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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Re: Thorpe Park

For what it's worth, I love collosus, I don't really care that it's rough...it's just a shame to see it such a poor state of repair. In my opinion it's one of the uk's finest examples of theme park landscaping (just behind nemesis).

Looking at pictures from 2002 you can appreciate how much work went into it. :(

Also... Has anyone seen Thorpe parks new marketing project for the swarm?

Www.beattheswarm.co.uk
 
Thorpe Park

Was really impressed by Thorpe yesterday, it was the first time I've been this season and you can tell they've been putting the effort in the last few weeks. The lack of lights in the Saw station and the readded theme music and lighting in the Nemesis station and tunnel was great. Didn't go on X, as it kept breaking down and the queue stretched outside the building, but went on The Swarm backwards. I'm quite impartial to it, I don't really prefer forwards or backwards. The billboard was a nice addition, and it really does like you're coming into it too high.

Other than that, everything was running on two trains (although Stealth opened on one, dunno about the others) and the staff were friendly - particularly on Samurai. I think Thorpe have really stepped up their game.


Sent from Tapatalk, excuse any mistakes.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Yes, I went on X yesterday. It was... weird. And it stopped working for a bit during the day.

Glad we decided to go for two days tbh because yesterday they had an absolute 'mare and almost every single ride had ceased operation at the same time :/ Swarm wasn't open all day (or if it did open it was very briefly before it closed again). Stealth was running quite reliably throughout the day and so was Colossus - but I'd of been gutted if we had of gone for just that one day. The day before (wednesday) was fine. Stealth had a few problems but seemed to run alright and the rest of the park was in action all day. The two days were quite quiet as well so we got a good run on everything more than once, which was probably a good thing since yesterday was basically just walking around looking at a theme park for most of it lol.

Oh and on the wednesday night they had Swarm open until about 7pm, and there was a camera crew wandering about filming it. An advert being made apparently.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

A few Thopre updates from yesterday that are new since the start of the season.

All rides now have funky new LED queue time boards, all the major rides have big rectangle boards (full colour), they show the Thorpe Park logo and then text scrolls with the current queue time, and any other information. Then all the smaller rides have smaller LED boards that just has the queue time displayed on it, with the text in the colour of the ride, which looked pretty good, eg Rumba Rapids had green and purple text.

It's great that every ride has a queue board, including the minor rides such as Tea cups, Rocky Express, etc.

Where the old big queue time boards are there are now new LED screens that looks really good, they are currently showing adverts for things such as Crash pad, I belive they will also display queue times soon as well.


It also seems the park are installing wifi, there are a number of wifi routers around the park, all the same as Alton Towers that were installed last year.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I little bit of Info on the X Update can be found over on the website of the Definition Group. A Basingstoke based Nightclub tech group, specializing in lighting, sound and effects design and installation, who Thorpe contracted to perform the refit and upgrade to X.

Lighting geeks should like the section at the bottom, detailing the exact lights and systems used in the ride.

However the bit that leaps out most to me is this;

Working to a tight time frame, an exact budget
Click to expand...

To me, this confirms that the entire thing was a last min after thought, when the project was originally dropped in favor of #BraveItBackwards, before they went on to decide to do both!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I was quite impressed with Thorpe yesterday, definitely one of my better days at the park, if not my best. Everything was open (I always see this as a massive bonus when at Thorpe) and I think only Stealth broke down but that didn't seem to impact us at all. The staff on some of the rides seemed to be having a bit of fun as well which is nice to see.

As for X, well it is better now that it's forward. You can actually enjoy it rather than want it to be over. Still, as they say you can't polish a turd. It's still nothing special. The lighting is rather nice though!

:)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I forgot to even mention X :p It's certainly a great improvement on the old ride and its nice thats its finally been given a little bit of attention. The whole queue line has been repainted and has loads of new lighting, the audio is also much louder, but it does still have a big dead spot with no audio and just silence! The station has also been re painted and has new lights, however these do seem a bit too bright, espeically when the queue line is fairly dark.

