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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Fastrack is fine when managed well. I don't generally have an issue with at Alton Towers (although the VIP passes did create a nightmare during fireworks a few years back) - at Alton it's RAP that creates more of an issue. Thorpe, however - has always seem to have far more fastrack and lower throughputs in the first place than Alton... so it's just not ideal at all.
 
I mean, any FT is an issue but I understand what you mean. Thorpe is just so faffy and low cap rides combined
 
Rick said:
If you had one day at park on a different continent, that you likely wouldn't ever return to, would you miss out on headline rides or indulge in a bit of a queue jumping ?
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I’ve always waited in the main line. Although I don’t drive, so when I’ve been off travelling, I’ve tended to do a couple of days at each park, otherwise you literally spend half the holiday travelling. Getting to some of these parks using public transport can be a challenge. If I’m abroad and it’s a major park, it’s unusual for me to only spend one day there. I'd also rather having a longer holiday with a lower spend per day, than a shorter more deluxe holiday. But I realise that different people have different situations in terms of their leave, their budget etc. I can see the appeal for people on some kind of road trip.

I don't like Fast Track though, and it's clear from Trip Advisor that complaints about the queues aren't just some kind of fanboy whining. For a lot of people, the queues have a big impact on their day.
 
Funcone said:
I don't like Fast Track though, and it's clear from Trip Advisor that complaints about the queues aren't just some kind of fanboy whining. For a lot of people, the queues have a big impact on their day.
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But without fasttrack the main queue would move faster, so there wouldn’t be a three hour queue to complain about.


More generally on fasttrack most of the issue is with implementation and dealing with the merge point. Nemesis at both parks merges quite a long way before the station, so the merge is dealt with and there is a buffer of queue. But on other rides (more so at Blackpool) the pass entrances are in weird places and there aren’t enough staff, or fasttrack enters from the exit. Entering from the exit is the worst for slowing it down, they get in the way of exiting guests, they can’t board until everyone has exited and it’s very faffy for the staff. Also can lead to rows being left empty as they are reserved for exit riders but then not filled from the main queue.
 
There's definitely a far more prevalent issue of Fastrack in the UK compared to Germany for example.

Movie Park (notorious for Thorpe like operations), I've used it twice, and both times there was a smattering of people using it. Whether this is cultural or just really limited numbers I'm not sure.

In more recent times it has become useful for parks with no (in case of Germany) or poor (Walibi parks) disabled policy. It's entirely dependent on how the parks operate that will affect the purchase of it (my two trips to Heide have involved them, purely because of busyness and the first time I was extremely ill).

Then there's PA which REQUIRES the damn thing to enjoy yourself.

It's got a place at parks but more often than not becomes a necessity if you don't or can't wait in hour plus long queues. Parks the size of Thorpe struggle moreso cos there's no space for people to do other things beyond, well queue.
 
Finally, a utility for the staff shouting "cover your mouth"!

Jokes aside, it's incredibly surprising they'll be allowed to run this given the obvious contaimnation risk of the VR headsets. They'll need super sanitising to be safe, and it shouldn't be forgotten that you can contract covid through the eyes (I think? I can't remember to be honest).

If they can't run the ride with the headsets, they could always use the monitors used to display the "adverts" instead. However that'd be incredibly awkward in terms of sightlining and the audio quality of them aren't exactly great.

Whatever happens, throughput will certainly be interesting...
 
I didn’t expect DBGT to ever reopen to be honest, although I suppose it is beneficial from a park capacity and rides per guest perspective which may have been the driving factor. Also they’ve had over a year to work on the thing so hopefully it’s more reliable now.

Also, might this suggest that they have modified the restraints on The Walking Dead to allow single riders on a row? I would imagine saying that the ride is open for even numbered groups only would be problematic.
 
When it was X and they couldn’t find 2 odd groups to match up the told one person from the odd group to have 2 goes, maybe they could do that but I’m not if there’s a quick way back to load from unload now.
 
Swarm Chris said:
Wonder if you'll get a free COVID test before you ride? The queue will be more than long enough for a lateral flow test, can probably even get a PCR couriered to a lab and tested before boarding.
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It would even be strangely fitting to the theme; isn’t one of the old photo points in the queue even called something like “infection check” or something like that? They could put lateral flow testing stations in there, although there is the concern of them being ready prior to boarding.

Maybe they could give lateral flow tests at the entrance to Thorpe Park, to minimise the risk?
 
spinba11 said:
When it was X and they couldn’t find 2 odd groups to match up the told one person from the odd group to have 2 goes, maybe they could do that but I’m not if there’s a quick way back to load from unload now.
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They’ll just have a sign at the entrancing saying odd groups can’t ride.

They did that on storm surge last year, where certainly group sizes couldn’t ride it (not really sure why to be honest, as I’m sure there’s no limit on who can normally ride it, but I guess they just didn’t want to put groups together so want to keep throughput up.)
 
djtruefitt said:
They’ll just have a sign at the entrancing saying odd groups can’t ride.

They did that on storm surge last year, where certainly group sizes couldn’t ride it (not really sure why to be honest, as I’m sure there’s no limit on who can normally ride it, but I guess they just didn’t want to put groups together so want to keep throughput up.)
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I believe there is a 4 person min per boat on Storm Surge so they would normally put groups together but can’t of course at the moment.
 
AstroDan said:
Fastrack is fine when managed well. I don't generally have an issue with at Alton Towers (although the VIP passes did create a nightmare during fireworks a few years back) - at Alton it's RAP that creates more of an issue. Thorpe, however - has always seem to have far more fastrack and lower throughputs in the first place than Alton... so it's just not ideal at all.
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Also remember that Thorpe have two entrances for RAP on most of the big rides; Ambulant (can walk) use the Fast Track entrance and non-ambulant (wheelchair) use the exit. Do you think that helps or not? I wish Towers would do it.
 
Any method that reduces the percentage of hourly throughput taken up by RAP and their carers is good by me. But we've had this discussion around the forum so many times.

FT and RAP combined should not exceed more than 25% of hourly throughput. At Thorpe, I have seen the combined figure around 60%. More FT/RAP than main queue. Insanity.
 
A look at the entrance to Black Mirror. Puts me in mind of a council leisure centre entrance, not a new theme park attraction.

b4CWMdU.png


Also, the old queue line for Slammer will be used for this attraction, so you queue up next to the old rotting ride. Great!
 
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