Thorpe Park Trip Reports

[Chantelle ^.^]

Trip report for yesterday, Ride CountSAW - 2Colossus - 2Nemesis Inferno - 3Stealth - 4Rush - 1Detonator - 2Zodiac - 1Quantum - 1Vortex - 1Time Voyagers - 1CCR - 1Samurai - 1Slammer - 1Loggers Leap - 1Queues ranged from around 30-60mins, I saw no rides go over an hour other than SAW which peaked at 80mins.HighlightsVery bearable queues,Getting such a high ride count,Detonator was so much fun (see Detonator topic to see what happened)Thorpe had tried pretty hard with their Gameshow "Whats the worst that could happen?"Seeing all the lights on at 8pm,LowpointsThis is a big story, so prepare yourself, so we are in a 20min queue for Colossus the 4 of us and these coloured chavs start pushing past everyone violently saying they are getting to their friends, my friend stops them and tells them they are queue jumping, and they start getting seriously angry, but they weren't going to try anything in the middle of the Colossus queue, so we get on the same train as them becuase we didn't let them pass, and after the ride they start giving us really intimidating looks and following us (bearing in mind these guys are like 17-19 years old) and we generally didn't feel safe, so we go to guest services and they call sercurity and we give a description of them, and if he finds them they will be kicked out of the park for queue jumping, violent abuse to people in the queue and making people feel insercure, we were told we did the right thing, we felt better after this and we didn't see them again, but this was around 7:30ish and they were probally on their way out anyway.Somewhere in the middle points Some idiot kicked their shoe off at a high swing on Vortex and very nearly hit me, it hit the back of my head rest :S.Overall great day apart from the one lowpoint.

I'm glad you had a good time Tim, apart from the chavs que jumping.I haven't shared this story with anyone yet, but when I went to Thorpe park last year in June (it was a college trip), me, 2 friends and a teacher were queing were Rumba Rapids and these coloured chavs just pushed past everyone in the que, they didn't care if they hurt anyone, funny enough no-one stopped them, but I guess its because they don't want to get themselves hurt or anything. Not only that, no one in the que told the ride ops that they were q jumping, so they got on the ride in the end. =/

[TimR]

I hate it how some people think they have the right to cut they queue without fastrack.

[rossafc]

Same.It is annoying when people try and queue jump.There was almost a fight behind me in the Stealth queue a few weeks ago because of it.

[stealth888]

TP 10/08/09 Report

Fixed the date now!If I'd have done all those rides in 1 1/2 hours, that would have been pretty impressive! Sorry, I just realised that!Sorry to hear about the Qjumpers Tim, thankfully didnt see any yesterday though. Good for you for going to guest services, smart move

[Sam P]

Fixed the date now!If I'd have done all those rides in 1 1/2 hours, that would have been pretty impressive!

I would of been very impressive

[TimR]

Thanks everyone for all your surport on the queue jumpers.

[Rocket]

Thanks everyone for all your surport on the queue jumpers.

I saw them again at about 8:20 outside the park and I thought I was dead meet but heh there was staff and security everywhere and all they did was give me really idiopt looking evil stares and they left.great queues that day but are mate left 3/4 of the way throught a 40 mins Colossus queue and a 55 min saw queue.missed out on some great rides and the fake breaking down on detty ,now that was jokes.do you remember alfonso on stealth talking to that scared woman behind us ???he offerd a TP badge if she had a good enough photo.and rocky express is always jokes.see you at the meet everybody

[TimR]

and rocky express is always jokes.

No Samuel, I though I was going to die!

the fake breaking down on detty

That was really good fun, one of my highlights of the day

[James6]

