Thorpe Park Trip Reports

[Mattgwise]

Shouldn't the whole queue area play the Nemesis Inferno Theme? Not bird sound effects.

In its first few years, all of last year and earlier this year the whole area played the main theme very loudly including the speakers at the queue entrance.

I do remember for a couple of years between I think 2007 and 2010 it played the bird ambience but thought that was a mistake and the correct format was the whole area playing the main theme. So is the bird ambience the correct way then?

[Fred]

Originally designed so the main entrance played inferno theme, along with the volcano I believe. Rest of queue played bird tweeting.

Station was quiet apart from dispatches, where theme played.

[Mattgwise]

I knew how the station worked before and obviously has just played main theme for last few years (better than the 2007 crap they used). But this time even the two entrance speakers played the bird ambience. There was just one speaker in the extension cattlepen and the one in the cattle pen before the stairs playing the theme. I probably only noticed it more as the entrance speakers usually play the theme. Oh well it's not that big a deal, just worth pointing out.

[Coaster]

I went to Thorpe park today (Friday.)

TIME IN PARK: 9:30am - 2:45pm

RIDECOUNT:

The Swarm x2 (Not running well at all today as well as last time I visited, for details please see my post in The Swarm topic.)

X:/ No way out x2

Stealth x2

Storm surge x1 (Very few spinners now and the ones that are there don't work.)

Detonator x1

HIGHLIGHTS:

- Queues were not as long as I expected them to be (Except for The Swarm - One train service until 12 )

- Stealth being open despite some problems earlier in the week.

LOWLIGHTS:

- Almost all effects on Swarm were off and the fire stopped working at around 11

- Storm surge has barley any spinners and the ones that are there don't work much

- Rumba rapids was closed

- Dispatch times on The Swarm were lousy

[JoshC.]

I also went down to the park today, for the first time since the Colossus ERT. As some of you may know from Chat, haven't been 100% of late, and in fact went to the park with a 2cm deep hole in my neck.. Nonetheless, I was up for riding most things, apart from Colossus really..

Blinding sunlight = hot, hot, hot.

After arriving at just after 10, it seemed the Swarm was having some troubles as we didn't see a train go through since we arrived, so we opted to head over to Saw instead. Great to see that the Saw Alive walkway has been opened again, something I grumbled about a couple of months ago, so that was good to see - thanks Thorpe!

Saw had a surprisingly short queue really, only about 10 minutes. Staff were operating the ride well and the queue was moving very quickly. Also, all effects seemed to be working pretty much spot on, bar the water effect not reaching full height. Saw has become a well rounded ride, rather reliable and a pretty good throughput - some may find it rough, but it really is a great ride for the park!

A ride on Samurai followed. As ever, fun and enjoyable, but it seems to be taking ages to position itself correctly at the end of the ride, which is a shame. It takes ages; feels like it last almost as long as the ride..

Views of Saw from Samurai are pretty nice.

Also gave me a chance to test out my phone's camera at a theme park for the first time.

Also noticed these gates which block off the old CCR route..never noticed them before...

Loggers Leap times followed, as it had no queue. Was a little surprised, and annoyed, at how they were dispatching. Had a staff member before the four rows putting people into specific rows and then staff were also grouping people together to share boats. Don't really understand why there was a need to group people together when there's no queue - really makes no sense to me at all.. I guess having a member of staff putting people into specific rows will help when it's busy?

After noticing Swarm was operational, we made our way over there, and took advantage of a Priority Pass I had saved to beat the 90 minute queue, due to 1 train operation (which turned to 2 when we arrived in the station). I seriously hope that there was an issue with on of the trains, and that it was fixed, rather than the park decided just to use one train to save money / build up a queue, as it is pretty ridiculous in my eyes. No effects were really working, even the sound effects were off..

Swarmy shots in the sun.

Queue line flyover.

Entrance sign to the island has been further improved, with the silver writing - nice to see

Me 'holding up' the ambulance theming...

