Thorpe Park Trip Reports

[Fred]

I had a slightly different view of the park.Colossus queueline was absolutely disgusting with chewing gum, litter and graffiti on the bins - we were one of the first few to go through the queueline, so that wasn't touched. Vortex queue wasn't much better either.The park looks a bit tatty.. rush with its stick-on signs all peeling off. Project Link still not working properly.Though the staff were good on certain rides.. excellent on Colossus and inferno. Stealth team sucked arse at loading times, but they all seemed rather new anyway.

[Whiteknuckle]

Went there today, with about 18 other people from the Coaster club. Once the coasters had opened we had a great time. Colossus opened late with only one train, Inferno had 2 trains running, Stealth one train, but short queues on all rides, longest being X Whats the Point?Ride count.Stealth 3Inferno 5Colossus 1Slammer 1Quantum 1Zodiac 1Vortex 1Teacups 2X:/ Whats the point 1Banana Boat 1So not bad for the second day of opening.

[Mr_Rabbit]

Did you happen to be on that Banana ride with all the other RCCGB members today?

[Whiteknuckle]

Whoops, forgot to add that to the list. Yes I was.

[Marc]

Yesterday:Was nice to be back and see a few certain people but personally I didnt enjoy it a great deal, for starters I needed more layers so was shivering all day! Nandos was fun, driving for kingston was funner and danns house is cool :)Today:I learnt from my mistakes today and I had a few extra layers on so that solved that problem!Got to the park about quarter too, was waiting in what we thought what was the annual pass q which turned out not to be and this was my first annoyance of the day, a member of staff asked us politely to move to the other q which I had no problem with atall, but what annoyed me was a member of what I presume was the RCCGB arguing with the staff member, refusing to move, what makes you any more important than anyone else who had to move please do let me know. The park imo was generally clean and very presentable, there were a few bits and bobs which could do with tidying up but nothing major like last year! Reliability was good, all rides due to open did open, the coasters opening late due to the cold temperatures but this coudlnt be helped.It was great to see things looking nice and neat such as new/painted restraints on vortex looking as good as new, thorpe belle repaired, tidal wave/beach repaint and of course the Colossus Pit looking fantastic once again. I also hear inferno tunnel will be back to how it should be soon!So overall I am impressed, whilst some things could have been better organised there was nothing which I would call major up with the park.

[Mr_Rabbit]

Whoops, forgot to add that to the list. Yes I was.

Your banana crazy! What are you?! lol

[MikeC]

I won't bother with a trip report but I agree with Mark about it getting a tad boring now, I don't think enough has changed for the right, but it was really good seeing things like repainted Stealth theming, Inferno mental amount of mist, and the Tidal Splashpool.And RCCGB members pushing. I really think they are dirtying my opinion of them, after ruining their reputation with a lot of other people. IMO, I have had enough of the forum rivalry, especially when I got dirty looks from two RCCGB members after mentioning I was on TTF and Coasterforce.

[Whiteknuckle]

And RCCGB members pushing. I really think they are dirtying my opinion of them, after ruining their reputation with a lot of other people. IMO, I have had enough of the forum rivalry, especially when I got dirty looks from two RCCGB members after mentioning I was on TTF and Coasterforce.

I don't see what your problem is. Our club is a very responsible group of coaster enthusiasts. Some of our members are in the ECC aswell. We are together for one thing, Rollercoasters, and not a load of bickering from one induvidual. Ok, I know you are entitled to your opinion, but we are all here to enjoy ourselves. I happen to be on several coaster forums.Oh, and Marc, there was noone from the RCCGB moaning in the queue at the gate, because we were altogether. Moan over

[Marc]

Well they had RCCGB jackets on thats all

[Whiteknuckle]

Maybe they were fed up of the way the park is being run at the moment, with all this crap about the rip off new annual passes, no wonder I'm not renewing, and to be honest I'm fed up with the way one member on here is treating me, so cya, I won't be posting here again till I get treated like an adult. Cheers for the Banana Boat quote Mr_Rabbit lol.

[MikeC]

I fully agree with Marc and I am going to back my argument up; on opening day this year, I was talking to Steve, Rob and his friend, and I said that I was on CoasterForce and Towers Times Forum, and they instantly gave me dirty looks. The next day at the gate (yesterday) they where hassling members of staff at the gate, and where pushing like children. I pride myself on having an open mind to every new person, but when I see these members of certain forums, they are tarnishing their reputation. Being on plenty of forums, you can see that the forum rivalry is too large. You quite rightly said whiteknuckle on MSN to me that ;we are all here to enjoy coasters not to bitch'. Your right, but sometimes you do slant towards RCCGB when some of their members have done something wrong. I am not at all having a go at RCCGB as I am fully against stereotyping, but as I said, when members act like children, it tarnishes their clubs reputation. Nearly everyone on CF takes a heavy dislike to me, but I will still say hi if I recognize people. Same with Southparks. For example, I said hi to Scarlet (ex det_freak), and said hi to AJ, but I got the evils from everyone in CF who overheard who I was. I am not afraid to ruffle feathers if it's for the right reasons, because forum rivalry pisses me off to the extreme, there is no need for it if it';s stupid reasons like 'OMG YOUR ON ANOTHER FORUM TO ME SO I'LL BITCH!!1111111ONEONE'.

