Thorpe Park Trip Reports

[Nicky]

In reference to me saying the weekend, I meant more in general terms of a busy period meaning weekends/school holidays.

[RideAddict]

I can imagine that the reason the back row queue of Swarm seemed really fantastic is probably because the park was so quiet. I'd hate to see it at a weekend. It was bad enough on AP day.

The next time I go will probably be a weekend, today was a one-off as I hardly go during the week and was my first weekday visit since 2009. But I dread to think how it will be on a weekend, today I braved it backwards once on each side, both times I queued for no more than 10 minutes.

Such a thing does not exist!

Mist, steam, water, whatever it is I can't see very clearly!

[Mark9]

That's the point of the mist filled tunnel.

[JoshC.]

So, made my first Thorpe trip of the season today. Strange really, normally my first visit would come on Opening Weekend (as it has done for the past 8/9 years at least...), but due to uni, that didn't happen. However, a school-day visit had to happen instead, and well, I can't remember the last time I visited the park when it was so dead during open season.

Longest queue I saw advertised during the day was Inferno, at 10 minutes, and even then, it probably wasn't more than 5. Slammer opened late, but other than no breakdowns or issues that I saw. All coasters were on one train operation, and even then, some were struggling to fill up trains it seemed.

So, after collecting my Annual Pass and getting through the entrance just as the park opened, it was time to head to where everyone was heading - Swarm. The plan was to hit up thr forwards rows a couple of times, let everyone go backwards first, then go backwards later on. It worked quite well, pretty much getting through straight away, and we were on in a few minutes. It was my first ride since September and, wow, I forgot how good it was. I'll post a bit more in the Swarm thread, but all in all, still an amazing ride and the addition of the billboard is great. We then realised how quiet the park was and that the backwards queue was dead, so decided to do that. Got right-hand side, at the very back. Again, I'll go into a bit more detail in the actual Swarm thread, but I wasn't completely sold on it, and found that it was only good because Swarm is good.

Billboard of greatness, with added slogan.

I got my new refill capsule and we headed to Rush and Vortex. Both rides were dead, with only 4 of us on Vortex and Rush only being half filled. Rush was definitely shorter than before and, as much as I love the ride, the short cycle was a tad underwhelming. Vortex left me feeling a bit queasy, as the first ride in a while always does to me.

Colossus pain time followed, leaving my ears feeling painful and my head dizzy. Geniunely was rougher than any of my rides on it last season, and once again was reminded why I dislike the ride. We walked onto Saw (and I do mean literally walked on); I like the manakin in the trap in the indoor queue. As a side note, I've heard some people talk about front row queues for Saw now - well, they're not there.. Saw was as fun as ever really; really enjoyed it and I still don't see how it's rough; oh well...

I've got a new camera, so fingers crossed my photos will be of better quality now! Hopefully I can get my timings sorted out though.. XD

Went to Loggers to 'brave it tunnel-less'. Dunno what to say really. It doesn't make the experience that much worse, in honesty, but the overall experience has been affected negatively in my opinion. The tunnel as it stands now feels pointless and lacks any worth. I do like the new scattering of the bears do; specifically the one that used to be in the barrel but is now on the grassy bit at the beginning! Inferno followed. Woo, it's amazing! Loved it, and it's shot back up in my rankings. Just as a side, though, was the station music ever used at Chessington recently. When I heard it, I just couldn't help but think Wild Asia?

Lunch at the Mexican Cantina followed. It was nice and still has large portions; so much so I still can't finish the nachos... Did Rumba and wandered round Sunkern Gardens for a bit to let food go down. Seems as though some trees have been cut down round Rumba making it feel more open, which is a bit of a shame. Looks like some more plants are to be planted in SG soon as well.

Greenery at Thorpe!?

Spying on Swarm...

New barriers on the side of Stealth's launch track, presumably as a solution to all of the stuff that happened last year?

Now then, back to Swarm:

Yep, no queue outside!

Quite literally, the only queue was for the backwards rows. It was so quiet they closed the backwards queue and stopped issuing passes. Got three more goes in quick succession, meaning I've been able to try the backwards and forwards rows on both sides this season, including front left (to value the billboard of awesome in all its glory), and FINALLY got my first go with the fire working!

Couple of neagtives though:

-The Crash Pad looks awful. But, at the same time, it sorta hidden unless you go looking for it.

-AP refill capsules not being refillable everywhere. I was only able tp get them filled up at the Inferno Shop today. Bar 360, the Mexican and the hotdog place in Canada Creek all refused. Why? It seems ridiculous. Also had different staff members saying different places (some said you could do it at the BBQ, others said you couldn't) or suggesting places which weren't open. It's great that this is avaliable, but I can't see the sense in not having avaliable in all the Merlin outlets?

-Whilst 'The Noise' seems pretty good, I don't like hearing it around the park. Heard it interupt ride audio a couple of times, especially around Saw / Canada Creek.

Not big negatives really, more just niggles. So, all in all, a great day. The park is looking great and this should signal the start of a good season for them. Look forward to my next visit soon and hopefully being able to try X!

[Pitbull]

Myself and 2 friends decided to visit TP yesterday. After a rather treturous drive down to the wrong side of the Watford Gap to pick Dan up, we headed to the T5 travelodge, where some alcoholic refreshments were consumed before bed. The next morning after a slight snow fall in the night, we headed to TP. The car park was almost deserted. I sorted my AP out and headed to the Swarm to meet Dan and Evie who had already gone into the park. From this point we stayed together for the day, despite the bitter cold and the rather rude snow flurrys that came every now and then, we had an enjoyable day (us and about 4 lears of clothes each)

X was closed of course due to the renovation, while Colossus, Saw and Rush failed to even test due to the conditions.

To the parks credit, they did really well at keeping the rest of the park open up until around 4pm at which point a decission was made to close most of the rides and offer a free return ticket for any day of the season up until Fright Nights, so in effect, the money we had paid went to the next visit, meaning all todays rides were free! That very quickly took the wind out of my sails, given it had not IMO got any colder that it was eariler in the day. However, with the Swarm breaking down, leaving only Stealth and Nemesis Inferno in terms of coasters to deal with the entire park (both on 1 train) they maybe thought that was asking too much, and it would avoid a length line of people at guest services if they offered the return tickets.

They did also give people the option to stay on park and enjoy what was still open, bizzarly this included all 5 water rides and a few flats.

