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Slammer


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A member of staff has just informed me that Slammer should hopefully open tomorrow, if not Tuesday. So annoying it's not today but it's great to hear that it's going to open :D

Sent from my iPhone 5S using Tapatalk

Presume they meant a Tuesday at some point sometime? ;)

Slammer, from whatever viewpoint you try and take it from, is just not worth it. Even if it's the only ride ever to exist anywhere, if it's gonna work for one month before being closed for over a year it makes it completely pointless in having.

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Does it bring people in though?

When ordinary members of the public visit Thorpe, what rides will they think of? They'll think of the likes of the five major coasters and Tidal Wave, since these are the rides that are focused upon the most. I doubt there's many, if any, saying 'We need to go to Thorpe Park because it's got Slammer!'.

When it is open, how popular of a ride is it? Not very. Slammer likely struggles to get above 400pph, yet I've only ever seen it get over an hour queue once, maybe twice, since it opened. I bet there's loads of other rides on park which get more people in one day want to go on instead of Slammer. I wouldn't call it a popular ride by any means.

I bet that some people will call it 'The ride that got stuck upside years ago', since whenever it broke down with people on it, it made it onto BBC news. Regular visitors will see that it's down so often that they may think it's unsafe too, and be reluctant to ride it.

Whatever way I look at it, I just can't see how anyone can call Slammer a popular ride, or a ride that brings guests in. From where I'm standing, it's not. There's surely got to be a point where the negatives outweigh the positives, and the park just have to say enough is enough. Even if the parts are cheap, there's other things you have to look at - time consumption for engineers (do you really want your engineers spending loads of time working on a ride that could break down a month later for an extended period of time?), marketing (it doesn't look good having an SBNO ride on park, especially when it's marketed on the map and the website), staffing, etc.

Given all those factors, I wouldn't be surprised if Slammer is gone soon (usual cliché, I know, I'm sorry, but it is what I feel).

I never said it was a popular ride. I said that it brings people in. Many of my friends know of Slammer as more than the ride that go stuck upside down, well except for 2 that we're on it once when it broke down. I know people who make sure they ride it when they go if it's open. You generalise without thinking about the actual guests opinions. This whole forum does.

Nah Slammer has never had downtime before this, ever.

Never said ever.

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Surely "popular" and "bringing guests in" can be used pretty much interchangeably? At the very least, if a ride isn't popular, it won't be bringing the guests in. That's how I see it at least.

I'm not making generalisations about the public's views - I did say 'some people' may know it as a ride that broke down upside down, for example. Some people will know it as the ride that is always closed when they visit. Some people will indeed like it or want to try it out. There's going to be all sorts of views from the public.

Nonetheless, I still don't think Slammer is a ride that can be said to be 'brining guests in'. I personally think it's almost time to admit defeat with the poor ol' thing...

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Slammer was testing alot today; they seemed to be running it normally every other cycle and then making it do the thing that CoasterDude's video shows which presumably is an E-Stop procedure. When they were running it normally it seemed to be working fine and going at some speed (other than the strange sound) and then when they E-Stopped it, it seemed to take a while to get round to the upright position and then slowly come down but it got there in the end so I assume that they were testing the 'new system' that they have added and making sure that it was working correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP9KUdmgx_Y - Video of Slammer testing today.

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They won't keep a ride that still pulls in guests? Or a ride that when it works works well.

A ride that pulls in guests - whos it pulling in, its been shut since last year!

If it works so well, again, why has it been shut since last year and is causing a real stress to get back up and running

Are you paying attention to whats going on?

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A ride that pulls in guests - whos it pulling in, its been shut since last year!

If it works so well, again, why has it been shut since last year and is causing a real stress to get back up and running

Are you paying attention to whats going on?

Didn't realise that it opened 2013 and not been open since 2005 :rolleyes:

Are you paying attention to anything that people say? Or just being your usual self?

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Didn't realise that it opened 2013 and not been open since 2005 :rolleyes:

Are you paying attention to anything that people say? Or just being your usual self?

And in all them years only once has it opened in March and closed in November (and even then it had a couple months down) - theres a reason that only 2 were ever sold and that the other ones now been removed.

I do commend thorpe for the amount of effort they have put into keeping Slammer running, they deserve a lot of praise for that IMO, and am very much looking forward to getting back onto it but I suspect if any major work is required in the near future they will cut their losses and remove t unfortunately.

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And in all them years only once has it opened in March and closed in November (and even then it had a couple months down) - theres a reason that only 2 were ever sold and that the other ones now been removed.

I do commend thorpe for the amount of effort they have put into keeping Slammer running, they deserve a lot of praise for that IMO, and am very much looking forward to getting back onto it but I suspect if any major work is required in the near future they will cut their losses and remove t unfortunately.

No ones paying attention to when it's been open. Just closed.

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Because your ignoring the fact that its the most unreliable ride the park has EVER had. I wonder if it's had more downtime than uptime?

And your ignoring the fact that when it's have uptime, people have generally enjoyed it. The general public that is.

I wonder if you'll ever run out of opinions? We can only hope.

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No ones paying attention to when it's been open. Just closed.

That's because noone ever rides it.

It might look busy but it gets about 200pph (sends one ride every 10-15mins). Do they speak about it anywhere? Do they try to ride it again? Do you hear of people actually complaining slammer isn't open?

No. Why? Because it's not popular and noone goes to ride it.

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Whilst I hear what people saying about it's poor throughput and does the ride itself pull guests in like Swarm or Stealth may do? No. But I have on many occasions, when having conversations with friends and family, the two rides which regularly crop up as truly scary rides are Detonator and Slammer; with many saying that Slammer looks too much for them.

I'm not saying they should keep the ride just for show, but I would suggest that just the visual spectacle of the ride creates word of mouth for the park because it does look like a pretty mental ride.

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Many of my friends are also scared of the ride because it looks quite daunting. The ride experience I would say isn't as scary as it looks but it is still one of my favourite rides because of the unique experience it gives.

Slammer and Rush are the only different flat rides at the park, the others you can get at lots of places so there is nothing really special about them. I hope Slammer does manage to open again and not have the amount of problems that it has had recently.

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Many of my friends are also scared of the ride because it looks quite daunting. The ride experience I would say isn't as scary as it looks but it is still one of my favourite rides because of the unique experience it gives.

Slammer and Rush are the only different flat rides at the park, the others you can get at lots of places so there is nothing really special about them. I hope Slammer does manage to open again and not have the amount of problems that it has had recently.

Whilst I do enjoy samurai(and sometimes vortex and zodiac etc.), I do have to agree with you. You can find them in lots of other places and in all of those places, they are run ten times faster and more intense. Slammer and rush are the only unique ones to the UK and I enjoy them for that. I absolutely adore slammer and I would hate to see it go but it does seem to be suffering too much and I think it's time may end soon. However, I hope it gets replaced with something unique which we isn't found ten times better at funfairs!!
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