Ryan

Bring back the Arena and the 2003 Spiderman show instead.

Where have I heard these things before? Let me ask my buddy, Derren:

"I don't know Josh, I just don't know..."

Some awesome information released from the London Resort on plans for the first area of the definitely going to happen London Resort. Looks stunning in the concept art and sounds excellent in the press release.
 
Two coasters including a 70mph 1km plus multi launch coaster is planned for the area as well as a high tech 4D ride, dinosaur dig experience, large arena and themed dining experiences. 
 
Looks fantastic. 
 
Peoples thoughts? 
 
 

So here's the Thorpe problem in a nutshell. Their investment in the 2000's was big. it was exciting, it was dynamic, it was a dream to be a Uk theme park fan with rides left right and centre. But the Thorpe problem comes down to a lack of space and a lack of diversity. They've got themselves into a rut when The Swarm kind of failed. Their target audience demands the newest, most exciting attractions. Who cares about Colossus and its measly ten inversions when The Smiler has fourteen.So then when they fail to grow, they start to downsize. The problems start to increase. The lack of investment means a lack of return which just spirals until we get to now. Thorpe doesn't have the advantages of the family market. Chessington went through a similar slump when it left the thrill market altogether and turned to family. The difference there though is that the family market spends money. Kids demand toys and treats. Ap family holders are all too happy to grab a nice meal and a pint with their family. They like staying in an over-priced hotel. Kerching. 
 
Thorpe's target audience doesn't. Thorpe AP holders are happy to only spend a pound in the park all day. It starts to cost too much money to remove the SBNO attractions. Just build a wall. Who do you target at now when the bulk of your attractions are thrill heavy. 
 
Really there is absolutely no reason why the park couldn't build a family rollercoaster or some entry level flat rides (give me a breakdance you cowards). But they won't because all they want are headlines and aren't interested in sustaining the park beyond the end of the financial year. So we get short term rubbish like I'm a Celeb or Black Mirror instead of attractions that stand the test of time. I'm amazed that Chessington actually replaced Black Bucaneer and are replacing Rameses with a generic drop tower AND redid Tomb Blaster AND built a Rainforest area, refurbishing Toadies and building a Log Flume at the same time. This stuff never happens at Merlin, it will certainly never happen at Thorpe because the idea of cookie-cutter attractions would never fly. So instead the current attractions just age away and nothing gets built or done. 
 
If you were to ask me what Thorpe should do, I'd go with refurbish attractions, build rides that attract a wider audience and beef up that awful entrance with a new look and better security stations. Inferno shouldn't be turning green, family rollercoasters are awesome additions and  a stabbing should never be able to happen again. There is absolutely no point in building an RMC or B&M Hyper if the rest of the park looks like a rubbish dump. Putting a bow on trash is still trash. 
 
And that for me is the Thorpe problem.

I love Black Mirror so intrigued to see what they do here, looking forward to it! 

I love Black Mirror so intrigued to see what they do here, looking forward to it! 

I love Black Mirror so intrigued to see what they do here, looking forward to it! 

I love Black Mirror so intrigued to see what they do here, looking forward to it! 

I love Black Mirror so intrigued to see what they do here, looking forward to it! 

If you read between the lines it’s been mentioned on here too. 

Who is this person and why does he have so many posts.....  

Blimey, we'd be lucky! 
Looks like we're getting some sort of new technology/dark based attraction for this year. Another short term indoor attraction? Clearly with the season opening being a little over a month away, we will see Thorpe ramping up the marketing for this. Keen to see a Jack Silkstone over-analysis video of this image like Matt said 😂
 
Maybe this could actually be a highly themed immersive attraction if there is a strong IP involved. I'm hoping more Living Nightmare standards of theming than Angry Birds. Realistically it is going to be another couple years of short term investment, but hopefully all will be worth it soon. RMC 2022? Or who knows this could just be another flop of an attraction that we will be talking about being replaced in a years time! Really excited to see what 2020 brings at Thorpe now  

Me either. Fond memories of sitting down with the missus each week last closed season to watch the updates, our floating DBGT train carriage in the background, wearing our Smiler onesies, drinking from our oversized Colossus cups and tucking into our back up closed-season stock of non-branded overpriced pick and mix from The Dome, our necks laden down by our MAP lanyard encrusted in numerous pop badges we stole from small children and staff members.
 
Still haven't opened the Stealth condoms though.

