owenstreet7

Yes Stealth they've discussed (re-)adding an SRQ before, but the current batching system works well for the efficiency of the ride and doesn't lend itself to SRQ.
 
And this is the thing. SRQs serve two purposes:
1. Improve utilisation scores (the percentage of seats filled)
2. Give a mild improvement to guest satisfaction scores
 
The first point is the bigger one. SRQs simply do not improve throughputs meaningfully. Let's say Hyperia sends 40 trains an hour, and 1 person from the SRQ goes on each train. That's an increase of 40 people. And without an SRQ, a good batcher could probably fill some of those seats anyway. So it's not really significantly meaningful.
 
Improving utilisation does ultimately look good, and will increase the total ridership, and so ever so slightly improve the "rides per head" score - the average number of rides ridden per guest. But it will be marginal.
 
As for improving guest satisfaction/experience. The number of people using or benefitting from SRQs is generally a tiny proportion of the number of guests. That's not to say parks should ignore them, but it should be remembered that it's again minimal gains.
 
SRQs need to properly and sensibly integrated. That's why Hyperia works. How does one, for example, introduce an SRQ on Nemesis Inferno? There's no clear pathway to the station for it. Any potential batching point is too far away. Similar stories for Swarm and Colossus.
 
As mentioned, Stealth has that natural point, but the current operation of the ride doesn't lend itself to having an SRQ. You could put it into some flat rides, and share the space with Fastrack, but that requires good batching. And bluntly put, Thorpe don't have enough staff who care to be good enough batchers (a trend common at many parks, for the record).
 
So yeah, I don't see any rides having SRQs retrospectively (re-)added any time soon.

Not fussed about Rumba being closed till May, its crap anyway.
 
If cuts need to be made then I'd rather this than cutting staff elsewhere, less capacity on coasters or cutting opening hours.
 
 
It would be nice, but realistically the only coaster they can add it to would be Stealth. There was plans to do this but it would've required them to do some work to the queues to implement, and they were worried it would impact throughput. They don't currently assign rows on Stealth and it works fairly well, so I doubt that will change. 
 
It would work well on some of the flats too, Rush and Vortex would be nice. I don't see why these couldn't operate the same way that Samurais do using the same queue as the Fasttrack queue. Vortex used to have one and it worked well. 

The last time I can recall the park opening after 10am was for Fright Nites 2003, when they did 11am-11pm. Still, a long time ago!
 
In any case, it's been a long time since the park did a passholder day, so it's lovely to see them do one again. The thing with these sort of days (ie ones at the start of season) is that the money they don't earn from standard entrance tickets is sort of recouped by the fact passholders tend to spend more than average on their first visit of the year due to new merchandise. Plus, it helps bring value to the annual pass (despite it already being great value) and added satisfaction. So it is win win.
 
A 7pm close giving the opportunity for a dusk ride or two is a lovely bonus too, and it's good to see the park continuing their experiment of offering later closing times. Hopefully that can continue. 
 
I also agree about Fright Nights: it would be interesting to see the park explore 11am-10pm at the very least. I don't know how realistic it is to happen, since one of the things that ties the park's hands is the number of under 18s working at the park. Equally, the park simply seem to have veered away from running rides till 10pm: they don't even do it for buy outs or their VIP/Press events. But it would be interesting to see.

Passholder day has been announced for Sunday 16th March.
 
Park is open 11am - 7pm which is nice, interesting as don’t think I’ve ever seen them open after 10am.
 
Would love to see some more of this, opening later and staying open later. 11am - 10pm would be great for fright nights. 

It’s less likely now however I still feel like there is room at Thorpe for an out and back b&m hyper at Thorpe. 

After being retired, reinstated, retired, and reinstated again, the recently retired area names have been reinstated on the map on the app.
I wonder how long this will last before they are retired.
 
Interestingly ‘The Jungle’ name has been retired, and the previously retired ‘Calypso Quay’ name has been reinstated.
 
 

My bets will be on:
1. The beach redevelopment whether that's a 2025 or 2026 thing. UK Equivalent of Chiapas I'm hoping but wishful thinking 😅
2. Hyperia landscaping
3. Finishing off the work on Colossus
4. Focus on Zodiac, Quantum, Inferno and possibly Rumba Rapids for sparkle touch. 
5. Overhaul Stealth and Swarm's Batching system
6. Finishing touches on Swarm and Saw
7. Reinstating the baggage hold for Stealth or finding a better way for bag storage.
8. Bringing in Single Rider queues for a few more rides - the ones that are most likely and need one would be Vortex, Rush, Storm Surge, Stealth, Swarm and possibly Tidal Wave. Colossus would be fantastic if they made changes to the queue which I think could be workable however Inferno would be impractical to do without significant work.
9. Finishing touches around the park at the parts of the park that didn't get work last year and parts where work is needed.
10. Potentially taking down Slammer.

