JoshC.

now something to replace ready player one PLEASE IT'S NEARLY BEEN THREE YEARS.

Hyper Coaster is probably not talked about much as it isn't that ridden. Looks like a solid ride all round though.

I really enjoyed Batman GCE, but it didn't hot the upper echelons of my list. I can't describe why really, as it has lots of what I like. I'd love to have ridden it more, but my god the throughput is rubbish.

Updating my 10 top as I don't currently have any more trips planned this year, new entries in bold.

1) Batman Gotham City Escape
2) Toutatis
3) Untamed
4) Kondaa
5) Shambala
6) Hyperia
7) Ride to Happiness
8) Taron
9) Balder
10) Hyper Coaster
Helix and Zadra now both fall out of my top 10.

Batman has always intrigued me, but I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. Every element hits no matter what seat you're in. The tophat works, the ejector airtime is insane, and it's easily my favourite stall I've done on a coaster.

I never really see Hyper Coaster talked about, but it's a solid coaster. Pretty traditional hyper layout with an insane first drop and a crazy zero g roll.

I believe they own that stage and have done since the mid 2010s (when they purchased it for the Thorpe Sounds event... I'm getting deja vu...)

I don't think on-park announcements or advertising will work all that much.

I agree that using the screens around park to make it clear what time the park closes is not a bad thing. But if people are oblivious to the closing time, think it's 6pm (say), and then rock up and find out at 2pm it's actually 9pm, I don't think that will encourage that many people to stay.

I think there's two things to keep in mind with later opening hours.
You need to give people a reason to stay. Fright Nights is always packed until close, because there's a reason to stay (scare stuff and night rides). Summer Lates had a DJ and maybe one night ride if you join a queue late on. For many, that's not enough to get people to stay.
You have to accept that people will leave early. At similar sized parks (and bigger), people leave before park close, especially when there's late closing. Just as a recent example: I went to Dollywood last month, 10am-9.30pm opening hours. All day, Lightning Rod had 45min+ queue, except in the last hour where it dropped to 5mins. People leave early. And that's fine, so long as you're busy enough during the day and people who stay late get their money's worth.

I was on park both Fridays and staying late felt worthwhile. If it translated into people spending money and giving better KPI scores it's worth it.

The park just need to come up with a way of making staying later more appealing, and advertising that a bit more.

Ahhh, that all makes sense.
Creature Campus could work as a scare zone if they wanted it to. Back in the day, Amity was a mix of both, and I think the location outside Stealth makes more sense for a full set based around the school than Launch Pad, which seems to be used for multiple different things.
Not really Fright Nights-related, but it’s funny how Launch Pad suddenly comes alive when there are food units open. Maybe they should have stuck to the original plan and kept permanent food units around the area.
I just can’t see Lucifer’s Lair also having a stage and staying show-focused. I think the danger is that there ends up being more shows than scare zones. I think the theme of lucifers lair lends itself better to being a hub of entertainment. I’d be really sad to see it go.
I don’t think Purgatory Town should come back unless they move away from the conversation-based approach. Me and my group aren’t really going to interact with actors on that level. I think the actors should be providing scares and approaching us to scare us, rather than just loitering around and having a conversation with people.
Alton Towers does scare zones really well with its two free walkthrough scare zones. I’m glad The Crows are coming back, but I think they really needed another one alongside it.

Summer lates were great, really hope they build on them and we have more of them next year.

I normally completely avoid Thorpe during July and August but I went last Friday and yesterday for the afternoon/evening.

Last Friday seemed to be the quietist of the 4, but I think a lot of people left/were put off due to the heat. Yesterday a good amount of people stayed till the end which is good to see.

I do think they could do a better job of advertising it though. I don't think theres enough (anything?) on park telling you the park is actually open until 9.

I got sent a survey the other day about the event, asking about reasons for visiting, rides being open late, the food stalls, DJs and what time of year is best for rides in the dark. So it's good to see they're at least considering expanding on it.

Not usually.

Most of Thorpe's IP contracts, to my knowledge, have been on 3 or 5 year contracts which can then be renewed for certain periods of time. All very flexible.

