th13teen

I think Thorpe Parks opinion on themed areas is go to Disney or Port Aventura if that is what you want or come to Thorpe Park if you want thrill rides with a hint of theme! To be perfectly honest that’s what I think their belief is! I am not saying they are telling customers to go away however I doubt Thorpe park will ever be a themed area theme park again, It could possibly turn into Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which is a mix match of themes everywhere! I would like to see the lake have water features and special lighting, to add to the atmosphere, also could do with changing all entrance signs round! I.e. Entrance to stealth is now the old fastrack and the fastrack is now the old entrance queue! If you understand that comment you go to Thorpe Park enough times! For those who don't understand Thorpe Park sells more fastrack than there are people in the queues, or at least it feels like that anyway!

I feel the whole entrance including turnstiles and pay kiosks need to be made into a concert style venue! Such as the o2 style! In the layout and structure of some of the buildings/Buildings you associate with concert venues. Including large screens on sides, showing music videos and the temporary stage associated with concerts! Because that is what Thorpe parks audience is like, they want fast rides and great music!

I feel the whole event would have been better if the fireworks had been behind stealth and they used the stealth plaza area as there concert area including the DJ and possibly lighting effects! This would also have meant people would be far more spread out, however I must say it seems like they did a good job this year!

Its all slightly correct, I noticed near the end of the evening they were not giving out wristbands, so instead they may just split!

I have just come back from fright nights and this is what I thought;The lack of park theme of any sorts was, I felt utterly disgraceful, a few nooses and some blooded metal drums were all but the parks attempt at Halloween decoration! Not even the rides! Now what is wrong with the staff putting out a few decorations! I understand why Thorpe Park doesn’t have pumpkins scattered around the park because of the clientele mostly associated with fright nights, however this is no excuse for not bothering! I have more decorations at my house! I sort of expected no decorations but I did expect smoke machines and the fire machines used around saw! However this was not to be found this year! I really could have gone into Thorpe Park without having a clue it was Halloween apart from the mazes! The music was changed however few and far between; it seemed to have half of the attractions with Halloween audio and the other half the normal audio! So it didn’t work, although I did like that they have got music for all the mazes this year!The mazes;Asylum; was very good this year, multiple scene changes and lively actors. It did seem to be lighter in the Asylum than previous years, however the actors still used the strobe lighting where possible to their ability! The maze this year felt much longer, whether it was or whether it was because I was at the front I don’t know but it was very good! I feel much improved on last year, with of course the chainsaw scene at the end! I did feel the Asylum although has the best throughput of the mazes with 12 per group, could be significantly increased if Thorpe Park decided to let you go in like they do at port aventura! This means about 20 people are allowed in but they are slightly staggered before going in! Queue time 30 minutes which was up to the back of the zig zags of the old attraction queue. (Infrequent fastrack)The curse; was ok nothing changed apart from brighter lighting at the beginning which meant some groups saw the exit signs and therefore thought that was the exit to the attraction! Not many actors in the curse this year and didn’t use the space to the best of their abilities. Queue time 30 minutes, which was half the queue, used which means each zig takes 10 minutes. (With infrequent fastrack)Se7en; once again nothing was changed apart from a few add on, enough actors but I feel the scene that the groups get lost in because you can’t find the right door, should be put at the end of the attraction because 2-3 groups all get stuck in the one room then it ruins it for everyone! Queue time 40 minutes which was a little under half the queue, so each zig zag will take about 5 minutes (medium fastrack) Saw alive; the usual however it had more actors and more stories in, throughput had been reduced because they were only letting 8 per group in to maximise the mazes potential! Queue time 20 minutes which was half of the barbed wire queue. (Infrequent fastarck)Experiment 10;One of the best horror mazes I have been in for intensity and confusion, congratulations Thorpe Park, what a maze! The queue line is situated in the arena and has blooded metal containers, with occasional bashing of the containers from inside, which causes great tension! While queuing staff offer out wristbands with experiment 10 wristbands to random people in the queue, this has a purpose but I won’t spoil the surprise! The attraction audio is fantastic with frequent tannoy announcements such as ‘experiment 10 is now in progress’ this really helps build up the tension before entering! There are also roaming doctors and disinfectant actors roaming the queue, all of which add to the atmosphere. The batching is very slow, and with fastrack will make the queue very slow! We waited 30 minutes before it opened and it still took us 20 minutes to queue and that was 3 zig zag queues! Which I can warn you is not much! That was with infrequent fastrack, so go on this first! You will not be disappointed! I was very proud of this attraction! Which uses simple but effective methods? Overall; the park was not decorated and was very disappointing however the mazes did not disappoint, the only added entertainment were roaming actors including psychotic clowns. The park was very busy and saw and stealth had 90 minute queue, luckily the mazes were not as busy, which was a big difference to last year’s fright night visit which all rides were walk on! I can see experiment 10 having 3 hours + during half term because of its slow throughput! However I would not like to see it rushed! Once again Thorpe Park oversold fastrack on multiple rides because they were selling them at the entrance! Stealth was a joke and took 90 minutes for what is a 30 minute queue normally due to the fastrack! Most of the time the loading bays was empty when ready to load because the staff member had to keep checking fastrack!

