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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

What was the capacity towards the end though? There was no cost associated with reserving a timed ticket (either financial or in terms of time, compared to joining an advertised >1hr queue for something else). If they only had a few hundred tickets per hour it's highly likely they'll all be claimed, even if the ride isn't particularly popular.

Without the VR the ride seems pretty pointless on the face of it, don't think I'll be riding any time soon unless I hear it's not a total waste of time
 
KolonelKlink said:
The point’s been made before, but I’m absolutely dumbstruck that since Derren Brown opened some *seven* years ago, the only new ride Thorpe’s had between then and now is a relocated frog hopper. It truly beggars belief – and regardless of the fact a new rollercoaster’s on its way, that Merlin thinks a very loose (and no doubt cheap) reworking of an unpopular white elephant is adequate investment after years and years of nothing says all you need to know.

I mean, it’s truly truly laughable.
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I think the issue with Thorpe is they genuinely don’t know what to do with it. That mixed with a period of low CAPEX across the group just created total inertia.
 
I don’t know honestly what people want them to do with it though. They can’t get rid of it just yet, it will simply be too expensive?

You have this attraction or an empty building. You won’t find Merlin knocking down a new building whilst building exodus I’m afraid.

However, Thorpe Park is receiving investment which has been long overdue. Past 3 years, we’ve had one refurbishment thing per year. Dome, Toilets, Playground.

This year: New Ride, Refreshed theming, Refurbished lower dome, new picnic area and Collosus retrack.

I know most of that should be a given, and assumed that a park should normally do that but I think it’s a sign for years to come. This is definitely a consequence of them becoming a private company


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ML27 said:
I don’t know honestly what people want them to do with it though. They can’t get rid of it just yet, it will simply be too expensive?

You have this attraction or an empty building. You won’t find Merlin knocking down a new building whilst building exodus I’m afraid.

However, Thorpe Park is receiving investment which has been long overdue. Past 3 years, we’ve had one refurbishment thing per year. Dome, Toilets, Playground.

This year: New Ride, Refreshed theming, Refurbished lower dome, new picnic area and Collosus retrack.

I know most of that should be a given, and assumed that a park should normally do that but I think it’s a sign for years to come. This is definitely a consequence of them becoming a private company


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I do have the same kinda feeling that this year is gonna be the turning point and Thorpe is finally getting some attention that it desperately needs after a decade of underinvestment. Although it’s small things like repairs and repaints to things, it’s definitely a start!!

They also want the park to be looking it’s best for when exodus finally opens!
 
The wolrds first ride fully dedicated to VR without any VR. The future of themeparks indeed.

I can see the VR being replaced with some pitch black time in the train, which bizarrely could amount to an improvement with some decent audio and the odd simple effect.

The biggest opportunity is the between ride section, surely they can do something at least interesting with that? I can't quite understand why that section has been allowed to be so pathetic and inconsistent through its life so far.

I suppose the biggest loss will be the preshow, which I can't imagine they'll bother reworking without DB, and was the only thing that worked and was quite impressive from the original experience.
 
John said:
What was the capacity towards the end though? There was no cost associated with reserving a timed ticket (either financial or in terms of time, compared to joining an advertised >1hr queue for something else). If they only had a few hundred tickets per hour it's highly likely they'll all be claimed, even if the ride isn't particularly popular.

Without the VR the ride seems pretty pointless on the face of it, don't think I'll be riding any time soon unless I hear it's not a total waste of time
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I'll check my records but if I'm not mistaken it was about 100 per slot...
 
Skyscraper said:
Yeah I heard that too. Could the ride system be disabled for this version??
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Doubt it as it’s called ‘Ghost Train’ and the ride system is a train.

It’s annoying as whatever they come up with is likely to be a case of square pegs in round holes, whereas the idea of having someone like Derren Brown involved in coming up with psychological ride could have been excellent had the execution been there, which sadly it wasn’t.

I’d imagine that whatever they come up with will be better than the original, but I’m struggling how they’re going to get a decent ghost train out of a ride which was designed to be, in reality, anything but.
 
Benjsh said:
Is DBGT the biggest flop in Merlin History? Got to be right up there if not.

Sad thing is they could have made a world class traditional ghost train for what they spent on it which would have lasted 20 years plus.
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Almost certainly the biggest Merlin UK flop. Next would be the short lived shooting game/ride at the London Dungeon. Also probably the pre-show and cave on Zufari.

I really do think it would have been great if they had built a standard dark ride of some type rather than relying so heavily on VR.

Will be interesting to see how long the AR lasts on the Mario Kart rides at Universal.
 
The ride system is already part way through its maintenance. It’s returning, anyway you can’t go from the floating train to the underground station without it moving.

It could be an awkward experience if there were breakdowns.

The budget they have to spend on the attraction will make or break the hype


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I’m probably in the minority here but I don’t necessarily buy into the ‘blame Merlin’ mantra for the fact that this didn’t work out originally.

I’m the first to criticise when they just go for massive coasters and never try anything different, they at least attempted some originality with this and NST and should be commended for that, granted neither (especially this) worked out but at least the intent was there.

Hopefully we’ll see the benefit of lessons being learnt with the Curse of Alton Manor and whatever Ghost Train ends up being.
 
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