stealth888

Haha yeah I have a habit of omitting 'Inferno'...but what a feat that would be As for the quietness, I think you're right...the operations generally were really good, as I said apart from the tech problems & weather (things out of their control). The weather itself wasn't actually that bad, it looked worse on the forecasts so yeah I think the weather might actually be putting people off - would have to return on an equally badly forecasted day to see if this is the case.

Hi guys, haven’t done a trip report in pretty well over 5 years and it’s nice to be back on the site reading how everyone is enjoying their days out. I felt the need to mention a few things about my visit to the park on Sunday (bit late, I know), as it was my first visit in probably 2 years. First off, the park was clean, well-maintained and very quiet. In fact, I don’t think I’ve had a more chilled day at the park, considering the near-enough 10-20 minute queues all afternoon, and the availability of my cousin’s disability access pass. Having said that, we achieved a fairly average ride count for what it was, a day I could have only dreamed of 5 years ago when most of my visits were dominated by 45-min queues for the coasters. We arrived to a park with maybe half the rides open; Swarm, Saw, Colossus and most of Lost City flats were closed (Walking Dead & Rumba Rapids were also closed all day), so after running all the way to Swarm island and politely directed away by two members of staff, we opted for our first ride of the season on Stealth. Never has a more beautiful sight beheld me: Stealth was operating, with two trains, upon park opening. One exhilarating ride later, I could have gone again at least three more times, but members of our group fancied getting the Big 5 done before lunchtime so we headed over to Swarm, which was ‘Coming Soon’ on the app. A walk-on queue, but as we walked across the bridge and down the left-hand side of the station, the operators had to call a mechanic due to a faulty restraint buckle on the right-hand side (not entirely sure what was wrong with it, but fair-dos, safety first). During this time, the professionalism and courtesy of the ride staff was second-to-none. It was also cool seeing the engineer at work, even though all I saw was just him giving the seats a once-over and sending the train for a test-run. It was also around 30 mins later that a second train was added to compensate for the building queue (which wasn’t a massive one). All-in-all we waited 20 minutes in the station for the fault to be fixed, and the ride was fab - I have realised I enjoy the left side as much as the right. The second near-miss on the right-hand side of the billboard is astonishing. Made me duck! Now, I feel I should add a disclaimer - my cousin is 10 years old, and we considered this in our day’s plans. Walking back to Amity, the next ride we went on was Depth Charge In the dozens of times I’ve visited the park, I had only ridden Depth Charge twice before, and to be honest, it’s quite fun! The queue stairs give you a great view of the northern side of the park, and you pick up a fair bit of speed on the slide. So, it was worth the 15-minute-or-so queue we waited, at a time in the day I usually reserve to getting a half-dozen rides in on Nemesis Inferno. Walking towards Lost City, I took the opportunity to enjoy my favourite flat Rush, which was excellent despite a similar restraint problem to Swarm (they had to release them about 4 times before our ride). When Colossus reached its peak of an 80-minute queue around 11.30, we utilised the disability access pass to enter the short queue at the ride exit. It is at this point where my second appraisal of TP staff comes in: a queue-jumper had reached the station and was being asked to leave the queue by the ride host (who I can only assume could be heard over the tannoy by everyone in the queue line). He must have asked the bloke to leave around 4 or 5 times, repeating the same pre-written request each time. It was at this point where the guy kicked off, threatening the host and demanding he keep his space because he had left his kids in the queue line and was returning to them after taking a much-needed slash. He had apparently waited around an hour by this point. The ride host ceased operation of the ride, and waited for security to arrive, who escorted the bloke out of the queue line (he had calmed down), but his kids were allowed to stay in the queue as they had waited. An entirely reasonable outcome in my opinion. During this time, the engineers also took the rare opportunity to add a second train to the track, which then needed 3 test runs (so 6 test runs including both trains) before the ride continued operation. We had waited around 30 minutes in the exit to use my cousin’s pass, which wasn’t signed by the staff because of the extra time we had to wait. Which we appreciated. As for the ride itself, Colossus has had it’s day. Really uncomfortable, and maybe 30% enjoyable. I would put money on it’s departure within the next five years. After an early lunch, we got a ride each on Nemesis and Saw. I still massively enjoy Saw’s theming, and the dispatches were really good as usual. Nemesis had no effects throughout, but we still had a lot of fun and it was fab that two trains were running. Now... I have a love and hate relationship with Samurai, as the previous time I rode it I was left hanging upside-down for the better part of a full minute. Not fun. This time, it wasn’t the ride that was the problem - it was the queue staff. We had joined the fasttrack queue to use my cousin’s pass when there was probably a ride’s worth of guests queuing in the main entrance. However, when the ride completed its first cycle, everyone was let off at a glacial pace, then the host went to add more people from the main queue into the ride waiting area - ignoring myself and my cousin in the fastback queue. Not great. Although it was partly my fault, we subsequently waited two ride cycles to be let onto the third, when really we could have entered the main queue and be allowed onto the first. Meh. Ride was fab though - went around clockwise & anti-clockwise three times. Ride time must have been more than 4 mins - felt very dizzy after!! Not much to report about the rest of the afternoon apart from that if I was to be left to my own devices, I would have ridden Saw, Nemesis and Swarm at least 4 more times each, but it was not to be as everyone had conked out by 4pm and wanted to go home. Sad Chris. Having said that, we managed another ride on Stealth and Swarm, before Stealth had ceased operation due to the rain that had started to pour down (not fun in crap weather). Nice effects in the Swarm area though, especially in the misty rain fog: Overall, a good day that had been given some stumbling blocks by technical problems and bad weather, but fun nonetheless and will see my return very soon to ride DBGT and The Walking Dead, both for the first time. Stealth x2 Swarm x2 Rush x2 Depth Charge x1 Colossus x1 Nemesis x1 Saw x1 Samurai x1 Dodgems x1 Storm Surge x1

