JoshC.

Since the turn of the century, we've seen Thorpe accelerate from a quaint family theme park into a park which offers one of the largest array of 'thrill rides' in Europe. During this period, there has been quiet on obvious shift in target market - from families looking for a nice day out to young adults (which arguably is the 16-34 region in this case) looking to do something for a day. Many question the viability of this strategy, mainly from an economic perspective. However, are Thorpe right to focus on the young adults solely and try and turn away families, or should they open their arms a bit wider and accomodate for families as well? I think the first point to raise here is that, no matter what anyone's personal opinion on Thorpe's focus on young adults, the strategy has worked. Despite a poor season in 2012, for reason which may or may nor relate to this, Thorpe have had years of booming success, and have been able to invest heavily in their maor attractions. So clearly they have had some success with this strategy. However, just because there has been success, it doesn't mean it cannot be improved, not does it mean that it is foolproof. Thorpe Park seem to be focusing on becoming a thrill park / an 'experience' park. The majority of their additions since 2000 make that obvious. This is something which should most definitely be encouraged and should continue; there is not really any park in the UK (can't think of any in Europe either off the top of my head) which has a primary focus on thrill rides. This does not mean that the park shouldn't add non-thrilling rides as well, but that's a different topic really. With this is mind, it must now be asked - who likes thrill rides? Now, for some reason, it is straight away seen to be the young adults. Probably because we're young in life, up for trying things and so forth, and it does seem to be a general case that many of those who like thrill rides fit into that particular age bracket. However, it's not an exclusive thing. When most kids are 10, they hit the 1.4m barrier, and when they're 12, they're 'old enough' for Thorpe's mazes. These kids will want to try the thrill rides, and whilst thrill ride after thrill ride may be a bit much, the more 'up for it' / slightly older kids will see Thorpe as somewhere right down their street. So, maybe focusing on those over 16 is a bit high, though with the quickness that kids grow up these days, what is targetted at a 16 year old may well interest those who are 12-13. Then there's also adults. When you 'get on in life', it doesn't mean you dislike these thrill rides. In the 'mid-life crisis' years, you're up for trying new things, showing to everyone you're not as old as your age says you are and so forth, and going on thrill rides is a great way of showing this. So again, there will be interest from those above the age of 34, though maybe the young adult target market / marketing strategies will deter people a bit. So, with this knowledge, should Thorpe Park welcome families? Well, yes and no; it depends on what you define as a family. If by family, you mean everyone - from the toddler up to the grandparents, then no, Thorpe should try their best to deter that sort of family from visiting. Whilst there will be a select few rides the young children and the older generations can ride, there won't be enough for them to have a worthwhile, enjoyable day. Now then, there's nothing wrong with that, as it's just Thorpe's direction. Just like Chessington should discourage people who just want thrill after thrill from visiting. There's nothing particularly wrong in that. (Just to point out, I'm not say that all the kids' rides should therefore be removed, as no matter what. children will still visit, and there should be something for them to do. However, Thorpe just aren't focusing on them, so, when possible, such people shouldn't visit. There are also cases when the elderly still like thrill rides; nothing wrong in that as well.). However, a family full of people from the age of 8-55 is a completely different story. There will be enough for them to do to enjoy their day, as they will like thrill rides. If Thorpe introduce a family-friendly major coaster and a couple more 1.2m rides, it would be perfect for this age range family (as it stands, those in that age range who are under 1.4m / not wanting to do many thrill rides may find their day drag on after a while..). This opens up a wider range of possibilities for the park, and creates more chances for more profit, which is what a business wants at the end of the day. Imagine this. A park which has a range of thrill rides, some of which are highly rated amongst coasters and rides in Europe, and maybe even the world, which welcomes families which are up for a good day out. You can still target the young adults wanting a day out with friends, and can still work in club nights and after-hours events for them to enjoy and draw them in. But then you can also target families who want to enjoy themselves; the things like the stunt shows Thorpe hold are examples of events which such families would enjoy too. I can just see it working so well for the park. So, all in all, I think Thorpe should begin to welcome families. Use either 2013 or 2014 (or both?!) as a test - see how families respond to it. If X:NWO gets a reduced height restriction, it can be used as a way of testing the water and drawing such families in who might have been jubious in the past. Introduce a major 1.2m coaster (a woodie or air time filled machine) and market it as just an all out fun ride. Expand the target audience to be much wider, and boom, more guests and more profit for Thorpe, and the chances for better experiences for all. Win-win surely?