We clocked up a respectable ride count anyway, and enjoyed plenty of food and hot drinks throughout the day and are now looking forward to a free return (for Dan and Evie at least!) at a warmer time!

Ride Count:
Swarm x2 (one of each direction)
Inferno x4
Stealth x5
Slammer
Loggers x3
Depth Charge x3
Storm Surge x2
Vortex
Detonator x2
Rapids
Quantum

A few points I made, Nemesis wasn't at its best in the cold, Stealth however seemed to be running really well. The Swarm backwards...weird!

I will give both Storm Surge and Depth Charge some credit here, the new boats of DC are great and really fly off the end, some people ended up itting the airbags against the fence! They do really make the ride more fun. Storm Surge was also good, with us 3 lumps and 3 kids in, we had 2 of the best rides I've ever had on it.

I didn't bother with any more than 4 pictures due to the faff involved taking out my camera and removing my gloves to work it, that was far too much effort in that kind of temperature.

Ash

[STEALTHDAN]

Who went:
Me
Ash
Evania

Time in park:
9:30am - 3:30pm

Rides Closed:
X
Colossus
Saw
Rush

Ride Count:
Swarm – 3 (Two forwards)
Inferno - 4
Stealth - 5
Slammer -1
Loggers - 3
Depth Charge - 3
Storm Surge - 2
Vortex - 1
Detonator - 2
Rapids - 1
Quantum - 1
Total: 26

Well this weekend’s trip to the uk’s premiere tourist attraction started around half 9 on Saturday night knowing Ash and Evania were east bound and down on treacherous roads they had a quick pit stop at mine then we headed towards Heathrow Terminal 5 for an overnight stay at the Travelodge of course not forgetting to stop at South Mimms service station for what should have been the first of many KFC’S! But unfortunately they were shut! After some ranting we ploughed on through the light snow storms towards Heathrow listening to the sounds of WWTP Radio ‘bringggg’ after checking in and this time being able to buy food! We settled in the lounge for some alcoholic refreshment and some light banter that contained two rant vids that are not suitable for the public domain! Lol we all called it a night and went to bed about 2am.

The next morning we were up bright and early and on the short drive to Thorpe from the Travelodge on arrival there were not many cars and no queue to collect Evania’s ticket from the collection point Ash however had to sort out his new merlin pass so me and Evania went ahead and got a cheeky extra go on a no queue Swarm! Whilst being dragged up the lift hill me and evie spotted a pitbull with a serious stomp on heading across Swarm Island! We met back up by the exit and spent the rest of the day together the park was a lot busier then I had thought it would be! But queues were never a problem! There has been a lot of aesthetic work done to the park over closed season! And it has never looked better new queue time boards are also in the process of being re-installed in the park and many building in the centre of the park have been repainted as has the ground floor of the dome where the lockers and toilets are.
Nemesis Inferno was brilliant a lot of time has been spent getting the effects to work again and it looks awesome its great to hear the dispatch theme back and the Bose cannons back in action! You can certainly tell there back even from outside! Lol the ride did seem a bit slower than previous but I put that down to the extreme weather. I give it a 9/10

Stealth had no more than a 5min queue all day and was running superbly the airtime and supports have had a repaint and the area music seemed back to its self and of a good volume the Launch smoke is also back which was good to see, there is a new announcement at the unloading point going on about a good race ect. I give it a 10/10
The Swarm impressed me more than last year and the area does seem to have settled and matured a lot more then when I last visited the new billboard looked fantastic from the ground and the ride especially if you sit on the left hand side of the train. Backwards is just a weird sensation but not knowing what’s coming does in places make the ride feel more forceful to me, the way I feel now is you have two decent experiences on one coaster, the queuing was not a problem but I am wondering how it will cope on a busy summers day suppose we will have to wait and see.

Loggers leap was good fun as always and seemed to be running a lot faster than previous years! The water flow around the circuit has definitely increased! Top flume ride of the best kind! No fancy effects no hype just and out and out classic flume ride why would you want anything more?
There are new boats on Depth Charge and OMG! The ride was good before but know its just insane! We were getting mass air time on the drops and the boats were going that fast I actually see a couple not stopping till they hit the inflatable air barriers around the perimeter of the run off area!
Storm Surge had major intent we actually thought the dingy was gonna tip at one point it was banking that high on the turns! Hence the 2 goes! Lol So after a good stint out on park we were all frozen solid so decided to head for Bar 360 and as standard practice the service was fast and courteous and the food of high standard and good portions I went for my usual BBQ Ribs with fries and a hot chocolate and it was delicious! Nom nom nom it is still my favourite of any Theme/amusement park eateries!

Vortex and Quantum were done while back at this end of the park and again Vortex seemed to be better than I had remembered. Detonator was more or less walk on so that was dealt a couple of times I would not queue over 30mins for it though.
So after another session around the park we found ourselves back at Bar 360 for a hot drink and a warm up as the cold was starting to get to us! We headed back out towards Stealth around 3:30pm to find it had closed the ride host informed us that management had been forced to call it quits on some rides so we could obtain free return passes for anytime up till fright nights so that’s what we decided to do we had a good day thus far was happy with the ride count so decided to call it quits and return free on a warmer day! We were also given free parking which was more than generous it was good to see people actually understanding and thanking the staff and park for return tickets a good sign that this country is not full of all the idiots you see on facebook after all!

On the way back to mine we stopped off at the services for a regulation KFC! But then on resuming the journey Ash found himself distracted by a semi exposed rack and forgot to leave the m25! Putting us 30mins in the wrong direction! Doh! Never mind we stopped of and another services and had round two of the KFC!! Lol So despite the bad weather we had a top notch weekend full of banter and laughs Thorpe never fails to disappoint even in these circumstances the staff were all more than friendly and really trying to make the best of a bad situation! 10/10 for me the staff! And the way Thorpe handled the ride closure situation. For me Thorpe are still leading the way in the UK at the moment and by looks its going take a lot to stop them from the other two big players I JUST CANT WAIT TO GET BACK WITH MY FREE TICKET!

