2542464

Thorpe should try and be like Walibi Holland then if they are trying to expose cheap and gimmicky trends. 
 
On the plus side, least they’d actually have a good RMC. One can dream.

It's surely only a matter of time before Swarm billboard becomes an actual billboard for real ads?

It's a shame when you think that there will only be 2 fully indoor horror mazes this year.
 
Remember when we had Asylum, Experiment 10, Se7en, The Curse and Saw Alive as the event lineup.
 
Or Cabin in the Woods, My Bloody Valentine, Asylum, Saw Alive and The Blair Witch Project as a more recent example.
 
It's a joke that they still advertise Fright Nights as the UK's premier Halloween event, regardless of how good this year's new maze is the others don't really do anything for me, Platform 15 is good after it gets dark but when you look at the lineup we used to get, this year's is very sparse.
 
Also, Thorpe Park is one of the UK's biggest theme parks, it's not really acceptable that they "don't have anyone who knows how to build The Big Top" when independent events are running 5+ full scale mazes.  It was an incredibly popular maze and the park just can't deliver it?  That's just sad.

Does anyone know the reason Big Top was scrapped? It seemed to be really well received... Fright Nights is a poor event these days it used to be something to get excited about but now it’s just lacking anything that exciting... kind of sums up the state of Thorpe Park... it was once arguably the best park in the UK and now it’s just rubbish “investment” after rubbish “investment” The last few years have been so disappointing I miss the days when flat rides opened in between the years of coasters being added and then we got a rollercoaster to be excited about... those were the days

Not so gassed for a free wristband and Terror At Amity High show tbh. 

So the new maze will be the scariest yet?  This coming from the people who said that Fright Nights last year was going to be the best one to date - and that was a shower of s%#^
Honestly not hyped in the slightest for Fright Nights - my pass expires in 3 weeks and it’s doubtful I will renew this year.
 
As for chainsaws being scary - I used to love them - would walk slowly towards the end of Asylum but then a couple of years later I ran into some crazed actor with a chainsaw on Big Top and it’s scarred me for life.  I literally screamed my way through Chop Shop last year and the year before that at Scare Fest I ran out of Sub Species, burst into tears then had an asthma attack followed by a panic attack 🤣 - I can laugh about it now but it scared the poop out of me at the time 

Massive part of why Shocktoberfest leads the way in this country as far as I go and that’s without even touching the attractions. Those nurses!! 😍😍
 
Hell park wide atmosphere and decoration is also something I hope Thorpe improve on as back in the glory days of this event, it excelled in that department.

I think the scariest attraction is going to be leaving the car park at the end of the night. 
 
The amount if time it takes to leave is honestly frightening!

Thanks for your efforts @Platform15fan - if you keep trying they will definitely relent and tell you. Good luck in your quest. Amy, Laura and Chelsea are mere pawns in a far bigger game.

I whacked my knee in the XTWD queue on the last meet, and yet meets still go ahead. It's insanity, and similarly, I am petitioning to shut this forum down as a consequence.

Don't believe what other people are saying.
 
From what I have heard big top is returning where Bouncezilla is and WD will be where sanctum was two years ago. And even better news for yourself,  Platform 15 has been extended this year. There will be an interval in the tunnel where they are using some of the old Experiment 10 shipping containers and you will travel inside them.
 
I have confirmed this with your favourite person JACK SILKSTONE VIP and he is putting a video out tonight which will confirm this!
 
 

Exactly my thoughts.
 
It definitely can be done, and it would be great to have the Dome properly cooled to give a central place to cool off and eat, shop etc in the height of summer, even just as you walk through having queued for security in the sun. Probably wishful thinking though as with this year's highlight addition being a bouncy castle, it's probably at the bottom of the priority list for investment. It would be quite a large system to cover a space of that size too.
 
Even the toilets at DLP are heated/air conditioned all year round though! Little things like that make such a difference. And when late October Fright Nights comes around and its 5 degrees outside.. there's hardly anywhere around to warm up either!

Could possibly be that the park have done research or received feedback that people sometimes want to buy non-Thorpe tat?
 
The Merlin parks are actually part of a minority which sell park-exclusive (and stuff related to rides) merchandise. Plenty of parks sell just general tat and stuff from shows and films and stuff, with the logic being they can capitalise on people having money to spend, and being more likely to spend it on stuff they recognise. 
 
So it could be Thorpe trailing it just to see if it works? If there's an opportunity, always worth exploring it I guess.
 
Not a fan of it being in the Inferno shop mind. Ride shops should focus on the ride in question and just general stuff (drinks, snacks, etc). Anything else feels a bit jarring to me personally.

Anyone have any idea why the hell Thorpe are currently selling Friends merch (t shirts and mugs) - noticed it in the Inferno shop then later on in the Island Shop.  Bit random or are we going to get Friends: The Ride in future 😐.....or Friends Inferno.  Nothing would surprise me at this point!

I can't help but wonder what could've been with DBGT. The concept is interesting but the execution is severely lacking. To think that money could've been invested in an established dark ride system with a great theme...

Just because a park cannot realistically reach a milestone is not to say they have to go the full way, but take some influences from this scenario.
 
I get that storing sufficient ride parts and the like is unrealistic, but there are still other ways parks can be efficient. Like I said, Europa are in a very fortunate position with parts and maintenance.
 
