• 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: General Discussion

I was there on Thursday 16th October and while Stealth ran for most of the day, it was squeaking a lot as it was going round. This was on both trains 2 & 3 which they were using. I wonder if it's something to do with the wheels perhaps?

When I went a week ago on the 10th October, I don't remember hearing the squeaking a lot. Although it did run from 12-9, it had a fair amount of periods with downtime.
 
Hid said:
Isn't that the point of a Scare Maze to get lost the maze, Scare Mazes actually don't really live to their name they have the Scare part but not much of a maze since you go one way
Click to expand...
In some mazes, yes. Old Survival Games for example. Stitches is quite a linear maze though, and you're dispatched in groups, meaning if the group in front of you gets lost, you'll join them, and almost make a mega-group, which makes it very hard for the actors to properly scare. You're also never meant to end up in an actor's corridor, and it's hard to when you go through a curtain to get to the next room that in most cases looks identical to the actor's corridors, covered by a curtain.
 
StajBeetle said:
In some mazes, yes. Old Survival Games for example. Stitches is quite a linear maze though, and you're dispatched in groups, meaning if the group in front of you gets lost, you'll join them, and almost make a mega-group, which makes it very hard for the actors to properly scare. You're also never meant to end up in an actor's corridor, and it's hard to when you go through a curtain to get to the next room that in most cases looks identical to the actor's corridors, covered by a curtain.
Click to expand...
I have gotten lost before ended up in the actors quarters in a maze Sub Species: The End Games I did that in due to it being actually difficult to navigate
 
Stealth scheduled to be closed again today according to the app.

Far from ideal when all major coasters over 100 minutes currently. Ouch
 
Hyperia and Stealth presently being closed can’t be helping matters. If those two were open, it would at least distribute crowds a little.

Thorpe has always been busy in October, though. In that Independent article recently, it was stated that nearly half of Thorpe’s annual profit is made during Fright Nights season!
 
One thing I forgot to mention last night that @Call_um included in his post the other day - when the park closes, they play an announcement similar to the Fright Nights beginning alarm that they've done for a few years. They then start playing a bizarre "end of day" playlist that has no relation to Fright Nights at all. Bittersweet Symphony, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Don't Look Back In Anger, before a load of weird "movie trailer" style remixes of different songs - Zombie, Final Countdown, Bittersweet Symphony (again). For some reason, I guess because it's area music and not ride music, Hyperia is part of the parkwide loop, so this takes over the Hyperia queue.

I cracked up laughing when Oasis were interrupted by "ATTENTION TO ALL THOSE IN FEARLESS VALLEY"

As a sidenote, someone in Thorpe Ents must absolutely love Bittersweet Symphony. It plays in the Dead Beat exit and now twice while you're exiting the park
 
Queues on peak FN dates have always been, and continue to be, dreadful. That said, I don't think it's acceptable to expect people to pay £10 for a maze ticket and then have to wait 90 minutes for it. The park has control over the number of tickets they sell and the wait times should reflect this.
 
John said:
Queues on peak FN dates have always been, and continue to be, dreadful. That said, I don't think it's acceptable to expect people to pay £10 for a maze ticket and then have to wait 90 minutes for it. The park has control over the number of tickets they sell and the wait times should reflect this.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it’s happening at Towers too but not to the same extent. Compound has a 50min posted queue right now for example.

I suspect the pressure is on from above to get that revenue in and so they up the amount of tickets available.
 
The problem with scare mazes is that their throughput is so much lower than that of other attraction types.

Many rely on quite small, intimate groupings, which when combined with the multi-“scene” nature of many (as I understand it) that requires staying in scenes for a good bit of time is not conducive to being a queue muncher in the way that, say, a roller coaster with long trains might be.
 
John said:
Queues on peak FN dates have always been, and continue to be, dreadful. That said, I don't think it's acceptable to expect people to pay £10 for a maze ticket and then have to wait 90 minutes for it. The park has control over the number of tickets they sell and the wait times should reflect this.
Click to expand...
I remember that the queues for mazes seemed to be much lower just after COVID, so I assume that there are now more tickets available.
 
I have a feeling that the overlap between the Fearsome Four packages between 5pm and 7pm for the afternoon and evening slots has had a massive impact on the queues.

I don't think overlapping both slots is going to be right moving forwards as it makes it more difficult to achieve doing the four mazes.
 
