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I was merely joking! Obviously! Worth pointing out though that whilst you think its a sad topic title, some others may not! It's a Thorpe forum, for people who like Thorpe so there will be people who have withdrawal symptoms! 

Missing Storm Surge so, so much. Counting the hours here.

/s

It's the most wonderful time of the year - it's the Thorpe Park Mania Awards!
 
As ever, we are using SurveyMonkey to collect the results.  If you've never used it before, don't worry - it's dead easy!
 
We've condensed things down a bit this year, to spice up the competition...
 
PARK AWARDS:
-Best UK Park
-Best UK Coaster
-Best UK Flat Ride
-Best UK Water Ride
-Best UK Dark Ride
-Worst UK Ride
 
-Best International Park
-Best International Coaster
-Best New-for-2019 Attraction (can be in the UK)
-Most Disappointing Merlin Moment 2019
-Best Looking Attraction for 2020
-Best Manufacturer
 
FORUM AWARDS:
-Best Member
-Best Team Member
-Best Quality Posts
 
-Most Knowledgeable Member
-Most Dedicated Member
-Most Sarcastic Member
-Most Likely to be Banned in 2020
 
-Funniest Member
-Biggest Fanboy/girl
-Sexiest Male
-Sexiest Female
-Storm Surge Award
-Member you'd like to see more of
 
And here's some clarifications in case any of the above are confusing...
You don't have to vote for all the categories if you don't want!
Please you forum usernames rather than real names - makes things easier
For the park awards, feel free to vote for parks / rides you like the look of the best (especially the case of International Awards, where members might not have been on many / any foreign rides).
Storm Surge Award:  Vote for the member who you think reminds you of Storm Surge or should be awarded a Storm Surge for their efforts in TPM.
Member you'd like to see more of Award:  Vote for the member who you'd like to see post on the forums more often / see at meets / generally get to know a bit better!
 
These are of course meant to be a bit of fun, so just enjoy the ride!  
 
Link is HERE!
 
Voting will close Wednesday 18th December, 8pm, with winners announced at a point after.
 
Any questions let me know.
 
Get those votes coming in!

Anyone else getting withdrawal symptoms or is it just me? It isn't even so much the roller coasters and rides I miss as a whole; but the theme tune as you arrive and walk down the bridge, the iconic themed music to each ride, the scenery around the park, I don't know what it is but I visited a fair amount of times last season, 3 or 4 times over Halloween and loved it each and every time. I need an adrenaline fix asap. #2020.

Probably also helped with the general "thrill park" image, but it's hard to argue that the thrill line up at Thorpe is a problem...
 
It's just everything else that is 

I have limited sympathies though as it still relates to the design of the ride in the first place.
 
When a pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean breaks the ride is still pretty much a good experience. The experience does not lean heavily on one animatronic.
 
If the demon suit breaks or VR doesn't work (or the train crash scene fails and is replaced by metal fences) then the entire DBGT experience is ruined instantly. At the end the day the attraction is essentially a projection of Derren Brown, a hanging train set piece, 2 videos, a bunch of metal fences and a man jumping out at you.

Demon costume broke and couldn't be repaired by all accounts, but it should make a splash back soon.

The shop ending used to be cool until it was replaced with a man in a shirt.

Realistically - the entrance needs sorting out properly. I hate what they've done with it, it is a dreadful way to welcome anyone to anywhere let alone a theme park which should be a place of joy and escapism. 
It would kind of be OK if it left you feeling safe but security, it's primary aim being to keep out restricted items, is worse than it was previously as so long as you don't have a bag you saunter on through the middle with no checks at all. Yeah, I'm sure everyone keeps their knives, drugs and firearms in a bag! 
They need to make the entrance welcoming while achieving at least some level of security. I don't really know what the answer is, but the mess we currently have which achieves neither is not it!
 
Inside the park I'd just like it cleaned. So much of it is so grotty. Ride stations and shops especially are filthy. It's not much to ask and should be a basic but there is clearly no system in place to actually clean things.

Valhalla has had lots of issues this year.
 
Boats sinking with riders in on more than one occasion, there was one instance where riders had to evacuate themselves from the boat due to the water being waste deep!
 
Bumps between boats, this does happen from time to time but it shouldn't do with Valhalla's ride system, also bearing in the mind the ride hardware was designed to run 20+ boats and bumps when running 8, not good.  I have experienced a few bumps and it can be quite brutal, bearing in mind how heavy the boats are.
 
Issues with the block system around the first turntable (I experienced this first hand).
 
The ride hardware is knackered, all of the above have come from publicly posted reports/pictures and/or my own experiences on the ride.
 
Effects have been dreadful this year, most of the fire has been down all year (I have heard due to the splash from the final drop flooding the sensors), ice room not working at all, I could write an endless list of how poor it has been on my rides but I'll just say that it has essentially been a clunky oversized log flume in the dark this year.
 
I do not believe the rumour that the ride will be SBNO next year until it's confirmed reliably, but at the same time, there are reasons why it might have to be.

