Mark9

Hey @Marc, turns out I'm in agreement with you in an even more controversial way.

Thank you, I appreciate the time you've put into that post. Its helped me understand your perspective on The Swarm.

I would just ask you to name some highly rated rollercoasters in Europe that are themed incredibly well the whole way through. I could only honestly say Oz'Iris and Taron (I know people who think Tarons theme is dull which shows how subjective all this is). From Shambhala, to Untamed, Katun to Nemesis, I struggled and I think I'm relatively well travelled.

Slinky Dog feels like it has faster and better launches then Icon. Frankly though, Pleasure Beach made a mistake banging on about the launches as they don't really feel like the proper point of the ride.

That's pretty much Thorpe Parks mantra on most things.

Got the opportunity to visit Galaxy's Edge and ride Hollywood Studios new D-ticket attraction Smugglers Run last week. Firstly, just an FYI, I like Star Wars, I like Disney and I like themed attractions. I was still cautious about this area. Disney are going down a road where the only thing that matters is IP based attractions. When they said at D23 that they plan to make the parks more 'Disney', it spells the end of original themed attractions such as Thunder Mountain or Expedition Everest or even cult classics like Country Bear Jamboree. When the only thing that matters is selling more customisable R2D2's, I sense problems in the future. Anywho, my fears were mostly pushed aside as the area is impressive and has a very authentic Star Wars feel. Classic Star Wars ships litter the area, droids around every corner, Characters from the franchise roam the areas, we regularly saw Ray and Chewbacca walk into the Millennium Falcon. The ride itself is very fun. It takes on the guise of an interactive attraction where you take on the role of a pilot, a gunner or an engineer and your success at interacting with the controls dictates whether you have a successful mission or not. There are six people to a 'pod' with two assigned to each role. For my first ride I was an engineer where I essentially fixed the ship whenever a pilot crashed it into a rock or a building or another structure. My second ride I was a gunner which involved me shooting enemy ships and a firing at a train to steal its cargo. My final two rides were as pilot where you either control up and down motion and hyperdrive or where you control left to right motion. Clearly, the pilot is the only role which has any baring on the story. As an engineer you have to just watch the action and press buttons every now and then depending on the skills of the pilot. You fire hypoons to steal cargo but if your pilot doesn't do the job properly, you can't do that often. The gunner just fires a lot and doesn't do much frankly. The pilot is the most interesting as the action on screen all revolves on how skilled you are. The pre-show doesn't really do a lot of explaining to be honest. You're given cards in batching which tell you your role and what you need to do but once you're strapped in that goes out the window. The two rides where I wasn't an engineer, the pilots had not one clue how to control the ship so were crashing left right and centre. This made the ride so much fun to be honest, some of the most fun I've had on a ride for ages.The ride vehicle bumps up and down like Star Tours and it feels completely out of control loved it. As a pilot, my fiancé and I were incredible. What can I say, I'm a natural. We had a high final score, stole two pieces of cargo and got the good ending. It made the ride less fun I can imagine, but it's good to have a ride that tries its hardest to make you the rider a key component. A criticism I have is that the ride seems to struggle with motion. The screen had these very obvious skips in frames where the action was too fast so the screen would freeze for a second before carrying on. It happened a couple of times and doesn't detract as such, just seemed at odds with the seemless feel the area is going for. We queued a maximum of 40 minutes for each ride, it currently isn't operating fastpass+ as they feared the ride wouldn't be able to cope. That has opened it up to criticism that the ride isn't popular as it is failing to retain its initial opening 80 minute queue. Just to clarify here, the ride is a pure people eater, in the 1600 people per hour range. It was joyful to be able to move through its queue at speed. I fear once Fastpass becomes active, this thing will always be stupidly busy. hate fastness, just saying. The other issue is, like its Californian equivalent, it seems to have affected crowd levels. Attendance is down across the two resorts which has meant cuts have hit Magic Kingdom (the muppet show has gone completely and the celebration parade has gone from four to two). Hopefully this is just a blip and isn't related to Galaxy's Edge. The second attraction, Rise of the resistance' will provide a second phase launch for the area. I enjoyed my rides and would say Smugglers Run is a great edition to Hollywood Studios.

After doing some digging, apparently this happened over a year ago.

Yep that’s right. There’s only negatives here. Absolutely.

It was a beloved ride between 1995-1999. But that was twenty years ago and it has been a ride very much out of step with the rest of Chessington. This is a long time coming frankly.

How could you forget about Rita, Speed Monster, Desert Racer which are all far closer 🥺

I really didn't like Valravn. It really bugged me that it was always so busy because for my money there at least 12 coasters there that are better.

Can we do that anyway? You can keep the pony.

But what if... it is?!

Sick.

But Josh, it took them FOUR hours to get there. Legoland should have foreseen this and built the park in Porthill.

Nemesis Inferno will always be there for you.

Nah, ain't related, it's just an accelerator thing where they spend a lot of their lives closed, although to be fair Rita is pretty reliable in comparison. They've said nothing about Quantum all season. It's an outrage. An absolute racket.

Sorry Josh, didn't mean to come across as rude sarcasm, more playful sarcasm. Apologies.

I don't know a single theme park with accurate queue boards. Once I queued 2 minutes for Pegasus at Europa Park and the queue board said 1 minute!

I know this is your Thorpe Park and you can have whatever you like but my god, that sounds exactly like everything else currently at Thorpe. it's so depressing.

New ride, Orion. https://www.wvxu.org/post/kings-island-will-debut-orion-giga-coaster-spring-2020#stream/0 B&M giga, described as a half way house between Leviathan and Fury 325.

I have a few theories. None of its concrete evidence and is pure conjecture on my part. - The failure of the Swarm. We all know that Merlin were initially disappointed by the Swarms first season. Many reasons were cited (which I'm sure those in the know can find) but essentially, I think this lack of interest in the new coaster dented confidence in what the park could do. Baring in mind, 2011 saw one of the biggest years the park had and that was on the back of Storm Surge. Cheaper investment bought massive returns. - The next Big thing. I think Thorpe has fallen into the trap that Six Flags did. By appealing solely to the thrill sector you severely limit interest. Teenagers want the next big thing and in the 00s, Thorpe easily provided that thrill. Hit after hit, success after success. Coasters galore, several years where we got two flat rides. That investment was unsustainable. Now though, rides like Colossus, Inferno, Tidal Wave, Detonator & Vortex are old hat. They are unmaintained and look their age. Thorpe were unable to drum up interest with The Swarm, Derren Brown opened late and was pretty weak and the less said about the reliance on IP to drive interest the better. The park has a real image problem which leads me to.. - Branding. Thorpe has a huge perception problem. Is it a thrill park, is it a park for up for it families, do we make X a family coaster then two years later refurbish it for adults. Do we change our market to families and then close the biggest family ride we've got (Loggers Leap). Do we advertise our park in our 2019 advert or have an image of goats, donuts and a hotel room. None of this evokes excitement. It smacks of a park throwing anything, everything at the wall to see what sticks and new general managers are not given enough time to evolve/change the place before they are fired and a new one bought in. - The Smiler crash. Ironically, four years later, I feel like the crash has had this weird echoing effect at Thorpe compared to the other two main Merlin parks. It's almost like it never recovered from the initial drop in attendance whilst Alton has recovered well thanks to Wicker Man and Chessington never saw the drop because of its family audience. You could say the lack of investment is really hurting Thorpe right now but then there seems to be no steps to change this. - The park itself. It's fallen a long way since the hefty days of 2006. If they are to recover the place they need to sort out their offering. Having abandoned flat rides and log flumes standing doesn't help, neither does the game stalls or the lack of maintenance and paint jobs on their rollercoasters. The basics need to be sorted for Thorpe to recover. Chessington was exactly the same way in the 00's but that now feels like the strongest Merlin park IMO. If Thorpe can sort this then they might be able to get back to the top.

Colossus for reference cost 10 million in 2002, inflation into 2019 puts it at 16 million. Flamingoland are either telling the biggest porky since Derren Brown or got seriously ripped.

I put it on a high pedestal because I think its an awesomely themed attraction and find it incredibly enjoyable. Nothing to do with the incredible craftsmanship of a ride like Dreamflight or Huntik, it's just because I think Hex is a seamless, immersive attraction and one of the few rides in the UK to hit its brief with a bullseye.

Hex is the best themed attraction in the UK, maybe even Europe. It's high praise I suppose, I just don't think many rides give the chills and immersion that Hex provides.