Rumba Rapids

[Marc]

I agree that rush is a bigger loss over Fright Nights than rumba - Rumba has always closed at 4 ish when it gets dark anyway which is when the park is hitting its peak capacity.

 

That said the fact that the mazes open 3 hours earlier on peak days will by far mitigate any loss of Rumba Rapids

[AlexChewee]

Could we potentially be getting a Refurb or full Retheme of Rumba?

[JoshuaA]

I think we do like sugarcoat things over here..

Alton close a few rides- people go mad, Thorpe do it- oh that ride had a low throughput anyway.

 

Any closure IMO at Fright Nights is a loss, as the park struggles with most of the rides open..

Rumba does require a ton of staff though, but the support lineup is looking a little thin as Slammer is gone now, and Samurai won't last a minute open when it hits October..

[Mer]

3 hours ago, Mark9 said:

 

I'm pretty calm to be honest and I don't think I'm being that over dramatic. Fright Nights has always been an incredibly popular event and with rides running at lower throughput levels, the park being more sensitive to wind levels and more rides closed then usual, I don't think I'm far off in my assessment. All they need is for one of the big coasters to have a major issue and then the park will really struggle. 

 

This is why it concerns me that Colossus has been on one train for months now. The slowest coaster to load at the best of times, and it's surrounded by mazes...

(Although I'm assuming given how long it's been on one train, it's beyond the park's control/something to do with Intamin.)

[Coaster]

Guest experience seems to have gone completely out of the window at Thorpe this year, and with the new closures and reliability issues I don't think the rest of the season (and indeed Fright Nights) is going to be fun.

3 hours ago, BaronC. said:

Not going to lie, I'm tiring of people using the 'Loggers is closed' argument when talking about availability, especially at Fright Nights.  It's been closed the best part of TWO YEARS, it's not a listed ride and it's not confirmed to be returning.  There wasn't a net loss to the number of attractions on park, as Ghost Train opened when it closed (a common theme when Thorpe open new major rides unfortunately).  Plus there's the fact Loggers always closed at 5 (well it'd be 3 now what with Platform).  It's not a part of the line up, it made little impact at Fright Nights. 

 

Slammer will be missed during Fright Nights, even more so since it's right next to the headline maze.  However, let's not try and kid ourselves into saying it was popular or soaked up guests.  When a ride that never got above 400pph never got a queue above an hour, and shutdown often, it's hardly going to make that much of an impact on  a day where there's 15000 people on park..

 

Rumba is a weird one.  It definitely helped give non-maze goers something else to do, and certainly was a good thing for families who visited during the day.  But again, like Loggers, it's popularity during Fright Nights is minor, rarely getting a queue and not being a headline thing.  I also wonder if it would have stayed open beyond dusk this season following how over-cautious Merlin are being with Rapids rides.

 

Rush is the one that will be missed the most.  Good throughput, always attracting a queue, well-received a next to a major maze.  It was always good at soaking up queues, especially as many people would ride it before doing Big Top.  Rush's closure appears to be related to the ropes needing to be replaced earlier than usual - if that's true then (as long as Thorpe were maintaining the ropes correctly which I'm sure they would), there's not much they can do.  This is by no means excusing Thorpe, as there's only so many times one park can have rides suffer 'unfortunate, exceptional' closures before you have to ask questions if somethings up, but it's not an active decision they've chose to do.

 

I presume the fifth attraction you're referring to as not being open is I'm a Celeb?  If so, that's silly, since it's never opened during Fright Nights, and never will.  So it's not a case of that being an attraction down.

The trouble with Thorpe Park is that the park seems to operate with a "if it isn't a necessity, we don't need it" attitude at the moment.  Rumba is a fun, family rapids ride and adds some variety to the day, much like Loggers Leap did, to close Rumba when the park's log flume is already SBNO just adds insult to injury.

 

Loggers didn't always close at 5pm, it used to stay open until the park closed at 10pm until recent years as far as I remember.

 

Aren't we forgetting that there's still weeks left until Fright Nights?  It's still a gap in the ride lineup now, I'm not sure why people are happy to accept such mediocrity.

 

Also, Derren Brown's Ghost Train isn't aimed at the same audience as Loggers so I wouldn't class it as a replacement as such.

 

4 hours ago, Benin said:

Yep, clearly the park are deliberately removing rides that were a pain to constantly fix, or breaking them so that they're closed over their busiest period...

 

Fright Nights is/was hell when the park had all those attractions anyway...

Why the need for sarcasm?  Nobody is suggesting that we know the reason for the closures, but that from a customer's point of view having so many rides closed (and that's before you factor any breakdowns, power cuts, weather closures and Fastrack overselling) makes for a poor guest experience.

