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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

While Thorpe Park do sell a a lot of fastrack, I don't think this is the reason the queues get so long.

The fact is, that on busy days and special events, the park is just really popular, and therefore a lot of fastrack being sold is a symptom of success. There are still plenty of times of the year to visit the park where you will find barely a queue in sight, Fright Nites is not one of those times.

Proximaty to London, and the ever increasing popularity of Halloween festivals ensures that Thorpe Park will be completely rammed for Halloween for many years to come. It was the same story when their were only 2 major coasters and 2 mazes when I went in 2003 (2 hour queues for all 4). And this was in the days of free fastrack! As the park has expanded (rapidly), it's popularity has increased faster than new capacity.
 
Sku said:
While Thorpe Park do sell a a lot of fastrack, I don't think this is the reason the queues get so long.

The fact is, that on busy days and special events, the park is just really popular, and therefore a lot of fastrack being sold is a symptom of success. There are still plenty of times of the year to visit the park where you will find barely a queue in sight, Fright Nites is not one of those times.

Proximaty to London, and the ever increasing popularity of Halloween festivals ensures that Thorpe Park will be completely rammed for Halloween for many years to come. It was the same story when their were only 2 major coasters and 2 mazes when I went in 2003 (2 hour queues for all 4), and as the park has expanded (rapidly), it's popularity has increased faster than new capacity.
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Yes but the fast-track model doesn't work for low capacity scaremazes. Thats one of the reasons Alton Towers switched to charging for mazes instead.

Lots of fast track being sold for coasters is them being greedy. A small amount of fast track makes them more valuable and keeps the regular queue moving. Too many fast-track sold and the regular queue moves slower and the fast track queue gets too long as they oversold.
 
jon81uk said:
Yes but the fast-track model doesn't work for low capacity scaremazes. Thats one of the reasons Alton Towers switched to charging for mazes instead.
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Yeah I agree. I'm surprised that Thorpe Park haven't switched to the Alton Towers model already. Low capacity attractions that are only open for a few weeks a year, when the park is busiest, and are incidentally the most popular attractions at the park. It's a recipe for disaster.

In a way Thorpe Park have already switched to the Alton Towers model, but offer a free standby queue to please those who don't want to pay. However this leads to a very sour guest experience, so I think they should scrap stand by.

While I would love mazes to be free, they are too low capacity for such a popular park. Stick an upcharge on all of them as far as I'm concerned. Even if you go someone like Tullys Farm with no where near the level of attendance, you still have to pay individually for each scare maze. And they attract sizable queues still!
 
Sku said:
Yeah I agree. I'm surprised that Thorpe Park haven't switched to the Alton Towers model already. Low capacity attractions that are only open for a few weeks a year, when the park is busiest, and are incidentally the most popular attractions at the park. It's a recipe for disaster.

In a way Thorpe Park have already switched to the Alton Towers model, but offer a free standby queue to please those who don't want to pay. However this leads to a very sour guest experience, so I think they should scrap stand by.

While I would love mazes to be free, they are too low capacity for such a popular park. Stick an upcharge on all of them as far as I'm concerned. Even if you go someone like Tullys Farm with no where near the level of attendance, you still have to pay individually for each scare maze. And they attract sizable queues still!
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Or they leave 1-2 mazes as standby only, no fast-track at all to keep people who want "free" happy, then charge for timed tickets for everything else.
 
No reason not to have more mazes to deal with capacity either. When I went to Knotts Berry Farm in LA, they had 15 scare mazes. They were all free, and we didn't queue more than 10 minutes for any of them.

Thorpe Park has space concerns, but I can think of a few spots for at least a couple more.

Incidentally nothing quite desensitizes you to scaremazes quite like going through 15 in a single evening.
 
When I went to scarefest (AT) the other day, I found all the mazes walk on. I don't think I would have waited an hour and a half for a maze that's not as good if I had visited thorpe instead. I think they should switch to paid for at least some of the mazes. Even time slots giving, even if the maze is free. Id rather pay £8 (towers single maze) and wait 20 min, than 120 minutes for free. At least paying you'll get every maze done and still get rides.
 
