THORPE PARK Annual Pass Day

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DiogoJ42

No worries, see you soon mate :)
Joel

Well, where to begin with this one.

I can honestly say I don't think I've ever had a worse day at Thorpe Park, right from the moment we arrived on the car park.

The queue to purchase a £10 ticket actually wrapped around the entrance plaza several times, with only the Annual Pass office serving tickets rather than the main ticket boothes.

The queue was actually around 2 hours by the time we got to it. Bloody insane!

Then ride availability... well it was just shockingly dire. It didn't seem too bad to begin with, but as the day went on it got worse and worse.

Queries for food outlets, of which not all were even open, reached into 30 mins most of the afternoon. Even guest services had around a 30 minute queue as was as usual doling out fast track tickets in compensation for everything and anything, only compounding the dire situation with the queues.

I think Thorpe fundamentally screwed up this day, and seemed to massively underestimate the amount of guests that was going to show up.

I have never genuinely heard so many other theme park guests complain about how awful the day was. You only need to look at their facebook page to see the anger.

We ended up leaving early after completing one ride, because we genuinely had enough of the park.

Ooooh dear Thorpe Park, your first proper day and what a day it was :(
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Dylan
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Sounds like a terrible day, but Thorpe has been the same for years. They only care about gate figures, not guest experience. If people still flock through the gates, things will not change. And people will still flock through the gates!
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JD81
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Totally agree that today at Thorpe was horrendous. After a long trip from Worcestershire, I too couldn't believe the queues for tickets at 10am. Ride reliability was terrible with Samurai down all day (well until we left anyway), Inferno and Saw both had periods of downtime and Colossus was running reduced capacity with the back two cars often being left empty.

Food queues were also huge and staff were pushing fastrack at every opportunity which just compounded the problems with slow moving queues. After spending 25 minutes trying to get a coffee, we decided enough was enough and left at 3.00.

A very poor start to the season by Thorpe, just makes you appreciate Alton or the more I guess !

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Stealth x 1
Saw Alive x 1
Detonator x 1
Time Voyagers x 1
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Stu
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I really do not know what else to add which Joel has not already said...

There was people Qing for like 2 hours to get a damn Annual pass, then being told to get it printed after paid for later, and people Quing for 1.5 hours to get a £10 ticket to the point they were just selling the tickest for £10 to anyone. The park got jammed, the rides were breaking down.. the staff could not cope.. food outlets ran out of food and most were closed leaving an hour Q for a hot dog!

Again rides breaking down, no food, fast pass's being useless, 30 min Q for guest services, staff had no managment skills, dealing with problems and evacing rides and all sorts. It was worse than last time they had the major fail day. This just tops it all. Really bad of Thorpe Park and again as already said - their Facebook page just proves it! Some heads will be rolling im sure at Thorpe Park Managment.

Today was just an Embarrassment for the Merlin group!

Alot of complaints will be going Merlins way im sure.

On a different note, i had a good weekend ever all with mates and laughs etc, so it was good in that sense. Storm Surge looks really ugly and rubbish to be honest, but the first part of it is quite good and entertaining and a good laugh. You do get very wet at the end, only because of those water jets from the Q line. But they need to theme it up, it looks worse than a water slide at a water park for god sake!

And what was with this at 11am today..
"We are sorry but our water ride Storm surge is broken, our sensors do not like the rain..." What the hell!?! Your water ride wont work in wet conditions. Someone give Thorpe a lesson in common sense and so on. Im sure this ride worked fine at another theme park, just soon as Thorpe get hold of a ride they just "doom" it!
Rowe

As I've said to many, I won't be returning to Thorpe for some time as I was terribly disappointed and shocked throughout due to the downtime, ridiculous amount of friends with MAP holders, slow acts of the staff as well as screwing up the entrance queue LOADS and just ridiculous queues that were opening/closing all the time.

It was pure abysmal.
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davewazere
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I have to agree with everything said about the today's unorganized shambles that was Thorpe's MAP day.

We arrived 15 mins before the gates opened and there was just a sea of people, the queues was all over the place just to get a ticket. When we got our ticket they didn't even check that I had a MAP.

We got in about 4 rides, the worst of which was "X". The lights were all on, which gave u a nice view of all tools and supplies lieing round the place. The queue line was darker than the ride

We ended up leaving very early as our hunger got the better of us and left so we could get something to eat on the way home.

3 and a half hours each way and 70 pounds in petrol. All to spend the day at a theme park which gave of an impression of a traveling fair, only with miserable and rude staff. We spent longer in my car then we did on park.

