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I have a few theories. None of its concrete evidence and is pure conjecture on my part. - The failure of the Swarm. We all know that Merlin were initially disappointed by the Swarms first season. Many reasons were cited (which I'm sure those in the know can find) but essentially, I think this lack of interest in the new coaster dented confidence in what the park could do. Baring in mind, 2011 saw one of the biggest years the park had and that was on the back of Storm Surge. Cheaper investment bought massive returns. - The next Big thing. I think Thorpe has fallen into the trap that Six Flags did. By appealing solely to the thrill sector you severely limit interest. Teenagers want the next big thing and in the 00s, Thorpe easily provided that thrill. Hit after hit, success after success. Coasters galore, several years where we got two flat rides. That investment was unsustainable. Now though, rides like Colossus, Inferno, Tidal Wave, Detonator & Vortex are old hat. They are unmaintained and look their age. Thorpe were unable to drum up interest with The Swarm, Derren Brown opened late and was pretty weak and the less said about the reliance on IP to drive interest the better. The park has a real image problem which leads me to.. - Branding. Thorpe has a huge perception problem. Is it a thrill park, is it a park for up for it families, do we make X a family coaster then two years later refurbish it for adults. Do we change our market to families and then close the biggest family ride we've got (Loggers Leap). Do we advertise our park in our 2019 advert or have an image of goats, donuts and a hotel room. None of this evokes excitement. It smacks of a park throwing anything, everything at the wall to see what sticks and new general managers are not given enough time to evolve/change the place before they are fired and a new one bought in. - The Smiler crash. Ironically, four years later, I feel like the crash has had this weird echoing effect at Thorpe compared to the other two main Merlin parks. It's almost like it never recovered from the initial drop in attendance whilst Alton has recovered well thanks to Wicker Man and Chessington never saw the drop because of its family audience. You could say the lack of investment is really hurting Thorpe right now but then there seems to be no steps to change this. - The park itself. It's fallen a long way since the hefty days of 2006. If they are to recover the place they need to sort out their offering. Having abandoned flat rides and log flumes standing doesn't help, neither does the game stalls or the lack of maintenance and paint jobs on their rollercoasters. The basics need to be sorted for Thorpe to recover. Chessington was exactly the same way in the 00's but that now feels like the strongest Merlin park IMO. If Thorpe can sort this then they might be able to get back to the top.

We finally have footage of the Black Forest Chateau organist. He pretty much looks like a human version of the one in the Vampire's station.

I will buy everyone on this forum a drink at the local spoons if Big Top returns. I will actually go through it butt naked if it did. Time to just accept that it’s gone for good. *sees the lineup announcement for Fright nights. Well guess that’s me sticking to Alton Towers Scarefest and Tulleys Shocktoberfest

Cheers for the advice bruv.

Can we just be clear about Big Top:

Hello guys, Been a regular of the forums for many years but decided to ask the burning question this morning... just what has happened to the park? Thorpe Park a few years ago was arguably the best park in the UK, it was going from strength to strength in terms of investments and then all of sudden we get IACGMOOH, bouncezilla, the year of the walking dead etc They even pulled The Big Top off the Fright Nights bill which from what I understand was a favourite by many I assume 2020 will be just as poor in regards to the parks line up / investments as no planning has been put through for a coaster or even a new flat ride... Any information regarding the reasons behind the decline of the park would be interesting to hear...

You would think it'll be easy to just create a strobe maze, throw a few strobes in, bobs your uncle, sadly not. It sure was, a lot of thought went into it's versions. 2015 wasn't the best layout, but it laid down some core features which helped 2016's come about. 2017 took 2016 problems (people walking out fire exits and open spaces etc) and brought us a 're-ridable' attraction, because there would have been rooms you will have missed the first time you went through. You should have seen version 4s concept 😋 If they are unsure they can't match 2017s version or 'big top it', then maybe it's a good thing that it may not come back. But let's have high hopes for this year, as it can't be any worse than 2018..?

Some short snippets of the new Big One soundtrack, sounds great and has that trance/club style feel to it, from the short part heard I like. Much better than IMAsnore!

That's most unlike Merlin to cut back on staff shortly after a ride/attraction opens.