For anyone who thinks ash has dropped of the face of the earth he has posted trip reports on these two sites...
http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/104-tho ... ntry154365
http://www.towersstreet.com/talk/your-t ... r-24-3-13/

[Mitchada04]

Third trip to Thorpe this year and the first time the weather has been relatively nice. Only got 4 hours on park after confusion in getting there for opening (why I couldn't have got the bus I don't know). Anyway, it was quite quiet for a school holoiday with nice weather. Longest I had to queue was 45 minutes for Stealth which did include a breakdown. I tried Swarm backwards on the right handside having done the lefto on AP day. I preffered the right to the left ourely because the water skim was working by the helicopter so it chased you around the turn Forwards seats are still better personally. Rush was only operating one swing (the one closest to the control cabin for those interested) with the other S&S working perfectly still Had a relatively smooth ride on Saw and Colossus followed by an adventure in to the mistical volcano of Inferno. Wasn't bothered about queueing a while for Stealth because it gave me time to listen to WWTP radio for the first time this year X was very good as was a go on Flying Fish. Samurai was taking forever to zero as per usual. All rides were at full capacity (except Rush and X) which was nice to see as I had yet to see the second train on Colossus and Swarm this season. They were very efficent on dispatching the rides today and the staff were very friendly. Only had Fastrack offered to me once and even then it was a very quiet 'would you like Fastrack?' Overall a good couple of hours in some nice weather

Ride count:

Swarm: 2 (1 both ways)

Inferno: 2

Stealth, X, Colossus, Saw, Rush, Slammer, Flying Fish, Samurai: 1

Everyone is taking picture of this worlds only sky swat that is also working.

Which will win, Stealth or the Sun?

Sun me thinks.

I suppose this is an improvement on the plain metal fences we had before. Just wish they'd make something more permanent.

Thanks for reading

[Coaster]

Trip report from Wednesday 3rd April 2013

TIME IN PARK: 10:00am - 3:00pm
A very poor day at Thorpe today.
- Colossus and Saw: The Ride down all day (don't know if they opened after 3pm or not.)
- Nemesis Inferno on one train operation until 11:15am with a 1 hour queue.
- X on two trains because the other's weren't ready yet.
- Rush, Slammer and Stealth were all down for part of the day.
- General operations were slacking a bit with stacking on The Swarm and no sense of urgency whatsoever.
- Heaters in Calypso BBQ were not working at all, quite appauling considering the weather!

RIDECOUNT:
The Swarm x2 (Once backwards, once forwards)
Stealth x1
Nemesis Inferno x1
X x1
Loggers Leap x1
Rumba Rapids x1

Very poor day, would not have been happy if I had paid full price or even half for price for park admission. (Merlin annual pass holder so won't be making any form of complaint, however one would have been warranted with the poor operations seen today.)
I do understand that the weather affects rides like Saw and Colossus, but the lack of urgency and one train operation on some rides was not acceptable.

[jammydodger]

Went to Thorpe Park yesterday.

Time in park: 10:30-5:30

Ride count:

Loggers leap x6 (why not!)

Swarm x3 (all forwards because the person I went with didn't fancy going backwards )

Stealth x2

Inferno x1

X x1

Samurai x1

Slammer x1

Detonator x1

Rumba Rapids x1

Quantum x1

Depth charge x1

Flying fish x1

I agree with Coaster Jamie about the lack of urgency. Even though the queue's were reasonably short, they feel a lot longer when your standing out there in the bitter cold.

- I felt that slammer was a lot better than when I have ridden it before, but that may be because I haven't ridden it in ages.

- No mist in Infernos tunnel, a little disappointing but I don't mind too much

- Loggers with no tunnel did really lower the enjoyment factor but it was still fun as always.

- The Swarm was good, great to see the fire going off (first time I have ridden it with the fire, and I must say, I loved it. The new billboard is great, I felt the near misses a lot more, don't know why!

- Got some air time on depth charge

-Samurai was surprisingly smooth today

- Colossus and SAW weren't open which was a bit of a shame but I guess you can't do anything about the weather!

- Stealth's queue time said 80 minutes and it turned out to be only 15

And finally X exceeded my low expectations, I loved it.

Overall, the rides were brilliant, the queues were good, but the efficiency of the ride teams on some of the rides were poor.

We got on lots of the rides at the end of the day because they were pretty much all only 0-10 minute wait.

Not the best day to go but still really enjoyed it. ( and get to go again for free!)

[JoshC.]

Went to Thorpe today. Wasn't expecting warm weather, though I wasn't expecting it to snow today either! A fair bit of snow, on and off during the day, some times it was blizzard conditions. Most rides were operating, expect Saw and Colossus. Inferno opened late and Stealth was only on one train all day; don't quite know why?

We arrived just about 10 to 10 and the park had opened, so we headed straight to X (avoiding Swarm due to what seemed like 3/4 of the park going there...). Review in the appropriate topic, but in short...I'm somewhat disappointed. Preferred it forwards.

Stealth was done, and we seemed to get on it before the queue started to build up. As said, it was on one train all day, which feels me with a bit of concern in honesty - it has 3 trains, and both Swarm and Inferno were on two trains, so it wasn't a park-wide thing. Surely it's not the case the other two trains are out of action?

Also did Loggers in the snow. Come to the conclusion that the taking away of the tunnel doesn't really affect the ride experience too much (it does a bit, but not a lot), though the sound effect before the first lift (the 'Your adventure is really about to begin' one) feels pointless. It's still a shame that the tunnel reached the state that it got to and needed demolishing partially - LOOK AFTER YOUR RIDES IN FUTURE THORPE!

Lunch was had at the Mexican, as per really. The fajitas were lush. Also, I believe if you get a meal deal at any Merlin outlets and want a hot drink instead of a soft drink, you usually have to pay extra or you just can't do it? Well, today you could get a hot drink at no extra charge - was nice to see.

Swarm followed. The queue times said 60mins to go forward, 30mins to go backwards, but it was more like the other way round. As it was my friend's first visit this season, we opted to go backwards, and waited about 45mins. There was a poor balance of back row queue guests in the station though; the right hand side was completely filled and probably another 10-15min wait, whereas the left hand side was literally empty, and the ride before ours' hand empty back row seats. That needs sorting. At this point, it had been snowing for a while and going on Swarm, backwards, in the snow was a mighty experience. Loved it.

We then noticed that, as usual for about 2pm this season it seems, The Swarm area was very quiet. The backwards queue was about 10-15mins, the forwards queue about 5-10mins. A couple more goes were had, in increasing snowy conditions, and I was told by a staff member if it got any colder, they'd have to close it down. Both goes ended up being front row on the left hand side. Usually Swarm front row brings tears to my eyes, and this was no different. It felt so fast, so forceful, so elegant. Every time I ride this thing it just feels better and better. My friend's opinion was that whilst going backwards was great, forwards is just about better.