Ok, after yesterday Thorpe Park has only dropped further down in my estimation, and If I have a choice in where future trips are to, It will be months before I even think about visiting Thorpe Park again. I haven't particularly enjoyed my past 3/4 trips.Upon arriving at the park, signs were out stating the park was full.... Great start, but I could deal with it as I've heard the park have been handling it quite well.Got in a went straight to Rush. Qued about an hour and something extremely annoying happened. Every few rides the op would do a long cycle ( 2/3 extra high swings) which really was just not fair for the 3/4 of people who would get a short ride with 3 high swings. But I could deal with it and got a great ride on Rush.To be fair to Thorpe, the ques were lower than I was expecting for it to be "at capacity". I was expecting 2 hour ques for everything but they must have reduced the maximum people they let in as ques when I entered at 1.30-2 were aboutStealth: 75 minsNemesis Inferno: 75Colossus: 60 or 80 can't rememberSaw: 70Rush: 60Vortex: 30Detonator: 30Loggers Leap : 60+Tidal Wave: 70+ ( Forgot to mention today was supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far from what I heard, great planning James...)So not absolutely huge ques, but today what I noticed that the majority of people weren't in the ques, but walking around, making the already small walkways very very crowded.Then headed round to see what the Saw que was like but decided we would do it last thing as it would have the longest que, there was a massive gathering around the exit for Saw with TV camera's etc and it was Katie Price ( Jordan) Yeah I know what you mean , I didn't know who she was till I saw her either. :(Throughout the day her and her mislead followers trundled round the park and the only other ride I saw her on was the Canada Creek Railway. Decided Colossus was the best option as surprisingly it had the shortest que. This is where the Say no to BO thing kicked in with signs scattered around at the entrance, on the console, and reminders cast over the queline. I was amazed with Colossus, I usually think of it as one of the slowest moving que's on park but yesterday the team was brilliant, with Nemesis Inferno type dispatching. I qued from further back than I ever had and it took one of the least amount's of time it ever had. 50 mins, and it was a Huge que, almost filled the whole thing.Next we qued for Stealth, experiencing the same , Say no to BO, warnings. Had a good ride ( Who read that dirty? Come on , own up ).Was now about 6 joined the Saw que with a 95 minute que thinking we'd get 2 rides as I was with someone who hadn't ever been on before but really wanted to.They have had to create a temporary que to hold the extra people's. I am pretty sure they were running it on 6 car op at this time , earlier cars were frequently flying over the top, now they wern't, the que was painfully slow which is irritating as I usually praise Saw as one of the fastest moving que's. The frequent smoking is so frustrating, I was there with a friend, behind us were for large men all smoking, now they have signs up in the Saw que to report people and "something will be done about it" . The "something that will be done about it" , is that they say one short message over the speakers, better than nothing but doesn't do anything. The guys behind me full-well knew they couldn't smoke but didn't care as all that happens is a message over the speakers, I personally believe that if someone's smoking they should be asked to put it out in person by a member of staff, if they refuse or do it again they should be removed from the que. Simple as.Because of the smoke my friend had developed a headache and felt sick, just one hour into the que and not even into the barbed wire part of the que.After another 45 minutes, we were just about to get out of the last of the Cris-cross bits where there are only straight bits of queing left, it broke down for about 25 minutes. It was then fixed and everything was fine and dandy, right? Wrong, it broke down again about 10 minute's later when I was almost in the building, at this point they were trying to get people to go over to Colossus which they were saying had no que and they were keeping it open for an extra 5 minutes for us. Well that's great, if your Usain Bolt, I was at the point in the Saw que of no return, too far in to get out, not far enough in to want to carry on queing. But I did anyway, I was the next one on and all the cars in the station came to a sudden stop, the lights came on and, you guessed it another break down. At this time my friend had left the que about 2 hours ago and had been sick twice in the toilets, I asked a ride assistant if I could have a fastrack for another day as I have a friend vomitting and desperate to get home, I am usually all praise for Merlin Staff but this woman was ridiculous. She then started ranting at me explaining it's "brand new state of the art technology" ( I may be missing something, but what exactly is state-of-the-art about it, from what I can see it's a pretty standard traditional roller coaster with a lift and a couple of brake sections )and when I joined the que I knew it would be 2 hours. I then politely corrected her saying that the advertised waiting time was 95 mintutes and that I've currently being queing double that. I also then probably shouldn't have said , no other parks have these sort of issues with there rides, I was now just too tired to argue and I know it's got nothing to do with her but what frustrates me is why they couldn't give out fastrack's for another day and plus her rudeness, they've done it before. The ride was now back up and running and it was pitch black, had one of the best rides I've had. :PWalking back to the entrance was a treat though, deserted but with all the Lost City rides illuminated by the Fright Night lights.Also throughout the day, quite a few break downs occurred. Samurai and obviously Saw, had major problems, I think Samurai was closed for over an hour. Colossus was also down at one point.You may be saying that's not that bad but I'm just really at the end of it with Thorpe.Ride CountRushSawColossusStealthIrritating thingsOne thing I hate about the park is the atmosphere, Now 56 or whatever is blaring through the speakers, we're at a theme park not a concert. It ruins any atmosphere but I guess it's what the chavs want.Next is that, Throughout the day, I saw more cars on Saw go round with 6 or 7 people in than I did going round with 8. Rides at Thorpe are desperate for SRQ'sRush had at least 2 , sometimes 4 , empty seats every ride.The smokingThe breakdownsThat is all for now If you've lasted this long, give yourself a pat on the back, now onto Piccies This is where I qued from for ColossusThe mob following Katie Price, the guy in white is in front of her , stupid guy... , she is tiny and orange...Colossus in all it's glory I don't think in any other park you would see anything so cheap and tacky to hold up a fence. No effort has been made whatsoever. I know it's not Thorpe fault it got broken but they could at least make a bit of an attempt at making it look presentable...SawColossus again...Lol :)What you've all been waiting for...Saw's one :PThere all in the style of the rides signs.Good idea, doesn't actually work that well.My phone sucks in the dark so from now on there gonna be terrible pics.This was the 4th time it stopped on the MCBR, I think it was about 8:45 here.You can see the extra que they've added here, sorry for the bad picturesThe Saw sign with lights behind Samurai cooling down after a hard day.Looking back towards the park.I really think I need to start cutting down my TR