[Phill]

Why stop posting on a whole forum because of how one member is acting off the board. Seems silly.

[Whiteknuckle]

Ok, I have read Sebastian's reply, and have decided he's partly right. It is just a few members trying to put a point across. Ok, they might be going the wrong way about it. I have no problems with other clubs, forums ect. We only get like this at non club visits, obviously if we were on a club trip and Nev found about the behaviour of these un named members, action would be taken. The object of any club is to unite thrill seekers, young and old, give the parks, especially the smaller parks some publicity.I apologise now if members behavior caused uproar on sunday. I can assure you I wasn't involved. I just want to go there to have a good day out at a Theme Park, and a growing and sucsessful one at that.I just want to say Well done Thorpe, and apologies to Sebastian. Ooops, I posted, lol

[quickey]

Well as I was down visiting old friends and relatives down in Kent, I thought I might as well make the most of my annual pass, and head over to Thorpe for its opening day, but what a disappointing day it was. I don’t usually do long written trip reports, unless it has been a very good, or in this case, bad day, so here goes. Got up early to catch a 6:50 train, with a few stops, got me in to Stains around 9:20, where a chav filled shuttle bus to Thorpe Park awaited. It is a pretty good service, as it only costs £3, and is very regular, but they truly couldn’t pack any more people on that bus. Got to Thorpe Park about 9.35, and realised just how busy it was, which was a surprise as I went this time last year to the park, and it was dead. I felt sorry for the people that had to buy or pick up tickets, because the queue was unbelievably big, as they only seemed to have the building for picking up tickets open, and no kiosks were open, so everyone, no mater if you had bought on-line, or were paying now, had to join this huge queue. Thank god I had a season pass, and could join the relatively small annual pass queue to get in to the park. Unlike most parks who let guest in around half an hour before the rides open, Thorpe park like to keep there guests waiting outside, until the park opens a few minutes late, but they did open with a cheesy start of 2008 season count down which put a smile on my face, but probably didn’t to the people who were standing in the mile long queue as they would probably not get in to the park for another 20, maybe even 40 minutes. I got first public ride of the season on one of my favourite flats, vortex, and then head over to Inferno. When I got to Inferno, I noticed that they were sending empties around. I went over to the entrance, and joined the back of the small queue waiting at the entrance. I asked the staff member why it wasn’t open, and he informed me that the ride couldn’t open, as it was too cold (has to be 5C to open), and this was the reason that Colossus also hadn’t opened, although, they managed to open stealth. Whether this was true or not, I am not sure, because they were sending empties with no problem, and even sending trains with staff members in. also, the fact that Colossus didn’t open until later in the day (probably about 2PM), and that they were sending the train around with test dummies in at about 11.30 suggested that they just didn’t have it ready in time for opening. When Inferno finally opened at about 10.45, I got on the first train of the season, and then went to meet 2 of the people I planed to meet up with. We then headed over to Stealth, which was advertised to have a 45 min queue, so we could do that, and still be in time for the meet up with TPM at 12. Sadly, the queue was actually about 1hr and 10 mins, so we missed the meet up time, and the one member of the forum I had a phone number for didn’t answer his phone, so the 3 of us just went round together. The fact that the queues were reaching 90 mins, and the park didn’t put 2 trains on the coasters, but continued to sell fast pass tickets I thought was disgusting. I went to Alton Towers on the Monday, and Pleasure Beach the Saturday before, and both managed to keep the queues to a minimum (under 10 minutes, or even walk on in a lot of cases) by putting the rides on high capacity. Because Thorpe Park continued to sell fast pass tickets at £3 a pop, it meant that people standing in the normal queue, only got about 10 – 15 people on each train! I actually ended up buying a fast pas for XNWO as it had an 80 min queue, and still had to queue 20 mins!!!! I am glad I did though; as the ride has improved a lot since the last time I rode it. This is the first time since about 03, 04 I have ridden Inferno and Colossus, and all the big coasters together, so I got to compeer them well. Inferno is a lot worse than I remember it, and was a bit of a let down, but it was still good. Colossus was way better than I remembered it, and I had a very good ride on that. Stealth was the same as last year, but I probably enjoyed Colossus more. One ride that scared me sh!tless was Slammer. I have done a sky swat before, back in 2005, but have never done this one before. The thing that made me seared was that the little shoulder bars wobbled quite a bit. I was also disappointed that the music for this ride wasn’t working properly. I left the park at 4, as all the queues were to long, and I couldn’t be bothered anymore. I also noticed that Inferno broke down at the end of the day, and Colossus closed early for no apparent reason. Ride count: Vortex 1Colossus 1Quantum 1Slammer 1Nemesis Inferno 1X:/ no way out 1Stealth 1Good pointes:Doing Slammer for the first timeRiding Inferno and Colossus again after a few years.The food was good in ranger country BBQ (I think it is called), although expensive. Meeting two new nice people.Pretty good staff. Bad points:Rides on low capacity, despite the park being extremely busy, and still selling fast passes. Not meeting up with the wrest of TPM.Being tolled the queue time was 30-45 mins on Colossus, when it was actually 90 mins, and being tolled it was 45 mins on Stealth, when it was actually 70 mins. Detonator not being open (although I knew it wouldn’t be)Having to stand outside the park for it to be opened slightly late. Paying £3 for a fast pass, and still having to wait 20 mins. 2 big coasters opening late.