 

It actually feels like there's more closures than there actually are. A lot of them are closed and relocated because their respective parks have closed for example.
 
Desert Race - Operational no issues
Formula Rossa - Remains closed, rumoured that its launch system is damaged. Has been down since February and the park have been very coy about what's actually going on
Furius Baco - Operational, no issues (beyond being an atrocious rollercoaster)
Kanonen - Relocated to the USA as Matugani
Kingda Ka - Rust in Pieces
Rita - Operational, no issues
Senzafito - Closed down due to the park closing completely. Now in Canada and converted to LSM launch.
Skycar - Operational no issues
Speed Monster - Operational, no issues
Stealth - Operational, no issues
Storm Runner - Operational, no issues
Superman The Escape - Operational, no issues
Top Thrill Dragster - I mean.. I'm not delivering lectures on this. 
Xcelerator - It's currently operational. It spent over a year closed and under refurbishment and opened at the end of last year. 
Zaturn - Park it was located at in Japan closed down, and the ride now sits in pieces in Russia.
 
 
I wouldn't worry about Stealth or Rita to be honest. As some of the later models, the technology is slightly perfected from the originals and I would say the reliability of both rides is far better than their American counterparts.

If Thorpe get a Top Spin I will scream and cry and hate life.

Agreed, this looks like a great use of the space!
 
The Beach has always been a very odd area, and only used for part of the year anyway - this new area will be used every day and solve the event space problem.

I personally don’t mind its design and feel. Reminds me a lot of the Barbican and those are some sought after houses. 
The thing is with Thorpe having a hotel is tricky especially in the off season, with Heathrow so nearby and lots of places avalible for conferences etc it was always seen as a major risk to build a permanent hotel structure. If this does go ahead I wonder if a midway attraction will be built in one of the car park areas or the old farm to make it feel more resorty.

To put more in there they'd have needed to bin Depth Charge as well. Which isn't happening. 
 
The park needs more spaces to breathe and has done for years. Might even be something they can offer for evening entertainment in summer months for hotel guests.
 
I've always felt that this was the best solution for the area. Better than a beach that is never used.

I've just come across this document which does confirm this area will be accessible before the park opens.
 
'The proposed new seating and gathering area will provide a location for visitors to dwell when they arrive in the morning prior to the rides opening, and after they have passed through the ticket kiosks and security/bag check. This will assist in reducing queues and improve guest experience.'
 
 
It also states that the stage will host up to 18 shows/events over the season in addition to the entertainment already provided. So sounds like they're planning additional events over summer maybe? I know they used to hold some concert type events (back in 2015/16 maybe) unsure how successful they were? 
 
'In addition, it is proposed that the stage will host up to 18 shows/events over the season for bands where the music will be louder and more like a concert format (capacity of 2,000 guests). These events will take place through the year. To protect residential amenity, noise levels will be reduced at 11pm to the pre-agreed park levels.'
 
'The only new activities will comprise up to a maximum of 18 days per annum where events can take place up to 95dBA within the audience area. These events will be carefully managed and will end at 11:00pm.'

I think it will be really good if it has something special about it like a water park.I hope it goes well for thorpe as waking up to seeing stealth as the sun comes up would be an amazing sight to see

There had been a fair amount of discourse about the "Final Beach Party" poster that appeared by DeadBeat...
 

 
With the date being today, last day for season, and time being advertised as "8.25pm". There were some people expecting something to happen on the Beach at that time.
 
There was a small gathering of people by the Beach at this time, but actors from the Creature Campus dance show told people the party had relocated to Stealth. At 8.30pm, the final Creature Campus show of the season played out as normal, no additions.
 
Now, with work currently happening to dig up the Beach, it seems like something is happening there. And the aim of the poster is to tell us the Beach is going, with the time of "8.25pm" being a nod to "20.25", ie it being replaced for the 2025 season.
 
Seems like it didn't gather enough steam to become an issue. But this is perhaps a cautionary tale for Thorpe to try to not be too clever with their Easter eggs...
 
Also, does again seem to suggest we're seeing a Beach replacement in 2025. Again, with no indication of plans submitted, no tease beyond what we've got, and the location we have, I expect we're not in for a new ride. Flattening out the area and turning into a space for the stage, with permanent seating, would be a good option in my books.

I know its early but thought it would be good to keep conversation of 2025 separate. 
 
Opening hours for the 2025 have been released already.
 
https://www.thorpepark.com/plan-your-visit/before-you-visit/opening-times/
 
- Season will start on Friday 28th March and end on Sunday 2nd November.
- Continuation of 5pm closes for off peak weekdays, 6pm for holidays and every weekend.
- Couple of closed Wednesdays during April and May but they were very quiet this year.
- 7pm closes throughout the summer holidays and every Saturday from mid June. 
- September has a couple of closed Wednesdays. 
- Park will be closed in October except for Fright Night dates + Thurs 2nd which will likely be press night. Fright nights has the exact same amount of nights and structure to 2024.
 
