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After asking around a little bit, I'm under the impression now that the scheduled late ride openings is not budget cut related. The park aren't cutting staff hours / having less staff on park. Instead, the park are using the off peak days to further train staff - particularly engineers - allowing them be able to work on more rides. Usually this can only be done during closed season, or slowly, with only 1 or 2 people at a time. This allows more people to be trained at once. The park are simply seeing if this becomes a more effective way of training people, without damaging guest experience. A couple of rides opening a couple of hours later isn't ideal, but I guess if it doesn't have a notable negative impact on guest experience/feedback, and it allows staff to be multi-skilled and the park to run better on busier days / in the long run, I guess it's a good payoff. It's not a set in stone thing. But the key takeaway is this isn't a budget cut.

That's a really, really good point actually. The expectation on a paid maze is a lot higher. Those mazes from yesteryear which were so well received may be panned if they were in the line up today, because of that expectation, even if they are arguably just as good. I agree on the tour through a set at times actually. Trailers is a good example. The pre-show(s) spend so much time setting story up and showcasing the set, along with cramming so many Easter Eggs into the script (I think I rolled my eyes so hard during the first year I saw inside my head). Stitches is a very passive experience; it sets a very creepy tone and you see a lot of stuff happen, but that's just it...you are watching, not taking part. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as many mazes use that narrative. But you are just touring through. I think Mat made a good point about Tulleys - and other scare parks. They are, mostly, one entrance for unlimited runs of mazes. That's a huge difference in overall guest experience. And whilst there's none that are particularly close to Thorpe, the likes of Tulleys do compete with them. It's interesting that the park have chosen to move in the opposite direction, potentially driving some people towards that one-fee-unlimited-mazes model. On the other hand though, the park were increasing park entrance prices and charging Annual Passholders for entry into Fright Nights. Back in 2018/19, I think the park were charging around £35-50 online for a pre-booked ticket, and £5-20 for passholders. I would fully expect that the on the day, pre-book price following the same model would be £45-60 now for Fright Nights, and again £5-20 for passholders. At it's more expensive price, it's not much cheaper than these days. But still, if that's not resulting in a better time, there's a problem. I would love to step into an alternate reality where Covid never happened. What would have happened with Fright Nights? Would we have still seen upcharge mazes? Would scare zones have become a bigger thing? What would the overall reaction be?

Event/general plaza would be my desire.

Could also be used as an upsell vip priority parking. Say £80 a car!

Everyone's favourite Thorpe Park fansite will be checking out the latest developments this afternoon It's an interesting one. There's two possible options the way I see it: Option 1 - Beach tart up This is the boring option of the two. But the beach is over 30 years old and a shadow of its former self. It needs something doing to it. A tart up and making it more interesting and worthwhile, maybe a mini water park style area, would be nice. Option 2 - Demolition Get rid of the beach. It's a large space which is wasted. And whilst the park have loads of options to expand the park, and remove some rides, space is still reasonably premium at the park. And I think there's a perfect thing that area can be used for... Event space. Since the Arena was demolished (10 years ago!), the park haven't had a dedicated event space. And that was fine back then, as they didn't need one. But now, with the park's year round events, they could use one. Flattening the beach opens up a huge space for a stage, permanent seats and a more open, relaxed atmosphere. The park gets very crowded at the start of the day, before they open the gates at 10am. Opening up the beach area, maybe with some entertainment on a stage or screen, would help that crush. Throughout the year, they could hold events there. The space would be much better for Oktoberfest and Lucifer's Lair than by Ghost Train. A big Mardi Gras show is better there than in Big Easy Boulevard. During non-event times, they could still have the Ents team perform shows, or use the space like the Victory Plaza area they had where Stitches is (which showed the Euros and Olympics). Having a permanent stage/event space would also take some pressure off the Tech team for having to set up then take down a stage multiple times throughout the season. If the park wanted to keep the beach to some degree (it still has a lot of people enquire about it), they could tart up the smaller side of the beach and retain that. All the pumps, cleaning, etc feed in from the smaller side, so it would be easy to work. Plus a smaller beach is a lot easier to maintain. Obviously for now we're jumping the gun a bit. A digger means very little. They might just be doing the bare minimum maintenance work. But hopefully this is a sign of positive change in that area.

See, this is an interesting one to me. I agree, the actual mazes themselves are a lot better in terms of theming, duration, and overall quality. But as guests, are we having a better time? I’d argue that no, we’re not necessarily. Yes, of course we are having a very good time, but better? The standout mazes from the past for me have been Experiment 10, Cabin in the Woods v1, and the beloved Big Top v2. While they were far simpler and shorter than todays mazes at thorpe, they were just utterly fab, and I thunk because they were at no additional cost there were no great expectations - it was just a good time with no stress, which you could also repeat several times if you wanted. I don’t know if I can put my finger on it, but something about paying this much for a single go at a maze just sets expectations higher than they need to be for what a scare maze is. I sort of think it’s all lost its way a little bit if you know what I mean? The Asylum for instance, while it was adored years ago, would risk being deemed a joke these days because it would lack all the backstory, “nods”, heavy theming and grandeurs that we now have - even though actually, it would still offer a very intense, disorientating, scary experience, full of jump scares, and would be included as part of your day. I also think mazes a few years ago used to feel genuinely scary, whereas now adays dare I say that parts of some modern mazes can sometimes feel a bit like a tour through a highly-themed set…… (I know this is quite the hot take, I’m sorry!) Anyway,, my apologies, 1. I’ve gone off topic. 2. I’m sorry for appearing negative - genuinely, I do think this year’s lineup looks amazing, and I am genuinely in awe of what the designers and actors achieve these days in such short spaces of time with limited budgets. There’s no denying that the scare industry is achieving amazing things! I’m just a bit sad that it’s all got this expensive that’s all, and I miss that it used to be simpler. I very much look forward to the reviews etc and seeing what comes next

Yes agreed. And dare we speak of the Tidal Wave fire effect, or.....? Looking at the app today, everything is open with the exception of Ghost Train that is current closed, and not marked as "Opening Soon", "Opening Later", "Planned Delayed Opening" or similar. So assume it's just playing up - for a change.

A stupid post in a quiet topic is passable, but if you're not going to meaningfully contribute to a topic with genuine discussion occurring we'll just throw the banhammer your way.

Finally been on it. Area looks crap. Station is a weird attempt at Icon for some reason. It's a great ride until the trims. All that momentum just thrown in the bin, leaving you wanting the rest of the layout rather than awkward corner. Best ride on park? Sure. Best ride ever? Not even close.

Manufactures hate tall people. I’ve moved on from theme parks and rollercoasters and prefer to view from the side. There’s only so much rejection you can take……