Project LC

Adjust for inflation of the price now for just Thorpe premium being £99.99 then in 2003 it would have cost £72.47. Meaning that you are paying the equivalent of £13 less to get access to just one park rather than all the parks. I personally would say that the pass has depreciated in value. A standard pass costing £169 now would have cost £122.50 in 2003. Seeing as you paid £85 I think it shows how much the passes have gone up and that's not even including all the restrictions that have been added.

I don't think it is proven. Also what stops them changing that attitude. People will stay if there is a reason to and now Thorpe is at a point where there is a reason. Another coaster and there will definitely be a need to stay open late.

If a a tiny park like AI can open to those hours and oakwood doing similar on certain days they must be worth doing. Smaller parks have much less room to play with, money wise, so for Thorpe it should be easy and I'm sure the market is there for it. I would be amazed if late summer openings had a negative or neutral impact on the park.

I agree that summer nights is fun, but I feel as a business move for the long term that just staying open is better. Maybe if they kept Fridays as summer nights and Saturdays as long opening with a show. It would make the place more of a resort.

When they tried it back in 2006 it was possible to get all the rides done easily. Now its not, the 5 coasters in the peak of summer means a lot of people don't get them all done. If they introduced a ticket to allow entry after 4pm I'm sure some would go for that. I'm also sure that people would be more willing to stay in the crash pad on days where it is open later. I'm not suggesting all of summer but just fridays and saturdays in august.

They haven't opened to that sort of time in years. People don't stay at fright nights because its cold and often wet. The summer its still warm and after a long day of only getting on a few rides I'm sure there are lots of willing people to stay. If they advertise it correctly and maybe have a few extra things like a dance show with lasers or fireworks like many other parks then it will certainly attract more guests, leave a good memory so they are more likely to return. You have to take risks to make money and I'm sure this is a risk that they should take.

Good relative to the other merlin parks. Globally they are still terrible. They should be open till 9 or 10pm in the summer. That would attract more guests as there day wont be as rushed and queues will be shorter as people wont feel the need to stay the whole day. People would be willing to travel further if the park was open from 10 till 9. All merlin parks are stupid for not doing it and I see this year they are all just sticking with the same as last year. Its not even from just an enthusiasts perspective it also makes more sense in a business perspective. I'm sure the more guests and better customer satisfaction would lead to more income to overcome the increased running costs and result in more profit.

How can you have a sale on something that has never existed before. As you were unable to buy them until now I don't see how they could have been selling at £99.99 before hand. Unless I'm mistaken and they have been selling at that price for 3 weeks (Did check that 3 weeks was the time frame specified in trading regulations - there is a few exceptions). The fact this pass even exists is a joke but then they have gone ahead and broken the same trading regulations as merlin did. Waste of time for even considering to buy one.

Alton's recent campaigns are stupid. There new advert doesn't even feature a ride. Its so focused on the new accommodation they have forgotten they are a theme park.

Completed

But it revealed the drop inside on the advert. It would have been better not to show that.

They will ruin it with the advert like they did with 13.

I would say that there going to start digging in a few weeks. Then vertical construction may/june with the main building being finished sometime towards end of august or early September. Then they will move in the large portion of machinery and technology controlling the ride (my guess is that there is a lot of that). Then that allows for 4 - 5 months of inside themeing followed by 2 months of full testing and training and media. MHFS will remain as site access. Maybe something for 2017 if 2016 is successful.

Colossus (4) Nemesis Inferno (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Slammer (5) Stealth (5) The Swarm (6) Rumba - Colossus +

Customer satisfaction has been going downhill for a while. Now it's going down exponentially.

Who ever is in charge at the moment clearly is making some bad moves. They have managed to anger more passholders on top of the Thorpe Feb incident. Worse than tussauds, and on track to be worse than six flags.

They show the renewals as a reduced price from a price they were never selling at.

they arnt allowed to its illegal. It breachs trading standards, something I am trying to confront them on, but there all on holiday.

Having checked it is against the law to call this as sale regardless of the T&C's. They must state the old price and the new reduced one they cant state the new price of what its going to be. Anyone which has purchased a renewal has full rights to take legal action. DFS had the same problem last year. If they started the sale on Jan 1st then there is a regulation which sometimes lets them do it. However this has no exception clause. It is misselling.

Odd sale they have there when the renewal price has gone up by £30. I thought that was against trading standard regulations. I always thought you had to sell something for 6 weeks at the new price before you can lower it and call it a sale. I guess they must have some clause in there terms and conditions. Still to call it a sale when the price has gone up is in no way ok. Its misleading and dishonest. Believe it or not I am actually trying to not bash merlin at every opportunity however that is not on. I could have renewed my pass yesterday for full price for less than it is in this "sale". Trading Standard regulations section 18: to claim that products are on sale, you should show the previous price and should have been selling at that price for a meaningful period of time

Yet another pass that shouldnt exist. I'm sure they will find new ways of devaluing the standard thorpe pass instead of making the premium better. If a VIP pass comes along then any remaining hope I had in them will die. VIP passes are bad enough as it is we dont need another 1000 just for thorpe.

There a company that operates theme parks and coasters featured for less than 4 seconds. Not making much sense to me, surley you advertise your best asset. Apart from that the advert seems pretty average.

7/10 Pretty lights, needs more lights.

It would have been general maintenance which required part of the frame to be dismantled. They cant go upgrading storm surge, it could devalue my award.

It is indeed an insane move from the park and in reality its just to limit the numbers going. They could have raised the price for normal guests but that could have resulted in more complaints so they have decided to put off a different group of people and the ones that do decided to go will be less likley to complain as they can just return for free later. Logical move from the park but one that I and others disagree with.