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WTF Merlin?

Bowser said:
I wasn't trying to start an argument so apologies if it came across that way, that just seemed a surprising explanation to me when they aren't doing it across the board. Perhaps it's predominantly attached to The Smiler incident as none of the other Merlin parks have such notoriety in recent history that i know of. Or someone at The Mirror has a personal vendetta 😂

As i said i don't read tabloids (or Facebook) so i'm seemingly not exposed to it. Equally not something i've ever seen on other mainstream news or social media like Twitter, where i'd regularly encounter stories like people getting stuck on Rage at Southend or Thorpe Park leaving the Halloween music on all night. Long queue times or rides being shut still seems like a stretch for coverage though, whereas the example you gave of people being stuck is going to be covered by witnesses regardless of an app status.

My only alternative suggestion would be the same as Lukas above, trying to hide the atrocious queue times or ride availability from those savvy enough to check. Perhaps the other parks will follow suit soon.
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Hey no offence taken, it was just that I started to wonder if you had a good idea why and weren't sharing... It's all speculation anyway.

Yes Lukas' suggestion, r.e queue times, is along the lines of what I was getting at with social media publicity. Of course single groups can decide not to go if they see the queues are always long, but if those groups share it to social media it influences even more people.

I wouldn't discount Lukas' other suggestion either, tracking guest movement provides extremely valuable data to the park.
 
Had my (nearly) annual visit to Towers at the weekend, and it was genuinely the worst theme park visit I've had in recent memory.

Hail on the first day, with only Nemesis Sub terra open indoor attractions wise (Hex still down, curse went down with us having queued for half an hour, the skyway was down, even gangster granny was closed). Obviously I can't be upset at towers for the weather but it's really frustrating to make the trip up to find virtually all of their indoor attractions closed during the weather when they are best ridden.

Ride availability was dire, with just about every attraction going down at some point during the weekend. I hadn't realised that some secondary schools now do 2 week half term holidays, so we definitely got caught off by the volume of the crowds, as well as it being family fun day (or whatever it's called) on the Sunday. Finished last night with a 70 minute queue for Wickerman, then an hour long breakdown. Queue times were largely inaccurate, and, oh yeah, no monorail to get us out the park after.

I was visiting with a couple of non-nerd pals and on our way home we all said how much we preferred the pleasure beach over towers, the atmosphere, ride availability, cost, crowds, even food and the rides themselves.

I had some fast track from my last visit as my last ride then got evacuated due to a break down so after being evaced from The Curse's queue we thought we'd go and ask if we could get them validated considering the wait for nothing, but guest services simply confiscated them saying they were out of date. I explained the situation and asked if they could be exchanged for up to date ones due to living so far away and not being a regular visitor and got shrugged off. I get it - it's not the staffs fault, they're just enforcing their rules, but the complete lack of communication about ride availability, these kind of policies and the nonchalance in letting you know that only your money matters just stings.

Although some areas have been notably invested in recently, overall the park looks really, really bad. A mate asked why they replaced ripsaw, one of his favourite rides, with one of the rather shoddy looking retro squad, then asked why it had such a big queue, and if we had to pay extra for it. The closed rides were very noticeable to a repeat visitor coming up to the most popular time of the year, with the skyride dangling ominously overhead on the walkways, and hex's doors firmly shut. By the end of the second day our conversations had gone from typical friendly anecdotes about our recent day to day tomfoolery to asking why the fencing in the queues is so rubbish, and all the things we could've been doing instead of queuing.

A lot of this I know, is just sheer bad luck. Having said that, the park is so damn expensive and unreliable these days; when you have trips like mine you just feel like you're being financially and emotionally scammed.
 
Nicky Borrill said:
I wouldn't discount Lukas' other suggestion either, tracking guest movement provides extremely valuable data to the park.
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Don't park's manipulate queue times to control guest flow? Or is that just Disney? Or even just a rumour?

So if people that aren't in the park are accessing the app, it's going to skew that data if everybody is spoofing the same location.

toofpikk said:
Had my (nearly) annual visit to Towers at the weekend, and it was genuinely the worst theme park visit I've had in recent memory.

Hail on the first day, with only Nemesis Sub terra open indoor attractions wise (Hex still down, curse went down with us having queued for half an hour, the skyway was down, even gangster granny was closed). Obviously I can't be upset at towers for the weather but it's really frustrating to make the trip up to find virtually all of their indoor attractions closed during the weather when they are best ridden.
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Bad weather is something Towers really need to focus on. There are only 2(?) indoor places to get a hot drink and sit down to drink it and almost no covered seating beyond the courtyard. When we last went we scrapped the day halfway through because we were soaking wet and couldn't find anywhere to just sit and warm back up. Although luckily the skyride was open, but it was cold and damp too!
If European parks in places with less inclement weather can manage it, surely a park in stereotypically rainy Great Britain can!

