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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

If Merlin didn't have such a monopoly on the UK market (I.E had they dumped Chessington in 2007 as they almost did when they bought out Tussauds) then I don't think we'd have the same feeling as there would be other choices to pick from, maybe those parks would have looked very different to what they are now...just seems that there is a hatred of monopolies in general and the UK Merlin parks are prime targets in which if you get ride one of them either a Chessie or Thorpe then you'd see some actually competition in this country that hasn't been seen in decades.

Then again, Merlin would likely rather go bankrupt than have an actual challenger that puts the running of their parks to shame.
 
Ethan said:
Moaning about everything Merlin does doesn't solve anything either. If Merlin read this forum then I can understand showing your frustration with their operations, but they won't read this so the criticism isn't reaching its target
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I'd love to know how you know for sure that people at Merlin and the parks themselves do not read these forums. And anyway, like I said, this is a discussion forum and people are free to express their opinions. Sometimes that might include some moaning, if you don't like that then you are best to simply ignore those posts rather than try telling people to stop.

Anyway, let's please get back to (moaning about) Thorpe Park! ;)
 
Ethan said:
Don't go then mate that solves the issue. Save yourself some money and don't bother. Or if you prefer other parks then feel free to go to them instead. There's no rule that people on this forum have to go to merlin parks. Do you really think moaning on a forum cus you don't like something solves anything. Merlin don't give a crap what anyone on here says. They make plenty of money regardless to if people on the forum go or not. Case closed
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What a stupid immature response

The point of a forum is to voice options and if I want to comment on the things I personally feel merlin take the p*** or under perform then I bloody will!
 
I agree the monopoly of UK Theme Parks by Merlin doesn't help things in the UK (especially in the South East) compared to Europe. I guess Drayton now been owned by a rival multinational operator (and seeing it as their flagship park) with investors behind it will force them to up their game a bit, and I think we are starting to see the first signs of that within Merlin. I would like to see a group like Parque Reunidos or Compagnie des Alpes owning a park in the UK as I think that would also seriously up the game, the problem is most other UK parks in the UK are independently owned so don't have marketing/budgets to support them against Merlin currently so making challenging them difficult.
 
pjanvil said:
I would like to see a group like Parque Reunidos or Compagnie des Alpes owning a park in the UK as I think that would also seriously up the game, the problem is most other UK parks in the UK are independently owned so don't have marketing/budgets to support them against Merlin currently so making challenging them difficult.
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Yeah, though there are many smaller parks out there that all have varying degrees of raw potential that hasn't really been exploited or has done in the past yet have gone off the boil over the last many years like we've seen with PBB. Give some of these smaller parks something of a decent budget then you could see these parks actually given Merlin a bit of a cold sweat; no need to spend millions to the extent Merlin do but a good solid attraction or themed area like we have seen with Paultons then it would be interested to see how they'd compared with the Merlin parks.

Now to bring this back on topic with Thorpe Park before these comments get deleted, I do wonder if there is a bit of regret of Thorpe's purely thrill direction and getting rid of its family market in which is down having Thorpe and Chessie trying to tip toe around each other for being so close to each other though I would say that compared to Thorpe that Chessie seems to have done better though given its Merlin that's not saying much. Wonder if Chessington had never been made part of the Merlin buyout in which Towers and Thorpe would be their only big UK parks not including LLW then Thorpe might have carried with a family market too and wouldn't be hamstrung with Chessington nearby.

That moment honestly is pretty much the last moment we had for the UK theme park industry not being so monopolised and who knows what changes we might have seen...actually that requires a separate thread discussing this alternate bit of history.
 
Ethan said:
No I just think their parks are much better than the other crap we have in this country. They could improve on things yes but they're leagues above any competitors in the UK
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Not sure i agree. As has been said before Poultons and Drayton have really upped their game recently. Also Blackpool and Flammingoland both have some decent ride hardware complaints about both have been more down to operations.

I think especially Thorpe has suffered from complete neglect by merlin since the swarm was built in 2012. Before then it still had its family areas like Canada Creek and Octopus Gardens.
 
