JoshC.

Mardi Gras started today, and of course TPM were there! We have a write up here: https://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/19-05-2022/Mardi+Gras+Arrives+at+Thorpe+Park I also want to share my own thoughts, and not just a fansite write up review... In short, this is a fun event, and it's clear that a lot has gone into this. It's clear that there's been a solid vision from management that they wanted to deliver. It's clear that the actors involved in the entertainment have put in a lot of effort. It's clear that the park wanted to offer a solid F&B range. It's clear everyone involved has put time and effort into it. It's clear that money has been spent on it too. All of this sounds like a given for a theme park event, yes. But ask yourself, how many times has it felt in the past that these things haven't been clear for a Thorpe event or thing? Now you realise why it's so good to stress these things. I'll start off with my main positive: the food. I'm a bit of a foodie. The one thing which disappointed me the most with the Oktoberfest events at Thorpe is the food and drink options being, frankly, poor. You could get the cheapest bratwursts going, in a dry bun for an extortionate price. You could get some lebkuchen, again for a heck of a lot, and a choice of one or two authentic German beers. But it all felt very meh with effort. Mardi Gras feels different. They've got a lot of choices there which feel a bit more authentic, and they're at a reasonable theme park cost (ie not cheap for what it is necessarily, but in line with the rest of the park pretty much). Next, the entertainment. I'll start off with the negative: the actors seem to have instructions when interacting with people to be a bit over the top, cringey and cater to younger audiences, or people who are more outgoing. That's fine if that's what they're going for, but not for me. It made me cringe and crease, and is something I would run a mile from usually. But then again, people enjoyed it; not everything has to cater to me. Now the good stuff. The parade they have is fun; a little basic, but it draws attention to the event. I worry how it will cope on busy days since it goes through some of the busiest pathways on park, but what can you do. The main show, the Crowning of the Krewes, is great fun - the right side of cheesey, whilst also not being cringey. It's exactly the sort of thing the park has missed for so long (and much better than what the park were doing with the Thrillmakers imo). There's also some external entertainment (ie not Thorpe actors), in the guise of drum and jazz bands. They're nice and break things up too. I really hope it's a success for the park, because it ticks a lot of the boxes. There's still things they can improve and grow on, and I do wonder how it will cope on busier (or wetter) days. But as things stands, it does feel like Thorpe are onto a winner!

Was this removed at some point then? My memory of Spookslot is hazy, but I definitely don't remember that! 😅

Efteling have shared their first teaser for the Spookslot replacement: It will be called Danse Macabre, which is also the name of the song from Spookslot (and used in the video above), and is set to open in 2024; the same year as the new hotel. That video is the darkest thing I've ever seen out of Efteling, so will be interesting how far they go with the theme and style, whilst remaining family friendly.

I'll replace the link with all the details when I'm not on my phone, but the park's app has updated showing everything we can expect from the Mardi Gras event, which starts Thursday: Full highlights include: -A parade from Depth Charge to the area -A variety of musical acts -Mardi Grad celebration shows -Special food items at the park's restaurants -Two Mardi Gras exclusive food outlets

Blows dust off topic... Walibi Holland are set to get a RMC single rail coaster in 2024: https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/19781/Walibi-Holland-bevestigt-nieuwe-achtbaan-wordt-single-rail-coaster--opening-in-2024.html

Using some form of ERT... Stealth - 20 times Colossus (TP) - 11 times Taron - 11 times Not using ERT, my records are... Swarm - 10 times Taiga - 9 times Colossos (HP) - 8 times Vuoristorata (Linnanmäki) - 7 times I've ridden quite a lot of coasters 5 times in a day, but usually I don't visit parks on quiet enough days to get in loads of rides on a day and get all the creds.

