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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Wow, exciting stuff! So much to think about!


Firstly, I’d be very, very surprised if this is a prank. It looks pretty official, and most pranks probably wouldn’t go quite this elaborate; printing out loads of flyers to send to locals and making a website that is a spitting image of Thorpe’s current one would be a huge amount of effort for a simple prank conjured up by a local prankster! This isn’t like that Project Zer0 thing that loads of people (myself included) thought could be teasing a new coaster a few years back, where it was just some cryptic YouTube videos, a random website not affiliated to Thorpe at all and a load of 0s randomly appearing around Thorpe; this looks pretty official, and I think telling residents to look at a consultation website on 10th December if there was nothing to show would lead to some harsh consequences for the perpetrator…


Secondly, I think the choice to go for a full-blown consultation is very interesting on Thorpe’s part, and this is a very premature start to planning compared to usual if Thorpe’s next coaster does come in 2024 as rumoured. Could Thorpe possibly be trying to get the locals on side early so that they can build something that might have a tougher time getting through planning… like a hyper, perhaps?


I’m certainly optimistic that this could be something to get really excited about myself; my personal bet is a B&M Hyper Coaster, but regardless, I think it’ll be very exciting!
 
Like @Craig says though it is interesting that it's a wix website as literally anyone can make a wix website and buy a domain through them. I think its real and the reason they've gone with a wix site is because it's temporary and using wix is easy for them to do.
It's certainly and interesting development and the public consultation this early might well be because they intend to build a hyper coaster that's going to be quite tall and so want the locals on side.
 
On the opposite side of the argument, Chessington's was a Wix site too hence me saying it's very very likely (and personally believing it is a genuine site). My post was more a general comment on saying things are "confirmed" when there's still a small potential for people to be playing a bit of a prank.
 
Craig said:
On the opposite side of the argument, Chessington's was a Wix site too hence me saying it's very very likely (and personally believing it is a genuine site). My post was more a general comment on saying things are "confirmed" when there's still a small potential for people to be playing a bit of a prank.
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Apparently the certificate was given to Thorpe's site yesterday.
 
I must admit, I think it’s a rather sad indicator of how little faith people have in Thorpe Park/Merlin when something like this is revealed and people’s first instinct is to believe it’s fake and search for signs that it’s a hoax…


Admittedly, I can fully understand why people might have lost faith given some of the past “coaster teasers”, but I’m personally very excited and optimistic for Thorpe’s future, and I’ll admit that it makes me a little sad to see that optimism has dwindled so drastically…
 
Ahh it's nothing to do with losing faith in Merlin, its more just remembering we've had fake sites, photos, plans, rumours and all sorts since as long as enthusiast communities have been a thing. I've learned over the years to be skeptical about pretty much anything that's not confirmed from an existing official source.

Weigh up the evidence and make an assumption, but until it appears on official social media channels, websites or there's other irrefutable proof like it being hosted on the same server as the park's main website, always be careful of saying it's "confirmed".
 
Craig said:
Ahh it's nothing to do with losing faith in Merlin, its more just remembering we've had fake sites, photos, plans, rumours and all sorts since as long as enthusiast communities have been a thing. I've learned over the years to be skeptical about pretty much anything that's not confirmed from an existing official source.

Weigh up the evidence and make an assumption, but until it appears on official social media channels, websites or there's other irrefutable proof like it being hosted on the same server as the park's main website, always be careful of saying it's "confirmed".
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This guy seems to know/think it's genuine and says the site(s) are created by Litchfields on behalf of Merlin:
 
Steve74 said:
This guy seems to know/think it's genuine and says the site(s) are created by Litchfields on behalf of Merlin:
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Yup I'm of the same view. As I said I'm not saying I don't believe it, just to be careful saying it's confirmed when it isn't.

One thing to note though, the assumption that a site should be for locals only is incorrect. Anyone can comment on planning applications and their related consultations such as this. Neighbours have to be directly notified, but even if you're on the other side of the country you are entitled to comment as much as anyone else.
 
I’ve got an idea; why doesn’t someone message Thorpe on Facebook or something and ask if it’s official?


I might do it myself, in fact; what do you guys think?
 
I don't think the websites fake @Matt N just more wondered why they were using wix however we now know why and also that chessington's website was done in the same way. As @Craig said there has been lots of fake sites, pictures and rumours around this sort of thing before so I think we all like to be cautious.

A full consultation in this way is an odd one though as planning would be going in very early compared to Thorpe's other projects. I do wonder if it's because of it being a hyper and so as they are going so high they really do need the locals on side?
 
