Leaderboard

I look forward to the awkward video of all the Thorpe staff doing the naff dances from Fortnite (at least the ones they won't be sued for)...

Looking forward to JackSilkstone's Closed Season Update video with a thumbnail that says "NEW HYPERCOASTER CONFIRMED?!?!?!?" or similar ?

One of the biggest issues with ride operations is that they've lost virtually all the experienced staff who had been at the park for years, mainly due to awful, awful management who treat both their staff and guests with disdain. The Big One for example, a very complex ride to run and with no-one there who knows what they're doing now it's a complete shambles. Compare that to three/four years ago when they'd have it running two trains in 40 mph winds because they knew exactly what the operating limits and optimum wind directions were! The second issue is the engineering department, the team themselves are fantastic and dedicated people but when their hours are being cut a week before opening when the park is nowhere near ready, their job becomes impossible. Good old Amanda eh? The staffing at the park is an absolute mess and turning away staff with experience whilst keeping certain members of management on is, quite simply, lunacy.

As a something extra to do for a half term or a weekend it'd be fair enough, a little extra diversion can only be a good thing. Zero interest to me, but whatever. There's a problem though when nothing else has been promoted at all, nothing new, no events, nothing. They then link whatever this is to the 'season' in their first post, and make it cryptic as if it's some secret big announcement that can be misinterpreted as something worth while. Now all it's done is reinforce that there's nothing to return to Thorpe for this year unless you are interested in this relatively niche and childish thing, which is at odds with the thrill orientated offering at the park. Still a rudderless ship, isn't it?

This is something I've heard too, but never seen anything concrete to confirm. Even stuff I have from 96 (maps) indicate a 1.4m restriction, so if it ever was 1.2m, the change must have happened quickly. Maybe it was more intended to have a 1.2m restriction, but ended up with a 1.4m? Not sure, but would love to know either way!

X NWO was an interesting ride. Really not much left by the time it changed to X. Even then X was just a very minimal change but with a new fun factor having some audio and lighting in the coaster area. There were no animatronics, the robots were static. The light you mention was UV which always makes white glow such as teeth. XNWO was a pretty convoluted concept which never quite worked as intended, but there was originally a lot more to it than the totally empty, bad experience it was in the 2000s. A whole lot more audio and the pre-ride walkaround. I always liked the 'theme' for a coaster, something different. Could have almost been the 'industrial zone' from the Crystal Maze but just never had the money for it. It was never a classic ride but a fun experiment, more of a children's coaster. If I remember hearing it was originally 1.2m? Might be wrong on that but it was definitely not supposed to be a hardcore thrill coaster or really that "scary", just disorientating and strange. There was no story, the theme was nothing to do with a computer either (other than the name, which was just a 'current' name for the day). Had it been done a bit better it might have been great fun and lasted longer. Lots of misinformation was spread about it online in the 2000s I remember, that there was orignally some kind of "plot" about an evil computer. In 2007 some TVs were added with a cheaply made video telling about the "X super computer" going wrong, it was funny but pointless and removed within a year.

JUST TALK ABOUT HIS IDEA AS ITS SO GOOD

Knock it down along with Storm Surge and Slammer and put a decent family coaster and flat in its place.

The best thing to do would be to watch this video all about X:\ No Way Out which was produced in 1996 by Thorpe Park when the ride was about to open: X:\ Promo video There was never a fire in the X:\ No Way Out building. The fire at Thorpe Park was in 2000 and affected two other rides. The queue line was shortened for maintenance reasons and to free up the space to be used for Fright Night Mazes in 2002. The full length of the queue line had sound effects and each ride train had an on board sound system with two speakers on each car.

What? Having English spoken in an accent in keeping with the area the ride is themed to isn't remotely racist. So are we saying the 'seet back and hold tight, thees is a bumpy ride' in a Mexican accent is racist on the Mexican themed rattlesnake? Should everything only be in the Queens English, banishing accents? Mental. I don't think you understand racism.

I’m one of the few enthusiasts whom didn’t visit this weekend. I was debating the Sunday and decided not to after the Saturday reviews. As others have said the park is a total mess. Being from Blackpool, I’ve seen and heard legitimate people being turned down for work this year, even with theme park experience and having worked for the park previously; yet I also have a friend who finished around May last year who got phoned on Thursday asking if he’d like to work for them again as ‘they are short’. Allegedly certain rides (Skyforce for example) didn’t open simply due to lack of staff although this is just a murmur. The Park had it right years ago when it was half a park running into November, and the opposite running in February; but now with more rides (Icon, Skyforce etc) alongside the woodie’s requiring the strong maintenance the park is just pushing itself too far. Allegedly PMBO was handed back for testing and training less than a week before reopening; and it was merely the end of January when PMBO and Revolution trains were seen in pieces in the North car park - they’ve ran on far too tight timeframes this year.