Thorpe Park closes gates with capacity crowd

15000? That sounds a little low for a park like Thorpe Park! La Ronde (which sounds its the same size as Thorpe) gets to 20000 a day and stays manageable...

Wow that's a really low capacity. I've seen even smaller parks with 30,000 and it wasn't horrible.

"The drop - the fourth steepest in the world - is vertical."

Hmmm...interesting.

There's probably a few rides with drops past vertical. One is Typhoon at Bobbejaanland (97 degrees).

^ Ha thats funny.

Wow, I guess I must be thinking wrong. I Thought 15,000 was a lot. Well I was wrong. How much can SFGAm have at max?

Easily over 40,000

*** This post was edited by Cameraman 4/18/2006 10:44:45 PM ***

The article doesn't mention anything about the park having a model or celebrity search going on that weekend. I'm sure that pulls some crowds in as well.

I know CP hits capacity around 40,000 - 45,000.

*** This post was edited by gomez 4/18/2006 11:49:37 PM ***

I'm pretty sure CP has had over 50,000 on a handful of occasions (that one halloweekend in 2003 jumps to mind) and crowds of 40,000 plus happen a few times every season. I never remember them closing their gates because they reached capacity.

When running well, the park's coasters alone can give some ridiculous number of rides in an hour (15-20,000 would be a good bet), not to mention all the flats and shows that can soak up a good number of people as well. Add to that the fact that the midways are very wide in most places and the park can really get to a fairly ridiculous number of people before it gets downright miserable.

Running out of parking and line for the bathroom are commonplace with numbers that high though. :)

I'd still prefer to visit the park when there are less than 20,000 though! :)

I'm pretty sure CP runs out of parking spaces before the park even nears capacity. 50,000+ is certainly do-able. I've heard numbers as high as 60,000, although I don't know how reliable that is.

I worked at CP from 1986-1990, and I know that the park hit 60,000 in 1986 on Memorial Day Weekend. We came pretty close to that in 1989 as well, and it was a zoo. Basically, nowhere to move, hour waits for everything, and not much fun at all. And as a worker, it was next to impossible to get off the point after work due to the traffic.

I was just going by what has been said on Pointbuzz. 1994 was the busiest season for them, so I'm sure one of those days saw record numbers.

Orlando Coaster said, hit 60,000 in 1986 on Memorial Day Weekend. We came pretty close to that in 1989 as well, and it was a zoo.

Yeah, but think of all the attractions they have added since then. That could easily help with the crowds.