March 25, 201510 yr comment_205895 It's not good that they are still having all these closures, they should be sorted out and ready to go for the season by now! As for Colossus still running one train, it's very poor, but for some reason I'm not surprised.
March 25, 201510 yr comment_205897 The thing is, is Colossus' second train actually in the country? I seem to remember the train that is running now was sent off last year? (correct me if I'm wrong) So maybe the other train has been sent off and it's just a case of waiting for it to come back?
March 25, 201510 yr comment_205899 Don't expect any change on the number of Colossus trains for a while http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/511-closed-rides/page-91#entry205861 When staff are short, further problems are created by the park moving staff to other areas even though there is work awaiting in the original area.
March 25, 201510 yr comment_205904 did they actually say that about vortex? I'm actually smiling because I didn't think that the staff could tell the guests why the rides were closed. but if they actually said that word for word.. I need to find it on youtube. or something someone I know who works there, rather than a worker actually telling me that in thorpe
March 27, 201510 yr comment_206045 Everything today was running one train, apart from The Swarm, understandable for a regular week day in March, but not for what is essentially the first day of Easter holidays for a lot of Surrey Schools. Wait time was 90 minutes for SAW and tbh neither me or my son thought much of it lol! Stealth broke down about 5 times too lol, at one point they could get anybody out of the trains, not sure why but I'd assume the harnesses wouldn't release, we went out to Inferno and when we got back it was running it again so we jumped on before it was too late lol.
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206070 90 mins for Saw on a weekday?? Tell me there's a good reason for this, other than the awful truck loads of Merlin excuses we've had so far this season.. ?
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206071 IIRC it had 4 cars running, two being loaded/unloaded while two were out on track, no idea if that's normal operation. We sat for ages waiting to get out, then they moved our car forward when the second one came in and unload both together, don't know if that's normal procedure or not but it doesn't seem the quickest way to me. One thing I did notice was a major increase in security, at one point there was more security stood in the Colossus station than there was ride operators, again I don't know if that's normal during regular season as I've only ever been to Thorpe for pass days and Brainiac in this century but I'd never seen on-site security in such numbers. Mind you Swarm was showing 45 minutes of the queue at one point when it was walk on, and we got on Stealth three times so there was some upsides to the day (nope didn't do celeb, no interest), but unless they get their **** together for Summer, we won't be venturing there again until Autumn, I don't like crowds, especially bad tempered Chav filled ones lol. One time we went on Stealth then guy behind me screamed f***, f***, f*** continuously from the time we were strapped in to the end of the ride, not my cup of tea.
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206073 90 mins for Saw on a weekday?? Tell me there's a good reason for this, other than the awful truck loads of Merlin excuses we've had so far this season.. ? 90minutes ovbiously isn't a "high enough demand" to add extra cars of course.In actual fact, Saw has 8 cars on it's circuit, so running 4 is absolutely disgraceful. I'm unsure whether it can run all 8 at once, but I'm certain that it can run 7 cars on the track with one in the maintenance bay. If they had bothered to add more cars to the circuit, as with the other coasters on one train operation, then queue times would have nearly been halved. Unfortunately, the "demand" wasn't "high enough" which meant that they couldn't be bothered to spend the money to add more trains to the circuit.
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206074 Saw can run all 8 cars at once; it regularly does. I have no idea why they were running on reduced trains/cars on the coasters yesterday. The park was busier than a normal weekday, and the park would have benefited from it. The social media team saying it's because there's "not enough demand" is very much shooting themselves in the foot.
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206075 I'm pretty sure Saw requires the same about of staff if it runs 4 cars or if it runs 8 - so I'd guess the reduction is more down to a technical problem than them saving money. Saws struggled this year - opened quite late yesterday I beleve?
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206079 Saw ran with 6 cars Wednesday and the operator shouted through the tanoy twice asking the staff to speed things up as they were quite slow. Only Swarm was being loaded and dispatched quickly on Wednesday. Stealth not too bad. Colossus was painfully slow at loading. 20 mins for front row with only 7 people in front of us.
