Cal

Zodiac has been doing a lot of testing so far this season so will likely re-open soon. I do agree with your point though. I’d love to see Thorpe add some new flats rather than slowly losing them like we’ve seen at other parks.

My point about the premium pass fast track is that most of the daily allocation will likely go to Hyperia. I don’t see that being as much of an issue at other parks. For example, at Towers I imagine a high percentage would be split on Smiler, Wickerman, and Nemesis. Just my thoughts anyway from what I've observed, no facts.

I think Fasttrack might be a bit of an issue for Hyperia this year. It was overflowing outside the entrance at one point today. 1) Price of one shots have been reduced. £12 for off peak days and £16 for peak days. It has been a flat £20 every day for the last 2 seasons so not sure why its been reduced, certainly going to have more people buying it. 2) As we all know platinum passes get a free shot every visit now. The problem with that at Thorpe is that 90% of people are only going to be using theirs on Hyperia. 3) People that book the shark hotel on one of the closed days get unlimited Fasttrack including Hyperia all day. So everyone that booked for Thursday night had unlimited Fasttrack today. On days like today where there are a lot of enthusiasts, a high percentage of them are just going to be lapping Hyperia. When you combine the above with the high amount of RAP (which has a capacity for the whole park, but again a high percentage that just use it for Hyperia), thats going to take a huge toll on the main queue 😬

Very late to this but... Park count: Thorpe x10-20? Paultons x1 (first time in over 10 years) Liseberg x2 (first time) Grona Lund x1 (first time) Portaventura x2 (first time) Ferrari land x1 (first time) Parc Asterix x1 Walibi Belgium x1 Walibi Holland x2 (first time) Pretty successful year for me. 5 new parks, returning visits to some of my favourites and 3 European Halloween events. I got 29 new creds (4 of them being in my top 10) bringing me to a total of 205. Highlights Getting back to Paultons and seeing how much that place has changed. Haven't been since I was a kid. Portaventura was much better than expected. Walibi Holland was the best Halloween event I've ever been to. The Clinic and Slaughterhouse were the craziest Halloween attractions I've done, and Us vs You was a fantastic maze. I got on all 5 of my top 5 coasters last year. Disappointments Red Force wasn't as good as expected. I expected bad from Furious Baco. But that is by far the most uncomfortable and painful coaster I've ever experienced. Insane being closed at Grona Lund. Never done a Zac spin so was keen to get on it. 2026 I still don't really have much plans this year so will probably be a quieter year for me. I have a Merlin pass so have been to Thorpe and Towers already. I'll get lots of Thorpe trips in for sure. Paultons for the opening of their new coaster. Have a holiday in Turkey booked so will go to Land of legends and get on another Mack Hyper 😍 I was planning on Falcons Flight but thats looking unlikely now. Potentially a US trip instead. Was having a look at Florida but might be a bit silly to not wait for the new 2027 coaster at Universal. Looking at doing a couple days in Madrid but nothing booked yet.

Out of interest, what Thorpe employees have moved over to Towers? I know Howard from Chessington is now the VP at Towers but I wasn’t aware of any other moves?

I've seen a lot about this too. If that is the issue, then they need to do whatever they need to do to sort it. This isn't a new issue, Towers has had poor ride availability and capacity for years now. Pretty sure last year they had to cancel their pre season buy out days as they weren't ready. To start the season with 7 rides closed, staggered openings and not having major coasters on max capacity they clearly have some serious issues. Its an interesting thought. Towers always seems to be the first out of the 4 parks to get cuts the last few years and still has the weekday 4pm closes.

Haven't updated my top 10 in a while and have a few changes from 2025. New for 2025 in bold. 1) Toutatis 2) Untamed 3) Kondaa 4) Shambala 5) Hyperia 6) Ride to Happiness 7) Taron 8) Balder 9) Helix 10) Nemesis Kondaa used to be my number one, with Toutatis in second place. After riding both again in October I decided I prefer Toutatis overall. From the moment I got on it in 24 I was addicted to it, I’ll never get bored of that swing launch. I also love its more aggressive airtime.

Completely agree. Overall the park looks pretty fresh and they're on form operationally as we've come to expect the last few years. I'm disappointed the Colossus repaint wasn't finished though. I know Thorpe had Hyperia but it does feel Thorpe has lacked ££ out of the merlin parks. - Chessington has had a serious amount of investment the last few years. Jumanji, Paw Patrol land, and minecraft land next year. - Towers has had Nemmy retrack, Toxicator, millions on skyride refurb, and new family coaster within the last 3 years. Would love to see a new flat on the Slammer site next season to complement Hyperia, and a new major investment on the Rumba site or island behind Swarm before universal opening in 2031 would be fab.

