April 2015 Thorpe Park Update

Thorpe Park has now been open for just over a month and work is underway to prepare the resort for the biggest event the park has seen for a while. Island Beats was announced a few days ago where artists such as The Vamps and Rizzle Kicks will be performing live at the park. In partnership with Universal Music, Global Entertainment, Capital FM and Showcase Live the bands will be singing live on the main stage in Lost City. Acts will be performing live on Friday and Saturday nights, tickets for the event will be on sale from 2nd May from the Thorpe Park website. Construction work on the stage in Lost City has started with footers being set out with the patio area now cornered off until further notice. 

2015 is a big year for the park with the addition of Im A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here Maze, however work on the parks next big attraction code named WC16 is slowly progressing. Fences that used to contain the arena have been removed opening up the area ready for ground work to begin in the next few months. No information about the attraction has been released yet however we expect that the park will start marketing the attraction soon with a micro site launched during the summer. Boards have already been put up on the contraction fences saying “The island landscape is changing" and “Theres a dark secret coming.”  

At the start of the season news broke that Neptune's Beach would be leaving the park in place for a retheme to Amity Beach. In the past few weeks the beach has been fully repainted and a new sign has been fitted to the entrance. Infernos Pizza Pasta new for 2015 opened during March with great theming on the inside however since March more theming has been added. When exiting attractions the park try to make you go through the shop trying to sell you ride themed merchandise, recently the Saw The Ride shop has had a TV fitted with a transparent screen running a video of the Saw The Ride Advert with glass jugs behind the screen that you can buy! A nice little addition to the shop. The Nemesis Inferno shop has had a new sign fitted outside advertising the Im A Celebrity merchandise. The shipping container shop by Stealth was closed from September time last year however the shop has now been reopened, its currently unknown if it will be open permanently or just on peak days. 

Ride availability appears to be a lot better this year with all rides apart from 3 now open and only one running on reduced capacity. Colossus appears to be having a few problems with its second train this year with the ride currently running on one train producing long queues and longer waiting times. Samurai opened just before the easter break and had a good run however the ride has now been shut again due to technical issues. However during the rides downtime staff are going around the queue line and repainting the queue. Detonator Bombs Away, has been closed for a few weeks now, we believe that the ride is awaiting a part. Slammer appears to have had a lot of work done to it over the closed season with new parts spotted at the top of the ride. We are currently unsure of what these extra metal rods will do however we believe it will help with the parking of the ride when it gets to the top of the towers? An opening date for Slammer has not been announced yet. 

Spotted inside the Inferno Pizza Pasta unit is a paper advertising board, advertising Annual Pass’s with the comment “Be one of the first to see our new ride in 2016”  could this mean that the park will be having a preview day of WC16 for annual pass holders? Comparing this year so far to previous years we think the park is doing much better, with the park being busier than we have ever seen it this time of year.