Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.
Thorpe Park Mania Forums

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.
Forum Software Upgrade - Information

Matt N’s Musings

A blog by Matt N in General

  • Entries

    63

  • Comments

    60

  • Views

    62536

Entries in this blog

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N's Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (Trip Summary)

Trip Summary All right, then! Now I’m back in the UK after a 7.5 hour flight from Orlando to London Heathrow, I think it’s about time I posted the trip summary I promised at the end of the last report!   To cut to the chase; this was an absolutely fantastic trip! I loved getting back to Universal, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens after 7 years, and I loved getting on some of the brilliant new rides that have been installed since my last trip! As well as that, Volcano Bay was also a real
Alton Towers

Alton Towers 25th/26th March 2023 (25th March 2023: Alton Towers Day 1)

25th March 2023: Alton Towers Day 1 Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; it was my first visit to Alton Towers of the season! But this visit was particularly exciting for a different reason… my parents and I brought my grandad along with us for what was not just his first ever visit to Alton Towers, but his first ever visit to a theme park full stop! Yes, he’d never set foot into a theme park or ridden a roller coaster prior to this morning, but after seeing Oblivion on the TV, he expressed
Thorpe Park

Thorpe Park 12th May 2026

12th May 2026: Thorpe Park My period between jobs is rolling on, so with me having secured a permanent role, I thought; why not use the Merlin pass once again and go for a midweek Thorpe Park visit? I know I was only in Thorpe a month or so ago, but I made the spur-of-the-moment trip decision after noticing the quiet crowds last week and I like Thorpe. Sue me! I left home at about 6:30 this morning, arriving at Bristol Parkway just after 7am to take a 7:29 train to Staines, with a change in Rea
Paultons Park

Paultons Park 16th May 2026

16th May 2026: Paultons Park After a quiet day at Thorpe Park on Tuesday, I had a day today that I was sensing would be busier; I attended the opening day of Valgard at Paultons Park! I was excited to see the area and ride Drakon for the first time, and also see an opening day for my first time! We (me, my mum and my dad) left our home at a little before 7:30 this morning, and after a drive where we saw a bizarrely high number of Citroen 2CVs (it seemed like an oddly specific classic car to see
Alton Towers

Alton Towers 27th/28th March 2026 (27th March 2026: Alton Towers Day 1)

27th March 2026: Alton Towers Day 1 After what has felt like a pretty long closed season (for me, anyway), March is upon us! And with me having purchased an Essential Merlin Pass back in November, what better way for me to start the season than with a trip to Alton Towers? With Alton After Dark being on for the first 3 weeks of the season and me now having the flexibility to come on a weekday, me and my mum decided to give the event another whirl following our less-than-stellar first go at it in
Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Blackpool Pleasure Beach 3rd June 2026

3rd June 2026: Blackpool Pleasure Beach Today, I returned to a UK park I hadn’t yet visited this season; Blackpool Pleasure Beach! I was going to wait until September to visit Blackpool, but with Aviktas having just opened and gained rave reviews and me still being at a loose end, I thought I’d bump my visit forward a little to catch a midweek visit before the school trips and summer crowds start to descend! Aviktas or not, I do always like a visit to Blackpool, not least to get back on Icon, on
Matt N’s Midlands Meander 23rd/24th April 2026

Matt N’s Midlands Meander 23rd/24th April 2026 (Fantasy Island/Alton Towers) - (23rd April 2026: Fantasy Island)

Prelude After a successful solo trip to Adventure Island and Thorpe Park the other week, I decided to make the most of my time off work before starting my new job and go on another trip away. And given that I only had one real semi-major park left to visit in the UK, I thought; what better park to do than that? So as a result, I strategised quite a spur-of-the-moment trip to the Midlands, consisting of both a first time visit to Fantasy Island in Lincolnshire after talking about going for a coup
Alton Towers

Alton Towers 27th/28th March 2026 (28th March 2026: Alton Towers Day 2)

28th March 2026: Alton Towers Day 2 We (well, I for most of the day) had a second day on park today! Although the plan wasn’t to stay until dark today, I was still looking forward to another day on park getting some more rides in! Now before I get into the meat of today, I should preface that today was also the opening day of Bluey in CBeebies Land, which I hadn’t realised prior to booking. If you’re expecting a review, I’m afraid you will be disappointed; each to their own, but as Alton Towers
Matt N’s Midlands Meander 23rd/24th April 2026

Matt N’s Midlands Meander 23rd/24th April 2026 (Fantasy Island/Alton Towers) - (24th April 2026: Alton Towers)

24th April 2026: Alton Towers I had my second day of the trip today, with a visit to Alton Towers! While it was the less exciting day of the trip in terms of new things and I was last at the park only 4 weeks ago, it has some of my favourite rides in the country, entry is free with my Merlin pass, and I always love a day there, so I frankly thought; why not? Once again, I started my day early, getting up at 6am, getting down to breakfast for 6:30am, and leaving for the railway station at just a
Matt N’s Solo South East Jaunt 12th/13th April 2026

Matt N’s Solo South East Jaunt Mk2 12th/13th April 2026 (Adventure Island/Thorpe Park) - (12th April 2026: Adventure Island)

12th April 2026: Adventure Island With me having worked for the last 6 months and now being out of work for a period, I thought it might be nice to do a park trip. And seeing as I had such a dry year last year in terms of new creds, I thought I’d redo my Solo South East Jaunt from June 2024, but instead combine a Merlin visit on my pass with a new park and do a double bill of Adventure Island and Thorpe Park! I always love a Thorpe visit, but I was also excited to try something new in the UK, wi
Matt N’s Solo South East Jaunt 12th/13th April 2026

Matt N’s Solo South East Jaunt Mk2 12th/13th April 2026 (Adventure Island/Thorpe Park) - (13th April 2026: Thorpe Park)

13th April 2026: Thorpe Park Today, I had my second and final day of the trip, with my first visit of the season to Thorpe Park! New though it may not be, I always love a Thorpe visit, and I couldn’t wait to get back on Hyperia, Stealth and some of my other favourite coasters in the country for my first time in 2026! As always with a hotel stay, I ended up peaking quite early, so I caught an Uber to Thorpe from Staines that got me there at a lovely early 9:10am, meaning that I got through the t
Parc Astérix

Parc Astérix 29th June 2026

29th June 2026: Parc Astérix Today was an exciting day; after months (well, years) of UK park visiting, I had my first foreign park visit since September 2024, and it was to a very exciting park; today was my first ever visit to Parc Astérix in France! I couldn’t wait to get on the rides for the first time, particularly Toutatis! We’re currently staying in a house somewhere broadly between Parc Astérix and Disneyland Paris (that’s coming later in the week), so we left this morning at around 9am
Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris 2nd July 2026

2nd July 2026: Disneyland Paris After a successful trip to Parc Astérix on Monday and trips in between to Paris and Versailles, we headed to another theme park (well, duo of theme parks) today; we visited Disneyland Paris! Now unlike Parc Astérix on Monday, I had visited Disneyland Paris prior to today, but this was over 15 years ago, so my memories of it were quite vague. I was also under 8 years old on my first visit, so there were also numerous attractions that I was either too short to ride,

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.