Thorpe Park Trip Reports

[Benin]

I went today, arriving at 9 to take FULL advantage of this opening 30 minutes beforehand... If only they had two trains on everything from that point really... Especially on Swarm...

Not that I went to Swarm, nope, I went straight to Stealth due to my uni project needing data, and arrived as the first two people in the queue straight onto the front row... Attendants began to wait for more but the Op wanted to get going, so only two people on it... Second ride that's happened to me recently, tis good...

Honestly, Stealth is actually quite good, I forgot this really... I still prefer Swarm and Inferno, but that's because they have some substance about them, rather than just end as quickly as they start (although some would probably disagree)...

After a second go and data collected, we walked straight onto Inferno, which was running well too... Then we wandered over to Saw...

As I mentioned in the topic, URGH, this thing is rattly as hell, and I dislike it... Hell watching the drop you can see the kind of whiplash available to guests... Weird how this is by far the roughest Eurofighter I've done really... Meh, it's on my blacklist of rides I won't be arsed to do on my next trip..

As my head was off, Slammer was avoided for Rush, which was running rather well... Very good ride really... Hopefully it won't fling parts at us this year...

We then meandered past Storm Surge and it's stupidity back to Slammer, which Nicky had never done before... SO MUCH HEADRUSH! Then it took forever getting back down and as we left an engineer appeared... Wonder if Thorpe will eventually lose patience with it?

More meandering followed including a jaunt to Swarm island (not the 90 minute+ queue though) and Sunken Gardens... Lunch was had at the Roast and Relish which was rather nice but needs ketchup as well as all the other random sauces... Tasty beef and nice and relaxing with the sounds of Swarm next door too really...

Then we left, not being arsed to queue for anything further and I wanted to process my data... Not that it looks interesting tbh... And Nicky wanted to play Skyrim... Oh well... S'ok day really, would've done Swarm if it wasn't for the data capture stuff... And Colossus can go shove it...

[Joegibbon]

Me and Lukeeeeeee are at Thorpe today. Live updates here: http://coasterupdates.com/

[Stokesyboy]

Me and Lukeeeeeee are at Thorpe today. Live updates here: http://coasterupdates.com/

Is that in the Live update section?!

[Joegibbon]

Erm it was meant to be... But we sort of forgot once we got in the park:D I'll do a trip report at some point before the end of the week.

[Simon]

Went to Thorpe yesterday, arrived at the park fairly early so we were near the front of the queue for Swarm, Enjoyed the ride, and love the wing-rider concept in having nothing above or below you (from front seat, right side), just think there could've been more to it. Couple of my group commented that it was short and not very fast. Maybe single-train operation and having a staff member stood at the queue entrance flogging fastracks biased my view. Queue was about 90mins when we went back in the afternoon. In comparison, Colossus queue wasn't even at the front row split.

Other than that we had a very good day. Rain shower about 4ish contributed to the park being very quiet for the last hour so managed to fit quite a few rides in,

[pluk]

Maybe single-train operation and having a staff member stood at the queue entrance flogging fastracks biased my view.

This is the stuff that makes me want to hate them. Absolute *****.

Last year on one visit the hidden Saw queue was displaying 1hr, with a woman at the front literally shouting "SKIP THE HOUR QUEUE FOR £5" at people as they entered. That is repulsive enough on its own but then to find, once round the corner, it is practically walk on made me mad as hell. How dare they? They engineer problems for you to pay your way out of, what crooks.

[Coaster]

I went to Thorpe park yesterday (SUNDAY 6th MAY.)

I was quite impressed with the park not being too busy despite it being Bank holiday weekend.

RIDECOUNT:

The Swarm - 7

Colossus - 2

Nemesis Inferno - 2

Saw:/ The ride - 1

Stealth - 1

Samurai - 1

HIGHLIGHTS:

- The swarm 7 times (it was almost walk on at some points in the day.)

- Enjoying the day

- The park not being too busy despite being bank holiday weekend.