Looks like there's going to be some Fright Nights themed food at some of the outlets this year
 
 

Hi,
Long time lurker, 1st time poster.
Excuse the long post, there is an on-topic observation at the bottom
TP has been a big part of my life, from visiting the park in the late 80's to throughout the 90's.  I then worked there for 15 years (2000 - 2014), in a variety of departments.
Retail - some of the best times of my life (I've made life long friends from working in this department)
Park Development and Planning - one of the most rewarding jobs I have had to date (see below)
Facilities Management/Engineering - this is where my journey ended
 
Park Development and Planning - I was the project lead for the land expansion project, and was involved in some of the early design/planning activities on SAW The Ride, SAW Alive, Kobra (CWoA), The Swarm, and an early Ghost Train concept. Whilst working in this department I learnt some fascinating history about the park.  For example, did you know when the park was being constructed in the 1970's, RMC flew in an Imagineer from the States to help design the entrance and car park? 
 
Anyways, back on topic...
 
I visited the RTP's for the 1st time (since leaving TP) last year and noticed that the overall quality has dropped across all 3 parks (CWoA probably was my favourite park out of the visits last year TBH).  I noticed that at AT, unless you like roller coasters or kids rides, there actually isn't that much there.  Duel should have been removed and replaced, or even reverted back to its former scary self years ago, and Hex is a shadow of its former self.  I have never liked the Rapids since they removed the old boats.   
 
TP - DBGT - Ok this was not what I had originally envisioned for this plot of land.  I found it to be an interesting concept, however it was not delivered well. The queue lines design (or lack of) makes it one of the worst (if not the worst) queues I have ever been in.  I strangely found IACGMOH to be quite an enjoyable experience.   I think TP are now in a weird position where they have got to develop two large areas of the park - the island next to Swarm (Island A) or Loggers.  Which one do you do first?  Island A needs that development to remove the dead end at Swarm (Parks should never have dead ends, they need to be free flowing), or do you develop Loggers which is a dead corner of the park? Is the investment there?
 
CWoA seems to have flown under the radar a bit, and appears to have missed a lot of the Merlin clusterf**ks that have happened over the years.  However, the drop tower replacing Rameses is again lacklustre and screams of "cant be bothered to develop this park properly"...
 
Which leads me onto why I think these parks are suffering:
 
The Smiler accident - I should imagine the insurance premiums across the UK parks are now extremely high, effecting large scale investments As far as I am aware, Merlin did not operate any theme parks until acquiring Legoland and the Tussuad's Group.  I've noticed that all of the Merlin investments to date have either been lacklustre or poorly delivered (Ok Wickerman was good, however not too sure a pre-show was required - even though the show is good).  I think there is a lack of interest within the company (I found this out when I was working  at TP, and was shocked to find so many senior people not interested in the industry - a lot of them had never been to a Disney park... Its just a job to them) If you look at what parks around the world are announcing as new attractions, Merlin's UK offering is waaayyy behind everyone else.   One of the most heated discussions I had whilst working at TP was surrounding the lack of a decent family zone/area.  My argument was that parks such as Six Flags and Cedar Point (parks TP tries to emulate) all have decent (ish) kid friendly/family friendly areas. The answer from management was a return on the investment would not be possible as "how would they sell it"? Hopefully when (if) Paramount Park gets built, it will give Merlin a kick up the backside in getting there act together. Just my two cents...
M

Sometimes being in any way associated with the enthusiast community I want to cringe myself to death.
 
This is one of those times.

More chance of my hairline coming back!!

Don't believe what other people are saying.
 
From what I have heard big top is returning where Bouncezilla is and WD will be where sanctum was two years ago. And even better news for yourself,  Platform 15 has been extended this year. There will be an interval in the tunnel where they are using some of the old Experiment 10 shipping containers and you will travel inside them.
 
I have confirmed this with your favourite person JACK SILKSTONE VIP and he is putting a video out tonight which will confirm this!
 
 

Sick.

I have a few theories. None of its concrete evidence and is pure conjecture on my part.
 
- The failure of the Swarm. We all know that Merlin were initially disappointed by the Swarms first season. Many reasons were cited (which I'm sure those in the know can find) but essentially, I think this lack of interest in the new coaster dented confidence in what the park could do. Baring in mind, 2011 saw one of the biggest years the park had and that was on the back of Storm Surge. Cheaper investment bought massive returns.
 
