Thorpe Park Trip Reports

[huzzellio]

I think Detty is better without the countdown, that whole waiting for it to drop but not knowing when it'll happen makes things far scarier.

[InfernoMartin]

Was there just no audio on it at all? 

 

Not really all there was, was a very quiet 'the gondola is about to be released'

[Cal]

Not really all there was, was a very quiet 'the gondola is about to be released'

 

Towards the end of last season the speakers were sounding really weird, and then they ended up turning them off. Next visit it was playing but really quiet, they'd obviously turned it down as they were broken. 

 

Shame they haven't seemed to of fixed it over closed season, gonna miss Detonators theme blasting out  

[Coaster]

Detonator is better without the countdown IMO, but the music needs to return!

[InfernoMartin]

I would rather have the countdown than 'The gondola is about to be released' :L

[Cal]

Detonator is better without the countdown IMO, but the music needs to return!

 

Fair enough. I like it, I mean I can never really hear it at the top anyway but it's good when watching. Also makes it more fun when they drop you early, or keep you up there for a while when it's quiet. 

[Whatever]

Great day today, the park was absolutely dead.

Swarm x2

Colossus x1

Ninferno x2

Saw x3

Stealth x3

Loggers leap x2

Rocky express X1

X x2

Storm turd x1

Vortex x1

Rush x1

Highlights:

-Near to no queues

-Lovely weather

-Storm Turd's effects were working!!!!???

-Me and my friends took magazines onto Logger's and read them going down the drop, and then I bought the photo

-Kids from my class were there and we pretended to stalk them onto rides and chase them round the park. It was hilarious.

-The staff were amazingly friendly! They were funny, they chatted to us and the staff on Logger's really found it funny what we did on the drop! It really does make a difference if the staff are nice, it really improves the experience!

-Ninferno's mist was working!

Lowlights:

-Storm Turd exists

-Vortex was making a funny sound which made me feel a little scared.

-Detty's sounds were not working

-The sunken gardens smelt like vinegar (never been to the gardens before, it was very pretty, albeit smelly)

- Rumba and Slammer weren't open

-I should have been doing homework, but I was at a theme park.

-Billy in Saw has been pooped on.

-I saw what was left of the carousel when on Inferno, which was only the control booth. My childhood died right then and there.

[InfernoMartin]

Wednesday 1st April 2015

 

Got in the park at around 2pm, so wasn't expecting to get on much!

 

Ride Count:

 

Stealth x1

Inferno x2

Colossus x1

Swarm x1

Tidal Wave x2

Samurai x2

Rush x2

Dodgems x1

Rumba x1

Loggers x1

 

Total 14

 

Highlights:

Staff on Samurai were great, interacting with the queue line really well, doing April Fools things.

Samurai was running really well. Obviously nothing like its old years but it was fairly forceful.

Every coaster except Colossus was on 2 trains

Queues were not too bad

Infernos Mist is still working

Rush staff were having a competition on which swing was loaded and checked the fastest

 

Lowlights:

Rumbas Shower not working

Saw broke around 4:45 and stayed closed for rest of the day, they had a great idea to send all of us to Colossus fasttrack queue but as Colossus only has 1 train operational it meant we still had to wait a fair while to get on. I dread to think how long the main queue had to wait!

No audio what so ever on Rush, it was just silent.

Colossus on 1 Train - It really needs its other train operational as soon as possible (is it actually at thorpe?, it doesn't look like it is to be honest)

 

Notes about closed rides:

 

Slammer: All the scaffolding has been taken down and from what I could see all the restraints are back on, looks like it might start testing soon, depends what still has to be done that isn't obvious or out of sight.

 

Detty: No visible work being done, looks like its waiting for a part

 

Vortex: Was being worked on for most of the day. Looks like its closed due to restraint issues, most of the day they were fiddling with the restraint systems in quite a few seats. Obviously I'm not a mechanic and I don't know what is wrong but I would take a guess its waiting for a part for something to do with the restraints!

 

Overall a really good visit, got lots more done than I was expecting, just a shame Saw broke down as I was in the station and had to be evacuated. However, the people on the ride were evacuated effortlessly, the evacuation procedures have clearly been well trained. 

[Cal]

Sunday 12th April

 

Best day at the park I've had in a long long time, a lot quieter than I expected. Was told the annual pass building wouldn't be open till 10, but it opened at 10 past 9! We went straight to the park and the annual pass holders were already aloud in (9:20) and I was told they were let in at 9:15 and the normal ticket holders won't be in till 10. I was also told it'll be like this every weekend! It was great  

 

Closed all day: Slammer, Detty and Samurai.