Just a quick video I made of the Swarm from my trip to Thorpe on Sunday. Here's the trip report from Sunday, if you want to check it out: http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/104-thorpe-park-trip-reports/page__st__1720

Hi all, Yesterday was the best day at Thorpe I've had for a long while, if you don't count the beginning of the year and discovering the new Swarm area of the park... I might begin by saying that whatever the majority of the guest's motives were, the busiest times of the day yesterday were not at night, but around 12pm before the queue times dropped to a record low for a visit to fright nights for me at around 5pm. It was a chilled day - if you don't count the stressed hour-and-a-bit rushing around beforehand trying to find my annual pass - because we arrived to a pretty much dead entrance before deciding to ride the Swarm with a 10-minute queue with one train. After braving the left side (my personal favourite) we headed over to Stealth (running on 2 trains and pretty much walk-on) and got two rides in. I have to say Stealth still is number one in my top 5- followed only a fraction of a margin by The Swarm. If accelerating to 80mph in under 2 seconds doesn't wake you up after a late night, I don't know what does. The rest of the 'Fright Day' included a lacklustre ride on Saw, traditional lunch on Rumba Rapids and a spontaneous 5-minute wait for Rush. I'll add at this point that I shouldn't deceive you with the short queue times we waited in- The Swarm shot up to 80 minutes at around 2pm and Colossus was on 70 for much of the afternoon. But around 5pm, the mood changed in the park to the normal, British rainy day into the Fright Night atmosphere I know and love (and keep coming back to every year). At this point myself and my friend were just polishing off some Kebabs next to a (just) functioning Storm Surge whilst the sun was lowering. Colossus was advertised as a 40 minute queue, so we headed over to Lost City to get our first 'dark' ride of the evening. But about 15 minutes into the queue and no sign of the single train dispatching, an announcement came on warning that the ride 'might' cease operation due to the weather conditions - which at this point was a slight drizzle. Due to these unforeseen circumstances, pretty much the entire queue where my friend and I were standing decided to exit immediately - resulting in us losing our place just under the second bridge - so we went over to Stealth. Now by this point the 'slight drizzle' had turned into 'intense drizzle' and so our front row ride on Stealth was extremely painful with water hitting my face feeling more like someone had shot a dart gun at point blanc. Nevertheless, we had 'wasted time' queuing for the front as my friend had put it, and the darkness was upon us. Thorpe Park really does feel like a different place at night and the roaming actors - I mean, the inmates - had 'escaped' and were making a brilliant effort in terrorising the chavs (which made my evening). Apart from the theatrical entertainment on our ventures around Amity, the rest of our evening was made up of 20-minute-to-walk-on rollercoaster rides, which resulted in our goal of riding every rollercoaster in the dark, front row, without having to take out a mortgage for Fastrack. It truly was an epic evening and at quarter to nine after exiting the Saw warehouse we made good use of the walk-on Samurai queue. To say that I don't feel safe on that ride now is a gross understatement. Hanging upside down for the better part of 2 minutes and the noises it makes whilst on its cycles are not what I call 'entertainment'. A once good ride gone wrong, I won't be riding it next season (let alone in the next couple of weeks). Otherwise an awesome day, and here's the RC: Swarm x4 (1xFR) Stealth x4 (2xFR) Nemesis x2 (1xFR) Saw x2 (1xFR) Colossus x3 (1xFR) Rumba Rapids x1 Rush x1 Samurai x1

