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Hex [2024 Refurb]: General Discussion

Squiggs said:
Technically, not replying at all in this situation would be classed as bad social media management. You don't reply to trolls, but you should always acknowledge when you're asked an earnest question, even if you don't directly answer it.

So I don't think we can read very much into what Bianca's posting, given she hasn't answered the actual question. They clearly do have a comms strategy in place around it, though.
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Good point, well made.

I still think if the plan was still the plan, and the ride was still planned to be open this season, it's not really giving anything away to say 'yes, update soon'.
 
If they do open it I hope they learn a lesson from their sister park and don’t have a big song and dance about it, and quietly just slip it into the list on the app.

Imagine having a big fanfare about reopening the vault, it opening for a day and shutting again.
 
rob666 said:
This isn't so different from the skyride situation...this enquiry into opening sounds like me a year or so ago.
Still waiting, with a limp, after a couple of years.
I'm sorry, but to these jaded eyes this is just another economic closure..."Oh we tried really hard, but then realised we had opened up another series of problems we just hadn't expected, and they will take another year to fix."
Will we be getting another million apologies?
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There are no current economic closures at the park so how is this another one?
 
Would anyone care to estimate how much money has been saved on staffing, managing the evac system rota and practice, and general maintenance of the skyride during its very lengthy closure?
I would suggest that both Hex and the skyride could be open by now if the right things had been done at the right time.
They weren't, for economic reasons...costs and corners cut.
Poor management of the maintenance of rides tends to bite one in the bottom in the end.
 
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I certainly don’t think the Skyride was an economic closure. They spent a lot of money beautifying it ahead of the 2024 season and had it on the 2024 map, so clearly had some intention of opening it this year, but something then came up that meant they couldn’t reopen it.

I don’t think Hex was an economic closure, either. It was quite prominently promoted as returning in Bianca’s start of season video, so once again, I imagine that the park’s hands have been tied by some sort of new problem meaning that they can’t reopen it.

If these were economic closures, it would have been very easy for the park to not draw attention to them and just close them on the sly, but the park have been quite vocal in their efforts to reopen both Skyride and Hex.
 
rob666 said:
Would anyone care to estimate how much money has been saved on staffing, managing the evac system rota and practice, and general maintenance of the skyride during its very lengthy closure?
I would suggest that both Hex and the skyride could be open by now if the right things had been done at the right time.
They weren't, for economic reasons...costs and corners cut.
Poor management of the maintenance of rides tends to bite one in the bottom in the end.
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I would estimate that nothing has been saved, as the work going into the attraction right now would be enough to staff and maintain the attraction for quite a few years. The cheaper option would have been to open it and let it limp along for a few more years, clearly they haven't done that though. It appears millions are being spent into it, on a basis of just seeing the type of work currently been carried out.

As for Hex, I strongly think the plan all along or atleast from March 8th, was to open this in the second half of the season based on what was said back then.

Not only does it help give something more later into the season, something which the management have said they want to try and do, they can also tie the rides re opening into some sort of scarefest buildup if they wanted to. That end of the park will have something in Dungeons building and possibly a re opened and revamped Hex, which could be complimented with actors in Fountain Square. Not saying it will open at scarefest, but opening any time in the second half can help build the hype for scarefest if marketed correctly.

Just to echo some other comments made on here, if a decision was made back in early March to open the ride later into the season, it wasn't due to budget cuts I'm 100% certain of that, more so down to getting parts installed and fitted and the lead times for delverys that go with that. That said, because of this unfortunate delay, they can absolutely use it to their advantage to catapult scarefest and other later into the season events.
 
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I imagine if and when Hex reopens, that it’ll get a published and promoted opening date, but nothing more than that. Thinking back to Sub-Terra’s reopening last year, they had the opening ceremony with the Phalanx man etc, but that was tied in to the wider Nemesis and FV work, so wouldn’t expect anything like that here.

And to be honest I wouldn’t expect or want anything more, Hex is a good and popular ride that is very much needed, but not a particular draw in itself. Even less so for non-enthusiasts.
 
