Thorpe Park Trip Reports

[TPJames]

Go in July next year when the park closes at 6, it gives the park an hour to clear and then the rides are dead at summer nights. There were only a couple of hundred when I went and everything was walk on. Managed 39 rides in 3hours, would reccomend going in July instead of August as it is much emptier and you don't have to queue at all.

[GladiatorFanKyle]

Ah good idea! The queues werent that bad all it was that I just had to wait two trains and bam I was on but with saw there was a queue up the top of the stairs but only for the baggage and they said to everyone without bags just go to the gates

[Dan9]

Shall do a report for the summer nights

The first ride I went on was Nemesis Inferno as I didnt get on it during the day as the queue was bloody massive!! So I headed for front row and she rode really well! Queue was a bit long since it seemed loads of people headed for it! Then I went onto SAW and saw at dusk is really amazing! Then it was back on SAW again haha! Then I headed over to stealth for front row again (I queue up for front row everytime now!) and it was awesome! Then thorpe park really became a paradise in the dark it was dead and I headed for SWARM and it was a short queue and I queued up for the 5th row and it was amazing! I then headed to SAW and It was amazing! The atmosphere of the ride at night is super creepy espically with Billy the puppet popping up every so often and talking to you! Then I headed to swarm and went on it backwards and I forgot how scary it actually is on the lifthill there is nothing to hold onto except the bars but you get an amazing view! Then I headed over to stealth and the ride crew were really intracting with the riders and people queueing they turned off the countdown and the lights so people didnt know when it was launching haha! Overall summer nights is a brilliant event but I do think they should only sell a set amount of tickets on the summer nights (say like 1,000 on friday and 500 on saturday) but overall its a bloody wonderful event and I look forward to attending next year

 

Which day did you visit/what time did you go on Stealth? 

[GladiatorFanKyle]

I went on stealth as my very last ride which must have been about 5 minutes before 10pm. And I went to summer nights on the friday 29th

[darkadder312]

I went on the 5th September 2014 and I was expecting it to be a busy day than it was once the queues balanced out it was 20 mins max per ride this was from 1pm onwards here is list of rides I managed to get in.

 

X x6

Inferno x3

Samurai x2

Dodgems x2

Rumba Rapids x2

Slammer x1

Colossus x1

Stealth x1

The Swarm x1

Tidal Wave x1 (1st time since 3 years)

Storm Surge x1 (unfortunately pile of rust)

Depth Charge x1

Rocky Express x1

Angry Birds 4D x1

[Project LC]

Visited today and it was rather busy because of DHL were there. The queues varied a lot but I still did well with the longest wait being 40 minutes. As usual no fastracks were used:

Stealth x4

Swarm x4

Slammer x2

Rush x3

Vortex x2

X x1

Zodiac x1

Samurai x3

Colossus x1

Dodgems x1

Nemesis Inferno x1

 

Ride total: 23

 

Pros

- Swarm was very efficient

- Slammer was working

 

Cons

- All the DHL people were given a free fastrack which must have been about 3000 people

- Swarm didnt open until 11

- saw didnt open until 2 ish

- Colossus closed at 11:30 ish and didnt reopen until about 2ish

- Tidal wave kept breaking down

- Saw once opened had a 90 minute queue until it closed

[Coaster]

- All the DHL people were given a free fastrack which must have been about 3000 people

That's just stupid.

- Swarm didnt open until 11

- saw didnt open until 2 ish

- Colossus closed at 11:30 ish and didnt reopen until about 2ish

- Tidal wave kept breaking down

I understand that rides break, but for all that to happen in one day (plus Swarm being on one train until 12 noon) is just poor!

 

- Saw once opened had a 90 minute queue until it closed

Didn't keep it open any later to compensate then? 

- Slammer was working

Must say I laughed at this! 

[Project LC]

It was certainty better than my previous trip I must say but it certainty wasn't faultless. I believe that swarm was on one train due to a problem with it hence its very late addition. The fact there were so many people in the park at closing was odd and maybe they should have extended opening. The number of fastrack was amazing, there was just a never ending supply of them. 

[Coaster]

It was certainty better than my previous trip I must say but it certainty wasn't faultless. I believe that swarm was on one train due to a problem with it hence its very late addition. The fact there were so many people in the park at closing was odd and maybe they should have extended opening. The number of fastrack was amazing, there was just a never ending supply of them. 

Overselling Fastrack is what causes such long main queues, as well as causing me to shout a lot!  I mean whoever had the stupid idea of giving free fastrack to 3000 people ought to be fired!

[TPJames]

Just asking here, what is the DHL?

[Coaster]

Just asking here, what is the DHL?

I think it is some sort of posting company, I remember they ruined my day at visited Chessington similarly last year.

[JoshC.]

Cons

- All the DHL people were given a free fastrack which must have been about 3000 people

 

What makes you think they were free?  

[Project LC]

They all had a pack with them which they were collecting at the entrance and in that pack they had a card which had something like Merlin magic written on it which they were handing to ride hosts as a fastrack. To me it seemed as if DHL paid for the whole thing for all of them hence all the extras they were given. 

[JoshC.]

They all had a pack with them which they were collecting at the entrance and in that pack they had a card which had something like Merlin magic written on it which they were handing to ride hosts as a fastrack. To me it seemed as if DHL paid for the whole thing for all of them hence all the extras they were given. 

 

So the Fastracks were paid for then, albeit part of a package?

[Project LC]

Often Thorpe give out free fastracks to groups. As they were a very large group they gave out a very large number of fastracks. I guess you could see that as paid for but the fastracks were free to the DHL guests.

