Dodge2002 Posted August 1, 2013 Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 They seem to be putting all their eggs in one non-characteristicly British weather based basket this summer. Sure we're having hot weather now, but I shouldn't imagine there'll be much more sun over August, despite what the forecast may think. You can't advertise the beach as a key attraction when it'll probably end up completely abandoned 6 times out of 10 over the holidays. That said, I really think this is just all a ruse to make people aware of the fact that the dome is open way after the rides shut. Chucking a few rides in the mix will certainly pique peoples curiosity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 1, 2013 Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 They seem to be putting all their eggs in one non-characteristicly British weather based basket this summer. Sure we're having hot weather now, but I shouldn't imagine there'll be much more sun over August, despite what the forecast may think. You can't advertise the beach as a key attraction when it'll probably end up completely abandoned 6 times out of 10 over the holidays. That said, I really think this is just all a ruse to make people aware of the fact that the dome is open way after the rides shut. Chucking a few rides in the mix will certainly pique peoples curiosity. I will definately be on the beach for a while! I just hope thorpe do up their game(again) and throw a couple more attractions in to the line up- I was really hoping we could see stealth and swarm there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 2, 2013 Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 Sorry for the double post guys: It turns out that thorpe park have edited their facebook comment and now depth charge will be open instead of detonator on August evenings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubbles1 Posted August 2, 2013 Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 Gotta love some depth charge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 2, 2013 Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 Gotta love some depth charge! Was hoping depth charge and detonator would be open Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted August 2, 2013 Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 Sorry for the double post guys: It turns out that thorpe park have edited their facebook comment and now depth charge will be open instead of detonator on August evenings! Having Detonator there made me want to stay, Now I really don't! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imagineer Posted August 2, 2013 Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 Commercial is umbrella which includes Retail. Well, that's me proven wrong then. Marketing run Sales & Info at towers, and pretty certain they run them at Chessie as well. But now I feel wrong Marketing don't run Fastrack at Chessie, Sales do - which is under commercial (same as retails and F& Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 2, 2013 Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 Having Detonator there made me want to stay, Now I really don't! Same here! Might have a couple of rides on vortex though for the sake of it and to up my ride count I will have a look on Tuesday and will tell you guys what is open- I have a small feeling that they will open up more rides than they are advertising after 7- I hope they can at least have detonator, depth charge and vortex open, maybe they will open a couple of others like quantum aswell! Will have a look and maybe ask some staff members! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 Same here! Might have a couple of rides on vortex though for the sake of it and to up my ride count I will have a look on Tuesday and will tell you guys what is open- I have a small feeling that they will open up more rides than they are advertising after 7- I hope they can at least have detonator, depth charge and vortex open, maybe they will open a couple of others like quantum aswell! Will have a look and maybe ask some staff members! I'm there on Monday so I'll let you know in advance. The thing is there will probably be quite a big que for Vortex because there isn't another 'thrilling' attraction open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 I'm there on Monday so I'll let you know in advance. The thing is there will probably be quite a big que for Vortex because there isn't another 'thrilling' attraction open. I could be completely wrong here but I don't think many people will be staying after 7pm. However, if everyone tries to beat the 'traffic' it will just mean heavier queues to get out at 9pm. I hope it's not too busy and I don't think it will be, I think we will probably only see 10/15 mins max queues after 7pm! Hopefully they can get more than they are advertising open aswell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFarmerDean Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 Yesterday was a very quitet day, with nemesis being pretty much walk on for a lot of it, and max queue for any ride only reaching the 90 minute mark at one or two times in the day... all the rides were open (besides slammer obviously), with loggers leap being unavailable all morning and opening for the last few hours - in the last hour or 2 all the rides seem to have a 5 minute queue besides loggers which had 10 such a great day and got on pretty much everything, and then still went to the summer nights event in the evening as well - absolutely mental, no queues, just wait for the next train as all rides (besides saw obviously) was on 1 train operation... I really doubt they will do this event again as it was so quiet, sending round trains mostly empty etc! Only downside, we left swarm til last to go on the dark, and it broke down at 10pm with no sign of reopening, so never managed to get on it in the dark! And as for how many times I got on each ride in the day and night... I can't even remember, certainly felt ill after! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 Yesterday was a very quitet day, with nemesis being pretty much walk on for a lot of it, and max queue for any ride only reaching the 90 minute mark at one or two times in the day... all the rides were open (besides slammer obviously), with loggers leap being unavailable all morning and opening for the last few hours - in the last hour or 2 all the rides seem to have a 5 minute queue besides loggers which had 10 such a great day and got on pretty much everything, and then still went to the summer nights event in the evening as well - absolutely mental, no queues, just wait for the next train as all rides (besides saw obviously) was on 1 train operation... I really doubt they will do this event again as it was so quiet, sending round trains mostly empty etc! Only downside, we left swarm til last to go on the dark, and it broke down at 10pm with no sign of reopening, so never managed to get on it in the dark! And as for how many times I got on each ride in the day and night... I can't even remember, certainly felt ill after! Thorpe have confirmed on their facebook page that they will not be doing anymore summer nights this year- it was ovbiously n where nearly as successful as they hoped it to be as there were no queues at all during the event. My guess is thy were hoping to get a couple of thousand people in but only got a couple of hundred instead!I guess people weren't willing to pay the extra price when the hours should be that long already! This was thorpe's test to see if people stayed later, at an extra price, no. If the park was open later without an extra cost, I think we could see it busy. This is what thorpe are doing during August, however they are not opening up much so my guess is it will be empty. Thorpe are doing this the completely wrong way. They need the whole park open, for FREE, until late. That way they will get more guests in and people won't complain about the price! I hope it is gonna be that empty when I visit on Tuesday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 Thorpe have confirmed on their facebook page that they will not be doing anymore summer nights this year- it was ovbiously n where nearly as successful as they hoped it to be as there were no queues at all during the event. My guess is thy were hoping to get a couple of thousand people in but only got a couple of hundred instead! I guess people weren't willing to pay the extra price when the hours should be that long already! This was thorpe's test to see if people stayed later, at an extra price, no. If the park was open later without an extra cost, I think we could see it busy. This is what thorpe are doing during August, however they are not opening up much so my guess is it will be empty. Thorpe are doing this the completely wrong way. They need the whole park open, for FREE, until late. That way they will get more guests in and people won't complain about the price! I hope it is gonna be that empty when I visit on Tuesday! The whole park was open till 10pm for all of August in 2006, every day it was dead after 6/7 to be fair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 The whole park was open till 10pm for all of August in 2006, every day it was dead after 6/7 to be fair. My bad- I didn't visit TP back then, it would just be nice to have longer hours tho! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon2000 Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 I think the 'problem' is that the majority of guests just can't handle that many hours of riding thrill rides. I spent 9.30am-10.30pm yesterday riding all day at Thorpe and I am certainly feeling sore today. It's fantastic to be able to have ridden the rides at night once again though, so I'm hopeful that the parks will give it another go sometime. I'd like to echo how great the Summer Nights event was (in terms of being able to get ridiculous ride counts!). It was so weird going up the lift hills of the coasters and only seeing one or two other people walking around the park between rides. We got to stay in our seats loads of times - including 6 in a row on Inferno without moving. Otherwise it was a case of just moving seat or waiting for the train to get back to the station. Most staff seemed friendly despite being tired as some were doing 13 hour shifts! Massive well done to the Inferno team again today - they are really cranking people through again, leading to it having tiny queues for the majority of the day. Plus they know how to batch fastrack sensibly it seams (cough cough - Swarm team). Only slight negatives of yesterday were Bar 360 staff not getting orders through to the kitchen (has happened quite a few times this year - dodgy ticket machine apparently); some of the coasters (Colossus in particular) not re-opening for Summer Nights until 8pm; and the huge number of breakdowns. Swarm, Rumba, Loggers, Storm Surge, Inferno, Vortex, X, Tidal Wave, Stealth all broke down that we saw - plus we got a rollback.... [on the Flying Fish ] TPJames 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 I think the 'problem' is that the majority of guests just can't handle that many hours of riding thrill rides. I spent 9.30am-10.30pm yesterday riding all day at Thorpe and I am certainly feeling sore today. It's fantastic to be able to have ridden the rides at night once again though, so I'm hopeful that the parks will give it another go sometime. I'd like to echo how great the Summer Nights event was (in terms of being able to get ridiculous ride counts!). It was so weird going up the lift hills of the coasters and only seeing one or two other people walking around the park between rides. We got to stay in our seats loads of times - including 6 in a row on Inferno without moving. Otherwise it was a case of just moving seat or waiting for the train to get back to the station. Most staff seemed friendly despite being tired as some were doing 13 hour shifts! Massive well done to the Inferno team again today - they are really cranking people through again, leading to it having tiny queues for the majority of the day. Plus they know how to batch fastrack sensibly it seams (cough cough - Swarm team). Only slight negatives of yesterday were Bar 360 staff not getting orders through to the kitchen (has happened quite a few times this year - dodgy ticket machine apparently); some of the coasters (Colossus in particular) not re-opening for Summer Nights until 8pm; and the huge number of breakdowns. Swarm, Rumba, Loggers, Storm Surge, Inferno, Vortex, X, Tidal Wave, Stealth all broke down that we saw - plus we got a rollback.... [on the Flying Fish ] I saw this happen the other day! It was so hilarious and we were taking pictures of the ride and got told off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted August 4, 2013 Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 Thorpe have confirmed on their facebook page that they will not be doing anymore summer nights this year- it was ovbiously n where nearly as successful as they hoped it to be as there were no queues at all during the event. My guess is thy were hoping to get a couple of thousand people in but only got a couple of hundred instead! I guess people weren't willing to pay the extra price when the hours should be that long already! This was thorpe's test to see if people stayed later, at an extra price, no. If the park was open later