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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

rob666 said:
Indeed, however, Merlin in particular seem to have an issue with lengthy queueing.
All the BPB queues are usually about half the time at the Towers, day for day matching.
Usual queues at BPB average at about twenty to thirty minutes max, excepting the Big One being on one train.
Towers queues are usually double, on the day.
The Towers queues have got worse overall over time, reliability has got far worse, and very off peak days have vanished.
Availability and operations are nothing like what they used to be...fact.
.
And I think it is time we stopped the pile on with our Ethan.
We are still all allowed our own opinions, and this is the right place to express them.
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Towers have more guests and fewer rides. The big attractions are better than BPB but ultimately there is more to do at the beach to absorb guests and fewer people to absorb most days.

Hence why they need to sort out their support attraction problem.
 
Yup, completely agree.
I meant to add that there used to be far more to do at the Towers than ride fast steel.
My mum had good days there in the days of the Corkscrew...plenty to fill her time, from the sea lions, train, model train, heraldry stuff, little museums, big empty Towers to explore.
Lots more "non ride" availability is exactly what Towers need.
 
My dream was the BPB mouse rebuilt over the top of my house, using both front garden and rear yard, and a bit of the alleyway behind.
Still wouldn't actually fit, but we can dream.
Back on topic, as the forecast remains poor, will we be looking at twenty minute waits next week then?
 
rob666 said:
My dream was the BPB mouse rebuilt over the top of my house, using both front garden and rear yard, and a bit of the alleyway behind.
Still wouldn't actually fit, but we can dream.
Back on topic, as the forecast remains poor, will we be looking at twenty minute waits next week then?
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Well school holidays finish this week I think so queues will definitely be low next week
 
djtruefitt said:
It was closed all day yesterday, I asked the staff about 3ish if it would open that day and they said it was unlikely.
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Opened late the day before, but think opened on time day before that. Looks like whatever the issue is got worse as the week went on.

Congo was open for about 3 hours total for the 3 days we were there.
 
Some weird operations today.

Smiler was on three. The guy at the bottom controlling the queues going up to the station got it all wrong today. He left the single riders stuck in the projection room until they called over the tannoy for “some single riders please” he obliged but then failed to send any of the other three queues up which resulted in an empty station for quite some time. Cue a full “single rider” train that followed with a 70 minute queue waiting outside. We got on, as we got off the station was still empty. It’s too much for one person to manage that stupid system, especially as you have to pull a gate across for single riders. May as well get rid of the damn thing if it’s going to be like that.

Thirteen was not on three but didn’t chance the queue (never ride it over 30 minutes anymore). I think I actually despise this ride in its current format. Never on full capacity, low reliability, never opens on time. Just “meh”. Haven’t done it in 3 visits this year. RMT is the superior family offering currently.

Galactica was 1 station 2 crafts with a bin blocking station 1. Nipped on it before the queue reached 80 mins.

Nemesis had 2 seats blocked off on both trains back row. No idea why but made getting the back row easy for a two or 1.

Wickerman - 3 trains, excellent ops. Short queue times of 30-10 minutes

Oblivion - Old trusty, two stations 5 shuttles.

Rita - two trains, ops good.

Generally very quiet day today. Managed 18 rides (10 on Nemesis). Reliability was excellent I can’t recall many (if any) breakdowns at all. No curse, rapids opened from 11ish onwards.

Things are improving, we’ve come a long way in the last month. They aren’t perfect but it would be a much better experience to visit now than it was at the beginning of the season.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
Some weird operations today.

Smiler was on three. The guy at the bottom controlling the queues going up to the station got it all wrong today. He left the single riders stuck in the projection room until they called over the tannoy for “some single riders please” he obliged but then failed to send any of the other three queues up which resulted in an empty station for quite some time. Cue a full “single rider” train that followed with a 70 minute queue waiting outside. We got on, as we got off the station was still empty. It’s too much for one person to manage that stupid system, especially as you have to pull a gate across for single riders. May as well get rid of the damn thing if it’s going to be like that.

Thirteen was not on three but didn’t chance the queue (never ride it over 30 minutes anymore). I think I actually despise this ride in its current format. Never on full capacity, low reliability, never opens on time. Just “meh”. Haven’t done it in 3 visits this year. RMT is the superior family offering currently.

Galactica was 1 station 2 crafts with a bin blocking station 1. Nipped on it before the queue reached 80 mins.

Nemesis had 2 seats blocked off on both trains back row. No idea why but made getting the back row easy for a two or 1.

Wickerman - 3 trains, excellent ops. Short queue times of 30-10 minutes

Oblivion - Old trusty, two stations 5 shuttles.

Rita - two trains, ops good.

Generally very quiet day today. Managed 18 rides (10 on Nemesis). Reliability was excellent I can’t recall many (if any) breakdowns at all. No curse, rapids opened from 11ish onwards.

Things are improving, we’ve come a long way in the last month. They aren’t perfect but it would be a much better experience to visit now than it was at the beginning of the season.
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An improvement but still not good enough. Why are 3 coasters still on reduced capacity a month after opening. They should’ve sorted the other train for Smiler and Th13teen by now. And as for Galactica… I think they do it on purpose. That ride is on 3 crafts a few days a year and that’s no exaggeration
 
Well another day of gusty winds so I imagine Smiler oblivion and wicker man will be closed all day. Good job only a few rides are impacted by wind because barely anything seems to operate at Thorpe
 
Ethan said:
And as for Galactica… I think they do it on purpose. That ride is on 3 crafts a few days a year and that’s no exaggeration
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It costs more to operate on two stations, simple as that. And not just a bit more such as with Oblivion that needs a couple of extra staff to dual load.

With Galactica you need two ride ops and two fully staffed stations with hosts.

So it makes business sense to reduce costs for quieter forecasted days.
 
Ethan said:
An improvement but still not good enough. Why are 3 coasters still on reduced capacity a month after opening. They should’ve sorted the other train for Smiler and Th13teen by now. And as for Galactica… I think they do it on purpose. That ride is on 3 crafts a few days a year and that’s no exaggeration
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Well it’s had its two as it was on opening day and the following Sunday.

I get your point though. Not sure what the reason behind it is.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
Thirteen was not on three but didn’t chance the queue (never ride it over 30 minutes anymore). I think I actually despise this ride in its current format. Never on full capacity, low reliability, never opens on time. Just “meh”. Haven’t done it in 3 visits this year. RMT is the superior family offering currently.
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Just to comment on this, we may have got lucky but we recently visited for 3 days and Thirteen opened on time every day.

However, it may have opened on time but unless you got there at opening it wasn't worth trying to ride as the queue was very long all day.
 
rob666 said:
Because it is quiet on the park, and maximum capacity simply isn't needed at the moment due to low crowd numbers?
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I don’t understand this thinking. As long as opening more capacity doesn’t take the queue to 0 then there’s value to the guests in running the maximum capacity you can.
Sure it’s cheaper not to. But these parks are not small time local attractions.
 
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