It appears they haven't given up with Zodiac just yet - quite surprised to see all the doors from the gondolas seem to have been removed.

Shades of Oblivion and Fanta.

I don't get it. Nor have ever noticed a brand that has apparently been around since the late 90s.

RCDB even updated the entry.

shush

Flipz pretzels are temporarily sponsoring Hyperia:

Is this 1 foot more than Blackpools ?

Taller?

Maybe TPM's April Fools was more prophetic than joke?

In a similar fashion to Alton Towers, Thorpe now have a selection of street food stalls, all in The Launchpad.


The stage is set up for Thorpe Lates, and a lot more seating is available (I think some of it moved from the old Saw Alive path now that construction is taking place there).

The area was the most alive I've ever seen it, and definitely how it should be used.

There's a few contributing factors I think...

-Post-big investment lull. As Benin mentioned, there can be lulls after big investments at parks. Not every park, but it is common. It's funny because historically Thorpe was good at avoiding that by having some marketing gimmick for the year after a big investment (Stealth's "upgrade", Saw with Saw Alive, Swarm's Brave it Backwards, DBGT and Rise of the Demon). Hyperia didn't have that, and there's not been anything to follow up. It happens, but it's very bland, yes.

-'Time thing'. I assume by this Matt you just mean getting older, and that does play a part of it too I reckon. You get older, and busier, and times just change. And also ties in with what Benin says about the world being general a bit rubbish right now.

-Lack of updates. There's things happening at the park, whether it's little touch ups here and there or bigger things behind the scenes. Admittedly right now that is minimal, but it is there.
But there's less noise about it all now. The Passholder Group on Facebook closed down. Jack Silkstone, who has been the main source of such things for a few years now, has moved into a more professional capacity so isn't making the little update videos. Fansites (like TPM) have succumbed to the time thing. And there's just very few places providing general updates.

-Lack of anything to be excited about. There's no plans to the council for anything new. There's no rumours of anything new coming. Other parks in Merlin are getting things and Thorpe aren't. We're kind of just ticking on by. It makes it hard to have the same enthusiasm.

On a personal level, I found 2024 to be such a huge buzz of a year for Thorpe. New coaster, obviously, but the Sparkle Project invigorated lots of other parts of the park. There was optimism for the future and such a positive. Since then, they've followed that up with a much-needed open space by the front of the park (although that execution has split opinion), and nothing else. The park is effectively exactly the same as it was 2 years ago, even down to food outlets.

With seemingly nothing new on the horizon, there's only so long one can revisit the exact same place before a bit of burnout hits.

The tent has been covered. It is 5 roof panels wide; Stitches is 6, so it's a bit smaller (but still very big).

The tent has been covered. It is 5 roof panels wide; Stitches is 6, so it's a bit smaller (but still very big).

Vortex (and Zodiac) look like they'll be down for a fair while longer as their entrances have been fenced off to allow for Fright Nights construction to pass through.

They wouldn't need fences that far forward if the rides were open, so it's likely to stop people going so far unnecessarily.

When DeadBeat was introduced, Thorpe had a 3-maze package (of the returning 3 mazes), and the 4-maze package too. So I guess it's not totally unheard of for them to do something like this.

My hope would be that this 5th maze is something different to the current norm. Paying £40 odd on top of entry for 5 "Thorpe mazes" where you're batched in a group, have a pre-show, wander round well-themed sets as actors jump out at you just feels a bit overkill to me. Yes it helps with capacity, but I'd question whether it improves the quality of the event.

What "something different" looks like is of course a different question. My personal preference, once again, would be an alone experience. I don't mind spending more on something like that. But if there's not a market for that, which I accept there might not be, something which is done in smaller groups, and just 'feels' different to the norm. Tulleys had success with that with Purgatory, for example.

My biggest criticism last year was how all the mazes felt the same, just dressed differently. I hope they can avoid that.
I also hope that they have the finances and the numbers to man 5 mazes plus shows and zones adequately.


On another a note, a tent has been set up today on Saw Alive's pathway:
Whether this is the new maze, or perhaps Stitches relocated there, currently unclear.

