Bubbles1 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 I went on it with a group of friends two weeks ago. Everyone else was dry but one guy got so soaked that he needed to go buy a new top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidders Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 I went on it with a group of friends two weeks ago. Everyone else was dry but one guy got so soaked that he needed to go buy a new top. Could've just gone to Stealth and let the speed of the ride waiting in the queue do it for him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jom222 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 The only bit I have ever got wet on is the sprinklers at the end before the lift hill. I always get wet on Storm Surge though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 At the end of the day, if thorpe didn't do anything, another incident of the same nature occured and there was a fatality resulting from this, we all know exactly what would happen. Apparently it is just temporary until they have measurements in place, then it'll be open to everyone, even the idiotic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenVig Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 It's all good and well to restrict who can ride, but if this is supposed to be temporary until something permanent can be implemented, I'm just wondering what they can *actually* do to prevent this, other than be extra vigilent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Coaster Man Posted April 12, 2012 Report Share Posted April 12, 2012 I took my sister and about 5 of her friends to Thorpe Park today. As many of the girls didn't want to ride the larger rides, we decided to go on Rumba Rapids. I was disgusted to see that they were only allowing Families and Adults onto the ride. After being turned away from the ride I decided to ask the staff member why this rule was in place. The Member of staff would not give me a proper reason and said simply that "It is a new park rule". I decided to go to guest services and complain but they stated the exact same thing as the member of staff. My sister and her friends were very upset as they had already been on the vast majority of rides that didn't go upsidedown and we struggled to think of anything else to do for her brithday party. Later I will send an email to Thorpe Park addressing this complaint. Coaster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 12, 2012 Report Share Posted April 12, 2012 Staff will never give distinct reasons in such a case, so there's not much that can be done about it... Just to keep things from getting over the top really... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Coaster Man Posted April 12, 2012 Report Share Posted April 12, 2012 Staff will never give distinct reasons in such a case, so there's not much that can be done about it... Just to keep things from getting over the top really... Yeah I did not expect a clear anwser but it was annoying as most of the girls with me and my sister were under 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ste193 Posted April 14, 2012 Report Share Posted April 14, 2012 I recieved a reply email after making a complaint about the family rule and they confirmed it was due to the poor behaviour of some teenagers and said that with health and safety concerns they decided to trial run it being family only, they state that they are now allowing adults over the age of 18 onto the ride and that if there are any permenant changes that guests will be informed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Coaster Man Posted April 14, 2012 Report Share Posted April 14, 2012 I also recieved a similar complaint via email. Can't they just install sentry guns to shoot all those who stand up or leave the boat. Now that would be offputting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubbles1 Posted April 14, 2012 Report Share Posted April 14, 2012 Saw the raft ride. Everyone gets a reverse bear trap fitted. You have the worlds most intense water ride! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Coaster Man Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 Saw the raft ride. Everyone gets a reverse bear trap fitted. You have the worlds most intense water ride! You could design it so that anyone that leaves the boat (and therefore dies) floats through small body sized holes in the tunnels. Therefore the boat would continue it's journey and the bodies would float into an incenerator. No more Chavs! Coaster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPGG Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 Ugh some people's stereotypes are boirng and offensive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lukeeeeeee. Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 The discrimination from Thorpe is disgusting. Why don't they just install Disney Seatbelts, y'know the ones that once fastened cannot be unfastened until the return to the station. They can also never be loosened Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 Rumba is now available to young families and older adult groups. Sorry teenagers, no Rumba for you still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 Surely that's pure discrimination? Coaster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 Ugh some people's stereotypes are boirng and offensive The discrimination from Thorpe is disgusting. Surely that's pure discrimination? The way I see it is that Thorpe are in a winless situation. If they've pinpointed that accidents / bad situations arise from just young adults, then the way they see it, if they stop them from riding, such problems will go away. Now, as has been seen, this causes a backlash - rightly so, in my opinion - by teenagers, as it is discriminating against them for problems caused by the small minority of people in the age group; which is nothing new of course in current society. So, what if they decide to just let everyone go on in, except the few that look 'suspicious' (or tell them to behave before riding) some may ask. This leads to a problem that is just as, if not, slightly more, discriminatory, as people will feel segregated, and quite possibly wrongly in many cases, all because of a couple of incidents. The thing is, if Thorpe just do nothing and carry on as normal, they're going to see it as an increase in the risk of incidents occurring. All it takes is one of these incidents to go public, and whether it is the fault of the park or the guests, it will reflect badly on the park with the way today's media can be. If they just decide to close it off to everyone, then it's a ride down - which is able to be enjoyed by everyone in the terms of the given height restriction - which isn't good, especially as it's a water ride during the Easter break, and when supposedly the weather is becoming more suited to water rides. So, whatever they do, Thorpe are in the position which will upset guests to some degree or another. I dislike this restriction, and agree that how it currently is, it is discriminatory. However, if this is a temporary situation and, at the moment, the 'lesser evil', then it's a case of having to lump it for the time being. The only people at fault, really, are the guests that have made Thorpe do this, and this is a disappointment. A bit similar to last season, where three rides had to have their restrictions changed (though, in those cases, permanently), it is a case where Thorpe are losing out through no fault of their own... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamY Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 The way I see this is thorpe have just got a massive brush and branded everyone the same with it. May as well literally go up to someone and say, "yeah, you look dodgy, get lost." Not everyone under the age of 18 is automatically retarded, and suddenly become enlightened as the clock strikes 12 on their 18th birthday. As as for them being worried about their rep if something goes wrong frankly it's bull**** and a weak excuse - normal people won't blame the park for some idiot being obviously stupid and getting themselves killed. No one can help those who are just looking for it. Most of the GP understand if someone goes acting like a twit and looking for trouble, that's what they're going to get. No point trying to protect them, if they don't hurt themselves at Thorpe on a ride they'll only do it somewhere else anyway. Some people are just stupid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 As as for them being worried about their rep if something goes wrong frankly it's bull**** and a weak excuse - normal people won't blame the park for some idiot being obviously stupid and getting themselves killed. No one can help those who are just looking for it. Most of the GP understand if someone goes acting like a twit and looking for trouble, that's what they're going to get. No point trying to protect them, if they don't hurt themselves at Thorpe on a ride they'll only do it somewhere else anyway. Some people are just stupid. Just to clarify, all I'm saying is it may be a contributing factor. The media and a 'traumatised' guest(s) can spin things to make it seem as though Thorpe are in some sort of wrong, whether they are or not. If, for example, some twit was to muck around on Rumba, fall out and get themselves killed / seriously injured, and it was reported nationally, it would not look good to the majority if you saw 'Teenager dies on rapids ride' or something as a headline. Of course, with all the information, many will understand it was 'some twit who mucked around' and wasn't the park's fault, but there will also be many who think 'well that's unsafe, not going there' and so forth. All depends how it is reported, of course. I remember a few years ago reading an article in a local paper about how an 8ish year old girl 'fell out' of Billy's Wizzer at Chessie, because the seats didn't lower fully, and the op asked everyone to stay in their seats, but she didn't (well, along those lines). From what I remember, she wasn't seriously hurt, but of course, family bring it up with the press, saying it's unsafe / irresponsible of the park, yadda yadda yadda. Had say this girl died / seriously injured, and the story went nation wide, despite Chessie being at no fault, it would look bad on the park in many people's eyes, just for the simple fact there was a death. tl;dr - Someone dies or gets seriously injured + Media Spin = Bad Publicity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubbles1 Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 But ride hosts have the right to turn anyone away, so they would be allowed to turn away those who seem dodgy. Isn't that one of the park rules? Worthy9992 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackR Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 But surely Thorpe should have seen this issue before hand and catered to it accordingly without having to stop teenagers riding? What I mean is, Thorpe have invested in a ride with water, free moving cars and lots of hard landscaping eg. rocks.Surely they must have saw through all this and realised that eventually, somebody would be stupid enough to muck around on the ride. There can't be any safety issues involved otherwise nobody would be allowed to ride and I still don't get why the park seems to think adults and children are not capable of standing up too and mucking around too. It's almost as stupid as saying, well we have announcements on Colossus saying ''don't stick your arms or legs out of the carriage'' but some teenagers have done it anyway so we will stop them all from riding to reduce the chances of it happening again. Considering the parks target audience is teenagers and young adults, I don't see the point in keeping Rumba if this rule stays enforced for a long time... EDIT: Bad Publicity. But surely if the papers got hold of this and made a headline along the lines of: 'Surrey theme park stop teenagers from boarding their ride' it would work in the exact same way? As you said, it is very much down to the way a story is reported, but if somebody was to read that and think 'urgh, this park seems to discriminate against my age group and obviously don't care about the fact that we are paying customers...' then they might not go to Thorpe either. I agree with the statement that it is a lose/lose situation for the park, but surely there are better ways of handling the situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diesel Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 But ride hosts have the right to turn anyone away, so they would be allowed to turn away those who seem dodgy. Isn't that one of the park rules? What? You can't just turn someone away without having justifiable reason. I.E, Ignoring staff members requests, queue jumping & and smoking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 EDIT: But surely if the papers got hold of this and made a headline along the lines of: 'Surrey theme park stop teenagers from boarding their ride' it would work in the exact same way? As you said, it is very much down to the way a story is reported, but if somebody was to read that and think 'urgh, this park seems to discriminate against my age group and obviously don't care about the fact that we are paying customers...' then they might not go to Thorpe either. I agree with the statement that it is a lose/lose situation for the park, but surely there are better ways of handling the situation. Personally, I'd feel more shocked that someone died on a ride than being turned away from a ride, but I guess for the public, it would all depend on how the press deal with it. As you said at the end though, it is lose/lose, which is the bad thing about this situation. As for better ways of dealing with this, I guess without knowing all the details and that, we will never know whether this was the best way of handling this.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackR Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 Personally, I'd feel more shocked that someone died on a ride than being turned away from a ride, but I guess for the public, it would all depend on how the press deal with it. As you said at the end though, it is lose/lose, which is the bad thing about this situation. As for better ways of dealing with this, I guess without knowing all the details and that, we will never know whether this was the best way of handling this.. Firstly, I didn't mean to be having a dig at your argument in case it came across that way But yeah, I totally agree with what story you would be more shocked about, it just seems that either way Thorpe deal with this, the press are able to make it look bad. I'm sure there are no H&S issues as they would stop the ride from operating at all, so I still think there is better ways of dealing with this. Of course as you also said, we don't know the full story so there may be things we are not aware of that need to be taken into account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 I agree with the statement that it is a lose/lose situation for the park, but surely there are better ways of handling the situation. Fire away. Firstly, we could go down Adam's way of survival of the fittest. Secondly we could do what Josh says close the ride for the whole of easter. Thirdly we could ban Thorpe's target audience from the ride. Thorpe will not win whatever happens and the only good thing we can take out of it is that it is a temporary situation and once Thorpe have sorted out whatever the issue is, the restriction will be lifted. It is discrimination. However as people on every coaster forum, including TPM says "Thorpe is full of young chavs/pikeys/idiots." They can't just pretend nothing happened whatsoever and run the ride as normal and they've attempted to piss off the least amount of people they can (twice) and still look like they are tackling the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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