Woah, slow down! It's just a consultation. There is no immediate need to absolutely 100% guarantee its legitimacy right away. It's still a long way off. It's probably legit but who cares at this stage? We won't get any information yet, even the leaflet says the consultation isn't open yet.
 
Well that failed… on Facebook Messenger, I got through to the “Thorpe Park Chatbot”, who wouldn’t accept any message from me that wasn’t to do with a set list of topics (all to do with your usual day-to-day park operations stuff as opposed to stuff like this), so I can’t get anything from them at all.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
 
Matt.GC said:
Woah, slow down! It's just a consultation. There is no immediate need to absolutely 100% guarantee its legitimacy right away. It's still a long way off. It's probably legit but who cares at this stage? We won't get any information yet, even the leaflet says the consultation isn't open yet.
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Chessington’s initial consultation back in May revealed a fair amount (it essentially confirmed the ride type), so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if 10th December does bring at very least a broad description of the ride type being built (in terms of scale, ride experience etc.) and the general details about it.
JAperson said:
I don't think the websites fake @Matt N just more wondered why they were using wix however we now know why and also that chessington's website was done in the same way. As @Craig said there has been lots of fake sites, pictures and rumours around this sort of thing before so I think we all like to be cautious.

A full consultation in this way is an odd one though as planning would be going in very early compared to Thorpe's other projects. I do wonder if it's because of it being a hyper and so as they are going so high they really do need the locals on side?
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I never thought for a second it was fake, I just wanted to confirm for sure that it was real, since so many people were so skeptical.

In terms of why they’ve opted for a full consultation; that’s my train of thought. I think this could be to get the locals on their side to build something big that might have a tougher time getting permission. They’ve never done it before; even Stealth just went through the regular process about 12-18 months before it opened. Apparently Stealth did generate local backlash due to locals not being informed about it until after planning was approved, for what it’s worth…
EDIT: Sorry for double posting!
 
Matt N said:
Chessington’s initial consultation back in May revealed a fair amount (it essentially confirmed the ride type), so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if 10th December does bring at very least a broad description of the ride type being built
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Agreed. Today is the 27th November and the ride is expected in 2024 so I'm sure we can wait a week and a bit to guarantee this is legit. Even if they they confirm it is, they won't suddenly email you the blueprints
 
Matt.GC said:
Agreed. Today is the 27th November and the ride is expected in 2024 so I'm sure we can wait a week and a bit to guarantee this is legit. Even if they they confirm it is, they won't suddenly email you the blueprints
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I think we could learn a surprising amount on the 10th, you know; even though a consultation won’t reveal everything, it should give us the bulk of the important info about what to expect if Chessington’s is anything to go by!

For instance, I’d expect that we’ll at very least discover a very broad description of the ride that limits our guesses down to a greater degree than they were previously; to use Chessington’s initial consultation in May as an example (given both are Merlin properties, I’d imagine that Merlin would want to keep procedures fairly consistent), the initial consultation they did revealed most of the key info. It was revealed then that it would be a “family thrill” shuttle coaster with a potential inversion and a 1.4m height restriction. The basic ride layout was also confirmed, as well as a rough idea of scale.

The big theming structure and the land with the 2 additional filler rides was also confirmed at the initial consultation.

I even remember the winged seating being thrown around by people who’d been to the consultation back then, although I’m unsure if winged seating was expressly confirmed at the initial consultation.

The only things the full planning application for Project Amazon a few months later really confirmed that we didn’t already know were the finer statistics (e.g. height, track length), the finer details of the land, and that B&M was officially confirmed as the manufacturer (although B&M had been thrown around as a very strong rumour ever since the initial consultation).

So from this consultation, I’d imagine we should expect:
  • A broad description of what the ride is and what it does. A manufacturer may or may not be confirmed, but I’d imagine we may be able to take a fair stab based on what the park says about the ride. In terms of what I mean here; if the ride were a hyper coaster, for instance, the park would probably say that they were building a tall out and back coaster with lots of large airtime hills.
  • A basic overview of the layout. Even though they probably won’t delve too much into specifics, they’ll probably show the footprint the ride will take up, the basic layout and the essence of what it does, the rough scale they expect (we expect the ride to be around [x]ft tall with [x] high points).
  • With the site being picked, I’d also imagine that Thorpe may specify what’s being removed in terms of rides, infrastructure, trees etc.
  • We may also get some hint at the theme, such as any theming structures being included. Chessington’s consultation revealed the basic jungle style theme, as well as the big theming structure.
Of course, this is all conjecture on my part, but I’d personally say there’s a fair chance that we’ll get these sorts of things (or at least, something similar) revealed on the 10th based on what Chessington’s consultation for Project Amazon was like.
 
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