• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Re: Thorpe Park

As ever, pretty much every review of the Asylum seems to be heaping praise on it, leading me to think that I must be going through a different attraction to everyone else as I just don't get what people see in it. I've done it about 4 or 5 times now since 2007, and never seen anything in there that justifies the level of hype surrounding it.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

TheMan said:
Rob said:
Oh, and Swarm front row in the dark, wow! It was amazing!

:)
Click to expand...

My run through of Asylum was very poor, which is disappointing as I adored that maze. Agree with the X10 thing, felt like a mash up of the two but took out when of the best bits, the closets that everyone can come out of ;)

Front Row Swarm? Oh yes baby. In the dark, absolutely loved it. Totally agree with you (Again... getting worrying nowadays that ;D ).

What day did you go?
Click to expand...

We need Towers to build a new coaster, then we can stop agreeing! ;)

I was there on Saturday night though. We were all shocked as to how quiet the park was later on in the day.

:)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Well if they were to build houses close to an existing theme park the residents or council would surely have no right to complain of noise. It does seem like a silly idea.

:)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Some say the houses are being built after an estate agent discovered Thorpe Park Mania and identified a niche market.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

That would effectivly neuter the only UK park that has the freedom to build almost anything.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

DiogoJ42 said:
That would effectivly neuter the only UK park that has the freedom to build almost anything.
Click to expand...

I'd argue that Blackpool has more of a licence to build anything - it's just they don't have any money! Stealth could have been taller but for the air traffic restrictions, remember.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

In a way, I doubt people that don't want to live near a whopping great Theme Park, Will in fact live next to said whopping great theme park.

Hopefully authorities will take that into consideration and realize they're being UTTER FOOLS!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Rob said:
Well if they were to build houses close to an existing theme park the residents or council would surely have no right to complain of noise.
Click to expand...

I used to work at a supermarket with a lorry unloading warehouse bay at the back which had been there for decades taking in deliveries for the next days stock in the middle of the night (when you need it in a big store). The council allowed a big block of flats to be build right opposite this warehouse, within a year we had time and noise restrictions slapped on us making running the whole place a damn sight harder than it needed to be.

Planning process in this country is daft as hell. If this were to go ahead I'd be very concerned about not only the planning of future attractions but also the park being able to continue with late night events that they do now.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I would have thought they'd make a lot more money by putting a budget hotel complex on the site, to target Thorpe visitors with cheap, walk-to-the-park accommodation. Chuck in a Nando's, a Reflex and a Bella Italia and you've got a licence to print money.

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 4
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I do think the next step for Thorpe is a resort expansion. I can see a cinema, bowling alley and indoor waterpark being built - with shops and restaurants.

However - I don't really see them installing chain restaurants, I can merely just see larger versions of Merlin's existing restaurants - so they can keep all the money. It would be NICE if they installed a Zizzi, Masala Zone and such (Don't think the world needs any more Nando's) - but, I just think - if they were to do it - they'd stick to their own brands.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Thorpe need a proper hotel sooner rather than later really... And I always worry about housing developments. Regardless of people moving in after the park was built, planners always seem to be on their side. Even if they knew of the noise before moving. Stupidity eh?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I don't think thorpe would be able to do an entertainments district. The park can't really have any more than 15k, and so the numbers using the entertainment stuff would also be rather limited.

Definitely better to do that kinda stuff at towers (if you're ever able to get planning etc), as least the park can hold 30k and could happily live with far more accomodation etc.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

The only difference with Thorpe if they had some kind of entertainment area (near where hotel is planned), plenty of local people could use it, and they would have no need to visit the park or anything. If there was a cinema, bowling, night club, etc, theme park visitors would of course use it, but I bet a large amount of locals would also use it, especially as the park is right near lots of housing and not from from Staines and the M25.

That is always the problem with towers, if they ever added any kind of entertainment area, it would be pretty much aimed at and used by theme park/hotel guests only and not the locals, as there really aren't that many locals!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

However, towers could attract enough people to stay in hotels and accomodation to use the additional entertainment venues.

Thorpe is stuck, there's a massive retail park giving you all those things, probably better and far cheaper than the park would offer it at, in Staines. 5mins drive with no traffic.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Finally did Fright Nights, a week late it would seem... Here goes:

Saw Alive:

Nothing changed - disappoint. However, they'd put a few more actors in, and in new places, so it was less predictable than before. But, and this is the biggest but, we waited AN HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES, mostly because, as per usual, fast track ruined everything. Not worth the wait, although there are some lovely touches in there.

Blair Witch:

As everyone else has said, this was DULL. Random people growling, standing around, then the B&Q shed, just to top it all off. The only bits that were like the film were the woods setting, and its dullness. I knew this was crap, so I wasn't too bothered.

Cabin In The Woods:

SO disappointed with this. As per usual, leave it to Thorpe to take a good idea AND POOP ALL OVER IT. The free flowing idea was awful, it meant that unless you scoured for secret doors and passages, you didn't get to see anything interesting, which, of course, means I will have to go back and scour for secret things. The actors were completely random, and there wasn't an aquaman. I really wanted this to be good, and it wasn't.

