JoshC.

The prices at Towers are probably such to avoid hitting the local B&B market too hard.

It does feel expensive though considering the lack of overall quality. Though my visits the last two years were fine, wouldn't really wax lyrical about them either.

Just looking at possibly doing Efteling for a week in May and one of their 6 person renewed lodges is comparable to Splash Landings price wise. However I know the trip will be just... better.

CBeebies Hotel pricing is just awful though.

I was hoping that with the theme being a literal cinema, the park had a plan to change the 4D film regularly. It'd be a simple win to change the film shown yearly (albeit maybe a bit of a faff).

Who knows what the contracts are like for these things. I know Merlin in the past liked to go for 3 year rolling contracts with IPs. Whether that's still the case - and the case with a 4D show - I have no clue.

I agree that it would be nice to see something new in there for 2026 though.

I took a wander down Monks Walk on Monday and I didn't take any photos/videos, simply because there was nothing to take photos of.

I think in some ways we've been spoilt over recent years, with lots of works visible from Monks Walk (from Hyperia, to Fright Nights, etc) as well as many in-park updates. But it hasn't always been like that - rewind 10+ years ago and Monks Walk never really showed anything particularly interesting beyond the odd glimpse, despite many things happening. Okay, we still got the odd in-park update too, but right now the level of updates is going back closer to a reset of what was once the norm.
I do also think compared to many other seasonal parks, Thorpe gets a heck of a lot of eyes put on it out of closed season, with many updates shared and visible. Thorpe have, in some ways, been the exception to the rule in that case.

That's not to say the lack of any visible updates isn't disheartening though. Finishing off Colossus' repaint would be amazing. Inferno and Swarm would benefit from TLC. Rumba Rapids is dying. The fact there's been no visible work there is a shame, and indicates we're unlikely to see much there. The Beach area cannot really be seen from outside the park, so we're none-the-wiser about anything happening there.


The 'New for ___' is a double-edged sword. New stuff each year can be beneficial, but Thorpe in particular are seeing the dangers of adding in new hardware/rides yearly as now they have several 'old' rides which are going to require more work all close together. New events can be okay, but gimmicky and don't really draw people in.

If you look at some of the better-received parks, the likes of Phantasialand and Efteling, they don't add in many new things. Since 2015...
Phantasialand have added in 3 new coaster, rethemed a coaster and a 4D show and added in a couple of walkthroughs / play areas.
Efteling have added in 2 new coasters (I guess technically 3 as one is a duelling coaster), 2 new dark rides and rethemed a couple of things.
In that same time, Thorpe have added in 1 new coaster, 1 new dark ride, rethemed some things and done a couple of walkthroughs.
The level of investments isn't as big a difference in the overall park experience and quality. And that's the bigger issue - Thorpe haven't consistently been able to upkeep their attractions (or revitalise them) the same as other parks that invest at a similar frequency.

I think the other issue - which is Merlin-wide - is Thorpe does rely extremely heavily on returning visitors, as opposed to new visitors. Whether that's them, over a 10-20 year period, having exhausted the market and not been able to expand it or a purposeful strategy to not try and reach more people, or another reason entirely, is unclear. But it is certainly the bigger issue that the park face. They've had a huge new coaster for 1 and a half seasons - that's still a big deal, and not really something that should be viewed as stagnation.
But when the park aren't pushing it and rely too heavily on repeat visits, then it will feel like that.


You say that, but then they've recently announced Legoland Germany are getting a Lego Harry Potter Land, which will be Merlin's single biggest investment into any theme park. Legolands California and Florida are getting substantial new coasters next year. Chessington are getting Minecraft World soon, and Towers' big new coaster seems to still be going ahead. Gardaland invested 12 million Euros into retheming their indoor boat ride this (where that 12m went I don't fully know, but that's what they did).

They're financial issues have been documented in the press, and their selling / closing down of midway attractions, outsourcing and structural changes are further signs of that I expect. But they are still making investments, and notable ones at that, in many places. But it feels like Thorpe is being brushed aside a bit right now (along with Heide Park...if I didn't know any better, I'd have thought Merlin forgot they still own it).