When this is what we ended up with, you think back to all the rubbish that was spoken about DBGT on its launch. So many enthusiasts coming out telling everyone it was near enough better than Universal, the best attraction "the UK" had ever produced, "that I couldnt help but clap when it finished". I even had some enthusiast friends who were scorned for not having done it yet as if it was a duty to go see it the moment it opened, as if Thorpe Park was a charity and you had an obligation to support the greatest ride ever made. Honestly... All this was said about the original version too. I wouldnt be surprised if all those people were just getting free tickets from Thorpe to say whatever the park wanted.

So... I went on this for the first time on Friday and was simply astonished by it. Astonished that somebody, somewhere, signed off a huge sum of money to build this. I went into this with an open mind and not knowing what to expect, but it was quite simply, terrible. I believe that the ride has already been here for a couple of years, I can't see any way that this thing lasts longer than maybe another couple, even with enhancements and changes, the concept is just poor. They'd be better off ripping down whats inside and making this into a scare-maze.

I've been on DBGT at least 3 or 4 times now at various points in its life. Of course there is some novelty the first time. One time, we all got on the first train, to find only one headset on the whole carriage was working. They then led us out some random exit through what looked like a store room with random stuff piled up, to then have to join the fastpass queue (?). Honestly the organisation was tragic. Oh and of course we had to watch the pre show again... yay. Another time we had the shop scare which was fun and unexpected for me, and when I went again with different friends I was looking forward to them jumping. Unfortunately, no actor! This was early on in halloween season but it was a weekend in fright nights... so its pretty poor. Honestly I don't know what the future holds for this 'ride'. maybe changing the middle section and the VRs, or an entirely new story line, but its one of those that nobody who's done it before will be excited to come back to the park for it.

That might explain that pass-aggy tweet the other day from IMAScore referring to Paulton's Park as a family resort like no other

Oh right, ok.

It’s humbling and a genuine pleasure to see the love for Big Top - but believe me, there is no announcement coming, no surprise return. And trust me - the park know just how much of a following the maze has and how much everybody wants to see it return. They just can’t deliver it anymore.

Given they are still hanging onto TWD as an IP to sell the event for a 3rd year running, and that Do or Die is returning given how ominously awful it was, I ain’t holding my breath on this year being anything but a minuscule improvement compared to 2018. The new “chilling challenge” I’m certain is gonna be where Jungle Escape is. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s just Vulcan Peak: Escape Edition with a £5 fee labelled to it. And as for the new maze, hopefully it’s better than last year’s immersive experience of nothing but toilet bowls, pallet crates, black tunnels and Asylum’s chicken wire fencing used as “theming” which we got with Dead Creek Woods. Yeah, as you can probably tell, I ain’t enthused one bit after last year’s embarrassment with this announcement today. Hopefully that’ll change when the event gets nearer though, as I want this event to be great like it once was...

We asked 100 people and they all agreed that you're completely wrong here. When Quantum just decides to go out of control every now and then its like a perfect glass of wine.

Oh man, it appears “future for theme parks” is reaching new levels of low today in the middle of summer. Besides from having an awful run through the attraction this afternoon, with numerous effects, audio, lighting and hardware not working, the cream of the crop goes to this:

Yes, this is true. The reasons include: -A decrease in visitors compared to 2011. Despite the fact that 2011 was one of Thorpe's busiest and most profitable (and so, in that sense, 'best') years ever, Swarm still had to deliver an increase. It didn't, so Merlin saw Swarm as a failure, and immediately lost faith in whatever their thought process was behind that direction. -Weak brand. Swarm didn't capture people's imagination. It was very generic and not very recognisable. The end of the world vibe was overdone and it merged in with so many other things that went for that. -Experience didn't match marketing. For one reason or another, people expected an intense thrill ride, similar to Saw. Instead, Swarm offered a much more graceful experience, leading people to be disappointed. So basically, people had minor niggles about the ride, and less people visited Thorpe (which would have happened regardless). So, Merlin see it as a failure. Despite that, in the long term it's done a good job, is less generic these days and scores very highly in KPI scores, which Merlin love. So it's been a slow burner. But Merlin's model doesn't allow for slow burners. Just a couple more to add: Derren Brown's Ghost Train Going for a dark ride over a coaster was always a risk, but it was one which needed to be done in my opinion. Sadly, DBGT missed every single possible mark, which really damaged the park. It did attract attention, and it did cause attendances to rise. But it damaged the park's reputation by so much more than the worth of a few thousand visitors. Two big investments in a row that failed is a big recipe for disaster. You need a sure-fire win after that; something with minimal risk. But when everything is spiralling downwards, the pressure is even great, and the amount of risk you take has to decrease. Ultimately it leaves us in the situation we're in now: the best way to minimise risk is to not take a risk at all. Can't lose money if you don't spend money, right? Terrible Non-Big Investments You have to go all the way back to 2007 when the park added a solid non-big investment, in Flying Fish. Arguments can be made for Storm Surge (diversifies the line up and added a much needed family ride) and Walking Dead (a solid scary-themed indoor attraction at the end of the day). I guess you could say 2013 with turning X forwards but that slipped under the radar with the focus on Swarm backwards. But I think Flying Fish is the last one where someone would struggle to come up with a reasonable negative for it. Since then, we've had short term investments, based off fads or needless IPs, which have led to a mish-mash of identities and ideas, and nothing which has really improved the line up. This is coupled with a lack of general upkeep in the existing parts of the park. The bare minimum was done to rides, theming, presentation, etc., which eventually led to rides closing, theming being taken away, etc. Focusing too much on Scares Fright Nights works for the park. Regardless of its quality, it's still the busiest, best received, and most profitable time of year for the park, year in year out. The park tried to capitalise on that and make it work all year round (which, in fairness, isn't too unreasonable). It worked with Saw - The Ride, because that was handled properly. Saw Alive was a nice idea and helped absorb the busyness whilst it was full time. After that, Thorpe should have quit whilst they were ahead. Scare attractions don't work outside of Halloween in a theme park setting. Scary stuff doesn't work outside of Halloween in a theme park setting. One thing to compliment a line up, yes. But an overarching focus on it? No. Yet Thorpe didn't realise this. They didn't learn that in 2005 when Freakshow 3D was dead during summer because no one cared. They didn't learn that after Saw Alive's popularity dwindled in 2012. They didn't learn after Swarm. They didn't learn after Ghost Train. They probably haven't learnt after The Year of The Walking Dead. Keep scares for Fright Nights, and focus on a diverse line up. Not Learning Lessons Related to above, Thorpe make the same mistakes again and again. This likely comes down to management seemingly being a revolving door, especially in more recent years. A new person comes in, tries something, it doesn't work, leave. A new person comes in, tries that same thing in a different disguise, it doesn't work, leave. Repeat. They need to take a step back, look at what they've done for the past 15 years and realise what hasn't worked, and what has worked, and start building from that.

The £18 million is going on theming to fully enclose the ride so it feels like you are actually at THORPE PARK whilst at Flamingo Land. Evidently, it isn't cheap to recreate the back of XNWO's building and fill a pit with concrete, whilst also creating a lake with a SBNO old boat-come-scare maze.

I was so shocked I'm only going back to Thorpe this year if I can blag entry to the FN press night, good day to you Sir. LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE - CLICK THAT NOTIFICATION BELL

It features Merlin's favourite word: eXPeRiENCeS

They're doing one count better than Chessington then, which still hasnt got a new coaster after 15 years! I may discover whether it's abysmal or not but I feel more inclined to go visit parks like that than most UK parks at the moment. All down to value for money. It was a bumper year for the park, but then why have all their other IP attempts at Thorpe since been such big flops? The entire park was in a different situation. They're now feeling the pinch after years of too much focus on short fads instead of long term redevelopment and improvement. On the subject of IPs. Merlin have just tried to suggest in their interim results that its Legoland performances have been disappointing because the Lego Movie 2 didnt bring in the extra guests expected. But they'll still build more and more Lego Movie attractions anyway, becoming even more reliant on the performance of other media rather than build the quality of their own parks. IP popularity can be used to boost parks in the short term but overusing it like Merlin do will just come back to bite you.

Awesome Old Tv show Bodger and Badger Series 4 was filmed at the park. This rare clip shows some of the park including Dragon River from the 90s. It ironically shows issues from todays maintaining of effects at Merlin parks 😂

My favourite part of the attraction is the exit!

Good on you for being positive! Far more generous than I'd have been! 😂

I personally feel the most popular kid has to be The Passing...or perhaps it will be DBGT extreme: revenge of the deluxe edition. In all seriousness I do hope they have this rumored chainsaw themed maze with some indoor sections/theming/clear thought behind it- rather than just a narrow path with tarp covered fences, where you can hear and see the intros for Blair Witch/Platform 15, is that too much to ask Thorpe?

You’re so negative. It might? Jeez.