After lunch and finding out the Rapids were to be down all day, we headed to Inferno. One train operation and a huge queue, it was probably a mistake. Many announcements were made apologising for the queue and saying they were on one train operation, and telling us to be patient and saying what the queue time was (even though the queue board wasn't being updated..). Doesn't really help when Fastrack was being let through aplenty, seriously felt like they'd oversold them, and every time Fastrack were let through, it pretty much added another 5-10 of queueing. Even after getting right to the front, the ride broke down for 5 minutes. Was really disappointed by the operational side of the ride today.. :/

Rush had broken down by some point in the afternoon after being on one swing all day, and Zodiac was also down all day. By the time we made our way to the Lost City flats, Quantum was also having some downtime. After picking up some free Dr Pepper by Tidal Wave (great to see that happening before Sun Scream!) and a quick go on Flying Fish, Swarm was done again with a 40 minute queue. The fire effect was working on-and-off for part of the queue, then disappeared again. I will say that, when it works, the fire effect is pretty impressive; could even feel the heat from the queue line. Sound effects, however, seemed a bit better, though still no water effects. Called it day there just before 5.

So yeah, I had a great day and it was nice to be able to enjoy the park in sunny weather without it being crowded. However, with rides breaking down / not being available all day / being on lower capacity, some of the queues really did not reflect how busy the park was, which is a shame. Hopefully the park can regain some form after the Olympics finish, and presumably when the park will get a bit busier for the summer!

[Lottie.]

11th August 2012 Trip Report

I'm not a great writer of trip reports so this might be quite basic

So I went to Thorpe Park today and was very lucky to have a generous friend's mother who forked out on the Ultimate Fastrack for both of us so managed to get on a lot of rides! I was hoping for the new fire effect in the Swarm area to be working today (one of the reasons why I wanted to go to Thorpe) but I was to be disappointed. Hopefully next time I visit Thorpe they might have it working. Zodiac and Rumba Rapids were out of action today, Rush had a small moment of being closed off but re-opening later on in the afternoon with one swing working, SAW was also closed for small period of time then re-opened. Other than that everything else was working a-ok. Queue times were long, maximum was 125 mins from what I saw and the shortest being 10 mins.

Ride count for today:

The Swarm x7

Nemesis Inferno x2

Colossus x3

Stealth x3

SAW x2

Rush x2

Vortex

Samurai

X:/ No Way Out

Loggers Leap

[Benin]

I went yesterday avec Nicky and 2 non AP holders...

The worst part of the day, was the reliability (or lack thereof)... Firstly I remember why I dislike Thorpe's entrance atm, it's so cramped and you can't actually access the entrance toilets (eh?) currently as they are blocked off for some reason... Probably because of the queueline for on the gate guests...

After the cluster of people over the bridge, we were greeted to the following rides being down:

- Swarm

- Flying Fish

- Zodiac

- Rumba Rapids

In addition to Saw Alive (wasn't that meant to be open in Summer?) and of course, Slammer... We might have expected that of course, but would the average guest? Maybe... But, after such a good reliability so far this year, why has it suddenly all gone to pot? I mean, Fish and Swarm opened yes, but Rumba and Zodiac didn't... It doesn't look good and it isn't a great start for people's days...

So Stealth first, yay two trains and minimal queue, onto Inferno at the top of the volcano, apparent technical difficulties which naturally, were "we've just added the second train because we've suddenly realised a queue has appeared"... Again, I don't get this reasoning, you're expecting a busy day, put two trains on from the off, as there were VERY annoyed people (added with the closed Swarm) leaving the queue, and it wasn't even 10 yet... Everywhere else in the world can do this, so Thorpe, pull your finger out your ear and just put the trains on from the off, if there aren't that many people in, it means they can whore the rides then, making them happy...

If Towers can put two trains on Nemesis when there's barely anyone in the park, so can you...

Next up was Det, which failed to drop us numerous times, which was amusing as the constant PSSSST of the pneumatics as the operator desperately hit the button to drop us... It eventually worked and Det is still the best drop tower in the UK...

