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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

ItsAllGood said:
The worst part, the batcher was letting all of the fastrack
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Tends to be how fastrack works tbf. If they sold a very limited number it wouldn't have much impact on the main queue. Problem isn't fastrack it's the amount of it they sell. Can't comment on Thorpe as I went when it was quiet but at towers this week I've seen Smilers fastrack queue go up the stairs towards the main entrance. I'd never seen that before and that should never happen it was as if everyone with fastrack had embarked. Merlin just need to limit it more, and scrap RAP and start over again with half the amount of people using it
 
pluk said:
Well, yes? All parks have a capacity and don't sell any more tickets when they reach that. Thorpe did exactly this yesterday, they just did it far far too late.

And a coach full of school kids doesn't just happen, it'll be planned for weeks or months. The schools will book what availability there is even if it is exactly when they want, and the park can incentivise visits at times of less demand to spread the crowds. It's the dynamic thing they keep saying they are doing.

I've been on park one day like yesterday and it is inexcusable.
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Exactly, Thorpe could have realised that some rides aren’t running at full capacity and stopped ticket sales a week ago. Might not have cut down the number of guests significantly but sends a strong signal out it’s going to be busy and we’ve limited it somewhat.
 
But they wouldn't maximise short term profits that way, would they.
The park is there to make money, not give high levels of consumer satisfaction to every customer as best as they possibly can.
School trip season is still limited to a single month in each year, the parks maximise profit, it is nothing new at all, it happens every year.
Profits must be made to balance out the quiet days.
Schools have options to spread their own peak demand out through visiting in other periods, they choose not to.
All parks have been very busy at this time of year for decades, only social media has changed.
 
On the Drayton Manor website when you try to book tickets it comes up with this message before you click to book.
Please note, we are expecting high levels of school trips for the first three weeks of July, all children entering Thomas Land will need to be accompanied by an Adult.
So if you still want to book it’s your own risk that you gonna be queuing.

So glad I booked for Thorpe Park for the end of September
 
rob666 said:
But they wouldn't maximise short term profits that way, would they.
The park is there to make money, not give high levels of consumer satisfaction to every customer as best as they possibly can.
School trip season is still limited to a single month in each year, the parks maximise profit, it is nothing new at all, it happens every year.
Profits must be made to balance out the quiet days.
Schools have options to spread their own peak demand out through visiting in other periods, they choose not to.
All parks have been very busy at this time of year for decades, only social media has changed.
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Even Merlin don't look at short term profits entirely in isolation. They did halt sales yesterday eventually!

Yes, school trip season was always busy and of course social media makes it much more visible when it does, but that's not the only way technology has moved on and this is all now preventable. I'd also be surprised if through decades of regular visiting I happened to miss all those old days when things were this bad, I suspect its because things never used to get this bad, especially not with any regularity like they do now. Previously the vast majority of ticket sales were on the gate so managing numbers was a lot trickier, and they weren't selling fastrack to broken rides.

It's a culmination of things.
 
I can't speak for Thorpe, but I can speak for BPB and Camelot, for a lot of years.
Camelot made all its money from school trips, particularly north west primary schools...that subsidised the losses from the rest of the season.
I refused to do trip volunteering with the kids I worked with because it was so bad...me turning down free coasters.
Blackpool has had early July hell for at least thirty years, especially so since pay one price kicked in.
Before that school trips often meant shepherding the little sheeple in groups round the rides...much easier to avoid on the day.
 
rob666 said:
But they wouldn't maximise short term profits that way, would they.
The park is there to make money, not give high levels of consumer satisfaction to every customer as best as they possibly can.
School trip season is still limited to a single month in each year, the parks maximise profit, it is nothing new at all, it happens every year.
Profits must be made to balance out the quiet days.
Schools have options to spread their own peak demand out through visiting in other periods, they choose not to.
All parks have been very busy at this time of year for decades, only social media has changed.
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Again I pull back of my original statement “which park globally will you achieve only 1-2 rides in a FULL DAY at there park?” It not just during school holidays I’ve experienced it myself, I know so many who will never return now to Thorpe a park soul by because of this reason. Its not just the capacity of guests being the issue, I’m sorry there no excuse. If anything they actually loose revenue on the quieter week days….as regulars don’t want to go back no?

Sorry I’ve never experienced this issue at any
Other Theme parks.
 
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Renowned for them.
It really isn't a new problem, it has happened for decades, and will continue for decades.
Now we have mass reporting on social media...every Jonny and Thoosie is now also a media reporter.
 
Thorpe does have an acute problem with crowds and capacity. To be fair I think the only reason Towers sort of gets away with it is the distance between rides spreads guests across a bigger area so you don’t get the sort of crowds in each ride area Thorpe gets. But then Merlin should adapt each park to work best with its own dynamics.
 
ItsAllGood said:
Queued two hours for Stealth yesterday, it was running one train all day with the second on the transfer track in no state to run. Elements of the restraints exposed.

The worst part, the batcher was letting all of the fastrack and the access pass queue in before the main queue.

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Same today. Running one train whole day, with average 65m queues. Queue times were not right, waited 2 hours for advertised 70. Tried queuing at 11 but operations were horrible, a dispactch around every 3 minutes. Then shut down. Wasn’t better later at 2:00, the batcher was letting far too many people on platform, and people were getting confused as he was not telling people what row to go on. About 4 batches of people each row. Was on the platform for atleast 15m. Once again around 3 minute dispatches. Thought Thorpe said every 69 seconds! 🤣
 
40mph+ winds in the local area all day today, and virtually all of Thorpe’s rides were down for nearly the whole day.

Now, whilst I appreciate the reasons why Merlin are being extra cautious about the wind speeds these days, was it really absolutely necessary for Dodgems and Rumba Rapids to have to close nearly all day for strong winds? I’m genuinely interested to know.
 
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