stealth888

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

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

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.