Mattgwise

Just got back from Thorpe Park. Was a brilliant day despite the awful heavy rain pouring down for most of the day.This meant minimal queues. Longest I queued all day was about 20 minutes for Nemesis Inferno and Saw. Stealth was on 1 train so may have been about 30 minutes but had a priority pass from previous visit so didn't queue. Later on in the day got to walk on all rides and even stayed on for rerides on Rumba and Detonator.
Think I now prefer rainy days to sunny days when it is so much quieter
Storm Surge was initially closed but reopened later on, Saw closed briefly about 1pm and Slammer closed twice temporarily but was a strange situation as both times the ride was operating normally with guests and queue line closed, then nothing happened for 10 mins and it reopened again. All other main coasters ran perfectly from what I saw with two trains and quick dispatching (amazing how much quicker things are without fastrackers)
Was strange to see almost all rides closed and shut down by about 6:02pm.
Ride Count from 12pm to 6pm:
Colossus x 1
Stealth x1
Saw x3
Nemesis Inferno x3
Detonator x4
SIAT x2
Rumba Rapids x3
Swarm x2
X x2
Slammer x2
Samurai x2
Vortex x2
Rush x7
Quantum x1

Sorry if I wasn't clear (after re-reading it, it is poorly written) What I meant was it was doing it with the track empty and it was making the noise every 10 seconds or so, obviously a problem with it.

An interesting new ride type is coming to Busch Gardens Tampa next year...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4uKOsogphs
It's one of those things I've always wondered if it'll ever happen, but doubted. I think the restraints will be pivotal to the ride experience here.

Video of the valleyed train being rescued
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D-iJKhpHF9s

If you want to hear the areas audio next time, there's a couple of speakers behind the noodles. That runs off the same system, and can relatively easily hear what the music is!

I think loggers might get a revamp if the heads at thorpe get a move on they revamping dragons falls next year and also about CCR I think it will return when other 2 islands been built on therefore extending the track so people can access them islands

^ Must be still in queue.

Get rid of it and put knightmare in it's place! If only!

And build a rock structure around it like when it was at the park before Camelot.

Get rid of it and put knightmare in it's place! If only!

Get rid of it and put knightmare in it's place! If only!

Get rid of it and put knightmare in it's place! If only!

Get rid of it and put knightmare in it's place! If only!

It looks so open still. Surprised weeds and rubbish hasn't grown through the tracked area. I always think when crossing into Canada Creek that a train is going to go by. Hopefully one day it will happen. Have they still got the trains?

Just got back from Thorpe Park. Was a brilliant day despite the awful heavy rain pouring down for most of the day.This meant minimal queues. Longest I queued all day was about 20 minutes for Nemesis Inferno and Saw. Stealth was on 1 train so may have been about 30 minutes but had a priority pass from previous visit so didn't queue. Later on in the day got to walk on all rides and even stayed on for rerides on Rumba and Detonator.
Think I now prefer rainy days to sunny days when it is so much quieter
Storm Surge was initially closed but reopened later on, Saw closed briefly about 1pm and Slammer closed twice temporarily but was a strange situation as both times the ride was operating normally with guests and queue line closed, then nothing happened for 10 mins and it reopened again. All other main coasters ran perfectly from what I saw with two trains and quick dispatching (amazing how much quicker things are without fastrackers)
Was strange to see almost all rides closed and shut down by about 6:02pm.
Ride Count from 12pm to 6pm:
Colossus x 1
Stealth x1
Saw x3
Nemesis Inferno x3
Detonator x4
SIAT x2
Rumba Rapids x3
Swarm x2
X x2
Slammer x2
Samurai x2
Vortex x2
Rush x7
Quantum x1

Ride operation (loading/dispatching etc) so much more efficiently today with next to no fasttrack ticket holders.

I found the inspiration for The Smiler building, the back of my local McDonalds.

It is clearly to do with batching, it does make sense to have them lining up so people know where to go even if it now proving to more trouble than it is worth.
Worth noting it is not running on crappy settings because of the zeroing problem, it is run on crappy settings because it has made a good effort of tearing itself apart over the years. The zeroning thing is a separate issue caused by the sensors being every bit as knackered as the ride itself and nothing to do with how fast it runs now.

How long until Jonathon Ross is on to tell us it goes 100mph and goes upside down 20 times?

Have to agree with you on the music front. It did seem quiet inside the ride but my goodness was it vibrating like crazy in the Colossus queue so can see why they probably won't turn it up anymore than it currently is. The building would probably fall down if it was turned up anymore!

It really is silly. Opening times are an important factor for most and I think that extra hour would make more people who think twice about going actually go!

So another to add to the list of rides that broke down today that I did'nt see. Wasn't a reliable day at all.
This has happened with me on the ride too, must say at first it was awesome but then it got a bit much for most. Did add an entertainment factor to the ride though, and ever since the cycle has seemed insanely short!

Good Ol days when it didn't faff pulling into the station and could be dispatched in 25 seconds with three trains.

