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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Leigh said:
“A short delay in operation”?

It was up for an hour and a half in the morning then died for the rest of the day. Oh Thorpe.
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Their communications are really poor. That’s before you get to the cringey videos they do.

Embarrassing for all concerned this is. But it’s a problem Merlin parks are plagued with at the moment. Poor reliability and poor maintenance.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
Their communications are really poor. That’s before you get to the cringey videos they do.

Embarrassing for all concerned this is. But it’s a problem Merlin parks are plagued with at the moment. Poor reliability and poor maintenance.
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It's a shame the parks aren't independently owned, this way you'd get full concentration on the running and funding of each park and some healthy competition too.

Just get the feeling something will go badly wrong one day with the corner cutting. Hope I'm wrong.
 
RIPCorky said:
It's a shame the parks aren't independently owned, this way you'd get full concentration on the running and funding of each park and some healthy competition too.

Just get the feeling something will go badly wrong one day with the corner cutting. Hope I'm wrong.
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Devil's advocate for a second, in what might be seen as poor taste so please forgive me.

Drayton Manor Park and Zoo was under independent ownership and a child died. Merlin, for all you hate them, haven't had a death at their parks as a result of ride operation and they own a lot more than one.

I don't think there's ever been an example, under the present Merlin ownership of corner cutting and I think to suggest so is slightly dangerous, disingenuous, unnecessary and potentially libellous. Even with the caveat of "hope I'm wrong".

You could possibly site The Smiler case as an example, down to human error and pressurised targets. This was under different ownership, management and culture though. Additionally you can bet there has been an overhaul in operations, reporting and culpability since then.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Devil's advocate for a second, in what might be seen as poor taste so please forgive me.

Drayton Manor Park and Zoo was under independent ownership and a child died. Merlin, for all you hate them, haven't had a death at their parks as a result of ride operation and they own a lot more than one.

I don't think there's ever been an example, under the present Merlin ownership of corner cutting and I think to suggest so is slightly dangerous, disingenuous, unnecessary and potentially libellous. Even with the caveat of "hope I'm wrong".

You could possibly site The Smiler case as an example, down to human error and pressurised targets. This was under different ownership, management and culture though. Additionally you can bet there has been an overhaul in operations, reporting and culpability since then.
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There is absolutely nothing libellous about that post.

The only mention of death is from your post. “ badly wrong” could mean absolutely anything…. Nothing of death or injury was mentioned at all.

The Smiler accident is a blot on their record for life, to most Alton Towers is Alton Towers, Merlin or not, different management or not.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
I don't think there's ever been an example, under the present Merlin ownership of corner cutting and I think to suggest so is slightly dangerous, disingenuous, unnecessary and potentially libellous. Even with the caveat of "hope I'm wrong".
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I was thinking the same. For all of Merlin's faults, one thing they don't skimp on (at least since The Smiler) is ride safety. If they did, you wouldn't have so many downtime incidents with test trains being sent round every time before they reopened. Happy to be proved wrong but then you're back in the potentially libellous territory if people start citing examples of what they think is bad ride safety practices!
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Devil's advocate for a second, in what might be seen as poor taste so please forgive me.

Drayton Manor Park and Zoo was under independent ownership and a child died. Merlin, for all you hate them, haven't had a death at their parks as a result of ride operation and they own a lot more than one.

I don't think there's ever been an example, under the present Merlin ownership of corner cutting and I think to suggest so is slightly dangerous, disingenuous, unnecessary and potentially libellous. Even with the caveat of "hope I'm wrong".

You could possibly site The Smiler case as an example, down to human error and pressurised targets. This was under different ownership, management and culture though. Additionally you can bet there has been an overhaul in operations, reporting and culpability since then.
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Where have I said they cut corners on safety? Nothing libellous about my post at all.
 
Are we over eye rolling at every news article mention of a break down now?

Hard to keep up with current trends of what enthusiasts are hating on.

Also plenty of independent parks have had bad incidents. It purely comes down to the general management of the park in question.

Only thing of clear cost cutting I can see in recent Merlin projects is the final landscaping. Everything else is pure speculation.
 
PhalanaxOperativeA1127 said:
It has the highest wind threshold of any ride in the park, amazingly. It did not close because of wind.
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I know it says this on the website, but it could turn out to be wrong.

