All Activity

Boarding is going up: It was a rehearsal day today. I fully expect the whole ride to be covered, the sign to be removed and the boarding to have something on by opening.

No sign of that I'm afraid!

Interesting. Would be nice to see it working. Hilarious that this has been going on for over 3 years now 🤣 Any sign of life on any of Swarms effects today @JoshC. ?

Looks like the fire effect might not be dead in the water (pun intended) quite yet... Here's what it looked like before:

The Detty repaint is the most bizarre decision because, even if it looks scrappy (can't say I've ever noticed anyway), does it really matter? It's not like it's a sprawling coaster track. Can only assume it was a case of "we've got this money to spend, let's do that". Rumours that the Inferno station has had some improvements and that the BOSE cannons are working again but we shall see! Talking of Colossus - the repaint of the walls near the bridge to yellow was already looking god awful last season.

We will never hear those beautiful words again.... RED BOAT SIT DOWN PLEASE.

The benefit comes from cost saving. Ever since the death on Drayton Manors rapids, the amount of staff needed to run Rumba was slightly ridiculous. There's the training of staff for a ride that runs for what 4 months if that. There's the amount it costs to run a water ride. And frankly riding Rumba over the last few years has never been great. Constant announcements reminding you to sit down, PA announcements every 30 seconds aimed at particular boats where people are clearly disobeying the rules, risk of death signs everywhere. A void of atmosphere as you go through the shed of silence. It should have been put out of its misery years ago.

Don’t give them ideas about using it for fright nights 😂 that means its gonna be there for a while

It's disappointing to see it go. It's been a shadow of its self for years now, but there's no denying it was a useful ride to have. And tbh, I did end up riding it most visits it was open. I get the point of how it would be nice if the park announced its closure in advance. But equally, I find the "one last ride" thing a bit silly. It's an old ride. It's got a place in the park's history, an important one within context, but it's by no means iconic. Very few, if anyone, will think of the rapids ride when they think of Thorpe Park. That's not to poo-poo anyone here saying that. But I've seen comments on social media saying they should allow people that opportunity because it's important, gives closure, stuff like that. It's simply a silly argument. I don't believe that this will have been a last-minute, or closed season, decision. I reckon this will have been considered for a while. I know there's been conversations at points over the last few years about its worthwhileness to stay open, and sooner or later it was going to hit that point. This isn't a Loggers Leap situation, where there wasn't maintenance budget to fix it up and then costs spiralled. This is a conscious, clear closure. As for the future. I guess if Parm Pap says nothing, then nothing is happening. But it's a real shame as Thorpe was once the best park in the country for water rides. Now they've got an over-soaker, a water slide and a verruca pool disguised as a dingy boat ride (of which the latter two barely get you wet). Obviously in general water rides are struggling in this country and closing down. But it's a glaring gap in Thorpe's line up now. I'd love to see something like Amazonia at Bellewaerde, but fear that might be seen as too similar to Storm Surge. And I've long said a modern Intamin flume ride (which has individual restraints) would be amazing. Equally, I'm kind of of the opinion that if Thorpe "Six Flags ified" and went down a coaster-park route, it wouldn't be the worst thing ever. Could be quite good actually. I also wonder if they could utilise the space in any way for Fright Nights? That gives options to them when space for that is becoming more premium.

Had some iconic rides on it over those early enthusiast years. Particularly over Fright Nights. How long will this grave be left before actual development happens I wonder?

Well put Cal - I agree. Really, since they were never going to invest in it again, it was time for Rumba to go, and I don't think anyone's going to be surprised by that. It would have been good to have had the opportunity to ride it one last time, but I expect the ever-changing situation at Merlin has meant the decision to close was made after the park closed last season. As much as it's a shame to see it go, it's not like we have lost one of the greats, like Loggers Leap. I think really the biggest shame is that Thorpe's reputation for water rides has dwindled so much. Here's to whatever comes next - hopefully the area won't be left to rot for long.

nothing is coming.

A big shame they didn't finish it this year. Strange decision, the rest of it looks so good! Not sure its been mentioned but Passholder day has been announced for next Sunday 22nd. Hours are 11am-5pm which is a shame as we got 11am-7pm last year. No night rides on passholder day this year.

