Coaster

Samurai was operating with two pods closed today, so only 15 seats in operation.

Tried the 10pm close today, not a great event in all honesty. Stealth was packed up for the day when we arrived at half past 6, with both trains in the transfer/maintenance bay and clearly no attempt at getting it open - appeared as if it had closed at 6pm as if it were a normal day. Derren Brown's Ghost Train, Rush, Detonator and Rumba (though I know that's due to lighting) were all closed well before 10pm. Also, what were the opening hours for the Living Nightmare Maze and Zombie Hunt supposed to be? As both were closed throughout the duration of the evening today. I'm all for these 10pm closes, but it isn't really a 10pm close if rides are closing throughout the evening, or even beforehand in some places. Not really what was advertised. Operations still need improvement, but did seem marginally better than on my last visit. Nemesis Inferno's mist was working which was nice.

Not sure if I'm remembering incorrectly, but I'm sure it used to go dark in the train carriage when the VR comes on? It was lit with all the boarding lights throughout the entire ride today, and the screens were blank rather than playing the news reports/displaying the Sub Core logo etc. Also I got an error screen on my headset, it kept glitching and we had to look at the Sub Core logo for about 5 minutes on the second half. Finally, the "live" scene is dire now especially considering it was the best part of the entire attraction in 2016! It's incredible how bad standards can fall on something that cost 30 million, but I do remember predicting it before it opened (to be ridiculed by some!)

Unless you own an annual pass and have to pay... Fright Nights is still fun but I used to find it outstanding, whereas it has lost its touch in recent years IMO.

Fright Nights lost its way a few years ago for me, my favourite year was 2011 but up until 2015 it was still a fun event. It seems that with the decision to go with Walking Dead as a year-round theme, there is little in the way of different offerings for October.

I like BPB but won't defend things I don't agree with, the same goes for any park. Their attitude to customer service is shocking as of late.

Having been made aware from someone who was on park today, they were running Icon on one train until the afternoon and the queue had by this point reached the entrance (meaning it would have taken about two hours). In addition to this, The Big One has been closed all weekend due to high winds. So, knowing already that their flagship ride was down, they run the new ride on one train and close two hours early? It amazes me that people are happy to defend BPB when they're shafting their guests like that. They should be going out of their way to provide good service this year with a new coaster open, but it's been a disaster in every sense.

It's no good for people who travel a long way to visit and base their visits from the opening hours; for example, I travel hours to visit so will choose times where the opening hours are more appealing. To lose 2 hours ride time with nothing offered in return is, for me, a complete no-go. Regarding staff, I hardly think that losing 2 hour's wages will improve morale - quite the opposite in fact. I've never known any other UK park operate like this.

I understand that BPB have once again taken the decision to close two hours earlier than advertised today, due to weather. Their attitude frankly stinks and they aren't deserving of increased gate figures when they show such disregard for the paying customer. They never ever learn.

Yeah it was good fun, nothing groundbreaking but it had a narrative at the start, some good strobe effects etc.

Oakwood was amazing last Wednesday, the park was on a 10pm close yet was very quiet, and there were no fireworks meaning the rides stayed open until (nearly) 10pm. Megafobia was belting round all day, securing its place well above Wicker Man (but still below the National and Mouse) in terms of my favourite wooden coasters. Speed and Drenched are both very good rides and still some of my favourite in the UK. Staff were very friendly and professional throughout the day, many of which I recognised from previous years. Bounce looks sad left there SBNO, seems to be a common theme across UK theme parks unfortunately. Spooky 3D was spookier than last year but still needs work. Creepy Crawler has a nice new anamatronic in the queue. The park and grounds were looking nice, it appears that a few areas have had some TLC/general aesthetic work which was good to see. Oakwood is genuinely one of my favourite parks; the setting is lovely, rides fantastic and it's amazing to visit on a quiet day. On a busy day however, it falls apart and I suspect the After Dark events will most likely be plagued with the same capacity issues as previous years. My advice is pick one of the 10pm closes before After Dark starts if you're looking for a decent ridecount. My ridecount for the day; Megafobia x28 Speed x10 Drenched x7 Creepy Crawler x3 Bobsleigh x2 Spooky 3D x2 Snake River Falls x2 Waterfall x1 Treetops x1 Tinkerbell's Flying School x1 Skull Rock x1 Pirate Ship x1 Moon Landing x1 Taxi x1 Boating Lake x1 Witch Hunt (horror maze) x2 TOTAL: 64 This is sad But this is AMAZING After possibly the best day at Oakwood since 2006/7, I'd highly recommend visiting.

