LightSam

Does anyone else find that last, or second last little turn out of sync with the rest of the ride. Obviously it's lining you up to come back to the station. A bit of an anti cimlax.

4 ‘Thorpe Park Lates’ dates have been announced for 2 Fridays and Saturdays in August.

14th / 15th and 21st / 22nd once again staying open till 9pm.

Sounds like they’ll be making use of launch pad with live DJ sets.

Great to see!

If anyone’s interested, I have a few throughput timings and insights from my Thorpe visit last Monday:
Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains) - 786pph (2 trains, average of 4, 13th April 2026)
Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains) - 770pph (2 trains, average of 4, 13th April 2026), 763pph (2 trains, average of 10, 13th April 2026)
Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 1,023pph (2 trains, average of 6, 13th April 2026)
Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars) - 854pph (unknown number of cars, average of 8, 13th April 2026)
Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains) - 827pph (2 trains, average of 9, 13th April 2026), 860pph (2 trains, average of 6, 13th April 2026)
The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains) - 946pph (2 trains, average of 10, 13th April 2026), 1,022pph (2 trains, average of 5, 13th April 2026)
Overall, then, I would have said ops were pretty good, but perhaps not as high-end as I have seen in a couple of cases. Colossus was doing pretty well in my brief snapshot by that ride’s standards, and Saw was smashing it! Inferno and Hyperia were also doing well.

Some others were still good, but perhaps not as high as I have seen. For example, Stealth, consistently attaining slightly below 90s between dispatches, seemed somewhat slower than on my last visit back in September, where the staff were pumping out trains at a rate of knots and attaining nearly 1,000pph. Swarm also seemed slightly less consistent. That is me being persnickety, though; operations were generally good, and ride availability was also strong throughout the day!

One thing I did notice is that Inferno was batching at the station entrance, which I found a bit odd… I wonder why they’ve changed this for 2026?

I believe it sounds an alarm if the restraint comes down enough to indicate that the person in the test seat would fit.

Very annoying I know - would be better to have a green/red light like I've seen at other parks 🤣

At least its working though I guess! SAWs test seat does the same.

And what does Parm Pap like, beyond long-winded ways of saying (I presume) "the water effect won't make a splash back soon"?

Mixture of the Beach not being used that much and there being a more recent need for a permanent stage / event space. Realistically The Beach was the best place to put such a thing.

It’s likely they’re tired of using Ghost Train’s plaza as a show space and needed to reduce crowds in that area so they just decided to use one of the only attractions that never opens for like half of the season

Merlin have announced that they have contracted out the maintenance and operations side of the park to OCS. They must have looked at the roaring customer satisfaction success of the food and beverage side of the buisness and decided lets have more of that.

A theme park lives and dies by the customers experience. If you contract out every aspect that the customer deals with you have no control over your business.

There's likely several factors in play.

Theme parks being closed environments, which people have to pay to get into, which are surrounded by CCTV, probably detracts potential thieves anyway.

Very few people are focused on other people's belongings too; they just want to get their own and go. And any thoughts of 'I could take someone else's belongings' is little more than a common, healthy, intrusive thought.

Yep, the Merlin Platinum Pass now includes one Fastrack per day on any ride, which does include Hyperia. It will presumably not include major new additions the year they're included, but Hyperia is now old enough that they can get away with it.

Presumably such things will come out of each ride's standard Fastrack allocation. Which will then affect their profits. Will be interesting how that hits the park in mid-to-longer run.

They removed all rides that were closed for the buyout days, Tidal Wave too.

There was actually some sign of life on on the last day of the season. Engineers around all day and some spinning (not lifting) so hopefully its not over just yet for Zodiac!


Zodiac always looks brilliant at night so that was certainly missed during Fright Nights this year.

Couple of things to consider:

-Merlin recently made Halloween an included day for most passes.
-The excluded days, somewhat ironically, tend to be a bit quieter because:
There's less passholders
People expect those days to be busy so avoid them
-The weather was forecast to be a bit rubbish, which can put passholders off
-There were 2 severe cases of bad weather, including electrical storms in the nearby area, shutting down most rides. That, along with the rubbish weather, meant people left earlier.

The park today didn't feel as busy as it was yesterday. Nor did it feel as busy as it was last Halloween. However, the park was still extremely busy and lively.

What is everyones thoughts on the capacity at the moment for Fright Nights?

I know its been the same for a long time and it isn't likely to change, but I can't help but feel they are overselling tickets at the moment resulting in a really poor customer experience.

- Security queue taking well over an hour to get into the park (I've seen many reports of over 90 minutes)
- Multiple coasters over 2 hours queue
- All mazes over an hour queue for a paid time slot
- Car park nightmare getting out (again not a new issue)

For comparison, I went to Walibi Holland on 2 sold out days this year. I waited 15 mins to get in one day and 5 mins the other. Getting out, about half hour one day due to a car accident and about 15 mins the other day. You also don't have to pay for car parking during for Fright Nights there.

