Marc
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Posts posted by Marc
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6 minutes ago, JoshuaA said:
I think its awful. Chessington is compact and small too, but that is priced modestly..
Thorpe Park does not warrant that price jump. It should be the lowest in price IMO, as it has the least to offer. Lets also consider that the park has not received a proper new ride since 2016 (and that ride will most likely be closed for sanitary reasons and also because its terrible lol).
I’d say Chessington is a fair bit bigger bigger than Thorpe? The parks much more spread out, It has the zoo too to help distribute guests further.
Of course Alton offers more but then Thorpe will always have the extra premium being within the m25, as will Chessington.
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15 minutes ago, Benin said:
To raise the online booking price when EVERYONE will have to book online is dodgy however you slice it.
I guess it’s to make up for some of the losses they will make from no walk up tickets for the foreseeable future and being closed almost 4 months, that and capacity where I expect Thorpe will likely suffer most being as compact as it is.
I’ve no idea how ticket prices are set for theme parks, but I expect there’s some sort of market research into it and how much people are comfortable paying for a day out before they feel ripped off, that and I’m sure many 2 for 1 vouchers work online now?
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I expect the parks know more some more than we do though, even if not much. Merlin parks are now selling day tickets from 4th July so they must be fairly confident they will be allowed to open on this date baring any last minute changes.
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The rides were ready for the park to open in March, engineering will have been in throughout making sure they remain ready for when they are able to open.
No idea about staff but I expect as soon as the government give a firm date they will quickly get them back in and ready.
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2 minutes ago, StevenVig said:
Mark asks a reasonable question here though. There was no malice behind his post.
As a Queer POC on this forum, I can honestly say that personally, the lack of diversity has never actually crossed my mind. I’ve never considered race or ethnicities within this community. It does get you thinking though, it has never been an issue for me, and is something that I guess I just accept.
Though I can now see how this might be perceived to others though, and it is a healthy discussion to be had
Sure it’s a healthy discussion and am happy to have it - as Pluk said all team member applications the last time we did them were anonymous to keep things as fair for everyone as possible.
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On 6/5/2020 at 9:46 AM, Benin said:
Yesterday's front pages annoyed the hell out of me.
Two massive worldwide issues going on atm. The UK Covid numbers are more than the rest of the EU combined, then we have the numerous protests in support of those across the pond.
Our media ignores those and looks at a 12 year old case about a middle class white girl who died due to the neglect of her parents (even if they didn't kill her themselves, they left 3 children in a hotel room alone, but of course they don't get blamed for that either).
And some say we're better than the Americans.
You say that but media is one of the things which has really annoyed me during this whole pandemic - and this is a good example, this graphic showing the UK having a higher death rate than the entirety of the EU, its still being shared over on Twitter now, its is so twisted almost to try scare people and I don't really get why - a bit of research shows Spain are literally lying about death numbers (you can see when they went from over 200 deaths per day to 2) and god knows how accurate other countries data are too - then the UK is accused of lying about death numbers because they added on 400 or so from previous weeks... surely that's the opposite of lying?
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48 minutes ago, Benin said:
It adds very little because of how far into the situation we are. What's the point in testing now when travel is limited? Why weren't we testing those who came over from Madrid for the Liverpool match when Spain were beginning their lockdown?
Simply put we're closing the stable doors but the horses bolted 2 months ago.
Look at how other European countries dealt with this and it's no wonder we've got the highest death rate.
Oh I agree early on we should have done more I was more meaning now it’s probably pretty pointless till it’s more under control.
5 minutes ago, Martin Doyle said:Spain - near instant lockdown
Italy - near instant lockdown
Germany - near instant lockdown
UK - WASH YOUR HANDS AND SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADS!!
No wonder it's as bad as it is on these shores.
I wouldn’t say Italy or Spain are any better or worse than we are - Germany on the other hand have really taken control and shown how it can be effectively managed.
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11 minutes ago, JoshuaA said:
I wouldn't even say testing arrivals, testing in general is something the government failed horribly at doing.
