Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

[Skyscraper]

Probably not 100% confirmed as that is most certainly not the case. There may well be staffing issues (I am unsure) but Hex has far bigger issues than that.

Yeah that's what I was thinking, especially given it's major downtime last season. It's the flagship dark ride at the park, not to mention a throughput monster, so I'm sure they wouldn't close it unless absolutely necessary

 

[jon81uk]

Not 100% confirmed, but apparently Hex's closure is due to "staffing issues". Is a shame if that's the case, but kind of understandable given how staff-heavy it is.

It’s not that staff heavy? Usually 3-4 isn’t it, one at entry turnstile before first pre-show, one in the ops booth and one or two on restraint checks.

 

[Matt N]

I’m not sure Hex is as important to the park’s lineup (from a corporate standpoint) as some are making out myself. While I won’t deny that a lot of enthusiasts like it (myself included), I don’t think it really seems to resonate with the general visitor in the same way that a lot of the park’s other attractions do, and I certainly don’t think it’s something the park would prioritise in terms of “what attractions to operate” if they ever made that decision. So if they are having staffing shortages, it does seem like a better choice to close than some other attractions in the park. It’s quite staff-heavy, and not overly popular. Or at least, it doesn’t seem overly popular; it rarely has a queue, even on busy days, and I don’t think you can place the blame solely on throughput there, as Hex’s is only 864pph.

 

[Dave]

It’s got absolutely nothing to do with staffing issues.

 

[Skyscraper]

I’m not sure Hex is as important to the park’s lineup (from a corporate standpoint) as some are making out myself. While I won’t deny that a lot of enthusiasts like it (myself included), I don’t think it really seems to resonate with the general visitor in the same way that a lot of the park’s other attractions do, and I certainly don’t think it’s something the park would prioritise in terms of “what attractions to operate” if they ever made that decision. So if they are having staffing shortages, it does seem like a better choice to close than some other attractions in the park. It’s quite staff-heavy, and not overly popular. Or at least, it doesn’t seem overly popular; it rarely has a queue, even on busy days, and I don’t think you can place the blame solely on throughput there, as Hex’s is only 864pph.

It never has a queue because of the enormous capacity, Matt.

 

[Danscott22]

There is clearly something wrong with Hex that isn't staffing issues. The sign at the front about the temporarily sealed vault is similar to the one in front of the Rapids at the end of last season, which was receiving major work. My guess is it's something to do with the ride drum, but that is just a guess of course. It's the only thing within Hex that I can see causing major downtime.

 

[Matt N]

It never has a queue because of the enormous capacity, Matt.

But Hex’s capacity is only 864pph. Or throughput, should I say.

Rides on park with larger throughputs than Hex still get longer queues.

 

[Danscott22]

But Hex’s capacity is only 864pph. Or throughput, should I say.

Rides on park with larger throughputs than Hex still get longer queues.

it eats a lot of people though as there can be (72 people I think) in 4 different rooms at any one time (there isn't always, but there could be - pre-show, TV screen room, octagon and the vault). It's probably more likely that the vault and TV screen room (not sure of its name) are full with the octagon room being empty, but it's still a queue eater.

 

[Matt N]

it eats a lot of people though as there can be (72 people I think) in 4 different rooms at any one time (there isn't always, but there could be - pre-show, TV screen room, octagon and the vault). It's probably more likely that the vault and TV screen room (not sure of its name) are full with the octagon room being empty, but it's still a queue eater.

But wouldn’t the queue time be dictated by the rate of flow of people as opposed to the amount of people it can physically hold once all the rooms are full? Or at least, the TV room at the start is full? (As guests will need to wait for that group to leave the TV room before they can enter)

Hex’s rate of flow will surely be dictated by the lowest throughput out of the individual components, which is presumably the ride at 864pph.

I’m not really sure… it’s a confusing one.

One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that Hex’s cycles are rarely full straight away; they’re often waiting a good few minutes before starting the first pre-show. If Hex’s cycles were always full from the off, I would agree more with the point about its short queue time being caused by a big capacity, but from experience, it usually takes a fair amount of time for them to fill a cycle to capacity; Hex doesn’t do run throughs at an overly frequent interval, which leads me to believe that its ridership & popularity are not that high relative to other atttactions.

 

[Danscott22]

But wouldn’t the queue time be dictated by the rate of flow of people as opposed to the amount of people it can physically hold once all the rooms are full? Or at least, the TV room at the start is full? (As guests will need to wait for that group to leave the TV room before they can enter)

I'm not sure, but it's not like they've got to wait for the entire experience to end before batching another group. Once a group has moved from the first section to the second, the next group can be batched. Even if you're waiting for that first pre-show to start for ages (as often is the case) the queue time will still have stopped, because you're now in the experience. Guests are likely to have moved to the octagon room before the first room even starts, because of how long you're usually held there.

