June 17, 20187 yr comment_258631 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.
June 19, 20187 yr comment_258672 Just spotted this; Anyone know if it's free for Premium MAPs? I've no interest in "love island" but was hoping to get some evening rides on Inferno in!
June 19, 20187 yr comment_258673 Sure - we all know your there for the Love island I think it’s just standards who don’t get entry on Friday - Sundays during summer anyway?
June 20, 20187 yr Author comment_258674 I believe that that message does indeed just apply for Standard MAP and Thorpe AP people.
June 27, 20187 yr comment_258730 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.
June 27, 20187 yr comment_258731 2 hours ago, Mark9 said: makes me wonder what they're thinking at Thorpe these days. Where the next short lived IP can come from? ?
June 27, 20187 yr comment_258732 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!
June 27, 20187 yr comment_258734 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.
June 27, 20187 yr comment_258736 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.
June 27, 20187 yr comment_258737 I was at Thorpe the other day and thought operations were really bad, every where I went rides were closing down, it wasnt until about 2ish that they got things going properly. And found the food outlets really bad, they seemed to have nothing
June 27, 20187 yr comment_258738 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.
June 27, 20187 yr comment_258739 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.
June 30, 20187 yr comment_258774 Park has been very busy today - even now there’s still a lot of people here (more than I’ve seen for late nights outside of Fright Nights before) fingers crossed it’s a sign of these later nights starting to work and we can see more of them in future!
July 1, 20187 yr comment_258777 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.
July 6, 20187 yr comment_258851 Vortex was testing after park hours today, hopefully it’ll be back soon
July 6, 20187 yr comment_258854 1 hour ago, Jack said: Vortex was testing after park hours today, hopefully it’ll be back soon This is great news! Hopefully it should be back within the next week then.
July 7, 20187 yr comment_258859 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!
July 8, 20187 yr comment_258877 Can’t help but think that Thorpe Pepperami ad is just making fun out of enthusiasts. ?
July 8, 20187 yr comment_258879 But the social media team said they hoped Loggers Leap would be making a splash back soon so with that in mind who knows where Vortex will be back ?
July 9, 20187 yr comment_258888 It is about time someone tweeted them about Loggers again to be fair, so we get a slightly different response to last time that can then be analysed to the n'th degree.
July 9, 20187 yr comment_258890 37 minutes ago, MattyMoo said: It is about time someone tweeted them about Loggers again to be fair, so we get a slightly different response to last time that can then be analysed to the n'th degree. You're probably being sarcastic but I've just tweeted them Now we wait.
July 10, 20187 yr comment_258898 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: And I'm getting some serious shrek vibes from this toilet: https://themeparkguide.biz/news-page/1468/Zombie-Hunt-First-Glimpse
July 10, 20187 yr comment_258899 Thorpe have released a new "Annual Fastrack Pass" - a years supply of fastrack for £400!
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