Thorpe Park: General Discussion

[Thomas]

I don't know who they're trying to market to? I'm ruling myself out, I'm 21, male and with a beard and to me I've not seen anything which would encourage me to visit? Especially with this Angry Birds stuff. They're not pitching to younger families especially well with the constant memes which would attract 15 year olds if nobody else. I've yet to see anything sensible from a marketing perspective to attract families.

It's a massive mess. You don't see Alton Towers using the same techniques to encourage people to visit? Nostalgia doesn't work when your brand screams immature youth!

 

[TheMan]

THORPE PARK: We fix everything except the problems.

 

[thefatone]

I think they were having a bit of fun... considering the throwback Thursday thing. One for the geekys.

It's nice, enjoy that.

 

[Scott]

I agree that the marketing is mixed but all this stuff as well as the very teenage orientated Facebook posts are probably trying to appeal to that kind of family market. Not the young families who are catered for at Alton, Legoland and Chessie but the older family market - those looking to take their kids out who are maybe aged between 11-17?

 

[Enter Valhalla]

Pic in question...

It's so obvious that they've just taken them out of storage and posed them...

If you look carefully at this picture, only the heads of the three ranger figures are being used and they are being held up by people crouching down behind the counter presumably.

Those Ranger heads have been in storage in the Thorpe Park Education Centre since the Rangers stopped being used back in 2004. As far as I'm aware, tthe costumes are long gone. Well I've not seen them anyway. I think it is extremelt unlikely that the Rangers will be returning to Thorpe Park on a premanent basiss so can only assume that this picture of the Ranger heads was posted as a bit of fun, which we shouldn't think too much in to.

 

[_nemesis_]

I have to admit, Thorpe's advertising is all over the place at the moment. Some of their Facebook posts and the Sounds of Summer advert were quite clearly marketed at families. However these memes and most of their website, it aimed at teens. The caps for THORPE PARK and then Resort, it just odd.

Apart from Angry Birds Land and the On-Site Hotel, the whole website is aimed at teenagers. On the rides and events tab they just list the coasters, and at the bottom of the homepage, it has people screaming. It tells you why their screaming, i.e The World's Most Terrifying Rollercoaster, because that really gonna convince families to visit. :

If they showed Tidal Wave, X, Loggers Leap and Quantum more, families might consider it. The the rest of the website, even minus the fat heads, is horrible. The font they use with the lines through major text and the paint splats around the place with reviews just makes it looks messy. They need to seriously look into their branding.

However all this aside, I'm all for the Rangers retuning but only in a few years. Once they have replaced Ranger County with a larger, better and modern area, refurbished Canada Creek and replaced Neptunes Kingdom with an area that can be open all year round. I don't think Thorpe can start targeting families. If they think they can stick an Angry Birds logo on a sign, dust of an old cinema and add a Dodgems and then market themselves to families, they've got another thing coming. One half decent family area (with a 100ft drop tower), won't be enough.

I feel sorry for them, as the new family adverts will put teens off and the memes and SAW will put families off. They are quite stuck for options really.

I have massive confidence that in the end the family target will turn out fine, but it will take a few years to sink in. Hopefully they can bare with it until the major changes are complete.

 

[simps100]

^ Wouldn't be surprised if thorpe get a new site this year- they usually do every couple of seasons.

 

[Laura]

So how many think the dodgem cars will actually be themed? Or will it just be decals?

What is the actual throughput of dodgems, are there any details about this? I'm sure Thorpe used to have dodgems by the minigolf (I think where Zodiac etc are now) but there was always a massive queue.

I don't know if it would really be possible but a themed ORP for the 'rethemed' Detonator could work quite well, even if was just a cleverly-designed photo wallet. Just really want to see Thorpe make 'enough money' to install something we really want :/

 

[Scott]

I'd like to hope they will be fully themed. I can't imagine it would be too expensive considering it's not all that much of a substantial investment anyway. Time will tell anyway -they'll have to be a pretty large installation to eat up queues!

 

[_nemesis_]

That dodgem a better be themed head to toe, or there'll be hell to pay. Just kidding, although, it better actually look like birds rather than just red and green cars. Thorpe already looks quite like a fairground, we don't want to add to that. :

 

[Rob]

You have to imagine that the dodgems themselves will have been dirt cheap (relative to what theme park rides tend to cost) so there's no excuses for them not being well themed.

 

[Benzin]

People are thinking Thorpe will bother theming this stuff?

Optimism central this is... Decals and nothing more...