I don't know another theme park where you get greeted with huge cattlepen queues to get in. Realistically, how many people who wait 90 minutes to get in, stuck in queues all day and then another queue to get out are going to enjoy there day and return?

I don't think it helps matters having the rapids closed and ghost train opening at 3pm on the busiest days of the year. The park really does need all the capacity they can get.
I do think theres more they can do with the mazes too. Towers opens theres at 1pm on peak days, so opening them earlier could definitely help with the queues.
And of course 10pm closes. With Fright Nights as busy as it is (and generating nearly half the parks yearly income) it would be great to see the return of 10pm closes.

I know this is quite a negative post, but just something I've thought about recently. For me, the security queue is the biggest issue that needs addressing and is a terrible first impression.

The hiring of 300 actors on short term contracts will be the reason.

Reasonably common for Colossus. They do it just to check for any signs of wear and tear at the joints of the ride.

It will be a part of their routine and nothing to be concerned about.

its a interesting quirk of Stealth and a few other coasters like it.

The magnetic brake fins have a couple of brake pads on them so in the event of a rollback the train will stop on the launch track so the train can advance the moment the launch fins are up rather than once the train has cleared the top hat which allows for the ride to operate as quickly as possible.

Source below

I have some throughput timings from my trip to Thorpe Park yesterday that I’d like to report!

I managed to grab the following timings in the park yesterday:
Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains): 717pph (unknown number of trains, average of 3, 20th September 2025)
Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains): 833pph (2 trains, average of 10, 20th September 2025)
Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 977pph (2 trains, average of 5, 20th September 2025), 1,024pph (2 trains, average of 4, 20th September 2025)
Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars/2 stations): 742pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 10 singular cars, 20th September 2025), 788pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 4 dual dispatches, 20th September 2025)
Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains): 975pph (2 trains, average of 10, 20th September 2025)
The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains): 1,046pph (2 trains, average of 9, 20th September 2025)
In terms of some specific insights:
Stealth had possibly the best operations I’ve ever seen on there; these operations were phenomenal! The staff were sprinting down the platform, and they were very frequently outpacing the 40s dispatch timer on the platform, something which I’d largely thought redundant in previous years! 70-75 second dispatch intervals were being hit very consistently, and the slowest I saw was about 80s, which is incredible!
The Swarm was also operated very well given that it seems to have been a tad inconsistent as of late. When I was in the area, the ride was consistently achieving minimal to no stacking, the staff were efficient, and I saw some dispatch intervals as quick as 90s or below. Great job!
Hyperia was operating well, and seems to have improved compared to its opening year, with 80-90 second dispatch intervals being attained pretty consistently where closer to 100-120 seconds seemed par for the course in 2024. From what I could see, the ride was consistently not stacking and was very often dispatching before the train in front hit the brake run; at its quickest, I saw them dispatch when the train in front was negotiating the final outerbank after the splashdown. I do think the slow brake run on here makes throughputs slower than they could be when the ride isn’t stacking; if the brake run was faster, I think it would shave at least 10 seconds off the dispatch interval!
Nemesis Inferno seemed to be operating well, with minimal to no stacking being quite frequent. I noticed the staff were trying to hurry people along on here.
Overall, then, I thought operations were broadly very good at Thorpe yesterday! Stealth was phenomenally operated, I also thought The Swarm was particularly well operated, and overall, most things seemed to be doing well! I’ve given up hope of Colossus ever attaining a particularly decent throughput at this point, but even that didn’t appear too slow by Colossus standards.

It seems that the logo has been added to somewhat.
 
This has made an appearance on a lot of the social media posts and marketing emails over the past couple of weeks.
 

 
I have to say I’m not sure this is a step in the right direction. I know the logo has been controversial, but this busy new animated park skyline element sat on top of the existing logo doesn’t fit in with the new sleek and minimal branding.  It feels a bit like an addition that’s been made as an afterthought, by someone other than the original designers of the branding.
 
I think it’s a bit of a shame that the brand overall is already becoming muddy after just one year, and it’s being strayed from quite a lot, even with something as important as the logo.
 
Aside from that, I’m not sure what on earth they were thinking by having this as their app icon instead of the “Thorpe” text that was there before
 

 
This really bears no resemblance to the park or the brand at all. Nowhere in the branding is this standalone T referred to at all, and it isn’t an icon that’s used anywhere to symbolise Thorpe Park.
 
imagine a brand like British Airways having this as their app icon… Ridiculous.

If it’s iconic enough, like Virgin’s red V or easyJet’s lowercase orange e for example, that’s great - but BA’s B, and certainly Thorpe’s T, aren’t.
 