 

3 hours ago, Benin said:

Can we blame Thorpe (or say, any park) if a ride is truly borked? If they're waiting for a part from Utah then that's a problem slightly beyond their reach for Rush...

 

Slammer is gone, there's no point crying over it's non-existence anymore...

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Rumba was being closed at dusk (it wasn't before if I recall) since the incident at Drayton, like yeah I enjoy putting the boot into Thorpe a fair amount of time, but when there are valid(ish) reasons behind ride closures, then more fool those who moan and still visit the park in these times...

No, but that's exactly the problem when the park already has more than one ride/attraction down - any more and the park struggles to provide a good experience.  If everything else was working perfectly I doubt people would be too worried about Rush, but with things the way they are it's yet another closure.

 

2 hours ago, Marc said:

I agree that rush is a bigger loss over Fright Nights than rumba - Rumba has always closed at 4 ish when it gets dark anyway which is when the park is hitting its peak capacity.

Not true, I remember riding Rumba in the pitch black during Fright Nights, I'm certain it's only the past one or two seasons that they have closed it early.

 

2 hours ago, Marc said:

That said the fact that the mazes open 3 hours earlier on peak days will by far mitigate any loss of Rumba Rapids

Not for people who want to ride a rapids ride it won't!

 

[Mitchada04]

Rumba is an old ride, it's a game of either putting into into winter early or it comes out of winter late for next season. It needs work, the park know that but don't have the budget or time to do it over the set closed season. So it's either close it now when it wouldn't have queues even if it took off a small load from the FN crowds or lose it during Easter when the weather can be really nice and it can be busy with families. Neither is great but it's the lesser of the 2 available evils. Or they could just do the bare minimum on it and it'll be unreliable again all year. Short term pain for long term gain.

 

Rush is annoying and no one wanted it to end the way it has for the season. But that again is out of Thorpe's hands, they'd been trying to get it re open with lots of work going on over late August.

 

Other than that, IAC has always closed at this time of year, Loggers can't be included as for what it's worth, the ride isn't part of Thorpe anymore. And Slammer is gone too. SBNO stuff ain't great but that's how machinery works. Sometimes it costs more than it's worth to fix something.

 

None of this is trying to excuse Thorpe, but Thorpe aren't to blame for it all either.

[Matt A]

I'm wondering if perhaps the increased staffing costs had anything to do with its early closure this season. With the number of lifeguards on that ride, the staffing costs must have increased considerably, and I can see Merlin not wanting to continue to run the ride with such high costs as it isn't one of their flagship rides.

[MattyMoo]

8 hours ago, Marc said:

I don’t see why thorpe would joke about a ride being closed till next Season!

Cos Thorpe Park luv da BaNTs

[MattyMoo]

2 hours ago, Coaster said:

Why the need for sarcasm?

Sorry for double post but - it's Benin innit? 

[JoshC.]

On 11/09/2017 at 4:58 PM, JoshuaA said:

I think we do like sugarcoat things over here..

Alton close a few rides- people go mad, Thorpe do it- oh that ride had a low throughput anyway.

 

Any closure IMO at Fright Nights is a loss, as the park struggles with most of the rides open..

Rumba does require a ton of staff though, but the support lineup is looking a little thin as Slammer is gone now, and Samurai won't last a minute open when it hits October..

I'm not trying to sugarcoat things really.  It's easy (and true) to look at Thorpe and go 'so many rides are closed, this isn't good enough, what on earth is going on??'.  But there is a more balanced viewpoint to things rather than just going 'Thorpe have got loads of closed rides, they're doing everything wrong, everything will be terrible'.  But in fairness, Loggers is now all but a memory and Slammer is an ornament.  It doesn't look good on the park - especially when so many ask about Loggers and many will question Slammer when Fright Nights comes - but there's only so many times their closures can be bought up at every point before you tire of it a bit.  They're gone, and it's time to accept that and move on.  

 

I'm a Celeb is something that will never open at Fright Nights.  Staffing the Fright Nights mazes is tricky, adding in a non-scare attraction to the mix makes things harder.  There's also been a large worry that people will expect it to be 'Fright Night-afied' and be scary.  And no matter how hard you try to tell the masses 'We have loads of scary mazes around, but this isn't a scary maze, it's a family fun maze', the masses will not listen.  Which then leads to disappoint, etc.  There is the question about whether it closes too early, but all the actors / staff associated with it pretty much straight away focus on Fright Nights (set up, rehearsals, etc), so the manpower is put to use.