Here's a full set of photos from Chessington Buzz: https://www.facebook.com/203612636346124/posts/pfbid0iZ6uEVxwAqgGoombkgnMKACpbqjs1WamAKpz1HLuwSbs5tymyhh8H3uJkoZjuGJPl/ The base of the ride is exactly the same as it was at Thorpe, for the record.

The Wet Wet Wet site has been transformed into a lifeguard like area for the Beach. I don't envision it being used for a ride any time soon.

Possibly, although the nomination was specifically for "The Crows of Mawkin Meadow", which was the name of the Scare Zone, whereas the roamers were just "The Crows". But equally, yeah, could be lumped together. The awards are decided by a panel of judges, who effectively help run and organised ScareTOUR and ScareCON. They're all obviously huge scare attraction enthusiasts, and they do a huge number of attractions. They're also the ones that choose the nominees. I don't think they've ever detailed exactly how they rank and judge the awards (at the end of the day, they don't need to - they're the ones organising it all!). But I believe they say they take into account the wider audience reaction too as much as possible, but primarily go off their own experiences. I think there's two things to take into account here: 1. A large number (perhaps even all) of the judging panel get to visit these events on press nights / with free tickets. The attractions will do their absolute utmost to show themselves in the best possible light. That's not just for Thorpe, that's for absolutely everyone. So when it comes to the larger events, I do think it's hard to judge, just by the very nature of how these events are. 2. Bluntly put, Thorpe hosted the event this year. Ultimately they'll be making a profit from it one way or another, but it's a heck of a lot of effort to organise it their end. I think that whoever and wherever has hosted ScareCON over the past several years has always ended up with an award or two. That second point isn't to take anything away from the award, or to discredit ScareCON and the awards (and even if it was, it's their award ceremony, so they can do what they like). But I do wonder if there should be a bit of salt pinched in these cases. One thing which stands out to me from going to ScareCON for a few years now is that this is an industry-wide problem. Staffing is a huge issue, and the number of actors in mazes always goes down as the events go on. This is where smaller events actually have an advantage, because they run for a significantly shorter period, so lose less staff, so get greater consistency. But places like Thorpe, Towers, Tulleys, Fear at Avon Valley all get hit very hard and struggle. Obviously that can still be mitigated and managed, and some places do that better than others. But it does lead to the wild inconsistencies that we see, which is highlighted further by the fact that scare attractions are so difficult to make consistent in the first place. Year-on-year consistency is the big thing for Thorpe. People speak about the quality of the event in 2011 and 2013 for example. And although the event had problems then, 2016 and 2017 were also good incarnations, and there was a clear upward trend in quality. But that then dropped off in 2018. 2019 introduced the much-loved Creek Freak, but in 2021 it was really struggling. Thorpe have shown they can create good mazes when they want (Big Top, Creek Freak and Trailers all being the best most recent examples), but they've struggled to keep them there / at the high quality. If the park can bring back Creek Freak to its 2019 form, keep Trailers at the level it was at early last year and introduce another big hit maze, plus have on park entertainment, then they'll have a cracking FN this year.

It will not be returning. It will not open anywhere else. It will either all go to the scrapheap, or they might save a bit of it and store it behind the scenes in case they ever want to display it in any form.

Thorpe won three of those awards at this evening's event... Best Theme Park Event Best Set & Design (for Trailers) Best Scare Zone & Roamers (for The Crows of Mawkin Meadow)

I've noticed that the Nemesis Inferno area has been playing the original music recently. A weird decision in many ways, but at the same time, I forgot how much I like it after hearing it again.

