Thorpe Park - Derren Brown's Ghost Train

[Owen]

This whole "it was in planning for 3 years so it shouldn't be delayed" thing is rather ignorant. Yes, the attraction may have been in planning for 3 years however that has nothing to do with if construction goes to plan and if last minute changes are added. That's like saying you planned to build a house for an extended period of time so it will 100% be completed on the exact day you expect it to be. That just not how it works, it's disappointing yes but nothing that could be helped.

[Max]

I called this ages ago.

It is a shame but I'd rather it opened late than opened with issues.

[salamanderman]

Remember those previews of the demon and shop? Yeah, they have stopped posting due to the delay methinks

[JaykeAT]

This whole "it was in planning for 3 years so it shouldn't be delayed" thing is rather ignorant. Yes, the attraction may have been in planning for 3 years however that has nothing to do with if construction goes to plan and if last minute changes are added. That's like saying you planned to build a house for an extended period of time so it will 100% be completed on the exact day you expect it to be. That just not how it works, it's disappointing yes but nothing that could be helped.

Then don't commit to an opening as far in advance as they did.
It's not at all ignorant to suggest that after 3 years it shouldn't be delayed. I would've thought that planning the building would be running parallel with deciding what the building would house, something along the lines of "this is the space we have to work with, what do want to put inside the building?"
If I was building someone a house, I wouldn't tell them the exact date it would be ready 4 months in advance, because then they would plan around that, like many people would've done, only to possibly end up disappointed.
Lessons should've been learnt from the shambles that was The Smiler's opening, but it appears they weren't

[Owen]

The park can't plan for things going wrong or getting behind and so yes it is rather ignorant to suggest such a thing. In regard to not announcing an opening date, if they hadn't people would complain that they have left announcing an opening date too late. They are trying their best and I respect that they are, I don't feel it's necessary to blame them for something they just couldn't control. At the end of the day trying to blame someone won't help anything, it will just cause arguments amoungst people so the best thing to do is to accept it won't open and deal with that, it's a disappointing yes however getting upset over it won't help anyone.

[Dom]

Yes, it being delayed is a pain and an annoyance and there is nothing that can be done on that front unfortunately. Its happened, they have announced it, so all we can do no is sit quietly and wait patiently for them to announce a date. I personally think this is isn't really an issue. I would rather have an attraction 100% complete with a delay in opening than a half finished attraction on a specified opening date. Also you have to remember that this is Merlin's biggest investment since The Smiler, and we all remember how 'fun' that was with regards to this same matter.

[JaykeAT]

The park can't plan for things going wrong or getting behind and so yes it is rather ignorant to suggest such a thing. In regard to not announcing an opening date, if they hadn't people would complain that they have left announcing an opening date too late. They are trying their best and I respect that they are, I don't feel it's necessary to blame them for something they just couldn't control. At the end of the day trying to blame someone won't help anything, it will just cause arguments amoungst people so the best thing to do is to accept it won't open and deal with that, it's a disappointing yes however getting upset over it won't help anyone.

It's not ignorant. Common sense dictates that you should plan for a worst case scenario. Especially seeing as the exact same thing happened with Merlin's last big investment.
In regards to the park not being able to plan for things going wrong, that's exactly what should've happened, and one of the fail-safes should've been not disclosing an official opening date until they were 100% sure that everything was in working order, even if that meant saying that it was opening in 'spring' or 'summer' just to give themselves leeway.
Going by the fact that one of the trains is still outside, they must've known for the past few weeks that it wasn't going to be 100% ready for opening, but leaving an announcement until less than two weeks away means that many people going down to London and staying outside the park won't be able to get their money back.

[CoasterJames]

Basically it's typical Merlin

[Kirsty25]

It's very frustrating as I had 2 days off together from work... I have plans already for my booked holiday so I don't know whether I'll get back to Thorpe before October (depending when my friends are off/getting a hotel that isn't too expensive/hitting a day when Thorpe is open/providing I am not working 6 day weeks for much longer). Yes we've had a weeks notice, and yes there were signs it wasn't going to open when announced(passholder preview being undecided), but I planned and booked a hotel with the sole reason of going to ride it on the opening day (so it didn't get spoilt by people reviewing their experiences on various social media sites)

I would rather it was working properly, but why release the opening so far in advance? They did that with The Smiler and that was changed 2-3 times before it actually opened...

