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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

owenstreet7 said:
For something that used to be open from March to October/November with transparency around the closure being murky (as in last 2024, it started off as a maintenance delay and then closed with nothing done to it during winter only to run the following season from May to end of Summer Holidays), It's not great at all.
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Rumba Rapids' closure has been widely published for weeks before hand. The park do not owe you an explanation behind its closure.
owenstreet7 said:
That is normally during November for the Christmas/Winter events
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There are plenty of parks who do not open water rides, or other attractions, outside of Spring - Summer, which means that they are closed during the autumnal "Spooky" season and at the start of their main season year in March, not just November. They still charge full price for entry.

OP's original point was that it was unusual and unethical for a park to close a ride during the operational season, for anything other than maintenance or severe weather issues, and still charge full price for entry. It's rather common place.
 
One thing I’d say as a devil’s advocate response is; how would the average guest know that Rumba Rapids isn’t undergoing maintenance of some form?

Even the likes of Paultons Park have advertised closures during the main season. If this is advertised in advance, which it is, is this any different? You can argue until the cows come home about reasons for closure, but to the average guest, a closure is a closure regardless of reason.

If the park have advertised the closure in advance, a guest can make the decision on whether or not to attend and pay money beforehand, regardless of cause of closure.
 
Bowser said:
I think there's something inherently poor about closing an attraction for anything other than maintenance or weather/safety. Imagine a Disney/Universal etc doing this?
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Disney kept an entire waterpark closed for the last four years, 2025 is the first summer they have had both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon open since the pandemic.
Universal have two shows SBNO (Sinbad at IoA, Fear Factor at USF) and Poseidon's Fury is SBNO. It is unlikely these will re-open though but still a drop in attraction counts for the parks.

They usually close the rapids in winter but that is usually for maintanance rather than just closure, but if it is colder weather they may not open.
 
SuperMuscleMan said:
With Rumba I can see why they made that decision, although I would have put it off by a further week.

Hopefully it gives the crews better weather to maintain the components for next season. If I were the maintenance team I'd be using this warmer time of year to drain and inspect the lift hill etc.

I can see with fright nights just around the corner it's not a bad thing. Families are less likely to be around now. Although I'd be disappointed for it to go forever and not be replaced with another family water attraction or water coaster.

It costs approximately £325–£380 per hour to run and when you add that to staffing you can see why its wings are clipped. A rough calculation shows that it costs £158,000 – £185,000 to run in Sep & Oct just for electricity. *

Unfortunately this government is hell bent on destroying the electric grid and keeping prices artificially high in the name of 'being green' (while killing rare wildlife). So I think rumba is for the 🪓 or will continue to have a 3-4 month operation window.

🫐 Bring Back The Berries 🫐


*These are rough estimates on its :
  • Pumps: rated at a total of 2,000 horsepower.
  • Water Flow: About 12,000 litres per minute.
  • Estimated Energy Usage: 2,000 horsepower equals roughly 1,500 kW.
  • Assuming rate of: 21.4p - 25.3p
  • Excluding daily testing etc

RideReason for Electricity UsePower Consumption (kW)Hourly Cost (£)Daily Cost (£) (8 hrs)Total Cost for Sep–Oct (£) (61 days)
Rumba RapidsWater pumps (continuous flow)~1,500£325 – £380£2,600 – £3,040£158,600 – £185,440
HyperiaLift motors and systems~300 (avg.)£64 – £76£512 – £608£31,232 – £37,088
StealthHydraulic launch system burstsBurst avg. ~500£107 – £127£856 – £1,016£52,216 – £61,976
Nemesis InfernoChain lifts and control systems~225 (avg.)£48 – £57£384 – £456£23,424 – £27,816
Saw – The RideChain lifts and control systems~225 (avg.)£48 – £57£384 – £456£23,424 – £27,816
The SwarmChain lifts and control systems~225 (avg.)£48 – £57£384 – £456£23,424 – £27,816
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This is the official specification sheet I have for the pumps on River Rapids at Drayton Manor. They are almost identical in specification to the pumps on Alton's Congo River Rapids, I would expect they are the same for Thorpes Rapids too. Seeing as all three have very similar flow rates, channel widths, water depths and pump outlet sizes. Which are the key factors in determining what pump sizes you need. All three also appear just visually, to be pumping roughly the same volume of water, you can clearly see that when riding all three.

The pumps run at either 92KW or 84KW each, depending on if P1 or P2 mode is selected. There are 4 pumps, with 3 in operation at any one time, one is for redundancy. This means the rapids use between 274KW and 252KW of power continuesly on the pumps alone. Far, far lower than the 1500KW mentioned. SIX times less energy infact, which is a monumental difference.

I have worked on maintaining a few river rapids and will also say just from experience, even without this data below to back up my claim, there is no way Thorpes pumps use 1500KW of power, if they do, they are seriously faulty as they are not moving anywhere near 1500KW's worth of water.

Screenshot-20250902-153911-Chrome.jpg


If I am honest, the fact that the 'rough' estimate of the power usage for the pumps is so wildly out (on a different continent actually), it brings into question the validity of any of the other power usage figures. They are probably hugely out too.