 

So effectively we have lost 2 rides for this Fright Nights (okay, you can argue 3 compared to last FN, but 2 rides compared to standard operating this season).  It simply isn't good enough.  But Rush is clearly down for essential maintenance and something outside of Thorpe's control (something which doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the average guest, granted, but something that enthusiasts should at least be understanding of), and Rumba is a mystery (the official word they're saying on their Twitter at the mo is that it's a "seasonal attraction this year", but if we're being realistic it's likely down to budget...but more on that later).

On 11/09/2017 at 6:25 PM, Coaster said:

The trouble with Thorpe Park is that the park seems to operate with a "if it isn't a necessity, we don't need it" attitude at the moment.  Rumba is a fun, family rapids ride and adds some variety to the day, much like Loggers Leap did, to close Rumba when the park's log flume is already SBNO just adds insult to injury.

I understand where you're coming from at the moment as it can seem that way, but it really isn't.  I think maybe you're over-stating Rumba's place in the line up, as despite the general consensus here, Rumba is completely overshadowed by Storm Surge.  Not saying it doesn't have a place, but I think over the coming months, it won't be as missed by the public as you think.  That's not to say that that makes it a good decision or anything; simply saying it's not AS bad as you think it'll be.

On 11/09/2017 at 6:25 PM, Coaster said:

Loggers didn't always close at 5pm, it used to stay open until the park closed at 10pm until recent years as far as I remember.

 

Also, Derren Brown's Ghost Train isn't aimed at the same audience as Loggers so I wouldn't class it as a replacement as such.

Whilst true it did stay open until 10pm in the past, that did change to 'close at dusk', and in a time where Merlin are so over-zealous on H&S, it's not something I could have seen changing back.  But with Platform existing, it basically makes the argument null and void since Loggers would have closed when Platform opened.  

 

My point was more that the attraction line up hasn't reduced in number.  Loggers left, DBGT came.  So the line up hasn't been reduced.  And during Fright Nights, people are going to be more interested by Ghost Train than Loggers.  

 

On 11/09/2017 at 6:25 PM, Coaster said:

Aren't we forgetting that there's still weeks left until Fright Nights?  It's still a gap in the ride lineup now, I'm not sure why people are happy to accept such mediocrity.

 I haven't forgotten that at all - but you were the one who mentioned that FN days were going to be hell, so that's why the conversation is geared to FN.  Honestly, I think it's ludicrous that there hasn't been even a couple of quid knocked off ticket prices given that there's 2 rides which are closed which shouldn't be (3 if you include I'm a Celeb, but I won't since they've been upfront from the get-go this year it wouldn't be open in September).  They can dress it up all they like with 'closed for planned maintenance', 'this is a seasonal attraction', 'rides are subject to availability', but it's not good enough, and a small gesture like that would probably go a longer way than they think.

 

On 11/09/2017 at 6:25 PM, Coaster said:

Not true, I remember riding Rumba in the pitch black during Fright Nights, I'm certain it's only the past one or two seasons that they have closed it early.

 

Not for people who want to ride a rapids ride it won't!

Certainly was only recently that they said they would close it early and actually did (I think it was only last season?), but they have said since about 2012 they'd close it early (just rarely followed through with it).  But in all honesty, following the Drayton incident and once again Merlin's current over-zealous H&S approach, I couldn't see them wanting to keep it open in the dark now.

 

Again though, I think you're making a bigger deal out of a rapids ride not being open.  During Fright Nights in particular, there will be very few people who go saying "The rapids ride is one I must do".  And there won't be a large number of people who stick it on their list to do anyway.  It will be a 'we'll do it if we get time' or a 'we'll do it after lunch' ride.  With it closed, the majority of people will just move on with their day (and probably gravitate towards Storm Surge).  Again, I'm not saying it isn't an issue - if a park has a ride to offer, they should offer it!  If they don't, it will cause disappointment, even if it's slight, to some guests, which is something they shouldn't do.  But I don't think it's as big an issue as people on here think.

On 11/09/2017 at 7:28 PM, EpicSmatty said:

I'm wondering if perhaps the increased staffing costs had anything to do with its early closure this season. With the number of lifeguards on that ride, the staffing costs must have increased considerably, and I can see Merlin not wanting to continue to run the ride with such high costs as it isn't one of their flagship rides.

One thing to note is that the "lifeguards" on Rumba aren't lifeguards; they are just normal rides hosts in certain positions.  Their job is to tell people to remain seat, sit back down if they do stand back up, and act as another set of eyes to keep track of guests in case of an incident (so that the ride can be e-stopped as quickly as possible).  They won't do 'lifeguard duties' of jumping in the water to save people if someone falls in; something which loads of people actually think they will do!