Slammer and Detty were just sitting there  

Samurai was being worked on most of the day and has a cherry picker outside. Can't believe it's closed again already  

 

Ridecount

 

IAC x3

Nemesis Inferno x6

Stealth x5

Colossus x3

The Swarm x2

Saw x1

Rush x4

Dodgems x2

Loggers x2

Quantum x1

Rumba x1

Vortex x1

X x1

Zodiac x1

 

TOTAL: 33

 

Positives: 

- Although having a pretty poor experience on I'm a celebrity the first time, it got better and better throughout the day and really enjoyed it. Very impressive. 

- A lot quieter than I expected, didn't wait longer than 15 minutes for anything (Apart from IAC at the end of the day) 

- Ride availability was great, didn't see any breakdowns apart from the rumba. Storm Surge opened around 1 but that didn't affect me. All coasters on full capacity apart from Colossus and X. 

- Re-rides on Inferno  

- Best ride I've ever had on Vortex! 

- Atmosphere in the Saw station felt really good, theme music was very loud! And the offload theme has returned. 

- The Swarm team were amazing, dispatching the train before the other train had even gone over the station. I didn't even know this was possible, I thought the other train had to hit the breaks. It also seemed a lot more forceful! 

- Annual pass holders got 45 minutes of early ride time! 

- Most of the staff seemed very friendly!

- Pizza pasta was great. 

Negatives:

- Queue times never seemed to be updated or very inaccurate. For example Inferno stating 15 minutes for the last hour when it was going around with seats empty (although it did kind of work in our favour )

- 2 favorite flats closed  

- Rush and Quantum were playing no music at all, and Vortex was just playing music, not the theme music.

- Saw was rough

- Although Rush had 4 hosts, they took forever to load and unload. 2 of them were just constantly talking to each other. One swing would be ready (all restraints checked and the hosts just waiting) and the other 2 would be finishing their conversation with the operator and then went off to do the other swing. Once they did that swing, they went back to the console for another chat before going back to where they're meant to be. Shame to see 2 hosts being so committed to give a good experience and the other 2 not giving one. At the end of the cycle they would go straight to the console to talk, where as the other 2 would come and speak to guests, asking if they enjoyed it etc... What should of been no queue ended up being about 10 minutes. Same kinda thing happened on X, even though it's on reduced capacity and had one of the highest queues all day.

[Ian-S]

Went this afternoon, arrived at 2.30-3pm ish.

There seemed quiet a lot of people there but every ride we went on was walk on:

Swarm: 6 (each corner + 2 in middle)

Inferno: 6 (4x front row)

Colossus: 3 (all front car)

Rumba: 2

Stealth: 1

Vortex: 1

Zodiac: 1

After that my back said enough is enough and we left, credit where it's due, of the rides we went on, they were running flawlessly, all but two of the staff were happy and looking like they were having a bundle of fun.

[Kerfuffle]

After returning from Thorpe after spending the day there with InfernoMartin and coastercameron98, I can safely deliver my report:

 

RIDE COUNT:

• SAW - The Ride: x1
• Nemesis Inferno: x2
• Colossus: x1
• Stealth: x1
• Flying Fish: x1
• Depth Charge: x1
• Samurai: x1
• Quantum: x2
• Storm in a Teacup: x1
• Rumba Rapids: x1
• Loggers Leap: x1
• X: x1
• Mr Monkey's Banana Ride (): x1
• Angry Birds 4D: x1
• I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here: x1

 

PROS:

• Got two consecutive rides on Inferno
• Samurai was back in operation.
• Queues were short during the morning
• Got a decent spin on Teacups for once

 

CONS:

• Colossus and X were rather rough
• I'm A Celebrity felt really rushed - although the themeing was still fantastic.
• I completely forgot about THE SWARM
• I lost my sunglasses on Quantum (which were worthless and falling apart anyway)

 

Pictures from today:

[Whatever]

Had a good day today at Thorpe with a friend , except for the stupid amounts of rain

Got there around tennish. We headed for the back of the park first, as there were hundreds of people flocking to the Swarm, and got to Saw before it opened, and then only a 5 min wait! Some of the day was just me and my friend, and sometimes we met up with my Brother and my mum to eat lunch etc. Spent a lot of time in the arcade wasting money and in the dome eating lunch as the rain was horrid. Went about threeish because my brother was having moaning because he wanted to go on Minecraft.

