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Yeah it does, certainly worked on my visit last season and I've seen clips of it on this year. Don't think they have it on year round though. Also was quite surprised to see the decision to replace Wild Asia. Shame to lose that theme too its always been one of my favorite areas at the park.

Good news, very much needed. A new family coaster will be a great addition. I’m shocked but pleasantly surprised that Rattlesnake is staying. No monkey swinger is a great loss though. I know it’s a simple flat, but the water makes it good fun and is one of my favourites there.

Nice well rounded lineup for this year, good to see a 4th maze, and a good mix of everything else. Crows was great last year and lucifers lair was cool too. Creature Campus has never been my thing, I don't go to a scare event to watch people dance but I can see why its back as its extremely popular. My problem echos whats been said above though. I get enjoyment by having multiple run throughs on the mazes and getting to experience them properly. At the current price for mazes, I'm not really willing to do that. I will still go to Fright Nights this year but my experience last year with the queues and then getting a weak run through really puts me off the mazes. I'll probably just buy the odd 1 shot when they have small queues and try to go to one of the private events at the end of the year where I can have unlimited run throughs of the mazes.

A new flat would be cool but I imagine the Slammer site would be the preferred location. Having a permanent events location would be ideal, would be a much better location for things like Oktoberfest to take place. Would be quite happy to see the end of the beach to be honest. Eventually once depth charge has had its day the whole area could be a good spot for a new water ride of some kind.

Good to hear the closures aren't budget cut related. Thorpe seems to have avoided any noticeable cuts so far then which is good! I noticed the below has been added to the ride availability page too; 'Please note, some rides may open later than 10am due to planned maintenance. Please check the app and queue time boards on the day of your visit for the most up to date information.' Saw has also been updated to be closed on Mon 23rd. This is the day the Hyperia work starts so probably access related.

Its worth noting that the normal entrance through the bridge by croc drop has been closed for a while as they're doing maintenance to the bridge. You have to go a long way round to get to the ride, near the hotels I believe. Maybe this has had an impact on ridership and therefore isn't worth opening? I do agree the experience is crap though and it seems they've just given up with it, when is the last time anything in the cave has actually worked? Last few times I've been on you just drive through it nothing happens ... Will be interesting to see what happens next year.

Another cut... So it seems rather than being closed on off peak days, it looks like Zufari is now closed for the remainder of the season (or forever?) Its been updated on the ride availability page as just 'Closed' and has been removed from the app entirely

Hyperia is open now, they had to remove a train on Hyperia around 5:15 yesterday due to an issue, and it was also running late last night for FN promo filming so I imagine the late opening will be to do with that. All the ones that say 'opening later' have a scheduled opening time between 12:30 - 13:30, if you click on the individual ride it'll tell you what time.

Was at the park today and didn't notice any reduction in staffing levels which is positive. 3 hosts on both Vortex and Samurai 4 staff checking restraints + staff batching on both Colossus and Inferno. Thought some of these would be the first to be cut, never used to see this on off peak days in previous years. Only thing I did notice was SRQ closed on Saw which probably means there was no one batching, can't confirm as I didn't ride it.

Think its safe to say the cuts have now reached Thorpe. With Rumba closed for the season, and Detonator, Inferno, Walking Dead, Vortex, Fish, Tidal Wave, Quantum, Depth Charge all showed as late opening today. Doesn't help that Hyperia is also opening late daily and Ghost train is always a 12pm opening. Thats a lot of the park closed in the morning. Was bound to happen with some of the cuts we're seeing at the other parks. I'd still take these late openings over reduced opening hours though. Hopefully not a sign of things to come.

Just seen roaming actors will only be between 3:00 - 4:30pm. Shame as I do miss a team of them going round all night. https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/events/halloween-fright-nights/#will-there-be-roaming-actors I assume the reason they're only around till 4:30 is cause they'll be used for a scarezone/show opening slightly later. Speaking of which, no construction of Death Doors or the Crows scarezone so far this year. I'd love to see the Crows come back, was great last year one of the best scare zones they've done. But they seem to be cutting it fine with less than a month till opening now.

Completely agree with the comments re Octoberfest this year. Wouldn't surprise me to see this go next year, and personally wouldn't bother me as I've never really thought it adds anything to Thorpe anyway. I've been to the Towers one a lot over the years and have always really enjoyed it. They really benefit from the area they've got on the lawns. The location is a big plus too, the entertainment goes on for an hour after park close and this obviously means people leaving and see it going on may go over to the lawns and stay for a bit too. I've never thought its worked as well at Thorpe, whether that be due to the location of the stage or different target audience I'm not sure. They've not even changed the entrance music this year which is surprising, could help making people aware theres actually an event going on etc.. They didn't bother with ride overlays last FN too which was a big shame. Hope they do this year as it really makes the event in my opinion. Have seen this a few times last week on Vortex, Big Easy Bumpers, High Striker, Fish, Rapids. Seems to be happening on off peak weekdays so I imagine its unofficial cost cutting or they're struggling with staff at the moment? I guess it doesn't matter too much at the moment with the off peak weekdays being very quiet but still not ideal.

SRQ is back on Thirteen from today, and will be back on Spinball too in a few days once that reopens. Good to see - hopefully we saw more of this too. Heard the Oblivion station is due to receive some major work so could see it return on there.

