Tiddlywinks

this sounds so great! Cant wait!

I'm visiting Thorpe park on 17th July 2013... Can someone please tell me how busy the park will be? Many Thanks

Its that time of year again, when the cold winter is almost over! Well, actually I was more looking forward to going to alton towers for 2 days, using my new merlin annual pass. I visited on the 16th February (feb half term opening day). I drove into the quiet car park. As I have a premium annual pass, car parking is free. I walked over to the plaza to here the magical and exciting music ringing in my ear. It was 10:00am, so the park had just opened. Due to previous experiances, I was aware that the queues were always short during february half term. As I entered the theme park, I ran to sonic spinball which had a 50 minute queue.I decided to give this a miss, as I was here for 2 days, and could ride it tomorrow. We then walked over to Forbidden Valley to ride the king of the coaster 'nemesis'. It was a 15 minute queue, even though it was coming out of the main ride entrance. I realised they only had the short queue open. After my intense ride on nemesis, I went for a ride on air. There was only one station avaliable out of the two, but they was running 2 cars. The queue board said 'Air is a bubbly mins'. I was not aware of the queue time, so took a chance. The queue ended up being 40 minutes, which I was okay to wait for. The only thing which was an off put, was that someone had been sick on the floor below the block breaks. Unfortunatly, where you lay down, this means riders faces was facing the stench, as well as the gruesome sight of the sick. Unfortunatly, the person riding in that seat was me. I had the prevent myself from breathing in someone elses sick for over 5 minutes, due to the car in the station was not raising into the flying position. It was then time for duel. A 0 minute queue. Now, believe me I'm no expert on duel of getting the best scores, but this time, I was overlly impressed. I had a score of 26,800. (Share your scores in the comments below). There were a few minor changes to duel, which have taken place over the closed season. We then headed over to Runaway Mine Train on a 40 minute queue. Unfortunatly, I was forced to wait in a queue with my younger brother ... Benefit was that we got front seats and the ride operator didnt stop the train in time at the station, and we got 3 goes, instead of 2!! I then attempted to peek at the smiler construction, however they have kept it well hidden away, and it was imoossible to get anywhere near X Sector due to security and fences. I then headed to Hex, which was another 0 minute queue. The quality of the video was so much better, due to them,changing the projector, and also in the main vault there is no more loud bangs. I headed to the hotels, and they have decorated the main stage area in the Splash Landings Hotel into a moshi monster theme. On the 17th February, I went to the resort again. I'll just tell you the queue times: Air- 30 mins all day (4 breakdowns) Nemesis- 0 mins all day Sonic Spinball- 20-40 minutes (3 people on a car) Squirrell Nutty- 60 minutes Runaway Mine Train- 45 minutes- 60 minutes (front 2 seats not avaliable) Ice Age- 20 minutes Frog Hopper- 15 Minutes Gallopers Carousel- 10 minutes Driving School- 15 Minutes Blade- 5 minutes Hex- 0-10 minutes Heave Ho- 10 minutes Duel- 5-15 minutes I noticed that restaurants were much busier than the rides. People were waiting up to 60 minutes for meals. It is a great time to go to Alton Towers for february half term, to ride nemesis over and over again! It isnt too busy. Ride Ratings: Air- 6/10- Not what I would call a thrill ride, lots of breakdowns Nemesis- 9/10- Had a short queue, and is highly intense. Not many negatives, apart from the water which is usually red (representing blood) was clear, which ruins the whole atmosphere. Sonic Spinball- 6/10- Once I'm on this ride, I absoloutly LOVE it! However, it has slow throughput meaning queue is very long. TIP- Dont run to sonic straight away, as everyone does this, because it is the biggest ride they can see from the entrance. Go to the Dark Forest (in main season) or Forbidden Valley first. Runaway Mine Train-4/10- Great ride to go onto with the family, however queues are generally long. TIP- If you have young children, go to this ride first. These were the main rides open! I'm next going to legoland (23rd March 2013) and Chessington (24th March 2013), and I will write another trip review. If you can think of any improvements or any comments about my trip review, I will take all comments on board, and attempt to do them for the next review. Thank You for taking your time to read!

Thank You! I didnt think of the size difference, and that is a very good point. In my opinion, I have been alton towers for school trips and thorpe park and there have been a huge difference. I have also been Fright Nights and Scarefest in 2012 and there have been a huge difference in queue times. I also find during halloween events that as soon as scare mazes open, queues decrease a lot. Thamks to you all for your help

Do queue times affect your time at thorpe park. Due to me still being at school, and my 2 younger brothers are not tall enough to ride rides at thorpe park, my parents rather go Alton Towers as it has rides for me and my brothers. However, I go thorpe park once a year with my school. This is obviously a busy times. However, I do see that Thorpe Park are less organised than the towers, with queueing systems. Here is an example of differences of queue times. FACT: I went to thorpe Park: 17th July 2012 I went to Alton Towers: 26th October 2012 Thorpe Park Queues: Swarm- 75 Mins Saw- The Ride- 90 Mins Nemesis Inferno- 80 Mins Colossus- 120 mins Tidal Wave- 60 Mins Loggers Leap- 20 Mins Storm Surge- 50 Mins x no way out- 20 Mins Alton towers queues Air- 60 Mins Nemesis- 45 mins sub terra- 60 mins The Flume- 0 Mins Rapids- 5 Mins RMT- 30 Mins Battle Galleons- 5 Mins Sonic Spinball- 40 Mins Oblivion- 40 Mins Hex- 20 Mins Rita- 60 Mins Th13teen- 45 Mins Charile and the chocolate factory- 5 Mins Ice Age- 25 Mins

I always find the staff always have conversations, so it increases queue times. This usually occurs on rides which do not get as busy. eg- 5-10 minute queue. I dont know if you have also realised that at the end of the day, staff announce the queues to be extremely longer than they actually are. I'll use stealth as an example: The queueline at the front entrance said it was 90 minutes long. It clearly wasnt because I had stopped at the 5 minutes to go point. This is also the same at Alton towers: On Congo River Rapids, the queue was announced that it was 55 Minutes during scarefest. I wanted a picture of me and my family on the ride. I had walked past all the queue line and got straight on. The staff told me that the queue is very long, so we are required to share a boat with another 3 people. I did explain that the queue is 0 minutes. However, they said they looked on CCTV cameras, and can see the queue is 55 minutes.