Benin

Think its unfair to give Merlin credit for transforming Thorpe completely since that was a Tussauds thing... As for the global 'empire', a bunch of identikit Midway attractions isnt what I would consider top value... If they want to best Disney, they need to focus on the guest experience, fix up the parks from repainting rides and buildings to producing shows and rides that will bring people back to the park as well as new people... This is why I think the Thorpe change of market will take time to have a real effect because of the reputation of the park... Change that (and the rep of the others) and they can take it in... Indeed, they don't need high levels of Fastrack sales if they can get a family to spend on quality food and merch...

Oh, in that case they had tonnes more theming and atmosphere so were better...

Comparing Storm Surge to rides in Staines Town Centre is a werid comparison... They are of equal quality mind (I.e. awful)... The issue with Merlin comes down to whether enthusiasts look at things with an enthusiast or business outlook on things... For example, the parks see the late hour openings are dead, so cut the hours to save money, however this prevents people getting more out of day and whoring empty rides so it's bad... It's very much one step forward, two steps back, with a lot of cut backs over the past 2 years reducing guest experiences at the parks be it hours, ride times or entertainment whilst promoting higher prices with quite feral amounts of upselling from staff (to a degree where it's mentioned on their tills as a reminder)... It's also weird though, because with Swarm, they did everything right from an enthusiast standpoint, but it (and the park) bombed last year... But perhaps that was the catalyst to hiring the new marketing person and pushing through into the lucrative family market... They have improved food quality (but in turn, raised prices) and the merch as well, because people do buy quality stuff rather than bland generic crap... Two really good positives... On the other hand, you have that whole "good enough" belief towards additions... And in some cases badly thought out aspects of an addition (Zufari being a prime example of this) whilst others like Ice Age and Storm Surge were literally done on the cheap... Do agree with the Sub Terra changes as it was a quality attraction (pre-corridor as well) in the end, though people prefer it with the corridor... In the end, yes, the parks are in a better situation now than they were under DIC, but they still have issues across the board... Namely surrounding guest experiences and the use of social media (something Thorpe have really taken on board in comparison to years before) and providing THE best experiences possible... This might be a challenge as the recession and 'stay'cations dry up in the future...

This is, the Northern line!

I doubt that'll happen, they have no real need to...

Concepts of the Indoor Intamin Drop Coaster and Mack Supersplash (which is basically a Mack version of those two drop Intamin splash rides) with some fan concepts of the Drop Tower... http://www.cwfans.it/gallery/photo/1234#p1234 I'll be intrigued by the theme of the Drop Coaster, as that'll make or break it, especially as it's completely indoors...

It's not ACTUALLY been confirmed that they're like for like cloning Saw's layout beyond the indoor section... To be fair, Saw's indoor section is the best part of the ride...

Yeah, I didn't actually realise about the Wing-Rider/Flyer style restraints... A video of them... Not too sure on how they'll work on an Invert, but they are awesome restraints when they don't tighten up too much...

Surprised after yesterday's announcement of the new coaster (replacing Son of Beast, which I'll forever hate the park for closing for good shortly before my visit back in 2009)... Banshee is an Inverted B&M and will apparently be the longest in the world... And it looks like they've taken inspiration from the excellent OzIris at Asterix with the layout... Here's a few videos to tide you over... HYPE! Especially over the colour scheme

Good call, should take full advantage of the end of Summer crowds... #positivethorpeparkpost

I doubt it, I can't imagine Thorpe going to Chessie levels of family park times, but more akin to Towers... If Towers can be a family park and have a few scare mazes, then Thorpe can as well... Though it will need to improve on other offerings for younger visitors if this is to happen...

Who will be? The ride hosts or central control? Considering the effects of Fastrack on a regular queue, I'm not sure how the use of cameras will help queues (aside from maybe reducing queue-jumping, which is always a good thing)...

To be fair, a LOT of parks over-exaggerate queuetimes, for various reasons, but more commonly it's down to making people think that if they queue for a less amount of time than advertised they're getting more value out of their day... Not too sure how cameras facing the entrance/exit of rides will help create reliable queuetimes though...

I don't get how though, what with giant metal fences in queues, poor operations on Vampire, half the park falling apart (including Rattlesnake and Tomb Blaster with theming actually removed and still looking run-down)... Usually I'd be visiting the park a lot, but this year, I really cannot be bothered anymore...

