Stealth

[MattyMoo]

Stealth won't be open for the friends and family day on 23rd March...

[JoshC.]

It is listed here: https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/passholder-hub/events/march-2019/thorpe-park-resort-passholder-day-23rd-march

 

In fairness, there's usually multiple closed rides on the Annual Pass Preview Day. In saying that, the park have had a longer closed season this year, so swings and roundabouts really.

 

I am also under the impression that this year, the Annual Pass Preview Day is also the same as the Friends and Family day for staff. In the past, the Friends and Family day was on a Saturday, with the AP day on the Sunday.

[Coaster]

That's strange, as it's showing as open on the event page for Annual Pass day.

 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2019-pre-season-day-at-thorpe-park-resort-tickets-56342094722

 

It probably isn't a huge issue for a coaster to be down for Annual Pass day provided that it's ready when the main season kicks in.  However, it's poor to false advertise that the ride can be enjoyed on Annual Pass day if that isn't the case.  It's all well and good saying it's a free event, an extra that they don't have to do, but if you look further down they're actively promoting the hotel, so essentially people could be booking hotel rooms and planning to visit on the basis that it'll be open when that might not be correct.

 

I think it's probably a bit silly to list any rides as being available on there, considering the unpredictability of season starts in recent years and the fact that they couldn't guarantee any ride being available at the time of making the booking page public.

[JoshC.]

6 minutes ago, Ivsetti said:

What is this friends and family day and how would that even work do they just get the workers to man the rides whilst they watch their smiling friends go round and round on the rides because that is the definition of torture.

Realistically though, low temperatures and high wind speeds will shut most of the big rides (I think/ hope not) next week if the weather forecast stays the same till next weekend. 

 

Friends and Family day in the past has basically just been a preview / test day. Some Merlin staff are given tickets which they can either use themselves (if they're not working of course) or give to their friends and family.

 

The idea is that it gives staff a reasonably pressure-free day to get used to their roles, since everyone is there for a free day. It also helps iron out any small issues. It's normally extremely limited capacity too.

 

Why they've decided to mix that day with AP day is anyone's guess.

 

6 minutes ago, Coaster said:

Not that I really care, but pretty poor to false advertise either way

I imagine it just hasn't been updated yet. Eventbrite can sometimes be trickier to update than their own websites.

 

I think they usually send a notification before the event too, which gives a final update of unavailable rides? So I'd say as long as it's updated by then, it's not that bad. Just unfortunate that the ride that is unavailable is one their headliners.

[MattyMoo]

Source was an Eventbrite email for Friends and Family day on the MAP group. It also says Quantum closed (and Wet Wet Wet and the beach, obvs)

[Mark9]

20 hours ago, MattyMoo said:

Stealth won't be open for the friends and family day on 23rd March...

 

As we know, Annual Pass holders are the most considerate, open minded and tolerant of Thorpe Parks guests. They will be completely fine with Stealth and Quantum being closed.

 

 

Crap.

[Matt A]

Makes me think of the MAP Holders Group, never seen so much entitlement in my life ?‍♂️

[Glitch]

17 hours ago, Ivsetti said:

What is this friends and family day and how would that even work do they just get the workers to man the rides whilst they watch their smiling friends go round and round on the rides because that is the definition of torture.

Realistically though, low temperatures and high wind speeds will shut most of the big rides (I think/ hope not) next week if the weather forecast stays the same till next weekend. 

 

1

People do work in other parts of the business. Not every cleaner or back office staff is a trained ride operator.

[MattyMoo]

The MAP Facebook group is my daily dose of humour and/or despair. Scenes. 

[StevenVig]

20 hours ago, JoshC. said:

Why they've decided to mix that day with AP day is anyone's guess.

It doesn't take a genius, it's to save money obviously. It might be a free day for the guest, but it still costs money to open and run the park. 

 

That said, it seems silly to merge them, the expectation of a friends and family guest would be not to see several thousand entitled MAP holders brandishing their bright yellow lanyards everywhere. 

[Ringo]

1 hour ago, StevenVig said:

It doesn't take a genius, it's to save money obviously. It might be a free day for the guest, but it still costs money to open and run the park. 

 

That said, it seems silly to merge them, the expectation of a friends and family guest would be not to see several thousand entitled MAP holders brandishing their bright yellow lanyards everywhere. 

Not forgetting those silver coloured ones expecting fastrack when they can pull themselves away from the hospitality marquee.

 

But apart from cost cutting it really is madness to mix the event with staff & pass holders 

[Glitch]

2 hours ago, StevenVig said:

It doesn't take a genius, it's to save money obviously. It might be a free day for the guest, but it still costs money to open and run the park. 

 

That said, it seems silly to merge them, the expectation of a friends and family guest would be not to see several thousand entitled MAP holders brandishing their bright yellow lanyards everywhere. 

