They close the ride queues earlier depending on the queue time they'll be a while filter guests through the last back log of the day
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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-25
Matt N
TS Member
That’s never traditionally been the policy.
As I understand it, all ride queues will close at the advertised close time unless explicitly stated otherwise (e.g. Hyperia last year).
Some parks do operate as you describe, but Merlin have never done it that way. The advertised close time is the queue close time, not the ride close time.
What it put up on the app is not precisely what is happening on the ground.
Apps sometimes say closed when rides are open.
They sometimes fib about actual queue times as well.
They are a general guide.
Not that I ever do queuetimes.
But this is Britain, and we all go home for tea, none of that continental evening stuff here.
Apps sometimes say closed when rides are open.
They sometimes fib about actual queue times as well.
They are a general guide.
Not that I ever do queuetimes.
But this is Britain, and we all go home for tea, none of that continental evening stuff here.
DistortAMG
TS Member
They absolutely fib about queue times, because by doing that it is a great and extremely effective and easy way to spread guests out around the park. I can't say they are as aggressive as Disney however, but displaying queue times has other advantages than ya know, telling people the queue times.
AltonLover123
TS Member
It was a power cut according to a friend on park.
I had a thought this morning could it be their safety policies that is causing rides to go down frequently where if anything no matter how small it closes and will not open for the day
Not a great start to the day, availability wise. They really need to sort this out.
Skyscraper
TS Member
Not a great start to the day, availability wise. They really need to sort this out.
This is probably why;
Maybe need a back up system that changes the power to generator instantlyThis is probably why;
Danscott22
TS Member
Yeah in fairness to them today, the power issue which happened yesterday is affecting some of the PLCs and causing delays. Quite a lot of the time it’s pathetic ride availability but this one’s out of their hands
Secret Weapon
TS Member
I can understand Toxicator and Sub-Terra not being affected by the power cut, because they are flat rides and so probably have relatively simple PLCs (not having to handle multiple cars on the track, etc), but it's strange that Nemesis Reborn was not affected (especially as the other two B&M coasters were) ?This is probably why;
Granted, I think Galactica is a bit more complicated (a video I saw on YouTube showed that B&M flying coasters have extra sensors), but I wouldn't have thought that Oblivion would be much different from Nemesis Reborn? Unless it is simply because Oblivion has more trains on the track?
DistortAMG
TS Member
Not totally out of Towers fault, they still hold partial blame. Any self respecting themepark would "work through the problems" overnight, to ensure rides are avaliable for the guests who are paying to enter the park the next day.
Alton Towers may not be to blame for the cause, but they certainly can be held responsible for the resolution, or lack of. Happy to accept paying customers through the gates though, knowing full well these issues exist.
Alton Towers may not be to blame for the cause, but they certainly can be held responsible for the resolution, or lack of. Happy to accept paying customers through the gates though, knowing full well these issues exist.
Islander
TS Member
Comparing various ride PLCs in that way is somewhat meaningless. In some ways, there are far more factors at play - for instance age, I'd wager that Toxicator's PLC is potentially more complex than Oblivion's, given it is simply far newer and has far more modern regs to comply with.
On the flip side, at the end of the day, a PLC is a PLC - they're all very simple computers following a set of programmed rules. Really makes little difference whether this is 1,000 rules or 100,000 rules, 50 inputs and outputs or 5,000 inputs and outputs.
flyingguitar
TS Member
Not really possible, unless you suggest AT gets a small PowerStation,
Rides lift motors, launches, etc consumes a LOT of power a single ride probably can be driven from a generator (although they do exist, they tend to only drive smaller lift motors and exist for safety reasons such as some SLC's or the sky ride)
I wonder the power situation of AT, I know previously they have had the entire FV shut down but the rest of the park was fine, I would agree, that age often increses the complexity of the ride (although complexity is a very weird thing with PLC's are you talking about how many IO? or how complex the program is, how about how complex the electrical system (e.g toxy probably has a rarther complex drive system to keep all 4 motors in sync))
whilst PLC's are pretty simple, there are often "fun" edge cases when dealing with safety critical PLC's as often there are multiple PLC's doing the same thing, you may have a PLC operating the ride, but also a monitoring PLC ensuring that the operating PLC is correctly doing its job and not glitching out however if this monitoring PLC and operating PLC get desynced (There was an A320 flight training where this happened).
TBH I would assume there are requirements for techs to perform some (I would imagine quite in-depth) tests on the PLC's to ensure they are operating correctly even in edge cases after a power cut