Thorpe Park: General Discussion

[Themeparksandy1981]

From the Thorpe Park website, is this new?

Discounted Thorpe Park Day Tickets | Theme Park Entry

Book in advance - Save up to 35%. Your theme park day tickets give you access to all Theme park events, rides, attractions, selfie spots & much more.

www.thorpepark.com

To be honest there isn’t much for under 1.2m to go on that’s why I waited to my daughter was 1.4m as it be a wasted 2 hr car journey.

 

[VerticalLoop123]

Throwing my tuppence in for a ghosty train review

Spoiler: Spoiler

so queued around 80 mins for the ghost train today- even with the rather nice posters it was a bit of a long one!
The first room was ok- liked the flipping sign, but was rather confused at the whole story. The believers took the train and then summoned the dead seemed rather long and convoluted.
The acting throughout the whole thing was quite shocking- the argument in the first train sounded like a bad GCSE drama horror piece. A lot of us starting laughing as soon as the acting on train started and didn’t stop until we left the ride! The crypt again- confusing and filled with bad acting. Also not the greatest fan of Merlin’s- let’s theme three walls and leave the back plain- just takes away from it all. Again back on the train after a bit of delay- poor fella couldn’t get them to start the dispatch - to which various jokes around striking rail workers were exchanged amongst guests and then… guess what some more bad acting and some nuns. Maybe the next scare maze will be sister act: after dark? I did like the UV light but definitely felt like something was missing.
Again nice to see the shop back but the Thorpe worker acting possessed was one of the funniest things in the whole thing.
Don’t get me wrong - it looks like they tried but the whole thing felt like a miss- maybe if I hadn’t waited so longer or had the delay I would’ve felt better about it.
I think what was missing as well was the wow factor you got with DBGT (O.G or v.2 it’s been years since I’ve been on it!). Seeing the suspended train was definitely a wow moment and the final scene felt very exciting. This just felt a bit of a confusing comedic meh.

 

[tactic]

Spoiler

I think what went wrong with Ghost Train is you could see what was coming from a mile off. As soon as the Station Master in the first scene mentioned that there were the 'believers' that used to live in Chapel Station, it was so obvious that the train would stop there and we would be haunted by some spirits. Same with the fake shop at the end. Having done DBGT I knew what was going to happen, but my mate who was on his first trip to Thorpe with me and had never seen anything about DBGT or Ghost Train knew that there was a scare coming. The way the shop is layed out and the fact that they force you to stand around the 'photo point' that is filled with so obviously fake photos makes it so clear that there will be a jumpscare of somesort. Like mentioned by others before, the acting isn't great, but then neither is it in the dungeons and I think that it's mostly let down by the slightly confusing, however blatantly obvious storyline. I do have hope for the ride though, the 2nd train scene with the UV paint looks awesome and the see it, say it, sort it joke at the end is very clever; if thorpe can maybe get their act together and change up the writing a bit, i think the attraction could end up being half way decent and not a waste of money.

And finally, just to whip up some controvercy. I'm not fully convinced this is a better ride than DBGT, I just don't find Ghost Train scary at all.

 

[Alix]

Does anyone know if Shark cabins guests are now getting their complimentary Thorpe Park Dobble sets? They were announced back in March but I can’t find any mention since.

 

[Tom]

Throwing my tuppence in for a ghosty train review

Spoiler: Spoiler

so queued around 80 mins for the ghost train today- even with the rather nice posters it was a bit of a long one!
The first room was ok- liked the flipping sign, but was rather confused at the whole story. The believers took the train and then summoned the dead seemed rather long and convoluted.
The acting throughout the whole thing was quite shocking- the argument in the first train sounded like a bad GCSE drama horror piece. A lot of us starting laughing as soon as the acting on train started and didn’t stop until we left the ride! The crypt again- confusing and filled with bad acting. Also not the greatest fan of Merlin’s- let’s theme three walls and leave the back plain- just takes away from it all. Again back on the train after a bit of delay- poor fella couldn’t get them to start the dispatch - to which various jokes around striking rail workers were exchanged amongst guests and then… guess what some more bad acting and some nuns. Maybe the next scare maze will be sister act: after dark? I did like the UV light but definitely felt like something was missing.
Again nice to see the shop back but the Thorpe worker acting possessed was one of the funniest things in the whole thing.
Don’t get me wrong - it looks like they tried but the whole thing felt like a miss- maybe if I hadn’t waited so longer or had the delay I would’ve felt better about it.
I think what was missing as well was the wow factor you got with DBGT (O.G or v.2 it’s been years since I’ve been on it!). Seeing the suspended train was definitely a wow moment and the final scene felt very exciting. This just felt a bit of a confusing comedic meh.

Spoiler: Actors

By all accounts, they seem to have slashed/failed to recruit/otherwise maintain/been willing to maintain 2-3 actors in less than a week. This is almost certainly on a trajectory of closure or a spiral of somehow even further decline.

 

[ThisGuy]

Is the motion simulator at the end of Ghost Train still used? Friend rode yesterday and reported that it was not.

Can't remember the last time it really worked well, but it would be a shame and a bit of a waste for them not to have incorporated it into the retheme, considering how much of an expense it would have been to design and install.

 

[Islander]

Is the motion simulator at the end of Ghost Train still used? Friend rode yesterday and reported that it was not.

Can't remember the last time it really worked well, but it would be a shame and a bit of a waste for them not to have incorporated it into the retheme, considering how much of an expense it would have been to design and install.