Testing, tracking, and tracing is something Germany did a lot of. Arrivals would be a start, but ideally we need as many people being tested as humanly possible. But the government probably won't, because we don't have a smart leader and government like Germany. I think its no surprise that the UK and US are the worst affected..
Oh yeah definitely testing is something we missed the boat on and we have been playing catch up since - and we will need to expand further when more restrictions are relaxed as time goes on and that will have include arrivals when things are more “under control” but not sure what testing arrivals really adds at the moment.
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1 hour ago, Benin said:
Meanwhile the UK will only start testing arrivals to the country at the end of this month.
So don't hold your breath on our lot opening anytime soon. Because we're run by idiots.
I see a lot of comments on us not testing arrivals and genuinely don’t see why it’s important at the moment?
Firstly - I don’t see why anyone arriving is anymore likely to have the virus than someone already here.
Secondly, with the restrictions / social distancing in place which people arriving have to follow - if someone does have it then following the rules in place make it unlikely to spread anyway.
Of course when the infection rates are low and it’s more under control in the U.K. testing / quarantining arrivals is much more important.
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1 hour ago, SteveJ said:
Funny how just 1 year later those "early days" were gone and the graphics infinitely improved. Swap out "early days" for "cheapest option" and you'd be more correct
To be fair the same people who did the VR when it opened did the re-worked Vr on the 2nd train - they were also responsible for the VR in the first segment.
Always thought it was the 2nd trains VR which let it down massively in its first year - the hold in green smoke just went on too long every time but apart from that it was OK - though the re-worked 2nd train scene is much better.
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8 minutes ago, SteveJ said:
Not those mini screens above, the big windows I mean, is it true these were initially simulator screens (or were designed so they could have been if wanted) before being covered/removed?
I heard a lot of the problems with the VR was that it was designed in relatively late to planning, rushed in by marketing who thought it would be a great addition, after some of the design had been done. It would certainly seem that way but may not be totally true.
Yeah the Simworx thing I'm also unclear about, I know other parties were involved in the manufacture but I heard that it was package prototype ride by Simworx (with those other aspects outsourced like the trains and track), excluding the VR on board. Again might just be an exaggeration that I was told.
One thing we do know for sure is there were changes to try accomodate the VR, in that wobbly period when the opening was delayedAhh my bad - the windows were initially supposed to mist up I believe during different points so you wouldn’t see what’s behind the scenes if you didn’t have VR on - but the reflections from the windows would mess with the VR so they were in the end just covered up.
I believe simworx ultimately manages the entire project but the most part of it was built by different manufacturers - probably not helping ultimately in all the problems.I don’t think the VR was added late as a marketing gimmick - the concept of a train with screens in the window wouldn’t really work on ghost train as you’d be awkwardly looking at a screen somones sat infront of - unless you only had people one side but that would end in a ridiculously poor throughput.
Yeah there was problems with VR contributing to the delay but by no means is VR it’s only issues - it’s a shame really as when the entire experience works as it’s meant to I still do think it’s good, it could have varied a lot more had it been a success to keep it fresh - it’s just so rare the whole thing works as an entire package.
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5 minutes ago, SteveJ said:
I can see that leg ticklers wouldn't really work, you'd see them as you board before the lights go out (they're just flexible tubing). The screens, fog and all that are what's interesting, I wonder how much was actually installed before being removed or just mothballed.
There must be a solution to using the ride system to its full potential as a simulator ride. It's the designers' job to come up with a solution and make it work as an experience, but it would take money not a quick rehash with some actors. Also as far as I know (might be wrong) Simworx built it without VR in mind to be rolled out to other parks in the future. It would be a shame to waste the ride system which was by far the best thing about the ride in my opinion.The leg ticklers were in place when it first opened - can make them out in the picture below on the left side of the train - also the smoke used to work and the screens played a news report in 2016 - think both were removed after the rise of demon changes.
