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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

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Re: Thorpe Park

Oooh, aaah:

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Re: Thorpe Park

Is that an official promo image? If it is, someone needs to brush up on their editing skills, it looks awful :/
 
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Well considering it was posted by Thorpe on their Facebook page, I'd say so. And indeed, a re-think of who edits these images might be needed.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Proof that the marketing was a fail:

Last summer I met an old friend for drinks. We used to go to parks together all the time in our teens, so she is not "coaster-illiterate", though by no means an enthusiast.
I was wearing my Swarm T shirt. Upon seing it, she said,
"Oh, I didn't know you worked on The Swarm. Have you moved in to film work now?"
I had to explain to her that it was Thorpe's latest toy. She genuinely thought it was a sci fi movie based on the TV adverts! :p
 
Re: Thorpe Park

The Swarm was a fail, as is the park.

More is the pity too, as I very much love both of them. They are desecrating with their horrific marketing techniques and ludicrous target market. I have been banging on about this since they really changed direction. The park has got worse, the atmosphere there is awful, the operational side dire, and customer "service" following.

I know we are all Alton fanboys/girls -that doesn't change, but in the short time I have been visiting the place, I cannot believe how much it has changed. It gets more tatty, drab, and vile every time - and what is the biggest shame, is they actually do have some brilliant rides. Instead of really playing on that however, they resort to lowest common denominator marketing and make it very family unfriendly by canning anything that younger ages of kids can do, wiping out thrill seeking 20s/30s etc with kids who have to carefully choose days out.

I don't know if it is Merlin or Thorpe management, but it is the only park in the world that could make a B&M feel like they've only added a kiddie coaster.

I have actually complained to this place before, and ended up in rather a full on discussion being fobbed off about why their organisation was so utterly turd. That fobbing off did not last, as they got a "TheMAN Special Wall of F-U, trying to fob me off when I know what I am on about, text".

I won.
 
Thorpe Park

Hmmm, in that photo why are the swarms rails red.
That could look good, depends on how its done.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Rocket said:
Hmmm, in that photo why are the swarms rails red. I hope they don't actually paint the rails red.
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I do because Plain Black is just boring
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I think Thorpe should definitely go down the thrill/family thrill route over all-out thrill after this now. Introducing attractions such as Th13teen which appeal to families, are moderately thrilling and won't make teens embarrassed to be on them instead of riding Stealth with their mates, etc...

With this kind of ride being added they still won't encroach on Chessington's territory as Chessington still appeals to families. Besides Ramses Revenge, Dragon's Fury and maybe Rattlesnake and Vampire, all of the rides are a step below family thrill.

Thorpe could really do with a well-themed dark ride with an IP that's attractive to not only teens but many youngsters too. The more I think about it, a Call of Duty Nazi Zombie themed laser blaster dark ride makes more sense and I'm not cringing so much! :p
 
Re: Thorpe Park

BigAl said:
I think Thorpe should definitely go down the thrill/family thrill route over all-out thrill after this now.
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I couldn't agree more, they have backed themselves into a single market, which is a dangerous place to be. They used to appeal to families with young and older children but now there is literally nothing for younger children. I know children want to go to Legoland & Chessington but there is a problem if you have a family with a wide spectrum of ages. Many younger/teenag families couldn't get to Thorpe Park without a family memeber taking them.

I think that they should introduce some more family friendly rides, something like a Zakspin and some smaller rides but are still thrilling. Its a hard gap to fill as they have removed virtually everything for small children but prehaps a new area over in ranger country and Canada Creek giving 2 areas mainly for younger children. I know this wont happen as they have clearly made a decsion to head in a teenage dominated market, its just a shame that younger children and families have to suffer :)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

It isn't exactly hard with a selection of high quality thrill coasters to become a "family thrill" park. Chessington is closer to that, but the other side of the balance point.

You do this by getting attractions that are thrilling for all ages. Not a single attraction, so introduce a few smaller rides but make them exciting and more thrilling than their standard rides are.

BigAl that is your domain though ha-ha!! Turn X into a indoor thrilling family ride. Add a decent mine train style ride that is very obviously missing, but again make it that bit more thrilling, just not too much. It is nice to share that with members of family etc, rides that are thrilling relative to their age. Even as Alton Towers enthusiasts, we admit their rides are quite extreme for the UK at least - and it is probably the best out and out pure line up of coasters we have.

I reckon a fair few more of us would visit the place a bit more often if they sorted out their issues and made a place you really wanted to go, for a bit more out and out coaster and a decent atmosphere.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Something like Colorado Adventure (but more theming on indoor sections rather than just corrugated roofing and walls :p ) at Phantasialand might work at Thorpe. It looks quite fast in many parts, and the height looks just right so as to not look a little lame to teens and young adults, etc...

