• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Thorpe Park 2017: DBGT: Rise of The Demon

I doubt they would have said it will open this month if they didn't believe it. There must be a malfunction with something
 
Leah said:
I'd say opening 2016 would be acceptable, but I wouldn't be toon suprised if that failed tbh...
Click to expand...

They should of followed the example of Phantasialand with Taron, although it's nice to have an opening date, at least if people have made plans to visit they can't blame the park because they haven't said the rides going to be open.

I just wish parks could open there new rides when the season actually starts. :(
 
Boo hiss Merlin etc. It's opening late etc, I don't have the energy to get upset about it.

One might suggest they might actually have learned from the last time, they opened Sub Terra barely completed and then spent the rest of the reason trying to sort it out with various additions and the like.

Merlin, Thorpe & Derren Brown have some reputation to uphold with this, I think it's right for them to wait rather than allow a multi-million pound investment open unfinished.
 
Rick said:
One might suggest they might actually have learned from the last time, they opened Sub Terra barely completed and then spent the rest of the reason trying to sort it out with various additions and the like.

Merlin, Thorpe & Derren Brown have some reputation to uphold with this, I think it's right for them to wait rather than allow a multi-million pound investment open unfinished.
Click to expand...

The problem here isn't that the ride is delayed, if they'd not released an opening date and this had happened then nobody would have had to know and people wouldn't have made special plans to visit to be one of the first to ride.

The issue I and many other have with this is that they've twice released an opening date and they've failed to meet it twice. This means people have booked time off work and booked hotels and spent a decent amount of money with the confirmation from the park that the ride will be open, and now they've been let down again. And this isn't the first time Merlin have done this.
 
I follow what you're saying entirely @RyanY . Thorpe were obviously confident the ride was going to open on the previously announced dates, but stuff happens, you just have to move on from it.

"Summer" would be the alternative and although it's far easier to meet that as timescale, it doesn't particularly aid people in booking time off work or a hotel room.

I get it, it's frustrating, but whatever. If I go and it's closed, still whatever.
 
Haven't they (Thorpe) already said a few times the ride has been delayed due to creative reasons.

If the ride has been delayed due to creative reasons I think this can only be a good thing, at least they want this to open looking high quality with no corners cut. Dark rides are very hard to get right. Just look back at rides like Haunted House and Hex... all rides that when opened weren't perfect and had many changes over the first few months of operating. The only way I could say Merlin approach dark rides the wrong way is that they expect the final product to be it, the ride opens and nothing changes. They did this with Sub-Terra and look at what happened there, Merlin Studios were pretty much dragged across the floor to come and fix it. Historically dark rides don't reach a final form until many months after opening, there's a process involved when the ride opens of what works and what doesn't work in reality rather than on paper. Merlin seem to try to stick to what's on paper and then leave it at that.

I think perhaps Merlin need to stop with announcing opening dates, and go for vague opening times, so say coming Spring 2016. Then nearer the time when an opening date is more clear make an announcement of an opening date. It is worrying that they seem incapable to reach opening dates though, Tussauds managed it a lot of the time (they weren't perfect, but they got it right more), Merlin have consistently failed over 8 years when it comes to major projects.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
 
Thorpe Park said:
This afternoon we took the Ghost Train for a spin, and the truth is we are just not happy with a few show elements of the attraction and we will not open up the experience until it’s ready. We know you’re all desperate to get on board, please bear with us and we promise it will be worth the wait.
Click to expand...
we promise it will be worth the wait

:p

If you say so Thorpe Park
 
Rick said:
Merlin, Thorpe & Derren Brown have some reputation to uphold with this, I think it's right for them to wait rather than allow a multi-million pound investment open unfinished.
Click to expand...

I suspect Derren's involvement is the sole reason this hasn't opened yet. Third party IPs can be difficult to please, especially those as meticulous as Brown. I haven't heard any 'rumours', and I'm not as cynical towards Merlin as most on this thread, but I do think it'd be open if it were simply 'The Ghost Train'. As it happens, it's not, so we'll just need to wait in good faith.

Saying that, it was a bad idea to announce an opening date full stop.
 
I wouldn't had made plans to visit on such a vague opening timeframe of "end of May" anyway. That made it clear to me from the start that it wouldn't be open this month.

Having said that they already let me down once this months so I'm not making any plans to get down there till it's already open.
 
Plastic Person said:
I suspect Derren's involvement is the sole reason this hasn't opened yet. Third party IPs can be difficult to please, especially those as meticulous as Brown. I haven't heard any 'rumours', and I'm not as cynical towards Merlin as most on this thread, but I do think it'd be open if it were simply 'The Ghost Train'. As it happens, it's not, so we'll just need to wait in good faith.

Saying that, it was a bad idea to announce an opening date full stop.
Click to expand...
Surely this is a good thing though. Yes, it's late opening but (if the rumour is true) it will be good quality. Maybe it'll put merlin off ips in general ;)
 
I'd rather they kept it shut than open it, get terrible reviews and have to tweak it. By which time the bad word has gotten out and people are put off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Leah said:
Has merlin actually managed to do either an IP or a dark ride that didn't have problems/just been bad?
Click to expand...
It's now fundamental to their corporate strategy to pursue the use of IPs, they've said as much.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top