JoshC.

You're not the first one to suggest / want it, and you certainly won't be the last! It's a great idea and has lots of potential for a scare attraction. I think it would work better in a more of a 'scare zone' scenario, or at least in a route which isn't quite so linear. I imagine it wouldn't happen given Thorpe want to go back to original ideas apparently. But I'd never rule anything out just yet. I'd personally hate a totally crawling attraction. Not because it scares me or anything, I can't stay on my knees for very long, so it would be a pain.

Island Beats wasn't officially announced until April (too late in my opinion), so I wouldn't read into things too much just yet. They're probably still considering some options and ideas, and still in the process of updating the website fully. The Fright Nights tab is the same as it has been since September for example, which is why there is no mention of any summer events.

The most recent plans (from May last year) said that construction would start in Summer 2016, with the intention of a 2018 opening. Small round up of the plans here: http://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/16-05-2014/Resort-Submit-Hotel-Plans I haven't heard anything to suggest the hotel isn't going ahead, and I don't think they've encountered any more problems since then. So touch wood all should be fine from now.

https://www.thorpepark.com/rides/loggers-leap/ 404 error on the old ride page too.

To be fair, it could be a disused train warehouse or something. Funnily enough, the plans did say that the style of the building was designed to fit in with the rest of the park. Anyone see a vicious cycle developing / already developed?

^If anything, it looks slightly taller to me! Going to be some mighty fine air time there, that's for sure.

Benin wins this thread. Interested to know what you thought of Bobbejaan's immersive tunnel / how it compared to Movie Park's one..

Thorpe: 20 Efteling: 3 Chessington: 3 (Eurghhhh) Alton Towers, Legoland, Drayton Manor, Phantasialand, Plopsaland, Toverland, Walibi Belgium, Bellewaerde; Bobbejaanland: 1 Decent season for me. Next season will likely be quieter in terms of number of visits, but should see me on more new horizons at least.

Closed Season is upon us, and sooner or later, the forums will descend into chaos (read: the forums will become dead quiet as we have nothing to speak about). To stop that happening, here's the 2016 Thread, where we can discuss all non-WC16 2016 Thorpe things. Share ideas for what you'd like to see Thorpe do for next season, post the few-and-far-between updates on any other updates for 2016, and views on those new things. And to repeat, any WC16 stuff should remain in its own thread. What I'd like to see... -Rumba Rapids work. Almost as infamous as a Colossus repaint, but this is surely a cheaper project, and is just as needed. -Introduce themed areas again. If the pop badges are anything to go by, Thorpe seem to already have some sort of plans for themed areas. Introduce them again, even if it's just on the map or something, to pave the way for stronger identities to these areas in later years. -Rebrand the whole park. The park feels like how it did in 2009, with a mixture of brands that conflict one another. There's some 'Island Like No Other' branding around the park, but still lots of fat head branding about. They need to get rid of all the fat head stuff, and really go all-out on the Island branding, which seems to have worked for the park so far. -A strong Easter event. Thorpe have gotten Summer and Halloween events pretty spot on, but have always played about with Easter events, with varied degrees of success. A strong Easter event, which they could potentially bring back each season, would help do the park wonders, and help kick start their season. It's by no means a necessity, but it would really help the park. There's, of course, plenty of other things I'd like to see. Colossus repaint / general work is one, Entrance area re-done, Tidal Wave work, going full-out on themed areas, etc. But given the current situation at Merlin, along with the fact there's a big-shiny new attraction coming to the park next year, it feels just a tad unrealistic to see some of those bigger projects being done for next season.

I've always thought that the roads were designed to be theming, since the old areas ('Central Park' was one, the names of others escape me) leant themselves to having 'roads'. Could of course be wildly wrong and it might have been due to a more boring / practical reason, but that's the logical explanation I've always thought of.

Hmm, this is a difficult one for me. I like them both equally. I'm going to have to go down the middle and say Cogs. Low maintenance, live for a long period of time, don't get too attached to you, etc. Plus no nasty vet trips.

