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WTF Merlin?

Nemesis Inferno said:
Adding Fastrack to Safari Skyway should be added to this topic...
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Does anyone know how much it is for this ride? Surely not £5 like it is for the coasters at Thorpe?!
 
OK so, back in March I had a look through all the Merlin park calendars at opening hours.

Chessington, to my utmost surprise, was opening until 7 during August! An unheard if breakthrough in UK opening hours.

Well yesterday, I was surfing their Facebook page because it's the best entertainment on the web, and some dude mentions that the 7pm openings have vanished from the calendar.

So I'm like surely not.

Well they have. I checked. They've gone back on their word.

*gets popcorn and awaits the backlash*
 
Thorpe Park opening hours have also been reduced. I guess they must be suffering with attendance and want to spend less on operations.
 
jj23w said:
It's only happened because of The Smiler all parks are slowly having an operation drawback.
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Why? Are they only going to operate the rides for a limited time every week? Is it something to do with staffing? I can't see how the Smiler incident would affect opening hours across the Merlin parks. The only reason I can see if attendance has been hit and they are predicting a slow season, therefore it's not financially viable to keep it open.
 
They did it a few years ago too I swear - they originally said they were going to have long Summer hours and then cut them.
 
^Yeah, Chessington are notorious for their opening hours changing and being cut.

Ian said:
jj23w said:
It's only happened because of The Smiler all parks are slowly having an operation drawback.
Click to expand...
Why? Are they only going to operate the rides for a limited time every week? Is it something to do with staffing? I can't see how the Smiler incident would affect opening hours across the Merlin parks. The only reason I can see if attendance has been hit and they are predicting a slow season, therefore it's not financially viable to keep it open.
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I think some people's thoughts are that Merlin are cutting hours to help regain the losses from Towers' closure because of Smiler. In some ways, I hope that's the case over attendance being hit. But then surely it would be better to keep the parks open and have people spend money in the parks?


Thorpe's reduced hours are odd though, since they'll still remain open till 10 for Summer Nights / Island Beats on Fridays and Saturdays. They now officially open at 9:30 rather than 10 (even though they would almost always open at 9:30), so in some respects, they've only had 30 minutes officially cut from their opening hours..
 
Yeah this sounds all too familiar.

Though some people are reporting that the Towers is still deserted. If they're onto a serious downer there, I guess they'll need to make savings where ever they can?
 
I've been checking the wait times using ridetimes and it's a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. The other day (last Thursday I think?), Oblivion and Th13teen had queues of well over 100 minutes, but then again, wait times have been low at other points...
 
This time of year (June into early July) is odd anyway for British parks - lots of school trips. So in the morning it's dead and the afternoon it's dead and wherever the school kids aren't, the park is dead. Then they all get in one line together and make it 2 hours.
 
^ I won it :p

I put a nice £1k reserve on it in the last 15 seconds and got it for £290 in the end. What a bargain!

I will be releasing some details soon. Incredible things to share in there that have never been told before. Several concepts that have never been seen or heard of.

Whether I turn it into a book (with permission) and sell it, or just simply putting it online, I'm not too sure yet. I'll most likely turn it into a book in a similar vein to what Disney do. Whatever I decide to do, you'll all get to see.
 
^ That's great news! Are they the original pieces or copies? I couldn't work it out..

I was considering bidding, luckily I didn't as it would only have pushed the price up for you and I wouldn't have matched the 1K anyway. I'm glad someone that got them will do something with them and they don't just end up lost, whatever you end up doing would love to see the concept art and letters in detail.
 
Thanks! :)

Yeah its all originals. I've got scaled blueprints and lots of goodies. Took me a while to get through them.
I'm definitely going to do something with it, I don't feel that something like this should be hidden from its fans. What I do however, I need to see with licensing and stuff.
 
Some complicated opening times have been released for AT for 2016 including closure over Feb half term. Waiting for those ride closures to be confirmed now.

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At least Towers will be undergoing a 3 year refurbishment plan! Hopefully the park will be looking decent again.

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owentaylor121 said:
At least Towers will be undergoing a 3 year refurbishment plan! Hopefully the park will be looking decent again.

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As long as it includes more than some of the basic maintenance that they've listed (painting, repairing paths) as that stuff should get done regularly anyway. I also first thought the name was a joke made up by one of the fan pages at first. Public charm offensive I suppose.

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