Marc

I too had problems with my ride with lights on - although the TVs worked and displayed what they should they didn’t stop playing throughout the experience. It’s not a new thing, I’ve seen that happen before so hopefully they can get fixed!

It sounds alot to us of course, but for a company Merlin's size i expect they would be hoping to make quite a lot more than that. Im not sure how much the cheap annual passes really hurt, your average guest will probably visit once a year, and will most likely use a 2 for 1, suddenly they can pay just £50 and come back again for a year, the real money will be made by people spending in the park as opposed to gate receipts.

It’s been like this a couple of weeks now - I’d be surprised if 2 pods were simply broken so I expect there’s something abit more complex causing it. Did it tonight actually - had an insane cycle on it, pods were doing full speed 360 flips, something I’ve only ever had on Top Buzz before never on samurai!

Stealth was down all of the day, technical problems, just because it don’t look like a ride is being worked on it don’t mean it isn’t, especially when you consider the vast majority of stealths workings are hidden away in a bunker.... Not sure on Ghost Train, last week it was advertised as closing at 8 I think but tonight it said 10 on the board, possibly a technical issue too? Zombie hunt and Living Nightmare close at 6, think I’m a celeb does too.

I noticed the lights were always on during my ride too - as for the news report that was removed when it become rise of the demon I think!

I can see both sides too it really, certainly as a guest to close the entire park 2 hours earlier than advertised is quite poor, but at the same time for a park which in recent times has struggled to turn a profit staying open running at a loss probably isn’t the best thing for them to do. I think the biggest problem is the wording on their site, you shouldn’t advertise a “minimum ride close” and close earlier than that, especially 2 hours, which lets face it is a fairly significant amount of time.

For me the issues with Ghost Train are not so much it’s theme / Story but it’s the reliability of the entire experience. That said i get what you mean with the Victorian to Modern tube train mix. When you go through and get everything working as it should, IMO it’s an impressive ride, you only need to have one ear poking out of your headset to hear the reaction of people around you, when it works properly the VR can totally immerse you into the experience. Im not a huge fan of the new middle section, when the train effect worked as it should it was good, and more often than not it would catch people off guard and you’d see people trying to get out of the way, the addition of an actor behind also worked well. The new middle section feels abit pointless now, I’d love to see them try do something more with this keeping it more consistent. The shop is still great, especially now the floor is working as it should!

I think that’s an understatement ?

99% of leisure attractions charge for car parking, if you think £10 is a lot try some of the American theme parks! I like the idea of charging more at the barrier, people paying at the barriers slow things down massively anything to try deter people from doing this is good. Its sill £7 online too, wonder if it’s just not updated yet or they want people to buy online.

Running very well too - did it a few times tonight, top swing vortex is still one of Thorpes top flats!

Thanks for the post, it looks like its taken out most of the park along with alot of Staines! Fingers crossed they can get the rides back up and running again soon for you!

Really enjoyed Blackpool, Icon was alot better than I was expecting after the many mixed reviews I had read, really quite enjoyed it, thought it rode best at the back personally. Rest of the park was looking good and running well, do miss Wild Mouse though!

Hopefully soon ! Living Nightmare is open in the meantime to replace it.

Noticed it has a couple of new sensors on the console lining up worth the arm since it reopened after its almost couple months down. Not sure what’s up now but hopefully won’t be down too long!

Living Nightmare is open - looks like opening of Saw Alive maybe delayed.

https://www.thorpepark.com/events/love-island-lates# Scroll down to the "Cant handle 12 hours" bit and click Book now and you'll get the evening ticket.

On the contrary, walking past a 3 hour Shambarla cattle pen straight onto the ride is pretty satisfying too

I’m not sure it’s quite like you make out - you complain about queue times and I get the impression your not going to be going to buy a Fastrack Pass!

I get your point re if you visit frequently then why do you need fastrack but I guess it depends on what kind of visit you look for, personally I visit often and I’m fairly laid back, if I don’t get on something because the queues too long then I’ll just do it next time, but I can totally see others who are keen on doing as many rides as possible each visit. Operations and fastrack are 2 totally different things, they are not using poor ops to sell fastrack, again the IP’s are totally separate, the money for new things will be a complete differnt pot to the Money for staffing levels on rides.

Some real nice shots there! Keep up the good work!

If you visit twice a year then of course it’s a bad deal -if your somone who visits 15/20 + a season it’s good value. Even if you visit often you still might not like queuing. I agree it’s hard for fastrack to offer consistent value, they have introduced off peak / peak prices what will obviously help with that, but that’s a problem any park who sells fastrack have.

Not all the rides require a harness to walk up the lift hills / or at least some way up them.

Some updates on Zombie Hunt. Its open from July 21st till September 3rd 12pm till 6pm. Its a ticketed attraction - first come first serve or you can pre book online and guarante entry for £1.50 Looking forward to it - hope it’s good!

Haha don't worry, I think we are safe from that ? Don't get me wrong, i get why people dislike fastrack, but i dont think its as bad at the Merlin parks as made out, this new £400 fatrack pass, sure sounds alot of money on the face of it, but the equivalent on the day price is £50 or £90 depending when you visit, it wouldn't take many trips as an Annual Pass holder to start becoming worth it.

It’s not a rip off if people are happy to pay it, which they clearly are. What you class as a rip off for fastrack as a frequent visitor is totally different to what somone visiting once a year or less would. It’s pretty easy as a consumer to say something should be cheaper than it is! Thorpes fastrack pricing is probably at the levels it should be, it’s a premium product and should be priced as such. As for the platform 15 fastrack queue, was it long? yes was it significantly shorter than the main queue? Yes, Thorpe never promise instant access with fastrack, quite rightly too!