Coaster

The scare zone was a good attraction for people who don't like to be as scared though. For example my younger brother went in that as a build up to the mazes, which, after enjoying the scare zone, he went in. It was also nice to see all the old thorpe park stuff.

^ I agree that the National needs a repaint, however that doesn't stop it being a brilliant ride! I do get what your saying though and I think that Grand National should be the next ride on their list to receive a spruce up. As for the Space Invader Building, it has been adopted into a pizza kitchen and the facade has been covered up.

There are theme park games but I've seen it all now...

Regarding the dark rides, admittedly Alice is hilarious but the others are great! River caves and the Ghost train are classics which are brilliant in their own right. Valhalla and Wallace and Gromit are of top quality, beating most (if not all) UK dark rides.You say the TLC is a recent thing, well yes it is but it has made all the difference between how the park looks now to how it looked 5 or so years ago. Beaver Creek was bad, so they changed it! Nick Land it is brilliant and once again looks really modern. Pleasure Beach manages to keep classic attractions while keeping them looking stylish rather than neglected. They are all well looked after and still run brilliantly after all these years. Regarding all classic rides, they need to remove some so they can move on. The Whip was replaced with the most stylish dodgems I have ever seen. (I think they should have kept Noah's Ark open though). Also, for a family owned park to be able to pay for the upkeep of all these classic rides is amazing, but you can't expect them to keep all of them. They cost much more to maintain than modern rides.

Looks quite forceless in that video, but I'm sure it will speed up with the addition of people and proper wheels etc...

Pleasure Beach is in no way whatsoever tacky! The park is in far better condition than any other park in England - you can clearly see that care goes in to keeping all the rides not only running, but looking their absolute best. The woodies, whilst old are brilliant rides and top the experiences of a lot of steel coasters. That sets Pleasure Beach apart for me - they are prepared to keep classic attractions, which are brilliant. Not to mention that have the best collection of dark rides of any park in England - and they are all of top quality. The park is quite the opposite of tacky! The ticket centre being a perfect example of this - it is very grand and posh. The park and rides are constantly receiving TLC - whilst not necessary it makes the park look cared for and very "in with the now" - this is where the Merlin parks fail because they do not fix what isn't broken (and when they do it looks awful again within a few weeks because they don't clean/maintain it). So yeah, what you are saying is completely false. If you get the chance to visit, go for it!

They have installed quite a lot over the past few years! They have a brilliant new dark ride this year, which while not being a thrill ride caters for everyone and is of a very high standard. Referring to the title of this topic, the Pleasure Beach is now a much nicer place to be in than any other park in England. Security is high, the park looks really good and areas which were previously in need of a lot of TLC have now got that and look fantastic! It speaks volumes about how much passion the Thompson's must have for the park when they are prepared to spend millions replacing the facade of Valhalla to look better than it did when it opened, and repainting the Revolution which now looks brand new. (Not to mention the ongoing refurbishment work on Steeplechase's station). I'm sure the time will come for them to install more thrill rides, although as it stands at the moment they still outrank most other UK parks coaster wise (and most of the coasters there are thrilling).

Oblivion for me, but I haven't yet ridden The Smiler.

It could be Vengeance! (Very unlikely although it is onsite isn't it?)

Much better idea than fumbling around with those seatbelts!

But I've seen several occasions with an almost walk on queue advertised as around 45 minutes with someone stood outside the ride selling fastrack (they must be well aware that the queue is shorter than advertised given that it is just behind them). This happens on Saw mostly but I've seen it on Swarm.

They advertise shorter queues to increase fastrack sales! Which is disgusting.

That's part of the fun! They hold it at the top occasionally to add in an extra element of fear.(Not that I am disputing the fact that ride operation at the park is poor this year, because it is).

This isn't good. I really hope that they refurb it or bring in a new topspin because it is a valued attraction in the park and is the only true thrill seeker ride. It's also a brilliant flat ride (although it does have some haters).

1. Open 2. 180 minutes 3. 4 trains

^ Banned for missing someone out again

Banned for not having to wait until October to get corrected

Banned for ending the confusing tagline...

They need to close it for a few weeks and sort out all the problems rather than making people think it's open only to turn up finding that it is closed. (Because let's face it, they don't exactly go out of their way to inform people about it's closure).

Why are people hating on The Flume? It's the best Merlin log flume by far (bar Tidal Wave), and at the moment the only intact one!

^ I thought that after one ride but after a few I realized that it was just "new factor" and I much preferred it as X:/ No Way Out.

It is a complete farce. I don't know what Thorpe were thinking creating a very complicated queue system when the staff aren't even capable of managing a normal one.

The mazes are in desperate need of some triggered anamatronic effects. They are much scarier than actors as quite often they go unnoticed until they are triggered. Asylum in particular should have a few of these, they would fit in really well with the strobes. The mazes also need to be much louder. Last year the sirens in Asylum were much quieter than in previous years and it took away the atmosphere somewhat. They need to be deafening, to the point that actually scares you rather than just thinking "oh there's a nice siren sound effect in the background".

That's a good feature and one that I think all parks should have

Has anyone been to Thorpe on a weekday in the past few weeks? If so, how busy was it? And do they make an effort? (Like running two trains on rides efficiently etc...) (I am visiting on a weekday next week and would like to know what to expect). Help much appreciated!