ThrillSeekerMatt

As far as I'm aware the Thorpe Park staff are not on strike, and the BA website does not tell everyone that a flight is cancelled on their homepage, the customers have to log on using a reference number and check for themselves, or they find out when they check-in online 24 hours before departure.I agree that it's good for them to inform people about times when they know it's going to be busy, as in your example with the park informing of high number of school groups it was expecting during July, but I still think it was a bad idea for them to make a long list on the front page with every ride that is down, like it was on the previous website. And yes I do see that it's good to tell people when a ride is causing a lot of problems and is expected to be down for a while, as they did with Stealth earlier this year.The point that I was trying to make is that I find it strange that they should be expected to list every single ride that's out of operation, maybe just the major ones I would expect, and this seems to be what they are doing this year.To be honest it's not going to make any difference to the number of bodies through the gate on a given day, people are just going to be annoyed that a ride is out of action and turn up anyway!

Well that's a fair comment, but other businesses, and indeed many other parks don't offer this service! In fact Thorpe is one of the few.This info is always on the scrolling boards at the entrance anyway, I think it's wrong to show this on their website which is mainly used for advertising and drawing people in!

Because it's bad publicity maybe? It's a bit strange that a business should advertise a problem on their own website!You wouldn't go on to the British Airways website to book a flight and read that 11 flight have been delayed today, 50 people have had their luggage lost and 3 flight have been cancelled!

I can imagine that trying to organise a SRQ can be a nightmare, and with the best will in the world nobody will ever be able to make it work propperly on Saw because of the way it had been built.I must admit though, Stealth's SRQ is brilliant when it's being run by a good staff member, but if you get someone who doesn't care then it can become a nightmare for everyone, with people just pushing in and sitting wherever they want! I was in the SR queue last visit and the guy in front of me said to the member of staff 'excuse me, can I sit at the front please?' Luckily the staff weren't taking any nonsense and he said 'Of course you can, the queue starts over there!' then turned to me, shook his head, and sent me to my seat!! Made my day.

I tried the SRQ last year but the bloke in charge of batching was only interested in chatting up the women in the bag drop area, then when the staff on the other platform had had enough they started yelling over at him to start doing his job, then he started telling the single riders to hurry up and leave their bags because they weren't filling the seats!! :)Anyway, a single rider queue line was not built because the fact is that Thorpe's management just want to flog their £4-a-time Fastrack tickets.I don't think any of us want to go back to how it was last year though, with the stanby queue, Fastrack& disabled queue then single rider queue all squeezed side by side in to that tiny walkway on the top floor! Because of the way the building was designed a SRQ is never going to work propperly on this ride, and they knew that when they were designing it!

That is so right, Colossus has an amazing theme tune, but after a while it does start to eat away at your soul. Last time I was there the others in my group were saying how repetitive it was, and they almost lost all hope when it was playing at Slammer's queue line as well!The Saw queue music is also very depressing when there's a long queue, It always manages to bring the mood down and prolong the agony of standing in the constantly long line, although obviously it wouldn't be right if it was lively and cheerful! On the other hand I could wait in a queue for Inferno for quite a while before getting fed up with the music because it's not forced upon you, the volume is at a much better level for most of the queue and the music only becomes really noticable when you reach the station where it's blearing out! Unlike Colossus where you're forced to listen to the same track over and over at quite a loud volume.The Amity rides and Loggers Leap tracks are amazing as they are because there's some variation, and not the same track droning on and on for the entire queue.Can't really complain about Thorpe's theme music though, they have some of the best ride themes around, and it's one of the park's stronger points.

I don't think they will bother until next season to be honest. That old hoover trick might work, and it's worth a try. (maybe they'll even clean/replace that filthy netting and remove the 8 tons of dust from the ceiling whilst they're at it!)The bass cannons were actually switched on during the first month or so of this season, but they were vibrating like mad and they actually sound better switched off in their current state.Who knows, maybe next season we will see the bass canons fixed and the dispatch music working too! It would be a shame to leave those cannons switched off, they must have cost the park a fortune, and it really was amazing having those blearing out! I never would have thought they would bother fixing these, but lately Thorpe have made some serious improvements and it's looking up for the future.

The info boards at the entrance were saying it was unlikely that Slammer will be open all day when I was there yesterday, but they managed to get it working in the afternoon!Thorpe are doing a fantastic job with their reliability this year.I've noticed the Slammer loading times are slow recently too, they always do a good job at loading and checking restraints, but then they seem to have to wait for a while before it can be raised. Also there is often a long delay between offloading riders and re-loading new ones, there's a long wait before the gates are opened. No complaints though, Slammer rarely has a queue anyway!

Only 4 rides all day? Seriously?Even with long queues it must be worth riding a few more than that!Surely 45 minutes for Colossus is about what is expected from a half term week anyway!

I must agree with you on that, Thorpe Park have always been amazing with their theme music, but I can see both sides of the argument: The target audience like the 'normal' (not themed) music around the park, before the changed the entrance music I often heared people talking about how corny and strange the old music was! and I agree that, no matter how much I miss the old entrance theme, the new entrance music is better for the park in general. It would be a shame to have all of the rides and areas stripped of their music though, Inferno wouldn't be the same without its awesome theme blearing out of the station! And can you imagine having to listen to Jason Derulo whilst queueing for Colossus? Ouch, that would totally kill the feel of that part of the park!

