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2018 General Discussion


JoshC.

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When I went for the 19th May late opening (Royal Wedding/Football day) I was the only one heading INTO the park at around 7pm. The bus back was rammed with people heading back to the station. All rides had short queues and yeah, the park seemed dead. Having some form of an event seems like a sensible option. Personally I would have set up a stage and had live music in the evenings but I totally understand why they are going with Love Island.

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Has Thorpe always been as bad as this season or was I just clouded by inexperience or naivety. Alton gets the slagging off for early closures and closed rides but Thorpe is just as guilty, if not more so because in-between the closed rides and breakdowns there is nothing to do. 30 degrees heat, Tidal Wave closed till 12pm. New attraction with a relaunch last year, closed till 12pm. Vortex and Samurai closed completely. The park closed at 4pm but we were long gone by 2pm as being in the place is actually pretty painful. Whats happened to the operations? Saw and Stealth run okay but watching them run Swarm, Inferno and Colossus makes me wonder what they're thinking at Thorpe these days.

 

Quantum is awesome though. All bow to the Fabbri masterpiece.

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Thorpe's marketing team are bad. They seem to be in all directions with no consistency. This year was billed as the Year of the Walking dead. So far there has been a ride retheme and Zombie Hunt. There was some marketing campaign that was abandoned (did anyone ever work out where Chloe is or do we just not even bother mentioning that anymore??) and now the Thorpe website just displays Love Island stuff. Infact there is no mention of the so called Year of the Walking Dead on the homepage anymore, just in the Events section. Colors have been changed from the mustard kinda colour to Blue to fit in with the love island stuff. 

 

Where is the consistency? You are either having major conflicting events going on (horror vs reality tv) which will put some people off, thinking its scarier than it really is by the Year of the Walking Dead stuff, or everyone is going to think that the place is going to be full of the cast of TOWIE. 

 

Come on Thorpe, marketing isn't difficult! Have a plan and stick to it rather than changing mid year. So far I feel that it has been a let down. Feel that Fright nights might be ruined as some of the mazes (infant the so called Extreme version is not even on fright nights) have been available throughout summer rather than saved up for the fright night dates. 

 

Thats my opinion - I know some will disagree!

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I suspect they have changed tune to love island because it's a current talking point. Also there is the fact that the year of the walking dead was a stupid idea from the off as it's been proven time and time again Halloween attractions in the UK don't do well outside of Halloween. 

 

Thorpe's marketing has always been poor and Merlin's guidelines are very restrictive. They can't even advertise a new coaster on the merit of being a new coaster. It always has to have some nonsense gimmick. 

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1 hour ago, Project LC said:

I suspect they have changed tune to love island because it's a current talking point. Also there is the fact that the year of the walking dead was a stupid idea from the off as it's been proven time and time again Halloween attractions in the UK don't do well outside of Halloween. 

 

Thorpe's marketing has always been poor and Merlin's guidelines are very restrictive. They can't even advertise a new coaster on the merit of being a new coaster. It always has to have some nonsense gimmick. 

Love Island contracts would have been negotiated a long time ago, much before it became current again, just makes sense to start advertising it when the shows a big talking point.

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Operations were dismal on my one visit of the year so far, which leaves me reluctant to return.  Rides going down 24/7, poor throughputs, it's like they've skimped out on their core operational team in favour of cheap baseless IPs.  It amazes me that Thorpe seem so complacent in their marketing yet their offering is beyond abysmal.

 

I will try one of their evenings (late night rides on Inferno has to be a win win surely!) but the level of service experienced on my last visit means I can't justify visiting more than a couple of times this season.

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There operations were bad a few years ago and the service was poor so I just stopped visiting. It was in decline and by the posts on this forum it sounds like it has stayed in constant decline. 

They under invest in the essentials and as a result it's starting to impact on them. In a few years time the bill to fix the place is going to be staggering. 

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Judging from the reports, yesterday’s late was a success (though I expect the weather contributed there somehow).

 

I seem to be in the minority that despises Love Island, but if it brings in the guests to the park then good for them. The park usually has good vibes on late openings.

 

As for operations, difficult to tell why they’ve dropped, however it probably hasn’t helped that many previous staff have left and there have likely been cuts in budget and management too. Therefore there are unfortunately less resources available. 

 

Operations have ben a mixed bag this year. Stealth and Saw’s have been pretty good whereas Colossus and Inferno’s not so much. These are probably not helped by the awkward trains on Colossus and the ‘operator safety announcement’ on Inferno. Swarm has been hit and miss. 

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Got a reply from Thorpe about vortex:

 

“Hi Joel, Unfortunately we can't say exactly when Vortex will be back. Our engineers are testing the ride at the moment and we hope to have it back in operation as soon as possible!”

 

This is good to hear and it should be back very soon!

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Work on Zombie Hunt has begun! If you like toilets then urine luck... looks to be early days still but I'm interested to see how the park pulls off this. 

 

Some new house being built behind the timber tug boat ride:

dsc_0018_0.jpg?itok=y2M6I4kw

 

And I'm getting some serious shrek vibes from this toilet: 

dsc_0035_0.jpg?itok=DaKr_PU7

 

 

https://themeparkguide.biz/news-page/1468/Zombie-Hunt-First-Glimpse

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