paige Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 Sorry but I don't think that Paramount park will have that much of an effect on Merlin, people hate change, but last time I checked construction had barely started yet, if at all! If you ask someone who isn't an enthusiast if you will, they will instantly say that theme parks are full of long queues, so they may complain, but they may also assume it is all part and parcel with visiting a park like Thorpe. How are priority passes the next best thing? I'm sure if more people refused them they would stop giving them out as they're realising it's not making people happy. Another thing, a small comment can go a long way, you don't have to be famous or some kind of journalist to spread word (they often get the best treatment anyway as to avoid any bad publicity from anyone 'significant'). Problem is LC that it's a bit of a vicious circle, so long as people are content with getting priority passes, the park will continue to give them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pognoi Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 One thing I noticed is merlin parks as a whole (it seems) do not like to give out compensation in other forms besides vouchers and fastpasses. A woman at the AP desk at Chessington was having a good old rant at the people inside about how she was feeling ripped off for spending £200 on tickets for the 3 hours they were there, and then seeing people supposedly walk in for free. She was insisting on getting her money back, but when offered fastpass or vouchers for her family she just kept on pushing, but it came to a point where the staff inside weren't actually allowed to give out any other form of compensation without bringing down managers. I guess what I'm trying to say is, whilst it really isn't an excuse, many of the workers don't seem to have the power to give out other forms of compensation. It's a mess. Whilst a small fraction of people complain, if a park is ran properly with most of it's priorities in the right order we will see less complaints... Unfortunately, because it's merlin, we see it's priorities all screwed up in situations such as these.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 I think one soloution to their problem is just hire a few more people. The coasters need batchers for the bays so a train doesnt have empty seats, the people at the front who sell fastracks should be checking peoples hight and guiding people to the right place as well as making sure the queue times are updated. That way their job could be more permant and the queueline shops should really have people in them at peak rather than closed for most the day and open for 2 hours when the queue isnt even near it. That way guests are happier, the rides hit a better capacity and people dont waste time queueing for a ride they cant go on. The staff being kind and looking like they care is some pretty basic things they aren't doing which is resulting in people directing their anger at other things like fastrack. Yes fastrack is bad but it wouldn't be as painful if seats stoppped going round empty, the staff were happy and the queues had some form of entertainment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pognoi Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 it would be painful if seats stoppped going round empty, the staff were happy and the queues had some form of entertainment. You see, I take those things as positives... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 Stupid auto correct and its complete lack of knowledge of apostrophes. *wouldn't be as painful pognoi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Merlin parks policy is to not give refunds. They can give out free tickets for another visit but will never go down to giving people their money back as everything is covered in their T&C's. I know this is a broken record but Thorpe's problem just shows how they cannot control the fastrack numbers properly. It's too cheap for what it provides. But there is a way that guests can have a fantastic day without it. http://www.europapark.de pluk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Merlin parks policy is to not give refunds. They can give out free tickets for another visit but will never go down to giving people their money back as everything is covered in their T&C's. I know this is a broken record but Thorpe's problem just shows how they cannot control the fastrack numbers properly. It's too cheap for what it provides. But there is a way that guests can have a fantastic day without it. http://www.europapark.de Nowhere near as cheap as the Unlimited Fastrack Movie Park Germany offers for €25 a person... Of course, they either limit the hell out of that, meaning that there's rarely a queue of people in the Fastrack section, or the Germans (being sensible and efficient) would rather not go for it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Thorpe park are pushing fastrack sales over facebook as their 'guide to fright nights'. Totally going to stop the problem of overselling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Thorpe park are pushing fastrack sales over facebook as their 'guide to fright nights'. Totally going to stop the problem of overselling. A business promoting its product on-line?! What ever next! Altitude 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 A business promoting its product on-line?! What ever next! Doesn't help the perception that you NEED Fastrack to have a good day out at the park... How many other parks openly tell guests to buy the Fastrack over social