Mark9

Yeah maybe, Sounds like they got you good and proper though if the two best rollercoasters were walk on.

So this was confirmed as a B&M a few weeks back, some super zoomed in photos. It's code number is WI-R (for context, Raptor was WI-A and The Swarm was WI-B). I know this project has a lot of people who think this is a mistake. For me, I dreamed of B&M track at Chessington ever since I first saw Nemesis in 2000. The thought of this super luxury rollercoaster opening at my childhood park makes me so happy, like Chessington is finally entering the big leagues after years of being in the shadow of its sister park next door. As pure conjecture, with Legoland Deutschland rumoured to be getting a B&M wing-rider as well, it would be safe to assume that the model could be coming to several Legoland Parks across the globe. Sorry Windsor, not you.

So your ideas are for Thorpe to become completely unoriginal and just get the same rides that its sister park has got/is getting.

I personally prefer Chessington. The place has done a lot of work over the years to bring rides back to scratch and we can argue for the hills whether Runaway Train with its mountain landscape is better then Scorpion Express is with its Mexican inspired surroundings, the fact is, a lot of rides are looking really nice right now. There's been a concentrated effort and I think the park is the best its looked for twenty years. For me, Chessington is the closest we have to a theme park with European sensibilities. Where theme parks have a sense of fun and discovery.

I guess when I said at the start 'wouldn't say its a park that anyone has a huge itch to get to' I guess Cedar Fair agree too. What a shame and probably been on the cards pre-pandemic hence why Orion went to a different park instead. I can see Rail Blazer moving to another park in the chain and potentially Gold Striker. But Patriot, very unlikely and Flight Deck has limited options within the Cedar Fair chain. Demon and Grizzly are toast.

I find the Nemesis commentary quite funny actually. I don't know many rollercoasters that have reached nearly their 30th year that don't have a couple of rougher moments. It's almost like Nemesis is held to this god like standard and if there is ever a slight rattle has to be commented on. Wicker Man always surprises me. In my head its a middle of the road woodie but after getting off, I love it every time. GCI woodies are pretty special. Just a small piece of advice on your reviews, I've read quite a few of your trip reports and for each ride you repeat the line 'we decided to give it a go'. Try changing that description because as I'm reading through, its all I've noticed and it becomes repetitive.

Nope.

To be honest, I don't think size has anything to do with quality of a ride. My two favourite B&M inverters for example are Katun and Nemesis. One is absolutely mahoosive and the other is tiny. Quality normally holds out so GCI for example, generally are a excellent manufacturer whether thats Wodan or Wicker Man. B&M Hypers, I think at the end of the day is personal preference. Not much separates any of them, in fact for me the only 300ft one I've done is Leviathan and that was nowhere as interesting as Behemoth in the same park. The highest ride I've done I hated. Much love Dragster, but I hate everything about you.

