Logger's Leap

[SteveJ]

I'd often see Loggers get 1hour + queues in the summer, but even a 20 minute queue with its fairly good throughput surely means it was popular? That's still millions of riders going through it a year.

What I mean is, this was not a managed decision. If they faced the facts, they had years of warning that it would need something done to it, either a removal or refurbishment. That's enough time to at least tell people the truth that it was shut for good, and not repeatedly mislead people just to stop them complaining (justifiably) about the cutting of a major ride from the park's offering.

You're right about the Black Hole, it was the right decision to remove it because it wouldnt have been worth a refurbishment (still a good ride but poor hardware), when a better replacement could have been on the cards. But they didn't have a replacement, not for years, and it was shut "for redevelopment" when they had no idea what to do with it. With this in mind, they couldve easily got another 5+ years out of it and it'd be worth the money for those millions of riders.

 

So we can't shout people down for complaining when a ride has been swept under the carpet, as saying "redevelopment is happening behind the scenes" and pretend it was all part of some big plan. We got to face the fact that Thorpe Park / Merlin did not handle this correctly, and have ended up with yet another SBNO major ride simply through previous years of stingy maintenance, marketing not letting the budgets through for a refurbishment and not having a solid plan in place.

[Marc]

The thing is - you say they are not telling me the truth but i still wouldn't be surprised if Loggers Leap reopened at some point.

 

They have been very clear with rides which have closed in the past - just this year they've announced Slammer is closing and not coming back - all traces removed from the map / website where as Loggers Leap is still acknowledged - all be it in a small way and the official line is they "hope for it to make a splashback soon". 

 

 

[SteveJ]

Yes good point, they have been upfront with Slammer and that is a good thing. Although perhaps it is unavoidable because it was shut mid season and probably had a critical failure, with Loggers it seems to be the same case as the rides at Alton Towers swept under the carpet or "for future redevelopment".

 

If it could reopen at any point, then great - get it back open and make the decision quickly. But in that case, leaving it unoperational for over a year would have created a lot of unnecessary difficulty. It would be very expensive to get it back up running now and need even more maintenance, like any machine the longer you leave it..

[Coaster]

9 hours ago, Marc said:

 

As Baron said - Behind the scenes planning is just as much as part of redeveloping something as the construction work its self. 

 

I know you like the "left to rot" statement - but if loggers needs X amount of £ to remain operational, but the park had plans for that area in the near future, why waste the money on keeping a ride going what has no long term future? Its not like they are short of water rides. 

I think it was obvious in the years leading up to Loggers being closed that it was in need of urgent attention.  The trough was in a dire state, the tunnel had to be removed, there were anti-rollbacks missing for heaven's sake!

 

IMO, proper planning would have allowed for a refurbishment securing the future of the ride, or for it to have been removed and replaced as quickly as possible.  Would you see a situation like this (SBNO for two years with lies about refurbishment/maintenance/redevelopment) at parks like Europa?  If not, why are people accepting it from a multi-million pound company?

 

Regarding "why waste the money", log flumes are staple rides for theme parks and Loggers was extremely popular - with long queues despite the high throughput.  Rides like Loggers are what make theme parks a full day out, the formula at Thorpe ("what awful new maze can we shoehorn in to advertise for this year") makes for such a dull park with little substance.

 

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Its not like they are short of water rides. 

 A second-hand leaky pile of junk isn't a great start, Depth Charge is good for what it is, Rumba is just dull and Tidal Wave is (for most) only suitable in the summer.  Hardly a great lineup IMO.

[Marc]

37 minutes ago, Coaster said:

I think it was obvious in the years leading up to Loggers being closed that it was in need of urgent attention.  The trough was in a dire state, the tunnel had to be removed, there were anti-rollbacks missing for heaven's sake!

 

 

 

I agree loggers was in need of work -and it even got a fair bit of work to its supports not too many years ago - as for the anti rollbacks I’m sure this has popped up before - they were designed to pop out when the lift stopped.

 

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IMO, proper planning would have allowed for a refurbishment securing the future of the ride, or for it to have been removed and replaced as quickly as possible.  Would you see a situation like this (SBNO for two years with lies about refurbishment/maintenance/redevelopment) at parks like Europa?  If not, why are people accepting it from a multi-million pound company?

 

Of course - but if at the time / now they have no intention of keeping the ride for a long time - what would be the point in spending money on its long term future (being a totally different debate as to if it should be within the parks long term future or not I’ll add!) Also let’s not pretend Europa isn’t a multi million pound company!