Okay, decided to do a trip report as I went to Thorpe for the first time in AGES yesterday. I should probably explain - I used to go loads but kind of fell out of love with the place, for many reasons, and haven't been back since until yesterday. Was interesting to go back.
Firstly, despite a lot of criticism, the park looks to me a lot nicer than it used to. I'm not sure whether it's because it's the start of the season, and it was quiet yesterday, but I was very impressed with the tidiness and the effort that has obviously gone into the flowerbeds and foliage. Colossus area looks amazing compared to last time I was there now that the foliage has grown a bit., and the whole Lost City area in particular looks really good.
Anyway, onto the report proper:
The day started very badly. £4 for car parking is such a rip off. Even worse is the security. I can't remember having ever been confronted with such a ridiculously over-zealous entrance procedure anywhere. I can understand why Thorpe need to do this (to stop drugs getting in), but this is NOT the way to greet people to the park. If they need to be this detailed surely an X-ray machine would be more appropriate? If not, since this is supposed to be a fun place to be (rather than, say, entering a prison), maybe they could encourage the team to have even the tiniest sense of humour and the smallest piece of common sense. Emptying my pockets onto a table, only to be told that it had to go in a box, only for him to take everything out of the box was weird. Then he went through every pocket of my wallet. Then, having already wasted enough time I showed him my cigarette box contained just that, when he told me to put it down so he could open it himself. By this point me and my girlfriend were actually laughing (else we'd have been seriously pissed off), which probably made us look like *****s, but seriously, this is not the way to greet people. The security at Disney were SO friendly and nowhere near as thorough. If they need to be this over the top at least employ people who can do it with a smile on their face to distract from what's going on!
Then, knowing the park was quiet, we waited a good half an hour for Swarm and this is all due to the crappy one train policy. I CANNOT understand how terrible a business must be for their logic to run like this. Rather than, having charged people a lot to get in, ensuring they have as productive and enjoyable day as possible, they'd rather piss everyone off in queues to make them pay even more. But is this sustainable? Luckily it was quiet, but are people really going to keep coming back if all they think of is queuing? Surely the priority should be to keep the queues as short as possible as ultimately this is what people remember about theme parks.
Anyway, aside from these two niggles, I had a fantastic day. This is almost entirely due to the fact that the park was dead - walking straight onto most rides, including Swarm once they'd added a second train. One of the reasons I started hating Thorpe was because it always seemed to involve massive queues with really annoying people, but I can't say we had any problems. The park must be quieter than it was because I can't remember it ever being like this in the early noughties, especially on a nice day. Strolling through the Stealth queue and remembering the hours I'd spent in there was quite nice. Being asked if I wanted to go round again on a ride as big as Saw is the level of quietness I haven't experienced since I was young in the mid 1990s, when Chessington frequently opened to hardly anyone and we were allowed to go round and round on Dragon River!
Unbelievably this is the first time I've been since not only Swarm, but also SAW opened. So here are my thoughts on both:
Saw: I actually love this ride. Let's get it out the way, it is ROUGH, in fact not rough but painful. It doesn't so much rattle as throw you round in your restraint. Aside from this, it's great! I'm an absolute sucker for coasters with a dark ride element, and whilst I think more could have been done with this, the first drop is one of the best moments on any coaster I've ever been on and the low inline is cool (especially with that squirting body below!).. I love the station area - nothing is more exciting than a coaster going directly into a pitch black dark ride portion! Looks so cool (serious, SERIOUS, geekage!). I hate the Saw films but the theme here fits so perfectly with a rollercoaster that I can forgive it. Much preferred going on the second of the two batched carriages though so you get the whole speech from Jigsaw rather than just a weird cackle. Lift hill and first drop are amazing, a great piece of airtime, a dive drop and loop which could pass for a genuine torture instrument rather than a pretend one. This ride is just class.
Swarm - again, a fantastic ride. Wing Riders are a fantastic idea, and I seriously doubt there's a much better element out there than the first drop on this. The area is beautifully themed (though I bet the operators wish they'd done in with theming if it meant having a roof over the church!), and, again, the concept works really really well. The main problem here is simply one of length. These are obviously big rides, and there simply isn't the space to make a bigger ride, but it's such an anti-climax on any ride that is this short and leaves you feeling like you didn't really get a full experience. It all works well, but there's just not enough track for it to be a classic ride. It's main achievement was making me SERIOUSLY want to go on one of those massive American ones because B & M have seriously excelled themselves with this concept. Backwards adds not much to the ride for me. You need to see where you're going as 50% of a roller coasters excitement comes from anticipation and the combination of senses. We all drive faster in our cars - its the combination of wind rushing into your face, and seeing track fall far below you, the creates the effect.
Not much else to say. The X retheme is terrible. Was never a good ride, but now it's all light and facing forwards its even worse. The stopping bits just seem ridiculous without the concept of "how do we get out?", the light shows what a poxy little coaster it is, which is fine if its secrets are kept in pitch black. Storm Surge looks horrific. Colossus is getting nearly as rough as that one from Parc Asterix - time they invested in similar head cushions? Bar 360 was a lovely place to sit at lunch - helped that it was quiet and we could therefore afford to spend the best part of an hour relaxing in the sun but the food was nice and this felt a world away from the Thorpe of old.
Finally, as I see it's traditional, here's a ride count:
Swarm x 4
Stealth x 2
Colossus x 1
Saw x 3
Nemesis Inferno x 1
Rush x 2
Vortex x 2
Samurai x 2
Loggers Leap x 1
X x 1
Thanks, if anyone bothered reading all that!

I believe there is a small chance his name is Jake.