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Marc

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  3. 2017 Season General Discussion

    in The Past

    Posted

    From the Parks Official FB:

     

    ☀️THORPE PARK RESORT PRESENTS A SUMMER OF THRILLS!?

    It's officially the first day of summer and we're celebrating with our Island of extremes!

    The wettest, the fastest, the scariest - you can find them all right here on the Island Like No Other.

    As if that's not enough, this summer we're also dropping:

    - An exciting new World's First attraction
    - Extreme challenges 
    - The Transformers Tour 
    - And loads more!

    So don't miss out - summer is finally here and it's going to be the most extreme yet!

    #IS7NDXTREMES

    http://bit.ly/2hXZjcf

     

    An exciting new worlds first attraction?! Let the speculation begin!

  4. Logger's Leap

    in The Past

    Posted

    37 minutes ago, Coaster said:

    I think it was obvious in the years leading up to Loggers being closed that it was in need of urgent attention.  The trough was in a dire state, the tunnel had to be removed, there were anti-rollbacks missing for heaven's sake!

     

     

     

    I agree loggers was in need of work -and it even got a fair bit of work to its supports not too many years ago - as for the anti rollbacks I’m sure this has popped up before - they were designed to pop out when the lift stopped.

     

    Quote

    IMO, proper planning would have allowed for a refurbishment securing the future of the ride, or for it to have been removed and replaced as quickly as possible.  Would you see a situation like this (SBNO for two years with lies about refurbishment/maintenance/redevelopment) at parks like Europa?  If not, why are people accepting it from a multi-million pound company?

     

    Of course - but if at the time / now they have no intention of keeping the ride for a long time - what would be the point in spending money on its long term future (being a totally different debate as to if it should be within the parks long term future or not I’ll add!) Also let’s not pretend Europa isn’t a multi million pound company!

     

    Quote

    Regarding "why waste the money", log flumes are staple rides for theme parks and Loggers was extremely popular - with long queues despite the high throughput.  Rides like Loggers are what make theme parks a full day out, the formula at Thorpe ("what awful new maze can we shoehorn in to advertise for this year") makes for such a dull park with little substance.

     

    This goes back to the point i made as to if the rides in the parks long term future - of course I’d love it to be and do hope we either see it return or be replaced with an equally good log flume.

    Quote

     A second-hand leaky pile of junk isn't a great start, Depth Charge is good for what it is, Rumba is just dull and Tidal Wave is (for most) only suitable in the summer.  Hardly a great lineup IMO.

     

    These rides (maybe with the exception of Depth Charge) all attract huge ridership - people are willing to queue 90 minutes + for the likes of Storm Surge and Tidal Wave - I’d say the park easily has enough water rides for our climate although agree I enjoyed riding loggers more then them!

  5. Logger's Leap

    in The Past

    Posted

    The thing is - you say they are not telling me the truth but i still wouldn't be surprised if Loggers Leap reopened at some point.

     

    They have been very clear with rides which have closed in the past - just this year they've announced Slammer is closing and not coming back - all traces removed from the map / website where as Loggers Leap is still acknowledged - all be it in a small way and the official line is they "hope for it to make a splashback soon". 

     

     

  6. Logger's Leap

    in The Past

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Wumbamillio said:

    This is where the attitude is totally wrong with them. Keeping Loggers open is not a "waste of money", because millions of people would have ridden it in the years that it's been SBNO. Millions of people riding it means the ride is doing its job, it was one of the most popular rides on park.

     

     It's only a waste of money to them, even though Merlin can easily afford it, because they can't get a buck off rebranding it and calling it "new" in doing so. And so they didn't grant the budget to Thorpe.

     

    And the park are short on a decent, staple family water ride, Rumba is poor and Tidal Wave unrideable most the year - Loggers was one of the best water rides in the country. I know I've felt a loss of "fun stuff to do" while on park.

     

     

    Loggers was probably my favorite water ride on park too - but i've no doubt its popularity had dropped of over its final years in the park - rarely would you see it gain much of a queue over 20 minutes where as "back in the day" it would attract huge queues. I disagree it was one of the most popular rides on park in its latter years.

