2021 Season

[Mattgwise]

The park are clearly trying and beginning to take more pride in the park which is nice to see. 

 

I am more looking forward to getting back to the park seeing some of these updates than I otherwise was so looking forward to it. 

 

Seems all Merlin parks have put in a bit more effort this closed season, with general stuff. Hope this is something that will become the norm going forwards. 

[ML27]

It’s almost like he saw this forum with the “areas on signage” question!

 

Areas- I kinda get his answer to that, most people won’t care about the areas, they just want to get on the ride they want. It’s not like the areas are themed either! Should just drop the areas now in my opinion.

 

Branding - I personally love the new branding. More modern and futuristic and associable with Thorpe park rather then the  previous standard blue cladding thing... or even the tacky font thing years back..

 

Tidal Wave- At first the removal of the rusty ball made me confused as it was a great theming piece. Looking back at last seasons photos, it didn’t fill as much space as I thought. It was old, decayed and possibly getting a bit dangerous.

 

new theming is a quite clever idea, shame boat isn’t a little bigger. Looks a bit too small to me.

 

Overall: nice infrastructure improvements and nice constant refresh of stuff each season. 

[Mattgwise]

9 minutes ago, ML27 said:

It’s almost like he saw this forum with the “areas on signage” question

Its more people continually asked about it in the leaked pic from his Instagram TBF. 

 

Im also not that fussed about the areas TBH. I think the nature of Thorpe anyway it'd be suited as an amusement park. If it meant a load more coasters I'd happily go away from themed areas. I know some will disagree. 

 

I'd be quite happy for the place to go Cedar Fair or Six Flags style if it meant lots more new rides. 

[RobF]

TBH if the gas ball was rotting so badly it was probably a risk of rusty metal fragments getting in the water / splash down which could have lead to injurys. Or collapsing all together.

 

Whilst I wish it was like for like replacement I'm sure the budget wasn't what it needed to be to facilitate

[JoshC.]

12 hours ago, Mattgwise said:

If it meant a load more coasters I'd happily go away from themed areas. I know some will disagree. 

 

I'd be quite happy for the place to go Cedar Fair or Six Flags style if it meant lots more new rides. 

 

I get the point you're making, but I assume you're not saying the reason Thorpe aren't getting new rides / coasters is because they were focusing on themed areas..?

[ML27]

This maybe shocking to some people but I personally feel like Thorpe are starting to come to terms with the branding and direction they want to go towards. 

A modern simplistic experience, in the main communal areas (e.g Dome) with high quality themed experiences else where.

- If you want to go to a land and experience an alien invasion (you ride the swarm).

- If you want to experience the horrors of  torture, (you ride Saw)

- If you want to get lost in a futuristic high tech confusing labyrinth (black mirror)

 

The modern additions don’t coexist with each other, just singular rides/attractions you go to which provide a themed experience. Clearly they aren’t a theme-park, black mirror and DBGT and Colossus are pretty much next to each other and have nothing to do with each other.

 

if they become a park which has a range of different experiences and focus less on making sure everything fits in with each other (e.g bin the areas) then that’s quite exciting. There’s not many U.K. parks with a range of types of attractions each individually with a different theme, that’s a good thing.

 

Yes it needs to be an all round start to finish experience. They are getting there with that, I just think the direction is more complexed then deciding whether it’s a family park or teen park.

[Mattgwise]

1 hour ago, JoshC. said:

 

I get the point you're making, but I assume you're not saying the reason Thorpe aren't getting new rides / coasters is because they were focusing on themed areas..?

Oh no absolutely not, just saying that I wouldn't have minded if the park had followed a very different direction. Upon rereading I can see it may have come across like that. 

 

I just would have liked the old model of a new coaster every x number of years to have continued and would have preferred that system. 

[JoshC.]

And for completeness, another video showing more of a focus on the 'hotel' set up:

 

 

 

The Shark Cabins are able to open up from tomorrow because they're classed as self contained units. It seems that's predominantly because of the fact there's no indoor corridors or anything. Rather fortunate! 