Yesterday (31st May) I went with my friend Luka and it was PACKED. Yes, we arrived at 9am and were certain the park would remain the same way-dead-throughout the day, considering it was still term time and a thursday. However, we didn't take into account that 'study leave + school/college trips + some schools are actually off now = slightly more guests than expected. What we also didn't expect was that the park would actually be opening at 10am, instead of advertising a 10am opening and then opening early at 9.30, as it has done on my previous two visits this year (both in April). Anyway, we weren't complaining. A 9am arrival meant we were the first in the AP queue and the fact that it was opened first lead to our first ride of the day being on Swarm front row (right side!), first train. Absolutely epic. We opted for another go beforehand, but the vast amounts of people who had joined the queue during our ride had built it up to a solid 45/60 minute queue. So we did what most people do; we headed to Stealth, and within 10 minutes had braved the front row (and nearly lost my eyes in the wind in the process!). We joined the queue again; being 5 minutes, things were looking up for me to reach my target of 50 rides (overall) on Stealth by the end of the day. But being Intamin, the unreliable sods they are, the ride experienced technical difficulties whilst we were in the station. 15 minutes later, we were told to leave the ride as they were still looking into the problem. We got a priority pass to use on either NI, Colossus, X or Stealth, which we used on Stealth later on in the day around 3pm. After we left the Stealth area, we went to Canada Creek and got a ride on Saw and Colossus, both being around a 20 minute wait, then down to the lost city flats to ride Zodiac and Vortex. Again, I would have liked to ride more rollercoasters during the day, but the hourly queues for Colossus and Saw, and a 90 minute queue for Swarm lead us to riding most of the water rides twice It was a good chance for be to enjoy Tidal Wave again, I thought I would hate it but it was a great time and the first in fact, where I embraced the water a little more instead of covering myself with a jacket! It says 'you will get very wet' so I thought I might as well, even though the weather really wasn't that great. Later on in the day, as it tends to do, the Swarm queue died down to a reasonable 20 minutes. My friend and I snatched this opportunity to grab another front row ride (on the left this time) and then ride again, only to notice an internet celebrity board the train with us! If any of you know KSI, then you'll know he is a well known gamer on YouTube who is flippin hilarious. (Link to his newest video below). We didn't say hello, but I think he knew we knew who he was as he sort of turned away from us as the bagging area when he left the ride (after we stared at him in amazement). I couldn't argue with that, as he must have been getting quite a lot of it throughout the day (having over 350,000 sub's and over 114 million views on YT). Link to video: We left the park at 5.15 feeling great and sad at the same time as we didnt actually talk to KSI or get a picture (we are both pretty big fans of his), and my friend walked away with a replica model of the Swarm from the shop (id recommend it to anyone, it looks awesome!). Anyway, had a great day and here's the RC: Swarm x3 (2 FR) Stealth x2 (1FR) Saw x1 Colossus x1 Zodiac x1 Vortex x2 Rumba Rapids x2 Loggers Leap x2 Tidal Wave x2 Nemesis Inferno x1

