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So me and my other half have just got back from a 4 day trip - one day at Chessington and three at Thorpe. Very mixed trip which I’ll summarise in bullet points. - Operations at Thorpe were (for the most part) very, very good. Two trains on all the major coasters (and TWD) every day and rapid dispatches. Chessington really needs work in that area though! - Our ride on DBGT wasn’t bad, pretty much all of the effects were working well and it had hardly any downtime whilst we were on park. Only reason we went on though is because we had an hour of fast track for it included with the hotel stay, otherwise we wouldn’t have bothered. It’s bad that, for a ride that was supposed to be so re-rideable, we see pretty much absolutely no reason to go back on anymore. It needs to go. - BounceZilla is a complete and utter monstrosity and we thought it looked mortifying for all involved. I’d imagine it’s probably quite fun, yes, but this should not be at Thorpe Park imo. - Jungle Escape has flopped harder than anyone could have expected. We didn’t see anyone queuing or going in, or even glancing at it, whilst at the park. Considered giving it a go, but didn’t think it was worth the £10pp upcharge for what seems to more or less be IAC in sheep’s clothing. - Went in GameFX for 45 mins or so when it was raining yesterday and was moderately impressed. Good variety of consoles and games, and plenty of them to go around. The VR experience also looked good fun. It was pretty quiet though, on a busy day when it was pouring down outside. Evidence that maybe people don’t want to go to a theme park and play video games? 🤔 - TWD:TR has improved since last year imo. Not sure why or how, but I enjoyed it a lot more this year. Much better experience with live actors than without for me personally as well. - Quantum still looks a week or two away from finally opening this year to me. We watched it being worked on and it was tested a few times (that we saw), but it isn’t making a great sound when sent on it’s full cycle 😕 - Best ride on Vortex that I’ve ever had, it’s running so well this year. - Old Town looks as sorry as ever. I’m not going to even bring up SBNO rides as everyone already knows the situation! - I’ve always had a soft spot for Thorpe Shark, however after this visit I think the park desperately needs a proper hotel. We stayed in a tiny Travelodge room after Chessington and it felt so, so, so spacious compared to the shipping containers. - I’ve not been to Chessington before but I think I preferred it to Thorpe, which I didn’t think would happen considering the target markets (not that anyone, including Merlin, knows what Thorpe’s really is). Better theming, better atmosphere, better maintenance. However Thorpe definitely wins on the operations front. - Impressed with the 40th anniversary merch on offer. They should be doing more to commemorate it than selling new stuff though. - We left 2 hours early today due to the queue times. Our fault for (mistakenly) booking during half term but there you go! Apologies for the long post! Just some thoughts on what will probably be my only visit this year. My second to worst visit that I’ve ever had unfortunately.

Fansites get free trip to Thorpe with nibbles and are positive about new addition they've been invited to review... [/Shocked.gif]

Jeez guys, this is one echo chamber full of negativity - talk about "love us, hate Merlin" sometimes. So, no. Bouncezilla isn't a multi-million pound rollercoaster or flat ride. No it isn't an immersive dark ride. No it isn't long term. It is as every bit garish, loud and obnoxious as it suggests. It actually does what it does well and although the location isn't perfect, it's something different to do in the park (along with GameFX and the Lunar cinema too). At the moment, there are lots of rides and games stalls, but very few attractions or experiences. So, it's nice that Thorpe are exploring the possibility of things outside of rides. It's just a shame that some people interpret this as cheap, low effort and poorly thought out. Ultimately, this seems to be popular with the public and I guess that matters more to Thorpe than some die-hard forum keyboard warriors out to criticise every aspect of the park and Merlin. People seem too willing to pick them apart for every tiny detail not to their taste, but seem to be unwilling to recognise when they do well or congratulate them for at least trying something new. Given that DBGT and The Swarm didn't generate the ROI they had hoped for, allowing Thorpe to explore other aspects of their park and guest profile is actually wise. But of course, Thorpe could build an RMC to rival Steel Vengeance or a Hyper that would challenge Hyperion and they would still rubbish it "because it is Thorpe".

Did all the other parks close down?

