Stuntman707

What's changed? Have they finally been told to stop being rude and sarcastic to guests?

Is this some shade at Thorpe? ?

Loved clearing the tables in pizza pasta (looking at a table wiper ignoring us like: #notmyjob) and not having any Coke Zero and the watered down BBQ pizza. Fully worth the price increase.

Rumba Rapids paintwork is already flaking and peeling off. This is what you get for using cheap paint, it looks even worse and everything will have to be redone!

Rumba Rapids paintwork is already flaking and peeling off. This is what you get for using cheap paint, it looks even worse and everything will have to be redone!

DBGT is still living up to it's terrible reputation I see from the complaints.

Table booked for 10 at 7:15, allowing for time to leave the park and get to Staines. Anyone else wishing to come will have to arrange their own table. See you all Saturday!

Second to Disney is not a public Marketing phrase, it is a delusional corporate mindset. They want all their staff to think the work that they do is on the same level as Disney. It is not to be taken literally as though Merlin are going around telling the public their attractions are better than Disney. It is more about them having this mindset yet going ahead with the kind of projects you would never see Disney doing in the same way.

Second to Disney is not a public Marketing phrase, it is a delusional corporate mindset. They want all their staff to think the work that they do is on the same level as Disney. It is not to be taken literally as though Merlin are going around telling the public their attractions are better than Disney. It is more about them having this mindset yet going ahead with the kind of projects you would never see Disney doing in the same way.

Second to Disney is not a public Marketing phrase, it is a delusional corporate mindset. They want all their staff to think the work that they do is on the same level as Disney. It is not to be taken literally as though Merlin are going around telling the public their attractions are better than Disney. It is more about them having this mindset yet going ahead with the kind of projects you would never see Disney doing in the same way.

Second to Disney is not a public Marketing phrase, it is a delusional corporate mindset. They want all their staff to think the work that they do is on the same level as Disney. It is not to be taken literally as though Merlin are going around telling the public their attractions are better than Disney. It is more about them having this mindset yet going ahead with the kind of projects you would never see Disney doing in the same way.

Second to Disney is not a public Marketing phrase, it is a delusional corporate mindset. They want all their staff to think the work that they do is on the same level as Disney. It is not to be taken literally as though Merlin are going around telling the public their attractions are better than Disney. It is more about them having this mindset yet going ahead with the kind of projects you would never see Disney doing in the same way.

But do you see the contradiction here? I think you just accept it and don't see anything wrong with it, whereas others do. It is a valid point people make, I say people shouldnt just accept spin and hyperbole from a company screwing guests over with poor value. They should ask for better than what Merlin thinks it can get away with at high prices forever. If anything people use the second to Disney claim to poke fun at the flaws in Merlin's entire operation, not just criticising one statement they make.

If Merlin stopped trying to convince people they were the best at themed accomodation, produced the best quality/most innovative attraction projects "in the world" and trying to brainwash its staff, then there'd still be all the other problems. It's just that their attitude is nicely summed up by the "second to Disney" contradiction.

They will make even more noise about it once they "catch"/"stomp"/"crush the mouse" or whatever nasty variant of that phrase they're on to now.

I'm sorry, but if they're gonna continue to use a statement that bold, they've gotta be held up to those standards in a lot of areas other than finance, especially from a customer's perspective who visit these parks for the experience and don't give two hoots about attendance figures frankly. Using a statement like that is as misleading as Nick Varney saying Merlin "lead the world in themed accommodation and do it better than anybody else" when we all know that's complete and utter tripe.

Are you therefore saying when someone for example forks out £200 for 1 night at the CBeebies Land Hotel they should not expect anything better out there because Mr. Varney said so in a YouTube video?

I personally think it's quite ignorant and ill-informed to tell paying customers to expect anything less after being promised things like this, similar to being told DBGT was the "future for theme parks across the world".
 
Merlin are delusional, nothing more, nothing less.

If the journalist felt so strongly about their terrible experience, they wouldn't have taken Thorpe's VIP bribe package and agree to not writing an article until after they had their special treatment from the park. Now FN 2018 is long gone with the only negative articles I can see from some youths fighting in the carpark. Nothing negative about the event itself. The Mirror in fact promoted the event.

