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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-25

160 minute queues in July is very normal
as its school trip season. People repeatedly visit in school trip season and then are shocked it’s busy.

Downtime is bad though, worst season I can remember for ride uptime, even though some of the obsession on here for 20min shutdowns is a little excessive.
 
I know the report that @Bowser is on about, and the queue was apparently advertised at 70…

It does seem as though Alton is having a rough season for ride availability, though, with a number of attractions being down for extended multi-day stints. I find this interesting when none of the other Merlin parks seem to be having issues to nearly the same extent.

Other than Hyperia, the only ride at Thorpe I can think of that’s spent a long stint closed this year is Detonator, and Chessington and Legoland haven’t had any significant ride availability issues this year to my knowledge either.

They also seem to have grown to have trouble with advertising accurate queue times. When I went in March, I got in an advertised “70 minute” queue for Wicker Man that ended up being 2.5 hours, and I also got in an advertised “110 minute” queue for Nemesis Reborn that ended up being only 60 minutes…
 
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160 mins for Rita, I cant think of anything worse than being stood in that cattle pen queue line for that long. Mind you, Smiler queue line comes a close second!
 
Aside from Nemesis Reborn, the rides which suffered any noticeable downtime (for me, checking the app in the park when looking at what to do) were Oblivion, Wickerman and Spinball Whizzer.

Oblivion went down for about 25 mins around lunchtime. The ride attendant, stationed at the front of the station, said that the downtime was due to a PA system fault. Given that you could hear them trying different announcements, throughout the queue line and on the drop, I'm inclined to give this explanation the benefit of the doubt.

Wickerman's downtime of 30 mins, in the afternoon toward 2/3 pm, was attributed to a dropped belonging on the lift hill. I'm wagering a phone, there were a few "put that phone away" announcements throughout the day I heard whilst trains were at stations.

Spinball Whizzer had an issue with the restraints on two cars being released (around 11), which caused a few stalls. The cars were swapped out, which didn't take long at all, and it seemed to have plain sailing for the rest of the day.

TH13TEEN did have three trains in operation, but it didn't have a bag drop running, so you had the inevitable platform squabble, leading to the three trains stacking.

Rita had two train ops, but the back car / back two rows on each train (first thing in the morning) were closed off. I'm not sure if these were operating later in the day. The longest queue I saw advertised for this is 70 mins, which seems standard for Rita. It's a casual guest favourite, if not one for the enthusiasts.

Galactica had three trains, on a two station operation.

I don't think I've ever seen an advertised queue time for The Smiler at least than 60 mins, it's regularly at 90. Operations yesterday for it were fine, but the queue management at the merge was awful, complicated by people seemingly not knowing how a bag drop works.

It is worth noting that in the day of the app, if a ride ceases operation for even 5 minutes, it's almost guaranteed to list as Closed. These periods of "downtime" wouldn't have been measured, noticed, or reported in the days of queue boards. You wouldn't see a train pass for a few minutes, wonder what was going on, and then see one. This is often now listed as Closed. I see the logic of doing this, you don't want the queue to fill if you can't shift it, but it doesn't look great for outside optics.

You've then got the compounding issue of app queue times not being the most reliable. Toward the end of the day, getting off The Blade, a shout went up of "Galactica's on 15 mins", cue a stampede of people running toward Galactica, which had a queue heading toward the car park turn extension, making it closer to 30/40, let alone the people running into it.

I had a pleasant day, but I can see why others might not have done. The lack of Retro Squad queue absorbers was certainly felt, it would have just eased pressure a little everywhere. With Nemesis Reborn closed yesterday, and Hex still not open, the park had fewer operating attractions than it did on the same day last year. (Not even counting The Dungeons).
 
I once waited 40min for Rita from the pre-2010 FT merge point (just before the scaffold tunnel). That was with the ride running 2 trains. If they managed to actually fill the whole queue you'd be there all day. I don't think it's a case of not updating queue times, more that they just don't realise how little the queue actually moves.
 
