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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

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IanSR said:
When was this, out of curiosity?
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Wasn’t hard to miss Ian, Thorpe weren’t doing a preview event this year and then a week before the 29th the usual lot from passholder groups started to ask where this exclusive passholder day was that was promised because of the weather at start of season.

The park then threw together a two hour extended close (8pm) and allowed non passholder to stay in the park but said only pass holders could access preview mazes.

You didn’t miss anything
 
Cheers, that explains a lot. I wonder if Crabtree continues in his role, whether Preview Weekend next March will get the chop too?
 
IanSR said:
Cheers, that explains a lot. I wonder if Crabtree continues in his role, whether Preview Weekend next March will get the chop too?
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I got told end of season that as of midnight (on the ,31st) he isn't the divisional manager any more

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IanSR said:
Cheers, that explains a lot. I wonder if Crabtree continues in his role, whether Preview Weekend next March will get the chop too?
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Ian Crabbe was appointed Divisional Director on a temporary basis; a caretaker if you will. He's there because someone needs to do the role at all times. Someone new is being appointed, but there's simply a transitional phase where they couldn't start straight away.

Crabbe will have very little influence about anything that happens at Thorpe. He will have his own opinions of course, but he will look to those around him about any decisions which have to made to see what may work in context to the park.
 
Prophecy said:
He will have his own opinions of course, but he will look to those around him about any decisions which have to made to see what may work in context to the park.
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Whilst I agree there wasn’t anything Crabbe could have done in that timeframe, the reason the park is in the situation it’s in is because there was no management even when there was a permanent director.

Enthusiast staff dragged the park into this situation. I mean who seriously thought the year of walking dead was a good idea? It’s alienated guests, resulted in the parks worst feedback and dropped attendance.
 
I'm not really saying Crabtree is to blame for Thorpe's woes (and I have no idea if he stopped the annual pass preview event or whether that was someone else), what I'm saying is, considering the amount of cuts and SBNO rides there have been at Alton under his leadership it seem strange that in some quarters his arrival at Thorpe was welcomed, as if he was suddenly going to fix everything - yeah he'll fix it by cutting facilities to the bone like what has happened at Alton.

But as he isn't working there now he can go back to continuing the cuts at Alton and hopefully whoever is in charge doesn't cull all the flat rides at Thorpe, it's bad enough as it is on a busy day, it would be terrible only having the coasters, but I would say to the guy, first thing to get rid of, DBGT, concept was great, shame about the cost.

IMHO, year of the walking dead had little to do with the drop in attendance, just look at BPB, brand new coaster, attendance down, Merlin midways all suffering reduced attendance, contuary to popular belief the country is not healthy financially and more people are unemployed than ever before (it only seems like figures are down because you get moved off JSA after six months and not counted towards the figures after that - my neighbour has been unemployed for six years, but hasn't received JSA nor been counted as unemployed for the last five and a half years, same for half the estate I live on, most are 'full time parents' living off the tax credits and never working a day in their life), attendance was down because their target audience don't have the disposable income as they used to (people can barely afford the rents in London, let alone a day out) not because of s poorly thought out promotion. Chessington and Lego are aimed at other markets so don't suffer from this as the parents pay for the day out, not the young adult Thorpe's target audience is.

It might have had something to do with it, but it wasn't the entire reason, unrealistic unsubstainable growth expectations from bean counters focusing on RoI probably have just as much to do with the reduced attendance as TWD (which ironically is having a huge upswing in happy viewers thanks to the better storyline and new show runner this season).

ringo said:
Enthusiast staff dragged the park into this situation.
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Said staff member wouldn't happen to be a member of a certain fan site would they?
 
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To me it was like AMC charged them such a horrific amount for licensing (they charged a theme park in America millions for a single maze) that the only way whoever thought of it could get it past the bean counters was to stretch out the use for the entire year.

I'm not sure about Love Island, maybe they were just smoking something. TWD at least has a generic link to fright Nights, Love Island? When I first saw the posters for it, I thought it was some swingers group had block booked the shark hotel or something (I had no idea what the stupid show was until my neighbour told me).
 
IP's have been the downfall of Thorpe.

I'm a Celebrity is a joke and a lot of the negative online reviews reference this. Just get rid of it.

Derren Brown has been a disaster, and an expensive one at that. Just put it out of its misery and nuke it. Again, go on Thorpes Trip Advisor page and put 'Derren Brown' in the search box... It's 90% slating it due to the late opening, long queues and the fact it doesn't actually work.

Walking Dead and Love Island have now also flopped.

Since this IP obsession has started (which they've no doubt blown all the budget on), operations at the park have gone down hill elsewhere in the park. They need to go back to basics and build good rides run at their full potential. It's really not rocket science and will lead to a better guest experience, which then = long term profit.

Thorpe really winds me up now, the place is finished.
 