We then headed to Rush, which was running both swings and a decent cycle... Still a very good ride and it actually has a throughput

We meandered over to Saw, realised the queue was burdenous, and went on Samurai (for the first time in AGES) which was also running a decent cycle, however lacks something with the cut down trees (Thorpe helping the environment well) and the ridiculous failing at parking atm... Still, it was good, especially after not riding it in soooo long...

We then decided to get a Saw Fastrack, cos sod queuing 90 minutes for it, and realised how useful (especially at Thorpe) entrance ticket sellers are, as walking to the Dome or Inferno would be silly just to come back... After parting with the money, we went on and it was nice to see all but the body fountain working inside... It still hurt my shoulders though, I'm just too built these days, stupid gym going whilst at uni... Wasn't as rough as it can be, but it's just not as good as other Eurofighters in the UK, let alone elsewhere...

When then had a good lunch as Glass House/Bar 360/The Pub, which could do with an actual drinks menu somewhere rather than having to spot the tap labels... A decent burger and splurting ketchup everywhere marked this lunch... Needs some platters though a la Woodcutters...

Then we headed over to Loggers Leap, which hasn't changed at all it seems in years, before we rode Rocky Express, which is quite frankly amazing... But here lies an issue with Thorpe, there are barely any rides suitable for after food consmption... Unless they expect guests to digest in queues (which I wouldn't be surprised)... A lack of seating areas outside or some rides which aren't spinning/swinging/coastery would make a BIG difference...

Instead, we went on the Banana Boat and it's AWFUL pre-recorded messages... I mean, what the hell? Either way, another decent cycle on it, bless it...

We hit up the arcade at this point, which had epic 4 player air hockey (seriously, why aren't there more of these?) and I won loads of tickets on the "drop the ball" machine, 270 in total... Like a boss...

After some faff, we elected to queue for the now open Flying Fish, before a loud roar welcomed the testing of Swarm, leading us to abandon the queue and walk to the DREADED WHITE TENT, where numerous staff members were holding everyone out of the island (instead of cleaning it, lazy gits)... Eventually it opened and we were walked onto the island and through the queue... Hit the left side of the train this time, and Swarm is still the best ride on the park, just insanely fun and re-rideable, with a decent level of intensity... It doesn't need the effects working, but if they were it would be improved much much more and be at a higher level... As such I think as an overall package Raptor is still the superior ride, even if Swarm's layout is better...

Unsurprisingly, we wanted to ride again, but also, the entire park dived into the queue, leaving us with the idea of buying MORE fastrack (the hell kind of enthusiasts are me and Nicky?) and we rode on the right side... I have no preferred side, as they are both as good as each other...

And then, we did Storm Surge... 45 minutes made it the longest queue of the day... Seriously? God it's stupid, the draining of the boats involving picking them up and tipping them over, the literal dumping of the ride, just everything about it annoys me, and compared to riding Oxygenarium only 2 months ago, it's absolutely terrible... Then someone elected to use a water cannon on my face... Whilst sat waiting to go in the station... I just... No Thorpe... Just... No...

After more faff, we went back to Inferno again... People who say it is forceless are officially, idiotic... Of course in comparison to Towers' Nemesis, it doesn't hold much of a candle, but really, it's still a really, really solid ride and deserves more love... It's Thorpe's Air if you will, randomly loathed for no actual reason...

Then we did Stealth again, as Swarm's opening dragged everyone in the park there, the queue was practically at the bottom of the stairs... It was randomly rattly, but it provided a BRILLIANT view of the Swarm fireball as we entered the station... THE HEAT

And that was it, we headed home (via Doughnuts) and collected our complimentary Fastrack (and our friends free tickets) due to quite awful ride reliability throughout the day... As quite regularly 6/7 rides were down at once, with Fish opening around 3, and Swarm an hour later... That really isn't good enough during the high summer season, and whilst I can understand Slammer, the average guest would not, and the random all day closure of Zodiac and Rumba Rapids? Bleh...

