SteveJ

I think it's lit very well, just like the station should have always been, but its very nice,  I'd never say it was absolutely awesome. It's on par with a lot of decent children's walkthroughs and themed exhibits around the country. I don't think they've done anything remotely special here, and not "nit picking for the sake of it".

It's that day when no one can tell the difference between "new", "fixed" or "good". 

 

I don't get this idea.. based on what? According to who? A new Prof Burp's would have been just as awful because it would have been built the same way as Merlin build all their rides. I havnt seen anyone judging this by comparison to the original. But what's clear to see is the original was about loud, all-round fun and energy & silliness; this one is a relaxing, quiet, very average sensory trip. Both are great, but they're quite different and I believe kids love energy and entertainment much more than adults give them credit for.


I just hate comparisons like this. 
 

All I see is exactly the same kind of features, but one lit properly, another lit compeltely botched and amateaur.

The top photo shows the station totally broken, way too bright and bastardised in the retheme. Why are you comparing the very worst of one thing to an opening day shot of a brand new ride? Of course the station last year looked utter crap! That's not the point is it?

They didn't dear, it was a PR stunt to get more guests in over the summer, and it worked. They also lied to all the press that the ride had been the same for the past 25 years in order to capitalise on the 'nostalgia' of the original and get more attention.
 
They did not give a jot about the Bubbleworks and they knew/cared very little about the original. But they knew they could capitalise on it and it worked. They also (deliberately) ensured the ride stayed untouched in broken shoddy state, for the last 5 years while they set up their new plans. Any new ride would look good against something as ruined as the state Bubbleworks was in, and the "seen better days" excuse is easy to use if you've not spent any money on show maintenance for years!
 
The send off consisted of an actor in a bad costume, and a tour that existed only to squeeze some more money off guests, filled with made up facts and nonsense.

Not being a moaner, this is simply what happened, or what many witnessed happening.

A Merlin version of Professor Burp's would be the biggest tragedy known to man, they would go to town with brandifying it and sucking out its soul, we already had the 2p budget Prof Burp 'tribute' and that was quite enough!
 
(not the actor's effort, he was great, didn't really have a clue about the ride but did so well with what he'd been given! the park's attitude I'm on about)
 
Merlin wouldn't (and don't) understand the ride's appeal, because it was about colour and energy rather than IPs or abandoned warehouse "serious and edgy" themes.

It was the opposite of a superb job, and it was really not what Air needed to improve the experience

I love how this "easter egg grabbing machine" alone sums up how self indulgent and out of touch Thorpe Park are with the public, fans, their own park's history and the theme park business

So the audio now plays out like a radio station? I mean, stuff like that can work (see: Amity Cove / WWTP), but I'm not sure it fits here. But heyho, whatever. Maybe people will like it.
 
tbh I would have been happy if they literally just used the Swarm Invasion loop from last year. An evolution of the old soundtrack that worked.
 
Not a fan of shoehorning everything around the area into the audio. It feels desperate / awkward, rather than just letting everything flow. For the obvious comparison, it's not like WWTP Radio tries to shoehorn in all the theming features around, because it doesn't need to.
 
It's the same with the Ghost Train sections added this year. There's loads of heavy-handed, shoehorned sentences chucked in to try and fill in gaps and problems and issues. Just feels awkward and doesn't work for me. Maybe the wider audience / new visitors will respond to it much better. But from my perspective, it feels very forced and janky.
 
 
For what it's worth, I've always liked Swarm's area. I know people aren't fans of the basic nature it has of chucking vehicles around and such. But I like the crude simplicity of it. The Swarm are flying aliens, so of course things like planes and helicopters (flying things) will have been targeted. Emergency services bring safety, but The Swarm have attacked the fire, police and ambulance services, so they're not safe. A church is usually thought of as a safe haven, but that's been ripped apart and almost serves as the base of The Swarm.
It's simple, crude and not very subtle. But it conveys the message and theme effectively: we're in an apocalypse and no where is safe. And that's fine.

The Swarm's area and theming isn't that great IMO.  It's really just a bunch of vehicles and theming items plonked around the ride with no cohesion, it isn't visually nice to look at either.  Why is there a huge motorway billboard right next to a church?  What's a helicopter doing in a lake?  It's just bizarre.
 
