Marhelorpe

Maybe for next year they'll refurbish it to Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise Of The Sneeze?!

Oh man, it appears “future for theme parks” is reaching new levels of low today in the middle of summer.
 
Besides from having an awful run through the attraction this afternoon, with numerous effects, audio, lighting and hardware not working, the cream of the crop goes to this:
 

Oh man, it appears “future for theme parks” is reaching new levels of low today in the middle of summer.
 
Besides from having an awful run through the attraction this afternoon, with numerous effects, audio, lighting and hardware not working, the cream of the crop goes to this:
 

RAP

I have a few theories. None of its concrete evidence and is pure conjecture on my part.
 
- The failure of the Swarm. We all know that Merlin were initially disappointed by the Swarms first season. Many reasons were cited (which I'm sure those in the know can find) but essentially, I think this lack of interest in the new coaster dented confidence in what the park could do. Baring in mind, 2011 saw one of the biggest years the park had and that was on the back of Storm Surge. Cheaper investment bought massive returns.
 
- The next Big thing. I think Thorpe has fallen into the trap that Six Flags did. By appealing solely to the thrill sector you severely limit interest. Teenagers want the next big thing and in the 00s, Thorpe easily provided that thrill. Hit after hit, success after success. Coasters galore, several years where we got two flat rides. That investment was unsustainable. Now though, rides like Colossus, Inferno, Tidal Wave, Detonator & Vortex are old hat. They are unmaintained and look their age. Thorpe were unable to drum up interest with The Swarm, Derren Brown opened late and was pretty weak and the less said about the reliance on IP to drive interest the better. The park has a real image problem which leads me to..
 
- Branding. Thorpe has a huge perception problem. Is it a thrill park, is it a park for up for it families, do we make X a family coaster then two years later refurbish it for adults. Do we change our market to families and then close the biggest family ride we've got (Loggers Leap). Do we advertise our park in our 2019 advert or have an image of goats, donuts and a hotel room. None of this evokes excitement. It smacks of a park throwing anything, everything at the wall to see what sticks and new general managers are not given enough time to evolve/change the place before they are fired and a new one bought in.
 
- The Smiler crash. Ironically, four years later, I feel like the crash has had this weird echoing effect at Thorpe compared to the other two main Merlin parks. It's almost like it never recovered from the initial drop in attendance whilst Alton has recovered well thanks to Wicker Man and Chessington never saw the drop because of its family audience. You could say the lack of investment is really hurting Thorpe right now but then there seems to be no steps to change this.
 
- The park itself. It's fallen a long way since the hefty days of 2006. If they are to recover the place they need to sort out their offering. Having abandoned flat rides and log flumes standing doesn't help, neither does the game stalls or the lack of maintenance and paint jobs on their rollercoasters. The basics need to be sorted for Thorpe to recover. Chessington was exactly the same way in the 00's but that now feels like the strongest Merlin park IMO. If Thorpe can sort this then they might be able to get back to the top.

Hello guys, 
 
Been a regular of the forums for many years but decided to ask the burning question this morning... just what has happened to the park? 
 
Thorpe Park a few years ago was arguably the best park in the UK, it was going from strength to strength in terms of investments and then all of sudden we get IACGMOOH, bouncezilla, the year of the walking dead etc 
 
They even pulled The Big Top off the Fright Nights bill which from what I understand was a favourite by many
 
I assume 2020 will be just as poor in regards to the parks line up / investments as no planning has been put through for a coaster or even a new flat ride...  
 
Any information regarding the reasons behind the decline of the park would be interesting to hear... 

Given they are still hanging onto TWD as an IP to sell the event for a 3rd year running, and that Do or Die is returning given how ominously awful it was, I ain’t holding my breath on this year being anything but a minuscule improvement compared to 2018.
 
The new “chilling challenge” I’m certain is gonna be where Jungle Escape is. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s just Vulcan Peak: Escape Edition with a £5 fee labelled to it.
 
And as for the new maze, hopefully it’s better than last year’s immersive experience of nothing but toilet bowls, pallet crates, black tunnels and Asylum’s chicken wire fencing used as “theming” which we got with Dead Creek Woods.
 