Needless to say, if it wasn't for Fastrack saving us from a burdenous Saw queue (I did NOT want to queue for Colossus and it's 100 minutes), we probably would've had an awful day, and it made me realise why guests are eager to purchase it, because on a busy day, it can make all the difference between it being crap, and good...

Ride Count

Stealth - 2

Inferno - 2

Det

Rush

Samurai

Saw

Loggers Leap

Rocky Express

Banana Boat

Arcade

Swarm - 2

Storm Surge

[pluk]

But.. without fastrack existing in the first place the queue would be a somewhat less burdenous half of what was listed. Meaning it is still the root of all evil. Don't go to the dark side.

[Benin]

Only, neither of the times we used Fastrack there was a queue of Fastrackers waiting, it was literally 4 people going in...

I think anyone with sense would prefer not queuing 90 minutes for Saw, and with the other option being having to ride it in some way shape or form, it had to be Fastrack...

Swarm being down didn't help the queue either mind, so...

[Mark9]

Only, neither of the times we used Fastrack there was a queue of Fastrackers waiting, it was literally 4 people going in...

I think anyone with sense would prefer not queuing 90 minutes for Saw, and with the other option being having to ride it in some way shape or form, it had to be Fastrack...

Swarm being down didn't help the queue either mind, so...

Or go to Thorpe in the summer holidays.

[Stokesyboy]

In addition to Saw Alive (wasn't that meant to be open in Summer?)

Nope was always going to be opening for Fright Nights only!

[JoshC.]

There were rumours that it may open over summer, but they decided to keep it just to FN it seems.

[Paul123]

I went today(18/8/12), I thought it would be insane being the hottest day of the year so far(It hit about 85 degrees) and yeah it was pretty busy, the queues to get tickets was insane, glad I could skip all that though with a season pass(one of the great benifits)

This was'nt an all day visit, I was going upto London anyway to pick up my girlfriend who stayed up there the night before with a friend, so I visited for a few hrs, and left around 3PM, I entered the park just before 10AM, wanted to get there earlier, but it was my own silly fault for lying in too late and leaving later than I planned, thought that would blow my chances getting a quick swarm ride when I saw the crowds on arrival, but as it turns out, the ride did not open for park opening and only just opened up when I entered the area, this meant I was able to get a ride on swarm with only a 15 min queue, and on the front row too(BTW Why does NO ONE use the front row queue bit,EVERYONE just went up the normal bit at the end, Really bizarre, Not that I'm complaining of course, lol) Anyway the ride was good as usual, and I think its finding its form already, very smooth, and felt a tad more intense than usual.

In the 5hrs I was on park, I didnt manage that many rides due to the crowds,Just The Swarm Twice,Stealth Twice,X No Way Out Once, and Flying Fish Once, I did have lunch in that time, and went to see the Basketball Stunt Show in the arena, so its not "too" bad for 5hrs work, I really miss Single Rider Queues at this park though now, I could have easily managed a full day at the park today if I wanted too, but I cant anymore, Its a bit sad really, If Alton ever stops theirs, I will scream.

So yeah crowds were busy today, but it was one of the hottest days of the year so far, Tidal Wave's queue came OUT THE ENTRANCE, and Storm Surge reached 90 mins(Sod that),Didnt check the Rapids or Log Ride, but think on the boards, they both reached well over 30 mins each. NI,Colossus and Saw all easily about 1hr. Swarm reached a peak of about 1-2hrs), but I tryed the "afternoon trick"(Go around 2PM when everyone rides its first and goes elsewhere) and incredibly IT WORKED, The queue was only 25-30 mins, so notced up another quick(ish) ride before heading off. Basketball Stunt show was very good I thought, the guys were very talented, and there was some good skills on show, Worth a watch if just to get away from the crowds, and chill for a while, They were giving out Free Cans of Dr Pepper too for the show, and then afterwards, Gave away more Freebies(Some Dr Pepper Pants, lol)

2 amusing things seen today, People QUEUEING in LONG queues to get Fastrack tickets and then seeing them still wait in a QUEUE in the Fasttrack queue for many rides which didnt really help people avoid any queueing(So it was more like QueueTrack today), and Silly people using the Hot Air dryers coming off Tidal Wave drying themselves when errrrrrrrrrr it was soooooo hot outside, you could have dryed off easily in about an hr or so in the extreme heat, WTF.

