The Big Mack
TS Member
I understand that this may have been frustrating in this situation but I felt definitely yesterday it was a lot of people’s first days in a new job. I can imagine that might have led to the false evac - or unclear procedure with the new ride.
I have previously worked for Merlin, I've been a new employee on brand new and relaunched attractions. Staff training for queue line evacuations has always been crystal clear. Staff undergo hours physical training in addition to reading the ride manual before being assessed by management.
It was pretty clear that the ride operator did not make the decision to empty the queue line, there was a pretty constant set of PA's from the operator advising guests to ride other things, since they weren't entirely sure how long Nemesis might be out of action for (it is standard procedure across Merlin to advise a queue line full of guests to leave for other rides and check back later rather than kick everyone out, unless it's super clear to the ride team that a ride won't be back in operation for a while). The queue line evac was carried out by a few team members who weren't operating the ride. It's entirely possible that they weren't familiar with the procedures, but as is often asked by management, when in doubt always ask!
Threatening perfectly civil park guests who travelled a great distance to ride Nemesis after dark with forced removal from the queue line is very poor customer service, and isn't condoned by management. If a ride host is to call management, they should do it without arguing directly with a guest. It's unprofessional conduct, and it looks awful to other guests. During an authorized queue line evacuation, management themselves attend to support ride hosts in clearing the queue line. Priority Ride Passes are then handed to guests as part of the guest recovery efforts.
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