Marhelorpe

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?

I appreciate this is your POV but this just seems like typical Merlin delusion to me. Merlin have proven many times how out of touch they are with the public, I really don't think it enters their minds what people respond to other than what their statistically skewed KPIs and surveys tell them. Of course we don't hear about everything that goes on, which is a shame because there are plenty of stories.

For years they held that mantra about a wooden coaster in a UK park, when finally they built one it was very popular. Replacing its last big all-round family ride (in a park that desperately needs a major family ride) with a ticketed Dungeon attraction is not knowing how the public respond.

They have no clue what they're doing with Thorpe Park. Wasting their most expensive project ever on a ride that doesn't know what it wants to be and was largely rejected by the public is not "getting the most out of the UK audience". Labouring a declining park with a ride that costs so much to operate and a bunch of fad IPs is not knowing what entertains the public.

Until recently they squandered Chessington's development with their weird ideology that it's not allowed a new coaster because it's a family park, and not allowed new rides unless they have animals shoved in somehow, so denied practically everything for years. It's long been obvious to everyone Chessington needs a new coaster to absorb the queues, restoring old rides and fresh new ideas.

If British people went to Phantasialand, Efteling and Europa Park would they not enjoy it as much as a Merlin attraction? Many non enthusiasts I know who've visited those places told how amazing it was, they havnt been to nearby Thorpe for years.

All that Merlin care about the British public is to monopolise them and hype them up so that they can fleece them of more money.  Hence IPs, just broker a deal with something that's already successful. IPs have been around for years, even at the time these parks were being built and that didn't stop them becoming popular.

I believe the British public can be a cynical bunch and Merlin certainly know how to mislead them, but sooner or later they wake up to the overpricing, the poor value for money and commercialised parks. I think they're more ready to enjoy whatever's thrown at them than Merlin give them credit for, so long as it gets the fundamentals right and is entertaining, then word of mouth spreads. Merlin have proven time and again they have no idea how to do this other than roller coasters or IPs.

Merlin monopolised the market, "hey ho that's business". No, you can make great business out of entertainment without monopoly. If anything monopoly is a way to get away with shoddy business because you own the whole market. I hardly call that business, just domination and shouldn't be shrugged off as 'just the way things have to be'. Merlin is also an extremely inefficient business underneath the hood.

Exactly why they’ve done it, some get drawn in by the tag “pay for a day come back all year” they think it’s a great offer, which it is if you are going to hammer it.
 
Plus Varney gets to boast about how many new sales they’ve made and then spout the on average our pass holders spend XXX in our world.

Even if they were not the most popular ticket option for guests, removing them entirely is not a solution, it only creates a new problem. Yep, that £40 quote was the average child/adult price for a 2-day ticket last year I remember.
 
For Thorpe, I can kinda let them off this given I presume the majority of their guests only visit for 1 day anyway. But Alton Towers though? Really? That'a a 2-day park minimum for families.
 
There should in my view still be an option for a 2-day park ticket as some people simply do not want to be tied to an annual pass, they just want a single weekend together at a park for the year, that's it.
 
This to me seems like an easy way for Merlin to push people into buying their season pass instead to gain more money, nothing more but that.

My favourite comment on that FB post of Thorpe's was "10 minutes on the MAP group suggests this is very wrong ?"
 
I'm saying nothing...
 
Oh and also someone has commented this, bravo:

If they were to show more behind the scenes footage of it, they may as well go the whole hog and show all the content which didn't make it into the final product, like the alternative ending and the supposed 12 different experiences. I just cannot see this attraction being updated much more other than technical fixes from here onwards. Merlin have invested too much money in it already to a mixed reception, so doubt they will keep it feeling fresh any longer.

If they were to show more behind the scenes footage of it, they may as well go the whole hog and show all the content which didn't make it into the final product, like the alternative ending and the supposed 12 different experiences. I just cannot see this attraction being updated much more other than technical fixes from here onwards. Merlin have invested too much money in it already to a mixed reception, so doubt they will keep it feeling fresh any longer.

If they were to show more behind the scenes footage of it, they may as well go the whole hog and show all the content which didn't make it into the final product, like the alternative ending and the supposed 12 different experiences. I just cannot see this attraction being updated much more other than technical fixes from here onwards. Merlin have invested too much money in it already to a mixed reception, so doubt they will keep it feeling fresh any longer.

The extra cost will be relative to the quality of the experience itself however, so that £5 is still questionable. Given we already know it's going to utilise the trough from Charlie, it has potential, but the 5 live-action scenes will need to match or surpass the quality of the ones used in London. Biggest problem I see is it's gonna be situated in a giant (and echoey) warehouse with flat flooring and no change in elevation, so aren't expecting anything amazing here. All the other dungeons to my knowledge have much more confined rooms and change in elevation in each scene, which adds a good illusion you are travelling deeper underground.

And given it's at the furthest point in the park, it wouldn't surprise me if it opens at midday on weekdays and closes at 3:30pm too. It's simply the wrong type of attraction at the wrong time for this park.

Definately gonna be attending this trip as it will be great to get on Taron once again!
 
