Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Same with one-way systems; they turn neutral during fire evacs. Would take people longer to exit otherwise.UK government basically say you can ignore social distancing during fire alarm evacuations.
Same with one-way systems; they turn neutral during fire evacs. Would take people longer to exit otherwise.UK government basically say you can ignore social distancing during fire alarm evacuations.
THORPE in particular actually don't say one way but Emergency only.Same with one-way systems; they turn neutral during fire evacs. Would take
Same with one-way systems; they turn neutral during fire evacs. Would take people longer to exit otherwise.
Yeah I got taught that any fire bigger than the size of a waste paper bin should be left to the fire service.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.
Iirc smiler used to share Oblivions sensor before getting it's own.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.
Ye exactly who actually rides Enterprise. Remove the ride no one is interested it isn't neededI 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
Ye exactly who actually rides Enterprise. Remove the ride no one is interested it isn't needed
Iirc smiler used to share Oblivions sensor before getting it's own.
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.
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.
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.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.