The opening times for the 2026 season have appeared (subject to change). They're very similar to 2025: https://www.thorpepark.com/plan-your-visit/before-you-visit/opening-times/

Season starts on 27th March and finishing on 1st November, with 13 closed days during this time (mostly in September, with a couple of Wednesdays in April/May).

The park closes at 5pm on weekdays, 6pm on weekends and school holidays and 7pm in August.

Fright Nights starts on 2nd October and runs for 24 days up until 1st November, closing again at 9pm nightly.

They're not bad opening hours for what we have on offer in the UK. I'll forever stay in the camp of saying I'd want later closing times for Fright Nights still, and it would be nice to see them experiment again with later closes over summer. But for now, it feels positive that there's no reduction on the decent times that we currently have, especially given some of the wider uncertainty that Merlin feels like it gives off.

Have all their weekend RAP allocation been booked up yet? Obviously only GOOD parks have that nonsense happen.

Merlin have announced that they have contracted out the maintenance and operations side of the park to OCS. They must have looked at the roaring customer satisfaction success of the food and beverage side of the buisness and decided lets have more of that.

A theme park lives and dies by the customers experience. If you contract out every aspect that the customer deals with you have no control over your business.

On 12/18/2025 at 9:22 AM, Benin said:

Have all their weekend RAP allocation been booked up yet? Obviously only GOOD parks have that nonsense happen.

If Annual Passes still exist then you can bet all the RAP will be gone.

Just saw a monks walk update on TikTok and I know you can’t see everything from there but I find it frustrating that we are already back in the 2018-2022 period in terms of new things and investment.

There is just nothing going on when a lot could be going on. No Colossus repaint, no flat ride for the old slammer site, no replacement for ghost train, No amity beach update.

I miss when Merlin pretty much advertised ‘new for 20xx’ every year, no matter how minor. I appreciate that their thinking is that Hyperia is a big draw but it is pretty stagnant park now for returning visitors.

Arguably it is in the worst period in terms of investment and new things. 2019 onwards you had multiple new events each year, so you could look forward to each part of the season.

In comparison to 2022/23 when they had the Facebook group, now they litterally have nothing to say and if it was still running you’d get quite depressing and boring responses.

What is next for Thorpe Park?

I agree it is a huge shame that there is quite literally nothing going on.

Although to be fair over the last decade there has been a lot of rubbish advertised as “new” - the various year-round mazes and some of the events for example. The absence of those sort of things isn’t that bad in my opinion, and realistically something new isn’t needed every year. Not many parks do that do they.

In recent years they have also made a lot of improvements to the areas other than the rides - the toilets to name one example.

Thorpe is probably one of the (if not THE) best Merlin park in terms of general upkeep.

I agree though that it is a shame there doesn’t appear to be anything at all happening again. It’s been a few years now since they’ve been able to boast anything notably new.

I wonder if Colossus will finally be finished in the next couple of months at least? Despite all the cuts to spending at Merlin I’d at least expect that to be done before opening, as well as Zodoac getting sorted.

I wonder if the beach project will ever happen now? I can’t help but think the money would be better put towards a larger project.

Merlin are clearly a bit hamstrung financially at the moment. But I certainly don't miss the adding something new for the sake of it period. That's how you end up with crap like I'm A Celeb or Black Mirror.

I took a wander down Monks Walk on Monday and I didn't take any photos/videos, simply because there was nothing to take photos of.

I think in some ways we've been spoilt over recent years, with lots of works visible from Monks Walk (from Hyperia, to Fright Nights, etc) as well as many in-park updates. But it hasn't always been like that - rewind 10+ years ago and Monks Walk never really showed anything particularly interesting beyond the odd glimpse, despite many things happening. Okay, we still got the odd in-park update too, but right now the level of updates is going back closer to a reset of what was once the norm.

I do also think compared to many other seasonal parks, Thorpe gets a heck of a lot of eyes put on it out of closed season, with many updates shared and visible. Thorpe have, in some ways, been the exception to the rule in that case.

That's not to say the lack of any visible updates isn't disheartening though. Finishing off Colossus' repaint would be amazing. Inferno and Swarm would benefit from TLC. Rumba Rapids is dying. The fact there's been no visible work there is a shame, and indicates we're unlikely to see much there. The Beach area cannot really be seen from outside the park, so we're none-the-wiser about anything happening there.

On 12/26/2025 at 8:27 AM, MattL28 said:

I miss when Merlin pretty much advertised ‘new for 20xx’ every year, no matter how minor. I appreciate that their thinking is that Hyperia is a big draw but it is pretty stagnant park now for returning visitors.

The 'New for ___' is a double-edged sword. New stuff each year can be beneficial, but Thorpe in particular are seeing the dangers of adding in new hardware/rides yearly as now they have several 'old' rides which are going to require more work all close together. New events can be okay, but gimmicky and don't really draw people in.

If you look at some of the better-received parks, the likes of Phantasialand and Efteling, they don't add in many new things. Since 2015...

Phantasialand have added in 3 new coaster, rethemed a coaster and a 4D show and added in a couple of walkthroughs / play areas.

Efteling have added in 2 new coasters (I guess technically 3 as one is a duelling coaster), 2 new dark rides and rethemed a couple of things.

In that same time, Thorpe have added in 1 new coaster, 1 new dark ride, rethemed some things and done a couple of walkthroughs.

The level of investments isn't as big a difference in the overall park experience and quality. And that's the bigger issue - Thorpe haven't consistently been able to upkeep their attractions (or revitalise them) the same as other parks that invest at a similar frequency.

