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Just to chime in on this as I was involved with this project. The trucks used to deliver the material and the excavation machinery were used to compact the earth as it was filled in. I seem to remember we handed over the SAW island to the project team pretty much a couple of months after we had finished infilling. Same with SAW Alive. For The Swarm, think it was about a year, maybe 2 after infilling completed that they started on construction for that project. Any ride structures foundations actually go through the infilled material and into the bedrock below. From memory think the SAW foundations go to 50m

Nah, the land behind Swarm is fine and ready for a coaster, unless there's something seriously wrong with it. You don't need that long for the land to before you can build on. If we take a look back in 2005, none of the infilled land was present. That includes Saw, Saw Alive path, Swarm, island behind Swarm and the road linking up the old Treasure Island to the Engineering area, plus Hyperia's infilling. 2005: Google Earth allows you to look at 3D models of current buildings too. It's not accurate, but gives a rough look: Fastforward to 2008. The land for Saw was infilled and settled (completed by 2007). The park are starting on Saw Alive pathway, and the two islands. What's noteworthy is that Saw's had been completed and constructed on between 2005-2008, and neither Swarm nor the other island are complete yet. 2008: Go again to 2010 (annoying Google Earth doesn't have yearly looks). Saw open, Saw Alive pathway being used. Swarm island complete. Adjacent island almost complete. 2010: 2012. Swarm opens and Thorpe flops, apparently. Tidied up of Swarm island land. The adjacent island is now completely infilled, even featuring some of Swarm's layout. All is golden. 2012: I also haven't mentioned the building of the hotel. We see nothing in 2008, the land almost complete in 2010, and by 2013, the hotel exists. We can also see with Hyperia, some supports were built on reclaimed. Compare 2024 vs 2022. 2024: 2022: The island behind Swarm has been complete since 2012. Whilst no doubt there is a level of needing the ground to settle, it will be settled by now. If not, there's major integrity issues and the park would either be actively doing work to resolve that, or not be considering the area for rides at all. However, before Swarm's failure, a coaster was planned there for 2015. A coaster was considered there for 2020. The project that ultimately ended up with us getting Hyperia was considered for there. The park have actively considered rides there, and as I understand, it's the front runner location for the next major investment.

Vortex has been consistently running so well ever since it got its new PLC a couple years ago. Noticed the cycle slightly changed too, it stops spinning midway through so more seats reach full height, rather than the same seats all cycle. My favorite flat at Thorpe flat at Thorpe now. Nearly 25 years old and looks and runs as good as new. Its also looking amazing at night. Lots of coloured permanent lighting added and they've got a smoke machine under the floor which goes off as the floor is going down 🥰

Well it lasted just over a day at least.

Seems to be a quick fix for now. If the ride stops at the top of the lift hill, there's no guarantee it can reach that increased speed in time. Also think that moving forward it's only something they're doing on test trains (which tbf, is when there's problems). But yes, good news that it's back on 2! I believe today is one of the busiest days of the season, so very much needed!

I think the branding in general is an upgrade. It's great to see a consistent, clear tone across marketing, and it feels like the park knows itself now. I totally agree that in isolation it's a bit bland and easily missed. It doesn't exactly scream "theme park" either. But when included in videos or within other things, it works well. I also think it's got extra versatility. I loved how they used the infinity logo in different ways in the past Fright Nights blood, Oktoberfest pretzel, etc). But it was harder to achieve and only done infrequently. The current logo can be easily tweaked to suit ride/event colours and style, and it makes everything feel a bit more natural. For example, we can see Colossus, Hyperia and Fright Nights versions of the Thorpe logo, and they blend in nicely with each individual identity, but still feel part of the Thorpe brand. I still prefer the infinity logo, which probably has a bit of nostalgia attached to it anyways. But the current logo is modern, in style with how logos work these days, and is still versatile. And, more importantly, the park have a consistent brand identity, which has been a big issue in recent years.

Queue closed at 9 again tonight, so seems they're pretty consistent at closing at park close on fright nights dates which is good. Hugely overstating the queue though, probably to put people off getting in the queue. Advertising and multiple announcements that the queue was 200 mins (over 3 hours) when it wasn't over 90 mins. Fingers crossed they can get the 2nd train back asap! They're going to need it for half term week...

I was wondering what people’s thoughts of the new branding were, now that it’s had nearly a year to settle in, and now that we have all seen it actually in use at the park? Personally I think for me it’s definitely an improvement, especially when you’re actually inside the park and you can see it on all the signage, banners, advertising, uniforms, flags etc. it all works quite well when it’s large and used on physical things. The big signage at the front of the park looks great - and going in to the dome with the large logo to the right and nice branded video playing on the big screen before heading outside again really does work. the music also goes very nicely with it, and does work well I think for the park. It really does work well in person and has honestly made a positive impact on the park in my opinion at least. The staff uniforms look much more professional as well, not to mention more practical. I think where it falls down slightly is when the logo is used in isolation online - for example the logo on its own on social media avatars doesn’t look great, and even the logo when used on things like bags of chocolate in the supermarket just fades away and is so missable compared to the bold orange and blue infinity that everyone instantly recognised. I’m no graphic designer, but I think these need to be changed somehow to liven it up a bit - I mean come on, look at this screenshot from instagram. I also think the website is a missed opportunity. They seem to have kept the existing website and just replaced the old logo with the new one (actually even on some of the tickets actually the old logo still shows!) this is a shame, because such effort has gone in to rebranding the physical park, and no effort in to the website it seems, where the new colours, patterns and lovely squiggly animation things could have really come to life. Overall though, I think it’s actually quite nice, and although I miss the infinity logo, there’s no denying it was old fashioned and a little scruffy. The new and striking Bold, bright, colourful, but not ott branding is a good look for Thorpe I think.

Echoing what others said about operations on Inferno. This evening the dispatches were so slow (often 3-4 minutes) that we assumed it was on one train (it wasn't). At one point we even saw Hyperia, which obviously is on one train, go round twice in the time it took them to dispatch the train once. There were only 2 staff checking harnesses in the station but even so. There was a row batcher in the station, but they were just telling people to go to any row they liked so trains were still going out half empty. All of this combined meant the advertised queue time of 25 minutes took around 55 - the queue wasn't even out of the cattlepen right in front of the entrance.