Only slight difference is myself and @Kerfuffle are arranging a twin room at the K+ hotel, but might take a flight to Cologne from Heathrow with Eurowings instead of Stanstead purely for cost reasons, since Stanstead is one heck of a trek for the pair of us petrol-wise.
 
If however a potential Toverland bonus is added on the last day before flying back, we might look back into Stanstead again.
 
Will be booking flights this weekend hopefully. 

Most important Wild Mouse's 60th

Any money spent on it could've literally been used on ANYTHING (even polishing Varney's car fleet) and it would've been a better return...

You say that and then there also could've been the millions spent the following year...
 
...right Derren?

Merlin had the chance to do exactly that after Smiler crashed...
 
Their decisions since show nothing but contempt for "customer experience"...

The unprofessionalism all round from Thorpe Park is shocking. And no offence but it's pretty embarassing to see a self-appointed theme park 'personality' seemingly using their job at Thorpe Park as self validation for their inflated enthusiast opions.
 
I know many enthusiasts (in the real sense of the word, not this enthusiast "community" cult  ideology) who are extremely hard working and have been in the attraction industry for years. They make it all happen to entertain others, they dont get any wider recognition and they dont seek it either. Whereas this Jordan character trying to get PR attention at any opportunity, the tweets, that dumb enthusiast awards thing and many other enthusiast cliques, seem to be far more interested in themselves than working in entertainment. Or getting their enthusiast friends 'in' behind the scenes so they can boast about themselves too.

Thorpe Park needs to get back to basics, get back in touch with the public (especially if it's wanting to go for families more like it says it does) and offer a good value day out. Not a day in a tarmac car park sponsored by a hundred fads, with signs constantly reminding you you're on "the island" (whoops, you built over most views of the water years ago!), and then getting egotists to tell others why they're wrong online.
 
Theme parks are really just about having a laugh out with friends, with a day of fun.  Isn't that what we all got into it for?
People behind the scenes need to be open minded, less self congratulatory and sort the park out properly. But I guess massively glamorising the 'brand' to the point that it bears no resemblance to the park is what they're better at and all they're interested in currently.

It must be said that the park's social media teams need to get a grip with how they are running things and handling their customers, as some of the stuff we've seen this year not just from Thorpe but also Alton is really surprising. Things such as their attitude with the "Tut tut tut, it's better than nothing" and now the stupid things like #LoggersLeap2019. It's very unprofessional. I'm all for seeing some banter and fun with these accounts and have no issues with the ones Ivsetti mentioned above, but it's when they are either blatantly lying or treating their customers with contempt it becomes a problem.
 
At this point as Wumbamillio said, instead of procrastinating a decision with Loggers Leap, they should just flat-out say it's closed/reopening and get this over and done with. Simples. None of this "making a splash-back soon" or "Area under development" guff on their maps for the last 3 seasons which now nobody believes anymore, as it just clings onto the notion it will return eventually one day and will only build false hope with both guests and fans.
 
Whilst I admit I previously and frankly stupidly thought in a previous post this tweet meant a possibility of Loggers Leap coming back for 2019 (as I really want it to return), I then remembered this is the same social media account which told us this not so long ago......
 

 
Lesson - take whatever you read on their Twitter page with enough salt to fill Tidal Wave's pool.

It must be said that the park's social media teams need to get a grip with how they are running things and handling their customers, as some of the stuff we've seen this year not just from Thorpe but also Alton is really surprising. Things such as their attitude with the "Tut tut tut, it's better than nothing" and now the stupid things like #LoggersLeap2019. It's very unprofessional. I'm all for seeing some banter and fun with these accounts and have no issues with the ones Ivsetti mentioned above, but it's when they are either blatantly lying or treating their customers with contempt it becomes a problem.
 
At this point as Wumbamillio said, instead of procrastinating a decision with Loggers Leap, they should just flat-out say it's closed/reopening and get this over and done with. Simples. None of this "making a splash-back soon" or "Area under development" guff on their maps for the last 3 seasons which now nobody believes anymore, as it just clings onto the notion it will return eventually one day and will only build false hope with both guests and fans.
 
Whilst I admit I previously and frankly stupidly thought in a previous post this tweet meant a possibility of Loggers Leap coming back for 2019 (as I really want it to return), I then remembered this is the same social media account which told us this not so long ago......
 

 
Lesson - take whatever you read on their Twitter page with enough salt to fill Tidal Wave's pool.

I dont want to sound like an angry vox pop but I feel like it's justified here after the continued unprofessional attitude from Thorpe Park
 
Absolutely ridiculous that park doesnt just come out and say "Loggers Leap is closed". How hard is that? The moment Loggers Leap closed it got glossed over by people either too over-optimistic on what to expect from Merlin, or who were doing it to save bad press. While it probably could have been refurbished as necessary and reopened (like any other park would), this just isn't Merlin's track record.
 
No surprise to everybody that it's sat there for years seizing up and much is now probably beyond reasonable repair. So just tell your customers Thorpe Park, the ride is closed. It's the least you could do! You've only created far, far worse response by trying to shove your biggest family attraction under the carpet.