This will be the other reason that the "influencers" are barely mentioning Thorpe. Everything is ticking along relatively, whereas Towers you can bang out a quick video on park showing some closed rides (think about 3/4 long term break downs yesterday), or whine about the RAP situation and you got yourself a video.

In addition to the above - I have to say I really do miss the almost obsessive fan culture that used to exist around Thorpe.

Not so long ago there would be something to read about online every few days, even if it was just little things like new signage appearing, a change of audio somewhere, things that had been fixed etc.
Closed season as well - we would always have detailed updates from many sources (including the park themselves) about what was going on.
All that stuff still happens at Thorpe of course - but I suppose we’ve all moved on from sharing about it online!

I think for me this sort of thing is what’s missing now. It seems to me that that level of enthusiasm doesn’t exist for Thorpe anymore, or if it does then it looks different now.

Perhaps there’s a gap in the market for this since Mr Silkstone has moved on from all that, and the traditional forums are no longer busy. Because actually when you look at other parks, namely DLP and the upcoming Universal UK, there is quite a fan base already following the developments in microscopic detail.
Thorpe just doesn’t seem to have that active fan base anymore for some reason outside of big projects like Hyperia.

Hard to gauge these days.

The last time a new flat ride had permission applied was the Dodgems way back for 2014. That was a simple one and planning permission went in December 2013 and the ride opened May 2014.

Prior to that, Storm Surge had an application go in July/August 2010 and opened March 2011. Slammer and Rush were August 2004 and opened March and May 2005 respectively.

The big caveat though is in all of those situations, the park had an active MTDP which had already identified those areas as potential spots for flat rides. So it meant the planning permission process was easier and quicker.

Obviously, there's no active MTDP now. And more importantly, the last couple of planning applications to the council have been surrounded in difficulties, to the point where the Launchpad was effectively delayed a year.

It doesn't mean we won't see anything next year. But one would expect if something were coming, they'd want the application in as early as possible to mitigate any issues or delays. So realistically, I don't see any new rides for next year.

Had my first visit this past weekend. This had become a bit of a bucket list park over the last few years and was glad to finally get out there.

Great rollercoaster collection to start off with. I thought Kondaa was fabulous, an outstanding attraction. Intamin were really cooking around this time. I've seen it described as a modern day Expedition Ge Force. Well yeah, it has similarities but whereas EGF always left me feeling underwhelmed, Kondaa was sublime. Also loved Mecalodon. I love family Gerstlauers, there's just a lot of innovation and experimentation with the model. This being the latest one, it just has so much for family groups and is so much fun. Tiki Wawa is okay. It's not an amazing version of the ride type unfortunately. Not worth the regular 45 minute waits.

Turbine is amazing. Absolutely loved it. Great theme, great ride. Pulsar also impressed. I didn't think it would be my kind of ride but actually, it was really fun. The backwards air time was lovely and it wasn't too wet. Just enough. Calamity Mine was great, Boomerang was a boomerang. the SLC was fine, I'm now pretty used to riding these defensively so therefore I know when to brace. I still really like the layout on these things, even though the trains really do make them a battle.
Loup-Garou was a big reason for the trip, I wanted to get on it before it says goodbye at the end of the year. To be honest, I'm a big defender of these horrible janky woodies. This was hilariously bad. I can see why its being renovated by RMC, but it still has a charm.

The dark rides were also of really high quality.

I shall be back..

I do agree. The buzz we had with Hyperia and the Passholder Group has certainly gone, and we're technically 2 rides down with Rumba Rapids permanent closure and Zodiac being SBNO for over a year.

I'd love to see some new flat rides to bring some excitement back into the park, but there are also some pretty significant issues that need addressing, such as the security/entrance procedure and the Ghost Train.

One thing I will say though, is that although we've had nothing new and not much excitement, it's still the best run Merlin park in the UK by far in my opinion, and it continues to have the best opening hours. Operations are always on point whenever I go, and I always have a pleasant day. I can't say the same for most other parks in the country.

I usually avoid the park most of July and August but will certainly be going to a couple of the 9pm closes in August.