Matt N said:
I certainly don’t think the Skyride was an economic closure. They spent a lot of money beautifying it ahead of the 2024 season and had it on the 2024 map, so clearly had some intention of opening it this year, but something then came up that meant they couldn’t reopen it.
...

If these were economic closures, it would have been very easy for the park to not draw attention to them and just close them on the sly, but the park have been quite vocal in their efforts to reopen both Skyride and Hex.
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The park spent limited funds on a lick of paint.
Something came up???
It had already been closed for fifteen months, how could something come up?

The park have been quite vocal...
Actions speak louder than words.
Wrong topic I know, and it has all been said before, but time drags on.
 
If we can keep discussion in this thread to Hex, then that would be great. I think we've covered all of the Skyride stuff before anyway, we know that it will not be opening at all this year. Thank you!
 
Matt N said:
I certainly don’t think the Skyride was an economic closure. They spent a lot of money beautifying it ahead of the 2024 season and had it on the 2024 map, so clearly had some intention of opening it this year, but something then came up that meant they couldn’t reopen it.

I don’t think Hex was an economic closure, either. It was quite prominently promoted as returning in Bianca’s start of season video, so once again, I imagine that the park’s hands have been tied by some sort of new problem meaning that they can’t reopen it.

If these were economic closures, it would have been very easy for the park to not draw attention to them and just close them on the sly, but the park have been quite vocal in their efforts to reopen both Skyride and Hex.
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Staff cost £11.44/hour. Average day is 7ish hours long - £80.08/day, £560.56/week or £4204.20/month. Call it a 7 month season, that's nearly £30k just in basic salary cost.

Skyride takes, what, 9 people to run at all times is it? So over quarter of a million a season saving by my fag-paper maths. A significant expense, and that's excluding the cost of extended training or any of the ongoing costs of running a ride.

Hex won't be as expensive but it'll still be a six figure sum.

Again, I'm a terrible cynic, but I think the fact they were publicised earlier on suggests they knew the rides could be got running this year; that they both haven't feels more likely to be dictated by economies rather than further tech issues.
 
WillPS said:
Staff cost £11.44/hour. Average day is 7ish hours long - £80.08/day, £560.56/week or £4204.20/month. Call it a 7 month season, that's nearly £30k just in basic salary cost.

Skyride takes, what, 9 people to run at all times is it? So over quarter of a million a season saving by my fag-paper maths. A significant expense, and that's excluding the cost of extended training or any of the ongoing costs of running a ride.

Hex won't be as expensive but it'll still be a six figure sum.

Again, I'm a terrible cynic, but I think the fact they were publicised earlier on suggests they knew the rides could be got running this year; that they both haven't feels more likely to be dictated by economies rather than further tech issues.
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This constant harping on about economic closures is getting tiresome.

Neither the Skyride nor Hex are closed for budgetary reasons.
 
WillPS said:
I beg your pardon sire, but it's a discussion forum - the point was raised and it's entirely valid to debate the contrary.


What's your evidence for that, please?
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You should know as well as anyone else does that Admin are often privy to information that they unfortunately can’t provide a source for. This seems to be one of those situations
 
rob666 said:
The park spent limited funds on a lick of paint.
Something came up???
It had already been closed for fifteen months, how could something come up?

The park have been quite vocal...
Actions speak louder than words.
Wrong topic I know, and it has all been said before, but time drags on.
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There's currently bits of drive wheels strewn over back of house, outside the main workshop. It's obviously having major structural work being done.
 
WillPS said:
I beg your pardon sire, but it's a discussion forum - the point was raised and it's entirely valid to debate the contrary.


What's your evidence for that, please?
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I believe if someone is claiming the rides are closed for economic reasons, then the burden of proof is on them.

I could easily say; there’s a chocolate teapot in orbit around Earth. Prove me wrong! You can’t so it must be true.
 
There is likely to be an indirect financial reason why it is still closed. E.g. say you could fix it this season for an unbudgeted £250k, would you spend that knowing it wouldn't increase your turnover by a fraction of that?

Yes it's no doubt an unplanned closure and longer problem that expected in March, but they won't be chucking silly money at it, and the savings (pointed out above) will be a nice little comfort to the money people.
 
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