LOWLIGHTS:

- X:/ No way out having its emergancy lights switched on on the chainlift, completley ruining the ride because it was almost fully light.

- Tidal wave being closed for most of the day

- Not getting a very good ridecount on the other rides (Mostly due to trying to beat my record of 7 on The Swarm however not beating it but coming on level with it.

- Colossus and Saw both not running too well today.

- Saw alive being closed, as well as the path around it (meaning no more shortcuts to Saw from the Lost city flat area.)

Overall a good day.

Thanks for reading

[Mitchada04]

Just returned from Thorpe Park and was amazed at how quiet it was for a bank holiday monday. Unfortunately no photos but all the game stalls around the arena have been removed and Rumba Rapids queue line fence seems to be getting a lick of greyish paint (do Thorpe know the meaning of a closed season). The raised water effects on The Swarm are great even if they are a tad out of sync and once again the staff on it were working brilliantly with the train often leaving as the other train was in the inline through the station. Great day with a great ridecount.

Swarm: 10 (6 in 1 hour)

Colossus: 2

Nemesis Inferno: 2

Saw: 1

Stealth: 1

X:/NWO: 3

Samurai: 2

Rush: 2

Loggers Leap: 4

Rumba Rapids: 3

Depth Charge: 2

Strom Surge: 1

Overall a really good day and thanks for reading.

[Joegibbon]

Quick question scarycoasterboy, why on earth would you subject yourself to X:\NWO 3 times?

I remember the bank holiday this time last year being unusually quiet aswell

[Fred]

That's cos bank holiday mondays ARE quiet...

[Mitchada04]

Quick question scarycoasterboy, why on earth would you subject yourself to X:\NWO 3 times?

I feel that X is in its last few seasons unfortunately and have a secret love for it as it changes everyday you go on it. Sometimes it is pitch black, sometimes fully lit. A good place to go to get out of the rain aswell.

[JoshC.]

May bank holiday tends to be really quiet, especially compared to the other bank holidays.

Also, don't hate on Techno X - it is amazing!

Glad you had a nice day though scarycoasterboy!

[Luke_A]

Went to Thorpe today, had a brilliant day with a fairly good ride count. Weather was really warm too, good for The Swarm's boosted water effects! The park opened at 9:30 again instead of the scheduled 10AM opening. Detonator opened just after 10 so I don't know what this 11am opening stuff is about unless it's just weekdays... Stealth was down at park opening but opened at around 10, Inferno team were allowing re-rides which was great! Got on it twice then headed over to Saw where they were also allowing re-rides! Got 3 rides on Saw in during this time, unfortunately Inferno was down for a while around 12-2pm so I didn't get on it again. Swarm had a queue line evac due to a lengthy breakdown at about 3PM, got a priority pass to use for any ride and also got to keep my Swarm fastrack to use later which worked out pretty well. Queue's generally were very good for a Saturday, most flat rides had no more than 15-20mins and all coasters except for Swarm had between 30-40mins. Swarm still has no fire or LED's for anyone wondering. Not sure about video's but Saw now has it's cameras back on.

Colossus was advertising a 1 hour queue at one point when it was actually only about 20mins... There was a member of staff at the entrance selling off fastracks and ALOT of people were fooling for it by not seeing how the main queue was only up to the snack booth by the lift...

Ride count.

Saw: The Ride - 6

Colossus - 2 (1 front row)

Stealth - 3 (2 pole position)

The Swarm - 2 (left and right front row)

Nemesis Inferno - 2

X:\ NWO - 1

Vortex - 2

Detonator - 3

Rush - 1

Pretty good day overall!

[Coaster]

Went to Thorpe park today.

Great weather, not too many queues and got on most of the rides that we wanted to more than once

RIDECOUNT:

Stealth x3

Nemesis inferno x2

Colossus x4

The Swarm x7

Samurai x1

Rush x1

Tidal wave x1

X:/ No way out x7

Saw: The ride x1

The Swarm today had it's LED's on which looked amazing, but still no fire.

