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2019: General Discussion

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Alsty said:
Well I'm sure Leek Signs either have the explicit consent of the park, or a general agreement that they can take photos of their work for promotional purposes. I imagine that's quite important to small businesses. It would be business suicide to do something that the client isn't supportive of.
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Oh I don’t doubt that they do, I’m just shocked it would ever have been given, that’s all.


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bluesonichd said:
Leek signs confirm enterprise is no more
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Hmm that’s interesting as it was certainly planning to open last I heard (about a month ago) they had ordered a part for it and there where delays.

But with the Merlin sledgehammer hitting a lot of other flat rides I wouldn’t be completely shocked. Though you would have to question why they have commissioned new signage but not taken it off the queue time boards and the app.
 
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I saw Wayne Burton reply to a post regarding the new signs and state that enterprise is still reopening.

Panic over?
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Pretty much every single ride Merlin have ever removed was "just being refurbished", and "will be back soon", right up until the moment the bulldozers turned up.
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Ohh for sure but in that case Wayne would just stay quiet on the issue.
 
I get that flat rides don't really draw the crowds, so less money is spent on them. What the do, do is absorb capacity on busy days. I know that some parks in the states have flat rides that only open when the park is busy, saving staff & maintainance costs. I don't understand why Merlin & At don't do this?
 
ScottishChris said:
I get that flat rides don't really draw the crowds, so less money is spent on them. What the do, do is absorb capacity on busy days. I know that some parks in the states have flat rides that only open when the park is busy, saving staff & maintainance costs. I don't understand why Merlin & At don't do this?
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I dunno, I used to love watching Ripsaw even though I was too chicken to go on


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ScottishChris said:
I get that flat rides don't really draw the crowds, so less money is spent on them. What the do, do is absorb capacity on busy days. I know that some parks in the states have flat rides that only open when the park is busy, saving staff & maintainance costs. I don't understand why Merlin & At don't do this?
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I’m not convinced that flats can’t drive attendance. I think the right flat ride can, otherwise parks wouldn’t add them like they do.

I remember looking at rides like Ripsaw as seriously big additions. Fair enough, not in the same way as a coaster, but then they cost maybe 10-20% of a coaster’s capex.
 
venny said:
I’m not convinced that flats can’t drive attendance. I think the right flat ride can, otherwise parks wouldn’t add them like they do.

I remember looking at rides like Ripsaw as seriously big additions. Fair enough, not in the same way as a coaster, but then they cost maybe 10-20% of a coaster’s capex.
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I conquer! The amount of times I've seen people going berserk about Talocan on social media is proof of this for me. Install an ABC tourbillon in x sector and watch the people flood in.
 
Robert Jones said:
Install an ABC tourbillon in x sector and watch the people flood in.
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Talocan is only rendered exceptional by the fact it also serves as a 'show' for passersby. Because of the theming and the sequencing, it's as fun to watch as to ride.

Nonetheless, while I was once of the opinion that Alton should dodge flats, the park's increasingly obvious RPH capacity issues mean that I'm happy to walk that back.
 
ScottishChris said:
I get that flat rides don't really draw the crowds, so less money is spent on them. What the do, do is absorb capacity on busy days. I know that some parks in the states have flat rides that only open when the park is busy, saving staff & maintainance costs. I don't understand why Merlin & At don't do this?
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Flat rides do draw guests but their reach is one to two season. If you take the cold hard accountants view point (if you want to properly debate any theme park not family owned you have to do this) then they are incredibly expensive for such a short return on investment.

In many ways flat rides are far more complicated technically than rollercoasters. Roller coasters are essentially a lot of steel, a potential energy generator, some breaks and a control system. Flat rides often have complex slip rings, joints and motors with complex location identification systems in place. For this reason you can often buy 1 rolller coaster for 2 flat rides and get more return on investment (excluding theming and marketing etc).

That obviously ignores the fact flat rides provide capacity (as do shows) but the profit hawks don’t really care about that (they should).
 
Robert Jones said:
I conquer! The amount of times I've seen people going berserk about Talocan on social media is proof of this for me. Install an ABC tourbillon in x sector and watch the people flood in.
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They could always get a double version like this:

Render_01ap.jpg


Perfect theme too. :)

http://ride-engineers.com/stormforce-20/
 
Dave said:
Flat rides do draw guests but their reach is one to two season. If you take the cold hard accountants view point (if you want to properly debate any theme park not family owned you have to do this) then they are incredibly expensive for such a short return on investment.

In many ways flat rides are far more complicated technically than rollercoasters. Roller coasters are essentially a lot of steel, a potential energy generator, some breaks and a control system. Flat rides often have complex slip rings, joints and motors with complex location identification systems in place. For this reason you can often buy 1 rolller coaster for 2 flat rides and get more return on investment (excluding theming and marketing etc).

That obviously ignores the fact flat rides provide capacity (as do shows) but the profit hawks don’t really care about that (they should).
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Good point, but surely it balances out with staff costs. A coaster at Towers usually needs at least 5 staff in the station, 1 at the ride entrance, 1 for RAP/Fastrack merge, and 2 or 3 more for bag storage.

A flat ride can operate with just 1 member of staff to open the gate, load/unload and operate the ride.
 
Steve74 said:
Yeah but then everyone would complain about how slow the throughput is! :D:p Enterprise is pretty slow with just one person doing everything!
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And don't forget that some flat rides have an extra dispatch button on the platform (I know Maelstrom at Drayton is one).
 
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