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2020: General Discussion

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Apologies Ms Ribena!
I am well aware I am responsible for my own behaviour, the advice I gave to Weby was clear (post 4134).
The "rules" are clear, attending from a red area is not illegal.
And, approaching sixty, I very much try to keep a young mind.
 
I just wanted to post some observations about ride operations/throughputs currently.

  • It's worth pointing out that, to my knowledge, only the Rapids and Skyride open later these days. There is almost no staggered opening at all. This one seemed to slip under the radar, but rides like Hex, Duel, Battle Galleons and Mine Train are all open at 10am - along with everything else. Some attractions also seem to open just a fraction early, too.
  • Ride queue closes seem to be settling at 7pm for CBeebies Land, 8.15pm or 8.30pm (at the earliest) for Wicker Man, Th13teen and Smiler and 9.00pm for everything else.
  • Throughputs are largely good, with exception to Th13teen due to the severe lack of capacity caused by bad engineering and social distancing. I would suggest going to ride Th13teen at 10.00am only, otherwise prepare to waste a significant amount of time in a non-moving queueline.
  • Galactica, with good reason, went down to 2 crafts / 1 station last night late on as it was so quiet at the top end of the park. It was incredible to see (as @John will testify) the ride *not stack*. This is almost unprecedented for the coaster on one station operation. I think it confirms that whether it's on 1 station or 2 - Galactica is the world's best operated B&M Flying coaster.
  • Nemesis was not stacking. Great operations as ever.
  • Smiler was sending out trains as regularly as you would hope, and they were typically cresting the two lift hills at the same time which, without a baggage store, is about as good as you could reasonably expect.
  • Oblivion becomes a bit of a chore when it's walk on. There were 6 shuttles on at 8pm last night with the ride walk on. One of those rare coasters that you spend more time waiting to get off, than to get on!
  • Wicker Man has been blocking on the lift more regularly, due to the pacy dispatches. I am unsure how good this is for the lift chain, mind you!
  • Maze Queues were an issue yesterday. With Darkest Depths unavailable, the other three mazes had to mop up the slack. Waits were long (45 minutes + for Toxic Junkyard and The Attic) and reliability seemed an issue on The Attic, too.
Alton Towers has definitely improved operations in the past couple of years. Post-Smiler crash, this seemed to take a dip - but they are back to a decent standard now and definitely one of the better European parks for this overall.
 
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Yes, #coronachat, but I don't think this should be left without clarification.

skyscraper said:
Thanks for the heads up. Not everyone has the app and businesses are required to have an alternative system for those who don't. Anyway, it's against the law to refuse access to those with disabilities. ;)
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skyscraper said:
It's not our fault we're in Tier 3, and we didn't ask for it. As @Vik said above Towers cannot force people to use the app and cannot ask for certain details. If they do, then they are actually breaking the law.
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skyscraper said:
Yes, as travelling out of a Tier 3 area isn't illegal. if it was, we wouldn't go.
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Travelling between tiers is not illegal, but you must comply with the restrictions of the area you live in or the area you are visiting, whichever is the higher. If you are in tier 3 you cannot visit places outside of that area and meet others there.

For someone that wants to throw 'the law' about quite a but you'd do well to have some idea about what it is. Any private place can allow and deny entry to whoever they please, as long as it's not on the basis of perceived membership of a prescribed group based on ethnicity, disability etc.
If they want to say you can't come in unless you give a certain piece of information they can.
If they want to say you can't come in if you don't have an app on your phone they can.
If they want to say you can't come in because you are generally obnoxious they can.
If they want to say you can't come in because you abuse the RAP system they can.
 
Enterprise is back OPEN!

Screenshot_20201026-134158.png
 
Good to see, it'd been handed off back to rides on Saturday and was running all day presumably while people were being signed off on it. Impressed they've actually worked to get it open for this season to be honest!
 
skyscraper said:
Still though, it's guidance, not law. None of my group have Covid or we wouldn't be going. It was so close to our trip we couldn't bear to cancel as we could technically still go.
Again, if it was actually against the law to travel out of Tier 3 or one of us had Covid, we wouldn't be going.
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This is why we will all be back in lockdown soon.
 
skyscraper said:
Still though, it's guidance, not law. None of my group have Covid or we wouldn't be going. It was so close to our trip we couldn't bear to cancel as we could technically still go.
Again, if it was actually against the law to travel out of Tier 3 or one of us had Covid, we wouldn't be going.
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You don't know if you have covid. That's the whole point of the rules and why it spreads so easily.

And the tier based restrictions are law, not guidance.
 
