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Sad to read but I can definitely relate to this. I have followed Thorpe and the forum for many years (often just a reader) - but I really feel the park just has nothing left to offer for me. Maybe I have grown out of it, but then again this shouldn't be the case for a "thrill" park, plus I love going to many other family parks, Disney, Europa, Alton to name a few. I just feel the park now has very little to offer compared to most others. It looks run down, the rides are in general ok but nothing outstanding, and I feel my money is better spent elsewhere. Yes I now have the money and freedom to travel wherever I want, but Thorpe as a business should be still trying to draw me in as a person who loves themeparks. You have to spend money to make money, and whilst they may be short of it at the moment, the money they have spent over the last few years may as well have been thrown down the drain. Poor management and poor decision have led to the park becoming what it is today, a shadow of what it once was. Even with "average rides" the look and feel of the place can make a huge difference, and all I see is poor maintenance, rapidly deteriorating quality, and a "that will do" attitude. As James May would say, it just doesn't give me "the fizz". I will still follow this forum and the park, and I do hope it can turn things around, but changes in its management and direction are clearly needed.

Can confirm, one green light still not working on Stealth. Hoping it'll be sorted by 2021.

Two seasons on and I think Wicker Man has embedded itself as one of Alton's best coasters. At first it may have been the novelty of a wooden coaster at the park but now, it's up there with Nemesis and The Smiler for me. it was running very well at the weekend.

I've seen mention that Phantasialand also upped their capacity limit and chaos ensued. So it's a very tricky balance when you have a small park. At least Chessie have the zoo and Towers is HUGE. As for not bothering to be an enthusiast anymore because Thorpe is a bit rubbish. I would've been out the game years ago.

I do wonder if the parks have shot themselves in the foot a bit, with them saying "we're limiting capacity so queues will be shorter" (Towers have been particularly bad at this). When you load rides under usual circumstances, to get them to run well is a well-oiled machine. You plan to have all seats filled. You open the gates and unlock restraints more or less at the same time, creating an almost conveyer belt system for unloading/loading (when done right). Staff then quickly check restraints and boom. It's difficult to consistently do it perfectly, but that's how it works. Under Covid rules that goes out the window: -Some rides you can't fill every seat. -You have to wait for a train to be clear of people before the next people can realistically join. -You have cleaning which disrupts flow. So throughputs are going to be lower. It all adds up. Across the whole park, and with some rides closed, that basically counteracts the reduced capacity. I think one thing to keep in mind: it's the middle of July. At this time of year, queues are always horrendously long: 2hr+ for major rides horrendous. From what I've heard, coaster queues have only peaked at 90mins or so.. Under normal conditions, the queues would again be bad, but standard July bad of 2hr+.. Obviously there's two issues there. Issue 1 is the park are not doing a good job at advertising queue times correctly. It's definitely harder for them to estimate them with social distancing measures, but from what I've seen and heard, they can just be way off base. Issue 2 is the fact that a 90 minute queue is still a 90 minute queue. And it feels even worse when it's going slowly and you see empty seats on trains. Regardless of the situation, it just makes those 90 minutes drag. And it's difficult to improve upon that. Honest question here: what can the park do in response to this? -What else can they do to implement social distancing? Where in the country is social distancing implemented perfectly? It's as much as the guests' responsibility as it is the park's, and if all guests don't do their part, you're screwed. -Security search is going to be hampered by social distancing. They can fit less people in the bag check areas so it'll slow down. -Other guests swearing. Again, what can be done? A lot of bad reviews I've seen are basically along the lines of 'Don't visit during Covid restrictions'. And you know, I get that. Theme parks are very different at this time, and less enjoyable. They have a very different feel. Thorpe in particular doesn't have the theme park 'escapism' feel. And these measures certain have highlighted many of the other problems the park have. That's another issue. But honestly? It feels like a lot of complaints have an overarching theme of 'I didn't like my day because of Covid restrictions and other people's take of them'. And the park can't do a lot about that, as the only other option really is to not open.