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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015
- Thread starter spinba11
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MichelinMan
TS Member
We're going in 3 weeks. One of the few benefits of living in chilly Jocko land is that the schools break a couple of weeks earlier for the summer holidays! It means if we have a holiday in the UK, which we are doing this year, it is quieter because none of those pesky Sassenach brats are clogging up the place!
Burbs
TS Team
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- Iron Gwazi
School trip season peaks around the last 2 weeks of the summer term, which at times can lead to the busiest days of the year...We're going in 3 weeks. One of the few benefits of living in chilly Jocko land is that the schools break a couple of weeks earlier for the summer holidays! It means if we have a holiday in the UK, which we are doing this year, it is quieter because none of those pesky Sassenach brats are clogging up the place!
phildenholm
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Oblivion
ebay will be awash with tickets! Question for those who went to the park yesterday, was the Smiler still testing?
Tarquin
TS Member
Another Mirror report - this time where they've spoken to the parents of Hayley Williams who died in 2006 on Hydro at Oakwood:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-accident-parents-girl-5869935
It's incredibly sad what happened and just reminds you of how much worse it could have potentially been. Obviously the situation was very different but still...
With regards to Kay Burley, it'll be interesting to see whether or not Ofcom actually investigate it. With over 1,100 complaints and all the press attention, it seems inevitable that they'll have to. As others have said though, Sky won't do anything - it's given them too much publicity to get rid of her now.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-accident-parents-girl-5869935
It's incredibly sad what happened and just reminds you of how much worse it could have potentially been. Obviously the situation was very different but still...
With regards to Kay Burley, it'll be interesting to see whether or not Ofcom actually investigate it. With over 1,100 complaints and all the press attention, it seems inevitable that they'll have to. As others have said though, Sky won't do anything - it's given them too much publicity to get rid of her now.
Ok, at first I thought the same, but if everyone who has a pass got a fastrack, the queues for nemesis/air/th13teen/Rita would be huge given the fact that:
- Fastracks usually get on before regular queue
- The fastrack queue would be bigger than normal
- Fastracks don't equal the price of the return tickets (I wouldn't mind but I know some people would complain) meaning people would get more than 1 fastrack.
- ^this also means that younger children with passes who don't like roller coasters will get around 15 fastracks if they whent to equal the price which would result in a fastrack queue bigger than the usual queue meaning that the regular queue wouldn't move at all.
I also have an ebay account.
Tarquin
TS Member
I don't get how they'd figure out which tickets had been resold though. It doesn't sound like they're taking the details of people for each ticket for example.
Burbs
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Iron Gwazi
I thought it was that they would invalidate the ticket ID number, as most are shown in image previews on ebay.
Which can be solved by taking the picture at a different angle, also if you whent yesterday with a pass, got a free ticket, came back the next day with a pass. Small group of maybe 5, all with passes, and you have 10 tickets.
10x£50=£500. I can see why Alton towers would want to revoke them as it is a lot to lose on a small group. I hate it when people take advantage of them being generous but I can't see anything else they can give out. Then again, they can't really just give them a donut, they are in a dangerous place right now with the media and any thing that makes guests unhappy gives them a story to sell.
bluesonichd
TS Member
MichelinMan
TS Member
Yep, know what you are saying. But I find from my experience the school trips tend to get there late, and leave early. So what we do is go on the rides first thing in the day, go back to Splash Landings and go in the waterpark for a few hours (which is virtually empty - happy days!) then go back into the park the last couple of hours.School trip season peaks around the last 2 weeks of the summer term, which at times can lead to the busiest days of the year...
We have also found at places like Chessington, the school parties aren't too much of an issue. Legoland gets busy (probably because of the amount of pre-schoolers there) but then we use QBot.
We have done the 'UK holiday before the English schools break up' thing a few times, and have found it pretty advantageous. We used to get a good discount at the AT hotels too through a corporate discount for off-peak stays (used to get a room for £80 a night), but couldn't get it this year - I think they have woken up to the fact that the Scottish schools break early now!
MichelinMan
TS Member
Yep - donut sounds good to me (says the poster living up to his username!).mmmmm donut...
Ok, I know this thread is hard to follow, but it started with the initial oh my God! What has happened?! Then onto speculation, then to the victims injurys, then tabloids, followed by kay burley, then compensation/free tickets and finally (for now) donuts. Wow.
Anyway, does anyone know if other non-UK merlin parks have closed rides or if geust have said anything?
Anyway, does anyone know if other non-UK merlin parks have closed rides or if geust have said anything?
Tarquin
TS Member
This was mentioned earlier in the thread (about 800 messages ago probably now!). As far as I'm aware there's been no closures elsewhere. Also, this is the closest we have to a statement from Gerstlauer:
http://m.echo-news.co.uk/news/13319818.Southend_rollercoaster_is_safe/
EDIT: Just realised you're talking about non-UK Merlin parks! Still haven't heard anything though.
bluesonichd
TS Member
if your buying
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