Who went: Me Ash Evania Time in park: 9:30am - 3:30pm Rides Closed: X Colossus Saw Rush Ride Count: Swarm – 3 (Two forwards) Inferno - 4 Stealth - 5 Slammer -1 Loggers - 3 Depth Charge - 3 Storm Surge - 2 Vortex - 1 Detonator - 2 Rapids - 1 Quantum - 1 Total: 26 Well this weekend’s trip to the uk’s premiere tourist attraction started around half 9 on Saturday night knowing Ash and Evania were east bound and down on treacherous roads they had a quick pit stop at mine then we headed towards Heathrow Terminal 5 for an overnight stay at the Travelodge of course not forgetting to stop at South Mimms service station for what should have been the first of many KFC’S! But unfortunately they were shut! After some ranting we ploughed on through the light snow storms towards Heathrow listening to the sounds of WWTP Radio ‘bringggg’ after checking in and this time being able to buy food! We settled in the lounge for some alcoholic refreshment and some light banter that contained two rant vids that are not suitable for the public domain! Lol we all called it a night and went to bed about 2am. The next morning we were up bright and early and on the short drive to Thorpe from the Travelodge on arrival there were not many cars and no queue to collect Evania’s ticket from the collection point Ash however had to sort out his new merlin pass so me and Evania went ahead and got a cheeky extra go on a no queue Swarm! Whilst being dragged up the lift hill me and evie spotted a pitbull with a serious stomp on heading across Swarm Island! We met back up by the exit and spent the rest of the day together the park was a lot busier then I had thought it would be! But queues were never a problem! There has been a lot of aesthetic work done to the park over closed season! And it has never looked better new queue time boards are also in the process of being re-installed in the park and many building in the centre of the park have been repainted as has the ground floor of the dome where the lockers and toilets are. Nemesis Inferno was brilliant a lot of time has been spent getting the effects to work again and it looks awesome its great to hear the dispatch theme back and the Bose cannons back in action! You can certainly tell there back even from outside! Lol the ride did seem a bit slower than previous but I put that down to the extreme weather. I give it a 9/10 Stealth had no more than a 5min queue all day and was running superbly the airtime and supports have had a repaint and the area music seemed back to its self and of a good volume the Launch smoke is also back which was good to see, there is a new announcement at the unloading point going on about a good race ect. I give it a 10/10 The Swarm impressed me more than last year and the area does seem to have settled and matured a lot more then when I last visited the new billboard looked fantastic from the ground and the ride especially if you sit on the left hand side of the train. Backwards is just a weird sensation but not knowing what’s coming does in places make the ride feel more forceful to me, the way I feel now is you have two decent experiences on one coaster, the queuing was not a problem but I am wondering how it will cope on a busy summers day suppose we will have to wait and see. Loggers leap was good fun as always and seemed to be running a lot faster than previous years! The water flow around the circuit has definitely increased! Top flume ride of the best kind! No fancy effects no hype just and out and out classic flume ride why would you want anything more? There are new boats on Depth Charge and OMG! The ride was good before but know its just insane! We were getting mass air time on the drops and the boats were going that fast I actually see a couple not stopping till they hit the inflatable air barriers around the perimeter of the run off area! Storm Surge had major intent we actually thought the dingy was gonna tip at one point it was banking that high on the turns! Hence the 2 goes! Lol So after a good stint out on park we were all frozen solid so decided to head for Bar 360 and as standard practice the service was fast and courteous and the food of high standard and good portions I went for my usual BBQ Ribs with fries and a hot chocolate and it was delicious! Nom nom nom it is still my favourite of any Theme/amusement park eateries! Vortex and Quantum were done while back at this end of the park and again Vortex seemed to be better than I had remembered. Detonator was more or less walk on so that was dealt a couple of times I would not queue over 30mins for it though. So after another session around the park we found ourselves back at Bar 360 for a hot drink and a warm up as the cold was starting to get to us! We headed back out towards Stealth around 3:30pm to find it had closed the ride host informed us that management had been forced to call it quits on some rides so we could obtain free return passes for anytime up till fright nights so that’s what we decided to do we had a good day thus far was happy with the ride count so decided to call it quits and return free on a warmer day! We were also given free parking which was more than generous it was good to see people actually understanding and thanking the staff and park for return tickets a good sign that this country is not full of all the idiots you see on facebook after all! On the way back to mine we stopped off at the services for a regulation KFC! But then on resuming the journey Ash found himself distracted by a semi exposed rack and forgot to leave the m25! Putting us 30mins in the wrong direction! Doh! Never mind we stopped of and another services and had round two of the KFC!! Lol So despite the bad weather we had a top notch weekend full of banter and laughs Thorpe never fails to disappoint even in these circumstances the staff were all more than friendly and really trying to make the best of a bad situation! 10/10 for me the staff! And the way Thorpe handled the ride closure situation. For me Thorpe are still leading the way in the UK at the moment and by looks its going take a lot to stop them from the other two big players I JUST CANT WAIT TO GET BACK WITH MY FREE TICKET! For anyone who thinks ash has dropped of the face of the earth he has posted trip reports on these two sites... http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/104-tho ... ntry154365 http://www.towersstreet.com/talk/your-t ... r-24-3-13/
