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2018: General Discussion

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Quiet chill place... I always use the cave under the tower near the sky ride station in forbidden valley...lovely place for a half hour nap.
 
Onsite today, the 30 minutes earlier opening for school’s isn’t access to ERT. Rita and Thirteen are open from 9am ! Unadvertised bar arrows pointing school groups in that direction. I only found out as the employee on the queue front of Oblivion told me to do them first and get back for the queue for the Smiler then do Oblivion which should still be walk on.

I managed 2 runs on Rita and Thirteen on the front of both and near the front of the queue for Smiler opening
 
I see for a limited period you get a free fastrack if you purchase a season pass.

No wonder people hate this product. They hand them out when a ride breaks down and now this to add to the fastrack queue and slow the normal queues down even more.

Fastrack is a premium product which costs the park nothing. It should be a paid for product only so to keep the fastrack queues to a minimum which (1) Keeps the main queue moving quicker and (2) Gives better value for money to those who have paid for fastrack.
 
The fast track is also for a large number of people. My friend got one a few months back and there was 10 of us, they said no problem, all 10 of us could fast track on that one ticket!
 
What time are the turnstiles open in the morning this week for AP holders? Was thinking about going up to Towers for a few hours tomorrow early doors. Is Wickerman on ERT? Good idea to go straight to Wickerman first thing at the moment? All the questions! Not been for a few months.
 
Austin Towers said:
I see for a limited period you get a free fastrack if you purchase a season pass.

No wonder people hate this product. They hand them out when a ride breaks down and now this to add to the fastrack queue and slow the normal queues down even more.

Fastrack is a premium product which costs the park nothing. It should be a paid for product only so to keep the fastrack queues to a minimum which (1) Keeps the main queue moving quicker and (2) Gives better value for money to those who have paid for fastrack.
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I just hate it in general. IMO passes should be for people with disabilities only
 
BarryZola said:
What time are the turnstiles open in the morning this week for AP holders? Was thinking about going up to Towers for a few hours tomorrow early doors. Is Wickerman on ERT? Good idea to go straight to Wickerman first thing at the moment? All the questions! Not been for a few months.
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The gates seem to be open from 9am onwards with the queues on the right for those with ERT (staff are checking). As for heading straight to WM - hard to say given its not opened first thing lately. However, personally, I would on the off chance it does open at 9.30/10am so you get in the queue and have chance to ride it. Either that or aim to get there before ride close to get on it.
 
Gates were open before 9 this morning we made the gate for 09:05 off the Monorail which was also running early, plenty of people already in the park.

Rita and Thirteen were running from 9 and still walk on at 09:25

If you time it right you can hit all the main rides before lunch. I went Rita x 2, Thirteen x 2, joined the Simlier queue just before it opened, Oblivion then a quick walk to Nemisis which was a 15 min wait then onto the River Rapids which was a 10 min wait and I have just sat down for lunch.
 
GaryH said:
The fast track is also for a large number of people. My friend got one a few months back and there was 10 of us, they said no problem, all 10 of us could fast track on that one ticket!
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I queued behind a lady recently who opened her purse to give someone a fast track ticket. It looked as if she had a deck of cards in her purse but they all turned out to be fast tracks!
 
Dangerous Dave said:
Gates were open before 9 this morning we made the gate for 09:05 off the Monorail which was also running early, plenty of people already in the park.

Rita and Thirteen were running from 9 and still walk on at 09:25

If you time it right you can hit all the main rides before lunch. I went Rita x 2, Thirteen x 2, joined the Simlier queue just before it opened, Oblivion then a quick walk to Nemisis which was a 15 min wait then onto the River Rapids which was a 10 min wait and I have just sat down for lunch.
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Nice to see they are learning after last week. Long may it continue into the summer

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themeparkfan said:
Nice to see they are learning after last week. Long may it continue into the summer
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What was annoying is none of it was advertised, it was luck I found out Rita & Thirteen were open early.

The park time was extended yesterday to 17:30 early on and the time updated on the screens around the park but the official twitter account was still saying they are closing at 5 and some rides closed in CBeebies at 17:00 then reopened 5-10mins later when they realised they were opening later as the ride attendants weren’t aware of the extended opening time.

It did mean I got another ride on the Wickerman so can’t complain too much.
 
speedy said:
I just hate it in general. IMO passes should be for people with disabilities only
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Casting my mind back to the early 2000s, there were (generally speaking) three ways to get on big coasters like Nemesis and Air:
  • The normal queue
  • The merge point - for people who used the Virtual-Q system (basically Fastrack but completely free!!)
  • The exit - for disability access, parent swap and exit passes
'Exit passes' were used when rides broke down and people had to be evacuated because it provides a cheap way to compensate the guest for the inconvenience (there's effectively no monetary cost to the business). The guests could come back to the same ride later, or go to a similar ride, and enter via the exit.

I'm not sure how it works now but I gather the exit pass is actually just a Fastrack ticket, and you enter via the merge point? The problem facing the park is when there's so much downtime, all of those evacuated guests are joining the paying Fastrack guests and restricting the throughput of the main queue. While Alton Towers may(?) be restricting the number of paying Fastrack customers they can't always predict in advance the number of guests who will be issued it as a form of compensation, and those extra people can overwhelm the system.
 
I'd wager that they use Fastrack tickets because a lot of the exits (Smiler and Wickerman) aren't able to cope with any sudden demand they might get...
 
Leek signs has posted on FB images of some of their graphics.

The new rapids signs show that there will be a section where they can change the amount of people that can ride, indicating that the amount off people could ride could be variable and here to stay long term

PulSIPR.jpg


 
DiogoJ42 said:
All this is only going to make more of the public think rides are unsafe. If I was Intamin, I would sue Merlin for bringing my product in to disrepute.
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I asked about this today , it’s due to the water level in the lake that the water drains to when not in use. The long period of no rain means it’s running low and they claim no current method to top it back up manually as it was never thought it would get that low.

The water level needs to be above a certain level for the uplift. I did a google and the water level was a factor in the over turned boat that killed four people on the lift in Australia.

It was 7 riders a boat today with the entrance manned checking ages.

Also noticed that compared to Legoland’s rapid ride the backs are much lower with no padded headrests.
 
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Were they actually joining groups up to make it 7 per boat today? Or still sending boats with just groups of 2 like they have been for months?
 
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