May 3, 201411 yr comment_182493 Vampire did greatly exceed my expectations tbh (although I think it needs inversions). You really really wouldn't enjoy survive inversions on a suspended (as opposed to an inverted) coaster!
May 3, 201411 yr comment_182497 You really really wouldn't enjoy survive inversions on a suspended (as opposed to an inverted) coaster! They might be able to get away with a loop? with enough speed, not much else tho
May 4, 201411 yr comment_182499 An inversion plus the swinging element wouldn't be a great experience it must be said...
May 4, 201411 yr comment_182504 They might be able to get away with a loop? with enough speed, not much else tho You'd need a hell of a lot of speed, way more than Vampire will ever muster up, in order to get a swinging coaster car through a loop without cars flopping either side. Imagine being on Zodiac but not having enough speed for the car to remain out, yeah that'd hurt like hell.
May 25, 201411 yr comment_184013 If anyone's been to Chessie lately, has the station soundtrack for Vamps been sorted out yet? Still miss that heavy bass line!
May 25, 201411 yr comment_184024 I don't understand. It seemed to be working fine back at the TPM meet?
May 26, 201411 yr comment_184115 I meant the version ORIGINALLY played in the station, unless that's what you mean
May 26, 201411 yr comment_184117 Do you mean the one with a cackle every now and again?? The one that repeats seamlessly. If so, I don't think its back, I believe it was scrapped because of the pre-recorded announcements, which have the same laughs in them anyway. They didn't want them to overlap. I do believe the repeating issue has been resolved though!
May 26, 201411 yr comment_184122 Vampire did greatly exceed my expectations tbh (although I think it needs inversions). So if it wasn't a family coaster and it had inversions, it could beat Inferno as my favourite coaster. But I like that it's forceful and you get a pretty decent amount of air time too, although the second time we rode it on Sunday I found it pretty turbulent after the second lift hill, but in hindsight it's most probably as I braced myself at the wrong places. Its not possible to have inversions on suspended swinging coasters. If it were to go over a loop, it would flop to one side and it would hurt a lot. Inferno doesn't swing, that's why it can go through inversions without flopping over. The only way Vampire would be able to complete a loop, is that it went very very fast, but even so, the force would be too much for the riders at that speed so yh.
May 26, 201411 yr comment_184151 I suppose you could build a swinging coaster that 'locked' for inversions, but the the forces on the mechanism would be pretty harsh. I guess it could be achieved with a second track that picks up on an un-pivoted part of the car. However, there is not the interest in suspended swinging coasters to make more extreme developments worthwhile. Which is a pity as Vampire is a fantastic ride - and by it's nature slightly different every time. I can't see Thorpe selling 'World's first hybrid free swinging suspended / inverted Coaster' to the non enthusiasts. Sent from my TegraNote-P1640 using Tapatalk
June 13, 201411 yr comment_185244 It's an Arrow coaster! What else do you expect apart from downtime and further maintenance?
June 13, 201411 yr comment_185246 I was there on Sunday. Had such a poor visit (in many ways) that I couldn't face writing a trip report yet... Anyway, it broke down at least once that day, we had just got into the station and everything ground to a halt. 15mins later with no progress and they started to give everyone in the queue priority passes. Only for it to start working about 10mins later. Maybe related? When it was working, operations on Vampire were terrible again. Seem to be bad everytime I visit. I really would like to go on a day when they are supposedly cranking trains out. They were getting cars on Fury out at a great pace all day. Car left the lift hill and then the next hit the chain within 10secs.
June 13, 201411 yr comment_185248 Hmmm...station you say? Was the music deafeningly loud and bad quality like on the preview weekend?
June 13, 201411 yr comment_185249 I've found the station quite tolerable this year compared to last. Now that you have the pre-recorded announcements, you don't get deafened as often by obnoxiously loud operators shouting down their microphone via the speaker at the front of the station. By the way, I know some people have worked on Vampire before on here, so I pose a question: Are there any speakers in the outdoor queueline or CCTV cameras monitoring the outside queue? Never noticed any.
June 13, 201411 yr comment_185262 Thought so. Guest services lied then when I reminded them that queue jumping is a massive issue in the Vampire queue and they said it was monitored on CCTV. Great stuff...
June 14, 201411 yr comment_185276 They wouldn't have "lied" as such. Adventurer Services is a completely different department to Rides, they can't be expected to know where all the cameras are located in areas they don't actually work. The person you asked would have assumed the queue was monitored by CCTV because that's the norm with most rides. However queue jumping is something the park will act on if problems arise.
June 14, 201411 yr comment_185291 Some CCTVs would be nice for the 25th anniversary then. At the moment it's a case of us having to sort queue jumpers out with no support. Maybe the person in the snack shack could help keep an eye out.
July 7, 201411 yr comment_186508 Hoping someone might be able to help... Originally rode vampire in its original form too many years ago... Recently rode it again and trying to work out what has changed track wise. As I am sure the start of the ride used to better and can't remember ever going into the Transalvanya street/shopping area in the past. Having said that it might just be my memory as it was a long time ago. Definitely seems very tame to me now compared to the first time I went on it. Can you help me refresh my memory?
July 8, 201411 yr comment_186513 In terms of the ride layout, nothing has changed at all. When the new trains were added the main changes were down to clearance as the new trains are a lot bigger size wise then the old trains. Nostaglia and the rose tinted glasses may be wy you didn't think the ride was as intense as before.
July 8, 201411 yr comment_186544 Hoping someone might be able to help... Originally rode vampire in its original form too many years ago... Recently rode it again and trying to work out what has changed track wise. As I am sure the start of the ride used to better and can't remember ever going into the Transalvanya street/shopping area in the past. Having said that it might just be my memory as it was a long time ago. Definitely seems very tame to me now compared to the first time I went on it. Can you help me refresh my memory? I believe that the old trains used to run faster so it could be that.
July 8, 201411 yr comment_186555 Old trains were a lot heavier, and if RCT taught me anything, heavier trains = fastest ride...
July 8, 201411 yr comment_186559 RCT (3 at least) had no such thing. You could run the option of making the wheels low friction but otherwise weights of trains did not effect the speed of the train.
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