I'm so glad we live an hour away from Alton. I can't wait to go back and be reminded of how a real theme park should be run.

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DiogoJ42

Normally, I avoid Thorpe until the season has settled down. I only went because I happened to be free.

I should listen to my instincts in future.
AstroDan

One of my lowest ridecounts at a park for a long time - shambles across the board. 3 rides down all day and that's before all the other breakdowns, low throughputs and food stands being closed. Incompetence, much? This has been going on for 4-5 years now yet it continues. Hadn't been since last May and doubt I will bother again in 2011.

Stealth 1
Nemesis Inferno 1
Colossus 1
Saw The Ride 1
Saw Alive 1
X No Way Out 1
Storm Surge 1

Alas...
fredward

Unless I get free transport and honestly have nothing to do that day, I am NOT returning to Thorpe Park until LC12... and even then i'm iffy... they will somehow screw that up!

The day was an utter disaster, but since so many people have already posted reports I don't think I can add much more... the only thing that stops me being really angry is the fact that I enjoyed myself only because of TTF... but I still think more fun would be found in a pub with you guys! Infact I wish I went to the Hungry Horse afterwards with you guys because the journey back was terrible!

It shows that Thorpe Park are really choosing the wrong target market, because apparently they had to give people a life time ban... this really pissed me off because the selfish arrogant chavs decided to lob some rocks at the Thorpe Park bus' in retaliation meaning they had to stop using that bus and meant that I pretty much very late home! I can't believe how selfish some people can be. It took me and my mate michael (who did enjoy the company and is asking me when the next meets are so I think i've recruited us a new member!) 2 hours to get to Thorpe Park, yet I didn't get back home till 9... thats just ridiculous!

Lucky enough I believe the pub who I was to get my dinner at new me and when I rang them up they still served me my steak and chips even though they stop serving at 8.30!

all in all, they only thing worth about today was the company!
Crofty

It has been over 2 Years since the shocking Fright Nights fiasco that I have crossed Thorpe's threshold, I felt enough water had passed under the bridge and they must have improved...How wrong was I?

I arrived at 9am and had a little chuckle at the Annual Pass queue which went in a straight line from the AP office over to the opposite side of the entrance. The smirk was quickly wiped from my face when I discovered the queue that I would have to join to get the £10 ticket, it spread from the cash machine right over to behind the AP office, back again and then proceeded to arch right the way around the entrance plaza to the gravel car park and then out into the car park for another good 150 yards! See the Videos: [url=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;][/url] [url=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;][/url]

I decided to sit in the car for a while and when I ventured back they were dishing out the £10 tickets to anyone who had the cash in hand and thankfully the queue went down pretty quickly.
What followed was a day from hell as stated above with massive queues for almost anything you could think of, Ride breakdowns a plenty and shortages of chips, LAMB, fastrack and patience.

Following a Queue for Guest Services I managed to get a couple of Exit Passes and a Ticket to ALTON TOWERS! (I refused to contemplate a return visit to Thorpe.)

I think Thorpe and Merlin really need to sort out the complaints system and offer some real compensation. I'm not a Pass holder but I I was then I would be fed up of constant issues being resolved with Fast passes, it's time they started giving out extra months on passes or something as a way of compensation, they may then consider running their parks to a suitable standard.

There has been a lot of friction of late on TTF concerning the amount of merlin bashing that goes on, this is just another reason why it's so common these days. The company doesn't seem to have a clue and it obviously couldn't give a toss about it's loyalist of customers.

The only good thing to come out of today was some much needed catchup time with TTF :D It was great to see so many old friends and get to put more faces to the usernames. I think the highlight of the day for me was the Saw Queue-line comedy courtesy of Jim Rowland and Mandy Thompson. Mustn't forget Alton Towers Poetry Corner. Brilliant! :lol: 1 to Base! :lol:

Thanks all for a great if not somewhat depressing kind of a day. :)
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Vik
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Today was one of the worst days I have had at Thorpe for a long time.

Myself, Alex, Jordan and Stu had made a weekend of it thankfully. I met Alex and Jordan in Liverpool on Saturday afternoon, and after partaking in lunch in the 1960's retro chav infested shopping centre known as St Johns Shopping Centre, we got the train back to mine, where Alex mad a comment I never thought I'd here in r elation to Merseyrail. "These trains are quite posh aren't they?". You can tell who uses Northern Rail regular.

