2015 Park Changes

After a few months of being shut, Thorpe Park today opened for the Annual Pass Preview Weekend. With all rides and attractions open with the exceptions of Samurai, Im A Celebrity Maze, Slammer, Rush, Quantum, Tidal Wave, Rumba Rapids and X. With the park being closed during the Winter all rides are stripped down and inspected along with maintenance throughout the park from the small things such as replacing signs around the park to building new catering units. 

Outside the park the Annual Pass Building has been repainted with new signs added to the building. Following the park changing its audience last year the billboard next to the toilets has been changed to advertise Annual Pass’s and what rides people of different heights can ride. A new sign has also been added as you exit the park listing the parks that a Merlin Annual Pass can get you into. Inside the dome a new stage area has been set up with a lights rig above the stage and temporary speakers set up for the weekend. We believe a more permeant set up will be done in the upcoming weeks. A new DJ booth is currently being constructed at the second floor of the dome just above the Coffee shack.

Work on Im A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here Maze seems to be progressing well with fake moss added to the roof of the building. A mini cooper car has been parked outside the entrance for the attraction with the queue line currently being constructed on the old miss’s hippos safari site. Launching with the new attraction is Bush BBQ a retheme of the Calypso BBQ. Theme Park Guide will be attending the press night for the attraction and we will be posting updates live from the event on our Facebook Page. The on-ride photo booth for Nemesis is currently closed for renovation work, we believe that this could be to due with the Im A Celebrity attraction? Possibly with a photo opportunity throughout the experience. 

Back in 2014 it was announced that the carousel would close in place of a brand new attraction for 2016. During the closed season no work has been done to the ride however construction fences have been built around the construction site.  Since our last update nothing has been done to the 2016 ride area. From Nemesis Inferno’s Lift Hill we could see two horses have been removed from the ride with everything else looking untouched. 

During February Half Term it was noticed that Depth Charge had been jet washed however the submarine above the ride has now been repainted giving the ride a new lease of life. The sub has been painted yellow along with the theming on the submarine repainted. Tidal Wave’s water tower was removed during the closed season and has now been returned with new earth cables installed in the tower. We don't believe that the WaterTower will work again due to no pumps being connected to the tower. Tidal Wave appears to be undergoing lots of work this year with the lift hill looking new and shiny on the lefthand side with new panels up the lift hill. We believe that the same will happen on the righthand side of the chain lift before the ride reopens to the public. Stealth has also had more work done to it during the past few weeks with the tire being repainted and the Stealth sign above the entrance being replaced. 

Slammer and Rush are still undergoing there maintenance with Slammer still under scaffolding with the seats still being protected by plastic. Rush was being worked on all day with engineers working on the ride from cherry pickers. Tightening up the tension cables and checking the ride over. Vortex opened later in the day with the ride having a few problems here and there with some of the restraints not working properly. 

With Saw The Ride being broken all day the park opened Detonator Bombs Away and Loggers Leap in the ride’s absence. During the closed season we reported that LoggersLeap might be getting its tunnel back however it would appear that we were wrong. The Rocky Express is looking very shiny and new again after receiving a paint job on its supports, however it would also appear that the fence around the ride is being made higher with more posts being installed around the current fence. Samurai was broken for the last few weeks of the season last year, but the park appears to still be hard at work fixing the ride up ready for the main season. The back panel of one of the seats was off today exposing the pneumatics of the restraints. Rumba Rapids is still undergoing maintenance with the ride drained, it would also appear that the trough has been jet washed. 

With Colossus getting old it was hoped that the ride would receive a paint job during the closed season however that never happened. It would appear that a few sections of the track have been painted! Where the park has cracked metal tested the track they have painted over the checked sections with green paint. It is currently unknown if the park are trying out new paint in these sections for the whole ride to be painted next year? Maps from last year can still be found throughout the park on the walls and billboards however we expect these will be replaced in the next few days ready for the park to open on Thursday. There also appears to be a uniform change for staff around the park, the park now has two uniform colours. Red for ride staff and Blue for staff working in F&B (food and beverages). 

At the end of the day a set of large speakers were set up outside the crust near Rush and Zodiac, when asking the staff around the area they weren't to sure what they where for however it would appear that the park have been testing the noise levels throughout the park. 

This closed season has brought many of changes throughout the park but we have to say we haven't seen the park looking so good for many years! The park has improved its image and looks great.