I do feel that it was better when the ride first opened and it had the special effects, triggered sound effects etc.  As with most Merlin investments though it's been left to fall apart, had random items added and many items of theming are now missing or have been replaced with generic, un-themed items (e.g. the queue fencing).  To be honest, I was never a fan of the queue videos being throughout the entire queue, it would have worked much better having them in one section IMO.  It just became pretty grating during long queues listening to it I thought.  And of course, it all got naff when the screens stopped working, speakers broke etc.
 
There's also that ugly wooden cover around part of the church that totally detracts from the look of the station.  Things like that are such a shame; if they'd picked one idea and put all their efforts into that (e.g. a destroyed church as the main centrepiece), it could have looked much better.  The area as it is now is just a jumbled mess IMO.

Really and truthfully, the area theme for Swarm makes no sense.
 
At face value, it seems to be some sort of attack from alien creatures that can fly. They've bought down planes and helicopters because they own the sky. The emergency services are under attack and useless too. Great.
 
But, if you follow the story laid out by the TV screens, this mysterious attack is happening at Thorpe Park. Okay, cool. But this leads to a variety of questions:
Why's there a church at Thorpe Park?
Or a billboard advertising paracetamol? (Actually, this is the park with Colossus in, so that makes sense.... ).
And why are there TVs reporting the news at a theme park?
And why is it being reported in such a blasé fashion?
And why are we willingly going to ride these creatures?
 
Obviously I'm going OTT here and this is all light hearted. And none of it really matters, when at its core it's a classic destruction theme. But it highlights again the mish-mash of thoughts that are going on. And if you want to create something that has 'immersive storytelling' throughout, you can't have that going on. 
 
The TVs and news report were likely a late-on decision done to try and add something to the queue line to make it more interesting. Arguably the main queue line doesn't need it as there's enough to watch to keep people entertained. I wonder if they've just given up on them after realising sticking TVs in a queue line exposed to all the elements isn't the best idea.
 
 
On a related note, which I might be incredibly slow in realising, but is the woman from the news reports in the queue line videos...Kay Burley?!

Exactly, I dont think it's being a grumpy git to think that. It seems to be Thorpe's thing at the moment, thinking theyre creative geniuses for tacking on added explanations and backstory (see DBGT as well)

Swarm's audio needed improving only because it was boring and miserable feeling. Will this improve it? Let's see

This isnt a sabotage or a business decision, it's just a planning procedure, they want to be able to register as interested parties on a major planning development in their sector, because they are one. There's literally nothing negative about this, it's just trying to hold London Resort to account for the planning process.

This should have never hit the fan news, it's been totally misunderstood, mundane procedural stuff like this happens all the time in planning

Double posting again like the rapscallion I am.
 
Less than a week now until the attraction that is the future of themeparks reopens... do we think it will still have VR? Personally I can't say I'd be too enamored with the idea of putting a headset on right now, it just seems an unnecessary risk? If they have to clean EVERY headset after EVERY ride that's going to make the queue even longer & slower than it normally is too...
 
I think if they DO have VR still, they are going to have to make that clear from the offset/with signs outside, because if you haven't ridden before and experienced the future of themeparks, you might be a bit non plussed after queuing for it and then deciding you don't want to do it because of a potential increased risk of Covid. I'm someone who has been out and about as soon as permitted during these Covid times, gone to bars, restaurants, theme parks etc. etc. but all that said, I think a headset (even if it is just over your eyes) just seems a step too far as soon as 17th May comes - and I don't think I'd be the only one to think that?
 
I can't really see the "experience" working without VR either - would love to know what the future holds for DBGTROTD if this is it's last year of the IP agreement, as rumoured. There's no way on earth that thing has been worth the money. I would say that maybe only Sub Terra ranks similarly in terms of Merlin "white elephants" - but the difference is there, it probably cost a fifteenth of the budget that DBGTROTD did and has done.
 

All jokes aside this could well be a possibility. They have tested some of the painting on Tuk Tuk Turmoil. Taken only yesterday... 
 
 

Professor Burps Bubbleworks is also due to open in time for the summer months you will be glad to know.
 
Then next year Hocus Pocus Hall will return along with Beanoland

I noticed Infernos old soundtrack when I went yesterday. Honestly loved hearing it again, both Colossus and Inferno's soundtracks lost any sense of individuality when they both got remixed to feature that same bloody island tune a few years ago. I just want to hear Colossus's old theme back aswell to give the 2 coasters some unique soundtracks again. 

