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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

I personally think that the UK in general needs a coaster with a focus on airtime; Icon and Megafobia have some really good moments, but neither of them really focus on airtime. Something along the lines of Mako or Shambhala would work wonders in the UK, in my opinion!
 
The brutal realities are simple.

Thorpe Park have not delivered anywhere near the quality of which they should for well over a decade now. Guest numbers have failed to increase, in spite of investments such as The Swarm and the absurdly overpriced Ghost Train, which has failed to deliver any kind of return on the investment. Guest feedback is not where it should be and guest spending is not either. The divisional director has been moved on and so have other senior figures.

Investing another £10-20m on a large coaster at Thorpe Park would be sheer stupidity from Merlin's point of view. Instead, they should invest smaller amounts each year for the next few years in order to try and bring the so-called 'resort' up to speed.

I truly believe Thorpe Park is in a crisis at the current time.
 
I was a 15yo teen when the island changed - Detonator, Vortex and Zodiac - It had some magic about it. But Over 15 years down line apart from some amazing coasters no magic has been installed. Themes have been minimal the dome on my last trip was so in need of love and no major infrastructure has been added. Why not spend money on a revamp to the dome and its facilities? Maybe build a newer hub extension where the beach is? To house a food court, toilets and an all seasons indoor activity centre? A high wire course above the crowds (netting and onesies etc of course).

The lower levels of the dome need to be sealed off and used as a scare maze or something, as the smell/humidity is yuck.

Maybe more live entertainment and escapism is what I think the park needs. I really hope Angry birds land goes and a pirate theme comes back. What made Thorpe stand out in 2000 was the Tidal Wave Theme. Big in scale, but with a great upbeat soundtrack.

I only go to TP/AT now every few years as with every visit I see magic being lost.

I feel old when my Tussards annual pass was about £70 a year.

If I were 15 - 19 again would I visit 6 times a year? I doubt it:
  • Not as many shows or yearly events - the summer had a cool blues brother band with a police car. The diving/spiderman show was a break from it all and something you could do to eek out the visit.
  • No Farm to make it a whole day of fun, as you could get through the park easily in a day with rides with about a 30-minute que. We used to do loads of rides, eat and then boat over to the farm. (yep even when foot and mouth was about). Then ride the train back and do more rides.
  • Ok it lacked lots of coasters - But they came out with new flats almost yearly.
  • Free Parking and no paid fast tracks so you bought food and drink from the park rather than a packed lunch, we would even eat in the afternoon with a second treat.
  • Cheaper high-quality food - SJ's ribs were always a must - and it was so well themed.
  • Fireworks show for that last trip of the year.
  • Open later I think - I'm pretty sure in June one year we saw Nick Knowles from DIY SOS go on N:I. for tv and it was basically dusk/dark on a normal day - so was about 9 pm!
Now its basically theme after theme of destruction, bad overlays and no-shows!
 
Thorpe Park represents everything that is wrong with Merlin. Towers, Chessie and Lego still have some qualities from Pearson/ Lego group ownerships including legacy management, the last vestiges of which mostly left in 2015/16 during the redundancies so seem in better shape from a guest experience perspective. That said if nothing changes they will all start to show the same stagnation as Thorpe, as guests stop wanting to be treated like mugs.

MakoMania said:
This is not a crisis, a crisis is much worse than this. (Smiler crash for Alton Towers, trainer death & Blackfish PR disaster for SeaWorld, Rapids deaths at Dreamworld etc)
Click to expand...

Those are PR crisis, but if a park is not running financially viable, has a breakdown of senior management and struggling KPI’s then that is a crisis, just a much less public one. Rumour is Thorpe are not in great shape at the moment. It says something when Towers with its recent history and historically high running costs is doing considerably better than Thorpe.
 
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Crisis:
a time of intense difficulty or danger, a time when a difficult or important decision must be made.

A crisis is not just when someone has died or been injured on a theme park ride! In business terms, I believe Thorpe have a crisis going on. The park is rudderless.
 
@SuperMuscleMan excellent post - early to mid 00's I was of a similar age and Thorpe was at an all time high. I'd say 2003 was the peak, when Nemesis Inferno had opened.

The initial downfall was the chav/pikey era of the late 00's, it just became a bit unpleasant. Since then, Merlin have just butchered it further by a) greed b) poor ride investments and finally the general public realised it's actually just a rip off day out.

At least Tidal Wave and WWTP radior are still going, one of Tussauds finest creations.
 
Thorpe have been failing to get the basics right for years now.

Forget new offerings. Fundamentally, their core product should be:

  • Opening their rides on time with minimal downtime
  • Providing value for money.
It's really that simple. Hopefully the new leadership team will be able to realise this culture change.
 
WickerManiac said:
Thorpe have been failing to get the basics right for years now.

Forget new offerings. Fundamentally, their core product should be:

  • Opening their rides on time with minimal downtime
  • Providing value for money.
It's really that simple. Hopefully the new leadership team will be able to realise this culture change.
Click to expand...
Culture change takes years!

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
 
Anyone know if the new Divisional Director is in place yet or is it still waiting to be filled?

amusingly the outed director is currently the chief operating officer at The Mary Rose :oops:
 
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