Just got home from Alton Towers. I was initially sceptical about booking for today given the reduced operating hours, which I was hoping would be extended - this was done by late morning if I remember correctly and was most definitely needed.
- Th13teen and Rita both running well - staff seemed to be moving quickly and efficiently and the queues were constantly moving whenever I saw them.
- Hex was good, although the doors in the first two pre-show rooms did keep closing on people before they'd got into the rooms - not sure why that was as I'm not really sure how they operate.
- Oblivion was running one station, a shame considering the queue was far in excess of the 25 minutes it was being estimated at - operations weren't great and trains were banked on the brake run.
- Spinball had two bouts of downtime whilst I was queuing, all the cars stacked up along the brake run, Technical Services were there within 5 minutes and the ride was running within 10, the same problem happened again and this was instantly solved by Technical Services who had waited for a while.
- Wickerman had some great operations, glad to see the restraint issues have finally been remedied. I'm so impressed by this ride, especially given that I was disappointed at the start of the season, it was way faster and far more enjoyable this time. Only complaint was that they were packing the pre-show room too much, people were being pushed behind the screen so they could not enjoy the pre-show, and there was no room in the station so the doors kept closing on us
- We saw the new boats on the Rapids, but I don't think there are any more than two on the circuit at the minute, we had an old-style boat and there were still no waterfalls. More like a lazy river than rapids nowadays. Disappointing.
- I was surprised by Duel, we walked in and the ride had just gone down in the station, it was stopped for around 5 minutes with everybody waiting, then it started again without the need for Technical Services, although from what I could see it was stop-start once we got off. Not sure if this was for accessibility when loading / unloading. Lots of broken targets, and a few of the timings are off (notably the figure before Electric Bill), the spider scene is too dark and half of it couldn't be seen, mechanics are still visible.
- We then queued for Galactica and waited a good 20 minutes before being told that there was no VR available for the remainder of today due to "a minor temporary problem" - disappointing as others wanted to try this. Only one station with a 50 minute queue.
- Nemesis had re-opened by the time we left and we had a ride on that, I must say dispatches seem to be slower on this than ever before - not really sure why.
- Also interesting that Skyride did not open until 12pm today, or at least that's what the signs said...
There were definitely some problems today, as has been said above, The Smiler took forever to open this morning, as did Nemesis. Th13teen defiantly needed an extra train today, as it seemed to be in high demand after its period of downtime. The whole VR system on Galactica needs sorting, they need to make sure they say from the start whether it is open or not, and those queues need separating!
The Park didn't seem very busy today, but they only
just seemed to be coping - I understand the downtime on Nemesis and Th13teen throughout the day, but not so much the Smiler as that was sat idle for a fair amount of time this morning, and we missed ERT. I was impressed with the Technical Services remedies on Spinball. I was also pleased about the extension of queue closure, but it should really be 5pm anyway, especially if they want to keep operations the way they are.
We had a good day, operations could've been improved, but we got a fair few rides done - not sure I'd have been too happy coming in as a full-price ticket holder.
