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Yes they do. "No other company on the planet delivers projects of such quality, with such value, within the timescales achieved." MMM website http://magic.lmcpreview.co.uk/ (click Read More) MMM of course is the organisation that produces and markets all of Merlin's attraction developments, including the Alton Towers Dungeons. Also, it has regularly been used in staff inductions, promotions, etc to make out they are "second to Disney" in any sense. I rarely see it specified as being only about attendance anymore. Yes, attendance is how they originally based that claim, but they have been using it disingenuously since. Along with many other ridiculous statements they make (eg that Spring update video), Merlin seemingly DO believe they make some of the best attractions in the world. So please don't be tired of the point being raised, Merlin themselves raise it allll the time so you can expect a valid counterargument! But do you think this is going to turn out anywhere near as good as Wicker Man? When it opened, I think quite rightly Wicker Man was a big hit with the public and enthusiasts alike. Yes there was a lot of cynicism beforehand from some, but mostly about the layout. Fair enough, because it's very short compared with the many other wooden coasters that were cancelled at Alton Towers. Other than that, the rest was just speculation and people being (understandably) disillusioned with Merlin after other recent developments that were nothing like Wicker Man. Maybe not "easy money", but they do it for the reason of spreading their own brands and guaranteeing marketing success by using a pre-existing concept (and therefore guaranteeing profits, according to them). But as usual, they are even internally dysfunctional, and you're right it will cost them more in the long term. They keep proving they don't care about the long term of their parks.

I am seriously tiring of this argument. Yes, Merlin claim they are second to Disney in terms of attendance figures. And as a company they are. They never claim to be second to Disney in terms of quality. People who try and use this argument just come across as ill-informed and ignorant to be honest, and it cheapens your point significantly.

But do you see the contradiction here? I think you just accept it and don't see anything wrong with it, whereas others do. It is a valid point people make, I say people shouldnt just accept spin and hyperbole from a company screwing guests over with poor value. They should ask for better than what Merlin thinks it can get away with at high prices forever. If anything people use the second to Disney claim to poke fun at the flaws in Merlin's entire operation, not just criticising one statement they make. If Merlin stopped trying to convince people they were the best at themed accomodation, produced the best quality/most innovative attraction projects "in the world" and trying to brainwash its staff, then there'd still be all the other problems. It's just that their attitude is nicely summed up by the "second to Disney" contradiction. They will make even more noise about it once they "catch"/"stomp"/"crush the mouse" or whatever nasty variant of that phrase they're on to now.

It's the very first thing they say to all new staff in inductions, something like: "We're chasing the mouse, our aim is to be bigger than Disney" accompanied by a slide showing them as second to Disney.

I'm sorry, but if they're gonna continue to use a statement that bold, they've gotta be held up to those standards in a lot of areas other than finance, especially from a customer's perspective who visit these parks for the experience and don't give two hoots about attendance figures frankly. Using a statement like that is as misleading as Nick Varney saying Merlin "lead the world in themed accommodation and do it better than anybody else" when we all know that's complete and utter tripe. Are you therefore saying when someone for example forks out £200 for 1 night at the CBeebies Land Hotel they should not expect anything better out there because Mr. Varney said so in a YouTube video? I personally think it's quite ignorant and ill-informed to tell paying customers to expect anything less after being promised things like this, similar to being told DBGT was the "future for theme parks across the world". Merlin are delusional, nothing more, nothing less.

There are different options anpr barriers is an option link an annual pass to a specific reg and it automatically opens. Same with online and onthe day tickets provide the reg , it would speed up the current barrier system. Another option is pure anpr It depends if they got an operator in to manage the car park in that sence, I'm very anti car park management companies, some are ok others are robbing *********. Ultimatly when the park is busy people are too quick to forget before charges were introduced at thorpe that you could queue for 2h to get out.