The water effects though need to be changed because the spray actually hurted today when it hit you in the face! I wasn't too bothered but I could see people getting off the ride with looks of disgust on their face and some were shouting.

Overall a good day

[Deleted Users]

Your dedication to X is truly admirable. I salute you.

[JoshC.]

A few words from me about my trip yesterday;

-Admissions were working very well. However, doesn't look great when people who had hired out Lakeside for the day got to get in early through the AP queue. Saw a lot of people confused / a bit annoyed that people were getting in early. Wouldn't it be easier for them to enter much earlier / through staff entrance?

-Staff were very good, all smiling and helpful; very good to see.

-Swarm was running brilliantly.

-Nemesis Inferno had a couple of blips during the time I was there, a bit sad. No other breakdowns that I saw though.

-X was good. UV lights during the ride are a great idea. Would like the music turned up a little more on ride though. As a side note, there was a small closure to clear up sick when I was in the queue, and the announcements for it would barely audible - needs sorting out.

-Annoyed that the whole Saw Alive path is closed off now. Means having to walk over Colossus hill, which is a bit mire effort. . Seriously though, would have prefered them to jut close the entrance to the queue off, and keep the walkway and benches as a quieter area, just to satisfy my laziness.

-Mexican place has changed slightly, and for the better. More choice and customization. Made a great thing even better! The place was the busiest I'd ever seen it too.

All in all a good day. Was there from half 9 to half 2, and got 10 rides done, included 2 back rows on Swarm. Quite easily could of had more had we not spent ages eating lunch, and would have stayed longer to utilise Swarm's 20ish minute queue, but after the sunburn I got on Friday, my arms were on fire... .

[Coaster]

Your dedication to X is truly admirable. I salute you.

Haha, I really enjoy dark rides and although X isn't the best, I still like it and it was running in almost total darkness yesterday whereas usually it seems lighter, which is why we went on it a lot!

The purple UV lights are good though because they don't make it too light.

[stealth888]

Yesterday (31st May) I went with my friend Luka and it was PACKED.

Yes, we arrived at 9am and were certain the park would remain the same way-dead-throughout the day, considering it was still term time and a thursday. However, we didn't take into account that 'study leave + school/college trips + some schools are actually off now = slightly more guests than expected.

What we also didn't expect was that the park would actually be opening at 10am, instead of advertising a 10am opening and then opening early at 9.30, as it has done on my previous two visits this year (both in April).

Anyway, we weren't complaining. A 9am arrival meant we were the first in the AP queue and the fact that it was opened first lead to our first ride of the day being on Swarm front row (right side!), first train. Absolutely epic. We opted for another go beforehand, but the vast amounts of people who had joined the queue during our ride had built it up to a solid 45/60 minute queue. So we did what most people do; we headed to Stealth, and within 10 minutes had braved the front row (and nearly lost my eyes in the wind in the process!).

We joined the queue again; being 5 minutes, things were looking up for me to reach my target of 50 rides (overall) on Stealth by the end of the day. But being Intamin, the unreliable sods they are, the ride experienced technical difficulties whilst we were in the station. 15 minutes later, we were told to leave the ride as they were still looking into the problem. We got a priority pass to use on either NI, Colossus, X or Stealth, which we used on Stealth later on in the day around 3pm.

After we left the Stealth area, we went to Canada Creek and got a ride on Saw and Colossus, both being around a 20 minute wait, then down to the lost city flats to ride Zodiac and Vortex.

Again, I would have liked to ride more rollercoasters during the day, but the hourly queues for Colossus and Saw, and a 90 minute queue for Swarm lead us to riding most of the water rides twice It was a good chance for be to enjoy Tidal Wave again, I thought I would hate it but it was a great time and the first in fact, where I embraced the water a little more instead of covering myself with a jacket! It says 'you will get very wet' so I thought I might as well, even though the weather really wasn't that great.

