Thorpe Park: General Discussion

[Secret Weapon]

I don't understand why rollercoasters go down so often throughout the day, given that they are inspected each morning

I've never worked at a theme park, but are they mostly just basic error codes rather than serious issues?

I remember hearing that The Smiler will stop if the operator holds the start button for too long (why??) and also if a guest holds the harness down for too long (why?)

I think that a rollercoaster may also flag an error if it runs too fast or slow (maybe this proves that flat rides are more reliable?)

It's a bad idea to generate so many warnings, because it also desensitises staff to more serious issues (years ago, people in a restaurant ignored a serious fire alarm because it was oversensitive and constantly went off anyway)

 

[Steve74]

I don't understand why rollercoasters go down so often throughout the day, given that they are inspected each morning

I've never worked at a theme park, but are they mostly just basic error codes rather than serious issues?

I remember hearing that The Smiler will stop if the operator holds the start button for too long (why??) and also if a guest holds the harness down for too long (why?)

I think that a rollercoaster may also flag an error if it runs too fast or slow (maybe this proves that flat rides are more reliable?)

It's a bad idea to generate so many warnings, because it also desensitises staff to more serious issues (years ago, people in a restaurant ignored a serious fire alarm because it was oversensitive and constantly went off anyway)

The stoppages are not always mechanical or electrical so cannot be blamed on Merlin or the level of maintenance of the rides. Often stoppages are due to guests - being stupid, becoming ill, problems with loading/unloading etc. If someone was sick on Hyperia or The Smiler for example, they don't announce "someone has been sick, we're just cleaning the ride", they close it with the standard wording of "...temporarily ceased operation", the same as when there is an actual breakdown.

Most of the downtime of a ride, isn't usually the actual repairing of it (if its a breakdown) but the waiting for an engineer to get to the ride and then once fixed, doing the couple of cycles the ride needs before it reopens.

People immediately jump to the conclusion that it's the park or ride's fault when quite often, it's nothing to do with that at all.

 

[Dhev123]

I don't understand why rollercoasters go down so often throughout the day, given that they are inspected each morning

I've never worked at a theme park, but are they mostly just basic error codes rather than serious issues?

I remember hearing that The Smiler will stop if the operator holds the start button for too long (why??) and also if a guest holds the harness down for too long (why?)

I think that a rollercoaster may also flag an error if it runs too fast or slow (maybe this proves that flat rides are more reliable?)

It's a bad idea to generate so many warnings, because it also desensitises staff to more serious issues (years ago, people in a restaurant ignored a serious fire alarm because it was oversensitive and constantly went off anyway)

annoyingly (but for very good reason) rides stop for the simplest of reasons sometimes, rather than an actual technical fault, such as:
1) Guest behaviour: last Saturday Hyperia stopped mid lift hill for 10 mins because a guest had their phone out. Another time I was stuck on the colossus break run for half an hour because a guest entered the ride area, etc,
2) Sensors: something as simple as a pigeon sitting on a track will most of the time, cause the ride to pause until the sensor has been cleared. If I remember correctly, smiler had to cease operation the other year because wasps were flying by the turn into the final break run.

They’re complex machines and thankfully they do their job right 99.999999% of the time at least

 

[DiogoJ42]

I believe the Smiler wasp problem was nothing to do with ride sensors, rather, it was that riders were sitting on the brake run, surrounded by angry wasps, with a bright yellow OTSR round their necks.

 

[Steve74]

I believe the Smiler wasp problem was nothing to do with ride sensors, rather, it was that riders were sitting on the brake run, surrounded by angry wasps, with a bright yellow OTSR round their necks.

Wrong coaster

 

[Dhev123]

I believe the Smiler wasp problem was nothing to do with ride sensors, rather, it was that riders were sitting on the brake run, surrounded by angry wasps, with a bright yellow OTSR round their necks.

Oh I didn’t realise, that would be genuinely horrible!

Would guest reports have closed the ride down in this instance, or would staff had seen it on security cameras? I assumed it would have been sensor related

 

[Secret Weapon]

I believe the Smiler wasp problem was nothing to do with ride sensors, rather, it was that riders were sitting on the brake run, surrounded by angry wasps, with a bright yellow OTSR round their necks.

There must be a problem with wasps in that area, because I remember seeing wasp traps in the queue line for the old Black Hole ride (circa 2008, I think - but may have been earlier)

Would guest reports have closed the ride down in this instance, or would staff had seen it on security cameras? I assumed it would have been sensor related

Maybe the riders told the ride staff as soon as they disembarked?

 

[JAperson]

Unfortunately, Stealth has gone back to listed as closed all day today.

Not that I think Stealth is going anywhere anytime soon, but this is the second year in a row it’s had some pretty big issues early in season, which can’t be cheap.

Got to love some quality Intamin technology

 

[Mattie boy]

Thorpe app updated to show stealth closed till 30th April