[Ryan]

Often Thorpe give out free fastracks to groups. As they were a very large group they gave out a very large number of fastracks. I guess you could see that as paid for but the fastracks were free to the DHL guests.

But paid for by their company?

[Project LC]

The company pay for the tickets for entrance and Thorpe park throw in a fastrack with each ticket. They advertise it as free but I guess you could see it as paid for. 

[JoshC.]

The company pay for the tickets for entrance and Thorpe park throw in a fastrack with each ticket. They advertise it as free but I guess you could see it as paid for. 

 

The point is, Thorpe haven't given 3000 guests Fastrack for nothing.  3000 guests have got Fastrack as part of deals offered by Thorpe.  

 

If 300 groups of 10 went to Thorpe Park one day and all got given Fastrack as part of the deal, you wouldn't complain at that.

[Project LC]

I complain at any form of fastrack. At a point yesterday the fastrack queue moved non-stop for 15 minutes and the main queue didn't move at all. The only reason we started moving after 15 minutes is because we asked why we hadn't moved.

[Whatever]

My brother has special needs and would play up and start getting silly in any queue. It really helps that his diagnosis has come with this, and it stops him having a paddy. When he is silly, he lies on the floor, starts speaking silly or runs about so it really does help. Thought the fastrack may move at a faster speed in some queues, some staff will allow only one family per cycle, which I can see as fair.

[JoshC.]

I complain at any form of fastrack. At a point yesterday the fastrack queue moved non-stop for 15 minutes and the main queue didn't move at all. The only reason we started moving after 15 minutes is because we asked why we hadn't moved.

 

My point was more you wouldn't make as big a fuss if 300 groups of 10 got the Fastrack offer than you have done about the group of 3000, despite the fact it's the exact same thing!

[OldFarmerDean]

so yeah visited today, and what would have been a pretty quiet day turned in to be a bit of a pain with numerous breakdowns and mostly one train operation!

 

still got a great 28 rides done due to 10 minutes early ride time, and just generally planning the day right (although did get unlucky a few times with the breakdowns and shocks of how big the queues were due to one train operation - at least this is small thorpe park and not massive alton towers otherwise it would have been awful)

 

Rush x4

Vortex x3

Swarm x2 (front and back row)

X x2

Nemesis Inferno x2 (front row x2)

Detonator x2

Slammer x2

Colossus x1 (front row)

Stealth x1 (back row)

Saw x1 (front row)

Quantum x1

Flying Fish x1

Depth Charge x1

Loggers Leap x1

Rumba Rapids x1

Chief Rangers Carousel x1 (first time ever which means I've now done every ride currently available at thorpe park!)

King Pigs Dodgems x1

Samurai x1

 

Pros:

- Billy the puppet on Saw had sunglasses on, I was literally in hysterics, found it way funnier than I should have.

- Slammer had all seats open again and seemed like they were getting through the cycles quick even though there was pretty much no queue.

- Swarm was running amazingly fast and smooth throughout the day, and so was Nemesis Inferno on my two goes first thing in the morning, also had an intense but smooth go on Saw.

- Vortex running amazing yet again, please stay like this forever!

- Not sure if a good or a bad thing but got soaked on Rumba Rapids (and that never happens), and hit the bottom of Loggers Leap with a massive thud and got soaked even with a poncho on, still fun haha!

 

Cons:

- Stealth was down for what seemed like quite a long period of time, not sure what was wrong but seen 2 workers looking at the fins on the launch.

- Angry Birds 4D was down from about lunch, and was then down all day as far as I'm aware due to technical difficulties (LOL).

- 40+ minute queue all day pretty much on Nemesis Inferno, Stealth & Colossus due to 1 train operation (and The Swarm at the beginning of the day seemed to have 1 train and racked up a nice 40+ minute queue before it went down) - funnily enough it seemed like they added a second train on Colossus right at the end of the day (as I seen it testing and then started loading people on the 2nd train) to get the queue down so the workers go home quicker.

- Man selling fast track at the entrance of The Swarm when it was on 2 trains and there was no queue before the baggage room pretty much, and seen people going through the fast track entrance - absolutely ridiculous!

- Samurai was closed for most of the day, and then opened to 30/40 minutes queues for most of the remainder of the afternoon!

- Rumba rapids had a queue up to the bridge... decide to join and notice them sending round like 2 in a boat (even 1 by themself at one point - so no batching), decide to stay in the queue, be in it for about 10 minutes with queue staying about the same, and then a little bit before we go on, they finally decide to batch which really does my head in when they don't do it before the queue gets too big, as I was looking forward to getting a picture of just us 2, and then batch just before we get on after we've been waiting all that time!

 

Found out general day guests can pay £20 for an unlimited digital download pass for the day.

 

All in all can't believe I got such a good ride count... stayed on the flats and water rides for most of the day as they had barely any queues... so did really enjoy it... I just hate merlin with their one train operation and scamming fast track schemes!

[Mark9]

Thorpe is definitly the worst for one train operation it would seem.

[Coaster]

Thorpe is definitly the worst for one train operation it would seem.

Oakwood...

[Matt 236]

Thorpe aren't no Oakwood, but I really wish they would start using 2 train op quicker and more often.

The park should run 2 train op during every weekend unless there's a major problem with one of them. When the queue passes 30 minutes on one train, they should add the second unless there's a major problem with one of them.

If Thorpe want to more like towers, they need to start rolling 2 train op out more efficiently and the queue moves 70% slower when there's on,y one on the track! no to mention fastrack is business as usual making what would be a 10 minute 2 train queue a 30 minute plus 1 train queue.