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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

Right now I don't think I'd gamble on joining the queue for Thirteen regardless of stated length, it's just not staying open long enough to justify the risk
 
John said:
Right now I don't think I'd gamble on joining the queue for Thirteen regardless of stated length, it's just not staying open long enough to justify the risk
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Indeed it seems to be really struggling at the moment.

My money is on the drop system not being a happy bunny but we will never know.
 
Thirteen does seem to have become horribly unreliable in recent seasons, particularly this season.

Do we reckon something has inherently changed with it, or do we think it’s simply a similar case to Galactica of a technologically complicated ride getting increasingly unreliable with age?
 
When I went on 13 on opening day, the drop section felt like it was lacking something, like it didn’t ‘drop’ with the amount of force it usually does.

Could have just been my own perception being skewed but that section felt a bit off.
 
I wonder why Alton seem to be struggling so much this year?

It doesn’t even necessarily seem to be a Merlin thing.

Over at Thorpe Park, the current longest coaster queue is The Swarm at 60 minutes (Ghost Train at 65 is the longest queue overall), Detonator is the only ride down and Samurai is the only ride that’s yet to open for the season. Thorpe seems to be struggling way less than Alton Towers.

Even at Chessington, which itself has a rocky reputation in terms of availability and throughputs, the current longest queue is Vampire at 85 minutes and every attraction is open bar Dragon’s Playhouse. I grant you, the “Family Explorers” section looks a little barren at the moment, so they may simply have removed things that are yet to open, but of the things that are supposed to be open, only Dragon’s Playhouse is currently closed.
 
Matt N said:
I wonder why Alton seem to be struggling so much this year?

It doesn’t even necessarily seem to be a Merlin thing.

Over at Thorpe Park, the current longest coaster queue is The Swarm at 60 minutes (Ghost Train at 65 is the longest queue overall), Detonator is the only ride down and Samurai is the only ride that’s yet to open for the season. Thorpe seems to be struggling way less than Alton Towers.

Even at Chessington, which itself has a rocky reputation in terms of availability and throughputs, the current longest queue is Vampire at 85 minutes and every attraction is open bar Dragon’s Playhouse.
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Chessington’s rides are old but they are much simpler in terms of technology. They have bad days and then good. If you take one major coaster down (Vampire or Dragons fury) the park begins to struggle. Which is why they get a reputation of being awful for ride availability.

Alton have far more major big attractions, all complicated (prototypes) so they have a bigger margin for error and still manage to mess it up.

Beyond building warehouses for up charge attractions, immediate attention needs to be made on making the rides more reliable and working correctly. I think it’s been the worst start to a season ever. If they didn’t have Nemesis back it would be a complete and utter disaster.
 
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