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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Tom said:
Detonator interactions have been great this year, and probably even going back a bit before that. Wonder who writes the lines.
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On my visit in April last year the op was great. Got everyone in the queue to count down, and when it was our turn he held us at the top for what felt like ages.
 
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The island theme was great as areas of the park had there own identity, personally thought the introduction of themed areas again was a good move, it was all brought together with the soundtrack, signage and the park had a great tagline. It all felt like a package.

But that lasted 3 years and they changed to a more generic branding across signage using the infinity swoosh. But they still used ‘the island like no other tagline’ got rid of the island areas and went more like an amusement park and was a clash of identities again.

Exited that they are gonna have a complete overhaul and what it looks like but I just hope that they stick with it this time
 
Joeythorpe said:
The island theme was great as areas of the park had there own identity, personally thought the introduction of themed areas again was a good move, it was all brought together with the soundtrack, signage and the park had a great tagline. It all felt like a package.

But that lasted 3 years and they changed to a more generic branding across signage using the infinity swoosh. But they still used ‘the island like no other tagline’ got rid of the island areas and went more like an amusement park and was a clash of identities again.

Exited that they are gonna have a complete overhaul and what it looks like but I just hope that they stick with it this time
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It just bothers me that they have an entire jungle area that is JUST nemesis inferno. Why? I wouldn’t be annoyed if they demolished the rapids for some expansion.

And then they have amity, that has had angry birds shoved in there for ages. I like angry birds, but I also must admit it isn’t relevant when it opened, let alone now. They should really take this as an opportunity to set the record straight. And maybe treat imascore tracks a bit better
 
The_bup said:
It just bothers me that they have an entire jungle area that is JUST nemesis inferno. Why? I wouldn’t be annoyed if they demolished the rapids for some expansion.

And then they have amity, that has had angry birds shoved in there for ages. I like angry birds, but I also must admit it isn’t relevant when it opened, let alone now. They should really take this as an opportunity to set the record straight. And maybe treat imascore tracks a bit better
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Rumba Rapids and Mr Monkey's Banana Ride are also in the Jungle area, plus pizza/pasta. In that respect its the same as Katanga Canyon at AT really.
 
jon81uk said:
Rumba Rapids and Mr Monkey's Banana Ride are also in the Jungle area, plus pizza/pasta. In that respect its the same as Katanga Canyon at AT really.
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That is true… but I still push my point (even if that was a sloppy example). The dock yard. Just the dock yard. What even is it? Why is there a derelict train station on a in island, and why is there a graffiti wall. Some of the themed areas are barely themed. I don’t feel there’s much thematic connection between rumba rapids and inferno even if they are in the same area. They all feel lazy, except for amity, that’s actually really well done. Except for those birds
 
This might be a controversial take, but personally, I don’t agree with the hate for Thorpe Park having moved away from themed areas.

Not every park needs to have full-on themed areas, and I actually feel that the more amusement park-style vibe suits Thorpe Park very well, personally. The park is quite confined and has never really focused on hugely in-depth area theming, for the most part, so I don’t personally see the problem.

Aside from a few exceptions, I wouldn’t say that Thorpe Park’s overall focus on theming has ever been quite as high is that of some of the other Merlin parks, and I don’t think it necessarily needs to be, personally.
 
To me it's an issue with the park's lack of direction in recent years. The areas were removed from the map in 2005 and would not return until 2016 by which point Angry Birds had split Amity Cove in two and Derren Brown's Ghost Train had opened which didn't share a theme with the surroundings. For some reason some of the areas were given generic names so Canada Creek and Calypso Quay had been changed to Old Town and The Jungle respectively. The Dockyard just seemed to be an area for the sake of it to join two horror attractions together. The areas were removed from the map entirely in 2021. In my opinion, the park just needs to decide whether they are doing areas and if they are to stick to them.
 
Matt N said:
This might be a controversial take, but personally, I don’t agree with the hate for Thorpe Park having moved away from themed areas.

Not every park needs to have full-on themed areas, and I actually feel that the more amusement park-style vibe suits Thorpe Park very well, personally. The park is quite confined and has never really focused on hugely in-depth area theming, for the most part, so I don’t personally see the problem.

