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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

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I have a real soft spot for Samurai. I do enjoy it, but it’s deffo not a patch on the traveling models I’ve ridden since.

Just be warned that one side of your head/face will become very well acquainted with the side of the restraint :tearsofjoy:
 
Thorpe Park have today announced that there will be 2 new events for 2022; Mardi Gras and Carnival:


The park’s event calendar for this year is as follows:
  • Mardi Gras: 19th May-19th June
  • Carnival: 22nd July-28th August
  • Oktoberfest: 2nd-25th September
  • Fright Nights: 1st-31st October
Intriguingly, it appears that ParkVibes isn’t returning for 2022. Was it not hugely successful or something, then?

Sounds like a fair events lineup this year, don’t you think?
 
AstroDan said:
It's a shame that a lot of this is just cut-down versions of Alton Towers. I would like variety.

I bet VIBES ---> Carnival.
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Of course you can think whatever you like, but for my money, this is more events than last year, and considerably more events than pre-COVID, so surely that’s worth celebrating?
 
Matt N said:
Of course you can think whatever you like, but for my money, this is more events than last year, and considerably more events than pre-COVID, so surely that’s worth celebrating?
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The proof will be in the pudding, quality over quantity for me - but impossible to judge this year until these events happen. This year will be hopefully be much better across the parks as we shouldn't have self isolation rules ruining entertainment options and staffing. That's very much what we saw from the VIBES event, so it's likely why we're seeing it being ditched and replaced.

However as a pass holder, I agree with Dan it'd be nice to see some variety across the parks. I'd like to see some variations to encourage visiting the different parks in the portfolio. Do I really want to see an Oktoberfest and Mardi Gras event at two different parks? Or would it be better having different events to encourage people to travel to both parks and experience them? The theme parks have unique identities as it is, and that should trickle down to their events too.
 
Matt N said:
Of course you can think whatever you like, but for my money, this is more events than last year, and considerably more events than pre-COVID, so surely that’s worth celebrating?
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I am a Merlin Annual Passholder and, speaking solely for myself, I have little interest in an Oktoberfest event at Alton Towers AND one at Thorpe Park. Mardi Gras at Alton AND Thorpe Park. The Thorpe events are likely to be watered down versions of those at Alton.

If the events were different, I would have probably checked one out (like I did with VIBES last year).

Sure, it's better than no events. Of course it is. But you know - variety is the spice of life.
 
As the start of the 2022 season is little more than a Month away is there any update on the status of Rocky Express, Timber Tug Boat and Lumber Jump? I have heard these rides have been sold. In conflict to this I was told that the trio of rides are still at Thorpe. My hypothesis is that Thorpe tried to flog Rocky Express,Timber Tug Boat and Lumber Jump but had no takers. I would not be shocked if the rides were rethemed and relocated to the former WET Wet Wet site. Both Timber Tug Boat and Lumber Jump are rides that could easily be rethemed,in fact Frog Hopper at Alton Towers is an identical ride and quickly rethemed last year. As for Timber Tug Boat Thorpe could buy some props change the name and bravo you have a new ride. Someone who doesn’t know the history of Thorpe would probably say it’s impossible to retheme and relocate Rocky Express. This statement would be incorrect. In the mid 90’s the ride was removed from Octopus Garden relocated to Canada Creek/Old Town and became Rocky Express. Having this knowledge coupled with the fact that the ride was still at Thorpe less than a Month ago leads me to believe Rocky is going to have a second relocation. Incidentally Rocky had an extensive renovation last closed season,I believe that this was too prepare the ride for a relocation.
 
Just noticed that the Thorpe Park app has been updated for the new season. :)

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Out of interest, why is it that people always say Thorpe’s rides are so unreliable? I don’t think I’ve ever had a day there where more than one ride has broken down… am I just striking the park on good days?

I’ve also never experienced them running coasters on only 1 train, to my knowledge… from memory, they’ve always run on full capacity (or at least, 2 trains on everything bar Saw and multiple cars on Saw).

Am I just visiting Thorpe on good days, or is this based on the Thorpe of the past instead of the Thorpe of now? I’ve spent 9 days at Thorpe overall, though, so it’s not like I’ve hardly ever visited.
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest, why is it that people always say Thorpe’s rides are so unreliable? I don’t think I’ve ever had a day there where more than one ride has broken down… am I just striking the park on good days?

I’ve also never experienced them running coasters on only 1 train, to my knowledge… from memory, they’ve always run on full capacity (or at least, 2 trains on everything bar Saw and multiple cars on Saw).

Am I just visiting Thorpe on good days, or is this based on the Thorpe of the past instead of the Thorpe of now? I’ve spent 9 days at Thorpe overall, though, so it’s not like I’ve hardly ever visited.
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Thorpe Park's technical services was overhauled a few years ago, and it has been much better since then. The park's main issue now is just general operations (throughputs) and fastrack sales.

Between, I would say, 2006 and 2018 - Thorpe Park's reliability was shocking.
 
AstroDan said:
Thorpe Park's technical services was overhauled a few years ago, and it has been much better since then. The park's main issue now is just general operations (throughputs) and fastrack sales.

Between, I would say, 2006 and 2018 - Thorpe Park's reliability was shocking.
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That’s interesting to know; cheers @AstroDan! The bulk of my Thorpe visits have been 2018 or later, which might explain why I’ve never experienced the 1 train services and poor reliability that many talk about.

In terms of operations; I don’t feel they do a bad job, personally. The staff always seem to be working hard on the ride platforms, and the attained throughputs are by no means terrible; Swarm consistently attains around 950pph, and Stealth and Inferno attain around 850pph in general. Admittedly, Colossus is a bit lower than the others, at 600pph or so (it varies; I got 550pph one visit and 650pph another), but team Colossus always seem to be working really hard, so I don’t really know what else they could do.
 
Thorpe reliability (and ride availability) used to be dreadful. Going back 10-15 years or so there was a scrolling message at the top of the website listing closed rides and there was almost always at least one ride closed on any given day. In my 10 visits between 2007-10 I think there were only about 3 where they manage to get all rides open at any stage, that's before you add on all the breakdowns that happened during the day. It got so bad I created a set of Thorpe Park bingo cards - each one had a 3x3 grid of rides and the aim of the game was to create a line of closed attractions

Reliability has improved but operations have seemingly got worse, Swarm should easily get 1000+, likewise Inferno. The fact that Stealth and Inferno are in the same area is a pretty damning reflection on how poor Inferno is operated - there's no way a 20 seat Intamin coaster should be able to match a 28 seat B&M.
 
That's good to hear, me and my friends are going on a Monday in early may so hopefully it'll be good fun, hoping on relatively short queues and definitely want to get as much as we can done.
 
I think the fact that Thorpe is so small makes closed rides feel worse and more noticeable. You can pretty much see the whole park, so it’s very easy to notice when rides go down, and when Down for a while with queue lines emptied it’s very noticeable quickly across the park. Compared to larger more spread our theme parks.
 
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