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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

This has obviously been designed as something like The Dungeons but throughput will be tiny. Given how good The Dungeons are and the fact ITV won't want something awful I'm sure the experience will be fine, but not worth a 2 hour queue. Unless they thought ahead and built two?
 
It sounds a bit like a Fun House. Reminds me of the Nickelodeon Outta Control you used to have at Alton Towers. If you go round in groups I wonder if they’ll film people’s reactions. If it is a ‘fun house’, I hope it’s fun.
 
jon81uk said:
This has obviously been designed as something like The Dungeons but throughput will be tiny. Given how good The Dungeons are and the fact ITV won't want something awful I'm sure the experience will be fine, but not worth a 2 hour queue. Unless they thought ahead and built two?
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I honestly can't see it being popular enough to demand a queue of one hour, let alone two.

Having read a little more on it, I noticed this:

Alongside the new Maze is the Bush BBQ where families can grab a bite to eat and choose between a selection of 'critter' sauces including meal worm mayo and critter coleslaw.
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A re-branding of Calypso BBQ? This sounds like a massively missed opportunity, as they could have included some exotic meats on the menu like kangaroo. During the last season of I'm a Celeb, Iceland did an exotic meat package of crocodile, kangaroo and ostrich - these are things I'm sure people would want to try, rather than meal worm mayonnaise which sounds disgusting.
 
Features include multi-sensory ‘leg ticklers’...
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Excellent! I am pleased that Merlin have plenty of these left over from previous attractions.

This just comes across as a cheap addition to me; it is a cheap sounding IP with little class. Chances are it will be good fun and the theming does look decent from the photos I have seen. But we should be expected more from a major park like Thorpe. The throughputs will probably be dire as well.

Thorpe's non-coaster additions under Merlin have been very poor therefore we have no reason to believe why this won't be equally poor.

:)[/quote]
 
So I'm assuming this is official confirmation the creative sector have been fired entirely, and a new 'IP scrounging' workforce has been brought in to replace them?
 
As its ITV, customers will have to stop every few minutes to stand and watch 5 minutes of advertising before being allowed to progress further through the maze.

Seriously, I thought there was another 2 months yet until April fools day.
 
Danny said:
So I'm assuming this is official confirmation the creative sector have been fired entirely, and a new 'IP scrounging' workforce has been brought in to replace them?
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Did Thorpe Park ever have a creative sector? Everything they have done has felt cheap compared to Alton Towers I think.
 
jon81uk said:
Did Thorpe Park ever have a creative sector? Everything they have done has felt cheap compared to Alton Towers I think.
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Arguably yes, The Swarm put down a pretty big statement regarding theming regardless of how tame the actual ride itself turned out to be. At least in that sense, any form of creative boffins Thorpe had bowed out on a high.
 
*sigh*

Whatever happened to the park that was making major, high quality additions year on year?
 
Danny said:
Arguably yes, The Swarm put down a pretty big statement regarding theming regardless of how tame the actual ride itself turned out to be. At least in that sense, any form of creative boffins Thorpe had bowed out on a high.
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And it was subsequently a flop (unlike SAW which was a massive success). That is why they are now going down the IP route for every new attraction. From a business point of view it makes sense as there is less risk. However you need risk to create top draw attractions! Thorpe are in a never ending mess really.

:)
 
That the park seemingly blame Swarm from a ride perspective (as in, guests didn't find it intense enough, so let's make it go backwards) for a poor 2012 performance (rather than say, the Olympics, the marketing of the ride, poor weather, etc) shows that the park's management doesn't have the right ideas or nous...

Ironically, this attraction would fit into Chessie a lot more, even if it didn't have an IP attached to it...
 
BenBowser said:
*sigh*

Whatever happened to the park that was making major, high quality additions year on year?
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Tussaud's grew the park to the point where adding more flat rides wouldn't grow the park further. The big expansion in the early 2000s changed the park from the family water attractions to the heavy thrill ride park. Once that placemaking was done there is less need to invest every time.

Thorpe has realised recently that just focusing on high thrills doesn't always bring in the right sort of guest, hence trying to go for a wider range of attractions recently.

Also as Rob said, IPs make good headline attractions. Most other parks are doing similar things, Universal went for Harry Potter, Disney are converting a ride about Norway into a ride based on thr film Frozen. Original concepts seem to be dying out. Which is a big shame I think, the best rides at Disney are original ideas (Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Tower of Terror).

Overall though this could be a good little addition. Or it could go the same was as Saw Alive and only last one season!
Done well like the Dungeons with the right leg tickler type effects (think of the Sweeney Todd scene at London Dungeon) and stuff it could work really well. But for a good experience, the throughput will be tiny like 300 per hour (25 people every 5 minutes). Too many people and not everyone has a good experience. But too few through and the queue is huge.

Personally, it doesn't make me want to go to Thorpe Park though. But then I don't go for Fright Nights either.
 
Benzin said:
Ironically, this attraction would fit into Chessie a lot more, even if it didn't have an IP attached to it...
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Too thrilling for Chessington, Thorpe are selling this as a horror maze type attraction

If Chessington were to do it then it would be a small show where they dare children to hold a spider or touch a snake.
 
The way things are going, if Paramount Park opens in a few years time then Thorpe will look like a cheap knock-off. Who would choose Star Trek and Mission: Impossible over Angry Birds and I'm A Celebrity?
 
I give up with this park. No seriously ever since they announced Angry Birds my hopes for anything interesting to happen to Thorpe since this new change in marketing went out the window.

If more thought went into Thorpe's small and medium investments then it could actually be something decent, but no, instead we get something that's clearly a rushed job instead. It makes me wonder how smaller parks like Drayton and Paultons can make great attractions based on IPs, but Thorpe are so bad it (Saw not withstanding though, that's at least half decent)
 
I'm still holding out that their 2016 attraction will be good. I feel for the parks future if it's another failure.
 
I cannot see this lasting beyond 2015. It sounds like it needs quite a number of staff involved at all times and in a park like Thorpe that won't happen for long.

Still it could be a fun little addition.

Also "world's first", please stop this.
 
Another point worth noting: this year, there are two less spaces for scare mazes, what with Studio 13 and My Bloody Valentine's spaces being taken over by I'm a Celebrity and 2016's dark ride respectively. Considering this is a Merlin park, no doubt this means a scaled back Fright Nights this year.

Ah well, it was good while it lasted.
 
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