Overall, they're pretty good and very similar to this years apart from some extra closed days, which were all very quiet this year. Its good to see they haven't been cut with the uncertainty around merlin at the moment. Of course they are subject to change but I've never seen Thorpe reduce their opening hours once published.
 
I would love to see the return of some 9pm closes in summer and 10pm for Fright Nights, or even trial a later opening and closing time for Fright Nights so we have more time in the dark. 

It’s looking to me like whatever is happening with the Beach might potentially be 2025’s draw instead. I wouldn’t be wholly surprised if they built some sort of ride there.
 
Where did the park get with that proposal to not need planning applications for structures below 25m? If that got passed by the council, then they could theoretically be doing anything below 25m without us needing to know about it.

The park do not need a planning application to remove it.
 
However, if the park intend to use the space for a flat ride, it is better to leave it until they submit the planning application. This is because it makes it easier/quicker for the application to go through ("We have a ride here, we're replacing it with something of a similar size and scale"). If they remove the ride, turn it into a blank space, then put in an application, it's slightly more effort to put through (not to mention a general faff too).
 
The park did say they'd look at removing it this closed season, but beyond that statement there's no indication either way whether that will happen. As you say though, there's no planning application in place as of yet, so it's unlikely we'll see a new ride in its space in 2025.

I think the branding in general is an upgrade. It's great to see a consistent, clear tone across marketing, and it feels like the park knows itself now.
 
I totally agree that in isolation it's a bit bland and easily missed. It doesn't exactly scream "theme park" either. But when included in videos or within other things, it works well.
 
I also think it's got extra versatility. I loved how they used the infinity logo in different ways in the past Fright Nights blood, Oktoberfest pretzel, etc). But it was harder to achieve and only done infrequently. The current logo can be easily tweaked to suit ride/event colours and style, and it makes everything feel a bit more natural. For example, we can see Colossus, Hyperia and Fright Nights versions of the Thorpe logo, and they blend in nicely with each individual identity, but still feel part of the Thorpe brand.
 
I still prefer the infinity logo, which probably has a bit of nostalgia attached to it anyways. But the current logo is modern, in style with how logos work these days, and is still versatile. And, more importantly, the park have a consistent brand identity, which has been a big issue in recent years. 

Regardless of thoughts, we can't deny Thorpe has by far been the best run Merlin park this year. It has been a disaster at Towers and CWoA most the year!

Yes I know, Hyperia has barely just opened, but it's only natural sooner or later to ask the question "What comes next?"
 
If we were to rewind 20 years ago, Tussauds had a clear investment cycle strategy for Thorpe, with a major investment coming every 3 years. That carried on into the Merlin era, before being tweaked to every 4 years.
 
Obviously, we all know the story from here. Swarm didn't give an instant increase in visitor numbers, so the powers that be at Merlin deemed to some form of failure (despite the several flaws in that logic). Thorpe tried something different with DBGT and that, frankly, flopped. 2020 was at one point pencilled in to have a major investment, but that was cut when Merlin decided to pull tens of millions of pounds of investment from their Resort Theme Parks.
 
But obviously things have changed in the last few years. Merlin have been taken over. We have a new CEO, and new board members. And with that, there seems to be more investment coming into the theme parks again, slowly but surely. And a fresher wave of optimism has come.
 
So, more to the point of the topic. When do you think we'll see the next major investment at Thorpe? Arguably any new attraction could be classed as major, after years of very little new things, but of course I'm talking of a something along the lines of a new coaster or similar. Could a 3-4 year cycle be back? Could it depend on Hyperia's success? Or even the rest of Merlin's success?
 
And even more importantly, what would you like to see? Blue sky or realistically, this is the place to share your thoughts.
 
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For me, I think one thing is clear: Thorpe should stick with coasters. There's no harm in them becoming a roller coaster park at this point. It's what the public want. They're not going to compete on the international stage in terms of immersive experiences, nor would they with Universal if that comes to the UK. That's not to say they should stick car park coasters here, there and everywhere, but for major attractions, they should stick to coasters. 
 
Part of me thinks an intertwined family coaster / log flume would be perfect. A 1.2m family coaster would be a perfect addition, although of course it doesn't have to be tame (RMCs tend to have 1.2m height restrictions for example). And I think the park need a solid, new water ride, and a log flume hits the spot. A more modern one with restraints will no doubt appease the Merlin H&S folk too.
Yeah, that suggestion goes against my 'stick to coasters' idea somewhat, but it does also solve a glaring gap in the park's line up.