Was on park yesterday with someone who hasn’t been since queen of speed days so it was quite funny seeing his reaction to rides like Smiler. Anyway in terms of operations on a busy day I thought Towers absolutely smashed it. Spinball ops were the only exception as they were running it on wet weather ops when it wasn’t even raining? Managed to get all the big 7 done despite some horrendous waits for Smiler and big bob during the day. I’ll break down the queues and operations:
Nemesis- straight to Nemmy first and managed to get the smooth train as rattle was barely noticeable. What an absolute beast she is it’s a stunning ride. Feels more intense in sections than the original to me. Ops were decent as always said 20 was about 15.
Wicker Man- Galactica was late opening so we didn’t bother sticking around. Wicker was advertised 25 to my surprise but went up to 40 as we joined. Typical ops on here 3 trains getting them out quick. Took about 50 in the end including pre show but we were 11th row and it was flying for a morning ride.
TH13TEEN- Back on 3 trains and as a result the queue moved much quicker which is ideal at this time of year. Said 60 which I didn’t believe and as I expected it jumped upto 90 not long after we’d joined. Waited about 75 in the end but the queue was constantly moving so I thought it was alright.
Rita- Said 100 but we thought sod it we may as well do it. To my surprise took about 85 so we take that. Ops were pretty decent on here and queue felt like it was moving at a good pace for once.
Smiler- This opened late so as you’d expect everyone flocked to it when it opened. Said 120 when we joined which didn’t surprise me and ultimately took around 110. Not queued that long for anything for a while so was a bit tedious but decent ride on row 2 nonetheless. Ops were very good on this but queue still felt like it wasn’t moving much.
Oblivion- school trips have pretty much gone by this point and as a result Oblivion only said 30. Actually only took 15 in the end too so happy days. Ops were superb on this as they were on all 3 B&Ms.
Galactica- We head back to valley to end our day and to my surprise Galactica only said 15. This was the most accurate queue of the day and they were dispatching like I’ve never seen before on this ride. Best ops of the day and it’s a fun ride too when you don’t have to wait long
Nemesis- Finished with a 2nd go on here which only took 10 mins despite saying 25. Best ride of the day 6th row and it was flying round in the rain.
All in all good day really considering some of the queues. Great ops for the most part
 
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Four main coasters not open, and lengthy school trip queues on the other rides before eleven...oh it is hotting up for the schools.
 
I do have to say it feels ride availability is getting worse this season than previously.

Almost everyday when I’ve looked at ride times in the morning there are always a load of rides closed which open late every day.

I popped in Friday afternoon for only 3 hours and just wondering around the park we saw Rita, Wicker Man, Curse, Galactica and nemesis Reborn closed at points for technical issues, and that was just rides we were walking past.
 
djtruefitt said:
I popped in Friday afternoon for only 3 hours and just wondering around the park we saw Rita, Wicker Man, Curse, Galactica and nemesis Reborn closed at points for technical issues, and that was just rides we were walking past.
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I think maybe luck comes into play quite a bit. I rarely see rides go down when I visit which is bizarre considering the rides always tend to have downtime when I’m not there
 
For the Towers to improve efficiency in operations, it is becoming clear that our Ethan should visit the park on a more frequent basis in future, to help us all in our thoosie experiences overall.
 
rob666 said:
For the Towers to improve efficiency in operations, it is becoming clear that our Ethan should visit the park on a more frequent basis in future
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I shouldn’t tell you this but I’m secretly Harry potter so the rides can’t break when I’m there
 
When playing the lottery of which rides will open at 10, what is the best strategy?

For example, if I were to pick Wicker Man to go on first and get there at 9:30 or whatever, if there is no action (ie no trains testing etc) at what time should you cut your losses and go to a different ride? Or is it a case of just waiting until 10 and if it then doesn’t open look at the app and find a ride that is open?

I suppose what I’m asking is at what time before 10 should it be obvious if the ride is likely to open at 10 or not?
 
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