The ride its self is alright, better forwards than backwards and the new lighting rig and other bits looks really good and quite impressive. The only issue was the lack of smoke, if the dome was full of smoke I think it would look amazing. Also the old LED lights are still up on the break runs, but are turned off which seems a bit pointless, I would have thought they would have removed them or kept them on.

The breaks are still the same as before, but I have heard these will be altered by Vekoma so you pretty much go straight through them, which will improve the ride greatly!

The only problem yesterday was there was only one person on baggage which meant we got sent with only three people on the train, as the rest of the group was stuck waiting to hand bags in.

I do think it must have been quite a last minute desicion for Thorpe, as the height board is still 1.4M at the enterance and the old information board has been removed, but not replaced. There is currently a A-frame with a poster in it with the new ride information. Hopefully these will be sorted soon! Also there is no mention anywhere about it being forwards or changed at all. I imagine no end of guests will go on it expecting it to be backwards, only to find its forwards!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

My biggest issue with X is that it still stops at those break points. When they finally get that sorted it will be much better.

Also, if the dome was full of smoke it would look really badass. And would make it worth riding more than once.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

These are the new queue time ride boards (photos stolen from Gagrathea):

Main ride queue time boards:
562368_10201134113455353_1491976624_n.jpg


Smaller ride queue time boards:
315641_10201134114015367_1670915273_n.jpg
 
Re: Thorpe Park

djtruefitt said:
I do think it must have been quite a last minute desicion for Thorpe, as the height board is still 1.4M at the enterance and the old information board has been removed, but not replaced. There is currently a A-frame with a poster in it with the new ride information. Hopefully these will be sorted soon! Also there is no mention anywhere about it being forwards or changed at all. I imagine no end of guests will go on it expecting it to be backwards, only to find its forwards!
Click to expand...

The X staff told me they were expecting new signs. And yes I told plenty of people it went forwards when I was there.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

X was fine, it was an improvement on the old X for a reasonable cost. Its not turned this rather crap coaster into anything special but it has improved it.

Really like the new queue boards.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Think of it like this: The improvement of X from XNWO is like that of a School Student who's gone from a U Grade to a D Grade. At least this is what most people think. I generally think that the new X is a massive improvement and a very fun ride! =)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I briefly mourned the loss of X being backwards as, like Ms GAGrathea, I was secretly loving it for it's individuality and refusal to make logical sense. I couldn't help finding X forwards enjoyable though which, to be honest, I think it's just to do with the (I'll admit it's repetitive) music and laser lights being more pleasing than what we had every other season. I hope they add more effects in such as smoke to make it a bit more disconcerting and 'random' as a newly themed rave ride!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Thorpe Park have just posted this photo on their facebook I thought might be worth showing:

936669_10151587880550867_1679048921_n.jpg


That is bloody awesome! Never before seen angle as far as I'm aware!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

TedTheHuman said:
Thorpe Park have just posted this photo on their facebook I thought might be worth showing:

936669_10151587880550867_1679048921_n.jpg


That is bloody awesome! Never before seen angle as far as I'm aware!
Click to expand...

Really highlights how compact the park really is!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I went yesterday...cracking day it was.

Also to the ride op that was running away from a bee on Nemesis Inferno. Inches away from hugging him...I felt his pain xD.
 
Thorpe Park

djtruefitt said:
These are the new queue time ride boards (photos stolen from Gagrathea):

Main ride queue time boards:
562368_10201134113455353_1491976624_n.jpg


Smaller ride queue time boards:
315641_10201134114015367_1670915273_n.jpg
Click to expand...
Love.

Can someone at Alton put an order in for some of these please?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Going to Thorpe Park for the first time on Sunday and I really want it to be the perfect day out. So, anyone got any tips to make the most out of my day? Thanks!
 
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