 

[James]

The application mentioned somewhere (can't remember what document I read it on) that the dodgem cars will be covered with vinyl. Plus you've got the fibreglass themed entrances to the area... so I wouldn't hold your breath for anything spectacular.

 

[electricBlll]

They are just dogems after all: a blatant excuse to bash into people and mess around. Spending money on an 'immersively themed' dodgems attraction would be an utterly pointless exercise (especially at Thorpe Park where nobody is going to care), just decorate them so they look funky and leave it at that!

They'll probably be removed in a few years anyway. :twirly:

 

[_nemesis_]

Well, you never know, Merlin Studios have made more of a theming effort with Thorpe in recent years, i.e. The Swarm.

As this is their medium investment (well it's meant to be in any case) and all they are doing is painting some shops, dusting off the old cinema and adding a cheap fairground ride. One would hope they are going to theme it properly, with deep and immersive scenery, something which Thorpe lacks. If not, I see no reason to visit this year.

 

[Rob]

Well, you never know, Merlin Studios have made more of a theming effort with thorpe in recent years, i.e. The Swarm.

Storm Surge. I shall say no more!

 

[_nemesis_]

I did think of that! But though it better to be optimistic and not mention the whore of a ride they installed with literally no theming.

 

[electricBlll]

Yes but the point of "theming" is not to dress up a cheap ride. It wouldn't add to the enjoyment of the dodgems would it? It would just be themed for the sake of it and I don't think that's worth anything.

When Storm Surge opened, loads of people complained that it was a bad ride because it was terribly themed. Not really, it's a bad ride because it's so tacky! Even if it was as well themed as Forbidden Journey at Islands of Adventure it would still be awful.

The dodgems at Chessington were a lot of fun because of the blatancy of the whole thing - it suited the immaturity of the Beano area and had ridiculous music to go with it. That's all Thorpe Park should aim for if it wants Angry Birds Land to be a hit with the public.

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

When Storm Surge opened, loads of people complained that it was a bad ride because it was terribly themed. Not really, it's a bad ride because it's so tacky! Even if it was as well themed as Forbidden Journey at Islands of Adventure it would still be awful.

They really cannot be forgiven for ripping up the area in front of X and installing such a p*** poor excuse of a ride. The sort of 'investment' which is a real low point for any major theme park.

 

[Ian]

Well, you never know, Merlin Studios have made more of a theming effort with thorpe in recent years, i.e. The Swarm.

Thing is though, the themes themselves have never really been an issue at Thorpe (Though yes, there are some obvious exceptions). I mean, it's never been amazing, world renowned standards, but they have made a bit of an effort, and I think it did work in making the park a bit more pleasant. The issue I find is the upkeep and consistency. Colossus has some wonderful pieces of theming, but so much of it is rotten and hidden away under years of muck and grime, perhaps most notably the area under the cobra roll with its patterned, mosaic style floor. If you take a look at how it was at its opening you can see how it should look:

Compared to now:

The same goes for Ninferno really, provided you don't look around the back

As for Amity, I'd say personally it's one of the UKs best themed areas. It's very well done, with lots of nice details on the building and around Tidal Wave. Don't get me wrong, none of it would be likely to have Disney and Universal shaking in their boots, but it was generally quite a good effort I think.

The problem is that over the years much of this has been forgotten about, and areas have become very confusing with the introduction of conflicting new attractions, and this has somewhat broken the flow of the park.

I'll be honest, at times Thorpe makes my blood boil. It's a park which has so much character and potential! There's a lot about the park which is very unique (The setting for one), and it has a pretty strong line up of attractions. It's should be one of Europe's top contenders, but annoyingly it suffers from misdirection and management cockups which really drag it down.

If someone at Thorpe went around and cleaned up all the attractions, finished of half jobs (Ninferno station), and generally tarted the place up with some new and improved themes, whilst operations were also revised and a new collection of family rides (Maybe a dark ride too?) added, the park could seriously be on to a winner.

Personally, I still think that Thorpe and Alton being part of the same group is a problem. They are two of the UKs most prominent parks which are on the same level. They should be battling it out every year for the publics attention, with each one constantly topping the others efforts. There's such a lack of competition, and with the alternating investments they're never really going head to head with each other. It's perhaps one of the only way the UK industry is going to advance much, unless Drayton, Flamingoland, and Blackpool are going to unveil the millions they've each had stashed away for several years.

But seriously, can you imagine Thorpe and Alton both unveiling the Secret Weapon and LC projects together? Just imagine the hype for the moment if they were to say both be building big, themed, B&M thrill machines. It would be amazing to see and be involved in. A real battle for the market and public's attention. I firmly believe this is the way it should be driven