Thorpe Park Trip Reports

[Mark9]

So I went to Thorpe Park yesterday. Despite queueing for an hour at the entrance to get in we were full of spirit and ready to take on the rides! Our first port of call was Colossus, the worlds 1st ten looping roller coaster and new for 2002! Previously, my most intense ride had been either Mystery Castle at Phantasialand or Corkscrew at Alton Towers so I was nervous to say the least!

So we entered the queue. My friends had all ridden it and all I can recall of it was all the shots of the ride from Blue Peter or that science programme. The queue seemed to go on forever, but once we got to the station, my nerves jumped massively. I was scared, especially of the sounds of the music and the atmosphere. So we boarded the train and started our ascent. Once we left the lift, my fears went ten fold as we fell into all the loops. The first five were okay but the last five were horrible, falling into my restraint. . After an hours queue, Colossus was amazing. Love the freedom of the restraints in particular and the way the ride runs around the area. Virtual Q was running, I kind of wish I'd picked one up but I'm sure I shall ride Colossus again in the future.

So after Colossus we wondered over to Vortex, another ride that looked terrifying. My main memory was seeing it being built in 2001, the ride there but not open. It had featured on Watchdog twice. Compared to Black Bucaneer this is a completely different kind of ride. It seemed to last forever and we got the top swing, very worth it after a 45 minute queue. We then decided to ride Zodiac. I'd never ridden an Enterprise wheel before and Zodiac impresses with its baby blue cars swinging in tune with its dark blue and yellow structure. I also like the name. It doesn't last long though and after a 30 minute queue you are left wanting a bit more from it.

Next was onto lunch at KFC and then onto Tidal Wave. I'd already been on this last year but it was the perfect ride for the boiling sun. We ended up queuing an hour which seemed about right. We could see Detonator through the trees, my friend wanted to ride but I didn't feel ready for something like that. Our final ride of the day was X:/ No Way out. Really random and I don't really like going backwards very much. We tried to grab a go on Loggers Leap, Calgary Stampede, Rumba Rapids and Banana Ride but the queues were way too long so we decided to grab some donuts (which ruined my map!) and head off home.

Despite only going on five rides we had an awesome time at Thorpe Park and I cannot wait to go again next year for a ride on the brand new ride, Nemesis Inferno.

September 2nd 2002

Colossus x1

Vortex x1

Zodiac x1

X:/ No Way Out x1

Tidal Wave x1

[Marc]

Alton Towers have, traditionally, had more flexibility. I am under the impression that in 2012, due to financial pressures, they simply don't have the flexibility they did previously. Regularly over the past 10 years, ride close has been extended by 30 or 60 minutes on some days. In fact, extensions at weekends were the norm! I always thought TP and CWOA were less easily 'extended'.

However, I am aware that Alton Towers today has extended by 1 hour, to 6pm. The park is actually quieter than yesterday, so I reckon there was some sort of mistake made yesterday.

Thorpe extend theirs quite often, but I guess in general like across the board hours are worse than last year so even if extending hours by 30 mins / hour its only the same as it was last year / slightly worse

Hopefully next year will be abit better with budgets, but not too sure if I can see it being the case!

Edit: Today (The first planned 5PM day has been extended till 6PM )

[jh_08]

Trip Report 10 september 2012

So, first time to Thorpe this season, and riding the swarm!

Although the park was actually quite busy for a 10-5 day, we rushed around at the start and did a lot of rides within the first 2 hours of opening, then relaxed once the Queues built. First time on storm surge - I actually really enjoyed it! Loved all the rides we went on - Rush still being one of my favs.

Swarm - 1st impressions - a great coaster, great theming and a great addition to the park - sadly only got to ride one side (LHS) I wanted to ride the right but did not get a chance to go on it again! Very re-ridable.

Grumbles:

- Park looked terrible, paint peeling, Colossus (dont get me started), everywhere just looked grubby - I understand it is coming to the end of the season and its been a wet busy summer and rain does make areas look drab, but it just looked so tired compared to my previous visits. Storm surge acting as a waterfall as you walk underneath it.

- Samurai and slammer closed (however cannot grumble about technical problems) - two big crowd munchers. No 4D cinema (I knew about this before hand) and no entertainment at all. I remember the days where there was a show in the arena virtually every day of the year's opening. Having none of the above created even bigger queues on some of the rides.

-Q times peaking between 60mins and 90 mins for all coasters all day (including X:/) - and MAINLY DUE TO THE BAD MANAGEMENT OF FASTRACK (and stealth running one train)! The queues were not even that long for the rides! but as there were so many people queuing for fastrack - when we went on Nemesis it was announced that one train would be for the main queue, the next for fastrack for, I quote (from the ride operator), 'health and safety reasons as the queue for fastrack is so big in the exit line, which is a fire exit' - why is the fastrack Queueline not utilsed (as they do with Nemesis at Alton? Colossus at 4pm, the main Q was just down the left hand side into the station from the entrance (Usually I would say a 15 min Q) the fast track was bulging out of the shop creating a Q time of 60 mins for the main Q.

