Marhelorpe

Thing is as well, these are things that are pretty plentiful in loads of places now... Can't fall over without finding an Escape Room company (there's about 5/6 in city centre alone up in Leeds), there's numerous trampoline/activity places opening, and gaming stuff is starting to come in due to esports...
 
But if you're interested in these things would you do them at a theme park? It's a similar question to having a Dungeons attraction at Towers (though at least at Thorpe the hours are slightly better), why would you take 45 minutes out of your day to partake in something like this after paying whatever the entry fee is?
 
Would people rather this, or the park replacing Slammer with, well anything? These additions scream of a park under the thumb of a company giving them little money to spend, and the worrying thing is it's only going to get worse apparently since the focus is on building Legolands everywhere in the world... Towers has an attraction foisted upon them, Thorpe have no money to spend on anything worthwhile and Chessie are getting another retheme of an attraction which was mothballed...
 
Here's the thing, these events would be fine IF (and I cannot stress the IF enough here) the rest of the park wasn't in dire straits and in desperate need of picking up, getting a dusting down (or a repaint) and generally sorting out... But the parks aren't given enough money to do this because of KPIs or ROIs are directly noticeable from such things, even though having a park that looks the part is one of the most important factors in terms of guest satisfaction... If it looks like a cheap death-trap, then likelihood is guests will come away with that viewpoint...

Neither was Walking Dead The Ride though...

I'll rephrase what I said:
 
"To the management at Thorpe, are you deliberately trying to annoy your customers here?"
 
It's not so much the fact it's an event that I have a problem with here, it's that getting corporate sponsors and IPs involved to promote themselves for a big chunk of their 2019 season is just sheer laziness and lacks any proper thought or vision in my view.
 
I mean, isn't the whole purpose of visiting a theme park supposed to be to escape everyday life and just have a fun time for those hours? Last I checked, playing on a dedicated games console for 45 minutes is not something unique only to a theme park and the majority of youth in 2019 own such a device in their homes which they handle daily. Why fork out £33 minimum entry for something they can do at home? I just don't understand.
 
By all means, let the event happen, I just expected better than this from the "nation's thrill captial" who are owned by a business still classing themselves "2nd to Disney", that's all.
 
The park can frankly do much better.

I'll rephrase what I said:
 
"To the management at Thorpe, are you deliberately trying to annoy your customers here?"
 
It's not so much the fact it's an event that I have a problem with here, it's that getting corporate sponsors and IPs involved to promote themselves for a big chunk of their 2019 season is just sheer laziness and lacks any proper thought or vision in my view.
 
I mean, isn't the whole purpose of visiting a theme park supposed to be to escape everyday life and just have a fun time for those hours? Last I checked, playing on a dedicated games console for 45 minutes is not something unique only to a theme park and the majority of youth in 2019 own such a device in their homes which they handle daily. Why fork out £33 minimum entry for something they can do at home? I just don't understand.
 
By all means, let the event happen, I just expected better than this from the "nation's thrill captial" who are owned by a business still classing themselves "2nd to Disney", that's all.
 
The park can frankly do much better.

There's not enough love on here for Liseberg right now, so I figured I'd fix that with a press release I somehow completely missed back in November 2018 hinting at an exciting new investment which is scheduled soon and no, it's not the hotel and water park. It's a dark ride (finally!) scheduled for completion in 2020.

http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/liseberg/pressreleases/liseberg-satsar-200-mkr-I-utoekat-kaninland-2020-2791561

Here is what the article says translated as best I could:
So yeah, £17m is being invested into an entire new section of the park for 2020 and recent imagery suggests the dark ride will be located in the old Liseberg Hall (large indoor building next to north entrance) which, to my understanding, is presently being knocked down in preparation for all this.

I swear, Liseberg is being absolutely relentless right now with new, worthwhile and sometimes amazing investments every year popping up with Helix, Mechanica, AeroSpin, Loke, Valkyria and now an expensive permanent dark ride. This is all reminding me of Thorpe in the early 2000s.

Honestly intrigued by this project and can't wait for more details to be revealed soon!

But isn't that what Merlin for the most part are experts at - incorporating IPs which are on the downward trend with public popularity?
 
Wouldn't surprise me one bit if all this is hinting at a silly Fortnite IP for 2019. Arguably not as bad as Love Island last year, but still...
 
Imagination and originality at Thorpe really is dead currently.

But isn't that what Merlin for the most part are experts at - incorporating IPs which are on the downward trend with public popularity?
 
Wouldn't surprise me one bit if all this is hinting at a silly Fortnite IP for 2019. Arguably not as bad as Love Island last year, but still...
 
Imagination and originality at Thorpe really is dead currently.

I don't know why everyone thinks an RMC is gonna happen over Loggers Leap. We forget the 5 golden rules with any new permanent Thorpe attraction these days:

1) Must have an IP and world-first.
2) Must be a dark theme.
3) Must be a short-term investment.
4) Must involve actors.
5) Must be naff.

An RMC or hyper-coaster would break most, if not all these rules; stuff Thorpe clearly doesn't dare want to compromise on!

I hope everyone gets what they wish for...
 
...In reality, another year waves hello to yet another shake up in Thorpe’s management, staffing, project management and direction, meaning, yet again, consistency goes out of the window. 
 
