BounceZilla

[JoshC.]

On 5/26/2019 at 2:54 PM, Ivsetti said:

However, the layout IRL does seem to be different to what was in the video. If this video is accurate, Bouncezilla has been in the planning for 2 years now. 2 whole years for a custom-themed bouncy castle that doesn't fit into the area it's placed in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyPBAhVr_Lc

Edit: Removed inaccurate comment

Yeah, just to confirm, BounceZilla was not in planning for two years. 2 months before it was announced is probably more likely..

2 hours ago, Stuntman707 said:

In a way I'm kind of glad it's there. It kept all the children / youtubers busy when we went so the queue times for the real rides were quite low for such a sunny day. It only spoiled the Lost city area with its obnoxious noise but luckily didn't ruin the coasters. One of the best weekends at Thorpe I've had for a while. Ok it's not a permanent dark ride or a flat ride but it still lowers the crowd levels around the park. It's at least proof filler attractions are needed despite how bad and fun fair like this thing is. So much for Merlin wanting their theme parks to be unique and unlike any standard funfair.

Tbf though, the park was quiet, and BounceZilla barely had any people there. No more than 100 people were in the queue and thing itself at any one time. So it's hardly soaking up the queues right now.

 

Will be interesting to see if it's actually successful come summer..

[alexander]

Only Thorpe Park ?

[GetEchoes]

I have been, and its a-lot of fun. Appearances aren't everything, as long as the weather is nice, its a good distraction from the queues. Maybe not a expensive investment, but it is fun, and that is the point of the park - to have fun

[JoshuaA]

You know it would be nice to have REAL support attractions instead of this..

[CharlieN]

Coming soon to Alton Towers... and then Chessington...

[Stuntman707]

If you think this is acceptable for Thorpe, they may as well just go and hire a load of funfair rides for each season. No maintenance required by the park and a constant rotation of flat rides. Who cares? The park is just about having fun now  only about having fun regardless of immersion or theming now.

Edited May 29, 2019 by Stuntman707

[Mark9]

12 hours ago, Stuntman707 said:

If you think this is acceptable for Thorpe, they may as well just go and hire a load of funfair rides for each season. No maintenance required by the park and a constant rotation of flat rides. Who cares? The park is just about having fun now.

 

Sounds dreadful.

[yeah]

17 hours ago, Stuntman707 said:

The park is just about having fun now.

Oh no, how dare they make a theme park fun? Theme parks aren't for fun, what kind of nonsense is that?

 

I can't believe this is phrased as a complaint.

[JoshuaA]

Would everyone just be okay then if the park add a used pinfari to replace Nemesis, a Wacky Worm to replace Stealth and The Waltzers in the place of Swarm?

This is not some tacky funfair, its one of the biggest theme parks in the UK.. 

[Hethetheth]

I find watching TV and playing board games fun too. Doesn't mean that I want to travel to Surrey to do that!

 

I can just have 'fun' many places, there's only a few places I can gave fun riding rides and coasters!

 

I'm not saying they can't mix things us with different experiences, but if I go to a major theme park I expect rides and attractions, and would be disappointed if that focus went.

[Marc]

58 minutes ago, JoshuaA said:

Would everyone just be okay then if the park add a used pinfari to replace Nemesis, a Wacky Worm to replace Stealth and The Waltzers in the place of Swarm?

This is not some tacky funfair, its one of the biggest theme parks in the UK.. 

Bouncezilla hasn’t replaced any ride, it’s taken up a space what would otherwise be empty. Whilst I can see why some don’t like it the feedback has been incredibly positive - only have to scroll through Facebook posts about it!

[Matt A]

5 minutes ago, Marc said:

Bouncezilla hasn’t replaced any ride, it’s taken up a space what would otherwise be empty. Whilst I can see why some don’t like it the feedback has been incredibly positive - only have to scroll through Facebook posts about it!

My thoughts exactly, while Thorpe needs new support rides, this still looks like a fun experience and hasn't detracted from anything that was there already. It's an additional thing to do on a day out to Thorpe, and something that would cost near to £20 to do on it's own if it wasn't at Thorpe.

[JoshuaA]

39 minutes ago, Marc said:

Bouncezilla hasn’t replaced any ride, it’s taken up a space what would otherwise be empty. Whilst I can see why some don’t like it the feedback has been incredibly positive - only have to scroll through Facebook posts about it!

Its all good in the short-term, just like IAC, DBGT, Nemesis Sub Terra, ect. But in the long term this a just waste of budget that doesn't really add much to the park at all.

Sure it'll be gone by next year, but they could of done so many things this year with the budget and they chose this..

A lot of people complain about Merlin never really having the foresight to think about the long-term when it comes to their investments, I think Bouncezilla is just another smaller example of this.

So many things could of been done this year that would have been more beneficial to the park in the long term- Swarm's Station, Inferno's Queue, Colossus not just being hastily filled with concrete, a flat ride in Slammer's place, Old Town being spruced up and Loggers being dismantled.

 

Maybe next year they should just add seasonal rides everywhere, who cares about the main park that is literally rotting? Loggers Leap's space at this rate won't see any change or development until Alton receives SW12.. I think some trampolines next to Swarm would be fitting, maybe just play some EDM in The Swarm area next? That would be fun.

 

[yeah]

32 minutes ago, JoshuaA said:

Would everyone just be okay then if the park add a used pinfari to replace Nemesis, a Wacky Worm to replace Stealth and The Waltzers in the place of Swarm?

This is not some tacky funfair, its one of the biggest theme parks in the UK.. 

Not exactly the same as putting a bouncy castle next to Colossus is it?

 

[JoshuaA]

3 minutes ago, ChessingtonSam said:

Not exactly the same as putting a bouncy castle next to Colossus is it?

