SteveJ

actually I did a behind the scenes tour last year when they were available and there isn’t very good ventilation in creepy caves, much worse than creek freak would have. I asked about it when I went this year was told they installed additional ventilation and filters to increase the level of airflow, filter the air and generally make it Covid secure.

There has to be ventilation wherever chainsaws are used and CO monitoring to shut down the maze if too much build up, so that sounds more likely the reason there were shutdowns.

Alton's mazes still have strong haze and narrow corridors, if haze too strong usually just opening a door for a few minutes would clear it.

I can't really imagine why the Creek Freak building would have a Covid ventilation problem worse than anywhere else, when it's a wooden shack rather than a stone basement, especially when chainsaw mazes usually require strong ventilation anyway (stronger than for Covid regulations)

Maybe there were other complications why it didn't open, or just different parks different approach
 

Might be overthinking things, a set in the ruins basement isn't too different from a set in a draughty wooden shack, probably the ruins basement would be less ventilated. Actually I'm not sure there's any substantial ventilation at all in any mazes Ive been to this year?

The Alton mazes still use thick haze this year. Even before Covid I'd not heard of a maze ever needing to actually shut down because of haze too thick. Usually smoke would just get turned down/off and left to dissipate a bit if it got too much.

So maybe it's a case of Thorpe being over-precautious and Alton being more pragmatic about their maze H&S. They are two separate parks with separate H&S departments after all and probably just received general advice from above. OR Thorpe have other reasons (Covid related or not) why Creek Freak didn't open this year.

I thought Tomb Blaster was meant to have had a refurb?!
 
I rode it on Sunday and...
 
- Axe alley was just pitch black, couldn't see anything
 
- Boulder totally broken and not even spinning
 
- Half the scenes just pitch dark
 
- Voiced audio was overdone and inaudible for the most part
 
The only improvement was uplighting in the very first scene and decent new lighting on the mummy scare at the end.  Everything else just felt broken and disjointed.

The huge overhaul of the audio systems across the park seems to be continuing. Many new speakers that had been fitted over closed season have been connected and are working (for instance on the balcony overlooking the park when you come out of the dome, and there is now audio again on the climb up the volcano on Inferno, don't remember those speakers working for years prior).
 
Volume levels seem to be different in many areas every time I visit, showing they're experimenting a little to find the best levels in various places. For example the audio around Stealth's plaza and queue is so quiet at the moment it's pretty much inaudible, but Angry Birds Land and Storm Surge have had their annoying soundtracks cranked up.
 
Many areas (e.g. the entrance plaza, Colossus & Lost City, Swarm Island, Inferno & Jungle) that used to sound pretty meh now sound amazing.

I rode Duel today, I am a huge fan of this ride. I always make a point of riding it on every visit, even after the refurb I liked it. 
This year, holy crap. It sucks now. Rooms are target-less, half of the targets seem to be missing or broken. The music was pretty quiet, the ride had a ton of light areas that didn't used to be light, I actually felt bored. It feels lifeless. I'm not sure what happened. I loved duel and now I find it a snoozefest. 
Awful

I'm glad the ride has reopened since lockdown, so that fans can go see for themselves how outstandingly awful the 'new' Tomb Blaster is rather than believe all the social media hype that went on back in spring.

Yeah Tomb Blaster sucks now, I really hope its the next victim of Chessington's vicious assault to refurbish/retheme/replace every aging ride at the park.

Jesus Christ this updated version of Tomb Blaster is terrible. Where to start...
 
1. Shoehorning in a story by having a weird voice say things in scenes adds nothing. I didn't get what the story was as half the time I was focusing on shooting.
2. Turning targets off and not removing them is poor. Having a shooting / interactive dark ride have scenes take place in darkness with a voiceover is even poorer.
3. Where's the audio?! Portions of the ride are in silence or literally just have the voice over. Dark rides should have some sort of background audio at the very least imo
4. The lighting is...okay? Quite a few scenes are lit up too brightly I'd say.
5. The "ending" is bloody dreadful, and again just shoehorned in.
6. Still don't like the new guns (I'm not a fan of those types of guns in general though).
 
