Well I'm taking 3 of my friends to Thorpe park in a couple of weeks and neither of them have ever been before. One friend is ok with all the rides but the other 2 aren't. So far, I've managed to convince them both to go on Colossus, Nemesis Inferno and The Swarm but neither of them want to go on Stealth or Saw. 1 friend (lets call her friend 1) has been told by her mum that Stealth is 'unsafe'. I told her that all the foundations were fine but there was a 1 in like a million chance that you might get hit by a bird of something during the launch (this happened to my cousin by the way) if you sit in the front row. She seems adamant to not go on it, but once she's been on it, I know she'll love it. My other friend (lets call her friend 2) doesn't want to go on Saw as she saw some on ride footage of it and was freaked out at it. She isn't taking my advice about how to conquer large drops but it really works! She also is scared of Stealth (I don't know why yet).

Does anyone have any tips on how to convince them to ride because I know they'll love it afterwards.

Thanks

With Stealth; they don't have to sit at front row, which further reduces the chance of being hit by a bird , and it's designed to do things such as having a rollback (best not to show your friends that though!) and with Saw, advise them to do what I done when I first went on it because I was scared witless by the indoor bit- close your eyes! Or if they have a hood, put that up over their face until they've reached the outdoor bit.

Alternatively, you could do what I do and just ramble about Thorpe and it's ride and it's history and throw in so many facts that they're too busy moaning about what a nerd you are to be scared! But I hope you have fun and they go on all the rides, whether you have to drag them on or not

Drag them on or give them rescue remedy

Try and avoid queuing to long. If they are standing around waiting watching it they're more likely to wimp out. So if you convince them make sure you do those two first then when they love it you can go "told you so."

You could also play the "imagine being able to tell everyone you went on the worlds only horror movie based coaster and one of Europe's tallest" because then they could show off. Or you could promise to look really scared in the picture so there actual fear doesn't look as bad. (I've used all of these for many of my friends and my dad even used a few on me when I was little).

Thanks everyone for the great advice

Just need to make sure your friend knows Stealth makes 1000's of launches - the chances of hitting a bird are so so slim, if anything theres less chance as your going faster!

Have a great time

Well I'm taking 3 of my friends to Thorpe park in a couple of weeks ..............

Does anyone have any tips on how to convince them to ride because I know they'll love it afterwards.

Thanks

Right, for my twopennyworth -

How will they get to Thorpe Park? either by train or car, maybe coach. Rail travel is safer than road travel - more people are killed daily on Britain's motorways than are killed worldwide in a year on theme park rides.

Each ride is only as high as your bottom, and you are harnessed into a seat that's bolted to a vehicle that is retained on rails by at least three lines of wheels that surround the rail.

Not a boast, but fact, I have ridden Stealth thousands of times, and never had a roll-back, don't want one because of the delay it would cause, but as stated by others, it is designed to accept a roll-back, evidenced by the brake plates on the launch run. An engineer I was talking to recently has never seen a roll-back.

Each ride should be ridden at least once so one is then entitled to either moan or praise it - the rider should try to feel the ride and it's physical effects.

My last comment is that anybody with any doubts should look at the faces of those coming off the ride, invariably grinning like "Cheshire Cats".

If that lot doesn't persuade them, then they should take a good book, and hold everybody else's bags; but truthfully, we are all different, and if someone doesn't want to ride, they should not.

Thanks