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Presumably new key promo artwork for this year:
 
Pretty damn cool tbf

Whatever could be said about Thorpe Park itself, that is genuinely a great logo.

Rides are relatively expensive to run but compare DBGT to any other ride on park, for staffing maintenance, parts, etc. They gave themselves an enormous slippery slope there. Merlin/Thorpe are definitely not thinking about operational costs when they make these decisions, so I don't think that's any reason why old rides are closed.

More usually rides means more theoretical capacity for your park, so you can grow your park and get more people through the door, so more money! That's the usual model anyway. Thorpe have plenty of other space to expand so there's not much case for removing old rides. That certainly wasn't the reason Loggers Leap was closed.

So yes you can keep adding new rides to a reasonable extent. As long as you're not adding DBGT, and that you're maintaining your old rides well enough to avoid a big gridlock situation where it now costs a big lump sum just to keep an old ride open. Slammer was a bit different though, it always was unreasonable even with maintenance.

The gravel car park is to help with drainage. Sustainable urban drainage systems will often use gravel to slow down the rate water enters the ground and sewage systems as well as lakes and rivers. If the car park were to be tarmac then it would need significant drainage systems put in place which would cost a fortune for very little reward.
 
The price hike seems to be money grabbing in the name of sustainable travel. If they want to encourage sustainable transport then they should use the car park money to improve public transport to the park. 

Interesting to see that Disney are holding a gaming event - because no one goes to a theme park to play games they clearly have no idea what they are doing... ?
 

Some progress on the Splash Canyon death, no corporate manslaughter or gross negligence charges to be brought to the park:
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47443195
 
Good news really, as if that had been the case we'd have seen another swathe of H&S implementations at the death of throughput... Especially on rides without restraints built in...

You've misinterpreted my post a bit, this is always the nature of planning in its earliest stages, it's not rushed or low effort if its just a desktop study. I was just pointing out that a picture on a map doesn't necessarily mean that much in planning terms. At most they would have visited Monks walk to check the measurement of the site. It was probably only included to show that Octopus Garden was the best out of some very poor locations. It would be an obvious (I hope) nonstarter having Storm Surge placed by Monks Walk.

Although I'm hopefully not as negative as you make out, yes, I think that many things  Thorpe Park have done in recent years have been rushed and amateurish.  I do try to only post about things I've had some perspective on (ie not talking out of my bum!) but am always open to hearing from others if they have a different point of view.

I'm always open to them changing their ways but I've watched Thorpe Park go from one of the best to the dumbest parks in the UK that's for sure. Would love for it to be more professionally run, but I doubt that will happen through Merlin.

Storm Surge remains a beacon of total naffness for the park and I will never forget the hilarious day it opened.

The more I think about RMC, the more I really like them. Whether its original creations or reimagining older woodies, they have a real knack for quality. I'm really starting to regret Heide not RMC'ing Colossos.

So I visited this place today, and had a pretty good time - 
 
 
For those who can't be bothered reading or want to avoid spoilers...
 
It's fun, nicely themed (though could be better). There's a good variety and mix and things going on, and it's just a well presented, well staffed good day out. Hopefully it grows and develops and can iron out any early problems it has had!
 

As Ian S has said, I really don't care what religion you are, as long as you don't try converting me. I do enjoy RS class at school and I think it's vital to see what other religions believe in, rather than just learning about Christianity.
The Americans abolishing it from their curriculum was very controversial and maybe the lack of cultural understanding resulting from it has led to the much higher level of racism and general hate over there. 
Another opinion I have is not to have religious schools, whether Catholic, Islamic or any other. I think it promotes segregation and discourages diversity. By all means we should learn about them, but in a totally non biased way. 

Major disappointing news - https://www.efteling.com/nl/blog/nieuws/20190301-update-uitbreiding-efteling?fbclid=IwAR2cWRKpnA_fLhBwTixsb_3Mu7zOvzhz-i_wmH7QlKM08RW90FJ0s4em8vc
 
Efteling have NOT been granted permission for their expansion.
 
Efteling were hoping to expand the park massively. The original plan was for this to start in 2020, with a new circus-themed coaster and others, and the expansion continuing with more new attractions until 2030. See my crude drawing from when it was announced over a year ago for where this was to take place...

 
The park had to delay these plans due to issues with the local authority not being convinced by the plans. This meant the 2020 project was tentatively pushed back to 2021, and ultimately Efteling decided to replace Bob with the Mack powered coasters for 2020.
 
The local authority have now made a decision, and feel that - despite Efteling's claims it will not - the expansion will cause extra traffic and noise pollution, so ultimately they are against the decision. 
 
The Council of State will make a further decision about whether the plans can be implemented in some revised fashion.
 
 
A real true shame, and majorly frustrating, as the park itself cannot really develop much more within its current area. Hopefully things work out, because their 2021 coaster - rumoured to be a family launch with special track features - sounded really fun...

I disagree with this. The large collection of consoles, retro gaming and virtual reality experiences on offer won't be found in any home across the country, making this a unique experience that many people can't do at home. 

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.

I'll rephrase what I said:
 
"To the management at Thorpe, are you deliberately trying to annoy your customers here?"
 