>>Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasons and benefits behind fastrack, and it can work well if managed properly as I have seen in other parks. But I just see it as a money making scandle for the park to be honest. I was appalled by the fast track situation and technically it was a 10am-5pm day, so an open quotes 'Off-Peak' close quotes day and Queues for the coasters were peaking at 90mins at one point! (Though Off - Peak days generally now are a lot busier than they used to be, but this is understandable.)

- Stealth only running one train

- Q boards unreliable - said 35 mins for Nemesis, queued 65 mins due to fast track, and the queue was not even that big when we looked at it, hence qhy we joined it, I have queued that lengthed queue before and it usually is about half an hour. Vortex said 20 mins but actually waited 45mins, again it was not big queue when looked at BUT due to the ride operators who were APPAULING - to name and shame - Lucy and Joyti. I timed 10 mins between rides due to the ride operators having a general laugh and chat to each other between rides. TEN MINUTES. I was mortified by this, and am writing an official complaint about these two members of staff. I do not wish to pay £40 to stand in a short queue whilst the ride operators have a chit chat about their social lives making the queue twice the length.

All in all, I did enjoy my day and I do love Thorpe, the swarm was brilliant and we did get on most rides we wanted to, mainly due to organising our route around the park carefully in the first two hours to avoid crowds (where we did about 3/4 of the below), but I feel sorry for others who would have been caught up in the 90 min coaster Qs due to one train running or the bad fast track management:

x1 Swarm

x2 Saw

x1 Loggers

x2 Rush

x2 Vortex

x1 Quantum

x1 storm surge

x1 Detonator

x1 Nemesis

x1 Stealth

x1 rapids

[Mitchada04]

1 train for Fastrack and 1 for the normal queue is horrendous. I wish The Swarm would destroy the Fastrack counters and all the staff who sell them at the ride entrances.

[Fred]

Wow. They need to really sort out fastrack operations on days like this.

Towers is selling fastrack on these days, however they're selling no screams (Nemesis, Oblivion and Air packages), so you can only buy seperate rides. Air has 16 allocated per hour, for example.

It's a disgrace that thorpe doesn't communicate or act in anyones benefit over this.

[Benin]

Lol wut?

Selling Fastrack in large quantities on a midweek day in September after schools are back? Not even having the dedicated Fastrack queues open?

Thorpe really, really, really need to be kicked up the arse about this... Cos that is stupidity...

[Jammy3112]

EDIT -

Posted Here

[Coaster]

Went today.

RIDECOUNT:

The Swarm x5

Colossus x1

Saw: The ride x1

Stealth x2

X:/No way out x2

Loggers leap x1

Park was fairly busy throughout the day, though not absoloutley packed.

NOTES:

- The fire didn't launch once for The Swarm today. (When I was in the area or around it.)

- Saw: The ride's queue is awful at the moment, none of the sound effects are playing outside and some of the "traps" are getting

hidden behind overgrown plants.

- Stealth's queue was moving very quickly and efficiently today, well done

- Colossus's queue on the other hand was not moving quickly. For most of the day one of the trains was always being sent round empty. Why not just take it off the track if it can't have people in it?

- Samurai won't be re-opening until 2013 according to a sign outside the ride. (It has been completley taken apart at the moment.)

For Fright nights construction information, view my post on the Fright nights page.

[Benin]

Woo trip today...

Swarm started on one train, and also saw us wait for 10 minutes in the same spot whilst lots of Fastrack people were let through... Urgh... Putting both of those things together (especially as the only reason the queue is so long is due to the one train factor) did not particularly make me feel happy... As someone who has worked on many a batch gate, it's obvious that the management have told staff (and Chessie as well) that Fastrack people are not allowed to wait at all, meaning that you see so many Fastrackers sent through with no balance from the main queue... Why can't Fastrackers be held at batch like they used to be and mixed in at the same time?

Urgh, anyways, after that, it was off to Flying Fish and Depth Charge, neither of which had a queue, and Depth Charge now has pigeons taking up residence within the structure... Wahey...

Then we elected for some Lost City action, starting with Vortex (awful setting), Zodiac (long wait for a clean-up followed by a crap setting), Quantum (actually really good and smooth, when did that happen?) and ending with Rush (good as always)...

Lunch was called, and we headed to Amity Kebab as I had never eaten there before... Was quite good really, decent spice and kick to the Lamb Shish, if it doesn't seem like much... Filling really...

After lunch we wandered over to Samurai, poor thing, pulled apart and sitting all over the place... The arm is fully folded now so it might not even be on park by Fright Nights half term at this rate... Slammer is still stood there doing nothing...

Loggers was next, decently wet on it, before a quick spin dry on Rocky Express... Horray for walk-ons on EVERY non coaster ride!

Saw reopened after a brief closure so we joined the 30 minute (NOT the advertised 60) queue... It was rough again, very juddery although was nice to see the puppet scene for the first time since I originally rode it... Sets up the indoor bit a lot better really... Shame the outdoors is god awful...

