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Passholder Preview TP/TRIP REPORT
- Thread starter TheMan
- Start date
TheMan
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- NemiLerVion
Re: Passholder Preview TP
No, you would be right there Mike mate haha - am I living in a fantasy land then?
I thought usually the preview nights were quieter?
(Though I have just remember reading the Pass holder normal days and that alone has filled me with more horror at that prospect, than all the UKs mazes combined!! Say it isn't so??!)
Mike said:TheMan said:
You've obviously not done a Thorpe passholder event before!
No, you would be right there Mike mate haha - am I living in a fantasy land then?
I thought usually the preview nights were quieter?
(Though I have just remember reading the Pass holder normal days and that alone has filled me with more horror at that prospect, than all the UKs mazes combined!! Say it isn't so??!)
DiogoJ42
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Metropolitan Line
Re: Passholder Preview TP
Hmmm, I may be interested. But the thought of public transport back from Thorpe late at night is rather offputting. Hils won't be around to drive me there and back. (25 minute drive vs hour and a half of tubes, trains and busses. You can see my issue here.)
On the flip side, if someone fancies giving me a lift home, you are welcome to crash at my gaff and we can make an evening of it!
Hmmm, I may be interested. But the thought of public transport back from Thorpe late at night is rather offputting. Hils won't be around to drive me there and back. (25 minute drive vs hour and a half of tubes, trains and busses. You can see my issue here.)
On the flip side, if someone fancies giving me a lift home, you are welcome to crash at my gaff and we can make an evening of it!
Re: Passholder Preview TP
This years preview day in March was very quiet, and very enjoyable. Hopefully it will be the same for this preview day. They are doing the same reserved places only scheme from last time so it should be quiet.
TheMan said:Mike said:TheMan said:
You've obviously not done a Thorpe passholder event before!
No, you would be right there Mike mate haha - am I living in a fantasy land then?
I thought usually the preview nights were quieter?
(Though I have just remember reading the Pass holder normal days and that alone has filled me with more horror at that prospect, than all the UKs mazes combined!! Say it isn't so??!)
This years preview day in March was very quiet, and very enjoyable. Hopefully it will be the same for this preview day. They are doing the same reserved places only scheme from last time so it should be quiet.
TheMan
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- NemiLerVion
Re: Passholder Preview TP
Right I am all booked in!
All things being equal I will be on park during the day. You will find me on Stealth.
If anyone is struggling to get down, and wishes to share fuel, I am leaving from Birmingham area and don't mind doing a little detour. Be warned though, it is my intention to completely whore the rides as I have not been down all year & front row Stealth is probably my favourite seat of any ride!
Right I am all booked in!
All things being equal I will be on park during the day. You will find me on Stealth.
If anyone is struggling to get down, and wishes to share fuel, I am leaving from Birmingham area and don't mind doing a little detour. Be warned though, it is my intention to completely whore the rides as I have not been down all year & front row Stealth is probably my favourite seat of any ride!
pritchardavid
TS Member
Re: Passholder Preview TP
Should be down about 4 - Have to work
PM me mobile numbers guys, so we can meet up
Should be down about 4
- Have to work PM me mobile numbers guys, so we can meet up
Rose Of Dawn
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Eejanaika (Fuji-Q Highland)
Re: Passholder Preview TP
Art people going? Because I want to go, and I have nothing to do today so I wanna get down there
Art people going? Because I want to go, and I have nothing to do today so I wanna get down there
DiogoJ42
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Metropolitan Line
Re: Passholder Preview TP
Shockingly bad ride operations today. Inferno, Stealth and Colossus all on one train with 40 minute queues.
We even saw a ride host on Inferno attempt to hold the dispatch enable button with a restraint open. Hard to believe it's the same park, when they were doing so well earlier in the season.
Maze wise (didn't do Saw Alive), Asylum is just as dull as last year. Blair Witch is a dark path through some trees where nothing happens (so at least it is true to the film).
My Bloody Valentine is good, the most intense of the lot. But for me, the best maze is Cabin in the Woods. There are multiple paths, rooms, and dead ends. We all got split up several times, and I'm pretty sure there are several parts we didn't get to see.
BW, MBV and CITW are all "free flow" IE, the Europa style where you can wander through at your own pace. Asylum is still batched conga lines. Can't speak for Saw.
When we finally left the park, we spotted a MASSIVE (best part of two inched long and very fat) dead cockroach in the gents under the dome. It seemed fitting.
