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Although I’ve been excited for this since the rumours started all those months ago, I think it’s only just hitting me now that we are actually getting a Universal park here at home… I cannot wait to see it all take shape. It’s an interesting time for the UK theme park industry isn’t it - what terrible timing for Merlin to be on the ropes.

I agree it is a huge shame that there is quite literally nothing going on. Although to be fair over the last decade there has been a lot of rubbish advertised as “new” - the various year-round mazes and some of the events for example. The absence of those sort of things isn’t that bad in my opinion, and realistically something new isn’t needed every year. Not many parks do that do they. In recent years they have also made a lot of improvements to the areas other than the rides - the toilets to name one example. Thorpe is probably one of the (if not THE) best Merlin park in terms of general upkeep. I agree though that it is a shame there doesn’t appear to be anything at all happening again. It’s been a few years now since they’ve been able to boast anything notably new. I wonder if Colossus will finally be finished in the next couple of months at least? Despite all the cuts to spending at Merlin I’d at least expect that to be done before opening, as well as Zodoac getting sorted. I wonder if the beach project will ever happen now? I can’t help but think the money would be better put towards a larger project.

Just saw a monks walk update on TikTok and I know you can’t see everything from there but I find it frustrating that we are already back in the 2018-2022 period in terms of new things and investment. There is just nothing going on when a lot could be going on. No Colossus repaint, no flat ride for the old slammer site, no replacement for ghost train, No amity beach update. I miss when Merlin pretty much advertised ‘new for 20xx’ every year, no matter how minor. I appreciate that their thinking is that Hyperia is a big draw but it is pretty stagnant park now for returning visitors. Arguably it is in the worst period in terms of investment and new things. 2019 onwards you had multiple new events each year, so you could look forward to each part of the season. In comparison to 2022/23 when they had the Facebook group, now they litterally have nothing to say and if it was still running you’d get quite depressing and boring responses. What is next for Thorpe Park?

Does anyone feel like Ready Player One has overstayed its welcome at the cinema?

I mean if we’re going by the original iteration, then yes. It has been passed and gone.

Some would say it's the past of theme parks.

It was the future of theme parks 10 years ago. So that means it is actually now the present of theme parks.

Sonic Spinball had to be rethemed for similar reasons, the allegations that Knuckles filed meant they had to quickly drop the brand in closed season so it's definitely possible they could reopen as just David Land and drop the Walliams.

The talk of Ghost Train baffles me, as it's the future of theme parks.

Closed season bingo!

Get a TopSpin whilst we're at it plz. Obviously the space is a prime location for a flat ride. Thinking bigger, they could get rid of the tented food place next to it (whose name I cannot be bothered to recall) and fit in a compact, but still worthwhile, coaster. The unrealistic but awesome dream would be the fact that removing The Walking Dead, Ghost Train and the tented food place opens up a huge space for a brand new land which could have an indoor attraction, roller coaster and flat ride. Effectively it serves as like for like replacements (replacing a coaster and indoor ride with a coaster, indoor ride and a flat), but a blank slate would be best for that area. It would never happen, but in la la land, it's what I'd love to see.

I think one wild swing would only physically fit lmao

2 Nebulas and an ART wild swing please. It should be government mandated that every park has these rides.

not yet, this is literally the only time I’m begging for jack silkstone to give us an update about the project

I’m wondering if maybe they’ll hold out for X to finally be removed. Its plot combined with Slammer’s one is quite large. It becomes even larger if they also decided to remove the tent restaurant area, and becomes massive if they also demolish the Ghost Train building. That would leave a huge space right in the middle of the park for something big.

They'll just remove any mention of him, the rides will probably remain for a short while.

If Annual Passes still exist then you can bet all the RAP will be gone.

The area is crap anyway so destroying it is probably the best bet. Towers is depressing at best of times but that section is just dead.

like literally you can just put anything there, either a new ride, a new restaurant, longer queue for dead beat, or just picnic benches (I propose moving bpb's skyforce to here, perfect neighbor for hyperia)

I said a couple of years ago that Merlin slowly turning to people as IPs could come back to bite them. Walliams, Derren Brown, that YouTuber Daz, etc. All it takes is one unsavoury claim against them and it puts Merlin in a hugely difficult (and totally preventable) situation. I'm not saying that any of those people are problematic (okay, Walliams definitely seemed dodgy, but the other two definitely not), but it was always a risk. Obviously there's still nothing confirmed in terms of Walliams. If Towers kept Walliams World during his previous controversies, I don't see why they would get rid now. The bigger issue is, if something came out confirmed tomorrow, what would they do? They wouldn't realistically have the time or associated funds to retheme it for season start, so it'd surely be just closing the area. Or very very hastily removing all Walliams references and just keeping Gangsta Granny closed in a best case scenario.

Merlin have announced that they have contracted out the maintenance and operations side of the park to OCS. They must have looked at the roaring customer satisfaction success of the food and beverage side of the buisness and decided lets have more of that. A theme park lives and dies by the customers experience. If you contract out every aspect that the customer deals with you have no control over your business.

With the David Walliams allegations today in the mainstream media surely The World of David Walliams land is now untenable. Especially the nature of the allegations against young women. With Merlin's current financial difficulties this is clearly the worst possible timing. Do you think the land will remain closed throughout 2026 or is there enough time for a bodged retheme?

Have all their weekend RAP allocation been booked up yet? Obviously only GOOD parks have that nonsense happen.

The opening times for the 2026 season have appeared (subject to change). They're very similar to 2025: https://www.thorpepark.com/plan-your-visit/before-you-visit/opening-times/ Season starts on 27th March and finishing on 1st November, with 13 closed days during this time (mostly in September, with a couple of Wednesdays in April/May). The park closes at 5pm on weekdays, 6pm on weekends and school holidays and 7pm in August. Fright Nights starts on 2nd October and runs for 24 days up until 1st November, closing again at 9pm nightly. They're not bad opening hours for what we have on offer in the UK. I'll forever stay in the camp of saying I'd want later closing times for Fright Nights still, and it would be nice to see them experiment again with later closes over summer. But for now, it feels positive that there's no reduction on the decent times that we currently have, especially given some of the wider uncertainty that Merlin feels like it gives off.

This is very good news. As I've said elsewhere, it will be fascinating to see a theme park created from scratch. Good luck to those who now see it as an employment opportunity.