So not a bad 5hrs really, I actually expected it to be a lot worse.

[Mitchada04]

Went to Thorpe twice during Sun Scream, the first and last day for Ride and Rave with a trip to Devon in the middle so both trips will be merged into one post. First of Friday 17th August. The weather was lovely and the park not to busy with the coasters having no longer than 1 hour queues. Colossus was on one train for the whole morning but the queue was moving really well even with loads of fastracks. All the rides were running well with very little downtime. Rush seems to be creaking quite badly which scared quite a few people in the queue. The Swarms effects were a bit random though. No water all day, mist here and there on the plane wing, helicopter blades spinning until they turned the fire on for half an hour. When the fire catches it is awesome. The heat and noise is great but when it doesn't catch the smell of gas lingers over the station and queue for quite a while. One train had no LEDs and the other had it on the back 5 rows. The new ambulance theming is well positioned and love that they gave it lights (meaning the island will be even cooler at Fright Nights. The ride itself was running well till we got stuck at the bottom of the lift for 10 minutes then went up half way, stopped again and eventually made it to the top and around. All of the pictures were taken on the 17th as I forgot my camera for Ride and Rave.

WHEEL!

Empty station (becoming a frequent sight for rides at Thorpe)

More theming? (We now know it is the upturned telephone box)

Tempted to buy the onride DVD just to get that case.

This is where we got stuck on it.

And because everyone else seems to do it, I thought I'd do my bit to help save the world.

Sunday 26th August: The park was heaving but I didn't mind to much as I was here for ride and Rave. Got on three rides; Saw, Loggers and Swarm. We had a frog in are Loggers boat who seemed to enjoy the ride. Someones shoe flung off The Swarm during the inclined loop and flew over the queue to hit someone on the head. All the effects were working. The water at the fire engine turn around has been changed so it doesn't go over the fire. At first I thought the fire was going of randomly but I later realised it was going of for every 7th car. The telephone box is a good addition but I would rather something on the last corner isnstead of weeds. The event itself was great with an amazing atmosphere and the staff seemed to really enjoy it to so overall a very good night. With Sun Scream now over, hopefully we'll get some details of their next major event, Fright Nights.

[Mattgwise]

Dissapointing visit today. Got on very few rides due to painfully slow queuing on Saw and Swarm.

First headed to Nemesis Inferno to a 40 minute queue for it to have a technical fault. Must admit it was up and running again in no time.

Then after a quick go on Rumba Rapids and Loggers Leap headed to Saw the Ride. A tolerable 60 minute queue was advertised. The queue seemed to be moving quick but broke down just as it hammered down with rain. After 15/20 mins it was back up and running but from this point onward the queue crawled. Insane amounts of fasttrack tickets sold meant the normal queue was only allowing people inside every 15 - 20 mins, which meant a painfully slow queue. After a total of 1hr 50 mins finally get on to find the guy shout over the station PA that the queue was 60 mins (speakers in outside queue didnt actually work so pointless advice anyway!) I told a guy on the platform about the queue time and he was not interested and just said oh they probably know now (not five mins after the announcement.

I thought the problems would end there. Over to Swarm. The ride shut down not 1, 2, 3 or 4 times but 5 times! Took over 15 mins for one of those times just to clear sick! 2 hours later we get down to the platform. and an announcement is yet again made to say they have to send an empty train, after one is sent empty we all get told to move back and to all of the queue lines disgust they let a film crew in to take a 10 minute shot of a guy sitting in the car! Several people in the queue shout boos and that they are taking the mick but nothing done. Eventually get on and it is suddenly 630pm. Only managed 7 rides all day!

Also to add they then closed the Samurai queue line at 655pm! They obviously could not wait to get home!

