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Very few (if any) of those old Arrow suspended coasters run all 3 trains anymore, not even the one at Cedar Point. It is not surprising that Vampire doesn’t either.

It is important to remember the impact of enforcing face mask and exemption rules on ride throughputs currently. Anytime someone has their bar checked and isn’t wearing a mask, restrains have to be released, the rider either fetching their mask or move to the back, and the whole ride...

Errr not so sure about that. Maintenance teams will move loaded vehicles in manual all the time across every park worldwide. Merlin parks still do it. Alton Towers still does it. There is nothing inherently dangerous with it. Admittedly they need to take care, but still. Most responsible...

Whilst you raise a good point about the restaurant, I still disagree. Yes there is space next to the theatre, but the area around the Dungeons in particular is always deserted. Its quite set back from the path and needs a really big draw. A world-class dark ride is the perfect solution to that...

I’d love love love for the park to get a trackless dark ride in the same vein as Symbolica. That kind of ride and appeal suits the park to a T and fills an obvious void in their lineup. Demolish the Dungeons and restaurant nextdoor and put it there. That area lacks a big draw, and being on the...

this solves... literally none of their problems. Low capacity, short duration, another ride you can find a better version of at Paultons... Surely Merlin just sell the parks at this point? Clearly they have no long-term vision.

The Smiler will never get 1,200pph. That would be the absolute theoretical maximum, sending each train as soon as it possibly can every single time, which is extremely unrealistic when guests are involved. I should clarify that the ~50 second dispatch time in my post above is an ideal maximum...

A 5th train would be great, but they'd need to really streamline the operation of the ride to make it work. Prepare for a very geeky post! Looking at the runtime and a POV to account for blocks etc., it looks like The Smiler is capable of dispatching about every 50 seconds. A tight but...

The next major CAPEX investment needs to not be a coaster. Alton needs diversity, and the coaster range is about the only thing diverse in its lineup. All-rounder family rides are where they're lacking. A new major dark ride would be a wonderful investment. A fantasy themed trackless ride...

The Smiler would need proper money to truly sort out its miserable queue. The kind of money I doubt would ever be given. What is realistic though, is for a proper pre-station baggage system to return, the whole thing jet-washed and repainted, and the dispatch gates getting sorted like others...

Surely then it makes more sense the way they’re doing it? Get the vloggers and all that rubbish out the way during the week, then the families can enjoy it properly at the weekend once kids are off school regardless, I wonder if the roped queue line out the front of GG is designed to be...

That's kinda his point tho...

Damn, the park really need a new map design... They've had this one for years and it's a MESS. It makes it really hard to see the path of WoDW and X-Sector.

That's just simply not true though. The ride variety today totally lacks any diversity. It's either rollercoasters, CBeebies Land, or a very limited collection of run down family rides which are far beyond their prime (Duel, Congo, RMT). If you think twenty years ago you had rides like Toyland...

Taron > Wodan > Black Mamba > the rest Silver Star above Taron and Blue Fire?? a crime

If they got rid of their silly rules on temperature that are unnecessarily high on some rides, then I'm sure they could open quite a lot more rides over Christmas. I don't see why the likes of Oblivion, Nemesis, Air, the Mine Train and potentially Wicker Man can't open below 5 degrees. I'm...

If this is true, then it's a good idea. The park desperately needs support rides, and the situation with COVID has made that even clearer. With Merlin pausing all future investments for the time being, surely getting in some temp flats is the next best thing? Even better if they prove...

I think an indoor family coaster in that part of the park would be great. Would create a proper mass appeal ride for that area, which it desperately needs.

I think it's more a case of the throughput getting worse than the ride getting more popular. In the last few years The Smiler has lost its bag room, the fifth train and its staffing has been cut. All of these amount to slower dispatches. If you think back when it opened, a 'good' dispatch was...

All of these except those that require capex (which Merlin are refusing to give) already happen and have been for the past 2 season. All coasters always on full capacity, and all rides open at 10