OldFarmerDean

The annual (or season) passes for Thorpe Park that you can now get by paying full gate price on the day... are these 'annual passes' that can be used for the passholder fright night preview event - as well as do they mean you can get in to fright nights with just the £5 fee. I know this may sound obvious, and I'm just being stupid... but I just really want to make sure I get the same benefits of a merlin standard pass in line with the fright nights event this year.

thorpe won't get a 'basic' woodie, if they even get a woodie at all... as the general appeal to attract more visitors just isn't going to work with difficulty to market it - but if they do get a woodie it just has to be an RMC for them to be able to market it and to able to appeal to the general public, rather than a good solid woodie with lots of airtime etc. just isn't going to work... I'm all for an RMC style woodie with an inversion or 2, as I've never ridden one and outlaw run looks unbelievably awesome, c'mon thorpe you know you want to

although not scary in a gory horror form... the haunting in the hollows walkthrough (and I've said this before), was surprisingly excellent - had a great story & atmosphere, and the some of the themeing and actors were brilliant... I genuinely found the walkthrough scarier than the curse at thorpe park, and really look forward to it again this year if it's largely unchanged!

went to thorpe today... could only see experiment 10, couldn't see the Section behind nemesis inferno for some reason, just must have been looking in the wrong place haha... but experiment 10, don't know which maze it is going to become looks to be in a different layout, like in a square, and looks worryingly small in length in comparison to actual experiment 10 (less shipping containers than before) if I remember correctly!

I know this sounds bad... but what if you book your space and then can't go, surely nothing would be done about it? it's just that I'm dying to go, but me and my friend won't know til next week with work, but if it's strictly limited spaces, really need to book it when it's released on friday!

I actually enjoy shockwave as it gives a completely different experience... not saying it isn't uncomfortable and slightly painful at times, and also to mention how short it is. from what I've heard about B&M standups having a better restraint system & being smoother... I would love to see one as the next major investment at either Alton or Thorpe, or at least in the not too distant future - I think a standup, conisdering they would have a longer length than shockwave, would be a great addition adding a different aspect of rollercoaster to the list of the park and possibly make less people go to drayton manor, and try and cut out competition with them having the better standup. (this then would bring it to the situation, which park is a standup best suited to, thorpe or alton, considering how close it is to drayton manor!)

according to the website, tidal wave is currently unavailable... I swear someone said it wasn't open on the summer nights event - has it been broken since?

I went to oakwood for the after dark event and because of the throughput of the rides, the queues were really bad! Went to the first summer nights event and had a really great time, and didn't queue at all, except to wait for the next train to come, absolutely dead, was actually quite eerie how quiet it was; unfortunately for others it has been slightly busier than when I went from what I've heard, although I still wouldn't complain as it is minimal queues which they did change their advertising to. The ticket booths though were a shame as when I went I was told in the day I couldn't get my wristband til the evening although I didn't see what the harm was in them giving it to me there and then, but came out at half 6 ish and queued about 5 mins for my wristbands, I can understand how people are annoyed with the queue for the tickets, but besides that, from when I went and what I'm hearing the event is pretty well spot on - well done thorpe!

The Flume is terrible now - Loggers leap is my favourite log flume in the UK, love the air time on the double drop Rumba Rapids is slow, short, and rarely get's you wet with the water effects not working - not saying it's perfect but Conga Rapids has to be the best river rapids in the UK just for the sheer length, love the shared tunnel with runaway mine train, and if you're lucky will get soaked in a few places, although could do with more water features, end up more times coming off dry than wet.

they're going to have to retheme it at some point? once they decide not to renew the IP I would like it to try and fit in with loggers leap etc. if the area is still around by then....

Apocalypse is just under 180ft... I personally don't find detonator thrilling... And just thought it would be a nice addition, and could probably hold two 8 seater drop towers? No flat rides tend to have a good throughput really... Gimmick... That's what Thorpe Park & Merlin are all about!

Just an idea... In the near future could this be done with stealth and create a near 200ft drop tower to replace detonator that would warrant a good marketing factor for a new flat ride (not a major rollercoaster investment which otherwise would be hard to market)? Out of interest what is the tallest drop tower in the UK and Europe?

you've probably got that right... I went halloween last year and a lot of the rows weren't working, and can't remember a train coming through that often to run 5, seriously, so poor!

