JoshC.

Any chance of you being that annoying friend who asks for a photo of the reverse of the leaflet too?

https://www.thorpepark-consultation.com/ 👀

Which attraction?

Blackpool's situation was arguably very different. Prior to 1994, they had a collection of old woodies and a couple of mid-range thrill coasters. Perhaps their most thrilling ride at the time was Revolution. The introduction of Big One was a marked step up. It was meant to be something which dwarfed the rest of the park, but not overshadow them. (Realise now my wording in previous post could have been better). Big One was the 'extreme, large scale, big boy' ride. The other rides were thrilling and fun, but could easily be said to be a level below Big One. At Thorpe, you have Colossus, Inferno, Stealth, Saw and Swarm. A quintet of big, extreme rides. You can certainly argue amongst those there's some which are 'bigger'/'more intense'/'more extreme' than the others, but they all have that 'large scale, big boy' ride aura. So creating a ride that is physically bigger than all of them could create a suggestion that it's a "step up" from all of them, especially in a park as small as Thorpe where it's easy to compare everything. It doesn't rule out a hyper. And I'm sure there's plenty of parks, including Blackpool, who have come to this hurdle and tackled it one way or another. But it's certainly something that needs to be carefully considered if one was to come, both from a design and marketing perspective.

When Stealth opened, it was marketed as Europe's highest and fastest launch coaster. That's a "Merlin" claim, and stronger than many of their recent ones. They could also have gone down "Europe's most intense launch" or "One of the world's most intense launches" routes to add to it. They could have made it work. The last MTDP stated any coasters built under those restrictions would not exceed 850m. The thing is, since it is (well) out of date, it means nothing. If the park wasn't to build longer, they can. The only reason for giving a number is because the park had loose enough plans that they didn't expect to build a coaster longer than 850m, so why would they say they would. There's no restriction on the park saying they can't exceed a set length with a coaster. As for height, it's true they had to be more careful and rigorous with Stealth. And they had carefully placed high points for Swarm and any potential ride on the island behind Stealth. But again, there is no specific restriction on how high they can build within reason. I think their max height because of Heathrow is around 500ft, but something even close to that size is unrealistic anyway. So a hyper isn't impossible. Of course, a hyper coaster raises many issues... the main one being how would you install one without dwarfing the rest of the park? Stealth works because of its location and minimal structure. Would, say, a 250ft lift hill plus many airtime hills greater than 100ft in height just put everything else to shame in perspective? Possibly.

Genuine question: How was Tomb Blaster previously blocked off during Winter? Was it just a bin in front of the entrance or something similar? Whilst it's different, this is not evidence that Forbidden Tomb / Terror Tomb / 5th Dimension is returning. And my earlier point still stands, if one of those names is re-introduced, I see no reason to expect any resulting ride experience changes to be any good.

The reason I mentioned Chessington is because that's where the discussion has been focused, due to Seastorm's early closure and rumours around Rocky being harvested for it. The rides are similar enough that one would imagine that there could be similar ride parts between them. Of course, Merlin's Challenge could also be suitable. Ultimately though, even if Rocky has indeed gone and is being scrapped, it's also fair to wonder if it's even worth harvesting its parts for another ride. It's impossible to answer your question on if you should believe it without you giving the source. If the source is, say, the Head of Engineering from Chessington, then it's something you probably should believe. If the source is CheekyChessingtonChannel on Youtube with 5 subscribers and 2 grainy POV videos of Dragon's Fury and Vampire, maybe not. Based on the context, I'm going to assume the source is Chessington Buzz (given their recent speculation post about Pirates Cove). That's certainly a more reliable source than many others around. But it doesn't necessarily mean they're right. It's up to you if you believe them. An interesting claim that Rocky Express has been sold. It's hardly an expensive type of ride, and it's old and has seen better days. Not to say Rocky needs to be scrapped, as it's still a perfectly fine operational ride. But you'd have to wonder what sort of place would really want to buy it.

Amity Beach (3) Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Black Mirror Labyrinth (5) Colossus (4) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Quantum (6) Rocky Express (6) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (5) Vortex (5) Zodiac (5) Rocky + Colossus - Rocky Express to win.

Fixed this for you

Wicker Man received some work last closed season. I believe some retracking which shouldn't necessarily have had to happen so soon. That would explain why some people noticed it running better this year compared to last. It's also why the ride has been more reliable this year.

