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2020: General Discussion

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According to the app it's "queue at capacity" for Smiler currently. Interesting that they've put it on the app.
 
TPJames said:
@pluk no reason why they can’t let single riders in their own car then on spinball, they are doing it on dragons fury at chessington.

You may argue the wait times would be “too long”, but then the park should let less people in to accommodate for guest experience. I went to chessington on a Saturday 2 weeks ago and the max queue time (bar zufari) was 25 mins, and that’s with them letting single riders on dragons fury and rattlesnake... at towers the times are topping 2 hours on weekdays?

Either way I see it as merlin money-grabbing. Charging single riders full price and then not giving them the opportunity to experience as much of the park as would genuinely be possible, I just find it a complete con. And there’s no persuading me otherwise.

The rapids has different logistical issues, which I will agree to. And not many single riders would be interested in the rapids anyway, whereas I can imagine most would want to ride spinball
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Allowing single riders to take a car to themselves is completely illogical. That’s called the main queue, the single rider queue isn’t there to make people who are riding alone less uncomfortable whilst queuing or provide alternative free fast track, it’s there to fill gaps on the ride caused by odd numbers of groups.

If you can’t put two social bubbles in a car you can’t do this, so the single riders queue is the main queue with everyone else.
 
Dave said:
Allowing single riders to take a car to themselves is completely illogical. That’s called the main queue, the single rider queue isn’t there to make people who are riding alone less uncomfortable whilst queuing or provide alternative free fast track, it’s there to fill gaps on the ride caused by odd numbers of groups.

If you can’t put two social bubbles in a car you can’t do this, so the single riders queue is the main queue with everyone else.
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I think the point is that at the moment people who want/need to ride by themselves cannot even if they queue in the main queueline since a car cannot be sent with only one rider and they cannot car share due to social distancing, nothing to do with the "Single Riders Queue". Though I may have got the wrong end of the stick
 
evilcod said:
I think the point is that at the moment people who want/need to ride by themselves cannot even if they queue in the main queueline since a car cannot be sent with only one rider and they cannot car share due to social distancing, nothing to do with the "Single Riders Queue". Though I may have got the wrong end of the stick
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Ahh fair enough
 
Apparently Rita had two rollbacks yesterday and has been down all morning today. More and more evidence to remove it. :p
 
It always surprises me that Rita is one of the most common rides to stall at Towers, as I seem to remember it stalling a few years back!

It’s a pretty fast coaster, at just over 61mph, and the actual height difference between the highest point and the lowest point can’t be that big, as even the lowest point of Rita is surely elevated a good 10-15ft above ground level (at least) and it’s only 68ft tall at its highest point, so with its speed and height, there must be some serious failure of the launch system or some serious gusts of wind required for it to roll back!

Admittedly, it’s not the ride most prone to stalling at Towers (The Smiler has stalled numerous times in its batwing element, including one time that we all know about which had disastrous consequences), but The Smiler stalling at that point is quite understandable, as that’s quite far into the first half of the layout (meaning that the train will naturally have lost momentum) and is a pretty high element, so a gust of wind in the wrong direction at the wrong time could easily cause a stall there. I find Rita much more perplexing, however...
 
Matt N said:
It always surprises me that Rita is one of the most common rides to stall at Towers, as I seem to remember it stalling a few years back!

It’s a pretty fast coaster, at just over 61mph, and the actual height difference between the highest point and the lowest point can’t be that big, as even the lowest point of Rita is surely elevated a good 10-15ft above ground level (at least) and it’s only 68ft tall at its highest point, so with its speed and height, there must be some serious failure of the launch system or some serious gusts of wind required for it to roll back!

Admittedly, it’s not the ride most prone to stalling at Towers (The Smiler has stalled numerous times in its batwing element, including one time that we all know about which had disastrous consequences), but The Smiler stalling at that point is quite understandable, as that’s quite far into the first half of the layout (meaning that the train will naturally have lost momentum) and is a pretty high element, so a gust of wind in the wrong direction at the wrong time could easily cause a stall there. I find Rita much more perplexing, however...
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Press a red button at the right time on basically any launch coaster and it will rollback or stall somewhere.
 
Matt N said:
It always surprises me that Rita is one of the most common rides to stall at Towers, as I seem to remember it stalling a few years back!

It’s a pretty fast coaster, at just over 61mph, and the actual height difference between the highest point and the lowest point can’t be that big, as even the lowest point of Rita is surely elevated a good 10-15ft above ground level (at least) and it’s only 68ft tall at its highest point, so with its speed and height, there must be some serious failure of the launch system or some serious gusts of wind required for it to roll back!

Admittedly, it’s not the ride most prone to stalling at Towers (The Smiler has stalled numerous times in its batwing element, including one time that we all know about which had disastrous consequences), but The Smiler stalling at that point is quite understandable, as that’s quite far into the first half of the layout (meaning that the train will naturally have lost momentum) and is a pretty high element, so a gust of wind in the wrong direction at the wrong time could easily cause a stall there. I find Rita much more perplexing, however...
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Rita is also the only coaster at Towers that can adjust the launch speed. If it's gets the adjustment wrong it won't make it over the highest point.

However, Rita doesn't exactly creep through the highest point, so having a rollback at all is certainly odd.

Should be noted that Stealth's hydraulics had to be replaced last year. Rita might be facing a similar situation soon, presuming it hasn't already happened during a closed season.
 
For any season/annual pass holders that have been unable to book £1 tickets, it looks like another load of tickets have been released over the next couple of weeks which were previously unavailable.
 
Matt N said:
It always surprises me that Rita is one of the most common rides to stall at Towers, as I seem to remember it stalling a few years back!

It’s a pretty fast coaster, at just over 61mph, and the actual height difference between the highest point and the lowest point can’t be that big, as even the lowest point of Rita is surely elevated a good 10-15ft above ground level (at least) and it’s only 68ft tall at its highest point, so with its speed and height, there must be some serious failure of the launch system or some serious gusts of wind required for it to roll back!

Admittedly, it’s not the ride most prone to stalling at Towers (The Smiler has stalled numerous times in its batwing element, including one time that we all know about which had disastrous consequences), but The Smiler stalling at that point is quite understandable, as that’s quite far into the first half of the layout (meaning that the train will naturally have lost momentum) and is a pretty high element, so a gust of wind in the wrong direction at the wrong time could easily cause a stall there. I find Rita much more perplexing, however...
Click to expand...

Its the difference between launched coasters and gravity momentum coasters. Most coasters start at their highest point (after the lift hill) therefore just roll down and up and down again. Launched coasters can start at a lowpoint so if there is a malfunction with the launch mechanism it won't make it up over the highest point.
To some extent it would be the same if I lift hill chain broke, but there are anti-rollbacks (and there are in a different way on launced coasters).
 
One of the main ways Rita stalls is because the catch car disconnects early. Once the launch dog engages with the catch car and the train does that slow rock forwards and backwards the only thing keeping the dog engaged is the weight of the train. If the launch isn’t smooth the dog can retract and once it does it won’t engage again (it’s designed to lock quickly away from the catch car so in the event of a roll back it doesn’t smash back into the catch car).

The alternative is the system loses pressure, I’m pretty sure once the launch sequence is active an emergency stop doesn’t actually guarantee to stop the launch.

Rita rolls back less frequently as it takes the highest point at speed unlike the top hat models which tend to creep over at a slower speed and therefore have a small margin of error.
 
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