Hmm it will either be very busy or not so busy. In my experience, Sundays are usually quieter than Saturdays but I think this Saturday, due to the good weather and Saturday being a 'family day', also with the Jubilee weekend happening I'm sure it will be quite busy (Queues for the big 5 around 90 mins) Being the first day of the half term holiday however, people may wait until mid-week to go. Saying that, the largest queues potentially may be around 60 mins, but of course during the middle of the day the queues will be at their longest. I'd say get there early and take advantage of the short queues in the first hour, maybe go in a clockwise direction around the park (majority go for Swarm), then if you're lucky go on Swarm mid-afternoon in the 30-45 minute queues (the best queues for the Swarm in my opinion, the looped news report on the TVs lasts around that long), if you're lucky they may even be shorter, around 20 minutes. Again, like I say to anyone who wonders how busy it will be, you never know till you get there. Last year I went two days in a row in the summer holiday and the first day it was packed out, second day the longest queue was 45 minutes. Anyway, have fun!!

You can leave all of your items in the baggage areas when boarding the rides They are usually monitored by ride staff so temporary storage for the ride is safe, and some rides (Stealth, Saw, Swarm, X/NWO) give you a wristband to wear for the duration of the ride, and you return it for your own baggage at the end. However, I wouldn't recommend hanging a small camera on your neck, especially on the coasters as it will be flying all over the place

Thanks Ryan

Hi guys, I'm visiting the park next week and despite having visited the park countless times, it will be only my second time using public transport I live a 10 minute train journey away from Woking and am just wondering the prices of the tickets for a return bus ticket directly to the park from Woking Station. Was wondering if this would be cheaper as it is essentially a quicker journey (a train to Staines with a few change-overs and the 950 bus takes just around 90 mins, and costs about £8 for me), being around an hour and 10 minutes. Any help would be appreciated -Chris

Yep. I did exactly the same when Saw opened in 2009. In the morning, managed to grab around 5 rides on Nemesis before heading to Stealth which had a 10 minute queue. Then in the afternoon around 3ish, the queue for Saw had died down from 90 minutes to around 30. At the end of the day, it depends on what you want to do; if you intend on getting on as many rides as possible, then go for Nemesis, Colossus at opening etc but if you don't want to queue for long on the Swarm, I'd recommend riding it as early as possible You can still get a fair few rides on Nemesis as well as the queue doesn't really build up until about 12pm

I remember I took my (younger) brother to Thorpe Park for the first time and we went on Nemesis Inferno to 'warm up' as he put it. He really enjoyed it and then got the confidence to try out the much more 'evil' looking coasters like Saw and Stealth. Another great ride for a newbie has to be Tidal Wave. Iconic Thorpe ride, and just plain fun ;)But obviously the rides look much more impressive (or frightening :L) when you're there rather than in a picture, so she might decide to try different things than what she plans. Have fun!

