Cal

For me its: 1) Stealth - Never used to be my favourite Thorpe coaster but loved it more and more in recent years. Easily the most re rideable on park and is just as enjoyable every time. 2) Inferno - I often overlook Inferno as I compare it to Nemesis. It gets better and better every year, Its always one of my favourite coasters at the park to ride in the dark it absolutely flies round in the evenings at Fright nights. 3) Colossus - I have a soft spot for Colossus. In my teenage years it was always my favourite coaster at the park. Always loved its soundtrack and the way the area and queue interacts with the ride. Its a good layout and although its a little rough, I really don't find it as rough as others say. 4) Swarm - Surprisingly for most, this was always my least favourite out of the 5 in its early years, I found it forceless and the layout too short. As times gone on I've liked it more and more. Its super re rideable and its got much more forceful over the years, love the helix by the helicopter. I find the vest restraints incredibly uncomfortable, not sure about anyone else but have found them to be even tighter in recent years and when I hit the breakrun I can't wait to get out of my seat. This massively hinders the overall enjoyment for me. 5) SAW - To be honest I've never been the biggest fan of Saw. Find it rougher and more uncomfortable than Colossus which is the main reason I'd rank it lower. I do love its theme though and there are few good elements I enjoy. Although its my least favourite out of the 5 I still tend to ride it on most of my visits if it doesn't have much of a queue. 6) Walking dead - Preferred what they did with X and will never understand why they changed it to this after the reasons they rethemed to X. Its once again a 1.4m restriction on a non thrilling ride. 7) Fish - Good for what it is.

Was at Towers over the weekend for the first time this year and my first time doing Towers Oktoberfest so thought I'd write up some thoughts. The only negatives over the weekend was the Rectrosquad and X Sector so I'll get the negatives out the way first. I'm a big fan of flats and liked the idea at first but can't help but feel they all look so out of place at Towers. As much as I enjoyed Spinjam and it was my favourite out of the flats, it looks really out of place at towers. The waltzer looks dreadful and the only one that looks alright is Funk N Fly. Hearing the music and funfair jingles played at towers just doesn't seem right. They all seem fairly popular so would love to see them invest in some permanent flats which Alton are desperately crying out for. X Sector was an absolute mess. The whole area of the 2 coasters look dirty and need a proper clean up. There was a period of around 2 hours on Saturday when Oblivion and Smiler were down. So obviously without Enterprise, the only open attraction was a temporary fairground ride. Did make me laugh. Both coasters were running reduced capacity. Smiler ranged from running 2-3 trains over the weekend and Oblivion had 2 seats permanently closed on every shuttle and only running 1 station. Its a shame as I normally love getting a few re rides on Oblivion, its capable of being one of the highest throughput rides on the park and its being run awfully. I know it can't be helped sometimes but having the coasters on reduced capacity completely defeats the purpose of the extra flats they have in. Would love to see them give the area a decent clean up, 1 or 2 permanent flats and sort out the capacity on the coasters. The Smiler was running pretty rough. It was nice having the Single rider open for this and it worked really well, would love to see them open a few more of these up on the rides it works well on. It was also nice to see the bagdrop open, glad they've seen sense there as it makes a huge difference to throughput and always has one of the biggest queues on park. Had plenty of rides on Nemesis which will probably be my last in its current form unless I get there on its last day. By far my favourite UK coaster, I can't help but think its a shame its closing as it still runs so well but I'm all for them investing in its future! I love how they effortlessly run Nemesis so well, it never stacks and the queue moves so quick. Wickerman, Galactica, Thirteen were also all running really well and the trains were flying out with no stacking. No bag drop open on Thirteen but were still sending the trains out quick. Oktoberfest was great, much prefer it to Thorpes. Entertainment carries on for an hour after park close, the lawns had a great atmosphere and was busy till 8pm on the Saturday. No cringey German accents, a proper band, everyone enjoying themselves and having a laugh. Will probably not bother with Towers next year with Nemesis closed, its always my main reason for going but looking forward to seeing what they have done with it in 2024. Hopefully the flat ride situation will be sorted out by then too.

I have no idea what's going to happen to it. The contract with Derren has got to end at some point soon, unless its already ended and has been renewed? I'd love for them to just rip out the ride system and start with something completely different. Its an operational nightmare, its the only ride on park which doesn't open at 10 (and never did even when it was meant to) and requires timed tickets. Its unreliable. Its expensive to run. But knowing merlin and them not having the budget to do so, I think the more likely option would be them try and make something work with what they've currently got. I personally can't see it get to a point where its just SBNO with it being in the middle of the park but who knows. Interested to hear others thoughts on this one.