Set off from mine at 3.30, stopping in sunny Redditch to pick up Stu and stop at Jesco for some 'essentials' :P, arriving at T5 travelodge at 8ish. With evening entertainment of throwing sweets at each other, general sillyness and Alex falling in the bath. Though I won't mention the knock on the door from the manager, and the suggestion there had been a complaint about some 'banging' coming from the room. :shock:

On to Sunday, and Thorpe day. Set off from TL at 9, stopping via Hatton Cross Tube station to pick up Sam. Arrived at 9.30, and it wasn't too busy then, but by the time the gates opened, the queue was huge, and the queue to purchase an AP looked awful.

Headed straight to Storm Surge, and after a few breakdowns due to rain affecting the sensors (on a water ride :? ), we got on after 40 minutes. Followed by a ride on X with the lights on and TOTT music in the queue line and ride itself.

After riding Inferno, things started to go down hill. 60 minutes queueing for SAW seen us leaving without riding, due to a breakdown. Then lunch followed, and we spent ages walking around, passing closed food outlet and closed food outlet. Finally settling on the Kebab stall, we waited 40 minutes to find they had run out of almost everything, then finally ordering something they did have, had to join another queue to get the food. This was the first food I had eaten all day, and whilst ok, 1/2 of it was uneatable, so binned. Now, running out of food and closed food outlets is something I expect of Camelot, not what should be a premium park in the Merlin empire?

Got to ride Stealth via the fastrack we had from the SAW closure. By now though most people were rather cheesed off with the place and how badly today had been managed. So guest services it was, and joined a queue of many other unhappy people. :D

Did get to go on Rush, and Slammer, which was oddly enjoyable for a ride I detest. Then it was time to head off home. Now should that be a :cry: or a :D .

Had it not been for the company today, and over the weekend, today would of been a huge fail. It certainly was in relation to how Thorpe Park operate, especially after a 400 mile round trip. I am so glad I didn't drive there and back in one day.

A huge thankyou to Stu, Alex & Jordan for the company when travelling down, and the evening in the Travelodge. To Alex for supplying the tunes and the music quiz in the car, and of course everyone else who helped make what could of been an awful day, quite good.

I am now having my tea, at 11pm, after eating practically nothing all day due to poor logistical management at Thorpe and them having no food, or food which was rather awful to eat. GET IS SORTED :D
Last edited by Vik on Sun Mar 13, 2011 11:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mankey
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In short

- Crap -

On the long side of things, however!

I had fairly high expectations today. Thorpe in may last year, whilst not being perfect, was actually pretty good. I got a fair amount of rides and enjoyed my day without the usual rabble and general confused and unorganised feel that the park usually has. I thought today would be like that due to the fact that it was Annual Pass day...

... I could not have been more wrong!

On first impressions the park was a dump, it looked as bad as it did when the park last shut! Isn't this what closed season is for? To fix the issues, clean up, tweak, paint! It barely looked like anything had been done! Also, may I add, the entrance was badly done to levels of extreme proportions, separate queues for buying tickets and annual passes. It looked a mess and VERY last minute!

So into the park we go at around 11am, and long queues hit us directly in the face everywhere we look, 60 mins, 70 mins, 40 mins? I thought this was supposed to be annual pass day, an exclusive day for annual pass holders, so why was it so busy?! How could the park get to the same capacity as a normal summers day when it's only for annual pass holders!? I know there are a lot of pass holders, and they could bring two friends... but come on!

So, we meet up with everyone, decide to do some rides. Saw: Alive being the first, not much to expect we all know that. Then Saw: The Ride, which broke down just before we got on after queuing an hour! (Bare in mind, it was about 2pm at this point, and I had only been on 1 ride!)

Things inevitably got worse when we went to get food. Most of the restaurants were shut, causing us to queue for the new kebab shop... which ended up taking about 40 mins, consisting of two queues, one for buying the product, the other for receiving. It just didn't work!

Guest services also had a queue... the day got better after that but... damn. I still only got on 3 more rides, one of which with a priority pass.

Today has been the worst day I've ever had at a theme park in my entire life. Sadly, all my bad days at theme parks seem to be at the same place...

They call it THORPE PARK

I will NOT be visiting again this season unless I am paid to do so.



Ridecount
Saw: Alive x1
Saw: The Ride x1
X:/NWO x1
Nemesis Inferno x1

Yeah...
Last edited by Mankey on Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jordan

Today was my first visit to Thorpe Park in almost 9 years, so it was my first chance to ride anything there. I thought the park itself was good in some places, particularly Stealth and the theming around Amity Cove, but the downright awful operation today completely let the park down. One staff member on the gates said that they had expected 3000 people, yet 13000 had turned up (almost at full capacity for Thorpe).