     

    Quote

     

    The truth is that Loggers' "redevelopment" only began after it HAD to be shut because they didn't want to pay to continue its operation. They have had plenty of time to make plans if this were any kind of planned closure, or the site was suited to redevelopment and Loggers had become unpopular.

     

    I think the ride will now just stay dormant like Black Hole did, which faced exactly the same situation in 2005 - "reached the end of its life", yet mysteriously the ride still runs absolutely fine in another park... Odd what happens when you spend a bit of money. Sure, it would have been better value replacing it, if a replacement indoor coaster had been in the pipeline - but instead it just sat there for years as 'development space'.

    The denial on here about Loggers has been ongoing for years now. I said it would never reopen from the start and nobody wanted to believe it - I didn't want to either, but you got to see the reality of these things sometimes . Merlin want you to believe everything you say, even if the park offering gets continually worse.

     

     

    That maybe true - but its just like taking your car to the garage - if they tell you your 20 year old car needs this much spent on it - at that point you decide if its worth the investment or if its time to bite the bullet and make a change - this is obviously a much bigger scale of that. It wasnt long ago Loggers had alot of work done to its support structure and foundations on the main drop - im sure they had an idea of how long the ride would operate and what up-coming work was needed.

     

    As for Black Hole - it probably is a similar situation - but Towers had got the use out of The Black Hole what they wanted and made the choice to instead invest elsewhere - the same year opening Rita and then numerous installations since then- sure they could have no doubt kept the Black Hole open if they had wanted, but the powers that be decided it didn't wasn't worth the investment 

  7. Logger's Leap

    in The Past

    Posted

    On 6/11/2017 at 11:09 PM, Coaster said:

    It doesn't say "leaving a structure to rot for two years" though does it?

     

    Also the first time Thorpe announced it was due to be closed throughout 2016, it was for "maintenance."

     

    As Baron said - Behind the scenes planning is just as much as part of redeveloping something as the construction work its self. 

     

    I know you like the "left to rot" statement - but if loggers needs X amount of £ to remain operational, but the park had plans for that area in the near future, why waste the money on keeping a ride going what has no long term future? Its not like they are short of water rides. 

  8. Thorpe Park Merchandise

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Just the Thorpe Sharks standard logo isnt it?

     thorpeshark.jpg

     

    Always quite liked Shark's brand tbf - some nice touches within it!

     

    Got some pins on Sunday - I was shocked to see how bare the shelves were by the end of the day - good to see these things selling well! 

     

     

  9. Fright Nights 2017

    in The Past

    Posted

    13 minutes ago, StevenVig said:

    No way would they have commissioned IMAScore, to make a track especially for The Big Top for a single season

     

    Plus it was really well received last year, and is still a relatively new attraction, wouldn't make sense removing it. 

     

    In the grand scheme of running an event like Fright Nights, id expect the money paid to IMAScore wouldn't be a huge factor on deciding if a maze was to stay / leave.

     

    The fact that it was there and now has been removed would suggest to me its return isn't certain. 

  13. Slammer

    in The Past

    Posted

    Thorpe have confirmed it on Social media yup.

     

    A Shame but no real surprise - i always enjoyed riding it but its reliability was always going to get the better of it one day - they did a hell of a good job keeping it going as long as they did but I guess eventually enough was enough.

  15. Slammer

    in The Past

    Posted

    Thats what i'm saying - they have spent money on it when its been feasible to do so - the past 3/4 seasons have probably been Slammers best reliability wise 

  16. Slammer

    in The Past

    Posted

    Loggers was obviously planned - it was advertised on the thrope site within days of the park closing - the fact that Slammer has had it's closed season work, had new signs bought suggests to me it's quite different to the loggers situation!

     

    Thorpe have shown since the ride opened they are willing to spend money on it if feasible.

  17. Slammer

    in The Past

    Posted

    29 minutes ago, Coaster said:

    "Watch this space"

     

    What, watch yet another SBNO ride collect dust for a year?

     

    The fact that slammer has clearly received closed season work, and even has new signage sat in its queue line suggests the issues with slammer were quite last minute and probably out of their control.

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