Your Planned Trips and Reports

As some of you may or may not know, today, the Derelict Dreamland site in Margate opened up to the public for the first time since 2006. The day offered people the chance to "take back Dreamland". This involved an inside look of the site as it stands now, proposals for its future as a Heritage Amusement Park as well as giving the community the chance to get involved with clearing the site for a 2015 opening. (I actually took so many pictures that even after shortening them down, the update is still too large. For that reason, I will split it into 2-3 sections.. Note that most of the pictures are of me touring the derelict site.) Having just disappeared into town for a…

Looking at arranging a trip to Alton Towers opening day as it is expected to see Nemesis reopening at the start of the season now the retrack is complete. I'll be getting a Merlin Annual Pass in the next sale for the "24 Season. *Update* Towers After Dark will be open until 8pm on opening Saturday. My current plan is to travel to a hotel around Derby on friday evening (15th Mar). Premier Inn looks like the best option currently. Then travel to the park to arrive at the corkscrew entrance plaza for 9:30 - 10:00. Plans may be subject to change but now's a good time to get a date in the calendar. Opening day has not been offici…

I am on holiday next week and, unsurprisingly, will be hitting some Parks. Anyone who wants to join me, either post in here, or contact me by telephone - the number is on Facebook.Sunday, 23rd May - Clarence Pier / Blackgang Chine / Adventure WonderlandMonday, 24th May - Brean Leisure ParkTuesday, 25th May - Flamingo LandWednesday, 26th May - Alton TowersThursday, 27th May - Paultons ParkFriday, 28th May - Lego Land (from 1200)Saturday, 29th May - ChessingtonSunday, 30th May - Thorpe Park (TPM Meetup)

(First off I would like to apologise in case this is in the wrong section of the forums)On July 1st, my family and I are making the trip across the pond to Orlando, Florida.The parks that we are going to are:Disney's Magic Kingdom,EPCOT,Disney's Hollywood Studios,Disney's Animal Kingdom,Typhoon Lagoon,Blizzard Beach,Disney Quest,Universal Studios,Islands Of Adventure,Sea World,Aquatica,Busch Gardens.I just wanted to know if anyone had any good tips that I could follow, or anything to do with the parks that can help. I'm new to Aquatica and never really been around Sea World all to often. Plus, there is one of us in the party of 5 that has never been before (My brother's g…

Thorpe Park - Thursday 13th September 2012 'Cast' - James (Me) - Loves theme parks, and will grab at any and every opportunity to get some ride time! Giordan - My closest friend, loves the Disney theme parks and skipped college for this trip! Ash - Giordan's brother. Fellow Queens Park Rangers supporter, and all round good guy. Emily - Ash's girlfriend. Serial on-ride screamer! This was my first trip to Thorpe Park since July, and my first trip for sometime going with friends. Usually, my trips to theme parks are with family! I managed to save up the tokens that were in The Sun recently, and was given this date to go in return. Any chance to go to a theme park…

Just been to Florida for 2 weeks and I am not sure if I will ever enjoy TP as much as I used to. Had an amazing 2 weeks and got to do lots of rides an attractions and the general theming of the parks is 100% better than any park in England. It makes me realise how tacky places like TP are in comparison to parks in Florida. I understand that parks in Florida probably have a higher budget but what they have done is simple and I am sure Thorpe could do the same with maybe a bit more effort. I was told before I went that I would feel different about TP when I come back and I am sure most people here would feel the same. Ride Count -:Sea WorldKraken - 5Journey to Atlantis - 5I…

Missed me? I've just returned from an almost 3 week trip to the shores of Australasia, a trip which covered Singapore, Australia, China and Hong Kong. Our story begins with me and my friend boarding a Norwegian Air plane (bursting at the seems with the unwashed masses) destined for Singapore. The decision to fly with a budget airline, long distance, was forced upon us and not something I'd recommend, it wasn't too disgusting though. Day 1 I physically cannot sleep or get at all comfortable on planes, so after a 12 hour flight of not sleeping and thinking why do I put myself through this crap, it was decided the first day was…

Ahhhhh, now this I've been looking forward to for a while now, especially after the original date for this trip was cancelled due to my appendix deciding to commit suicide... So this trip was rebooked, and the excitement built up once again... I vaguely remember my trip to Europa 4 years ago, when Silver Star was king, and a demonstration of the constantly moving (if maze-like) queues were abound on every single ride on park... Since then of course, Iceland and it's two coasters have appeared, so as such, it was time to revisit and do it properly... 3 days, on site... Hell yeah... The plan for departure was simple, leave in the middle of the day, get to the hotel mid-…