Rumba next, and meh, no effects bar the Waterfall on... Bit pointless really... Then Inferno, which was it's usual solid self really... Det also running well as per usual...

Teacups were crap, couldn't spin the thing at all... Shame really... But, meh...

Did Depth Charge again (between that or Storm Surge? Lol), before a quick double header on each back row of Swarm... God the ride is so good (and the new SFX on the ambulance and phonebox are cool)... LEDs were on too woo, and I had fire on my second ride... YAY FIRE! It's really good when it goes off... Might be better not going off as regularly as it did last for the overall system... But still, wooooo...

Good day in the end, if only for the lack of queues on anything that wasn't a coaster... No Stealth though and dunno what it was doing... However there WERE staff CLEANING THE PLATFORM *dies of shock*

[Mattgwise]

Woo trip today...

Swarm started on one train, and also saw us wait for 10 minutes in the same spot whilst lots of Fastrack people were let through... Urgh... Putting both of those things together (especially as the only reason the queue is so long is due to the one train factor) did not particularly make me feel happy... As someone who has worked on many a batch gate, it's obvious that the management have told staff (and Chessie as well) that Fastrack people are not allowed to wait at all, meaning that you see so many Fastrackers sent through with no balance from the main queue... Why can't Fastrackers be held at batch like they used to be and mixed in at the same time?

Totally agree with you about the fastrack situation being a complete joke. However I complained to Thorpe Park the other week about various issues including Fastrack causing the Saw queue to completely come to a stand still for 15 minutes at a time (nearly 2 hours total queuing), whilst fastrackers were let through in their thousands and got this as part of the response, suggesting they "do" make it fair. Yeah right!

Regarding Fastrack, they have allocated time slots in which certain allocations are sold by the sales team. Therefore there is only a limited number of Fastrack for each ride. Our rides team dispatches the ride in proportion for Fastrack and non-Fastrack holders and so that the Fastrack queue does not extend the main queue line. I apologise you do not feel that this was effective and that the queue lines were extended as a result of Fastrack ticket holders. Please be assured that I have passed your comments on to ensure that the dispatching of both queues is being carried out fairly.

[BigBobJones]

If this is the case, then I can understand, but if another major coaster goes down and they give out a few hundred priority passes (Not that a major coaster would break down several times a day at Thorpe)... Then add those people (Who are entitled do as they have waited and a ride broke down on them) to an already over subscribed system and the normal queue doesn't move. I often miss the Swarm out for this main reason.

[Coaster]

Trip report from today. (Sunday 7th October)

Park was fairly quiet resulting in quite a good ride count.

We also had a look at the construction of the Fright night mazes.

RIDECOUNT:

The Swarm x8

X:/No way out x5

Nemesis Inferno x3

Saw: The ride x2

Stealth x2

Colossus x1

Vortex x1

HIGHLIGHTS:

- Finally getting on a Train on The Swarm where the fire effects go off! It is amazing seeing it both offride and onride.

The fire effects were going off every 5 or so trains all day

- A good ridecount including most rides in the Front seat at least once.

- Park not busy at all

- The Swarm being walk on for 5 out of our 8 rides today.

- Fright nights mazes are having their finishing touches put on them now.

LOWLIGHTS:

- Vortex broke down today and on our ride (after it re-opened) it was not going to full height - making it not worth going on tbh.

- They were replacing the well themed double doors (exit of Asylum) with new ones that were just plain wood. Hopefully these get themed at some point before next week.

- Colossus having a temporary delay due to "foilage in the way." It has just been closed for essential maintenance! Surley they would have checked then?

- No music in the X:/ No way out queueline.

Overall a great day and I can't wait for Fright nights!

[LiamAusten]

Went today and had possibly the best day I've had at Thorpe in terms of ride counts.

X:/ No Way Out - 5

Saw - 4

The Swarm - 3

Tidal Wave - 3

Colossus - 3

Rush - 2

Nemesis Inferno - 2

Stealth - 1

Vortex - 1

Zodiac - 1

Detonator - 1

Storm Surge - 1

Rumba Rapids - 1

[Benin]

So I visited last night solely for some night time Swarm, and it wasn't particularly a great journey to the park, with an accident occurring essentially outside my house, making me go towards the A3, constant traffic everywhere... 2 hours later I arrived at an extremely soggy Thorpe...

Walked to grab our tickets, told we didn't need to pick anything up and go straight in... Confusing times, glad we hadn't queued to be told that, so we went through the turnstiles and experienced the most terrifying thing of the night...

Some giant arse spider was dangling at face level casually at the side of a pillar... JESUS it was huge... And made of not want...

Btw, security level rating of the entrance was 2...

We went to pick up our Fastrack entitled to us after the awful August visit, with Guest Services having a security rating of 3, before heading off to Swarm...

It looks lush at night, and the fire really lights up the entire area, unfortunate it doesn't go off every train and seemed dead later on, probably because of the rain... It's fab, as was the lack of queue, as we walked all the way through straight onto the left side back row... Dark weather and rainy track, Swarm really speeds up quite an obvious amount... Upon returning to the station there were a few empty rows, and the staff were more than happy to let people stay on, good times...

