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Thorpe and Towers coasters- Have Thorpe reached a level that Towers can't equal?
- Thread starter Ethan
- Start date
Lewis232
TS Member
I live and work in London and went to Alton Towers with my daughter for a short break in July and every single friend / work colleague / parent at school had heard of Alton Towers when we mentioned where we had been. Most of them had never been but probably not helped that, like us, a lot of them have no access to a car and Alton is a pain to get to on public transport.
Dave
TS Founding Member
We all agreed London know about Towers then 
Towers and Lego are really the only “national” parks in the UK. Going back to the original point though I don’t think Merlin want Thorpe to be a national park. They want it to be big don’t get me wrong, but the park is too small for huge increases in visitation, so although it will get these big investments every now and then I think there is always going to be a bit of a throttle on Thorpe.
Towers and Lego are really the only “national” parks in the UK. Going back to the original point though I don’t think Merlin want Thorpe to be a national park. They want it to be big don’t get me wrong, but the park is too small for huge increases in visitation, so although it will get these big investments every now and then I think there is always going to be a bit of a throttle on Thorpe.
Matt.GC
TS Member
We all know Towers has always suffered from immediate road access and public transport problems, but in terms of geography it really is in a great location for a national park. Of course if you were living in the Scottish Highlands, on the south coast or in Cornwall it's still out of reach in a day. But it is pretty close to being in the middle of the mainland GB and sits between the M1 and M6.
They used to actually market it around being an inland park, in the middle of the country, close to the motorway network, nestled in beautiful and historic countryside. Thorpe is, and always has been a regional park, albeit within an excellent catchment area. I live slightly closer to Thorpe than Towers yet if I mention theme parks to anyone around here the first one everyone will come up with is the name Alton Towers. The name still holds the gravitas of the national park it once was, despite Merlin downgrading it to the regional park it now is.
They used to actually market it around being an inland park, in the middle of the country, close to the motorway network, nestled in beautiful and historic countryside. Thorpe is, and always has been a regional park, albeit within an excellent catchment area. I live slightly closer to Thorpe than Towers yet if I mention theme parks to anyone around here the first one everyone will come up with is the name Alton Towers. The name still holds the gravitas of the national park it once was, despite Merlin downgrading it to the regional park it now is.
coaster_roaster
TS Member
Every year my school went on a trip to Thorpe Park, but someone bringing an AT map into school was met with the same level of excitement as DLP (2010s).
You could never bring your whole family to Thorpe Park, anyone who doesn’t like big coasters is bored stupid and there’s nothing to look at or do. Legoland is usually hell levels of crowded (almost a decade on all anyone talks about is the wasps and that my nan did laps of Viking Ricer Splash because she couldn’t get out
) and once you’ve done Chessie a few times there’s very little to bring everyone back and keep them entertained.
The problem most people have around the Chessie/Legoland/Thorpe belt is that the hotels at AT are just beyond ridiculous price wise and if you’re driving that far (and paying that much) you want it to be magical. It’s not.
You could never bring your whole family to Thorpe Park, anyone who doesn’t like big coasters is bored stupid and there’s nothing to look at or do. Legoland is usually hell levels of crowded (almost a decade on all anyone talks about is the wasps and that my nan did laps of Viking Ricer Splash because she couldn’t get out
) and once you’ve done Chessie a few times there’s very little to bring everyone back and keep them entertained.The problem most people have around the Chessie/Legoland/Thorpe belt is that the hotels at AT are just beyond ridiculous price wise and if you’re driving that far (and paying that much) you want it to be magical. It’s not.
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trotters98
TS Member
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Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Out of interest, what makes you say this with such certainty? I fully agree that we shouldn’t necessarily count all of our chickens before they hatch with Hyperia, and I get that the length of the ride is a bone of contention for some, but I’d argue that there are some really decent-looking elements there, and the height and speed could be a great recipe for success in a country that loves record breakers.
Why is it that you declare so conclusively that Hyperia will be a failure? As much as it’s too early to declare it an amazing success, I’d also argue that it’s too early to declare it a failure as well.
AstroDan
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
There is no evidence to suggest Hyperia will boost guest figures. Swarm, Derren Brown anx intermediate additions failed.
