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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

I think the more urban location helps as you can stay later because there isn't the driving via A/B roads to do, its quicker for many to get home from Thorpe. Plus the average age of Thorpe guests is probably higher, whereas at AT any CBeebies age kids would need to leave earlier to get them home for dinner and bedtime. This also works for staff too, they probably have less far to travel so are able to work later more easily.

I think AT could do those sort of hours too, maybe keeping the 5pm for longer in June to focus more on the holidays and even closing CBeebies an hour before the rest of the park would be a sensible option, but they choose not to try harder or pay enough to make staff want to work the longer hours, as you don't get paid for the commute there is no incentive to drive for an hour to work a long shift at AT when Aldi is closer to home.
The closure of the Stafford campus of Staffordshire University didn't help with this either. Although Stafford is further away than Stoke, at the time it had far fewer employment opportunities for students than Stoke. Bundled with park provided transport it wasn't a bad option for many students.
 
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The first phase of repainting colossus is complete! Now their attention is on the Theming.

From: https://twitter.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1744817860742889594?t=NkBC0zgNzQ-coWmollyAJw&s=19

Just beat me to it! Really happy to see them enhancing and bringing the theming back to glory. Was always such a beautiful part of Thorpe... I know this Sparkle project isn't cutting the mustard with some, as it should be 'general maintenance' but I genuinely love to see it!
 
Looking at the post that goes with the photos, the blue is for the shop/artwork features in the tunnel 😊
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Thanks for clarifying that! It's great seeing how much love Colossus is getting for this year. Whilst I know it's never had the widest appeal in terms of ride experience among Enthusiasts, I think we can all agree that it one of the best themed Rides at Thorpe Park and how it's landscaped. It'll be amazing to see the final product in person. If you told me a few years back that Colossus would be mostly restored to how it looked back in 2002, I wouldn't believe you.

It's a shame that the other major roller coaster that opened in 2002 (air) is most likely not getting this much, or any TLC for the upcoming season.
 
Where can I find out where all the Passholder days are? I’ve wanted to go to one for a while, but I can never find out when they’re on
 
Where can I find out where all the Passholder days are? I’ve wanted to go to one for a while, but I can never find out when they’re on
It’s usually announced via social media, I’m guessing this year it will be posted on the Thorpe Facebook group first.

It’s usually also shared via merlin annual pass socials. Then you book a ticket via the website when they get released.
 
People are willing to stay longer as they have traveled less far is likely the justification.

Personally think Towers are too cautious with opening hours though.

Agreed, they’ve not trained the guest to expect longer hours. An evening show, better restaurants, better communication on later opening hours and a second towers trading on the right of towers street would go a long way
 
Thorpe have actually cut their hours loads in recent years. They're still often 1h longer than Alton but used to be more.
Thorpe did do 8pm in the summer a few years back.

To be fair, though, I can understand why they cut those closing times back if most summer days with 8pm closes were anything like the day I went with an 8pm close in August 2019. The park had completely emptied out by about 6pm, even though it was reasonably busy (albeit perhaps not rammed) during the day.
 
They used to do regular “Summer Nights” until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the summer I believe.
Yes and and they were dead! Way back in 2001/02 they were open untill 8pm in the Summer (June - August) and the park was dead then. I remember heading to tidal wave when they were filming for something with Nick Knowles on N.I. the park was getting dark! The park was empty then. We did an insane amount of rides that day.
 
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