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206080 I'm starting to wonder if the age old "get to the theme park in the first hour" theory has become the worst kept secret in history, based on yesterday and the queue times site today it seems to be best to turn up about 2.30-3pm atm.
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206081 That is possibly the most illogical statement I've ever read. How can you possibly get more rides done by turning up later.
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206086 That is possibly the most illogical statement I've ever read. How can you possibly get more rides done by turning up later. Well obviously over the course of a day you're not going to, but the queues dramatically dropped in waiting time yesterday after about two, Swarm was walk on while in the morning every time we ventured near it, the queue was back to the gate. We got there yesterday at 10, took until 2 to do all the big rides only once each, got food, then between 3 and 4 did the same rides again, including twice on Stealth, if you can't see the pattern there, not my problem lol.
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206088 Swarm suffers from it being in part of the park far away from everything else. As a result people go there in the morning and simply dont return as they expect it to be a 45+minute queue. In reality by that time on a weekend the 2nd train has been added and the actual queue time is walk on. what should then happen is the advertised queue time should be dropped to 10 minutes but that suddenly means everyone comes over and its no longer 10 minutes. As a result from 2pm onwards the swarm island is often empty. Stealth fluctuates a lot, often having a high queues before lunch as its near all of the food places. it sometimes (really depends on the rest of the day) has a peak around 3:30 to 5:00 ish as people do it as their last ride before leaving. After 5pm the whole park is dead and most things have short queues.
March 28, 201510 yr comment_206099 I'm pretty disheartened with Merlin this year. They just seem to get worse! Feels like they're so busy finding ways to take my money, yet their theme park operations are a complete shambles, and most people think that it's acceptable. It isn't. I've got ONE paid for trip this season, and as a paying guest, I'll hit the roof if their below average operations are still a thing, and if anyone tells me there's 'no demand' to lessen MY paid for queuing time, I'll go crazy! Phew.. Rant over.
March 29, 201510 yr comment_206114 I don't disagree with you, but you do highlight my point about times dropping towards the end of the day too. I'm talking here from a Annual Passholder living on the doorstep's point of view, who can just run in mid-afternoon and enjoy a few rides while the Wife prepares dinner, not Joe Bloggs coming from Norfolk for a daytrip with 5 kids. Your site has been a godsend this week btw, I guess it's raining at Thorpe atm since the queues are so short, wish my boy was here cos we'd jump in the car now if he was since the radar shows the rain will stop in about 15 minutes.
March 29, 201510 yr comment_206120 Thorpe have announced on Twitter that some of the rides have been temporarily closed due to high winds. I presume this is the big 5 coasters and the likes of Rush and Vortex?
March 29, 201510 yr comment_206126 The only coasters that have ever generally shut in high winds is SAW and The SWARM. The SWARM has too much wind resistant to be considered safe, it has a high chance of stalling. And, SAW, well that stalls when someone coughs at it.
March 30, 201510 yr comment_206150 Don't forget Stealth with the whole wind issue.. That's always suffered if the wind is coming from the wrong direction
March 30, 201510 yr comment_206151 Saw was the only thing that closed yesterday because of wind, guess it depends on the wind direction really as last year the Swarm was closed most of the day because of wind, and Saw wasn't. About Vortex being closed, I think it's suffering restraint issues as a photo on Facebook shows some of the backs of the seats have been taken off. I believe a few seats were closed when it first opened as well? (Photo from Theme park incorporated)
March 30, 201510 yr comment_206156 I suspect there may be several windy closures over the next couple of days, things will certainly be breezy.
March 30, 201510 yr comment_206157 About Vortex being closed, I think it's suffering restraint issues as a photo on Facebook shows some of the backs of the seats have been taken off. I'm guessing the restraints were coming down a little too "hard and fast"?
March 30, 201510 yr comment_206158 When we went to the annual pass event, the restraints wouldn't release nor close. Their was a good several seats unused because of this.
March 30, 201510 yr comment_206167 At least three seats not in use on opening weekend and surprisingly the harnesses come down quite a bit slower and give no were near as much pain! Not sure if that has any relevance towards some being inactive.
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