1st time visiting on Sunday - any tips?

[Bobby]

Hi, I'm going to Thorpe tomorrow with my brother. We've been to Alton Towers a fair few times but he's bored of there so wanted to go to Thorpe. We're going on a Sunday because I read in a few places that it's generally quieter than Saturdays. However with the weather and school holidays I expect it to be busy so looking for any tips to get as many rides as possible!

Am I right that there are no SRQs and they push fastrack quite hard? We object to the idea of fastrack so will avoid it.

At Alton it's fairly predictable which rides will be busy early morning/quiet late in the day etc.

Are there any rides at Thorpe which stay busy all day? Recommendations for rides to get out of the way early? Anything to leave until last?

We'll bring food to eat in queues, any good rides to hit at lunchtime?

Thanks!

[pluk]

You are quite right with the SRQs and fastrack, sadly.

My top tip would be to do everything you can to get there early, they often open 15mins or so before advertised time and even if the don't that first hour will be your best.

Thorpe, being physically much smaller than AT, does not have the queue fluctuations that the spread out park does; once it is busy it is busy everywhere and stays that way until the death. So making the most of that first hour is everything.

Personally I find Colossus queue the most painful, so I'd hi that straight off (if it opens on time, occasionally it doesn't), and then straight over to Saw before that builds up. No one touches the water rides before 11.00, so if you want to do that loggers is right next door and it will get a hefty queue later if it is warm. You might prefer to do Swarm front and back first though, because that will have a monster queue later on, but then so will Saw and Colossus so you can't win really! Stealth and NI usually have more reasonable queues throughout the day.

Beyond that the queues will likely be full and you'll just have to wait. The last hour should be a bit quieter so if any of the queues hit stupid times you may as well hold of on them until near the end. I wouldn't waste your time with Storm Surge, Rumba Rapids is fun but weak compared to Conga River Rapids(?) so you might not want to bother if there's a big wait. Rush and Vortex are usually the only flats to get really big queues so maybe do the other flats when it is at its busiest.

Good luck!

[Bobby]

Thanks, great advice. I guess we'll have to suck it up but we'll definitely try to be there before opening and hit as much as possible in the first hour.

That surprises me about Stealth having a more reasonable queue though, RITA at AT always has a nightmare queue even on quiet days.

Not a massive fan of spin and spew rides, and I imagine the water rides are fairly similar to ones at other parks (although would quite like to get on Tidal Wave) so our priority will be the coasters.

Oh also, is anything broken/being unreliable at the moment?

[coastercameron98]

To my knowledge nothing is broken down for extensive periods of time at the moment but if anything is it should be shown on their website on a scrolling banner that at the moment says about the busy days and school trips but keep an eye on the banner before you go Hope you have a great first visit

According to the slammer topic it is out of operation for the next two weeks sorry I forgot about that, but apart from that everything else is running smoothly (to my knowledge correct me if I'm wrong)

Edited July 13, 2013 by coastercameron98

[planenut]

I would say that the SWARM queue is easiest between 1.30p.m. and 3p.m., well it always looks like a lull around that period.

Problem with the Colossus queue is that once you are in it, it is very difficult to hop out; I would generally check the length of that queue by observing from the path/bridge over it.

Saw's queue can be observed beyond Samurai, alongside the Saw building.

Nemesis Inferno is all in sight, but they open the overflow rat-run sometimes, so that is another good twenty minutes on it's own.

I always say that if you want to do Tidal Wave, only on a very hot day, and before 11a.m..

Have a great day.

[pluk]

Vortex and storm surge both dead right now, mo idea if that'll be the same tomorrow.

[darkadder312]

Well normally when I go to Thorpe I normally go to The Swarm as I normally one of first in park then make my way round via Nemesis Inferno normally 0-10 min queues when I hit Saw The Ride and Colossus, after doing them rides It is advised to take an early lunch around 11ish as when people take their lunches the queues sometimes dies down.

[J.S217]

and depending on the amount in park The Swarm around 1 pm is either walk on or 20-30 mins

[Merry-go-girl]

And if it all goes to hell, Extreme Tea-cups.

[James_C]

Hope you had a great time

[BigBobJones]

Storm Surge dead? wasn't when I went on it yesterday

[coastercameron98]

It was but its back up and running today though, at about 2 oclock there were engineers working on it all day and Vortex was getting some attention but not as much

[pluk]

Was open, evacd at least three times then closed for good around 4 I think it was. Still closed when I popped in today around 12.

[Bobby]

Thanks for the tips. Was busy and hot but not horrendously so, and managed to get on all the coasters which is what we were aiming for.

Got to the gates just after 10 although I think the park had opened a bit earlier as quite a lot of people were already in the park.

Went straight to Swarm as anticipated it would be busy most of the day. Went in forwards queue, advertised at 40 minutes but took about an hour because they put the 2nd train on halfway through queueing (not sure why they didn't have it on before though). Backwards queue looked a bit of a mess though, they were only getting sent to one side of the train and the left side kept on sending empty backwards seats around. Anyway, enjoyed the ride. Smooth and reasonably thrilling. Some of the misses were quite good like the bottom corner of the billboard.

Did Flying Fish for giggles. Man got kicked off the train for not wearing a shirt lol.

Next went to Inferno. Queue was a bit of a drag because we ended up held in the cattlepens before the icecream shop and everyone was buying icecream and they were waiting ages between sending batches up the stairs. Ride was ok, although definitely prefer the original. Layout just seemed a bit unimaginative for the height it has.

Then went to Stealth because queue was short-ish. Really enjoyed this, definitely felt faster than RITA although expected the drop to be a bit scarier but wasn't too bad. On the other hand, it was over in about 15 seconds...

On to rapids, though they were a bit meh.

Got to Saw because the queue was advertised as only 20 minutes. However it was much longer than this and dragged because they only let so many people in at once. Did seem to give the impression that the theming hasn't been looked after so much. My impression of the ride was a bit mixed. On one hand I think it was probably the most intense and thrilling ride at the park. On the other, it was ridiculously rough. There was a massive jolt at the bottom of the drop and then I whacked my head probably 3 more times even though I was trying to hold it still. I don't normally complain about roughness - I would be one of the first to defend the old Corkscrew at AT about roughness - but Saw was just insanely rough. I don't think I could have ridden it more than once even if it was a walk on.

Queued a bit for Colossus. Again, holding the queue before the fast track merge made it seem longer than it was. Was expecting this to be rough but it was nothing compared to Saw. Actually really enjoyed it, the pacing was good and didn't realise that the heartlines actually go downhill which was quite a weird sensation.

Finally went on X because it was a walk-on. Very 80s, not quite sure what it was meant to be but ok...

After this we gave up and went home but was a fun day

Plus points:

-Was busy but not insanely busy

-Got on all the coasters

-Didn't get sunburnt

Negative points:

-Queueline batching/fastrack merging made some queues a bit frustrating

-Saw gave me a sore neck

-I know this is Britain but queues could do with more shade