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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

DiogoJ42 said:
They could. But it would cost money.
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Very true, nothing could stop them from applying for planning permission and building more of the area.

But the problem is money and more the fact of provisioning it, for merlin, it is a question of.

Spen the money and have a nice area and make it look better. But what have you gained? Making it look a bit better will probably not draw too many cowds, especially a year or 2 after it opened.

Or you could invest that money into a new ride or attraction, and gain more visitors with that.

This dosnt mean it won't get done as if the park looks better they could make it more premium, we have seen this with some parts at alton, like single rider queues, new car park path, signage etc.
 
flyingguitar said:
Spen the money and have a nice area and make it look better. But what have you gained? Making it look a bit better will probably not draw too many cowds, especially a year or 2 after it opened.
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You spend money either way. Make it look better and at the same time easier to manage, or leave it full of weeds and spend maintenance effort managing those. I know TP/AT aren't really "theme parks" (more a collection of rides IMHO), but it doesn't mean you can't keep them neat and tidy - and interesting.

Why they didn't team up with WWT London Wetland Centre and ask them to design it I have no idea.
 
Smiley said:
You spend money either way. Make it look better and at the same time easier to manage, or leave it full of weeds and spend maintenance effort managing those. I know TP/AT aren't really "theme parks" (more a collection of rides IMHO), but it doesn't mean you can't keep them neat and tidy - and interesting.
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yeah, but is it less to maintain than having something in a more public view (requiring to clean the lake, and maintain plants arround it)

My point was more that the money spent on the area could be better spent funding towards a new ride
 
flyingguitar said:
yeah, but is it less to maintain than having something in a more public view (requiring to clean the lake, and maintain plants arround it)

My point was more that the money spent on the area could be better spent funding towards a new ride
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Yeah but it seems that next to no money was spent on the area! I've not seen the area first hand, only on videos and in pictures but I think the area looks horrendous and Thorpe should be embarrassed that it's newest/best/record braking coaster sits in what looks like an overgrown swamp that even Shrek wouldn't call home!

It amazes me that enthusiasts rip Towers a new one when so much as a single dandelion appears in Nemesis' queue line or pit, yet seem to let it slide that Thorpe's latest addition that is drawing worldwide attention looks like it has just been refurbished after 10 years of SBNO and they've yet to landscape it!!
 
Steve74 said:
Yeah but it seems that next to no money was spent on the area! I've not seen the area first hand, only on videos and in pictures but I think the area looks horrendous and Thorpe should be embarrassed that it's newest/best/record braking coaster sits in what looks like an overgrown swamp that even Shrek wouldn't call home!

It amazes me that enthusiasts rip Towers a new one when so much as a single dandelion appears in Nemesis' queue line or pit, yet seem to let it slide that Thorpe's latest addition that is drawing worldwide attention looks like it has just been refurbished after 10 years of SBNO and they've yet to landscape it!!
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I was talking about modifying it post installation to go back to the plaza, not pre installation, I agree there should have been something in that area.
 
flyingguitar said:
I was talking about modifying it post installation to go back to the plaza, not pre installation, I agree there should have been something in that area.
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Ah fair enough, my reply wasn't aimed at you, I just used your reply as a springboard to vent my frustration! 🤣
 
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Aside from the money, I wondered if there may be more of a construction issue, now that the foundations for the supports have been made a certain way. I know nothing about the intricacies of that stuff.
 
I will be casting my personal eye on the site in the next few days, I am pleased to say.
I imagine it is something I could happily landscape over the winter, by myself, alone, with a small minidigger, a grand for plants, and a couple of big bags of grass seed and mixed meadow wildflowers.
All that surrounding water, lovely microclimate for something fancy for that sad watersplash, lots of watery leats and rills...
Two years in it would look stunning, total cost, about a miserly five grand.
We can dream.
 
"Others [parks] don't landscape so we won't bother" is not an excuse for not theming or landscaping the area. Why settle for mediocrity? Go above the expectations of your paying guests - like the area or not, you've only got to look at Nemesis Reborn and the wider Forbidden Valley to see what that way of thinking can do!
 
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I finally visited the other day, hyperia is actually insane I’ve never ridden anything like it. The ending is such a let down after the brakes where the splashdown was meant to be, it seems to have all rusted and looks horrendous too.

The area isn’t great but I think the worst part is the colour. It’s not gold it’s brown and why does every single thing have to be the same colour???😂

The whole area reminded me of planet coaster weirdly… like when you build a coaster and then can’t be bothered to finish the buildings so you plonk down the in game blue print ones.

That being said I can’t wait to go back and ride again! Had a really great visit and dare I say it enjoyed it more than my recent towers trips.
 
Steve74 said:
you've only got to look at Nemesis Reborn and the wider Forbidden Valley to see what that way of thinking can do!
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Exactly. The theming and attention to detail around some rides are "Disney-worthy", but it's a mixed bag. I love the theming at TP for Stealth, Swarm, even KFC! But you need a plan, and with Hyperia there obviously wasn't one.
 
Smiley said:
Exactly. The theming and attention to detail around some rides are "Disney-worthy", but it's a mixed bag. I love the theming at TP for Stealth, Swarm, even KFC! But you need a plan, and with Hyperia there obviously wasn't one.
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It dose annoy me as they will save a bit in themeing currently but that will cost you later on when either your entire park looks like a car park or there as currently there are better themed rides and area with one mis matched quality, affecting the price point of the park.
 
Very late to this party, but I had my first ride yesterday. What an excellent coaster, albeit with a bizarre, short layout. It packs a lot in considering the length. I had around 7 rides, sat in various places in the train; all positions are good on this.

In terms of operations, the staff were extremely efficient, no time was wasted by their doing. Queue time was advertised around 40 mins for most of the day, single rider was taking approximately the same time. Staff were amending the advertised time quite frequently, so it was accurate. There were surprisingly few fastrack users, it was almost a rarity to see one, so suspect they must be sold in limited numbers.

I think it's caused Thorpe a bit of grief not having a front-row queue, I observed guests trying to rearrange themselves on the stairs to land front row. Staff were well onto this, and made announcements not to do so. There is clearly a lot of space in the station to install a dedicated queue.

In terms of the area around the ride, you can see the idea they were going for, but the execution is just poor. It looks so unfinished, the stage area is a barren wasteland of building rubble, screws and a power cable poking through the ground. I can't believe they haven't bothered putting a proper fence around the start of the ride, and just chained together a load of temporary fencing. It's a bit weird the water refill point in the queueline is in the extended section, therefore will be unreachable most of the time.

There is definitely a wheel rattle on one of the trains, but I only noticed this off-ride
 
I was going to try and have my first ride on Hyperia now schools are back but today it's currently 12:15pm and it's not open. This seems to be a common pattern. Is this just more of Merlin being awful and running rides for as little time as possible?
 
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