I wouldn't say that Californias Great America is a park that anyone has a huge itch to get to. Unlike some others in the Cedar Fair group, its investments are on the lower end of the scale. Flat rides are the name of the game and even its planned hyper that it was rumoured to get was given to another park instead (Orion). Eight years ago, it was either this or Discovery Kingdom and bizarrely I chose DK. I thought that was a great little park, but this time it was CGA's turn. It's relatively easy to get to, sitting in San Jose and it took about two hours of train journey from San Francisco. I'd heard very little about this place before so upon arriving I didn't really know where anything was or what support rides there were. The entrance for example looks very similar to other Cedar Fair parks but also Six Flags Great America. I've since learned that and CGA were once owned by the same group. Our first destination was Flight Deck which has the distinction of being B&M's first custom inverted rollercoaster. Built in 1993 the ride features three inversions and is a very old school B&M. It looks stunning in its bright red attire and the ride looked well maintained. My first reaction was how small the station was. It's very cramped and its the same with Patriot and many of the original gang of B&M's are the same (Batman clones tend to have tiny stations too). Also, for all the criticism I saw that Emperor has no station at Seaward, well.. there isn't a station here either. Geek, be consistent. Once getting on, after waiting one train off we went. Very positive G Force heavy, really nice inversions and a well paced layout. There is an odd bit in the middle of the ride where the train travels in a straight line over the station which felt at odds with everything else. The ending is particularly great with an intense helix over a small lake. There was no second train. Unlike Cedar Point which runs three trains to a fault or Silver Bullet which had its second train in bits scattered all over the break run, Flight Decks second train doesn't seem to exist. This isn't an extra-ordinary inverter and neither is it a dud. It's a good, solid B&M which has clearly served the park well. It just made me so glad we have Nemesis. I know its very easy to compare every inverter to Nemesis but the reality is, Nemesis is outstanding. From a layout perspective, a theming perspective, an efficiency and capacity perspective. Every park could learn a lesson from our grubby white alien. I next wanted to get on Patriot but we went the wrong way and ended up exploring all the park instead. Some of my favourite flat rides passed (KMG Afterburner, Huss Breakdance) before we just ended up getting lost. I checked the app and it said that Railblazer was 0 minutes. Staying cautious we decided to take a chance. Now this has two trains running. Which is good as at 8 people a train it has serious capacity issues. We ended up waiting half an hour which I was pretty happy with. To be honest, as good as it is, it's too fast. It zooms through the layout at break-neck speed and it feels very hard to take it all on board. Air time hills, inversions. it's like a blur. No major park should get the off-shelf model. It's too popular for what it is and it just cannot handle a park with crowds. The legend that is Josh C has been tweeting about Jersey Devil, so when he reviews, I'll be very interested in that one. With that out the way we took a ride on Demon, an arrow looper. I like the old arrow loopers. Whilst rougher then most modern rides there's something about a ride with janky track design that just appeals to me. As they start to arrive at the end of their lives, I'm just glad to have got on some of them. Next was Patriot. This used to be a stand up before it got converted to a floorless (like Rougarou and Firebird). Whilst I do get why parks are running away from stand up, I dunno. The floorless train doesn't add much beyond making the ride rideable? Maybe thats the point. My husband made the observation that if it wasn't for the height restriction, this would be an excellent 'starter' rollercoaster for an aspiring thrill seeker. And it got me thinking about rides like this and Daemonen at Tivoli Gardens. And he's so right in the observation. Very few inversions, mildly intense without being mind-blowing. Considering this is a B&M from 1991, its aged pretty well from what I could tell. Still, no second train to be found. After lunch it was time for the wooden coasters. We started with the CGI Wooden coaster, Gold Striker. This had a second train! wow. This was a fantastic ride. Really fast and intense. And with most of the ride hidden from the walkways, it took me by surprise. It probably sits just under Wodan for intensity. Some of the turns it was doing, for a traditional woody, were fabulous. Heavily recommended and the best ride at CGA by a country mile. And onto our final new rollercoaster Grizzly. Quite easily the worst operations I have ever seen on a ride. It took over seven minutes to unload, load and dispatch a train. Part of this seemed to be staff training, the other part was sheer incompetence. You're running one train around your mildly interesting rollercoaster. This shouldn't be that difficult. But it was. What looked to be a twenty minute wait ended up taking around 70. I was done after this, Didn't even want to attempt the low capacity Arrow wild-mouse which was displaying a 40 minute wait. So instead we went on two flat rides including the breakdance. Every park should have a breakdance. They are the best flat ride by far. And we called it a day around 4pm. This park needs investment. On the surface everything looks fine. But it provides a middling day out in a state that has Disney, Knotts & Magic Mountain. Hard to compete, yes, but CGA isn't really even trying. It has great support rollercoasters in Flight Deck and Gold Striker but it needs that killer, triple A attraction to make the difference. And two trains on its rides.

If you like rollercoasters Cedar Point. If you like everything else Europa Park. I chose Europa but will happily say both are fantastic places to visit. I just value immersion to loads of rollercoasters.

1. Loggers Leap 51 times. Sure this could be cheating as we were doing it for charity and didn't have to get off the ride but I think it still counts. 2. Nemesis Inferno 48 times. Back when Single rider was a thing and you could notch up loads of goes back to back in the first couple of hours. 3. Rameses Revenge 15 times. But I think this was back when you automatically got a second ride after the first and it didn't require a minimum amount of riders. This was all back when I was a youth though, There's very few rides that I could be bothered to ride more than a handful of times. Driwvelwind & Velocicoaster for example. Everything else is a one and move on.

Worked in the late 80's.. 😇

I went on Tuesday and had a fantastic day. I'm so biased towards Chessington though. I completely wear the rose tinted glasses. There's clearly issues across the park but sometimes, just sitting back and enjoying the day means more. + Four laps on Scorpion. Why did I love it so much?! I have no idea + Mexicana looks great with all the new little props in the area + I love Grufflalo so much. It stands tall with Wallace and Gromit and Hex as one of the best dark rides in the country + Dragons Fury now sits in the under-rated category. What a fantastic rollercoaster + Great to see the investment in the park. New rides, more announcements on rides, new music. + Croc Drop is fine but doesn't spin anymore. + Bought loads of merchandise because it was the original 1987 logo. Shameless + Free food for the Lorikeets now. - Blue Barnacle was almost as good Black Buccaneer. Surprised how high it went actually. - Very few boats on Tiger Rock. Park needs to invest in new boats now, it's going to be awful in Summer - Tomb Blaster was rough. I don't like the new story or the guns it uses. - Queue boards inaccuracy. Said 40 for Fury, was on the stairs, Said 40 at Vampire, was 5 minutes. - Lots of the Zoo area closed for refurbishment. Pirates Cove was very loud from construction. - Maybe its my Disney exposure, but how thin are the queues. Vampire can only be walked single file for examples. it's so tiny!

