Ride Availability/Operations 2022-25

[Benzin]

Wonder if getting a new train for RMT would be beneficial?

Though reducing the height limit might not help the throughput problems.

 

[Skyscraper]

Wonder if getting a new train for RMT would be beneficial?

Though reducing the height limit might not help the throughput problems.

Yeah the new gen train (AlpenExpress) is quite restrictive, being 90cm accompanied and 1.3m unaccompanied.

 

[Bowser]

Very poor decision to close the Rapids mid September. I'd understand if it was mid October, but that's a terrible decision.

Scheduled regular maintenance i believe, hopefully 7-8 months is enough.

 

[Tom]

They have to do something, or Merlin may not be in business this time next year.

 

[Poisson]

They have to do something, or Merlin may not be in business this time next year.

Like the multiple location disposals to offload expensive parts of the business that aren't profitable?

 

[DistortAMG]

We don't need to rely on Google for estimates. @DistortAMG posted the power usage from the spec sheet of Drayton Manor Park and Zoo's Intamin Rapids ride yesterday.

You've severely overestimated how much electricity the pumps will use, with Drayton's same model requiring either 92KW or 84KW each, depending which mode is used.

300,000 KW of power, which is equivalent to 300 MW, could power a small to medium-sized town, a large industrial facility, a major data center, or a collection of thousands of homes continuously.

If you meant 300,000 kWh, you're still severely overestimating. That could power about 28 homes for an entire year.

Going back to this a second, with Alton Towers, they used to turn all four pumps on to bring the water level up quickly, I have seen them do the same at Drayton's too. Once the water level is up, roughly after 4 or 5 mins, one pump is turned off.

So for maybe 5 minutes, these old Intamin rapids use between 368 and 336KW, on pumps, before dropping to between 276 and 252KW for the rest of the day.
Based on the pump data, the flow rate on Congo, Rhumba and River Rapids, is around the 5.25 cubed meters of water per second at any single point in the ride. This equates to 5.25 tonnes of water flowing past any one point, every second.

Sorry to go off topic as not strictly Alton, but there is also official data knocking around for the water speed and depth along Drayton's River Rapids....which is below. I do have the data for Alton Towers too, I will try find it. I have a feeling it is on one of my many cloud storage accounts however...

To give you an idea though, Alton's and Thorpe's will be VERY similar, as the overall design, excluding the layout are very similar between the two.

 

[Tom]

Like the multiple location disposals to offload expensive parts of the business that aren't profitable?

Are you talking about proposed/attempted, or what they have already done to date?

 

[Danscott22]

List of attractions on park that now DON'T open at 10am. All the following open at 11
Battle Galleons
Congo River Rapids
Cuckoo Cars Driving School
Gangsta Granny: The Ride
Hex - The Legend of the Towers
Nemesis Sub-Terra
Raj's Bouncy Bottom Burp
Skyride
The Curse at Alton Manor
The Royal Carousel

Not great for the families really. If you're too old for CBeebies, you non-coaster options at 10am are:
Heave Ho
Marauder's Mayhem

 

[Steve74]

List of attractions on park that now DON'T open at 10am. All the following open at 11
Battle Galleons
Congo River Rapids
Cuckoo Cars Driving School
Gangsta Granny: The Ride
Hex - The Legend of the Towers
Nemesis Sub-Terra
Raj's Bouncy Bottom Burp
Skyride
The Curse at Alton Manor
The Royal Carousel

Not great for the families really. If you're too old for CBeebies, you non-coaster options at 10am are:
Heave Ho
Marauder's Mayhem

Whilst rides not opening at 10am is not ideal, we are in one of the quietest parts of the season and for 5 out of 7 days for the next couple of weeks most kids are at school and therefore there are not as many families visiting that would want to ride these attractions in the first hour. Not ideal on a weekend of course, but we are not privy to the visitor stats that must show that its more beneficial [for the park] to open these attractions later than 10am at this time of year. Couple that with the fact that we are approaching Towers' busiest time of the season where all staff will work long hours with no doubt a holiday ban in force so I expect many staff are being allowed to take time off now - the quiet time between the summer and Scarefest.

 

[Mattie boy]

Can we assume once scarefest starts this will be reversed ?

 

[Steve74]

Can we assume once scarefest starts this will be reversed ?

I would've thought so with maybe the odd exception like Skyride or Gangsta Granny.

 

[Mattie boy]

I would've thought so with maybe the odd exception like Skyride or Gangsta Granny.

Yes i agree. I hope so we have scarefest and fireworks booked in, mind you the thursdays before scarefest i expect the 11am will stay

 

[GaryH]

So are these later openings just for September or will they be through Scarefest too?

 

[MrCoaster]

I'm sure when I went in May Skyride opened at 12?

 

[AltonLover123]

Walliams world was 11 opening for the vast majority of last year so it’s not surprising it’s going back to that now.

 

[Mick]

Wasn’t it around this time last year that they were even doing staggered coaster openings? Now that really was a disaster, especially as they couldn’t guarantee that the coasters they said would still open at 10 would open at 10!

So it’s a step up from that, but that really isn’t saying much! I can’t stand staggered openings of any kind.

 

[rob666]

It is the time of year that lesser attractions, water rides, half the f&b stalls, and a couple of bigger rides close for maintenance, at all parks, and stuff opens late, and in the case of the Beach, shuts early.

The style at this time of year is just hit what is open, and be thankful for shorter queues.
And remember, it is better than nothing, mid november cometh.

 

[shawnoc]

I at Alton at the moment, the 11am openings did not affect my day as all coasters bar Wickerman obviously were open at 10am. The park was very quiet with mostly walk on rides.

 

[rob666]

Now there you go you see...
Not that I do ridetimes, but when the site jumped into my lap at lunch, four coasters were down, but most of the other queues were five minutes...so if you hit the stuff that is open, you still get a good day.
Unlike the Beach, that simply does not have enough stuff open off peak to fill out a day.

 

[shawnoc]

There were a couple of breakdowns but towards the end of the day rain kicked in…… thirteen and spinball down as per usual. I was having a pint by then