RobertA

What I don't really get is why Thorpe would create that island and just... not use it. I get that managers change but having such a huge empty plot of land just sitting there, and opting for the next big addition to go in an already pretty crowded place, just feels odd. It sticks out like a sore thumb. Swarm """flopped""" because it opened in the year of the Olympics. Attendance shot up in 2013 when Brave It Backwards came, and that was the same year Smiler opened, so surely Swarm was actually a big success for the park but it just opened at the wrong time? In my opinion, if you have a large plot of completely empty land, then you should use that large plot of completely empty land. It's funny because when Alton Towers realised that Nemesis Sub Terra was a failure of an attraction, they shut that thing almost immediately. Derren's almost suffering the same fate by being a maintenance nightmare with mixed reviews yet more and more and more money gets poured into it with little effect. And the park wonders why all they can afford is indoor filler on 3-4 year contracts ever since DBGT opened. Black Mirror probably won't be here in 2024/5. It feels like the park just has absolutely no idea of what it wants to be. It actually got to the point where at some point last year someone tagged Thorpe on twitter genuinely wondering if the park has a five-year plan, which they responded yes to. Also... Did anyone notice how the major Thorpe coasters aren't necessarily the first of their kind in the world or Europe, but instead have a defining element or gimmick instead? Colossus has the world's first 10 inversions, Ninferno has the world's first inverted interlocking corkscrews, Stealth is the UK's fastest coaster, Saw had the world's steepest drop, Swarm has the world's first wing-over drop. So in the tiny chance that Thorpe DID eventually get a coaster, would it follow what the others have and have an element or feature we've never seen?

Olympia Looping has a 5 year contract with Hyde Park Winter Wonderland with its first year in 2016, which would've had its final year landing in 2020. With HPWW being cancelled this year I got pretty worried about the contract expiring and the ride never returning again without me getting the chance to say a proper goodbye to my #1 coaster. But the interesting part comes here where someone said we'll see OL in HPWW 2021 because the remaining years on the contract would only decrease if the coaster came to Winter Wonderland and opened. And since obviously there's no Winter Wonderland this year, it would be pretty scummy of the IP managers to chop a year off the contract due to complications WW had no control over. This means we'll be seeing Olympia Looping in 2021 so we can all say a proper farewell to it. I'd imagine things SHOULD be similar with DBGT, TWD, and BM. Hearing this stuff about Olympia's possible return next year makes me believe DBGT's six year contract WON'T expire six years after the ride's initial 2016 opening, but instead after six seasons of the ride operating. So if Derren opens in 2021, then if I'm correct the contract will expire at the end of 2022 if the ride's open that year as well. It all just... makes sense this way.

I'm pretty surprised chessington is getting anything other than the drop tower at all for 2021 considering what's happened this year. Blue Barnacle, Croc Drop and now a Tomb Blaster revamp all coming at once! Gonna be a ridiculously busy off season for them, I'm expecting at least one of these to not be ready for opening day and that's understandable.

2021: Black Mirror opens to initially mixed reviews but improves later in the year. Quantum reopens. VIP Experiences are revived. For Fright Nights, the park announces a public vote to bring back one "legacy maze" from 2001-2019, without IP brands, which left the lineup. 2022: Creek Freak becomes a summertime scare maze from July to August. TWD loses its license and becomes an unbranded horror coaster with no preshow. Derren Brown reopens but has received pretty large downgrades from its original form, making it considerably less expensive to run but slightly less impressive than last time. Park announces the "Terrifying 5 Challenge" where you receive a free pop badge for riding all 5 coasters in one day, but only on selected dates strategically chosen to boost fast track sales. Samurai leaves the park at the end of the year. 2023: Samurai's replacement is a Moser Rides Top Star Tour. Lumber Jump and Timber Tug boat are sold off. Zodiac requires a new part which closes it for the majority of the season and Quantum's issues return. Quantum dies at the end of the year. 2024: The off season focuses primarily on making the park feel more welcoming to be at. Park gives permissions for some kind of TV show to be recorded at the park, giving Thorpe more publicity. Colossus's 22nd birthday is celebrated (Colo22us) with huge improvements to Lost City. The park gives its farewell to Angry Birds Land and the Thorpe Shark hotel's IP is extended. Vortex dies.

Ah yes, Tiger Rock and Crocodile Rock. For two rides that are both completely unrelated to each other that's a decision and a half to make...

Might've been disputed by that shoe company, I think they're just making sure Chessington's saying 'croc' in the context of actual crocodiles. Croc Drop's most likely getting accepted as a name after this, not really expecting it to change.

