The locals don't hate the park itself, but rather the way it is managed. Thorpe Park is due a new roller coaster, yet all that is added year to year is lacklustre attractions
Operations are better this year, but Derren Brown's Ghost Train was a failure. They should've played it safe by building a roller coaster, but here we are
Since about 2010, Thorpe has been managed so badly. Its so sad, the park has so much potential but the management are beyond stupid. They make the worst decisions ive ever seen and i cant comprehend it
It's definitely not a bad park. I'd say the most recent investments is what makes people think it's bad. But this year they've really upped their game operations wise!
@@callumj3507 Storm surge was an awful investments. Its perhaps the worst ride I've ever been on. Literally just a really slow descent down a spiralling waterslide with no theming whats so ever and most of the time you don't even get wet.
@@MrOobling it was just a transfer from the us so they just put it in Thorpe park. It shouldnt be in that place but it's not terrible. I think it's quite fun and a great laugh when your with your mates.
@@TimTam69420 I suppose the only way they can have a hyper is if they dug a hole into the ground 25m or so and that will likely cost too much for them to bother. I'm down for a RMC tho.
It's not a bad park - but Merlin just doesn't seem to know what direction it's going with the park, and it shows in lack of quality in the park investments and just general lack of care.
*Merlin* is the incorrect word to use. Merlin don't run these parks, they run themselves. Each one has a their own team of people who figure out what's next. Obviously investments have to be signed off by Merlin Executives, but it's the parks that decide what's what.
@@coasterbot Still doesn't excuse the general lack of care, does it? It's seen in all UK merlin parks. Just no push for any form of customer service or care for the properties.
To avoid the security check wait get to the park before opening, There is not much shade but it’s the UK after all (we don’t get much sun). I wouldn’t say that Thorpe is an amusement park and it has way more themed areas than just Angry Birds Land, it has Lost City, The Jungle, Old Town, Swarm island and not to forget Amity Speedway and The Dock yard. (Thorpe has lots of well themed areas) As a regular at Thorpe Park, visiting at least once a week, I can say that once you learn the ins and outs of the park you will have a great experience!
Honestly I wouldn't call Thorpe an amusement park. Amity Cove has one of the best atmospheres and theming in a UK theme park. Just listen to Big Bob Jones on WWTP radio, then y'all will understand lol
I think they have lost a lot of the themed areas over the years, the upkeep isnt all too good. And neither have they kept to them. ie, angry birds, ghost train, swarm, old town. All the areas are now very much lost due to the additional rides put in.
@@caitypierulestheworld6963 Also im only assuming you're suggesting this because Blackpool is your homepark so that makes the opinion very biased. Had you been to any of the other uk parks you're opinion no doubt would be far different.
Fantastic review as always! 👍 I have to agree about the comment you made about the park missing that 'standout' coaster. The lineup of coasters is good, but they definitely need that '9/10 or 10/10' coaster to make the park even better 👍
Back when the Colossus was just built, that was a stand out coaster, unique in the world. However, it's been decades since Colossus was built and they've made nothing to replace it, so now it all feels like filler.
Caitypie Blackpool is a amusement park not a theme park! It’s dirty and old with a mixed matched look to all of its areas. Thorpe and Alton are 100 times better than black pool, the only good ride there is icon.
Caitypie So what about the numerous accidents and death of an 11 YEAR OLD at pleasure beach! But yeah of course Alton towers is unsafe, jog on! Alton towers and Thorpe while having mixed theming in areas, still have the best themed rides in the UK! Black pool pleasure beach is dirty and over hyped for what it is!
Caitypie I went to Blackpool pleasure beach the other day and I definitely underestimated the park. It was so fun! Icon is amazing and Valhalla is the best log flume I’ve ever been on. I was soaked all day long.
Caitypie But I have to say Alton Towers is the best park in the UK. Largest space, lots of stuff for small children to do as well as thrill seekers. Loads of games and opportunities to win prizes. World record holding coasters and their fast track is a reasonable price too! 😁 The could do better with the food in my opinion, but it’s not bad food.
