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2019 Season


Marc

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Glad to see the 40th Anniversary merch is popular. It might be money spinner but definitely sends vibes of nostalgia from the park in the 90’s when it featured much charm and character. 

 

During the 90’s and noughties, the park was in a position to develop and progress into the thrill park it was however like most things, you can only have so much growth before you hit a glass ceiling. Something the park reached around 2011/2012 time. 

 

Most parks (unless they have noticeable expansion room) intend on maintaining visitor numbers rather than increasing them, however Thorpe and Merlin are still intent on riding them and if a major attraction doesn’t achieve this it is deemed a failure. 

 

Thorpe realistically won’t ever really surpass much higher than 2M visitors a year and should aim at continuing investment to maintain these figures. The stagnation during the last few years (combined with the failure of DBGT) has only lead to the park’s gate figures to drop noticeably over the recent years amongst other factors.

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Just bring back Calypso BBQ tbh.  By far the best theme park food I've ever had and the prices were reasonable too.

 

Thorpe's food offering really is awful these days, it's not like they had closed season to sort out their catering outlets either..

 

Oh wait, they did.

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Tbh weve lost the pulled meat company which tbh was one of the better in house options, the BBQ, fins no longer serves lunch..... so pizza/pasta mexican by rumba. Kfc/bk or hotdogs and kebabs.... oh wait doughnuts......

 

There  are multiple empty units across the park, and the options are worse than 15 years ago... #progress

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11 hours ago, RobF said:

Tbh weve lost the pulled meat company which tbh was one of the better in house options, the BBQ, fins no longer serves lunch..... so pizza/pasta mexican by rumba. Kfc/bk or hotdogs and kebabs.... oh wait doughnuts......

 

 

 

What. You're kidding me.

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On 5/10/2019 at 10:38 PM, Stuntman707 said:

https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/thorpe-park-general-discussion.8/page-324#post-258574

 

Credit to ThisGuy on Towers Street, the tent / coverings over the Wilderness bar (formerly Sticky Sisters) has been taken down. Unknwown if it is permanent or just for cleaning perhaps?

 

The timing of this suggests it's probably closer to have fallen down than been taken down!

Why would they do it now, and with such temporary looking fencing looking so crap unless they really had to?

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On 5/11/2019 at 11:45 AM, Marc said:

Fins definitely were open for lunch a few weeks ago - the menu was limited but they were open..

We were told It wasn't serving food when we went... on the may bank holiday weekend.

 

8 hours ago, JoshC. said:

What time was that? They don't start serving lunch until 12, but sometimes that changes and it's a bit later.

We were told it was down to staff shortages.

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On 5/11/2019 at 11:45 AM, Marc said:

Fins definitely were open for lunch a few weeks ago - the menu was limited but they were open..

We were told It wasn't serving food when we went... on the may bank holiday weekend.

 

8 hours ago, JoshC. said:

What time was that? They don't start serving lunch until 12, but sometimes that changes and it's a bit later.

We were told it was down to staff shortages.

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Absolutely excellent operations across Thorpe today, despite the park being quiet the rides were all on capacity with urgency being shown to get the trains moving.  Really makes all the difference and I just hope they're able to keep it consistently this good.

 

Amazing.

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I have to say, today was the best I think I have ever seen Thorpe - in both appearance and operations. It is clear that they have really pulled their socks up!

 

Mist effect was working on Nemesis Inferno - a lot!

Fire on Swarm (skimmers still missing though)

Smoke effect on Stealth's launch

Squirting water on Saw's body (plus the lights and hammers)

 

Operations were spot on.. Even Colossus was quicker than usual. Swarm was often leaving the station before the previous train had returned - resulting in a walk-on from around 1pm

 

There was a really great buzz on park today too. It was clear that they had prepped for it to be far busier than it was.. but that didn't stop there being a great vibe around the place. 

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Happy 40th Birthday to a park like no other!

 

It might not be my top park right now, but the place has a strong array of history and one of the first theme parks I ever visited. It’s crazy how much has changed and developed over the years!

 

Had a lovely visit, hosted by the wonderful Memories Of Thorpe Park team, which also featured a tour from British Theme Park Archive, delivering an intruiging insight into the park’s history. 

 

 

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So me and my other half have just got back from a 4 day trip - one day at Chessington and three at Thorpe. Very mixed trip which I’ll summarise in bullet points.

 

- Operations at Thorpe were (for the most part) very, very good. Two trains on all the major coasters (and TWD) every day and rapid dispatches. Chessington really needs work in that area though!

- Our ride on DBGT wasn’t bad, pretty much all of the effects were working well and it had hardly any downtime whilst we were on park. Only reason we went on though is because we had an hour of fast track for it included with the hotel stay, otherwise we wouldn’t have bothered. It’s bad that, for a ride that was supposed to be so re-rideable, we see pretty much absolutely no reason to go back on anymore. It needs to go.

- BounceZilla is a complete and utter monstrosity and we thought it looked mortifying for all involved. I’d imagine it’s probably quite fun, yes, but this should not be at Thorpe Park imo.

- Jungle Escape has flopped harder than anyone could have expected. We didn’t see anyone queuing or going in, or even glancing at it, whilst at the park. Considered giving it a go, but didn’t think it was worth the £10pp upcharge for what seems to more or less be IAC in sheep’s clothing.

- Went in GameFX for 45 mins or so when it was raining yesterday and was moderately impressed. Good variety of consoles and games, and plenty of them to go around. The VR experience also looked good fun. It was pretty quiet though, on a busy day when it was pouring down outside. Evidence that maybe people don’t want to go to a theme park and play video games? ?

- TWD:TR has improved since last year imo. Not sure why or how, but I enjoyed it a lot more this year. Much better experience with live actors than without for me personally as well.

- Quantum still looks a week or two away from finally opening this year to me. We watched it being worked on and it was tested a few times (that we saw), but it isn’t making a great sound when sent on it’s full cycle ?

- Best ride on Vortex that I’ve ever had, it’s running so well this year.

- Old Town looks as sorry as ever. I’m not going to even bring up SBNO rides as everyone already knows the situation!

- I’ve always had a soft spot for Thorpe Shark, however after this visit I think the park desperately needs a proper hotel. We stayed in a tiny Travelodge room after Chessington and it felt so, so, so spacious compared to the shipping containers.

- I’ve not been to Chessington before but I think I preferred it to Thorpe, which I didn’t think would happen considering the target markets (not that anyone, including Merlin, knows what Thorpe’s really is). Better theming, better atmosphere, better maintenance. However Thorpe definitely wins on the operations front.

- Impressed with the 40th anniversary merch on offer. They should be doing more to commemorate it than selling new stuff though.

- We left 2 hours early today due to the queue times. Our fault for (mistakenly) booking during half term but there you go!

 

Apologies for the long post! Just some thoughts on what will probably be my only visit this year. My second to worst visit that I’ve ever had unfortunately.

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