Thorpe Park has just turned 40! Thought I'd share this picture on here too

Fastrack for a bouncy castle!! HAHAHAHAHA 😂

Sounds dreadful.

Oakwood was very quiet today, we visited and I don't think there can have been more than 100 people on park. Staff were amazing and friendly throughout the day and the reride policy on Megafobia is awesome, allowing us to get the following ridecount; Megafobia x25 Speed x5 Drenched x2 Bobsleigh x2 Creepy Crawler x2 Snake River Falls x2 Skull Rock x1 Treetops x1 Spooky 3D x1 Flying School x1 Neverland Chase x1 Pirate Ship x1 Witch Hunt (scare maze) x1 Megafobia was as good as ever, some amazing airtime in the back row and I'd say it felt smoother in places where it had been retracked/had wood replaced. Speed wasn't so good (lifthill was terrifyingly slow and I'm sure it never used to be trimmed as much before the barrel roll) but the second hill is still brilliant. Witch Hunt is pretty decent. Spooky 3D was awful, the music loop was broken so there was hardly any audio whatsoever and quite a few effects broken. Drenched was good but I miss the force on the drop in the back row Parkwide audio has been changed to themed music for this year instead of the song loop, made for a very different atmosphere I found. Speed's new soundtrack is cool and suits it well. Didn't brave Waterfall today as the water level looked quite low and saw a few people get soaked. Very pleased to see that work has started on Bounce with signage explaining what they're doing, am looking forward to getting back on this. The Disko looks pretty good with the bright (but tasteful) colour scheme and I like the logo designs. Overall a very good day with amazing staff and service. It was a shame to see the park so quiet but the awful weather in the morning may have contributed a lot to this.

The soundtrack was just a naff mix of old pop tracks (who still listens to Gangnam Style in 2019?) with an annoying 'BOUNCEZILLA' jingle mashed in. The event is pretty typical for a low budget Merlin event, it's just a bit of trashy summer fun and that's fine. But for some strange reason (going off his rush to post about it online) Thorpe brought back Nick Hutson to do the soundtrack and even got John Burton from MMM involved. Seriously, they paid an ego-stroking podcaster/YouTuber just to do what 'Now That's What I Call Music 20546' does every year and for some reason MMM needed to be involved in a bouncy castle?? Do they not have their own events team anymore? Couldn't they hire a real DJ on location, ya know, like a real event would?

I did it today. It's fun. I mean it's a bloody bouncy castle course, of course it's going to be fun. But it looks awful, the soundtrack is cringey (think cringey pop songs mashed together poorly and an annoying American-style voiceover), it isn't what Thorpe need right now (or ever tbh), feels out of place... I guess it's a guilty pleasure type attraction. You'll come out smiling, but everything about it is so bad.

Last Friday after my last exam for 1st year at uni I decided to buy a switch and hop on the odyssey bandwagon (well almost 2 years late!). Much like everyone else here, I’m absolutely loving the game! I cannot decided whether I prefer this or Galaxy (which was my favourite video game of all time). I’m so glad they went back to the non-linear formula because whilst 3D land and world were good games in their own right, they just weren’t true 3D Mario games so odyssey was a smart move!

They don't have to ask permission from the landowners, that's nonsense. It's Thorpe Park who usually have to ask Merlin HQ for budget and development approval, anything bigger Merlin HQ dictate the projects themselves (and design/deliver them with MMM) with consultation from the park. This is literally irrelevant to Bouncezilla. Thorpe Park arent 'testing' anything new here, theme parks have been doing summer events for decades. It's an important part of the season cycle, it's just that Thorpe Park havnt been doing much in recent years. Let's all just get our feet back on the ground. What are you basing this on? How would you even measure "worldwide theme park culture"? Do guests think to themselves "No I dont want a new ride, that's so 2002, I was a bouncy castle!" One doesnt replace the other. The reason Thorpe park installed a lot of coasters in the early 2000s was to expand the park. After the buyout, it had to go from an independent family park into a big player for Tussauds, and that meant growing the market and doubling attendance. 3 big coasters in quick succession was their way of doing that and it worked, it changed the park. Afterwards, it became a matter of sustaining attendance. Merlin's formula was a steel coaster every 3 years and go for IPs, horror and an 'Inbetweeners' type audience. Merlin realised it wasnt working, but spent years faffing around not giving the park the budget and cleanup it really needed. DBGT was meant to solve the park's problems but it was a spectacular misfire. I agree that adding coasters every year is not necessary or sustainable, BUT you're talking an over-simplified version of events and pulling logic out of thin air. Whichever way you cut it, the park's development these last 10 years has been managed very poorly. Its clearly put the park in an identity crisis and that's the bigger issue.

