Park Operations

[JoshC.]

Good opening hours all round. 

 

I agree that Fright Nights should go back to 10pm, even if it's just FN attractions and coasters that stay open till then. I would presume that the main issue is staffing. 

 

The park is open till the first weekend of November, which seems later, but just coincides with the dates of local half terms.

 

14 hours ago, Cal said:

I'd love to see the return of a 10pm closing event during summer but I doubt that'll happen due to demand unfortunately. 

 

I hope they can build towards that. Tbf in the current UK park landscape, 7pm is still pretty good though.

 

It's interesting that no Carnival (or indeed, any summer) event is advertised currently. I wonder if last year's event schedule was too much for the teams involved?

 

14 hours ago, Cal said:

Also, the Sunday opening this year is strange? But I assume thats due to a buyout day on the Saturday.

 

Could also potentially mean an Annual Pass day on the Saturday. 

 

Equally, there could be a long-shot suggestion of Saturday being the opening of Hyperia, meaning longer opening hours or, again, the potential for AP previews.

[Matt N]

Out of interest, what have operations and ride availability been like at Thorpe Park this year?

 

It seems like both Alton Towers and Chessington have been struggling, with sporadic ride availability, reduced capacity on many attractions and a number of rides still closed, but I haven’t heard too many similar horror stories from Thorpe Park this season. To my knowledge, Samurai is the only ride still closed, and that’s only due to the paint job over-running slightly, meaning that it should be open soon.

I’ve also heard relatively good things about Thorpe’s operations this year.
 

Are things OK at Thorpe on the operations and availability front so far this year?

[MattyMoo]

I've seen that Colossus has been up and down a bit.

 

Opening day availability went to the wall when a storm hit combined with "strong" winds, but that can't be helped - at one point, everything was closed bar TWDTR, Rush and Dobble Tea Party.

[JoshC.]

7 hours ago, MattyMoo said:

I've seen that Colossus has been up and down a bit.

 

 

That is generally what roller coasters do, to be fair.

[Cal]

Had my first visit this season yesterday. Everything open expect rumba which was a planned closure.

 

Ops were brilliant for an off peak weekday. All major coasters on 2 trains. 

 

They seemed really overstaffed. I guess they no longer staff for peak/off peak but it just seemed really excessive? 

- 4+ staff checking restraints on Colossus and Inferno + staff batching even though they were struggling to fill the trains most of the day

- Vortex, Samurai and Detty had 3 hosts

- Staff at all the coasters merge points even though they didn't have queues all day

 

Was great to see some Hyperia testing in the afternoon too!

[JoelAllen]

1 hour ago, Cal said:

Had my first visit this season yesterday. Everything open expect rumba which was a planned closure.

 

Ops were brilliant for an off peak weekday. All major coasters on 2 trains. 

 

They seemed really overstaffed. I guess they no longer staff for peak/off peak but it just seemed really excessive? 

- 4+ staff checking restraints on Colossus and Inferno + staff batching even though they were struggling to fill the trains most of the day

- Vortex, Samurai and Detty had 3 hosts

- Staff at all the coasters merge points even though they didn't have queues all day

 

Was great to see some Hyperia testing in the afternoon too!

Honestly that's great to hear there's more staff.  More hosts normally mean faster operations.

[Cal]

11 minutes ago, JoelAllen said:

Honestly that's great to hear there's more staff.  More hosts normally mean faster operations.

 

Yeah its good to see them well prepared. Meanwhile Chessington can't even open all of their rides on a weekday 😆

[Inferno]

Wow that’s really good to hear for an off peak day.

 

I assume this is all in prep for the onslaught for the rest of the year when Hyperia opens? I’m assuming some of these staff will go to that now that they’ve done some similar work on the other rides?

 

Things are really looking up at Thorpe  

[Matt N]

I got some interesting throughput readings and operational insights from my recent visit to Thorpe Park, if anyone’s interested.

• Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains): 594pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 3)
• Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 1,067pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 8 )
• Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars): 788pph (unknown number of cars, 10th June 2024, average of 8 )
• Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains): 782pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 4) Note: There was an instance of guest faff on 1 or 2 of these readings, so a consistent figure may have been above 800pph without this. The dispatch time seemed to be 90s or a bit below when the ride was running smoothly.
• The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains): 1,063pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 6)

In terms of some more general operational insights:

• Operations on Inferno were awesome. It was very rarely stacking, and stacking for only a short period when it did. It didn't stack on any of my 3 rides, anyway. Great job!
• Operations on The Swarm were also fantastic. The ride was frequently not stacking or stacking for only a very short period; on all 3 of my rides, it either didn’t stack or only stacked for a matter of around 10 seconds!
• I think Stealth could really do with a single rider queue or some means of filling empty seats. It seemed to really slow things down when the operators had to push down the restraint of an empty seat, what with how bulky those old Intamin OTSRs are.
• I noticed that operations on Saw were sometimes slowed down somewhat by holdups at the baggage hold, with the airgates occasionally being empty when a duo of cars turned up ready to load guests. Baggage holds normally improve throughputs substantially, but here, it oddly almost seemed to be taking away from the throughput (?).
• The pre-loading screens that the park have invested in currently seem a bit redundant, with nothing actually being shown on them.

Overall, then, I’d say that operations at Thorpe Park were pretty good. The main weak link was Colossus, which returned a pretty weak figure, but I’ve long come to expect that from Colossus, and it’s understandable given the cramped and bulky nature of the ride vehicles and restraints. Inferno and Swarm had absolutely stellar operations, with little to no stacking being frequent, and Saw was also doing about as well as can be expected from a ride of that nature. I’ll be interested to see how Hyperia compares operationally whenever I eventually get on that!

[Inferno]

Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of investment in to something causing Colossus' crap operations during the off season?

I guess that never happened in the end?

[LK_]

wasn't it to do with a new control system allowing indivudual sets of restraints to be unlocked rathern than the entire front or back of the train if guest faff happened

[Mattgwise]

It was a new PLC/computer system which has been fully completed. It has had a few teething issues. Half the issue is the restraints and short seat belts which hasn't changed, so naturally fast operation of Colossus still isn't really a thing. 

[Cal]

Unsure if Colossus' new PLC means they can unlock individual restrains. One thing I have noticed though is before they had to lift up every restraint regardless if someone was going to be sitting there or not, with the new PLC they can just leave restraints down. Helps speed up ops on quiet days but obviously won't really have an impact on busy days when throughput matters.

 

Stealths single rider is an interesting one. The park haven't added it as they're worried it'll make the throughput worse and I can kind of see that, every visit I've had this year they haven't batched people into rows and just flood the airgates with guests. It definitely slows things down having to close restrains when no ones sitting there, but would it slow things down more batching people into rows, as well as dealing with the Fasttrack and RAP queue? It all depends if they could keep up.

 

Good throughput on Swarm there @Mattgwise. I've found it to be pretty terrible this year and seen it stacking most of the time, think not having the bag drop really shows things down. Your reading does show though they can still get a good throughput though with the right team. 

 

I was thinking though, on peak days (Saturdays and school holidays etc) they should open Swarms bag drop to help with throughputs similar to what Towers do with Smiler and Thirteen? All depends how much it helps with throughputs though only Thorpe will have them stats.

[Mark9]

Had another day at Thorpe for my birthday on Friday and a few more thoughts about operations. 

 

I'm kind of blown away by Thorpe's operations at the moment, I hope that somehow they are getting the feedback that the hard work the staff are putting in is having a positive effect. For example, I've been pretty complimentary about Inferno and Stealth so far this season and that remains the same. What iIwasn't expecting was Colossus and Samurai to be operating so well. I don't normally bother with those two (because people I'm with never want to ride them) but I was keen.

 

Colossus was exemplary, especially as a ride that always struggles to operate well with its bulky restraints. We joined the end of the queue just under the first corkscrew and the operator announced it was a 45 minute wait. Back in the day that may have been true, but on Friday it ended up being 10 minutes from that point to on the ride. The ride wasn't stacking for ages like it used to, the staff were just on it.

 

Samurai, bless the poor platformer. By themselves, completing all tasks and yet was efficient and speedy. Mightily impressed. 

 

The Swarm seems to be less consistent so far, it happened to be good on Friday but I've seen it have bad stacking on other trips. 

[Cal]

Rumba opening from 1pm Monday - Friday and Samurai opening daily at 12 at the moment according to the ride availability page. 

 

Wonder if this is cost cutting or down to staffing issues? I imagine its down to staffing issues as I doubt they'd be doing staggered openings during peak season otherwise? 

