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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

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Tried DBGT again today. Yet again headset totally stuffed. Jumping and sliding about. Nearly made me spew :(
Don't know why I keep going on , maybe the small hope one time it may work from start to finish :rolleyes:
 
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Aside from a couple of blips that was probably whoever is in charge of their queue times system hitting the wrong button, it's last full day of service was 11th June.
 
Why does Thorpe feel the need to have planned closures so often? Their rides break down often enough that they could do almost any required work during unscheduled downtime.
 
Surprises this hasn't been mentioned already.... Forp have confirmed on Facebook that they will be open a world's first thrill ride in time for the peak/summer season.

My intial thoughts point towards VR on X, due to the current lengthy closure of the ride...
 
Thorpe does never fail to amuse me really. How far do we have to go back to list their bizarre decisions?

- Removing all kids rides
- Angry Birds Land
- randomly adding a Rockin Tug and Frog Hopper - result, instant family park
- Opening Saw Alive
- Closing Saw Alive
- I'm a Celeb
- part time I'm a Celeb
- DBGT
- DBGT 2
- Swarm
- Swarm Backwards
- Swarm Forwards, again.
 
To me they haven't made a good investment since 2009 other than the swarm which beyond its themeing has a dull ride experience IMO.

Not saying all there ideas pre 2010 were great but they certainly had some momentum behind them and didn't seem to be such a mix mash as they are now.

Also don't forget @Lordy storm surge being the replacement for most of the kids rides which was shipped in second hand and slapped bang in the middle of the park, hiding X enterance (not completely a bad thing) and just being another poor addition to the park.

I am still however hopeful for the future as Thorpe have shown they at least don't mind thinking outside the box
 
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Haven't been to thorpe in a while, so I thought I'd discuss some things I saw at the weekend.

  • I understand the tight security and bag searches, but it was poorly managed. Two 20 minute cattle pens by the enterance to get your bag searched, even though people with push chairs or cool boxes were let through without being searched. I think this defeats the purpose of the security as a lot of people in such a small space just makes it a bigger target (especially as this is before the bag searches)
  • The new ending for DBGT is much better, but the ride itself isn't very re rideable. The scene with the train (not vr) has been made worse though, as it's not really clear what's going on
  • I have never seen single rider queues organised so badly. On samurai, they were loading single riders before the main queue, rather than to fill spare seats. I'm really not sure what the point is
  • The signs on the ride entrances were inaccurate, even for thorpe. Saw was advertised as15, yet the queue was out of the gate
  • Speaking of signs, my person favourite had to be "thank you for visiting... A reminder that car parking is £7". Yes, I'm sure that will make people feel great at the end of the day...
So no, it wasn't the best day, but I have to say that the new merch is actually quite nice. It's a lot like what towers is offering including new badges:

Having problems uploading images at the moment, will edit later

I like having badges for the minor, underrated rides, but seriously, does any other park have merchandise for the hotel. Especially for a hotel as crappy as thorpe shark. I'm amazed that anyone would buy them.
 
To be fair, if Saw wasn't using any of the extended queue line it could have been about 15 minutes.

Thorpe's entrance has never been well managed and extra security certainly isn't helping. I believe Legoland has security prior to the ticket booths, which sort of works as it means there's no queues for tickets. I'm not sure that would work at Thorpe though due to the limited space.
 
Bag searches? Is that what I completely ignored and walked right past earlier this year?

I did the same at Alton last weekend, nobody challenged me.

Edit: they waved people through with coolboxes? LOL those big things are the first thing I'd check.

I heard/read something on another forum that the bag checks were voluntary and you were only obliged to have your bag checked if you were asked, but so many people were so scared of their own shadow that people were literally following the crowd to bag checks because they felt it was the thing to do.
 
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After my visit today, all of the non B&M coasters are a complete mess. Colossus was doing about 350pph, one train operation, and sitting on the back row I could see visible jerks along the train which were subsequently painful moments later especially around the cobra roll, the lift motor doesn't sound very healthy though. Stealth had multiple closures throughout the day, but that may be down to heat. Saw was on and off similarly, being shut for a 45 min period at one point and seems rougher than on my last visit. The flats were working well though with rush on 2 swings and swarm was eating queues. Also the bag checks have replaced the ticket kiosks, so now everyone has to get tickets at the AP building which is a bit of a silly decision.
 
For what it's worth, I spotted John Wardley with management at the end of the day yesterday walking through Angry Birds Land. Could make sense as I would imagine the next project would be in development by now. Not sure how common it is that he's seen in the parks.

Also having avoided Thorpe for years, I was really pleasantly surprised by yesterday. DBGT is a bit weird though, isn't it?
 
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