^You could even tack on Samurai into your highlighted area, given it is pretty much on its last legs. But I totally agree. The investment of Swarm Island did, in fairness, have vague idea of adding more to the park. We got the introduction of a new toilet block (necessary infrastructure for expanding the park), plus a short-lived food stall (in the much loved Roast n Relish). So it did something, but it didn't quite do enough. And, really, calling it an area is a bit of a stretch. The park could do with completely changing the entire Old Town area. A new coaster, yes, naturally. But a replacement for Samurai (even if like-for-like), doing something more with Slammer's location, a shop associated to the ride possibly and new eateries (even if a new restaurant replacing the BBQ and a new one replacing whatever is in Old Town at the moment). The toilet block there is in need of a proper redo too (rather than just sticking some vinyl on the walls). And obviously, keep some space for Fright Nights too. Do something coherent with a huge space. It would be a perfect step for introducing a big new attraction and improving the overall feel of a good chunk of the park. There is real potential there. And, thinking optimistically: Chessington is getting a B&M coaster in a new IP land which is extending the park's area. That won't be cheap. Merlin are ready to put their money where their mouth is, so let's hope they do that, and that properly, with Thorpe too.

Merged thread with original Rocky thread (and blew off a lot of dust in the process) There has been nothing official to say Rocky Express is leaving. There has been a lot of speculation, and usually there's no smoke without fire. But it is not absolutely confirmed it is leaving. I reckon there's a high chance it will leave. I also think if it does leave, it won't be sold...it's a ride which is over 35 years old. If anyone did want it, they'd be much better off buying a brand new one. I guess we could see some of its parts harvested and sent to Chessington if they match, but that's about it.

Chessington is (meant to be) seeing a £60m worth of investment over a 5 year period. When exactly that started I'm not sure, but obviously Project Amazon represents a good chunk of that. I believe there's also talks of more accommodation coming, which could also be included in that. In any case, the investments such as Croc Drop, Rainforest, etc were all rather cheap. As for these other rumours... -I would not be surprised to see Pirates' Cove receive some attention this year. It's an area which is largely forgotten about by the park, and come 2023, will be adjacent to a brand new, very popular land. -I guess it's possible that the park could get some (cheap) new rides in the area...but presumably we'd have seen some sort of planning application now? Unless they're temporary things... -I see no rhyme or reason to remove Scorpion Express, and would be surprised if that happens any time soon. As for Rocky Express, I don't see why the park would get it. As it stands, it's still not in any way confirmed that it's leaving Thorpe of course. It seems very likely based on the rumours, but I've heard it's still not 100% confirmed... As for Tomb Blaster changing back to Forbidden Tomb / Terror Tomb or whatever. I don't see it happening. I'll gladly eat my hat if it does. BUT, let's say the park do go about doing stuff to it and change it to an older name. Will the ride be any good? Probably not. The "refurb" from whenever it was (2020?) was dire. The new audio and story is appalling. If they were to scrap the guns and bring it back as Forbidden Tomb, there is in my opinion no reason to believe that the park could do anything with it to actually make it in any way a decent ride experience. Again, very happy to be proven wrong, but with the state they "refurbed" it to, there is no reason to believe that any future work will lead to any worthwhile improvements.

They may have one in Maus au Chocolat, but I think that a new dark ride is what Phantasialand needs most now. Especially with the closure of Hollywood Tours, and the fact that the China dark rides aren't exactly great...

In terms of time scales for the big things: Ghost Train: October 2014 Swarm: February 2011 Saw: November 2007 Stealth: November 2004 Nemesis Inferno: April 2001 Colossus: June 2000 So the last 3 coasters (and last 4 major investments) have had plans submitted at most 18 months before the planned opening date. Inferno and Colossus are stranger ones for a variety of reasons (will explain at the end for anyone interested). The thing with Stealth, Saw and Swarm though is they were all approved after being mentioned in the park's MTDP at the time. In other words, there was already a level of "pre-approval" to those rides existed, which makes the application process a bit smoother and easier. Ghost Train technically wasn't mentioned in any MTDP, but they conditions of its construction did not break the MTDP. So even though the park had to submit a full planning application, it wasn't exactly taxing. With any potential new coaster, there's no current MTDP and no level of pre-approval. So that creates an unknown for the application - moreso with locals (since the park will still be having some discussions with the council authorities prior to submitting plans). This could mean the approval process takes a bit longer, or is a bit more complex. Though, I won't lie, I wouldn't know all the ins and outs there. So in theory, 2023 could still be on the cards. But at the same time, I'd be surprised if Thorpe and Chessington opened big things at the same time. And 2024 seems to be a rumour floating around more. Equally, depending on the size of the project (and the scale of any deconstruction and groundworks that need to take place), it could take a while. In any case, if a 2024 coaster does happen, I'd expect to see an application appear sometime around next summer or later. Side note about Inferno and Colossus. -One original plan for Colossus was to be a Premier Launch Coaster, which would have opened in 2001. The park submitted plans for that in December 1999, which were approved. However, they changed their minds, and eventually ended up with Colossus, and the plans were submitted in June 2000, by which point a 2001 opening wouldn't have been feasible in any way. -Of course, there was the Thorpe Park Fire in 2000, which affected old rides in Inferno's location. One early plan was to get in a Vekoma SLC on the cheap, and quickly build it, so it could open in summer 2001. Another option was for a Rock n Roller Coaster clone. A plan was submitted in September 2000 for this summer 2001 coaster, but quickly withdrawn. I assume the park opted to go for quality over a quick fix in this case, and low and behold, Inferno was born. Good choice in my eyes too.