After winning [collecting, picking up, whatever you want to call it] a three night stay at Europa Park, I was pretty excited about going to a proper theme park for once, and after visiting, I saw that Europa Park is probably one of the best theme Parks in the world, up there with Islands of Adventure. The day I arrived [saturday] was the Midnight closing, and to be quite honest, it wasn't very different from the later 2 days spent at the park, and it was a bit over hyped. I was really annoyed at Silver Star closing at 10pm on a midnight closing, and after asking a staff member about it, he just shrugged, laughed and walked off. All rides in the park where lit up beautiful…

Tired doesn't really cut the cheese when it comes to describing my state on Sunday 6th October at 07:00. Let me guide you quickly through the reasons why I was so tired. Firstly there was Friday, a day that started for me around 3:30am with me leaving the house at 5:45am and then this happened http://live.thorpenerd.com So after that I drifted off to sleep in a Travelodge at the end of a runway at Britains busiest airport back aching like a pitbull in a tutu. Till I woke myself up at 5am snoring. Saturday was here and I was awake, listening to Rob gently snore to himself. I lay there, trying to mentally mend my back by sending my internal repair nanobots to that area (I …

I'd heard all the reviews, seen all the pictures and eventually saw it for myself yesterday. I also want to point out there will be spoiler throughout. With sky-high expectations I was amazed to find that they still blown out of the water, the place is quite frankly unbelievable. The only problem is that it highlighted just how lacking in quality Alton/Thorpe/Chessington and other UK attractions really are. We arrived about quarter to 10, with the park having opened at 9 and headed to where else but Black Mamba. "Best Coaster in Europe" and other similar claims surround this ride, and I was glad to hear I wouldn't be disappointed. Unbelievably, for me, it topped Nemesis, …

As some of you may know, I was promised a trip to Six Flags Great Adventure (New York is the overall trip) depending on my GCSE results and because the results corresponded with my parents' promise, I'm offically going to this place and everything is booked. I just wanted to simply ask for any advice from anyone who's been here or anyone who knows more about it than I do so I'll put it into the following questions: Do most of the rides have front row queues? If so, do they get very long? Is the Safari Off Road Adventure worth the 40 minutes? (I don't want my entire family to be bored but at the same time, my mum and my brother aren't big on major r…

Beginning of a new year, which means a whole new season of theme parks is just round the corner... So, what theme parks are you thinking of visiting in 2018? What trips have you got planned, are in the middle of planning or still umming and ahhing over? Discuss away... For me... UK: -Merlin quartet as standard -First visit to Blackpool (because Icon) -First visit to Paulton's (probably) -First visits to Lightwater Valley and Flamingo Land (maybe) Europe: -Phantasialand (multiple visits, first of which is in a couple of weeks) -Denmark trip (all major parks and maybe a couple of smaller …

PARK OPEN: 10am - 5pm RIDES CLOSED ALL DAY: The Tide Traveller, Laser Labyrinth (Enigma opened in the afternoon due to a technical issue). Overall, we really enjoyed Pleasurewood Hills. It helped that the park wasn't very busy, meaning that re-rides were plentiful. It's a nice place overall, the countryside setting gives the park a similar feel to Oakwood, however it's not on a massive hill which we were thankful for when walking around! Atmosphere is the biggest improvement needed IMO, as there is no music played beyond the main entrance (apart from themed music on a few attractions). I think that the music playlist at the entrance should be p…

The third park we visited was Wicksteed Park in Kettering. It's a very unique park and a great laid back place to visit. It has a large lake and a wonderful lakeside railway that has had over ten million passengers, since it opened back in 1921.After paying a car park fee, you don't have to pay for anything more, unless you want to. For the rides, you can purchase tokens or wrist bands.It was quite busy when we arrived.The queue for the tokens and wristbands was very long.Wicksteed is home to Europe's first double Pirate Ship.We met up with my mum and dad The kids loved the bumper cars.Ben on the jets.Tea Cup fun with Lydia.We all had fun on the Astro Slide.A rather unco…

Prater Trip Report So I recently went to Vienna and had some spare time so went to visit Prater. It's basically a permanent fairground with all rides being operated independently. This makes it quite an expensive experience and the rides aren't the best with quite a few Wild Mouses (should that be Wild Mice?!) but that said it was a good way to kill a few hours... So arriving at the park you're met with the Big Wheel, which is why most people come to Prater. The entrance plaza is quite nice. The map is pretty confusing. Unless you know the names of the ride you wont really know where to go. So I wondered down the right han…