There's also the GCI woodie they had planned. They're good family thrill rides, though we know that Merlin won't want to 'risk' one if they've made a mess of their 2012 investment.

But yep, I agree that there's nothing much there to tempt people that don't enjoy big thrill rides. Me and my dad like them but my mum and brother don't, so we don't visit Thorpe at all really. :/
 
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They made a mistake shoe-horning the park into one market, honestly they should have made Chessington a zoo experience park and made Thorpe into a family theme-park with a lean towards the thrill market but still balancing all demographics.

It makes the park more stable as families spend better at parks. They also need to rethink their marketing as it was very 2 dimensional, I only really remember the TV advert. Even on small attractions like Sub-Terra towers use a much more rounded marketing approach.

My other bug-bear is their non-coaster investment is terrible. Returning an old family coaster and a second hand dingy ride just seems meh.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Colorado Adventure is incredible, it's a stunning coaster. And you don't notice anything in the indoor section, because it's too dark.

Anything like that anywhere in the UK would be great.

Although I wouldn't mind a GCI, but unfortunately, the wooden coaster always crops up, but never happens.

I just want anything that revolves around air-time. Woodie, B&M/Intamin hyper, even something with a only couple of forceful hills. It seems that UK parks are concentrating on "OMG SUPERZ LOOP DA LOOP HIGH INTENSITY" when, almost unanimously (even with non-enthuasiasts), air-time is the best part of any roller coaster. No wonder that eight out of ten of the top ten in the Mitch Hawker poll feature considerable air-time- and I can see Skyrush also joining the top then this year. For the wooden coasters, it's clear that air-time is also a massive feature, when the two Intamin woodies are on top (El Toro and T Express). But also, by a long way the oldest, and probably roughest, coaster on the list- Phoenix- is popular only because of the air-time- despite any roughness. I've heard tales of the roughness of the Voyage as well, but that still features in third place. And the Beast, which is continuously raved about, no where to be seen- possibly due to the lack of air-time.

How the hell can Merlin not create the coasters that people may, intentionally or unintentionally, want?
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Dave said:
My other bug-bear is their non-coaster investment is terrible. Returning an old family coaster and a second hand dingy ride just seems meh.
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Effectively the last "good" flat ride that the park has installed has to be Rush & Slammer... in 2005, after that it was very bad...
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Hmm... I'm as critical of Thorpe as the next enthusiast, and realises they've still got a long way to go towards being the park we'd all like it to be, but I think they turned a real corner in the right direction last season.
Perhaps I'm biased because I'm a massive fan of the Swarm (best new coaster we've seen in Britain since '94, according to... me, though the backwards seats might undo that...), but I think that had precisely the desired effect. In the past, Thorpe's been a hit and miss experience - sometimes a day's decent while sometimes it's a painful ordeal and you can't wait to get the hell out of there, but certainly at the beginning of 2012, it felt like a genuine effort had been made to make the guest experience more enjoyable all round.

As for the flat ride additions - Thorpe had a hell of a lot of those between 2001 and 2005 and (bar Slammer's numerous issues) all still operate fairly smoothly and do a good job of soaking up the crowds. Some are... mediocre, but the likes of Rush & Detonator make up for this. Again, there's room for improvement, but I can understand why, whilst 2005 may seem a long time ago, more non-coaster thrill rides aren't top of the agenda.

Intrigued to see what direction they will go in next - anything's better than Saw and the... unusual take on the hotel idea, right? :)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

WillG said:
Hmm... I'm as critical of Thorpe as the next enthusiast, and realises they've still got a long way to go towards being the park we'd all like it to be, but I think they turned a real corner in the right direction last season.
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But Swarm was considered a flop, even by Thorpes own admissions! Hence why they're now turning seats around and adding the new near miss theming piece! I, personally, don't think they're turning any corners at all. They just seem to throw money at stuff in the hope that it works and don't really put any real thought into how people will see. I really think they need to go back to basics and start at the bottom and look at their staff training, customer management and biggest of all for me, RIDE OPERATIONS before I see them begin to turn corners.

WillG said:
Perhaps I'm biased because I'm a massive fan of the Swarm (best new coaster we've seen in Britain since '94, according to... me, though the backwards seats might undo that...)
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Que?! I know you've said in your opinion, but you can't be serious? Speed: No Limits, Megafobia, OBLIVION! All post '94 and all generally regarded higher than Swarm as far as I know. This isn't a post berating you or saying your wrong by the way, just me disagreeing :)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Nice to know that topdogdays.com are up to date with their information.
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