Thorpe Park: General Discussion

[pluk]

Re: Thorpe Park

In the case of Slammer it is very much down to the S+S design and build, not Thopre maintenance. It was just a dog of a machine from day one, broken before Thorpe had chance to break it.

In fact, they have really gone beyond reasonable attempts to keep the thing going. Hopefully not in vain.

 

[PowerOfTen]

Re: Thorpe Park

That ride has had nothing but issues since day one. I think about only 25% of the time I go there, it is operating. Is it the ride mechanical attributes which are at fault (ie design by S&s) or thorpe Park's mechanics? Seeing the downtime of the rest of the park, i do put a little bit of it at fault of the park's engineering team, however do S&S generally seem to produce rides too technical for their own good?

Thorpe Park has improved dramatically over the past few seasons, in terms of ride downtime. I would argue that the reliability of Thorpe Parks rides over the past few seasons has been at a similar level to that of Altons.

Stealth still seems to be a bit of a maintenance headache, but to be fair the same could be said about Rita.

Slammer and Rush both have a dire reputation for reliability. (although Rush has steadily improved) In my humble opinion most S&S rides are of very poor quality all round. The only ride type that they seem to have mastered is the Space Shot.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Thorpe Park

Thorpe Park has improved dramatically over the past few seasons, in terms of ride downtime. I would argue that the reliability of Thorpe Parks rides over the past few seasons has been at a similar level to that of Altons.

Stealth still seems to be a bit of a maintenance headache, but to be fair the same could be said about Rita.

I'm gonna disagree. Thorpe Park have been terrible on the two occasions that I've visited this week. The Swarm is running on reduced capacity due to the seats on one of the trains being broken, Nemesis Inferno is being plagued by constant PA system glitches (Required to operate) and Samurai only opens from 11am - 3pm now, with it only running on Program 1 (for reasons unknown).

They've been better in recent years, but this year seems to have taken a little step back in the wrong direction.

 

[PowerOfTen]

Re: Thorpe Park

Thorpe Park has improved dramatically over the past few seasons, in terms of ride downtime. I would argue that the reliability of Thorpe Parks rides over the past few seasons has been at a similar level to that of Altons.

Stealth still seems to be a bit of a maintenance headache, but to be fair the same could be said about Rita.

I'm gonna disagree. Thorpe Park have been terrible on the two occasions that I've visited this week. The Swarm is running on reduced capacity due to the seats on one of the trains being broken, Nemesis Inferno is being plagued by constant PA system glitches (Required to operate) and Samurai only opens from 11am - 3pm now, with it only running on Program 1 (for reasons unknown).

They've been better in recent years, but this year seems to have taken a little step back in the wrong direction.

Hmm, I'm not sure if I'd call reduced capacity/opening times on two rides and non-mechanical issues on another terrible. Certainly, It's not ideal, especially when you include Slammer.

Personally, I think it's comparable to Alton. Submission runs on reduced capacity at all times and thanks to the various money saving plans (and their subsequent withdrawal) there has been various reduced opening times for major rides/attractions this year. Combine that with other 'routine' breakdowns and I think you could argue that the two parks are broadly similar.

As a side note, I can only see Samurai's condition deteriorating further in the future. I'd hazard to guess that, along with Slammer, it'll be on the way out in the near-ish future.

 

[SubGuru]

Re: Thorpe Park

I thought Samurai was going to be on its last legs a long time ago. However, if it did konk, I would actually not mind if they just replaced it with another topscan!

 

[Thomas]

Re: Thorpe Park

Just back from a trip to Thorpe and Chessington yesterday. One thing I noticed was that Thorpe Park are no longer doing the quenchers! I asked at several outlets and the one day quenchers have disappeared, only to be replaced by £2.70 for a large and £2.15 for a small coke cups. Such a shame!

My other Thorpe observation was how long Samurai took to park, we seemed to jostle back and forward whilst it parked, luckily we joined the queue at 2.30 before it closed, but the sequence seemed awful.

Not a very good trip to Thorpe, with queues over 120 minutes for The Swarm, and Colossus and Stealth running on one train. Other little details like the smoke on the second fire engine not pluming out was a little bit sad to see.

 

[dominoes]

Re: Thorpe Park

Samurai is pretty bad now. There are no screams from it any more, no audio, and the onload and offload times are so slow.

 

[Lottie.]

Re: Thorpe Park

My other Thorpe observation was how long Samurai took to park, we seemed to jostle back and forward whilst it parked, luckily we joined the queue at 2.30 before it closed, but the sequence seemed awful.

I had that when I went for my first visit of 2012 in March - it took a few minutes to get us back on the ground while we 'swayed' side to side. I'm not that great at understanding ride mechanics aha but I assume there is a reason for this.

I love Samurai and is personally my favourite flat ride at Thorpe. Shame it is deteriorating so much as it is such a good ride (was much better when it was at Chessie!)

 

[Jem8472]

Re: Thorpe Park

That can be annoying, most probably sensors or something not registering its in the correct position. But I do love that ride.

 

[djtruefitt]

Re: Thorpe Park

Samurai has been pretty horrible at parking for a good while now. Its the way its programmed in so it has to stop in one place. Which is totally pointless as it takes that long to find the space, they mights as well just park it anyway and let people find their own seats rather than batching people into rows.

If it carrys on it for much longer I cant see it lasting many more years.