Shockingly bad ride operations today. Inferno, Stealth and Colossus all on one train with 40 minute queues.
We even saw a ride host on Inferno attempt to hold the dispatch enable button with a restraint open. Hard to believe it's the same park, when they were doing so well earlier in the season.
Maze wise (didn't do Saw Alive), Asylum is just as dull as last year. Blair Witch is a dark path through some trees where nothing happens (so at least it is true to the film).
My Bloody Valentine is good, the most intense of the lot. But for me, the best maze is Cabin in the Woods. There are multiple paths, rooms, and dead ends. We all got split up several times, and I'm pretty sure there are several parts we didn't get to see.
BW, MBV and CITW are all "free flow" IE, the Europa style where you can wander through at your own pace. Asylum is still batched conga lines. Can't speak for Saw.
When we finally left the park, we spotted a MASSIVE (best part of two inched long and very fat) dead cockroach in the gents under the dome. It seemed fitting.
TheMan
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- NemiLerVion
Company aside, which was fantastic; Essex Dave (can't remember your forum name sorry mate!), Duckman, Ashlee, Bench Ben, Ronaldo Diogo - today was an utter farce.
Somehow what should have been a fantastic day given it's obvious potential, was ruined by penny pinching, half arsed running of the park.
Re-rode Guest Services about 3/4 times, I have never in any visit to any Merlin park had to do that on one occasion - I simply refuse to write what was said to me as to why it was running so badly, so bad was it from a customer perspective.
As Diogo says trying to dispatch Nemesis with a restraint open - the group were shouting down why the ride wouldn't go multiple times until they eventually realised!! Did we end up in Mingerland or something? 6/7 minutes to dispatch ONE TRAIN? Yes I think we did.
50 minute (AT LEAST) queue for Nemesis at just after lunch, thanks to Johns phenomenal theme park knowledge he worked out accurately that it only sent round 3400 people in 7 HOURS. Despite the ludicrous queues, refusal to put another train on guess what? Fast track being sold outside the main entrance again... co-incidence? I am sure you can make your own judgements.
Morning: Stealth 45 Swarm 70 (did improve, they actually added the second train to this and this alone), Saw was running well queue wise - I just CBA with the rest.
They were an absolute disgrace. I turned into a Duck-Fueled-Rantypus and they seemed determined to make your day as miserable as possible. The thing is, a few changes and they could have made it a fantastic day, and they KNEW it.
Anyway highlights:
Cabin was great fun and funny. Some clever touches and interesting way of going round it, felt quite long.
Valentine was decent, however kind of felt half X10/half Valentine and also the X10 cells are no longer used which is a shame.
X 4 times, to welcome each new member of the group - until I ended up doing it on my own on their behalf, simply as it had no frigging queue.
Spending some great time with the above folks.
Swarm front right, actually really like it there - really don't anywhere else oddly.
Other lows:
Blair Witch - or... Escape to the Country. Went down a dark path. The end. Good shortcut to Stealth given they had blocked bits of the path off everywhere for queues.
Asylum - From avid fan to WTF was THAT?
Thorpe, that was shameful.
Somehow what should have been a fantastic day given it's obvious potential, was ruined by penny pinching, half arsed running of the park.
Re-rode Guest Services about 3/4 times, I have never in any visit to any Merlin park had to do that on one occasion - I simply refuse to write what was said to me as to why it was running so badly, so bad was it from a customer perspective.
As Diogo says trying to dispatch Nemesis with a restraint open - the group were shouting down why the ride wouldn't go multiple times until they eventually realised!! Did we end up in Mingerland or something? 6/7 minutes to dispatch ONE TRAIN? Yes I think we did.
50 minute (AT LEAST) queue for Nemesis at just after lunch, thanks to Johns phenomenal theme park knowledge he worked out accurately that it only sent round 3400 people in 7 HOURS. Despite the ludicrous queues, refusal to put another train on guess what? Fast track being sold outside the main entrance again... co-incidence? I am sure you can make your own judgements.
Morning: Stealth 45 Swarm 70 (did improve, they actually added the second train to this and this alone), Saw was running well queue wise - I just CBA with the rest.
They were an absolute disgrace. I turned into a Duck-Fueled-Rantypus and they seemed determined to make your day as miserable as possible. The thing is, a few changes and they could have made it a fantastic day, and they KNEW it.
Anyway highlights:
Cabin was great fun and funny. Some clever touches and interesting way of going round it, felt quite long.