Normally I'd agree here. However, the fact that the park say a lot of thought is put into decisions, but the rides team are working on how to actually make the queueing system work (when the idea was first seriously thought of likely a few months ago at least) makes me a bit concerned, especially when that's been my biggest concern. The fact that it's the rides team working out how to do it makes me doubt we'll see any major modifications to the queue itself (as in, the addition / removal of pemanent fencing). Personally, I would have thought that would have been the best option for this, but oh well. I'm more than happy to proven wrong though, and hope that I am of course. I just wouldn't have thought that how the queueing of this will work would have been the last thing to be sorted out.

This would also decrease throughput as well, wouldn't it? I think X could get a maximum of 4 or 5 trains on at any one time, and be getting a (theoretical) throughput of around 1000. Ignoring the break runs would probably cut the number of trains, and even by making the actual cirtcuit shorter, surely reduce the throughput. Not something I'd want them to do tbh. Plus, the random stopping and starting of X is great and adds to the experience. If they splash enough money into this, I'm sure they could add something to make it a bit more exciting too.

Are you just scrolling over the 'Rides' bit on the top bar? As they haven't changed it there yet; they have here - http://www.thorpepark.com/rides/full-ride-listing.aspx All in all, yeah it probably was never an 'Extreme Thrill' in recent years, though no doubt for it's first 7 or so years it was still pretty big. I guess the park want all their 1.4m attractions to be classed as extreme though? EDIT: Also noticed that the mini description has changed from 'The ride that takes no prisoners' to 'The ultimate ride challenge for thrill seekers in the making'. Certainly points towards a lower height restriction and a form of 'step up' ride!

I totally agree with you there pluk. To me, my biggest fear about the whole turning backwards of two rows has always been how the queue system will work. Personally, the easiest (if that's the best word to use?) way I can see it happening is if they scrap the front row queue and replace it with a backwards one. But then you inherit its problems, such as the ticket system which didn't work, not being able to judge how long the queue is inside, causing congestion, and so forth. I also think the backwards rows could well be more popular than the front row was, so that little queue they've got just before the baggage point may not be large enough even. So really, the station queue 'section' needs modification - and to do that right, you need time to plan it, and time to theme it properly as well. The way to do that is to make the queue section up to the batcher wider, and then have it split into two - one half for the backward rows, the others for the normal ones. And that's not something which can be done just quickly, and not necessarily something which is efficient to do if this change ends up not being permanent. Reagrdless of what I think of select rows being turned backwards, I fear that the queue system in general could end up becoming a real nightmare. I just hope my fears go unfounded.

To be honest, I don't particularly think that X had a 'theme' per se the past couple of seasons. more a style. We certainly didn't have the computer virus thing going on, nor did it feel like we were in any way 'trapped'. But there wasn't really much to suggest it had a rave theme to it either. Really, it was just a ride if complete randomness, but was taken seriously. With a retheme, it needs to be turned into a ride where it's clear it's meant to be random, not serious and a laugh, and no doubt it would be better received. As a side note, X has been moved to the 'Thrilling and Fun' section of the full ride listing section of the website. Getting ready for a change of page sometime soon?

With regards to Zufari, I think I remember some people expressing concerns at there only being 3 different animals mentioned on the plans. I noticed in the press release about the giraffes arriving that it says this: So, there will also be antelope and zebras featuring in Zufari, as well as "more". Woo! And then of course, there's also the usual marketing hype: "The only theme park attraction of its kind" you say? Hmmmm...

Can we organise a TPM meet where we all have flamethrowers to test this theory please? I'm sure many members here have a 'burning' desire to try this, all in the name of science...

Yeah, I was quite fortunate there! I did get a cold over Freshers' Fortnight, but nothing serious really. And thanks!