However, how do you enjoy a day out with friends if you have a disability? I think your maybe missing the point that not every disability is one visible etc, in the event of an evac the carers/friends are there to help with the evac etc. You simply cannot put a definition to what a carer should be or look like, as everyone is completely different in terms of needs and help needed and in most cases it will be friends and family that help out... be it in the case of panic attacks, mental health etc. Some users of wristbands may seem completely normal to the bare eye, that could be there calm at that point due to the aid the system can bring. Some people can flip very quickly from seeming completely normal to hell breaking loose for example the stress, anxiety etc some people have with confined spaces large numbers of people in a small area. These are only examples I'm sure there are so many triggers for people. If it means they get to enjoy a day out that they otherwise wouldn't be then I dont see an issue with the pass provided its used correctly

The other issue on top of that is some disabled people will require two people to transfer for whatever reason... 3 is an ok number of accompanying carers, but it needs to be flat out adhered too...

Great conversation about Chessington guys. I went yesterday, it's nice to take a few years break from parks as Chessington is looking really good right now (to me at least). Of all three ex Tussauds parks, it looks in the best position for the 2020's. We pretty much looked around the entire Zoo and theme park and there's small bits of improvement all over the park. There's obviously some flaws such as Toadies which looks baaaad but on the flip side, Sir Squirtlot was on which I haven't seen for years. They need to make a statement on Bucaneer because saying its run aground is coy. Park was relatively quiet with 10-20 minute queues across the board. Saw some shows, had a pint or two at the hotel which I think is Merlins best hotel as far as the theme and view stands. Lord Lorikeet I like these little tributes across the park to the past. Ashok here, the wood carvings near the penguin enclosure from a tree that was cut down to expand the area. They are charming and respectful. Wanyama Village is the best part of Chessington. It's what separates theme parks from amusement parks. Chessington is easily our best answer to the European competitors IMO. I liked how fresh a lot of the park actually looked. Rattlesnake had a slight refurb a few years back with all the snakes fixed and now looks much nicer then it did through the 00's. The animatronics still need work Wasn't much of a fan of Bucaneer just being left around near Griffins. This park needs a successor to Fury. It can't cope with the demand and has never been able to. As the ride offering decreases, they need to get some investment in. I like that they are refurbishing rides one by one through the place and I approve of the effort in the Zoo offering. The place still needs some ride investment. With so much on the market, when will Chessington actually build something fresh and new?

Another classic from Face-Fok ltd!!

Can’t really add to everything that’s been said already but what sticks for me is the whole sense of half arsed-ness. Abanding Big Top but changing it to a show which although was ok, is nowhere near as good as maze form. SBNO rides - never a good look even if they do shove bamboo fencing around them. Half done paint jobs - either finish the job or don’t start. It feels like Thorpe is a bit lost in what sort of park they are - 2013 (when I started visiting regularly) it was known as the nations thrill capital - fast forward a year and its “an island like no other” - shove in Angry Birds Land and appeal to younger audiences/families - great idea but then they remove the carousel and have Loggers SBNO for 4 seasons. Add to that the height increase for X which is now The Walking Dead and they’ve spited a fair few younger guests who can no longer ride it. I think I’ve visited Thorpe 5 times this season - and on one of those times the only thing I went on was the toilet - queue management even to get in was horrendous and once inside it wasn’t much better. Can honestly say I’ve had more enjoyable visits to Chessie this year - Chessie has gone through some naff times but seems to be on the up which is great whereas Thorpe feels quite stale - hopefully they can turn it around because it has such potential and the rides (most) are brilliant

Funny that - it's almost as if they haven't put a new coaster in for 7 years!

Most of what the posts above me say are completely correct, but here's my two cents. Lack of image: Thorpe Park don't really have a clear audience now. At least back in 2012 they had a image and demographic, in 2019 the park have huge indentity problems and the new adverts and tagline just scream soul-less. Chessington and Alton are not perfect but any means but they have a clear brand and a clear target market which they both do well, Thorpe is the vanilla ice cream of branding at Merlin. IP's that make no sense: Gruffalo and Room On The Broom make somewhat sense. IAC, Angry Birds, and TWD literally felt just Thorpe picked their IP from a hat. Do we need a half arsed area themed to Angry Birds? HELL NO. IAC was another example of Thorpe slapping on a short IP for a short lived attraction that shouldn't exist in the first place. Poor small, medium, and large investments: For small investments we got IAC and a bunch of reused unthemed little flat rides which were placed pretty blindly.. For medium investments we got Angry Birds and the best family ride re-themed to something scary, for large we got DBGT- one of the biggest fails in Merlin history. 13 million spent on something that probably won't make it past ten years of operation. Neglected parts of the park: Colossus's new concrete look, Swarm's wood in the station, Inferno's queueline, Old Town in general, Slammer.. The park feels so neglected, Thorpe right now feels like the unwanted redhead child of Merlin.. I think what Mark said was very true in that Chessington was in a similar position for a while, things can change. Though I feel like Thorpe really has a dug itself a hole and its going to take some hefty investments and clean up to recover what is the current mess of the park. I think replacing Loggers and Slammer with new attractions would be a good first step, that area is crying for a refurb, its needed a refurb for like 4 years now..

