Thorpe Park and theming/themed areas; what are your thoughts?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. As of late, I’ve heard it mentioned that Thorpe Park is aiming to pursue more of an “amusement park” style vibe, with the themed areas being de-emphasised. The park allegedly even said this themselves in a recent post in their Facebook group. But in the past, the park has aimed to pursue theming more, with the themed areas being more strongly marketed and more themed rides being installed. With this in mind, I’d be keen to know; what is your stance on Thorpe Park’s alleged new direction? What path do you think the park should take with regard to themed areas?

 

Personally, I’m not too upset that Thorpe Park is moving away from themed areas. While there are admittedly some very heavily themed individual rides at Thorpe Park, I would never have said that the park had any real cohesive themed areas; compared to somewhere like Europa, a typical Orlando park or to a lesser extent somewhere like Alton Towers, I would have said that Thorpe Park lacked easily definable themed areas. If I didn’t know any better, I would have struggled to separate areas like Lost City, Amity Cove and Calypso Quay, and indeed the park’s own grasp on these themed areas has seemed very tenuous at times (for instance, X was always listed as being within Lost City even though its entrance was within Amity Cove, and Samurai is in Old Town even though its theme and aesthetic arguably lend themselves more to Lost City). Often, the things within Thorpe’s themed areas have had very little thematic relation to each other, and at times, I felt that the themed areas were little more than a token gesture.

 

I do also agree somewhat with Thorpe Park’s argument that the park is too compact to make proper themed areas work properly. Because everything is within reasonably close range of a number of other themes, I think that it’s hard to make a whole themed area work compellingly. And in a park like Thorpe, I’d also argue that focusing too much on themed areas could constrain creativity when it comes to devising new rides. The park has never seemed overly focused on immersing guests into themed areas, instead focusing on immersing guests into themed individual rides, and I’d far prefer that they do that well than try and fit things into arbitrary themed areas. And besides, not every park needs to be strongly themed; personally, I would have said that Thorpe Park’s strengths lie more in thrills than theming, and if that’s the case, I don’t really see an issue with them pursuing theming less.

 

But what are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with the park’s move away from themed areas? Or do you feel that the park needs to keep the themed areas in mind?

[Inferno]

On the face of it I’m really disappointed to see that there now saying they’re not keen on themed areas again.

after all, you could argue that a large part of Wickerman and The Smiler’s success have been their strong themes. Also what they’re doing with Nemesis in Forbidden Valley, Curse in Gloomy Wood and Jumanji at CWOA relies heavily on the story behind the themed area…

“Merlin” seem to think that themes do work, and guests seem to like them.

 

Thorpe can’t make up its mind though, and the attitude towards themed lands seems to swing back and forth as regularly as the one operational Rush arm.

 

Since The Swarm opened Thorpe seems to have had a revolving door of short-term managers, staying for a short while before they leave again.

For over a decade it’s been one knee-jerk short-sighted decision after another, just to get through the year, then the next season many of the priorities seem to change again.

 

Obviously I don’t know any of these people and I respect what they have all done - they’ve each had a spell at running a successful company after all, which is not something I’ve ever or will ever achieve - but the truth is that Thorpe doesn’t seem to have had any sort of long term vision at all for ages - it’s all been very much based on the upcoming few months.

 

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the current management just don’t fancy themed lands, but then all of a sudden they magically come back again in a couple of years - maybe even next year with Exodus opening.

 

Who knows.  I just think they should pick a direction and go with it sooner rather than later, because this ‘middle ground’ is a bit messy.

 

I will say though that if they’re laying the foundations for Exodus to be generic and unthemed, that is a mistake in my eyes and will be a missed opportunity.

I think most people enjoy buying in to the idea of a theme - Alton Towers proves that - and personally I’d be looking to them to replicate their recent success.

[ML27]

I like themed areas, however I prefer highly themed experiences on rides over than just areas. I’d argue themed areas add to a themed ride experience, so go hand in hand.

 

I want themed lands but I don’t want it the old themed lands. They were too generic. When I say themed lands, I want places like Saw and its plaza. That would be one land. The Swarm and its plaza is another. These two areas have one/two points of entry and exit. It helps them become isolated and define the areas. Project Exodus and its area can also become a themed land due to this. Amity has a long running history, so its themed land suits itself.

 

Nemesis Inferno and Colossus are arguably harder. No plaza as such as little room to define them. This is where a themed ride station and queue line is important as it creates its own thing by itself.

 

I don’t want an amusement park, the U.K. needs another thrilling theme-park which competes and offers its own unique experience away from the real world. Theming can also be important if you don’t have the space to continuously build rollercoasters. An amusement park has a larger selection of rides and rollercoasters.

Project exodus, should not be generic and a six flags coaster. John Burton is involved and I pray because he is, that there is a theme. It would be a massive mistake if they don’t add on the swarm. You have something a grand as that area and then you come up with forest the ride. People will still like the look of swarm.

 

 

Merlin wouldn’t want to operate a place which doesn’t “try” to  immerse you. Every single attraction from the midways to the parks does this.

 

It’s all down to laziness, cost and lack of direction. Management stay there for a few years try to come up with ideas but then move to one of their sister parks which receives more opportunities and funding. So teams are always changing…

[Inferno]

One more point I forgot to mention -

 

I think scrapping the themed lands is an easy way to throw the doors open for more cheapo, short-sighted stuff, like the ridiculous I’m a celebrity maze, Bouncezilla, and Black Mirror.

it even leaves the door open for “plonk down” style short term rides like AT’s fairground nonsense. (Please no)

 

Theres no denying that the Amity KFC with the incredible boat / flood / shark theming is miles better than the new generic Burger King…

Even the Amity toilets are so much better than elsewhere like the newer swarm ones, with the boat crashed through the roof etc - come on let’s have some effort and do the theming properly.

[Vinlarr89]

Merlin on the whole are poor at the theming. Thorpe in particular is very poor. Thorpe should really look to do themes that aren’t reliant on the whole area looking run down as well.