Liked how the staff were getting into the mood as well with lots of people covered in face paint, shame the park doesn't have much in the way of actual theming, but hey, that's kinda expected of the event...

Fish was next, and as usual staffed by exceptionally bored and entertaining staff, always like how the staff on the smaller rides actually seem happier than those on the bigger rides, Thorpe is weird like that... 4 laps, was alright...

Stealth was dead at this point (eventually reopened on one train, to which I said "no thanks Intamin, not when there's walk on B&Ms), so we went on Inferno which had a 15 minute ish queue... The rain was slowly getting heavier which of course on Inferno often results in dripping... Not this time, a TORRENT of water constantly attacked the riders during the ride, from lift hill to the brakes, water came from every direction, resulting in very sodden legs for all involved...

The rain worsened, so it was time to stand outside Asylum and watch reactions... This was amusing, although the attraction gets 1 security rating... Must do better for half term...

After some time, Experiment Binary was investigated, realising we could sit down and watch people, it was a quick dash for some donuts (by Storm Surge, which had FLOODED the pathway beneath it, Thorpe's drainage is lacking) and return to sit down... Good news, Experiment 10 had a security rating of 3... Excellent work...

Next was Rush, bring back the creepy schoolchildren I say! No idea what prison based thing it was meant to be... Decent setting too... Wahey...

Walked past Saw Alive, security rating of 2, which is alright... Didn't do Saw, realised Samurai lived, but had broken down, too much rain to enjoy it anyways, same for Slammer, though that had broken down too...

Passing had a security rating of 1... Perhaps the paid per thing means less hassle on it? Oh wells...

Some more pointless meandering led us back to Bar 360 for a hot chocolate, some roaming actors were milling about in there and the Dome, putting on a show as well which I didn't see due to reserving a table... The drink tasted awful but was warm, priorities eh?

Wandered onto Det, the platformer loved life with the drumming aspect... His failure at batching led me to having to wait two extra cycles before boarding... BOOOOO! Oh wells, Det loves it...

Had some food at the Mexican Cantina, good value there, served by all 4 bored staff members, one of them didn't know about AP discount even though she was advertising it on her lanyard, that was amusing, as was them messing around with the music... Gotta keep entertained somehow...

Watched more Asylum, serious staff member berated some people for saying bad words, well done to her... Saw a Hotdog get chased out by crazy chainsaw nurse... That was odd...

Did Swarm once more before heading home... Would definitely stayed longer and done more rides if the rain had stopped at some point, but it was just constant and as such horrid... As was the journey home... Not a great day but it was still fun... Again, the weather was more of a factor than the park... Just glad the insanely large wave of schoolkids were leaving as we arrived...

Overall sense of security - No worries whatsoever

[StevenVig]

I'm gonna keep this short and sweet.

Meet was good, tour was excellent. I queued 1 hour and 20 minutes for Stealth, which had 1 Failed launch. I then queued 1 hour and 55 minutes for Inferno. It was broad daylight entering the queue, pitch black exiting the ride.

Got so fed up of waiting, it was tedious, too busy and my legs were hurting. Left the park at 8pm.

The only ride with no queue all day was Zodiac, which I managed to get one ride on.

Only done 1 maze, X10, Will be revisiting to finish mazes for this year.

Crap day, apart from meet.

Thats Thorpe!

[stealth888]

Hi all,

Yesterday was the best day at Thorpe I've had for a long while, if you don't count the beginning of the year and discovering the new Swarm area of the park...

I might begin by saying that whatever the majority of the guest's motives were, the busiest times of the day yesterday were not at night, but around 12pm before the queue times dropped to a record low for a visit to fright nights for me at around 5pm.

It was a chilled day - if you don't count the stressed hour-and-a-bit rushing around beforehand trying to find my annual pass - because we arrived to a pretty much dead entrance before deciding to ride the Swarm with a 10-minute queue with one train. After braving the left side (my personal favourite) we headed over to Stealth (running on 2 trains and pretty much walk-on) and got two rides in. I have to say Stealth still is number one in my top 5- followed only a fraction of a margin by The Swarm. If accelerating to 80mph in under 2 seconds doesn't wake you up after a late night, I don't know what does.

The rest of the 'Fright Day' included a lacklustre ride on Saw, traditional lunch on Rumba Rapids and a spontaneous 5-minute wait for Rush. I'll add at this point that I shouldn't deceive you with the short queue times we waited in- The Swarm shot up to 80 minutes at around 2pm and Colossus was on 70 for much of the afternoon.

