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Certainly a shame that Russ left. We'll never know exactly what he was responsible for, but he obviously served as a face for the park for a long period of time via Jack's videos, having a reasonable open Instagram page and being quite visible on park. He joined as a director at the park at a time when there were several directors coming and going at the park, before the current long-running stability we've seen. Regardless of what's happened at the high Merlin level, and the issues this is causing Thorpe and the other parks, I do think Thorpe's current success was built on stability at their leadership level. I'd expect that the role description is sort of all-encapsulating. In other words, it's not saying "Rethemes and lands are coming", but rather "If a retheme or a land was to come to light, it would be in the remit of the Creative Manager". I imagine that part of the reason the role was created is because the Entertainments Department is set to be outsourced, like Towers and Legoland. So the person's previous role, which was related to Ents, would change significantly, so it makes sense for that role to develop and make use of the creative skills they have. The big thing here is that there's now someone looking after the "creative maintenance" of the park. Hopefully that means ride effects. So hopefully there's some positive changes there (looking at Swarm and Inferno), and also moving forward, there's someone at Thorpe who can liaise with MMM to say "This is not a worthwhile effect we can realistically maintain, do not include this" (looking at the Hyperia splashdown)

It is a weird one and I don't think we really know the answer to the question of "Why now?" Obviously having an SBNO ride doesn't look nice. But it had been SBNO for ages, and stood right by a year-round attraction for a while. So it's not like now was the hot time to do it. One point which people might not be aware of is that the park made use of the ride for staff training (work at height in particular) after it closed, which was in many ways more convenient than using another ride. They didn't need planning permission to remove it (even if they did submit an application). I reckon there is some legs to the school of thought of a ride going there at some point. I wonder how much it actually cost to remove? I wonder if that extra cost proved to be a hurdle to adding a ride there in the past, so they ultimately decided to remove it now so when they choose again to add a new ride, it's slightly less expensive. A new ride could still go there next year in theory, but I'd be surprised.

Hi guys. Of all the things that can happen at a park, a spite is probably the most gutting. I'm sure we've all had an occasion where a ride has been closed for the day, or it's broken down, that means we haven't been able to ride it. But sometimes, some might voluntarily choose not to ride something for whatever reason. Whether it's through fear or just plainly forgetting it exists, we might sometimes choose not to go on a coaster. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know: have you ever self-spited yourself out of a major roller coaster? Have you ever voluntarily not ridden something for whatever reason? For purposes of limitation, I'm going to keep this to relatively major attractions. There are a number of enthusiasts who often don't ride kiddie coasters (myself among them); if I were to include all of the kiddie coasters I've denied myself by choice over the years, this would be a long list! If we're keeping it to more major coasters and excluding kiddie coasters, most of my examples are fairly historical now, but I have a few I could reel off! These are: Rock'n'Rollercoaster at Walt Disney Studios Park - This is probably my most significant one, and the only one I am yet to receive redemption on! When I was not quite 8, I went to Disneyland Paris, and I had the opportunity to make Rock'n'Rollercoaster my first ever inverting coaster. I was over 1.2m (but not yet tall enough for Space Mountain or Indiana Jones), and I'd never gone upside down before... but I chose not to ride it. Why, you might ask? Well, it was all because a boy from my primary school told me it gave him tummy ache... so I staunchly refused to ride it all trip on that basis alone! I'm still bitter with myself about this one 14 years on... I have provisional plans to return to DLP next year, and this is one of the attractions I care most about going on purely to avenge my 8 year old self! I don't even care if it's not that good; I just want to go on it to redeem my past self-spite! The Dragon at Legoland Windsor - It took me until I was 14 to ride this... because when I first went to Legoland at 6 years old, my sister and I both refused to ride it due to the perceived "scary" theming! I couldn't ride it on my second visit at 10 years old either, but I had a broken arm, so that was slightly more out of my control... Saw: The Ride at Thorpe Park - I did not go on Saw until my 3rd visit to Thorpe Park when I was 15. On my first and second visits in 2014 and 2015, respectively, my sister and I were still in the phase of being slightly fragile around any kind of vaguely "scary" theming. We pondered Saw on our second visit in May 2015, but we caught the restrictions board outside that said "Live or die... make your choice" on it and swiftly decided to live! I was also a bit too much of a law-abiding citizen to contravene the posted age restriction of 12... I visited in May and didn't turn 12 until July. Scorpion and Sand Serpent at Busch Gardens Tampa - On my first visit to Busch Gardens in 2016, I didn't ride either of these... because I quite literally forgot they even existed. No, I'm not joking; when we were in the park, I simply forgot they were there and forgot to ride them, meaning that I exited the park having missed 2 non-kiddie coasters purely due to my own actions! On my revisit in 2023, I made specific effort to ride them... and I'm glad I did given that Sand Serpent shut about 2 weeks later and Scorpion swiftly followed about a year after that! In terms of non-coasters, the only thing I generally self-spite myself out of these days is anything involving live actors, particularly scare actors, due to a personal phobia of/aversion to scare actors. For this reason, I never did Derren Brown's Ghost Train, I have never ridden Nemesis Sub-Terra, I have never done a scare maze, and I also haven't done The Walking Dead: The Ride at Thorpe Park since they rethemed it (I got the cred in 2014 when it was X, so I'm slightly less bothered about this one than the ones listed above). Coasters-wise, I'm game for pretty much anything nowadays (kiddie coasters aside)! But I'd be keen to know; have you ever self-spited yourself out of a major roller coaster? Or any other attraction, for that matter?

