Leaderboard

The major issue I see is the lack of foresight from the park. It was known that the weather would be cold. Thorpe know that they have these restrictions about rides not being able to open in cold temperatures. Yet they probably had somewhere between 16-18k people come through, knowing that sooner or later a good proportion of major rides would close. And their response on social media boils down to 'Fright Nights is popular, the weather is cold, not our fault, soz m8'. The park have taken zero responsibility for this. And yes, weather is out of their control, but they can control communication. A forewarning on Thursday/Friday about the weather, giving guests tips on how to make the most of their day, etc, advising people the park will be busy and consider alternative days if possible (the latter of which they did at 2pm yesterday..). The attitude of the park stinks in this situation. Then telling guests 'you couldn't possibly do all Fright Nights attractions in one day, you'll have to come back to experience them all' is a disgrace. And when they only have 3 indoor mazes (5 indoor attractions if you count Screamplexx 2D and upcharge-Containment), it screws the park up even more. People are told to wait till night time to do those ones as they're scarier, do some coasters in the evening as their quieter, etc. But when it's cold, and the coasters aren't open, indoor attractions are no doubt more preferable over outside ones. The park were able open the 3 indoor mazes at 12pm yesterday, which shows they at least had some thought go into yesterday - "oh, Saturday will be busy, let's open 3 mazes early to increase the park's overall throughput per hour and give people more chance to go through the mazes". But in some ways, it's worse, because it makes it seem like they thought that would be enough to compensate for everything else that could go wrong. The kick in the teeth for people will also be how the park said "we are not at capacity". Given the numerous complaints, it's clear the park did not handle the numbers yesterday. Imagine having a terrible day at park, and being told 'sorry, but the park can be even busier than this, so it could be worse'. On top of a lackluster maze selection, the park have - arguably, once again - screwed up Fright Nights again from a customer service / satisfaction perspective.

We love interacting with our followers! Especially when they're extremely annoyed by the park!! And we love them so much we give copy and paste responses! These don't always answer their problems! Sorry if you feel disappointed by this! - CC

Thorpe Park so deserve the bashing they are getting on Facebook and Twitter tonight. They have delivered such a poor quality, badly managed Fright Nights this year. The park is a laughing stock,, really do feel for those poor people that are there tonight and the last few days.

There is a time and place, and frankly if I received a negative tweet, I wouldnt be using ! in the reply 3-4 times. If its something positive, I'd share the energy in a reply using !.. Right?

The social media team love to use exclamation marks! Even when not appropriate! Making them sound condescending!

Wow, absolutely disgraceful that they liked that tweet (as great as it is)! Truly shocking!

If they have a contingency plan in place I'll be amazed. It's like the park is being run by a 10 year old child. The Twitter/social media team is so amateur it's embarrassing. They like tweets that they should definitely not be shared. They respond to a lot of complaints in a terrible attitude and they don't seem to have a clue with what's going on.

Hit the nail on the head. Everyone else is blamed but themselves. They never learn if I recall there were major issues last year too.

Forecast is 5 degrees centigrade from 7pm tonight, then down to 4 degrees centigrade - is that touch and go for ride shutdowns? I suppose when you factor in the wind chill from being on an island and the surrounding lake? EDIT: I see that the limit is 5 degrees, so I'm sure Thorpe have a contingency plan in for tonight and will not be selling Fast-tracks for fear of a repeat performance of yesterday.

That’s the problem, the park won’t admit to being the problem - everything else is the problem, heck even guests visiting are a problem. If there was any leadership at the park they should be forcing out an apology across social media. Admit things haven’t been right and start rebuilding confidence and trust in the park otherwise they’ll alienate even more guests.

Merlin have taken the park and killed it. No direction No care No fun I used to love Thorpe park and I spent many days there growing up. It was a place of fun and while not perfect it was enjoyable. Reading Twitter this evening has been one of disappointment. It is disheartening to see a park I cared about so much run in such a poor way. The last 2 years the park has gone from steady decline into rapid nose dive. A new director might be able to stop the park from its nose dive but I don't see the death grip of Merlin letting up any time soon.

@Marc they may not of been the main issue but they were still an issue. The weather has been known for a few days, why no advanced “islander information” advice about weather delays? Doesn’t forgive the park for a poor showing this year, as we know the divisional director has gone and other positions are being shaken up - there’s a problem at the park much deeper than weather.

The feedback tonight just screams profit first, guest satisfaction second. The shocking thing is, they weren't even at capacity tonight, as quoted by Thorpe Park themselves. I appreciate that rides can't operate under certain temperatures, but one would probably consider not selling fast tracks if the forecast is for low temperatures, no? And that to one side - how difficult is it to have enough milk on site to make coffee?! I really do despair. I saw a tweet saying they queued 40 minutes for doughnuts, and had to queue 30 minutes to pay for car parking ?

Shots fired from tulleys ?

You know, I’m sensing a BIT of a vested interest with this one ?