Inferno

It’s a worrying time isn’t it. They seem to be really pushing the engineering apprenticeship, which is associated with JCB. I assume that a lot of the reliability issues recently have come partly from a lack of engineers? It would make sense given the remote location especially. Apprenticeships like this might be something they’re looking at to try to improve the situation in the long term I suppose. I do feel for the people who show up for work every day and work hard to try to improve things. Hopefully whatever he issues are they’ll get to grips with it all very soon. I still think there’s a good chance things will be better once the staff have settled in, and Skyride and Hex are open again. As for the food…. Well I’m not so sure - hopefully people will just stop buying it and they’ll have to make changes

I'll be honest I'm surprised they're carrying on with it at all considering Merlin are in the middle of cutting back on entertainments. Still looks good though doesn't it. Much better use of space than what's there now.

It’s an odd and unfortunate situation at towers, because they’re pouring a lot of money in to things, but to “the GP” really they’re treading water and there’s nothing truly new happening… Realistically, despite the bits of investment over the last 5 years, you’d struggle to argue with these statements: - Ripsaw has re-opened - The same Nemesis is still there but is now black and red - The same Skyride is still sat there but is broken - Same old Hex has been sat there for years but is broken - The haunted house ride is still there, but has had a refurb. Don’t get me wrong, this is all money well spent in my opinion and was badly needed and overdue, but really I think AT needs something truly new. There is little that they’ve done since Wicker Man that truly offers something new. As much as I think Toxicator is a fantastic addition, it’s arguably yet another “re-opening of something that closed” if you know what I mean.

To be honest, given how poorly nearly all of the other UK parks are doing right now, a year of stability sounds like exactly the right aim for Thorpe. Hyperia’s near stall and ongoing downtime however is getting worrying now that we are heading in to season 2. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a reliable workhorse does it… I really hope that they can get to grips with it. Surely they can’t keep going on like this every time it gets a bit chilly… The solar panels on Ghost Train are slightly interesting in that they’d only be installed on a structure that they intend to keep for a decent amount of time. I guess the building is here to stay, even after the ride is gone (which probably won’t be too long let’s face it).

Toxicator re-opened a while ago apparently, so hopefully things aren't too bad. There must be some defeated people working at Towers to be honest. It seems that a lot of effort is being put in to things, despite the budget cuts and redundancies, but they're constantly plagued by bad luck and the mess left for them to fix by previous 'leadership'. To be fair they are passengers when it comes to things like the sewage leak... Nobody could have foreseen that. What awful timing though. Also opening days can often suffer a little from slow operations because of new staff etc. It's worrying... but I'm still hopeful that things will still improve at AT this season. The staff will become more at ease with operations within a few weeks, and things like Hex and Skyride will re-open shortly which will help in general.

Oh dear, that doesn’t seem very promising at all does it. Fingers crossed it’s not going to have another year of terrible reliability and multiple stalls 😬 I had hoped last year’s endless problems were down to it being so late and needing to just be open, with things being sorted during the closed season…

To be fair Thorpe looked probably better than ever last season in a lot of places, the operations were very good in general, and they have got a (still) brand new coaster. It rarely gets much better than this, <1 year after opening a new coaster of Hyperia's scale. I do agree though that it's a bit ridiculous that the new area has been left unfinished for all this time (and possibly in to this season). The stage area and splashdown debacle do seem to reveal some questionable choices during the planning. Given how difficult it is to run a theme park in the UK at the moment I'd say things are looking pretty good at Thorpe. All rides are still open and running well, which is more than can be said for most of the other UK parks, and the park is looking very fresh in a lot of places following the re-painting and rebranding from last year.

Fantastic - it’s almost looking… Dare I say… finished! Still some work to do but hopefully it’s on the way. This could have been filmed a while ago

No they went bust. It’s amazing how many of these overpriced “instagram” donut places there are. Especially given how many of them are/were struggling 🤷‍♂️ What happened to a good old bag of those little oily hot donuts that the parks make themselves! Although they’re nearly as expensive these days aren’t they 🙄

Would Hex realistically need winter maintenance though? It operated for literally, what, 2 weeks? After a full refurb. Maybe something’s gone wrong. Or they’re struggling with recruiting?

Interesting to look at it in detail isn’t it! (I love this sort of stuff on this forum!) Honestly I think they’re doing really well and trying very hard to make a difference using what they’ve got. They seem to be trying to bring this stuff in because it’s seen as a positive thing by lot of people, and it’s something they can do with their very limited budget. I think it’s the same with Rumba etc. clearly they’ve got a low budget, but they’re making the best of it and prioritising keeping the main rides running well all year. It’s a lot better than having coasters on one train on quieter days, or opening some of them later in the day everyday. I can’t imagine running a theme park is an easy task at the moment - I’m trying to see things differently this year if I can.

That’s really good! Although I agree a bit odd for Toxicator. Skyride, Congo and Hex will open in April. I can understand Congo to be honest given the costs involved. Rapids are becoming seasonal now really aren’t they and I think that’s it. Shame about Skyride, but I suppose if it’s running over that can’t be helped - communication about the opening is a good step as well. Hex however - wtf is going on? It only opened for 25 minutes all season last year, so what on earth could be the issue now?

I really think Rumba’s days are numbered to be honest… It’s not even that good either is it… I really think it will be gone before too long. Of course I don’t want to see it close, but I’d much rather the budget be used elsewhere, and eventually the space used for better things, especially considering there’s also a huge amount of space on the island behind it.

Does anyone know if there’s been any mention of why Kingda Ka closed? It’s not like it was in need of repair, it was operating well on its last day. I assume just reliability and cost to run and maintain? 🤷‍♂️

Realistically does anyone think there’s a chance it could be bought and reopened? I expect that’s the end of the road for it now. As beautiful as the location is, it’s not ideal for a theme park - it’s just too remote from most of the population. I also think Aspro have squeezed everything out of the place like a tube of toothpaste, and I imagine many of the rides need maintenance etc… not to mention the investment needed to bring in new things to draw people in. I worry for a few of the other smaller parks in the UK - but on that point, if we do lose a couple more, I expect any potential buyers would be more interested in those than poor Oakwood.