RicketyCricket
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- Taron
Alan Partridge, is that you?
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2018: General Discussion
- Thread starter MakoMania
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Alastair
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Rise of the Resistance
Unfortunately Universal passed the "acceptable faff reduction measures" level long ago and the current system is ridiculously overzealous. Metal detectors pre-ride are perhaps the most preposterous thing I've ever seen. And the biometric scanners...Sea World/Busch's passcode system is way better.
As for Alton Towers, this discussion is pretty moot as there isn't a hope in hell that they will ever invest in advanced locker systems for rides!
I was going to say, the situation outside Dragon Challenge was ridiculous last summer. I have never seen a queue pen for lockers before!
Log Flume's Dennis
TS Member
I was at the storage exhibition at the NEC a couple of years ago and most of the bigger names in locker manufacturing were there. I had a few interesting conversations with some of the experts, who were fairly unanimous in their opinion that good old mechanical lockers are the best. Some of the test lockers I tried were of really high quality, really solid, spacious and high-end hardware, but I've not really seen anything to a similar standard in a UK park.
speedy
TS Member
Universal take it far too seriously, but they have had problems with loose articles in the past.
Personally biometrics don't bother me. I think they just need a no bags rule - so no metal detectors.
I had a good experience with the lockers at Universal. The metal detectors are demeaning though, I had forgot my phone was in my pocket and was turned away
Personally biometrics don't bother me. I think they just need a no bags rule - so no metal detectors.
I had a good experience with the lockers at Universal. The metal detectors are demeaning though, I had forgot my phone was in my pocket and was turned away
I don’t have a problem with the 2 seconds that a metal detector takes if it means you don’t keep getting Oblivion going down because Dave from Devon is desperate to get onrode footage and drops his phone down the hole.
I’ve literally never had a problem with them and never seen them cause any kind of slow down of the queue system.
I’ve literally never had a problem with them and never seen them cause any kind of slow down of the queue system.
Altonadvocate1
TS Member
The Storage Exhibition!
Bet that was an adrenaline packed day of fun...
That said I went to The Pencil Museum in the peak district once.
To get back on target, I thought ATR operations we're pretty good last Sunday on a busy bank holiday and I had a great day.
Plastic Person
TS Member
They are an enormous faff, require numerous additional staff (not something Alton can deal with at this moment in time), and they do cause an additional queue before the queue itself. There's also something oppressive about them that hardly jazzs me up for a coaster. I know X-Sector is designed to look like a government testing site, but I'd rather that were simply reflected in the aesthetics, not the experience!
How is it an enormous faff? They run a detector up and down you and it takes 5 seconds.
The staffing issues I agree with, I’m not suggesting AT should, or would, get them, I’m just saying I don’t think they cause a problem.
And I don’t have an issue with it, I’m all for it in fact given the times we live in. I’d rather my ‘privacy be invaded’ (to the point the staff are ensuring I don’t have anything on me which they have explicitly said I’m not allowed to have on me,) than some nut job gets on with a knife and injures someone. As ridiculous as that may sound it’s not a far cry from the incidents which have happened lately.
Alsty
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Fury 325
But it is a bit oppressive. It's maybe only a handful of people each day that would get their phone out, yet now everyone has to surrender their possessions before riding... that just doesn't sit right with me and feels like an enormous over-reaction.
Much like the security checks at the park entrance, I would consider that nothing more than security theatre which does little to reduce the overall risk of violence, terrorism or drugs.
Plastic Person
TS Member
This is a complex argument, one probably best suited for another thread. Personally, while I understand the very real risk of a phone or other small, heavy object flying off a coaster and into someone's face, your example above seems unrealistic in the conext of Oblivion. I live with the security checks at the gate, but it would be tedious across the park, especially given how many large-scale coasters that Alton operates.
speedy
TS Member
The detector itself isn't bad, it's when people (like me) forget they're carrying something, usually because it's in a secure pocket that no other theme park in the world would have a problem with.
They weren't too bad on Dragon Challenge (because hardly anybody was riding that). There was more faff on Rip Ride Rockit, since that's a much more popular attraction.
Alton wouldn't invest the staff for metal detectors though. I honestly think though that one staffs person per coaster checking who's boarding, turning away anybody with bags would be worth it for the capacity increases. Free, fingerprint operated lockers worked well when I was at Universal in October 2015
They weren't too bad on Dragon Challenge (because hardly anybody was riding that). There was more faff on Rip Ride Rockit, since that's a much more popular attraction.
Alton wouldn't invest the staff for metal detectors though. I honestly think though that one staffs person per coaster checking who's boarding, turning away anybody with bags would be worth it for the capacity increases. Free, fingerprint operated lockers worked well when I was at Universal in October 2015
Log Flume's Dennis
TS Member
I got stuck on the Oblivion lift hill once because some youth was eating a Pepperami
speedy
TS Member
Wow, they could spot that and stop the ride but they still managed to crash their other roller coaster
bluesonichd
TS Member
they only stopped it as the ride op was feeling a bit peckish
"Sorry we are going to have to confiscate your sausage, you cant have it back as it will be in my belly by the time you get back to station
"
Log Flume's Dennis
TS Member
It was one of the red ones, so possibly more visible on the CCTV? I can't remember what colour jumper they were wearing but I'd imagine it was a colour which made the red packaging of a spicy Pepperami stand out more. I was on the back row so couldn't see them but there was a definite smell of spiced sausage in the air. The ride stopped about 2/3rd up and the ride op explained to them that food and drink weren't allowed onside. At first they were reluctant to hand it over but after a brief struggle the ride op managed to wrestle it away from them.
Not sure whether they kept it for him in the ride station or made him collect it from Box Office on his way out but there was a good few bites left in it.
Not sure whether they kept it for him in the ride station or made him collect it from Box Office on his way out but there was a good few bites left in it.
Hopefully there will be a Francis Jackson YouTube video soon, explaining what a Pepperami could do to rides.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Plastic Person
TS Member
All fun and games until it takes somebody's eye out. Pepperami belongs in a locker, not on a coaster. Of course, there's no way to prevent people taking snack meats on a ride, even when employing a metal detection system. You'd need specially trained, sausage sniffing security dogs.
Frankly, the park need to fix the tunnel on Galactica before they even think about that sort of thing.
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