In what I hope I can make a seasonal thing now, here's the 2012 edition of my Review of the Thorpe Park season! First of all, a couple of little points - again, I won't be doing any for other parks, simply due to the fact I haven't visited them enough to do a 'season review' like this one. Hopefully next season will see me expand out to other parks a bit more regularly, so it is a case of watch this. Also, apologises about some of the bad photos; I've included as few shockingly bad quality photos as possible, though some do help aid what I'm talking about I think. Over the festive period, I'll be treating myself to a new camera, so hopefully 2012 will see the end of m…

Last thursday me and Mum headed to Blackpool for a day in the park on the friday, but more importantly for me to Walk the Big One. Thursday night was to see the lights from ground level, and finally got on the Big Wheel on Central Pier. Friday in the park, headed straight to the Big One for the first ride of the day. One train on, and the last 2 cars were sandbagged all day, leading to the biggest queue of the day. Everything else was walk on, and on Big Dipper several times we had to wait for more people to arrive. Put it this way, it was nice to get on some woodies again, including 7 goes on the Wild Mouse, and managed to get on the last car of the day, Miffy I think.…

Hello Edit: you people are so lucky, this webpage started not responding and I thought I had lost this trip report which I wouldn't have been bothered to write out again. :DI have recently got back from Spain and have decided to post a trip report on the fantastic Terra Mitica.The whole place looks stunning and every building is themed superbly, and when you enter it really does feel like you've entered another world.I don't understand how a park struggling for attendance can be themed and maintained so well, and yet a park like Thorpe Park, over-attended, has no theming in comparison and is poorly maintained.I was there from about 4.30PM till 10 and got on quite a bit, e…

You know there are times when you just think...when the bloody hell did that happen? Well That just happened to me at Flamingoland. I have had plenty of visits over the last few years whereby I've been impressed at the park progress, but this year, (partly due to the fact that I didn't really get a chance to ride much because we were there for my son's birthday, and he had his diminutive friend, brother and cousin in tow) it struck me just how far they have come from the concrete jungle they were in the mid nineties. It struck me how Merlin-like the park was starting to become, the Children's world interactive play area set amongst meercats and lemurs out-Chessingtonin…

Foreword:I don't normally do Trip Reports but this one is a little special because the chances are that this maze will never be repeated again. Still, I am going to keep this short and sweet unless interest arises for extra detail, eg a written walkthrough. Tom Spindler - 13th Seance's creator - has become renowned in the scare attraction industry for making horror mazes that are incredibly detailed and going beyond what most mainstream attractions will do to be scary. While waiting outside on the aptly named Crucifix lane, our group of 5 TPM members had no clue what to expect.Memorable Scenes:Both the detail and the single actor wrapped in sewn up cloths, sitting at the …

Well I know December was 3 months ago there abouts but I want to show you guys my little trip to New York. I will try to do it in 4 or five parts but that might be more seeming I did take 300 + photos in 4 days but no matter, plus for anybody going to thorpe park for the TPM meet on sunday will see my face for the first time lol. Just to say I dont look like that normally its just it was so windy and cold it seemed make my face look horrible and my hair was a mess :s So on to part 1: We finally managed to get out after a massive hailstorm. I seem to be bamboozled by the amount of TV on that one building. Started to get annoyed cos the traffic was horrendous and the g…

Hi everyone.Basically a very quick post to extend an invitation to a meet that members over various forums have each year. Every year we abuse the London Merlin attractions and then have a meal in the evening somewhere. You do not have to attend each attraction, but it's tradition that the group stays together and is usually the best meet of the year.It is being organised via Facebook. HERE.If you can't view that, then add me on Facebook, and I'll invite you.You're more than welcome to book a room at a Travelodge for the evening, a few of us already are. This is to be confirmed as to where- a couple of locations are going around at the moment such as Leatherhead and T5. A…

Thorpe Park Mania has been invited to the opening of Wallace & Gromit's, 'One Man One Dog' by Club PBE. The event is taking place on April 27th 2013 and has a variety of different events taking place including ERT on several different attractions. If you wish to attend the event, please let Scott Bickerton know via the Club PBE event page located here(After clicking on the link you will be shown with a 'page not found' error, please click in the link and press enter, this should work!): http://www.facebook.com/events/125010257677319/ The event has a cost of: £36 for Season Pass Holders £46 for non SP Holders - includes wristband for the day. The full line-up of …

Hi everyoneJust wondering who would like to have a mini meet on the 31st October as the atmosphere is better and it would be fun? Just wondering as I need people to go with