How it is today, rushing past the train in a blocky room where you only see the floor beneath you for a few seconds (if you bother to look over the side while you get the chance), is really not the best way the illusion could have been designed. It may not be possible to stand directly underneath, but they designed themselves into a corner with the whole thing really.

There's always other techniques when it comes to illusion to give the impression there's more than there really is. With DBGT its the other way round,  things are so badly thought through that you actually miss the best bits.

For all that effort and an amazing concept, how it turned out is almost pointless in my opinion. Much like the whole ride.

The farm is where they dump old Fright Night's scenery so it can be left to rot, hope this helps

I'm into a lot of different types of communities. I love Star Wars, I love Pokemon, I love Disney & I love Doctor Who.
 
All of these communities love ripping apart each other and the products of their respective fandom. People hating on Episode 8 or the Doctor now being a woman.
 
But the coaster community for me is barely like that. Everyone has the odd bit of rage but on the whole, we stay far more passionate about rollercoasters and theme parks then become 'haters'. It's pretty refreshing.

Bye Rameses. In your time you were truly one of the greats. I've some amazing memories of this ride whether it was the snakes on the sides of the supports and those red restraints or its retheme and my first ride in 2000 to that time when I rode you over and over again for an hour. Even working on this ride as an attendant was a special memory.
 
Only nostalgia will really play its part as I don't think I'd ridden it for at least a decade.

I definitely started riding it later than others, but Ramesis was definitely an impressive attraction, especially in it’s day. You could almost enjoy watching as much as riding.
 
The ride’s departure after 24 years of service not only means the end of Chessington’s last inverting attraction but the UK’s last (permant) Top Spin. Hopefully it’s replacement will be worthy.

Slightly off topic although I would like it to be an improvement for 2020!
 
Having experimented with one of these a few days ago for the first time with someone it isn't that that Is that issue! The problem is the staff not utilising it properly. 
 
At one ride (inferno) the person wrote the actual queue time down for us not to reuse it again in that time. 
 
On nine seperate rides (some the same) the staff member just looked at the card and waved us through telling us not to worry about having it filled in.
 
On the rest they just wrote about 20 mins  or half the actual advertised queue time down.
 
If it was utilised properly there wouldn't be masses of people in the lines for RAP as they'd have to wait in the park somewhere or join actual main queue for rides with smaller queues. 
 
There were several occasions where up to 8 people were trying to get on rides with one RAP holder. This they were a bit stricter with when I saw but wouldn't have been all rides I'm sure!
 
When people were confronted at Inferno for being there too early as they had another 20 mins left on the sheet, the staff member suffered abuse as he was doing it properly. The member of public wasnt happy as no one else had stopped him. 
 
Hopefully going forward into 2020 staff become stricter or utilise a better system

MY SOURCES ARE TELLING ME THE RMC IS COMING!!
 
They tell me Nick Varney and Alan Schilke had a nice romantic dinner (Alan paying ofcourse....obviously) over the matter and now we are most certainly getting that RMC on the loggers leap site in 2020!!
 
This will be accompanied by the following.
 
1) Tidal Waves fireball returning
2) Colossus having a full paint job
3) Samurai being replaced by a new model
4) THE TOP SPIN!!
5) BIG TOP AND ASYLUM RETURNING FOR FRIGHT NIGHTS
6) Slammer finally being removed
7) Stricter requirements to get a RAP
8) Thorpe Park finally altering the wind policy so they don’t stop the rides if someone so much as farts near the wind censors
9) The car park being sorted so one does not need to sit there in a standstill for over an hour to get out..... fastrack for the car park exit here we come!! 
 
2020 is gonna be SICK!!
 
* my source is called HP source by the way.

Rule 1: Thorpe lie.

I think overall this season has been a good one. It has probably performed in line with expectations given the low investment year and guest satisfaction seems to be up. Fright Nights was always going to be a sticky one for attendance this year because of the 2 half terms of London / Surrey being different weeks; so unlike previous years where every-one visits in the same 1 week, this year is spread over 2 weeks. I think that the package of Fright Nights could be better - wish there was more obvious "The island changes after dark" other than a few mazes that open and a flash-mob dance, such as ride music being normal in daylight and changing at night, actors in public areas, light colour changes, more decoration etc but it is what it is. They tried by adding smoke machines which work well when it isn't windy. 
 
I've visited pretty much every Saturday since the season started thanks to my annual pass and season fastrack pass. It does seem that ride availability has been generally excellent and presentation of the park is better than it has been in years (mist on Nemesis Inferno, smoke on Stealth, effects on Saw, skimmers and fire (albeit intermittent) on Swarm etc). Bouncezilla seemed to do what it needed to do - provided a filler for now and seemed popular with the GP - Not a crowd pleasing, attendance increasing attraction; but decent enough "for now".
 