Shame its closing 1 year before its big 40, and we didn't get a last chance to ride (it definitely said returning 2026 on the queue boards) but budgets have clearly changed and forced it to close. I'm not surprised and do think its the right decision. Its by far the worst rapids in the UK and it's a shadow of its former self. The more recent changes it went through took all the fun it had left out of it, removing the fun soundtrack and changing to dull colours. Last year, it was hardly open anyway so it just isn't worth the resource getting it open anymore. Whats the point in getting it through winter maintenance and ages staff training for the sake of a couple of months. Then when it is open, you have the huge running costs + heavily staffed. I'd rather have the rapids closed than cuts elsewhere on park. My favorite memory hands down is when they added that huge fire hose type water effect near the start of the ride. That didn't last long 🤣 Rumba was always good fun in my early years of visiting Thorpe so sad to see another Thorpe classic close. RIP Rumba ❤️

Bitter sweet…. it was a ride that you could relax on between rides but also a large ideal area to build a new ride on. If the park was full with no space at all to build then I could fully get behind it. However with multiple sites still unused then I don’t really see the full benefits of doing this. We’ve had 2 years of no SNBO rides and now we have another. That area will feel quiet but at least it wasn’t a major ride and it is out of the way slightly. This comment on Jacks instagram post is confusing to me I believe it means that they don’t actually have any immediate plans to replace it and they have no idea as of yet. The amount of space this leaves could mean a decent replacement will eventually come. I’d like to see a dark ride but can imagine some sort of coaster between there and the island next to swarm

Post from jack silkstone and the park has just gone up on instagram, Rumba rapids is no more 😮 https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVyeQ5yiHaw/?igsh=YXAyZ3FlN3Z5bzFt

I think the loop and a couple of other places weren't done. Weird isn't it.

Did they ever finish the Colossus repaint?

I know its not exactly a big priority for the Merlin parks but I will never understand how even Six Flags in its bankruptcy era was able to repaint their coasters and yet inferno still looks god awful and they can't even finish a Colossus repaint. Baron 1898 just got a massive refurbishment and repaint and that's half the age of Inferno. I find it incredibly frustrating that they don't mind if their parks look like a dump.

I did say.

the the piano, the the piano, the the piano, the the piano, p I a n o, guitar, the the guitar, neel neel guitar, guitar guitar, GUITAR, G U I T A R huuur huuur huuur tthhhe electronic bitttt, uuuur huuuur h huuurrrrr h u u u rrrrr r sha la la la la la la

This is fantastic news. Despite the financial issues at Merlin, it's encouraging to see that there is still a lot of development happening across the UK parks. The River Splash location is a great place for a major ride. Good to see such a large SBNO ride being removed and replaced.

Various videos online appear to show that several rides are now being tested ready for opening. Not long to go now. Nemesis Inferno has had some new parts on the seats by the look of it, and bizarrely Detonator has been painted (I didn't think it really needed it to be fair, but it's encouraging to see this sort of thing happening). Tidal Wave's support structure has also been painted and is looking nice and clean now. Disappointingly, the Colossus re-paint appears to have not been completed however. There also doesn't appear to have been much progress on the new launch pad area, which will be a shame if the entry way is a construction site when the season starts, however it's difficult to get a view of that area to see if anything's happening, and the work will be quite out of view from outside of the boundaries. It will be interesting to see what else (if anything) has changed around the park. I know this will be a 'nothing' year overall, but often Thorpe tend to do a lot of 'general' stuff around the park to keep it looking good.

I've seen some pictures on social media of fencing surrounding Rumba, and a digger parked on the path by the wave machine. If they have gone to the effort of putting up a substantial fence, this must mean that RR has been made inaccessible for either a decent refurb during the season, or it's being blocked off for good. My money is on Rumba's site being the preferred location for the next major ride. I wonder if we are seeing the very early stages of prep for it to be decommissioned, to make way for something else. And if that is the case, I would bet they'd want to open it before Universal, so I would bet probably 2029 or 2030. Could we see land clearance happening towards the end of the year I wonder? Either way - they certainly wouldn't be putting that fence up around a ride that they're expecting to re-open soon...

no no no no-thing, whoooooooooo, no no no no-thing, gling, glong, no no no no-thing, gliidde, woof-woof-woof-woof-woof piano chords, visitor beware, you're in for a scare