 

Because no indoor dining is available, the following changes have been made:

-Breakfast in collected from a hut in the revamped courtyard area (it's a large space which, aside from a couple of benches, has been utilised by the park imo

-An extended menu at the Catina with access to the marquee by Zodiac

-A revamp of the outdoor area by Infinity, down to the steps

 

It does seem that the outdoor area of Infinity will be manned and be for restaurant users only. It'll be interesting to see how that works in practice, but I'm glad to see them use the outdoor space after they seemed to reject using it last year (indeed, if you go back to June/July time, it was suggested that Infinity was going to be exclusively indoors).

 

This video also states that it's not yet been decided what the plan is for the marquee when indoor dining is available again, and it will depend on guest feedback. Smart move. I wonder if it's a marquee the park have hired or own though, as that might play a factor in when they decide to get rid of it (along with any plans they may have for the area for events this year)

[RobF]

Food luck to anyone at Thorpe today .... low temperatures and half a day of snow on forecast 

[JoshC.]

A look at this year's park map:

It's very much a brighter version of the app version of the map which has been used for a few years.

 

For updates from today, follow Mr TPM himself Marc's updates on TPM's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thorpeparkmania

[Glitch]

Anyone on park today, would be nice to get the yearly cattle pen queue line pic outside the dome.

[2542464]

It appears Detonator no longer gets pushed down (doesn't have the mechanism that pushes it down idk what it's called) and instead is a normal freefall tower (I believe this was the same in 2020 so this has been true for 2 seasons now).

 

On another note, much bigger note, all traces of Storm Surge has been removed from the app (bar the image of the ride) which is very interesting. Perhaps they're finally removing that eye sore in line with all the other fresh changes across the park and putting it where the tree were cut down around Loggers Leap?

 

 

[Mattgwise]

49 minutes ago, 2542464 said:

It appears Detonator no longer gets pushed down (doesn't have the mechanism that pushes it down idk what it's called) and instead is a normal freefall tower (I believe this was the same in 2020 so this has been true for 2 seasons now).

This was certainly the case back end of last season, thankfully it didn't make too much of a noticeable difference, but interesting it has supposedly stayed that way.

 

49 minutes ago, 2542464 said:

On another note, much bigger note, all traces of Storm Surge has been removed from the app (bar the image of the ride) which is very interesting. 

I wasn't even aware that Storm Surge was not reopening so interesting. Anyone else know anything???

 

49 minutes ago, 2542464 said:

Perhaps they're finally removing that eye sore in line with all the other fresh changes across the park and putting it where the tree were cut down around Loggers Leap?

This is Thorpe however so don't expect it to get "removed". It'll add to it's collection of SBNO so it can have a worlds first title of "worlds first park with x amount of SBNO rides".  

[Marc]

No idea what is up with storm surge but it’s certainly had closed season work so can’t see it being removed this soon!

[LukeP_8]

I went to the park 2 days ago and noticed the Jungle escape sign was no longer in place I dont think, and some wooden fencing was in place as if to completely divert attention to the building. All but the infamous exit doors were covered up. Anyone else reckon this is finally it for I'm a celeb/jungle escape? I personally think the park have finally realised this escape room has no future at the park anymore...

[Mattgwise]

I personally think it's the end of it, but when Jack asked in his behind the scenes video Russ didn't say yes or no. Almost as if he wasn't 100% sure. Maybe they haven't completely decided yet. If it does close it will be interesting to see what replaces in time or if it will house a new FN maze. 

[JoshC.]

10 hours ago, 2542464 said:

On another note, much bigger note, all traces of Storm Surge has been removed from the app (bar the image of the ride) which is very interesting. Perhaps they're finally removing that eye sore in line with all the other fresh changes across the park and putting it where the tree were cut down around Loggers Leap?

 

If the park were to remove / relocate Storm Surge (or pretty much any ride), they would do it during closed season, not main season. Especially a ride such as Storm Surge, with it's location slap bang in the middle of the park.