If you think this is acceptable for Thorpe, they may as well just go and hire a load of funfair rides for each season. No maintenance required by the park and a constant rotation of flat rides. Who cares? The park is just about having fun now only about having fun regardless of immersion or theming now.

I did the Dungeon this week. It is what you'd expect - a mini version of any other Dungeon. And I enjoyed it. 🤷‍♂️ There biggest issue is black walls between scenes. You literally leave one scene, go through a black corridor, and into the next scene. Didn't even hear any audio. There's no atmosphere there and, for me, it just didn't work. The scenes themselves are great though. As mentioned above, a couple of scenes do have black walls behind you (ie away from where you should be looking), but that only detracts from your experience if you're looking for things to detract from your experience imo. All scenes were well acted and the boat ride as good fun. So yeah, this is literally as you'd expect: a lite version of the Dungeons which is nicely themed and well acted. In itself, it's a solid, fun experience. Of course, this isn't what Towers needed right now, and I question how successful it'll be. I know there's been plans to add a Dungeon to the resort for ages now, and this is in some ways a test of the water. But it's still the wrong time and arguably not necessary anyways. As a side note, the Dungeon opening hours have been shifted back, meaning it opens later (noon) and closes later (I believe it still operates for the same amount of time). As a result, the actors roam outside the Towers in the morning, interacting with guests, encouraging them to visit, etc. And as they're in character, they work perfectly for roaming characters - the right amount of dark humour that the park should be aiming for!

Some people may be aware that a couple of weeks ago, TowersTimes had a Q&A session with Thorpe. An brief summary from someone who attended, found on CoasterForce: So it certainly seems like the 'next big thing' is a while away. It's no secret that Thorpe's non-big things over the past decade have left a lot to be desired, so it'll be interesting to see if they can change that. And also it's questionable whether the park can truly remain fresh and exciting without adding a major new addition for so long. And forgive my pessimistic scepticism, but I see little to be excited about. The park have see-sawed between families and teens/young adults again and again it makes you wonder if they'll ever get the balance right. Saying the park will look unrecognisable in 10 years time is a bold claim which requires a substantial amount of money to back it up (Walibi Belgium are doing something similar and spending at least 100m euros) - and this is during a time when Varney has said that Merlin will be investing less money in theme parks. It all sounds very much like Thorpe have been looking through rose-tinted binoculars and what the future could be like.

This on paper could very well be the best Scarefest yet. The welcoming to me was the only bit of deadwood in the line up last year so to see that gone is a big plus. I am quite delighted to see the return of Terror of the Towers with a refreshed story line. I loved Terror of the Towers but it did desperately need a change from the “What Lies Within” story as that long overstayed it’s welcome. I wonder if Thorpe Park will now bring back a certain much loved horror maze after a years absence....... Altonville mine tour and Sub Species are both brilliant horror mazes (the latter being the best in the country in my book) and I actually found Project 42 to be pretty good too for a maze with limited space to work with. All in all a pretty solid looking line up.

Worst of school trips is in July. Late June is usually manageable; wouldn't expect queues to peak at longer than 30-45mins at worst. And if you're sensible and don't do Swarm first, don't do DBGT when it opens, etc, you'll be fine.

The Saw IP was very recently renewed and will be at the park for the foreseeable future. And given there's another reboot of the franchise next year, the park would be stupid to get rid of it this year.