Saw some preparations for Mash Up on Swarm's island; a stage in the same place as last season. No work was going on in the arena. I do hope the event, starting tomorrow, doesn't get snowed off!

Inferno times finished off the day, with a 30 minute queue and a brilliant as ever ride. For those wondering, no mist on today, but I expect that to be down to the weather as opposed to anything else.

Finally, here's a couple of piccys of the park in the snow (these were taken on my phone, so sorry if the quality isn't great):

Snowy Swarm.

Snowy Tidal Wave.

Many mad people rode Tidal Wave today. I love the 'hard guy' on the back row on this boat - he looked frozen solid..

I think this was my first time on park whilst it was snowing. It was really rather cold, but it was an experience we both enjoyed, and one which I hope I can experience again - though hopefully not too often..

[rygr]

I've never written a Thorpe Park trip report before, so lets see how this goes (I may raise points that have already been discussed, so I apologise in advance!).

We had left Chessington at 1pm due to most of the rides shutting down due to the weather. I didn't realise how close TP was to Chessington. We arrived (due to some traffic) at 1:45pm. We walked up to the entrance (no queues, yay!) with our annual passes and tried scanning them to enter. However, we were told by a member of staff that because our passes were created at Chessington, they won't work at the TP turnstyles. By the reaction of the person on the gate, this seemed like a regular occurrence.

We headed into the park (BITTERLY cold) and straight over to Samurai. The queue was about 25 minutes. I had been on this ride before (about 2 years ago) and I had said back then that it was probably my favourite ride in the park. This changed today. It started off well, but whatever setting it was on was really quite poor. No thrills really, just flying around in the air. Its such a shame, as I know there are other settings and maybe the weather was responsible. Either way, I was disappointed, especially when it took ages to 'park'. The experience wasn't made great by people rocking the arms. They were 'dealt' with by a great ride operator, who was really rather upbeat and entertaining not only the people on the ride but the people in the queue. I liked how she would tell them to get off the fence, but follow it up with a comment to make them laugh. Suffice to say, they didn't sit on it again so the tactic worked well!

After Samurai, we headed over to Loggers Leap. My friend has specifically said 'NO WATER RIDES'. I assured him, this one was okay because you didn't really get wet (how wrong I was!). I was quite upset to hear that the lovely country songs were no longer playing. I'm not sure if this is a long term thing, but I used to love queueing up listening to strands of Jolene by Dolly Parton (sad I know) but it fitted the area so well. None the less, we boarded our boat within 5 minutes and were off. I personally don't mind the tunnel/roof not being there. I just feel they could have been a bit neater with it. It literally looks as if its been ripped off (I know it actually was!). Hopefully they will neaten this up at some stage (or not). The actual ride was really nice, one of my favourites. I was impressed to see they had replaced all of the roll back devices on the lift hill too. Last time I rode this, there were literally 5/6 out of about 20 that were actually catching the boat when it went past them. We were offered the chance to stay on as there was no queue, but we got off, simply because we got much more wet than we expected.

We then spent the next TWENTY minutes trying to find the Swarm. I could see it was behind Stealth, but wasn't sure how to get there!! Eventually we made our way through the slow blizzard up the main gate. I would have liked to have ridden it backwards, but had never ridden the ride before and wasn't sure if you had to pay etc, so we stuck with going forwards. The theming is absolutely amazing. Even my friend, who doesn't usually mention or pick up on the theming of rides was mega impressed. The news report playing on the tv in the queueline was a great touch too. Interesting to watch (I was reminded by my friend more than once that it wasn't real! - it's quite hard not to get into it though!). We boarded the third row on the right hand side. I wasn't sure whether you were allowed to go over to the left side or not? We weren't really directed anywhere, so presumed we should just bear left. The ride itself was immense. I had never ridden it before, to the billboard was a fantastic point in the ride, a real near miss.

Next we went on to Stealth which had a 10 minute queue. By this time, it had a two train operation so the batching was quite quick. (Really pleased to still hear WWTP still playing in this area! - I'm pretty sure Thorpe Park is the reason 90% of my itunes is 60s music!). I loved the steam effect and the ride itself was its usually awesome self.

After Stealth, we headed over to the Nemesis Inferno. Another great ride, this ride is consistantly great, so not much to add. The only negative point of this ride is the 10 mile walk to the exit after exiting the station . Next we headed down to Zodiac, which I rode by myself. I've only ever been on the ride once, and I have to say, in my opinion, its nothing special. It's a fun ride and definately one I'd ride again, but it seems to be over really quickly and you don't seem to feel much when your on there. I find it to be quite relaxing! After Zodiac, Vortex followed naturally. I do love this ride, but the scariest bit for me is when the restraints are brought down!!!!! The speakers need to be replaced too, the operator was speaking to the ride, but the speakers kept cutting out and was just heard in the queueline instead. Another great ride and another of my favourites.

We walked straight past Rush (simply because it was only using one swing and I always find its too short to get any thrill from it anyway). We decided to go on the SWARM again. This time the ride was almost walk on, and again awesome. We finished with another ride on Stealth, which marked the end to a fantastic afternoon.

The park was really quiet (probably owing to the weather) so most rides were walk on and the only rides unavailable were Colossus and SAW. I can't believe the people that were braving Tidal wave! The crash pad looks ummm okay! I'd be quite interested in staying the night to see what it is like. We exited the park and paid £4 to exit the car park. Why is Chessington £2 and TP £4?! A great day had by us and we'll definately be back in a few weeks with our AP again!

Ride Count:

SWARM x 2

Stealth x 2

Samurai x 1

Loggers Leap x 1

Vortex x 1

Zodiac x 1

Nemesis Inferno x 1

[Inferno]

Awesome trip report

It's interesting to hear this about the Swarm from someone who doesn't visit often...

- you were unsure on how to go about riding the backwards seats (charge or no charge?)

- unsure of which side of the train you could ride on

- unsure on how to actually get to the ride in the first place.

It's little things like this that I think many of us overlook I think, and I agree that things really aren't that clear at all. I hope things get ironed out before the busy summer, otherwise the confusion is going to cause chaos.

[J.S217]

on the location of the Swarm Island in the original plans there was meant to be a bridge near stealth in the sunken gardens area but that was scrapped

[JoshC.]

The bridge near Stealth will probably come when the coaster on the next island opens up.

I have heard the odd case from non-enthusiasts about not being sure how to get to Swarm; though it was literally the odd one case, but seems to be a bit more common. Maybe as the park continues to expand size-wise, a couple of signposts here and there to major rides might be a good idea?