With regards to the vinyls, I hope this isn't Thorpe testing the water to see how much mickey-taking they can do with Exodus next year. Slap a vinyl of the new ride up in the shipping container and charge an extra £100 including a fast track/unlimited. Good grief.
 
JT01 said:
What a stupid immature response

The point of a forum is to voice options and if I want to comment on the things I personally feel merlin take the p*** or under perform then I bloody will!
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Was trying to help you mate so you're not annoyed about things that we can't control. I get that everyone has their opinions on everything but there's no point being frustrated by things that we can't do anything about. I'd love merlin to work on certain things but I have no power to enforce them to do it
 
Ethan said:
Was trying to help you mate so you're not annoyed about things that we can't control. I get that everyone has their opinions on everything but there's no point being frustrated by things that we can't do anything about. I'd love merlin to work on certain things but I have no power to enforce them to do it
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you’ve just said you understand people have their opinions and then gone onto say why they shouldn’t have them a sentence later.
 
Connor98 said:
you’ve just said you understand people have their opinions and then gone onto say why they shouldn’t have them a sentence later.
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As in shouldn't let your opinion eat you up too much. 'It is what it is' that's the best way to approach merlin. They're not disney or europa park and never will be
 
People who are enthusiastic and passionate about something will always be most critical of it. I've been on multiple forums over the years covering a range of subjects from theme parks, to film and TV, to cars... they are always full of people moaning/criticising the subject they are about. That's literally how forums have been since the dawn of time. If you think this forum is bad get yourself to a Disney forum, we would come across as loved-up blind-sighted fanboys/girls in comparison.

It's worth noting Towers/Merlin do read these forums and some actions have been made at Alton Towers in the past in reaction to enthusiasts/activity on Alton Towers forums. The easiest example being Oblivion's Fanta sponsorship.

Anyway, attempting themed rooms (walls covered in vinyl) in the Shark Hotel is laughable. I know a few people have said it's unfinished although what else will Thorpe/Merlin realistically do? Themed bed throw? Themed toiletries? If a wall covered in vinyl is the starting point that kind of makes a statement of how cheap they are going with this.
 
James said:
It's worth noting Towers/Merlin do read these forums and some actions have been made at Alton Towers in the past in reaction to enthusiasts/activity on Alton Towers forums. The easiest example being Oblivion's Fanta sponsorship.
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Well if that's the case then somebody tell Merlin they need to hurry up with the Colossus retrack. I'll be gutted if I miss it when I go next month, not that it's a highly regarded ride but I can't remember it much so want to see how it compares to Smiler
 
I actually quite like the idea of them mixing up the rooms and having say four or five different variations themed to the different coasters so you don’t know what you are getting until you open the door.

Having the vinyl and perhaps amending the LED lighting to suit the theme of the attraction. But that should be the standard not seen as an upcharge.

This is a theme park, not a premier inn - it should be different to what you can find elsewhere to justify the already high price, not trying to squeeze another £60 out of guests for giving them what you should be doing anyway.
 
Forums are for opinions. Take the literal dictionary definition of the word "forum", for example:
a situation or meeting in which people can talk about a problem or matter especially of public interest
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As has already been mentioned, not that it matters but the negative opinions expressed on here have, in the past, actually made a difference. Those in positions of influence do read this site, and equally people posting here have intrinsic connections to people in influence. Hence seeing posts such as this:
Ethan said:
Was trying to help you mate so you're not annoyed about things that we can't control. I get that everyone has their opinions on everything but there's no point being frustrated by things that we can't do anything about. I'd love merlin to work on certain things but I have no power to enforce them to do it
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Are frankly nonsensical. What is your point here? You explicitly state that you "get that everyone has their opinions on everything" but are then expressing annoyance at people criticising Merlin. On a public forum. Please, think before you post @Ethan - people have been frankly more than tolerant of your own opinions in the past for you to have a single shred of credibility in terms of criticising the opinions of others.
 
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