Marc

I think I remember hearing the licensing for imascore stuff is a lot simpler in the way that they pay for it and that’s that (but I could be wrong)
 
I’m sure they do still have the rights to the imascore stuff seeing as they still seem to have a continued relationship with them

Have removed a couple of posts from here - Regardless on your opinions on Nick’s music - fair play to him for organising this - just looked and I saw he’s raised almost £600 to donate to a mental health charity and no one deserves to be berated for that - that’s significant amount especially during these times from such a niche market.
 
Whilst I get it may not be everyone’s cup of tea I think it’s great people when people l come together and do things like this which will ultimately benefit others more in need, especially in times like this!

I agree with lots of the little points, better park lighting, fright nights audio for every ride more smoke machines would be good to see, they are quite cheap and easy things to do too in the grand scheme of things.
 
Creek Freak maybe I’ve been lucky but my run throughs have been actor heavy (not just press night) but obviously this does seem to vary a lot.
 
Id bring in a new maze to replace platform, use the lost city space again and make it a original theme / indoor maze. I do think they lack a maze they can just throw people though, they are all very story based now and when you throw through huge groups you lose abit of the experience, mazes like the Asylum were effective even when they were throwing in huge groups quickly when queues got large.
 
I don’t think lowering the price of mazes is really realistic at this point, they are clearly selling too many as it is and with fastrack it’s all about supply and demand, we saw fastrack start off cheaper than it is now with far too much of it, over the years they have tweaked pricing to the point where generally it’s less of an issue (not all the time granted) but will still make a tidy profit for the park. I suspect we will see them playing with maze prices too till they get the balance right (I hope so anyway!)

Hmm I’m not sure they would Re-theme X again. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but walking dead is probably the most complete experience of the coaster there has been i can’t see them changing it again before the coaster is at the end of its life.
 
Could be wrong though stranger things have happened !

Not much has changed atall - they’ve added abit more of a story told by the actor before you enter the floating carriage room which is carried on in the middle section, other than that it’s the same as previous.

Just finished a little montage of Colossus. Check it out -
 
 

No idea what is up with storm surge but it’s certainly had closed season work so can’t see it being removed this soon!

Good topic!
 
1. Skyline - it’s got the best skyline in the U.K. by far - it looks so good, from walking over the bridge to driving past on the m3, it stands out and is pretty unique.
 
2. Fright Nights - like you it’s definitely not the best Halloween event anymore but I’ll still visit multiple times every year, even without the mazes the atmosphere at the park alleys seems to be so good.
 
3. The rides - it maybe an obvious one, and Thorpe are in desperate need of something new but that don’t take away from the lineup they have - they have a great selection of rollercoasters and flats even with the lack of resent investments in this department  

To be fair if it is destined not to reopen it is a direct result of Covid, it would have continued to operate at least for now had Covid not happened

Have removed a couple of posts from here - Regardless on your opinions on Nick’s music - fair play to him for organising this - just looked and I saw he’s raised almost £600 to donate to a mental health charity and no one deserves to be berated for that - that’s significant amount especially during these times from such a niche market.
 
Whilst I get it may not be everyone’s cup of tea I think it’s great people when people l come together and do things like this which will ultimately benefit others more in need, especially in times like this!

Have removed a couple of posts from here - Regardless on your opinions on Nick’s music - fair play to him for organising this - just looked and I saw he’s raised almost £600 to donate to a mental health charity and no one deserves to be berated for that - that’s significant amount especially during these times from such a niche market.
 
Whilst I get it may not be everyone’s cup of tea I think it’s great people when people l come together and do things like this which will ultimately benefit others more in need, especially in times like this!

Have removed a couple of posts from here - Regardless on your opinions on Nick’s music - fair play to him for organising this - just looked and I saw he’s raised almost £600 to donate to a mental health charity and no one deserves to be berated for that - that’s significant amount especially during these times from such a niche market.
 
Whilst I get it may not be everyone’s cup of tea I think it’s great people when people l come together and do things like this which will ultimately benefit others more in need, especially in times like this!

Have removed a couple of posts from here - Regardless on your opinions on Nick’s music - fair play to him for organising this - just looked and I saw he’s raised almost £600 to donate to a mental health charity and no one deserves to be berated for that - that’s significant amount especially during these times from such a niche market.
 
Whilst I get it may not be everyone’s cup of tea I think it’s great people when people l come together and do things like this which will ultimately benefit others more in need, especially in times like this!

Have removed a couple of posts from here - Regardless on your opinions on Nick’s music - fair play to him for organising this - just looked and I saw he’s raised almost £600 to donate to a mental health charity and no one deserves to be berated for that - that’s significant amount especially during these times from such a niche market.
 
Whilst I get it may not be everyone’s cup of tea I think it’s great people when people l come together and do things like this which will ultimately benefit others more in need, especially in times like this!

