March 19, 20232 yr comment_301107 I suppose we should accept the fact that the Park have to "test with a live audience", but it can be disappointing to be the guineapigs.
March 19, 20232 yr comment_301109 I honestly love how the guinea pigs are the ones who claim to be the most loyal as well. it's almost like the parks do the least amount of work possible to put off people from renewing.
March 19, 20232 yr comment_301114 Nothing ever changes though does it. Storm Surge opened with wet paint on the queue fences, th13teen’s paving was still being done on opening day. It’s also become normal for the first weekend of Fright Nights to be a lesser event without a show for instance.
March 20, 20232 yr comment_301129 Yeah I mean it is the same situation every year for the most part, but this year's passholder event was by far the biggest disappointment in a long time (probably not helped by the weather either to be honest, but that's at least one thing I can't pin the blame on Thorpe for 😂). Having zero real indoor attractions open for a start other than Black Mirror (eugh) and Angry Birds 4D (double eugh) was dire. Thorpe is a UK theme park, opening fairly early in the year, rainfall is to be expected. I understand that maintenance overruns sometimes, but the state of the lineup this year was dire. The Walking Dead is always a great attraction to break up the day and makes for great shelter in the rain, so it's a real shame it wasn't ready for passholder day. Ghost Train is another one that was tremendous for that and annoyingly I think construction work started on that right at the last minute again, in typical Thorpe fashion, so I think it'll probably open late spring if it actually does open on target - but Thorpe don't seem to be overly enthusiastic about it even opening in April, so think we're still a fair way off seeing that open to be honest. Wouldn't surprise me if it got pushed to an early summer opening either. As cool as it was to see Stealth rollback three times, having it shut for the rest of the day after that when the coaster lineup was already barely limping was a major blow. That literally then just left SAW and The Swarm operating (occasionally, breakdowns were extremely frequent) which, as expected, caused colossal queues. Was it just me or were the queuetime boards horrendously wrong all day too? Every time I looked at SAW the queue time was advertised at 30 minutes, but ended up waiting 45-60+ minutes every time. The Swarm was advertised at 25 minutes and again actually ended up being closer to an hour. I think having the single rider queue for SAW is a great idea, but imo very poorly executed (although I have no idea how else Thorpe could implement it, so I suppose I can't really complain). Last year they cut the queue at the entrance to the building, only filtering people inside once they had let the single riders and fast track riders through, which I think worked much better. This year, they were filtering people into the building and stopping them at the bottom of the stairs - which meant you were stood in the entrance corridor, with the shotguns going off every few minutes, for 20+ minutes at a time... which is just as jarring as you'd expect. In hindsight it's all little nitpicks on my part and I feel bad for picking on Thorpe a lot of the time, but after travelling for an hour and a half to get there (excluding the extra hour and a half it would've taken if I was travelling from my actual home and not my parents' place) I can't help but feel like the whole day was a bit of a bust.
March 20, 20232 yr comment_301140 4 hours ago, coasterverse said: I think having the single rider queue for SAW is a great idea, but imo very poorly executed (although I have no idea how else Thorpe could implement it, so I suppose I can't really complain). Last year they cut the queue at the entrance to the building, only filtering people inside once they had let the single riders and fast track riders through, which I think worked much better. This year, they were filtering people into the building and stopping them at the bottom of the stairs - which meant you were stood in the entrance corridor, with the shotguns going off every few minutes, for 20+ minutes at a time... which is just as jarring as you'd expect. I defo had issues with the single rider queue at SAW, I didn't have to wait in the enterance corridor, but instead was waiting on the stairs and in the station for a good 45 mins before I got on the ride. Considering single rider was meant to reduce queue times having queued for 45 mins when the advertised queue for the regular queue was 20 mins I was very dissapointed. I don't really know how the single rider system works, but the person operating the queue only let a single rider through when a group of 3 from the main queue went onto the ride, causing a huge backlog in the single rider queue, instead of occasionally letting 2 from the single rider queue through when a group of 2 went from the main queue to try and reduce the number of people in the single rider (but then maybe that not how single rider works, I've never used one before)
March 20, 20232 yr comment_301142 Single rider usually is for single spaces. You might get lucky with 2s but not too often. It's very dependent on the implementation and location of the batching point though.
March 20, 20232 yr comment_301143 Aight fairs, what would be the best location of the batching point for SAW in your opinnion then?
March 20, 20232 yr comment_301144 Single riders should be batched at loading area. Especially if going in before the bays as it fulfils the point of the queue in the first place. Method like Smiler could work as long as they had actually stopped people from just sneaking up the normal queue after bag drop.