Im not sure if ghost train it’s self would work without VR - it’s quite different to standard immersive tunnels simworx have built - The trains are built by Severnlamb the block system by Intamin - I’m not certain what parts simworx built them selves to be honest. VR wasn’t a last minute addition to ghost train by any means - the ride was designed to have VR fairly early in its planning.
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Realistically Ghost train would struggle without VR IMO - you have too long sections with the train sat there not moving for it work without it without huge changes which probably wouldn’t be worth it.
I can’t see it opening this year - if we do hopefully have a vaccine against this in a years time I can’t see it being too much of an issue then.
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Depth Charge (3)
Detonator: Bomb's Away (3)
Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (3)
Nemesis Inferno (3)
Quantum (3)
Rumba Rapids (2)
Rush (3)
Samurai (3)
Stealth (3)
Storm in a Teacup (3)
The Swarm (4)
Tidal Wave (3)
Vortex (3)
Swarm + 1
Rumba - 1
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2 hours ago, Whatever said:
Perhaps I misheard. Either way, this has left lots of people in a bad way. How much is Merlin worth again?
Probably significantly less than they were a couple months ago!
Hope your friend is alright - sooner this is all over the better for us all!
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Audio and Lighting is a lot better - agree odd they’ve left disabled targets in places a lot of people did seem confused but overall much better! Airgates in the station too help with loading are a good addition.
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Portaventura have delayed opening now.
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Looks like all Premier League and EFL games are suspended till 3rd April at least - be surprised if the start of the theme park season isn’t affected.
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6 minutes ago, Ringo said:
They took over 12 years ago though...
It’s good to finally see work being done though
Yes they did - and there’s plenty of things they’ve done to improve the mess left of which IMO is more important , especially at CWOA than the vampire station for example - things like The Gruffalo retheme, Scorpion Express and Tiger Rock renovations were all things which they’ve done well IMO which really did need doing - don’t get me wrong there not perfect but think they are not all bad too!
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To be fair Vampires had more than just some Maplin LED’s thrown up at it - the organist is back to working better than I’ve personally ever seen - the lighting effects have all been properly synced up with the music track - the station it’s self is sounding great too. Even if done internally - it’s been done by skilled people, not someone who’s just plugged in a few lights.
Merlin get a lot of flack - but remember lots of these things fell into disrepair from years of neglect during the latter parts of the tussauds years.
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The thing with music is it’s literally down to opinion - the old track was very good, a lot of people will feel some nostalgia towards it too.
The new track is also very good, suits the ride just as much IMO. Other than the music the stations looking nice - glad to see the colourful LED lights gone it was pretty atmospheric in there today. -
1 hour ago, Marhelorpe said:
Exactly this.
Too often when I visited the park last year and in 2018, the first sight I am greeted with every morning when leaving the dome into the park is this definition of pure irony:
How the bobs at Thorpe Park/Merlin can look at that, nod their heads and smile saying “Yep, nothing at all wrong with this!” I don’t understand one bit.
How the park are going to fix this broken system I cannot answer, but something has to be done soon.
On a hot summers day it’s not unreasonable to assume there would be a couple hundred people on park who are eligible for an access pass - 90% of eligible guests would be arriving in the morning so there would be bound to be an initial surge of people all collecting their passes at the same time.
The system isn’t perfect, and I’m not sure a “perfect” solution even exists - but it’s hardly one of Thorpes / Merlins top issues.
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3 minutes ago, Ringo said:
Didn’t they also publicly state DBGT was the future of theme parks...
Yes 😛 but that was marketing speak - I think merlin announced in an investors call once that they see IP’s as a big pull to getting guests visiting their attractions.
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2 minutes ago, Glitch said:
Could it not be argued that this a good movie for the park, becoming more of a TV / Shows themed attractions park.
Merlin working with Netflix could potentially be huge for them - whilst I know IP’s are not everyone’s cup of tea merlin have publicly stated they see them as the future - and if done well there’s no reason why they can’t be as good as original ideas.
2020 Season
in The Past
Posted
Day tickets for open day have sold out - annual passes will be out of a different allocation but will no doubt sell out too.