The remaining train track isn't in the way of anything and it's removal isn't going to do much beyond creating a bit more path or tree space in the area of the park that needs it least. It's a sad fact, but until they need to get rid of it, it'll just stay there. Just look at Miss Hippo's Fungle Safari - that closed at the end of 2008, but they only removed 6 years later when they needed the space for access to WC16.

Might attend; depends on my work situation.

As SCB says, there's been no confirmation or reports about the total cost of this project. I've no clue where RR has got this "reported" £20 million number. All the rumours I've heard have suggested £30-35 million for the entire project. But then I've also heard rumours that it's not that large, and is more like £22-24 million. I expect we'll be told a number in a future press release, since it looks great in advertising, but until then, we're in the dark about cost.

-Don't forget that your experience today is still only a minority of staff. -When you talk about the ride staff knowing the manufacturers of the rides they work on, who do you mean exactly? The dispatchers? The operators? The Team Leaders? The engineers? All of the above? Let's face it, it's not exactly something the dispatchers and operators need to know is it - it's not going to help them do their job, and anyone interested enough will probably find out that information online. They may well have heard it from somewhere, but it's not essential to their job in any way. The Team Leaders and engineers likely need to know it just in case, but again, not something which I think is essential, 'off-the-top-of-their heads' knowledge that they need to know.

As would any ride which incorporates theming and a story into its overall experience.

The park is open most days next year from March 17th, until the beginning of November, bar a few weekdays in September and October.

"Enthusiasts complain but still regularly visit and ride" is the missing phrase here.

At least Fright Nights hours haven't been cut. A shame to see the park having to close on certain days of the season, but like Marc says, it's not surprising given just how quiet those days would be. However, given they're currently planned to be quite late in the season, we can hope that if the first few months of the season are promising, they can actually end up opening on these days.

It was only a few years ago that Chessington was only open for Zoo Days on off peak weekdays I believe. Given the current situation, it's not surprising they're closing the park a few days here and there. The park is usually dead on these days, which is why they had staggered openings on certain areas, because at times, there would essentially be no one in them.

Enjoy some sexy track photos, courtesy of Made in USJ's Twitter...

I visited the park today for a couple of hours. Weather was a bit meh, and the park was unsurprisingly dead. No closures other than Tidal and Stealth. Operations were efficient, staff were friendly and tried to make at atmosphere on park (one problem when non-event days are dead is how...quiet the park feels). In some ways, it's almost surprising Thorpe stay open for this week given how quiet it is, but it's at least nice to see that they have.

One thing which always confuses me about the 'Merlin own the UK industry, so why would they bother with world quality stuff" argument is that Merlin own 2 theme parks in Europe, as well as several Legoland parks, and the quality isn't exactly much different. Arguably, the likes of Towers and even Thorpe see some of the better, more original, investments compared to Heide and Gardaland. And both of those parks have some pretty stiff competition nearby and so, theoretically, should be seeing some of the best investments across Merlin. It's just a Merlin thing; they don't have the funds, and possibly the ability, to invest in that level of attraction experience for the most part. Singling out the Merlin UK parks always just feels like a cheap shot. Then again, with the rumoured budget for this being huge (the highest I've heard is £35 million...), it's not unreasonable to suggest that we could see something special all in all.

No one is saying the closure of Stealth is not a bad thing and no one is saying that Thorpe can't do no wrong. However, there is an understanding on here that Thorpe haven't closed it to save money (why would they - there's other ways to save money!). So there's obviously a worthwhile reason for it to be closed. Given that Thorpe aren't having the greatest of seasons and they're driven by getting good KPIs, they probably want Stealth open a lot more than what any of us on here do. Personally, I'm annoyed that it's closed and I think it would have been better if it was better advertised that it would close early. However, its closure is likely unavoidable, so it's one of those times were we all just have to take the hit. I'll still be visiting.

I thought it had been confirmed Pirate Adventure was closed for good anyway and that Thomas Land was expanding into that building?