[alexander]

Okay I went today and it was reasonably busy, queues reached to about an hour, although the queue boards weren't updated for the first half of the day so it said 00 minutes for everything which was a nuisance The park opened 30 minutes early which is always a nice thing to see, but anyway, here we go.

The first part of the day we headed straight for Swarm and fortunately the queue wasn't too long, however, there was a lot of confusion about going backwards and it seemed not even the staff knew what was going on. People queued up and were then being turned around saying they needed to BUY their passes from a fast-track booth, but when we returned later we were told differently, just to queue and collect our passes at the front. The first time, we queued for the front facing seats for about 5 minutes right side. The near-miss is such a brilliant add on, the fire wasn't working in the morning (however was later in the day). The on-ride photos were also not working on the right side of the train, but all the other effects were working and my has it aged well in a year. It feels a lot more intense and I think it's actually claimed pole position in my favourite rides at Thorpe so well done Swarm

Rush was only running on one swing and the runs it was doing was very poor. They weren't very long and they won't reaching very higher either, the queue wasn't particular long but we decided to leave this out.

Vortex I was very surprised because the operation was so good! We were on for a really long time and got a lot of high swings in.

Colossus looked awful and it was running on a one train operation for most of the morning and early afternoon, the roar sounded really nice. The loading was awfully slow from what I could see from the bridge so I returned later, it was onto 2 trains, however it had to close temporarily as someone was sick, the guy on the PA was pretty cheery and so I wasn't too worried. A lot of the problems were also with passengers which affected loading times. Harnesses kept being lowered and then had to be released as a numerous amount of people hadn't put their bags away There was a really lovely member of staff working where the fast track and general queue integrated named Sarir who was making conversation and really distracted us from the weather and queuing. I think they definitely over sold fast track today considering the fast track queue was about as long as the stretch of path from the station to where Sarir was standing Also there was not theme music in the station?!

Samurai running awfully, didn't even bother.

SAW was okay but so jolty, I skipped the second ride my friends opted for, however, the effects for the most part were all working and I never noticed the mannequins in the traps before

X's queue never faltered all day, it was always full so I didn't get a chance to ride.

Storm Surge sounded squeakily awful and looked even worse.

Loggers was amazing, the tunnel doesn't look as bad as I had expected but it still seems like there is work to be done from what I could tell. The double drop was as good as ever despite the cold winds

The Inferno queue was full of traveller preteens moaning about the queue (it was about 35 minutes) and saying they should just get fast track instead. It's grown on me a lot and surpassed Colossus sitting nicely at #2 with Swarm at #1. EDIT: FORGOT TO SAY, the tunnel was FULL of mist and the theme music was very very loud and atmospheric

Rumba Rapids was just a lot of fun and I got wet for a change but it seriously needs some more TLC on the queue and on the effects of the ride.

Flying Fish we enjoyed WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much.

Queued front row for Stealth and we were subject to queue jumpers, a really great staff member named Michael was assertive to say the least and was really pleasant to us while we were waiting.

And finally, £4 for the car park is CRIMINAL

Ride Count:

Swarm (2) - No backwards though, too long

Vortex

SAW

Loggers Leap

Nemesis Inferno

Rumba Rapids

Colossus

Stealth

Overall a good day

[tomathy]

This is gonna be a bit of a long write up, brownie points to anyone that manages to get through the entire thing

Okay, so I went to Thorpe Park on Tuesday and Wednesday (9th & 10th) with my family as an Easter treat with an overnight stay at the Crash-Pad. A couple of days before we left my mum rang the park to check details about the Crash-Pad as the information emailed to us seemed to be fairly vague, turns out what we were told on the phone was 1. completely different and 2. wrong. If I wasn't a member of TPM we would have expected to park right next to the Crash-Pad, to need to collect day tickets from their reception and that the Crash-Pad would be connected via a separate set of turnstiles so that we wouldn't need to use the main bridge. So in other words, staff need to be more informed.

Anyway, Day 1

We turned up at about 9 and parked in the Crash-Pad car park which is over where the disabled parking is near the front gates. Seems obvious to people on here but my mum got confused when we went through the main turnstiles as she was told that we needed to use other ones, she was also confused when she found we didn't need to collect any more tickets like she had been told. Obviously though this is far more convenient than what we were told and made the day easier.

To avoid the queues that were already building to get to the Swarm side of the park we opted to walk on our own over to Saw - The Ride and get one of the first rides of the day followed by a walk on Colossus, X, Stealth and Nemesis Inferno. The longest queue all day was for backwards seats on The Swarm which was 25 minutes, with the front facing seats having a queue of about 10 minutes.

Ridecount for Day 1:

Colossus - 2

Inferno - 2

Saw TR - 2

Stealth - 3

Swarm - 2

X - 1

Loggers - 1

Rumba - 1

Storm Surge - 1

Tidal Wave - 1

Detonator - 1

Samurai - 1

Slammer - 1

Rush - 1

Total - 20

We left the park just before 6 and headed towards the gates to get our stuff from the car so go and check in at the Crash-Pad, we got our hands stamped to get back into the park as we had'nt been told by staff that we needed to collect wristbands from the Crash-Pad reception but staff were helpful and just let us get on with it. Once again all we needed was a little bit more information but things still moved on smoothly.

Now the Crash-Pad. I don't think I have ever had such a laugh with my family before, we knew it was going to be small but my goodness it was tiny. It does exactly what it says on the tin though, its a crash pad, somewhere to sleep and wash and nothing more. The beds were surprisingly comfortable and would have led to a great nights sleep if it wasn't for the temperature of the room. We had the climate control set to the highest fan speed on the lowest temperature possible but the room remained baking hot all night, in the end we opened the door for a few minutes to let some cold air in and from then on it wasn't too bad. The bathroom made us laugh constantly as the toilets are fitted with the worlds loudest flush and the shower makes some impressively loud sucking noises every few seconds. The toilet scared the crap out of me at first (no pun intended) but became one of the funniest parts of the evening.

Our evening meal at Bar 360 was lovely as well, decent prices and fairly large portions of both starters and mains. None of us could manage a dessert afterwards and so left back into the dome to go back to our room. The evening entertainment made us laugh as well due to how simplistic it was, table tennis within an inflatable dome with a few led lights didn't really appeal to us. I guess we were expecting something a little bit more but nonetheless it had no effect on how much we enjoyed our stay and with only a few amount of guests in the dome I can see why it wouldn't be worth investing on more evening entertainment.