I'd have preferred a B&M hyper too. Frankly, whatever park they get added to, they are an incredible crowd pleaser and would have really hit a market not really catered for at Thorpe or indeed the UK. As marketable as Exodus will be, I personally think it's a shame that something a little more 'safe' wasn't chosen.

Who has time to stop and watch the people dancing on these stages? When you lose an hour to the Smiler or the Wicker Man, you aren't left with long to get on everything especially with the size of the place. There's not enough filler to spread people around. I felt the same as Madi Gras last year. There's just not enough hours open in the day to spend watching the stage. I just do not understand why the golf or the water park have the same opening times as the theme park. They've done that for years and its stupid. As I said in my trip report, there's no point visiting in 2023 with Nemesis closed. The park is just thread bare in attractions at the moment.

Sure we love rides but lets face it, the music is the best part of the theme park experience. Rides make up ten or so minutes of the day, music is all round you, encompassing you, selling you the experience. No one has been in that Baron 1898 queue and not hummed along to the tune.

The Extra special, lock down rollercoaster, pandemic 2020 - February 2022 top rollercoaster list that I forgot to do last year because there was barely anything new ridden. 1. Velocicoaster - I'm shameless. This is the stand out rollercoaster from the past two years of coaster desert. If you like your Taron's but you also like your Helix then this is the perfect in between. 2. F.L.Y. - I think the biggest part that makes this a stand out ride is how it weaves between Rookburgh. This is a ride that I would point to if I was to explain why European parks are miles better then American ones. From its 10/10 soundtrack to its extra special details all across the area, the beautiful surroundings and surrounding hotel make this an absolute must do. 3. Hagrids Motorbike ride thing. - I didn't think this was a stand out ride really but in the middle of a coaster drought, things like this will rate highly. I remain amazed that it works at all. 4. Storm Chaser - Whilst I don't think is an outstanding ride per se, I think its testament to Paultons that its theming and integrity are what holds this up as one of the better rides in the UK. I hope this ride pushes the success that this park fully deserves as its rides like this and Cyclonator that younger people will ride and begin to love rides, the same way that vampire and rattlesnake were important to me. 5. Gringotts Coaster - This is a rollercoaster in the loosest sense of the word. If you like effects happening around and endless screens then boy have I the ride for you. Special mention to the Hulk, which whilst isn't an entirely new rollercoaster, was riding much better then its older version.

Sounds like you had another great day. Silver Star is an interesting one and I can see why it would be a number one as its just so 'nice' to ride. Everyone can enjoy Silver Star despite its intimidating look because its a lot of fun. I feel like you've missed a few attractions across your visit, easily done as there's just so much there. Will you be visiting again in the future?

You're staying in the best hotel, have a great time. Looking forward to part two.

Thorpe is a four hour park.

Back when I operated Runaway Train at Chessington I used to have a regular recurring dream that I was operating and couldn't get the train to park in the correct part of the station to open the restraints. So the train just went round and round relentlessly for hours. Even to this day, I have this dream once or twice a month. A pretty good dream I had once was that Southends Adventure Island got a B&M Floorless but it fell apart and into the sea. Most of my dreams these days tend to revolve around getting on Disney Cruise ships.

It's odd to think how many colours are out there and yet every UK coaster has to be grey, white or black. Thank the lord for Paultons Park.

I love being wrong.

Flug must be the most marmite wing-rider in Europe. I personally loved it and really liked the different order of the elements and how it uses the hill around it to gain momentum and create a different kind of pacing. Krake is okay, bit bare bones but its success clearly prompted the dive machine rise in popularity with its smaller trains and snappier inversion style. I generally had positive feelings on Heide. it's a good day out if not outstanding.

I'm not against a thrill park, the issue is that the park itself has to near constantly refresh itself and that takes a lot of money and resource to do. You also have to ensure your thrill rides have a wide range of appeal. Thorpe's coaster line up, the only real outlier is Stealth. The others are just a variant on an upside down rollercoaster. You kind of made that point for me Inferno, Thorpe a little bit of a s**thole because it hasn't changed that much. If it wants to be 'the thrill park' the demands of its target audience constantly want more, the new, the bigger, the better. The new coaster is not going to be enough to change that perception for the rest of the resort. A family park is far less focused on constant updates and investment because the line up itself has universal appeal. I see it on forums and social media all the time 'Thorpe gets no investment, its last rollercoaster was 10 years ago.' Whilst forgetting Chessingtons last rollercoaster was 18 years ago. And we don't talk about the removal of Vampire or Dragons Fury in the same way that we talk about Colossus going to the skip. So yes, I think family parks are far easier to manage and run and actually more profitable. A 13 year old visiting Thorpe with his school pals just doesn't have a disposable income, whereas a family going to a theme park, will. It may be stretched in the current climate but it exists. And they spend money, all those little extras such as toys, ice creams when it's hot. A meal for everyone at the fast food outlets. it quickly adds up And thats before we even get to overnight stays....