Thorpe have had to wait so long between investment because of these failures. The issues at Thorpe run deeper than simply its rides.
The park has been struggling for 15 years one way or another.
Hopefully 2024 is finally the turning point.
Thorpe have had to wait so long between investment because of these failures. The issues at Thorpe run deeper than simply its rides.
The park has been struggling for 15 years one way or another.
Hopefully 2024 is finally the turning point.
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
But at the same time, I’d argue that there’s no evidence to suggest that it won’t, either.
I’d also argue that there were reasons why both Swarm and Derren Brown failed that Hyperia may not have working against it.
Swarm arguably failed at least partially due to numerous other circumstances of 2012, such as the Olympics and the poor weather. Thorpe Park was also coming out of an unsustainable peak of guest figures between 2009 and 2011, so there wasn’t really any room for guest figures to increase further. Granted, you’d hope that guest figures would at least have been maintained, but I’d argue that this could have been a factor, particularly seeing as the 2009-2011 peak was seen as unsustainable.
Derren Brown’s failures are admittedly more likely to be down to the ride itself. I’d argue that Derren Brown had overly niche appeal for a £30m headline attraction, and that it opened late and was unreliable. It also didn’t land that well with guests, and was arguably difficult to market in terms of a USP.
Hyperia, on the other hand, is being built in a Thorpe Park with far lower guest figures than when Swarm was built, and it also has a very tangible USP; the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the UK. I reckon that if marketed well, that could get people through the gates, along with some of its really unique elements like the first drop and the outerbank into an inversion.
It’s easy to remember Thorpe Park’s failures, but it’s also worth remembering that Thorpe Park has had numerous successes too. Every coaster of theirs apart from Swarm has succeeded, and the numerous other thrill rides in the 2000s were also a success.
Poisson
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Giant Squid
That puts their last successful coaster at 2009. In comparison, TH13TEEN was marketed a bit wrong but has been received well enough since, The Smiler is one of the most well known coasters in the country, Wicker Man was incredibly popular and even Nemesis being retracked, whilst not new, has a large amount of attention.
I know Towers and Thorpe are both owned by Merlin so Merlin obviously wont see the competition between the two, but I think to a lot in the community there is this rivalry over which is the best UK park. Right now people would probably say Towers is the best park in the country, but that could quickly change if Hyperia turns out to be as good as it looks. It’s the tallest coaster in the UK and that record has been held by Big one for 30 years so this is quite a landmark attractionNot normally one to post, but this is up there with the most bizarre things I have ever read on this forum. To the GP Thorpe and Towers offer completely different things, and most will visit one of them maybe once a year. (I’m an enthusiast and have been to thorpe once and not made it to towers since 2021, other than for work)
The two UK coasters that people I know are well aware of are Nemesis and the Big One. I was happily relieved when my mate said “yeah but icon at BPB is better”, just for him to know of it was great.
There’s plenty of life in the UK theme park industry, and with Nemesis next year and whatever follows, I feel Alton hold all the cards. Hyperia will be another flash in the pan for Thorpe, but I’m genuinely excited again to see what Alton bring us with Horizon.
Pressure really on now with Universal watching closely
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
See, I disagree. Among enthusiasts, I’d argue that very, very few like Thorpe more than Towers, and I’m not sure I see Hyperia changing that.
If there’s any rivalry between parks among enthusiasts, I’d argue that Alton Towers and Blackpool Pleasure Beach is a fiercer rivalry for which park people prefer. Quite a few people rate Blackpool as their favourite UK park.
I don’t see the correlation between Towers and Blackpool. They’re different in nearly every way. Thorpe and Towers are much more similar so I think comparisons between them make sense
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
It's not about similarity, though. Your post implied that people were comparing Towers and Thorpe "to see which of the two parks was the best UK park". And in that regard, I'd argue that notably more enthusiasts would put Blackpool against Towers than Thorpe against Towers. I know of quite a few enthusiasts whose favourite UK park is Blackpool, whereas I'm not sure I know of any whose favourite is Thorpe Park.
You ask the GP which is the best park in the UK and majority would say Towers or Thorpe. That’s why they’re compared by people because they’re similar in terms of quality. Blackpool is run even worse than the Merlin parks and has a lineup probably with the combined age of 300