[rossafc]

Brilliant trip report!Was very nice to read, although its a shame you didnt enjoy you day that much

[James6]

Thanks It was disappointing as I have been looking forward to it for a while and didn't exactly start this week off well.Some of the things I heard other people saying in the ques:Thorpe Park is rubbi****'s too busy, they let too many people inAlton Towers is so much betterWe won't ever come here againQuite a few others but can't remember :)So it's actually getting through to the general visitor's, If I didn't visit sort of regularly I would've been put off for life.

[Paul]

A very good trip report James, it was a very good read and thank you for taking the time out to write it, along with the pictures. It's a shame to see such a low ride count, and that overall you didn't enjoy your day. I hope your friend is OK now, it's such a shame when you have to see some of the bad consequences of anti-social behavior in the queue lines. I mean how hard is it to follow a simple instruction?I'm visiting Thorpe next week, so I will post a trip report and let you know if my day is similar. And also, about the Now 56 blaring out, you'll be pleased to know that it's just for Sun Scream, and the audio themes will be back to normal in September. But I do agree, even though it's only for one month and there is an event on, the proper themes should be played as, let's face it, we are in a theme park. Anyway, again a very nice trip report. It really helps when you go into so much detail, and your reports are always a pleasure to read. It's a shame the same can't be said for your trip.

[James6]

Thanks very much , and it's a relief that the music is only for this month and all should be back to normal in september .And my friend was fine after being sick a couple of times,

[Matty22]

great report. am going tomorrow, hope I have a better day than you do.That lady in the saw queue should have given you fastrack, but then everyone else in the queue would demand it especially those chavs behind you.

[James6]

I agree, but even so , when it's over an hour past the time the park closes and the ride is frequently breaking down they should hand out fastrack's.

[Paul]

They probably didn't hand out fastracks for that very reason. The fact that if you hadn't been in the queue, you wouldn't be in the park was probably seen as a benefit to you from TP's point of view.

[James6]

Ah, yes good point , but then again , if they gave out fastrack's, it would make it a reason for most of them to come back, which Thorpe would, I thought , prefer.

[A-Kid]

Shame you had a bad day. They are becoming more a regular thing now it seems.The music in lost city is fine. It would add some sort of good atmosphere if it was actually loud enough to be audible!!

[Dan_Rush]

Thoughts from Sunscreen today. Loved the stunt show in the arina, in fact saw it twice. Didon't really like the music they chose while you were waiting for the show to start, they could have at least picked songs to get the crowd singging along and not deafening everyone. Best music for me was by the entrance, Beyonce and Pitbull, 2 choices I think were really good.Nice to see WWTP turned up in full force.What's the worst that could happen was okay, though I think more care could have been taken over letting the park guests participate. It was not until we sat down to watch the show, we realised we couldn't take part. Show itself was good, good challenges and nice choice of prizes.Good to see all the rides open. Saw a couple of breakdowns earlier on in the day, but they were soon sorted.Free Doctor Pepper is a brilliant idea, I've not had that for ages and it was a nice little promotion.Crouds were high, aded an atmosphere to the whole day.All in all, nice experience and I'm hoping they do it next year

