Ian-S

This is what I'm talking about. Shoddy beyond words and all too frequent when a ride isn't operating at 100%. Any fool can run a place where nothing goes wrong, it's how they react to a change in circumstance that is the measure of their abilities, and they fail. An incident like that is more than enough to completely taint a guests day at the park and their likelihood of returning and telling others it's a good place to go. All for a combination of wanting the quick fastrack buck and general incompetence. It basically costs nothing to resolve this issue, just some effective management. 
 
If they can't foresee and manage a simple thing like this what hope have they got of getting R&R in any way reliable? Go back and get the basics right first, then give your fancy new system a go.

music like that is a matter of opinion. I believe most of the pop music around the park belongs in peoples iTunes, much better to have themed specific scores and sounds for rides and areas then Nicki Minaj being blasted out in unfitting places around the park.

That people are returning is also part of the problem...
 
I get people enjoy their visits to the park and stuff, but if you keep going (even if you complain every single time you do), then you're not helping things get better...
 
Sad but true...

Of course I'll follow the construction of this ride... but as I said right from when I found out for a merlin park this ridiculous sum is going to be spent wasted on a dark ride; I'm not looking forward to this as much as I should / want to. I do love merlin with their marketing for big rides, and some of the themes/concepts they come up with, but honestly the basis of any major ride I mainly care about the ride hardware; and from the looks of the small(ish) bulding size, and the height, well lack of, I can't see anything worthwhile thrilling that would go in there. I know a lot of you have been praying for thorpe to get a dark ride, so slate me all you want for being so pessimistic about this, but it's probably just not going to be something that I'll experience and think wow, money well spent, well done Thorpe. I just won't... I'd love to be pleasantly surprised like I was with I'm a Celeb on preview night, so I'll keep my expectations low, and my hype meter to a minimum.

This is gonna be a letdown ....

On our visit on Friday my younger sister wanted to measure herself because she really wants to go on Rattlesnake but she's not tall enough. She couldn't measure herself as there was a chain over the entrance, so we asked the poor member of staff who's job it is to stand at the entrance all day watching people walk to Scorpion if it was closed indefinitely. He said that they were aiming to reopen the ride in the late Summer period or just after. Hope I helped

The date!

When my sister went to order her premium tickets last week it said that it was sold out - she got a bit confused so I tried sending her a link from my laptop and she was able to order the tickets - not sure what happened there!  I'm assuming they have limited availability for premium passes as they are free?  Kinda wish I got Premium Membership as it was only an extra £3 per month but to be honest, £5 for summer nights is a bargain - seeing as one fastrack for a coaster is the same price. The first Summer Nights I went to 2 years ago I did before I got my pass (well, membership) and still reckon it is good value for money

If it were me I'd hold off on marketing till after summer. You want people focused on what's coming next, once you have them in the park for Fright Night's that's the time to give them a reason to come back in the new year. Plus, with the way the press has been demonizing theme parks after the Smiler Incident it probably would be better to wait till the dust has settled a bit and give this new project clean air. 

I thought I'd miss visiting Merlin parks this year after I didn't bother to renew after the 'sale' fiasco...
 
Rather glad I didn't in the end... It's been nothing but problem after problem this year...
 
Cutting the hours shows the poor performance of the park, but rather than there try and be a positive response (say, reducing prices, increasing the value for money of the parks, improving the maintenance, etc), we just get a decision made by the accountants... But it's ok, because Shrek opened in London this year...
 
You can always tell the difference between parks run by accountants and people who are truly into it...

Don't know why, but launch coasters always provide the greatest faces for me. Even though there might be 7 years between them, not much has changed!
 
Stealth in 2006 (left seat):

 
Furius Baco in 2013:

Normally I'd make a big speech about irresponsible people ruining it for others and do they not realise they could get a ride permanently closed if their actions cause the owners to deem the ride unsafe etc. But as it's Storm Surge...

Does this mean we'll get months of hype from enthusiasts about the Air tunnel being sorted out, only for them to leave it blank due to budget cuts?