I think the other issue - which is Merlin-wide - is Thorpe does rely extremely heavily on returning visitors, as opposed to new visitors. Whether that's them, over a 10-20 year period, having exhausted the market and not been able to expand it or a purposeful strategy to not try and reach more people, or another reason entirely, is unclear. But it is certainly the bigger issue that the park face. They've had a huge new coaster for 1 and a half seasons - that's still a big deal, and not really something that should be viewed as stagnation.

But when the park aren't pushing it and rely too heavily on repeat visits, then it will feel like that.

10 hours ago, Benin said:

Merlin are clearly a bit hamstrung financially at the moment.

You say that, but then they've recently announced Legoland Germany are getting a Lego Harry Potter Land, which will be Merlin's single biggest investment into any theme park. Legolands California and Florida are getting substantial new coasters next year. Chessington are getting Minecraft World soon, and Towers' big new coaster seems to still be going ahead. Gardaland invested 12 million Euros into retheming their indoor boat ride this (where that 12m went I don't fully know, but that's what they did).

They're financial issues have been documented in the press, and their selling / closing down of midway attractions, outsourcing and structural changes are further signs of that I expect. But they are still making investments, and notable ones at that, in many places. But it feels like Thorpe is being brushed aside a bit right now (along with Heide Park...if I didn't know any better, I'd have thought Merlin forgot they still own it).

Good to see the TP social media team at their normal tomfoolery again. Claiming this photo is from 2016, but that closest section of track definitely looks repainted…

Didn’t know Colossus got a partial repaint in 2016, guess you learn something new every day 🤦‍♂️

You can see Slammer in the background, operating. The last season that Slammer operated was...*checks notes*...2016.

The park randomly painted that section of track in 2016. I can't find much discourse about it, but it was a bit random - it was either to cover up a particularly discoloured bit of track, or a tester for a repaint. In 2018, the park also repainted a few supports on Colossus.

As tends to be the case most years as theme park enthusiasts always tend to don their detective caps in closed-season boredom, there's rumba-lings that Rumba Rapids may be on its way out this year. As I said, this rumour always tends to circle back around every year but to be fair it doesn't look like much has happened over there this closed season, with the boats allegedly still sitting deconstructed along the Monks Walk access road.

Although the ride itself is pretty dire nowadays and I wouldn't batter an eyelid at seeing it removed, it will be bittersweet in a way that water rides in this country seem to be a dying breed now. I used to love water rides and especially rapids rides as a kid, and now to see parks getting rid of their water rides mostly due to the influx of red tape to keep them operating and as a result the running costs being higher than they've ever been, I can totally understand why the parks are putting them on the chopping block - especially with the looming threat of Universal opening in a mere 5 years time, I'm sure the parks will be looking at investing at breakneck speed to ensure they can compete.

The question, however, remains as to what to do with that land - and I really hope that if the rumours are true (they're probably not, let's be real), that the park already has some idea as to what they want to do with it to get the plans in motion to get started with as soon as the closure is announced. I hate nothing more than seeing rides SBNO and left to rot - and I hate it even moreso at a smaller park like Thorpe.

I know a lot of people would probably say they would prefer a new coaster where Rumba is - and another new coaster behind Swarm Island in a few years time - but personally I'd love for them to utilise both at the same time. Not to open two coasters at the same time, but to finally push the boat out and have one long, drawn out coaster spanning across the two areas. Understandably cashflow issues are probably the biggest hinderance here, but again with Universal now only just round the corner really - taking the plunge into a big coaster would probably be a good shout.

I'm pretty vocal about how I think an RMC is the best fit for the park (and I stand by that), but let's be real - it's very unlikely. New attractions at Thorpe haven't exactly been the biggest success in recent years (DBGT being a large commercial failure, Black Mirror being a low-budget maze that nobody really cared about, Hyperia's extended downtime from day 2 and its plethora of valleys), and taking the plunge with another manufacturer who the people in ties at Merlin corporate may consider to be inexperienced would be a massive gamble and in their eyes yet another potential commercial failure if things go wrong. An RMC would be great for the general public and enthusiasts alike, but would mostly just be seen as fan service for all the enthusiasts asking for one over the years.

What's more likely I think is an Intamin multilaunch. A fast, drawn out Taron-style coaster would also be bloody brilliant for Thorpe. Yes, they've already got their launch coaster with Stealth, but let's be real (as much as I hate to admit it) hydraulic launch coasters aren't going to be around for much longer and as a result the park needs to start preparing for what to do when that time comes. I'm not saying this coaster should be Stealth's immediate replacement - because I think it still has the legs to be around for a fair whack longer at the moment - but if the park don't already have a launched coaster replacement for when the time comes, Stealth's lack of presence at the park will be felt massively.

I also really wouldn't mind if Rumba got scrapped and a coaster didn't replace it at all - I've always said that I found it insane that the best water ride in the country is in the arse end of Blackpool. A 9+ hour roundtrip for me - so is therefore one that costs me a fortune in fuel and a hotel stay (in a town that in all honesty I would rather get away from as quickly as possible and not have to stay overnight in). If we could get an indoor water ride to the kind of level of insanity as Valhalla down south, I would forever be in debt to the Thorpe overlords. That would then keep the plot of land used to previously occupy a water ride... occupying a water ride... and could then therefore keep the island behind The Swarm free for a new coaster as has been rumoured for like 13 years at this point.

I'm getting a little carried away here, but the bottom line is that whether or not Rumba returns this year - its time is well and truly up. Other than using it as a place to rest my legs on a warm summers day at the park, getting sent around multiple times without getting off because there's no queue... it's just a big, slow, boring, expensive waste of space. They could spend money trying to do it up to make it more interesting, but that would only be polishing a turd at this point. I truly do hope that Rumba is next on the chopping block.