Have removed a couple of posts from here - Regardless on your opinions on Nick’s music - fair play to him for organising this - just looked and I saw he’s raised almost £600 to donate to a mental health charity and no one deserves to be berated for that - that’s significant amount especially during these times from such a niche market.
 
Whilst I get it may not be everyone’s cup of tea I think it’s great people when people l come together and do things like this which will ultimately benefit others more in need, especially in times like this!

Have removed a couple of posts from here - Regardless on your opinions on Nick’s music - fair play to him for organising this - just looked and I saw he’s raised almost £600 to donate to a mental health charity and no one deserves to be berated for that - that’s significant amount especially during these times from such a niche market.
 
Whilst I get it may not be everyone’s cup of tea I think it’s great people when people l come together and do things like this which will ultimately benefit others more in need, especially in times like this!

Have removed a couple of posts from here - Regardless on your opinions on Nick’s music - fair play to him for organising this - just looked and I saw he’s raised almost £600 to donate to a mental health charity and no one deserves to be berated for that - that’s significant amount especially during these times from such a niche market.
 
Whilst I get it may not be everyone’s cup of tea I think it’s great people when people l come together and do things like this which will ultimately benefit others more in need, especially in times like this!

Personally I don’t think it was their intention to completely remove it - sadly it  was deemed it needed a fairly significant amount of work at a pretty bad time where budgets etc started to be cut - had it been a couple years earlier it wouldn’t surprise me if it had got the money it needed and had been saved.

The problem is merlin have already made it clear many pass holders are pre booking and not turning up, increasing pass holders tickets makes this problem worse and I can see why they don’t want to give pass holders too much % of the capacity they have for them not to turn up.
 
They could introduce a higher pre book price (seems unlikely now they’ve made it free) which gives you money back when your at the park to spend.
 
Or you could have some sort of system which gives gives priority to Those who have actually turned up and gone instead of booking and not going, problem
with both options is I doubt they have the systems in place to do anything like that. 

I'd have exactly the same attitude. I wouldn't hold the park at fault regardless of who got hurt, even if it was me let alone family or friends, not unless they gave them the knife or set up the fight. This is one of the major things wrong with the world in my eyes; everything is always someone else fault. Someone should have prevented, someone should have intervened, someone should have seen the future. The suspect is the suspect.
 
You can mitigate against a risk, but you can not eliminate all danger. The security as it is is a reasonable response to the risk presented. With this being the first incident of this type in 40 years, how many issues have they prevented with their actions in this time? Loads I expect. Considering your opinion of their clientele you'd be hard pressed to argue against that having been the case, but you can't prove the effectiveness of a preventative measure.
 
You can learn from incidents, you can see how something happened and amend your processes for the future, but that does not prove an ability to have foreseen.

I'm not sure it does show a failure on thorpes part? Thorpe Park's security procedure (the parts which we see anyway) is IMO probably the most stringent out of all the Merlin theme parks already and will no doubt evolve again after this incident. I agree that I haven't had to walk through a scanner at thorpe other than on some special events, but the same can be said for any entertainment venue I've visited in the UK over the past couple of years.
 
The bag search was bought in after a number of terrorist incidents. I agree if they want to search every guest to a higher standard it will take investment in more equipment and infrastructure, and that 2 hour queues to get in are not a long term solution, but to say the park don't have proper security measures is a ridiculous statement.  
 
I don't agree Thorpe Park is not a safe environment, "Behaviours" you mention can and do happen in all sorts of places, when you manage thousands of people a day your bound to have trouble at some points, Fright Nights are typically busier and therefore your probably more likely to have someone out to cause trouble. And as far as I know this is the first instance of knife crime at TP - how would a "properly secure entrance" stop someone picking a fight in the park? 
 
Holding Merlin or Thorpe accountable for the knife crime problem in the UK is abit OTT - Thorpe Park's checks were always simply Bag Checks - The park no doubt work with local police forces to plan and execute things such as security / bag searches etc.
 
To enter the park you need to have a ticket scanned at a turnstile or manually by staff, they of course know how many people are in the park at any given time, as far as i know there are no "legal limits" for Covid 19 - they simply have to ensure social distancing measures are in place which they are, park capacity is significantly reduced from normal.

I'm not sure it does show a failure on thorpes part? Thorpe Park's security procedure (the parts which we see anyway) is IMO probably the most stringent out of all the Merlin theme parks already and will no doubt evolve again after this incident. I agree that I haven't had to walk through a scanner at thorpe other than on some special events, but the same can be said for any entertainment venue I've visited in the UK over the past couple of years.
 
The bag search was bought in after a number of terrorist incidents. I agree if they want to search every guest to a higher standard it will take investment in more equipment and infrastructure, and that 2 hour queues to get in are not a long term solution, but to say the park don't have proper security measures is a ridiculous statement.  
 
