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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

AltonLover123 said:
CBeebies, Mutiny Bay, Walliams World, the Gardens, Sealife etc. they’re all part of the attraction line up that you pay for.

I wasn’t saying the other rides offset the crowds. I was commenting regarding thier availability clause that you agree to when purchasing a ticket.
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On a purely technical point, you pay for access / entry to the park and nothing more. There are attractions, to attract you to visit, but their utilisation is not a requirement or a guarantee.

The company reserves the right to offer you a refund, or compensation, for your visit if they believe that it hasn't met an arbitrary standard that they themselves set, but they're under no legal obligation to do so.

The only scenario in which you would be legally entitled to a refund, would be if you were to pay for entry and for whatever reason the park didn't open its gates that day to any visitor, or if they had oversold the capacity.

Whether the park is under a moral obligation, or it's in the interests of good customer support, to offer compensation for the sort of operational days we've seen recently is a different question entirely.
 
Danscott22 said:
Rita isn't opening today then as they originally announced, the "reopening 30 October" has been removed from the website
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Isn't Rita one of the staggered opening rides that opens at 11 or 12?

Maybe it's been removed because it is opening later on as planned?
 
So we’re an hour and a half since opening, and Spinball Whizzer, Galactica, Oblivion and Rita all yet to open. Appreciate the staggered openings and Rita’s maintenance, but it’s still a waste of a morning.

I hope and pray that when they reopen next year with regular hours that the staggered openings are long gone.
 
Mick said:
So we’re an hour and a half since opening, and Spinball Whizzer, Galactica, Oblivion and Rita all yet to open. Appreciate the staggered openings and Rita’s maintenance, but it’s still a waste of a morning.

I hope and pray that when they reopen next year with regular hours that the staggered openings are long gone.
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Just getting worse on park, absolute shocker again.
 
Park has now been open for almost 4 hours and at least 4 major coasters have been closed during this time. The operating coasters all have queues for 2 hours or more. The "East" side of the park is basically a write off today unless you're there for CBeebies.

Again, the queue times aren't much better at Thorpe Park but everything is open. Having 4 or more of arguably your 7 main attractions closed all day during the busiest week of the season is pitiful.
 
Given Bianca is quite active on Instagram, I was hoping ride reliability was a burning trend in her comments. It appears not to be the case, but she did respond to the one comment she had with this:

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The Twitter account seems to have given up responding to people with even the usual hollow apology. There are a LOT of complaints :eek:
 
Danny said:
Given Bianca is quite active on Instagram, I was hoping ride reliability was a burning trend in her comments. It appears not to be the case, but she did respond to the one comment she had with this:

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Im not sure I’d call its performance excellent. Its probably fair to say it is good, but only relative to the park’s other rides.

GooseOnTheLoose said:
On a purely technical point, you pay for access / entry to the park and nothing more. There are attractions, to attract you to visit, but their utilisation is not a requirement or a guarantee.

The company reserves the right to offer you a refund, or compensation, for your visit if they believe that it hasn't met an arbitrary standard that they themselves set, but they're under no legal obligation to do so.

The only scenario in which you would be legally entitled to a refund, would be if you were to pay for entry and for whatever reason the park didn't open its gates that day to any visitor, or if they had oversold the capacity.

Whether the park is under a moral obligation, or it's in the interests of good customer support, to offer compensation for the sort of operational days we've seen recently is a different question entirely.
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I’m not sure I’d want to test that argument in court - “we’ve opened the gates and have your £50, so please refer to our T&Cs”.

There’s a reasonable assumption that people will be able to ride the attractions advertised. Yes, some may break down, within reason. I’d suggest that having half of your major rides broken at any one time is not what one would reasonably expect. It could perhaps be argued that the park have not delivered its service with reasonable skill and care, and there may be other contraventions of the Consumer Rights Act.
 
She's right, there might be occasions when additional maintenance is required. However, it is simply not normal for this to be currently every day on a lot of rides, having rides closed 5/6 hours into the day, multiple closures at once for prolonged periods, or let's face it, for majority of your operational season. Not particularly satisfied with that response.
 
It would be interesting to see how Merlin would respond to the threat of legal action as they might decide to settle if they don't fancy their chances in court (or don't want to spend more time and money defending themselves). However, they also would not want to set a precedent of refunding anyone who has been to the park recently and threatens legal action regardless of whether they would be willing to go through with it.
 
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