Do you think the 2021 Tomb Blaster refurbishment will be as good as the rumoured 2022 one? I dont want to see them break the tradition

But notice how now to collect your bags you'll have to cross back to the onload platform, squeezing past the old bag room to get into a far worse bottleneck on your way out, then U turn back towards the exit stairs. Looks a total nightmare!!

Definitely the only reason this being done is to save staffing costs in the wake of covid.

Both Thirteen and The Smiler’s throughputs have tumbled though since they lost their bag rooms 
 
Stealth is the ride that would be least affected by this loss though, given that bags would still be given in before going to the boarding gates (unlike at Thirteen, The Smiler, Colossus etc. where you have to climb over the train) so dispatch times shouldn’t be affected. The placement of it is still awful though and will cause bottlenecks for sure. 

Yes upon another look I realised that the current placement is awful (and I assume that will be the location it's set to stay in). And not very good for Covid.
 
Frankly, most of the time bag rooms are an unnecessary expense which the parks could do without. And, for example, I haven't noticed any major issues with throughputs when Towers got rid of most of theirs. But yes, the solution here is just another bad bottleneck unfortunately.
 
The ideal situation would see the bag room modified and repurposed into a locker space, but that is an upfront cost of course. Hopefully they see the worth in doing that. 
 
 
The beach is cleaned and repainted most closed seasons (all, I think?). Presumably yes, there's a level of legality involved in doing so, but it is something that is usually consistently done every year

But notice how now to collect your bags you'll have to cross back to the onload platform, squeezing past the old bag room to get into a far worse bottleneck on your way out, then U turn back towards the exit stairs. Looks a total nightmare!!

Definitely the only reason this being done is to save staffing costs in the wake of covid.

TBF as unrealistic as it is, I do hope Tomb Blaster gets redone at some point. I am sure Merlin are currently scrolling through their book of mediocre IP's as we speak.

From my opinion, this is a quick fix from operations / health and safety to increase the visitor numbers without going over the maximum capacity insurance has stated. A bit of a loop hole if anything to get more people on park. 

Jungle Escape I hope one day becomes a maze spot again, or maybe even a space for a show during the summer (like how it used to host Brainiac).
 
TWD, DBGT, and Black Mirror can all be bulldozed together please. Imagine the amount of space it would open up, and it is not like they would be removing much. I am sure Black Mirror will be fun though, for a month.

I'm not sure what you mean, nobody was complaining about the musical before they saw it or how successful Nick Hutson (or whoever else) is, dont think that has anything to do with it
 
Anyway I watched some of it, I was excited to see what strange creation it could be and enjoy it as a bit of lockdown fun. But to be honest it just felt like a drawn out in-joke /self promo for a small group of Twitter fans, I didn't find it very entertaining or anything to do with theme parks. Props to putting it together but whats the point if it's not for anyone.

Yes and no I guess.
 
The Stealth incarnation of 'a launch coaster at Thorpe' had been in the works since around late 2002, to my knowledge. Maybe earlier even, depending on the sort of relationship that was had with Intamin at the time and the confidence that was had in Xcelerator (which opened in summer 2002).
 
The Hulk style coaster from Premier was the first time Thorpe had plans for a launch coaster. And that idea probably stretches all the way back to the late 90s shortly after Tussauds took over and planned to turn it into a thrill park. Plans were submitted and I think might even have been approved for that as well, but the park obviously changed their minds. No idea why. They also considered a Rock n Rollercoaster clone for the Inferno site at one point too. 
 
So a launch coaster had long been in the plans for Thorpe. A coaster matching Stealth's vague description had been toyed with for a good 3-4 years before it opened though.

Mainly Twitter enthusiasts love drama there.
 
So the 'Merlin banning vloggers from vlogging' was a rumor started from someone who had "official Merlin sources" stating that Merlin would stop vlogging within weeks as a result of the TPWW incident. Merlin then invited Shaun to multiple media events and everyone has been free to vlog their hearts out ever since. The person a few months later deleted Twitter, due to their being too much drama on the platform. Returns a few weeks later........
 
The Blackpool one happened last off season I believe where a source 'leaked' that Valhalla was going to be refurbished and closed for the entirety of 2020. People once again on twitter were unhappy that, a source had leaked this to a small creator in the theme park fan base, and were sure the source was wrong and the information untrue. Spoiler alert, he was correct. Despite the informant wanting to leak the information, others in the community had said that jobs would be lost as a result and marketing campaigns ruined. Well I guess rollercoaster construction updates do the same thing but nobody complains about those. 
 
There are just some mean people in the theme park community who just want to create drama.