Mark9

I don't think its even close. PortAventura's regular attendance is around a third of what DLP gets through the door on a yearly basis. Whil;st there is debt, it has one of the biggest companies in the world propping it up. They need to sort a lot out however there is so much potential for DLP to improve.

This post deserves far more appreciation then its getting. It should be pinned to the top of every Thorpe Park topic. Absolutely perfect and spot on.

Just for reference, would never remove a member for arguing or not liking Thorpe Park. Some of the complaints about the park are pretty legitimate remarks.

You were at two parks in one day?! Good effort

On the contrary, it's far faster to just send the car with reriding guests in it then to go through the processes of stopping the car, releasing four restraints and essentially grinding the ride to a complete halt. I also remember days when the park opened at 10 and not seeing a single guest at Fury until 11am so reiriding guests on quiet days is not uncommon. The most I saw as my time as an operator was 15 times in a row.

Isn't that really my point CJ, Colossus in particular doesn't get the attention it needs and I don't just talk about the paintwork. I know rides can last beyond 22 years at a park though, I've done enough rides to know that. Hence why I have no concerns about Inferno and The Swarm lasting another 30/40 years. It's the lesser roller coasters that have the problems.

In ten years time, lots of rides will be at the end of their life cycles. I don't believe for a minute that Colossus or Saw can last much longer beyond 2024 to be honest and Vortex, Zodiac, Quantum, Slammer and Samurai will be long gone by then in my opinion.

Thats right everyone, its a race to the bottom.

Sounds like a made up (at best) rant to me. Although I did give you a reason why 'yep' annoys me. If it helps, I'm ranting about myself a lot these days too.

Being way to serious Josh C. What better way to make families bigger then a dating site

My rant is people who reply to others with one word answers such as k or like the post above me, Yep. IT'S NOT HELPFUL OR INSIGHTFUL.

I'm right handed unlike my political stance

Well it's one way of being family friendly I suppose.

Boyfriends birthday (and hating Thorpe Park right now) means I'm a no. Have a great time everyone

I can only think of Thunder Looper and Big Bad Wolf as rides that I was really eager to get on.

I don't think you see many free children running about in the wilderness around the Ultimate but maybe you should email that one to them.

Some would say building a pretty awesome ride in 2012 at Thorpe and then following up with Angry Birds Land two years later, suggest the plot has already been lost. Suffice to say, a Mack mega would be awesome in the UK, I would just rather see it at a park that gives a damn. I would have said Oakwood but they've gone down the dark side too. Southend maybe?

Fantastic trolling there LC.

That's good. But then it is a Saturday so that should be the standard anyway.

Hang on, park has over 2000 safety issues but he's in the wrong for trying to get the park to sort them out whilst the park and Merlin just want to cover up the problems and pretend they don't exist. Don't be so ridiculous. We'd be having a completely different conversation if because of Merlin's negligence, someone had been killed at the park.

Not everyone rushes around theme parks in the way you do.

Sorry Josh, thats just not the case. It's irrelevant. Merlin keep banging on about how they want to be second attendance wise to Disney. And yet, the way their parks are run, you'd think they were lower then Six Flags or Seaworld. Maybe if they got their fingers out, started acting like everyday is a busy day, they may start attracting people back to their little theme park. It's baffling why Thorpe is getting defended about this actually, are people saying they'd rather wait 15/45 minutes then to get more rides in during their visits. Why do you care if Thorpe have to spend a bit more money on keeping their rides at full capacity.

I can compare parks all I want to really. If I'm spending £30 odd a time for a theme park visit, I expect the park to run things to maximum (barring exceptions) at all times. I don't think that's an entirely unrealistic expectation, especially for two train rides like Inferno, Stealth, Colossus and The Swarm. Alton not only runs two trains at all times, its frankly got far superior rides to Thorpe's offering. Max capacity is the icing on the cake there.

Top Spins and Sub Terra clones. Such ambition is unparalleled.

They are all run to give joy to people and to make money (and to please the shareholders). If the (apparently) small gate figures are stuck in queue lines because of one train operation then those same people aren't spending as much money in shops or on snacks and food. The only thing that is benefiting is fastrack which is compounding the problem for the people stuck in queues.