November 18, 201212 yr comment_144078 The fastrack thing with hosts imposing strict policy's with time slots, there's only so much hosts can do but at the end of the day they have paid for it and therefor its not easy refusing people. Rubbish, start imposing the times strictly, and people WILL follow it to the correct ruling... It's kinda basic stuff... Of course, if people have a valid excuse (ride broken down/medical stuff/etc) then staff can be lenient as long as the excuse is checked as fact... But it should be a kind of tough potatoes system used if people turn up late... If you can't keep time and follow the rules, then whatever... Sure initially might get people moaning, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere, especially with the dodgy overselling... Need to take the Disney level of strictness...
November 18, 201212 yr comment_144086 I agree with Benin, state clearly at the Fast Track Kiosk, On the ticket and at the Fast track queue, if guests get the hump, then tough. They knew their time slot and should stick to it. Yes the ride host may get one or two unhappy guests, but as long as the park management with the backing of security backed up their staff then there should not be a problem. If said guest who is late has an issue, they can obtain a refund from the fast track kiosk.
November 18, 201212 yr comment_144089 Good post on the previous page, although three staff on a ride entrance at Alton Towers? Not sure what's going on there. The park lacks budget these days, and this is why Enterprise only runs on 1 member of staff (compared to 2 or 3 on Zodiac), and Submission only runs 1 operator and 1 host, thus meaning both arms cannot run. Rita and Th13teen no longer have an entrance host as a matter of course, and neither does Oblivion. Air and Nemesis do, however.Hugely valid reasons as to why those two have entrance hosts as well, and why the rest of the park should adopt to it! However, they never have more than one entrance host. Only thing which makes me think that is during a long breakdown, between break rotas, or it's another department (Guest Experience) having a chat. They have more staff than thorpe, arguably require more (higher throughputs), but the budgets are still tight.
November 19, 201212 yr comment_144090 Might I just add, most staff at Thorpe do stand up and say "No entry before stated time" on Fastrack; however in most occurrences the Fastrack is set out to be time or any time after as outlined in morning briefing.
November 19, 201212 yr comment_144091 To be fair, I shouldn't imagine many jobs would have staff willing to say no to a chav. I really don't blame the staff at all for being less than strict with time slots. Edited November 19, 201212 yr by pluk remove offensive term
November 19, 201212 yr comment_144098 Personally, I'd prefer a ride to open at full capacity on time then open earlier on reduced capacity. The period of time Swarm operated on one train, for example, was usually an hour or so in my experiences, then with the length of time you'd wait for the train to be put on, and for that train to be tested and such, it just felt a lot longer. Again, going to personal preference, I'd prefer to be in a regularly moving queue than one that opened early, only to move rather slowly.
November 19, 201212 yr comment_144100 Swarm should have been the top priority this (last?) season. With it being the new ride it's obvious that a huge number of guests are going to head there first so it should have opened with the park and on 2 trains every day of the season if at all possible. If the park opens earlier than advertised then it's not essential to get everything open straight away. Most people probably wouldn't even notice if Stealth and Inferno opened a bit late.
March 28, 201312 yr comment_154713 Gonna bring this back up... Fastrack. If it's going to be sold for roller coasters, such roller coasters MUST be on full capacity. Seeing Fastrackers being able to skip queues on a busy weekday whilst the coasters are on one train (or 5-6 cars in the case of Saw) is, quite frankly, ludicrious.
March 28, 201312 yr comment_154721 I have been shot down many times here and elsewhere for suggesting the park engineers queues for you to pay your way out of, but in the past they absolutely have done exactly that and this is the most common way. I've not seen it this year, but then I've not seen it busy this year. Has it started happening again? It is a disgusting practice,
March 28, 201312 yr comment_154724 It'll continue until someone has the balls to bother playing with it so it works for both worlds. Towers took the plunge this year (yet to see how that pans out - but it's more expensive for less rides and lower allocation). About time thorpe did the same, just for the sake of satisfaction.
March 30, 201312 yr comment_154932 Swarm opened around 9:15 yesterday on 2 trains, Stealth/Inferno opened with the rest of the park on 2 trains and Colossus opened on 1 and was upgraded to 2 within an hour or so of park opening. More of this please!
March 30, 201312 yr comment_154933 Only because yesterday was busy, we can only dream of this on a weekday.
March 30, 201312 yr comment_154934 I wouldnt say yesterday was overly busy to be fair, 20/30 min queues on coasters. I dont think we will see it get very busy till the weather improves!
March 30, 201312 yr comment_155018 Yesterday (Good Friday) was NOT busy... Thorpe were expecting 15,000 and ended up with 4,000 (according to a member of retail staff). Swarm was walk-on most of the day with Brave it Backwards max 20 mins. Nemesis Inferno walk on, Saw 40 mins, Colossus 30 mins (walk on towards the end of the day), Rush 20 mins (on 1 arm most of the day), Stealth 10 mins most of the day, Detonator 10 mins most of the day. The queue boards were showing 60 mins for Swarm when there wasn't a soul in the queue.. Thought it a bit odd, but I guess the staff have to get their fun from some-where! In fact, ALL of the queue boards were wrong yesterday - very much over exaggerating the times. When I joined the Saw queue, it was showing 25 mins (was actually only 10), then when we came off, the boards were showing 45 yet the queue was SHORTER than it was when we joined!
March 30, 201312 yr comment_155031 The queue boards were showing 60 mins for Swarm when there wasn't a soul in the queue.. Thought it a bit odd, but I guess the staff have to get their fun from some-where! In fact, ALL of the queue boards were wrong yesterday - very much over exaggerating the times. When I joined the Saw queue, it was showing 25 mins (was actually only 10), then when we came off, the boards were showing 45 yet the queue was SHORTER than it was when we joined! And there by heavily dubious fastrack sales are made. So wrong.
March 30, 201312 yr comment_155044 All parks logic/ exaggerate queue times so more people buy fastrack. Edited for accuracy...
March 30, 201312 yr comment_155047 Merlin logic/ exaggerate queue times so more people buy fastrack.Last year stealth was displaying 60 minute queue and it turned out to be 5 mins. There was a fastrack lady at the entrance of the ride telling us to buy fastrack because the queue was between 45-60 mins **sigh** merlin...
March 30, 201312 yr comment_155048 Thorpe today was empty! Walk on, on everything like all day, even swarm backwards! Did see Colossus on 1 train in the morning so avoided that, went on it a couple of times in the afternoon when running 2.
March 30, 201312 yr comment_155052 I'll also mention that ride staff aren't always efficient with changing queue time boards... This is very obvious at the end of the day when the queue time is 10x higher than the actual queue, meaning a quicker turnover and hometime...
March 30, 201312 yr comment_155059 Along with Thorpe queue boards not working very well at the moment, most of them are off, the info boards are gone and I guess will be replaced soon.
March 31, 201312 yr comment_155077 I think they will be back, the electrical foundations are still there, they're needed Chessington needs a second one near Fury.
March 31, 201312 yr comment_155128 oh wow... I hadn't even thought that it would be to inflate fast-track sales!! But if that were true, why on Earth would they risk telling people that the queue is 60 mins when there is no-one in the queue at the bag drop-off point? That just seems quite brazen.. You can get away with over inflating a queue time, when there is actually a queue.. If it's true, it just seems so dishonest... And would be quite bad for business reputation and trust.
March 31, 201312 yr comment_155134 It's absoloutley appauling to state a 60 minute queue when there isn't one to promote fastrack sales. In fact, it is downright theft.
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