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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

RicketyCricket said:
Ridiculous how slowly that Hyperia queue moves tbh even with minimal FT users. Done it twice yesterday and went home to watch the football.

Such a shame they didn't spend a few more ££ on something with a higher capacity. Short term it can push FT sales but long term it can put people off returning.
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When was the last time a Merlin park in the UK built a high capacity ride? Something that can regularly exceed 1000pph?

Must be at least 10 years and even then the likely candidates probably don’t achieve it anymore…
 
Bowser said:
When was the last time a Merlin park in the UK built a high capacity ride? Something that can regularly exceed 1000pph?

Must be at least 10 years and even then the likely candidates probably don’t achieve it anymore…
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Wicker Man gets 1,000pph pretty regularly on 3 trains, I’d argue. If they’re running flat out, it can do a solid 1,080pph or so.

I’d argue that they also actively chose to enhance the capacity with that one, opting for 3 trains rather than 2 like most GCIs have as well as removing the seatbelts that most GCIs have.
 
I also think the preview are a bit differnt, alton only had their park partially open but thorpes is fully open with quite a limited ride selection, then opened to essentially a fully booked day.
I hope alton learns from thorpe, and aims for:
1. Ride openings seperatr from park opening (reduce crowds)
2. Slower opening (start with preview days with limited numbers)
3. No special events on opening (alton after dark) to reduce crowds.
 
Bowser said:
When was the last time a Merlin park in the UK built a high capacity ride? Something that can regularly exceed 1000pph?

Must be at least 10 years and even then the likely candidates probably don’t achieve it anymore…
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Swarm. We used to comfortably get 1,150-1,200 pph on that, aiming to send the train when the other was passing over the station.

In regards to Hyperia, a three train model with MCBR would have been nice, but do Merlin have really install these types of coasters? I can’t think of any, but happy to be proven wrong. Three trains on Wickerman is kind of pointless anyway since they’re usually only just opening the gates when the train behind parks in the brake run. Surely having that third train can’t achieve that much of a higher number than running it on two.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Three trains on Wickerman is kind of pointless anyway since they’re usually only just opening the gates when the train behind parks in the brake run. Surely having that third train can’t achieve that much of a higher number than running it on two.
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By my reckoning, the 3rd train on Wicker Man gets at least an extra 150-200pph. My timings have pegged it at about 800pph on 2 and 1,000pph+ on 3.

As much as the 3rd train does park behind the one currently in the station, there’s a definite long gap between trains when they only run it on 2, so it still provides a benefit. If it were double stacking, you’d be right in thinking that it doesn’t provide any benefit, but as the ride only tends to stack one train when running 3, it does mean that the ride attains a higher throughput than it would on only 2.
 
flyingguitar said:
I also think the preview are a bit differnt, alton only had their park partially open but thorpes is fully open with quite a limited ride selection, then opened to essentially a fully booked day.
I hope alton learns from thorpe, and aims for:
1. Ride openings seperatr from park opening (reduce crowds)
2. Slower opening (start with preview days with limited numbers)
3. No special events on opening (alton after dark) to reduce crowds.
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Thorpe's ride selection yesterday was full line up with unplanned closures for Stealth (and most of the day Zodiac and Walking Dead).

The only planned closures were seasonal rides such as Amity Beach and Rumba Rapids.
 
owenstreet7 said:
Thorpe's ride selection yesterday was full line up with unplanned closures for Stealth (and most of the day Zodiac and Walking Dead).

The only planned closures were seasonal rides such as Amity Beach and Rumba Rapids.
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Yeah, I think I miss worded it, I meant that altons was limited, and they didn't really get the full benefits out of the preview days unlike thrope as they didn't have all the rides running their paces.
 
owenstreet7 said:
Tweaks to Project Pivot has been submitted following a report from Attraction Source.

It seems to be streamlining the area so it's two kiosks, a smaller stage, a larger area for the public and less landscaping.

Hopefully this will have a quick turnaround with the tweaks.


From: https://twitter.com/AttractionSc/status/1902049032706400601?t=m5RF0KsRlqXIH0rbH70oeg&s=19
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Seems silly to scrap the terrace seating and build a smaller stage, they’ve obviously been told to reduce the budget ahead of an obvious sale of Merlin from Blackstone.

It would have been a nice event space and a ‘chill’ zone from all of the hustle and bustle of Thorpe Park. Hopefully they can bring back the terrace seating and a larger stage at some point.

If they’re changing planning applications, I also wonder if they’re planning on making changes alongside the delay of the attraction.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
Seems silly to scrap the terrace seating and build a smaller stage, they’ve obviously been told to reduce the budget ahead of an obvious sale of Merlin from Blackstone.

It would have been a nice event space and a ‘chill’ zone from all of the hustle and bustle of Thorpe Park. Hopefully they can bring back the terrace seating and a larger stage at some point.

If they’re changing planning applications, I also wonder if they’re planning on making changes alongside the delay of the attraction.
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I believe the Thorpe Park plan was more to do with delays to the planning application due to requests from different parties. These are believed to be environmental factors.

The amended plans are likely to address those concerns.

Please see here from Thorpe Park Mania: https://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/index.php/2025/01/26/beach-renovation-delayed/
 
Okay; I’d it’s been a little while

Has the new logo grown on us or do we still think it’s naff?

I certainly still hold my thoughts
 
The_bup said:
Okay; I’d it’s been a little while

Has the new logo grown on us or do we still think it’s naff?

I certainly still hold my thoughts
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I personally feel the new logo and rebrand is an opportunity for Thorpe Park to reinvent itself and establish a new identity.

To change it's reputation for the better and attract a wider audience.

It is a risk that is similar to if Alton Towers and Chessington did the same thing.

What Thorpe Park needs to do now is to invest and bring in new attractions and rides that fit within the park's target market and to retire rides that don't fit within the target market. This is the sort of stuff I'd do.
  • Refine the thrill flat ride line up by expanding it and adding different types of rides. A Top Spin or a tall Gyro Swing are ideas I think would work.
  • Close down children's rides and attractions (not family) that don't fit the park's target market i.e. Amity Beach and High Striker.
  • Bring in more family-thrill rides that offers something for both thrillseekers and families like Big Easy Bumpers and Depth Charge. A Wave Swinger, Breakdance, Musik Express, Twist N Splash or a Trioka could be amazing.
  • Potentially replacing Rumba Rapids with a world class water ride (either an Intamin flume like Chiapas or a rapids with a drop like Infinity Falls).
  • Looking at a rollercoaster that sits firmly between Flying Fish and the major thrill coasters for thrills. A 1.2m coaster like Wickerman would be perfect.
  • Bringing in a headliner rollercoaster that would bring in people to the park. Something that can maintain the momentum that Hyperia had and I'd say the two thrill coasters perfect for this would be the long anticipated RMC or an Intamin LSM launch coaster. Something that doesn't need to be a hyper coaster but still thrilling and world class.
  • Eventually converting the Ghost Train into a permanent dark ride like an omnimover.
Admittedly, this has become a bit of a wishlist although this is the sort of direction I'd imagine/like the park to go into.
 
owenstreet7 said:
  • Eventually converting the Ghost Train into a permanent dark ride like an omnimover.
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I would like to see a shooting ride similar to buzz light year spin, or toy story mania, I think it would fit in well with a family/thrill market with some competition, and it would add a good amount re-rideability, for instance if someone didn't want to do hyperia they could try to get the high score on this ride.

owenstreet7 said:
Looking at a rollercoaster that sits firmly between Flying Fish and the major thrill coasters for thrills. A 1.2m coaster like Wickerman would be perfect.
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I wonder about that intamin family LSM launch, a somewhat family thrill (depending no the lay out), 1m height requirement and it can inverte, and I think uk parks need more launch coasters (currently we only have like 1 per park): https://www.intamin.com/blog/product/family-lsm-coaster/

one more thing I would mention is closing down storm surge and look at replacing it with something else, it has poor capacity dosn't add much to the line up, it dosn't look the best and can be quite bad to move around (the water drips in to the walking dead queue and you have to pass under it)
 
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