alexander

I went on the BTS tour of the park today. Great tour it should be said; it was headed up by Russ, who is a fantastic speaker.
 
I did mean to ask about the screen, but honestly forgot. It does seem like it won't be fixed for start of season (I believe the park said this in the passholder group a few weeks back too). A real shame. Hopefully they can hide the dead pixels with whatever they put on the screen.
 
Okay, now time for some updates. Everything is still a Work in Progress it should be stressed
 
Toilets
Loo enthusiasts rejoice. All the toilets have received some love.

Swarm toilets. The walls have been painted green (originally white), and no more foot pedal sinks
 


Megastore toilets are nicely themed
 
Tidal Wave

The rebuilt bridge, with the original Pier 13 style.
The fire effect is proving very tricky to implement, but is being planned still
 
Big Easy Boulevard



 
Stealth




 
Colossus

The park have released that the entrance is a bit flat, and so are looking to add more colour/depth to it, although this will happen mid-season.

The shop front looks nice.
 
In terms of the rest of the repaint, and indeed a Sparkle Project continuation, the park hope to do that either next closed season, or the closed season after. The park want to do it regardless, and recognise they need to keep up appearances - literally - now that they've started to do this. Personally, I hope it happens next closed season, as it does look a little jarring in places.
 
The park is looking lovely though, with the Hyperia area coming along and looking smart. There's other small updates too, such as KFC getting refitted and other new food places. Some parts of the park are still a bit tired looking / haven't really been touched. Rumba/Inferno is the big example I would say. And the Sparkling up does highlight how tatty some parts of that area, and the likes of Swarm and Saw, look. I do wonder if this means that, come opening, some enthusiasts will focus too much on those and not the fab stuff that we've seen heavily documented and shouted out about.
 
But yes, it's clear to see the park have put time, effort and money into things this winter, and they're taking strides in the right direction. I'm excited to see what will happen and hope their plans pay off!

Sparkle Project update here, courtesy of Jack Silkstone's Twitter - lovely to see an easter egg of a mini replica of the Swarm station being installed outside Tidal Wave 🤩

Wish granted.
 

Let's hope this happens more than once like every other similar project akin to this at other parks.
 
Reverting back to old Samurai colours is a choice.
 
 
That's capitalism for you. And why half the infrastructure in the country is in the state it is.

Gonna avoid spoliers as going next Friday, but from posts from earlier today, I just find it absolutely bonkers that on the day of the press night, they are still setting up during the day, including painting fences, putting up signage, finishing stages etc. Same every year. Will no one think of the cast of Love Island Series 3? 

Not once did D.M.K mention crowds or the park being busy as a source of disappointment. All the issues raised were operational and customer services ones completely in the parks control.

It’s quite ambitious I know and I’m hoping to cram it all into this time frame.
 
So far I’ve only managed a trip to the Post Office and my local takeaway.

I'm developing slight envy for your future 2021 plans. I've just about just made it to a Lidl thus far.

That day I saw you Samurai was running RIDICULOUSLY. I was expecting it's half assed cycle but that was a big fat nope! It was the best ride on Samurai I've had from memory. Honestly insane.
 

I need to relive this in person because it's just so satisfying.
 
Glad you had a great trip Mark! I'm hoping to go back maybe this year or 2021 but guess we'll see...

Take the queue times with a pinch of salt! If it says 60, it's probably less which I found with my experience the other week.
 
Bag checking and temperature check was really seamless. Took no time at all.
 
Go to Nemesis Inferno or Colossus first!
 
Have a lovely day!

I need to relive this in person because it's just so satisfying.
 
Glad you had a great trip Mark! I'm hoping to go back maybe this year or 2021 but guess we'll see...

Taken me a week to process my thoughts on my trip. As it was supposed to be my honey moon, we decided to make money no object and just kind of went for it. 
 
- Virtual queuing. I guess they must have changed it as both virtual queuing and stand by queues were in use. I can see this being a precursor to some kind of fastrack system becoming permanent as that is essentially what we used it for. The numbers using the system were incredibly low though, the only ride it went quickly for is Wodan. Wodan in particular was the busiest ride on park everyday with 40 minute queues a regular feature.
 
- Blue Fire and its new sponsor are fine. I can see why they altered the queue completely although it seems rather more permanent then a social distancing measure. The new Blue Fire cafe area had its own separate queue although wasn't open at all on our visit.
 
- Snorri Tourren is incredible. How this little dark ride must have had, what a year in development for them to build this charming little ride into a previously vacant area is amazing. The work they've done with Scandanavia is also top notch. 
 
- Pirates in Batavia was great. It was the busiest I've ever seen it, fair enough as its the new ride. They've done a great job and if I was fluent in German, I bet all the animatronics and dialogue is top notch too. Over the three days we were there, Koffie Koppies went from being the normal teacup attraction, to its halloween equivalent.
 
- Silver Star. I didn't use to be the biggest fan of Silver Star. I don't know if its because I'm getting older or if Silver Star has fundamentally changed (it does have magnetic breaks now for example) but I'm getting more and more out of it. It has so much air time through-out its course and it caught me by surprise several times. Part of me wants to go and get back on Shambhala.
 
- Social Distancing. Ok the big one. Germans are excellent at social distancing. They are also excellent at wearing masks. This is true across the theme park and on their train networks where no one was wearing face masks incorrectly or deliberately getting close to others. The only thing that felt weird in this pandemic world is that they load full trains on Silver Star, Atlantica Supersplash and Arthur. I felt uneasy at first on Silver Star in particular as there's not much room between the person next to you and yourself. After a few rides I was over it. It's just weird as I've been riding Nemesis half empty for all my visits and yet every train in Europa Park is at maximum capacity. It's one to look out for if you feel uneasy.
 
