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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

I mean, yeah, I’m not saying it never happens, but my point is that, from my experience, it never was a big enough problem that it significantly slowed down operation or justified the removal of the SRQs.

As I say, there were some at Thorpe which were in silly places and this did cause problems. But rides like Stealth and Rush, which had a dedicated single rider lane built in, should in my opinion have kept the SRQs operating.
 
Not that I have been in many, but I would say there has been some sort of grief in every one I have used.
Smiler one was the naughtiest, what with the baggage queuejump back into the main queue as well!
Me, never...no, no, too old for that kind of thing, just reporting what I saw...
Thirteen was a bit naughty as well.
Fencehopping from exit to single rider queue, and back on the ride in a couple of minutes.
Now the nemesis one was absolute heaven, send yourself dizzy for fifteen minutes on a good day, often got back into the same seat!
 
I’m sure on the original swarm plans it showed a single rider queue direct to the station? But of course by the time the swarm was coming I’m sure the single rider queues had pretty much all gone.
 
Much as I disagreed with the decision to remove the SRQs, I think that now isn’t the right time to be thinking about bringing them back.

The park, and other Merlin parks, need to sort out improving the operations of the queue lines which they already have rather than thinking about adding new ones.
 
I'm inclined to agree on some rides - not a Thorpe example but the last time I was at Towers the batcher on Rita couldn't keep up with the 3 queues they were trying to manage, resulting in the gates opening before the train was fully batched. Adding an SRQ to the equation would clearly delay things further. On the other hand, on rides such as Colossus I can envisage a SRQ resulting in improved dispatch times as the platform staff wouldn't have to open the restraints on empty seats.
 
The SRQ was a great time saver (main queue was 75 and waited 10) and they seemed to be pushing it with multiple announcements about it to the area & queue line, but the staff member was clearly finding it difficult to manage especially with the baggage hold. By the time the staff member recognised there was an empty seat and sent me to that gate, everyone was already in the trains ready to go and they had to unlock the harnesses just to let me on! 🤣

Benzin said:
Happens all over. Usually the staff do win mind but there have been plenty of examples I've seen where groups kick up a fuss (even at Europa) about being split up even if they're in the single rider queue.
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Experienced this yesterday too sadly!
 
OT but ... At FL last week they were batching from the single rider line in pairs into bays! Not sure if they were assuming people were not together, needed to keep the single rider line down or just didn't give a *beep*. Odd though.
 
Storm Surge has been closed for at least the last couple of days with scaffolding at the top of the lift.

No sign of it on the famed ‘planned closures’ page of the website.

 
Been on park today(Chessy yesterday) and it must have been the worse operations at both parks I've experienced but Thorpe was shocking today considering how few guests were on site.

Swarm ops seemed to spend more times on the phone to ride op and having a laugh, we had 3 rides and every time it happened. Got the impression on multiple rides that the staff just couldn't be bothered after a busy summer season it was their downtime now.
Stealth broke down multiple times throughout the day, Saw spent most of the day closed and only opened up for the last few hours of the day.

We had over an hour of really bad rain between 2.30-3.30ish and the place was like a swimming pool couldn't believe how little/poor drainage the place had.
 
Sambiasso said:
We had over an hour of really bad rain between 2.30-3.30ish and the place was like a swimming pool couldn't believe how little/poor drainage the place had.
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The rest of your post is totally valid, and it's a real shame to see a trip review like that, but just want to pick up on this one point... we've had such an incredibly long dry spell, with no rain, and then suddenly these storms, flooding is inevitable, without all but the best drains lol. I mean, this photo was taken in Guildford earlier today...

1662493927463.png

I went to uni here for years, and never saw water like that. So, in this one respect, cut the poor park some slack.

As for the other points... eh, rip into them.
 
Islander said:
The rest of your post is totally valid, and it's a real shame to see a trip review like that, but just want to pick up on this one point... we've had such an incredibly long dry spell, with no rain, and then suddenly these storms, flooding is inevitable, without all but the best drains lol. I mean, this photo was taken in Guildford earlier today...

1662493927463.png

I went to uni here for years, and never saw water like that. So, in this one respect, cut the poor park some slack.

As for the other points... eh, rip into them.
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Yeah it was pretty bad...but not that bad :eek:
 
Is it even worth it the way they have been running it. Last time we did it end of last year it was a 💩 show.

Looking at the stats it seems to be opening around 3 each day for a short while.

Ghost Train at Thorpe Park queue times

Queue times, information and statistics for Ghost Train. View historical average queue length by day, and view ride availability.
queue-times.com queue-times.com
 
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This is what happened end of last year when we last went on it (didn't bother this year). Closed all day until about 3. Opened, was all a bit odd with staff stalling us loads and peeping through the door to check on stuff before the train. First half seemed normal, the middle section all the effects (purposefully vague for spoilers) had all gone and you just stand there while someone in staff uniform and a bit of makeup goes rarrrrrr a bit. Second half didn't really happen and they just insisted you keep the headset on watching nothing while it obviously got back into position. What irked me was it was clearly broken but they were pretending like THIS was the experience. Really odd. Without saying too much again acting there after was reduced to somebody in staff uniform and some light makeup.

What a waste of an investment.
 
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