I am expecting thorpe park to be medium busy this saturday! I was just wondering what time do the mazes open this year? Is it 4 or 5? thanks! I am guessing its best to go on experiment 10 and asylum first then the other 2 you can do nearly anytime because there usually quieter because of there situation!

If I had controll over thorpe park right now my first and main thing to do would be this;Demolish the existing entance and kiosks to the park, and replace them with a clinical, Concert style structure, I.e. Metalic metal, creating a stage looking entrance including electricly produced signs and on boths sides of the entrance, there would be large concert style screens and speakers! Dishing out the top 20 music throughout the morning, then again in the evening! It would also include minor stage lighting to enhance the begining and ending expereince! This would help add excitment to the park and keep in with the Target audience and 'theme'It may seem hard to follow but something like the o2 arena entrance, would fit the sort of thing I would be looking at! It would also include entrances for General admission, annual pass holders, disabled guests and a new one of mine fastrack entrance! Fastrack entrance would mean people would pay a small fee to gain entry to the park before everyone else, so they can choose the ride they want to get on first! Much like they do at concerts!

I am very excited, now. After the Swarm site has been put into action properly! Can't complain about a competition! But it never seems to be any of us that win the first ride! shame!

I went on the second weekend on Saturday, and it was so quiet, I rode most mazes more than once and all rides more than once! To top it all off we didnt even enter the park untill gone 2, so it really will be quite for the first 2 weekends but then after that it will just be 2 hour queue 3 hours queue etc!!!

I would like to see some smoke and war sounds across the bridge during fright nights, next to the swarm tank advertising! That would set the scene quite nicely and advertise the new ride! Maybe with a few actors dressed as soliders or war victims across the bridge!

The tents are not an issue they just need something to fit in with Halloween, I.e. camoflauge netting, fishing netts etc! Its does not coast the earth, but besides that I don't care all I need say is London Dungeon or London Bridge expereince! Because nothing says scary like the underground trains, and kebab shop! On my previous point I wan't to make it very clear to you it will be like saw alive at the very beggining, probably very inconsistent for the first few nights after that all actors will have done there rotor and are ready to scare! So I recon the second weekend would be the best time to go because they will still be very fresh and at there peak! Whereas when you get into half term they will be slightly tiered and MAYBE not giving there full performance, Like I see occasionly on Saw Alive, sometimes lively actors and other not!Trust me I know sheepie does these mazes and I have had expereince during Halloween itself, turning my house facade and garden into a terror zone! And to a much better standard than thorpe park achieved!

They have dressed the Tents up because they are meant to be white ghosts! But yeah its just called being cheap because its not expensive to get a bit of draping at least! Also thorpe park are doing a preview for Annual pass holders just like Alton towers BUT why do you wan't to go to that all you are going to be is a guinea pig for the actors to get practice! If you think you are going to go to the preview then write a damnning report about your expereince, I shall shoot you! It takes a while for the actor to get used to groups and the area around them, So to be honest your going to get a very lack luster performance! Unless you are lucky and you could get the complete opposite, a very enthusiastic group of actors, but I highly doubt it!

There was a staff member called Katie working on Rita two days ago, and she was the ultimate in what an Alton towers staff member should be, she was openly speaking to guests and happy to talk about what she wants to do in the future of ALTON TOWERS, she wanted to progress and thats what I feel Alton towers need and if they are not carefull they will lose someone like her, she thoroughly deserves to be in a higher position than ride attendant!

I got back from a fantastic trip from Thorpe park yesterday, I never thought I could get on so much in August! we got on everthing, from stealth to ranger county's railway by 3:30!! Which was amazing, the queues were so short, the longest queue was for Colossus at 50 minutes, the reason for this was because thorpe park had only sold a few fastrack, its amazing how fast a queue can move without fastrackers ruining the day! Anyway what I really wanted to say was a staff member callled 'Oli' or 'Ole' I can't remember who was working on Rush for the morning then on Saw the ride in the evening! He did such a good job at batching people of Rush and made the queue move like clockwork, like I have never seen before on Rush! I didn't even realise rush could be batched that fast! He organsied fastrack correctly and made sure every avaliable seat was filled! Infact many of the staff yesterday were friendly and fast batchers, maybe its the feeling of not having to deal with the main queue, fastrack and disabled! What a day though and thanks to the staff the queues were short which enabled me to ride stealth three times and half the park twice! Thank you thorpe park staff especially 'Ole' who made a big impression on me! If you don't know the name you will know what he looks like! Simply if I say Tinie Tempha!