"the only good ride there is icon" "Black pool pleasure beach is dirty and over hyped for what it is!" Yes, but that's only your opinion. And also, the "death of an 11 year old". Thorpe Park has had incidents before. Not fatal ones, but still. Plus, incidents don't automatically make a park bad unless they happen really frequently, and they usually don't anyway unless they're at Action Park or something. You're more likely to die on the car trip *to* the park than die *at* the park.
Nice Video. Thorpe is my local park just an hour away, I wish Thorpe did their Security system the same as Alton Towers where they check your bag after you have gone through the turnstiles as that way is so much quicker, It does have its themed areas. Old Town, Lost City, The Jungle, Amity and Swarm Island. Some areas are great with theming and some need working on!
Thorpe park is my 4th favourite park that I been to only behind Alton Towers Resort Seaworld Orlando Parc asterix I wouldn’t call Thorpe park an amusement park it has amazing themed land such as amity and swarm island and amazing music The pizza and pasta buffet is also in legoland,chessington and Alton towers Also merlin just got sold to a different company so they could care about Thorpe Park more
Taylor, you should bring back park battles because the parks you did have changed a lot and I’m positive they all received a new coaster Like if you agree
Having been going to Thorpe and chessington all my life, now 33. I quite like the fact they kept amity beach, it's one of the very few remaining original parts of the park. Chessington used to be the thrill Park and thorpe the family park, with the skiing centre being joined, used to have to walk through to get to the skiing. There are things I like and things I hate, as a dad I hate the bad London teenage vibe it has, even last Monday was just hoards of groups of teens and it stank of weed everywhere, which is a shame and why we don't go often. The security bag check is rediculous, BUT where the park is located and considering 90% of the guests are teens and considering the amount of gang and knife crime in London at the moment is it a bad thing? They have made it so you can't get around it, I think it's a good thing personally. It does need some heavy investment now. But remember due to the max height on the park because of Heathrows airspace I don't think we will be seeing anything like fury 325 at anytime. It's just needs a bit of TLC, poor old slammer and loggers need pulling down now. Still I only live about 40 mins away and hope the park, along with chessington have bright future's.
Honestly I get the "doesn't have truly standout" coaster but this place has covered a lot of spots. Wing, Invert, Intamin many inversion looper, unique stuff like darren brown's ghost train and walking dead, a lot of flat rides, Stealth. I think if they sacked the barely a waterpark they could build something like it but bigger than RMC Goliath, like something between it and upcoming Zadra. If it was as I said-in between-while personally I probably would just prefer the invert or the intamin many inversion looper, enthuasists would most likely adore it. And perhaps utilize whatever else is left land wise near or somewhere else in the park to get a mack pulsar water coaster, as it seems they have a lot of water rides and it'd fill in a bit of what they'd have to remove. That'd make the line-up past solid 4sure.
lucky bugger, you actually got on darren browns ghost train. i been 3 times in last year and its broke down everytime. nemesis is ageing really well, its simply getting better and better. thorpe park is just very compact. hopefully the next coaster is an rmc on the space behind swarm and it will be near complete.
Your point on the water park is spot on. I have never been in the water park precisely because it feels so awkward to be there with so many amusement park goers surrounding your little compound.
Lol, I’m late cuz I was on a plane to California and I had no WiFi 1000 ft in the air. Great video as always Taylor! I’m also going to Magic Mountain tomorrow! Can’t wait!