"well our policy and belief is we should never actually put our prices up unless we're giving our customers something in return." Umm I am pretty sure most years ticket prices have a tiny increase half way through. Pizza Pasta definitely went up in price a couple of times during the season (It then had no bbq base pizza in my last two visits in October) The car park at Thorpe went up twice! Hmmmm!

Just take a step back and think about what you've said here. It's November 2019, an article appears in the Daily Mirror: "I had a bad day at Thorpe Park over a year, I went back and had another bad day!" Who will actually care? No one OR it'll read "I had a bad day at Thorpe Park over a year ago, I went back as a a VIP and had a good!" Again, who will care? No one Stories like that will be published in the heat of the moment, else they lose all interest and credibility.

If the journalist felt so strongly about their terrible experience, they wouldn't have taken Thorpe's VIP bribe package and agree to not writing an article until after they had their special treatment from the park. Now FN 2018 is long gone with the only negative articles I can see from some youths fighting in the carpark. Nothing negative about the event itself. The Mirror in fact promoted the event.

Because it looks (equally predictably) rubbish. No need to defend trash, it's not like Merlin actually care about this other than making easy money. They know they can pay for nothing, do a half arsed job and people will still go along with it. Most the criticism of it I've seen online has been done with humour of disbelief anyway. You don't have to like everything by default for fear of being seen as "negative". True there's always some who will complain regardless, but just look at this. Seeing how people will defend the rubbish being fed them by Merlin (they're capable of better, look at Wicker Man), more because they have something against people's opinions than because they actually like the attraction being made, is sadder in my opinion. If they made anything entertaining and original, I'd be all over it in positivity!

Blimey. *Books visit to Phantasialand*

I put the two teasers they have posted together (forming the centre of the park) the arrows seem to be indicating the locations for the events this year; I could be wrong. However it’s interesting how ‘Old town’ appears to be deliberately left out, could they be labelling this area as “under construction for 2020” or simply because this area hasn’t got much going for it at the moment?

I'm not sure if they actually make any profit for Merlin, while I worked at Chessington the lockers were almost always broken and guests would complain about it. I'm fairly sure another member of staff told me that an external company manages them but not sure if the money goes to them or Merlin.

Yes, that's too staff. Not to the public. Guests / the public are largely unaware, and don't really care, about the size of Merlin. I just don't get it. Merlin are the second largest visitor attraction company, and that's a fact. Of course they're going to spin that to say they're their second best. And all companies positively advertise themselves. A company as large as Merlin will of course put claims out there they're the greatest. It's what any company in their right mind would do if they've got an opportunity to do it. It's not about me being a sympathetic towards Merlin. They're making plenty of questionable decisions I hate. But the complaints against them saying they're second to Disney just always leave me dumbfounded.

Oh trust me, nobody believes it. Come on, even if you have sympathies with Merlin, we're scraping the barrel of excuses for their arrogance now! They covet and dismiss Disney all the time internally. It's never taken out of context and it's not nitpicking at all. In my view it's just people waking up to Merlin's real ways. If it's just silly hyperbole, why is it stated sincerely to every staff member, written on websites and spoken in serious videos about the company? Thank goodness they don't advertise it to the public openly, unlike ALL their other questionable '___ in the world' public claims about their rides.

And when the new pound coin came in Thorpe decided to double the price to £2 for locker usage - unlike Legoland who simply modified them for new £1 coins.

Aside from Monster Party, the park has been busy updating and refreshing existing areas, most of which looks noticeably better. Source- Scream Seekers They’ve also updated the entrance area too which looks much more refreshed now too. The front section of the Monster Party looks great, however it is extremely disappointing to see (what is essentially) the whole ride warehouse on display. The ‘cheap’ vinyl printings somehow make it look even worse and imply these eyesores are here to stay. However, something worse has arisen, Anyone remember the viewing area near the Dragon coaster? This is what it looks like now! Obviously, the original area needed to be replaced, because it been around all those years however the park appears to have gone for the cheapest fix. This is is extremely disappointing to witness as not only could you witness some interesting views of the ride in action, but considerably less opportunities for people to watch the ride. I understand safety is paramount, but surely they could’ve implemented a way of keeping the view (higher fences, clear plastic). Seeing features like the ‘themed Tree’, castle chandeliers and turret theming removed over the years is saddening to witness, especially being one growing up with the park since it’s early years. One step forwards, theee steps back!