The thing that makes Europa such a great attraction and place to visit is the sheer dedication the Mack family pour into the park, whether that be the countless attractions, shows, pride they have in their premise. Not to mention their ever-onwards upgrades and progressions within, whether that be facelifting one of their worst dark rides into something charming or constantly adding new shows. If these are not to be examples within the park industry I don’t know what is.
 
Ok, that may have been an exaggeration on HSE, but I can guarantee that the general stricter rules on safety would prevent a U.K. woodie opening any quicker than several weeks after happening solely for checks and inspections let alone reordering of parts.

Oh, definitely - credit where credit is due, Europa do what they do very well. There's no denying that.
 
All I'm saying is it's easy to take for granted the unique situation the park is in, and how much that effects the operation of the park. They have a vested interest to run their Mack rides in the best way possible, meaning they can throw money at getting high level of staff, and high quality staff, to run the rides, along with expert engineers. And that naturally means any non-Mack rides have to be in the same position.
 
Few parks could justify the level of investment it takes to upkeep the park to the standard Europa are able to, nor the way the park operates on a day-to-day basis.
 
That's not to take away from what Europa do; they're brilliant and tick all the rights boxes. But still, they are the exception to the rule.

Wouldn't happen at Europa Pa-
Oh wait

Thorpe was incredibly busy today, long queues and what seemed to be a lot of people at guest services at the end of the day complaining about the reduced opening hours...
 

Thats every single Spanish guest unfortunately. All I remember about PortAventura is the little _________ *Insert own swear word here* pushing past us at every opportunity. Horrid.
 
 
Yes, this one in particular drives me nuts. 'I went to this obscure theme park in the middle of Lativa and it was running two trains on one of its rollercoasters, MERLIN NEVER DO THIS' Oh sod off.

They're doing one count better than Chessington then, which still hasnt got a new coaster after 15 years! I may discover whether it's abysmal or not but I  feel more inclined to go visit parks like that than most UK parks at the moment. All down to value for money.
 
It was a bumper year for the park, but then why have all their other IP attempts at Thorpe since been such big flops? The entire park was in a different situation. They're now feeling the pinch after years of too much focus on short fads instead of long term redevelopment and improvement.

On the subject of IPs. Merlin have just tried to suggest in their interim results that its Legoland performances have been disappointing because the Lego Movie 2 didnt bring in the extra guests expected. But they'll still build more and more Lego Movie attractions anyway, becoming even more reliant on the performance of other media rather than build the quality of their own parks.

IP popularity can be used to boost parks in the short term but overusing it like Merlin do will just come back to bite you.

So I visited Thorpe for the second time this season last Friday and I gotta admit that I was kinda disappointed with how the park was running.
The Swarm had a very short queue (the queue was only in the station) and somehow I waited 30 minutes for what is basically a walk on.  Slow guests and very sluggish staff really contributed to this, it was a shambles of operations. On the upside Stealth and Saw had good ops but Swarm need working on.. I also found that rides were going down like flies. There was always a major coaster+a supporting ride down at all times, I know breakdowns happen but it felt excessive and it makes me question if they actually maintain things properly..
 
I didn't go in Bouncezilla but I walked past it multiple times and holy hell this thing wouldn't look out of place on the Blackpool Seafront.. I've seen more classier bouncy castles at my local fair, most of those don't even touch the sheer ugliness which is Bouncezilla. It has to been seen to be believed, I thought it looked pretty ugly from photos, in person it is actually worse than Storm Surge with the loud audio being even more annoying.
 
I enjoyed The Walking Dead the other day, all the effects were working and overall I understand why people like it, it is actually kinda fun.
My only worry about this ride is that it had no queue for the whole day, and towards the end of the day it was a complete ghost town which makes me think it has a low popularity considering the throughput isn't good to start with. I do like this ride but I do see it becoming Nemesis Sub Terra 2.0.
 
Overall Thorpe kinda was what it was to me in March, heavily flawed but it has a few fun rides. Inferno in particular was running great and in the back row that ride is worth a trip alone,
if only everything else was good..

I think European park guests typically enjoy water rides more, but more importantly have a better understanding of park rules and safety, which is why the U.K. has such stringent rules especially of late. 
 
I think most of the UK industry is arguably behind a lot of other countries when it comes to park progression. Not just the big things, but the little things too such as theming, immersion and even basic customer service. We’ve only recently had our first GCI/wooden coaster in 20+ years and I think we will be waiting at least another five before we ever see an RMC. If we even ever get one!
 
Paultons is currently the most likely U.K. park to invest in a water ride that actually gets you wet but we shall see. We have seen at least three major water rides close in the U.K. in recent years, not including the ones in Blackpool, Pleasureland or Adventure Island.

Please if Thorpe Management are watching just bring it back now for this reason. 😂😂😂

Given they are still hanging onto TWD as an IP to sell the event for a 3rd year running, and that Do or Die is returning given how ominously awful it was, I ain’t holding my breath on this year being anything but a minuscule improvement compared to 2018.
 
The new “chilling challenge” I’m certain is gonna be where Jungle Escape is. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s just Vulcan Peak: Escape Edition with a £5 fee labelled to it.
 
And as for the new maze, hopefully it’s better than last year’s immersive experience of nothing but toilet bowls, pallet crates, black tunnels and Asylum’s chicken wire fencing used as “theming” which we got with Dead Creek Woods.
 
Yeah, as you can probably tell, I ain’t enthused one bit after last year’s embarrassment with this announcement today. Hopefully that’ll change when the event gets nearer though, as I want this event to be great like it once was...