But around 5pm, the mood changed in the park to the normal, British rainy day into the Fright Night atmosphere I know and love (and keep coming back to every year). At this point myself and my friend were just polishing off some Kebabs next to a (just) functioning Storm Surge whilst the sun was lowering. Colossus was advertised as a 40 minute queue, so we headed over to Lost City to get our first 'dark' ride of the evening. But about 15 minutes into the queue and no sign of the single train dispatching, an announcement came on warning that the ride 'might' cease operation due to the weather conditions - which at this point was a slight drizzle. Due to these unforeseen circumstances, pretty much the entire queue where my friend and I were standing decided to exit immediately - resulting in us losing our place just under the second bridge - so we went over to Stealth.

Now by this point the 'slight drizzle' had turned into 'intense drizzle' and so our front row ride on Stealth was extremely painful with water hitting my face feeling more like someone had shot a dart gun at point blanc. Nevertheless, we had 'wasted time' queuing for the front as my friend had put it, and the darkness was upon us. Thorpe Park really does feel like a different place at night and the roaming actors - I mean, the inmates - had 'escaped' and were making a brilliant effort in terrorising the chavs (which made my evening).

Apart from the theatrical entertainment on our ventures around Amity, the rest of our evening was made up of 20-minute-to-walk-on rollercoaster rides, which resulted in our goal of riding every rollercoaster in the dark, front row, without having to take out a mortgage for Fastrack. It truly was an epic evening and at quarter to nine after exiting the Saw warehouse we made good use of the walk-on Samurai queue. To say that I don't feel safe on that ride now is a gross understatement. Hanging upside down for the better part of 2 minutes and the noises it makes whilst on its cycles are not what I call 'entertainment'. A once good ride gone wrong, I won't be riding it next season (let alone in the next couple of weeks).

Otherwise an awesome day, and here's the RC:

Swarm x4 (1xFR)

Stealth x4 (2xFR)

Nemesis x2 (1xFR)

Saw x2 (1xFR)

Colossus x3 (1xFR)

Rumba Rapids x1

Rush x1

Samurai x1

[TPJames]

I went to thorpe park a few weeks ago and was expecting long queues- they were shorter than I expected! It was a Sunday and I didn't expect it to be like when I went in April and everything was 0 mins! I got quite annoyed when waiting to buy tickets because they only let us buy tickets at 10:30, we got into the park at 10:45 and went straight to saw! Saw said it had a queue time of 15 mins which we were impressed with and the wait turned about to be about 10 mins! I was disappointed because I sat on the back row and it was nowhere near as good as on the front row! We then went to nemesis, it said 15 mins but it was walk on so that was great! I love nemesis and it goes really fast at the front or the back and it makes you really dizzy afterwards! We then went to Colossus, the queue time was meant to be 20 mins but we had to wait 40 mins which annoyed us! This ride is getting rickety but I love it all the same! By this time it was something like 12:00 so we decided to head to vortex! Vortex was showing a 15 min queue but it was actually 30 mins! I like getting the highest point of the swings we then went to loggers leap which was a 10 min queue and got wet on that I love the air time on the bump! It was now about 1:00 so we ate lunch and then headed off for some more rides! If I remember rightly we did rumba rapids next which said 5 mins but was a 15 min wait and then went to rush! Rush was really fun as it was my first time on and we had to wait 30'mins for it though! We then went to X:/wtf I hate this ride as the Themeing is so poor and we had the lights on! We had to wait 30 mins for it! We then went to the fastrack kiosk and bought fastrack for swarm at 3:00 and stealth at 4:00! So it was almost 3:00 so we went to swarm and we used our fastrack! I had experience of the swarm being quite boring on the right in the middle but we sat left back and it was great- felt really fast! We then tackled the flying fish and a few other kiddy rides including the rocky express and quantum which was great and then it was time for stealth! We got to stealth and it was experiencing technical faults so he said we could use it up till when the queues closed at 5:00pm we went back to stealth at 4:30 after a ride on the teacups and it was in operation! We got on and had a great ride and as soon as we got off it broke again! We felt so lucky! We then went over to nemesis inferno and had a walk on ride and then went again as soon as we got on it broke down so we had to wait a good 15 mins for a ride operator to fix it! The lady said queues were open to 5:30 so we were hoping to get a ride on tidal wave! We had another good ride on the nemmy inferno and went to tidal wave, unfortunately all the rides queues had closed! We had a great day and queues weren't too bad!

Ride count:

Stealth- 1

Saw- 1

Swarm-1

Nemesis inferno-3

Colossus-1

Loggers leap- 1

Vortex- 1

Rush-1

Quantum-1

Rocky express-1

Flying fish-1

Teacups-1

Rumba rapids-1

X:/thingy-1

And maybe a few other which I forgot

Slammer and samurai were closed and Colossus, stealth, nemesis and vortex broke down during the day

[Mitchada04]

I went to Thorpe last night for my 15th and final time for 2012 and for a Friday in half term during Fright Nights it wasn't too busy. Most queues never topped 30 minutes in the afternoon/evening over than Saw which was 60 and Colossus which was only busy due to the other car taking a holiday in Switzerland. Didn't get in any of the mazes but they were around 45-60 minutes. Every ride was open without a single breakdown that I witnessed, however, the effects on rides were awful. No water on Saw's inline, no lights in Inferno's tunnel which was actually quite cool and as for Swarm. The conditions were perfect for the fire but it didn't go off the whole time I was there, no water spray and no mist. One car has the back row of LEDs out and on the other car the 6th row was out. Really don't like the flood lighting in the area and hope this is changed for next year, even if gels aren't added at least turn down the brightness as the area is almost the same in the dark as it is in darkness. It was great to ride Slammer and Samurai in the same day and both in the dark. X:\NWO's cars are falling apart and am not surprised (if the rumour is true) that we will have new cars next year but it will be wierd seeing cars enter and leave the station the right way. Won't be able to have any more confusing conversations eith my friend as to where the front and back is. Overall a great night and a great way to leave the park for the 2012 season.

