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Does anyone actually know if there is any track on park yet or are we still completely in the dark about how long this will take? I seem to remember seeing Thorpe reply to a comment on instagram about a week ago saying 'Colossus will open late spring, not long now!' or something like that. That could be taken in 2 ways really; either it's opening very soon as they said not long now, or it's going to be end of may opening as they said late spring. I'm inclined to believe the latter though as if it was opening soon, I assume we would see track on park and maybe even have the ride testing by now.

Cool, I'll definitly get some extra trips planned in Oktoberfest and FN so I can see the coaster being built! Shame about the opening date, but then the whole schedule was messed up by the disagreements with the environmental agency I assume. Better a slightly later opening than no coaster at all though.

What do you mean by 3 months for foundations, does that like count as ground pins and supports or do the supports count as track construction. I’m just really keen to see some of the coaster being built lol Also sounds like the rain has had a bigger impact that I thought unfortunately, but then I guess the great british weather is what it is. Hopefully the park can maybe make some of that time back so exodus can open for the start of the 2024 season!

Just been watching Jack Silkstone’s construction update and he was saying that we are in a period where no construction can really happen until the track and supports arrive on site from Germany. Does anyone know/have an idea on when those arrive as I’m kinda curious when we will start to see vertical construction on the coaster?

That is very true. The park is a questionable place.

Oh yh, that makes sense. I don't see why they use wood to be honest; plastic would be cheaper too. Then I guess plastic fencing does give off a cheaper feel though and the park don't want their new investment to seem cheap.

Plastic fencing would have led to the same thing though. People will still bring markers and draw/engrave stuff into the queue lines regardless what material it is made of or what colour it is. I don't really see any way the park can stop it either as it is all down to people having the decency to not graffiti which is never going to happen. If the park try and inplement a harsh sanction (kicked out of the park) for anyone doing it and actually enforce the rule the graffitti may slightly decrease, but like queue jumping I think it's a thing we will always see due to the park just not having the resources to stop people.

It will probably be a scare zone in my opinion, cause I don't really see the space for a maze there (unless it has a very linear design). Maybe they are just evaluating the area so they can see how much space they have to work with for the crows due to their now being more space as the saw alive queue is gone. A new ride would be great, but I think that is too ambitious with ghost train and exodus both being big adittions this season and next season. Also due to the fact that the Colossus retrack will be taking place near that area over the next few seasons, it might be difficult to install a new ride on that path while that is going on. The most likly thing I see the park building in that area is a new food and beverages unit to compliment the seating area, just like a small kiosk that sells snacks and stuff.

No I totally agree, I mean in theory it is vandalism so they should definitely get kicked out. However, it would be very difficult for the park to monitor and that’s how people keep getting away with it and that’s why I think it’s never going to change.

Oh yeah, I forgot that the park said the ride had been in the works for over a year, I was thinking that the project had only been in the works about for about 4 months. But even so, with them getting rid of the vr and other parts of the ride, major changes are going to have to be made to make it interesting. I do genuinly believe that the ride system may have to be changed in some way to accomodate the fact that there is no vr, which is what worries me a little as there hasn't really been enough time for major changes to be made. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic about Thorpe though, they have been a lot better recently (we'll ignore Colossus for the minute) so they may have been able to pull off some major changes or have managed to make something increadable with the infastructure they already had.

Good to know they are getting somewhere with ghost train, hopefully it is finished soon. The only worry I have is that they don't seem to have been working on it for very long, making me think that not much would have changed and the attraction won't be amazing. But then I suppose towers turned duel around in a short space of time and from what everyone has been saying about that I suppose something great can be done in such a short time period.

I do feel the enthusiasts do slightly ruin the build up of a new coaster. I know Thrill Riders mentioned this in a video too but I do truly agree that everything being leaked online by people with drones or people going down monks walk then sharing photos all over the internet almost kills the hype. Think about what towers did with Oblivion, keeping everything a secret until they were ready to reveal to the public what theme and ride they were building. I feel parks just cannot do this these days as if they tried to keep stuff a secret it would look poor on their hald with it being posted on social media. To counter this the parks then have to reveal everthing to the public first, meaning there is no secrecy at all when it comes to new coasters, ruining some of the hype. Hopefully with Exodus, Thorpe try and keep the theme to themselves as long as possible so not everything is ruined before the ride opens.