Toverland looks lovely, very much looking forward to visiting later in the year - especially for the wooden coaster.

Make sure you go on Megafobia, it's outstanding.

Well that is impressive - Thorpe can't even do that, unless Angry Birds were around in Amity in the 60s!

Vortex isn't great though, you only ever face one way when it gets to full height. Eagle's Claw at LWV is much better, you get to face in every direction, the cycle is much longer and you get a faster spin at the end. Vortex isn't the worst example I have ridden, but it's second only to the broken one at PWH.

Is it sinking?

"Loggers Leap is currently closed for redevelopment, we hope for it to make a splash back soon!" - Thorpe Park, 2016 "We would never change the Colossus music, it's iconic!" Also Thorpe Park.

After a recent re-visit to LWV, The Ultimate has crept its way back into my top 10 (sorry Smiler!) Overall 1. Valhalla 2. The Big One 3. Wild Mouse 4. Grand National 5. Megafobia 6. Icon 7. Big Dipper 8. Wicker Man 9. Nemesis 10. The Ultimate Steel Coasters 1. The Big One 2. Icon 3. Nemesis 4. The Ultimate 5. The Smiler 6. Nemesis Inferno 7. Speed 8. Odyssey 9. Steeplechase 10. Revolution Wooden Coasters 1. Wild Mouse 2. Grand National 3. Megafobia 4. Big Dipper 5. Wicker Man 6. Roller Coaster (Great Yarmouth PB) 7. Nickelodeon Streak 8. Scenic Railway (Margate) 9. Blue Flyer 10. TBC (I haven't ridden 10 yet!)

STEEL *Bleep* CURTAIN? ? And people thought Icon was a poor name!

It's atrocious that they use TLC as a smokescreen to mothball rides, completely dishonest.

Maybe the rides department don't consciously run them slower (though in that case, why are they being run slower than a snail's pace?) but I can imagine a conversation in the marketing department going something along the lines of; "We're getting a lot of complaints about queue times" "Oh excellent, let's launch a £400 fastrack pass and make money out of the situation"

On my two visits this year, I was faced with constant downtime on the first and horrendously slow operations last weekend.

Thorpe are using their terrible operations to upsell terrible products like this, if their operations were anywhere near where they should be there would be no need for it... just one fast moving queue. If you don't visit very often you won't get value for money, and if you do visit often, why do you need fast pass for rides you will have already ridden numerous times? I have never seen ride staff look so disinterested, slow and generally careless at Thorpe than on my most recent visit; I don't think there was one instance where a train was dispatched before the other one was back, parked and waiting for at least a minute. Colossus's operations were outrageously bad, with dispatches taking around 7 minutes every single time... how can they have been allowed to slack that much?! They are neglecting their ride lineup, operations, park appearance; all in favour of IP's and quick cash-grabs such as the above. My advice? Use the money to go and ride Icon, which will most likely be running two/three trains with staff working quickly and professionally with a queue usually less than half an hour. You'll probably have a lot of money left over as well.

This is fantastic ?

I can't for the life of me work out why someone would want to pay £400 to skip the queues for a year at a single theme park? Like, if you have a season pass you can visit as many times as you like anyway? Fastrack is already oversold and under catered for (not even bothering to open the dedicated queuelines because it requires an extra member of staff etc), this will only make things worse. Does anyone remember the days when the rides all had a member of staff stood outside them? Now they won't even run Fastrack properly despite being all too happy to upsell it to guests. Obscene.