I like the idea and like what you are trying to do, but it needs huge amounts of work as it is clear that the figures are so wildly out, it is borderline spitting out pure misinformation at this point. You cannot call something so wildly out a rough estimste.
 
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Matt N said:
One thing I’d say as a devil’s advocate response is; how would the average guest know that Rumba Rapids isn’t undergoing maintenance of some form?

Even the likes of Paultons Park have advertised closures during the main season. If this is advertised in advance, which it is, is this any different? You can argue until the cows come home about reasons for closure, but to the average guest, a closure is a closure regardless of reason.

If the park have advertised the closure in advance, a guest can make the decision on whether or not to attend and pay money beforehand, regardless of cause of closure.
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I fully agree with all this but as i said originally, my issue is with the parks reasoning behind the closure so in this case it's relevant as it was the crux of my point. Of course we can't say for certain what that reasoning is but i think we can guess with a high level of confidence that closing from this week is neither planned annual maintenance or inoperable weather conditions. (For example I believe Congo Rapids are operating at AT and typically do so until October).

Yes guests can make an informed choice based on advertised closures and i commend them for doing so but that doesn't stop it being an unethical decision. The same would apply elsewhere but this is the Thorpe Park thread and they do seem particularly egregious in this regard.
 
Marketing cobblers...
Parks tend to "maintain" water rides at the end of the summer holidays.
Valhalla often only opens for an hour or two a day, often closing with a big queue due to problems.
Stuff happens outside peak hours.
 
owenstreet7 said:
From the park stating that their new brand image is about honesty, this goes completely against what they're aiming to be with their brand

The rebrand video from late 2023 would be my source to this.


From: https://youtu.be/RG1TmYokAkM?feature=shared
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It does not go against their brand intentions. Honesty is different to transparency.

They have informed potential visitors, several weeks out, that the attraction will be closed. They have been honest about the ride closure in advance.

They haven't stated a reason for the closure, which is not a lie, and isn't different to how any other operator operates.

I am usually the pendant for this sort of thing.
 
owenstreet7 said:
From the park stating that their new brand image is about honesty, this goes completely against what they're aiming to be with their brand

The rebrand video from late 2023 would be my source to this.


From: https://youtu.be/RG1TmYokAkM?feature=shared
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Goose put it better than I think I could, but honesty and transparency aren’t the same thing.

By declaring the closure beforehand, Thorpe Park are being honest. That does not mean they are being transparent, but they are being honest.

Very few parks are overly transparent about the reasons for a ride’s closure, scheduled or unscheduled. And for good reason, I’d argue; if you reveal too much, people might potentially use it against you in some cases, so it’s better to remain schtum.
 
Matt N said:
Very few parks are overly transparent about the reasons for a ride’s closure, scheduled or unscheduled. And for good reason, I’d argue; if you reveal too much, people might potentially use it against you in some cases, so it’s better to remain schtum.
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I think this one of the reasons parks don't share what's going on people will use it against them. You see how many opportunists there are on Alton Towers related comments if there is a single fault they'll use it against them

Rumba is closed for a reason but all we need to know is that it is closed. Same as Wickerman
 
Hid said:
I think this one of the reasons parks don't share what's going on people will use it against them. You see how many opportunists there are on Alton Towers related comments if there is a single fault they'll use it against them

Rumba is closed for a reason but all we need to know is that it is closed. Same as Wickerman
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That is very true but with Duel, it was closed because it was being refurbished with a marketing campaign on it.

We were under the impression the same would happen for Rumba or a permanent closure.

We don't need to know the full details of closure however at least say that it's become a seasonal attraction that operates from May to September if that is the intention moving forwards rather than say it's a refurbishment or a permanent closure.

I still wouldn't be surprised if we see a planning application very soon for the site though.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
I don't need to spend my afternoon. From a quick glance it's clear that the sources for energy consumption are based on speculative guesses from a Reddit thread and can probably be discounted.

There doesn't appear to be a source for the unit cost of electricity, which you would consider pretty fundamental when coming to a conclusion about how much it costs to power a ride.

Thank you for providing that though, it is actually appreciated.
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Id stated the KW price on my og post. That's the basis of the power cost.
owenstreet7 said:
That is normally during November for the Christmas/Winter events

For something that used to be open from March to October/November with transparency around the closure being murky (as in last 2024, it started off as a maintenance delay and then closed with nothing done to it during winter only to run the following season from May to end of Summer Holidays), It's not great at all.

I also wonder if there's plans in the pipeline for the site imminent considering the cameras have been out of action most of the season, frequent downtime and the shorter and shorter operating seasons.
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The problem is these rides are so power hungry. The economics have changed drastically since COVID. We have some of the highest power prices in the developed world and they look to get higher. I've been on a smart tariff called agile for about 7 years. I pay basically the market rate for power (my cost changes every 30 mins). On average I was paying about 7p per kWh in 2019 now it's closer to 21p and set to rise.. businesses often pay more for power too! Thorpe tickets have gone up in price but not as much as that commodity. I don't mind them saving some cash, but they should have given it 1 more week or started the rapids for a limited period of time each day (say 1-4).
 
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