It's been seen crawling through the outerbank, and its 236ft high surrounded by large open lakes which makes it even more open to the elements.

It was very windy today so hopefully it's just been an issue with the sensors rather than a big mechanical issue.
 
I can see perhaps why this has made the news- currently one of the most read articles on the BBC- as guests where stuck for over an hour. Even as a thoosie I can imagine that would be quite uncomfortable and unpleasant. Imagine if you were someone with a fear of rollercoasters who’d been hyped up by their mates to go on the ride and then you got stuck for an hour- not nice! Hoping these people are ok!

Hoping they get these issues sorted with block sections and the likes - reminds me a lot of the issues the smiler had at the start. Wickerman definitely had less issues- despite some breakdowns on the first few days nothing too major.

Maybe they need to reduce opening hours to help it bed in? By the looks of it as well - from videos on Twitter or X or whatever it’s called these days- making the trains heavier as well would help it in empty test runs- especially when it’s windy.
Was chatting to someone at towers about this last week and they said about how long they tested Nemmy rebo vs the Hyperia tests - it’s definitely had less time to bed in!
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
There is absolutely nothing libellous about that post.
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RIPCorky said:
Where have I said they cut corners on safety? Nothing libellous about my post at all.
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The phrase "corner cutting" (which appears in your post), without supplying evidence of such and the suggestion that it could go "badly wrong" as a result, could be considered to be defamatory and consequently libelous.

I don't think it's helpful to make such statements about a ride, with a perfect safety record, which isn't currently operating, presumably to ensure safety. If you didn't mean to suggest this then I would avoid using similar wording next time.

I'm also not a lawyer and merely suggested that it could be interpreted as such. No offence or harm was meant, just a different perspective.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
The phrase "corner cutting" (which appears in your post), without supplying evidence of such and the suggestion that it could go "badly wrong" as a result, could be considered to be defamatory and consequently libelous.

I don't think it's helpful to make such statements about a ride, with a perfect safety record, which isn't currently operating, presumably to ensure safety. If you didn't mean to suggest this then I would avoid using similar wording next time.
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Nothing was mentioned regarding a ride, this ride or any ride in any park in that post unless I am mistaken?

The definition of cutting corners is not at the expense of safety. It could mean for example:

“i cut corners by not sanding down my front door before I painted it. It went badly wrong and the paint fell off the next day”

The only person who mentioned safety/death is yourself in relation to operations.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
The phrase "corner cutting" (which appears in your post), without supplying evidence of such and the suggestion that it could go "badly wrong" as a result, could be considered to be defamatory and consequently libelous.

I don't think it's helpful to make such statements about a ride, with a perfect safety record, which isn't currently operating, presumably to ensure safety. If you didn't mean to suggest this then I would avoid using similar wording next time.

I'm also not a lawyer and merely suggested that it could be interpreted as such. No offence or harm was meant, just a different perspective.
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Sorry but you're the only one who has mentioned any kind of injury or death. See the post I quoted to what I was referring to. Opening a new ride when the area looks like a building site gives a bad impression to the public.
 
RIPCorky said:
Sorry but you're the only one who has mentioned any kind of injury or death. See the post I quoted to what I was referring to. Opening a new ride when the area looks like a building site gives a bad impression to the public.
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The post you quoted was discussing poor communication, maintenance and reliability,
RIPCorky said:
Just get the feeling something will go badly wrong one day with the corner cutting. Hope I'm wrong.
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To me this is implying that an injury will happen,
badly wrong to me, especially in relation to alleged corner cutting and poor maintenance, means a failure leading to at the least a big news story
I think it was quite reasonable for Goose on the loose to interpret it this way,
as most people will also interpret this way as being realistic what is the alternative?
A ride turns out to be a flop?
I wouldn't call that badly wrong,
 
RIPCorky said:
It's a shame the parks aren't independently owned, this way you'd get full concentration on the running and funding of each park and some healthy competition too.

Just get the feeling something will go badly wrong one day with the corner cutting. Hope I'm wrong.
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Why would independence make any difference whatsoever?
Blackpool is independent.
Not a great record for incidents over the years, couple of coaster deaths, the odd broken back, many minor shunt accidents...always completely avoidable if procedures are followed competently.
Likewise Lightwater.
Not a good safety record despite independance.

And I too would have challenged your final comment.

When any accident happens in the future...you can always scream..."See I was right all along."
 
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