Merlin/Towers still can't seem to grasp that if you spend a bit more and really give people a good day out, they're not going to remember the weather was bad, they're going to remember that really cool little coffee place they sat in and planned their next moves. And they won't feel quite as bad when they fork out for a branded brolly because they forgot theirs.
But no, Merlin would rather spend the absolute minimum to get people in and spending for one day, and who cares about next year because this year's bottom line needs to go up.
 
Dar said:
Don't park's manipulate queue times to control guest flow? Or is that just Disney? Or even just a rumour?

So if people that aren't in the park are accessing the app, it's going to skew that data if everybody is spoofing the same location.
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I don't think Melin do that, or at least they didn't. It was down to the ride team to report the estimated queue time via a tablet, often attached to a wall in the station somewhere. Staff will sometimes even ask guests if they know how long they queued to get a good idea of queue length, which as you can imagine, can cause a delay in the system. If they queued 30 mins, they're actually reporting the queue length from 30 minutes ago. Experienced staff would know from looking. But maybe this has all changed now, I don't know.

As for Disney, no idea what's going on there, as we went full genie. But their queue times never seem to be too far off on all the AllEars / DFB / Mammoth Club videos. (Yeh I did way too much research.)

Dar said:
Bad weather is something Towers really need to focus on. There are only 2(?) indoor places to get a hot drink and sit down to drink it and almost no covered seating beyond the courtyard. When we last went we scrapped the day halfway through because we were soaking wet and couldn't find anywhere to just sit and warm back up.
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I'll answer that question mark whilst I'm here. Although, keep in mind I haven't been on park since closing day 2022.

Yes, to my memory, you're correct... Technically 2 dedicated indoor hot drink places.

  • Corner Coffee
  • Coffee Lounge

The following places don't sell hot drinks, (or at least not anymore apparently, I swear woodcutters used to.) But you can enjoy a cold drink inside.

  • Rollercoaster Restaurant
  • Woodcutters

I don't know if the following places sell hot drinks, but I'm listing them here as places you'll have absolutely no problems taking a hot drink, purchased elsewhere, in to. As long as you can find a table.

  • Burger Kitchen
  • Just Chicken
  • Eastern Express

Then of course there's the Welcome Inn (when it's open) / Courtyard (It's under cover) combo.

I haven't been in for years, but I don't 'think' Pizza Pasta sell hot drinks. Last time I visited, it was self serve post mix. I also don't think you'd get away with buying a hot drink from a stand and finding a table in there, the demand for that place is always just too high.

It would be great to get a couple more, and honestly I'm surprised it's not something they're tapping into more. Expensive espresso based Coffee drinks, in particular, have become incredibly popular in the UK since they opened their current offerings. Cold Brews / Iced Coffees would go down well in summer too.

If it was up to me...
  1. I'd sack off the arcade in x sector, nobody uses it anymore, nor the photo stand. Then I'd turn it into an indoor coffee shop and some sort of health food offering with shared seating.
  2. I'd install / reinstall espresso machines in woodcutters, so that people can enjoy a hot brew, whilst their mate enjoys a cold beer, on the covered outdoor seating.
  3. I'd look into turning one of the old unused houses in the gardens into a classic little tea shop, maybe even with afternoon teas and such. OK, maybe not the afternoon teas, but definitely a lovely little, very british, country tea shop in the gardens would go down very well as a place to catch your breath.
 
Nicky Borrill said:
Hey no offence taken, it was just that I started to wonder if you had a good idea why and weren't sharing... It's all speculation anyway.

Yes Lukas' suggestion, r.e queue times, is along the lines of what I was getting at with social media publicity. Of course single groups can decide not to go if they see the queues are always long, but if those groups share it to social media it influences even more people.

I wouldn't discount Lukas' other suggestion either, tracking guest movement provides extremely valuable data to the park.
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Ironically Rage at Southend Adventure Island broke down again today and was on BBC news :D

toofpikk said:
Had my (nearly) annual visit to Towers at the weekend, and it was genuinely the worst theme park visit I've had in recent memory.
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This is disappointing to hear (and another frustration with the app change as i tend to look at them for any patterns of behaviour eg a ride being closed for multiple days) as was hoping to go next week.