Alton Towers is waaaayyyyy better imo, but Thorpe Park is still pretty good- also, I do feel like Thorpe Park is really well themed in places- in construction of The Swarm and SAW, nearly as much was spent on theming as construction of the actual ride itself. Both of those two are themed very well. Colossus’ theming is okay, as is Stealth and Nemesis Inferno, but with the track record being that the most recent two major roller coasters are the best themed, I cannot wait to see what they have coming up next 👌🏻
Talk about it, thorpe park is a hour away from me but Alton towers is 3 and a half hours away so it's so difficult to get there but Alton towers is way better
It depends how you look at it. Alton towers is good but it doesn’t have anything unique about it. It has inverted coasters launch coasters and flying coaster which you find at most parks. Also Alton Towers basically have no flat rides anymore. Thorpe park is actually best known for the flat rides as they are way better than the actually rides. Take Samurai, when it’s operating it is amazing same with rush and vortex. Zodiac and quantum are good too however the new version is zodiac isn’t as good as the old one and quantum has so much downtime (even more than Samurai)
Matt ew no. It wouldn’t fit the theme of any areas which is why they removed it from Chessington in the first place. Alton Towers isn’t really a park for thrilling rides, it’s more focused on making the rides fun with airtime but not g force
GabesDaBomb I would disagree with that, purely on the basis that their mission statement is to appeal to ALL members of the family. So a ride like Samurai, given the blatant lack of flat rides at the park, would make total sense, bearing in mind most of the attractions at the park are aimed at younger kids, or families, with one or two aimed at the younger thrill seekers (Wicker Man and Th13teen). I reckon that Merlin could stick a ride like Samurai in an area like X-Sector, since we know they have the footprint for it with the old submission site, and we could start building the numbers back up where flats are concerned. Either way I would love to see more flats at Alton Towers, that would be the one thing I would change about it. Other than that, it’s still my favourite place in the world 😁
Fair review. It's not great but it's not terrible. A park of all filler, no killer. Nothing standout but nothing awful. Mediocre at best and nothing that really reaches its full potential. Sadly that's Merlin all over. Always settling for mediocre because the best would reduce profits too much.
Kind of occurred to me that the trend is darker themes in UK parks 😂 our two biggest are Alton Towers and Thorpe Park and in both of them the rides all have a dark theme. I guess we don't really do magical and fanciful here
Energylandia in Poland also comes across as more of an "amusement" park then a "theme" park. I gotta hit that place soon! Thorp park and Alton Towers looks great 👍
You ahould visit Finland one day, we have 11 different coasters in total... yeah... but we do have a mack e-motion and a new 2019 intamin blitz as well as a classic wooden coaster.
Honestly, i don't think Angry Birds Land is that bad. Sure, nobody plays Angry Birds anymore, but it has a few decent kids attractions (and Detonator) and is well themed and looks vibrant and colourful. Just my views on it.
Fast pass is very expensive but a must have. I visited in 2009 and got three rides. Three. I visited again last year in October with Fastpass and got probably 16 rides at least
Thorpe park is my home park and it is decent for what they use the space for, I go every year and I still haven't rode derren Browns. I will be riding it when I go next in July
Went here for the first time this summer. Despite the long queues, I still really enjoyed it. Obviously there were restrictions because of the whole Covid thing, so queues were even longer, but still got on all the major coasters. With regards to operations, I thought they were fine. The only ride queue that dragged on a lot was Inferno, but everything else I thought was worth the wait. Overall, really solid park, not sure if I rate it over Towers yet
Thanks for coming and your opinions! I have been through a lot of theme parks around europe and I think they have done a good job with the space they have with a few record holder rides included. There is always room for it to improve but its one of my top 3 in europe (and in not biased as I live an hour away)
I think Thorpe are just avoiding the fact they need to build a big coaster like dare I say an RMC and then every coaster enthusiast in the uk can shut up and they’ll bring in a load of crowds. However I don’t blame them for waiting because the longer they don’t have a coaster the more hyped everyone will be when they build one.
No it's because merlin are happy not investing in the place because either way, the locals will keep coming and so will the tourists. It's so frustrating being a local to this place
I love Thorpe park iv been there 7 times in the last 2 year’s. Chessington is my home park then Thorpe park but I tend to visit Thorpe more. My favourite ride there is stealth and sometimes Saw if it is riding good.
