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2020: General Discussion

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skyscraper said:
Same with one-way systems; they turn neutral during fire evacs. Would take people longer to exit otherwise.
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Yep. The first thing they teach you in fire training at Towers - if an alarm goes off, get out. Buildings and rides can be replaced, people cannot.

You only tackle any fire if it is safe to do so (e.g. a small fire in a bin) which a bucket of water / extinguisher can deal with. Otherwise get everyone out and leave it to the fire service.
 
Kraken27 said:
Yep. The first thing they teach you in fire training at Towers - if an alarm goes off, get out. Buildings and rides can be replaced, people cannot.

You only tackle any fire if it is safe to do so (e.g. a small fire in a bin) which a bucket of water / extinguisher can deal with. Otherwise get everyone out and leave it to the fire service.
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Yeah I got taught that any fire bigger than the size of a waste paper bin should be left to the fire service.
 
I think it’s only since the Smiler crash that Oblivion and enterprise can’t open if the wind alarm goes off. I’m unsure if they all share an alarm Or what, as I can’t see why Enterprise can’t really open when it’s so low down.

Unfortunately it’s just towers being overly cautious as they certainly wouldn’t want another Smiler crash. I also notice at Thorpe they have it a lot worse with “weather delay” with almost the whole park closing when it’s windy, including rather random rides like Rocky Express.
 
djtruefitt said:
I think it’s only since the Smiler crash that Oblivion and enterprise can’t open if the wind alarm goes off. I’m unsure if they all share an alarm Or what, as I can’t see why Enterprise can’t really open when it’s so low down.

Unfortunately it’s just towers being overly cautious as they certainly wouldn’t want another Smiler crash. I also notice at Thorpe they have it a lot worse with “weather delay” with almost the whole park closing when it’s windy, including rather random rides like Rocky Express.
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Iirc smiler used to share Oblivions sensor before getting it's own.
 
I understand they both have their own, as you can see it behind the staff in the op cabin, but I do wonder if one goes off they both close, as you always find that’s the case, As well as Enterprise.
 
I imagine if both The Smiler and Oblivion close due to high winds, there's little point in operating Enterprise, as that would be the only ride in the area. May as well have the whole area shut down.

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James said:
I imagine if both The Smiler and Oblivion close due to high winds, there's little point in operating Enterprise, as that would be the only ride in the area. May as well have the whole area shut down.

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Ye exactly who actually rides Enterprise. Remove the ride no one is interested it isn't needed
 
imanautie said:
Iirc smiler used to share Oblivions sensor before getting it's own.
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Back in 2002 (when Air, which is also prone to high winds was being commissioned, there was only one anemometer (wind sensor) on the entire park. It was - and doubtless still is - on top of one of the Skyride pylons. Unsure which one, but you could only get the wind reading from the Op Cabin in the Towers Street station, so I suspect it's probably on one of the two main pylons in Mutiny Bay, as both are fairly exposed.

As you rightly say, both Oblivion & Smiler both have their own anemometers now - and if one goes off, you can bet both rides will cease operation.
 
Maybe if one operator phones in a high wind reading, control notify other operators of rides with the same speed restriction to stop as well.

I'm sure there's a process for this now and I guess it makes things more consistent from a guest perspective as well.
 
It wouldn't e-stop because then you've got guests trapped on lift hills and brake runs etc. Maybe it would inhibit dispatching, but even that I'm not sure about because you want to send empty trains to unload all the trains.

Maybe there's two thresholds, alarm and then dispatch inhibit, or maybe it's just an alarm. I don't know how it works to be honest, never had it when I worked there.
 
I don’t believe the alarms are linked to the rides why so ever. However if they alarm they will stop the ride, and depending on alarm either carry on the ride until all guests are off, or if it’s really windy they will have to evacuate guests where they are.

as far as I’m aware most major rides have them installed now, you will see the panels on the walls in op panels, usually with just a green light on it, Oblivion, TH13TEEN, The Smiler and Galactica definitely have them. He sensors are on the top of the ride or stations. smiler has a few I think.
 
Danny said:
A large quantity of Merlin's workforce in front-line roles like this are youngsters in college or university, some of them with it being their first proper customer-facing role. It's true, you do need a thick skin to cope in such roles but when it's their first, having that thick skin isn't always possible as it needs to be developed and adapted as they encounter each different guest concern.

When you have the full control of a ride all by yourself, under pressure to be as amicable with guests as possible yet working under the stress of having to keep queues short, it can get hideously overwhelming. Having that second person by you not only mitigates those stresses, but also helps to keep control in situations when a guest takes advantage of you being by yourself when they get arsey, verbally, or even physically abusive.

There is no comprehensive training that Merlin has in place to deal with guest situations if you're a ride operator or host. Particularly on some of the smaller rides across the group, where you won't need as many hours to be signed off to work it by yourself, there is every chance that you don't receive sufficient exposure to the dark side of the general public before going solo. There's then every possibility on your first outing operating as an individual, you can be put under extreme pressure or face the nastiest of guests without any confidence in having reinforcement; especially when managers hide in their back offices or pretend to look busy with a litter picker elsewhere.
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The lack of staff training in dealing with difficult guests and de-escalating conflict is a problem. As you say, it’s a problem because for a lot of staff it’s their first job, and they may not have much experience with it. It’s also a problem because it means that staff don’t know whether the managers are going to support them. When there is no procedure for dealing with conflict, it’s easy for managers to place blame into the staff member with comments like, “It takes two to tango”, “It sounds like it could have been handled better”, and “You must have said something to make them so angry” etc If there’s clear guidance of what to say and when security or a manager should be called, it helps to cover staff members from being told that they dealt with it wrongly.

