Park Operations

[JoshC.]

The park's commercial and marketing directors have given an interview with Blooloop which explains their processes behind being a thrill-focused park and the benefits of the commercial focus they've had in recent years. It's a great read:

 

https://blooloop.com/theme-park/opinion/thorpe-park-marketing-thrill-seekers/

[Mark9]

On 9/10/2024 at 12:47 PM, Cal said:

Think its safe to say the cuts have now reached Thorpe. With Rumba closed for the season, and Detonator, Inferno, Walking Dead, Vortex, Fish, Tidal Wave, Quantum, Depth Charge all showed as late opening today.

 

Doesn't help that Hyperia is also opening late daily and Ghost train is always a 12pm opening. Thats a lot of the park closed in the morning. 

 

Was bound to happen with some of the cuts we're seeing at the other parks. I'd still take these late openings over reduced opening hours though. Hopefully not a sign of things to come. 

 

 

I find that we're having this conversation really concerning, particularly for the UK market as a whole. It kind of came and went but the attendance report for parks was released and some key sentences in there are quote below

 

Quote

Elsewhere, European parks performed exceptionally well while parks in the Americas experienced more modest
growth. Generally, parks that invested regularly throughout the pandemic years tended to perform better over time.

 

and

 

Quote

Some of the smallest growth percentages this year came from the U.K. There are a few reasons for this. Overall tourism to the U.K. remains below pre-pandemic levels, with Brexit providing both actual and perceived barriers to entry. Additionally, the government ended the VAT Retail Export Scheme, which reportedly has deterred 2
million tourists and cost over £10.6 billion in sales. The change has also impacted themuseum, hospitality and entertainment markets.

 

I find this to be our ultimate problem is that whilst the European parks are exceeding expectations, the parks in the UK aren't despite investment. I was at Europa Park and Efteling over the last two weeks. Both parks very busy, every ride open (well apart from one but Efteling isn't a seasonal theme park). Rides open on time, fully staffed. If you think it's an unfair comparison, well it isn't. Its the same time of year, Merlin is the third biggest worldwide operator.

 

It's going to take some bold action for our parks to return to a place where they are not only highly profitable but successful. And one of the realities of the Merlin parks is the Annual Pass creates so much drag across the parks. I think a significant look needs to take place as we've seen places like Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Phantasialand either remove entirely or price accordingly and the respective parks have never been so profitable..

[Inferno]

2 hours ago, Mark9 said:

whilst the European parks are exceeding expectations, the parks in the UK aren't despite investment.

That's interesting that this is happening.

 

I wonder if Merlin will weirdly benefit from Universal arriving in the UK?

The likes of Disney, Europa and to an extent Phantasialand etc all have enough clout to attract people from abroad on their own.  I don't think any of the UK parks are really able to do that at the moment.

I think a resort like Universal might though - and I do wonder if their guests might take a trip to one of the Merlin parks 'while they're here' sort of thing? A bit like how people go to Orlando for the big parks, but visit Legoland 'while we're here', as you certainly wouldn't fly across the globe for a park like that on its own.

 

I think as well it's worth mentioning that actually prices for everything, and the cost of living in general, must be playing massively in to it as well.... One thing I noticed on my recent visit to DLP was that the food and drink was cheaper within their parks than it was at Merlin's, and that was at Di$n€y.

Also we very much made a conscious decision to cut back on these sort of things to enable us to go to DLP - I bet there are a lot of people in a similar position, sacrificing smaller treats like a day at a Merlin park to allow them to go abroad on holiday etc?

 

I think really UK park visits have become a luxury for a lot of people here compared with how it was just a few years ago.

For me personally, what used to be an "oh go on then, let's go to Thorpe at the weekend" decision has now become quite a planned landmark day (if you know what I mean) - it's not something that can really be done on a whim to the extent that it used to be.

 

Whatever is going on here, Brexit and cost of living aside, closing attractions and winding down isn't going to attract more customers 🤷🏼‍♂️ Hopefully investment continues across the Merlin parks and things pick up, especially if Universal does go ahead - it would be amazing for the UK to become a bit of a theme park destination wouldn't it!

[Inferno]

A note on operations today, which was quite a busy one.

 

A very poor start to the day with half of the main rides down, but by lunchtime everything was finally open.

 

Operations were generally very good across the park, particularly on Hyperia, Stealth and Colossus, where the staff were really going out of their way to help speed things along.

 

Also, I know this is a bit weird, but I think it’s good to point out things like this that tend to go unsaid - Thorpe has some very good and well maintained toilets! Spotlessly clean and smelling of bubblegum, they really are on top of some of “the little things” that actually make quite an impact on your perception of the park. 

[skelly]

I agree with ops being great on Stealth Hyperia and Colossus however they seem to be always lacking on Inferno when I visit. Both visits in August Inferno was stacking a train on the brake run for up to a minute.Not sure why ops are so bad on Inferno particularly 

[Inferno]

1 hour ago, skelly said:

lacking on Inferno

Yes it was the same today.  There seemed to be a long pause before any restraints are checked each time. Weird.