Fright Nights is sadly an unorganised and chaotic event with little to no thought, direction or drive, and change in personnel can mark very significant differences in delivery. Big Top not returning due to lack of tent? More like lack of intent, with the creative minds and team behind its success walking away heads held high after completely turning around what was a disasterous delivery in 2015...

OK, I'm in and will hopefully not forget to attend this one like the last one!

Course! I've got a good feeling my 46th attempt at getting that perfect, flawless and reliable run-through is finally gonna occur this time, at long-last after 2.5 years of trying!
 
30th March 2019 will be the day Ghost Train finally operates 100% as intended I reckon. I'm veeeeeery certain nothing will go wrong this time!
 

I don't know why everyone thinks an RMC is gonna happen over Loggers Leap. We forget the 5 golden rules with any new permanent Thorpe attraction these days:

1) Must have an IP and world-first.
2) Must be a dark theme.
3) Must be a short-term investment.
4) Must involve actors.
5) Must be naff.

An RMC or hyper-coaster would break most, if not all these rules; stuff Thorpe clearly doesn't dare want to compromise on!

I don't know why everyone thinks an RMC is gonna happen over Loggers Leap. We forget the 5 golden rules with any new permanent Thorpe attraction these days:

1) Must have an IP and world-first.
2) Must be a dark theme.
3) Must be a short-term investment.
4) Must involve actors.
5) Must be naff.

An RMC or hyper-coaster would break most, if not all these rules; stuff Thorpe clearly doesn't dare want to compromise on!

I don't know why everyone thinks an RMC is gonna happen over Loggers Leap. We forget the 5 golden rules with any new permanent Thorpe attraction these days:

1) Must have an IP and world-first.
2) Must be a dark theme.
3) Must be a short-term investment.
4) Must involve actors.
5) Must be naff.

An RMC or hyper-coaster would break most, if not all these rules; stuff Thorpe clearly doesn't dare want to compromise on!

Is this just an amazing coincidence given the timing this was posted on Instagram, or are Liseberg being proper trolls to Thorpe right now?
 
Either way, I love it! 
 

 
And just to remind everyone, Liseberg's FlumeRide is now 46 years old and still looks and runs better than any remaining log flume left in Britain......

Is this just an amazing coincidence given the timing this was posted on Instagram, or are Liseberg being proper trolls to Thorpe right now?
 
Either way, I love it! 
 

 
And just to remind everyone, Liseberg's FlumeRide is now 46 years old and still looks and runs better than any remaining log flume left in Britain......

Is this just an amazing coincidence given the timing this was posted on Instagram, or are Liseberg being proper trolls to Thorpe right now?
 
Either way, I love it! 
 

 
And just to remind everyone, Liseberg's FlumeRide is now 46 years old and still looks and runs better than any remaining log flume left in Britain......

A terrible decision.
 
Loggers Leap was, as has been said previously, a very popular family ride which filled a much-needed gap at Thorpe.  It was of a far superior quality to the likes of Storm Surge and had a much higher throughput to match.  The loss of this ride further displays Thorpe's absolute lack of direction, when they prioritise IP attractions over maintaining key staple attractions you know there is something wrong.
 
Furthermore, the communication on social media regarding this over the last 3 years has been absolutely unacceptable.  Saying it's closed for maintenance (at the very first stage), then that it'll make a splashback, saying the area was under redevelopment (looks like that's gone well... 3 years?!).  It's a joke.
 
Thorpe is in a dire state and this further highlights that.  3 years to announce that it'll never return, that's 3 years that they could've been refurbishing it or rebuilding its replacement.  Also, remind me why we have to have one-in, one-out with things like this?  Like, Wicker Man at Alton is great but now the park only has two water rides (one of which is broken, the other has only worth doing on the hottest of days).  Why not build a new coaster, and keep the water ride?
 
--
 
In other news, Pleasurewood Hills have announced today that their Rattlesnake roller coaster (closed in 2016) will reopen this year.  Isn't that nice.

Is this just an amazing coincidence given the timing this was posted on Instagram, or are Liseberg being proper trolls to Thorpe right now?
 
Either way, I love it! 
 

 
And just to remind everyone, Liseberg's FlumeRide is now 46 years old and still looks and runs better than any remaining log flume left in Britain......

Well, it's not gonna be open in the 2019 season so... 

It's gonna be sick.

Course! I've got a good feeling my 46th attempt at getting that perfect, flawless and reliable run-through is finally gonna occur this time, at long-last after 2.5 years of trying!
 
30th March 2019 will be the day Ghost Train finally operates 100% as intended I reckon. I'm veeeeeery certain nothing will go wrong this time!
 

I look forward to the awkward video of all the Thorpe staff doing the naff dances from Fortnite (at least the ones they won't be sued for)...

Looking forward to JackSilkstone's Closed Season Update video with a thumbnail that says "NEW HYPERCOASTER CONFIRMED?!?!?!?" or similar ?

I'm at the Pleasure Beach right now with @Kerfuffle and this is his first visit to the park too...... I feel so sorry for him currently.
 
Saying today has been horrendous is a massive understatement. Driving 6 friggin hours for a park with less than 50% of rides open is the biggest mistake I've made since declaring DBGT was the "best dark ride in the country" when it had just opened.
 
Anyone fancy a 2 hour queue for Big One on 1 train; engineers giving up on reopening Icon; Valhalla operating like a Windows 98 system and a Vekoma SLC being the most reliable ride at the park for the day?