March 25, 201312 yr comment_154294 Agreed chanced a visit today and even tho there were a lot of closed rides and minimum capacity on ones there were open we still had a good day and a half decent ride count we left around half 3 after stealth and nemesis shut for the day and went to pick up our free return tickets we also got free parking!!! Top notch thorpe park! I'd just like to say the ribs in bar 360 nom nom nom
March 25, 201312 yr comment_154299 Couldn't agree more with Mark. What's the story with Colossus and Saw then, have they opened at all or been closed half a day the last few days? They were running OK last Wednesday, although they did suffer downtime. Colossus' scrolling LED board at the entrance even showed it as unavailable before I had my ride. When the train came back into the station an engineer was waiting to do something, not sure what, I did happen to note that it didn't run or not even test for about 10 minutes after my ride.
March 25, 201312 yr comment_154303 Thorpe deserve a huge amount of praise this season for full ride availability up to this weekend and being able to have everything open bar Colossus, Saw and Rush yesterday. I just couldn't believe this was the same Thorpe that five years ago could only get the odd ride open for Thrill Chill and here they are at 0 degrees temperatures with nearly all rides ready to go.
March 25, 201312 yr comment_154305 The proof is in the pudding - they've acknowledged the comments and complaints and listened to us, this year they've come up trumps. Like I was saying last week, little things like getting small signs and making pathways etc cleaner are something they slip up on every year, but that compared to getting the rides ready is nothing.
March 25, 201312 yr comment_154307 I have to say thanks cos thorpe gave all the normal ticket holder, another open dated one for free, as a sorry for closing most of the rides at 3pm, which I thought was really nice of then
March 25, 201312 yr comment_154312 Couldn't agree more with Mark. What's the story with Colossus and Saw then, have they opened at all or been closed half a day the last few days? They were running OK last Wednesday, although they did suffer downtime. Colossus' scrolling LED board at the entrance even showed it as unavailable before I had my ride. When the train came back into the station an engineer was waiting to do something, not sure what, I did happen to note that it didn't run or not even test for about 10 minutes after my ride. They were closed all weekend because they can't operate in extreme cold temperatures, can't remember the exact temperature it had to be for them to open though.
March 25, 201312 yr comment_154385 In Colossus's case anything below 4 degrees is a no go, it will very likely stall on the final bend before the 10th Inversion. Same with Saw (Don't know the actual temperature) but the lift motor won't start below a certain temperature.
March 25, 201312 yr comment_154406 To follow on from EC I was really impressed that they gave us annual pass holders two free priority passes instead of a free open dated ticket. Its always annoying when rides are shut but can't be helped when its this cold. I think a gesture like this shows that they are really pretty caring about their guests and deserve a lot of credit!
March 25, 201312 yr comment_154422 You'd think modern coasters would withstand the cold better. Well, it's not a matter of cold coaster or warm coaster it is mechanically speaking not possible. It is the same with any mechanical object, if it's too cold it won't start/will take longer than usual to start. And Colossus being 11 years old isn't exactly modern, SAW because the lightness of the cars and the bulk of them are more prone to stalling as they are easily affected (and also in Saw's case the motor won't start)
March 26, 201312 yr comment_154443 I am really starting to think that thorpe are showing the caring side of them... Firstly, they managed to get nearly all the rides open- at whilst some closed early, at least thorpe bothered to open them at all. Here we are looking at thorpe doing something good, whereas chessie at the moment don't even seem to be trying to open half their rides up. Also, thorpe are offering free return tickets or fastrack! I don't see chessington doing this even though they have more rides closed!! It seems like thorpe are actually doing better than chessie at the moment.
March 26, 201312 yr comment_154444 You'd think modern coasters would withstand the cold better. Ricky's already mentioned this, but yeah, most mechanical devices struggle in cold weather... Look at cars/vans/lorries for example, and they have a proper heat ignition sequence, something (the majority of) rides do not... Things move slower in the cold as well, it's quite clear... It's nothing to do with the rides, it's more to do with the principles of engineering which cannot actually be modified... Really is something that cannot be controlled due to friction/velocity/forces/yada-yada-yada that will effect the materials of the track and wheels... tl;dr - ENGINEERING!
March 26, 201312 yr comment_154467 Also very impressed with thorpe taking to social media, being very precise about what open and closed. Something towers, until today, haven't been very good at.
March 26, 201312 yr comment_154468 Imagine the irony if that was because the main social media person was stuck at home due to the snow
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