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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

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pluk said:
There seems to be some strange wording in that article. For clarity are we talking about the repercussions of what might be considered an alcohol free fun day elsewhere?
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We certainly are talking about that...Seems it caught Thorpe off guard or they didn’t expect a visit this year due to covid
 
ringo said:
We certainly are talking about that...Seems it caught Thorpe off guard or they didn’t expect a visit this year due to covid
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Well quite. If large groups turn up unannounced with an intent of causing a disturbance, criminality and not complying with either the park rules or the basics of human decency then I'm going to be on the sympathetic side for the park here.

One possible advantage of prebook only might give Merlin a means to combat this in the longer term. If they take the time with their extensive CCTV coverage to look back at who they were, who made the booking, what card was used and ban them from the estate. Or where criminal offences are evidenced pass the details to police, the outcome will be a matter of public record and you have a proper ID to ban.

That goes for the actions of anyone from any background. No stereotyping or racism. Just targeting a recurring and serious problem based on evidence of their actions. A lot of work, I'm sure, but well worth it in the long run.
 
John said:
There are accusations of people entering without going anywhere near the main entrance, not a lot turnstile tech can do about that if true.
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In case my point isn't clear, they need to fix the issues enabling fence hopping and the like and get people solely going through the turnstiles so they have accurate numbers.
 
Hang about.... I thought it was just us northerners breaking the rules? Clearly not the case then is it?

Shocking scenes there. The park can only do so much. If morons want to spoil it all they will sadly.
 
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Sounds like a complete nightmare excuse the pun.

I was there on the 9th and it was generally a good atmosphere with the odd one occasion but security were straight on the case. Unfortunately you seem to get that one day usually during fright nights where a certain group of individuals descend onto the park and cause havoc, and it's even more infuriating hearing large gatherings and no masks. Paints the park in a bad light but it's really not that bad.
 
It is bad though for the staff who go assaulted. These are serious crimes that the victims will never forget. A lot of the scare actors are young people who want a career in acting. Most of them are incredibly excited when they get the part. They’re getting paid to act! I’ve seen a lot of comments online saying things like, “It’s Thorpe Park, what do people expect?”. Clearly the actors didn’t expect to get attacked and sexually assaulted or they wouldn’t have signed up for it.

These people are soft targets. Unlike permanent attractions, temporary scare mazes don’t normally have CCTV. The staff are on zero hour contracts and un-unionised. The criminal justice system is in disarray after a decade of austerity. Their employer is keen to protect its brand and doesn’t want the cost and hassle of dealing with the assaults, nor do they want to acknowledge a problem and face calls to stop selling alcohol etc. These are noisy environments with a lot of screaming, so it’s hard for the actors to get help. Opportunists think they can assault staff and if they do get caught, claim they jumped because they were scared. They can say they didn’t mean to punch the actor or grab the girl’s breasts.

Quite frankly I think it is as bad as it sounds and probably worse. In another topic there was a lot of criticism about a vlogger with a Youtube channel, because people didn’t think he did enough to protect girls from predators and support the victims. Here we’re talking about a multi-billion pound corporation with deep pockets. It’s not like this is the first year they’ve done Fright Nights. This happens every year.

Merlin have dished up a bland PR statement about taking these kinds of incidents seriously. How many staff were assaulted and what are they doing about it?
 
Paid a visit to Thorpe yesterday afternoon/evening and thankfully didn't witness any disorder or unsavoury incidents. There did appear to be a fair amount of Security dotted about and all in all, a good time was had. The highlights were walk on night time rides on Stealth and Swarm. Stealth was running so well and I think it may now top Icon as my favourite coaster in the UK. We did all the other coasters too and I also really enjoyed Saw. It used to be my girlfriend's favourite coaster there but she didn't enjoy it too much yesterday.

We didn't do any of the scare mazes but it was nice to see the scare zones in full swing. On the whole, a good time was had by all but there were a couple of issues throughout the day. The process of exiting and boarding the Swarm is a right mess at the moment with parties colliding as they exit/enter the ride. I don't ever remember this being an issue during previous visits. The service (lack of) at the Infinity Bar was also very annoying indeed. We had been looking to forward to an early evening pint or two but after sitting down for a good fifteen minutes, nobody had come to take our order despite the place not being very busy at all. They were clearly short staffed so we ended up having to get up and leave and then couldn't find anywhere else serving Beer!

The only ride I didn't enjoy was Samurai. The cycle went on for what seemed like an eternity and it wasn't enjoyable at all after a minute or two.

We went with a couple of friends who hadn't been to Thorpe in ages and they really enjoyed all of the coasters with Stealth being the number one highlight for everyone.
 
Has anyone done the Roots of Evil scaremaze? I'll be there on Services Day and wondering whether to bother booking. Going to give Platform 6&6/6 or whatever it's called a miss as it was rubbish last year but this one is new, I think.
 
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