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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Vik said:
In terms of rides. Everything is running full capacity except Colossus which is on one train with a 50 minute queue and running at a blistering hourly throughput of 336 persons, a staggering 12 trains per hour. 🤔
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Wow that's bad even for Thorpe, this works out at 3.5 minutes in the station, if they were doing it in 2 minutes (which is still relatively slow for that ride) then they could get 480pph or a 35 minute queue. Even better if they had the second train on (surprisingly rare these days), they could be over 800pph with a 20 minute queue giving you an extra half hour to do something more interesting...
 
AstroDan said:
Which food outlets at Thorpe are closed, Vik? And what was the VIBES lunch menu?
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I can’t recall too much what the lunch menu is but it’s pretty poor. Worst thing they also gave us a dinner menu, I assume by accident, which is the usual fare, but when going to order told we can only order from the lunch menu. I ended up with a pulled pork sandwich instead of the 1/2 roast chicken I really wanted. 😂

In terms of outlets closed well pretty much everything apart from VIBES(which closed at 4), Pizza & Pasta buffet, which closed at 5, BK, KFC and a few outlets around park which were also open, and were all shuttered up by 5:30pm, which was 30 mins before park close.

Poor show from F&B which was a shame as other than Colossus being on one train the operations were generally quite good.

Also a poor show in how tired and worn out the park is. Would of been nice to at least jet wash Colossus for its 20th. Instead it looks a hideous rusty mess.
 
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@Vik How were things on the downtime front ?

Colossus is curious, what is it about that ride that has meant it has aged so horribly?
 
S
Vik said:
I can’t recall too much what the lunch menu is but it’s pretty poor. Worst thing they also gave us a dinner menu, I assume by accident, which is the usual fare, but when going to order told we can only order from the lunch menu. I ended up with a pulled pork sandwich instead of the 1/2 roast chicken I really wanted. 😂

In terms of outlets closed well pretty much everything apart from VIBES(which closed at 4), Pizza & Pasta buffet, which closed at 5, BK, KFC and a few outlets around park which were also open, and were all shuttered up by 5:30pm, which was 30 mins before park close.

Poor show from F&B which was a shame as other than Colossus being on one train the operations were generally quite good.

Also a poor show in how tired and worn out the park is. Would of been nice to at least jet wash Colossus for its 20th. Instead it looks a hideous rusty mess.
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Friday it was just baguttes!
 
I’m assuming they close VIBES/Fins/Infinity an hour before close to get rid of day guests, ready for resort guests. If so, why?

Surely it’s a positive thing to have more custom and more revenue…
 
Vik said:
I can’t recall too much what the lunch menu is but it’s pretty poor. Worst thing they also gave us a dinner menu, I assume by accident, which is the usual fare, but when going to order told we can only order from the lunch menu. I ended up with a pulled pork sandwich instead of the 1/2 roast chicken I really wanted. 😂

In terms of outlets closed well pretty much everything apart from VIBES(which closed at 4), Pizza & Pasta buffet, which closed at 5, BK, KFC and a few outlets around park which were also open, and were all shuttered up by 5:30pm, which was 30 mins before park close.

Poor show from F&B which was a shame as other than Colossus being on one train the operations were generally quite good.

Also a poor show in how tired and worn out the park is. Would of been nice to at least jet wash Colossus for its 20th. Instead it looks a hideous rusty mess.
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If park close is 6pm I don’t see the problem with lunch restaurants (particularly Burger King & KFC) closing up at 5pm. Most guests will get dinner after they’ve left the park and for those who do want dinner on-park then VIBES starting dinner at 5pm makes sense as it’s closer to the exit.
For a park close of 6 or earlier most guests will have lunch between 12 and 3 then get an ice cream or donuts late afternoon. People will normally only want dinner on park if the closing time is 7pm or later.
 
venny said:
I’m assuming they close VIBES/Fins/Infinity an hour before close to get rid of day guests, ready for resort guests. If so, why?

Surely it’s a positive thing to have more custom and more revenue…
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Park close was 6pm from what Vik said so it closed at 4 and then re-opened an hour before park close for dinner. Most guests will have lunch before 4pm and dinner after 5pm so those timings make a lot of sense.
 
Looked at my calendar earlier and realized that the day I'm booked to go to Thorpe (April 23rd) happens to be St George's Day. Is there a chance that crowds could be bigger due to that?
 
Skyscraper said:
Looked at my calendar earlier and realized that the day I'm booked to go to Thorpe (April 23rd) happens to be St George's Day. Is there a chance that crowds could be bigger due to that?
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Not particularly, the 23rd isn't in the Easter Holidays in that area so I doubt it will be busier than normal.
 
Rick said:
@Vik How were things on the downtime front ?

Colossus is curious, what is it about that ride that has meant it has aged so horribly?
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Seemed very little downtime. Stealth went down when we were at the front of the queue (which was only around 10 mins long anyway) and we were given a priority pass as we needed to exit the queue line. It was running shortly after and last 30 minutes there was barely no queue, just a 2 or 3 train wait. I am guessing Derren Brown had some downtime too.; I had booked a timed ticket for 14:00, but when we arrived for our booked slot told the wait time will still be in excess of 60 minutes so decided to skip that and went for a beer instead.

Inferno is long overdue a repaint, but was running great, Colossus needs some TLC first though. Sort out the track and the rotten theming, I'm happy for the square wheels to stay for now :).

In terms of food outlets. I get the feeling (or vibe :oops:) that VIBES is now geared towards hotel guests, what with the morning breakfast buffet for hotel guests only, very limited offering on the lunch menu (the food was fine, I'm just bitter I couldn't have my 1/2 roast Chicken :p ),closing early. Also, speaking to a manager there, who was really nice, it seems when it reopens for dinner it is for hotel guests only. Wilderness Bar & Kitchen was closed all day too. The bar part was open but only had Budweiser available.
 
Last season we tried to go get a drink after park close in what is now VIBES, and was asked if we had a booking and if we were stopping over. When we said no we were told it was for hotel guests only even if we just wanted a drink. Every other year we always popped in for a drink after park close to let the traffic die down, and if it’s nice weather it’s always nice to sit outside.
It’s just a shame they’ve done that as they now are forcing yoy put the park at ride close, and strangely turning away your money.

Especially when other merlin parks you can use the hotels all you like even if you aren’t staying.
 
Burbs said:
I imagine you'll be fine. I once visited on National Ballpoint Pen Day and had no issues. :)
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John Leguizamo Christmas Movies GIF by filmeditor

😉😛
 
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