[Ladyofthelake]

Like many I am disappointed at the announcement that DBGT is going to be delayed, however I am glad that we know now as opposed to just a couple of days or the day before. As has been mentioned earlier in the topic, I would much rather it be 100% right than it be rushed open before it's ready.

I know that this is not a decision that will have been taken lightly by THORPE PARK RESORT and Merlin as there has been alot of marketing activity and promotional efforts all geared towards the May 6th opening date. Although no-one except those working on the ride can know exactly what the reason is for the delay, I suspect that, as many people have suggested, that it is most likely a technical delay. We have to remember that from what we know of this attraction there are large elements of it which utilise technology which hasn't been used in a theme park attraction before, therefore there was always going to be a possibility that something would come up to cause a delay that simply could not have been predicted.

With regards to the park announcing an opening date back in March, if they had not have done that and left an announcement for an opening date until just one or two weeks beforehand then people would have complained that the park hadn't given them enough notice for them to be at the opening.

It is also a bit unfair to judge on how ready the ride is from what we can see from the outside. Although there has been a train visible outside we have no idea if this is the only train therefore it could be that if there is more than one there has been one inside testing and the other outside - we could easily have seen more than one vehicle and not even realised it due to them being covered up.

I can fully sympathise with those who have made plans and booked travel and accommodation around the original opening date, Thorpe have said to contact them if you have made any arrangements so it does seem like they are trying to do something to ease the inconvenience, although of course they can't ease the frustration. Regardless of the amount of preparation a company does, it is always a risk booking to visit somewhere specifically for one attraction as a delay is always a possibility (for example I'm visiting Phantasialand in June who are constructing the incredible looking Taron and Klugheim, however as yet there is no confirmed opening date so there is every chance I may not get to do this new attraction when I'm there). Whenever you visit a park there is always a risk that any of the attractions will be closed, that's just one of those things which, as frustrating as it is, is always a risk due to the sheer scale of the technology and engineering involved in many rides.

I am sure that Thorpe are just as keen as us to get this ride finished and opened and will do everything they can to give us a new date as soon as possible.

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that although today's news has created alot of strong feeling we still need to be mindful of what we post, and ensure that we respect everyone's opinions. We are all entitled to our own view and whilst we welcome friendly debate and discussion we need to ensure that posts stay within that friendly and constructive tone

On a lighter note, I kind of think if Thorpe had wanted to keep with the train theme for the announcement of the delay, they could have used something like this:

*Bing Bong*

"Thorpe Park Resort regrets delays to the 10am 06/05/16 suspended ghost train service to Thorpe Depot. Please keep an eye on the information boards for further details of the new departure arrangements for this service"

*Bing Bong*

[Morgan]

Unfortunately, Derren Brown's Ghost Train will be a few weeks late- but Thorpe Park offer good service on all other rides.

[Owen]

Is this confirmed or just speculation?

A bit confused as I've not seen the resort say anything personally :lol

[NeoXIII]

Is this confirmed or just speculation?

A bit confused as I've not seen the resort say anything personally :lol

Been confirmed by TP Twitter account:
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[CoasterJames]

Although this could be a trick to let people down and then suprise them when it actually opens (8th may)

[Owen]

Is this confirmed or just speculation?

A bit confused as I've not seen the resort say anything personally :lol

Been confirmed by TP Twitter account:
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No I mean that its late by a 'few weeks', I know it was delayed - I posted it on here initially :lol thanks though

[Jormerod18]

Although this could be a trick to let people down and then suprise them when it actually opens (8th may)

Is there anything suggesting that it may have a soft opening on the 8th or is that just wishful thinking? Hope there is as that's when I'm visiting!

[Dan]

I highly doubt it will soft open any time over next weekend.

If it's in the state to soft open on Saturday/Sunday then I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be ready to open properly on Friday.

I think it'll be at least the weekend of 14th/15th before its open, but we don't know the scale of the setback they've had.

There's nothing we can do about it. It'll open when it's ready :lol

[JaykeAT]

I still maintain that there should be some sort Derren Brown replacement ghost bus service :toot :lol

[iamradam]

I still maintain that there should be some sort Derren Brown replacement ghost bus service :toot :lol

A London bus sat in the park where you sit in it with fake VR headsets (with the front cut off so you see real life) and a few actors step on making cheesy ghost noises :lol #firstclass

[salamanderman]

Right then, I'm going to create more derren/bus hybrids in Photoshop to satisfy the meme drought of the forum