At some parks, something that I would say seems less prominent than they used to be are paper maps. As a collector of theme park maps from my visits, I very frequently don't see a paper map at some parks anymore, with things having migrated to apps. I do like a paper map, and I'm always happy when parks have them prominently on display! At many places, they don't have them anymore or at very least display them far less prominently. I'm also sad about the loss of physical ORPs. I'm a lot less inclined to buy the digital ones; I almost liked the little books they came in more than the actual photo itself!

Could’ve potentially been plans for a new flat this year or 2026 that had been cut? Or they just used part of the sparkle project budget to get it removed whilst they had the funds. Either way, shame to not have a replacement flat there yet. Hopefully soon 🤞

I wonder why the park removed Slammer this year without submitting plans for something new in its place. I would have thought the only reason it was SBNO for eight years was because of the costs involved with removing it. As money is tighter than ever at Merlin it seems like a strange use of funds. I'm glad they did as SBNO attractions are never a good look.

I totally agree that paying to park at theme park sucks, but trying to get out of it by “outsmarting” the system or whatever is poor behaviour. It’s like these idiots you see with cameras in Police officers’ faces, not breaking any laws, but trying for hours to catch them out or get a rise out of them. Not breaking any rules, but it’s scumbag behaviour. The reality is, if you get out of the car park somehow without paying, weather that be by tailgating someone at the barrier, driving the wrong side of the road out of the entrance, holding up the queue while arguing with staff to open the barrier, or whatever, I doubt very much that anyone would do anything about it, but if someone does something stupid or aggressive in order to get out without paying, they’re are an absolute piece of sh!t. 🤷‍♂️ The rules apply to everyone. Nobody should do stupid things to get out of paying, and certainly nobody should be trying to lean on the staff to let them out etc - they aren’t there for that and it isn’t fair. There will always be people who try to flout the rules, but I suppose it comes down to the sort of person you want to be. Some in our society simply don’t care. But if we all behaved like that, 1, we’d be in a mess, and 2, the parks would simply make whatever changes are needed to close the loophole. on the other hand however - if you choose not to buy a parking ticket in advance, and take a chance that the exit barriers might be open at the end of the day etc, I think that’s fair enough if you’re let out without paying but were willing to pay at the exit 🤷‍♂️

It's the (unfortunate) reality of theme parks. The overwhelming majority of theme parks charge for parking these. And Thorpe Park is probably on the lower-side of average for theme parks in Europe. And cheap compared to America. Not that it should be a race to a bottom, but again, that's the reality. It's a weird one. If you were to go to any car park and park for 6+ hours, you're looking at paying over a tenner anyway. So not exactly different to a theme park. There's an argument for sure about the differences between the need for a theme park car park versus, say, a shopping centre car park, and how that should impact cost, but that's a different point for now. Ultimately the point you're making is a universal one across theme parks. Most parks have high costs for food, parking, etc, on top of an entry fee and have high-cost extras too. It's the way they are. If you're looking at technicalities of whether they can charge for things legally, it's kind of splitting hairs in my opinion

Not awkward, I have season pass, just curious. 🙂 Another option would be to ask them to open the gate, they don't have any legal authority to keep you there. Alternatively, you could just take no cash and no electronic payment with you. Again, they'd have to open up then. It's one thing to chage the earth for food and fast tracks. Paying for parking is just exploitation in my opinion.

Private land so can do what they want within reason. Including charging for parking. There's problem some different laws/rulings written up for the various situations of car parking.