Maybe they have changed their mind and it's going to make a splashback soon! 😂

Zodiac has queue audio back too for the first time in a while, The dome is also playing its proper track now as is shark hotel which is good to hear! The entrance is still playing a strange short edit of the full version of track - missing out most of the different areas tracks which is a shame, Lost City is also playing a short version of its full track.

Such a pretty park, I really do love this park, and can't help feeling in an alternative universe Thorpe could have ended up more like this (maritime exhibits, vintage attractions, gardens, architectural facades, family feel etc) They even have an onsite woodcarver and signwriter that you can look in on (last picture).

Why? This isn't TST...

I know that. But something small like removing the gum from Inferno's queue or properly doing Swarm's station would of been wayyyy better than this. The park right now need is dire need of small improvements and some areas do just need a bit of tidying up (Old Town).. True, but the park hasn't received a coaster since 2012. Alton in that time has got two coasters that are IMO better than anything at Thorpe. DBGT was expensive but it was also a massive liability and a car crash of a investment. They didn't "revamp it" the year after, they had to add a dungeons style ending to make the attraction remotely decent. That extra room probably didn't cost too much anyway, most of the money for DBGT I think went in the VR sections (the worst bits imo). The re-theme of of X probably didn't cost much too. Some black paint and some barbed wire from screwfix shouldn't of cost too much, the ride has grown on me overtime (its not bad) but it certainly was more of a small investment than anything.. The park also recently lost a large flat ride and their log flume which has a decent amount of space, you'd think they would think about developing that pretty large area but no.. Or at least removing it so it doesn't look derelict..

Cedar point have a themed bouncy castle and have had it for years. No one moans about it. 😂

Regardless whether or not people are obviously using it, it's so embarrassing from one of the apparent industry leaders. Is this a school fete? The standards are honestly so painfully low when people are justifying it with "it's better than nothing!"

Im no expert on costs of things but I don’t think should look too much into the costs of bouncezilla to the park - it has a sponsorship to start with which probably covered most / all the cost to buy it - I doubt any money spent would much much dent in a cost of a ride.

Its all good in the short-term, just like IAC, DBGT, Nemesis Sub Terra, ect. But in the long term this a just waste of budget that doesn't really add much to the park at all. Sure it'll be gone by next year, but they could of done so many things this year with the budget and they chose this.. A lot of people complain about Merlin never really having the foresight to think about the long-term when it comes to their investments, I think Bouncezilla is just another smaller example of this. So many things could of been done this year that would have been more beneficial to the park in the long term- Swarm's Station, Inferno's Queue, Colossus not just being hastily filled with concrete, a flat ride in Slammer's place, Old Town being spruced up and Loggers being dismantled. Maybe next year they should just add seasonal rides everywhere, who cares about the main park that is literally rotting? Loggers Leap's space at this rate won't see any change or development until Alton receives SW12.. I think some trampolines next to Swarm would be fitting, maybe just play some EDM in The Swarm area next? That would be fun.

Bouncezilla hasn’t replaced any ride, it’s taken up a space what would otherwise be empty. Whilst I can see why some don’t like it the feedback has been incredibly positive - only have to scroll through Facebook posts about it!

I find watching TV and playing board games fun too. Doesn't mean that I want to travel to Surrey to do that! I can just have 'fun' many places, there's only a few places I can gave fun riding rides and coasters! I'm not saying they can't mix things us with different experiences, but if I go to a major theme park I expect rides and attractions, and would be disappointed if that focus went.

Would everyone just be okay then if the park add a used pinfari to replace Nemesis, a Wacky Worm to replace Stealth and The Waltzers in the place of Swarm? This is not some tacky funfair, its one of the biggest theme parks in the UK..

Deep down, everybody knows Quantum is the best ride at Thorpe Park.

The course was designed by MMM and custom made with the features they wanted for the space they had.. hence their involvement! As for the soundtrack - again its cheese and fun by design - fits in with the whole thing really!

Personally, I really enjoyed this attraction. Would be happy to see it made permanent as a break in the day.

