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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Re: Thorpe Park

To be honest i can't see them selling either park, Thorpe has been a bit of a financial burden the last 2 seasons but previously it has been a cash-cow for Merlin/ Tussauds. Chessington regularly performs fantastically well economically for Merlin so thats going no-where.

Thorpe are not likely going to go for the young family audience, that would put them directly in competition with Alton Towers in 2014 and Chessington and Lego near-by. They just need a couple of kiddy rides and some family thrills to make a day at Thorpe a reasonable destination for families with older children.

They should advertise Chessie and Thorpe together more, and offer combined tickets.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

T said:
Thorpe, nor Chessington, will not be sold. Thorpe has a big year coming up.
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It had a big year last year but bombed.

It still wont be sold, but all bets are off in the industry at the moment as to how parks will perform it seems.

You could almost hear the sigh of relief from Merlin when The Smiler pulled in the crowds, as The Swarm had really unnerved them.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Dave said:
T said:
Thorpe, nor Chessington, will not be sold. Thorpe has a big year coming up.
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It had a big year last year but bombed.
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2014 marks a massive change in direction for the park, and will see several new additions to the current line up.

You could almost hear the sigh of relief from Merlin when The Smiler pulled in the crowds, as The Swarm had really unnerved them.
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I agree. However, there's more than this that has unnerved them... At Alton too...
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Hopefully it will reverse the decline at the park, even though there have been issues at Alton it's still one of the stronger parks in the group. Thorpe last year should have been epic but it wasn't.

I hope a family focus will help, might also improve the atmosphere at the park. The only issue i can see is Chessington, Drayton, Lego and Blackpool all have a strong family pull and Towers are pushing family for 2014, it wont be easy... but i am hopeful.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I'm not too sure it'll be that big of a problem, Thorpe'll remain the 'thrill park' but with more emphasis on a broader variety of rides that other members of the family can enjoy. The target audiences for each separate park won't suddenly be the same, they'll just overlap a bit more.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Quetzal said:
I'm not too sure it'll be that big of a problem, Thorpe'll remain the 'thrill park' but with more emphasis on a broader variety of rides that other members of the family can enjoy. The target audiences for each separate park won't suddenly be the same, they'll just overlap a bit more.
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Thats exactly what i think they will do, it will be an interesting few seasons for the park with next year the investment (which at 8 million is a pretty marge investment in its self) in the new crash pad which is apparently going to have up to 180 rooms thats a massive increase on the current.

Id like to see some family rides added which can appeal to all, they could so easily reopen CCR and get the 4D cinema back at a not to high cost.

Merlin would never sell it, they wouldn't want someone else to buy it and have it as a competing with its other parks, whilst it didn't have the best season last year they are well aware of what the park is capable of.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I'm sorry but I have to scoff at extra Crash Pad investment and installation.

What family with 2 adults and 2 kids, in their right mind, would stay in a sardine can full of drunken teens and young adults?

I was all for The Crash Pad until I saw how tiny the rooms were - it serves its purpose, but they really need to consider families with new accommodation plans.

Rides and attractions are the key to attracting the families in the first instance, but look at ATR and CWoA - their hotels make a blinding profit based on how much spending power families have! I hope Thorpe swing towards a 'proper' hotel in future, what with this target audience change..
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I'm interested to see how Thorpe's own version will work though. If it isn't built by Snoozebox and is designed with families in mind we may see more space and bigger rooms - perhaps even some form of theme too.

It's intriguing anyway.


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Re: Thorpe Park

The new Crash Pad has connecting rooms designed for family's.

Whilst a hotel would be better obviously feedback from the crash pads must have been good for them to go ahead with building 180 rooms.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Good feedback from which audience...? I'll bet my bahookie the minority of guests have been families thus far!

I watch with keen interest, especially now you've said there are interconnecting rooms for families!

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Re: Thorpe Park

Me, the boss and 2 kidlets are going Thorpe park for the first time sometime in August, just mainly for selfish me to ride the bigger coasters >:D after 2 family days at Chess and Legoland, thinking of buying fastrack ? Any tips or nuggets of info regarding ride time etc are greatly appreciated.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Oatcakedodger said:
Me, the boss and 2 kidlets are going Thorpe park for the first time sometime in August, just mainly for selfish me to ride the bigger coasters >:D after 2 family days at Chess and Legoland, thinking of buying fastrack ? Any tips or nuggets of info regarding ride time etc are greatly appreciated.
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I went about this time last year twice and really the queue times can vary as the Saturday I was waiting 20 minutes at most but then the Wednesday I was waiting above the hours. I would suggest laying off the fastback if possible as the queues to buy it are fairly long and sometimes you still have to wait so I'd suggest checking out single rider queues or finding the quieter area of the park and trying to follow that wave.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Friday 26th & Saturday 27th July will be a spectacle to see... ;-)

Also, despite what people may be thinking, and indeed stating, Thorpe Park are having a somewhat surprisingly strong year, with a park record being broken on Thursday of last week (18/7/13), of 18,300+ guests on park. That's an all time high, outside of Fright Nights. You can't say that people aren't visiting with those kind of numbers!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

For anyone heading to Summer Nights over the weekend Storm Surge and Tidal wave have been added to the ride line up
Although looks set to start raining about then!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

T said:
Friday 26th & Saturday 27th July will be a spectacle to see... ;-)

Also, despite what people may be thinking, and indeed stating, Thorpe Park are having a somewhat surprisingly strong year, with a park record being broken on Thursday of last week (18/7/13), of 18,300+ guests on park. That's an all time high, outside of Fright Nights. You can't say that people aren't visiting with those kind of numbers!
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They may be getting the guests in, but are they spending money whilst they are there? That seems to be one of Thorpes downfalls over the years, targeting an audience where a sizeable proportion just don't have the disposable income to spend lots of money whilst in park.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Vik said:
T said:
Friday 26th & Saturday 27th July will be a spectacle to see... ;-)

Also, despite what people may be thinking, and indeed stating, Thorpe Park are having a somewhat surprisingly strong year, with a park record being broken on Thursday of last week (18/7/13), of 18,300+ guests on park. That's an all time high, outside of Fright Nights. You can't say that people aren't visiting with those kind of numbers!
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They may be getting the guests in, but are they spending money whilst they are there? That seems to be one of Thorpes downfalls over the years, targeting an audience where a sizeable proportion just don't have the disposable income to spend lots of money whilst in park.
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Yes, they are spending whilst in the park, and on that day, they actually overachieved their 'Revenue Per Guest', so people are buying!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

That'd be mostly fastrack presumably, they must have sold pretty much every ticket available for every ride.

Thorpe is an absolutely horrible place to be when its busy.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

John said:
That'd be mostly fastrack presumably, they must have sold pretty much every ticket available for every ride.

Thorpe is an absolutely horrible place to be when its busy.
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The FT quota was indeed reached, however there was one thing that shouldn't be happening to note;

Fastrack bundles were completely sold out early on in the day, however the staff were selling all the individual tickets that would be on the bundled package, for the SAME price as the bundle. This in effect was overselling of a specific, already sold out item!

Also, revenue was up in ALL food outlets, and merchandise too, so not just Fastrack
 
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