Yeah, as you can probably tell, I ain’t enthused one bit after last year’s embarrassment with this announcement today. Hopefully that’ll change when the event gets nearer though, as I want this event to be great like it once was...

Rather than repeating all the problems I and others have with this attraction, I'll just leave here one extremely major flaw I had with this yesterday on the preview event for Fright Nights (29th September 2018).

The fake shop at the end of the attraction wasn't working and so the entire group walked through it without the demon jumping out in front of guests because......... *drum roll*
 

Still awaiting for the return of the mighty Dead End: Terror Zone... 9 years later.
 
That thing was incredible, especially seeing the Tesco Value Halloween masks used by the staff.
 

Still awaiting for the return of the mighty Dead End: Terror Zone... 9 years later.
 
That thing was incredible, especially seeing the Tesco Value Halloween masks used by the staff.
 

Given they are still hanging onto TWD as an IP to sell the event for a 3rd year running, and that Do or Die is returning given how ominously awful it was, I ain’t holding my breath on this year being anything but a minuscule improvement compared to 2018.
 
The new “chilling challenge” I’m certain is gonna be where Jungle Escape is. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s just Vulcan Peak: Escape Edition with a £5 fee labelled to it.
 
And as for the new maze, hopefully it’s better than last year’s immersive experience of nothing but toilet bowls, pallet crates, black tunnels and Asylum’s chicken wire fencing used as “theming” which we got with Dead Creek Woods.
 
Yeah, as you can probably tell, I ain’t enthused one bit after last year’s embarrassment with this announcement today. Hopefully that’ll change when the event gets nearer though, as I want this event to be great like it once was...

Given they are still hanging onto TWD as an IP to sell the event for a 3rd year running, and that Do or Die is returning given how ominously awful it was, I ain’t holding my breath on this year being anything but a minuscule improvement compared to 2018.
 
The new “chilling challenge” I’m certain is gonna be where Jungle Escape is. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s just Vulcan Peak: Escape Edition with a £5 fee labelled to it.
 
And as for the new maze, hopefully it’s better than last year’s immersive experience of nothing but toilet bowls, pallet crates, black tunnels and Asylum’s chicken wire fencing used as “theming” which we got with Dead Creek Woods.
 
Yeah, as you can probably tell, I ain’t enthused one bit after last year’s embarrassment with this announcement today. Hopefully that’ll change when the event gets nearer though, as I want this event to be great like it once was...

Given they are still hanging onto TWD as an IP to sell the event for a 3rd year running, and that Do or Die is returning given how ominously awful it was, I ain’t holding my breath on this year being anything but a minuscule improvement compared to 2018.
 
The new “chilling challenge” I’m certain is gonna be where Jungle Escape is. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s just Vulcan Peak: Escape Edition with a £5 fee labelled to it.
 
And as for the new maze, hopefully it’s better than last year’s immersive experience of nothing but toilet bowls, pallet crates, black tunnels and Asylum’s chicken wire fencing used as “theming” which we got with Dead Creek Woods.
 
Yeah, as you can probably tell, I ain’t enthused one bit after last year’s embarrassment with this announcement today. Hopefully that’ll change when the event gets nearer though, as I want this event to be great like it once was...

Another classic from Face-Fok ltd!!

Sticking this anywhere because it needs attention. This video had me howling, watch until the end ???
 
 

This is hilarious 
 

I did the trip there via public transport and here’s how you get there. Once you know the station names, it’s quite straight-forward to get there directly from the airport:
 
1. From Amsterdam train stations (central, airport etc), take a service to ‘Harderwijk’, which is about a 70 minute train journey with one or two changeovers. About €15 each way, any route can be used.
 
2. At Harderwijk station, there is a bus station area right next to the tourist information building with about 8 different bays. Go to stop ‘G’ and take service 247 or 247a which says “Walibi” on the sign.
 
3. The times that depart in the morning to the park from this stop are the following:
 
9:22am, 9:52am, 10:22am and 10:52am for the first four. After that, it’s pretty much every 30 minutes all day. It’s €9 exactly for a return ticket.
 
This bus will take you directly to the park entrance plaza and the last bus back after park closure from memory was at 20:33 for the 8pm summer days.
 