Very interesting read up as always Whilst Kings Island to me is not a park to travel all the way to America for on its own, it is most certainly worth a visit when combined with days at Cedar Point. I actually enjoyed the atmosphere at the park when I visited but certainly not an atmosphere on the level of Cedar Point. Mystic Timbers to me was by far the star of the show at this park. Whilst front row on it isn’t really that great, the back row felt utterly frantic and the ride at night is sentastional and as such made it my number 1 wooden coaster (even ahead of Wodan and Balder) I do think Diamondback is probably one of my least favourite B&M Hypers but I was quite lucky to have had some solid rides on it airtime wise. I do agree that that trim is utterly stupid though. Banshee...where do I even start!!?? Can somebody please tell B&M that NOBODY LIKES THOSE DAMN VESTS!! Honestly was it not for those vests, it could have been up there with Raptor and Montu as one of my favourite inverts. Thanks to those vests it’s possibly my least favourite and that includes Nemesis Inferno!! I do think the park desperately needs a true WORLD CLASS/ELITE level stand out coaster to go with the current line up. Hopefully the 2020 Giga coaster will give them that.

RAP

When going to Chicago the nearest park worth giving a sh** about is certainly Six Flags Great America (unless you're willing to drive to Cedar Point). They have been rapidly expanding in the past ten years or so with coasters being added left and right, heck Great America have probably got the best deal out of any Six Flags park in the past ten years. They received a kiddie woodie (wasn't too fussed on getting that cred), a B&M Wing, a RMC, a freespin, and recently a S&S launch. This park really gave me Thorpe Park vibes. The park is fairly compact with a lot of the rides being kinda on top of each other. Whizzer is right next to Maxx Force and Maxx Force gets quite close to Raging Bull and Raging Bull is next to Demon and Demon goes up right close to X Flight, ect, ect. Just like Thorpe a lot of the rides are very packed in to the space and walking around is fairly easy with that in mind. Goliath: Goliath is the park's groundup RMC woodie and despite not being anywhere near the level of Steel Vengeance the ride is pretty insane. The ride's first drop is certainly the highlight with a very steep angle and the signature ejector RMC's are known for. Other than the drop the ride has one more airtime moment before the dive loop which also gives great ejector. On the inversion front the dive loop is good fun and the zero g stall is orgasmic. Sadly the ride is kinda neutered by its shortness but I would still rank it in my top 10 because it still kicks ass. I think if this thing was longer and had more airtime I would like it more, though Zadra will probably show us what a longer Goliath would ride like anyway. Overall my favourite ride in the park but its short length makes it worse than New Texas Giant and Steel Vengeance IMO. V2: I have to admit I really was a fan of Wicked Twister, I really enjoyed the powerful launches and the spikes were brilliant fun. Vertical Velocity managed to wow me even more due to one of the spikes actually being just plain straight which gave the ride a brilliant drop if you were in the back! The ride like Wicked Twister is just a lot of fun and not anything mind-blowing, but V2's tight footprint and fun launches give it a pretty pivotal position in the Great America lineup. The Joker: S&S Freespins.. A incredibly divisive coaster model that due to the mass cloning seems to be fairly disliked, people seem to hate these things and honestly I don't know why. I loved The Joker, I actually preferred it over a B&M Hyper, don't @ me.. Why do I like this ride and model? Let me explain. The Joker is a incredibly unpredictable and re-ridable coaster that always left me wanting to get back in line for. Its a short ride but it packs a punch and you never quite know how your cycle is going to treat you, it might be a fairly tame cycle or you might get brutally spun for the duration, you never know. I know some people hate this coaster because of this but I liked it, I thought it made the coaster more re-ridable as every ride is vastly different from the other. When the ride does give you brutal cycles its utter insanity, heck this is the only coaster that me feel flat out scream, you feel so out of control on this thing. I think for its footprint The Joker is brilliant for this park and I would love this ride at a park like Thorpe Park. Batman: (no pics cos idgaf) Batman at Great America is the first of the Batman clones (and the first invert) and overall its a fun ride. I certainly prefer Raptor and Nemesis but its a solid invert with good intensity. The one thing that made me a little annoyed with this ride was pi** poor operations and stacking which made my Europa Fanboy heart break. Despite the Six Flags operations the ride was a solid invert that blows Inferno out of the water. American Eagle: American Eagle is the parks huge racing woodie built by Intamin. The ride overall was incredibly fun though it certainly shows its age. The ride has some brilliant airtime moments and a brutal turn-around, overall I found the bunny hills toward the end to be a particular highlight. The operations on this ride were honestly pretty shocking to be honest though- lengthy stacking, only one side operating for most of the 3 days despite a lengthy queue! Sure Gemini only runs one side a lot of the time but Gemini never had a queue and its throughput is still pretty great with just one side. The queue with one side operating on American Eagle was literally