I'm not too fussed about the warehouse as at least it's relatively dark and theres a few themed sections, but the lift hill and going in to the inside of the 'skull rock' is just vile metal structures etc... the outside turned out nothing like the plans either - hope they do address these issues over the closed season.

even though it's merlin it seems to be up to the parks what they do at the end of the day... I'm sure chessie are happy putting the event on as I'm guessing they wouldn't get many visitors that time of year, so the amount of guests visiting outweighs the cost of running the event. I go for the whole aspect of halloween events, although I mainly love the rides in the evening/dark as it's hard to do in the summer (although summer nights were good with nemesis inferno in almost pitch black ) I've said it before, and I'll say it again parks have the power to do what they want, only they will learn when they have a decrease in visitors (in this case due to lack of passholders attending), and have to make changes, but I know the amount of people that won't go will be rather small, so thorpe won't really take any notice and therefore won't do anything, it's how merlin seem to run!

Alton Towers... but then you have to pay for the mazes which I guess is why this topic is being created. And most people have said they would rather pay the extra fiver for all the mazes to be included. When you get a standard pass you know what you're letting yourself in for with the terms & conditions, and I personally think a fiver extra for standard passes is reasonable - I understand what people mean they have to pay extra just to go to the park even if they don't want to stay late or use the mazes, but thorpe have a park to run efficiently and it's not exactly easy to distinguish between different guests having people check wristbands ect. If you had a premium pass it wouldn't make any difference... and then you would be complaining when you go to Alton Towers that you still have to pay for the mazes!?

but then you're getting extra hours of park opening and including roaming actors etc. completely free - considering how I and probably the majority of people with passes now got them pretty much for free with a full priced entry, I think it's only fair they charge the fiver, as it's costing them to keep open longer even without the mazes, so a fiver extra is a complete bargain if you only have a standard thorpe or merlin pass... best way so people stop complaining is that you go and buy a premium merlin pass - simple

I've been on a couple of these, they are great fun... Woodlands Leisure Park & Plymouth Ski Centre - don't go fast enough in my opinion, although the latter one was a lot better

I remember going back a few years ago when they opened til 8 which was good then... and I went last year once the clocks had changed, so created pretty much another hour of evening/dark

I actually don't mind the ride, shame there is actually no bubble effects working or in there at all - I really enjoy the last section though with the fountains. The thing that really annoys me is when rides themes don't fit together or with the area - It's pointless changing the ride structure, it just needs a complete refurbishment and somehow themed to Transylvania - I guess the original Bubbleworks fitted as it was intended to be a fizzy pop factory in Transylvania?

is that a regular occurrence though as it's happened on 2 occasions, and if I remember probably the few years before that :/ how many trains should it normally run on?

am I the only one that's had a problem with the throughput of this ride... went last year and again this year, and out of the trains that are being sent around half of them were closed off, the queue moved so slow!

I went to florida back in 2005, and remember overhearing and talking to Americans in my hotel that they want to visit alton towers as it is apparently the best theme park in europe/UK, and that nemesis is the best coaster etc. I was only 11, but felt so happy that people wanted to go to the park that I was brought up going to besides corkscrew as it was 1.2m I remember a year or 2 before my dad forcing me to go on nemesis, and I had napkins stuffed in my shoes to make me tall enough haha, just to make sure I enjoyed the big rides, and meant we would go to florida (didn't know this at the time haha) - I was determined not to go on it, and after a while persuaded me to go on it, loved it so much I wanted to go on again, but the queue was too big by then and he wouldn't queue lol!

it's unfair to judge how effective the swarm was, as the visitor numbers dropped, but as mentioned there were so many different factors last year that pretty much led to the decline in visitor numbers for that year. I think the swarm is a great ride and always has the busiest queues in the park even considering it has a decent throughput so goes to show it is popular even on it's second year, it's just obvious that the nicer weather this year and other reasons is that the park is busier - although with the amount of offers thorpe have been putting on in comparison to last year, unsure if that's partly the reason. I just hope merlin aren't stuck in tunnel vision and only see that the launch of the swarm a big investment seen a poor year in terms of visitor number, will put them off taking risks with a hybrid woodie, or even not adding big investments for a while!

like matt said about sheer force... I have never come across such a smooth and forceful rollercoaster, montu at busch gardens dwarves nemesis in size, actually has a first drop (regardless of how big it is), and it is faster, but it is the compact layout of nemesis that makes it the worlds most intense ride experience!