- I really enjoyed Rulantica and I traditionally dislike water parks. It has a lot to do and variation which is key. Also appreciated the pool side bars.
 
- Stayed at Bell Rock and Kronosar. I love Kronosar and its setting. it's only drawback being so far away from Europa Park. It has that fun theme park hotel feel that I absolutely adore. I would much rather stay at official hotels these days than drive around to random hotel in the middle of nowhere. 
 
Over the three days we got on over 100 rides. There are just so many attractions in the place that its hard not to rack up high ride counts, even without really trying. 

Its a bit hit/miss, the queues are about a hour during mid-day, though later on the day the queue times can be a bit bloated/exaggerated. Yesterday Stealth said 45 minutes when it was about 10 minutes. And it still said 45 when it was walk on for a fair while. Swarm is similar, it said 70 minutes when it was 20. Honestly I recommend not 100% trusting the reported queue times, especially in the afternoon. Though in the morning you may have to queue for a while for the major rides, especially Saw, which seems to be closed more than its open..
 
So anyway I went on Wednesday/Thursday, stayed in Thorpe Shark for the first time. And overall, its a OK hotel. Me and my mate were a bit cramped in the room, I honestly don't think 3-4 people could stay in comfortably to be honest. Though its fine for what it is, I like having the dome next door, and the park and the water around it look very nice at night. I do wish Infinity had more options though to be fair on the food. Overall okay, but at the end of the day, it puts the B in budget.
 
Although rough around the edges I found Oktoberfest to be a good laugh. I really hope the event gets expanded on in the future. I like the new soundtracks on some of the rides, I really enjoyed the plaza which made a dead spot on the park feel alive. Overall it is not perfect by any means, but I think it has potential. I would like more food options in future years, and the roamers certainly need more direction and improvisation going forward if the event returned. That plaza near the Ghost Train was always fun to walk by, and I bet live music will only make it more of a nice place to chill and have a drink.
 
Ride-wise, Inferno and Stealth are still my favourite coasters. With Swarm as a kind of okay number 3. Saw is now my least favourite on the park. I find the ride to be just as painful as Colossus, but at least Colossus is open for most of the time. A slight breeze could shut down Saw down, its been a really bad season for it. Samurai is more reliable than it, that is pretty bad. On the upside, even though its not quite as brutal as it used to be, Samurai still manages to be pretty great fun as well as reliable. Easily up there with Detonator for best flat ride. Also got my first ride ever on Depth Charge, which is a brilliant water ride. Probably my favourite water ride on the park. 
 
Ride Count over the two days
Stealth X5
Inferno X3
Colossus X5
Saw X3
Swarm X3
Depth Charge X2
Tidal Wave X3
Samurai X3
Rumba X1
Storm in a Teacup X3
Mr Monkey's innuendo X1
Rocky Express X1
Long-stupid-name-for-bumper cars- X1
Zodiac X1
 
 
 

Very interesting insight into your wants and needs here gents.

For £10 I will expect to have a ball gag in my mouth, made to squeal like a pig and crawl around on all fours whilst being pushed about and then have a big fat man dressed as a baby put a custard pie in my face and throw straw at me #BigTopBraveItAlone #TheGoodOldDays #SharedBallGagNotCovidSecure

They've been a mixed bag really. It does seem to differ day-to-day frankly. However, I think on the whole, operations are better than they were 2-3 years ago. The cleaning procedures may close a ride down for 5-10 minutes once an hour or so, but you can be lucky and have it not affect your day at all (equally, you can be unlucky and notice it on every ride).
 
Queues look longer because of social distancing, so generally they may look bad but they're a bit more manageable.
 
If you're going on a school day, the park will be more than manageable tbh, with likelihood of re-rides quite easily. If you're going on a weekend, just being sensible enough should mean you'd get most things done. Equally though, there's the Oktoberfest event starting from 7th September - if it's similar to the Towers one, the weekends will have later closer times, which would help further (and potentially see the park quieten down).
 
tl;dr - operations will probably be okay compared to your last visit.

My first post back in over a year to check-in what Thorpe is doing. I held my breath, and this is what I see. A maze. Another maze.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Soz 4 my negativity xox
 
Anyways, I like black mirror a lot but I find this a rather bizarre choice of an IP as the episodes are generally stand-alone and there is no permanent cast as touched upon some other people in the posts. But, I'll be interested to see how this works when it eventually comes. Next year. 

Actually StevenVig I have a friend with a brother who is 28 and has autism and going on children's rides that he can fit in calms him and he finds it enjoyable. So there are people who go on children's rides as grown ups. 
 
And although I've never been one for creds it's a theme park forum for crying out loud so there's probably a large proportion on here who do! 🤦‍♂️

It features Merlin's favourite word:
 
eXPeRiENCeS

Black Mirror is an odd one IP wise, in not having a set structure or regular characters. It could mean anything so surely is just a name above the door? If this had had any creative input from Charlie Brooker, which in reality is the only real consistent which makes Black Mirror Black Mirror, they would clearly have been shouting about it from the off as it would be actually meaningful to the marketing.

Can't wait for sex education the experience xx
 
 

Regardless whether or not people are obviously using it, it's so embarrassing from one of the apparent industry leaders. Is this a school fete? The standards are honestly so painfully low when people are justifying it with "it's better than nothing!"

Regardless whether or not people are obviously using it, it's so embarrassing from one of the apparent industry leaders. Is this a school fete? The standards are honestly so painfully low when people are justifying it with "it's better than nothing!"

Only Thorpe Park ?