March 23, 201411 yr comment_179108 I know it's getting off topic... but don't think in the past 5 years of going thorpe park since my first visit, or alton towers in the same time scale, have I had a breakdown that's occurred all day, and stopped me from having the chance to ride every ride (besides rameses closure, and samurai and slammer which is expected - also had nemesis which was closed all day and opened just as the park closed and had an extra 20 mins ride time!), which I think is pretty damn lucky! so I can't really understand where you're exactly coming from... in my opinion they're all as bad as each other, and have some really bad days by the sounds of it, but other okay days.
March 24, 201411 yr comment_179119 No. I suppose thats what happens when you delete half of my post in a quote. Alton is the Mecca of theme park operation compared to Chessington. I wasn't beginning to say Alton is the best out there was I.
March 24, 201411 yr comment_179127 I don't understand where all these ride reliability has come from? Smiler was fine until around 4pm on saturday and then been it's usual self since. Thirteen had ridiculous queues due to reduced capacity.. that was about it in terms of reliability?! Sure, everyone hones into the whole smiler down all the time thing cos of last year so a 2min shutdown would be advertised to the world.. but I can't see it being any better or worse than ever before, apart from the fact people are looking for these issues.
March 24, 201411 yr comment_179129 Rita, Thirteen and Air have all been problematic over the years to be fair... However, considering that Intamin Accelerators are mostly as reliable as a chocolate teapot, and the other two were complete world's firsts (though Thirteen had the issue of poor design, since it was over-speeding)... Probably other things are seen as unreliable, such as powercuts and how they are dealt with, which is not completely something within the park's control... Aside from the original 3 rides I listed, the only other ride that breaks down regularly would probably be Spinball... And I don't think Towers have ever had a day where only 3 rides have been operational without a real reason (I.e. powercut)...
March 24, 201411 yr comment_179137 When it comes to reliability, I'd have to say Chessington is possibly one of the best. I've never visited and found rides closed for the whole day; I know Zufari has it's days but I've always struck lucky. Equally though, I don't think I've visited Thorpe with anything other than the usual suspects (Samurai, Slammer, and/or Stealth) closed for prolonged or full days. And then there's Towers; which seems to have a lot of on-and-offs but again seems pretty reliable. So I kind of disagree with everybody's points. If it comes to reflecting similar rides, yes, Smiler seems more unreliable than SAW; but then Rita seems to be more reliable than Stealth. It's tit for tat. But comparing the world's only S&S Sky Swat which got discontinued for being a maintenance issue, and to which the park has to have parts custom made for the ride now, against Rameses or Spinball - obviously it's going to make Thorpe look worse off. This topic has completely gone off now. How's Rameses doing?
March 24, 201411 yr comment_179210 Went to CWOA today and RR is fine and dandy - just the 15 person rule is a bit meh. There were people waiting about for others so we went back later and one of the ride assistants was leaving the ride area to ask guests to join the queue. Just after lunch we were asked if we wanted to go on as they needed to make the numbers up but I figured just after eating it was prob not the best idea You still get the 2 cycles and the 2nd one today involved 4 (almost 5) flips - ride experience was made more fun by a really enthusiastic ride op who asked us to pretend we were getting wet by the water from the fountains Would be great if they had some music down in that pit to add to the ride experience but the guy working on it today was brilliant
April 30, 201411 yr comment_182267 I have always loved Rameses but I do find it more uncomfortable to ride nowadays and hate how squeaky it is now. I also preferred the original paintwork/design when it first opened over the current one. I remember seeing a top spin several years ago running at full pelt and spinning constantly and it looked absolutely bonkers, unfortunately I can't remember where I found the video online to share it. It looked like it was at a fairground and was lit up to the eyeballs.
April 30, 201411 yr comment_182326 I remember seeing a top spin several years ago running at full pelt and spinning constantly and it looked absolutely bonkers This is a top spin (smaller model) running insane!! Crazy! Was it this one you saw?
April 30, 201411 yr comment_182332 This is a top spin (smaller model) running insane!! Crazy! Was it this one you saw? Feel sorry for the people on that...
April 30, 201411 yr comment_182338 Nope. Nope. Nope. 3 or 4 is enough for me... I hate it when its only 1 or none at all like 99% of the time on Ripsaw, but Rameses two part cycle is perfect.
April 30, 201411 yr comment_182339 Yes it was similar to that but was at a fairground by the looks of it as it was at night and had some great fairground lighting on it which make it look extra special. I believe they are the smaller Top Spin 2 models which do this and not the larger original.
May 1, 201411 yr comment_182360 A normal topspin can do that in manual if you have an op that contasntly works on it on manual! It was done to beat a world record of some kind. The people on that ride knew what was going to happen!
May 1, 201411 yr comment_182363 Nope. Nope. Nope. 3 or 4 is enough for me... I hate it when its only 1 or none at all like 99% of the time on Ripsaw, but Rameses two part cycle is perfect. Agree with you on this. When I went on Ripsaw it just swang and felt pretty pointless - am I right in thinking that Ripsaw was installed 2 years after RR? I didn't have the guts to go on RR until 2008 so didn't experience what looked like quite intense cycles (when I went in 2008 I got off after the first cycle due to the restraints). As for that video......it would be funny (but very cruel) if those people had no idea what was going on. I could NOT do that - there would be everywhere!!
May 1, 201411 yr comment_182391 I've always said (and been ridiculed) that Rameses Revenge runs on a better cycle than Ripsaw, which seems to spend lots of time doing not much in particular, and sometimes not even one flip.
May 1, 201411 yr comment_182412 Is rameses a lot more reliable now? I'm planning on going to chessington soon and want to ride it all the way through this time! (I got off before they started the second cycle the first time I rode it :/ )
May 1, 201411 yr comment_182415 Rameses has always been pretty reliable, a lot more than other rides anyway *cough fury cough*
May 3, 201411 yr comment_182463 I dunno if I would say Rameses has always been reliable. It's certainly improved it seems but it has had its fair share of restraint problems and it seems to have chewed through many motors in its time.
May 3, 201411 yr comment_182471 I'd say Rameses is more unreliable then Fury. Rameses half the time is just sitting there stationary whereas on Fury it's constantly monitoring up to seven cars, two lift hills, four block break sections and two trim breaks. There is just so much more to go wrong and on the whole, it's breakdowns are just block shutdowns.
May 4, 201411 yr comment_182529 I haven't got the picture, but according to theme park guide ramesis has got stuck in the exact same place
May 5, 201411 yr comment_182532 That tends to be the common position of stopping (for such things as code LPs and the like)... Depends if it was down for ages or just a little bit... One photo can't tell the whole story...
May 5, 201411 yr comment_182574 I haven't got the picture, but according to theme park guide ramesis has got stuck in the exact same place Would have most likely been an L1 or an E-stop, an operator is normally able to sort those out within minutes.
May 6, 201411 yr comment_182587 I heard it has been getting stuck in the same postition since the start of the season but they're able to fix the problem quicker as they installed some small features over the closed season which allow them to get it back down and unload it (without the long waits etc).
May 6, 201411 yr comment_182604 Installed some new features? As in.. changed their working practices to allow the operators to manually lower it instead? Before last year they'd have to get a TL to do anything related to code LPs (Large Person).
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