I agree it is a huge shame that there is quite literally nothing going on.

Although to be fair over the last decade there has been a lot of rubbish advertised as “new” - the various year-round mazes and some of the events for example. The absence of those sort of things isn’t that bad in my opinion, and realistically something new isn’t needed every year. Not many parks do that do they.

In recent years they have also made a lot of improvements to the areas other than the rides - the toilets to name one example.
Thorpe is probably one of the (if not THE) best Merlin park in terms of general upkeep.

I agree though that it is a shame there doesn’t appear to be anything at all happening again. It’s been a few years now since they’ve been able to boast anything notably new.

I wonder if Colossus will finally be finished in the next couple of months at least? Despite all the cuts to spending at Merlin I’d at least expect that to be done before opening, as well as Zodoac getting sorted.

I wonder if the beach project will ever happen now? I can’t help but think the money would be better put towards a larger project.

Some would say it's the past of theme parks.

Sonic Spinball had to be rethemed for similar reasons, the allegations that Knuckles filed meant they had to quickly drop the brand in closed season so it's definitely possible they could reopen as just David Land and drop the Walliams.

Closed season bingo!

We've got a green light from the government, this is happening!

BBC News
Universal Studios gets green light to be built in Bedford...
The park is expected to attract more than eight million annual visitors and open in 2031.
Construction will start next year if all goes to plan.

Just for Josh, (who did his top 10% in 2024 as well), here is the rest of my top 10% from (11-61). This won't be in any order because after the top 10, it becomes impossible to put them in preference order. On any given day I could prefer Oz'Iris to Taron and so forth.

Stardust Racers Yellow
Oz'Iris
Katun
Helix
Wodan
Blue Fire
Copperhead Strike
Afterburn
Wildcats Revenge
Stealth
Black Mamba
Fly
Superman la Atrocciones de acero
Manta/Acrobat
Incredible Hulk
iSpeed
Shambhala
Kumba
Griffon
Alpengeist
Juvelen
The Smiler
Medusa (discovery kingdom)
Tatsu
Taron
Alpina Blitz (Nigloland)
Monster (Walygator)
Icon
Karnan
Flug der Demon
Raging Bull
Twisted Timbers
Behemoth
Magnum XL 2000
Maverick
Gatekeeper
Untamed
Dwiverlwind
Velocicoaster
Monster (Grona Lund)
Wildfire (Kolmarden)
Hyperion
Abyssus
Dominator
Pantheon
Farenheight
Candymonium
Mako
Steel Dragon 2000
Nitro
El Toro
Batman Gotham city Escape
Iron Grawzi
Goliath (Six Flags over Georgia)
Aerieforce One
Thunderhead
The Beast
Fianna Force
The Voyage
Piraten
Dragons Fury
I love lists so much.

Parm Pap has gone so crazy they think their name is Parm Pom

Honeslty when thinking about the next major investment, like towers the park doesn't need "just another coaster"
The coaster line up is probably pretty stable and more than enough veriaty and capacity.

What the park is lacking is secondary experiences that the crowd who ride the coasters want to do.

Looking at the parks history, the last brand new thrill flat investment was Slammer and Rush in 2005.

You had Storm Surge in 2010 which was a relocated ride, the dodgems in 2014 which straddles the line of a thrill flat.
and of course Ghost Train in 2016 but due to the complexity in maintenance and staffing I would class this more like a coaster in its operation than a thrill flat. But even if you did thats almost 10 years since the last proper flat ride (mainly due to habit of making walk through 'Merlin midway' mazes as attractions)

What the park needs is a thrill flat package similar to how Zodiac, Vortex and Detonator where done, and more recently the Rumour that Toxicator at Towers was bought in a multi ride package.

With the right ride choices this would work as a solid coaster level investment with the benefit of also being able to spread out queues around the park.

Just returned from my very first Wintertraum event. Was very impressed with the park decoration, and it was busy, but not too busy. We stayed in Charles Lindbergh. Arrived around midday, after some shenanigans with delayed flights and an hour queue for passport control at Cologne airport.

