2018: Wicker Man - General Discussion - SPOILERS! - Part One

[imanautie]

The Rapids farce is more an over-reaction to the death at Drayton Manor. They have over-staffed the attraction to prevent incidents and therefore can't afford to staff it year round. Yes it should be open, but its not the reasons you are stretching for.

Round scarefest they seemed to tone down the spotters round the rapids not sure if that's significant.

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[WickerManiac]

Anyone fancy this? No doubt it has just dawned upon the Technical Services team that they have no knowledge of wooden coasters! I guess with it being so long since the last one was installed, it has become a sought after skill!

 

[imanautie]

Anyone fancy this?

At least they didn't post on gumtree...

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[Dave]

Anyone fancy this? No doubt it has just dawned upon the Technical Services team that they have no knowledge of wooden coasters! I guess with it being so long since the last one was installed, it has become a sought after skill!

They always have to recruit a specialist when a park buys a woody if it’s their first. Steel coaster techs tend to come from an electricians background. Woodies need someone more from a more Joiner/ carpentry background.

 

[IanSR]

The Rapids farce is more an over-reaction to the death at Drayton Manor. They have over-staffed the attraction to prevent incidents and therefore can't afford to staff it year round. Yes it should be open, but its not the reasons you are stretching for.

Pointless over reaction too, Drayton could have lined the banks with staff and it still wouldn't have changed the outcome. You can utilise as many safety signs / staff as is physically possible, but that still won't stop people who ignore them getting injured/killed.

 

[imanautie]

Pointless over reaction too, Drayton could have lined the banks with staff and it still wouldn't have changed the outcome. You can utilise as many safety signs / staff as is physically possible, but that still won't stop people who ignore them getting injured/killed.

If anything having "please remain seated" when passing the first speaker gets people to start to stand up to take the Mick

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[Matt N]

Although I agree that some things Merlin do are to try and sell more fastrack, most of this is a load of utter rubbish.

I don't want to drag this off topic so I am going to keep it to Wicker Man, but as I previously pointed out, most GCI woodies have a throughput of between 800 and 950pph. Only Wodan gets more than this (where stats are available on RCBD), and that is because EP made modifications to increase throughput. We have been crying out for a woodie for as long as I can remember; there was no chance of said woodie having a throughput like Nemesis or Oblivion.

1,000pph is not a ridicuously low throughput either. It's acutally quite suitable with the crowds that Towers gets these days. We're not talking about Disney, Universal, Cedar Point or Europa here! Sure 1,200pph would be better but that is simply not achievable with a coaster like this.

I thought Mystic Timbers also achieved 1200pph due to it using 3 trains? This uses 3 trains as well, so I'm reckoning about 1200pph as the theoretical, which would be the same as Thirteen and higher than both Smiler (960pph) and Rita (1040pph).

 

[Britford]

You heard it here first! Alton towers is the ONLY merlin attraction that cares about its customers!

Also, knowing that they have skimped out on staff training in the past (smiler terror smash) anyone else find the wording
"Ensure that all work carried out is of high quality and meets the required legislative levels" At least mildly troubling?

 

[imanautie]

You heard it hare first! Alton towers is the ONLY merlin attraction that cares about its customers!

Also, knowing that they have skimped out on staff training in the past (smiler terror smash) anyone else find the wording
"Ensure that all work carried out is of high quality and meets the required legislative levels" At least mildly troubling?

It could just be cya legal stuff.

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[Dave]

You heard it here first! Alton towers is the ONLY merlin attraction that cares about its customers!

Also, knowing that they have skimped out on staff training in the past (smiler terror smash) anyone else find the wording
"Ensure that all work carried out is of high quality and meets the required legislative levels" At least mildly troubling?

No why?

 

[DistortAMG]

The Rapids farce is more an over-reaction to the death at Drayton Manor. They have over-staffed the attraction to prevent incidents and therefore can't afford to staff it year round. Yes it should be open, but its not the reasons you are stretching for.

A significant amount would be saved over the year in electricity costs, the rides pumps of which there is 3 of in operation when the ride is open, use a huge amount of electricity. Staffing would be a large cost too especially when overstaffed, but both staffing and electricity savings combined would save quite a fair amount.

 

[IanSR]

Alton I would hope are on a fixed rate deal for their electric, most big companies are, this means they pay a fixed amount for their electric supply and it's not metered, so switching off pumps isn't going to save them money, not staffing the ride will obviously.

I can't remember what the proper term is, my dad is the sparky not me.

 

[Rob]

Also, knowing that they have skimped out on staff training in the past (smiler terror smash) anyone else find the wording
"Ensure that all work carried out is of high quality and meets the required legislative levels" At least mildly troubling?

What Dave says, why is that at all unusual? It would be more concerning if the post holder did not have to do this as part of their job.

 

[Britford]

I said that mostly as a joke, I was pointing out that it looks quite bad on them to use that specific wording (and it being up to legal standard is assumed anyway)

In hindsight, that specific wording is probably enforced on them by the government...

 

[Dar]

I know what you mean, it does make it seem that they're aiming for the minimum legal standard and nothing more

 

[PeteB]

1) only Oblivion has a design throughout over 1400.

2) Queue time boards have been a dodgy estimate since they where designed in every park going.

3) Towers is the only Merlin park to have fast track sales caps.

Just to hammer home

Nemesis: 1300
Oblivion: 1700 (never gets this)
Air: 1200
Rita: 1100
Thirteen: 1300
Smiler: 1100 (before incident)

Bar Oblivion all of the coasters have a similar throughout (within a hundred or so)

All wrong. I don't know where you've pulled these figures from but I've just double checked on TowersTimes, RCDB, Wikipedia, and a few other websites and all got these relatively consistant numbers:

Congo River Rapds: 1800
Haunted House: 1920
Nemesis: 1400
Oblivion: 1700 (perfectly possible when running 2 stations)
Air: 1500
Hex: 864 (impressive for what is essently a flat ride in a shed)

So the majority of headline attractions during this era got at least 1400 pph, as I originally stated.

Recent rides as follows:

Rita: 1000
Th13teen: 1100 (intended to be, but actually achieves 1300 by accident. Bad luck for Fastrack I guess).
NST: approx 5 people per hour (seriously urgh)
Smiler: 1100
Wicker Man: 1000

...and you're seriously expecting anyone to believe they aren't doing this on purpose?

Now isn't it funny that 2 days after discussing this subject, I wake up today to find news that Towers have suddenly reversed all the staggered opening times and the Rapids won't be closed? Hmm. Coincidence or perhaps slightly rattled that we've sussed the game these clowns are playing at?? I wonder.

I mean how bad would it be for the park's reputation if some of the newspapers, who love to spin a story, picked up on the fact they were deliberately making queues longer to sell more Fastrack?

 

[Bert2theSpark]

Why did you do that?! It was just a silly world's first done to create public interest, Doesn't need to be anything serious.

If they go though with this it could mean bad publicity for Towers(We don't need this right now) and more clicks for them media sites. Lose lose situation...

Over something so petty...

 

[PeteB]

Hahahaa!

Amazing. Good job!

 

[PeteB]

Wondering why those posts somebody made about the advertising for Wicker Man have been removed???

 

[Katy]

Wondering why those posts somebody made about the advertising for Wicker Man have been removed???

Having not read this thread today until now... I did wonder how your post about ride capacity dropping was a worlds first!