Sometimes I do wonder if Thorpe should take "break years" where they take the time off to save up for something bigger, and touch up the park with some much needed TLC instead. I'd take no new additions for some years if it meant making the park feel more welcome and well kept. Adding some out of place attraction that was probably thought up two months prior to its announcement that'll get replaced three years later isn't going to work out in the long run. It really feels like Thorpe Park is prioritising quantity over quality. If Thorpe said "no new attractions this year because we're saving up for something spicy" I'll 100% take the wait if it meant the park gets something good. Use the time to repaint stuff and bring the park back to life instead of keeping areas in shambles because the focus instead went on something that'll be gone four years after opening. Black Mirror was initially promising for me when it was announced but now I'm rethinking.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if all the indoor stuff was delayed AGAIN, and it would be another financially devastating year for the park. TWD can't operate, Derren can't operate, Black Mirror's probably staying shuttered for the second year in a row. And with the IPs, you might get the chance we've seen the last of Derren and TWD a year ago if they're not renewed. The Thorpe guys are probably considering getting some kind of temporary "panic button addition" if BM is delayed again. I simply can't see 2021 being the godsend year everyone's hyping it up to be with distancing regulations being thrown away in early summer. The year will be another "not so great" year for the park, clearly better than 2020 but still far from previous years. See it as some kind of "if 2020 was a full season length". They could open BM if it's absolutely bodied by covid restrictions but it'll give awful first impressions of the new attraction and everyone's gonna call it "just another subpar filler until the next big thing". I want Black Mirror to be good and it would be nice to see it do well. Black Mirror opening at all would be nice though, always good to see things we haven't seen before. Most of the time.

Heh, only just found this topic! Hey, I'm Robert. I have 82 credits with my #1 being Olympia Looping, and my most ridden coaster is Stealth with 24 total rides on it. Throughout my time at parks I've blacked out on a Capriolo, broke down on two rides, waited two hours for a scare maze in pouring rain, chipped my tooth on an inflatable slide, and almost threw up on a Go Gator. Might sound cliche but theme parks are truly one of my favourite things, and they're an absolute blast. I hope I hit 100 credits in the next two years, so I better get going at that

Stealth seemingly didn't even try to launch when I was in the front row. Sat there for ~10-15 minutes before being unlocked and given fast track for any ride as compensation. Never reopened that day. Was stuck on the turntable on Stormforce 10 two weeks ago. I stayed there for around 10-15 minutes before a ride op came up, told me things will continue in a bit, then shortly after I was sent off for the rest of the ride.

Winter Wonderland x1 (6-7 month dead spot for very obvious reasons) Thorpe Park x3 Drayton Manor x2 Brean Theme Park x1 Funland at the Tropicana x1 Random funfair with 2 creds x1 Clacton Pier x2 Adventure Island x1 I plan on Old MacDonald Farm to get an extra credit in December so things aren't over yet.

I'd imagine pretty much every IP contract goes up in 5-year steps, so DBGT's fifth year would've been this year. TWD's just done its fourth year, and with both mazes being phased out this year, I'm sure TWD will die at the end of 2021 without a renewal. My best guess is TWDTR gets the Accelerator treatment for 2022 where the theming stays the exact same but the brand references are knocked out. Derren Brown I'm not so sure about what'll happen to it. Completely stumped on that one. I'd imagine Thorpe wants to say "one more chance" but if the ride can't prove to be a positive addition for the park I can see them letting it go or majorly downgrading it. I watched a POV of DBGT recently, and honestly I almost miss the ride but the park needs to do whatever is best for them.

I've seen some recent Towers vlogs and a couple of them pointed out the track interactions around the Wicker Man structure, and the general area of the holes, have been receiving pretty bad discolouration with black, and even some green, in the wood. Most likely due to the smoke effects which I can safely assume is water vapour which is hurting the wood pretty badly. I can agree with you on Merlin not knowing too much about wooden coasters as they seemingly forgot how water vapour generally interacts with wood. I wouldn't be surprised if every smoke effect on Wicker Man was removed in the next couple years defeating 50% of the ride's theming and purpose. It's a great gimmick, and adds so much atmosphere and immersion, but long-term? That ride's gonna be a nightmare to maintain on top of its current underlying issues. REAL smoke's just gonna kill everyone on board. What Merlin should've done with woodies is start out small with a family GCI/GG, then slowly build up. Starting out with "I'll take your biggest ride" won't do any good and will end up costing thousands. I honestly never saw Thorpe RMC ever happening, and I don't think it ever will. There are hundreds of other "UK's First" records to snag. I'd say get the UK's first triple launch but Intamin's pretty bad with reliability too, no Mack because they cost far too much for the park, and no Premier because where Thorpe can put a Sky Rocket II they'd prefer the land gets taken by a much larger coaster unless they have a random strip of land lying around. Gerst would've been the best option but after Smiler's issues I don't think it'll happen.

My main concern with the Thorpe RMC would be long-term maintenance of the ride. After hearing about several issues with Untamed at Walibi Holland I always think if Thorpe would end up having the same problems. Apparently the USA hybrids are doing completely fine, either that or they also have problems I'm unaware of. Seeing Wicker Man get negative reviews about the ride getting rougher and rougher, and the downtime of Colossos, I'm not sure if the best idea is to give Merlin another wood-based coaster if they already have trouble with keeping their current ones open. And that's my main issue with the Thorpe RMC; will it be open more than it'll be closed? Will we be seeing 2-3 straight weeks of downtime a few years after opening? Maybe I'm completely wrong or paranoid about how reliable/expensive the RMC would be. Of course it would be a beautiful and extremely fitting ride for Thorpe, but I feel like maintenance costs might cause Merlin to put it on the sidelines for now. As Thorpe isn't exactly known to be a place that can consistently keep every ride open throughout the year, I'd imagine they want to change that. The new coaster should be one that can be affordable, stay open, and bring enough people into the park to be a profitable ride.