 

If the park are going to put a ride in the Loggers Leap area, I wouldn't expect they would put one in such a way that the ride's entrance/exit is where the trees are, as it means a lot of permanent paving would need to be built to access it.

 

9 hours ago, Mattgwise said:

This is Thorpe however so don't expect it to get "removed". It'll add to it's collection of SBNO so it can have a worlds first title of "worlds first park with x amount of SBNO rides".  

 

I know a lot of jokes are made about Thorpe's SBNO list and such, but if Storm Surge was never to open again, I would expect the park to remove it. It is simply too prominent to not remove. Loggers Leap and Jungle Escape are easily hidden. Saw Alive is very much out of the way as most people don't walk down that pathway. Slammer is in a more prominent location, and yet still remains somewhat obscured; many people do not notice it. Storm Surge would be noticed by everyone. 

 

As for what is wrong with Storm Surge, no clue. As Marc says, work was done to it over closed season (there's now an extension built onto the the small maintenance shed under the lift hill), and it was testing before the park opened. As no work was actively taking place when I visited on Tuesday and Wednesday, I can only assume that that means something happened and they are awaiting a part to be delivered. 

 

7 hours ago, LukeP_8 said:

Anyone else reckon this is finally it for I'm a celeb/jungle escape? I personally think the park have finally realised this escape room has no future at the park anymore...

Yes, I do think it's the end. I think Covid plays a part too here, as it would have at least come back last year if that wasn't a thing. 

 

Whilst escape rooms are popular, and I do think they have a future at existing in theme park resorts if done right, Jungle Escape was priced incorrectly, wasn't that good as an escape room and just didn't quite work. 

Hopefully we see the space repurposed for a permanent Fright Nights attraction again!

 

 

Also, a couple of other changes I noticed at the park:

-More rides now have new entrance board signage. They look nice, and no longer have the pointless 'Ride Open'/'Ride Close' time card slots

-New speed bumps after the barriers when leaving the park. They're pretty vicious!

[Martin Doyle]

Dont worry people

 

I am sure Storm Surge will make a splashback soon!!

[ML27]

They are waiting for a new pump, they ordered one but they received the wrong one

[LukeP_8]

13 hours ago, JoshC. said:

Whilst escape rooms are popular, and I do think they have a future at existing in theme park resorts if done right, Jungle Escape was priced incorrectly, wasn't that good as an escape room and just didn't quite work. 

Hopefully we see the space repurposed for a permanent Fright Nights attraction again!

!

Agreed. I sort of think that once it lost its I'm a Celeb IP it lost any level of interest that remained, especially given I'm a Celeb was a free attraction. It had no chance really.

 

As for it being a permenant fright nights space again please dont make me start hoping again... 🤩Myself and I'm sure alot of others will take the Freezer back for this years anniversary Thorpe!

[Matt 236]

So me and others went to the island today for a little early season park trip. 
 

Like a number of parks, there’s been a noticeable amount of TLC around numerous park areas, from the truck at the front, Dome and Tidal Wave changes. Most of which is a noticeable improvement. 
 

park operations were generally positive especially for early season, although the park were “Swarmed” (pun intended) with a certain clientele known to break the rules a little! 
 

The B&Ms and Stealth were great as always, Saw was rideable and Colossus was poor. Thorpe has a lot of creases to iron out, but it was just lovely to be back at another park. Especially with the lovely weather. 
 

To add, audio at the park was the best it’s been in years too!

[Ali G]

I had a really good time there on thursday. Saw & Colossus rode really well, the audio improvements were a big hit and operations were spot on, really fast dispatches and offloading. 
 

Stealth and the swarm were tip top - so consistent. 

[JoshC.]

Storm Surge reopened for the first time this season today.

[Hethetheth]

30 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

Storm Surge reopened for the first time this season today.

 And there was much rejoicing.

[2542464]

Amazing how similar a 2012 Thorpe Park looks to a 2021 Thorpe Park: