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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Hid said:
They could of done what Europa did with their pirates and rebuild Wicked Witches Haunt bigger and better than it was before.

Thorpe really was the family park and Chessington was the thrill park
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But the fire happened just as they were beginning to transition the park from a family one to a thrill focused one.

This left them with the options of spending money replacing a burnt down family ride - or spending that same money on thrill rides.

Given their plans, it is no surprise which choice they went for, and I doubt they came to regret the decision.
 
AT86 said:
But the fire happened just as they were beginning to transition the park from a family one to a thrill focused one.

This left them with the options of spending money replacing a burnt down family ride - or spending that same money on thrill rides.

Given their plans, it is no surprise which choice they went for, and I doubt they came to regret the decision.
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Until The Swarm came along...
 
AT86 said:
But the fire happened just as they were beginning to transition the park from a family one to a thrill focused one.

This left them with the options of spending money replacing a burnt down family ride - or spending that same money on thrill rides.

Given their plans, it is no surprise which choice they went for, and I doubt they came to regret the decision.
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Nowadays family parks make more money then thrill ones
 
spotweld said:
It halted the parks growth and progress for about 12 years and even softened up the future of it's dark themeing.
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In the context of the discussion (whether WWH should have been rebuilt or should the money have been spent on thrill rides) - I am not sure why they would come to regret the decision to build Inferno and Detonator once the Swarm 'came along'.

I think the perceived 'failure' of the Swarm is overstated. 2012 was an appalling summer weather wise and tourism was down during the Olympics (which happens at most Olympics, as non-sports fans stay away as the cost of everything rockets.) Those were far more impactful on visitor numbers than the new coaster.

In my view Derren Brown had a much more negative impact to investment decisions at Thorpe than the Swarm - leading to the 2018-2023 period with essentially no investment beyond glorified bouncy castles and walk through mirror mazes.
Hid said:
Nowadays family parks make more money then thrill ones
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Some do, some don't. But in the context of Thorpe Park - Merlin have two other family focused parks down the road, plus another up and coming family park that out competes them in many ways close by in Southampton. Gearing Thorpe towards thrills makes sense in that landscape.
 
X is way older than 20 years I am sure it's was built in the 90s.

You might find this odd but I miss the moment of chill the boat ride gave going to the farm.. but I'm old lol?
spotweld said:
Speaking of other attractions, surely we're coming up on the end of The Walking Dead: The Ride?

Wonder what they'll do with the attraction. Next year is X:/ No Way Out's 20th anniversary also.
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Doubt they'll do much for X:/ bar a token social media post and some merch that'llbe purchased by people who weren't even born prior to the X "rave" version.

Tussauds' purchase of Thorpe tied into the limited capability of pushing Chessie to the next level through planning permission. Doubt they've ever regretted that initial decision but the "thrill only" moniker has probably caused some problems as the times have changed. Not just a Thorpe problem as saw similar across many other thrill focused parks.
 
If thrill coasters didn’t make money, parks wouldn’t build them. It’s as simple as that, really!

You could argue that Thorpe might have been more successful in the 2010s had they not gone down the teenagers and young adults route so aggressively, but I think thrills did work for the park for a long time. The park only started hitting record visitor figures of well over 1 million consistently once the big thrill coasters were put in.

Rather than thrills, I think the mistake they made at times in the mid to late 2010s was going too niche. For something that cost so much money, Derren Brown, as a 13+ VR horror ride, had much more niche appeal than a big coaster or a more universally appealing dark ride. Ditto with The Walking Dead; putting that theme onto a Vekoma junior coaster was a spectacular own goal, in my view, but even putting that aside, a 13+ zombie themed horror ride is going to have quite niche appeal. Things like Black Mirror, albeit less so, were also quite niche in appeal.

Whereas the big coasters and flats of the 2000s and early 2010s appealed to a wider audience, and when the park returned to that with Hyperia, it was seemingly a commercial success (Hyperia was specifically highlighted in Merlin’s 2024 results as a strong-performing investment).
spotweld said:
Errr, because they have delivered a successful product successfully?
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That depends how you define “successfully”.

Has Hyperia been a critical and commercial success overall? I think it’s fair to say that yes, it has.

But has it been a success in terms of reliability, for example? With the lift hill issues and repeated stalling issues, Thorpe might beg to differ there in terms of its success from Mack’s end!
 
Matt N said:
If thrill coasters didn’t make money, parks wouldn’t build them. It’s as simple as that, really!

You could argue that Thorpe might have been more successful in the 2010s had they not gone down the teenagers and young adults route so aggressively, but I think thrills did work for the park for a long time. The park only started hitting record visitor figures of well over 1 million consistently once the big thrill coasters were put in.

Rather than thrills, I think the mistake they made at times in the mid to late 2010s was going too niche. For something that cost so much money, Derren Brown, as a 13+ VR horror ride, had much more niche appeal than a big coaster or a more universally appealing dark ride. Ditto with The Walking Dead; putting that theme onto a Vekoma junior coaster was a spectacular own goal, in my view, but even putting that aside, a 13+ zombie themed horror ride is going to have quite niche appeal. Things like Black Mirror, albeit less so, were also quite niche in appeal.

Whereas the big coasters and flats of the 2000s and early 2010s appealed to a wider audience, and when the park returned to that with Hyperia, it was seemingly a commercial success (Hyperia was specifically highlighted in Merlin’s 2024 results as a strong-performing investment).

That depends how you define “successfully”.

Has Hyperia been a critical and commercial success overall? I think it’s fair to say that yes, it has.

But has it been a success in terms of reliability, for example? With the lift hill issues and repeated stalling issues, Thorpe might beg to differ there in terms of its success from Mack’s end!
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Forgot about Hyperia's tendancy to Fearlessly Valley.
 
Hid said:
Nowadays family parks make more money then thrill ones
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What are some thrill parks?

I think the majority of theme parks strike a balance to cover multiple demographics in Europe at least. Thorpe Park is quite an anomaly in that it offers very little for those below 1.3m
 
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