Hint, I used those two rides as real examples of ride unreliability, I don't think Smiler or Rita or Oblivion or Slammer or Stealth are going to exactly make their respective manufacturers go completely bust as a result of extended downtime... Using X and Deja Vu as examples puts into perspective some of the pettyness really, I do implore you to look into their respective histories as they are both interesting rides to investigate... Until Towers have a situation where they have 3 rides open and nothing else then what else can we say? Thorpe had poor reliability for years, whilst this is one season for Towers... Jumping on the bandwagon after one delayed ride (which was clearly rushed and an overall poor job in construction, so fingers to be pointed at the construction company moreso) and the other rides that have had some downtime (so far, the only other coaster that has been down for several days is Oblivion with a blown out motor, Runaway and Thirteen were pretty slick fixings whilst Rita is a typical Accelerator and dying every two seconds)... Am I defending Towers with my life? Clearly I must be as I'm the only one saying anything positive and nothing negative about the park in the entire world and I never say anything positive about other parks in the country... When Towers end up having a daily crisis of rides dying left, right and centre like Thorpe used to, then we can grab the torches and pitchforks... The bandwagon for Thorpe's awful reliability is pretty clear that is was down to constant visits of half the park being down with on chance no coasters actually open and exceptionally poor shows from the whole place, yet in recent times, this has improved immensely, with minimal issues throughout... Perhaps then we will see the same of Towers... But since they actually had to delay the Thirteen closure for spewing oil everywhere due to RMT's motor dying, surely that's something to be thoughtful of? They could've had two coasters down and said "tough, both need work" but they didn't and kept one open... I think the Smiler construction debacle has really set the tone for Towers this year, where lots of people are just constantly attacking and pointing to that factor as a result for... something? I'm not quite sure really, but we can hope that the park will learn from that mistake like Thorpe eventually did with theirs (I.e. their realisation that the thrill market is not financially viable and changing tact)... Just atm it all seems pretty much a whole chance for slanging matches based upon fanboyism... Whilst Towers has a lot more to do, there is still stuff to be positive about for it, what with the great boost of entertainments throughout the park and that Smiler is a really great ride when it's open and has really captured the GP... Let's just hope they can fix up for the rest of the season and push away the silly management who think that cutting Scarefest hours because of 'unhappy staff' and crap staff who sell Fastrack in queues to fulfil whatever high quota they have...

Why are we playing the "X ride has been broken down for longer times than Y ride?" Rides BREAK DOWN... Sometimes minor stuff, or sometimes for weeks/months at a time... If we're going to compare, at least we haven't seen things like X(2) or Deja Vu esque levels of closure on a regular basis... Factor of life that machines break, it doesn't need to become a contest as to who has the least breakdowns in a year... (This being said, it can still be put on records that it's pretty factual that Intamin's are rather unreliable in many cases)

"Small nudge"... Wheel derailed... Not too sure on that one, but if the driver didn't notice the uncoupling (which being at least a carriage away makes some sense) then it's quite likely that he would stop normally... Besides, even if he instantly e-stopped momentum would cause a crash... Physics is a heartless cow at times...

It was the most pointless shop ever, couldn't get MAP discount and it was a sheer waste of money staffing it... BRING BACK THE NEMESIS BUS!

Start of the season, there was a whole furore over it because of the removal of the Counts Cauldron theming...

Problem is with ToTT sharing the building with Sanctuary it all seems a tad awkward to make it any different as there isn't the same amount of space... Although of course how many years have Thorpe had their 'token' mazes? Fortunately for the maze enthusiasts they do at least add some new ones after a few years... Though of course, with mazes it's hard to tell how they'll be like based on previous incarnations because they are so easy to manipulate to new routes/themes/rooms/etc to create a completely different experience... We can hope that, considering how good the Ents team are being atm in the park that they might be able to pull some on-park stuff out the hat as well... But I doubt it somehow, seems that only Chessie can do on-park theming very well... Does show how lacking things are in the imagination department though, surprised after the dislike of Carnival it's come back... Also shows the lack of budget, and I'm still annoyed that they got rid of Duel Live (especially 2009 Duel Live <3)... Of course, with Scarefest we get my absolute favourite enthusiast rant about floodlights <3

Slammer's open though right? P.S. Not that I really care (cos it's RUBBISH), but Rita is now back open... Think might start a betting thing for which Towers coaster will break down next...

Rita closed... Intamin

Banned because banning banners from banning each other's bans...

I didn't, because of the weather I just wanted to leave (after getting my £5 worth of course), I wasn't even sure if it was open since nothing else seemed to be... Although as Thorpe read these forums it would seem that some of my points might have been noted based upon reports... I fully agree that the parks need to investigate later hours, and I do wonder how much of a success these events will be in regards to that factor, because the deadness might not be beneficial in that regard and make the park(s) think later openings aren't viable... Although CrashPad will make a significant difference to that... Summer Nights were the best way to test it out with having limited numbers, and for a fiver, well worth the money for walk-ons on everything and a very hyped Inferno staff... But in the long run, will it make the park do later openings in the summer overall? Maybe, maybe not... It might be worth doing a late nights week style event (in similar vein to Summer Nights) next year included with the admission and heavily advertised as that week to do a real test of it, maybe in the first week of August (so after the two week deadzone of the summer holidays)? There's definitely potential to take things forward in the future and I would think Thorpe are in the best position out of all the parks to have constant late night openings because of their location, might as well take advantage of it... Might even push them to get a proper hotel in the future... What you said earlier makes more sense now though, there are more worrying issues at the parks than an empty trial event that involved walk-ons...

If they've improved things over a week then fine, I can only go by what I experienced... If anything, it could be down to the projected numbers how much they opened perhaps? Not that the forecast was any better this weekend mind, but were they flogging it off to people as they were exiting the park? On the whole, if they've been listening to feedback of the nit-picking variety, then surely that is what makes the real difference to a park?