I have to say, today was the best I think I have ever seen Thorpe - in both appearance and operations. It is clear that they have really pulled their socks up! Mist effect was working on Nemesis Inferno - a lot! Fire on Swarm (skimmers still missing though) Smoke effect on Stealth's launch Squirting water on Saw's body (plus the lights and hammers) Operations were spot on.. Even Colossus was quicker than usual. Swarm was often leaving the station before the previous train had returned - resulting in a walk-on from around 1pm There was a really great buzz on park today too. It was clear that they had prepped for it to be far busier than it was.. but that didn't stop there being a great vibe around the place.

Now we know why BounceZilla is free - to build up the main queue enough to a point where it will encourage people to buy Fastrack for the thing. I mean, just... wow. Three different queues for a bleedin' bouncy castle...... Happy 40th Anniversary folk!

BounceZilla will have Fastrack. Fastrack, for an inflatable course. Lol

Many years ago a man visited a smallish yet popular Danish amusement park. That place was Tivoli Gardens. He was inspired by the charm and character of the place which lead him on to creating his own park. That man was Walt Disney. Tivoli Gardens has been somewhere I have always wanted to visit, whether that be it’s significant history, interesting pallet of attractions, or to say I have visited the fourth most visited European park? These were just some of the reasons, not to mention ‘’technically’’ following Walt’s footsteps. Opening in 1843, Tivoli is the second oldest amusement park in the world (after Bakken). The park is literally in the City centre of Copenhagen (Denmark) putting it firmly into the category of city parks. Like Liseberg, Grona Lund and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The park features no fewer than three entrances, including the iconic main entrance. We decided to take this one. Upon entering, you are greeted upon some pretty picturesque gardens and open spaces, which make for an ideal first impression and one contrasting the busy street outside. One of the first attractions we visited was the iconic Ruschterbahn (Roller Coaster). This attraction dates back to 1914, making it one of the oldest attractions in the park and maybe the world. Despite being nestled into one of the park’s corners, it was definitely one of the most popular attractions. And for a great reason! The ride is so simple yet perfect, a brake-person rides on the train with you and controls the speed as you go through numerous drops and turns. I can safely say the Ruscteebahn is my favourite attraction in the park. It’s effectiveness of completing simple tasks so perfectly is satisfying. It is easily my favourite of the three Scenic Railway attractions I have done too. Tivoli’s second headline coaster is The Demon (Daemonen),a B&M floorless which opened in 2004. This must be one of the smallest B&M’s in the world, with it’s compact layout. There seemed to be some rows dedicated to VR in the station, however we didn’t see anyone use it whilst we were there. Another VR failure? It definitely isn’t my favourite B&M out there, however it’s impressive what the park have managed to fit into what is a very small footprint (for B&M standards). Better than Dragon Khan though. The park did have a Mack powered coaster, however this was in the process of being replaced whilst we were out there. “Adds another to the list of spited creds”. Our final coaster was Kamelen (Camel), an adorable Zierer . This replaced their older junior coaster. The attraction features an Arabian style theme (like other rides in the area). Six laps too? Woo! There are two dark rides inside Tivoli, one of these is The Flying Trunk. This Mack ominmover attraction depicts numerous scenes based on the books from renowned Danish author Hans Christian Anderson. The attraction was sweet and relaxing. It is certainly impressive how much they have managed to fit into what is a relatively small building. The ride is built partially below ground level. The Mine is the park’s second dark ride and is just totally bizarre. You go around in small boats shooting targets, although the scoring system is not particularly clear. The guns are either similar to Wands, or things one will say is less appropriate! The ride is essentially a tiny flume dark ride with lasers. The scenes are charming despite the potential lack of context. Tomb surprisingly disliked most of the attraction. Tivoli packs a large selection of flat rides, some of which have to be the craziest out there, Vertigo is no exception. This crazy contraption flings you 360 whilst turning at rapid speeds to the point of almost making the former Slammer look tame. I enjoyed it, but literally experienced my limit for thrill rides! Some of their other flat rides include a pretty Steampunk themed Air Race, an S&S drop tower (least this one launches down) and a Crazy inverted Magic Carpet. I found this one the most nauseating, it probably didn’t help that girl opposite me looked like she was going to vomit any moment tbh. Amongst this, they also had a highly impressive Fun House, which was free flowing and located underneath the Ruschterbahn. They also had an adorable Vintage Cars attraction which is amazing, because fountains and a vintage Ferris Wheel. We ran out of time for the Dodgems, Carousels, Land-Train and Sea Storm (style) attractions. Annoyingly some attractions were unavailable on our day of visit, including the Fata Morgana which was an iron condor style ride, a crazy mutated breakdance attraction (which replaced their old breakdance) and the sky flier. Tomb was particularly disappointed by the later, especially when it was actually operating the next day too. Just like Efteling! The park also plays hosts to their Illuminations show every evening/night. Essentially a smaller scale Aquanura , the performance features fountains, lights, fire and other effects. Whilst Aquanura is more impressive and contextual, Illuminations still makes for a cherishing and worthwhile watching. The rides shut at 21:45 on the day we were visiting, due to their Friday Rock event, where their centre stage hosts notable Music artists performing. We watched some of the music even though it wasn’t really our cup of tea. We left just before the end, grabbing a McDonald’s on the way. Final Thoughts and Reflections: Tivoli Gardens is undoubtably a charming and lovely park to visit and something of a national treasure to Denmark. Despite it’s relatively small size it hosts a very reasonable diversity of attractions which suit the park. The grounds, landscaping and architecture are lavishing. Whilst not themed as such, the park are definitely trying to allocate different stylings to each area of the park. whether that be Space/Steampunk, Asian or Middle Eastern sections, which are reasonably distinguishable. The park was generally charming and the majority of staff friendly and helpful. It is probably also one of the better parks for food quantity and quality. Smorrebrod, a cultural delight. My only major criticism I can really give was the lack of audio in most of the park. Whilst the dark rides and toilets featured audio, there were very few other areas of the park (especially main areas) where there was nothing. Whilst I don’t expect audio blaring out left right and centre, it would be pleasant if a few more areas featured audio to enhance further atmosphere to the place. Just something ambient and reflective here and there would do the job. I would recommend a visit here to anyone, whether your after a park with charm, class, thrilling attractions or all three! Tivoli Gardens is worth seeing at least once in everyone’s lifetime theme park lover for not! Join me soon in part two as I cover some of the other things to see in Copenhagen outside of Tivoli Gardens, where I witness this City of modern fairytales by Land, air and sea to see what treasures and cultural gems are discovered. Thanks For Reading!

