u/Frequent-You369

We're just back from 2 days in EP (with 1 day in Rulantica to separate them). My family absolutely loved it and are feeling slightly depressed to be home.

I left with some questions about, let's say, how the park is managed, and I wonder if anyone here has answers, even if it might remove a little of the fairy dust?

1. We watched several of the shows (our daughter's favourite was the ice show) and it got me wondering what the performers do when not performing? Most shows seem to run twice a day, so do the performers have other tasks in-between shows? I think I recognised a few in the parade, but what does Oguz the magician do for the rest of the day? What do the dancers inside the Ed'n'Edda costumes (in the Junior Club Studio) do at other times? Work in the souvenir shop? Serve food?
2. A lot of the thematic buildings appear to have upper floors. What are these used for? Staff lunches? Costume changing rooms? Ride-monitoring equipment?
3. It was announced that the park would close at 19:30, but the Italian restaurant was still serving food at this time. We were on the way out at 19:45 just as a dance troupe appeared on stage; the rollercoaster which runs above the car park was still running with passengers at about 20:00. So when do the rides actually stop admitting passengers? Are the restaurants open later?
4. There was very little in the way of litter. Two or three times I saw an electric vehicle driving around, emptying the bins, but when does the park get cleaned (litter collection, toilets, etc.)? Late at night when all the paying customers have eventually left?
5. Have most of the dancers, singers, et al, been trained in the Talent Academy?
6. Where do the staff and performers live? Are seasonal staff housed by the park's owners? How about the more trained performers such as the ice skaters or the magician, etc.?
7. Do staff administer one ride/attraction for their full shift, or do they rotate, say, once per hour?
8. The games which require two balls to be landed in a bin - what's the success rate for those? We watched 'Rebound' for at least 20 minutes, with a constant stream of paying customers, and didn't see a single winner. (I got two balls in the black bins, but not two consecutive balls. My daughter was so disappointed in me.)
9. The monorail: Is there a chance the track will bend?

Edit: I know the title is misspelt but I can't change it.

Edit 2: The last point, regarding the monorail, was a little joke from arguably the greatest Simpsons episode.

Has anyone rented a car from mietwagenschweiz? If so, any feedback?

I'm looking at renting for a few days next week (travelling to two or three places in southern Germany, so please don't recommend SBB) and I'm aware of how many people have been ripped off when returning cars to the various places at Zürich Airport. mietwagenschweiz isn't one of the usual suspects (Hertz, Alamo, Europcar, Sixt, et al) so I wonder if their customer service is any better.

Over the past 2 or 3 years I've rented once a year or so from a local guy who runs a small business, but that costs about 2x the rental from one of those airport-based rental companies. But if I go with the usual suspects I just know that this will be the one time when I return to the car in the middle of a car park and find a small scratch, then get an invoice for ~1500.-

So I'd like to hear if anyone has any experience of mietwagenschweiz.

Was anyone else left grinding their teeth at the number of times 'an historic' was mentioned on the post-election news broadcasts?

I expect the BBC to be the last bastion of correct English grammar.

For the avoidance of argument, I'm following Susie Dent and Gyles Brandreth's agreement that the correct usage is 'a historic' (as discussed in their now-defunct podcast Something Rhymes with Purple).

Edit: Friday 8 May's BBC News at Six on the BBC iPlayer - link - at 18 seconds:

>The leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, calls the results "an historic shift in British politics."

Ok, they're quoting Nigel Farage. But at 1m 44s it's not a quote:

>The Labour Party is set for an historic defeat.

And it sounds to me that Sophie Raworth is definitely aspirating that 'h'. (Trivial, I know, but to my ears she's not pronouncing it an 'istoric.)