2024: General Discussion

[Ash]

Flávio I can understand due to hopefully PH
Dungeons I can understand because of the upcharge and volume of staff needed
Blade is the one that makes little to no sense, especially considering the recent money spent.

This park needs capacity.

Honestly I’d rather all the entertainment was scrapped.

Everything bar scarefest and fireworks.

No half term “event” just open and shut for half term with a limited offering and close in November. No Xmas. No Oktoberfest. No CBeebies celebration. No wandering actors 24/7.

Get rid of the stage and the benches etc. Run it as a theme park, not a pop up event

 

[Mick]

Dungeons and Flávio’s are all but guaranteed to remain unused plots until such a time that Towers decide to do Horizon and retheme the whole of that area, in my opinion. The capital investment required in that part of the park alone will be huge, ignoring all the other flat rides they need to get on with elsewhere.

 

[venny]

This news really is the cherry on top of the steaming turd of a season.

 

[QTXAdsy]

This news really is the cherry on top of the steaming turd of a season.

Ya know, there should be thread to have a vote on the worse season in the Merlin era either from 2014 onwards or since 2008, fair few contenders there.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Ya know, there should be thread to have a vote on the worse season in the Merlin era either from 2014 onwards or since 2008, fair few contenders there.

You know what you have to do.....

 

[Squiggs]

This news really is the cherry on top of the steaming turd of a season.

You spelt Best Season Ever wrong

 

[QTXAdsy]

You know what you have to do.....

Hey, let someone else do it, many angry folk on here will likely be happy to hate write a thread on this topic.

 

[John]

Can't help but feel they've made a conscious decision to bury bad news early in closed season to get the negativity out at a less damaging time

 

[EarthlyKnight27]

I wonder if the new CEO of Merlin, hell even the board will be looking at this with bated breath wondering if it was worth shutting it down.
I mean, in slight defence of AT, Blade was installed in the 1980s, and who knows how hard it is to maintain such an old attraction. As it wouldn't surprise me, if H&S had something to do with Blade's shutdown.

 

[Jb85]

Whilst I’m fuming - maybe the cost of running it as well has something to do with it.
If I recall these things are quite power thirsty - and I’m sure I’ve read about power problems in that area of the park.

 

[AT86]

I wonder if the new CEO of Merlin, hell even the board will be looking at this with bated breath wondering if it was worth shutting it down.
I mean, in slight defence of AT, Blade was installed in the 1980s, and who knows how hard it is to maintain such an old attraction. As it wouldn't surprise me, if H&S had something to do with Blade's shutdown.

I doubt the closure of a supporting ride at one of their 140 attractions would even touch the radar of the Merlin board.

 

[EarthlyKnight27]

Whilst I’m fuming - maybe the cost of running it as well has something to do with it.
If I recall these things are quiet power thirsty - and I’m sure I’ve read about power problems in that area of the park.

Wouldn't be surprise to me, I mean HUSS rides who manufacture the ride in the 80s still makes pirate ships.

So if AT wanted, they could do what they did with Nemmy. Get rid of the old Blade and possibly buy a new one?

 

[Islander]

I wonder if the new CEO of Merlin, hell even the board will be looking at this with bated breath wondering if it was worth shutting it down.
I mean, in slight defence of AT, Blade was installed in the 1980s, and who knows how hard it is to maintain such an old attraction. As it wouldn't surprise me, if H&S had something to do with Blade's shutdown.

Without meaning to single your post alone out, there seems to be this misconception that rides can continue operation indefinitely. Not true.

Of course all rides are subject to regular stringent checks, and when certain issues are found, they must be corrected. At some time, it will sadly come to a point where it's simply not economical to patch up an old ride anymore. There could've been structural defects that may have cost £100's of thousands to resolve, at which point there simply is no way to make any kind of business case to repair, whether you're Merlin or Disney/Universal.