OLD TOWN As much as I’d love “the next big thing” to happen at Thorpe I really feel like adding a substantial family attraction should be their top priority at the moment. So I’m going with the obvious Old Town overhaul… with a lot of the rides telling a story of how Old Town is now run down and neglected due to the logging company closing down at the hands of the corrupt, money grabbing people (cough, cough) running the town and the residents retaliation in trying to save their beloved town by themselves. Notable theming elements would include the CCR train abandoned and derailed somewhere but also lots of flower beds, painted buildings that still look slightly derelict - lots of little things suggesting the residents of Old Town have taken it upon themselves to make the place look nice again. Loggers Leap: The Legend of Diamond Creek Long after the logging company closed down the residents of Old Town, facing ruin set off on an adventure to look for the never seen before diamond creek. On the journey you will encounter bears, rogue hunters and a strange cave filled with a mysterious gas that will make you “hallucinate” a musical number featuring animatronic animals, all camp as tits and totally out of place. You eventually end up falling down a “waterfall” into diamond creek itself, the end curves surrounded by rocks and all sorts of colourful diamonds and jewels and whatnot. Cows & Aliens One of those Gerstlauer things - similar to Firechaser Express (or perhaps go to Intamin as I'm assuming Merlin wouldn't consider Gerst these days). Using the wooded area beside loggers and meandering over to the Slammer site along the old train track where the reverse/switch happens and the train launches backwards along through the old train station site. The ride being themed to a cow farm that you guessed it - is home to a lot of alien activity! You could even have it so that the cows and aliens have started making babies (imagine the cute little alien cow babies) - and the residents of Old Town are now selling the “super healthy alien cow milk”, with some sort of weird milkshake parlour (think Shakeaway - lots of crazy options) kind of messed up I know but I’m trying to be original 🤓 + show Rocky some love, actually make an effort to incorporate the newer kiddie rides into the Old Town theme and also possibly do the same for Samurai. Also add a Vegetarian and Vegan diner, specialising in fake meats. Vegetarianism/Veganism is a massively growing trend at the moment and meat free options have made tons of progress in terms of quality in recent years so it could do very well. As for the "next big thing", Vekoma gets my vote. Whatever they want to build, give them a maximum height to work with and let them go mad 😍 (P.S haven't read this thread in years so sorry of I'm stealing anyone elses ideas - everything I've written to me seems like pretty obvious things to go for so I wouldn't be surprised if someone already has!)