Be aware that the bus is pretty packed, similar to the Thorpe ones and they only take card payments or a travel card similar to oysters (which is aimed more for the locals than tourists). Cash will not be accepted at all and yes, the buses do support Visa, MasterCard and Maestro contactless, including Revolut cards which was extremely handy in my case.
 
As for the trains, I would advise you to use their smartphone app called “NS Reisplanner Xtra” on either iOS or Android to book tickets and show the QR code to the conductor onboard when asked like I did. It is in English too this app so no translation problems.
 
I stayed at a hotel in Harderwijk for a couple of nights and from there, it’s pretty easy to get to the park, so the important bit is to make sure you reach Harderwijk bus station in all this.
 

I will get round to this in my Steel Vengeance review but I also felt that the restraints ruined the ride massively.
 
It just isn't comfortable having your lower legs restricted like that and when you have a 30 year old hypercoaster with much more comfortable restraints than something that's brand new it's a bit of a joke really.

I ain’t apologising for anything I have said about RMC previously my acquaintance, as I retain the view that as a company, they create designs which are questionable in execution in a few areas, even after riding Untamed yesterday and here’s why.
 
Untamed as a coaster layout-wise is fantastic. There’s no question about that. It’s a lot of fun from start to end with lots of surprisingly forceful elements, the least of which are those bunny hills at the end just before the final inversion. They were fantastic on the back row! I also love the fact that this ride is perfect proof that height and speed are not what makes an amazing ride either, as whilst it’s not the tallest or fastest on the market, it certainly packs one heck of a punch still despite it’s limitations. Kinda similar to Wicker Man which is also proof that height and speed are not everything.
 
However, I am going to say this again, but after enjoying Untamed hugely, I still believe RMC as a whole are once again in an enormous hype bubble at the moment (aka - newcomer DBGT hype) where people say there’s no faults with them and anyone who dares to criticise RMC should be witch-hunted for it, hence the reference. And there are still areas where I question their design an awful lot which some people overlook, just purely and simply because it’s an RMC coaster to them.
 
For example, I’ve been reading reviews for Untamed and heard from others the seats on them are more giving and spacious compared to older RMC’s such as Wildfire, where there’s more legroom, more accommodation, thinner shin restraints etc. That is all complete and utter b*llocks. They feel no different to Wildfire, the legroom was identical and the shin brackets still caused me a great deal of discomfort on the ride, probably more than Wildfire due to the more extreme airtime on it in all honesty.
 
But being my 2nd RMC, I was far more impressed by Untamed than I was for Wildfire this time and despite having bruised shins after, the ride itself made up for that. This RMC actually delivered, unlike “Mildfire” which was supposedly what many claimed the “2nd best RMC in the world” which, in my view, I can’t believe one jolt anymore.
 
RMC to me as a company are still in a lot of hype right now and in my experience after trying Untamed, I do concede what I said a little by now saying that whilst some of their products do deliver, others do not, which is why I’m still not looking at them as a whole thinking they are gods at coaster design.
 
They make great rides, but also make overhyped rides. 

I ain’t apologising for anything I have said about RMC previously my acquaintance, as I retain the view that as a company, they create designs which are questionable in execution in a few areas, even after riding Untamed yesterday and here’s why.
 
Untamed as a coaster layout-wise is fantastic. There’s no question about that. It’s a lot of fun from start to end with lots of surprisingly forceful elements, the least of which are those bunny hills at the end just before the final inversion. They were fantastic on the back row! I also love the fact that this ride is perfect proof that height and speed are not what makes an amazing ride either, as whilst it’s not the tallest or fastest on the market, it certainly packs one heck of a punch still despite it’s limitations. Kinda similar to Wicker Man which is also proof that height and speed are not everything.
 
However, I am going to say this again, but after enjoying Untamed hugely, I still believe RMC as a whole are once again in an enormous hype bubble at the moment (aka - newcomer DBGT hype) where people say there’s no faults with them and anyone who dares to criticise RMC should be witch-hunted for it, hence the reference. And there are still areas where I question their design an awful lot which some people overlook, just purely and simply because it’s an RMC coaster to them.
 
For example, I’ve been reading reviews for Untamed and heard from others the seats on them are more giving and spacious compared to older RMC’s such as Wildfire, where there’s more legroom, more accommodation, thinner shin restraints etc. That is all complete and utter b*llocks. They feel no different to Wildfire, the legroom was identical and the shin brackets still caused me a great deal of discomfort on the ride, probably more than Wildfire due to the more extreme airtime on it in all honesty.
 