I really do hope that the park decide to theme exodus, it's a dissapointment if they don't to be honest. No theme to the ride will ruin the impact it has on the park for sure, two of the most popular rides for the GP are Saw and Swarm which is partly due to the fact that both coasters are themed brilliantly. The fact that exodus is the tallest coaster in the UK alone will not be enough to attract the number of the visitors the park would be happy with. About what themes could actually work with exodus is an entirely different question. I feel with the water feature the range of possible themes is definitly diminished; but then Merlin have been very good with theming in the UK (I'm looking at you especially Towers) so I feel they could definitly pull something outstanding off.

What are everyones opinnions on all the giverways thorpe seem to be doing at the moment. I've seen two in the space of 3 days, the Inferno one posted everywhere and the one with creams cafe which isn't on twitter but on instagram instead. I know the park are wanting to boost ingagement on their content, but I feel the giveways, however nice of a gesture it seems, is just a way to get more people to look at their posts with the having to tag the 3 friends to be entered. I'd like to hear others opinnions on this as to me it seems a bit odd for a massive entity like Thorpe to be picking winners out of a comments section on an instagram post.

That does make sense, I always thought thrope were in control of their prices but it would be logical that the comany who does the food choses. Do thorpe get any say over how much they would want an item to be sold for or is it all completely up to Aramark with no input from the park at all?

Pizza pasta has always been reasonably good in my opinnion. I've never not like the buffet cause you know, the more food the merrier and I've always found that the quality of the food isn't awful (I'd take it over something like KFC every day), but then it's also not great either . The only issue is, even with the MAP discount, it is getting rather expensive nowdays, and I don't really feel like spending £17.50 (£14 with discount) on just lunch, when I could bring my own food in for absolutly nothing. To be honest, that's where I've got to on all theme park food at this point, it's all just starting to become a too expensive for food that reasonable at best. I know that Thorpe can't help having to up their prices due to the state of the economy at the moment, but I feel like they have taken it a step too far. Also don't get me started on the refill cup now being £9 to reactivate. At £5 it was a perfect, at £7 I was a bit more concerned about the pricing but would bring my cup occasionally, but now at £9 I fell like it's not worth it at all.

Oh, that's a shame, I have always said that spring probably means the end of May in the parks mind, but was hoping I might be able to go on it before my exams. I guess they have only been working on the ride for about 4/5 months (I think I cant remeber when they started the work) so it's best they take their time so the attraction is the best it possibly can be.

Do we have anymore updates on how the park are getting on with Ghost Train? I really want to try get down to the park when it opens but I have exams in May and June and probably cannot get to thorpe in that period, does anyone think it will be open before then?

I thnk that the park have kinda messed up making it a first come, first served system, they are setting themselves up for massive queues for the spa. I know there was probably no other way to do it, but I really feel the spa just doesn't fit in the park and I have no clue why thorpe though it was a necessary addition. The park are probably going through another identity crisis, cause a spa definitly doesn't satisfy the teenage thrillseeker demographic they used to push for so much.

I don't think anyone knows when it's going to be completed to be honest. The park and Taziker both seem to be having issues unfortunatly, casuing delays to the retrack.

