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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Nemesis had that recurring. They never fixed it as it only became a serious issue in the back end of it's last season (along with 3 train error and the lift needing a manual restart by a host occasionally)
 
Returned to Thorpe Park yesterday. We tend to visit once a year or more as we are relatively local. Despite the new rides, I find myself more annoyed at Merlin with every passing year.

Compared with the fantastic EuropaPark which we visited in May (pre-fire), TP is...
  • Messy - Rubbish, overflowing bins, spiderwebs, overgrown plants, etc.
  • Dilapidated - the paving is broken and disjointed, the rides and buildings need a good coat of paint...
  • Disorganised - Clearly there are some decently themed areas (esp. Swarm and Amity) but the rest of it is just random bits of old theming. The area between teacups/Stealth/Thunder River is like some distopian abandoned theme park (https://goo.gl/maps/bjPqjNsmTzfX5oBC8).
  • Broken/Closed - in-line screens, Nemesis Inferno, various food outlets, on-ride photos, bag storage, lockers, most of the toilet blocks (lack of water) - all closed. We had THREE rides break down while we were in the queue line (bear in mind that mid-week some of the queues were 15 mins or less)!
  • Full of idiots - people rushing through gates to try to steal other seat rows? Since when is that a thing?
  • Unfriendly - Staff barking instructions at riders over the top of the in-ride announcements that could tell them the same thing.
  • Stupidly Loud - Why do Merlin insist on playing theme music at 150db?
  • Expensive - Was pleasantly surprised at the prices in Europa Park... Thorpe Park - 6 doughnuts = £25! FRO!
Project Exodus could be the best coaster in the UK but they really need to pick up their game if they want to deliver a good theme park. Alton Towers & Legoland are nicer, Chessington is similar to TP.

Am I remembering Thorpe Park of 5-20 years ago through rose tinted glasses or is it on a progressive decline? I'm not sure I'll be going back again, I just don't enjoy it any more.
 
Am I remembering Thorpe Park of 5-20 years ago through rose tinted glasses or is it on a progressive decline? I'm not sure I'll be going back again, I just don't enjoy it any more
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Many of the above reasons are why I haven’t returned to Thorpe since 2017. Doesn’t seem like much has changed.
 
ecs0set said:
Am I remembering Thorpe Park of 5-20 years ago through rose tinted glasses or is it on a progressive decline? I'm not sure I'll be going back again, I just don't enjoy it any more.
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Maybe 10-20 years ago was a little better, but I think the park has been pretty static since the Swarm opened.
 
ecs0set said:
Returned to Thorpe Park yesterday. We tend to visit once a year or more as we are relatively local. Despite the new rides, I find myself more annoyed at Merlin with every passing year.

Compared with the fantastic EuropaPark which we visited in May (pre-fire), TP is...
  • Messy - Rubbish, overflowing bins, spiderwebs, overgrown plants, etc.
  • Dilapidated - the paving is broken and disjointed, the rides and buildings need a good coat of paint...
  • Disorganised - Clearly there are some decently themed areas (esp. Swarm and Amity) but the rest of it is just random bits of old theming. The area between teacups/Stealth/Thunder River is like some distopian abandoned theme park (https://goo.gl/maps/bjPqjNsmTzfX5oBC8).
  • Broken/Closed - in-line screens, Nemesis Inferno, various food outlets, on-ride photos, bag storage, lockers, most of the toilet blocks (lack of water) - all closed. We had THREE rides break down while we were in the queue line (bear in mind that mid-week some of the queues were 15 mins or less)!
  • Full of idiots - people rushing through gates to try to steal other seat rows? Since when is that a thing?
  • Unfriendly - Staff barking instructions at riders over the top of the in-ride announcements that could tell them the same thing.
  • Stupidly Loud - Why do Merlin insist on playing theme music at 150db?
  • Expensive - Was pleasantly surprised at the prices in Europa Park... Thorpe Park - 6 doughnuts = £25! FRO!
Project Exodus could be the best coaster in the UK but they really need to pick up their game if they want to deliver a good theme park. Alton Towers & Legoland are nicer, Chessington is similar to TP.

Am I remembering Thorpe Park of 5-20 years ago through rose tinted glasses or is it on a progressive decline? I'm not sure I'll be going back again, I just don't enjoy it any more.
Click to expand...
We were there last weekend and had quite a different experience. Yes, some things are broken and that’s annoying, but the park was clean and tidy (tidier than Chessington was when we visited a month ago) people were generally well behaved, and the staff we interacted with were lovely. I’m not saying it’s perfect by any means, but in our 4 visits this year we’ve only had 1 poor interaction with a member of staff, and the last visit seemed really chilled crowd behaviour wise compared with previous visits when queue jumping was rife.
 
zeock said:
That's very interesting, and the doughnuts seem like they are extremely overpriced.
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I've walked past their stores in London a lot, the doughnuts are big, but I'm not paying £4-5 each. But in London there are plenty of places charging £3-5 for a cake so its not that unusual, but they all feel over priced to me, Greggs is only about £1 for a cake!
 
Inferno was testing today! Hopefully a good sign that it'll be reopening soon, and surely means that the "issue with the track" rumours can't be true?

Also went on Ghost Train for the 2nd time and enjoyed it a lot more than the first time, mainly because we did it towards the end of the day and there was no queue. The train ended up only being about half full, so much more actor interaction and overall a much better experience. Guessing that's one of the reasons why the reviews from the press preview were generally a lot more positive.

Not sure if this has already been mentioned but they've also changed the person at the end from a Thorpe uniform to the same outfit the actors on the train wear. Better, but still think it needs to be the same costume as the nuns that come out on the 2nd train.
 
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