Dodge2002

I can usually overlook Thorpe's DIY marketing style, but that video in particular was completely cringe worthy. Kind of makes you appreciate the fact that the scare actors don't actually "act". On the subject of Fright Nights forgetting about the family market, I don't see why its an issue. HHN doesn't market itself at kids even though Universal studios is a family oriented theme park, and that's never worked against them. Merlin have to look bigger picture too. With events popping up left right and center in the UK recently they need to stay competitive, and Thorpe is the only park in their estate which is solely focused on scares. The Towers could potentially dabble, but you're hardly gonna see Sealife or legoland competing for that patch of territory.

The last true conga line maze they added was Saw. The passing they didn't really care about you splitting up after the tunnel, and with X10 obviously they encouraged splitting up. It would be interesting to know the true ideology behind free roaming vs conga line, and why it remains in place for Saw.

I'm glad they bought the ribcage challenge back, it was pretty funny watching the director and his assistant stand there heckling the challenger. They should move it to the dome though.

After visiting yesterday, the only thing that preyed on my mind was how on earth does this event work in Thorpe's favour? Don't get me wrong, it was a great event and I loved it, but surely they're not even breaking even with gate tickets and merchandise weighed against staffing and running costs? Anyone care to shed some light?

Thorpe just posted their first Teaser on their facebook! Nothing interesting, but it does put it into perspective how close we are to that time of year!

I'd say its still a pretty big deal, Coke are a multi billion company, why choose thorpe park of all places to trial a new product? I had no idea Merlin and Coke were so close with each other.

I'm interested to see what they'll do with TBWP. One thing you can't fault Thorpe on, is that In the past Thorpe have generally been very receptive to negative feedback, so I'm certain they won't leave it as it is.

Haha they don't mention anything about BWP being on there though for overnight attraction. No idea how it even made it onto that list

At the end of the day, at least we KNOW this is gonna end up being demolished in a few years when the real hotel gets built. It's not like we're stuck with it like Storm Surge.

Take your nostalgia all you want, but that music really does not suit current day Thorpe park at all...

This area isn't supposed to appeal to us. It's supposed to appeal to children. Do you have any idea how much just the sight of some dodgems can light up a child's eyes? Just because its not for adults, doesn't mean you have to get all in a huff and spend all day insulting it. Contrary to popular belief, Merlin aren't actually made of money, and considering it was only a small investment year, on top of the fact they've just built another temporary hotel, they've actually done a lot with the little money they have. Liken it to Phantasialand and even Disney all you like, but the UK target audience will lap this up. Do you really think they give a toss about some dodgy signage? The sooner you get over that, the sooner you can enjoy it for what it is.

You would have though they would've learned their lesson about prospectively advertising attractions before their release date has passed, after the Smiler, but nope...

It seems like anything that Thorpe add that doesn't fall in to the cliche of all things theme park, it instantly makes it a write off. There is more than one way to create escapism, and at the moment, their target of becoming a modern, sleek park is probably the most creative thing going on in the industry right now. Yeah, things like this aren't exactly top class, but the park is HUGE. You can't just reinvent the park overnight. The crooked foundations run far too deep. Merlin are clearly actually investing some money and interest into changing their ways, but it's gonna take time for changes like this to make sense in the bigger picture, in my opinion.

Let's hope the text is actually legible on this screen, unlike the boards currently up in the park.

I think you have to keep in mind that the ride does still have to appeal to people that haven't seen the movie. Make the traps too specific and people will end up confused. A lot of people that haven't seen the movie are under the impression that the mannequins are supposed to represent real bodies. In my opinion this is why Saw Alive is so under appreciated. In reality if its one of the most impressively themed attractions in the country, Easily. And while the cagey acting didn't help, I think the lack of context for people who hadn't seen the film really confused people and caused a lot of disinterest. There's no way in hell you can call Saw Alive's theming generic, so its not like they just couldn't be bothered or anything...

For the record, they've followed through with fixing the ear splitting lift conveyer squeek, it's leaking even more than usual now though....

They haven't even put the signage back up for Slammer either. It's weird they decided to print it on the map. If they're going to reprint it in 2 months for Angry Birds they may as well have just omitted it, unless of course they expect it to open sooner rather than later

I don't think onboard audio would suit in my opinion. Its always so tinny and never has any bass behind it. I personally like the current setup as it echoes a lot and gives a real club vibe. I do worry about how loud they're blasting music out of those speakers though as I guarantee they aren't designed to be doing that. It'll only be a matter of time before they blow.

I don't understand why an IP has to be current to be worthwhile. Universal essentially an entire park based on dead IPs. Angry birds will pull in a HUGE number of young family based on the name alone, for the next few years. I don't particularly agree with the ethics because Rovio are massive sellouts and have literally milked the brand dry, that said, who am I to complain with what the public want? What's more interesting to me, however, is how late into the season its opening. It would lead me to think maybe their Plan A fell through for this year, and they've fallen back to Plan B...

Seems geared towards pushing Annual passes to me. I can only assume this means they're bringing back the season pass?

Its amazing what a difference you can make by changing the name of something. The Waterfront Hotel sounds so classy....

You could very much argue the same about the Saw franchise too. How could you possibly translate a man going around and putting people who have been dishonest in life into gruesome traps and relate that into a roller coaster. Aside from the odd scene, the ride has just a fraction of actual relation to the film, yet the IP carries it a long way. They managed to do a hell of a lot considering most of the films take place in an abandoned warehouse, and rarely stray away from that. You could then argue that about any ride, Indiana Jones at DLRP for example, really has little to do with the film, the IP is just tacked on for the general public's pleasure. If I were working at Merlin head office right now, I would not be able to get my head around 2012's attendance after seemingly ticking all the boxes for success. Saw didn't cost any more than The Swarm, but the difference in attendance seems too noticeable to ignore. I'm just putting this forward from Merlin's point of view too, rather than the general public. They are the ones in control, after all...

Just stumbled across this. http://www.themeparktourist.com/news/20131111/15015/hunger-games-theme-park-works It may seem a bit "out there", however it makes a lot of sense from a business point of view. Saw attracted, and still attracts thousands of people due to its brand name compared to the lackluster performance from The SWARM, Lionsgate are evidently quite chummy with Merlin right now, and trust them with their IPs. And the article also rules out that its not necessarily an American park after the IP - how many other parks outside the US would really have the budget, and popularity to pull this off? At the very least, it could certainly end up being a new Fright Nights attraction for sure. It all seems a tad coincidental in my opinion...

The charge probably wouldn't be as insulting, were it not for the fact you get the choice of an uneven gravel pit, or swamped grassland to park on 90% of the time. And then just to rub salt in the wound, a 30 minute queue to find your way out of a completely ill-thought out exit route, as you encounter 20 lanes that must merge into 4, with no staff assistance.

The thing that annoys be about MBV is that when you look at the physical fastrack queuline fencing, its clearly designed to carry up to around a 40-50 minute long queue, so they clearly knew it was going to happen. Again, Inferno has had extra fences put up outside the fastrack merge over Halloween, because they know they're going to be overselling it. Its misrepresentation, and as far as I'm concerned, its now in the hands of trading standards to define whether or not 50 minutes is considered "a short period of time". Because Thorpe Park certainly seem to think it is, and after going through all the necessary steps and not seeing any changes made, I'm personally getting a little sick of them being able to lie to customers and continue profiting from it.