I don't agree Thorpe Park is not a safe environment, "Behaviours" you mention can and do happen in all sorts of places, when you manage thousands of people a day your bound to have trouble at some points, Fright Nights are typically busier and therefore your probably more likely to have someone out to cause trouble. And as far as I know this is the first instance of knife crime at TP - how would a "properly secure entrance" stop someone picking a fight in the park? 
 
Holding Merlin or Thorpe accountable for the knife crime problem in the UK is abit OTT - Thorpe Park's checks were always simply Bag Checks - The park no doubt work with local police forces to plan and execute things such as security / bag searches etc.
 
To enter the park you need to have a ticket scanned at a turnstile or manually by staff, they of course know how many people are in the park at any given time, as far as i know there are no "legal limits" for Covid 19 - they simply have to ensure social distancing measures are in place which they are, park capacity is significantly reduced from normal.

Under account settings - clicking below when logged in should work! 
 
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I'm not sure it does show a failure on thorpes part? Thorpe Park's security procedure (the parts which we see anyway) is IMO probably the most stringent out of all the Merlin theme parks already and will no doubt evolve again after this incident. I agree that I haven't had to walk through a scanner at thorpe other than on some special events, but the same can be said for any entertainment venue I've visited in the UK over the past couple of years.
 
The bag search was bought in after a number of terrorist incidents. I agree if they want to search every guest to a higher standard it will take investment in more equipment and infrastructure, and that 2 hour queues to get in are not a long term solution, but to say the park don't have proper security measures is a ridiculous statement.  
 
I don't agree Thorpe Park is not a safe environment, "Behaviours" you mention can and do happen in all sorts of places, when you manage thousands of people a day your bound to have trouble at some points, Fright Nights are typically busier and therefore your probably more likely to have someone out to cause trouble. And as far as I know this is the first instance of knife crime at TP - how would a "properly secure entrance" stop someone picking a fight in the park? 
 
Holding Merlin or Thorpe accountable for the knife crime problem in the UK is abit OTT - Thorpe Park's checks were always simply Bag Checks - The park no doubt work with local police forces to plan and execute things such as security / bag searches etc.
 
To enter the park you need to have a ticket scanned at a turnstile or manually by staff, they of course know how many people are in the park at any given time, as far as i know there are no "legal limits" for Covid 19 - they simply have to ensure social distancing measures are in place which they are, park capacity is significantly reduced from normal.

So I actually had a good day today, I’ll admit after the first hour everything felt a bit weird, but after that getting more used to things I actually enjoyed it.
 
Carrying on from above, the arcade from that angle does look bad - I’ve no idea I can only assume it had to be done very quickly for some reason or work wasn’t able to be completed due to corona - I do hope something is done to improve it as it don’t look great.

On a more positive note - Firstly with the social distancing I think the park did really well - there are markers literally everywhere spaced out 2 m anywhere there would be a queue - there are sanitiser stations everywhere and I didn’t find one which had ran out all day, on rides there’s social distancing where it’s needed - some rides seem odd such as quantum which literally runs 3 rows - others do make sense, but obviously this is new and will be tweaked over the next few weeks. There’s signage everywhere - again it’s all been done professionally and properly, proper signage throughout, information videos on screens and park wide announcements. For guests following it it’s a mixed bag - some queue lines seemed to follow it better than others, ride ops did step in at times and make announcements reminding people which jogged memories and people would then distance out more. Did notice some not wearing masks on The Swarm, at the same time someone at stealth didn’t have a mask and the staff quickly found one, disposable masks are also on sale in the shops as well as Thorpe branded ones.
 
Entrance to the park was efficient- those without bags skip security queue and go straight to temperature check - the ticket window queue to the right of the entrance is repurposed info a holding queue for those waiting to get in before park opens to allow people to be socially distancing whilst waiting.
 
Park audio has had so much work, probably more than its ever had, its not finished but it’s already significantly better, queues like colossus which have needed work for so long have had it, areas which never had audio before now have it, its really so much better. A few tweaks are needed with some volumes too loud or quiet but that will come over time - you need the general noise of the park to get these levels right. 
 
Ride availability wasn’t bad - rides in old town were closed along with rumba, I expect these to open over the next Few weeks, as expected Ghost train and walking dead closed. Shutdown wise only actually saw Stealth and Vortex go down which isn’t bad for “first day” of season - all rides full capacity too which is obviously more important  now with reduced seating.
 
New brand signage around entrance / dome looks good - much more professional and suits the park well - Infinity looks really good too, sadly they seemed to have some struggles in there today so didn’t get to try it but definitely will soon!
 
New car park system was good - passes scanned quickly, I do wonder if eventually pass holders will be able to register a car reg?

Was also happy to see fastrack not on sale - they easily could have sold it, and people would have bought it - but not selling it definitely is a big plus for guest experience especially when staff are getting used to the new procedures on rides.
 
All in all I had a good day - it was rough around the edges in some places but open day ALWAYS is - with the added part of the vast majority of staff spending the last few months on furlough along with  all the new procedures needed it ran significantly smoother than i thouht it would - am happy the parks able to reopen!