We decided to run a double-bill of Thorpe on Saturday and Chessington on Sunday this weekend. The social distancing measures were good, I can't complain about that, but as usual I have a list of complaints I need to get off my chest.
It's nothing that hasn't been said here before, and it's stuff me and my partner only seem to say about Merlin parks, but here we are...
- Break downs. They happen, we accept that, but at Merlin parks we actually expect it. Our first attempted ride of the day was Saw, which went down immediately. As usual, there was no communication regarding how long this would be, very frustrating as we're maybe the fourth group in the queue. We waste 20 minutes then decide to ditch for Colossus, good call as it was still down 40 minutes later when we left the Colossus photo shop. Rides went down multiple times during the day as usual, flats included, which means big queues elsewhere. At least Thorpe has its collection of flats as well as the coasters, but Logger's Leap would have been an appreciated extra on a day like that as we ended up riding the tug ride at one point as it was our only real option.
Vampire broke down whilst we were waiting at Chessington too, and was down for a significant chunk of the morning. Tiger Rock went down several times throughout the day, I know it's old but was it not redone a few years ago or did they not touch the ride machinery during the retheme?
- The Clientele. This is probably unfair to include, as it isn't really the fault of the park and it is dealt with when seen or reported, but it does put a dampener on your day. When we eventually queued for Saw, the group behind us (despite being in their late 20's) were acting like chavvy teenagers, and I don't know how their behaviour was not spotted. They were smoking in the queue, one finished their bottle of drink and decided to smash it into the fencing with a couple of running kicks. They did not give us our yellow circle distance (95% of people followed this very simple rule), until we eventually said something. This just lead to us being taken the piss out of by them repeating what we said in a child's voice. Two of them were doing push ups, with their hands on one queue fence and feet on another. Just all around ****ty behaviour. We had several instances of queue-line smokers throughout the day, and a few social distance failures too as some people just do not give a toss about anyone but themselves.
- Maintenance. Some parts of the park are desperate for at least a paint job, come on Thorpe... Other parks don't let their parks get to this state. I'm not asking for a Disney level of 'there's some graffiti, get the team out as soon as the park closes to repaint', but at least do it every couple of months or even annually. It's a shame seeing some really great theming left to rot, and really gives the impression that Merlin just don't care as people keep on coming anyway. Vampire is an interesting one though, the station has clearly been refurbished recently and is looking great. They haven't cleaned the track and supports in about 20 years, but could you argue that it actually adds to the theme being dirty?
- Communication. Back to the break downs, they happen, but tell us if it's not worth staying in the queue, or this is going to be a 5 minute fix-up. If you don't know, say. Chessington staff actually did a good job here to be fair.
When rides break down, it is very frustrating. We get it happens, we accept it happens, but its the frequency in which it seems to happen in Merlin parks, coupled with the often lack of other alternative rides to do that both limits your options and increases queues on the rides that are open. What I cannot understand is why we don't seem to have the same complaints when we visit somewhere like Phantasialand, the experience is very different one to what Merlin offers, but why? What is it about Merlin parks that is actually run so poorly? I just don't get it. My visit to Phanta last year was on two of the park's busiest days that season, thanks to an unexpected period of hot weather. We still rode everything, many things multiple times, still had time to comfortably sit down for some food without rushing, were not left frustrated, didn't pick up on any vandalised or poorly maintained scenery and yes, in that period Taron did go down, Chiapas did go down, but not
repeatedly.
Sigh, I don't want to leave this post overwhelmingly negative, so I will put here that the Covid-19 measures Merlin have put in place are actually really good, and when people were ignoring them in the queue for Dragon's Fury, I contacted Chessington and they did send over their social distance marshals to resolve it.
Vampire's station is looking like new, and the ride team there were absolutely hurling trains through to keep that throughput up (seriously, kudos to the Vampire team yesterday!!). The Thorpe Oktoberfest was actually quite good and not overly expensive, so pleased with that. Also, Stealth was absolutely hoofing it, I think the launch was dialled up for cold and windy weather that didn't necessarily happen, as we were getting discernible air-time on the top hat. The Stealth ops team were also really on point, so kudos to them too. It isn't ALL bad, but the bad bits really do put a dampener on your day. Merlin's have some good parks in their portfolio, they just need to manage them better as they have world class potential, but fall short in key areas. Alton's lack of flats (RIP Ripsaw, Bon Voyage Boneshaker*, So long Submission, Ta-ra Twirling Toadstools) is really starting to impact on the experience too, especially with the downtime issues faced by the coasters.
* yes, I know this and Dynamo went before the Merlin takeover, but Bon Voyage Boneshaker worked too well to not include.