I'd be curious if this is a general feeling you have, or a feeling which is highlighted when you're specifically at Thorpe? I know sometimes I feel old whenever I visit Thorpe, sometimes too old. Another thing that makes me feel old is that I joined theme park forums when I was 15. If a 15 year old was to join the forums today, there's a good chance they would have been born after Stealth opened. I remember watching it being built, as well as The Flying Fish and Model World prior pretty vividly. Jeez. I know you say when you visit a park these days, there's a couple of moments where you feel like the odd one out. But that feeling was expanded at Fright Nights (during half term too I think?). It certainly makes sense that the feeling would be highlighted more in that case. It could also be one of those psychology things. Are you feeling like the odd one out because you think you are, and so are looking for evidence to support that? And so, in turn, you notice all the younger groups, and don't see many people who look a similar age to yourself / are older? For anyone reading who doesn't quite get what I mean: you don't see many yellow cars on the road these days, do you? But now that thought is in your head, you will be more acutely aware of yellow cars and notice them a lot more, and realise that - whilst they're not common - there's certainly a fair few about! Maybe during your Towers visit have in the back of your mind to exclusively look for groups of adults in their later 20s/early 30s...maybe you'll be surprised with how many you see? To stop with the psycho-analysing and answer the more direct question: no, you can't be too old for theme parks. I think there's certain social norms which can be at play (for example, going to a children's park alone can seem suspect in some people's minds...but that's completely different). Theme parks (and moreso rides) are a unique blend of escapism, thrill, story telling and holiday all in one, along with other options - such as the idea of 'collecting' ridden coasters/visiting/number of rides - if you so choose. Few hobbies offer such a blend, along with additional versatility and flexibility. I don't think you can be too old for any of the things theme parks offer. It's just whether you feel like the combination it offers is what you want, or if you want a narrower focus. One thing I've noticed over the years of being on forums is some people who were (and still are!) really interested in theme parks have similar other hobbies too. A couple of examples... -Live theatre and similar (escapism and story telling) -Skydiving / mountain biking / more "extreme" sports (thrill) -Travelling (self explanatory) Maybe that's another reason why there's seemingly less people who visit parks? As people get older, they get easier access to / realise other hobbies which share similar traits to visiting theme parks, and focus their attention there a bit more? That diversification then means they spend less time at parks, and then the concentration/percentage of younger people visiting parks decreases. Another thing which I note as well, is that specific park enthusiasm is much more concentrated with younger people. Unsurprisingly, there's very few 15 year olds which are interested in theme parks more broadly: their focus is on one or two parks, and usually their local park. But after say 15 years of continual visits, that local park won't have the same appeal or interest, and are likely more interested to parks more broadly. Again meaning they spend less time visiting their local park, and instead visiting a broader range of parks (again meaning that the average age of certain park visitors feels very young, and the late 20 / early 30 somethings all feel very old whenever they visit). I feel like I've waffled an awful lot and not said much. But in short: -You're not too old for theme parks (and if you are, I only have a maximum of 3 years left before I am...) -Thorpe Park is probably the park in the UK which would highlight this feeling the most -I think people's interests in theme parks spreads in one way or another as they get older, which can mean there's a skewed view as to how old park visitors are

Timber might be coming to Thorpe.

Ah I love it when people post one liner rumours. I might join in.

There's been many rumours today especially about it being Rocky Express' last day today, with people being told by some staff to get their last ride on it today. Obviously you should always take these things with a pinch of salt, but it's an interesting development of things if true, given the Loggers/Platform things. And usually no smoke without fire. Interestingly there's been no conversation about Timber Tug or Lumber Jump, but then again, they're not classic Thorpe rides. Of course, Rocky is old and has arguably been on its last legs for a while now. So maybe it's just retiring out of necessity. A watch this space thing for sure.