No idea if it's currently in use or not, but I do know that the motion base was always notoriously unreliable for a number of reasons, and just poorly designed in general.

 

[Rick]

It didn't feature in our ride on Wednesday.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

I read within the TowersTimes review of Ghost Train that the movement of the motion platform has been severely limited because of the new sequence on the 2nd train journey.

Spoiler

I imagine it would be a risk to undertake a Ghost Show if the train is supposed to be moving. As before the hosts standing up had a bar to hold onto, much like an actual underground train.

 

[ThisGuy]

In case anyone wants to see it without traveling to the park, a post on the Theme Park Insanity blog includes a press kit like image from inside the updated 'floating carriage' room.

Spoiler: Image from inside Ghost Train

Image source

I managed to visit the park today thanks to a friend. Ghost Train is ok.
Nothing bad to say about the quality of acting, though the ride experience and story could be improved imo.
It's a shame that they couldn't use the motion simulator due to the staging, maybe it could have worked at start of the ride or after that final scene.

Spoiler: Final thoughts

The ride was at it's best up until the moment you enter the train car
(save for the bizzare never ending television montage)

In other news, single rider queues are just too good for this country. SAW had to send two trains, 16 seats empty due to guest action halting the progress of both queues at the batch point.

 

[TroySmith1]

In case anyone wants to see it without traveling to the park, a post on the Theme Park Insanity blog includes a press kit like image from inside the updated 'floating carriage' room.

Spoiler: Image from inside Ghost Train

Image source

I managed to visit the park today thanks to a friend. Ghost Train is ok.
Nothing bad to say about the quality of acting, though the ride experience and story could be improved imo.
It's a shame that they couldn't use the motion simulator due to the staging, maybe it could have worked at start of the ride or after that final scene.

Spoiler: Final thoughts

The ride was at it's best up until the moment you enter the train car
(save for the bizzare never ending television montage)

In other news, single rider queues are just too good for this country. SAW had to send two trains, 16 seats empty due to guest action halting the progress of both queues at the batch point.

I’m sorry it looked Miles better before! I would honestly say the carriage looked almost Disney quality prior, this just looks well…like the rest of Thorpe park.

Sorry for being negative but they should of incorporated a Victorian carriage into the story and saved so much money ruining yet another ride.

Do we know if any other theme parks in the world moved backwards on rides “quality of theming” or is this Just a Merlin thing? (Not every attraction I will add but on some)


I was hoping to be excited by this project but it’s just not enough to bring me back…after my horrendous experience with Ques a few years ago on Halloween.

 

[Poisson]

I'll happily give Thorpe the boot about queues etc but going on Halloween, what did you expect?

 

[TroySmith1]

This was nearly over 5 years ago I posted a review of my friend who came with us worked for the Mirror. Who threatened to write a story so they paid us off with return VIP tickets.

We basically only managed 2 rides, 0 scare mazes In a 11 hours, The worst food imaginable and witnessed various fights break out, to top it of guest services appeared to be at least a 1 hour que. We have never experienced such a chaotic shambles in all our life’s, some of us did return once for VIP. But obviously a completely different experience as skip the ques, free food and drink etc.

We all said we would never return again and warn people off attending Halloween.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[The_bup]

In case anyone wants to see it without traveling to the park, a post on the Theme Park Insanity blog includes a press kit like image from inside the updated 'floating carriage' room.

Spoiler: Image from inside Ghost Train

Image source

I managed to visit the park today thanks to a friend. Ghost Train is ok.
Nothing bad to say about the quality of acting, though the ride experience and story could be improved imo.
It's a shame that they couldn't use the motion simulator due to the staging, maybe it could have worked at start of the ride or after that final scene.

Spoiler: Final thoughts

The ride was at it's best up until the moment you enter the train car
(save for the bizzare never ending television montage)

In other news, single rider queues are just too good for this country. SAW had to send two trains, 16 seats empty due to guest action halting the progress of both queues at the batch point.

It is VERY obvious they just painted over the Victorian carriage

 

[Rob]

So Ghost Train, which some vloggers at the media event were lauding as amazing, is already having to close between Tuesday and Friday next week for improvements. Thorpe Park have announced this on the Annual Passholders Facebook page, and the website will be updated to reflect this soon.

 

[ItsAllGood]

So Ghost Train, which some vloggers at the media event were lauding as amazing, is already having to close between Tuesday and Friday next week for improvements. Thorpe Park have announced this on the Annual Passholders Facebook page, and the website will be updated to reflect this soon.

I did notice it said it was opening at 1pm Monday and Tuesday just gone. I wonder if they did some improvements on it then? Or just some budget cuts on low days.

 

[tactic]

I just think the volggers were being so positive to try and win qudos with the park tbh. Glad to see changes being made, the ride is too predictable.

On another note, does anyone know what's going on with Inferno now? And do we have an estimates/dates from the park about when it will reopen?

 

[RicketyCricket]

Absolutely shameless some of these vloggers.

Bring back Rag n Bone Man.

 

[Connor98]

I’ve never understood the appeal with vlogging unless it’s a method of income, I guess you can say you have to start somewhere. But I’d rather start with enjoying my day without looking at it through a lens. On another note I’ve yet to experience ghost train but the fact it’s already closing for improvements seems to indicate it was definitely below par.

 

[Zeock]

I haven't been on Ghost Train yet, but I don't expect it to be great.
However, I am sure that it will be an improvement on the awful DBGT.