[MattyMoo]

Rumba - I'm pretty sure - is one of the most expensive rides to run... so that would make sense when they are running it as adults only as I reckon they are thinking that families will ride it after lunch after doing some coasters - and obviously the numerous school trips can't ride it at all.

[Cal]

Opening hours have been extended until 9pm on the last 2 Saturdays of August (24th and 31st) 

 

Great to see - especially at a time when hours are being cut on a weekly basis at Towers at the moment... 

[JoshC.]

Wonderful news. I know they've been talking about it behind the scenes for a while, so good to see it's come to fruition. 

 

I know some people will say the park should be open that later regardless over summer, but it has always been the case that the demand isn't there. Trialling it / doing it on select days helps test the waters.

 

Hopefully this can be a step to later summer closing, and maybe even the park testing 10pm Fright Nights closes again.

[Cal]

11 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

I know some people will say the park should be open that later regardless over summer, but it has always been the case that the demand isn't there. Trialling it / doing it on select days helps test the waters.

 

They're already one of the best for UK opening times so can't complain really - none of the other merlin parks are staying open till 7 consistently throughout summer. Meanwhile Towers have a 5pm close in August. 

 

As you say, hopefully this will help build a case for more of it next year.

 

17 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

Hopefully this can be a step to later summer closing, and maybe even the park testing 10pm Fright Nights closes again.

 

Would love to see it. Even if it means opening an hour later, or as you've said previously just keep FN attractions and coasters open till 10. Would make a big difference. 

[Matt N]

Excellent news! Hopefully the extension of hours rather than cutting hours like Alton Towers are is a sign of Thorpe Park doing well this year!

My only concern, though, is that there may not be demand for it. I remember Thorpe Park doing 8pm closes back in August 2019; I went to one of them, and the park had completely emptied out before 6pm. It was brilliant for repeat riding, but a damning indictment of the demand for late night openings… those 8pm openings were quickly dropped shortly after my visit.

 

This is a positive sign on the whole, though! I don’t know if anyone else agrees, but overall, it does seem to me like Thorpe Park is the most prosperous UK Merlin park this year. The Hyperia buzz could be partially contributing to this, but it doesn’t seem like Thorpe has the general air of negativity surrounding it that Chessington and particularly Alton Towers currently have.

[Inferno]

Thorpe are absolutely smashing it out of the park this year.

 

Fingers crossed these late hours are well attended, because I seem to remember “Summer Nights” being a bit of a flop for them a few years ago - my visits were certainly very quiet in the evening 

[Benin]

The extended hours are only good if people actually stay about. As mentioned, Summer Nights was pretty much a failure every time they tried it before.

 

Can only presume that the other parks have had hours cut due to the weather being mostly crap this year.

 

Perhaps it's just a culture thing. And without things to fill your day beyond queueing there won't be much demand for it either.

[Mark9]

Give people a reason to stay till 9PM and people will. Maybe night rides on Hyperia will be enough. 

[JoshC.]

3 hours ago, Benin said:

The extended hours are only good if people actually stay about. As mentioned, Summer Nights was pretty much a failure every time they tried it before.

To be fair, Summer Nights was a paid-for extra, and had the advertising hook of "no queues for the coasters". Which was true at first, then when people cottoned on, it got too popular and meant there were queues...

 

3 hours ago, Benin said:

And without things to fill your day beyond queueing there won't be much demand for it either.

 

1 hour ago, Mark9 said:

Give people a reason to stay till 9PM and people will. Maybe night rides on Hyperia will be enough. 

 

This is the big thing. For the UK market, just being able to stay longer isn't enough. It means more rides, sure, but in the public's eyes, that means more queueing, which people are usually fed up with by 5-6pm anyways.

 

It's why, despite the extra queueing, Fright Nights does work with late opening, because there's something extra to fill your day.

 

Hyperia evening rides might entice a few hundred more people to stay. But realistically they should offer more. Or, failing that, an evening ticket (5-9pm maybe?) might get a few more paying guests in through the door?

 

On that note, it will be interesting to see how Universal operates if it does indeed come to the UK. Will the name and (presumed) quality = and associated cost - be enough to get people to stay longer? Will their non-ride offering (shows, dining, etc) encourage people to stay? Or will they equally be a "close by 6-7pm because the Brits like to go home early" park?

[Mattgwise]

I think if the park advertised say a £17-£23 priced ticket to visit 4pm-9pm they'd gain some interest and people would then visit for the evening.