 

Ride count:

Swarm x1

Saw x1

Nemesis Inferno x1

Stealth x1

Samurai x1

X x1

Loggers' x2

Rumba x1

 

 

Pros:

-Managed to get a really good ORP on Nemesis Inferno

-Some queues were actually really short (the longest I saw all day was Swarm with 75 mins and I'm a Celeb with 65)

-Slammer was actually working, even though my friend said we shouldn't go on it so I didn't.

-I got my friend to go on Samurai, thus completing her list of rides done at Thorpe (I beat her AND she'd done all the big five before I)

-My mum gave me an extra Kitkat.

-The lady that printed out our photo in the dome was great with my whinging brother and really chatty; makes my day when they're nice to guests.

- Got our own boat on Loggers' and Rumba

 

Cons:

-Rain

-rain

-rain

-Going on Stealth in the rain is like having a satanic porcupine's needles shoved into your face at high speed.

-Had to take a massive detour past Colossus to get to Nemesis Inferno due to a lorry trundling its way along the path by I'm a Celeb

-Storm Surge existing

-Samurai was good but painfully short

-My phone kept being an idiot and cutting out, then turning on for ten seconds, then cutting out etc etc

-the seats on Stealth were small ponds by the time we sat on them.

-rain

 

 

Overall it was a good day, but not the best time I have ever had there.

[Kerfuffle]

Went about threeish because my brother was having moaning because he wanted to go on Minecraft.

Clearly your brother has only heard of the anti-social life.

[Lewis.]

Went to Thorpe yesterday (5th of June) for the first time since 2013. 

 

It was a scorcher so all the rides were running extremely well, Colossus felt especially fast but just as rough as I remembered it. That ride hates me. The park wasn't exactly quiet but wasn't busy either, it was a nice atmosphere. Queues ranging from 5-70 minutes (not that it mattered, I had the disabled wristband as usual which again resulted in some death stares from some - always hilarious) 

 

I was highly sceptical about about I'm A Celebrity because eww ITV, but it was actually really fun. We ended up doing it last and it was a great end to the day. You do get the feeling they're rushing you through on parts though, I thought the woman was joking when she said we had 5 seconds to find as many stars as we could! 

 

Saw closed all day (Obvious reasons) 

Stealth closed all day (Engineers were working midway down the launch at some point)

Samurai on THE most pathetic setting I've ever witnessed (I even overheard a staff member complaining)

Rush had a period of downtime at some point, as did Flying Fish 

 

I had a great day, and I can't wait to go again 

 

 

 

[Coaster]

Samurai on THE most pathetic setting I've ever witnessed (I even overheard a staff member complaining)

Most of Thorpe's flats are a disappointment these days sadly, Rush could be a great ride but is run on a dire cycle, as is Samurai - one ride on Whirlwind at Lightwater Valley makes it look like a kid's ride!

 

I do enjoy Slammer (my second favourite flat ride) when it's open, and Detonator is okay for what it is I guess.

[Project LC]

I don't think it's rush's cycle that is the problem. It's that it doesn't seem to be able to give a full swing. The arms never seem to go beyond 90 degrees anymore and when they do its only one swing.

[Ian-S]

Rush went over 90 when we were on it last week, but as soon as it did the ride was over, we only swung about 5 times, didn't seem that long of a ride tbh.

[MasterOfTheSwarm]

Went to thorpe today. Absolutly EPIC!

Ride count

The Swarm:3

Colossus:2

Nemmy Inferno:1

Stealth:1

Samurai:1

Detonator:1

And some others (can't Remember what)

Only con was that saw was shut

[MasterOfTheSwarm]

I also got some photos of dark ride construction

[EdwinOkli]

14/06/2015

 

 

So... today was my first day in the park in a whole 6 years. That didn't mean a whole lot in term of changes with the obvious exception of the first ride of my trip:

 

The Swarm

Managed a total of 7 rides on The Swarm. We went directly to it when we entered the park and didn't bother using RnR for it since the standby queue was so short. This didn't change on any of our rides. Went on backwards first time when absolutely no one was queuing for the back seats. Also did front-left and 4 in a row to round up the day. (I believe they were joking about pushing the few of us who were riding it nonstop off the ride. Can't be uncommon.)

