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Opening Day - Who had the worst operations

Which Park had the worst operations

  • Alton Towers

    Votes: 2 33.3%
  • Blackpool Pleasure Beach

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Chessington World of Adventures

    Votes: 3 50.0%
  • Legoland Windsor

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Paultons Park

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Thorpe Park

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • Other - Please comment below

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    6

Thameslink Rail

TS Member
Favourite Ride
The Smiler
I have been watching the queue times and the complaints about Today from the comfort of my home and I can't find a park that has had a good day.

4pm Chessington Closed (why so early). Queues reached 60 mins on Dragon's Fury and ZUFARI and 90 mins on Vampire. Most rides had some down-time at some point.
Zufari and Tiger Rock were closed until 1pm
KOBRA Closed all day (why?!)

4pm Legoland Closed (again why so early). Longest queue was 60 mins for Duplo Dino Coaster.
Most rides had down-time with Viking River Splash, Fairy Tale Brook, Pirate Falls and Legoland Express being especially unreliable.

5pm Alton Towers Closed. Both The Smiler and Wicker Man hit 120 (!)
Rita was closed all day
Congo River Rapids, Go Jetters and The Smiler were particularly unreliable.

5pm Thorpe Park Closed. ride reliability was bad even for Thorpe Park
Several unexplained all-day closures including Rush and Rumba Rapids. Why close those rides?
Vortex, Stealth and Saw had lots of downtime

5:30 Paultons Park Closed. Reliability and Queue Times were brilliant but season ticket holders were complaining on social media that they can't get tickets for any day including days that still have day tickets for sale and want refunds.

Yes I understand that some indoor rides need to be shut but
1. Why did they not finalise a list until a few hours before park opening
2. Why close outdoor rides like Kobra, Rita and Rush?
 
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The main issue is the cleaning every 30 mins.

Spray all seats/restraints/air gates
Wipe all of the above down
Lock restraints and despatch said train

Times how many trains are on track at that time with the amount of staff in station.
Quite painful.

Could be shortened with amount of staff cleaning but I guess that’s a budget/safety thing?


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I don't know what people were expecting, I could have told you that considering we now are living with a new normal, teething problems are going to be part and parcel until things iron themselves out

Personally I'm staying at home with my popcorn and watching the chaos unfold

Roy :D
 
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I don't know what people were expecting, I could have told you that considering we now are living with a new normal, teething problems are going to be parcel until things iron themselves out

Personally I'm staying at home with my popcorn and watching the chaos unfold

Roy :D
Paultons had near perfect reliability so why couldn't Merlin?
 
I cant get my head around season ticket holder complaints at any theme park. Parks have been closed approx 3.5 months and yet they have been given a 5 month extension. The sense of entitlement is ridiculous.
Eh? Why entitlement and why directed at season ticket holders? Today was open for all


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Eh? Why entitlement and why directed at season ticket holders? Today was open for all


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Paultons Park has capped the number of tickets for season ticket holders so season ticket prebooks have run out while day tickets haven't.
 
Paultons Park has capped the number of tickets for season ticket holders so season ticket prebooks have run out while day tickets haven't.
Ok yes, like all the parks have. That’s not entitlement that capitalism lol. Their business has been shut for 3 months, shall we let the free customers in or the paying customers in


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Ok yes, like all the parks have. That’s not entitlement that capitalism lol. Their business has been shut for 3 months, shall we let the free customers in or the paying customers in


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The Paultons Park Facebook page does not make good reading currently.
Whilst I partially agree with you, lots of season pass holders don't.
 
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Ok yes, like all the parks have. That’s not entitlement that capitalism lol. Their business has been shut for 3 months, shall we let the free customers in or the paying customers in

Never understood this attitude.

Annual pass holders are paying customers not 'free customers'. Just because they have paid a (larger) lump sum up front does not make them lesser. They have paid for a product and they should reasonably expect access to it all season. That is exactly what they have paid for.

If football stadiums opened next week but the clubs said no (or limited) season ticket holders because they only want paying customers there would rightly be uproar.

These are extraordinary circumstances but certainly annual pass holders are entitled to feel aggrieved if they are being shunned and should be entitled to some form of compensation or extension. No idea if Paultons have offered this.
 
Can you change the statement in the poll to read:

"Whilst sat at home observing data that is almost always flawed, I have surmised that the park I have chosen below did not cover themselves in glory on their opening day during a worldwide pandemic which threatens the very existence of amusement parks as it kills 500,000 people"

Jesus.
 
Can you change the statement in the poll to read:

"Whilst sat at home observing data that is almost always flawed, I have surmised that the park I have chosen below did not cover themselves in glory on their opening day during a worldwide pandemic which threatens the very existence of amusement parks as it kills 500,000 people"

Jesus.
Harsh
 
The whole situation regarding season/annual passes is certainly interesting.

Obviously noone could have ever foreseen this. Essentially a majority of people had bought annual passes pre lockdown, with the parks already having your money. Now they are faced with several months of loss of earnings, trying to recoup this as best as they can. It will hit the likes of Paultons/Blackpool the most, so they will need to allow for as many day tickets as possible. I’m sure they will strike a balance once they get an idea of numbers after a period of being open.

Either way its certainly a headache for the parks. What are usually good money makers are turning into a nightmare.


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I cant get my head around season ticket holder complaints at any theme park. Parks have been closed approx 3.5 months and yet they have been given a 5 month extension. The sense of entitlement is ridiculous.
This is the problem with people who buy season tickets or annual passes they think they own the world and are entitled to anything!
 
Does anyone know how they are cleaning the areas of the rides exactly?

I ask this because surely it's not the wiping down of the ride that makes it Covid-safe, it's the liquid they use.

You can buy cheaply in Wilkinsons or Argos, a garden sprayer that comes complete with strap, so you can wear it, a long sprayer that has an adjustable handle, and a nozzle that can be changed from a jet of water to a fine spray.

I'm not sure why any ride needs wiping down, if all the theme parks could be equipped with more industrial versions of these sprayers, wouldn't it make everything quicker? Personally, if I went on a ride and the restraints felt wet, I'd feel happier knowing they had been sanitised. Ride restraints and handle bars get wet if it rains, so it's not like people couldn't hold on properly.

As long as it didn't compromise on safety, I really think spraying and using a cloth (I presume this is what they are doing) is not necessary if you could use a really good sprayer and disinfect everywhere really well but much faster.

This is the kind of thought I have as I'm nuking blackfly.
 
At Chessington yesterday they were sanitising the rides every 30 minutes with a sprayer like the one you have described above. It was pretty fast so wasn’t holding up operations that much. I was in the Vampire station as they did it and they sprayed the whole train and air gates which took just over 5 minutes.
 
Sodium hypochlorite can be purchased in 50 litre drums for 12 quid.
Watered down at 200 to 1, that makes ten thousand litres of safe cleaning/sterilising solution, at about a penny a litre.
But it needs to dry before contact, or it bleach stains.
 
There is a danger when sanitizing rides that they can inadvertently effect sensors if they over do it. Not a big issue as rides trains are rain proof but accidently spraying a sensor in the station could cause a ride shut down. However it's one of those things you have to accept.

I mainly say the above because I had an issue happen when trying to buy my groceries at a supermarket. My card kept getting rejected. When I pulled it out and turned it upside down the chip was coated with disinfectant. Some bright spark had reasoned that spraying the slot of the card reader would protect people when inserting their card. They hadn't thought that the electronics inside could be damaged by it.
 
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