Highlights:

• Banter on Storm Surge
• All the rides working well
• Short queues for Fright Nights
• Roaming actors following me

Lowlights:

• Leaving

Ride Count:

The Swarm: 2

Samurai: 2

Rush: 2

Saw: 1

Nemesis Inferno: 1

Stealth: 1

Slammer: 1

Quantum: 1

Vortex: 1

Loggers Leap: 1

X:\NWO: 1

Storm Surge: 1

Rocky Express: 1

Rumba Rapids: 1

Total Thorpe coaster count 2012

The Swarm: 50

Colossus: 23

Nemesis Inferno: 19

Saw: 17

Stealth: 15

Thanks for a great year Thorpe, may have been a bit off in the middle of the season but other than that it was great See you next season!

[Mer]

Friends & Family day, Saturday 9th March

On Saturday I was privileged to be invited to F&F day along with Peaj and Maxy

This was my first F&F day and I'm thrilled I got to go to one! Now I've been to one I want to go to more in the future

It was a fantastic day! Nice quiet park and lots of laughs!

First ride of the day: braving it backwards on Swarm! Meaning my last ride of last season was front left on Swarm and first ride this year was back left Swarm

There was a delay of about 20 minutes before being allowed onto the island, and when we were, there was the expected rush! I didn't want to run as I'm not like that anymore and would find it embarrassing but due to the flood of people coming up fast behind me, I ended up having no choice! Almost got lost in the crowd

The queue entrance has changed now with the left hand side being for backwards and the right hand side being forwards. I'm confused as to how this will work when the extensions are open though as the backwards part is the old fastrack queue. Or have I missed something and is backwards going to be a paid ticket thing?

Anyhoo, we grabbed our backwards tickets and me and Peaj made our way over to the left hand side while the others went on the right. It's interesting now being able to wave to people as they go up the lift hill

We didn't have to wait too long and as we got nearer I was starting to get nervous!

Soon it was our turn to brave it backwards! Peaj sneakily took the outside seat so I sat down in the inside seat, lowered the restraint and stared ahead at t the brake run. Very odd view! Imagine that when it's on two trains and seeing that Swarm face coming towards you!

Off we went! Felt very strange departing the station backwards, and even more so on the lift hill. I was feeling rather nervous at this point and that lift hill seemed to go on forever! We eventually reached the top and experienced the drop. It was just bizarre! I still prefer sitting on the right hand side for the drop and whilst dropping backwards is forceful, it also felt shorter. Possibly because you can't see the drop and the train ahead of you, I'm not too sure. But overall I definitely prefer facing forwards for the drop, the experience is more fun and the twist into the drop feels scarier.

The rest of the ride:

The zero-g, again, felt weird! Being pulled backwards through it is just crazy. I heard the fire go off but didn't see it and felt so disorientated that I couldn't work out which direction to look in to see it!

Infact I was disorientated for the rest if the ride after that I totally forgot about the inclined loop and it took me by surprise! Going around the helicopter turn I knew what was coming...

That corkscrew. Wow. Totally threw me (and my stomach - it really went over!) and had me laughing. Then the inline twist - WOW! It's intense enough going forwards but going through it backwards is insane! Just like the zero-g and the corkscrew it made my stomach go over

Even the final turn took me by surprise

Upon arriving at the brake run I was lost for words. My legs were trembling, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat and I felt a little queasy! I can't remember what I actually said but it was accompanied by some kind of exasperated laugh.

Absolutely brilliant experience. There are a lot of mixed views on it currently. I initially feared the intensity would be taken away, became nervous and excited as the time grew nearer and upon seeing and hearing the reactions from guests and staff, expected it to be good fun (and sickly)! It was certainly fun and more intense than I expected! Right hand side, back row was done later on and whilst still good does not compare to the left.

I personally love it and love the feeling of my stomach going over and it did a lot more going backwards than forwards. Both directions offer different things. As Peaj said himself when we were there, forwards is more about the experience and the near misses whereas backwards is more about the intensity. I certainly agree with this. Therefore I cannot possibly choose which I prefer as I love both the thrilling and experience/theming aspects of rides

Some photos:

Onto the rest of the day (I've waffled a lot so I'll try and keep it brief!):

After Swarm was Detty which looks lovely with its new restraints and felt more forceful. Not sure if this because it's my first ride of the season or if closed season work has had an effect. It still felt very forceful on our ride towards the end of the day too!