 

Still would ruin the area. If the Colossus area wasn't already so drained of its theme Bouncezilla must be the nail in the coffin for the area.

Remember Thorpe in most respects is still a theme park. It ruins the immersion (the little that is left at Thorpe) ..

My other reasons are 2 posts below. They spent money on this when the main park is in desperate need of some permanent support attractions and major rides need refurbishing..

[Han30]

When I first saw BounceZilla my immediate thought was “dear God that looks awful” - awful in that it’s at a theme park where you don’t expect bouncy castles.  That said, as previously mentioned it is in a space which would otherwise be empty and although I highly doubt anyone would travel to Thorpe purely to go on it, it does give something extra other than rides and the pile of cack that is DBGT.

Yes it seems popular and I would rather them have something like BounceZilla there than another bloody hang man challenge thing - it’s also something that kids can do who may not be tall enough for the larger rides so it gives them something else.

 

But looking at the bigger picture, there are no new attractions (as in rides) this year, Logger confirmed as not returning but still rotting behind bamboo fencing and Slammer is still sat there SBNO.  It doesn’t reflect well IMO.  I just hope they don’t turn BounceZilla into a fright night maze with actors in it with chainsaws because frankly that would for sure kill me off!

[Mark9]

4 hours ago, JoshuaA said:

Its all good in the short-term, just like IAC, DBGT, Nemesis Sub Terra, ect. But in the long term this a just waste of budget that doesn't really add much to the park at all.

Sure it'll be gone by next year, but they could of done so many things this year with the budget and they chose this..

A lot of people complain about Merlin never really having the foresight to think about the long-term when it comes to their investments, I think Bouncezilla is just another smaller example of this.

So many things could of been done this year that would have been more beneficial to the park in the long term- Swarm's Station, Inferno's Queue, Colossus not just being hastily filled with concrete, a flat ride in Slammer's place, Old Town being spruced up and Loggers being dismantled.

 

Maybe next year they should just add seasonal rides everywhere, who cares about the main park that is literally rotting? Loggers Leap's space at this rate won't see any change or development until Alton receives SW12.. I think some trampolines next to Swarm would be fitting, maybe just play some EDM in The Swarm area next? That would be fun.

 

 

I remember when Samurai at Chessington was replaced by some trampolines. Dark days.

[JoshuaA]

Its okay to make silly little additions like this when your park isn't semi-derelict and it doesn't clash with the park/area's atmosphere.

 

[Marc]

Im no expert on costs of things but I don’t think should look too much into the costs of bouncezilla to the park - it has a sponsorship to start with which probably covered most / all the cost to buy it - I doubt any money spent would much much dent in a cost of a ride.

[Mer]

17 hours ago, Han30 said:

I just hope they don’t turn BounceZilla into a fright night maze with actors in it with chainsaws because frankly that would for sure kill me off!

 

Oh blimey, don’t give them ideas ?

[alexander]

Regardless whether or not people are obviously using it, it's so embarrassing from one of the apparent industry leaders. Is this a school fete? The standards are honestly so painfully low when people are justifying it with "it's better than nothing!"

[Mattgwise]

Cedar point have a themed bouncy castle and have had it for years. No one moans about it. ?

 

[yeah]

23 hours ago, JoshuaA said:

They spent money on this when the main park is in desperate need of some permanent support attractions

It's not like they chose a bouncy castle over some flat rides or something - "oh we have the budget for a flat ride this year - let's put in a bouncy castle instead!" 

 

Thorpe had one of the biggest investments in Merlin history (if not the biggest - I can't remember) three years ago. They then had to revamp that the year after, and they rethemed one of their coasters last year. Is there any surprise they're not doing that much this year?

[JoshuaA]

51 minutes ago, ChessingtonSam said:

It's not like they chose a bouncy castle over some flat rides or something - "oh we have the budget for a flat ride this year - let's put in a bouncy castle instead!" 

I know that.

But something small like removing the gum from Inferno's queue or properly doing Swarm's station would of been wayyyy better than this.

The park right now need is dire need of small improvements and some areas do just need a bit of tidying up (Old Town)..

 

51 minutes ago, ChessingtonSam said:

Thorpe had one of the biggest investments in Merlin history (if not the biggest - I can't remember) three years ago. They then had to revamp that the year after, and they rethemed one of their coasters last year. Is there any surprise they're not doing that much this year?

True, but the park hasn't received a coaster since 2012. Alton in that time has got two coasters that are IMO better than anything at Thorpe.

DBGT was expensive but it was also a massive liability and a car crash of a investment. They didn't "revamp it" the year after, they had to add a dungeons style ending to make the attraction remotely decent. That extra room probably didn't cost too much anyway, most of the money for DBGT I think went in the VR sections (the worst bits imo).

 

The re-theme of of X probably didn't cost much too. Some black paint and some barbed wire from screwfix shouldn't of cost too much, the ride has grown on me overtime (its not bad) but it certainly was more of a small investment than anything..  The park also recently lost a large flat ride and their log flume which has a decent amount of space, you'd think they would think about developing that pretty large area but no.. Or at least removing it so it doesn't look derelict..

 

[alexander]

2 hours ago, Ivsetti said:

Neither Thorpe Park nor Merlin have ever proclaimed to be industry leaders or even hinted at being industry leaders. 

 

Merlin don't need to claim they are industry leaders when they LITERALLY are one of the industry leaders based on visitor figures and theme park/leisure offerings.

 

If you go read the global attractions report for 2018, they are second, only to Disney.

http://www.teaconnect.org/images/files/TEA_268_653730_180517.pdf

 

Simply, it's painfully ironic their lack of leadership given these facts. ?