I'm no expert, but... I don't believe they can fine you if you left the car park without paying. The park have not opted to be a part of any regulator for car parks. It is not necessary for them to do this. This means they don't have to follow any rules about displaying T&Cs every so often, don't require clearly marked bays for cars, etc. That comes with the downsides of not being able to fine, not being able to punish drivers who park improperly, etc. The park state on their website, app and signage that there is a charge to park on site. This is clear enough that they can say they have made a reasonable and justifiable attempt to inform the customer if anyone was to kick up a fuss. So if you realllllly wanted, you could try and argue they're not able to force you to pay, meaning you could either: -Forcably drive through and break a barrier (and then be liable for destruction of property) -Exit the car park the way you came in. Again, there's technically nothing they can do even though you're driving the wrong way. But the second you leave the park (ie go underneath the coaster track), you're back under normal laws and made a conscious choice to drive on the wrong side of the road as a result. That's a big whoopsie. Most importantly, the park have been doing this for over a decade. Plenty of other visitor attractions have done the same. If there was a notable legal issue with this, it would have been brought up and resolved by now. Your whole point kinda feels like being awkward for the sake of it to be honest.

To charge for staying in your car park, you must have terms and conditions displayed every so many yards, ie signs usually attached to lamp posts. There is none of this. There is no gate of barrier when you enter, which implies you're not trespassing by being there. Correct me if I'm wrong?

School trip season and kids don't know any better.

Is it just me, or does the whole ride get lit up because of the tiny green led lights on the emergency lights? Not the lights, not the emergency lights, but merely the lights that tell you there's power!

Imagine queueing 90 mins for twd 😬

"Lands" at Thorpe is a cyclical process, they get removed and re-added every 3-5 years 😁 I know it's peak season but some of those queue times yesterday were horrific - Hyperia being ded all day didn't help, but Detty on an hour, Walking Dead on 80-90 minutes, Storm Surge on 80-90 minutes. Stealth, Nemmy and Colossus were all 100+ at one point. Grim. But at least the park is making some money so the Tidal Wave flame effect is instated for 2026.

Ah interesting - there have been a couple of fairly high profile people exit their roles at Thorpe now… Hopefully all will be well at Thorpe, because these last few years it’s been run better than it has for a very long time. Good luck to them all I have wondered if a few of the current and recently ex Merlin employees will pop up in Universal. Time will tell!

This new Mack reliability. Voltron keep closing on and off (and I got a rollback).

It opened late yesterday and the closed early (I think between 2 and 3pm?). Tad odd...hopefully nothing serious. Rode fabulously yesterday mind.

She's back to her old ways - yet to open today...

so uh been a few weeks (in fact a month) and no soundtrack

I believe they have as Dead Beat is confirmed for next year's Fright Nights, so Thorpe Park might leave it there until the maze leaves the park.

I've just seen on Linkdin that Russ Gaines, who was the commercial director for the last 6 years has left his role at the park. He was a very public figure, appearing in lots of Jack Silkstones videos and clearly had a lot of passion for the park, so its a shame to see him go. Don't really know what impact hes had at the park during his time but always a shame to see someone with clear passion leave.

Hey all, I'm currently working on an accurate and somewhat complete X playlist, for all the songs that played in the queue line and the pyramid itself. I'm wondering if anyone could send over any personal or online clips from X with music playing in the background. (These songs played between 2013 and 2017 and some may of been removed and changed as the playlist was changed every couple of seasons) My current song list is: - Sweet Lovin' Sigala, Bryn Christopher - Salsoul Nugget (If U Wanna) M&S, The Girl Next Door - Infinity 2008 Klaas Vocal Edit Guru Josh Project, Klaas - Show Me Love (Extended Mix) Steve Angello, Laidback Luke, Robin S - Latch (T.Williams Club Remix) Disclosure, Sam Smith, T.Williams - Intoxicated Martin Solveig, Good Times Ahead - Rumors (Deniz Kayu Remix) Pep & Rash, Deniz Kayu - One More Time (12 Mix) Daft Punk - Domino LMC Remix Jessie J, LMC - Not Letting Go (XYconstant Remix) Tinie Tempah, Jess Glynne, XYconstant - Reload (Instrumental Mix) Sebastian Ingrosso, Tommy Trash - Save The World Swedish House Mafia - Sandstorm Darude - 9Pm (Till I Come) ATB - Miami 2 Ibiza (Extended Vocal Mix) Swedish House Mafia - Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix) New Order, Various Artists - In My Mind (Axwell Remix) Ivan Gough, Georgi Kay, Axwell - Meet Her At The Loveparade (Fergie 7) Da Hool - One (Your Name) Swedish House Mafia, Pharrell Williams - Greyhound Swedish House Mafia Any clips / recordings will be very helpful Many Thanks!

Nah, too quick!