Sadly Ash society has changed in those 38 years and not for the better. In the past if the cable car stopped for a few minutes, people would just wait patiently, admiring the views. Now, people will reach for their phones, film the person in the corner having a panic attack after being stopped for 3 minutes, film others having heat stroke while the temperature inside rises half a degree, with others panicking they don't have enough water to see them through their ordeal and they are at risk of dying from dehydration. Said video is then uploaded and seen by millions within a few minutes and ultimately, the Daily Mail writes one of their shock, horror headlines about the park. Within a minutes a non-event 38 years ago is now national news, the Smiler incident is brought back out of the cupboard and the park gets bad press.
We also have to take into account the one idiot in a million who will do something stupid while being filmed in the hope of getting millions of views and making some money from it, such as swimming with the shark in Battle Galleons, or jumping into the Rapids for a swim which then forces the park to go OTT with the warning signs, fences etc to stop such one idiots from being able to do so. Personally i'm amazed they are not making people wear life jackets on the rapids so we have to be grateful of that (for the moment at least). Common sense and general awareness have also sadly declined in those 38 years, such as knowing to wait behind the yellow line when the monorail approaches without the need for a physical barrier to stop you.
If the sky ride is already being closed in May when its low 20s then obviously there is no hope of it running in the summer months - which begs the question why bother refurbishing it?