Again, I think the idea behind the new TP brand design has been lost a little. 
I know it was controversial, but this can’t be what the designers had in mind at all. We now seem to have quite a messy crossover between the sleek and colourful branding, and efforts made by others since it was designed.
 
I think the logo text was deliberately simple, and was always supposed to be either intertwined with the squiggly bits as shown in the reveal videos, or overlayed directly on to bold images as shown on the sample posters.
 

 

 

 

 
 

Couple of potential theories:
 
-It was found that whoever went into the ride area damaged the ride area fencing. This wouldn't have been immediately obvious, but after dealing with the people in the ride and then surveying the fencing, this would be discovered. That could take 30 minutes. 
I'd say that's most likely.
 
-Further issues with people trying to enter the park / entering the ride area, which were causing further delays.
 
-An unrelated technical issue occurred after the guest action, meaning the ride wouldn't be able to reopen.
 

Not a baker, but I did notice similar when I (rather unusually) had some at Towers a couple of months ago. I also noticed they weren't the same size, with us being given many more than 5 actual doughnuts to compensate for the fact many were small.
 
I'd hazard a guess that they've changed the recipe to include less flour, using a different kind of flour or substituting flour with something else (and still using some flour). Flour would be where the gluten comes from that binds the dough together, and in turn gives the doughnut its structural integrity to not fall apart. The falling apart - and irregular sizing - would suggest less gluten at the very least. 

I totally agree that paying to park at theme park sucks, but trying to get out of it by “outsmarting” the system or whatever is poor behaviour.
 
It’s like these idiots you see with cameras in Police officers’ faces, not breaking any laws, but trying for hours to catch them out or get a rise out of them. Not breaking any rules, but it’s scumbag behaviour.
 
The reality is, if you get out of the car park somehow without paying, weather that be by tailgating someone at the barrier, driving the wrong side of the road out of the entrance, holding up the queue while arguing with staff to open the barrier, or whatever, I doubt very much that anyone would do anything about it, but if someone does something stupid or aggressive in order to get out without paying, they’re are an absolute piece of sh!t. 🤷‍♂️ The rules apply to everyone. Nobody should do stupid things to get out of paying, and certainly nobody should be trying to lean on the staff to let them out etc - they aren’t there for that and it isn’t fair.
 
There will always be people who try to flout the rules, but I suppose it comes down to the sort of person you want to be.  Some in our society simply don’t care. But if we all behaved like that, 1, we’d be in a mess, and 2, the parks would simply make whatever changes are needed to close the loophole.
 
on the other hand however - if you choose not to buy a parking ticket in advance, and take a chance that the exit barriers might be open at the end of the day etc, I think that’s fair enough if you’re let out without paying but were willing to pay at the exit 🤷‍♂️ 

I'm no expert, but...
 
I don't believe they can fine you if you left the car park without paying.
 
The park have not opted to be a part of any regulator for car parks. It is not necessary for them to do this. This means they don't have to follow any rules about displaying T&Cs every so often, don't require clearly marked bays for cars, etc. That comes with the downsides of not being able to fine, not being able to punish drivers who park improperly, etc. 
 
The park state on their website, app and signage that there is a charge to park on site. This is clear enough that they can say they have made a reasonable and justifiable attempt to inform the customer if anyone was to kick up a fuss. 
 
So if you realllllly wanted, you could try and argue they're not able to force you to pay, meaning you could either:
-Forcably drive through and break a barrier (and then be liable for destruction of property)
-Exit the car park the way you came in. Again, there's technically nothing they can do even though you're driving the wrong way. But the second you leave the park (ie go underneath the coaster track), you're back under normal laws and made a conscious choice to drive on the wrong side of the road as a result. That's a big whoopsie.
 
Most importantly, the park have been doing this for over a decade. Plenty of other visitor attractions have done the same. If there was a notable legal issue with this, it would have been brought up and resolved by now. 
 
Your whole point kinda feels like being awkward for the sake of it to be honest.

Private land so can do what they want within reason.
 
Including charging for parking. There's problem some different laws/rulings written up for the various situations of car parking. 

It's the (unfortunate) reality of theme parks. The overwhelming majority of theme parks charge for parking these. And Thorpe Park is probably on the lower-side of average for theme parks in Europe. And cheap compared to America. Not that it should be a race to a bottom, but again, that's the reality. 
 
It's a weird one. If you were to go to any car park and park for 6+ hours, you're looking at paying over a tenner anyway. So not exactly different to a theme park. There's an argument for sure about the differences between the need for a theme park car park versus, say, a shopping centre car park, and how that should impact cost, but that's a different point for now.
 
Ultimately the point you're making is a universal one across theme parks. Most parks have high costs for food, parking, etc, on top of an entry fee and have high-cost extras too. It's the way they are. If you're looking at technicalities of whether they can charge for things legally, it's kind of splitting hairs in my opinion 

Define slow. 
 
I believe they can dispatch as soon as the 1st train has cleared the lift hill.