I do think victim blaming is in Merlin’s culture, where the victims of abuse and assaults are made out to be too thin skinned, or lacking the skills to deal with conflict. Over the years Merlin have cut back on the number of managers and security to save money. This means staff are perhaps under greater pressure not to escalate issues and call for assistance.

One upshot of this is that a lot of abuse and minor assaults are never reported. This is particularly true if staff members are looking for a promotion and know that calling a manager/security will be seen as a sign of weakness. If issues aren’t reported, it might well mean that a group of thugs are able to assault multiple members of staff, which certainly has happened at Merlin parks.

It is also true that there’s a big difference between running a flat ride on your own when there’s not much of a queue, and running one on your own with a 45 minute queue, which is clearly going to be a lot more stressful. If a child is too short, they’re also likely to be a lot angrier if they’d been queuing 45 minutes compared to if they’d just rocked up.

One suspects that staff are a lot more likely to take abuse and assaults in a park with lots of one and two star reviews on Trip Advisor than at a highly rated park like Europa Park. Again, I think Merlin are often keen to present any abuse or assaults as isolated incidents, and while to an extent they are, they are also a symptom of a park with a lot of angry customers.

Of course, some customers will be rude and you have to have some thickness in your skin, but it’s not unreasonable to expect an employer to take reasonable steps to protect their employees from abuse and assaults. Remember, ride operators aren't paid danger money. They're paid the minimum wage.
 
Funcone said:
One upshot of this is that a lot of abuse and minor assaults are never reported. This is particularly true if staff members are looking for a promotion and know that calling a manager/security will be seen as a sign of weakness. If issues aren’t reported, it might well mean that a group of thugs are able to assault multiple members of staff, which certainly has happened at Merlin parks.
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If you want a sign of weakness - then look no further that Alton Towers Security - they are as much use as a chocolate fireguard. They practically never eject anyone from the park due to it's rural location. If the "offender" has come on a coach trip, the coach will not depart early, so they will just potentially cause trouble in the local area.

You can call security out to deal with queue jumpers and they do nothing. You can have 20mins of queueline (Nemesis entrance to station) all giving identical descriptions of the people who pushed past other guests and the queue jumpers just get let off with a warning.

We had a lady in Nemesis queue who asked a male guest to tone his language down as she had children with her. Male guest told her to "get lost" and carried on swearing liberally. She asked him again, this time he told her to "get lost" again, then proceeded to "get it out" and urinate on her feet. Security let him off with a warning - despite there being indecent exposure involved in the presence of minors.

I'll never forget when the condom machine got nicked from the carpark monorail station - they were chasing the thief round the carpark until he managed to "allude them in the bushes". They did, however, recover the machine with the cash-box intact, but "some product had been removed".

There are only two days per season when there is an effective security presence at Towers. These are the family friendly days when security is boosted with external companies like Showsec, plus Police patrolling the park.

The only time Towers Security actually do something is when the park is losing money. They will happily chase ticket touts round the carpark / admissions plaza all day. Ditto any shoplifting (of which I bet there is a lot) - that gets dealt with. They are also fairly hot on parking infringements by staff - park where you shouldn't / without a permit and expect a note on your windscreen with all the relevant "offence boxes" ticked & a warning that you must contact security control before leaving site that day. They even call their vehicle database "Stinger" - which as many will know is a device the real police use to stop stolen vehicles.
 
Kraken27 said:
If you want a sign of weakness - then look no further that Alton Towers Security - they are as much use as a chocolate fireguard. They practically never eject anyone from the park due to it's rural location. If the "offender" has come on a coach trip, the coach will not depart early, so they will just potentially cause trouble in the local area.

You can call security out to deal with queue jumpers and they do nothing. You can have 20mins of queueline (Nemesis entrance to station) all giving identical descriptions of the people who pushed past other guests and the queue jumpers just get let off with a warning.

We had a lady in Nemesis queue who asked a male guest to tone his language down as she had children with her. Male guest told her to "get lost" and carried on swearing liberally. She asked him again, this time he told her to "get lost" again, then proceeded to "get it out" and urinate on her feet. Security let him off with a warning - despite there being indecent exposure involved in the presence of minors.

I'll never forget when the condom machine got nicked from the carpark monorail station - they were chasing the thief round the carpark until he managed to "allude them in the bushes". They did, however, recover the machine with the cash-box intact, but "some product had been removed".

There are only two days per season when there is an effective security presence at Towers. These are the family friendly days when security is boosted with external companies like Showsec, plus Police patrolling the park.

The only time Towers Security actually do something is when the park is losing money. They will happily chase ticket touts round the carpark / admissions plaza all day. Ditto any shoplifting (of which I bet there is a lot) - that gets dealt with. They are also fairly hot on parking infringements by staff - park where you shouldn't / without a permit and expect a note on your windscreen with all the relevant "offence boxes" ticked & a warning that you must contact security control before leaving site that day. They even call their vehicle database "Stinger" - which as many will know is a device the real police use to stop stolen vehicles.
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As much as I like to call security at parks useless i don't think it's fair to say it's a failing of the front line team but merlin management.
 
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