painful to watch.. Overall a great classic woodie though I would like GCI to perhaps re-track some of this ride as it certainly shows its age! I would also like Six Flags to be less like Six Flags. Viper: Viper.. Despite a unoriginal layout, what a brilliant wooden coaster. This ride is just plain fun with great airtime and overall just a complete classic that certainly stills remains a gem in the lineup. The ride is rough enough to have character but is smooth enough to be enjoyable, it really is what a wooden coaster should be. Unlike other rides in the park Viper had a really good crew running it and the theming was also pretty decent for Six Flags. Overall a complete classic that deserves to stay in the park for years to come. Raging Bull: I wasn't expecting much going in, what I got was booooorrrrrinnnnnng. If you think Silver Star isn't all that great you'll fall asleep on Raging Bull, Silver Star at least has a great second half and is actually interesting! Raging Bull is nicknamed by many as 'Raging Dull' and honestly it lives up to the name, the ride is just a bunch of forceless turns with a few airtime moments that give no airtime. I actually prefer Titan at Six Flags Over Texas, that ride was kinda boring but the helixes after the mid course made me grey out every time, Raging Bull was literally forceless. Don't get me wrong this isn't a bad coaster, but its certainly one of the worst if not the worst B&M Hyper. I get why it has a twister layout due to space but they could at least could of made this more.. Interesting? On the upside the crew on this were hauling with operations, they ran two trains and managed to dispatch trains before the other train even made it to the final breaks! That is pretty amazing for Six Flags! Dark Knight: Dark Knight is a pretty fun enclosed wild mouse, It certainly doesn't have the most intricate theme, but its fine. Nothing less, nothing more. I think having a indoor coaster is good for the park though. Superman: This ride was kind of a tragedy to me. Let me explain. Superman is a great B&M flyer that completely blows Air out of the water, easily one of the top rides at the park and something you'll wanna ride a fair amount. Then you remember this is Six Flags. It takes YEARS for trains to dispatch (like 4 minute+) and this ride team seemed especially unmotivated and miserable. What could of been a 10 minute queue was 30 minutes, and the staff seemed about as cheerful as someone at funeral. Its a shame cos Superman is probably my favourite B&M at the park and maybe even the best B&M of the trip. It really sucks that the operations are god awful and so dreary, hopefully the team in other years are nowhere near as bad as this years. Sure a bit of stacking would be okay as flying coasters aren't the easiest rides to load but Superman was just stupid with stacking trains on sitting on the brake run for what seems like eternity. Overall an amazing B&M ruined by really depressing operations. That pretzel loop is sexy though. Demon Demon was a fun arrow coaster, I probably wouldn't rank it above Corkscrew though due to Corkscrew's really fun airtime hill. Unlike Corkscrew, Demon had some cool theming throughout its layout and it interacts with X Flight towards the end which is cool. All in all, a fun ride but nothing to shout at. Whizzer Whizzer was a fun family coaster but I wouldn't say its anything to scream about. Its got a cool lift hill and a fun tree hugging layout, like for a family coaster its cool. The operations were truly awful though- stacking was nearly as bad as Superman and it made a 5 minute queue at Europa into a 40 minute queue as staff just stood like statues in the station. Not the best Schwarzkopf (Shockwave is the sh**), though Whizzer is a fun family coaster. X Flight X flight as a whole just reminds me of Swarm. They both have a similar-ish layout, similar stats, and just overall I would rank them about the same. X flight feels a smidge bit longer and the layout doesn't have that awkward turn around like Swarm does so I think I give X Flight a slight lead, though honestly they are about the same in my rankings. If you have ridden Swarm you know its a very graceful ride (perhaps a little too graceful) and the ride overall is all about the wing sensation, these wing coasters aren't really built for high forces or crazy elements. Overall X Flight pretty much rode how I thought it would, its a fine coaster and its something different in the lineup. Operations: After such great operations at Cedar Point and Europa I think Six Flags was a bit of a shock. Cedar Point and Europa are incredibly efficient with operations and Six Flags Great America just weren't.. These ops were probably the second worst I have ever seen at a major park, only behind Portaventura. If you haven't guessed from this review, I value operations quite high when I visit parks so this kinda got on my nerves. Overall: Six Flags Great America overall is a park with a great lineup of coasters (especially now they have Maxx Force) which is certainly a fun time for credit whores. I do think when it comes to operations and beauty Great America really is very lacking which means this park is really about the rides and nothing else. On the upside the food is pretty decent and Six Flags is pretty reasonably priced, so in terms of cost its a pretty good deal. I think Great America is a park that you should do at least once if you have the opportunity, I don't think its a park I would visit again unless they added another big coaster but its a good park nevertheless. I'm certainly not itching to go back like Cedar Point but its certainly a good park. Anyway hope you enjoyed, peace.