The question is then naturally that the age and condition of rides is well known, and plans should be made in advance to replenish ride stock as and when the older stock is retired. But purely looking at this single shutdown in isolation, it's not at all surprising, no one is going to be wondering if this particular decision was the right one, and there was likely no alternative.

Whilst I’m fuming - maybe the cost of running it as well has something to do with it.
If I recall these things are quiet power thirsty - and I’m sure I’ve read about power problems in that area of the park.

The cost of running one small flat ride will be negligible compared to most of the other rides on park.

 

[EarthlyKnight27]

I doubt the closure of a supporting ride at one of their 140 attractions would even touch the radar of the Merlin board.

Probably yeah. Although they might notice if, and only if, people start to complain even more about both a lack of flat rides and increased queue times for other attractions within Forbidden Valley.

 

[venny]

there seems to be this misconception that rides can continue operation indefinitely. Not true

Flying Machines says hi.

 

[EarthlyKnight27]

Without meaning to single your post alone out, there seems to be this misconception that rides can continue operation indefinitely. Not true.

Of course all rides are subject to regular stringent checks, and when certain issues are found, they must be corrected. At some time, it will sadly come to a point where it's simply not economical to patch up an old ride anymore. There could've been structural defects that may have cost £100's of thousands to resolve, at which point there simply is no way to make any kind of business case to repair, whether you're Merlin or Disney/Universal.

That is true, it wouldn't surprise me if it became uneconomical to operate the old ride in comparison to getting something newer in the future! (Of course I am joking here as who knows how long it'd bloody take.)

 

[Jb85]

Without meaning to single your post alone out, there seems to be this misconception that rides can continue operation indefinitely. Not true.

Of course all rides are subject to regular stringent checks, and when certain issues are found, they must be corrected. At some time, it will sadly come to a point where it's simply not economical to patch up an old ride anymore. There could've been structural defects that may have cost £100's of thousands to resolve, at which point there simply is no way to make any kind of business case to repair, whether you're Merlin or Disney/Universal.

The question is then naturally that the age and condition of rides is well known, and plans should be made in advance to replenish ride stock as and when the older stock is retired. But purely looking at this single shutdown in isolation, it's not at all surprising, no one is going to be wondering if this particular decision was the right one, and there was likely no alternative.


The cost of running one small flat ride will be negligible compared to most of the other rides on park.

I’m not overly referencing the cost of running the ride per se, but maybe the costs of upgrading the areas electrical infrastructure so that it can cope with the additional demands now in place and the pending reopening of the Skyride.

 

[Islander]

I’m not overly referencing the cost of running the ride per se, but maybe the costs of upgrading the areas electrical infrastructure so that it can cope with the rises in place and the pending reopening of the Skyride.

But there are no real rises? Nemesis, Galactica, Blade, Skyride and Ripsaw have run quite happily together for years. Replace Ripsaw with 2025’s new flat, and you’ve not no tangible increase in demand.

 

[Tom]

Their removal would have been part of the plan for Ripsaw II right at the beginning. One of the reasons it will have been signed off. Reduced day-to-day OpEx.

 

[flyingguitar]

Flying Machines says hi.

That is a very different situation,
flying machines is quite a low force ride, but also it is built different, flying machines is literally just an electric motor, some structure, cables and wooden boxes people sit in, the only thing that may go out of date is the structure, but I doubt they would struggle to find someone capable of remaking part of the structure if it gets too worn out as it is mostly a standard truss design.

but the blade has many more components, restraints hydraulics and more if one component isn't available it could mean an entire system cant work (depends on the component of course) and it would be getting more and more expensive as the options become to get a company to manufacture that component or get huss to redo some of the engineering to update it with newer components both would probably be more expensive than getting a new ride as AT would probably be the only customer.
also its structure is much more different if the steel is worn out on the vehicle and is cracking often assuming a fix such as fish plates isn't possible or hasn't worked it may be a case of getting a new ship, which unless if huss makes the exact same model as they did 40 years ago it would probably have to be made from scratch, which would probably be expensive