Checked in and one of our rooms was ready so we went up and chucked all our luggage in there. Noticed that a FLY train was stopped on the first launch (empty). They started doing test runs as we were walking down from the room. Managed to get a walk on straight away as it just reopened as we entered the park. When we came off, the queue was 40 mins. Managed a back row ride on this, and it was crazy!

Did Taron front row in the rain which was a painful experience haha.

Had our first go on Mystery Castle - wtf!! This thing is insane.

Braved Chiapas in the cold (stayed on and did it twice). Got soaked and had to go back to the hotel to dry off.

Did a night ride on Black Mamba and found this way better than the last time I rode it. Thought it was a bit tame originally, but it was hauling in the evening!

Fireworks were decent in the evening. Had a better nights sleep this time around (as last time I couldn't get comfortable in the small cabins).

All in all was a good trip, got to do the majority of the park, probably should have booked an additional night. Also shout out to the thoosies we met at breakfast (think they were from the midlands). Was great chatting coasters over coffee and bacon!

Park Count
Thorpe - Loads
Phantasialand x2
Towers x1
Legoland Windsor x1
Chessington x1
Efteling x1
Holiday Park (now Plopsaland Deutschland) x1
Walibi Belgium x1
Bellewaerde x1
Gardaland x1
Movieland Italy x1
Walibi Holland x1

Coasters
New coasters: 26
New parks: 4
Current cred count: 434

Top 5 new coasters
Kondaa, Walibi Belgium. Sitting just outside my Top 10 outright, this is absolutely bonkers in the best possible way. The only mark against it is the double down which starts off the final third of the ride, which just feels a bit unnatural to me.
Karacho, Tripsdrill. Gerstlauer with some of their finest work. It sits just outside my Top 10%, is a great deal of fun. If the MCBR was slightly less harsh, this would be a lot higher in my rankings.
Expedition GeForce, Holiday Plopsaland Deutschland. It's good. The middle third is a bit boring, but the first drop and finale are fab. It's very classic early 00s Intamin.
Raptor, Gardaland. Good, not great. But theming is fab.
MecaLodon, Walibi Belgium. The Gerstlauer family triple launch coaster is something which people have raved about. I like it, especially once it warms up, but I'm not as big on it as most. The ride type has buckets of potential though.

Disappointments
YoY, Walibi Holland. I liked Jersey Devil at Six Flags Great Adventure. I was disappointed by YoY, which didn't offer much even with the duelling. I also have aged and the leg arrangement was uncomfortable for me.
Gardaland. It was nice and I enjoyed my day there. But it did feel a bit meh at the same time.
Hals-uber-Kopf, Tripsdrill. Unlike Mark, I haven't been blown away by either of the Vekoma STCs. They're fine, I can see why people enjoy them, but they don't click for me.

Other Notable Things
Danse Macabre, Efteling. This thing is superb.
Movieland Italy. What a strange park. But I had an absolute blast of a time.
Amazonia, Bellewaerde. A fantastic rapids-esque ride from Intamin with lots of cool quirks.
Slaughterhouse, Walibi Holland. I returned to Walibi's Halloween event, and this alone experience is so raw and visceral and just genuinely fabulous.
Us vs You, Walibi Holland. An international scare maze which feels like it's slipped under the scare attraction's radar, because this is bloody great.

Ah love these.

Unfortunately my lists are very short nowadays, but I've had a fair year theme park wise (considering how life is now!)
Thorpe Park x1
Alton Towers x1
Legoland Windsor x1
Disneyland Park Paris x3
Walt Disney Studios Paris x2

I do miss the days when I had huge lists, and I was at Thorpe & Towers 10-20 times each!

Sad to have not been to any fireworks events or halloween this year, for the first time in... I don't know how long.

Still, could be worse.

Paulton's next year for the first time in 20 years!