Later on in the day, as it tends to do, the Swarm queue died down to a reasonable 20 minutes. My friend and I snatched this opportunity to grab another front row ride (on the left this time) and then ride again, only to notice an internet celebrity board the train with us! If any of you know KSI, then you'll know he is a well known gamer on YouTube who is flippin hilarious. (Link to his newest video below). We didn't say hello, but I think he knew we knew who he was as he sort of turned away from us as the bagging area when he left the ride (after we stared at him in amazement). I couldn't argue with that, as he must have been getting quite a lot of it throughout the day (having over 350,000 sub's and over 114 million views on YT).

Link to video:

We left the park at 5.15 feeling great and sad at the same time as we didnt actually talk to KSI or get a picture (we are both pretty big fans of his), and my friend walked away with a replica model of the Swarm from the shop (id recommend it to anyone, it looks awesome!).

Anyway, had a great day and here's the RC:

Swarm x3 (2 FR)

Stealth x2 (1FR)

Saw x1

Colossus x1

Zodiac x1

Vortex x2

Rumba Rapids x2

Loggers Leap x2

Tidal Wave x2

Nemesis Inferno x1

[Coaster]

Went to Thorpe park today (Sunday)

RIDECOUNT:

The Swarm x8 (The ride got stuck! For full details read my post in The Swarm topic) (2 FR)

Saw: The ride x2 (Seemed slightly slower but smoother than usual - more enjoyable!)

Colossus x2

Nemesis inferno x2

X:/ No way out x2

Samurai x1 (On a very bad setting today! Very short and not very spinny. Also took about 5 minutes to lower at the end of the ride.)

Stealth x1

I am sure that I went on more but I can't remember it off the top of my head.

[Joegibbon]

I was there today aswell, I got a bad setting on Samurai aswell, took ages to park too.

Overall ride count:

Stealth x4

The Swarm x3

Nemesis Inferno x2

Colossus x1

Saw x1

Samurai x1

Rumba x1

Rush x1

X:\NWO x1

Detonator x2

Loggers x1

Overall a good day, not great for reliability and operations though. Saw was on 4 cars (went up to 6 at about 1) and breakdowns on Saw, Nemesis Inferno and The Swarm. Also Slammer was obviously still not open. Loading was really slow on some of the coasters aswell (although that might just be me since I only came back from Europa Park 2 weeks ago where everything is really quick)

[alexander]

I go on Tuesday so I'll post my report here most likely Tuesday evening

EDIT: 26th June Trip Report

We actually got into the park about 10:30 whereas it opened 10:00 because we were waiting for the other half of our group, the weather during the day was actually reasonably warm but got overcast towards the later half of the day. Probably around 20 degrees it was!

The Swarm x1 - Right Side - Rows 4&5 weren't working on both sides on both trains, neither were the water effects but the LCD eyes were and they looked brilliant!

X:/No Way Out x1 - Lights were completely on so it was great to have an insight of what was inside and the track layout with my own eyes. It looks like a lot of repainting and refurbishment have been done to the corridors as it appeared to be a lot darker but the lights on in the 'main chamber' just ruined the atmosphere along with the awful techno music.

Rush x1 - It was on a short ride system but as always, it packed a punch and I loved it.

Rumba Rapids x1 - Hardly got wet but it's great when you're with a group of friends trying to avoid getting wet.

Nemesis Inferno x1 - The fog/mist unfortunately wasn't working in the tunnel however the ride was running really well, one of the best rides I've had on it to date.

Loggers Leap x2 - Having a boat full of heavy lads and forcing our weight to the front meant the impact of the splash was a lot bigger and we got well and truly soaked. They need to get rid of the awful green lighting in the first drop tunnel though.

Colossus x1 - Not as rough as I remember from last time but it's in a poor state, still enjoyed it though regardless.

Saw x1 - Broke down for about 15 minutes but again the ride wasn't too rough as I remember and I actually enjoyed it without having a tonne of head banging.

