BenBowser said:
Well, you never know, Merlin Studios have made more of a theming effort with thorpe in recent years, i.e. The Swarm.
Thing is though, the themes themselves have never really been an issue at Thorpe (Though yes, there are some obvious exceptions). I mean, it's never been amazing, world renowned standards, but they have made a bit of an effort, and I think it did work in making the park a bit more pleasant. The issue I find is the upkeep and consistency. Colossus has some wonderful pieces of theming, but so much of it is rotten and hidden away under years of muck and grime, perhaps most notably the area under the cobra roll with its patterned, mosaic style floor. If you take a look at how it was at its opening you can see how it should look:
Compared to now:
The same goes for Ninferno really, provided you don't look around the back
As for Amity, I'd say personally it's one of the UKs best themed areas. It's very well done, with lots of nice details on the building and around Tidal Wave. Don't get me wrong, none of it would be likely to have Disney and Universal shaking in their boots, but it was generally quite a good effort I think.
The problem is that over the years much of this has been forgotten about, and areas have become very confusing with the introduction of conflicting new attractions, and this has somewhat broken the flow of the park.
I'll be honest, at times Thorpe makes my blood boil. It's a park which has so much character and potential! There's a lot about the park which is very unique (The setting for one), and it has a pretty strong line up of attractions. It's should be one of Europe's top contenders, but annoyingly it suffers from misdirection and management cockups which really drag it down.
If someone at Thorpe went around and cleaned up all the attractions, finished of half jobs (Ninferno station), and generally tarted the place up with some new and improved themes, whilst operations were also revised and a new collection of family rides (Maybe a dark ride too?) added, the park could seriously be on to a winner.
Personally, I still think that Thorpe and Alton being part of the same group is a problem. They are two of the UKs most prominent parks which are on the same level. They should be battling it out every year for the publics attention, with each one constantly topping the others efforts. There's such a lack of competition, and with the alternating investments they're never really going head to head with each other. It's perhaps one of the only way the UK industry is going to advance much, unless Drayton, Flamingoland, and Blackpool are going to unveil the millions they've each had stashed away for several years.
But seriously, can you imagine Thorpe and Alton both unveiling the Secret Weapon and LC projects together? Just imagine the hype for the moment if they were to say both be building big, themed, B&M thrill machines. It would be amazing to see and be involved in. A real battle for the market and public's attention. I firmly believe this is the way it should be driven
