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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

The problem lies in that the ride system is an extremely expensive way to simulate something pretty boring. Because it was designed with the idea of VR carrying the attraction it just feels weird without it, however the VR was awful so the whole thing just doesn't work. Needs to be removed and replaced with a more standard dark ride imo, probably not the highest priority though.
 
If they were to remove it, with the target audience (teenagers/young adults) I think a perfect alternative would be an omnimover / TCCAM ride system style shooter high through put, if done using well themed sets it could be a very good, reridable ride.

if there isn't enough space they could install one of the new mack shooting spinning thing

whilst a shooting ride isn't a proper dark ride (I consider a dark rides main purpose to be telling a story, but a shooting ride is mainly about scoring the highest score) I think it would be a good fit.
 
Toy Story mania is my favourite in the "shooting" category. IMHO VR has failed on every ride - Air/Galactica (didn't need it, great ride), Drop of Doom (6FMM - more scary without the VR).

Did Ghost Train once and won't bother again. Novelty value (like Sub-Terra) but I'd prefer AT Cine 2000 to either. (That's how old I am!)
 
Smiley said:
Toy Story mania is my favourite in the "shooting" category.
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I do agree it is very good, I just think with the space they have, and how they may intergrate it as at hollywood studios they have 3 separate rides in the ride its self (picture from park lore, yellow track, blue track and red track are separate tracks) this ride has a throughput of 2400 p/h which isn't that good for disney, due to the space they would probably use a single tracked version would probably only have a throughput of 800p/h, 400 p/h less than the smilers max of 1200.
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image from park lore: https://parklore.com/vault/here-there/2/
 
Smiley said:
Toy Story mania is my favourite in the "shooting" category. IMHO VR has failed on every ride - Air/Galactica (didn't need it, great ride), Drop of Doom (6FMM - more scary without the VR).

Did Ghost Train once and won't bother again. Novelty value (like Sub-Terra) but I'd prefer AT Cine 2000 to either. (That's how old I am!)
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VR has no place in theme parks imo as it's always a logistical nightmare.

For 6 months of the year at Universal Osaka they re-theme one of the coasters as VR (despite it already being an indoor coaster). The queue is always between 2-3 hours. I know the Japanese seemingly have a higher tolerance for queuing than most but that's just not acceptable.

Admittedly i am curious as to the quality of said ride considering the overall high quality rides at the park but 3 hours isn't happening.

The very notion of it goes against what theme parks are for me.

Not that i'm opposed to VR in other circumstances.
 
I really think Thorpe should honour this thread being on page 666 by announcing the termination of this once daemon based service for good.

Its not often an unused building and unreplaced attraction would enhace a parks overall line up, but here we are. C'mon Thorpe, you know it makes sense.
 
flyingguitar said:
I do agree it is very good, I just think with the space they have, and how they may intergrate it as at hollywood studios they have 3 separate rides in the ride its self (picture from park lore, yellow track, blue track and red track are separate tracks) this ride has a throughput of 2400 p/h which isn't that good for disney, due to the space they would probably use a single tracked version would probably only have a throughput of 800p/h, 400 p/h less than the smilers max of 1200.

image from park lore: https://parklore.com/vault/here-there/2/
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Sorry I know it is taking the thread on a tangent but what on earth is going on in that diagram?
 
Bowser said:
Sorry I know it is taking the thread on a tangent but what on earth is going on in that diagram?
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it is the lay out of the ride and queue, I am not sure how much about the ride you know, but for anyone who dosn't:

The ride vehicles are long and have 2 seating sections, each sections have 2 rows of 2 back to back and are able to rotate according to the computer (think spinball spinning section with a motor and some guns), these rotate as they go pointing the riders towards the screens where they shoot the parts (a screen in the diagram) 1727899802568.png



I will ignore the queue sections as that isn't important, there are different tracks, 3 of which are the ride experience tracks, there are 2 halls, one hall has the red track, the other is more complex

1727899943262.png
the easiest to understand is the red track the train will leave the load platform (it has a station similar to rita) and follow the red line round if needed a train can be removed onto the grey track, this is a stand alone ride essentially and think of it like gangster granny with screens and a different vehicle

1727900051508.png
the other hall is more complex, the vehicle will leave the load unload station (it has a station similar to the smiler) and it will follow the green track to the first set of screens (towards the left/vehicle storage), this first round is shorter and introduces the game, it then travels to either the blue or yellow track depending on which is available, there it then stops at each screen to do the round, on the last set of double screens it moves through to allow 2 vehicles in one section as the last section is a bit longer, then both yellow and blue track merge onto green and the final screen shows the a bonus and to the station, the purple loop is the disabled access station and grey track is the vehicle storage.
 
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It doesn’t help that the load and unload is absolutely wrong on the two track warehouse. The queue has a second story the descends down to where the diagram says “unload”, essentially the unload and load got switched in the drawing
 
flyingguitar said:
it is the lay out of the ride and queue, I am not sure how much about the ride you know, but for anyone who dosn't:
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Thank you for the detailed response!

So are the 3 tracks essentially an identical experience and it’s to maximise capacity? Or are you randomly allocated and get a different ride?
 
Enter Valhalla said:
It’s been reported in Memories of Thorpe Park Facebook page that Thorpe have installed a MC Donald’s takeaway truck for Fright Nights. Interesting move when you consider that Merlin kicked Mc Donald’s out of Alton and Chessington back in 2009, and replaced them with BK.
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Hoping this is a trial to see how successful it would be and possibly integrate into Thorpe Park and the other Merlin parks 🤔

I'd love to see a Nandos on park at some point, I think this would fit in quite well with Thorpe Park's millennial and Gen Z target audience 🤩
 
Enter Valhalla said:
It’s been reported in Memories of Thorpe Park Facebook page that Thorpe have installed a MC Donald’s takeaway truck for Fright Nights. Interesting move when you consider that Merlin kicked Mc Donald’s out of Alton and Chessington back in 2009, and replaced them with BK.
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That is interesting. McDonald's is often better than the average Aramark food.
 
ringo said:
The McDonald’s trucks have appeared at the park before when it’s been bought out / private events, this year though McDonald’s appears to be a Fright Night sponsor for tonight’s event so it’ll be part of that deal.

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Photo courtesy of TPG
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I don’t mind sponsors like this.

Although, with all that budget… some of trailers new rooms are a bit uhh… budget.
 
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