Went to Towers on Friday for Alton After Dark. This was my first time visiting since 2024 as I only bothered with a Thorpe pass last year. Some mixed thoughts but overall had a great day and it wasn't too busy. Oblivion was closed for the day unfortunately which was a shame. It wasn't staffed and has now been added to ride availability page so may be closed for a while. A shame, but these things happen and can't be helped. Having 7 rides closed for the day though (including Monorail and Skyride) is totally unacceptable and needs to be sorted as soon as possible. I can understand having the couple of water rides closed if it was solely them closed, but when you have them as well as all the others closed its just poor. Disappointing to have the Skyride closed after having millions spent on it the last couple years. Along with that they have a number of staggered openings with major coasters opening at 11, which again is really poor. The only thrill rides that actually opened on time on Friday was Rita, Wicker man and Nemesis. Every other thrill ride closed. Its a very poor first impression. Once things started opening up ride availability was actually very good and I only witnessed a couple of breakdowns. - Thirteen was on 3 trains but the bag drop was closed when I first went on around 1pm which meant throughput was pretty dire. Having 3 trains stacking is something I hadn't seen before but was happening regularly. Thankfully later on it did open. Having the SRQ back on Thirteen was great! - Galactica was running 2 crafts 1 station achieving a throughput of under 600. Nice to have the SRQ back but was a painful wait with such slow operations and sending empty seats a number of times. - Wickerman was on 2 trains achieving around 700-800 an hour. Bag drop were having issues keeping up which meant a queue on the exit stairs causing them to send empty trains at one point. Onto the positives... - Toxicator is a fantastic edition and looks great. The cycle is decent enough, has good intensity at the end but not too much that it puts people off going on. A shame to see the fountains off and water drained though only 1 year after opening. The lights on the gondola weren't on at night either. - Smiler was running really well. Was running 4 trains and they were smashing the trains out. Could definitely do with a clean up at certain parts though. - Nemesis was riding great. Had quite a few rides on various seats and didn't notice any rattle at all. I've always been a big Nemesis fan and was initially a little disappointed with Nemesis Reborn, but theres no arguing that what they've done with the area is fantastic and I'm glad they spent the money on it. I forgot just how good Nemesis looks in the dark now too. World class with all the new lighting and smoke effects. 100% my favorite night ride in the UK! - Curse was great and easily my favourite dark ride in the country. Getting back on Hex was good also. Overall was a good day and great to get back. Towers has so much potential and theres so much I love about the place, but its very frustrating seeing it being run they way it is. 7 rides closed all day, limited capacity on major coasters, and staggered ride openings is just poor. Dark Forest and X sector are both in desperate need of a supporting flat in my opinion too.

Hours extended today for passholders day from 11-5 to 10:30-6 which was a nice surprise, even with the park really quiet.

Looks great. I'm not usually a big one for IPs but I think this is one of the better ones and this has potential to be great as long as Merlin spend the money on it. Throughput could be a problem for this. Saying that though, this is Chessington so it doesn't have much competition, this could probably still have one of the best throughputs on park 🤣

I agree. Years ago they had quite a few things closed at the start of the season and 1 train on Colossus for months for example but last few seasons they've been on it! Long may it continue.

Thorpe ParkRide Availability Information | Thorpe Park ResortCheck live ride availability on the Thorpe Park App, including real-time updates on ride closures and maintenance. Plan your visit with confidence today! Ride availability page updated to show that Tidal Wave and Zodiac will be closed this weekend. It specifically states 21-22nd March so will be interesting to see if they open next week. Zodiac was closed most of last season and has last operated in June (?) I believe but looks like it'll be making a return this season. The gondolas which were removed last season have been added back on and it looks like all the gondolas have been tidied up. All the old branding Thorpe logos have been removed.

Interesting. Would be nice to see it working. Hilarious that this has been going on for over 3 years now 🤣 Any sign of life on any of Swarms effects today @JoshC. ?

A big shame they didn't finish it this year. Strange decision, the rest of it looks so good! Not sure its been mentioned but Passholder day has been announced for next Sunday 22nd. Hours are 11am-5pm which is a shame as we got 11am-7pm last year. No night rides on passholder day this year.

Shame its closing 1 year before its big 40, and we didn't get a last chance to ride (it definitely said returning 2026 on the queue boards) but budgets have clearly changed and forced it to close. I'm not surprised and do think its the right decision. Its by far the worst rapids in the UK and it's a shadow of its former self. The more recent changes it went through took all the fun it had left out of it, removing the fun soundtrack and changing to dull colours. Last year, it was hardly open anyway so it just isn't worth the resource getting it open anymore. Whats the point in getting it through winter maintenance and ages staff training for the sake of a couple of months. Then when it is open, you have the huge running costs + heavily staffed. I'd rather have the rapids closed than cuts elsewhere on park. My favorite memory hands down is when they added that huge fire hose type water effect near the start of the ride. That didn't last long 🤣 Rumba was always good fun in my early years of visiting Thorpe so sad to see another Thorpe classic close. RIP Rumba ❤️

They removed all rides that were closed for the buyout days, Tidal Wave too. There was actually some sign of life on on the last day of the season. Engineers around all day and some spinning (not lifting) so hopefully its not over just yet for Zodiac! Zodiac always looks brilliant at night so that was certainly missed during Fright Nights this year.

