2018: Park Operations & Ride Availability

[Rose Of Dawn]

It’s frustrating how ride reliability is still such a big problem at Towers. I don’t know any other park so unreliable. When Wicker Man was working properly they were hammering the throughputs, but the constant downtime was tiring and practically tripled our waiting time yesterday afternoon.

This is a problem I’m doubtful will ever be sorted without a change in ownership

 

[Alsty]

I don't understand what the downtime is all about. The technology is tried and tested, what's to go wrong? And if it's a problem with the ride itself then why don't they have GCI over to sort it?

 

[IanSR]

Smiler knock on, I heard something (at Thorpe) that in the event of a breakdown, upper management must now attend and make the decision as to when to restart, couple that with a lack of engineers, who can only call management (ride op has to call engineering, engineering has to call management), and you have delays everywhere, I spent 40 minutes locked in my seat just 4 foot from the station watching this merry go round earlier in the year on the Swarm all because someone's hand slipped off the button as the train was cycling back into the station.

Three years ago the identical thing happened on another ride and the engineer and a few burly security blokes pushed the train back into the station with us still in our seats, how times have changed, and engineer also pushed us onto the second lift hill of Vampire a couple years ago when it stalled a few foot short, I heard now if it does the same thing (which is does regularly) they absolutely must evac the ride (hence why they built the evac platform there) and not push it with 'clients on board'.

 

[Alsty]

And that's the kind of incident that a team leader used to sort within about 5 minutes. Isn't there a health and safety risk with taking too long, especially in this heat? I mean yes, do things properly... but you can still do things properly without dragging the whole thing out.

 

[IanSR]

Of course there is, it's called common sense, but that's something severely lacking nowadays almost everywhere (not just Merlin parks, I see dumbarsery everywhere with people incapable of doing anything other than tick a box and not be able to use a bit of common sense).

 

[Austin Towers]

It seems to me that any little issue whatsoever and they shut down the ride and call tech services. It's understandable that things had to change after smiler but I believe they've went too far with the H&S, rapids being a fine example.

Ride downtime is a complete shambles but it sells fastrack which is a false economy. They need to get their act together and focus on the returning guest. Poor KPI's and even the rubbish reviews on TripAdvisor are only the tip of the iceberg, guests will vote with their feet. They've ruined any magic the place had and seem hell bent on running the park into the ground.

 

[Skyscraper]

So what would they do if one of Thirteen's trains stalled at the top of the second lift?
In the past they just pushed it with riders in and the train was on it's way. Would they have to evac riders first now?

 

[John]

They installed drop-in barriers to put on the 2nd lift to enable easier evacuation, so I imagine they'd lead people out that way.

 

[spinba11]

Smiler knock on, I heard something (at Thorpe) that in the event of a breakdown, upper management must now attend and make the decision as to when to restart, couple that with a lack of engineers, who can only call management (ride op has to call engineering, engineering has to call management), and you have delays everywhere, I spent 40 minutes locked in my seat just 4 foot from the station watching this merry go round earlier in the year on the Swarm all because someone's hand slipped off the button as the train was cycling back into the station.

Three years ago the identical thing happened on another ride and the engineer and a few burly security blokes pushed the train back into the station with us still in our seats, how times have changed, and engineer also pushed us onto the second lift hill of Vampire a couple years ago when it stalled a few foot short, I heard now if it does the same thing (which is does regularly) they absolutely must evac the ride (hence why they built the evac platform there) and not push it with 'clients on board'.

If the train on swarm hasn’t reached the drive wheels at the bottom of the lift and somebody lets go it should be quick to start it up (a matter of seconds) but if it has they have to do a full evacuation.

 

[Benzin]

Lol, having to evacuate Vampire on lift 2 before pushing it...

Way to extend a 5 minute ''breakdown" to an unnecessary 30+ one...

 

[AstroDan]

I don't understand what the downtime is all about. The technology is tried and tested, what's to go wrong? And if it's a problem with the ride itself then why don't they have GCI over to sort it?

They do have GCI over. Several times. And the ride has been reprogrammed a few times, too.

I would remark that the ride was working quite well until GCI visited a couple of weeks ago...

The issues the ride is facing are not unusual. Following all the chaos with Wicker Man, I investigated a little to see if other GCIs have had problems, too. In fact, wooden coasters in general. In 2012, Wodan had a great many problems but we just weren't as aware of them as we're abroad. It had several days closed entirely, problems with the restraints, lift mechanisms - you name it.

I am sure come 2019, Wicker Man will be fine. For now, it'll quite literally be up and down.

