Benin

The problem is the majority of the building sits on top of Vampire's station/brakes/maintenance shed... The best thing? Gut it and start afresh, the ride system is fine, just the theming is horrid...

They couldn't even get a front row queue to work properly, a back row one was never going to work... Baggage drops are useful for the most part, but it just doesn't work with Swarm for SOME reason? Maybe it's because you get people coming from two different directions is my guess... It's quite easily the worst one in any park that has it which is weird... Should've just done a Raptor and had bag boxes by the station exit... Simple, cheap and effective...

Falls is the only ride on park to break 1000pph... Back in the day, 3 train Vampire could also do this... I can't say what 5 train Tomb is though, close, but I think not beyond 1000pph... The park needs more rides that reach this...

Hey, you know what hasn't been in the news recently? LEGOLAND!! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2391102/Families-thrown-Legoland-brawl-erupts-parents-queuing-pirate-ship-ride-children-theme-park.html Classy parents... Bet you one of the kids was called Tyler...

Hopefully, once Thorpe make money through avenues such as food and merch (those things families LOVE to buy) they'll realise that the way they sell Fastrack is detrimental to guest experience and limit it a lot more...

The Relegation Faves have joined...

Maybe join up tomoz when I have a computer... Need to fine tune my team anyway, but will be carrying 3 Palace players at all times!

Well how else are they going to afford some shade?

Saw is plain old crap... It's the WORST Eurofighter in the world and is so over-rated with the apparently good theming throughout... It's literally, an RCT ride with the building, a big block that doesn't look great in a theme park environment and is swarmed with junk and dolls... Inside you can't exactly theme staircases and it's all rather "look at me I'm all dark and foreboding"... I rode Mystery Mine in 2009, and it is what Saw wishes it was... It even does the spooky haunted times better, has a better near miss to a crushing object, and FIRE! Abd of course if you want a heavily themed interactive queue, then go on Fluch... In short, Saw is a poor excuse for an IP themed attraction...

Probably makes people wonder why they wasted two hours of their life for it though...

That for the TPM Christmas Album cover?

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...