 

[Matt N]

I'm not sure, but it's not like they've got to wait for the entire experience to end before batching another group. Once a group has moved from the first section to the second, the next group can be batched. Even if you're waiting for that first pre-show to start for ages (as often is the case) the queue time will still have stopped, because you're now in the experience. Guests are likely to have moved to the octagon room before the first room even starts, because of how long you're usually held there.

That would make sense.

As I said above, though, I don’t think Hex starts cycles nearly as often as it theoretically could, as you’re often waiting for a fair few minutes for the first room to even fill up, as you say. That is what leads me to believe that it’s not the most popular ride.

 

[jon81uk]

But wouldn’t the queue time be dictated by the rate of flow of people as opposed to the amount of people it can physically hold once all the rooms are full? Or at least, the TV room at the start is full? (As guests will need to wait for that group to leave the TV room before they can enter)

The difference is if people are waiting to ride Nemesis you can clearly see them in the queue and that affects the queue time. Whereas with Hex there could be 200+ people in the pre-shows not on the actual ride, but are not affecting the queue time as they are in the experiance. So it holds a lot of people in the overall attraction, the capacity of the attraction is 288 even if the ride only holds 72.

 

[Skyscraper]

it eats a lot of people though as there can be (72 people I think) in 4 different rooms at any one time (there isn't always, but there could be - pre-show, TV screen room, octagon and the vault). It's probably more likely that the vault and TV screen room (not sure of its name) are full with the octagon room being empty, but it's still a queue eater.

Upto 78 per group on Hex!

 

[Rick]

But Hex’s capacity is only 864pph. Or throughput, should I say.

Rides on park with larger throughputs than Hex still get longer queues.

it eats a lot of people though as there can be (72 people I think) in 4 different rooms at any one time (there isn't always, but there could be - pre-show, TV screen room, octagon and the vault). It's probably more likely that the vault and TV screen room (not sure of its name) are full with the octagon room being empty, but it's still a queue eater.

Throughput is governed by the element with the least capacity. The beauty of Hex is that you can push the same large group through each of the three components fairly seamlessly.

If you had a 500 seat cinema showing a 2 minute film on a repeat and Enso as the ride element, your throughput would be that of Enso with a massive bottleneck in the middle. Hex doesn't really have a bottleneck.

 

[rob666]

It never has a queue because of the enormous capacity, Matt.

It used to have a queue, often quite considerable, but not since the smiler arrived, roughly.

 

[Ethan]

Talking of ride popularity, what would you say is the most popular ride at towers? I would've said smiler but it's definitely Wicker man. Gets similar queues yet has a higher throughput. Th13teen aswell gets long queues despite having one of the highest throughputs on park

 

[Danscott22]

Talking of ride popularity, what would you say is the most popular ride at towers? I would've said smiler but it's definitely Wicker man. Gets similar queues yet has a higher throughput. Th13teen aswell gets long queues despite having one of the highest throughputs on park

Nemesis beat Air, Oblivion, Rita and Thirteen in a 2011 King of Coasters poll despite it's queues being significantly lower. So, I'm not totally sure this logic works. I think Nemesis is the overall most popular ride - as not everyone voting on a "favourite ride poll" obviously visits on the same day. It isn't my favourite, but I definitely think it's the public/enthusiast favourite. It's even getting a re-track because it's so well loved. If it wasn't, they'd probably just get rid.

 

[Matt N]

Nemesis beat Air, Oblivion, Rita and Thirteen in a 2011 King of Coasters poll despite it's queues being significantly lower. So, I'm not totally sure this logic works. I think Nemesis is the overall most popular ride - as not everyone voting on a "favourite ride poll" obviously visits on the same day. It isn't my favourite, but I definitely think it's the public/enthusiast favourite. It's even getting a re-track because it's so well loved. If it wasn't, they'd probably just get rid.

I know Smiler beat Nemesis in a similar poll conducted after its opening, and Wicker Man was also cited as Alton’s highest reviewed ride in recent feedback surveys, so I’m not sure if Nemesis is the most popular now. It may well have been in 2011, but I reckon Smiler & Wicker Man have topped it now if you look at the general park visiting populace.

I think Nemesis is iconic, don’t get me wrong, and I do think it still has a certain level of popularity among the general visitor demographic (if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be receiving a retrack), but I’m not sure that the general populace views it as highly as the likes of Smiler and Wicker Man. Enthusiasts view it more highly than those two on average, but I’m not sure that the average visitor does.

 

[Danscott22]

The thing is The Smiler was ranked higher than Nemesis less than a year after it opened, and that could quite have easily been new ride bias. Not everyone will have been filling out feedback surveys either, so it's a difficult one to gauge.

 

[Matt N]

Not everyone will have been filling out feedback surveys either, so it's a difficult one to gauge.

Not everyone would have been doing the rides poll either, so I think that evens it out. Not everyone will have done any of those things.

In fact, I’d guess that it would mostly have been enthusiasts doing the ride poll.