It seems that the flat rides are now suffering seasonal fatigue and are limping home... Something that should be considered given the lack of interest in flat rides over the parks in general. A few questions come of this though - Are we about to get a flurry of new coasters to replace these like Alton seem to be doing or will the park just be left to fall into ruin. The park almost need to admit to and own their "we want to be a British Six Flags" park rather than trying to masquerade as a theme park. If they do, they can throw a tonne of hardware at the park and own their new image. Consider an RMC hybrid or (high capacity) Raptor, Mack or Intamin launcher, a decent airtime machine that hugs the entrance etc. But that is just a fanboy wish list. Works for Cedar Point...

Its more than likely a lack of assessed operators and staff, given that realistically only 2018 ops could have been re-assessed in the time its actually been open the probably hasn't been enough open time to train new ops.

Let's face, in terms of "new" things, it'll probably be another year of weird events, an updated version of Jungle Escape and maybe a retheme of a ride if we're lucky.
 
If the park can focus on actually improving the rest of the park, by means of repaints, refreshes and so forth in a meaningful way, then that would be good too. Though that's been said every year for the last 10-15 years I swear..
 
 
Ideally we'd see something actually new (I'd take a chairswing at this stage frankly) or a proper ride refurb (Rumba is still crying out for that), but that seems to be alternative universe territory right now.

I think proper work to make the park more presentable would be nice. If they’re not getting anything new for the next few years, at least they can take some proper steps toward improving what already stands. Hence the next few points are just suggestions on which bits need cleaning up the most. 
 
- The area around Amity Cove and Tidal Wave is a big ol’ mess right now, and could do with cleaning up. So many games and garish temporary buildings blocking the view. You basically have to go round the back of the coke freestyle thing to even find the entrance to TW. 
 
- Remove ABL. Obviously don’t remove the rides. But the theme of the area as it stands is a big ‘wtf’ moment for every guests no doubt. And I feel the park would benefit no end by cleaning up and getting rid of this garish area. Theme it back to Amity Cove. 
 
- Removal of Saw Alive building. Just imagine if you were a first-time guest and saw that dilapidated, literally abandoned shed suck to the side of the park in plain view as you were coming in. It looks awful and needs to go. 
 
- Continue the painting work done begun on Stealth and Rumba Rapids. 
 
- Complete overhaul of the food offering at Fins. This should be the park’s proper restaurant. Not whatever tf it is right now. 

It'll be a new patch of grass and countless new ways for you to spend more money

After my second visit on sunday here is my review of the fright night mazes.
 
Creek Freak 5/10
So after reading such good reviews I was expecting something decent. Unfortunately both times it fell flat for me. I got hardly any actor interaction, on my run through last Sunday the actor who was operating the saw on the stage bit was just standing there like he couldn't be bothered/was waiting for his break, we got nothing from him at all. I think the most I got was an actor talking to me about my hair but definitely not scary in the slightest lol. Also at the finale, the actor with the chainsaw was again just standing there with the chainsaw off, waiting for other people, so our group wondered out a bit non-fussed. Also of note the tunnel was not in use on sunday for our go at least.
 
Living Nightmare 7/10
I give this a good rating because of the effort the actors went to in the first half or so, really realistic zombie acting haha. We got some really good scares here, and although the maze should have been updated and the ending should have been better (what was the "Shh"ing about?) we had a great run through. My group of 12 preferred this to creek freak. I much prefer indoor mazes, I wish we had a couple more like this and scrapped do or die and platform (like the good old days...). Having said all that hopefully next year it gets a layout update.
 
Do or Die 3/10
Other than a few jump scares this was a complete mess, no story being told at the start other than a mumbling of a "community" when walking through the bus. The new layout is worse than the previous, this maze doesn't seem to know what it is. We had a much better run through last year, e.g. I was held back by actors and all sorts. This year the actors were in short supply/didn't do a lot.
 
Blair Witch 6/10
Actually a big improvement on last year. Definitely felt like a walk in the woods in a good way, it achieved what it set out to do. We got several jump scares and the final scene worked well enough for our group. I think this could be improved by having more indoor sections and actors dressed as something that scares people, rather than the crazy campers who after an initial jump scare didn't do a lot for us.
 
Didn't do Platform 15, we got to the front of the queue and then it was delayed for ages so had to abandon.
 
The vampire high school people - enjoyed the flash mob, hopefully continues in future and goes up to every hour, every 2 is too infrequent.
 
Park theming - non-existent. After a trip to asterix parc, I really noticed that they'd put a lot of effort into halloween theming and thorpe had done none, other than a job lot on buses.
 
Closing thoughts - the event has gone downhill in general from its heyday, and when comparing to tulleys there really is no comparison unfortunately! Hopefully next year we get a new maze and more improvements. 

It is half term for many London Boroughs this week, but most of the surrounding London counties such as Surrey have their half term over next week. 
 
So for Thorpe it is pretty much half term this week and next. Its unusual for this to happen TBF. 
 
I would expect Thorpe to be busier next week though seeing as many more locals will likely visit then seeing as the park is in an area with most schools off then.