Thorpe has struggled with crowds for a long time now (it is the only place I know where a 30 year old family coaster can get two hour queues). Covid is interesting because they let too many people in during the summer which led to regular queues over 2 hours and heavy overcrowding (you may also recall there was a stabbing on park). Fright Nights that year only had two mazes (both outdoors) but had multiple scare zones so it worked out better. The main thing Thorpe needs is a high capacity dark ride like Alton Manor to soak up the crowds. I also think closing Rumba early was a mistake since that ride has a good capacity if they fill the boats (yes I accept it has to close at dusk) and it gives the park less leeway when it comes to downtime on other rides.
 
Go over there and stand waiting for an hour.

Boo.

That is ten pounds please.

License to print money...and the poor punters still lap it up.

...and Blackpool has had the mugs queueing for thirty year old (and older) family coasters for two hours for years...just on different dates.
 
Thameslink Rail said:
Thorpe has struggled with crowds for a long time now (it is the only place I know where a 30 year old family coaster can get two hour queues). Covid is interesting because they let too many people in during the summer which led to regular queues over 2 hours and heavy overcrowding (you may also recall there was a stabbing on park). Fright Nights that year only had two mazes (both outdoors) but had multiple scare zones so it worked out better. The main thing Thorpe needs is a high capacity dark ride like Alton Manor to soak up the crowds. I also think closing Rumba early was a mistake since that ride has a good capacity if they fill the boats (yes I accept it has to close at dusk) and it gives the park less leeway when it comes to downtime on other rides.
Click to expand...
Personally, I think what they need to sort out as well as overselling of mazes from 5-7pm is that they need to have all capacity available as possible

Rumba Rapids for a start, I'd say it needs to be replaced if they can't operate it into October. I'd say this is a perfect opportunity for a family thrill project - this could be a modern flume or a medium sized coaster (I'm thinking UK's tallest, fastest and longest wooden coaster with a 1.2m height requirement). If it's dueling, that would be a queue muncher.

There's also potential in the area where Slammer was. Slammer has room for two flat rides and there is room also on the Spice Kitchen and the Miss Hippo Fungle Safari sites for something.

The island behind Swarm seems to be a prime site for a fantastic modern coaster and a selection of flat rides.

Treasure Island, I would combine with either the Island Behind Swarm or the Rumba Rapids replacement which could make for a expanded footprint for those sites.

A couple of out there sites for future investments include
  • The Conference Centre Tent - that could be home to a fantastic flat ride. Think Talocan
  • The 4D Cinema that could be converted into a dark ride - I'd say the Mack Gameplay Theatres could be fantastic there or an indoor flat ride such as the new Huss Breakdance 5.
  • The area where Burger King, Tacotaria and Pizza and Burger Kitchen seems to be three restaurants in one space. I think it could be a fantastic site for a dark ride in addition to a restaurant.
I would mention the beach but that has plans already. I'd say the remaining part of the beach should be turned into a ride or two.

I personally think for Fright Nights, another crows style scare zone would be really good as it's high capacity, free and could soak up guests from the paid mazes.

I also think that a paid attraction along the lines of Slaughterhouse or Clinic at Walibi Holland could be very successful. I'd say as Survival Games got neutered this year, I think it could be the next reiteration of Survival Games. I definitely think new mazes are in order for next year's line up and I'd like to see a brand new maze happen for at least one of them.

I think it would be fantastic if they organise the Hyperia queue much better on the outside as it is their most popular rollercoaster at the moment.

I'd say it is a shame that Zodiac is not up and running and that Stealth was down for the last few days. I think something needs to happen with Zodiac over the closed season for it to run reliably throughout the season. Even if they get Huss to bring in the Huss Enterprise 2G as a like for like replacement with the new seats. That would be higher capacity and brand new. The world's first new generation Enterprise would be fantastic.

It happens every year and I'd be concerned the park doesn't have enough rides and capacity to manage Fright Nights to the level that it needs to.

Ghost Train and Walking Dead - that's something I'd love to see one or both redeveloping into a dark ride or major ride. I'd leave it at that as my opinion on Ghost Train I've said a few times before.

Thorpe Park in general has a lot of potential however it has a lot of underutilised spaces I'd like to see overhauled and with attractions so there's better value for money and so the park is better equipped for Fright Nights.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top