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As @Burbs has already said, can we stick to General Discussion about Alton Towers as this is quickly becoming a Covid specific topic again.

Might I also remind people about our Member Expectations, in particular the part about having respect for other members. Throwing insults at each other is not acceptable. Posts containing this will be removed and action taken against members.

For the benefit of cleaning up inaccuracies in this topic to other readers, all visitors to Alton Towers should follow the information on the Alton Towers website regarding visiting from each tier areas.

Everyone must also follow government advice on tier restrictions. As a general rule, information on the government website that states you must/must not is law, information that states you should/should not or may is guidance. For Very High (Tier 3) areas this is:
  • You must not meet socially with friends and family indoors in any setting unless they are part of your household or support bubble. This includes private homes and indoors in hospitality venues, such as pubs.
  • You must also not meet with people outside of your household or support bubble in a private garden or in most outdoor public venues.
  • A support bubble is where a household with one adult joins with another household. Households in that support bubble can still visit each other, stay overnight, and visit public places together.
  • You may continue to see friends and family you do not live with (or have formed a support bubble with) in groups of 6 or less in certain outdoor public spaces, such as:
    • parks, beaches, countryside, forests
    • public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them), allotments
    • outdoor sports courts and facilities, and playgrounds
As above, meeting other households both outdoors and indoors when any of you are from a tier 3 area is against the law. An outdoor public space is somewhere that you do not pay to enter, so Alton Towers does not count as one. These rules are the baseline rules, check your local area for any further specific rules. Tier restrictions follows your home location, so if you visit a Tier 1 location from a Tier 3 area, you must abide by Tier 3 restrictions.

If anyone chooses to not follow the law and/or guidance then that is their choice. However, as this is a public forum it's important that information in this topic is correct and not someone's own interpretation of the information published by the government.

Now, if we can get back to general discussion about Alton Towers it'd be appreciated. Any further general posts about Coronavirus or the country's restrictions will be removed.
 
BigT said:
Today was a sad day for me, I had to drop off and pick up as apparently it’s not cool to go to AT with your old dad anymore.:disrelieved:
I have finally lost my AT ride partner after 14 years.:(
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I feel for you @BigT , I fear I may get to that stage sometime. At the moment though, although my daughter can drive she doesn't want to drive 2hrs to Towers. Not a bad thing really considering - even at 22 - she's nearly always asleep by the time we reach the JCB factory on the way home!!
 
BigT said:
Today was a sad day for me, I had to drop off and pick up as apparently it’s not cool to go to AT with your old dad anymore.:disrelieved:
I have finally lost my AT ride partner after 14 years.:(
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Why didn't you just go in with them, then go in the opposite direction after the entrance gates, and ignore them every time your paths crossed.
Working with kids, it worked for me for a couple of decades.
And just think, another few years and you can get p!ssed, and get the kid to drive.
 
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I can't actually believe that people wait 60-90 mins for Th13teen are they mad! If I waited that long I'd already know the ride is about to be a disappointment. Interesting to see such an average ride so popular
 
Ethan said:
I can't actually believe that people wait 60-90 mins for Th13teen are they mad! If I waited that long I'd already know the ride is about to be a disappointment. Interesting to see such an average ride so popular
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Every ride is average to somebody, just as every ride is awesome to somebody and every ride is bad to somebody. There's obviously a lot of people in that queue that either don't know what it is (they're the best to ride it with) or think it's an above average ride!

And, based on my couple of visits recently, many ride times are not the actual times. Th13teen was advertised at about an hour when I was there but ended up about 30-40 mins.
 
Over an hour wait for Thirteen is way too much and more to do with the park planning and operations than popularity. Even a really popular family ride shouldnt really be getting that long wait times! (Although it's a bit of a UK wide problem)
 
OilyWater said:
Over an hour wait for Thirteen is way too much and more to do with the park planning and operations than popularity. Even a really popular family ride shouldnt really be getting that long wait times! (Although it's a bit of a UK wide problem)
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Yeah I think up to 30 mins is enough for Thirteen. Above that it's not worth it
 
rob666 said:
Why didn't you just go in with them, then go in the opposite direction after the entrance gates, and ignore them every time your paths crossed.
Working with kids, it worked for me for a couple of decades.
And just think, another few years and you can get p!ssed, and get the kid to drive.
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It’s an idea but I’m not sure that would work, I‘m embarrassing at best of times as you can imagine and she and her friend were secretly meeting up with boys that obviously I’m not supposed to know about.
It’s nice to get some father daughter days at the park though and maybe one day she will come back in with me if I beg her.
 
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