Is it that the effects aren't working? Or is it just that some days nobody bothers to turn them on? If that's the case then it's a real shame, because Inferno is so much better with all of its effects working. I can't complain really though, this season has been the best yet in my opinion! At least we have mist & lights this year and they seem to be working most of the time, I guess I was unlucky to miss out on the lights on one of my visits. I experienced the full effect last month anyway so it's all good.(I've just realised I'm sitting here typing about whether a couple of lights are on or not inside a tunnel! )And about adding heat to the tunnel That would be AWESOME!!! We would then be literally feeling the heat of Nemesis Inferno It can be done - they do it very well on Test Track at Epcot, and they even use real fire on Universal's Revenge of the Mummy!

Hmm... I'm gonna have to try this head turning business.You're right I guess, I do always end up having a good laugh on that ride.

Look at the mist pouring out of that vent on the second photo!!I was there Tuesday and found that the queue mist wasn't working, and the tunnel mist was a bit weak. None of the tunnel lights were on eather

I had to read that twice! Fair enough, everyone has their own opinion.In my opinion it does have the potential to be turned in to one of the best rides in the park. I just feel a bit sorry for it really, it's been half-heartedly spruced up and forgotten about too many times! They really need to get stuck in to it and finally make a propper job of the theming in there.

I left the park today a very happy customer The park wasn't crowded at all - the longest queue I witnessed was for Samurai, at 45mins. Stealth, Colossus and SAW: The Ride were averaging around 30-40 mins, Inferno stayed around 15-20, and the flats were around 5 mins all day. Good timing and a bit of luck meant that we never queued for more than 30 mins for anything, even with front row on most rides.Ride reliability was great! I noticed that Colossus was down for a short while during the afternoon, but it was up and running again in no time so nothing to complain about there.Saw Alive was FAR better than my previous 'rides', there was more than one actor per room and they have obviously been perfecting their skills in there.The vast mojority of the staff were fantastic, and all working really hard to reduce the already short queues, except on Stealth where the loading area was basically a free for all.Ride CountSAW: The Ride - 3SAW: Alive - 2Inferno - 2Colossus - 1X:\NWO - 1Stealth - 1Detonator, Rush, Slammer, Vortex, Quantum, Rumba - 1In response to Marc's comment, I too found Colossus to be smooth and fairly quiet! When did that change??? When I was there about a month ago it was rough as hell!I'm so happy that they've sorted out their little problems. Well done Thorpe, keep up the good work.

I'm one of the few who don't mind the new 'tounge in cheek' branding, but how can they call this a map if all the paths are either made up or covered by all the attractions? (some of which happen to be in the wrong places anyway!) Yes, it gives people a general idea of where the attractions are, and it's true that most of them can be seen from the ground anyway, but surely the map should be used to find out the best route to take to get to a particular attraction - if that's the case then the map is pretty useless, and I too have heard first time visitors talking about how messy and inaccurate the map is! I heard someone in the Saw: Alive queue saying "Wait, shouldn't this be on the other side of the path?"

Looks like the little preist dude is back over at Stealth.Maybe they thought they needed all the help they can get to have Stealth up and running propperly this season

Oh wait, yeah you're right! WTF?

Isn't that the store on the left? If you look just above the roof of the station you can see the lift hill streight ahead, so it is going the right way lolTook me a while to figgure that out though!

Here's the preview... Looks pretty good!

Fastrack has always been ridiculous, but this year it's got even worse!I always used to think why don't they just have a free fastrack system like Disney, but having seen the long queues for payed Fastrack this month I'm not sure it's such a good idea! I guess everyone would just go and print themselves a Fastrack and wait in a queue that's just as long as the main line!There must be another way to handle the crowds. Fastrack just seems to get in the way and slow everything down all the time. I can't see Thorpe scrapping it though, I get the impression that all they want is the money!

I guess you're right, although I have never experienced as many problems in a single day as I have at Thorpe! And what the hell are they doing with the Fastracks this year! I agree they have definitely improved this year, but it's still pretty poor compared to other parks.You're right though, I probably am getting bored with Thorpe (already ) I think I'll give it a rest for a while.

This is so upsetting to read these dreadful reviews - I honestly thought Thorpe had finally started to sort themselves out ready for this year, but obviously not.Why can't one of the UK's largest theme parks handle a crowd, or even keep their rides open all day? It's actully quite pathetic! I was at Alton Towers last week for the first time in a while and I've suddenly realised what a shambles Thorpe really is.

Ryan, you must have extremely low expectations from a theme park!Usally when I pay to get in to a theme park, wherever it might be, I usally expect to ride their signiture rides (ie Stealth & Saw). when I go to ANY other park anywhere else in the world I arrive thinking 'I can't wait to ride *insert ride name here*', but when I go to Thorpe I find myself thinking 'I hope Stealth is open today', or 'I hope Inferno's mist is on today'.There really is no excuse for Thorpe's relyability to be so gobsmackingly poor, how can you possibly defend Thorpe by saying "Stealth was there, just a bit broken that's all" - If it's there but broken, it might as well not be there at all! It just becomes a big pile of useless metal that reminds everyone that they have parted with their money to look at a selection of rides that aren't avalible! All the while being pushed in front of by a pack of smoking, queue- jumping chavs!And are you saying that it is ok for Saw to have relentless breakdowns, day in day out?This as a shame. The season started off so well, let's hope it doesn't go down hill.Maybe I'm being a bit unfair - I think I'm still bitter from last year's embarrassing fiasco.

Looks like they have now replaced that 2007 station music that has been playing this year with the normal queue theme, as it was last year. The bird sound effects are still twittering away at the entrance though which is far better imo.