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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.

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.

Updating, featuring top hat...

Why an Indian tourist? How is this relevant?

Think your name ideas are awful. Nothing wrong with what they’re called now.

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 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.

Bellewaerde have a new roaming character, Jona Corona: (From TPWW...only photo I could find) Apparently Jona goes around telling people of all the safety rules relating to coronavirus...of which he doesn't appear to mind breaking the rules about social distancing...

Some updates from today: -You no longer need to queue in the main cattlepen for Nemesis Inferno. They have removed the fence so you bypass it, and the first extension is now going to remain open. (This does open up the problem where people will end up queueing in the cattlepen in the first extension, but you know, baby steps) -Inferno is no longer loading every other row. When I was there, Row 4 was left empty for some reason. Also saw Row 3 left empty too. Not sure why. -Colossus is now loading a group, then leaving a row, then loading another group, rather than every other car (as is Stealth). -Since Saw is basically running as normal (both rows loaded, since I believe it requires a minimum of 4 people to ride), it makes you wonder what the point of social distancing on rides even is. Does coronavirus not exist at Saw? -Most people were obeying social distancing in fairness. I never saw a person not wearing a mask. -The park was very quiet. And it felt very lifeless too. I've been on quiet days in the past. I've been on days where things go terribly wrong and loads of rides are closed. But this felt different. It still very much felt like you were living in a world where a pandemic was going on. There was no escapism. (Be interesting to see if I think that about other parks or if this is Thorpe-specifc). This further isn't helped when areas like Derren, the walkway by Fish, etc feel so dead, with no music or...anything really. -All water rides were testing today. I believe some of them are hoped to be opening within the next few days if all goes the park's way. -Timber Tug Boat opened today. I believe Lumber Jump is due to open tomorrow now too. In terms of face covering. I was wearing a reusable one I bought from Lidl (2 for £2.99, 2 layers with space for a filter). It stayed on all rides fine, except for my back row ride on Stealth, where it came off my nose (front row was fine though!). As for non-Covid stuff... -I had my worst ever ride on Saw today. Was very painful. -Swarm felt very vibrate-y. -The vegetarian place by Ghost Train is alright for what it is. Does diversify food choices a lot. -There's some new music in Old Town. Well, kind of new - it's the Old Town-soundy excerpt from the bridge loop. But it fits. All in all, an okay visit. The park are doing well enough with the Covid-restrictions. They're still learning and getting stuff wrong, but it seems they're ready to fix it. Hopefully as time goes on things will be better. The park itself is the same old same old really. Some of the branding refreshes are nice, others aren't. It's hard to judge the park under such weird circumstance, but it does just feel a bit...meh.

Who else other than myself thinks that the names of the rides within The Rainforest are dull and boring? Personally if I was put in charge of choosing the name of the rides within The Rainforest I would have chosen the following. I would have called the Jungle Rangers- Jungle Jeeps Rainforest Safari! I would have called River Rafts-Cascading Crocodiles! Finally I would have called Treetop Hoppers-Rainforest Jump! Can you please give me your opinions on the names Chessington chose for the rides within the new Rainforest area. Don't misunderstand my views as I think that the Rainforest is a vast improvement on the old and worn out Toadies Crazy Cars that formally was located on this piece of land within Chessington. If Croc Drop is set to the standards as this Rainforest area and Land Of The Tigers it will be highly themed attraction. I personally love Drop Tower's and if themed to a high quality I can definitely say that Croc Drop will be one of or possibly even my favourite attraction in an English Theme Park.