Marc Posted July 1, 2017 Report Share Posted July 1, 2017 13 hours ago, Coaster said: ID for a rapids ride?! Oh Merlin... Damn merlin for reacting following the DEATH of a young girl on the same type of ride! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted July 1, 2017 Report Share Posted July 1, 2017 5 hours ago, Marc said: Damn merlin for reacting following the DEATH of a young girl on the same type of ride! The incident at Drayton was awful, and I completely understand why there should be an advisory age limit, but the ID checking/enforced age restriction penalises thousands. Also I've often seen over 18's stand up on rapids rides, especially at Thorpe. CharlieN, ste193 and LostCityBoy 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted July 1, 2017 Report Share Posted July 1, 2017 The minimum height limits also penalise thousands, should we remove them as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted July 1, 2017 Report Share Posted July 1, 2017 2 hours ago, Benin said: The minimum height limits also penalise thousands, should we remove them as well? No, as they are imposed restrictions by the manufacturer, H&S and vital to follow. Height restrictions have always been in place, the situation is completely different. Unless age restrictions are being added to every rapids ride in the country, I'd say it's the decision of the park/company. Unlike height restrictions, they don't guarantee anything - as the same incident could happen with a person over the age of 18. Whereas height restrictions are set in place due to the design of the ride, restraint system etc. Hardly a comparable situation. Cal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted July 1, 2017 Report Share Posted July 1, 2017 To be fair the company who operates these rides day in day out are in a much better position to determine what is and isn't required. Hopefully this is a more short term thing - it's not the first time we've seen this sort of thing on Rumba certainly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted July 2, 2017 Report Share Posted July 2, 2017 Both Merlin rapids have this in place, I assume Drayton's is still closed so this has effectively come into effect on all UK Rapids rides (of this type, since Lightwater technically has one but nowhere near the others)... It might suck for a few guests (I'd assume at Towers it won't be that bad really, hence why Thorpe don't care as much), but given that this has come in through the death of the child and the park's do actually have to endure the safety of their guests, it's a measure that unfortunately needs to be in place for the time being... Sure it could happen to over 18s, but the difference in child and adult liability is tremendous... Parks have to look like they're doing something to prevent further misfortune, whether this be imposing age limits on riders or chaining up old oak trees... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattgwise Posted July 2, 2017 Report Share Posted July 2, 2017 Anyone know if it's the same deal with viking river splash? Most of their audience is kids with their parents anyway but haven't heard any mention about Legoland's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobF Posted July 2, 2017 Report Share Posted July 2, 2017 I would treat vicking river splash differently as they added doors to the boats and they are quite high sided, so I would assume the risk of someone going overboard is slim, also with the audience at legoland, the majority will already be accompanied Mattgwise 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted July 2, 2017 Report Share Posted July 2, 2017 Like Thorpe said on Twitter it is just advisory at the moment, saw plenty of groups who were all under 18 today on the ride Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenVig Posted July 3, 2017 Report Share Posted July 3, 2017 This is why its needed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ste193 Posted July 3, 2017 Report Share Posted July 3, 2017 2 hours ago, StevenVig said: This is why its needed What a bunch of idiots! Coaster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted July 7, 2017 Report Share Posted July 7, 2017 On 01/07/2017 at 7:50 PM, Coaster said: No, as they are imposed restrictions by the manufacturer, H&S and vital to follow. Height restrictions have always been in place, the situation is completely different. Unless age restrictions are being added to every rapids ride in the country, I'd say it's the decision of the park/company. Unlike height restrictions, they don't guarantee anything - as the same incident could happen with a person over the age of 18. Whereas height restrictions are set in place due to the design of the ride, restraint system etc. Hardly a comparable situation. It is probably felt that someone over 18 is considered a responsible adult whereas someone under isn't. It doesn't matter that a 30 year old man could just as easily see the same fate as a 14 year old girl because someone older is seen as more mature and sensible then someone under 18. It is generalising but the parks must remove as much risk as possible in light of what happened at Drayton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huzzellio Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Just looked at the queue times and Rumba is now showing "Returns in 2018".Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 2 hours ago, huzzellio said: Just looked at the queue times and Rumba is now showing "Returns in 2018". Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk That HAS to be a joke, surely?! ? huzzellio 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 3 minutes ago, Coaster said: That HAS to be a joke, surely?! ? I don’t see why thorpe would joke about a ride being closed till next Season! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ringo Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Makes perfect sense given the extra staffing costs since Drayton. Resources clearly can be put to better use elsewhere for rest of season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Ridiculous that they're reducing the lineup when it's ALREADY reduced by Loggers, Slammer and now Rush as well. Fright Nights is going to be hell on any days resembling busy with the ride offering down by five rides/attractions - not to mention that the Rapids have always stayed open until the end of the season in past years. Clearly good ride availability and going all-out for customers is no longer a priority. Absoloute rubbish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 9 minutes 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 are we giving Thorpe a free pass over this just because it's Thorpe and they are always like this and Fright Night's are always busy etc etc. We wouldn't accept it at other parks and at Thorpe, the situation is worse because throughputs are generally down across the board, there's literally nothing else to do there apart from rides and the mazes have tiny throughputs. If they have a bad day of reliability, which is all too common at Thorpe, thats a lot people to annoy. It's going to be hell. JoshuaA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 At what point does it become an issue? When nothing but the Rockin' Tug is open? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 1 hour ago, Coaster said: Ridiculous that they're reducing the lineup when it's ALREADY reduced by Loggers, Slammer and now Rush as well. Fright Nights is going to be hell on any days resembling busy with the ride offering down by five rides/attractions - not to mention that the Rapids have always stayed open until the end of the season in past years. Clearly good ride availability and going all-out for customers is no longer a priority. Absoloute rubbish. 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. 25 minutes ago, Mark9 said: Why are we giving Thorpe a free pass over this just because it's Thorpe and they are always like this and Fright Night's are always busy etc etc. We wouldn't accept it at other parks and at Thorpe, the situation is worse because throughputs are generally down across the board, there's literally nothing else to do there apart from rides and the mazes have tiny throughputs. If they have a bad day of reliability, which is all too common at Thorpe, thats a lot people to annoy. It's going to be hell. Certainly don't think anyone should give Thorpe a free pass, but if we look at things in context, I think it's easy for people to be over dramatic about how bad the ride closures are. There's one ride which is closed which will actually affect guests on a larger scale, which isn't great, but I don't think it's going to make things anymore hellish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 3 minutes ago, BaronC. said: Certainly don't think anyone should give Thorpe a free pass, but if we look at things in context, I think it's easy for people to be over dramatic about how bad the ride closures are. There's one ride which is closed which will actually affect guests on a larger scale, which isn't great, but I don't think it's going to make things anymore hellish 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega-Lite Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 The sugar coating of situations in Thorpe's favour are just as frustrating to read as the constant slagging off. 2542464, CharlieN and JoshuaA 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 I see where you're coming from, totally. And I don't disagree with you that one major ride closure (or even an extended maze closure) one day will definitely cause more noticeable issues. However, there's only 1 ride of note that is going to be closed for the whole of Fright Nights. And that isn't acceptable. But, in itself is not the end of the world and is, for lack of a better word, manageable for guests and the park to overcome. I genuinely don't think that on a daily basis it will make things more hellish or significantly worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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