This is my local and most frequently visited park. Operations are almost always very poor, but the large amount of flats and other attractions help to keep queue times down. The walking dead also does have scare actors but only only select days (usually peak times only). Overall this is a very fair review in my opinion!
This is my home park, and I’d highly recommend checking out the flat rides here. Samurai and Vortex are some of my personal favourites in the entire world
The new Project Exodus Mack hyper coaster that just got approved should serve as that “standout attraction” Thorpe Park is missing. It’s going to be short, but unique and (hopefully) FUN!
when you look at huge movies and tv series with British actors like harry potter or game of thrones it makes me wonder they don't design any rides or sections around them at thorpe park or alton towers
I agree with a lot of it but I disagree with the last bit saying they have no stand out rides like I think stealth is a huge stand out ride. Also I agree when you said it’s more of an amusement park then a Themepark, it’s kind of weird cuz rides are themed but not areas like most places (chessington, Alton towers etc) but definitely one of my fav parks go there every Halloween with my family and bff definitely worth a visit cheap and incredible value for money
Stealth is too short to be a standout. It would be like saying Kingda Ka is the standout ride at Great Adventure. No, El Toro is. Project Exodus should give us a good standout, though.
Last time I went to Thorpe park I queued for 2.5 hours for Collossus, hit my head on the giant restraint at the first drop, passed out and woke up in the middle of the corkscrew at the end 👌
Other than Alton towers, Thorpe park is really the only amusement park in the UK with a considerable number of big coasters. I thought that the rides were good, but dispatch times (particularly on the swarm and colossus) were quite poor. However, there was quite good teeming on nemisis, the swarm, and saw, but it could have been better. It is a good park with good rides though, and though it is quite small it's well worth it.
I sometimes watch your old UK videos because that’s where I’m from, and I think it’s cool that you came here and made reviews on our parks! Thorpe Park has really gone down hill this year. Now that their season is over, we can generalise the year. It was awful. July 4th theme parks all reopened in the UK. At first, Thorpe Park handled Covid very well... for about 2 weeks. Then it really flopped. They got into trouble several times for breaking the public attraction capacity restrictions that the UK government set them. I went on September 5th and all of the big 5 coasters were a 2hr+ wait from 10:30am-5pm (closing). So pretty much all day. There was no enforcement of social distancing or hygiene rules, and all of the sanitisers were empty. Sometime relatively early on in the season, someone got a knife past the “security,” and stabbed someone on the bridge between the island and the parking lot. And on their Fright Nights event, they got into trouble AGAIN for overcrowding, not enforcing face coverings, AND several female members of staff were sexually assaulted in the mazes. Thorpe Park need to come under new management now, because it got stupid come the end of the season. Alton Towers on the other hand ran their season through Covid faultlessly! Just goes to show what two kinda similar parks can do at totally opposite ends of the same spectrum when it comes to Covid. Thorpe Park isn’t worth revisiting, because they likely won’t get a new coaster until 2023/24 and between now and then it’ll only get worse. But nonetheless I’m glad you enjoyed yourself all that time ago 😂😂
as a local i totally agree with ur thoughts. i think alot of the dislike/hate it gets is due to merlin (owners) can’t decide which way they want to progress the park and how alot of the park doesn’t receive much tlc. e.g loads of the effects not working on rides, rides closed alot, some rides sbno. it was brought this week by the people that own the lego group so hopefully we will see alot more care taken in it
Here’s my crazy take, We actually enjoyed Thorpe more than Alton Towers. We got one day at each. Yes weather had a lot to do with it. Sunny at Thorpe; total rain out at AT. Crowd was the other huge factor. Thorpe had no lines at all and Alton had 50min queues with rain!