 

Queuing

Pretty quiet day. Most of the rides were advertising 5 minute or 10 minute queues. Indeed, X was, rather misleadingly, advertising a 10 minute queue time at around 4 o'clock. This proved to be false, and the queue was longer than when we had walked into the pyramid earlier to check out what the 40 minute queue looked like. I approve of the new X, but the queuing experience is just unbearable. We reckon they were running on 2 trains (incidentally, all of the roller coasters were running on 2 trains all day, it seemed).

 

RnR

Pretty pointless most of the time because of where the merge point is. On Stealth, however, it is the only way that you should be queuing. 0 minute virtual queues meant you practically walked straight onto the ride no matter how long the standby queue was. One time I reserved a ride on Stealth I got a message that my reservation had become ineffective because Stealth was "closed and full". I told this to the RnR guy and he just sort of dismissed it. The QR reading isn't a particularly smooth experience. A couple of times I was told that I missed my reservation because the scanners weren't reading the codes properly. It would be quicker just to see the screen and let you proceed.

 

Flats, all the flats

I hadn't in the past managed to get on any of the flat rides because I was too preoccupied queuing for the roller coasters for hours. Today, that all changed. Samurai was my first and it seemed to be on a pretty decent setting, definitely not disappointing given what I've read on this site recently. Vortex is my favourite of the flats. It looks so innocent and yet it didn't fail to make me feel sick both times I rode on it. Rush was surprisingly good and Slammer was more intimidating than it was pleasurable.

 

The general state of things

One thing I definitely have to say; Rumba Rapids is the most pathetic excuse for a water ride ever. Even if it's not meant to get you soaked, it should at least try to splash you a little. The women we were bundled with found it a hoot for some reason and actively tried to avoid any semblance of a splash. They didn't need to try. Another thing that won't surprise anyone; bottles everywhere. Visitors treat the whole park like a giant bin and there's not much anyone can do about it while trying to keep things running normally.

 

Oh, and the weather was fine... despite the clouds. It was a pretty brilliant day.

 

Ride count:

7 times: The Swarm

2 times: Nemesis Inferno, Stealth, Vortex

1 time: (Almost everything else) Colossus, Samurai, Slammer, Rush, Zodiac, Quantum, Detonator, Tidal Wave, Loggers Leap, Rumba Rapids, X, ... 

[InfernoMartin]

Sunday 14th June

 

Sort of had an unexpected visit yesterday, got to the park for opening and stayed the whole day!

 

Rides Closed: Saw (For obvious reasons)

Rides Opened Late: Colossus ( Opened an hour late, although did open on 2 trains! )

 

Got let into the park at around 9:25 ish to find most things already open. By 9:50 everything but Colossus was open. All coasters were already on 2 trains and Tidal Wave was running 2 boats.

 

Ride Count:

 

Rush x1

Vortex x1

Zodiac x1

Detty x1

Tidal Wave x3

Stealth x1

Inferno x1

Swarm x6 (Was running really well yesterday, however one of the trains was a bit bumpy, think it needs a couple of new wheels)

Loggers x1

X x1

Slammer x17 (May as well make the most of it while it lasts ...)

 

Total: 34 

 

Pros:

Everything on full capacity from open except X which remained on 2 trains all day

Detty,Rush,Zodiac,Quantum and Vortex all have their music and announcements back!

Weather was really good 

Most of the staff were really friendly

Minimal ride downtime, everything pretty much stayed open all day with no breakdowns

Swarms effects were working except the Fire

Operations overall were great, Slammer staff seem to be getting a lot quicker now.

Didn't have time for Samurai, but went past and it looked like it was on a really good cycle.

Detty op was great, leaving us at the top and playing the breakdown announcements and stuff. Was one of the highlights of the day.

 

Cons:

X on 2 trains meant it generally had the longest queue on park of around 35 minutes most of the day.

When watching Samurai briefly, its parking was shocking, it took ages on pretty much every cycle

Rush wasn't  running that well really, the swings were also a fair amount out of sync.

At points the queue times were miles off. it stated swarm was 35 mins when it was walk on

 

Overall, a really good day. Looking forward to my next visit in a couple of weeks time!

[Deleted Users]

Slammer x17 (May as well make the most of it while it lasts ...)

 

[planenut]

Slammer x 17...............was that during the day, or continuously?

 

Great ride count though.

[InfernoMartin]

Slammer x 17...............was that during the day, or continuously?

 

Great ride count though.

 

During the day, don't think I could handle 17 times in a row

[CWOAfanMalcolm]

Don't think you should be called Inferno martin maybe Slammermartin Would Be more appropriate