Darren Brown sounds better, I like Darren. Then Thorpe wouldn't have to had to paid Derren all that cash... free IP! The spare money could have been spent on fright nights or a new coaster....

All the positivity is in the European theme park topics currently. There was a brief rest-bite when Wicker Man and Icon opened but they weren't enough. Unfortunately Thorpe has fallen quite a distance from its heydays in the 00's when there was hope of enthusiasm and big projects from the park. Now-a-days a bouncy castle (which Chessington doesn't even advertise with theirs) is the best we get. Things like Slammer and Loggers just being abandoned are symptoms of a far bigger issue that Thorpe faces.

Seeing those old maze photos has made me sad. I'm off to go melt some pop badges.

I like the bit where he says "My Ghost Train" and hope Thorpe release merch with this on next year.

Prison theme has potential for a good maze. Very different from the rest of their line up, and not as common as many other typical maze themes either which is nice. I was also a huge fan of when Thorpe did the park-wide prison theme in 2012, so here's hoping.

haters and losers continue to dump on this ride but refuse to acknowledge the cold hard fact that it’s done more for the anti fracking movement than any green party politician living or dead

Didn’t realise there was a topic on this so I may as well attempt to sort of revive it. After having done 1st year Civil and Structural Engineering at Leeds, I decided it wasn’t the right course for me. This is because I wasn’t particularly enjoying it, I was really struggling to take in information during lectures (whilst did attend every lecture, it wouldn’t have made a difference if decided to bunk off most of them instead) and I didn’t take to it naturally unlike many other students who naturally enjoyed it and could take to it very well. I did manage to get 65% which was a huge shock (in a good way) that was mainly due to some insane cramming and was also dragged up by getting 85% in the maths module. So instead I will be switching to Mathematics and repeating first year whilst still staying at Leeds because it’s an amazing city (and the music society is brilliant). Maths has always been my strongest subject, a subject I personally found easy (whilst still enjoyable at A Level) and have always been intrigued with as it gets more advanced. The maths lectures during first year engineering were also the only lectures I genuinely enjoyed so I’m pretty confident I will enjoy studying it a lot more than engineering. So yeah... time to do first year for the second time!

BigTopDan... it ain’t coming back.

I absolutely agree with you that the way Cedar Point takes care of its heritage rides is to be respected and admired. It’s something that often goes under the radar with this magnificent park given the focus on all the newer coasters they have.

As an ex quantum op, the ride has quite simply a mind of its own! Sometimes Its like a crazy outta control machine others its just steady Eddie

Updated Top ten 1. Nemesis - Alton Towers 2. Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point 3. Blue Fire - Europa Park 4. Untamed - Walibi Holland 5. Helix - Liseberg 6. Katun - Miribilanida 7. Wodan - Europa Park 8. Alpina Blitz - Nigoland 9. Tatsu - Magic Mountain 10 Taron - Phantasialand