Marc

Don’t believe there’s been a change of Divisional director since last year, though as you say they are looking for a new Marketing director at the moment!

I agree with that although realistically they won’t rip out Jungle escape which has only just been installed for something only open a month a year at most - though do agree it was a good location for a maze. That said shipping containers done right (experiment 10 as you say) are more than suitable!

We are rapidly approaching the end of the 2019 season so a good time for this thread I felt! So what would you realistically like to see the at the park in 2020? We know there will be no new rides, but that don’t mean we can’t see some worthwhile improvements ! For me: Firstly build on this years “year of events” bouncezilla was harmless fun, I’d like to see more of a summer event, I think they struggled a bit staying open late with no real purpose what saw it them cut, try give people more of a reason to stay later in summer. Would also like to see them try a firework event again - the park always had a great atmosphere during fireworks and it’s always a nice way to end the season. Secondly I hope they can keep up the good work we’ve seen this year with ride availability and capacity (ignoring Quantum!) - this year we’ve seen a big improvement on something the park historically struggled with, rides were more often than not open on time and on full capacity, we also saw rides frequently on 2 trains during quiet times which is a big plus for those visiting during quiet times. Fright nights - this year is a huge improvement on last, I’d like to see them continue with this, I think the park needs another maze to the quality of Creek Freak’s standards, the return of Big Top could fill that gap and would please many no doubt, but at the same time if we can get something new to that quality it would be great. Things like Amity High are also a great addition this year, hopefully we see something like this return and possibly expanded for 2020.

For a theme park I mean.

Thorpe open hours are probably the best we have in the UK? Granted some of the 8pm’s in the summer were cut but still overall they are much better than other merlin parks.

I guess like a hotel - they over book with the assumption a certain % won’t turn up for their booking - the occasion they do they have a problem!

Noticed some nice changes to Creek Freak yesterday - firstly seems like a lot of the lighting has been adjusted, the parts where you squeeze through the spinning parts are particularly effective, there was also a tonne more smoke than previously - it made it very disorienting in there and helped add some more scares!

From reading reports it was just after a power outage - somone who claims to have been on it at the time says it was more of a crush in the station than a crash - not ideal just a couple days of being open mind!

Whilst it’s a cop out I agree - it does fit in with what’s actually on the show to be fair!

There’s water dummy’s around the area so looks like it’s being worked on hopefully back soon!

I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible but I’m sure it would work out more expensive than a package!

So you advise to not buy ant fasttrack upfront? Can you still buy them on the same day at the park or do we have a risk of them being "sold out"? They can and do sell out - but you’d usually know pretty early in the day if it’s going to be packed - if you plan to get there for opening time you should be able to get a few of the coasters done pretty quickly - just avoid the swarm first as for some reason everyone seems to go there first!

This will be fun - most of my opinions seem unpopular 😬 Icon is as dull as dishwater - slow, boring and uninteresting - musics alright though. Colossus is up there as one of Thorpes best coasters Desert Race is heide’s best rollercoaster Seaworld have the best coaster line up in Orlando (maybe that’s not unpopular not sure 🤔)

Sounds pretty unlikely to me...

Quantum has opened this season - i guess it’s just suffering more problems - hopefully can be back up soon!

Swarm opened last night for a couple hours - Stealth has been down a few days now I think.

Even using #colossus 👀🙈

Of all the bad things merlin have done I’m not sure closing slammer is one of them, it was a maintenance nightmare it’s amazing it went on as long as it did - along with that it wasn’t overly popular! The biggest shame is it’s not been replaced yet!

I got a preview of the ride before it opened and I was genuinely pretty impressed my first go - it wasn’t perfect but it was damn good - I didn’t know about what the ride did so that took me by surprise and was very impressed! The problem is it’s re-rideability and reliability I guess - I’ve had very few 100% perfect rides on it - though I do personally think when it is on form - certainly to people new to it I think they are impressed.

Saw engineers working on it today - they were doing things with the lap bars and testing it hopefully it’s not far of from reopening again!

Whilst I agree - I doubt people rush back to the park for it - it’s hardly deserted forgotten - usually holds up a fairly consistent 20/25 min queue!

Is it an annual pass from last year or a “season” pass from this year as I think the benefits between the 2 changed although someone maybe able to correct me!

It’s possible or possibly they will do their own take on something with chainsaws - looking forward to this year!

The smoke is finally fixed firing right at the train again ?

I maybe wrong but do the new RAP cards not have a barcode which staff on the merge point can scan on the phones which also scan fastrack? I wonder if eventually the thing will be a lot more automated and when the card is scanned it will know how long that rides queue is and won’t scan till that time is over - possibly cutting out a lot of the abuse.