Thorpe Park Discussion Thread

[martinb]

^ Hey I was there sunday too! Everytime I went to Stealth on Sunday there was some bloke in a yellow jacket there aswell, and everytime he was on it he would do loudest low-pitch scream ever, constantly, throught out the whole ride!

 

Say "were" in a really low pitch tone really really loud, thats what it sounded like!! Crazy man!! Made me laugh!!

 

Anyway I have to express my feelings about Tussuards, how greedy are they getting? YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR YOUR FAST TRACK/FAST PASS TICKETS, THEY'VE REMOVED THE OLD FT/FP VENDING MACHINES & YOU NOW HAVE TO PAY £3/5 FOR THEM:

 

STEALTH £3

 

COLOSSUS, NEMESIS INFERNO, x:/NWO, TIDAL WAVE £5

 

SLAMMER, RUSH, VORTEX, DETONATOR £5

 

IT WOULD'NT BE SO BAD IF THEY WERE UNLIMTIED BUT YOU ONLY GET 1 FOR EACH RIDE!!!

 

The funny thing is I never saw anyone with one of these, especially on Stealth!!

 

Also I think the themeing around Stealth is good, a bit to much the same as Rita but it's good, but what really sticks out in the 1950's Rock 'N Roll era is the very futuristic Stealth logo! I tlooks like it should be for a film like:

 

Stealth: Robocop Returns

 

But they think a very futuristic logo fits in with 1950's themeing

 

Did anyone else notice how quick the queue went down? Very quick IMO. I can't praise the staff on Stealth enough for the effort they put in on getting the queue down as quick as possible! This made up for quite a bit of a strange trip to Down-Time Park, these rides were'nt in operation on sunday:

 

Slammer

Tidal Wave

Rush

Detonator

X:/NWO (I think this may have opened late on in the day)

Samurai (" " " " " " " ")

[technothesp]

Exactly! To an outsider it looks like they settled on the name "Stealth" and then realised that they had built their new coaster in the "Amity Cove" area of the park. Lets just call it a beautiful juxtaposition.

 

All those rides closed! - I hope you got discounted entry (but something tells me that Tussards probably aren't that benevolent).

 

Lots more pictures of people at the launch event last night can be seen at http://www.prazzi.com/stealthlaunch

 

Benjamin

[martinb]

^ I got annual pass so no refund, but I will write to them to try an get free tickets and ut them on eBay

[Thrillrider15]

From what www.screamscape.com reports, is that Stealth at Thorpe Park, has been having problems with downtime, and maintenance. Also known as, "The Intamin Curse".

 

Apparently the Intamin curse has struck again and Stealth is experiencing frequent bouts of downtime and technical difficulties.

 

You can read it here: http://www.screamscape.com/html/thorpe_park.htm

[socalMAN123]

The same thing happened to all of the Intamin launched rides. Like TTD was hardly ever open for its first season, but the next season it barely broke down. It also happened to Kingda Ka. I have a feeling that the same thing with happen to Stealth and next season or later in the year, it will start performing well.

---Brent

[martinb]

Thats why B&M are better, IMO, they hardly ever experience downtime (apart from Air)(from what I know and where I've been), and its not just the Intamin launched coasters, Colossus at Thorpe Park has loads of downtime.

 

Intamin should do something about it if they want to be the biggest and best coaster manufacturer!

[Shockwave]

I'm giving it another month before I think about going down to ride it, as it's too hit and miss at the moment.

 

Tussauds really haven't had much luck with most of their newer installions!

[CoasterCrazy]

I hope Stealth's "The Intamin Curse" can be cured before June!

[Thrillrider15]

^

 

Agreed. As of also the impulse coasters have a lot of downtime. IMO, Intamin is starting to go over the edge with all the tallest and fastest coasters. I mean they're great rides and all, but, ya.

[Hercules]

I don't think this is much of a surprise.

 

I think that the only launch coaster that hasn't experienced a great amount of problems is Storm Runner.

[Rooey]

I went on Friday. The ride didnt open till about 11am, then once we got in the queue it launched three times then had a rollback, so then they stopped it, tested it a bunch of times, and then put passengers on, and it did it again. Finally got on it, twice all in all that day, and i was very impressed with it i must say.

 

Then again virtually EVERY ride we went on, bar Nemesis Inferno, experienced "technical difficulties" when we were in the queue.

 

And my good god, what the hell has happened to Colossus? Absolutely dreadful ride experience, crawled around the circuit and was making some really dodgy noises.

[saxman47]

I don't think this is much of a surprise.

 

I think that the only launch coaster that hasn't experienced a great amount of problems is Storm Runner.

 

Yeah, Hershey has really been lucky with storm runner. It makes me wonder if they just invest more time in maintaining the ride, but then again Stealth is brand new so it should work fine, unless there are just some bugs in the system that need to be worked out.

 

Out of all the times I've been to hershey i don't think i've ever seen SR down for more than maybe 30 minutes. (which in itself is a very rare occurance for them).

[nemesis-storm]

I went on Friday. The ride didnt open till about 11am, then once we got in the queue it launched three times then had a rollback, so then they stopped it, tested it a bunch of times, and then put passengers on, and it did it again. Finally got on it, twice all in all that day, and i was very impressed with it i must say.

 

Then again virtually EVERY ride we went on, bar Nemesis Inferno, experienced "technical difficulties" when we were in the queue.

 

And my good god, what the hell has happened to Colossus? Absolutely dreadful ride experience, crawled around the circuit and was making some really dodgy noises.

 

I visited Thorpe the day after your (Saturday 8th) & your reports sound similar.