[A-Kid]

Hmmmm, where do I start. - Operations were spot on. - No breakdowns other than Saw once. - Saw now got its SRQ back!We always start with Inferno, Det, Stealth so I dont really need to say any more.Yes the BO thing isn't actually in force you know!I'll just do highlights now so you all dont get bored...The highlights start with me gaining a SRQ Stealth front row. Then after rides and a wander, we saw Holly, and she would be on Slammer upto 2pm. So thats the direction we would go in after seeing Jonny on Quantum. Erm...Jonny Rocket After, we got to Slapps, and went onto the front row of it at our choice. The cycle started and I thought; Hold on? I recognize them on the other side. Yeah, a few friends from school, lol! What are the chances of that! They shat bricks while we were arms up.Met up with them for a few mins after, and they wanted to do Samurai, so while waiting for that we did 2 on Saw and caught them on their ride!After we split off as we wanted to do a visit to the soak zone. It was very hot. We caught them AGAIN under Inferno!Hmmm can't remember order, but I know it involves whoring Stealth (and getting another SRQ front row to spite my mother) and Saw. The SRQs were moving fast. We also got a shot of Ali doing his thing.AliWe had got around everything we wanted. Now just to do Colossus on front row, of which while waiting my mum got a text from Ewan saying if we were at the park or not. We planned to meet up for the last hour for Saw riding. Dropping off the top of Colly, we noticed Saws gates were shut!! oh ****! Dont worry it re-opened very quickly.The Last hour - The interesting partWhile waiting for Ewan to get to the park, we did Inferno twise. Only to realize my mum had run out of credit on her phone! ****, so now we couldnt tell him where we were. All we knew is he would be doing Rush & Stealth on the way in.We waited outside Rush, of which we found out he had alreadly been here from staff! So we RAN to Stealth. Looked around. Nope. (Had a quick ride) We RAN back to Rush to see if he was looking for us. We saw Chris and had a quick talk. Then Ewan phoned to find out where we were. He just got off Inferno! So we finally met at Stealth. Queue was about 25 mins, so we thought, **** that shoot up the FT and skip it. Ewan had a friend with him. First timmer on Stealth. She shat herself!! Seriously funny times. That was also my 17th ride on it that day We now went over to Saw. 20 mins to 8pm. We can do 2 rides in that time, If we cheat! Yep. Up SRQ up the Disabled queue. On the ride The staff over there were getting used to us now lol This was run 11.We wanted a night ride, but the main queue was only 25 mins long. Oh well. Not to worry. We moved to the back of the queue after 8pm passed. Of which Ewan went through some techy stuff about Saw that I couldn't understand! Got closer to the building. Of which Ewan got worried when there were people in the ride area!! Dont worry, just the engineer and his daughters. They joined us in the queue. We talked about whats happening about FN's. The engineer showed us a video of what THEY have in store for us. Seriously funny! I'm not telling tho The engineer then talks about stuff they are doing with Saw and around the park. I now got a better understanding of things and why they are not getting fixed right now. But he filled us with a lot of hope, once saw finishes pissing about. Theres also a few other things talked about that I can't say on a public forum, but I will be getting my Saw rides in now!So we got the very last car of the day. At sunset. Lovely. Was a brilliant photo too!ORPAfter that it was a bit of faffing around in the Saw area. I was suprised at the amount of staff that know us now. I could list a few that were new to speaking with today, like Jess, James (Stlth,Saw), Beach Ball (Can't remember name now), Michael, and that engineer. Aswell as the normal, Ali, Holly, Ewan, Chris, Jonny. Dont normally see them all in one day.Such a great day. I mean I also hit my target of 40 rides in a day!!!Stealth x17 (3 Front)Saw x12 Inferno x5 (1 Front)Rush x4Colossus x1 (Front)Slammer x1Quantum x1Det x1Rumba x1Fish x1Thats 44 rides Great day. If only all visits could be like this!!

[Paul]

I can't bring myself to believe the fact that you managed 44 rides in one day! Incredible.

[Matty22]

did you go yesterday a kid?

[Todge]

I didn't know the staff wear different shirts at sun scream. Wouldn't mind one myself

[Jake C]

what were qeues like A-KID?

[Paul]

In another topic he mentioned that the queues were on average 40/50 minutes, with the exception of SAW at 60.