If the journalist felt so strongly about their terrible experience, they wouldn't have taken Thorpe's VIP bribe package and agree to not writing an article until after they had their special treatment from the park. Now FN 2018 is long gone with the only negative articles I can see from some youths fighting in the carpark. Nothing negative about the event itself. The Mirror in fact promoted the event.

All they're going to do is cover the rest of the Charlie façade behind wooden poles. I wouldn't be surprised if the entrance is left like that. It doesn't even match the stone of the famous towers. Also the Burger Kitchen next door has had the remaining colour sucked out of it.

All they're going to do is cover the rest of the Charlie façade behind wooden poles. I wouldn't be surprised if the entrance is left like that. It doesn't even match the stone of the famous towers. Also the Burger Kitchen next door has had the remaining colour sucked out of it.

We finally have a reveal to the entrance of the Towers Dungeon, here’s a look in all it’s glory!

Image- Richard Paul Matthews from Theme Park Global

This is one of those funny stories which has some truth, but was sensationalised by Thorpe to grab attention.
 
There's a lot more detail in this post about the original plan, but this picture summarises it nicely: 

 
These are all of the considered locations. There is one location which is essentially next and parallel to Monks Walk (pretty much the back half of Dead Creek Woods and first half of Blair Witch from last year). Obviously not an ideal location. The one next to it would have involved the removal of the carousel and Mr Monkey, and again wouldn't have been great either. Eventually, the current location was decided upon, to obviously redevelop Octopus Garden (an area which was very much out of place at Thorpe).
 
For some fun bonus info, the park did indeed have South West London Paranormal in (they've visited a few times in the past actually). Jim, who is quoted in the above article, was actually the examiner for my driving test and we spoke about it quite a bit (I also passed my test - woo!). Basically he said there was some stuff detected, some of the stuff he said was obviously used to play along with the story (since there was never any construction in that area, though they did explore the area next to Monks Walk). The group wanted to explore more on different dates, but the park refused, and I don't actually think they've been invited back the the park since..
 
Funnily enough, that was one of the best, far-reaching, pieces of marketing the park have ever done. It was picked up all over the world, with everyone wanting interviews with the park, wanting to know their next steps, etc. It just really captured the attention and imagination of everyone. And all of that for Storm Surge! 
 
It's why I always feel they should capitalise on the local history and mythology behind it more. The nearby Chertsey Abbey opened in 666AD. There's mythology of a headless monk haunting the town and Monks Walk. It practically writes itself for a dark ride or Fright Nights maze.

Just pointing out that fastrack has no value on a quiet day and there are better value things to spend £400 on. Compared to the Adrenaline package for example, It only starts becoming better value if you plan to go on more than 5 coasters in a day on more than 8 busy days during the season. Add the Exhilarate and it's more than 10 rides a day on 5 busy days. Or it's more than 4 busy days with Unlimited but missing the Walking Dead the ride.
 
It's entirely your choice on how you spend your own money at the end of the day but hopefully it's a more informed and rounded decision. Feel free to ignore everyones opinions.
 
I'm glad Europa doesn't sell fastrack. Their queues move pretty quickly being able to fill the whole trains from the main queue.

Just pointing out that fastrack has no value on a quiet day and there are better value things to spend £400 on. Compared to the Adrenaline package for example, It only starts becoming better value if you plan to go on more than 5 coasters in a day on more than 8 busy days during the season. Add the Exhilarate and it's more than 10 rides a day on 5 busy days. Or it's more than 4 busy days with Unlimited but missing the Walking Dead the ride.
 
It's entirely your choice on how you spend your own money at the end of the day but hopefully it's a more informed and rounded decision. Feel free to ignore everyones opinions.
 
I'm glad Europa doesn't sell fastrack. Their queues move pretty quickly being able to fill the whole trains from the main queue.

Thorpe better than Europa Park and Disney? 
 

 
I personally think the idea of an Annual fastrack ticket is pretty ridiculous, but if people will buy it then Thorpe will sell it!
 

TBH i'd get bored if I used fastrack all the time!

Gotta see them geek updates in person. What's been painted? Any new fences? Might even spot a new sign. Can't wait to find out.