Sidders

What is this word, 'summer'?

Not defending Jamie's initial point about Th13teen's age limit but let's not suggest that Thorpe's attendance dip was anything to do with poor marketing of The Swarm. They played a blinder with their marketing in my opinion. Jubilee Year, Olympics 2012, double-dip recession; people had other stuff on their minds.

Let's have a Top-Spin in every area, and another fitted onto the back of The Swarm's trains.

Love the way the faces appear to peak at you because they don't fit on the turnstiles completely.

Krake and Raptor are also black!

Pictures or it didn't happen.

That's going to break necks be intense.

I love my halls

Bandwaggoning yay. I get problems that when I got to Edit a post, edit it, then post the edit post. It comes up with HTML font sometimes. Oblivion nearly lost the Alton Towers Ride Game because I was fiddling around with <br>, </br>, <p>, and </p> (and when you post a smiley you get about six lines of URL?). Could've meant tragedy. Also, can we fix the thing that says we can't use [ I m g ] [ / I m g ] tags on this community?

Cool. Inferno next pls.

Yeeaaahhhh. It's harder when you're the one doing all the legwork

This is embarrassing... I think I remember you saying that to me now! Well thank you for reminding me again, and yes, what you say about the Snoozebox application suggesting that the "2015 coaster" being pencilled in on Island E is interesting. As Dean said on the last page, in 2008, there was no Island E, but Island A was already being built. See below for screen-cappy goodness: Island C is where The Swarm is now, Island F (in green) is where SAW and SAW: Alive are, and Island E is where the Crash Pad will be from next season till 2015. This was Thorpe Park in 2008. Notice how Island E hadn't even begun infilling yet Island A was already half-way to completion (I just noticed how much bigger than Island C it's going to be as well...), and as of 2010 I believe it's been sat there getting stronger as a land mass by the day. Surely then, like you say, they had already decided that Island A was where they were going to put the 2016 coaster? Strange that the Snoozebox plans outline Island E as the location when A) it's going to be in use during the proposed coaster construction and B] Island A is much bigger, is empty during the time needed for construction, and seems much more suited for the purpose. Woo speculation.

We always seem to have a debate about this one, Josh. The Island A planning permission only allows any coaster built there to go up to 40m, I thought. It was Island C (The Swarm's Island for those who don't know) that had planning permission up to 50m. I wouldn't think they could simply swap these height barriers around as Island A is closer to Thorpe Village than Island C and so would be capped at a lower height due to noise levels and visibility issues (could potentially rule out the Wooden Coaster idea already...).

Thank you for doing that Dan Still annoyed at how long it took for me to get Enterprise out though...

Since The Swarm was built last year, the park are intending on having a quiet year with regards to large investments. Previous "small investment" years (2004, 2007 and 2010) brought us the move of Samurai from Chessington to Thorpe; Stealth '1.1' and the return of the Flying Fish; and SAW: Alive. All of which were fairly cheap investments and didn't really involve bringing anything 'new' to the park (Samurai was simply moved, The Flying Fish was in storage, and Thorpe Belle became SAW: Alive). Some have speculated that, given that in 2007 and 2010 Thorpe added bolt-on attractions or 'improved' the latest 'big investments" (Stealth and SAW), the investments this year will revolve around The Swarm and it's "evolution". This may not be the limit of what Thorpe are intending to do though. They may, as they did in 2004 and 2007, do something/bring something 'new'-ish to other areas of the park.

The 3-year interval between major investments has been postponed by one year due to Thorpe wishing to "focus on it's accommodation strategy". This means that commencing next year, Thorpe will build a proposed 250-bedroom hotel reading to business in 2015, which is when the Crash Pad is due to leave Thorpe. Naturally, this will be a massive cost for Thorpe and the plans for the Crash Pad in the time being is to test the market demand for Thorpe as a mini-holiday resort, rather than exclusively a one-day thrill park. If the Crash Pad is financially successful it works to two advantages: Thorpe will be bringing in extra revenue which will help fund the hotel construction alongside the running of the park, and also, it means that Thorpe know that there is sufficient demand for overnight accommodation and will not have built a hotel for a market that doesn't exist.* So because of this, the coaster originally planned as "2015 Coaster" is now the 2016 coaster which, if anyone cares to recall, is when the Runnymede Borough Council said Thorpe would have the privilege of building a coaster of similar height to Stealth. Of course, this theory's been rubbished with The Swarm breaking to perceived height barrier and the Island A height restriction placed at 40m (131ft). *In theory.

Hey Dean, welcome to TPM. It's a very astute observation you've made there, and it does seem like Island A (the island attached to The Swarm's, as marked and named by the MTDP) will be the location of the 2016 coaster. The MTDP also states that Thorpe plan to build another bridge from Island A to the Sunken Gardens, to help alleviate thoroughfare across the Swarm's bridge. The only other proposed location for the next coaster was a piece of land called Island E, adjacent right of the main entrance bridge, but since this piece of land looks likely to accommodate the Crash Pad until 2015, it seems like Island A is a safe bet for the planned location of the 2016 coaster!

It's not a very good/easy one admittedly It was "Argon laser" I nominate people.

Nah mate, s'gonna be a Vekoma Boomerang on top of the dome. A lol at Forp when Kingda Ka would still be 1ft taller even with a 250ft extension for Stealth.

THORPE PARK SMILEY FACE WHAT IS YOUR VERDICT?

Or y'know, they could erm... be... 'modifying'... The Swarm... 's trains...

Chessington game's gunna die now...

Nemesis (1) Oblivion (9)

Nemesis (1) Oblivion (9) Just stay calm...