After this we did Rumba after seeing that Stealth was still not open. Still no water effects working but it seemed more rapid than usual and we had the usual laughs! The lake absolutely stinks worse than ever. Maxy described it as something like "Death and depression"

After a quick stop to get some Munchies (some of which Peaj dropped on the floor but proceeded to eat. Filthy man!) we decided we needed more wetness and headed to Loggers. Good fun as usual and the half tunnel thing cracked me up. The entrance is there, then there is nothing, then after the drop the tunnel of smelliness continues. I actually don't mind it and it's quite a refreshing change (literally, clean air!) and provided much amusement!

Next up was Saw which now has a front row queue. I still cannot get my head around this. Speaking of heads, the ride wasn't too bad but we refused a re ride! Never have I before seen an empty Saw queue!

Samurai and Colossus were next. Samurai was just awful. Tragic. Hideous. Atrocious. I can't find the word. We had setting 2 apparently but it may as well not exist. We only flipped once and that was at the very end. My mum could have gone on the ride and been bored! It then took ages to zero. I actually feel sorry for the ride (yes I know that sounds weird). It's so awkward and embarrassing. I do question how much longer it will survive...

Colossus however was great fun as always and won't be leaving anytime soon. (Referring to chat last week where people were suggesting it hurry up and be removed. Silly people ) I've always loved it and always will. Rarely have any discomfort issues and always laugh my way around the track. For some reason coming out of the cobra roll and entering the first corkscrew had me in hysterics I also experienced blue spots in my vision when going through the inlines which I've had before a number of times. I'm assuming it's something to do with the forces of the ride and all that jazz.

In the hope it had improved we took a ride on Storm Surge. It still sucks.

The revolving hug me, Peaj and Maxy had was more fun than SS (and Samurai!)

Rush wooo! It had a short cycle BUT I'm not complaining as I'm aware it's not official open season yet!

After a lovely warm sit down in Bar 360, accompanied by some delicious nachos and a glass of rose wine, we HAD to try out Depth Charge with the shiny new RED BOATS! They do appear to go faster, they certainly are easier to start off with, no more awkward shuffling

Went on Swarm for some front row times and had a lovely Peaj hug while waiting to board Which then became singing the Strictly Come Dancing theme and spinning around. As you do in the Swarm station!

That billboard. DAYUM! It is the best near miss on the ride and amazing in the front left seats!

Then it was time for Peaj - The Ride! I got a piggy back on the Peajinator all the way from Swarm island entrance right to my seat on Inferno, via Stealth plaza where we had a think about what to do (chose Inferno as it had a shorter queue)! Was very enjoyable I even got to brave it backwards through the Inferno queue!

Aaah, Inferno. Good old Inferno Looking fantastic with its lights and mist in the tunnel! And it's great to hear the return of the dispatch theme It was so quiet that we got ourselves a reride! It was afterwards that I noticed I had been dripped on with rusty water. I now feel kinda special and like I'm part of a club now I've been experienced this "The Rust Club", anyone?

We had a second ride on Detty before heading over to Swarm for our last ride of the day. Braving it backwards again, this time on back right. As said earlier it's still great fun but definitely better on the left.

Annnd there you have it. May have gone on a bit too much, I do apologise!

Ride count

Swarm - 3 (2x backwards 1x forwards)

Detonator - 2

Inferno - 2

Colossus - 1

Depth Charge - 1

Loggers - 1

Rumba - 1

Rush - 1

Samurai - 1

Saw - 1

Storm Surge - 1

[Coaster]

Next up was Saw which now has a front row queue. I still cannot get my head around this.

How does this work?

[Ryan]

Sunday 10th March 2013 – Annual Pass Preview Day!

Ride Count:

Swarm backwards X 2

Swarm forwards X 2

Nemesis Inferno X 1

Saw X 1

Slammer X 1

As it was mother’s day and we all needed to renew our annual passes, my family and I decided to venture off to Thorpe Park for the first visit of the season! We arrived at around 9:30 as I remember last year the park opened a bit earlier on some occasions, and we had to get our Swarm backwards tickets. Upon arriving at the park I was delighted to see barely any cars parked, perfect, it was going to be a quiet day. It seemed like Thorpe Park definitely learnt from the mistakes on the previous AP day by reducing the capacity and only letting in Annual Pass holders. I’d heard that chart music was being played at the entrance/dome from the Friends and Family day so I was interested to see what songs etc they’d be playing, whether they’d be up to date music or just classics. But to my disappointment we were just queuing in silence as no music was being played, not even when I was crossing the bridge into the dome just before 10am.

But on to Swarm and to get my backwards tickets! As there was 5 of us we got 5 backwards passes, although only 3 of us were using them as my parents chickened out I was worried there’d be a long queue in the dome for these tickets but we managed to walk through the queue and just pick up our tickets straight away, brilliant! We headed straight to Swarm were we were held by Depth Charge until 10am. Walking to the Swarm area the first thing I noticed was the new billboard, very quirky with the advertising on the front and back, loved it!