I'm not sure exactly what time Stealth opened ( Was too busy riding Nemesis Inferno & Slammer ) but it must of been around 11 AM before it opened. I headed over to it about 11:20 and heard an announcement being made saying something in the nature of "If Slealth roll's back it very safe etc etc" , So I assumed it had just rolled back. This was confirmed to me as I heard other people in the queue line mention roll backs.

At various times of the day, I looked across to Stealth & there was 'no signs of life'.

I headed back to Stealth late afternoon for a couple of more go's on Stealth before heading home. The First on the go's was fine, on the second occasion, I boarded the train, sitting in the second car from the front, The launch sequence started .. got the green lights & the "GO GO GO" ... then nothing .... 10 minutes or so later, the ride op's had to manually release our restraints & we were then told to take our positions back behind the air gates. After some 25 mins & some strange moving of the two trains (The second train was moved back from the unloading station back to the final set of brakes & the train I was stuck on was moved back to the unloading station) & a couple of test launches I got my go.

Personally I'm not too! bothered if it keeps breaking down, I guess or hope it's initial part of it's running in phase ? If I had waiting over an hour for Stealth like some folk had on Saturday, I would of been pretty P'ed off with it when it broke down too. If in 5 years time it still breaking down I wont be so passe about the break downs.

 

Regarding Collossus, totally agree! what happened to it, Only had 1 go on it and that was enough rough! I've been on smoother Vekoma's !

 

Samurai was shut on Saturday, The 'Rapids' didn't open till around 11 too.

 

Paul "I hope Storm Runner doesn't have all these problems" Chapman

[SharkTums]

Storm Runner, Xcelerator, and Kanonen all seem to be pretty hassle free. I'm pretty surprised that Stealth is having all of these problems since it's not one of the big bad evil ones! I'm sure it will get worked out soon.

[lexington]

I heard that Colossus is not doing too good so far this season, supposedly its the weather.

 

Also, I am surprised Slammer is actually open.

[robbalvey]

^^ Or what about Superman in Australia. That's been open 4 months now and have we heard about it having any problems?

 

I also want to point out that it's only been open a couple of weeks. And ANYTHING new is going to have it's fair share of problems. Even Shakira, when we were at BGT in October, 6 months after it's opening, still couldn't open with the park.

 

Give it some time to get the bugs worked out of it. I think it's a bit pre-mature to call it the "Intamin Curse."

 

If it's still having these problems in August, then call it!

 

--Robb

[coasterguy618]

KK is bringing its opening season to it's little brother in England! But seriously, like we didn't know this was going to happen.

[haux]

A new Intamin has problems! More at 11!

[martinb]

But when you think about it, Stealth launches a train roughly every 120 seconds, so for it to have minor break downs could be accepted, but when it closed for a week, thats unacceptable!

 

Intamin are a multi-billion pound company, surely they could do something about it!

 

This may sound silly but when I was queuing for Stealth, it was near the end of the day and it had a good day, I was about to get on but it broke down, though it soon re-opened, and I just thought to my-self:

 

"What went wrong? and

 

"How come its fixed now? then

 

"If they know how to fix it, why don't they do something to stop it doing it again?

[Carnage]

After some 25 mins & some strange moving of the two trains (The second train was moved back from the unloading station back to the final set of brakes & the train I was stuck on was moved back to the unloading station) & a couple of test launches I got my go.

 

That sounds like pretty normal movement for break downs.

 

I know on Dragster the trains have to be moved all over the place to reset after a breakdown. Typically means pushing all the trains back. Once the trains are back they can reset everything and get the ride running again.

 

Hopefully the kinks will get worked out soon.

[maverick81]

I went to Thorpe on the 31st of March, first time I have been and once in there i then discovered stealth was down, collosus was down, slammer was down and tidel wave also, not that i wanted to get wet but this this not really make this a good trip - I know they cant open them if there is a H+S risk but 3 major rides out of operation and within the first 2 weeks of opening??? Not good!

 

Got a refund though - not really the point as it cost me £60 to get there!

[lexington]

I went to Thorpe on the 31st of March, first time I have been and once in there i then discovered stealth was down, collosus was down, slammer was down and tidel wave also, not that i wanted to get wet but this this not really make this a good trip - I know they cant open them if there is a H+S risk but 3 major rides out of operation and within the first 2 weeks of opening??? Not good!

 

Got a refund though - not really the point as it cost me £60 to get there!

 

They did say it will be down during that time...

[Thrillrider15]

It seems like Intamin "or just Stealth", has to kind of wear the ride out a little for it to work properly. It's Like getting a new key. You have to use it a couple of times to go in smoothly.

[sbrownttd]

I have been to Thorpe park 4 times since opening and stealth has run perfectly when opened, if its gone down during the day its been only for 10-15 minutes. I was also there on Sunday and there was a rollback and it was tested for ages, then one train started loading and the other train was still being tested, 20minutes after the rollback. This i cant see why as other rocket coasters just relaunch until it makes it over the hill. Also on 3 occasions it has opened late around 30mins after park opening.

 

I think Stealth's downtime could be a lot worse and i think it has run very well since opening.

[Carnage]

This i cant see why as other rocket coasters just relaunch until it makes it over the hill.

 

It really depends on why/how it rolls back. Though in Stealth's case it might be more mechanical related.

 

In the case of TTD in can take longer to reset if the first train in the pair rolls back. If this happens they have to move the 2nd train out of the staging area so that the rollback train can be moved back to staging.

 

If the 2nd train in the pair rolls back they can pull the train back without pushing all the other trains back.

 

Also if the rollback is caused by high winds then typically this means a longer wait to relaunch. Somewhere around 15-25 mph winds require management override. Over 30ish mph winds cause the system to shutdown. Winds have to go back down and stay down for 20 minutes before the ride can be restarted.

 

That's roughly how some of the issues with TTD work.

 

Though these are issues more related to the giant rockets.