Since Vik has summarised my weekend pretty well, here's just some of my highlights and lowlights of the day :)

Highlights

+ Meeting with friends again :)
+ The Roses fight in T5 Travelodge :P
+ Stealth being awesome
+ SAW was better than I expected
+ The banter between TTF trains on X:WTF

Lowlights

- The queues being horribly excessive for everything
- Storm Surge failing due to wet weather :P
- X:WTF was appalling (perhaps so bad it was good?)
- Not being able to find any food and settling on a packet of crisps for lunch :(
- SAW breaking down as we were far in the queue
- Not being able to get on Colossus

Overall, Thorpe Park was disappointing, but today was worth it just for meeting up with people again. Thorpe have really messed up with this "perk" event, and I'll join the list of the many people making a complaint.

On a positive note, it's now less than two weeks to Opening Meet and I'll see you all there :)
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Michaél
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Stealth 1
X:WTF?! 1
Rush 1
Slammer 1

:D

Marvellous. :W

Aside from... Thorpe... being... errr... THORPE! Was a lovely day, thanks to everyone.. would have been completely futile otherwise. :P
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NeilHD
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I went on Sunday purely to renew my annual pass with the offer they had on. Arrived at the crack of noon and saw the queue for the AP office was, frankly, enormous.

Decided to go inside and see if we could do it at the Fasttrak kiosk and we could, with a much smaller queue (although slow moving as only 2 people doing it). A woman was going up and down the queue telling people to come back later as it'd be quieter. We ignored her. When we left at about 3 o clock the queue was three times the size as when we joined it! Why they didn't have more capacity for sorting out APs I don't know.

Didn't really do any rides as couldn't be bothered. Sent the 5-year old on Flying fish and the slide thing that I can't remember the name of which seems to be the slowest moving queue ever. Really wouldn't take much to make that twice as efficient.

And what's up with Storm Surge? Did someone forget to order the theming?! It's just a big slide plonked in the middle of the park. And it looks dirty already, which is kind of fitting for Thorpe I suppose. Perhaps that IS the theming.
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Rocket
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Did anyone else get covered in rusty water/oil while on the inferno queue line? This ruined my favourite jaket! There was also a lot of wet paint which went on my sleeves from the Rumba queue.
We were offered ponchos on inferno but that only covered my body and hair, my face and sleeves were covered in this oil!
Not happy.
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Islander
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Wow - the park have actually issued an appology of sorts on Facebook:

[quote=""Thorpe Park""]We are very sorry to anyone who came to the Park yesterday (Sunday 13th March 2011) and didn’t have the day out they were expecting.

Our Annual Pass holders are incredibly important to us and we put the event on as an additional benefit to give exclusive access to the Park before we open up for the full season. This year’s event saw unprecedented numbers turn up to experience the new ride and the Park’s first day of the season, so much so, that the final numbers were four times more than that for the Annual Pass event last year.

We are instigating a full investigation and will re-assess how Annual Pass events are held moving forward to ensure we are delivering an enjoyable experience.[/quote]
That was unexcpected. Doesn't exactly say much, though, or offer any kind of compensation...
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Dylan
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[quote=""AstroDan""]
Stealth 1
Nemesis Inferno 1
Colossus 1
Saw The Ride 1
Saw Alive 1
X No Way Out 1
Storm Surge 1
[/quote]

Given that it was such a terrible day by all accounts, that's not really a bad ride count for a packed day with rides breaking down left, right and centre! :wink:

Seriously though, it does sound shambolic. Thorpe have issued a statement on their Twitter and Facebook pages apologising. Still, they will not learn until gate figures are affected. Which they won't be.

I assume that Thorpe Park will be off the TTF South schedule now, due to everyone's outrage after yesterday's visit?
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Major low points of the day for me.

1) The initial queue to buy 1 'friend' ticket took us over an hour, whilst quite a few staff members just wandered aimlessly trying to make queues go backwards and forwards. It took us 4 minutes to find the right queue after joining a queue that looked like it was for the ticket booths but was actually for the entrance. Eventually when this queue reached the carparks 1 staff member used her initiative and started selling tickets for people who had cash. speeding up the queue immensly. There should be a policy for this kind of over arrival of people, not just blind panic.

2) The Pizza Hut, queued to get in, then had to queue for 20 minutes each time you wanted to visit the pizza bar. Felt so sorry for the staff who desperately tried when the piza machines would only produce 2 pizas every 2 minutes.

3) The arguments and anger by some visitors at an obvious lack of organisation.
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