Whilst I'm not convinced it's finished, I agree with everything else you say above. This year has been the first in about 10 years I haven't been, and frankly haven't missed it.

Until I see some consistent positive reviews coming in (not from the M£rlin fan boys but from people who I actually believe) then I shall not be returning.
 
I say finished ... But if they get a B&M Hyper or RMC I'd come crawling back ;)

It's the mix of average coasters (IMO) and the shoddy service that makes it a waste of time.

I genuinley hope they sort it out. Thorpe was never perfect but it was always pure fun.
 
I actually like the rides, but the operation of the park is dire, and given that I live way up north, about 40 minutes from BPB, around an hour from Alton, and can get to Lightwater Valley or Flamingo Land in half the time it takes to get to Thorpe, which can be combined with a visit to see my parents, it all seems enough reason not only travel such a distance.

All I would be doing days before is worrying over how many rides (in addition to Loggers Leap and Slammer) would be closed, what excuses could be thrown at Collossus only having 1 train on, and wondering what BS excuses guest services could offer me if the Rapids were closed? Last time I was there they said they open them on peak days only.....it was fright nights and the place was rammed.

I am slightly curious as to how much of a mess they have made of X, it was never the best but you knew what you got from it and it was always consistently fun. With TWD I expect it to vary due to staffing/actors, meaning on some days the experience will be different to others, which is wrong. I also fear that they will have taken a ride everyone can enjoy and turned into one a person who doesn't do horror mazes will want to avoid (like my Emma!)

I will go back, but I'm in not rush to do so.
 
Funny enough last time we were there it was Colossus putting everything else to shame, even The Swarm had downtime which is generally unheard of.
 
I don't really rate the lineup at Thorpe (aside from Inferno) but the main issue seems to be their complete inability to think long-term; why spend so much on IP's that will last a few seasons rather than properly investing in infrastructure and customer experience?

They're spending out on theming a family coaster to Walking Dead, yet they have Loggers and Slammer SBNO with no apparent work being carried out on either.

It seems that their investment decisions are marketing led rather than actually thinking about the long term development of the park.
 
I dunno if I’ve said this before but, Thorpe’s target audience is young adults.

Hence why we’ve seen investments of IPs catered towards them, the problem is that IPs such as Saw, DBGT, IAC, Lube Island and TWD do not have the same audiences and it appeals to no one. Find me someone who is a fan of all of those franchises and I will be surprised.
 
I must admit that that is a very wide range of genres in terms of types of IP! I suppose you could say that they're catering for everyone, though!

On a random note, I just thought of something to do with Thorpe's next major project and whether it is coming in 2020 or not; if anyone has LinkedIn, could they check John Burton from MMM's profile? As I seem to remember someone linking to Bradley Wynne's LinkedIn page and it had a load of Alton Towers projects listed, both past and future. And I believe John Burton is the MMM creative in charge of Thorpe Park, so if his profile lists anything like "Thorpe Park 2020 Attraction" as a project and it has a very long timescale listed, then that would imply to me that we'll be getting something major in 2020!
 
Bert2theSpark said:
I dunno if I’ve said this before but, Thorpe’s target audience is young adults.

Hence why we’ve seen investments of IPs catered towards them, the problem is that IPs such as Saw, DBGT, IAC, Lube Island and TWD do not have the same audiences and it appeals to no one. Find me someone who is a fan of all of those franchises and I will be surprised.
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The only people I know who love IAC aren't young adults. My mum (in her 60s) and all her friends love it!

Agree that if they want to go down this IP route they could at least make it appealing to people, rather than "Well I like SAW, but not touching the rest of them". (I love SAW, can't stand IAC, wouldn't go near Love Island if I was paid to do so, not been on DBGT yet although would have done if it opened and didn't have an awful queue all the time, and never seen TWD). Although wasted annual pass this year as the first 2 days we visited were absolutely dire with a coaster count of 0 on day 1, and 3 on day 2. (it was slightly rainy, but not much, and no wind at all really) so haven't been back since. Just not worth the cost of getting down there plus hotel.
 
Matt N said:
I must admit that that is a very wide range of genres in terms of types of IP! I suppose you could say that they're catering for everyone, though!

On a random note, I just thought of something to do with Thorpe's next major project and whether it is coming in 2020 or not; if anyone has LinkedIn, could they check John Burton from MMM's profile? As I seem to remember someone linking to Bradley Wynne's LinkedIn page and it had a load of Alton Towers projects listed, both past and future. And I believe John Burton is the MMM creative in charge of Thorpe Park, so if his profile lists anything like "Thorpe Park 2020 Attraction" as a project and it has a very long timescale listed, then that would imply to me that we'll be getting something major in 2020!
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Nice thought, but John only lists projects after he's completed them / they've been publicly announced.
 
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