Camelot
- Thread starter Martyn B
- Start date
Tomatron
Giga Poster
I probably would had loved it back in the 90's when Tower of Terror was still there, before the faux-castle burnt down. But now it's well past its use-by date, mostly because of poor management.
Whirlwind just hurts, Knightmare isn't the best Schwarzkopf (and I love them to pieces) and the rest of the park is pretty awful.
Whirlwind just hurts, Knightmare isn't the best Schwarzkopf (and I love them to pieces) and the rest of the park is pretty awful.
This topic has certainly made for interesting reading as an ex rides operator at the park.
I worked the 2008 season, the year that they bought in Knightmare.
Theres a few points i do need to correct people on though.... from my time working there anyway.
People say about the site's maintenance. Well, i used them MANY a time when i was there, the maintenance team are good. The rides are first opend by maintenance in the morning, who then sign it off to the ride op's team (So that'd be me), we then have to ensure the ride that we are working on for the day completes 2 full cycles. If there are any problems we have to report it straight away. This is all done before the park opens. If you have a code 1 or 2 (Code 1 is the ride has a problem and people are on the ride unable to leave and code 2 is ride has stopped, no one on ride.... code 3 is just a general problem but nothing urgent and blah blah blah) the maintenance team are always there as fast as possible and do what they can to get the ride back going again.
The standard that these rides are kept to are as best possible. Yes theres maintenance issues, but keep in mind that these rides are full of moving parts, nothing that has moving parts will work brilliantly forever. Alot of you say about the image of the rides. Admittedly, this is an issue i spoke about when i was working there, i was told that the cost of painting the rides is simply too much to have to pay out, when painting the rides wouldnt generate an extra income for the site.
When people say about the cleaning standards of the park, well yeah, they do need to be worked on. Don't get me wrong, you dont have to wade through 50 tonnes of rubbish to try and get from a to b, but the fact the site still has no toilet drainage, instead has the "murky pond" still makes me feel sick. Btw, i should also point out here, it isnt the pond with the 20p boats on, its the one where if you watch long enough on a busy enough day, you can see the level going up and down with how many people are using the toilet.
During my time at the park, there was the opening of knightmare.... great i hear you say! .... not so great! The rides move over to the uk was always hitting problems, parts were often delayed and had to be re-fitted etc etc etc. When the ride did open, it was towards the end of the season, so the adverts went out too late and they missed what could have been a good season for guests at the park.
I do understand have hold the same opinion as a few others on here, that yes, a few new rides would certainly help, paint the old rides and work on a better ride expireance for guests on the rides theyre keeping. The park needs to get some branding in there. Food wise what do you have? Some manky old burger place and a few of them rollover hotdogs.... thrilling! -_-
The way forward for the park IS with heavy investment. I did get my hopes up when the new owners took over. I genuinly believed that these would be the ones to come in, invest and save the little park that a few of us still love. They didnt though. Fair enough they made a few little changes, but nothing that made people go.... wow. Infact if i remember correctly, the 2nd season they had the park, the banner outside said something like "New for 2011.... a new website!". Wtf? Who cares about the website? If the park is bad, its bad, no matter how flash the website is.
This park can still do well. I dont think turning it into an educational park would do any good tbh, i think better quality rides and more entertainment is the way to go forward for them. But not one of these new managers seem to want to listen to what us people have to say.
It seems for now were just going to have to sit back and await the news soon that camelot has shut its doors for good
I worked the 2008 season, the year that they bought in Knightmare.
Theres a few points i do need to correct people on though.... from my time working there anyway.
People say about the site's maintenance. Well, i used them MANY a time when i was there, the maintenance team are good. The rides are first opend by maintenance in the morning, who then sign it off to the ride op's team (So that'd be me), we then have to ensure the ride that we are working on for the day completes 2 full cycles. If there are any problems we have to report it straight away. This is all done before the park opens. If you have a code 1 or 2 (Code 1 is the ride has a problem and people are on the ride unable to leave and code 2 is ride has stopped, no one on ride.... code 3 is just a general problem but nothing urgent and blah blah blah) the maintenance team are always there as fast as possible and do what they can to get the ride back going again.
The standard that these rides are kept to are as best possible. Yes theres maintenance issues, but keep in mind that these rides are full of moving parts, nothing that has moving parts will work brilliantly forever. Alot of you say about the image of the rides. Admittedly, this is an issue i spoke about when i was working there, i was told that the cost of painting the rides is simply too much to have to pay out, when painting the rides wouldnt generate an extra income for the site.
When people say about the cleaning standards of the park, well yeah, they do need to be worked on. Don't get me wrong, you dont have to wade through 50 tonnes of rubbish to try and get from a to b, but the fact the site still has no toilet drainage, instead has the "murky pond" still makes me feel sick. Btw, i should also point out here, it isnt the pond with the 20p boats on, its the one where if you watch long enough on a busy enough day, you can see the level going up and down with how many people are using the toilet.
During my time at the park, there was the opening of knightmare.... great i hear you say! .... not so great! The rides move over to the uk was always hitting problems, parts were often delayed and had to be re-fitted etc etc etc. When the ride did open, it was towards the end of the season, so the adverts went out too late and they missed what could have been a good season for guests at the park.
I do understand have hold the same opinion as a few others on here, that yes, a few new rides would certainly help, paint the old rides and work on a better ride expireance for guests on the rides theyre keeping. The park needs to get some branding in there. Food wise what do you have? Some manky old burger place and a few of them rollover hotdogs.... thrilling! -_-
The way forward for the park IS with heavy investment. I did get my hopes up when the new owners took over. I genuinly believed that these would be the ones to come in, invest and save the little park that a few of us still love. They didnt though. Fair enough they made a few little changes, but nothing that made people go.... wow. Infact if i remember correctly, the 2nd season they had the park, the banner outside said something like "New for 2011.... a new website!". Wtf? Who cares about the website? If the park is bad, its bad, no matter how flash the website is.
This park can still do well. I dont think turning it into an educational park would do any good tbh, i think better quality rides and more entertainment is the way to go forward for them. But not one of these new managers seem to want to listen to what us people have to say.
It seems for now were just going to have to sit back and await the news soon that camelot has shut its doors for good
^ Thanks for the insight, Bevlive.
Tbh, it would have been a lot better for the park if the press (well, one local paper) hadn't made a point of publishing the non-story about it reopening.
All that's done is drum up memories of the accident and highlight the fact they had operator/maintenance problems. Mud sticks, especially where there are alternative theme parks in closeish proximity.
I can't decide who's had the more drawn out death, Camelot or al-Megrahi.
Tbh, it would have been a lot better for the park if the press (well, one local paper) hadn't made a point of publishing the non-story about it reopening.
All that's done is drum up memories of the accident and highlight the fact they had operator/maintenance problems. Mud sticks, especially where there are alternative theme parks in closeish proximity.
I can't decide who's had the more drawn out death, Camelot or al-Megrahi.
Robbie
Hyper Poster
To be fair, the main "New for 2011" promotion was the Birds of Prey show and display, which is pretty good (even if the company who run it give out flyers for their main base "which is better").Bevlive said:
Don't know what they're going to put as "New" this year.
Yeah, a few people I know who've read it in the paper have took it to mean it was either an operator problem or the kid pissing about.Ian said:
The most annoying thing about the paper's report though is the headline "Rollercoaster to re-open" FFS!