Day 2

Our day stated with breakfast at Bar 360 which we were told we needed to book with them in our booking email but it turns out you only have to book for dinner and that for breakfast you can just turn up. There was a nice selection in their continental breakfast with warm croissants, toast and jam, a load of cereals and fruit and yogurt to choose from. The only downside to breakfast was one of Thorpe Parks major downsides, the up-selling of fast track passes. As we entered Bar 360 we were given a fast track price list by a member of staff and also found a price list in the middle of our table. There was also a leaflet telling us that we could get ERT on The Swarm if we headed down to Depth Charge at 9:15 (15 minutes later than what our booking information specified) which we thought we would take advantage of.

Unfortunately ERT was rather short lived as we didn't get allowed onto the Swarm island until 9:25 and The Swarm hadn't completed any test runs yet and so by the time we got on the first train of the day the main gates had opened and all the other guests were starting to join the queue. However due to a bit of running from me and my sister we got 3 rides in the morning, backwards on both right and left sides and a frontwards journey on the left due to people not crossing the bridge. So the queue for one side of the train was at least double that of the other side with the left hand side of the station being walk on for the backwards rows.

We also managed a front row trip on Stealth and go on Saw - The Ride before queues started to build up for the day. X was queued outside of the building all day but we decided to join it as the rest of my family needed a break from the rides and so we queued more for relaxation than for the ride. The re-theme is substantially better than what it used to be with a clear theme present throughout but the lights and sound don't quite do it for me and just reminds me of a poor mans Rock 'n' Rollercoaster. If they can get a few more speakers spaced out in the pyramid though to increase the volume and a few more lights away from the main light rig with more lasers instead of them just being in the corners of the room as they didn't appear to have much impact. Some tunnels around the break runs would also do the ride wonders. Having said that both my sisters enjoyed themselves on it but me and my mum felt a little bit cheated after waiting 30 minutes for it.

Ridecount for Day 2:

Inferno - 1

Stealth - 3

Saw - The Ride - 1

X - 1

Swarm - 5 (3 backwards, 2 forwards)
Loggers Leap - 1

Rumba - 1

Detonator - 1

Total - 14

Even though this report contains a fair few criticisms and downsides of our trip we had a great time and will be sure to visit again. The positives have far outweighed the negatives, its just easier to write about the things that went wrong than the things that went right.

Once again, brownie points if you managed to get through all of this, I owe you cookies

[Pitbull]

Who went: My good self, Dan, Dan's sis and Evie

Park Open: 9.30am
Park Close: 6pm

Ride Count:
Swarm x2 (once in each direction)
Saw x2
Stealth x12
Colossus x3
Nemesis Inferno x3
Tidal Wave
Detonator
Vortex
X
Storm Surge
Loggers Leap x2
Rumba Rapids

The park was not overly busy, queues were generally around 20minutes at the longests, however some did sneak up to 40mins at times, however in most cases a ride with such a queue would have a quite one near by so with carefull planning these waiting times could be avoided.

A few key points:

The staff were spot on today, couldn't have done enough for us at any point. Opperations were also faultless, quickly reacting to the lines and adding a second trains to Inferno, Colossus and extra boats on Loggers.

X is interesting, I understand its not the finished product yet, and will be closing for a while so have further improvments made, not to mention the introduction of more trains.

The food at bar 360 was good, Evie and I enjoyed a sharing combo which was plenty, but to be gready we had chips each too lol. It was also good to have the southern sun back with us, meaning us meal could be enjoyed sat out with a beer

I really enjoy TP, and after a disapointing start to the season 90% of that was down to the weather, it appears things are back on track.

Ash

[alexander]

Ride Count:

Swarm x2 (once in each direction)

Saw x2

Stealth x12

Colossus x3

Nemesis Inferno x3

Tidal Wave

Detonator

Vortex

X

Storm Surge

Loggers Leap x2

Rumba Rapids

12 rides on Stealth, jesus!

[Pitbull]

Yup! Thats what you call Stealth abuse my friend, it is usually included on my visits to TP!

Ash

[ste193]

Went yesterday and found it rather a shambles to be honest!

• X was closed for further refurbishment- (Yes I know it's a good thing but when added to the list of growing attractions it was annoying)
• Nemesis Inferno broke in the morning and there was talk of a possible fire as they closed the ride due to smelling smoke apparently
• Colossus broke down for several hours with people stuck on the lift hill for a long time
• Slammer broke down
• Samurai broke down
• Stealth down time
• Purchased fast track for Colossus then it broke down, went to guest services and the guy was very kind and gave us two fast track passes for our whole group for 2 rides, we got to use it several times as the staff didn't tear it which was great as with the mounting closed rides the queues were crazy!
• I brought a refill beaker and half the sodding station were closed, told I could use it in any resturante and half the places told me no!
• Were having a laugh on tea cups and taking pictures as it's a slow ride staff member told us of for using camera which seemed petty and complained about people for going under the chains and not wandering through the whole queue again petty
• No pictures right side of swarm
• No picture on rumba as loaded to quickly
• Gangs of staff around Nemesis Inferno when closed chatting and playing golf with bottles and litter ¬.¬
• Very funny and enthusiastic ride announcer for Lost City Flats
• Colossus needs a repaint
• Rumba desperately needs some theming and something done
• Storm surge is still a leaking eye sore...
• THE SWARM backwards was actually really amazing and intense, it made it much scarier as you didn't know what was coming and actually worked really well with the theming elements

RIDE COUNT:

Saw the ride x2

The Swarm x1 Brave it backwards x1

Slammer x1

Stealth x1

Rumba Rapids x2

Rush x2

Tea cups x1

Loggers leap x1

Colossus x1

Quantum x2

[TPJames]

Right, I have decided to do a thorpe park trip report from my trip yesterday

Alright, so after a late start we arrived at thorpe park about 10:40 to be greeted by a fairly long queue for tickets outside. The queue took about 20 minutes and we were in the park for 11:00. We decided to head towards the lost city and we found that rush had a 0 minute queue. We deicded to enter and were on the next ride. I have to say rush was amazing, it was performing on 2 swings and was reaching full height. We got about 4 full swings aswell! Even though its not long it's long for rush!

We were in the lost city and decided to head onto quantum. We were the only people on it and got a decent cycle. It's not a long ride but its very fun and forceful! Quantum has to be my favourite kiddie ride in the park! My friend didn't want to do vortex but as it was 0 mins I decided to ride. I had a rubbish seat and got 'back up' on every swing which made the ride boring. Vortex needs to spin much faster or it needs to be replaced- it's just not good enough!