[Cal]

Ghost train will be open from 3pm daily instead of 12pm during Fright Nights this year, the ride availability page has been update to confirm. 

[JoshC.]

22 hours ago, Inferno said:

A note on operations today, which was quite a busy one.

 

Assuming I'm reading this correctly as "the park was busy", I would...disagree. That was a "mid" day by all definitions as far as I'm concerned in terms of attendances. Which highlights conversations in the past of how the park struggles with more mid numbers.

 

22 hours ago, Inferno said:

A very poor start to the day with half of the main rides down, but by lunchtime everything was finally open.

Yep, it was a bit of a shocker to start with. But once everything opened, everything looked largely reliable.

 

Nemesis Inferno was pretty shocking with operations though...very slow for no real reason.

 

22 hours ago, Inferno said:

Also, I know this is a bit weird, but I think it’s good to point out things like this that tend to go unsaid - Thorpe has some very good and well maintained toilets! Spotlessly clean and smelling of bubblegum, they really are on top of some of “the little things” that actually make quite an impact on your perception of the park. 

Always good to hear this being mentioned.

 

As weird as it sounds, Thorpe's toilets are currently up there with some of the best theme park toilets I've seen. The "new-ness" of them naturally helps them look cleaner and tidier in general. I hope that those standards are maintained consistently over the next couple of years. It's a comparatively cheaper job to have tarted them up, but makes the world of difference to guests, and had been a big want from the cleaning/maintenance teams on park for the last few years.

 

 

7 hours ago, Cal said:

Ghost train will be open from 3pm daily instead of 12pm during Fright Nights this year, the ride availability page has been update to confirm. 

I'm in two minds about this. No issue with it opening the same time as FN attractions and it just operating as if it were one.

However, losing a ride for 3 extra hours - one which will likely receive increased popularity due to the time of year - is a loss. Especially on those peak days.

 

Presumably the driving reason is so that all actors start at the same time, with added bonuses of alleviating pressure elsewhere and saving a bit of money. But not ideal really.

[Lunar_]

Echoing what others said about operations on Inferno. This evening the dispatches were so slow (often 3-4 minutes) that we assumed it was on one train (it wasn't). At one point we even saw Hyperia, which obviously is on one train, go round twice in the time it took them to dispatch the train once. There were only 2 staff checking harnesses in the station but even so.

 

There was a row batcher in the station, but they were just telling people to go to any row they liked so trains were still going out half empty. All of this combined meant the advertised queue time of 25 minutes took around 55 - the queue wasn't even out of the cattlepen right in front of the entrance.

[Inferno]

I wonder what’s going on with inferno?

On my last visit it was similar - there seemed to be a long pause between everyone sitting down and the restraints being checked. The staff didn’t seem to be doing anything as such, just sort of waiting 🤷‍♂️ 

 

Felt a bit like the long awkward waits there used to be for Slammer to sort itself out before anyone was let out of the air gates 🙄

 

It’s a shame this is happening with Inferno, because it’s normally quite a good one for capacity.

[tactic]

That seems to be the opposite of what I've been experiencing with Inferno recently (although I haven't been to the park in a while). Last 2 times I've ridden Inferno, the ride hosts have been great, giving countdowns until the train leaves making the operations brilliant. I remember going earlier this year and the trains not stacking at all, and having similar experiences last year with very little stacking too. I wonder what has changed since my visits that has slowed everything down so much?

[Mark9]

End of season 'I don't give a toss anymore' settling in probably. 

[Cal]

Sold out day today! 

 

[tactic]

Here on park today. It is very very busy.

 

Got on the first train of the day for hyperia for it to break down when we were on the break run after our ride. The train in the station was then sent into the maintenance shed not to be seen again; still running one train now and boasting a 200 minute queue. Glad I got my ride early!

[Benin]

Good old half term.

[JoshC.]

There's plenty of things to say about how the park operates when it's that busy, but from a purely numerical business perspective, it is so good to see the park hitting capacity numbers.

[Lunar_]

On 10/11/2024 at 10:27 PM, Lunar_ said:

Echoing what others said about operations on Inferno. This evening the dispatches were so slow (often 3-4 minutes) that we assumed it was on one train (it wasn't). At one point we even saw Hyperia, which obviously is on one train, go round twice in the time it took them to dispatch the train once. There were only 2 staff checking harnesses in the station but even so.

 

There was a row batcher in the station, but they were just telling people to go to any row they liked so trains were still going out half empty. All of this combined meant the advertised queue time of 25 minutes took around 55 - the queue wasn't even out of the cattlepen right in front of the entrance.

Happy to say that operations were absolutely night and day to this on Inferno today. All the hosts running to check restraints and the operator was doing the "this train will be leaving in 30 seconds with or without you" constantly. Didn't see a single train stack, and the posted 120 minute queue took just over an hour! 

[JoshC.]

Another capacity sell out day today. 

[MattyMoo]

1 hour ago, JoshC. said:

Another capacity sell out day today. 

 

 

....and everything open at 10.30, bar Saw The Ride but some could say that's a blessing.

[Cal]

Looks like the park have decided to open Ghost train at 12 instead of 3 on these busy days too which is good, and very much needed.