It's not so much the fact it's an event that I have a problem with here, it's that getting corporate sponsors and IPs involved to promote themselves for a big chunk of their 2019 season is just sheer laziness and lacks any proper thought or vision in my view.
 
I mean, isn't the whole purpose of visiting a theme park supposed to be to escape everyday life and just have a fun time for those hours? Last I checked, playing on a dedicated games console for 45 minutes is not something unique only to a theme park and the majority of youth in 2019 own such a device in their homes which they handle daily. Why fork out £33 minimum entry for something they can do at home? I just don't understand.
 
By all means, let the event happen, I just expected better than this from the "nation's thrill captial" who are owned by a business still classing themselves "2nd to Disney", that's all.
 
The park can frankly do much better.

One potential thing is that Thorpe might be getting a lot of amount of this through the advertising.
 
Taking up the marquee for the best part of two months means it's unlikely they'll be able to use that space for private events (unless it's super easy to dismantle the 'exhibits'). The marquee is a good way for the park to make a lot of extra revenue - it makes more than most would expect.
 
If they're losing that, they're definitely going to be making the money up in other ways, and it won't be from the VR upcharge things they have. They're probably making money from using the space for gaming tournaments, some companies are likely paying Thorpe to have their products on show in prime locations. I'd imagine it would be a good pitch - Thorpe approaches these companies and says "we're having a gaming event at the park, we're having x,y,z there, would you be interested? For this amount of money, we can make you the headliner of the event..."
 
I'm not saying that is what happening, but I imagine that's a likely outcome.
This isn't going to push anyone away. No one is going "I WAS going to go to Thorpe Park this year, but they've got a gaming event in one small section of the park, so nah, screw that". It might mean people choose not to visit "Oh, I went to Thorpe a while back, should I go this year? Oh, they've got a gaming event on, that doesn't interest me, I'll hold off and visit somewhere else for now." 
 
On the flipside, it's possible this might attract people - but based on social media reaction, that number is minimal at best.

An unnecessary expenditure for the park. They are restricted with capital so are unable to build a new half decent attraction and so have no choice but to try and focus on events to bolster the line up and sell as a reason to return. I suspect that they have very little impact on the parks revenue and advertising these events is just a way of reminding the public Thorpe Park exists. 
 
These events aren't going to turn anyone away but I doubt they will bring that many people in either. It just seems like a trick to get Merlin to release some capital for advertising so they can draw people into the park on the merits of existing attractions. 
 
Tomorrow will be a fun one when Merlin provide the preliminary financial results for 2018. That might be able to give us an insight into the lack of investment. 

I’m not sure why it would push anyone away? It’s a small scale thing in the marquee as an add on to a normal day, those who are interested will be in there those who aren’t will be on the rides, much like Love Island Lates.
 
I can see them wanting to try stuff like this more, similar to what we saw last year with events throughout the year, this time just less zombieish!

I mean, there were arguably rides which were major that opened before Loggers - namely Space Station Zero and Thunder River.
 
And yeah, as much as I like Loggers, I don't really see the need for it be made a heritage site. That's crazy tbh
 
I've always felt that if a coaster replaces Loggers, having a double-down element where the main drop was would be pretty cool. Following the entire route sounds a bit too much, but I think that'd be a pretty neat nod and a cool thing in itself.

Can someone edit the title of this topic please, as it is not technically a completely "new" attraction as it uses the old Hocus Pocus Hall building.
 
#petty

Dont think it’s that simple - think the park genuinely did want it to return, but were not able to to secure the budget for it to do so. A lot of people talk about how it’s been “left to rot” but in reality apart from a few overgrown trees it’s probably not in much worse state than it was on its last day of operation - just the modifications which it requires are deemed not worth it unfortunately.

I think in its current state it would of been a lost cause trying to bring it back anyway, I think in its current state its just better to bulldoze it and start from scratch.
The park letting it get to that state in the first place though is wrong and the ride certainly was a true classic that Merlin decided to write off as it probably needed a bit more upkeep than Rumba or Storm Trash.
Loggers was easily one of the best log flumes in the UK and in no world was it "losing its magic", I think what Thorpe really mean is "we were losing money"..
 
Unlike Rattlesnake I don't think Loggers in its current state was in anyway salvageable, its so derelict honestly I would agree with Thorpe just bulldozing it for something new.
I think the sad thing we probably won't see a replacement for a long time because Thorpe don't seem so sure on what they want to do with the Loggers space.
At least with Wickerman we knew from 2016 that Flume was being removed for a new roller coaster, it was also heavily rumored beforehand too so we knew that space was gonna become SW8.
With Loggers we just got 3 years of vague statements..
 
 

It's just completely inappropriate really. A lot of the replies love it though so I guess if you loved Thorpe, just don't visit anymore and visit parks that value your time and money. Thorpe sure as hell don't anymore.

I mean, Thorpe's response would be funnier if the original comment wasn't true.
 
Prices do go up, the length of the queues has increased, meaning on busier days ride counts go down.
 
I'm all for banter from the parks, but when it's in the face of legitimate points, regardless of how they're presented, it loses all credibility.

That was me ? Pretty stupid reply from TP, in my opinion.

Thorpe posted something about infinite possibilities for 2019 which has resulted in this gem of comment.