August 12, 20196 yr comment_265802 2 hours ago, MattyMoo said: Not guilty sir, I've yet to even witness Bouncezilla in the flesh. Good idea, your eyes and ears may get burned.
August 12, 20196 yr comment_265804 1 hour ago, Stuntman707 said: Good idea, your eyes and ears may get burned. Don't forget his soul too..
August 13, 20196 yr comment_265817 So all the 8pm closes have been pulled apart from 17th and 24th August and randomly 7th September. https://www.thorpepark.com/resort-info/opening-times-and-travel
August 13, 20196 yr comment_265818 On 8/12/2019 at 6:58 PM, MattyMoo said: Not guilty sir, I've yet to even witness Bouncezilla in the flesh. It looks as garish in real life as well as pictures!
August 13, 20196 yr comment_265819 1 hour ago, Ringo said: So all the 8pm closes have been pulled apart from 17th and 24th August and randomly 7th September. https://www.thorpepark.com/resort-info/opening-times-and-travel That is a shame, but the couple of 8pm closes I was there the park was dead by 630. But saying that I have been a couple of times when it shut at 6pm and it was still pretty busy, today for instance being one of those days.
August 13, 20196 yr comment_265820 Yikes, that's truly shocking to pull them at such short notice once people will have already booked accommodation and planned their visits etc. Have Thorpe been taking lessons from Pleasure Beach? Although in a way this is worse!
August 13, 20196 yr comment_265821 Not surprising really given the park has mostly been remarkably quiet this summer, even more-so after 6pm. Shame though as I may have been inclined to visit. Least they didn’t do a Blackpool!
August 13, 20196 yr comment_265823 2 minutes ago, Coaster said: Yikes, that's truly shocking to pull them at such short notice once people will have already booked accommodation and planned their visits etc. Have Thorpe been taking lessons from Pleasure Beach? Although in a way this is worse! I wouldn't call it 'truly shocking'. Plenty of mid-sized parks out there adjust their opening times throughout the year to reflect how busy they are, including reducing them. It's not good obviously, and a sign of how the park are struggling. No doubt the weather at the start of the summer holidays hasn't helped with attendance, but surely with the weather now likely to be more normal for the rest of summer, it's time to recuperate and stay open longer when the crowds will be around. The back-end of summer is always busier, and reducing opening hours just feels like a shot in the foot.
August 14, 20196 yr comment_265832 14 hours ago, Loggers Creek said: Not surprising really given the park has mostly been remarkably quiet this summer, even more-so after 6pm. Funny that - it's almost as if they haven't put a new coaster in for 7 years!
August 14, 20196 yr comment_265835 16 hours ago, Coaster said: Yikes, that's truly shocking to pull them at such short notice once people will have already booked accommodation and planned their visits etc. Have Thorpe been taking lessons from Pleasure Beach? Although in a way this is worse! I would say calling it shocking is a tad dramatic.
August 14, 20196 yr comment_265838 On the positive note least the park is still open. It’s better than nothing right?
August 14, 20196 yr comment_265839 35 minutes ago, Glitch said: I would say calling it shocking is a tad dramatic. I was so shocked I'm only going back to Thorpe this year if I can blag entry to the FN press night, good day to you Sir. LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE - CLICK THAT NOTIFICATION BELL
August 14, 20196 yr comment_265843 2 hours ago, MattyMoo said: I was so shocked I'm only going back to Thorpe this year if I can blag entry to the FN press night, good day to you Sir. LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE - CLICK THAT NOTIFICATION BELL Sorry who are you and what influence do you have? I only listen to the lord and saviour TPWW Alex.
August 14, 20196 yr comment_265849 5 hours ago, Glitch said: Sorry who are you and what influence do you have? I only listen to the lord and saviour TPWW Alex. *makes cringey gestures in the background of shot that aren't remotely funny*
August 14, 20196 yr comment_265851 Omg guys, Jack Sickstone of gtfo... He knows like all the FN clues already and decypherates them firstest!!