Billy is kinda scary although I have a pic of him on my living room wall along with a ton of ride pics/maps etc.
When I took my nieces friend on Saw for the first time (she is 11) we got the second train which stops next to Billy so I was a bit worried - she was totally fine with it but got a bit scared later on when it was getting dark. I know there is a recommendation that people are 12 or over but she was desperate to go on it and I've seen kids that look younger than her on it before. Yeah I'm not a massive fan of horrors as I scare easily - I won't name the film but I watched one (not sure if it is horror as it was more gory than anything) and I felt so ill I couldn't even drink anything as I was convinced I would bring it back up again. I don't understand people who watch gory films while packing away a load of food!

Or you could just hit print screen, alt-tab out the game and past the image into whatever generic painting program you have, alt-tab back in, rinse and repeat...

I haven't been to Thorpe park since March

Well just got back, not a fast track seller in sight

Time on park 7.30 to 10pm

Ride count: 21

Colossus x3
Saw x3
Detonator x1
x x1
Fish x1
Swarm x3
Stealth x4
Inferno x4
Storm surge x1 (I know! wife was looking bored so we gave her something to laugh about).
 
Summer Night really are the best kept secret of theme parks, everything was walk on and all our multiple rides were re-rides, with the exception of Stealth where we walked through the station gate, and Swarm where we had to jump through the air gates to get to the cattle pens (much to the annoyance of the ride op when one girl inadvertantly got herself trapped in one, funny thing was she wasn't even doing what we were and was just chatting to her friend while they picked up their bags lol) , my wife was talking to one of the ride ops who had been there from 9am and she said at one point people were waiting 2 hours for rides during the day, madness.
 
After the concert everybody in that headed for Colossus and X, so we went to Swarm, as they came over to Swarm we went to Stealth, both times 5-10 minute queues built up, we had a bit of a laugh playing queue pingpong to avoid them hehe.
 
Still don't know who Little Mix is.

Thinking about this, I dont really care what Thorpe put in as long as it is a ) high quality, b ) Fun to ride.
 
I would be more than happy if they took some of thier rides and extended/redid them as a large investment.
There are 2 rides I think are in desperate need of a redo.
1) Rumba Rapids. (as mentioned by J.S217), The current ride is lac lustre and just not a fun ride.
2) Loggers Leap. The double drop is fun, the rest of the ride is.. meh.
3) Stealth (am prolly going to get flamed for this). You have so much potential energy at the top of the top hat and then it is just instantly absorbed in the break run. I come off the ride always thinking. Damn if only it had a ride rather than a quick up and down it would be fun. Especially with the space that they have in that area. Adding a couple of positive and negative g points and a bit of theming. I'm sure that shouldnt cost a lot (it doesnt in RCT3).
 
The thing is, I am sure that some of those could be medium investments rather than large ones.
 
Can I make another point as well. I think a good ride is a ride that excludes the minimum number of people and that everyone comes off smiling, laughing, or talking about it, no matter how many times you ride. Towers has a few of these, but I dont think Thorpe has any. Just go stand at the exit of the Hex spinning room section, or listen to a 13 car as it exits the tunnel. Neither ride are what I would call thrill but from the sounds of the general public, especially those who havent ridden before, I think they are thrilled and amused. Rides should make you smile.. Always. If not then they are just torture devices or bravery badges.

Cheap to build, cheap to run, good demand and can charge a fortune for it. Why would they not be interested in it.

No I'm not criticising the prices (on this occasion  ), just questioning why they considered that to be good value.

Nope I wasn't critising the pricing.

Yeah that's what I was saying, enjoying the day and good value for money are two different things.

Some friends went on Sunday last, 90 minute wait for Vampire each time, they literally only rode that (twice) and the flume (and a trip into the zoo). They were very happy and enjoyed it all, especially at the bargain price of £90, said they would be going back again soon.
I picked myself up of the floor from laughing around 20 minutes later, I couldn't believe they considered that good value and enjoyable (granted they didn't stay past 3.30 which was a mistake). All in their day cost them £148 including their food and parking.
Some people have very low standards.