I always make time to criticise thorpe x

Last weekend, I visited Berlin and Leipzig for a quick cred run and culture trip. I had originally planned to go to Finland and hit up Linnanmaki this month, but since Taiga opens next month, we opted for something a little different.. After arriving in Berlin Friday morning, the first port of call was Little Big City. Owned by Merlin, LBC is one of their newer midway brands, and is basically a miniature village which goes through the history of Berlin. This one opened up about 2 years ago, and one opened in Beijing late last year, so it's struggled a bit so far. We had free tickets thanks to a member of the group being a Merlin-worker, and hit the attraction up at 11am. We were the only one in the pre show room (which is basically a projection explaining the concept), and there was probably only about 10-15 other people in the attraction whilst we were there. It's not a large attraction, and all the exhibits take place in one large room. However, it is well done: there's lots of interaction points, you can get very close / touch basically all of the models, and it's really informative and relaxed. It handles the more sensitive parts of Berlin's history well too. We spent about 50 minutes in there, but a family / more interested group could easily spend closer to 90 minutes I'd say. So yeah, it's a shame this isn't doing better and the brand isn't taken off. It has potential, but feels poorly marketed and in an awkward location. At about 13 euro for entrance, it's perhaps a little steep in price and I probably wouldn't have paid to do it personally, but I reckon for those who are interested in learning a little about a lot of the history, it's perfect. We then made the 45 minute ish drive down to Karls Erlebnis-Dorf Elstal. This came onto my radar last year when they opened up the abc tube coaster K2. For some more context, Karls is a massive strawberry farm brand, and we saw a few strawberry stands in Berlin in our brief time there in the morning. The place itself is a bit weird: it's like a garden centre, mixed with a market, mixed with an adventure playground, mixed with a small theme park in the making. Over the past couple of years they've added more rides and more to the theme park side of things. Entrance to the place is free, and includes a few attractions (mostly adventure playground stuff, like climbing frames, outdoor maze, etc), and the rides are pay per ride (1-4 euros per ride), or unlimited rides for 12 euros, the latter of which we opted for. After a delicious and reasonably-priced lunch, we moved onto the rides. K2 is one of the biggest surprise coasters out there, given it's unassuming location. The ride is themed to potatoes / harvesting potatoes / a crisp factory. The queue line (which is exceptionally long), is beautifully well-themed. It's like walking through a crisp factory, going from the harvesting of potatoes to the prepping of them into crisps. For those who have been to Phantasialand, it's similar in style to Maus au Chocolat's queue line. And it is themed amazingly. This is honestly one of the best themed queues I've ever been through: in the same league as Maus, Flying Dutchman at Efteling, etc. Which in itself is a feat. The ride itself is great fun. The cars have a lot of room and only have a seatbelt to lock you in. You go through an indoor pre-lift section which shows the harvesting of potatoes, before climbing up the 80ft lift and going round. There's some nice little pops of floater airtime, and it's just a fun, speedy coaster. It hits a MCBR which kills a lot of speed, before going through a couple of helixes and hitting the brakes. We did it multiple times and it's just as fun every time. Another quick thing to add: the throughput. This ride was running 4 cars, on a Friday afternoon when the place was super quiet. It occasionally had a queue, but it was running really well and cars were constantly flying around. Was really great to see! The rest of the park is fairly standard fodder. There's a Zierer water carousel thing (like Squid Surfer at Legoland), a water drop thing (the first one I've done: it was terrifying), mini drop tower, tractor ride, etc. All were really well styled and worked really well. And in saying that, we had a really good time. The place is really relaxed and a lot of fun, and has plenty to do, especially factoring in the non-park stuff. The place is usually open 10-8 as well, so it's easy to visit whenever you want. The place clearly has a bright future, financial backing and a long-term place, since they're planning on adding some form of hotel / camping / resort experience in 2021 too. Definitely one to watch! That's all for now. We drove down to Leipzig (a couple of hours away), ready for a..erm...fun day at Belantis tomorrow...

