backlog (and that's something that can affect many Fastrack systems, not just Thorpe's).

 

With RnR, they can adjust the through allocation depending on how well the mazes are doing, I believe.  So if people are being a bit slow, there's a closure or whatever, then the RnR allocation can hopefully adjust.  Thorpe aren't going to purposefully allocate more people than a maze can cope with, as it literally does no one any favours..

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Just got back from TP. Well what can I say, over an hour wait on MBV and Studio 13 with Fastrack having paid £25 for directors cut as I knew with the 90min-2hr General queue we wouldn't get it all done. They were getting the ratios completely wrong - general queue, disabled, VIP and Fastrack - those queues we waited an hour plus were letting in more general queue than Fastrack!!! They had it right on BWP and SA as only waited 15 mins with a 2 hour general queue. Everyone was behind on thier Fastrack because of waiting over an hour to get in.

Actually glad on this. After thorpe received complaints earlier yesterday because JUST fastrackers were getting let in, I am glad they decided to fix their ratios. The problem is due to the overselling of fastrack, the ratios are completely fine. Thorpe need to start selling less fastracks, however if they want to be as greedy and as money grabbing as they currently are there's only two ways it is going to work:

1. Main queue will have to wait ages, with endless fastracks being let through.

2. Fastracks have to wait ages due to proper ratios being dealt with.

I'm sure many of us would much rather the second one as the affect fastrack has on the main queue is totally unfair. This is completely down to the overselling of them and needs to be fixed.

Also Josh, priority passes CANNOT be used on the mazes, so the overselling of fastrack is the issue for this problem.

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Also Josh, priority passes CANNOT be used on the mazes, so the overselling of fastrack is the issue for this problem.

 

You very much can.

 

It depends on the Priority Pass, since there are different 'levels' of Priority Pass.  Even seems like you can get away with using the 'wrong' one, like Ryan says.

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