Interesting - shame its closed the same period Hyperia is closed. Not sure if its been mentioned on here but theres a few spots on inferno which have been welded / strengthened so wonder if its anything to do with that. Regardless, its great to see the park be so open about planned maintenance. Something we haven't really seen before.

The fact it closes in the same day as Amity Beach sways me more towards cost cutting than anything else. But who knows. Not against that though, can’t imagine it’ll be too popular after that date anyway, and I’d rather the park cost cut here rather than look at reducing opening hours like we’ve seen at other parks.

Really wouldn't mind seeing the end of Rumba to be honest. I'd say its quite easily the worst rapids in the UK and I imagine its very expensive to run especially with the amount of staff it requires nowadays. Would rather see it used a re-development area in the future rather than a re-theme or some work, but I imagine there are favorable sites for new attractions so can't see it being used for a long time.

I got to the park just before 5 and also had a great evening. Managed multiple rides on Hyperia and Stealth, all other major coasters and a few flats. They got seriously unlucky with the weather, so I hope this doesn't put them off late closes in the future as today clearly wasn't successful. After half 6/7 the park really filtered out and the only ride with a queue was Hyperia. I'm surprised they didn't offer discounted tickets for late entry. Could've tried marketing it a bit more on social media with later entry tickets maybe.. Re Hyperia, I don't necessarily disagree with the early closing, but I do disagree with the way it was communicated tonight. Luckily I was in the area so managed to get in the queue, but I would've left with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth if I'd have arrived after 20:30 and got turned away.

Interesting decision tonight, they’ve decided to close the queue for Hyperia at half 8 today even though the wait is currently 40 minutes and the queue isn’t full. They announced in the Hyperia area that the queue will be closing within the next 10 minutes but as far as I’m aware this wasn’t advertised anywhere else on park. Lots of people currently entering the area for a night ride and getting turned away. Doesn’t help that it’s still showing open on the app.

Hyperias soundtracks, including the dispatch and lift hill tracks have all been uploaded to Spotify and Apple music! Great to see. Big fan of these and they sound great in the queue/area, so glad I can give them a proper listen now. They've also released the timelapse of construction 7

Yeah I'd be interested to know the reason for the cuts, to me it seems more a cost cutting measure rather than staffing but who knows. They've been doing it all throughout the season, and also now open a small number of rides at 11 too. Chessington have had their 7pm closes stripped towards the end of summer and are closing popular attractions on off peak days, so it isn't the only merlin park to have cuts. Something I've said before re Fright Nights, regardless if its cost cutting or staffing issues surely they'd be better off cutting the first hour and do 11-9? An 8pm close wouldn't really allow a lot of time for night rides, especially when you factor in doing the scare attractions. Maybe I'm wrong but to me that would be more appealing as a consumer.

Think thats definitely the next spot for a coaster without redeveloping anywhere existing like Rumba Rapids. Would love to see a big RMC or a GCI woodie on that island, connecting Swarm and Stealth too. Interesting they considered 500ft for Hyperia? Can't imagine that went very far through development... the budget wouldn't have allowed anywhere near that height. On another note, interesting he didn't really answer the backwards seat question for Hyperia. Wonder if they'll do something similar to Swarm and introduce this one of the next couple of seasons? Would be quite easy to implement as they already have another queue leading up to the station, but would obviously mean removing the SRQ. I personally wouldn't like to loose the back rows and the SRQ for a backwards seat but will be interesting to see if its something they'll do in the future.

Towers have continued cutting hours, with some Scarefest dates now cut to 8pm instead of 9pm. Think 2024 is the first season we've seen a 5pm close in August and Scarefest earlier than 9pm. What a shame. Hardly going to encourage more bookings for them dates is it...

Even with 2 staff batching from the queues to the stairs yesterday, it was still a bit of a mess unfortunately. Staff weren't making it clear at points which stairs to go up which meant some from RAP went up single rider, which then caused issues when they got to the station. At points they weren't filling up the main queue on the stairs meaning they then fill the station with the SRQ. Also saw a couple hop over the fence from the SRQ on the stairs to the main queue. Shame they didn't make that fence a bit taller. Ops in the station were great as always though - was getting through about 700 - 800 an hour.

Noticed Stealth has a new pre boarding announcement in the station to try and help with throughputs, telling you to sit down bars down etc.. Colossus also had a new announcement in the queue, again to help with throughputs, explaining the baggage and loading procedure. Good to see a continued focus on throughputs. Think Hyperia could do with a themed pre boarding announcement in the station instead of the operator using the PA every time. For a good half hour yesterday it was set to the whole area, so he was telling the whole queueline and plaza the loading instructions and that they had 20 till the train was leaving... 🤣 Saws SRQ queue was closed when I attempted to go on yesterday - unsure why

Just a thought, does anyone else feel like they haven't built a long enough main queue line? I know we're still in a peak period, but it really doesn't look great having all the temporary fencing in the area currently, but I cant see a point in the near future that they won't need this with Hyperia being the main draw. The main queue could only really hold 60 - 90 minutes, but that was with very limited fasttrack and 1 rap per day. Now rap has been changed to being timed out like other rides and fast track will be gradually increased, the main queue will move much slower.