I didn't drink before I went to uni, and I was fine with making friends (and I'm rather shy, so even better!). I have tried alcohol whilst at uni, and to be honest, everything I've tried has tasted horrible... I get why people like drinking, but getting smashed every other night / at weekends makes no sense to me at all. On a different, I've got a stomach bug, and have been feeling rotten all weekend. First time I've been ill since moving to uni, and I can't remember the last time I felt so sick. Grr, do not like

As promised, I've got round to scanning up the handed in sketch and equations. Here's the final sketch. As you can see, this differs slightly to the above, with the section after the turnaround being totally inclined, as opposed to flat and then inclined. And here's the equations! Apologises for the quality of the scan (and my poor handwriting! :S), but this was the best scan I could do, and it would be a lot of effort to type them up. (To anyone who had done / will do A-Level Maths, you may recognise these as parametric equations. ) So then, a quick explanation of the equations. As the coaster had to be sketched on a 3D graph, the equations had to show which 'coordinate' the coaster was at any given time. The way I've sorted out the equations meant that the the sketch revolved around get the circuit to be complete; so the timings / pacing of the coaster is likely to be unrealisitic. For example, the lift hill takes 9 seconds to complete, and we find that the vertical loop takes 6 seconds...just a little bit off more than likely! Each coordinate had to be given to terms of t, time, hence why each coordinate has a t in it. The coordinates are only valid between the times shown to the right of the equation - so, for example, to the left of the first equation, it reads as 't is between 0 and 9', so the lift hill starts at 0 seconds, and ends at 9 seconds. So, for any number between 0 and 9, you use the first equation. For the vertical loop (equation 5), that takes place between 5*pi and 7*pi, so to find the coordinates of some point along the loop, choose a number between those two numbers (say 16) and put it into equation 5. As you can see, some of the equations look pretty ugly. It's to be expected really, as each equation depends on the one that came before it (if one section of the roller coaster finished at the coordinates (2,3,4), the next section would need to be of the form (2+something,3+something,4+something), where the somethings are the shape of that particular section). So it gets messy quickly, and then you need to tidy it up, otherwise you've got no chance of joining it back up again (a bit like in RCT, when you've used so many different elements that you just cannot finish the track). So I ended up having to force some equations, and some shapes of the track, to sort it out, otherwise it's just going to end up like using autocomplete on RCT, and getting nowhere. Also, a thanks to Sidders for point out to me that the interlocking vertical loop and helix which features here is featured on real life coasters, such as on the B&M Inverted coaster Pyrenees - http://rcdb.com/1227.htm. And that's about it really. As I mentioned before, I have an essay to do next year about a section of Maths I'm interested in, and there is a possibility that I could extend on this. Fingers crossed ey? Again, any questions or comments are welcome!

Wow, those Experiment 10 videos...they're pretty bad. No wonder I thought the ending was ridiculously poor last year. I genuinely cannot believe that Thorpe changed the 2011 ending for THAT?

Technically, no one knows what is happening with X, but it is the worst kept secret in the theme park industry this decade it seems

Filming for the new TV ad is going on. Woo.

Don't worry, the gimmick will wear off soon enough and we'll be going forwards again in no tomorrow!

It is definitely a 'brand new' piece of theming! I don't quite get why people have said that that is redundant though? 5/7 of the train will still see it, and it will no doubt help add to the overall atmosphere and visual impact of the ride. How can that be redundant?

There's got to be plenty of other options you can think of, surely?

They class the inclined loop as an inversion for marketing purposes pretty much, even though it doesn't really invert you. So you've then got the inverted drop, zero-G roll, inclined loop, corkscrew and inline twist. Edit: Beaten to it!

Backwards? Looks like they're lying down! XD

That's a good point actually. Back row won't be able to have on ride videos now due to this as it is. If what you've heard Ryan is true, and the billboard near miss is between the zero-G and incline loop, isn't that also where the photo point is? I guess there's chance for a bit of modification / addition there to sort that out? So today has seen big announcements from Thorpe and Alton - will Chessie follow suit?

The person who Thorpe are responding to in that quote originally said this: Swarm backwards and X:\NWO forwards?

Mangled billboard as a near miss? Think that could well be on the inline twist region; only place I can see it working? Well, at least that's been confirmed. As I've said in the past, I will no doubt ride it backwards and will save further judgement until after that. However, I do have fears about this whole thing; I just hope that they do not come to fruition.

A Press Release from the park: http://press.altontowers.com/news-alton-towers-resort-baffles-the-nation-in-a-baaarmy-hoax-11714 - Source Particularly, note this: "The Smiler will be our biggest and most thrilling attraction the Resort has ever seen and we can’t wait for guests to join us in May and experience it for themselves.” Opening date seems to be in May then!