Leah said:
Even time slots giving, even if the maze is free. Id rather pay £8 (towers single maze) and wait 20 min, than 120 minutes for free.
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I'm sure the maze fastracks at Thorpe are actually cheaper than that. That's certainly something I object to in terms of Towers' pricing structure.
 
FarGone said:
I'm sure the maze fastracks at Thorpe are actually cheaper than that. That's certainly something I object to in terms of Towers' pricing structure.
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£16 (pass holder multi ticket) for all 3 mazes isn't too bad though, considering that they rarely get above 20 minutes unless they are having problems with the maze. Obviously it would be more for all the mazes at thorpe (unless some were free) because there are more mazes. But I would personally prefer them to be paid.
 
Maze fastrack at Thorpe is £25 (for all) and you still have to queue as they sell so many.

:)
 
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Fastrack was most certainly over sold when I visited the other week. The main queue for big top was very short, yet we queued an hour and half for it due to the fastrack queue. The fastrack queue never got any shorter all night, it was always out the entrance. They were sending three or four fastrack groups and then one main queue group.

It showed a lot when the next evening when the park was quiet the queue was about 20 mins and had no fastrack queue.

It doesn't help when they have staff at the entrance to the mazes with signs saying "buy fastrack here" and the staff telling you as you enter the queue that it's a massive queue line and quicker to buy fastrack.

It's always the same at thorpe, the park is great when quiet and you can do everything multiple times within a few hours, but when it's busy it's hell on earth. The park is busy, rides can't cope, they break and Thorpe massively over sell fastrack.
 
Sku said:
The more fastrack they sell the longer the queue gets the more fastrack they sell. It's a solid business model.
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Oh absolutely. In terms of profit it's an absolutely no brainier!

However, for a park that is part of a company constantly bleating on about being second only to Disney, it just proves the cavernous gap in customer service. I don't mind being exploited for cash at Disney because they're overly nice about it... At Thorpe I'm pushed to my limits of frustration and desperation until I feel that parting with my cash for Fastrack is my only option to salvage my day.

FUN AND MAGIC!
 
The difference with Thorpe and say Disney & Europa-Park is that at the latter two you are happy to spend money as you are actually enjoying your day, at Thorpe you often feel like you have to spend even more money just to make the day feel worthwhile.
 
Danza91 said:
The difference with Thorpe and say Disney & Europa-Park is that at the latter two you are happy to spend money as you are actually enjoying your day, at Thorpe you often feel like you have to spend even more money just to make the day feel worthwhile.
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Absolutely. At Disney when you pay premium you generally get premium. At Thorpe Park you have to pay a premium just to get what you expected was standard.
 
I think the main problem that Thorpe Park has is that whatever they do they will receive criticism. The mazes are popular but if they were to introduce a charge everybody would be moaning about that. They really can't win. I think people have misunderstood my comment about my favourite part of Big Top being the bit in between the tents. Doesn't mean I didn't think much of the inside of the maze, just thought that in the dark it was a nice little touch being able to go outside where there was room for more quality theming and a section that 'non-riders' can enjoy without going through the maze.
 
I just posted the Chessington 2016 opening times up so thought I would do the same with Thorpe as they are up on the website.

Annual pass preview days 12th&13th March
Main season - 17th March to 2nd November
Fright Nights 7-9, 14-16, 21-31st October

Park closed:
September 13,14,20,21,22,27,28,29
October 4,5,6,11,12,13,18,19

Midweek closures seem more surprising at Thorpe than Chessington since 2016 is their big CapEx year.
 
Wow, that's major cost cutting. Will be interesting to see if substantial cuts like this take place alongside or instead of other cuts.

:)
 
Absolutely, you would hope the money saved would mean the end to staggered openings and improvements in preventive maintenance to improve ride availablilty (oh and some bloomin upkeep of theming/rides etc) but I am not too confident.
 
Id rather not see parks have any cutbacks but I guess it was inevitable after this year...

If cuts have to be made though I would prefer that super off peak days be closed (as they appear to be doing) and use that money to reduce the need for staggered openings or ride closures. Though the cynic in me would say that these will still happen on top of the midweek closures.
 
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