My Bloody Valentine/Experiment Valentine:

I am aware that this is just Experiment 10 with a miner, but I didn't ever do Experiment 10, so here is an impartial view of Valentine. By far my favourite maze of the day, lots of loud noises to make you jump, actors placed to split up the group and scare people effectively, decent, yet predictable ending. While queuing, I saw several people come running out of the exit. The compact spaces and free flow idea worked on this. We actually got lost for a while. I did not find the end scary, I kind of sauntered out, but it was predictable.

Park in general/roaming actors:

During the day, apart from on the smaller rides, there was no indication that it was even a Fright Nights. However; come three, everything came to life. I only saw the You're Next roaming actors briefly at the end of the night, but Benin saw them lots (cause he didn't go on the mazes) and he said they'd put on a really good show. The other roaming actors were a Director and his female assistants, and they were good fun to argue with. Very much in character, and argued with us that Blair Witch was a good film (which of course, its not). But, Thorpe was up to its usual shenanigans. Waiting for the park to open in the annual pass queue and two wheelchair users in front, the staff decided to put another queue in the annual pass entrance, so two queues in that narrow entrance. And of course, all the chavs wanted to push in front of the wheelchairs. Inferno was running well, Vortex and Saw were running horribly, Samurai wasn't running at all! Organisation at the park was completely non-existent, gaggles of people waiting for mazes to open, fast track entrances in stupid places, and fast trackers making everyone else's queue times far longer.

Overall; 6.5/10
 
Re: Thorpe Park

thefatone said:
I don't think thorpe would be able to do an entertainments district. The park can't really have any more than 15k, and so the numbers using the entertainment stuff would also be rather limited.

Definitely better to do that kinda stuff at towers (if you're ever able to get planning etc), as least the park can hold 30k and could happily live with far more accomodation etc.
Click to expand...

To be fair ive been at Thorpe and Towers when theyve had 20k and both of them were hell! (this was a few years ago mind, hate to think what it would be like with fastrack today!) Mind you this was Pre Saw / Thirteen so some time ago.. would be interesting to see what its like now actually.

There have been rumours for years now of the resort kind of things at Thorpe (Cinema, Bowling Evening entertainment areas) but i cant see it anytime soon. Would love to see a waterpark down here. I like Cariba Creek very much and theres not much like that around this area, they would probably get a decent chunk of local residents using it also
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Fright Nights was ridiculously quiet on Sunday. Every ride in the park was walk-on throughout the entire day (we left at five so heck knows how quiet it was in the evening) at mazes were perhaps 20 minute queues at most. Saturday was moderately busy but died off around 6pm... I can't see Thorpe considering this year's extended opening worthwhile on that evidence...

Anyhow, my opinions on the mazes:
The Asylum - Two runs of this, pretty much the same as ever, fairly respectable but outdated and inconsistent. It was far more intense on my Saturday run compared with the Sunday.
6/10

Saw: Alive - Much better than last year as there were far more actors. Only did it once as it seemed to be the most popular maze it the park but there seemed to be a lot of touching in this maze (hair pulling, especially) which I didn't object to but I think some people may have thought a tad out of line.
6/10

The Cabin in the Woods
This maze kind of works, and was very exciting and new on my first run of it, but after this initial excitement wore off and I actually thought about the maze, the scares really don't work that well... I like the idea of it, but I think there were too many people allowed in the maze at a time, the "horror movie feeling" should be one of isolation, this is why I felt My Bloody Valentine was much more effective. Still, much better than The Passing.
6/10

My Bloody Valentine
It's a shame they've taken away the Experiment 10 pods but this was still Thorpe's best effort at a maze this year. It was utterly terrifying, especially on my first run (at the back) with the actors working very hard in the confined spaces to get scares out of people. The theming is a bit meh but the nature of this attraction means that it doesn't really matter, and I liked the slight attempt at a storyline in the introduction.
7/10

The Blair Witch Project
Erm... lol. This was the longest queue in the park on the Saturday night, aswell. Don't bother if you haven't done it already.
2/10

You're Next
What? Where?
1/10


The Scarefest mazes are better, but I guess you have to pay for them... and considering how quiet Thorpe was this weekend, I think it will have topped Scarefest for me this year, just about.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I'm not really sure what to make of Thorpe Park, in the late 90's/early 00's it was a great place for thrill seekers and the family, almost like a second chessington, but recently it seems it's about thrill seekers exclusively, I was really surprised at the removal of the Octopus Garden, this give little to no rides for younger kids and Storm Surge (the ride that took it's place) is a real eyesore I feel, it's looked very claustrophobic in that area since it's arrival, being the dark ride lover that I am Thorpe Park just isn't for ne anymore, I don't mind a good roller coaster but nonstop coasting action isn't my idea of fun, hopefully they start to bring more variety in rather than take it away.
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top