[Fred]

Coaster temperature is true - if you bothered watching the testings, you would've noticed how incredibly close they were to stalling. Not good really

[Phyciodes]

Well its been a while since ive posted on here, so though that I might as well give a post about my recent thorpe visit today I arrived at the park at around 12ish, it was slighltly busier than expected considering it was so quiet last year. I was dissapointed to see that vortex was unavailable and remained unavailable all day, not sure why. I didn't get a huge variety of rides in but rode the ones I did manage to ride a few times. I was extremely glad to see that inferno was pratically walk on all day, I managed to get 4 inferno rides which I was glad about. Inferno was running 2 trains which was rly good! Colossus as expected broke down a number of times during the day and had a longish queue when it was open so I thought that I'd skip it, thorpe obviously hadn't learnt from their past mistakes and kept Colossus on one train all day! X:NWO was also packed all day with over an hour queue. Suprisinly even quantum was fairly busy. Slammer was quiet all day, but thats notsuprising considering its high capacity and I got a go on that. Stealth wasn't too bad either, the queue didn't seem too long to me, and I got on that 4 times! It was only running 1 train but I don't think they need another one. Good to see some major works taking place, especcialy on tidal wave and rush. There's also a lot of work on the 2009 coaster taking place with vehicles, diggeres etc riding around the spot all day! Left the park at about 4:30. I was tired all the way home, and it was one hell of a crap journey with delays, train changes etc. But thats nothing to do with thorpe. So all in all a goodish day, could have been better but hopefully my next trip will be.Ride count-Stealth- 4Inferno-4Slammer-1Zodiac-1

[NickD]

Another criticism of the day was the.. sort of.... well ok here goes.I'm bored of Thorpe. There I said it. After 5-6 years of visiting none of the rides interest of thrill me anymore. Inferno front row, meh, Vortex yawn, Slammer oww, Stealth long queues, Quantum *sighs*. None of it interests me anymore. So whilst Thorpe delivered everything it promised, full ride availability, a clean well presented park and a reinvigorated Quantum, I probably won't be visiting again this year.

My feelings exactly... couldn't put it better.

[Martin]

Went to Thorpe today, was an okay day considering the weather stopping rides opening. Stealth opened at 11:30ish due to poor visibility of the top-hat caused by thick fog. Stealth wasn't visible from tidal wave when the park opened. Nemesis Inferno was open from park opening to park close, running on 2 trains. Colossus didn't open all day because it was too cold (only 5 Degrees I believe.) Quantum, Vortex, Zodiac running as normal. XNWO opened at some point past mid-day due to an unknown reason. Slammer opened also some time after mid-day due to a technical reason.Ride Count:Nemesis Inferno: 6Quantum: 1Slammer: 1Stealth:2 (Front Row - First Train Of The Day)Teacups: 1Vortex: 3Vortex closed once temporarily due to an E-Stop, Quantum delayed twice (possibly more), Inferno delayed once.Piccys:Chief Ranger's Carousel getting ready to be re-fitted (Tuesday)Example of how foggy it was on Wednesday morning, the reason stealth didn't open untill late morning

[Phill]

I see they got the Nemesis Inferno Misters working again?

[Mark9]

OMG Phill we must have come with that joke at the exact same time.. I've just made the same one over on SP. We must be psychologically connected or something..

[MikeC]

The misters where on full blast for about an hour after opening on Saturday, it was pretty mental

[Mr_Rabbit]

Still a couple of issues with the misters / smoke but it should be working fully very soon.

[Phill]

OMG Phill we must have come with that joke at the exact same time.. I've just made the same one over on SP. We must be psychologically connected or something..

Either that or you connected to Thorpe Park Mania in strange ways.

[Sheepie]

OMG you have no idea how excited you got me then Phill!!I officially hate you for getting my hopes up and then letting me down =[

[Marc]

Still a couple of issues with the misters / smoke but it should be working fully very soon.

I'm sure no one will be let down, it looked great in the early pictures taken saturday!