The only positive I can say about Tomb Blaster is the fact that you are batched into the building now, which adds a sense of wonder and excitement to entering it (as opposed to just queueing normally through it). But I fully expect that that's just a Covid measure.
 
When the best thing about an updated ride is it's Covid measures, you know you've done something wrong.

You're confusing marketing and promotion. The promotion was good, as you said in the first paragraph. The overall marketing of the attraction (e.g. its brand, who it was aimed at vs the nature of the experience) was what killed it.
 
The ride was positioned by marketing as a high-intensity thrill ride comparable to Saw, when in reality its super floaty and hella boring and probably the 'tamest' of the big 5. It should've had a lighter-tone theme and been pushed as a less intimidating ride, something to introduce new riders to the bigger thrills of the other coasters, giving it the approachability it warrants. This would've been especially useful as the park seems to lack from an outside perspective an 'in-between' coaster. More thrilling than X and Fish, but not as intense as Saw, Inferno and Stealth. 

Two seasons on and I think Wicker Man has embedded itself as one of Alton's best coasters. At first it may have been the novelty of a wooden coaster at the park but now, it's up there with Nemesis and The Smiler for me. it was running very well at the weekend.

I have said this time and time again. A fan forum will almost certainly reflect the current state of what it is dedicated to which in this case is Thorpe Park.
 
If Thorpe Park was performing and delivering to its potential, this forum would reflect that with members getting real excited about the place.
 
As it is, the park has been a shadow of its old self for a few years now to the point where many who once loved it are now staying away as they are fed up. So ofcourse this forum reflects that.
 
It would be nice to see positivity.....but when the park is leaving little to find positives in, its hardly surprising that you see more constructive criticism on here

All the random fanpages using these allegations to plug their brand with empty "In light of recent events we would like to say..." posts is pretty sad. If people want to support others, use your platforms to retweet or share the stories themselves, comment support on the stories. Or post if you actually have something genuine to add, like some perspective, experience or if you were involved with the people the allegations are about.

I've seen more fanpages doing these empty gestures on Twitter than the actual allegations. "We at Theme Park World Attraction Guide Podcast are shocked by the allegations" well thank goodness for that, problem solved then.

On the whole, there has been a lot of real support from theme park  fans which is great to see.

This looks awful.  The Dome always looked amazing as "Port Atlantis", now it just looks run-down.
 
Why would they remove all that fantastic theming and leave it looking so dull and bland?  Unless it was dangerous or falling down, I can't understand it.
 
See this parallels with what's happened at PB over the last 5/10 years, removal of theming and "fun" features in favour of a bland, corporate look.

I swear just before the 2019 season started we were told through another one of Sickstone’s pre-season videos that the Dome’s interior was going to be be completed in two “phases”; presumably the first part ripping out the old Atlantis theming early last year, and for 2020 by modernising the interior?
 

 
Yeeeeaaaahhhhh, something tells me that idea might have been scrapped. So we are now permanently left with a poor man’s version of the Alton Towers Dungeon - black walls galore.

Interesting to see a vlogger concerned that rides weren't testing during their 30min walk down Monks, park therefore must be far behind Alton Towers in terms of readiness for July 4th.

Left without further comment...
 
 

Yes, I see what you're saying. However, from some people I've spoken to, they've said that they either didn't join forums because they found the prospect intimidating, or didn't participate much after joining because they felt intimidated by the idea of a male-dominated forum. 
 
I don't want to make a generalization there, but it's definitely a trend I've noticed from people I've spoken to. 

You say that but media is one of the things which has really annoyed me during this whole pandemic  - and this is a good example, this graphic showing the UK having a higher death rate than the entirety of the EU, its still being shared over on Twitter now, its is so twisted almost to try scare people and I don't really get why - a bit of research shows Spain are literally lying about death numbers (you can see when they went from over 200 deaths per day to 2) and god knows how accurate other countries data are too - then the UK is accused of lying about death numbers because they added on 400 or so from previous weeks... surely that's the opposite of lying?

I mean the coaster community certainly is male dominated, I can only comment from my perspective but I guess you can’t force people to be interested in something if they aren’t, although more diversity would be nice it can’t really be forced as we all like different things. 
 