Ah wicked thanks a lot mate, great help :)I read your 2011 trip report thread and have to say, great effort! Enjoyed reading it

It's good to be back on here.... :DI'm going on Monday 2nd April, and was wandering if anyone who has already gone this season knows if Thorpe are selling bouncebacks (in this case, a next day bounceback for my brother).Thanks -Chris

Hey guys!!Havent done a trip report in a loooooong time, but after an inspired look back at this website from my trip 2 weeks ago, and feeling inspired by all these awesome reports from Fright Nights 2011, I’m gonna tell you guys all about my time there on 14th October :DWell, for a start it was a Friday (Friday, gotta get down on Friday) (I'm sorry) so that meant I could go earlier in the day as I have the whole of Friday afternoon off college. I met 2 friends of mine and we headed off around 2 o’clock. I was absolutely buzzing as it was my first visit since the beginning of the season (annual pass expired).We arrived at a surprisingly empty car park, and as we walked over the bridge we noticed construction was in progress for The Swarm-it looks incredible. At this point in time the lift hill had just been built, the barrel roll had not yet been placed but I’ve seen recent pics on the web and I cannot wait to ride it.After visiting the loos below the dome, we headed for Saw to get ‘pumped up’ as Zoe put it. We were in for a treat- we were greeted by a 15 minute queue and 2 members of staff to ‘welcome’ us to the ride-a nice touch. But, unbelievably, we made it inside the warehouse in less than 10 minutes and I don’t know why, but the atmosphere felt a little different, a bit more spooky. FRIGHT NIGHT VIBE lol.After admiring ourselves on-screen, we headed over to Samurai and then to Nemesis, which was a walk-on. Now, I will remember that as my best ever ride on Samurai as it has, how do you say-‘upped the intensity’ a little more than previous rides. It was much longer too- I was help upside down for a good 20-30 seconds which in ride terms, is pretty damn long. The staff made a good effort to make us feel welcome and shared banter with all the riders.We excited the Nemesis shop and saw a 0 minute queue for the Banana Boat, so we just couldn’t resist our inner children to take over. With excitement in our eyes, we ran into it and expected it to be the best thing ever.It was rubbish, and when the host offered us another ride, we said no :LBy this time our other friends had arrived at the park, so we met them at the Dome and decided to have dinner in Pizza Hut. But remember that ride opposite Pirates 4-D, the ride right next to Nemesis which kills you? My good friend Sarah wanted me to ride it with her before supper. So walking under the Detonator entrance sign in the first time in ages was a pretty big deal for me. In that I nearly pooed myself. BUT. It was amazing, and the view you get of The Swarm and early evening sun shining onto the park is second-to-none.I don’t remember much of the next 2 hours, but I remember we spent about an hour stuffing our faces with good ol’ pepperoni pizza and just having a good time.But what I do remember are the short queue times of 7pm. All 5 horror mazes under 30 minutes and none of the big 4 coasters exceeding 20 minutes. We snatched this opportunity to ride Nemesis in the dark (excellent atmosphere in queue line and the ride itself, all effects working in the tunnel) and made the most of the 30 minute Asylum queue. The Asylum actors had really upped their game for this year’s fright nights. Actually, not just the Asylum actors, the roaming clowns and Saw Alive actors were incredible and genuinely frightened me and my friends, and made the evening quite special and unique. The music was also a big thing that night. Everywhere in the park (apart from a select few queue lines) was playing the ‘Happy Birthday’ Fright Night music and very creepy music was being played around Amity Cove near Seven and the Curse. A very good atmosphere which outdid previous years’ Fright Nights by miles.A few rides later we called it a day, and headed home very happy indeed.RC:Saw (x2)Samurai x1Banana Boat x1X: No Way Out (in the light) x1Detonator x1Nemesis x2Asylum x1Saw Alive x1Colossus x1 (Walk-on at 8.30pm)Zodiac x1Vortex x1Quantum x1P.S. Another thing was that I think Stealth wasn't open at all all day. It might have been open early in the afternoon, but we didn't see it launch at all later on.

went on sunday and I have to say, Thorpe have have really upped thier game with Saw.ALL effects working, audio and 'the game has jus begun' in the stairwell at the end for once. Great ride also, smoother. Queueline managed much more efficiently.Well done Thorpe Park!