March 24, 20232 yr Author comment_301195 New Russ and Jack video today. Not like we are gonna learn much new but hopefully some cool little things
March 25, 20232 yr comment_301209 Staying over at Thorpe tomorrow & Monday and based on how operations are sounding currently I do not have high expectations.. 🙈 anyone at the park today? It looks like it's been absolute chaos.
March 25, 20232 yr comment_301214 4 hours ago, Portvls said: Staying over at Thorpe tomorrow & Monday and based on how operations are sounding currently I do not have high expectations.. 🙈 anyone at the park today? It looks like it's been absolute chaos. Was there from 10 to 5 and got on 2 rides. Shocking
March 25, 20232 yr comment_301216 28 minutes ago, crowzor82 said: Was there from 10 to 5 and got on 2 rides. Shocking Could you give us a run down of your day please. Why did you only get on two rides in seven hours?
March 25, 20232 yr comment_301217 31 minutes ago, Mark9 said: Could you give us a run down of your day please. Why did you only get on two rides in seven hours? no problem. Arrived at 10am on the dot with about 45 mins to get through security checks. Headed to saw which said 45 mins wait but was in fact 3 hours. Went to get some lunch and then headed to nemises. ride closed for 10 minutes as someone dropped something. Queue started to move for a bit then and then closed for around 40 mins because of a breakdown. Got on the ride about 45 mins after that. Headed to swarm which had a queue time of 80 minutes but there was no ride on the track as it looked like it broke down. Couldnt be bothered with anything else and left about 4:30.
March 27, 20232 yr comment_301251 That new "Quiet space" spa that's free is going to become a (pop) badge of honour on the MAP group isn't it? Will be more abused than the RAP passes. I eagerly await the first "Loving the Thorpe Spa" picture followed by "were is this plz" and before you know it, it'll need it's own RAP queue.
March 29, 20232 yr comment_301272 I thnk that the park have kinda messed up making it a first come, first served system, they are setting themselves up for massive queues for the spa. I know there was probably no other way to do it, but I really feel the spa just doesn't fit in the park and I have no clue why thorpe though it was a necessary addition. The park are probably going through another identity crisis, cause a spa definitly doesn't satisfy the teenage thrillseeker demographic they used to push for so much.
March 29, 20232 yr Author comment_301273 Ultimately, it’s not something for a demographic. It’s not an attraction, it’s a sensory, quiet place for people who need it. Sometimes people can get overwhelmed by the noises or lighting in the park and this place provides a safe place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the park. this place won’t nor should it have a queue. Your talking about a medical space, this is like this forum talking about a queue for a first aid room. However in regards to Matts point, I’ve seen a few people on Twitter and other places use the room to say they’ve been in it and just use it for sake of it rather than using it for it’s intended use 😂 however it’s not for me to decide what’s good and bad uses of it, however some people definitely are using it as a badge
March 29, 20232 yr comment_301276 Gotta get those New for 2023 points after all. Maybe should limit it to those who medically need it, but when they've advertised as a spa rather than a specialised room (I forget the official term, maybe sensory room?) then they're not really putting it in with the right reasonings. Sounds like got a random sponsorship and had to do some nonsense.
March 29, 20232 yr Author comment_301277 I think there’s been some confusion as it’s never been advertised as a spa or such. Always been a quiet space, you’d have to speak to first aid anyway to use it. So you have to have the intention of needing it to get access to it They’ve only partnered with a company to help get some equipment and helps fund the space I suppose
March 29, 20232 yr comment_301278 It looks more like a fake spa than a "quiet place" though to me. Good idea badly executed maybe?
March 30, 20232 yr comment_301290 On 3/29/2023 at 10:07 AM, ML27 said: However in regards to Matts point, I’ve seen a few people on Twitter and other places use the room to say they’ve been in it and just use it for sake of it rather than using it for it’s intended use 😂 however it’s not for me to decide what’s good and bad uses of it, however some people definitely are using it as a badge This is exactly what I was getting at 😁 I don't genuinely think the facility should have a queue, was more a dig at thirsty "me first" and "I want what they've got" nature of the thirsty MAPpers, who will get triggered by not being able to receive a free circular piece of plastic, so one can only begin to imagine the anger at not being able to use "the free spa".
March 30, 20232 yr comment_301295 Double post soz - this person is having a Meet and greet at Thorpe. I literally have no idea who she is, and I'm pretty up to speed with the famous instatubers, tikytokers and Snapchaps. Any idea team?
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