 

Quote

Regarding "why waste the money", log flumes are staple rides for theme parks and Loggers was extremely popular - with long queues despite the high throughput.  Rides like Loggers are what make theme parks a full day out, the formula at Thorpe ("what awful new maze can we shoehorn in to advertise for this year") makes for such a dull park with little substance.

 

This goes back to the point i made as to if the rides in the parks long term future - of course I’d love it to be and do hope we either see it return or be replaced with an equally good log flume.

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 A second-hand leaky pile of junk isn't a great start, Depth Charge is good for what it is, Rumba is just dull and Tidal Wave is (for most) only suitable in the summer.  Hardly a great lineup IMO.

 

These rides (maybe with the exception of Depth Charge) all attract huge ridership - people are willing to queue 90 minutes + for the likes of Storm Surge and Tidal Wave - I’d say the park easily has enough water rides for our climate although agree I enjoyed riding loggers more then them!

[Coaster]

On Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 7:14 PM, Marc said:

I agree loggers was in need of work -and it even got a fair bit of work to its supports not too many years ago - as for the anti rollbacks I’m sure this has popped up before - they were designed to pop out when the lift stopped.

Interesting to know regarding the anti-rollbacks.  The overall state of the ride was a disgrace - it had looked abandoned and neglected for years.

 

On Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 7:14 PM, Marc said:

Of course - but if at the time / now they have no intention of keeping the ride for a long time - what would be the point in spending money on its long term future (being a totally different debate as to if it should be within the parks long term future or not I’ll add!) Also let’s not pretend Europa isn’t a multi million pound company!

To have the ride open?  That would have still been two whole seasons' years worth of use (possibly more), it's awful to have one of the park's most popular rides sat rotting away for two years.

 

Regarding whether it should be removed or not I think that's relevant - it was a staple ride, served the park well for years and was still popular.  But because it has no "gimmick" to advertise, they don't think it's worth keeping?

 

The situation with Merlin is ridiculous; long-standing, quality rides spend two years SBNO behind a fence whilst they throw away money on awful short-term investments (IAC, Saw Alive etc) only to close them/reduce their operating schedule a few years later.  So much money is thrown away whilst staple rides are neglected to the point where they are unable to open.

 

It seems like they don't plan long-term; instead of thinking "this is a popular and long-serving ride, maybe we should maintain it" they think "what IP tagline can we cram in for this year?"  The only problem being no-one's interested in them after a year, hence why IAC is already going the same way as Saw Alive.

 

Europa may be a multi-million pound company but the point still stands, would you see a situation like Loggers there?

 

On Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 7:14 PM, Marc said:

These rides (maybe with the exception of Depth Charge) all attract huge ridership - people are willing to queue 90 minutes + for the likes of Storm Surge and Tidal Wave - I’d say the park easily has enough water rides for our climate although agree I enjoyed riding loggers more then them!

Storm Surge's throughput is awful and I haven't seen it with a queue yet this year, Tidal Wave is only popular in the height of summer and spends a lot of time walk-on.

[Matt A]

On 6/14/2017 at 9:12 PM, Coaster said:

But because it has no "gimmick" to advertise, they don't think it's worth keeping?

 

Wasn't it marketed as "The tallest log-flume in the UK" in some places? Don't think it was really pushed if they did advertise this.

[huzzellio]

 

Wasn't it marketed as "The tallest log-flume in the UK" in some places? Don't think it was really pushed if they did advertise this.

It was at one point and was advertised back in the early days, then it lost the title to American Adventure, but subsequently regained the title when AA closed down. Don't think they advertised it afterwards though.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

 

 

[huzzellio]

 

 

 

 

[ste193]

I can imagine there's plenty of complaints about loggers not being open since your only other options are getting completely drenched on tidal wave or enduring the snoozefest of storm durge.

[TP-Fan]

Today, they are back to saying it's in redevelopment.

[OlivusPrime]

Hey Thorpe! Maybe if you figured out an actual redevelopment and had a deadline/reopen date to share, people would stop asking what's happening with the ride! Just a suggestion!

[MattyMoo]

Thorpe's social media will keep saying a mixture of it's closed permanently and under redevelopment, ad nauseam, because they don't know.

 

Looking forward to another 10 pages of Twitter and Facebook screenshots until closed season.

[TraX]

The thing with Merlin, they only care about immediate spikes in attendence year by year. They literally have no reason to do anything with Loggers, until tits knocked down and replaced as a (hopefully) new water ride.

[Theme Park Joseph]

4 hours ago, OlivusPrime said:

Hey Thorpe! Maybe if you figured out an actual redevelopment and had a deadline/reopen date to share, people would stop asking what's happening with the ride! Just a suggestion!

We all know what the redevelopment is, its letting the ride rot for 2 years ?

[Kerfuffle]

6 hours ago, Theme Park Joseph said:

We all know what the redevelopment is, its letting the ride rot for 2 years ?

...or, for all we know, giving it the same godawful paintjob as Timber and Lumber.

 

("Old Town! Making our guests want to gouge their eyes out since 2017!!")

[Mattgwise]

Got talking to an engineer on park just now who was on his way down the path of the old CCR And he let me have a brief look just past the gates as far as the tunnel and the condition and he told me that Dom (director) really wants the ride back and they haven't given up still and are in talks.

 

He said that the fibreglass needs replacing throughout most of the ride and the bridges and evacuation platforms are past their operating life and again need replacing.

 

He then said they are working out whether it is cost effective to carry out the replacement of the fibreglass and other things or whether to replace completely.

 

The condition of the ride didn't look as bad as though but he said it's worse round the back with plants even growing through parts of the track.

[pognoi]

They aren't legally allowed to make a new water ride on the loggers site without containing the lake and making it a controlled water source (new EU laws say that bodies of water such as thorpe's lakes can no longer be used for water rides). a redo of the current ride wouldn't be too far fetched, with dragon falls having received one within the last 5 years or so.. I'm just surprised they haven't got on with it yet considering that was completed over 1 off season. They've left the ride far too long for what I'd imagine a full refurbishments cost would be and I think it'd be much smarter to just go with a new ride. 

[Benin]

Will EU laws matter by the time Thorpe decide what to do with it?

[Theme Park Joseph]

It appears Thorpe are back to saying it's permanently closed 

[Coaster]

Awful.

[Han30]

What the heck is up with their social media? They should give an answer and stick to it and not switch between "it's under redevelopment" to "it's no longer an attraction".  I can totally see why people get frustrated because it would seem that even the park themselves don't know what is going on.  The time it's been sat there doing bugger all must have added to the cost of sorting it out and I've always said that when a park has a ride that is SBNO it doesn't look good - yeah they've fenced it pretty well but you can still see it through the fence (or even better view from Samurai and Saw).

 

I don't think in recent years it can be said that it was the most popular ride in the park but I personally think it was by far the best water ride - tidal wave gets you drenched and the others you get barely wet at all (apart from soggy feet on Storm Turd) - loggers was perfect for cooling down without spending the rest of the day with squishy wet clothes and it did get decent queues.

 

As said before, they have been honest about Slammers closure so I'm assuming they don't know the future of Loggers - who knows.  I would love for it to reopen as it is a Thorpe classic and enjoyed by pretty much everyone - but I'm not holding my breath

[OlivusPrime]

It wasn't the best water ride I've been on, but compared to the rest of Thorpe's offering it's a masterpiece.

 

Tidal Wave is one-note (albeit well executed in terms of theming and spectatorship), Rumba Rapids is a bog-standard rapids turned hopelessly generic and tame, and Storm Surge doesn't count because it's too phenomenal for us normie humans to comprehend.

[MattyMoo]

On 23/06/2017 at 11:16 AM, MattyMoo said:

Thorpe's social media will keep saying a mixture of it's closed permanently and under redevelopment, ad nauseam, because they don't know.

 

Looking forward to another 10 pages of Twitter and Facebook screenshots until closed season.

 

Don't mind me, just quoting myself 

[Vince800]

On 24/06/2017 at 1:41 PM, Mattgwise said:

Got talking to an engineer on park just now who was on his way down the path of the old CCR And he let me have a brief look just past the gates as far as the tunnel and the condition and he told me that Dom (director) really wants the ride back and they haven't given up still and are in talks.

 

He said that the fibreglass needs replacing throughout most of the ride and the bridges and evacuation platforms are past their operating life and again need replacing.

 

He then said they are working out whether it is cost effective to carry out the replacement of the fibreglass and other things or whether to replace completely.

 

The condition of the ride didn't look as bad as though but he said it's worse round the back with plants even growing through parts of the track.

This confirms what I was saying before. It needs the same work as Dragon Falls did. I'm presuming The Flume would have needed these works doing too if it wasn't chosen as the site for the new ride.