I love the new X, its a ride I have always liked but always felt it needed to have disco lighting and loud music! And they are now on the right track, but I think X should be converted into a nightclub style ride with the music much much louder! At the moment they only have one area of disco lights and they really need a few more, so good on thorpe park for now making x better than it was, but they still have a long way to go, especially in the queue! I must say, a few need to stop moaning about the lack of story or theme! Look around you next visit! The only rides with a level of actual theme is stealth, saw, Colossus, tidal wave and Nemesis, alot of the flat rides are complete randoms! So just take a breather guys, I am sure thorpe park will increase X's potential! If they don't I will get a job there and do it myself!

Calm down everyone, its early days in this project, so we need to stop all these wonderful concepts you all have of the ride! Because the way it is going you will all eventually have a ride that will never reach your expectations! I as much as the next person want it to be as good as the promos and plans etc show! But we cannot count on it, the only banker we have is that it will be a B&M wingrider with hopefully some good levels of theming! We need to stop the thoughts of this years frightnights to be involved, look at what they did with saw back when it was being constructed! Nothing! So lets keep our fingers crossed and have some patients for spring 2012! But its all looking good for a very good ride for the UK theme park Industry, It seems as though Merlin are not slowing down!

Dark inside station and queueline with minor theming of destruction! But the main queueline will consist of a bin another bin and maybe a giant metal ride station building! I honestly don't expect much more from that side of the ride, but from the plans I do hope they stick to the area theming very heavily, I would also hope there to be an actual storyline involved whilst queuing!

I personally think, that where the extra attractions are situated, most normal guests will bypass the hotels/waterpark! I have been to alton towers over 20 times but I have only seen the hotel twice, and that was at scarefest, to do the mazes! There is no indication outside to tell you what there is, can you come in if you are general public etc. So I feel the map is a good idea, but it is a very confusing map.One way to get people to see the hotel and waterpark is to have offers around the park for the waterpark, I.e. 20% off adult entry when you buy a meal at pizza and pasta buffet etc!Yes there is a waterpark, but Alton do not make a song and dance about it, there surley can't be enough hotel guests going in it to make it worth while! Its a shame in a way they don't make you enter the car park via going up to the hotel and back down to the car park, it would give a good bit of advertsing, its a beatutiful hotel and it should be seen by the masses!

I don't know why they didnt do this outside, next to stealth because you could have had stealth going whilst the music is pumping and the lights shinging on the crowd and on the track! It seems crazy to only let under 18's in though if they dropped that I recon it would be a great sucsess!

I knew they would do this! I said to my family they should do a nightclub event, because it fits in nicely with the General public of Thorpe park. The only difference that I thought to what has acutally been achieved was, I felt it would be held in Amity cove in the stealth area, that way they could have had a title along the lines of 'rockin coasters' or someting like that!I think its a good idea but once again annual passholders are not 'invited' (you can do if you spend £10) But I still like the idea but Thorpe will probably oversell by alot, and I can't see everyone fitting into the dome!

I have to point out that my family each have a different renewal date because I am in April my Dad is in June and my Mum is in November. Making it a tricky year for us! I don't know why my dad does not get it posted off and get the pass sent in the post, but he does not feel that works, anyone tried this before?I just wish to clear my main point that is, thorpe park do not have a good system for getting you 'in' the park! I don't see why they don't have annual pass booths/fastrack booths positioned around the park. It would make it easier for both me and Thorpe, they would not get the rush of people all at once and would mean that I could get on the rides alot quicker. Thorpe park surely you can simply give me a ticket like Chessington do?Just wish to confirm, I do not blame staff for the problem and I am not slaging thorpe park off, I am simply seeing it how it was when I went. I don't want to be causing a civil cyber war!

Oh trust me I was there alot longer than 5 minutes, it was a figure of speech!I don't give complaint about how the staff work, They work bloody hard USUALLY all the time, I am talking about the system that was run.Unlike Chessington, Thorpe make you get your Annual pass at the entrance with the 200 other AP collectors, meaning you waste 2 hours of your lifetime getting your very expensive annual pass, whereas chessington let you have a ticket in seconds, so you can enter the park enjoy a few rides and when you feel like it during the day you can go to the 'extra' adventures and collect your annual pass. Thorpe park in the past have never got it right because whenever its busy at the AP booth they will do the same as Chessington but only after you have been waiting over an hour and a half.Just to point out I now do find Chessington much better to thorpe park, no matter how bitter that may seem to some on this forum, the past few visits I have had have knocked Thorpe park SO far down! Before you know it they will be selling Fastrack for the AP collection!

The staff are so lovely at Chessington, friendly polite and customer friendly! I love chessington because it feels like a proper good old fashioned day out, Like the good old days! The way they organise the grass car park is fantastic, easy and quick to escape from!