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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!

Thanks for showing us something we already knew existed, bud

https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/news/2025/07/11/alton-towers-resort-update-july-2025/ Bianca is out. Big shame in my opinion. Shes was a breath of fresh air and has done a lot of good for the park since shes been there. Sounds like she wanted to do a lot more too, but has never had the budgets to do so. Will be interesting to see what happens next. Towers needs someone good and long term.

The REAL map for 2024

We can all but hope

Green bulb replacement

Stealth is scheduled to be closed 23rd - 25th July. I assume this will be launch cable replacement.

There is always Saw. If Merlins approach becomes cost cutting everywhere IPs may be moved to the chopping block.