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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Islander said:
I would argue to what though… not many long thin tube-shaped vehicles out there…
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Many different types of train though, can fully abandon the tube design. Also if they theme where you board and design it right, you can be on any vehicle be it train, bus, aircraft etc.
 
Could the ride be part of a bigger attraction? Think haunted mansion, extend on the building out the back and create the main ride. Think of the train part as the shuttle section of rise of the resistance or the stretching room of phantom manor?
 
Ghost Train could use Slammer's plot without demolishing the pyramid. Other option is you demolish X, Ghost Train and Storm Surge and you could fit something big coaster wise on there.

Realistically, Rumba Rapids would be the first thing to be demolished.
 
Hyperia was on 180 minutes just before 9pm last night. I had sympathy for the operators who were in for a late one.
And they really need to do something about park entry as it took us an hour yesterday from entering the security line to physically walking through the turnstiles.
 
dgp17 said:
Hyperia was on 180 minutes just before 9pm last night. I had sympathy for the operators who were in for a late one.
And they really need to do something about park entry as it took us an hour yesterday from entering the security line to physically walking through the turnstiles.
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Did a two day visit over Monday and Tuesday, got off to the worst start I've had in a theme park with 3 rides not operating whilst I was in the queue. They did give out a fast pass for Nemmy but later on we used it on a 150 min saw queue and it took about 50 mins as that failed momentarily. Found the general getting around the park and getting on all the rides ok. BUT there is a period around 2pm, where it's utterly abhorrent. ALL coasters over 100 mins and if one fails the others go to 2 hrs. Second day we just sat down, and chilled out for an hour. The place is good value for £30 odd quid, but I'd pay double to for the luxury of a 45-60 min wait (can't belive I've even typed that!).
 
Manchester1894 said:
Did a two day visit over Monday and Tuesday, got off to the worst start I've had in a theme park with 3 rides not operating whilst I was in the queue. They did give out a fast pass for Nemmy but later on we used it on a 150 min saw queue and it took about 50 mins as that failed momentarily. Found the general getting around the park and getting on all the rides ok. BUT there is a period around 2pm, where it's utterly abhorrent. ALL coasters over 100 mins and if one fails the others go to 2 hrs. Second day we just sat down, and chilled out for an hour. The place is good value for £30 odd quid, but I'd pay double to for the luxury of a 45-60 min wait (can't belive I've even typed that!).
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I do think they could charge more for Fright Night's. Using a cereal voucher you can buy tickets for as little as £27 which for 11 hours of rides is insane value for money. In comparison some of the lesser parks like Crealy charge £25 and Drayton £31 so it really does seem undervalued.

The question is does it make more money for the park to pretty much sell out everyday and upsell on things like parking, fast track, food and merchandise. My guess is Merlin have done their homework here and the answer is to pack them in rather than have controlled numbers and a better experience for guests. It's a sad reality that this is the business model that controls the theme park industry in the UK and I would imagine the smaller parks feel they need to charge similar prices to the merlin parks with the exception of Paultons (free parking, no fast track probably brings the price to even)

I too would rather pay more for a better experience. The other question is how do theme parks manage huge spikes in visits during special events and then the lows of the midweek school times. Should this be naturally controlled through extra trains on rides at peak times and more staff to complete ride checks. Either way with only 24 rides in total (probably only 10 good ones) Thorpe really needs more capacity. The mazes should also open earlier than 3pm to help control the crowds and as for rides like ghost train opening at 3pm it makes no sense. Then there is the insane queues to get into the park with security checks taking over an hour as well as the car park being grid locked at 9pm every night. These are things the park can control but chooses not to.
 
Fright Nights is massively over capacity. On the day we visited this year, which was a Friday, by 7pm the queues for most of the mazes were approaching an hour, with Stitches at 65 minutes. When you've got a timeslot system in place, you should not be requiring visitors to queue for an hour when they arrive for their timeslot. Furthermore, the park sell packages for all four mazes and you have a four-hour window to complete them all. It should not be impossible to fit all four mazes into that time window. Queues for most of the coasters were reasonable - between 45 mins and an hour, but really, if you're doing mazes as well and queueing an hour for each, you are really not going to get that much done in a day. Obviously it was considerably busier on the Saturday.

To be fair, I didn't see a lot of people complaining - most visitors were groups of teenagers/20-somethings who just seemed happy to be out with their mates. Perhaps the Thorpe target market are indeed less bothered about an optimum experience and would rather the park kept prices reasonable - although you are still looking at £70-75 for a day ticket plus mazes, plus parking, plus food etc. - so it's not a cheap day out. I definitely wouldn't bother if I didn't have a MAP and could purchase discounted maze tickets. Nor would I attempt to do Fright Nights on anything other than an 'off-peak' day because otherwise it's just miserable.
 
At the peak of the day, my wife got an email from Thorpe offering fast-track, "last few remaining" etc... we thought you cheeky swines. Then later on outside the Hyperia area they had a staff member with a vest that read fast track sold here. It's one thing selling fast track ahead of a park, but the aggressive on the day push to sell these disgustingly priced tickets to people that are in 2-3 hr queues is morally bad.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
Fright Nights is massively over capacity. On the day we visited this year, which was a Friday, by 7pm the queues for most of the mazes were approaching an hour, with Stitches at 65 minutes. When you've got a timeslot system in place, you should not be requiring visitors to queue for an hour when they arrive for their timeslot. Furthermore, the park sell packages for all four mazes and you have a four-hour window to complete them all. It should not be impossible to fit all four mazes into that time window. Queues for most of the coasters were reasonable - between 45 mins and an hour, but really, if you're doing mazes as well and queueing an hour for each, you are really not going to get that much done in a day. Obviously it was considerably busier on the Saturday.

To be fair, I didn't see a lot of people complaining - most visitors were groups of teenagers/20-somethings who just seemed happy to be out with their mates. Perhaps the Thorpe target market are indeed less bothered about an optimum experience and would rather the park kept prices reasonable - although you are still looking at £70-75 for a day ticket plus mazes, plus parking, plus food etc. - so it's not a cheap day out. I definitely wouldn't bother if I didn't have a MAP and could purchase discounted maze tickets. Nor would I attempt to do Fright Nights on anything other than an 'off-peak' day because otherwise it's just miserable.
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Sorry to hear of a frustrating night. Merlin are definitely in "margin maximisation" mode after a horrific year income-cost-wise.
 
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