August 15, 20196 yr comment_265853 9 hours ago, Stuntman707 said: Omg guys, Jack Sickstone of gtfo... He knows like all the FN clues already and decypherates them firstest!! I've started to use Silkstoneisms in the professional workplace. Boss: "Are you prepared for our management meeting next week, Mat?" Me: "Yes - I'm gassed"
August 15, 20196 yr comment_265854 I don't think the park are struggling as much as people may think they are.. Perceptions are only part of the truth. However, pulling the 8pm closes is a good decision. The few I've been to this year have all been dead by 6 - even when the queues throughout the day were 60+ mins. I've arrived at 5pm to a sea of people leaving because that is just the behaviour and habit of the locals (and in general the UK). It took Thorpe THREE simultaneous events last summer to get even remotely decent numbers in past 6pm: "Summer Lates", "Love Island" and "Ministry". And even then it was akin to one of the quieter off-peak days. It's just not viable and we just don't seem to have the desire, demand or culture to accommodate late theme park openings here. Look at Gardaland in Italy - they're open until 11pm every night between June and September - because their culture and offering supports it. You can look at queue times, see "10 mins for their headlines rides" and think that it isn't viable for them to do it.. but they get 2 waves of people going to the park - one in the morning and one around 5pm. They can still see upwards of 20,000 through the gates and maintain 10 min queues on their headline coasters. Over here, we just don't have that type of offering. Even the seaside ones struggle after "tea time" - BPPB (excluding their fireworks nights), some of the piers, Fantasy Island and so on. It isn't exclusive to Merlin parks. We just simple have a culture of "tea time is here, get home, get fed, get the kids to bed". No amount of coaxing people to stay has worked and for that reason Thorpe are right to ditch something that isn't working... Now to just convince them the same of DBGT..
August 15, 20196 yr comment_265881 Thorpe was incredibly busy today, long queues and what seemed to be a lot of people at guest services at the end of the day complaining about the reduced opening hours...
August 15, 20196 yr comment_265888 Chessington was exactly the same in terms of busyness! I think rather than Thorpe scrapping the 8pm close they should have had all Merlin parks open until that time! Although, I guess it's hard to tell completely how many would turn up and with the parks dead yesterday due to the heavy rain, I would expect many pushed back their trips to today.
August 25, 20196 yr comment_266027 Anyone have any idea why the hell Thorpe are currently selling Friends merch (t shirts and mugs) - noticed it in the Inferno shop then later on in the Island Shop. Bit random or are we going to get Friends: The Ride in future 😐.....or Friends Inferno. Nothing would surprise me at this point!
August 25, 20196 yr comment_266029 17 hours ago, Han30 said: Anyone have any idea why the hell Thorpe are currently selling Friends merch (t shirts and mugs) - noticed it in the Inferno shop then later on in the Island Shop. Bit random or are we going to get Friends: The Ride in future 😐.....or Friends Inferno. Nothing would surprise me at this point! WTF ??? @Marc What's going on? haha!
August 26, 20196 yr comment_266032 Could possibly be that the park have done research or received feedback that people sometimes want to buy non-Thorpe tat? The Merlin parks are actually part of a minority which sell park-exclusive (and stuff related to rides) merchandise. Plenty of parks sell just general tat and stuff from shows and films and stuff, with the logic being they can capitalise on people having money to spend, and being more likely to spend it on stuff they recognise. So it could be Thorpe trailing it just to see if it works? If there's an opportunity, always worth exploring it I guess. Not a fan of it being in the Inferno shop mind. Ride shops should focus on the ride in question and just general stuff (drinks, snacks, etc). Anything else feels a bit jarring to me personally.
August 26, 20196 yr comment_266049 I think it would have better fit in the DBGT shop. Where "Nothing is as it seems"
August 28, 20196 yr comment_266059 Seeing as we've had so much hot weather recently... having been to both Thorpe and Chessington last week one thing that stands out is the compete lack of air conditioning across Thorpe. Many Chessington shops and restaurants have it, but Thorpe seems to have nothing outside of DBGT and TWD - not even in the Dome, Finn's or any of the other restaurants. From memory I believe Inferno's shop has air con but I've never felt it on? I would normally say it's not needed at UK parks but with this 32° heat I'm starting to wonder why they don't at least use it where they have it. It's in such a contrast to places such as Disneyland Paris which gets similar weather to us but anywhere you walk inside in summer is always a nice cool break from the heat. As I say, not normally needed in the UK but our summers seem to be getting warmer for longer and it really can make a difference to have somewhere to cool off, especially when you're trying to eat.
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