This is the second teaser they've shown with an arrow pointing to part of the park. The first pointed to IAC, which we can assume is for Jungle Escape. Could this arrow be a location for BounceZilla? The area next to Crust can fit a lot in, and probably the most suitable place on park for it.. If that is the case, I hope those arrows are there just for the teasers and not on the final map. The idea of having the events effectively labelled as attractions all year round on the map doesn't sound appealing to me...

I don't believe Thorpe can do any major works to the car park (especially that corner area). Under that assumption, they'd be lucky to get three barriers there.. During the peak time for arrival, 9-10.30am, it'll still be busy and creating major backlog. How will that make any difference? Instead of queueing to leave the barrier, you'll queue to leave the park at the roundabout. And instead of having 4 lanes to choose from to leave, you'll have 2. It'll be just as bad, and cause more issues on the roads outside the park.

I mean, this is already happening hence why Thorpe has been completely directionless for years.

From my eyes, it would be difficult to change though? Where would they put the pay point? I guess you could put it at the corner of the gravel car park, but then whenever it's slightly busy, the queue will be going out of the park and onto the main roads (something which happens now, so that would be amplified significantly). It would be chaotic most of the time. I'm also not sure how people would react to the whole idea of paying straight away. Many complaints about Thorpe/Merlin are about value for money and how people feel like they're being bled dry. Whilst not having to pay as you leave takes the sting out at the end of the day, it can set people up for feeling like they're shelling out from the moment they arrive. Dangerous game for Thorpe to play. In my experience from parks abroad getting you to pay on arrival, they have plenty of space in their car park for cars to queue, enough leeway outside the park in case of super busy periods and, most importantly, people are less faffy and just generally more efficient. I just don't see how Thorpe can modify the car park (whilst not significantly reducing the amount of gravel or grass) to make a pay on entry system work.

You say predictable criticism, I say predictably low quality work warrants an appropriate response. I'm not a sheep who just loves bashing Merlin, but there is a pattern of low quality recently. Rides like Wicker man and Gruffalo have proven they're capable, but there is a general pattern of weird short-sighted and poorly executed actions: Angry Birds Land (tacky and dated IP) I'm a Celebrity (actor led) DBGT (actor led...again and a missed opportunity) Nemesis Sub Terra (liked the ride, but a short sighted investment) Alton Dungeons (actor led.... yet again, and looks dire externally) Closing Loggers Tiger River / letting Dragon Falls fall into disrepair and removing its good theming. Walking Dead (I liked the ride, but why retheme one of your few family rides to a horror franchise?!)

Oh don't be so melodramatic. Plenty of the rides will be missed at the very least. And there are plenty of staff there who care. 1) X:\No Way Out to X retheme 2) Big Top (2016/17 versions) 3) Ghost Train at it's prime was genuinely hailed as a fantastic experience 4) The uniqueness of Swarm backwards (and the sensibility to reverse that decision when the fad died away) 5) IMA Score Again, don't be so melodramatic. That post was made in October. If it was real and was going to happen, it would have happened by now.

Well it’s better than nothing I guess!!

Whatever could be said about Thorpe Park itself, that is genuinely a great logo.

Bit of closure at last for a few on here. The way they closed and deliberately misled people over the last three years is the real story here. I made my peace with Loggers closure years back and I think my favourite memory of this ride will always be riding it for 7 hours for charity back in 2004. It will forever be one of my favourite log flumes for its short and snappy ride length, decent drops and surprising level of wetness. Whilst there are technically more superior log flumes these days, Loggers was a classic. The way Thorpe treated this ride towards the end of its life with its historical significance was pretty shameful IMO.