Attraction Source Forum

Gaffer tape? It’s black and the room is dark. Surely it won’t be seen?

Qzzb_UK wrote:Gaffer tape? It’s black and the room is dark. Surely it won’t be seen?

It depends on the level of damage to the suit. 

As Chris mentioned, the suits are very heavy so it's unlikely that something like gaffer tape would be up to the job. The last thing Thorpe would want is a piece of the suit falling off during the shop sequence.

When I went on earlier this year, part of the dude's costume was open, at the arms. You could see the real hands holding rods attached to the demon's long arms. It's a bit difficult to explain but I guess the costume was deteriorating. It's kind of a shame as that part genuinely scared me the first time I saw it. I'm 34 and had to slink back away from him.

Some rumour and speculation from British Theme Park Archive about possible different ideas that were kicking around for a Thorpe Park dark ride, before Derren Brown became attached to it and the ride we ended up with was installed.

An interesting comment is that an Oceaneering dark ride system similar to that of Spiderman and Transformers at Universal was in consideration, possibly with early designs having been made.

If this was under consideration, I can't help but feel Merlin's decision making was drawn towards the world's-first aspect of Ghost Train, rather than UK's first, or even world class aspect of a known and tested technology.

Although an interesting revelation a disappointing one in my eyes, an Oceaneering dark ride would have been fantastic for the park!!!

So here's an interesting thought, with the potential spread of COVID-19, would you want to wear the VR headset?

Whilst the headsets are wiped down after each use, I don't have much faith that there is adequate time to perform an extensive clean that would be required to prevent infectious disease spread with the existing protocols. I should highlight that Merlin Entertainments have stated yesterday they will increase cleaning throughout all properties. To do that on Ghost Train though, I somewhat suspect you would need significantly more time and resources to do this effectively - enough to very much cause extensive delays in ride operation.

Swarm Chris wrote:So here's an interesting thought, with the potential spread of COVID-19, would you want to wear the VR headset?

Whilst the headsets are wiped down after each use, I don't have much faith that there is adequate time to perform an extensive clean that would be required to prevent infectious disease spread with the existing protocols. I should highlight that Merlin Entertainments have stated yesterday they will increase cleaning throughout all properties. To do that on Ghost Train though, I somewhat suspect you would need significantly more time and resources to do this effectively - enough to very much cause extensive delays in ride operation.

It’ll probably give Thorpe a convenient enough reason to keep it closed until Coronavirus is under control.

I guess this is a risk, but if it comes to shutting to down, do they not then have to consider shutting the whole park?

wamdue wrote:I guess this is a risk, but if it comes to shutting to down, do they not then have to consider shutting the whole park?

Due to the nature of the VR headset coming into near or actual contact with face, nose and eyes, I would expect the infection risk to be far higher than any other aspect of park operation.

Any consideration to close the entire park I would expect to come from Government guidance or requirement, as has been the case in China and Japan, as well as rules against large gatherings in Switzerland and France.

but if you have someone on site with the Cornavirus, its still a risk, be you sitting next to them on a rollercoaster, or using a VR headset. I agree it would be a more effective way of spreading it, but if someone showed up at the park with it, they could still infect others, with or without a shared VR headset.

They certainly could, but the probability of being infected would likely be significantly different. There would also be steps people could take, such as washing hands before eating, that would not be available when putting on a VR headset.

It could end up coming down to the lawyers. If you close one ride stating concerns about the spread of Cornavirus but then someone catches it on a trip to the park, can that person not argue that Thorpe Park could have done more to stop the spread of a virus they knew could be a problem?(as proved by closing DBGT)

Thorpe's Website now has a page about Coronavirus which mentions there'll be additional hand sanitisers and cleaning regimes around the park, so part of me expects that we'll see Ghost Train's headsets more thoroughly cleaned between rides.

wamdue wrote:It could end up coming down to the lawyers. If you close one ride stating concerns about the spread of Cornavirus but then someone catches it on a trip to the park, can that person not argue that Thorpe Park could have done more to stop the spread of a virus they knew could be a problem?(as proved by closing DBGT)

I doubt they can be sued. Common sense would dictate that a person is responsible for his/her own actions and you would think that someone who thinks they may even have it would not go somewhere busy like a theme park (Though yes, I am aware of the idiot who had it and still went to a concert in New Zealand). Plus Thorpe have done what they can to help stop the spread of disease. I think that if you are going to visit the park, or any park, while the Coronavirus is about, than you also have to accept that that will come with a risk of potentially catching it due to stupid people. 
As for DBGT, I doubt them closing it will actually have any impact given so many people say they don't enjoy it and don't ride it because they don't enjoy it :lol

For me the maths determining effective cleaning time is eye opening.

Assume a headset takes about 30 seconds to effectively clean with an alcohol based cleaner, an estimate based on WHO effective times for hand washing and roughly how long alcohol based cleaners take to work.

Now we have 50 headsets. That's 25 minutes of cleaning straight away. But then it perhaps takes 10-20 seconds to move between each headset and get a new cloth, that's another 12 and a half minutes. So 37 and a half minutes to clean.

We do that twice per cycle, once when people get off the train for the mid-show, and once when guests leave at the end. Now we're at 75 minutes of cleaning time required per ride cycle.

Currently the train operates with 2 staff, so that brings us back down to 37.5 minutes of cleaning per cycle. Half of that being when guests are in the mid-ride scene. Doesn't sound do-able.

So let's consider the current time they have for cleaning. Particularly in the mid-scene break, which is about 2 minutes. So 120 seconds, with 2 people is 240 seconds of time available to clean. Divided by 50, gives 4.8 seconds to clean each headset - including time to move between headsets and get new cleaning equipment per headset. So even if staff are going all out, that's each headset as it currently stands barely only get a second of cleaning?

Hmm... I might be skipping the VR from now on.