And now this tweet, probably because the park is such a joke at the moment that its own staff find it funny (I would). It needs a proper sort out this place.

2nd to Disney right there folks.
 
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Olympia Looping has a new LED lighting package too. 
 

After visiting the park last Saturday on the 29th September leading up to Fright Nights, I feel now is a good time to voice some big concerns I have with the way several rides are being operated not just across Thorpe, but other Merlin parks such as Alton and Chessington. This problem has been getting worse and worse as 2018 has progressed and up until the start of 2017, this was never an issue before until now. But last Saturday demonstrated this system has now gone too far, and this is regarding the use of priority or disabled passes by guests. 
 
Now, I understand this may be a discussion which can be quite sensitive to some readers and I am not criticising or demeaning those who use these passes that have a genuine disability, but I am going to pick at the way the parks manage this system because it has reached boiling point after my experience last weekend and here's why with some examples I've experienced this year and indeed last weekend. Used spoiler tags for each example to keep this post shorter:

(Saturday 29th September - Colossus) 
 
(August Bank Holiday - Th13teen)
 
(Every visit in 2018 - Derren Brown's Ghost Train)
 
(September 2018 - Vampire)
 
(Opening day 2018 - Wicker Man)
 
Before 2017, this system never really posed any problems or frustrations in the past at any of the Merlin parks, but every time I visit any of the parks now, the number of people I am seeing using these ride access passes has increased dramatically, so much so that in most cases, they are in fact longer than the Fastrack queues and this poses a huge problem. All the main queues for every ride across every park are moving so slowly now that it makes Spinball Whizzer's queue look like nothing these days. What should be short & quick queues on quiet days are now doubling in length for the most part across the majority of rides at Thorpe, and I have noticed this on every visit I have made this year.

Staff on most attractions are allocating far more seats to those with a priority/disabled pass to the point where as highlighted with Colossus above, they are now filling entire trains of these people in order to keep the length of them down. With Fright Nights soon approaching where queues will hit their maximum lengths, I am deeply worried many attractions are going to have some horrendous queueing experiences for guests not only in the main queue, but also the disabled and Fastrack ones where they will need to also wait longer because of the quantity of people that are now using these passes.

I'm unsure what solution I can suggest to prevent this getting further out of control, but this needs to be brought to attention because the situation is getting worse and worse every visit I make and nobody else is talking about this ever-growing problem shockingly. I need to be careful with how I word this, but something needs to change with the allocation of these passes because right now, I am seeing the disabled entrance as nothing more than just another Fastrack queue given many people through my eyes don't look like they have a disability. And for those with a genuine disability such as being in a wheelchair, I find this incredibly unfair for them, just like the father at the example with Th13teen I mentioned above.

I can only ever dream of a queue system similar to the likes of Phantasialand and Europa Park, but understand this will never happen sadly. As it stands, not one of the three queues at Merlin parks is a win for guests, so something needs to change to keep this from degrading and getting worse.

Going back to this tweet however, I do find the timing of it quite interesting should it lead anywhere and hold any truth. Got a small pet theory about this and yes, I realise I might be overthinking this hugely here, so bear with me if it sounds ridiculous and unrealistic.

Many would think should Loggers Leap return at any point in the future, there is a very likely possibility new vertical construction such as buildings or a queue line re-route are due to possibly go up, potentially as part of a retheme, spruce or for safety/presentation purposes. If so, there are clearly going to be planning applications made to the Runnymede Council granting permission and detailing the more specific details of the changes the park wish to make. But as we all know, there are no plans submitted anywhere right now around the site of Loggers Leap, so you would think at this point nothing is going to happen right?

Well, who here remembers when the plans were submitted to the council regarding the construction of Walking Dead: The Ride's watch tower and queue re-route? The first revised documents showing the schematics and various viewing angles were submitted on the 24th November 2017 - almost exactly a year ago to this day.
 
This is just a wild theory, but if there is indeed hope for Loggers Leap returning next year, could we be seeing some minor plans being submitted within the next few days to the council detailing changes which would coincide with a reopening and repair of the attraction this winter perhaps? Something tells me if this is going to happen, Thorpe Park's social media team last night might have prematurely released this hint to their followers, especially given it uses a hashtag and can easily become a trend for the park this closed season on all of social media. Maybe they were planning to start this trend as soon as the plans were released so both enthusiasts looking at the documents in more detail and the public following their pages on social media are aware of what's happening in 2019?

If it should reopen, this will likely not be regarded as a new attraction for 2019, so there's no need to keep things secret with the public this time over the closed season. Unlike WD: The Ride where an official unveiling was publicly made in February 2018; 3 months after the plans were discovered and the park were being secretive over this period with guests.
 
Just a theory and are probably being far too hopeful & optimistic here mind. 

Yeah, I am aware, it's a non-story. Just found it amusing when all the vlogger/YouTube "celebrities" were freaking out over this being a new attraction for Thorpe earlier this summer, much like Grand National becoming an RMC recently and now Loggers Leap returning for 2019. None of these things are likely gonna happen and is just rumour guff.
 
Hope I'm wrong about the last one though...

It looks better than nothing.

2nd to Disney right there folks.
 
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.