I was quite worried about the queue system for backwards Swarm and as I expected it was a mess. For some reason the earliest backwards ticket time slot was 11am, so before then it was a free-for-all to get back seats. It seemed like the staff weren’t too sure

what to do either as a lot of people were complaining and saying they wanted to go backwards. This is where the big problem of the day occurred, some idiotic fanboy started shouting at a poor member of staff (who was clearly a new starter) as he wanted to go on the backwards seats, (even though he had timed tickets for later on in the day!). The lady obviously got quite upset over this and already backwards Swarm was causing problems. So we finally got on the ride after waiting a while due to there being only one train, already on reduced capacity as there was no current running back row queue…. My first time riding Swarm with the billboard was a huge ‘meh’. I didn’t really feel the billboard was as effective as I first thought it’d be. It wasn’t until I rode it later on in the day in the front row when it really wow’ed me, but more on that later. One thing I liked is that the ending was better this time as after the break you’d speed round the corner towards the station!

The next ride we headed to was the glorious B&M that was Nemesis Inferno. I never really enjoyed this ride as much as other rides when I rode it in previous seasons, mainly due to effects not working etc. But this time, I absolutely loved it. Walking through the empty queueline my excitement levels were pounding and as I reached the top of the volcano and into the station I was in awe. The music and lighting in the station was top-notch and it created a really great atmosphere. The red lights on the queue along the wall were a lovely touch, along with the fantastic ride= music in time with the dispatches. The ride to me seemed a lot more thrilling than usual, I’m not sure if this was because it was only the 2^nd rollercoaster I’ve ridden since last October or if the cold weather had anything to do with it, but it was purely fantastic. I’ve been on some great B&M’s in the past few years (Nemesis and Montu to name just two) but this ride is right up there. Obviously I haven’t ridden some of the European beats such as Black Mamba and Ozlris but that’s for another day. Inferno is my favourite ride at the park at the moment, I just really hope they keep the effects up because that tunnel filled with smoke and with the red lights is absolutely fantastic.

Now it was for the main attraction, 11am had arrived and it was my time to #braveitbackwards. We

arrived in the queue for it (which is where the fastrack queue used to be) andwent to the left hand side of the ride (which is theright if you’rebackwards). Going up that lifthill and seeing everyone in the station and upnext to the control room was such a strange feeling. Then you get to the top ofthe ride and you’re slowly creeping backwards, the full weight of the train flings you down that drop and the sky falls away from you as you swoop under the plane which comes out of nowhere. I can’t really describe the rest of the ride when backwards as I felt so disorientated, but wow it was such a good feeling. The fact that Swarm is as smooth as anything makes it such a great experience. Obviously you can’t see the near misses as much but the spinning over the station area backward more than makes up for it. With Swarm now you have two completely different experiences, frontwards you have the near misses and backwards it is more disorientating and I’d say thrilling.

I’m not going to bore you all with exactly what I did for the rest of the day as I’ve got the main bits I wanted to say out of the way, but this is a summary of the rest of the day:

• Swarm front row is absolutely brilliant with the billboard, it really does look like you're going to hit it and with the fire effect, that is my favourite part of the ride when forwards.
• Pizza Hut was fantastic, the price is £9.99 for an adult (not sure what it was last year) but the food quality has definitely increased and the garlic breadsticks are so good!
• I met up with Ricky, Marc and Luke which was nice and I went on a few rides with them.
• Learnt that Saw is a big fail as when you lean on the airgates it can E-stop the ride, seriously, what a stupid design flaw!
• The whole park is looking absolutely beautiful with paint-jobs and touch-ups all around.
• Music in some areas was non-existent, there was a silent Saw queue which was rather strange (sure that will all be sorted soon though).
• I didn’t get to ride Loggers so can’t comment on the lack of tunnel, same with Colossus and it’s freshened station (I’ll be riding those on my visit on Thursday)
• The crashpad just looks meh so far but I’ve heard it isn’t finished with the exterior so we’ll see what happens there. I’m sticking with my opinion that they are a fantastic addition for the Ministry of Sound nights and were desperately needed for the event to reach it’s potential.

All in all I had an absolutely fantastic day at the park. It was a shame I couldn't stay the full day as I wasn't feeling too well and I was freezing cold.The staff were all very polite, it looked clean and even the reliability wasn’t bad for an annual pass preview day in what was my coldest day at Thorpe Park. I can’t wait to visit on Thursday and ride the ides that I missed out on, Detonator and Stealth I’m coming for you!

I leave you all with this smashing image of me and Marc on Swarm.

[AJ]

I have to say Ryan, on Swarm you look like your a gentleman about to sit down at a tea party...

[Smidget]

Did Marc do his crazy yelling as you went round?

[Ryan]

Did Marc do his crazy yelling as you went round?

I can't remember, he was doing his funny noise when Stealth was testing though.

[RideAddict]

Ryan, is that you on the right with chequered collar?