What is everyones thoughts on the capacity at the moment for Fright Nights? I know its been the same for a long time and it isn't likely to change, but I can't help but feel they are overselling tickets at the moment resulting in a really poor customer experience. - Security queue taking well over an hour to get into the park (I've seen many reports of over 90 minutes) - Multiple coasters over 2 hours queue - All mazes over an hour queue for a paid time slot - Car park nightmare getting out (again not a new issue) For comparison, I went to Walibi Holland on 2 sold out days this year. I waited 15 mins to get in one day and 5 mins the other. Getting out, about half hour one day due to a car accident and about 15 mins the other day. You also don't have to pay for car parking during for Fright Nights there. I don't know another theme park where you get greeted with huge cattlepen queues to get in. Realistically, how many people who wait 90 minutes to get in, stuck in queues all day and then another queue to get out are going to enjoy there day and return? I don't think it helps matters having the rapids closed and ghost train opening at 3pm on the busiest days of the year. The park really does need all the capacity they can get. I do think theres more they can do with the mazes too. Towers opens theres at 1pm on peak days, so opening them earlier could definitely help with the queues. And of course 10pm closes. With Fright Nights as busy as it is (and generating nearly half the parks yearly income) it would be great to see the return of 10pm closes. I know this is quite a negative post, but just something I've thought about recently. For me, the security queue is the biggest issue that needs addressing and is a terrible first impression.

Its being reported that Thorpe had an 8% drop in attendance last season, the highest drop on the list. https://x.com/ThemeParkWW/status/1981330874747531338/photo/1 Really concerning with that obviously being Hyperias opening year, and this season seeming quieter? The same thing happened with Swarm and then we had to wait 12 years for a coaster... Also strange to me that Towers seemed to have quite a lot of cuts throughout the season last year and Thorpe didn't, despite the difference in attendance.

Yeah, thats what blasted out at 9:20, followed by a load of other pop music after. I'm really not a fan of it either. Really doesn't fit in with Fright Nights whatsoever and completely killed the atmosphere for me. Yeah its very interesting. I knew it would be big but didn't realize they make nearly half of its annual profit at Fright Nights. Would love to know what that figure was pre covid when mazes were free too. Would also be interested to see how much events like Octoberfest have an impact on visitor numbers, especially Towers where the event was better received. Thankyou! They're actually just taken on my Iphone 12 Pro Max which I've had for 5 years now. Currently waiting on the 17 so should be able to get some better photos with that soon

Yeah, was certainly noticeable. Really struggling on that final corner. Planned to be closed all day today too according to the app.

I do get what you mean, and think a lot of people will think the same. I still think its well worth a visit for the general atmosphere and rides in the dark, but I do wonder if people in general will be put off visiting this year as there isn't a new maze? Will be interesting to see what they do next year to change things up. The IndependentOctober is the new summer for these major UK tourist attr...Halloween thrill-seekers are transforming October into a peak month for theme parks, with Merlin Entertainments revealing the period now rivals August for profitability. This article is quite interesting and really shows how important Fright Nights is to Thorpe now. Not sure how accurate it is, but Thorpe makes 46% of its annual profit in October and sees 20% of its yearly visitors in the month. It also mentions how October visitor numbers surpassed August in 2024.

Interesting they needed to do a cable replacement so close to end of season. That'll be why they're not having to open it later on now Was running fine pretty much all day yesterday just a few short shutdowns. It did seem to really struggle on the last corner into the offload and was making quite a loud squeaking noise.

The 12pm openings seem to have been scrapped. Opened at 10am yesterday, and the message has now been removed from the availability page.

Glad to see that they've now changed the soundtrack on a lot of the rides for Fright Nights, after not doing it for a number of years. They're in the same/similar voice as the advert for this year. Unfortunately no change on Stealth or Samurai though, and you can hardly hear it in Colossus' station as its very quiet. The park is looking amazing in the dark this year. Lots of lighting changes and additional smoke machines making the park look the best it ever has done at night. A lot of Swarms effects have been restored and Infernos mist is pumping. I love this smoke effect on Colossus. StreamableWatch IMG_3720 | Streamable Hyperia is lit up in red from 7pm, and the lights go off as each train goes down the first drop. Really not a fan of the music that starts blasting out at 9:20 park wide though, including in the Hyperia queue 🤣 StreamableWatch IMG_3747 | Streamable Also really not a fan of the new scare zone and just seems like that was added for the sake of adding a new scare attraction. Would love to see another Crows/Towers style scare zone. Why not use the old Blair Witch route from Trailers to the Nemesis Inferno exit like before?