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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Galaxy said:
Had a great day at Thorpe today. Operations were really good across all the rides and so much better than my last visit. Was good to see Colossus back open and it was riding pretty well too :)

Ghost Train didn’t end up opening until after 2pm which meant it was only open for about 3 hours before the park closed at 5, but luckily we still managed to ride it with about an hour wait getting in the queue just before ride close.
The first train was very underwhelming in all honesty and there was pretty much nothing going on except the dialogue between the actors. The second train was a lot better - an actor appeared on the train which made for a good scare and there were some great UV effects.

Also the fake shop ending is back, but the scare came from just a normal worker in a Thorpe Park uniform which was far from scary. Not sure if they were short on actors or if that was intentional, but it was pretty anti-climatic!

My brief spoiler free thoughts are that it was much better than the state DGBT was in when I rode that last year but far from “amazing” like I've seen some people saying. Much more of a show than a ride, very actor-led and benefits from a better told storyline than DGBT had. All the actors were doing the best they could and there were some impressive effects but I don't think it's something that I'd want to queue a long time for to do again, personally.
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I'm glad that the fake shop ending is back, but it's unfortunate that it seems to have been neutered. I'm glad that Ghost Train is an improvement on DBGT, although that isn't hard.
 
How many actors does this new iteration of Ghost Train need? By the sounds of things it’s on the scale of say a small Dungeons such as Towers or Warwick without the revenue from people having to pay to enter.

It feels very unsustainable.
 
Opening hours are already very limited. I suspect they will be more so on off peak days.

Doubt it will be costing more to run than the Alton Towers Dungeons.

Probably a very similar number of paying customers as well...
 
AT86 said:
How many actors does this new iteration of Ghost Train need? By the sounds of things it’s on the scale of say a small Dungeons such as Towers or Warwick without the revenue from people having to pay to enter.
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It appears that the performers have replaced the ride hosts on the attraction. So it wouldn't surprise me if it actually uses the same number of staff as DBGT overall.

Obviously performers are paid more than hosts, but without the overhead costs of 60 PC's running VR and no IP costs would mean it probably has a similar operational budget to DBGT.
 
I'm willing to put money on 3 years of operation before going to a Fright Nights only thing - before it dies a death - much like the escape rooms and I'm A Celeb.

It's a decent-sized building, so pop a nicely themed Intamin Multi-Dimension Coaster in there and we'll get off your case Thorpe ;)
 
I honestly suspect that if they waited until they had a larger budget, they could have gutted the whole thing out and make a good old fashion dark ride in it's place which in terms of operations and staff coat would have been a much better attraction all round. It's good to see Thorpe going for a non IP attraction which I'm happy for but still...just think that space could have been put to better use.
 
The concern about the cost of actors makes me wonder if folk understand the cost of maintenance on a large roller coaster or water ride and the associated costs of engineering staff and consumables.

All rides have running costs associated with them.
 
Please feel free to put spoiler tag I don’t know how to do it *

It sounds like it just lacks window screens or projections in the first train scene. Then the shop finale scene, needs an animatronic or scary prop to reveal on to the old stage (to save money on one less actor) Another cheaper and effective way is have the fake shop assistance wearing a backwards costume, so when she turns around with music and lights it’s much more effective!

On the quieter days they could probably get away with 1 faceless nun appearing on the train and one less actor in the main room.

Overall It’s a 15 min-20 min experience tho “one of the longest dark rides in the world” So it does soak up the crowds justifying the amount of staff to be honest. You could argue it’s an experience like no other and there might be a fair few people who do prefer this type of filler attraction than the big rides.


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TroySmith1 said:
Please feel free to put spoiler tag I don’t know how to do it *

It sounds like it just lacks window screens or projections in the first train scene. Then the shop finale scene, needs an animatronic or scary prop to reveal on to the old stage (to save money on one less actor) Another cheaper and effective way is have the fake shop assistance wearing a backwards costume, so when she turns around with music and lights it’s much more effective!

On the quieter days they could probably get away with 1 faceless nun appearing on the train and one less actor in the main room.

Overall It’s a 15 min-20 min experience tho “one of the longest dark rides in the world” So it does soak up the crowds justifying the amount of staff to be honest. You could argue it’s an experience like no other and there might be a fair few people who do prefer this type of filler attraction than the big rides.


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Button number four along the top of the reply box is the spoiler maker.
 
Rick said:
The concern about the cost of actors makes me wonder if folk understand the cost of maintenance on a large roller coaster or water ride and the associated costs of engineering staff and consumables.

All rides have running costs associated with them.
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Think though when you start adding a number of actors at whatever it is an hour (£10+ min?) should cuts need to be made those are the first things to go. Running costs in the long run are very negligible and are far easier to work against the park turnover.

You can't exactly save money by making Smiler only do 12 inversions. Hex you could theoretically cut the pre-shows (or do what Asterix are seemingly doing with their Madhouse) for similar situation but you're saving money off a projector and some random effects rather than 5-10 staff members.
 
Benzin said:
Think though when you start adding a number of actors at whatever it is an hour (£10+ min?) should cuts need to be made those are the first things to go. Running costs in the long run are very negligible and are far easier to work against the park turnover.

You can't exactly save money by making Smiler only do 12 inversions. Hex you could theoretically cut the pre-shows (or do what Asterix are seemingly doing with their Madhouse) for similar situation but you're saving money off a projector and some random effects rather than 5-10 staff members.
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Kassandra was running on my visit to EP where you walked past every preshow that was inactive and just boarded the swing. Very odd. Not sure what savings are to be had running a ride this way compared to sacking off a load of actors
 
Poisson said:
Kassandra was running on my visit to EP where you walked past every preshow that was inactive and just boarded the swing. Very odd. Not sure what savings are to be had running a ride this way compared to sacking off a load of actors
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Kassandra doesn't have any preshows.

It's the best thing about it.
 
Rick said:
The concern about the cost of actors makes me wonder if folk understand the cost of maintenance on a large roller coaster or water ride and the associated costs of engineering staff and consumables.

All rides have running costs associated with them.
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As John says the evidence suggests these costs are a factor as so many actor led experiences have closed.

They are low capital high revenue investments and therefore easy to cut when budgets are reduced centrally.
 
I can see lots of actor cuts in the future for Ghost Train, so hopefully, they aren't too integral to the ride. At Fright Nights, most of the actors will probably be diverted to the mazes as well.
 
zeock said:
I can see lots of actor cuts in the future for Ghost Train, so hopefully, they aren't too integral to the ride. At Fright Nights, most of the actors will probably be diverted to the mazes as well.
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I know some actors who were on scare zones last year are doing ghost train this year so that's not an unreasonable assumption.
 
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