 

However, it is true that the staffing costs have risen considerably.  Following the Drayton incident, extra staff were dotted around the course and a second operator was introduced.  Storm Surge and Tidal Wave also received extra staff to watch guests in case they tried to jump out of the boats (something which was very common on Storm Surge in particular).  Slowly the staff numbers were reduced, by Rumba in particular still has many more staff than it was budgeted for at the start of season.

 

From what I've been made aware, because Thorpe were overspending so much on these extra staff for H&S, they did try to get the extra budget to fund it, but ultimately it was rejected.  Thus leaving Thorpe with the conundrum of whether to cut back to the original staffing levels (which staff and management didn't feel comfortable with), or continue overspending until money dried up.  Given the number of extra staff required over the season, it'd make sense that it's around now that they simply don't have the money.

 

So that would at least explain the situation Rumba is currently in.  Of course not excusable to your average guest who will be disappointed to see rumba closed, but at least in some way understandable that Thorpe tried and were doing things for the right reason.

[Zappomatic]

On 11/09/2017 at 7:28 PM, EpicSmatty said:

I'm wondering if perhaps the increased staffing costs had anything to do with its early closure this season. With the number of lifeguards on that ride, the staffing costs must have increased considerably, and I can see Merlin not wanting to continue to run the ride with such high costs as it isn't one of their flagship rides.

I wonder why Rumba Rapids seems to have so many staff around it when the much longer Congo River Rapids at Alton Towers doesn't?

[Ringo]

9 minutes ago, BaronC. said:

However, it is true that the staffing costs have risen considerably.  Following the Drayton incident, extra staff were dotted around the course and a second operator was introduced.  Storm Surge and Tidal Wave also received extra staff to watch guests in case they tried to jump out of the boats (something which was very common on Storm Surge in particular).  Slowly the staff numbers were reduced, by Rumba in particular still has many more staff than it was budgeted for at the start of season.

 

From what I've been made aware, because Thorpe were overspending so much on these extra staff for H&S, they did try to get the extra budget to fund it, but ultimately it was rejected.  Thus leaving Thorpe with the conundrum of whether to cut back to the original staffing levels (which staff and management didn't feel comfortable with), or continue overspending until money dried up.  Given the number of extra staff required over the season, it'd make sense that it's around now that they simply don't have the money.

 

So that would at least explain the situation Rumba is currently in.  Of course not excusable to your average guest who will be disappointed to see rumba closed, but at least in some way understandable that Thorpe tried and were doing things for the right reason.

 

That’s interesting about them overspending, Slammer had what 4 staff most the time. The budget for staff and its maintenance would have been of use for the “Lifeguards”. Unless of course slammers closure was made centrally / not planned to open anyway and then the budget removed as it wasn’t needed. 

 

Great at post though 

[JoshuaA]

15 minutes ago, BaronC. said:

I'm not trying to sugarcoat things really.  It's easy (and true) to look at Thorpe and go 'so many rides are closed, this isn't good enough, what on earth is going on??'.  But there is a more balanced viewpoint to things rather than just going 'Thorpe have got loads of closed rides, they're doing everything wrong, everything will be terrible'.  But in fairness, Loggers is now all but a memory and Slammer is an ornament.  It doesn't look good on the park - especially when so many ask about Loggers and many will question Slammer when Fright Nights comes - but there's only so many times their closures can be bought up at every point before you tire of it a bit.  They're gone, and it's time to accept that and move on.  

 

I'm a Celeb is something that will never open at Fright Nights.  Staffing the Fright Nights mazes is tricky, adding in a non-scare attraction to the mix makes things harder.  There's also been a large worry that people will expect it to be 'Fright Night-afied' and be scary.  And no matter how hard you try to tell the masses 'We have loads of scary mazes around, but this isn't a scary maze, it's a family fun maze', the masses will not listen.  Which then leads to disappoint, etc.  There is the question about whether it closes too early, but all the actors / staff associated with it pretty much straight away focus on Fright Nights (set up, rehearsals, etc), so the manpower is put to use.

 

So effectively we have lost 2 rides for this Fright Nights (okay, you can argue 3 compared to last FN, but 2 rides compared to standard operating this season).  It simply isn't good enough.  But Rush is clearly down for essential maintenance and something outside of Thorpe's control (something which doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the average guest, granted, but something that enthusiasts should at least be understanding of), and Rumba is a mystery (the official word they're saying on their Twitter at the mo is that it's a "seasonal attraction this year", but if we're being realistic it's likely down to budget...but more on that later).

