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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

JugglersDoughnut said:
2 hours and 5 minutes to this point. d9f2395a-7899-4aed-ad70-2aca9714756f.jpeg
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Wow @JugglersDoughnut; where did you start queueing from for it to take that long? Is it a particularly long queue, or is it just moving slowly?

If that’s where you’ve gotten to in 125 minutes, then your wait for Thirteen may well end up giving my 145 minute wait for Wicker Man last Saturday a run for its money…
 
I know many people have been singing the praises of Bianca. I do feel it is important to remember that the responsibility for the poor operations ultimately rests at her door.

There have absolutely been exceptional issues with certain rides, however, the ongoing issues with many attractions and poor capacity really needs someone to take responsibility. Alton Towers is currently poor value for money. I am desperate to visit, but with the current state of the attractions - I can't justify it. Fingers crossed they can improve quickly.
 
Matt N said:
Wow @JugglersDoughnut; where did you start queueing from for it to take that long? Is it a particularly long queue, or is it just moving slowly?

If that’s where you’ve gotten to in 125 minutes, then your wait for Thirteen may well end up giving my 145 minute wait for Wicker Man last Saturday a run for its money…
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Mmm, probably took us one hour to get to the vending machines (couldn’t help but laugh watching some poor lass moaning about her hunger paying an astonishing £4 for a bag of wine gums in desperation).

It’s because everything is going down then coming back up so with Smiler, Wicker Man, Rita all having long periods down (Spinball too went down after we went on it) it seems RAMMED in Dark Forest. The Fastpass queue is a disgrace though, it’s so oversold.

We’re relaxed about it as we have annual passes and live in Chesterfield so it’s a quick journey and we come often - but if you’ve come from afar and this is an expensive/big trip for you it really is poor, Easter holidays or not.
 
Matt N said:
Wow @JugglersDoughnut; where did you start queueing from for it to take that long? Is it a particularly long queue, or is it just moving slowly?

If that’s where you’ve gotten to in 125 minutes, then your wait for Thirteen may well end up giving my 145 minute wait for Wicker Man last Saturday a run for its money…
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Wasn’t it on 1 train at some point last Saturday. Might be the same again if it’s that slow moving
 
Ethan said:
Wasn’t it on 1 train at some point last Saturday. Might be the same again if it’s that slow moving
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I’m that much of a sad act ( and had nothing better to do) that I counted the time between a train entering the crypt and one cresting the lift hill at 32 seconds.

Has to be on two.
 
JugglersDoughnut said:
I’m that much of a sad act ( and had nothing better to do) that I counted the time between a train entering the crypt and one cresting the lift hill at 32 seconds.

Has to be on two.
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With the duration between the crest of the lift and entering the crypt only being around 30-35 seconds, that would make for a dispatch interval of about 67 seconds at worst… which could honestly put it on 3 unless that’s simply the quicker dispatch interval out of 2 trains.

I’ll admit that I’d be absolutely stunned if a 3-train Thirteen had a queue as long and slow-moving as you describe, though… even with high quantities of Fastrack and RAP, I’d expect 3-train Thirteen to be a bit more of a queue muncher than that. 1 hour to get to the vending machines sounds painfully slow…

Here’s a handy hint for when you get to the station. If the ride is on 2 trains, you should see a gap between a train leaving the station and the train behind re-entering it, and you won’t stack at the end. I rode it last year when it was on 2 trains, and for some idea, there was a gap in the station, and when I was about midway up the lift hill, I was seeing the train in front emerging from the crypt onto the final brake run.

Coincidentally, I also queued 105 minutes for it that day… Thirteen gets busy on reduced capacity, it would seem!
EDIT - It would seem as though Alton Towers’ own official POV would peg the dispatch interval I describe at around 1m 18s, at a rough guess, so I’m going to take a stab at the ride being on 2 trains based on the info you’ve given:
 
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Matt N said:
I’ll admit that I’d be absolutely stunned if a 3-train Thirteen had a queue as long and slow-moving as you describe, though… even with high quantities of Fastrack and RAP, I’d expect 3-train Thirteen to be a bit more of a queue muncher than that. 1 hour to get to the vending machines sounds painfully slow…
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Mmm I queued 2 hours when the queue was about half full on 3 trains because RAP and fastrack were really busy so you never know
 
JugglersDoughnut said:
Mmm, probably took us one hour to get to the vending machines (couldn’t help but laugh watching some poor lass moaning about her hunger paying an astonishing £4 for a bag of wine gums in desperation).

It’s because everything is going down then coming back up so with Smiler, Wicker Man, Rita all having long periods down (Spinball too went down after we went on it) it seems RAMMED in Dark Forest. The Fastpass queue is a disgrace though, it’s so oversold.

We’re relaxed about it as we have annual passes and live in Chesterfield so it’s a quick journey and we come often - but if you’ve come from afar and this is an expensive/big trip for you it really is poor, Easter holidays or not.
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Not only is fastrack oversold they throw them out hand over fist as compensation. It's counterproductive as the fastrack queue holds up the main queues resulting in people having a bad day who then get fastrack as compensation. Rinse and repeat. As long as compensation costs the park nothing then things won't change I'm afraid.

The free fastrack printer must be the most reliable piece of equipment in the park.
 
Austin Towers said:
Not only is fastrack oversold they throw them out hand over fist as compensation. It's counterproductive as the fastrack queue holds up the main queues resulting in people having a bad day who then get fastrack as compensation. Rinse and repeat. As long as compensation costs the park nothing then things won't change I'm afraid.
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If it’s anything like when I went, it won’t only be Fastrack either. RAP usage also seemed to be at a level I’ve never seen before last weekend. Wicker Man had an obscene RAP queue stretching almost back to the ride entrance, as did Rita and RMT. I could also observe a rather significant RAP queue on Thirteen.
 
Josh555 said:
To be fair it’s the Easter holidays next week so likely to be 45 minutes as a minimum queue for any of the major rides prior to the last hour of the day when things tail off.
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Nope. Normally do a Tuesday or Wednesday Easter hols visit. Queues do top out much higher than that, but with a planned route around we normally get away with waiting sub 45 mins for everything other than Wickerman. Normally a few walk ons - 10 mins queues in Forbidden Valley last half hour of the day.

Won't be able to do that this year if half the rides are closed.
 
Matt.GC said:
Seriously thinking of not going next week now. I generally don't tolerate queues over 30-45 mins at Towers (hence I'm selective of when I go). Downtime happens but I'd expect to get every major attraction done, plus a few re-rides, bar maybe one if it's down for the day.

I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation for a moderate day nearly 4 weeks into the season. A 6 hour round trip just doesn't look like it's worth the risk unless things drastically improve the next few days.
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I’m in the same position as you (my round trip is an hour longer) and I honestly don’t know if I really be bothered visiting the park due to the ride availability issues and I didn’t visit last year either for the same reason.

I know that all of us here have been really impressed by Bianca and her openness with regards to some changes that need to be made at the park and potential future developments, but perhaps it is fair to ask if the poor ride availability we are seeing is something that she should be addressing? Of course there is the issue that by nature of Merlin investing in “World’s first” rides over the years there is some hardware in the park that can be problematic.
 
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