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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

GooseOnTheLoose said:
Rider capacity, yes, maybe. Physical capacity of how many people can fit into the park safely, for fire evacuation reasons, or even car park spaces, I don't think so. Thorpe Park has, if anything, actually lost physical space since 2006 overall, rather than gained it.
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Thorpe Park has gained Swarm Island (which isn't connected other than one entrance), Saw Island and the area where the Crows reside since 2006 in terms of physical space.

It did lose quite a bit of Canada Creek to Hyperia and Octopus' Garden to Storm Surge.

It seems to be swings and roundabouts though with space.

In the future, it'd likely gain the island behind Swarm however I can imagine the beach could get a Storm Surge style development soon.

Speaking of the beach, I've seen it with my own eyes and photos on social media of there being some work going on at the beach at the moment with holes in the pool area at the moment. Unlikely to be anything significant but we never know 🤔
 
Matt N said:
It’s a promising sign if the beach is getting redeveloped in some capacity. I personally feel that it’s currently one of Thorpe Park’s weak spots.
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Completely and totally second that! I don't think more than approximately 200 use the beach in a day when it's open and it's more often closed than open.

I'd say any ride would be better than the beach right now in it's current form as it'd help spread the queues around as it could fit at least 4 flat rides, a flume ride or a family thrill coaster or a combination of this. That could be over 1000 pph for the flume or coaster or even more if it's multiple flats. I think it could be better for families year round if rides on the scale of Dobble's Tea Party and the Dodgems were on the site instead of an often closed outdoor paddling/swimming pool themed to a beach.

I think it's potentially easy to repurpose the site into a flume style ride in my personal view as it already has the isolated water system so very keen on that idea 😅
 
Wouldn’t say no to them ripping out Storm Surge as well whilst they are at it. That thing is absolutely minging, the water that sits in the dinghies is grim, the ride area looks really tired and run down, and it’s painful to watch how slow it is to load, dispatch, and unload. Get rid of it and put in a Mack Powersplash as the first thing you see when you come out of the dome.
 
I would get rid of the beach and storm surge, and replace it will a well themed family area with either a family or family thrill coaster, and maybe a flat or 2, as even some teenagers/adults don't like big rides, and there are currently limited things for them to do and if it is well themed, it can be enjoyable for teenagers, adults and people who don't like big rides (like the wickerman).

edit, they could also expand it into the hospitality tent next to the swarm island
 
With Storm Surge, I would say is safe as Depth Charge has really low capacity and in comparison, Storm Surge fits so much better with the target market.

What it needs is faster operations and a boat drainage system.
 
owenstreet7 said:
With Storm Surge, I would say is safe as Depth Charge has really low capacity and in comparison, Storm Surge fits so much better with the target market.

What it needs is faster operations and a boat drainage system.
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I’m going to be frank - how much capacity can they get out of a silly little dingy ride.
Would love them to put a log flume or rapids maybe.
 
Benzin said:
Bin the beach, Depth Charge and Storm Surge.

Nice big new plaza to do some events on, or for the hotel guests to have more options rather than sit in the Dome all evening. Maybe a cred if needed.
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Seconded!

Thorpe really needs a decent, open air event space, and the beach would be a prime candidate. I think trying to cram more rides in would really harm the front of the park and spoil the entrance area. Maybe get something in down the far end where Depth Charge is, but I wouldn’t want something plonked down in front of the dome just to try and fill the space.

A nice grassy (real or artificial) area with a decent stage setup would lend itself perfectly to more events and give a nice breakout area from a day in the park. I’m thinking Big Fun Showtime at Towers but larger and more grown-up. Grass, benches, some outdoor sofas and beanbag jobbies, and maybe pop down a couple of buildings at the sides for a bar and basic snack options. Be perfect for a summer’s evening if stopping on resort. Without going to the extreme of the old MoS nights, you could get a DJ to provide some ambience. It’d be a really nice offering for a UK park. Very Walibi Holland.

Ever since the, arena was removed for DBGT the park has really been lacking a multi-functional space like this.
 
The_bup said:
I’m going to be frank - how much capacity can they get out of a silly little dingy ride.
Would love them to put a log flume or rapids maybe.
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how about something like a sky rocket 2 with a switch track, not amazing capacity but it would be a nice extra coaster to do and could fit within the narrow constraints (not sure if it is too long though)


From: https://youtu.be/kehCX5h9s00
 
The_bup said:
I’m going to be frank - how much capacity can they get out of a silly little dingy ride.
Would love them to put a log flume or rapids maybe.
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Exactly, I'd love to see something like Chiapas replace the Beach and Depth Charge. That is my dream beach replacement.

Higher capacity, rerideable, still thrilling however has a wide audience including those who aren't brave enough for the bigger coasters and those who don't want to get soaked on Tidal Wave. I'd imagine people would love it as much as they did Loggers Leap back in the day
 
I do wonder given Rumba rapids closed early and their running costs now, if the drayton manor accident had happened a year earlier if it would have been Congo river rapids and Rumba rapids that got the chop instead of Loggers Leap and The Flume but given they had already got rid of them at the point of the accident they couldn't so easily get rid of Congo/Rumba as in towers case their only waterride. Perhaps flume/loggers might have been saved?
 
pjanvil said:
I do wonder given Rumba rapids closed early and their running costs now, if the drayton manor accident had happened a year earlier if it would have been Congo river rapids and Rumba rapids that got the chop instead of Loggers Leap and The Flume but given they had already got rid of them at the point of the accident they couldn't so easily get rid of Congo/Rumba as in towers case their only waterride. Perhaps flume/loggers might have been saved?
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It's much easier to dismantle fibreglass troughs than it is embedded concrete trenches. Incidentally, fibreglass also wears out faster. Nice theory, erodes a bit toward the end...
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
It's much easier to dismantle fibreglass troughs than it is embedded concrete trenches. Incidentally, fibreglass also wears out faster. Nice theory, erodes a bit toward the end...
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I'm guessing this is why Drayton Manor were able to get their rapids back up and running much easier than let's say Thorpe Park getting Loggers Leap up and running in 2019.
 
So last Monday I visited Thorpe, the park are definitely struggling with engineers at the moment, so many rides were “scheduled late opening” and you could see them moving from ride to ride to get them opening, with Flying fish being the last to open at about 2pm.

All the ride staff were all just stood outside ride entrances so it wasn’t cost cutting I don’t think.

Luckily the park was really quiet so we managed to get loads of rides in. However it’s a shame that the Oktoberfest is now basically not an event and a complete waste of time. There’s a couple of shows on the stage during the day which no one was watching, even the roaming ents looked bored

A few years back we had Oktoberfest music playing across the park, themed announcements on the likes of Stealth and Detonator and even changes to ride names like the Oompha Rapids. Now there’s nothing. The random Christmas theme is also bizarre for Oktoberfest.
 
They don't even use the ride sound replacements for Oktoberfest anymore? I really enjoyed those when I went a year or two ago, so that's a shame.
 
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