media? HermanTheGerman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Even those with fastrack are saying they have to wait over an hour to get in. At the high price thorpe charges, fastrack should be extremely extremely limited and should not be publicised saying it is needed for a good day. To be honest, it's not actually making anything quicker as those buying fastrack wait an hour to buy the fastrack ticket then another hour to get into the selected maze. Fastrack really shouldn't operate, however that's never going to happen. In reality, priority passes should be cut off and less fastracks should be sold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Doesn't help the perception that you NEED Fastrack to have a good day out at the park... How many other parks openly tell guests to buy the Fastrack over social media? I don't think they are telling people they need fastrack, certainly they promote it more than other parks though. Even those with fastrack are saying they have to wait over an hour to get in. At the high price thorpe charges, fastrack should be extremely extremely limited and should not be publicised saying it is needed for a good day. To be honest, it's not actually making anything quicker as those buying fastrack wait an hour to buy the fastrack ticket then another hour to get into the selected maze. Fastrack really shouldn't operate, however that's never going to happen. In reality, priority passes should be cut off and less fastracks should be sold. I guess its about your perception of what fastrack is - if the fastrack queue is an hour but the main queue is 2 hours plus, to me I see the value of fastrack its its more than halved my wait time - and again they haven't said its NEEDED for a good day. Your right though - fastrack wont ever go unless theres a dramatic change in the way the GP visit the parks, to people like us who visit regular fastrack is something we dont see the value in, for a guest visiting on their only trip of the year I expect the perception is quite different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Max Wellington: 'Great, thanks for pushing a system which allows people to pay to skip queues at the expense of all the people who can't afford it. Fasttrack is a vile system.' about an hour ago Unfortunately fastrack works the way it works, those who can afford it and have more money to spend, get priority over guests who may be spending all their funds just to come to thorpe. It is a biased system, but it is the system thorpe have chosen to take. The worst thing about it though is that fastrack dramatically increases main queue waiting times, which unfortunately means that the people who are richer get a much better experience than those who can't afford it and don't choose to use it. Marc, at £5 per ride it is very hefty. Especially for the amount of passes they are selling. It should be limited down so there is a fair ratio of normal queue to fastracks. A ratio of 8:2 or roundabouts would be acceptabel(main queue:fastracks) instead of the 2:8 the park currently operates on, with the 2 being main queue and 8 being the fastrack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Max Wellington: 'Great, thanks for pushing a system which allows people to pay to skip queues at the expense of all the people who can't afford it. Fasttrack is a vile system.' about an hour ago Unfortunately fastrack works the way it works, those who can afford it and have more money to spend, get priority over guests who may be spending all their funds just to come to thorpe. It is a biased system, but it is the system thorpe have chosen to take. The worst thing about it though is that fastrack dramatically increases main queue waiting times, which unfortunately means that the people who are richer get a much better experience than those who can't afford it and don't choose to use it. Marc, at £5 per ride it is very hefty. Especially for the amount of passes they are selling. It should be limited down so there is a fair ratio of normal queue to fastracks. A ratio of 8:2 or roundabouts would be acceptabel(main queue:fastracks) instead of the 2:8 the park currently operates on, with the 2 being main queue and 8 being the fastrack. The argument of those who pay more get a better service has been gone over and over again, and in some respects your right, those who are happy to part with more cash are going to get a better service, but this is hardly exclusive to Thorpe Park or even the Theme Park industry as a whole. Whilst you are right, £5 per ride is a fair amount of money, the packages offer much better value for money, if anything its the packages prices they could do with increasing IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 My time machine worked! We've got the exact same conservation as we had two years ago, almost to the day! - http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/9845-park-operations/ (but seriously, there are some good points from either perspective there ) Thorpe are pushing Fastrack as a way to make your day better, not as a necessity, from how I read into it. It's not overly surprising, really, but not something you normally see parks do in fairness. Do agree that it probably adds to the perception that Fastrack is a necessity though, which is a shame. Also worth noting that for the Maze Fastrack Package (£25 for all 5 attractions) doesn't save you any money than buying them all separately (£5 each), whereas it did in the past. Good thing in my eyes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 Last time I was at Thorpe, Inferno was advertised as a 20 minute queue but the queue was empty and