So I experienced Wicker Man's pre show for the first time since 2019. And gosh, I really do not like it. Okay, the actual premise is okay. Let's tell a short story about how this mysterious random group are sacrificing guests to a mysterious being and you'll be fed to the flames. And the presentation is nice (the reveal of the Wicker Man head gets a few oohs and ahhs). I think it's a bit unnecessary and could have been done in other ways, but that's not really the point I want to make. Operationally, the pre show is dire. 1. Let's crowd as many people into a small dark space as possible. Get them to squeeze into all the nooks and crannys. 2. Let's stop guests right below the screen so those at the front can't see anything. 3. Let's also stick a fence near the front that people can't see because it's too dark so they walk into it. 4. Let's have a small queue after the pre show that can fit less people than the pre show room. 5. Let's have an automatic door that tries to shut on people queueing after the pre show. 6. Let's play the pre show even when the door hasn't shut and people are still queueing to get batched. It's all just a bloody nightmare. Maybe I'm just being a bit nitpicky, but I really just do not like it.

Had a visit to Towers Tuesday and Wednesday. Some scattered thoughts: -Like Mark says, the Retrosquad's inclusion are effectively serving as replacements for Hex and Enterprise right now, defeating their original purpose. -The Tuesday was a bit busier than I expected, I guess from people who avoided the Bank Holiday Monday. Wednesday was very quiet. -Operationally, coasters were running well. I question the need on a day like Wednesday to run 3 trains on Thirteen, for example, when the team was effectively sending one empty all day. Surely that just ultimately leads to unnecessary wear and tear and more work for the engineering team in the long run? -I will expand on this in the Wicker Man topic, but I truly hate the Wicker Man pre show. -The park were running their 'Festival of Thrills' event still. They have live music / acts around the park, themed in some sense to the corresponding areas. It was fine, but even on the livelier Tuesday, didn't seem to garner much attention. Have to wonder if the money spent on this entertainment could be spent elsewhere more effectively. -All coasters had staff batching you into rows. This is obviously good when things are busy, but on the Wednesday especially, it felt unnecessary. When there's literally no queue, having a member of staff tell you what row to go in, and then batch others into the same row just feels a bit OTT. Maybe this is also a bit of me having gotten used to 'Covid rules' of not being sat next to strangers, but heyho. I also stayed onsite at the Splash Landings Hotel. First time staying there, was nice. However, the resort offerings are pretty...minimal. The park closed at 4pm on Tuesday. So does the water park. The mini golf shut at 5pm. So what's there to do at this resort? Eat dinner, or listen to a singer or two in the hotel bars. Just feels like they could do things so much better. Surely the indoor water park can stay open later, and attract more visitors? Surely they should be something to do at a big resort theme park after 5pm that isn't akin to something you could see at a local bar / fancier pub? All in, I had a nice couple of days with a decent ride count. But it still feels like there's a lot of steps that Towers need to do to get back to the top of their game

https://www.merlinentertainments.biz/newsroom/news-releases/2022/merlin-entertainments-nick-varney-chief-executive-officer-to-retire/ CEO of Merlin, Nick Varney, and CDO Mark Fisher, have announced that they intend to retire over the next 12 months. Nick has been CEO of Merlin since it was formed in 1999, and Mark Fisher might not be a name everyone is familiar with, but he's played a significant role in Merlin as well. Both leaving the company at a similar time could lead to some pretty big changes.

For anyone who hasn't seen TPM's latest post: https://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/27-04-2022/Project+Exodus+April+2022+Round+Up In short, there's been some objection to the placement of some of the footers of the coaster. I don't like to speculate too much on things I don't fully understand, but it seems a bit like an oversight from a planning perspective, but something that can be sorted out. Hopefully it doesn't take long to sort out though.

A recent document added to the planning application shows the plan for service vehicles: The current service road runs up to Burger King, and vehicles currently have to go onto park, past Burger Kind and the toilets to access the site. The access route follows the service road up to the usual gated entrance, and then goes behind Burger King and up to the site this way. The area behind Burger King is where the coaster's maintenance building is proposed to go. All of the pathway adjacent to Monk's Walk from Platform 15 up to the Roots of Evil exit has been bulldozed, but it seems like only a part of that area will be used for access. Then again, the park could also plan to use the area that was Roots of Evil for some sort of access and storage too.