without an extra cost, I think we could see it busy. This is what thorpe are doing during August, however they are not opening up much so my guess is it will be empty. Thorpe are doing this the completely wrong way. They need the whole park open, for FREE, until late. That way they will get more guests in and people won't complain about the price! I hope it is gonna be that empty when I visit on Tuesday! The point of the event was that there were going to be no queues; on that promise they succeeded. Yesterday, if anything was the true example of it actually being a success. There was about 5 minute waits for Swarm, Stealth and Colossus at points, people were dotted around and enjoying the warm evening. All the park can do is trial the hours and see if people want to stay. All we can do is relay positive feedback to the park and it may return in 2014. It's already provided us with Vortex and Depth Charge opening till 8 (or was it 9) for the rest of August for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 4, 2013 Report Share Posted August 4, 2013 I'm not sure we will see any rides open till 9pm at all! Thorpe are being very fishy indeed- when people are asking what time it's open till and what rides are open until 9pm they keep saying that the park closes at 7pm! When it says on the website until 9pm! I will have to investigate this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 The park DOES close at 7... However, two rides remain open till 9 because of CrashPad and to keep guests spending on drink... Also Mark, why only positive feedback? Why not also give constructive criticism where appropriate so the park can improve the event(s) further? Constructive being the obvious term rather than just flat out ranting... For example, from my event, they shouldn't have let people into a dead park without obvious wristband stations and no list of rides due to be open... Solution, giving out wristbands at turnstiles and signs with ride lists... The idea of the event was good and successful with the lack of queues, but at the same time, was it a success from the business sense? Will be interesting to see if they push it out further next year... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 I imagine it was successful? From 7 rides, and let's say about 4 F&B units and shops open, I imagine it cost them about 50 staff at a push to run the event. Say they get paid average of £10 an hour, that's £1500. You'd only need 300 annual pass holders to make this event break even (with normal guests paying.. more? And think of cost of crash pad). Just whether or not they made enough money from the lack of guests to make it worthwhile! Inferno and pluk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 Also Mark, why only positive feedback? Why not also give constructive criticism where appropriate so the park can improve the event(s) further? Constructive being the obvious term rather than just flat out ranting... For example, from my event, they shouldn't have let people into a dead park without obvious wristband stations and no list of rides due to be open... Solution, giving out wristbands at turnstiles and signs with ride lists... To be fair they did give out wristbands when you entered the park. As for list of rides, again like my last visit the Queue boards list of rides made it clear enough which ones were open / closed, id be very surprised unless there was a problem the event you visited was the only one they didnt update the boards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 Quite possibly that, Swarm being dead quiet with no music or atmosphere was certainly weird... Perhaps I typically went on the one day where the operations were cack for the event (which was weird because the operations during normal park hours were extremely good, but with no outlets open upon my visit, maybe everyone had legged it before the storm?)... It will be interesting to see if it affects their perception of late openings and whether they will be worthwhile in the long run though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 Saturday seemed the busiest by far, which was good to see, Colossus had a 5 min queue when we rode and Stealth opened with a 5/10 min queue also. They had more food units open across the park with Amity Kebabs open to so was nice to see the event a bit busier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 The park DOES close at 7... However, two rides remain open till 9 because of CrashPad and to keep guests spending on drink... Also Mark, why only positive feedback? Why not also give constructive criticism where appropriate so the park can improve the event(s) further? Constructive being the obvious term rather than just flat out ranting... For example, from my event, they shouldn't have let people into a dead park without obvious wristband stations and no list of rides due to be open... Solution, giving out wristbands at turnstiles and signs with ride lists... The idea of the event was good and successful with the lack of queues, but at the same time, was it a success from the business sense? Will be interesting to see if they push it out further next year... I had all that stuff Benin. Wristbands at the entrance, ride queue board working with rides available on it, advertisements around the park saying the top 7 coasters and Storm surge + Tidal wave available. Sure I can be picky and say things like why wasn't Saw and Colossus available dead on 7:30, why was there only three people serving Summer Night tickets at admissions, why were the staff having so much fun on park, why were we forced to go around Tidal Wave for a second go, why at 10:30pm were there only three staff members serving a large queue of people in Bar 360. But I'm not going to be that guy because Thorpe threw on a great event with the park being the best it has been for ten years. They learnt and adapted from the week of your trip and from what I gathered, I visited on the most successful of the days. There are far more important issues within the Merlin group that I could comment on.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted August 5, 2013 Report Share Posted August 5, 2013 If they've improved things over a week then fine, I can only go by what I experienced... If anything, it could be down to the projected numbers how much they opened perhaps? Not that the forecast was any better this weekend mind, but were they flogging it off to people as they were exiting the park? On the whole, if they've been listening to feedback of the nit-picking variety, then surely that is what makes the real difference to a park? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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