I didn't exactly boast about the closure of Loggers in my original post did I? Slammer is a fairly recent closure so I think there is some justification as it is a loss in the support lineup for Fright Nights.

I wasn't suggesting we open IAC either as staffing issues are pretty obvious, and the park suffer from actor-shortages anyway..

 My point was  that the park are under heavy amounts of pressure during Fright Nights and Rush and Rumba is a fair loss to the support lineup which will probably mean even MORE pressure put onto the other rides.

This combined with the recent loss of Slammer (though it probably would of closed for 90% of the event anyway) and the unreliability machine named Samurai.. I think the park are gonna struggle more than ever with queues.

 

I think with an event like Fright Nights, the more rides you can open, the better.

 

Though with the sugarcoat comment I meant I feel like there is a tad bias for Thorpe.

Breakdowns are not the park's fault, but I do wonder how parks like Europa drift by with so little problems with the rides.. (Only seen 1 breakdown there, and it was fixed in matter of minutes)

 

I do take back the Alton comment though considering I was comparing a YEAR closure to a closure for a few months.

Anyway at least we'll have Timber Tug and Frog Hopper to eat up those FN crowds..

 

 

 

[jamie100]

Went on the rapids on Sunday. Has anyone noticed they have got way faster now? They seem to have beefed it up whilst it was closed. Was pretty surprised to get so wet on it.

[JoelAllen]

59 minutes ago, jamie100 said:

Went on the rapids on Sunday. Has anyone noticed they have got way faster now? They seem to have beefed it up whilst it was closed. Was pretty surprised to get so wet on it.

We went on it about a week and a bit ago and we also got wet! It seems to be running quite well recently. It was rough and actually not bad at all.

[Stuntman707]

I just know that someone at Thorpe has been reading the forums. Nearly every major complaint on ride topics in general seems to have been addressed this year. (The ones that are easy to fix) It’s been mentioned many times you never get wet on Rumba.

[ProudToServe]

15 hours ago, JoelAllen said:

We went on it about a week and a bit ago and we also got wet! It seems to be running quite well recently. It was rough and actually not bad at all.

It has all the pumps working now, so the flow of water is much quicker

[StevenVig]

Still themed to nothing though, bar a few skulls in the tunnel section, but whats the point? ??‍♂️

[RockerRollercoaster8]

5 hours ago, StevenVig said:

Still themed to nothing though, bar a few skulls in the tunnel section, but whats the point? ??‍♂️

Needs refurbishment or removed completely that is the only current ride that is in a dire state..everybody knows that it needs a beef up but don’t look like the park are willing to invest there money in that ride unless they are planning on doing something with it next few seasons!

[RobF]

5 minutes ago, RockerRollercoaster8 said:

Needs refurbishment or removed completely that is the only current ride that is in a dire state..everybody knows that it needs a beef up but don’t look like the park are willing to invest there money in that ride unless they are planning on doing something with it next few seasons!

I heard it was about to be refurbed and receive sponsorship to a TV show unsuitable for familys with a run down theme.

[Paul]

I've just watched a POV from this season on youtube, having not been on the ride myself since 2010. What the heck has happened??? It is completely bare, void of anything interesting and just looks terrible! (Obviously I know watching a youtube video is nothing in comparison to being there in person, but still!). Just another reason why I haven't visited Thorpe since 2012 and have absolutely no intention or inspiration to again. So sad, used to be one of my favourite parks growing up. 

[Stuntman707]

There is scenery, it's got some burnt tree stumps and a few skulls.

[Coaster]

3 hours ago, Paul said:

I've just watched a POV from this season on youtube, having not been on the ride myself since 2010. What the heck has happened??? It is completely bare, void of anything interesting and just looks terrible! (Obviously I know watching a youtube video is nothing in comparison to being there in person, but still!). Just another reason why I haven't visited Thorpe since 2012 and have absolutely no intention or inspiration to again. So sad, used to be one of my favourite parks growing up. 

Don't forger the super-catchy and brilliantly fun theme music being replaced with generic dull Zufari-esque music.

[Matt 236]

Rumba could be something special with the right vision and effort put into it, especially considering it’s one of the most popular when being in groups. 

 

Some scenery (not burnt trees), effects and interactive features would not go amiss amongst queue upgrades too. I don’t think they’d be able to add/return any water features unless they were external from the current system though.

 

Would be nice to see a proper refurbishment, but they probably don’t have the budget sadly.

[Mega-Lite]

It might look crap at the moment but as has been mentioned all the pumps are working and it's hauling ass at the moment, my last ride on it was the most intense I've ever seen it!