We have a thread for this already: I'll merge these at some point

Sounds like they're being told to not say "headsets in the bag are broken" (or at the very least, to avoid words like broken), and then muddling up how they're communicating with it. The attitude ain't great though. Wonder if that's them being told to stick within a character and them not judging when to tone it down correctly, or just poor staff

If the wanted to a more conventional dark ride, they would pretty much have to rip out Ghost Train and start again. In terms of tracks, Ghost Train literally just has a pair of parallel train tracks, so a conversion/refurb wouldn't really do much.

Clowns 2 - Electric Boogaloo?

A weekday visit in mid-May should be quiet enough to get all the rides done. I'd try to go on a Thursday over a Friday just because it should be a bit quieter. As said above, many people head to Swarm first, but it quietens out later. A good chunk of people also go to Saw/Colossus first. This means Nemesis Inferno and Stealth are usually pretty quiet for the first hour or so. However, Colossus usually gets the longest queues on park out of the major coasters throughout the day (due to low throughput). So if you can get to the park early enough and head to Colossus first, that would be a good way to start the day and minimising your waiting. As also said above, it's best to get there early. I'd recommend getting there for 9.15-9.30. The park opens up to the Dome and balcony then (so you can pick up a drink or whatever if needed then). Then when the park opens at around 10, you can be one of the first to get through the "rope drop" if you will.

tbf Thorpe never had that gimmick (it was rumoured for Saw Alive but never actually happened - instead it was just a rumble effect). Tulleys did have a maze in 2015 with the gimmick though - The Volt. It wasn't that well received; largely unthemed corridors in the dark, with shock panels on the wall which were easy to realise after a while. But I'm sure the gimmick of it was enjoyed by some, and it sounded pretty unnerving. I'm under the impression they are open to revisiting that concept. So maybe The Volt 2 isn't out of the question. Shame to see Clowns go though. I liked that. I just hope that whatever they replace it with, it's not a maze which goes on 10 minutes too long, and that it doesn't follow Tulleys' rinse and repeat idea of "actor speaking made up language, nothing, same actor shouting/screaming, nothing"

Honestly, no clue who they're targeting any more these days. They're a park which are still going for "thrills", but the people and age range seems to be broad and unclear. Apparently the addition of the Playground is something that's come from above. The idea is that Merlin want some form of play equipment at every park, regardless of target audience, etc

I'd be interested how reactive they actually have been to complaints. The TikTok board went as quickly as it came, which could be because of complaints. It could also be because they were using it briefly, and it was only ever intended to be temporary. The Swarm audio going to back to normal is weird. It was using the newer audio at the start of the season, then one day it just seemed to change. It would be a very random time to change it because of feedback, given they introduced it last summer, and there wasn't a particular wave of dissatisfaction over it at the start of season. So it just feels weird. Personally, I like that it's back so not complaining, but I'm curious exactly what the thought process was. The Thrillmakers send shivers down my back with cringe. But they seem to resonate well. But once again, we're at a stage where Thorpe are shifting brand and target. The Thrillmakers have a big presence in Amity now, and it's something geared towards children and younger teenagers. They take over the bridge at the start and end of the day, playing loud pop music over the bridge's calm music. It's all very cheesey and corny. The branding has this big push on being simple and using emojis a lot (just look at any new signage around the park introduced this year). That diverges away from the crisp, smart branding they introduced just two years prior. Which is also away from the Island Like no Other brand. It's another mish mash. As I say though, the Thrillmakers stuff has been received well. And the new branding has too. So that's something. I will say that I think the Easter period was a bit quieter than expected, especially after a busier-than-usual season start. So hopefully the well-received nature of what the park are doing translates to good attendance figures. The Events are the big thing for 2022 (like they have been for the last few seasons). They will be the big factor in how successful the park is. The quality of their events in the last few years has been mixed, so hopefully the quartet they have this year works, and the park has learnt what works and what does not.