Thanks! That's interesting. The Single Rider queue would be using the right side of the stairs so sounds like they've ditched it already which is a shame

Anyone thats been recently, how has Saws single rider been running? Is it still there?

From experience, the first Sunday and Friday are usually the best days to go for low crowds

I can't see it working on Colossus, Inferno and Swarm. I can see it working on Saw and Stealth, my only concern is Saw doesn't always have a batcher so it would require an extra member of staff unless they just close the queue if they don't have a batcher on a particular day? I can also see it working on some of the flats. I used to use the SRQ for Samurai and Vortex quite often and they worked quite well. Stealth would work the best. There's always someone batching and they have a spare queue to use. I'm unsure of the reason it was removed?

This great news, I hope its successful and implemented on other rides. Could be used on Stealth and some of the flats pretty easily. I wonder how this will work on Saw though seeing as there isn't always a batcher?

I've always like Dual too, I never got to experience the original haunted house so I don't have that to compare it to Will be interesting to see what they do to it. I just hope we don't get an IP slapped on it with a ride full of screens

🥱 🥱 🥱

Make use of the single rider queues at the universal parks, saved us so much time and sometimes you get put together anyway. Orlando Informer website has a load of useful information for the universal parks too. Enjoy 😃

I've always much preferred the original Colossus and Inferno tracks so also welcome the change back to the originals. Just frustrating you can hardly hear Colossus' whenever I've been as its playing nowhere near as loud as it used to be. Interested to hear the important reasons it was replaced though?

At least the price is more reasonable than Fright Nights! Will be interesting to see how popular this will be, as others have said even when they're free they don't tend to get a queue. Black mirror hardly even gets a queue these days.

It does seem like an intentional change. but hopefully its one that won't last long. There is no need to play it round the whole area. On another note its nice to hear the original soundtrack around Colossus again, the far superior track in my opinion. Just wish they'd turn it up, and the station audio. Also worth noting Swarms station was completely silent last week - not sure if this was a one off?

Whole area for inferno unfortunately Not sure about Colossus as I didn't hear it, the audio in general is really quiet around Colossus now (which is even more unfortunate)

If you change your petition to include saving Slammer I'll sign it

So it seems a number of people have had it confirmed from the park on Saturday that Apocalypse will be removed at the end of this season. As a big fan of drop towers, loosing in my opinion the UK's best is a big shame. I do think this is an odd decision, I understand they're moving towards a family theme park, but in my opinion you still need thrill rides, and I feel apocalypse fit in well with sit down having a height restriction of 1.2m. On a more positive note, Draytons new Viking area opened on Saturday and looks great. Another solid new area.

Bizarre name not a fan of that. Must admit though I'm exited to ride this, being a fan of Colossus. Also seems strange that they've spent £18m on this but absolutely no marketing whatsoever? Crazy amount of money to spend on a ride that no one knows about

Its in the middle of the park and got an awful throughput. I guess its also fairly popular with it being a ride a family/group can all ride together too.

I haven't counted rides for a good few years now but I'd say these are the top 3 I've done in a day. Nemesis: Back when it had single rider and it was right next to the exit. It never had a queue and most of the time you got on the same train you came off if you were quick enough. Used to love lapping this. Inferno: On a very empty annual pass day a good few years ago we stayed on this for an afternoon. No idea on a number but easily 20+ Stealth: Quite a few times last year on offpeak weekdays they just left the gate in the station open so you could re-ride, most of the time getting on the train in front. Unsure on ride counts but easily 20+ a couple of times. I've also rode Slammer for pretty much a whole day before but wouldn't have been a high ridecount due to how long it took to load. Used to do Detonator quite a bit in a day too. They do yes. I find Thorpe are definitely the most lenient with re-rides out of the merlin parks. Alton isn't even worth asking.

Look very nice! Does this mean I don't get to watch people try and wash there hands without realising the foot pedals anymore though? 😄

It was like this the whole of last season, maybe even 2020 too but I'm not certain on that. So seems like a permanent change to me. I've heard people say they don't notice the difference but I personally don't think its anywhere near as forceful as it once was which is a shame, as you say the forcefulness is what made Detonator so great.

This is a shame after sounding so good last year, hopefully this can get sorted soon. It makes a massive difference

Interesting article. I've always had a soft spot for Colossus and couldn't imagine Thorpe without it. Will be interesting to see what happens to it when the time comes As much as I like the Imascore track I would love the old music to make a return. Also I've found the speakers in the station have never been as loud since they changed from the Bose ones and doesn't have the same atmosphere as it did before

Much preferred this colour scheme, the new colours were dull and boring. Same as the new music