Thorpe is my closest park, been a good number of times. Was interesting hearing what you thought The limited shade is likely due to our weather being cloudy or around 20°C outside summer. Pretty good point though It doesn't really have standouts these days, but at the time the coasters opened they were record breakers or UK firsts, such as Stealth bring the fastest coaster in GB and Saw The Ride being the scariest and steepest at the time Of the flat rides, the most intense are Rush and Detonator, whilst Zodiac and Vortex are a bit for on the chill side Hopefully we'll be getting a new coaster soon, allot of people including myself hopo mg for the first British RMC where Loggers Leap (a log fluke that ceased operations in recent years) used to be
Thorpe is my home park - Derren Brown’s ghost train is a good attraction, but only once. The second time i rode it all of the excitement was lost; it has no re-rideability. Also, it was ludicrously expensive, and that money could have easily been used to build a large scale coaster. I fully understand why you believe the ghost train is one of the best in the world, but i’m sure there are ghost trains out there which can provide you with a good experiment even if you’ve ridden it before.
Thorpe needs a family coaster. They can't just cater for thrill audiences because they will get families visiting there as well as teens and adults. You can't have a park with a full on thrill line-up because that's never going to work for guests with children. I also think a lot of the park could do with some refurbishment. The dome needs a redo and some of their rides just look uncared for at the moment. But that's just my opinion and they seem to be making a lot of improvements so mabye they will get better in due course.
First of all, they already have Flying Fish. Secondly, families already have Legoland and Chessington. Having 3 family-oriented parks in the same city would be redundant.
The Angry Birds land thing... it depends, many people knows it and it's nice theme for kids...And yes, there are angry birds lands in other places too...In Särkänniemi amusement park, Finland, there's some kind of Angry Birds themed playground and in Vuokatti, there was indoor theme park witth Angry Birds theme. I know that not so many people nowadays play Angry Birds but most know what is "Angry Birds". I think that's the point. Those areas are good for kids and also parents do know what is the theme about.
Pretend Theme Park; Oxford Park. Attractions That Were At Oxford Park; A Huss Enterprise Called Enterprise, A Roller Coaster Exactly Like Holly's Wilde Autofahrt At Holiday Park Germany Called Crazy Taxi, A Attraction Exactly Like Gondoletta At Efteling Holland Called Magical Lake Tour, A Roller Coaster Exactly Like Roller Skater At Plopsaland De Panne Belgium Called Dynamite Challenger, A Zamperla Jumpin Star Called Treetop Hopper, A Roller Coaster Exactly LIke Kanonen At Liseberg Sweden Called Pharaoh Escape, A Zamperla Vertical Swing Called Flyrosaurus, A Roller Coaster Exactly Like Puff The Little Fire Dragon At Lagoon Park Called Fuego, A Zamperla Magic Bikes Called Magic Bikes, A Zamperla Teacup Called Tea Dance, A Intamin Coaster Wheel Called Oxford Wheel, A Fireworks And Fountain Show Called Ignite The Night. Park Hours; 10am To 10pm, Park Location; Helena Montana, And Lets Also Pretend That The Time Ignite The Night Would Start Is 9pm
Thorpe Park is not an amusement park it is an theme park as it has themed areas, also I suppose if you come from America then Derren Brown’s Ghost Train would be amazing as there is nothing else like it in the world but to say it’s the best dark ride EVER is a huge statement lol 🤦🏼♂️
This is my local park, I only live 20 mins away from it but in my opinion nemesis inferno is the best ride there however it is the worst “thrill” park in the u.k it’s just got not atmosphere compared to Alton Towers, Blackpool Pleasure Beach or Flamingo Land and it’s got no theming, it makes six flags look like Disneyland 😂
I think because he’s only been once he didn’t get the experience the atmosphere because some of the areas , theming , and atmosphere are the best of a theme park in a uk , and I think it is a theme park for the fact that the areas may fade together but the rides and the area around them are really strong , when are you gonna be on a separate little island on a wing coaster flying past a fire truck with fire , flying through parts of a full real life plane , and around a helicopter with ruins all around the areas