you could walk straight into the station. With the queue being empty there was still a member of staff standing at the merge point accepting fast tracks of people, so people that had paid for fast tracks were waiting the same amount of time as people in the main queue. I saw the exact same thing yesterday but with Colossus, the queue was straight to the merge point but the member of staff was still accepting fast tracks of people. I'm not normally for fast track, but staff members still accepting fast track knowing there wasn't a queue or the queue is the same length as the main queue with a fasttrack annoys me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 I don't want to get over dramatic about it, but my view is that is actually criminal fraud. A false representation is made exposing another to the risk of loss. I've said it before and I'm still waiting, but I fully expect this to be the next brand damaging watchdog type media **** storm that Merlin create for themselves when a journalist somewhere finally picks up on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 Last time I was at Thorpe, Inferno was advertised as a 20 minute queue but the queue was empty and you could walk straight into the station. With the queue being empty there was still a member of staff standing at the merge point accepting fast tracks of people, so people that had paid for fast tracks were waiting the same amount of time as people in the main queue. I saw the exact same thing yesterday but with Colossus, the queue was straight to the merge point but the member of staff was still accepting fast tracks of people. I'm not normally for fast track, but staff members still accepting fast track knowing there wasn't a queue or the queue is the same length as the main queue with a fasttrack annoys me. The thing is people go to the park and buy fastrack first thing - without waiting to see if the parks busy so they still need to accept the ticket dead or not. They could not sell fastrack till later but that would cause murder. On the other hand the last time I was buying a fastrack ticket someone next to me attempted to buy a storm surge fastrack and they were told the queue was only 10 minutes so there was no point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 Last year, when Swarm had basically no queue (ie - just a bit in the station), I actually saw staff not take Fastrack tickets off guests, because of no queue, and said to go to Guest Services to get a refund (whether the people actually got one I don't know). Presumably there's something in the small print which covers them from a legal perspective in situations where people use Fastrack when there's no queue? Morally it might be wrong to sell them in that situation, but legally and from a business point of view, they've surely got their backsides covered? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 The problem is people who visit Thorpe now feel like they need Fastrack to enjoy their days which is a shame that that's now how a lot of people view the situation. Last year on countless occasions at opening people would rush to the Depth Charge Fastrack unit and purchase tickets for the big rides. But at that time the big rides were open and walk on, if quick you could easily have 4 out of the 5 coasters done well before lunch. Even on busy days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 The thing is people go to the park and buy fastrack first thing - without waiting to see if the parks busy so they still need to accept the ticket dead or not. Fair enough. But if there is no queue to the merge point surely the member of staff should close the fast track queue and let people with fast track use the ride exit instead like I've seen on many quiet days. Or like Josh said, not take the Fast track ticket off them and just tell them the queue length is the same. I'm sure Fast track units or guest services would be fine swapping it for another ride with a queue, or even a refund. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 Just thought would bring this topic up - so often people are quick to slam Thorpe / Merlin for how they "oversell" fastrack without caring for the main queue. Well we are in Fright Nights and they are still not selling fastrack for Ghost Train - I assume they are still getting to grips with throughputs and are putting the guests in the queue first when they could very easily sell fastrack and it would no doubt sell - so nice work Thorpe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 3 minutes ago, Marc said: Well we are in Fright Nights and they are still not selling fastrack for Ghost Train - I assume they are still getting to grips with throughputs and are putting the guests in the queue first when they could very easily sell fastrack and it would no doubt sell - so nice work Thorpe Great to see them putting guest satisfaction first in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThemeParkCrafter Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 A Disney fastrack system would work well for dbgt I think, since it tends not to breakdown now and would keep people happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 9 minutes ago, ThemeParkCrafter said: A Disney fastrack system would work well for dbgt I think, since it tends not to breakdown now and would keep people happy. You have missed many "discussions" on reserve and ride. Maybe go and read that thread seeing as it was basically identical to Disney's and then you might see some issues with the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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