Always think Paultons is a breath of fresh air on this front with their predetermined and announced ride closures.
 
Dar said:
Don't park's manipulate queue times to control guest flow? Or is that just Disney? Or even just a rumour?
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Phantasialand does this Taron or FLY, although not as intense as Disney. But they do post exaggerated queue times close to park closure, which can easily be twice the real wait.
 
It’s a bit late for an April fools joke, isn’t it?
Looks like they had nothing to do for an intern, so he was allowed to create a new logo. I hope they didn’t pay money for this.
 
I honestly think there would have been a happy medium with the text of the new logo, incorporated into Thorpe’s infinity design that has been with the park since 2000/2001.

What baffles me more is Thorpe launched a whole “signature collection” range in 2023, with an adapted infinity logo, so I’m still honestly surprised they didn’t opt to use that logo behind this text or even something like the below.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1730325135675048248
 
Coasterfreck said:
What baffles me more is Thorpe launched a whole “signature collection” range in 2023, with an adapted infinity logo, so I’m still honestly surprised they didn’t opt to use that logo behind this text or even something like the below.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1730325135675048248
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That looks SO much better.

Even if it wasn't the infinity logo, I feel like placing a silhouette of Hyperia behind the writing in some way could have worked much better too.

The current new logo is OK but just doesn't make me feel anything (I'm sure it'll grow on me however).
 
I'veGotFourB&MsInMyGarden said:
View attachment 28545

First impressions: Such a downgrade from the iconic Infinity logo. Maybe it'll grow on me but I'm not convinced.
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It's definitely NOT a downgrade. I'm actually wondering if anyone has actually seen the old Thorpe Park logo... it's genuinely awful and looked incredibly dated years ago, plus the type face was hideous. I wonder how they got away with it for so long.

That said though, this logo does look a little bland on its own, but their website shows how flexible it actually is:

good-good-thrills.jpg


bringing-the-brand-to-life.gif
 
bob_3_ said:
It's definitely NOT a downgrade. I'm actually wondering if anyone has actually seen the old Thorpe Park logo... it's genuinely awful and looked incredibly dated years ago, plus the type face was hideous. I wonder how they got away with it for so long.

That said though, this logo does look a little bland on its own, but their website shows how flexible it actually is:

good-good-thrills.jpg


bringing-the-brand-to-life.gif
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It was definitely time for a new logo, I hadn't actually realised just how outdated the infinity logo looked until they presented us with... this. Conceptually, I think this most certainly is a downgrade though. It's just so painfully basic.
 
I know they said that "infinity is not forever" and all that but I don't think there was any reason to get rid of it. It was iconic and they could have absolutely modernised and created a new brand identity whilst also retaining the well known infinity. Even just having a silhouette of the previous logo makes this one look so much more fun as well as being modern as sleek in my opinion. In fact, I think I prefer what's below over both the official 2008 and 2024 logos.

Thorpe Park Hybrid Logo.png
 
I'veGotFourB&MsInMyGarden said:
I know they said that "infinity is not forever" and all that but I don't think there was any reason to get rid of it. It was iconic and they could have absolutely modernised and created a new brand identity whilst also retaining the well known infinity. Even just having a silhouette of the previous logo makes this one look so much more fun as well as being modern as sleek in my opinion. In fact, I think I prefer what's below over both the official 2008 and 2024 logos.

View attachment 28549
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That looks horrible though. And I think "locking" the type to the background symbol causes a lot of issues when you want a flexible identity. My favourite park logos are mainly just type with a splash of personality (Toverland, Liseberg, Efteling, Phantasialand etc etc) and this is no different, the tiny quirks in the lettering give the whole thing a forward moving motion and fits the tone of Thorpe Park (less whimsical than the other examples).

They've already shown that they plan on showing the logo with more dynamic patterns in the background that already looks miles better than what you've presented there. "swoosh" style logos and infinity symbols are really cliche, I don't know why everyone is clinging onto them. The more I look at this roll-out the more I see this entire package as being way more vibrant and fun than the old logo. I was a bit unsure at first but I think its actually really nice and fresh.

Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-12-23-06.png


If you're so desperate for some shapes behind the logo, they've already shown that variant.
 
I feel like they could still incorporate a modernized version of the infinity symbol as a park emblem, similar to how Toverland has a stylized text logo and an emblem resembling a star-shaped compass:

1701434426899.jpeg
1701434463931.jpeg

Seems like they want to turn the ”o” in ”Thorpe” into their emblem, though—which to me isn’t that interesting, but I’ll get used to it.
 
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