Park Count
Thorpe - Loads
Phantasialand x2
Towers x1
Legoland Windsor x1
Chessington x1
Efteling x1
Holiday Park (now Plopsaland Deutschland) x1
Walibi Belgium x1
Bellewaerde x1
Gardaland x1
Movieland Italy x1
Walibi Holland x1

Coasters
New coasters: 26
New parks: 4
Current cred count: 434

Top 5 new coasters
Kondaa, Walibi Belgium. Sitting just outside my Top 10 outright, this is absolutely bonkers in the best possible way. The only mark against it is the double down which starts off the final third of the ride, which just feels a bit unnatural to me.
Karacho, Tripsdrill. Gerstlauer with some of their finest work. It sits just outside my Top 10%, is a great deal of fun. If the MCBR was slightly less harsh, this would be a lot higher in my rankings.
Expedition GeForce, Holiday Plopsaland Deutschland. It's good. The middle third is a bit boring, but the first drop and finale are fab. It's very classic early 00s Intamin.
Raptor, Gardaland. Good, not great. But theming is fab.
MecaLodon, Walibi Belgium. The Gerstlauer family triple launch coaster is something which people have raved about. I like it, especially once it warms up, but I'm not as big on it as most. The ride type has buckets of potential though.

Disappointments
YoY, Walibi Holland. I liked Jersey Devil at Six Flags Great Adventure. I was disappointed by YoY, which didn't offer much even with the duelling. I also have aged and the leg arrangement was uncomfortable for me.
Gardaland. It was nice and I enjoyed my day there. But it did feel a bit meh at the same time.
Hals-uber-Kopf, Tripsdrill. Unlike Mark, I haven't been blown away by either of the Vekoma STCs. They're fine, I can see why people enjoy them, but they don't click for me.

Other Notable Things
Danse Macabre, Efteling. This thing is superb.
Movieland Italy. What a strange park. But I had an absolute blast of a time.
Amazonia, Bellewaerde. A fantastic rapids-esque ride from Intamin with lots of cool quirks.
Slaughterhouse, Walibi Holland. I returned to Walibi's Halloween event, and this alone experience is so raw and visceral and just genuinely fabulous.
Us vs You, Walibi Holland. An international scare maze which feels like it's slipped under the scare attraction's radar, because this is bloody great.

Movieland Italy is a fantastic park purely due to its bizarre Mafia led nature.

There's likely several factors in play.

Theme parks being closed environments, which people have to pay to get into, which are surrounded by CCTV, probably detracts potential thieves anyway.

Very few people are focused on other people's belongings too; they just want to get their own and go. And any thoughts of 'I could take someone else's belongings' is little more than a common, healthy, intrusive thought.

Yep, the Merlin Platinum Pass now includes one Fastrack per day on any ride, which does include Hyperia. It will presumably not include major new additions the year they're included, but Hyperia is now old enough that they can get away with it.

Presumably such things will come out of each ride's standard Fastrack allocation. Which will then affect their profits. Will be interesting how that hits the park in mid-to-longer run.

Hello. How was your year?

Here's mine-

Parks visited
Efteling X5
Animal Kingdom X3
Hollywood Studios X1
Southend Adventure Island X1
Chessington X1
Schwaben Park X1
Tripsdrill X1
Legoland Deutschland X1
Hong Kong Disneyland X2
Ocean Park HK X1
Himeji Central Park X1
Parque Espana Shima X1
Nagashima Spa Land X1
Fuji Q X1
Disneyland Tokyo X2
Tokyo Disney Sea X3
Thorpe Park X2
Wiener Prater X1
Fantasiana X1
Epic Universe X2

New Rollercoasters ridden - 62

I'd say my top ten new rollercoasters of 2025 are as follows-
Flying Dinosaur - The most intense flyer out there. It is absolutely fantastic.
Stardust Racers Green - I love this ride, the flowing elements and air time are excellent and the duelling with yellow is so good.
Stardust Racers Yellow - I mean come on, they are both so good and theres very little in between them in terms of quality.
Steel Dragon 2000 - Aside from the really frustrating loading, this is a really long ride that does deliver. The air time at the end is also excellent.
Pyrenees - An Inverter that sits under the radar, this is a very good rollercoaster, it just has a really odd ending.
Hals Uber Kopf - The vekoma STC is so good. Both it and Fienna Force are so class. I thought this was a surprisingly forceful rollercoaster and really enjoyed it.
Hollywood Dream - A surprisingly good hyper coaster. I only got the chance to ride this backwards but I thought it was excellent.
Harakugei - A very good RMC but I find the loading procedures really take away the fun from a lot of Japanese parks. This is still awesome but its tiresome waiting for it .
Diavlo - I don't really care that this is just a batman clone, it really is an excellent version of the ride. It looks a little rusty and run done and its amazing that the park have bothered to keep it running. Glad to have got on it.
Zokkon - An excellent Intamin straddle coaster. Full of unique elements and excellent pacing.