I'm not sure what happened, but this isn't necessarily the right place to ask. If you think that security were using their powers incorrectly, the best port of call in the first instance would be to contact the park, providing as much detail and evidence as possible so that an investigation can occur. However, also keep in mind that every story has at least two sides, and what you saw may not give the full picture (and it's hard to say any more given you have posted very limited details here). Security likely wouldn't give any details to anyone who was not directly part of any incident, if one did occur. In any case, we are simply a fan site with no connections to the security operation of the park. No one here will be able to give any further insight into what happened.

I think this is the thing with Trailers - it isn't an overly scary attraction. Obviously, it has scary elements and stuff - because it is a scare attraction - but it is not particularly scary. I think that's fine with the right tone and marketing to set expectations (and if there's enough variety in the rest of the line up). But it's certainly something which needs to be handled with care. I've had a "clear the queue as fast as possible" run in the past. The pre-shows feel incredibly rushed, in a bad way, as a result, and it leads to an awful amount of bunching in the maze. I think the pre shows for Trailers (and indeed, all the mazes) run a little too long for my liking, but then when the queues are long, they struggle to properly cut it down whilst still sensibly batching the groups. Creek Freak has been very mixed this year. Regardless of my opinion of it, it's a shame to see that after such a strong opening year. There should still be 3 chainsaws in the maze (one on the table that replaced the saw scene, one in strobe, one for runout), but the thing with chainsaws is you can be caught in a crossover unfortunately. But yeah, in any case, it's a concern that it's in this state. It's good to see this is still being well received, especially after I expressed concern about how it would run. It's a great use of the space too. I think they would serve better in a proper outdoor maze now (the too busy to be scary remark is something I agree with), but with rumours the park want to move away from them, maybe that will never happen. After seesawing in quality so much over the year, it's good to see Platform is being well received. I think this is the general consensus of it - good enough for what it is, but ready to go and not worthy of the upcharge era. This is a shame. I think the actors have done a great job with it. It's still not really a scare zone in my eyes, but just an extension to the Swarm story. It needs more props and theming and stuff for it to really become a scare zone. But it means that if you have the chance to interact with the actors, you tend to get really good interactions with them, because they don't have anything else to work with. I think one of the main problems the park have suffered with lately is low actor numbers. What the cause is is anyone's guess, but whilst the plan is for most actors to only work in one attraction, I've heard of plenty of actors from the scare zones being trained and moved into the mazes because of shortages. The knock on effects that has is obvious. I still stick with my earlier opinion, in theory: I have nothing against the park upcharging for the mazes for the right price and for the right experience. £10 a maze is WAY too much for the experiences on offer. Something closer to the £5 mark is much more reasonable. But in turn, they should be limiting group numbers, have a stricter limit on time slots and better operations to accompany it. There should also be a free maze still. An outdoor one which is obviously weaker than the upcharge ones, but gives a taster for the experiences. Something like Blair Witch (or even a modified Platform 15) would work well imo. The argument for upcharging is clear. I believe the standard group size at the moment is meant to be around 10 people, and batching times should be once every 90 seconds. That's 400pph. Say everyone is paying £9 a maze (on average, to balance out the discount trio tickets), that's £3600 an hour per maze...almost £65,000 a night across the three mazes. Even taking away staff wages and running costs, that still leaves a huge profit. Then if you reinvest even a fraction of that profit back into Fright Nights, you can have budgets to build mazes that look more like Creek Freak and Trailers than, say, Dead Creek Woods. Even then, the park are earning more given that group sizes are currently exceed 10 people too...wouldn't surprise me if they can make up to £100k from mazes in a night... Even then, drop the charge to £5 a maze and they're still making a healthy profit, and having a good chunk they can reinvest into future years. It's a no brainer on paper. But they need to make sure the ticket sales don't go over the numbers, and that the operations put their money where their mouth is.

It is, but I'm sure that if they really wanted to get rid of it, they'd find a way. And if, theoretically, it was cheaper to pay a fine and deal with the trouble of ripping it down than it was to fix it, it's something they'd consider. In any case, the word from the horse's mouth is that there's "zero" chance it will be ripped down, so that's that I guess:

You certainly could fit a (small) Raptor into the X pyramid...in theory. In reality, ripping out the track, and then building a new coaster inside the building would be wildly impractical. So I wouldn't expect to see something like that. Of course, they could just rip out the whole pyramid, and along with the Slammer site, that opens up a big plot for a new coaster. But then ripping out the pyramid has a whole host of knock on effects, and would itself be expensive.