The security queue is an interesting one.

I've had some thoughts on it - I always wondered how other parks, DLP for example, can handle vastly larger crowds everyday with minimal queues of just a few minutes. Yes I know they have a far larger budget, but the point still stands.

I think it's got to be because parks like Thorpe only actually need the security point staffed for a couple of hours each morning. After 11am the workload drops off almost entirely.

It's not feasible to employ a large team of security for 2-3hrs every morning.

Other parks have a steady flow of people throughout the day outside of the 9-10 peak, so a large team is justified and can be working throughout the day.

I think Thorpe are limited in that they only actually need staff there for a couple of hours, which realistically isn't something they can recruit for, so they're settling for a small team.

I preferred the old system of spot checks, but I suppose after the spate of violence and the stabbing that happened a few years ago it has become more needed.

To be fair, even DLP's security is purely theatre. The bags go through scanners and you walk through the detector, but realistically it is very much a quick in-and-out. Perhaps they can gear it up if required, but keep it relaxed most days? (could be an option for TP going forward).

Towers is the same. The state of the entrance plaza at around 10am isn't the best first impression.

Especially when most guests have either queued 30 mins for Monorail or walked.

On 10/31/2025 at 1:24 PM, Cal said:

- All mazes over an hour queue for a paid time slot

I complained about this before and got shouted down on socialz saying I should have planned my time better and stopped for 10 minutes to get something to eat 🙃

...I haven't been to a Fright Nights since, as the idea of paying for mazes and not getting them all done - potentially - I found insane.

One thing I've noticed with Thorpe is that such a large number of people arrive for 10am. As in, they see the park opens at 10, so they think 'Well let's aim to arrive at 10ish'. Whether that's something embedded deep in UK culture or something the park can get better at communicating, I don't know.

With multiple thousands of people all doing the same, it will inevitably cause issues. That issue was particularly compounded during Fright Nights, when even more people attend.

The simple answer is security is slow. What they choose to do takes a while. Simply put, if they want to continue with the level of security they are doing, they should look to invest in better scanners which means they can get through people quicker. The alternative is to reduce the level of security check (which they could do, as it is a very thorough process; significantly more thorough than most parks who do manual bag searches). Hiring more security is impractical, as has been discussed.

This Fright Nights I've been impressed with all of my exits from the car park. Yes, it's busy and again many thousands of people are leaving at once. But it does feel smoother compared to previous years. The biggest issues I've found is the quality of parking (when people arrive later in the day and just park wherever and however they please) and the red and white dividers getting blown around.

It would be nice if the park could manage what many other parks do with paying for the car park before entry, but realistically, I don't think the park have the space, design or capacity for that to be feasible.

Recently on the website, it has been suggested that people could arrive earlier and "take advantage of the facilities available in the dome" though I think for most, that would only be a visit to the loo.

A while back, when the rides opened at 10a.m., my joy would be to be the first to my favourite ride, as the teams would put you on for an unaccompanied ride; just a distant memory now, affected by the hotel guests and several staggered entry times.

I am lucky to live fairly local so don't take my car. A lot of congestion around the public road junction is caused by pick ups, massive congestion.times

in my past employment experience, discretionary baggage searches work better than 100% searches. It would reduce the queues and requires less staff.