On a more positive note however the rides team on Colossus were excellent and on the last train of the day even let us have an extra go! Food and beverages staff very efficient too.

I know you technical faults are out of anyones control but when insane amounts of fast track is sold and allowing filming on a busy day after several technical problems and long queues, it is frustating when the queues take 3 times longer than they should do. Very dissapointing visit.

[Benin]

Filming crew? In the middle of the day?

Weird that they didn't advertise this fact... It's quite poor show really, could they have not done it before ride opening? Or indeed after park close?

Wouldn't be surprised if your technical fault on Inferno was adding the second train... If they are still doing that then Thorpe need to seriously consider their operations...

[Mattgwise]

Yep disgraceful in my opinion. The rides team didn't really know what was going on themselves. The ride attendant I spoke to said all he knew was it was Talkback Thames doing a show about a guy who is petrified of roller coasters who is marrying a woman who loves rollercoasters. When people started shouting as we had already waited two hours with the previous problem he said he wasn't even aware they would be there at that point and that they were just told to stop letting people on the ride with no further information. I suggested it made sense to do this at end of day and he agreed.

Another person in the queue said it came up on the scroller earlier on in the day that there may be filming, but whenever I went to The Swarm entrance all I saw was the scroller simply saying "Waiting time 50 mins" and the attendant was just shouting "Fast track only £5"

Inferno was on two trains all day, didn't find out or see what the problem was but certainly wasn't adding the second train, may I also add that Nemesis Inferno seems much more popular this year on the visits I've made. Whilst on the topic of trains from what I saw at 10am all coasters were on two trains, Not sure about Saw.

But Swarm had two closures to clean up sick, two restraint problems (row 5 on one of the trains left side), and the fifth they made out it was a technical fault, but was clearly just to allow the film crew to access the station platform as it "magically" got fixed after they left the station.

[Benin]

The staff never get told things... It's silly really... There's often such a lack of communication it seems (hell, for the TPM Swarm ERT day, the staff didn't even know, thought they would be told that they'd be working extra) between departments... Disappointing that they'd do such a daft thing during this time of year... Way to make guests happy Thorpe...

As for 2 trains at 10, the park did open at 9:30 Based on what they've done so far this year, I wouldn't be surprised if they were still doing it...

[Tom]

It was Dave Berry (Capital FM). Heard him on the radio this morning publicly apologise for holding up the Stealth queue for 2 hours with filming. I would be really annoyed. I can sort of understand daytime filming, but in the summer?

[pluk]

He could do with a slap even without having done this. Bellend.

[Mattgwise]

Stealth as well? Or did you mean Swarm.

What is also odd is that I was told it was Talkback Thames filming (however to be fair the person who told me didn't really know much about what was going on so could have been wrong), so with you saying Dave from Capital apologised for Stealth hold up due to filming, then this could mean two lots of different filming went on if the attendant was correct. Terrible.

I wrote to the park yesterday, Will let everyone know if I get a response.

[Fred]

Filming crew? In the middle of the day?

Weird that they didn't advertise this fact... It's quite poor show really, could they have not done it before ride opening? Or indeed after park close?

When I went during schools weeks, they had topless male models taking up an entire 8 seats of the ride. They went around 4 times. Rest of train was empty. Queue was 2hrs.

I love how thorpe do not give one solitary **** about their guests.

[Marc]

I love how thorpe do not give one solitary **** about their guests.

Seems more a Merlin thing surely?

The fact that people got excited the "UK's Number One theme park" will open past 4PM during September / October says alot.

Agree its frustrating they close the ride for filming, maybe these comments are best passed on to the park, if enough people complain they will look at it.

[Mattgwise]

I have passed my comments onto the park for that reason. If people don't say anything, they are not going to be aware it is having an impact on visitors days out and nothing will change.

[Benin]

Agree its frustrating they close the ride for filming, maybe these comments are best passed on to the park, if enough people complain they will look at it.

They read this forum enough to know what enthusiasts (who are more liable to notice some things let's be honest, although often this things are the most pathetic of issues) see as problematic...