 

[AstroDan]

Re: Thorpe Park

Just back from a trip to Thorpe and Chessington yesterday. One thing I noticed was that Thorpe Park are no longer doing the quenchers! I asked at several outlets and the one day quenchers have disappeared, only to be replaced by £2.70 for a large and £2.15 for a small coke cups. Such a shame!

My other Thorpe observation was how long Samurai took to park, we seemed to jostle back and forward whilst it parked, luckily we joined the queue at 2.30 before it closed, but the sequence seemed awful.

Not a very good trip to Thorpe, with queues over 120 minutes for The Swarm, and Colossus and Stealth running on one train. Other little details like the smoke on the second fire engine not pluming out was a little bit sad to see.

2 hours for Swarm, Colossus and Stealth? Those sorts of queue lengths are rarely seen at parks in Europe!

 

[Rob]

Re: Thorpe Park

Not a very good trip to Thorpe, with queues over 120 minutes for The Swarm, and Colossus and Stealth running on one train. Other little details like the smoke on the second fire engine not pluming out was a little bit sad to see.

Were all 3 running on just one train, or was it just Stealth? Either way that is very poor, if the queue is that long a second train needs to be on, and in my opinion they should all be running two trains unless the park is completely dead or there are mechanical problems with a train.

 

[Thomas]

Re: Thorpe Park

Not a very good trip to Thorpe, with queues over 120 minutes for The Swarm, and Colossus and Stealth running on one train. Other little details like the smoke on the second fire engine not pluming out was a little bit sad to see.

Were all 3 running on just one train, or was it just Stealth? Either way that is very poor, if the queue is that long a second train needs to be on, and in my opinion they should all be running two trains unless the park is completely dead or there are mechanical problems with a train.

From what I could see, I presume one train. The Swarm for definite was one train. I can only add my sentiments, as one train operation in the busiest period of the year is just plain daft. I understand that it was partly my fault for visiting in a very busy period, but the queues were just ridiculous.

I'd visited Chessington until 2pm, then headed up the road thinking there'd be queues, but they'd be manageable, how wrong I was.

Can anyone confirm that quenchers at Thorpe Park have been officially dropped?

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Thorpe Park

Not a very good trip to Thorpe, with queues over 120 minutes for The Swarm, and Colossus and Stealth running on one train. Other little details like the smoke on the second fire engine not pluming out was a little bit sad to see.

Were all 3 running on just one train, or was it just Stealth? Either way that is very poor, if the queue is that long a second train needs to be on, and in my opinion they should all be running two trains unless the park is completely dead or there are mechanical problems with a train.

The Swarm has train one down due to some restraint issues which keep causing the ride to e-stop itself. It was running both on Sunday morning, but with some of the seats blocked off. The ride then stopped for about an hour, the area was evacuated and then operation resumed with one train operation. I was told that they are awaiting delivery of some parts from B&M and some assistance in repairing it.

 

[djtruefitt]

Re: Thorpe Park

There was a row closed on each of the trains about 3 weeks ago, so im guessing its got worse.

 

[James6]

Re: Thorpe Park

At one point row's 4 and 5 were out on one train, and row 6 on the other. All on side 1.

 

[RustyRider]

Re: Thorpe Park

This is my first post since the changeover, hey guys, glad to be back!

So I've just got back from Thorpe after a fantastic day with mates but with massively unpredictable weather (thunder & lightning to sunshine, then back to downpours all day!) we decided to hit up swarm first, that was a mistake considering it was a 120 minute queue with one train running on reduced capacity (row 4 completley out of action)! They added another train about an hour into the queue though which made it go considerably faster. This was the case with stealth, inferno and collosus up until around 12 after every coaster hit the 2 hour mark, not really acceptable as it was a miserable Wednesday during term time, the park seemed quiet overall but the queues where ridiculous up until around 3.

My first ride on the swarm today also, which was back outside right seat, I've gotta say, it's up there with nemesis in my opinion, fantastic coaster with great theming combined with THAT smoothness is a winning combination imo.

 

[Sazzle]

Re: Thorpe Park

With Slammer having such horrendous down time, and the fact the park have persevered with the thing for years (wasting time and effort!), I think they'd be better off getting rid completely if I'm perfectly honest.

It may well be a queue eater when its running properly, but its barely ever open. The other Sky Swat was scrapped, I presume for the same reasons, so Thorpe might do better to cut their losses.

I'm a little bothered by the quencher thing - I can't see the sense in why they'd remove them? I guess the annual pass ones are accepted? I can only think they've had the system abused by guests, or it simply wasn't popular enough to continue having at the park.

Also, when will Thorpe learn they HAVE to be on top of their game with throughputs and reliability in such a small park?! I know things can go wrong that are out of their control, but really?! With such a size park, queues of 2 hours all round aren't doing anyone any favours regards enjoying themselves.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

 

[Islander]

Re: Thorpe Park

I'm a little bothered by the quencher thing - I can't see the sense in why they'd remove them? I guess the annual pass ones are accepted? I can only think they've had the system abused by guests, or it simply wasn't popular enough to continue having at the park.

Quenchers certainly do seem to be abused a fair bit - loads of people bring them in day to day. It'd easily be fixed, though, by just writing the date of purchase on it with a Sharpie...

 

[Thomas]

Re: Thorpe Park

The Merlin Annual Pass Quencher is not affected, just the standard £5 one. Just a shame really. Any ideas on next year's ride yet?