Aside from a few exceptions, I wouldn’t say that Thorpe Park’s overall focus on theming has ever been quite as high is that of some of the other Merlin parks, and I don’t think it necessarily needs to be, personally.
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Perhaps they don't need to be extremely detailed, but I think that theming enhances any park. For me, theming is very important, although I do agree that the amusement park-style vibe does work well at Thorpe  compared to other parks.
 
zeock said:
Perhaps they don't need to be extremely detailed, but I think that theming enhances any park. For me, theming is very important, although I do agree that the amusement park-style vibe does work well at Thorpe  compared to other parks.
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You don't need themed areas to do theming well. Efteling is a good example, it has rides that are well-themed but the areas tying them together are pretty loose, for example all their coasters are bunged into one area with no unifying theme because that's the only place they're allowed to build them. The issue with Thorpe is the complete lack of a long-term strategy since Swarm and the random, short-termist projects that have largely failed (I'm a celebrity, Ghost Train, Mirror Maze, Storm Surge??). Hopefully Hyperia is a return to proper investment in well-themed (non-IP) attractions that will have long term appeal and stand the test of time. Even if it is going to be a bit short.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
You don't need themed areas to do theming well. Efteling is a good example, it has rides that are well-themed but the areas tying them together are pretty loose, for example all their coasters are bunged into one area with no unifying theme because that's the only place they're allowed to build them. The issue with Thorpe is the complete lack of a long-term strategy since Swarm and the random, short-termist projects that have largely failed (I'm a celebrity, Ghost Train, Mirror Maze, Storm Surge??). Hopefully Hyperia is a return to proper investment in well-themed (non-IP) attractions that will have long term appeal and stand the test of time. Even if it is going to be a bit short.
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I can agree with that. Efteling has an overarching theme of fairytales, and even with that, all the rides are very self contained. The only area is I suppose sprookjesbos, but even that’s a stretch. But that makes just like a book of fairytales, you finish one, you move onto the next one! It has a sort of creative direction. Thorpe park could be like that with self contained rides, which they have, but they seem they want to fill the Merlin themed area quota when they can’t.

Update: it’s gone. My mask is gone. I know I probably should’ve looked into the rules first, but when they gave me the option of
A) getting the people who dropped me of to do a u turn to come back
B) putting it away and then getting it back later (which I chose)
And then proceeding to not give it back makes me feel a bit lied to. If they said I could only put it away in the car I obviously would’ve done that.. but even after not getting it back I did everything I could immediately, and I suppose it’s just one of those things. Apparently the message has been passed onto security so it shouldn’t happen again. Sorry for the skyscraper of text.
 
The_bup said:
Update: it’s gone. My mask is gone. I know I probably should’ve looked into the rules first, but when they gave me the option of
A) getting the people who dropped me of to do a u turn to come back
B) putting it away and then getting it back later (which I chose)
And then proceeding to not give it back makes me feel a bit lied to. If they said I could only put it away in the car I obviously would’ve done that.. but even after not getting it back I did everything I could immediately, and I suppose it’s just one of those things. Apparently the message has been passed onto security so it shouldn’t happen again. Sorry for the skyscraper of text.
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What have they done with the mask then? Straight up just thrown it away? Cause if so that's poor from the park,,,
 
tactic said:
What have they done with the mask then? Straight up just thrown it away? Cause if so that's poor from the park,,,
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Apparently. I did everything I could but alas! There’s nothing I could do. I suppose they just can’t hold onto these things for long. But they are a company, and I’m reading this as an error from a security person telling me the wrong thing, and I shouldn’t really hold it against the company
 
The_bup said:
Apparently. I did everything I could but alas! There’s nothing I could do. I suppose they just can’t hold onto these things for long. But they are a company, and I’m reading this as an error from a security person telling me the wrong thing, and I shouldn’t really hold it against the company
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They should have already been reminded what to do - see a few pages back where security took a mask and guest services rescued it and reunited it with its owner, I think it was only last week or the week before.
 
Katy said:
They should have already been reminded what to do - see a few pages back where security took a mask and guest services rescued it and reunited it with its owner, I think it was only last week or the week before.
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It is not the responsibility of security to reunite you with prohibited items, with restrictions that are readily available for anyone who's concerned or worried.

You've taken the risk in bringing the prohibited item. You wouldn't expect them to return a bottle containing booze, you wouldn't expect them to return illicit substances, you wouldn't expect them to return a knife.

Full face masks are banned and confiscated for legitimate security purposes, no matter what the honest intentions might be for the customer bringing them in.

The issues created by full face masks still exist upon exit of the park, as you're still not off Thorpe's property and could use the mask to inflict bad, anti social, or frightening behaviour in a very dark car park, with fewer cameras and security available than in the park.

Occasionally guest services can step in, but this should not be the expected norm as it would undermine security operations; it's purely discretionary.
 
I get that I should’ve checked first, and they had a good reason, but the fact that they lied to me about getting it back is what pisses me off. If I knew I wouldn’t get it back, I would’ve called the people who dropped me off to pick it back up again. They would understand, it would be fine. Heindsight is in 20:20 vision, and i just did what I was told and got screwed over for it.
 
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