My sewing and dancing groups by contrast tend to be female dominated, and the current admins/staff are all female.

I guess the only thing that can be done for a hobby/interest forum is to ensure there are no barriers to entry, and we all make an effort so that new members are made to feel welcome and treated with respect.

Is it too much to expect the same park to be as good as it was 20-30 years ago, especially for such a basic investment as a small childrens area retheme? Especially when prices have generally gone up

I am really getting quite sick and tired of seeing enthusiasts moaning and crying about POSTPONED trips to theme parks this year thanks to the pandemic.
 
Look, I know this page is ofcourse a forum dedicated to a theme park and I myself am very proud of being an enthusiast. However, I do feel some enthusiasts on social media really need to look at what's going on in the world before they go on an Ian Beale style "IVE GOT NOTHING LEFT" sulk about postponed park visits. People are losing their jobs and with that, the abillity to make a living to pay the bills. More importantly, many people are losing loved ones to this virus. So with all that happening, I personally find it hard to feel sympathy to a bunch of people who are crying over not being able to visit parks that will STILL BE AROUND when all this is said and done. Those who are losing loved ones do not have that luxury. I have a friend who lost her nan recently and was not even allowed to attend her own nans funeral. So yes, forgive me if I find it hard to feel sorry for having to wait a little longer to ride the likes of Shambhala,Taron, Zadra,Taiga and Iron Gwazi or going to flaming Disneyland Paris.
 
Rant over. Again I know this doesn't apply to all enthusiasts but I am seeing enough of it to really get on my wick.
 
It's not just postponed park trips. It's also the sulking over canceled festivals and concerts. People should check their priorities as far as I'm concerned.

The Walking Dead is a coaster that IMO worked best in its X format, because to put it simply, it is a family coaster.
Even when it ran backward and in the dark, it was a tame ride that had lower ridership as the height restriction stopped families from riding and the ride was too tame and the ride was also uncomfortable.
 
X fixed this, ditched the stop and start breaks, lowered the height restriction so pretty much anyone could ride it, and consequently was a lot more popular among the GP.
TWD right now is IMO the second most expendable ride at the park. The ridership seems to be criminally low, the past few visits during peak times this coaster was completely walk on when other rides had 2 hour waits. It is not a bad ride at all, but it certainly has failed to keep people coming back to it. I do enjoy the ride, but I do think retheming X was a stupid decision as this ride will always be a family coaster. Even when you throw barbed wire around it and cover it in zombies.

Yeah it's not had an actual themed area since those, I was saying that in agreement to the previous post that it's just loosely themed, so it doesn't particularly matter that the themes don't 'make sense' next to each other. As long as they look good and it makes for a nice park then that's just the park's vibe.

I don't think the public go into Thorpe Park for any reason than to enjoy the park and the rides, it should just focus on being good at that. It's more like Blackpool Pleasure Beach really.

Wheras the moment guests step into Efteling they're in a beautiful theme park with so many surprises and areas to explore, totally different appeal. The themed 'areas' might not have a big Merlin style archway saying "Welcome to ____ land" but that doesn't matter, each corner of the park is a little different and the attractions all sit next to next each other nicely.

Each park is different style when it comes to how they theme stuff, I wish Thorpe would stick to  what it's best at really and clean itself up. It could really be great fun

I don't think I've seen anyone say a park "needs" themed areas to be a theme park. (Also every inch of Efteling is themed so I dont know what you mean there)

Like you say it's all about enjoyment. What I mean is, Thorpe Park makes for a terrible immersive style Phantasialand theme park, whenever it tries and fails to be that, but as a more simple stylish, throwaway kinda theme park it could be great fun!  (that's kind of how it was in the past as a family park anyway)

Currently it's a very bad, not very enjoyable mish mash. The park is very grubby and uncool but tries to look slick and stylish. They try to force 'themed areas' and themed experiences when there aren't any, rather than focus on making the park look appealing or have any identity. A few surf boards and painted wood doesn't make a great park

Some of the ride themes are ok on their own, but most are depressing, cheap and all shoved together in a weird mess

I really don't know why they thought Derren Brown was a good idea for Thorpe, it was the last thing all that money needed spending on in my opinion.