Valentine was decent, however kind of felt half X10/half Valentine and also the X10 cells are no longer used which is a shame.
X 4 times, to welcome each new member of the group - until I ended up doing it on my own on their behalf, simply as it had no frigging queue.
Spending some great time with the above folks.
Swarm front right, actually really like it there - really don't anywhere else oddly.
Other lows:
Blair Witch - or... Escape to the Country. Went down a dark path. The end. Good shortcut to Stealth given they had blocked bits of the path off everywhere for queues.
Asylum - From avid fan to WTF was THAT?
Thorpe, that was shameful.
John
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
RE: Inferno restraint check (or lack thereof) - various people swapped seats requiring a recheck of rows 2-5. Clearly row 5 had been missed as a restraint had been left open when the staff attempted to dispatch. Eventually one of the team simply closed the offending restraint without checking the rest of the row.
RE: Ride operations. Stealth wasn't too bad generally, roughly 20-25 minutes for most of the day, though at times it was beyond the "45 minutes from this point" sign. Colossus and Inferno both went into the extended queue lines purely due to how slowly they were getting the trains out. The park was by no means busy - almost every other ride was pretty much walk on all day.
I suspect Thorpe have a policy of adding the 2nd trains only if the queue hits an hour, as Swarm was the only major coaster running 2 trains, and the only queue to exceed 60 minutes according to the boards. This simply isn't good enough for such a major park. The fact that fastrack was being sold at the entrance of Inferno at one point reeks of profiteering. If it's busy enough to sell fastrack, it's busy enough to run at full capacity.
I would have no complaints about queuing 45 minutes for the coasters on a busier day when they're being run properly, but standing in an unmoving queue when other rides are struggling to fill the seats is an utterly miserable experience.
RE: Ride operations. Stealth wasn't too bad generally, roughly 20-25 minutes for most of the day, though at times it was beyond the "45 minutes from this point" sign. Colossus and Inferno both went into the extended queue lines purely due to how slowly they were getting the trains out. The park was by no means busy - almost every other ride was pretty much walk on all day.
I suspect Thorpe have a policy of adding the 2nd trains only if the queue hits an hour, as Swarm was the only major coaster running 2 trains, and the only queue to exceed 60 minutes according to the boards. This simply isn't good enough for such a major park. The fact that fastrack was being sold at the entrance of Inferno at one point reeks of profiteering. If it's busy enough to sell fastrack, it's busy enough to run at full capacity.
I would have no complaints about queuing 45 minutes for the coasters on a busier day when they're being run properly, but standing in an unmoving queue when other rides are struggling to fill the seats is an utterly miserable experience.
TheMan
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- NemiLerVion
AstroDan said:Thing is, Thorpe Park have been doing this inappropriate Fastrack selling for several years now, and we all know that their operations can sometimes leave a lot to be desired.
It's kind of expected with the park...
I think what really got my goat was the fact that even just adding a train to Nemesis alone would have made a big difference and balanced out as an OK day, putting train 2 on Stealth and/or Colossus would have made the day really good. Instead at points it was just thoroughly miserable, and knowing it was deliberately done makes it 10 times worse.
Other attractions were closed such as Loggers Leap, and at times the Rapids - if you didn't like flats, you were going to have a crap day. I don't get on with flats generally, so my experience in that regard wound me up. The fast track nonsense on a poorly run one train Nemesis for a park on Thorpes standing is totally unacceptable.
Rose Of Dawn
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Eejanaika (Fuji-Q Highland)
For me, the big letdown was Nemesis Inferno. I've never seen a ride ran so badly in my life. It made me really cross just seeing the ride ops slacking and not doing their job properly, whilst waiting in a queue that barely moved at all. The girl completely missing the open restraint, then hammering the dispatch button staring off into space whilst people in the queue shouted to her she missed a restraint (it wasn't just us), just said it all.
By the time I got to the park, The Swarm was running brilliantly - managed it three times in a row. The flats had no queues, so being able to walk on to Rush was a bit bonus for me. But Thorpe let themselves down with the operations for Colossus, Stealth and Nemesis Inferno. None of these should have been running one train.
By the time I got to the park, The Swarm was running brilliantly - managed it three times in a row. The flats had no queues, so being able to walk on to Rush was a bit bonus for me. But Thorpe let themselves down with the operations for Colossus, Stealth and Nemesis Inferno. None of these should have been running one train.