I have no problem with it. At the end of the day it's a preview day, perhaps this year they have taken the option of renting the park out for a day instead.

[Matt 236]

Very disappointing to see Stealth closed as this now means MattyMoo can’t experience it, and potentially close it for several months after. 

 

I used to think the MAPS were generally more forgiving and tolerant on such issues once. I guess I have spent too much time in Cloud Cuckoo Land

[JoshC.]

2 hours ago, StevenVig said:

It doesn't take a genius, it's to save money obviously. It might be a free day for the guest, but it still costs money to open and run the park. 

But surely 'to save money' makes little sense?

 

The park have a vested interest in having two previews rather than one. Friends and Family day is basically a pass if anything goes wrong, and AP day puts things into perspective more. If they want to save money, just shut on another weekday in May or September.

 

I'm not saying it's not the reason, but if it is the reason, it makes very little sense.

[StevenVig]

On 3/15/2019 at 4:46 PM, Glitch said:

perhaps this year they have taken the option of renting the park out for a day instead.

Who would have rented out the park? Friends & Family Day and AP Day are both run and operated by THORPE PARK Resort........

On 3/15/2019 at 5:19 PM, JoshC. said:

just shut on another weekday in May or September.

And have tonnes of entitled MAP Holders and coaster geeks slam the park for reducing the number of days they're open ?

[JoshC.]

1 hour ago, StevenVig said:

And have tonnes of entitled MAP Holders and coaster geeks slam the park for reducing the number of days they're open ?

Arguably better to give them a dedicated day at the start of the year after they've had a chance to iron out a couple of teething issues and be closed for a random midweek day than give them a dedicated day on their first operating day when things will inevitably go wrong and be open for a random midweek day (when few MAP holders will visit).

[RobF]

2 hours ago, JoshC. said:

Arguably better to give them a dedicated day at the start of the year after they've had a chance to iron out a couple of teething issues and be closed for a random midweek day than give them a dedicated day on their first operating day when things will inevitably go wrong and be open for a random midweek day (when few MAP holders will visit).

Depends how its been sold to said purchaser, if its a heavily discounted rate per head vs mid season for effectively a preview/Beta day

[Coaster]

Could anyone perhaps shed some light on why they were letting the same two people re-ride Stealth from the exit again and again filling empty seats?  It seemed to be running as a single rider queue but only for the same two people, nobody else was using it and I didn't think they would use what is essentially the staff gate to allow riders on.

 

If they are genuinely using it as a single rider queue then brilliant, but it seems odd to me that it was only being used repeatedly by two people, and not very functional in terms of the location - you would essentially have to walk up the exit and hang around in the offload/baggage reclaim area, as there was nowhere specific set up to queue.

 

I'm all for re-rides but at this point the ride had a 20/30 minute queue, so it wasn't a case of allowing anyone who asked back through to fill otherwise empty trains.

[JoshC.]

Potentially VIP passholders?

[pluk]

@planenut ?! ?

[HermanTheGerman]

On 3/23/2019 at 10:01 PM, Coaster said:

Could anyone perhaps shed some light on why they were letting the same two people re-ride Stealth from the exit again and again filling empty seats?  It seemed to be running as a single rider queue but only for the same two people, nobody else was using it and I didn't think they would use what is essentially the staff gate to allow riders on.

 

If they are genuinely using it as a single rider queue then brilliant, but it seems odd to me that it was only being used repeatedly by two people, and not very functional in terms of the location - you would essentially have to walk up the exit and hang around in the offload/baggage reclaim area, as there was nowhere specific set up to queue.

 

I'm all for re-rides but at this point the ride had a 20/30 minute queue, so it wasn't a case of allowing anyone who asked back through to fill otherwise empty trains.

Pretty sure they would've been VIP passholders. I've seen them doing it before. They sort of sit there and make their own SR queue.

 

Bit of a mickey-take really, given they already get unlimited fastrack, guess that's not enough for some people. 

[Ringo]

10 minutes ago, HermanTheGerman said:

Pretty sure they would've been VIP passholders. I've seen them doing it before. They sort of sit there and make their own SR queue.

 

Bit of a mickey-take really, given they already get unlimited fastrack, guess that's not enough for some people. 

Buying VIP on the day would  get you exit entry treatment but that annual pass version won’t unless there is specific instruction from management (front row, special event etc)

 

Considering the event was also staff day it could of been a manager or management friends family or even ride host friends family. 

[Marc]

Was running well on 2 trains today - good to see the smoke working too!

[RobF]

We were there last Sunday, and train 2 was running empty for half the day, then 2 were being loaded in afternoon all seemed fine

[JoshC.]

Stealth will be closed part of tomorrow and Monday:

 

This time of year is usually when Stealth requires a cable change, so likely because of that. Given in the past this used to take a week, it's good that they're still able to do it in a day now.