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Drayton Manor Park

Queues are small. Only annual pass holders on The Wave at the moment (I bought one the other day). Just been on. Lots smoother than last time I went on the ride years ago. Pretty good, but it's quite a short ride. Was worth getting the new ride cars.

Take it there's still no queue time displays or app for Drayton?
 
Doesn't matter, it needs to complete a mandatory number of hours testing before it can be certified to have guests on it. Nothing to do with Intamin getting it right, more to do with UK law and legislation.
Oh, that was just a jokey comment because Intamin have a long history of rides having technical problems, although to be fair I think their water rides have been more prone to problems than their coasters.

But you’re right, there are expectations around ride testing, through things like EN and ISO standards. The EN (European Norm) standards are adopted in the UK, and the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) interprets those standards.

Manufacturers and parks might have their own individual standards on testing. A ride should also have a safety doc (normally an ADIPS certificate) and the inspection body may also have views on how much testing there should be.

A ride should have a design review to check that the design of the ride is safe, and then when it’s built a conformity to design review to check it’s been built to the design.

Although the design review makes theoretical calculations to check the ride’s safe, there’d then be testing to provide practical evidence to back it up. This would include running it in different weather conditions (there might be an element of simulating weather conditions, for example adding lubricant to track to simulate it being wet). You’d measure g forces. You’d measure stopping distances on brakes. You’d load test the ride, for example with water dummies in different places. There’ll be different kinds of function testing, to check controls and sensors work correctly. There probably will be a certain number of ride cycles completed as part of this.
 
and lots of relevant media in Germany
That's a very generous way of describing Sanbrooke and his camera.

The relevant media were catered for yesterday, that was press day after all, which would have been booked in a decent chunk of time ago.

I would have thought that they'd have saved opening weekend for the bank holiday, but I suppose this gives them a decent chunk of time to ensure that operations are up to scratch for it. This is Drayton Manor Park and Zoo though, they'll find a way to bodge it I'm sure. The release mechanism for Shockwave last year being a literal manual spanner, was a particular highlight.
 
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I did a little VLOG of the opening of The Wave this morning if anyone's interested. Shows the difference in opening day buzz for The Wave compared with things like Nemesis etc. There's also a few snippets of bits of the construction site for the new ride, and the rest is just me waffling on about a few of the other rides that I like or don't like. Enjoy, I think 👍


From: https://youtu.be/7mM4t7ooz-s
 
I did a little VLOG of the opening of The Wave this morning if anyone's interested. Shows the difference in opening day buzz for The Wave compared with things like Nemesis etc. There's also a few snippets of bits of the construction site for the new ride, and the rest is just me waffling on about a few of the other rides that I like or don't like. Enjoy, I think 👍


From: https://youtu.be/7mM4t7ooz-s


Great footage!

I was watching without audio so apologies if this was covered but why are people queuing on both sides of the train? Is that RAP? And i thought there was meant to be a front row queue, couldn't see that?

Can't really compare to Nemesis (for obvious reasons) but also the last minute opening announcement on a weekday. Wonder if it'll be busy tomorrow?

Also here's the official POV:


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeNay7-F3IA
 
Great footage!

I was watching without audio so apologies if this was covered but why are people queuing on both sides of the train? Is that RAP? And i thought there was meant to be a front row queue, couldn't see that?

Can't really compare to Nemesis (for obvious reasons) but also the last minute opening announcement on a weekday. Wonder if it'll be busy tomorrow?

Also here's the official POV:


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeNay7-F3IA

Access queue is via the exit yes.

Front row queue splits from the main queue right at the end.
 
Great footage!

I was watching without audio so apologies if this was covered but why are people queuing on both sides of the train? Is that RAP? And i thought there was meant to be a front row queue, couldn't see that?

Can't really compare to Nemesis (for obvious reasons) but also the last minute opening announcement on a weekday. Wonder if it'll be busy tomorrow?

Also here's the official POV:


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeNay7-F3IA

Thanks! And I think Alphe86 has answered your questions, above :)
 
What do you film on btw? Looks really cool compared to some of the other vlogs i've seen.

Also enjoyed a ride being closed due to vomit, very RCT :tearsofjoy:
I usually use a DJI pocket 2 but it's not great in low light, and it was a bit dim early in the morning so I mostly used my Samsung S23 phone today (it's got very good video stabilization). There's a new DJI pocket 3 out now with a better sensor for low light, so I'll probably get that eventually, but the S23 does a decent job in most situations if you're careful with it. Yeah, the sick thing was quite funny as I was already in 2 minds about riding anyway as I was wondering if it was the type of ride that would make ME sick!
 
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