We headed towards Colossus to ride it but it was stated as 30 mins so we decided to avoid it. Samurai was just sitting there with no queue so we decided to take a spin. Samurai was performing amazingly well for samurai and gave us many rockings and rotations. It was the best cycle I have had on samurai and I have to say it was great! It did have a couple of issues with parking though as it took us all the way back up to the top after trying to park for a while. Many people were screaming for it to go down but I guess that's just samurai :L

Saw was stated as 10 mins so we decided to go on, we went straight into the station and was about to board when they annoucned they were adding an extra car. We had to wait for a while extra but soon we were on saw! The ride itself was good and I always have loved saw the vertical climb had to be more scary than I remember though as I felt like I was about to fall out when going up!

We headed into ranger country and decided to do loggers leap which was walk on. We had a great ride and we braved the new near miss on it! The non-tunnelled drop was good but we felt like we were about to hit the top of it when we re-entered it! We had gone all the way round and then suddenly there was a big build up. It had broken down. We had to wait a while but there were too plus sides; one, we found a £2 coin in the back of the boat and two, we got free fastrack which we decided to use on Colossus.

We headed towards the exit of Colossus, because the fastrack lane was closed, and boarded the next ride. The ride was great but is not my favourite. It is a bit too rough and bumpy for me as I am always banging my head. Those inline twists are great though! It is a great ride but I think it is just a bit outdated and It seriously needs a repaint.

We decided to head over to swarm to find it broken so we headed onto depth charge. Depth charge was taking ages to load so we decided to end up leaving and heading back to swarm as it was running again. Brave it backwards was stated as 10 mins but was more like 25 mins. I have to say backwards was interesting but really ruined the points of those near misses. Backwards was much scarier than forwards but I have to say forwards is much better. After we got off, we decided to go round again and ride. The queue was now 15 mins. We went onto the left side and did the front row. I had always thought swarm as bad but this time it proved to me what a good ride it is. The near misses were SO effective and we got the fire! The fire was so amazing getting a blast on your head! I love this ride and it has to be one of the best in the park, but is not my favourite.

We decided to head to Pizza Hut for lunch and had a lovely buffet meal we then did rumba rapids which was good and we even got a bit wet! It's a nice ride and is a good way to calm down. We then did nemmy inferno which had a 25 minute queue. It was amazing and I love the mist which gets too you! I have to say I hate the new station/dispatch music though! It just sounds like some Egyptian rubbish. The actual ride was great and we got this water vapour spray on us in the tunnel! The actual ride was faster than I remember and it was really good. It is such a good ride

We saw slammer was up and running so we decided to have a go. The ride is so intimidating but I was looking forward to it! The queue was 0 mins which was great and the ride itself was so scary but an amazing experience. I have to say this ride is worth a try, especially as it is a worlds first. The ride is incredibly scary when you are on your way upside down but afterwards you just feel a amazing. Definately worth a try

We then decided to ride detonator, the ride was walk on but it was terribly scary. When being hung at the top, you cannot hear the countdown and you are so nervous about when it's going to drop. The actual drop leaves you feeling weightless and you fly out of your seat. It is a nerve racking but a great ride!

We then headed back to swarm which we did forwards on the right hand side. The front row on the left was better but we once again got the fire! It is an amazing ride and the near misses are greatly effective! I love this ride and it deserves a big thumbs up. We then did flying fish which was walk on and it was a great laugh! We then wanted to do nemmy inferno again but it was broken so we decided to do samurai instead. The cycle was better than the time before and it was so fun! I love it where you hang you at the top for ages!

We then headed out as it was 5:00pm and we had a great day, here is a summary of some key points:

- stealth was broken down for the whole afternoon

- slammer was broken down for most of the morning

- saw broke down in the morning and got stuck vertical at the end of the day

- the swarm broke down temporarily during the day

- detonator got stuck at the top for a while due to technical difficulties

- loggers leap broke down

- X was closed throughout the day

- The new queue time boards are nice but not all of them were working and they were displaying in-accurate queue times.

- The new lights on nemesis inferno are good but the music is not

Ride count:

Swarm: forwards x2 backwards x1

Nemesis inferno: x1

Colossus: x1

Saw: x1

Vortex: x1

Quantum: x1

Rush: x1

Slammer: x1

Detonator: x1

Samurai: x2

Loggers leap: x1

Flying fish: x1

Rumba rapids: x1

We were in the park an hour shorter than opening hours and managed 16 rides! Thanks for reading

[ThemeParkAddict4]

Me and my girlfriend went to Thorpe Park yesterday 19/04/13 and it was a brilliant day!

We booked in January through Thorpe Breaks and got an amazing deal - 1 night in Hilton Bracknell Hotel + Full Buffet Breakfast and 1 day theme park tickets for 2 people for only £78!

Here is our ride count:

Saw:The Ride - 2

Nemesis Inferno - 2

Stealth - 2

The Swarm - 2 (1 Backwards + 1 Forwards)

X - 2

Rush - 2

Quantum - 1

Zodiac - 1

Slammer - 1

Tidal Wave - 1

Loggers Leap - 1

Rumba Rapids - 1

Flying Fish - 1

Detonator - 1

Probably could of got on more but we was being abit lazy towards the end of the day and unfortunately I couldn't quite fit in the Colossus test seat so had to give that one a miss

The only real downtime we had all day was Saw having technical difficulties in the afternoon but it was soon up and running again and we got our 2nd ride of the day. (would recommend to anyone who hasn't been on saw that you go on the back row of the car, the front seats are very rough! but the back seats are fine)

Everything else was running perfectly, with some rides having non existent queues all day (Rush, X, Saw, Quantum, Zodiac, Slammer, Tidal Wave, Loggers Leap, Rumba Rapids, Flying Fish and Detonator!)

The longest we had to queue was for The Swarm going forwards in the morning which was about 20-30 mins, In the afternoon we saw that the brave it backwards queue was non existent outside the station, we only had to queue for 5 mins inside the station!

The 2nd longest queues were probably our 2nd ride on Nemesis Inferno which was probably 15-20 mins and our 2nd ride on Stealth which was about 10-15 mins

But for a sunny and warm Friday I didn't think them longer queues were too bad!
Every member of staff was helpful and friendly, the park was clean and we had an amazing day!