I think the problem Thorpe had was they couldn't risk having Colossus closed for a whole season due to the hit it would have on capacity. With Intamin only offering to do it over a season they couldn't risk the park falling apart in the summer months when the park is packed due to them having one of their biggest coasters closed. I think in theory they chose the best all round option (even if I don't agree with this decision) so the park could continue to run as normally as possible in the busiest periods while still improving Colossus. If it ever reopens of course (the website says opening spring, but from what were seeing from ghost train too, spring probably means the 31st May in the parks mind). About Taziker, I've expressed my concerns about them doing the Colossus retrack earlier, but there's not much we can do now the park have already made their decision. Just hopefully they get their act together and don't mess it up too much. I think the park could have adresses the whole situation a bit better and here is my opinion on what they could have done (I know it's already started and they won't change a thing) regarding retracking Colossus (I am no expert on this topic so please feel free to totally slander my ideas if it is needed): 1) For the 2023 season get in new trains. If they were so desparate try and fix Colossus that they couldn't wait for all they construction/stress around exodus to calm down, why didn't they get new trains as a temporary fix. 2) When the 2023 season ends, begin the whole retrack of Colossus (this depends entirely on exodus opening at the start of the 2024 season). As the majority of the guests for the 2024 season will want to ride exodus and just the fact that the park have a new coaster, there will be less stress on the park, meaning they have the time to close Colossus entirely. 3) Get in Intamin to retrack the ride throughout the 2024 season, resulting in a good quality version of Colossus that can use the new trains they should have brought for the 2023, resulting in the ride feeling brand new. 4) If, as I've heard, Intamin would only do the retrack if the park would also build an Intamin coaster next, that would only bring positives. Intamin have stepped up their game recently and if they were already working with Thorpe for the retrack I'm sure relations between the two would be good, meaning the park could probably negotiate a good deal on a new coaster too. This would be good especially considering what the park are saying about how they want to develop in the future. Sorry I've literally dumped all my thoughts into one post but I really am conserned/confused about the parks decisions on this one.

I know it’s odd with Colossus, there was new track on it at passholders day and there was definitely some train wear on the new track, implying the ride had tested at least once. I’m just now very confused why they have taken it off again.

I think the nemesis retrack kinda has the same problem, by most of the gp it will be an unnoticed change, making it a large investment without much of a gain. Although, it does seem that towers are going to change the colour of the track and update the theming, possibly giving them a way to advertise the ride as a different/new experience.

That is true, the problem with retracking a ride is that it’s only really going to interest an enthusiast and the average person will not notice. A new ride however will do wonders for both communities and the park itself. I guess the park are still recovering from covid and expecting a massive investment for the retrack while they are building an entire new coaster is too much to ask (even without covid that would still be a massive investment). I’m definitely glad they are planning for the future though and I really really hope this is a turn for the better from the park

I do genuinley think that the park are trying to do the correct thing with Colossus, they have identified that the ride is beginning to come towards the end of its life cycle and have decided to fix the track over multiple closed seasons so it doesn't have to have a prolonged period of downtime so the ride can still opperate, so the capacity of the park doesn't take a hit. However, I do have some issues with the way thorpe are going about this retrack though. Firstly, I do believe that the better investment for Colossus would be some new trains. The ones they have currently are outdated and very, very uncomfartable (considering I'm 6 foot 4 it is almost unbearable sitting on the breakrun after the ride is over) and I'm sure many would agree with me that new trains with lap bars would definitly change the ride experience for the better. Also, I'm not fully convinced on Taziker doing the retrack. I know that they are a respected company in the retracking buisness considering they were the company that did The Big One retrack but I do feel thorpe may have cheaped out slightly going with them as the retracking company. Considering that Arrow Dynamics is closed down, the only option blackpool had with The Big One was to get an external company in to do the retrack, however, Intamin is a major player in the industry and still even offer the multi-inversion coaster as a model they sell, so I am slightly confuded on why thorpe haven't got Intamin in to do the retracking like towers are doing getting B&M to do the Nemesis retrack. I know there may be a number of factors for why thorpe have chosen Taziker over Intamin (price, ride downtime, etc.) but I do feel like it would have been the better option to get the original manafacture in to at least cosider a retrack of the ride, but then I guess maybe thorpe have done that already and I just don't know about it. About the area feeling run down, definitly. I think the whole of the Colossus area needs some 'thorpe loving care' as they call it. It just feels like the ride has been neglected for years. I do hope this is a step in the right direction for the park with them definitly having a bigger focus on repairing and tidying up the park at the moment, although with thorpe's history anything could happen.