I'll just throw it out there that I genuinely think this will be fun. Who doesn't love a giant bouncy castle? But, this still shows the state of the park right now. They've chucked in an inflatable course that wouldn't look out of place at a summer fair as a quick fix. If this is all they can afford, what does that say for the future? I genuinely can't think of any other park in the world which is so desperate for new stuff on such a restricted budget that they have had to resort to adding a bloody inflatable.

And it's what you've all been waiting for, a Taiga POV.. Today was the press event, with the ride opening tomorrow. Unsurprisingly, all reviews have been positive; good amounts of ejector airtime and some good intense moments. The stall inversion after the top hat looks bloody brilliant too. And if that's not enough to whet your whistle, here's the beautiful advert... Heading out here in September and I'm seriously hyped already 😍

Great to see that overall operations continue to be great at Thorpe this year. It has certainly been improved this year compared to the last few years and nice to see coasters consistently opening on more than one train! Also nice that the park was pretty much fully open from 9:30am despite advertising as open from 10am.

Cedar Point also have two Snoopy themed areas so the giant themed inflatable themed to Snoopy probably comes pretty natural.. Cedar Point's blends in with the park, Bouncezilla doesn't. Pretty big difference. Cedar Point doesn't really even have much of themed areas and they still get the memo.

Got a quick shot of it testing today. Still looks a week or so away from opening I think, and it was making a horrible rattling sound when sent on it’s full cycle 😐

Happy 40th Birthday to a park like no other! It might not be my top park right now, but the place has a strong array of history and one of the first theme parks I ever visited. It’s crazy how much has changed and developed over the years! Had a lovely visit, hosted by the wonderful Memories Of Thorpe Park team, which also featured a tour from British Theme Park Archive, delivering an intruiging insight into the park’s history.

When I used to operate it back in 2007/2008, I regularly had a recurring nightmare that I couldn't stop the train in the right place and it just went round and round forever. Genuinely the best ride to operate on park. It was second to none on guest interaction, I used to pretend to be parking it on two laps, before whacking it back up to full speed and giving another go.

So EpicSmatty, which press event you got your eye on this year? /s

I'm not so sure, "Derren Brown's Ghost Train will open on the 6th May" was a corker as well.

Merged with the existing thread. The official rule for working at Merlin is that you do not post anything about the business on social media. This includes posting anonymously, etc. The rule is essentially the same for other companies too. In saying that, there are plenty of people who no doubt bend those rules. Especially in this day and age where social media is so important, staff posting about work (in a positive light) is probably a good thing. You only have to read between the lines of certain members' posts to see who those people are. Also, I'm sure that rule is pretty much thrown out the window these days given one of Thorpe's marketing team runs their own theme park fan site and regularly cross advertises the two... There are a fair few people here who work in the industry, or have done (hello!). The big points you'll hear from anyone who has worked in the industry are... -Pay. Pay is pretty minimal, regardless of department, until you reach very senior figures (at which point, it grows pretty exponentially). Working at a theme park / in the industry is a labour of love. -Staffing. Most theme parks are seen as summer / weekend jobs for people, so usually attracts people who aren't that dedicated and could leave at the drop of a hat. That's true even for giants like Universal and Disney. That puts added pressure on those who do it out of a labour of love. -Atmosphere. People working at parks, especially younger ones, will regularly mention how fun it is, how they make lifelong friends, etc. Working at a theme park, even through all the bad things, can be amazing. In my experience, many people have a romanticised view of working at a theme park before they get there, especially theme park enthusiasts. You truly don't know what's it like until you've been there and done it.