[Spider]

Okay, decided to do a trip report as I went to Thorpe for the first time in AGES yesterday. I should probably explain - I used to go loads but kind of fell out of love with the place, for many reasons, and haven't been back since until yesterday. Was interesting to go back.

Firstly, despite a lot of criticism, the park looks to me a lot nicer than it used to. I'm not sure whether it's because it's the start of the season, and it was quiet yesterday, but I was very impressed with the tidiness and the effort that has obviously gone into the flowerbeds and foliage. Colossus area looks amazing compared to last time I was there now that the foliage has grown a bit., and the whole Lost City area in particular looks really good.

Anyway, onto the report proper:

The day started very badly. £4 for car parking is such a rip off. Even worse is the security. I can't remember having ever been confronted with such a ridiculously over-zealous entrance procedure anywhere. I can understand why Thorpe need to do this (to stop drugs getting in), but this is NOT the way to greet people to the park. If they need to be this detailed surely an X-ray machine would be more appropriate? If not, since this is supposed to be a fun place to be (rather than, say, entering a prison), maybe they could encourage the team to have even the tiniest sense of humour and the smallest piece of common sense. Emptying my pockets onto a table, only to be told that it had to go in a box, only for him to take everything out of the box was weird. Then he went through every pocket of my wallet. Then, having already wasted enough time I showed him my cigarette box contained just that, when he told me to put it down so he could open it himself. By this point me and my girlfriend were actually laughing (else we'd have been seriously pissed off), which probably made us look like *****s, but seriously, this is not the way to greet people. The security at Disney were SO friendly and nowhere near as thorough. If they need to be this over the top at least employ people who can do it with a smile on their face to distract from what's going on!

Then, knowing the park was quiet, we waited a good half an hour for Swarm and this is all due to the crappy one train policy. I CANNOT understand how terrible a business must be for their logic to run like this. Rather than, having charged people a lot to get in, ensuring they have as productive and enjoyable day as possible, they'd rather piss everyone off in queues to make them pay even more. But is this sustainable? Luckily it was quiet, but are people really going to keep coming back if all they think of is queuing? Surely the priority should be to keep the queues as short as possible as ultimately this is what people remember about theme parks.

Anyway, aside from these two niggles, I had a fantastic day. This is almost entirely due to the fact that the park was dead - walking straight onto most rides, including Swarm once they'd added a second train. One of the reasons I started hating Thorpe was because it always seemed to involve massive queues with really annoying people, but I can't say we had any problems. The park must be quieter than it was because I can't remember it ever being like this in the early noughties, especially on a nice day. Strolling through the Stealth queue and remembering the hours I'd spent in there was quite nice. Being asked if I wanted to go round again on a ride as big as Saw is the level of quietness I haven't experienced since I was young in the mid 1990s, when Chessington frequently opened to hardly anyone and we were allowed to go round and round on Dragon River!

Unbelievably this is the first time I've been since not only Swarm, but also SAW opened. So here are my thoughts on both:

Saw: I actually love this ride. Let's get it out the way, it is ROUGH, in fact not rough but painful. It doesn't so much rattle as throw you round in your restraint. Aside from this, it's great! I'm an absolute sucker for coasters with a dark ride element, and whilst I think more could have been done with this, the first drop is one of the best moments on any coaster I've ever been on and the low inline is cool (especially with that squirting body below!).. I love the station area - nothing is more exciting than a coaster going directly into a pitch black dark ride portion! Looks so cool (serious, SERIOUS, geekage!). I hate the Saw films but the theme here fits so perfectly with a rollercoaster that I can forgive it. Much preferred going on the second of the two batched carriages though so you get the whole speech from Jigsaw rather than just a weird cackle. Lift hill and first drop are amazing, a great piece of airtime, a dive drop and loop which could pass for a genuine torture instrument rather than a pretend one. This ride is just class.

Swarm - again, a fantastic ride. Wing Riders are a fantastic idea, and I seriously doubt there's a much better element out there than the first drop on this. The area is beautifully themed (though I bet the operators wish they'd done in with theming if it meant having a roof over the church!), and, again, the concept works really really well. The main problem here is simply one of length. These are obviously big rides, and there simply isn't the space to make a bigger ride, but it's such an anti-climax on any ride that is this short and leaves you feeling like you didn't really get a full experience. It all works well, but there's just not enough track for it to be a classic ride. It's main achievement was making me SERIOUSLY want to go on one of those massive American ones because B & M have seriously excelled themselves with this concept. Backwards adds not much to the ride for me. You need to see where you're going as 50% of a roller coasters excitement comes from anticipation and the combination of senses. We all drive faster in our cars - its the combination of wind rushing into your face, and seeing track fall far below you, the creates the effect.

Not much else to say. The X retheme is terrible. Was never a good ride, but now it's all light and facing forwards its even worse. The stopping bits just seem ridiculous without the concept of "how do we get out?", the light shows what a poxy little coaster it is, which is fine if its secrets are kept in pitch black. Storm Surge looks horrific. Colossus is getting nearly as rough as that one from Parc Asterix - time they invested in similar head cushions? Bar 360 was a lovely place to sit at lunch - helped that it was quiet and we could therefore afford to spend the best part of an hour relaxing in the sun but the food was nice and this felt a world away from the Thorpe of old.

Finally, as I see it's traditional, here's a ride count:

Swarm x 4

Stealth x 2

Colossus x 1

Saw x 3

Nemesis Inferno x 1

Rush x 2

Vortex x 2

Samurai x 2

Loggers Leap x 1

X x 1

Thanks, if anyone bothered reading all that!

[Coaster]

SUNDAY 28th APRIL

Time In Park: 9:30am - 1:00pm

RIDECOUNT:

The Swarm x3

X x3

Stealth x2

Slammer x1

Detonator x1

Nemesis Inferno x1

Colossus x1

Rush x1

Tidal Wave x1

Rumba Rapids x1

Quite a good ridecount considering we weren't in the park that long and that time included buying and eating lunch (Calypso BBQ)

[pluk]

Excellent report Spider, really enjoyed (and agreed with) it.

Hope you weren't comparing Colossus to the abomination that is Goudurix though! That thing is in a different league of awful.

The area is beautifully themed (though I bet the operators wish they'd done in with theming if it meant having a roof over the church!), t!

This was said to me by a random ride op I got chatting to "after the first year didn't go so well they asked us all what we thought they could do to improve the ride, every one of us said 'put a ****ing roof on it'!"