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Logger's Leap


Garyy

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Seems like classic Merlin knee jerk reaction to a H&S issue (see: the whole of Chessington).

 

Remember Thorpe have CONFIRMED Loggers Leap will reopen in 2017, why on earth would they lie, as Log Flumes from the 1960's still operate safely in the U.S and most other parks around the entire world?? :ph34r:

 

Merlin.

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Logger's Leap is currently our only planned ride closure for 2016. It is for essential maintenance that is unfortunate but necessary, apologies for any inconvenience caused!

(Taken from the TP Facebook page).

 

It doesn't confirm 2017 reopening but it does confirm that the ride will reopen, as I think the fact that they are carrying out essential maintenance secures the ride's future at the park.

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It doesn't confirm that the ride will re open. It just says it is currently the only ride that they can foresee will be closed next year.

But why would they carry out essential maintenance on a ride and then not reopen it?

 

Still, at least it means that Loggers will (hopefully) be the only permanent closure in 2016, which isn't as bad as I was expecting based on Alton.

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The person who has replied to that question is not the person making the decision, or an engineer who knows the fine details. They will be a PR/social media person whose job it is to answer questions according to the official line, they are not going to say anything beyond "essential maintenance" because that is a vague enough phrase so as not to be taken out of context or misrepresented.

You've got to think independently. "Essential maintenance" seems to always be thought of as refurbishment work is going on with the ride for the whole year. I guarantee for most of next year it will be sitting there with nothing happening to it. Being told they are not allowed to run the ride because of XYZ reason can also be excused as "essential maintenance".

We don't openly know the fine details of why it is closed, but taking "essential maintenance" to assume it is being "fixed" and will then reopen is just naive, and I only make a bit of a fuss about it because I think it's misleading of Thorpe Park to say this.

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Still, at least it means that Loggers will (hopefully) be the only permanent closure in 2016, which isn't as bad as I was expecting based on Alton.

Maybe (as everyone seemed so sure on the closures of Slammer and X at Thorpe) they had originally planned more closures at Thorpe but then decided to close more at Alton instead thinking the park had already had such damage done to it this year it could be used to save money next year before trying to save it the year after?

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  • 3 weeks later...

In the back of the customer services office on the last weekend that's what they had, on the wall was photos of all the rides and pin notices over the ones which were closed, I can't remember what was on loggers but swear it was different to tidal wave (that had closed until 2016 on it).

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  • 3 weeks later...

Going by the recent photo updates, it shows that, unless the work taking place on Loggers is more on the ride system/other things not visible, it has just been left to rot.

 

I guess it must be too much to ask for them to do closed season work in the closed season, therefore having the ride ready for 2016?  :rolleyes:

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Going by the recent photo updates, it shows that, unless the work taking place on Loggers is more on the ride system/other things not visible, it has just been left to rot.

 

I guess it must be too much to ask for them to do closed season work in the closed season, therefore having the ride ready for 2016?  :rolleyes:

 

This post just screams of "I haven't had a chance to have a pop at Thorpe in a while".  

 

The ride isn't opening in 2016; why would they spend the 2015/16 closed season working on it when there are other rides to work on, which are opening in 2016?

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I have to say regardless of what thorpe says.... I think we have seen the end of loggers ..... For Several reasons

1 loggers issues are countless,

A)

a closed water system not feasable due to the proximity to the lake but is desperatly needed due to the ongoing issues the lake water presents.

Large areas of the ride need heavy maintainence/ refurbishment

B )

Health and saftey part 1,Evacuation and estops on log flumes in could cause whiplash ect with boats hitting and slips and trips evacing from the trough.

Health and saftey part 2, Merlin have had a bad year for h&s whilst log flumes are theme park traditions, and 99.9999% are sensible there is no restraints of any sort on loggers and its inevitable one day one persons stupid actions could further damage the industry with a high profile accident.

Conclusion

Overall I think merlin have given up on log flumes in there current form, with the flume closing and the other's futures uncertain.

The overall cost of refurbishing loggers I think from a cost and return perspective.

I can see merlin opting for a new ride system, due to the more enhanced saftey features of modern rides and manufacturer warantee.

Or simply not replace it

Only time will tell........

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This post just screams of "I haven't had a chance to have a pop at Thorpe in a while".  

 

The ride isn't opening in 2016; why would they spend the 2015/16 closed season working on it when there are other rides to work on, which are opening in 2016?

My point is, why choose to keep the ride closed throughout 2016 for maintenance when it could be carried out throughout closed season?  Not enough resources?

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My point is, why choose to keep the ride closed throughout 2016 for maintenance when it could be carried out throughout closed season?  Not enough resources?

 

Because maybe it simply couldn't be done throughout the closed season?  

 

We simply don't know enough (in fact, we know nothing) about the situation to say that whatever 'maintenance' they're doing to the ride could be done during closed season.  

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How come other parks manage to do closed season work during closed season?  Do parks such as Europa shut a ride for a season for "maintenance", only to leave it alone during actual closed season?

 

The excuse of "we don't know enough to judge" doesn't cover it - obviously we don't know the details what goes on at Thorpe during the winter, but rides should not be closed for a whole season when there are three-and-a-half months where work could be done!  Surely the best time to work on rides is when the park is closed?

If the work genuinely took that long to carry out then fair enough, but the park has already been closed for well over a month and has anything actually happened to Loggers yet?

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It could be something similar to what happened with The Black Hole. Not only was it causing a lot of near misses, when it needed new evacuation platforms, it was too pricey to invest in it, which led to its removal.

Either Loggers needs s big job done (in regards to H&S), or they're just delaying the removal news until marketing have come up with some 'Thorpe Loving Care' type blurb to side step the negativity. See Chessington swapping 'new ride in 2017' for 'new experiences in 2017'. It's the Merlin way.

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Safe to say Pirate Falls could be the only operating uk flume ride next year.

Not quite!  Timber Falls, Raging River, Wild Water, Canyon River and Rugrats' Lost River all operate in the UK, and there's probably a lot more than that.

 

It could be something similar to what happened with The Black Hole. Not only was it causing a lot of near misses, when it needed new evacuation platforms, it was too pricey to invest in it, which led to its removal.

Either Loggers needs s big job done (in regards to H&S), or they're just delaying the removal news until marketing have come up with some 'Thorpe Loving Care' type blurb to side step the negativity. See Chessington swapping 'new ride in 2017' for 'new experiences in 2017'. It's the Merlin way.

I understand it's more than just general maintenance, but should rides really get to the state where they are unfit to operate?

If the ride is up for removal then they should just say so rather than letting people think it will reopen.

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