- The next Big thing. I think Thorpe has fallen into the trap that Six Flags did. By appealing solely to the thrill sector you severely limit interest. Teenagers want the next big thing and in the 00s, Thorpe easily provided that thrill. Hit after hit, success after success. Coasters galore, several years where we got two flat rides. That investment was unsustainable. Now though, rides like Colossus, Inferno, Tidal Wave, Detonator & Vortex are old hat. They are unmaintained and look their age. Thorpe were unable to drum up interest with The Swarm, Derren Brown opened late and was pretty weak and the less said about the reliance on IP to drive interest the better. The park has a real image problem which leads me to..
 
- Branding. Thorpe has a huge perception problem. Is it a thrill park, is it a park for up for it families, do we make X a family coaster then two years later refurbish it for adults. Do we change our market to families and then close the biggest family ride we've got (Loggers Leap). Do we advertise our park in our 2019 advert or have an image of goats, donuts and a hotel room. None of this evokes excitement. It smacks of a park throwing anything, everything at the wall to see what sticks and new general managers are not given enough time to evolve/change the place before they are fired and a new one bought in.
 
- The Smiler crash. Ironically, four years later, I feel like the crash has had this weird echoing effect at Thorpe compared to the other two main Merlin parks. It's almost like it never recovered from the initial drop in attendance whilst Alton has recovered well thanks to Wicker Man and Chessington never saw the drop because of its family audience. You could say the lack of investment is really hurting Thorpe right now but then there seems to be no steps to change this.
 
- The park itself. It's fallen a long way since the hefty days of 2006. If they are to recover the place they need to sort out their offering. Having abandoned flat rides and log flumes standing doesn't help, neither does the game stalls or the lack of maintenance and paint jobs on their rollercoasters. The basics need to be sorted for Thorpe to recover. Chessington was exactly the same way in the 00's but that now feels like the strongest Merlin park IMO. If Thorpe can sort this then they might be able to get back to the top.

Oh right, ok. 

I did the trip there via public transport and here’s how you get there. Once you know the station names, it’s quite straight-forward to get there directly from the airport:
 
1. From Amsterdam train stations (central, airport etc), take a service to ‘Harderwijk’, which is about a 70 minute train journey with one or two changeovers. About €15 each way, any route can be used.
 
2. At Harderwijk station, there is a bus station area right next to the tourist information building with about 8 different bays. Go to stop ‘G’ and take service 247 or 247a which says “Walibi” on the sign.
 
3. The times that depart in the morning to the park from this stop are the following:
 
9:22am, 9:52am, 10:22am and 10:52am for the first four. After that, it’s pretty much every 30 minutes all day. It’s €9 exactly for a return ticket.
 
This bus will take you directly to the park entrance plaza and the last bus back after park closure from memory was at 20:33 for the 8pm summer days.
 
Be aware that the bus is pretty packed, similar to the Thorpe ones and they only take card payments or a travel card similar to oysters (which is aimed more for the locals than tourists). Cash will not be accepted at all and yes, the buses do support Visa, MasterCard and Maestro contactless, including Revolut cards which was extremely handy in my case.
 
As for the trains, I would advise you to use their smartphone app called “NS Reisplanner Xtra” on either iOS or Android to book tickets and show the QR code to the conductor onboard when asked like I did. It is in English too this app so no translation problems.
 
I stayed at a hotel in Harderwijk for a couple of nights and from there, it’s pretty easy to get to the park, so the important bit is to make sure you reach Harderwijk bus station in all this.
 

Depends how stoned you are....

Because it looks poor, derelict and run down, not something that should be left in an area open to guests. Admittedly you wouldn't paint all sides but if they painted over the logo then the whole of that side should look better than how it's been left. Or better still just remove the thing! Slammer should also be removed! 

That article did make me laugh, I'm sure Universal would want guests roaming the park and spending money, rather than standing in a queue the whole day. 
 
Galaxy's Edge at Disney is much easier to implement a virtual queue system for (it's a glorified indoor motion simulator) than #Hagride (complicated Intamin coaster opening during storm season in Florida). Weather and technical delays could have turned the virtual waiting system into a nightmare with backlogs. 
 
Calling the whole process "inhumane" is a massive overreaction IMO, nobody forced guests to wait as long as they did for a coaster. The queue times were heavily advertised, and there's screens outside the park advertising when the ride is at capacity. Universal did a very good job of keeping guests in the queue happy and safe, free bottled water was dished out, toilet breaks were permitted by giving guests leaving the queue a password to get back in and entertainment put on. 
 
Regarding capacity, they have been running more full cars (some rows audio was not working, which has now been fixed. and
 
Despite the long queues, guests have been coming off this ride absolutely singing it's praises. It appears Universal/Intamin have struck gold with this ride!