Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Yeah a Lechy-style coaster would be legendary. It looks so good!
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Thorpe Park: General Discussion
- Thread starter Ted
- Start date
imanautie
TS Member
That implies there are parks that can deal with low throughput major attractions?
John
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Well it's all relative - Shockwave would have been a nightmare at Towers or Thorpe but it's generally fine for Drayton.
A skyrocket would clearly be a bit of a capacity nightmare at Thorpe though - better to build rides with inherently high capacity than have to worry about trying to get the absolute maximum out of lower capacity rides
A skyrocket would clearly be a bit of a capacity nightmare at Thorpe though - better to build rides with inherently high capacity than have to worry about trying to get the absolute maximum out of lower capacity rides
Poisson
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Giant Squid
This.
Thorpe butcher capacity most of the time on all their rides (Swarm seems to be the only one that isn't usually awful) so they need to be able to get it without going for it. Look at how poorly Ninferno is operated for example (I've never seen it not stack)
pluk
TS Member
The smaller the park the bigger issue of capacity can be as everyone can turn up at once. Stick it in the middle of the woods at similarly visited Holiday Park and the number trying to ride at any one time is going to be much more smoothly spread.
But the biggest and most glaringly obvious issue is Merlins approach to paid for queue jumping and rude access passes. Both cripple throuhputs to somewhere around half where they should be. Those not looking at a jumping the queue in one way or another are left with a throughput nearer 250 pph. Other parks don't operate in this shoddy way.
imanautie
TS Member
I really hope the name you gave for RAP was a typo...
I think part of THORPE's capacity issue is in part one of staff demographic and how management treat them.
pluk
TS Member
It was, but it's so accurate I think my phone may have become sentient and knows what I'm thinking.
I'm not sure that is entirely fair, certainly not at ride operator level. Those I know work hard and do the job the best they can with what they have. The culture and tactics of the actual company though are toxic and inevitably that filters down to the front line.
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imanautie
TS Member
Im not talking about ride operators but hosts, to be clear im not blaming hosts and they are fantastic, more the young age seems to get them a lot of unfair attitudes from management.It was, but it's so accurate I think my phone may have become sentient and knows what I'm thinking.
I'm not sure that is entirely fair, certainly not at ride operator level. Those I know work hard and do the job the best they can with what they have. The culture and tactics of the actual company though are toxic and inevitably that filters down to the front line.
Thameslink Rail
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
I think the problem that ride hosts have is the same as most other customer facing roles (e.g. supermarkets) as they are being bashed by the general public and in many cases management don't treat them too well. Zero hour contracts probably don't help
imanautie
TS Member
That's what im getting at!
Swarm Chris
TS Member
Also currently says no room service. So I'm presuming the alternative catering option will be a sign saying 'use Deliveroo'? Or maybe they won't empty the bins until morning?For anyone after that immersive prison cell experience, then the Shark Cabins are available from 12th April with no bar, restaurant or indoor facilities.
Hopefully those who are booked with the assurance of a restaurant and evening 'entertainment' aren't forced to accept this Merlin quality substitute if they would rather come back when things are a bit more normal.
Rick
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Crux
I think they can and do. I never get much agreement on this point, but if you look at parks all over the place, I think it's ok to have a couple of stinkers in there. If you want to offer certain experiences, you can't always do that with rides that offer 1400 ppph capacity, nor could you likely afford to.
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It is the low capacity combined with the number of exit riders. For the sake of argument, let’s say a Sky Rocket did 400 guests an hour. That would be 200 guests an hour from the main queue and 200 guests an hour from the exit (Fast Track, Ride Access Pass, Priority Pass, Parent Swap etc). 200 guests an hour does move slowly. Even a queue that looks quite short could end up being a couple of hours. And slow moving queues are the easiest kind for ‘unofficial’ queue jumping, because queue jumpers don’t have to push past many people to save themselves a lot of time. The whole thing very quickly becomes a nightmare.
Oh yes...off topic but the Grand Prix cars at Blackpool.
Theoretical 100 per hour becomes meaningless with speedypass and access pass holders.
A queue just over the little bridge can be a full hours queue on a busy day.
Did it from the Crevettes seats on speedypass as a group of four...just the standard pass, queue two hours.
I pointed out the punters we should get on behind, and we did, a full two hours later, with less than thirty people in the actual line.
The walk of shame at the exit "entrance" was pretty bad.
Theoretical 100 per hour becomes meaningless with speedypass and access pass holders.
A queue just over the little bridge can be a full hours queue on a busy day.
Did it from the Crevettes seats on speedypass as a group of four...just the standard pass, queue two hours.
I pointed out the punters we should get on behind, and we did, a full two hours later, with less than thirty people in the actual line.
The walk of shame at the exit "entrance" was pretty bad.
Rick
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Crux
I do understand this criticism, but, people talk about Fastrack in particular like it creates lots of empty seats on trains, people using Fastrack are still paying visitors coming for a fun day out.
If you go to a park that doesn’t use Fastrack, the would be Fastrack riders are in the standby line with everyone else ... in a longer queue.
Merlin’s implementation of Fastrack and RAP is pretty poor, but feels like changes are afoot.
One of those things people hate at their home park but love as soon as they are at someone else’s home park ...
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Rick
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Crux
If you had one day at park on a different continent, that you likely wouldn't ever return to, would you miss out on headline rides or indulge in a bit of a queue jumping ?
pluk
TS Member
They are in a standby queue once, with a good chance of being behind me, that queue would also be moving at twice the speed. There's no real way to sugar coat the affect any person paying to queue jump has on guests in the queue; each fastrack purchased is to the direct detriment of every other guest and their enjoyment of ther day.
I've been to parks all around the world and never once paid to queue jump. If I was a foreigner visiting parks here that might have had to, because the parks have been engineered for it to be a necessity on many days.
Thorpe is still the only park in the world I've had a fastrack sales pitch at a queue line entry. Even worse this queue turned out not to exist. That is a toxic way to run the place.