But being my 2nd RMC, I was far more impressed by Untamed than I was for Wildfire this time and despite having bruised shins after, the ride itself made up for that. This RMC actually delivered, unlike “Mildfire” which was supposedly what many claimed the “2nd best RMC in the world” which, in my view, I can’t believe one jolt anymore.
 
RMC to me as a company are still in a lot of hype right now and in my experience after trying Untamed, I do concede what I said a little by now saying that whilst some of their products do deliver, others do not, which is why I’m still not looking at them as a whole thinking they are gods at coaster design.
 
They make great rides, but also make overhyped rides. 

I am fully aware of that. I work with children with all sorts of physical and mental disabilities.
 
Unfortunately a lot of people using the RAP system in the UK are people with 'disabilities' that do not require them to be unable to stand in a normal queue. 
 
The pass is supposed to allow you to skip the queue, but still have to wait the equivalent of the queue time, however many staff don't bother with that aspect of it meaning they can just go and queue for another ride. 
 
We actually witnessed a situation on the AT meet where a parent got angry as the staff member wrote the time 60 mins later on his sons RAP sheet and he started going off on one about how his son won't be able to cope, clearly not understanding it wasn't a fast track ticket but merely a means of his son not having to stand in a physical queue. 

If we think seeing Saw Alive having it’s boat being painted over the wrong shade of colour is awful, wait until you all have a good look at the state of the blue supports underneath the bridge connecting the entrance to the Dome when standing next to Vortex...... my goodness. 
 
To me though, whether a ride is operational or not, that does not give the park any excuse to do botch jobs such as this, because supposedly the majority of consumers wouldn’t care nor notice something like that. No matter how you spin this, it is still something a paying customer is going to be presented with when they enter the park, alongside a rusting S&S structure and a quite literally rotting log flume. It does not leave a positive impression to guests when they see derelict attractions.
 
If the park intend to dismantle these three rides so that they no longer appear visible to park guests in the future, I can excuse this, but we all know that will not be the case, let’s be honest.
 
At this point, I say either repurpose the boat for something else and redecorate the exterior, or dismantle it to make way for something better and more sustainable for the long-term future of the park (flat ride hint hint).

If we think seeing Saw Alive having it’s boat being painted over the wrong shade of colour is awful, wait until you all have a good look at the state of the blue supports underneath the bridge connecting the entrance to the Dome when standing next to Vortex...... my goodness. 
 
To me though, whether a ride is operational or not, that does not give the park any excuse to do botch jobs such as this, because supposedly the majority of consumers wouldn’t care nor notice something like that. No matter how you spin this, it is still something a paying customer is going to be presented with when they enter the park, alongside a rusting S&S structure and a quite literally rotting log flume. It does not leave a positive impression to guests when they see derelict attractions.
 
If the park intend to dismantle these three rides so that they no longer appear visible to park guests in the future, I can excuse this, but we all know that will not be the case, let’s be honest.
 
At this point, I say either repurpose the boat for something else and redecorate the exterior, or dismantle it to make way for something better and more sustainable for the long-term future of the park (flat ride hint hint).

Well in all fairness, the paint on the boat wont match as it's pretty worn and weathered. 
Sadly there isn't a team who handle just fright nights, who have an understanding of scare attractions, how and what would work etc. It's all headed up by marketing, dictating what they want, when in reality it wouldn't work as an attraction. Just look at Vulcan Peak... And this year, it's all new faces again due to people leaving.
 
The Big Top was created by people who know scare attractions and everything that goes into them, unlike last year, which was frankly just a $#1T show.
 
They'll get it right again one year, but until that dreaded dated IP has gone, and they put trust into their own ideas... it'll be a long wait.

If I were Thorpe I would have a doctor on site to permission genuine need for a RAP. The system is clearly abused and to the point of making it a bad day experience for the genuinely disabled in  having to join long RAP queues, I feel really bad for those guys. For too long the idea of not all disabilities being visible has been used as a cover for a cheap alternative to fast track. Next time you go to Thorpe do a little bit of people watching and you will see a sea of yellow bands everywhere.