One thing I would say is that the throughput on the ride when it is open is now much, much better!

 

[Mikw]

They do have GCI over. Several times. And the ride has been reprogrammed a few times, too.

I would remark that the ride was working quite well until GCI visited a couple of weeks ago...

The issues the ride is facing are not unusual. Following all the chaos with Wicker Man, I investigated a little to see if other GCIs have had problems, too. In fact, wooden coasters in general. In 2012, Wodan had a great many problems but we just weren't as aware of them as we're abroad. It had several days closed entirely, problems with the restraints, lift mechanisms - you name it.

I am sure come 2019, Wicker Man will be fine. For now, it'll quite literally be up and down.

One thing I would say is that the throughput on the ride when it is open is now much, much better!

Yes, it's not uncommon for a new ride to take a long while to get into it's groove.

Think of the Smiler. All sorts of problems in it's first couple of years. Now it seems to be the most reliable ride in the park at the moment

 

[GaryH]

I also heard that rumour about a senior person having to attend a ride along with an engineer to do a ride restart.

Who remembers the problems Air had in the first year (or two). Queues of up to 4 hours. Constant break downs. Only thing was back then, people had Ripsaw to go on, Nemesis was running flawlessly. The problem Alton are having this season is that people are queuing for , lets say Nemesis, and it breaks down, they head over to Galactica.... broken down, so they head over to Rita or Thirteen.... broken down, then they head back to Nemesis. etc. Thats the day used up just getting from area to area to see which rides are working. That seems to be the jist of the complaints on TA at the moment.

Its great having these multi-million pound large rides, but when several go down at the same time, what next? There are no smaller flat rides to keep some of the guests occupied until the ride in that area re-opens.

 

[Snagglemama]

I also heard that rumour about a senior person having to attend a ride along with an engineer to do a ride restart.

Who remembers the problems Air had in the first year (or two). Queues of up to 4 hours. Constant break downs. Only thing was back then, people had Ripsaw to go on, Nemesis was running flawlessly. The problem Alton are having this season is that people are queuing for , lets say Nemesis, and it breaks down, they head over to Galactica.... broken down, so they head over to Rita or Thirteen.... broken down, then they head back to Nemesis. etc. Thats the day used up just getting from area to area to see which rides are working. That seems to be the jist of the complaints on TA at the moment.

Its great having these multi-million pound large rides, but when several go down at the same time, what next? There are no smaller flat rides to keep some of the guests occupied until the ride in that area re-opens.

Agreed when you have trekked all the way over from x sector over to rita and thirteen and they break down too

 

[Alsty]

The problem Alton are having this season is that people are queuing for , lets say Nemesis, and it breaks down, they head over to Galactica.... broken down, so they head over to Rita or Thirteen.... broken down, then they head back to Nemesis. etc. Thats the day used up just getting from area to area to see which rides are working. That seems to be the jist of the complaints on TA at the moment.

I agree with your point re: smaller rides, that would certainly help. However there seems to be a bigger problem here - why are so many of the rollercoasters experiencing these failures?

Any ride can have technical issues which take it out of action, but it seems odd that every coaster is experiencing faults and they are all stacking up against each other. Things must be bad if a guest who experiences an evacuation at ride X then goes to rides Y and Z and also finds them out of action.

 

[GaryH]

Not sure. It could be lots of factors. Rides getting older. Lack of parts. Less engineers available. The heat. New procedures on ride restarts. Who knows....

 

[delta79]

I also heard that rumour about a senior person having to attend a ride along with an engineer to do a ride restart.

I believe that was a safety measure introduced after the smiler incident.

Sent from my SM-J320FN using Tapatalk

 

[Skyscraper]

I agree with your point re: smaller rides, that would certainly help. However there seems to be a bigger problem here - why are so many of the rollercoasters experiencing these failures?

Any ride can have technical issues which take it out of action, but it seems odd that every coaster is experiencing faults and they are all stacking up against each other. Things must be bad if a guest who experiences an evacuation at ride X then goes to rides Y and Z and also finds them out of action.

Does anyone not check Ride Times?

 

[Alsty]

No, like most guests I expect things to be working. I could be unfortunate and hit on something that's down... fair enough, that can happen at any park... but I wouldn't expect to then find the next attraction also down unless it was a catastrophic power failure or some other common failure.

 

[Snagglemama]

No, like most guests I expect things to be working. I could be unfortunate and hit on something that's down... fair enough, that can happen at any park... but I wouldn't expect to then find the next attraction also down unless it was a catastrophic power failure or some other common failure.

The day we were there it was a total joke and that day wasn't a one off it's happening an awful lot