Stealth x1 - Front Row - It was amazing today.

Tidal Wave x2

[Mitchada04]

Just got back from another day at Thorpe that was heaving at times. Me and my friend arrived at 9:30 to see the gate open so went straight over to Inferno to be the first 2 and only 2 on the ride. This then happened again on Loggers and Rocky. the new boats on Loggers Leap have more backrests and handles on the side of them but camera didn't want to work then and didn't see them later on in the day. Saw and Colossus were pretty much walk on and pretty comfortable. We then did the working S&S at Thorpe, Rush followed by X and Storm Surge. Had some lunch and decided to do The Swarm which was broken so thought we'd do it later. Went back an hour later and it had just broken down again. They seemed to be having problems with one of the cars (the one with the two front rows LEDs broken). Once this was taken off it ran fine just with a horrid capacity (better to have an open ride with a long queue than no ride at all). As we had left the area again we were greeted by a 30min queue which wasn't to bad considering the fastrack line was out of its entrance. This led us to Flying Fish which was great fun due to the team operating it. We were called fish enthusiasts when boarding and just had a generally good time. Before leaving we met my friends friend who works on the crazy Bikes. He told us that the park had 10,000 people today and on Saturday the game stalls alone raised £18,000. Overall a good day with a few photos.

Tidal Wave killed Storm Surge, Yay!

Stealth works but Swarm doesn't

Would have been better with a car but it was still broken.

LEDs!

My original idea was to have The Swarm killing Flying fish but instead, Look at me, I can be a Wingrider.

Twisty

Peek-a-boo.

Thanks for reading

[Coaster]

Went to the park today, and I have to say... MOST BREAKDOWNS EVER!

RIDECOUNT:

The Swarm x3 (Very poor show today, for details see my post in the main Swarm topic.)

Colossus x3

Nemesis inferno x2

X:/ No way out x3

Saw: The ride x2

Samurai x1 (On the worst setting ever today, literally at half speed throughout the whole ride - Also it opened at 11 and closed at 5 (park 9:30 - 6)

Vortex x1

BREAKDOWNS:

Saw: The ride x2

Stealth

Colossus

The Swarm x2 (On one occasion the whole area was evacuated, not sure why. We walked up to it and everyone was being evacuated from the area)

X:/ No way out (It closed at 5 so it may have just been laziness or cost cutting rather than a breakdown. Even so it was annoying.)

I am sure there was another one but I can't think of what it was.

(Some of these didn't affect us, we just saw them.)

Overall an average day at the park, and I managed to get my total of rides on The Swarm up to 50!

[Mattgwise]

Went to the park today.

Had a good day, but felt the park looked a bit of a mess in terms of the plants and trees. It just looked awful in places with plants and trees overgrown and looking more like weeds rather than plants. Also my friends who are not theme park enthusiasts commented on how awful it looked with Saw alive being closed but still there, CCR closed but still there, Fungle Safari closed but still there, time voyagers closed (yeah you get my drift). One said it made the park look like it didn't care about the place.

longest queue I queued for was 50 minutes for Swarm (said 75 minutes), the flats really weren't bad at all with the longest for me probably being Vortex or Samurai at 25 - 30 mins. Saw Nemesis Inferno and Saw the ride have a minor breakdown, both were up and running again withing 20 minutes. All rides except for Stealth and Slammer were available.

As mentioned in Stealth topic, some work was being done today on the cable, Slammer must still be waiting for parts as nothing happened, just saw some blue covering on the lower central part of the ride and a cherry picker.

Also as many have heard the fire was working on the Swarm fire engine, but no timed water effect, just water on the helicopter and one fountain next to it spraying up.

Nemesis Inferno had no mist and was playing the annoying bird sound effects in the queue line, except for two speakers softly playing the usual theme.

Went on virtually all rides once.

[Fred]

You're moaning about Nemesis inferno having its soundtrack almost running exactly as it was designed to be?! (minus the dispatch theme ).