Landmark moments from 2025
Rollback on Mandrill Mayhem where we were stuck just before the Statue helix. Star of some B- tier tiktok vlogs. Loved it.
Evacuated from the break run on Stardust Green. Lots of fun watching Stardust Yellow continue to run. Also managing to get on it after the death in September.
Finally making it to Tokyo Disney and getting on all the major rides multiple times. Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Sinbad, Indianna Jones, Winnie the Pooh and Beauty and the Beasts felt like life changing rides in my theme park career
Reclaiming the 'ridden all B&M's in Europe' after getting to Legoland Deutschland
Saying goodbye to way too many attractions this year. Kingda Ka, Muppets 3D, Six Flags America, Tough to be a Bug, Scorpion Express, Blade. Also our last ever rides on Dinosaur before its closure in 2026.

So please share your 2025. We love content.

Not at all.

The park changed strategy, and realised that they could communicate with more people through social media (which, 10 years ago, was a growing sector for brands to utilise). And then the way people consume online content changed, focused more on videos via social media rather than text/forums/websites.

Thorpe Park Mania was once the official fan site for Thorpe Park.

One of the many perks of this was that Thorpe Park ran that account on the forum, using it to answer fan questions, add context to decisions and also just have a bit of fun with fans.

It was similar to the Annual Passholder group they ran a couple of years ago to be fair.

Marp backwards is Parm.

Just to go back to the topic of attendance, it is really worth stressing that the TEA Attendance Report is not accurate for Thorpe / Merlin.

This graph is from the Hyperia consultation, including numbers up to 2020:


The Queue Times website also has these numbers listed, as well as numbers from the TEA Report: https://queue-times.com/parks/2/attendances#reference4

Just for some reference:
2019: Thorpe say 1.49m, TEA say 1.9m
2018: Thorpe say 1.59m, TEA say 1.88m
2017: Thorpe say 1.54m, TEA say 1.8m
2016: Thorpe say 1.62m, TEA say 1.8m
2015: Thorpe say 1.51m, TEA say 1.85m
2014: Thorpe say 1.83m, TEA say 2.1m

etc, etc.

As you can see, there's years when the actual attendance has gone down, but TEA say it's gone up, and vice versa. But there is no rhyme or reason. So it is certainly possible that 2024 saw an increase in attendance compared to 2023 at Thorpe.

As Benin says, the late opening of Hyperia followed by its extended downtime will have hurt attendance. But once it did get running, it ran well and was a draw. Was that enough to outweigh and then eventually beat what was a quiet, but consistent, 2023? It felt like it, but we'll never truly know.

Couple of things to consider:

-Merlin recently made Halloween an included day for most passes.
-The excluded days, somewhat ironically, tend to be a bit quieter because:
There's less passholders
People expect those days to be busy so avoid them
-The weather was forecast to be a bit rubbish, which can put passholders off
-There were 2 severe cases of bad weather, including electrical storms in the nearby area, shutting down most rides. That, along with the rubbish weather, meant people left earlier.

The park today didn't feel as busy as it was yesterday. Nor did it feel as busy as it was last Halloween. However, the park was still extremely busy and lively.

For me, my TP season ended yesterday having jumped in for an extra day due to the changing weather forecast, a great day for me. It could not have happened without the Staff and it would, like life, be easy to thank those who helped me directly. There are many staff whose contributions to that, and all my TP days, are normally not acknowledged. I do thank everybody from the cleaning, washroom, maintenance, management, security, gardeners and ride team, a lot of people.
Just like the bus on which I ride to the Park, so seldom do I hear a "thank you".
We, as visitors, don't get the chance to wish those well in their futures who, within a few days, won't have a job.
Just my thoughts.