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2018: General Discussion

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It clearly seems progress for Merlin to only fill boats quarter to half full, with considerably longer queues than to fill as many seats as possible with a shorter queue.

I understand there have been some terrible accidents on these types of rides recently, but they have taken this too far, no doubt there are still less boats going around too.

There is operating rides safely, but there is also being just plain ridiculous. Merlin are 100% the latter here.

Once upon a time, Towers weren’t far off the league of Europa. Now they are miles behind it.
 
Rapids were running several boats yesterday that were not having any guests put in. The central bar was covered up but the boats were still being sent round.
 
Burbs said:
Rapids were running several boats yesterday that were not having any guests put in. The central bar was covered up but the boats were still being sent round.
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I've noticed that recently as well. The central bar has a "do not use" cover on it. :confused:
 
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Matt Creek said:
It clearly seems progress for Merlin to only fill boats quarter to half full, with considerably longer queues than to fill as many seats as possible with a shorter queue.

I understand there have been some terrible accidents on these types of rides recently, but they have taken this too far, no doubt there are still less boats going around too.

There is operating rides safely, but there is also being just plain ridiculous. Merlin are 100% the latter here.
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Hmm girl dies because she ignored rules and moved seating position halfway round ride at another park.

Immediate reaction is to reduce the capacity of the other rides because "safety" and send the potentially eight person boats round with only two or three people in at a time.

Surely I'm not the only person to see the flaw in this plan?
 
I assumed they had toned down the ride/turned down the pumps in response to the Drayton incident (at least whilst the investigation is still ongoing anyway).

In turn they now can’t load the boats with as many people as there is more risk of them bottoming out in the channel as happened with the Australian incident.

So you now have to queue twice as long for a ride that’s half as good.
 
I think the not filling of boats is to avoid a classic "fat boat" scenario. In which the raft is so weighted it sits further down in the trough, resulting in much bigger splashes and more of a chance of capsizing.
 
Matt N said:
I am aware of the existence of Scotland and the North of England, but what I mean is that a lot of the UK is below BPB.
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For Scotland, Blackpool is definitely easier to get to. Not sure how it compares by car but from London the train to Blackpool is quicker than car to Alton Towers (according to Google Maps). Not sure for the rest of the UK. I can't drive, I often forget that other people can, haha
 
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From Blackpool it's quicker to get to Thorpe Park than it is Alton Towers using public transport.

If you're coming up from "down South" and using the M6 it's gotta be the same time to get to Blackpool via M6 and M55 than it is to Towers via A500/A50 and all those windy little roads.
 
Images taken from FB

Drinking water fountains and sunscreen dispensers are available for people to use around the park

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