When do school trips start?

[MadHench]

If they haven't already, I'm going this Monday and expect it to be busy, but how busy will it be? I'm gonna try get there early and I'm pretty sure the reserve n' ride system wil be being tested out then so I'll use that.

 

What's the best ride order to go on excluding saw

 

Also in queues for rides I'm terrified even though I enjoy it, anyway to get around from shi**ing myself in the queue?

 

thanks, think this is in the right section

[Coaster]

School trips are in full flow at the moment, I counted at least 40 coaches in the car park on Friday but a Monday might be quieter?

[MadHench]

School trips are in full flow at the moment, I counted at least 40 coaches in the car park on Friday but a Monday might be quieter?

 

just the thought of that makes me wanna smash my head on the wall. Hopefully it'll be quieter, don't wanna be dashing kids too far across the park

[Cal]

I'd normally recommend going to Colossus then Saw, but seeing as Saw is closed it may be better to go for Stealth and Inferno first and get a couple of rides on them. Try and get there for 9:30 as they aim to get the gates open for then so you'll get on a few things without queueing.

 

Try and make use of reserve and ride in the morning as well as not many people will know about it early, so queues will be minimal. 

[MadHench]

I'd normally recommend going to Colossus then Saw, but seeing as Saw is closed it may be better to go for Stealth and Inferno first and get a couple of rides on them. Try and get there for 9:30 as they aim to get the gates open for then so you'll get on a few things without queueing.

 

Try and make use of reserve and ride in the morning as well as not many people will know about it early, so queues will be minimal. 

 

thanks for speedy reply, I'll do as you say, cheers

[lewumbrajumbos]

On thursday I aimed to do Stealth then Inferno followed by IAC in the morning when there was no queues. It works well for IAC as you won't queue for it and actors should be on top form as it is the beginining of the day!

 

After this I would go for Colossus but bare in mind the path at the back of Thorpe is shut meaning it is a longer walk from Inferno to Colosusususussussss

[MadHench]

On thursday I aimed to do Stealth then Inferno followed by IAC in the morning when there was no queues. It works well for IAC as you won't queue for it and actors should be on top form as it is the beginining of the day!

 

After this I would go for Colossus but bare in mind the path at the back of Thorpe is shut meaning it is a longer walk from Inferno to Colosusususussussss

thanks, only just heard about this IAC thing, love the show though, is it any good?

[lewumbrajumbos]

It really does depend it has been changing so much recently in the space of one week they have taken elements out and added some in

 

I would say at the moment though it is a really great attraction and is good fun! Definitely massivly improved from the first month of opening

 

But all of that is only valid if you don't queue for it .. I share the same view with this as I do with Storm Surge, If you queue it is the worst and pointless if you don't it is good fun

[MadHench]

It really does depend it has been changing so much recently in the space of one week they have taken elements out and added some in

 

I would say at the moment though it is a really great attraction and is good fun! Definitely massivly improved from the first month of opening

 

But all of that is only valid if you don't queue for it .. I share the same view with this as I do with Storm Surge, If you queue it is the worst and pointless if you don't it is good fun

 

haha I gt

 

It really does depend it has been changing so much recently in the space of one week they have taken elements out and added some in

 

I would say at the moment though it is a really great attraction and is good fun! Definitely massivly improved from the first month of opening

 

But all of that is only valid if you don't queue for it .. I share the same view with this as I do with Storm Surge, If you queue it is the worst and pointless if you don't it is good fun

 

Haha yeah I get you, I'll check it out and hope it's good

[MadHench]

^

 

oops, fail up there lmao

[Merry-go-girl]

 

 

Also in queues for rides I'm terrified even though I enjoy it, anyway to get around from shi**ing myself in the queue?

 

Have a giggle to yourself about all the unfortunate losers who are stuck at school and work while you're at Thorpe Park. That should give you some happy feels. 

[MadHench]

Have a giggle to yourself about all the unfortunate losers who are stuck at school and work while you're at Thorpe Park. That should give you some happy feels. 

 

haha yeah, very happy feels

 

another question I have is, has anyone been on detonator? It doesn't look too thrilling to me, is it worth waiting ages for?

[Han30]

haha yeah, very happy feels

 

another question I have is, has anyone been on detonator? It doesn't look too thrilling to me, is it worth waiting ages for?

 

It's always best not to soil yourself in queues - especially in this weather = smelly and loads of flies about - but seriously, I have anxiety problems and if I'm in a queue and feel nervous I just distract myself which usually helps a lot

 

Regarding Detonator - for me personally I hate it - only because I hate the feeling of dropping but I know lots here that absolutely love it.  I did it 4 times in 2013 then vowed never again.  I would definitely give it a try though because you never know if you will like it or not.  Regarding queuing for it - well, it is a short ride, but then so is Stealth - I would see how the queues are and decide accordingly (especially in this hot weather). 

Detonator is one of those rides that doesn't look that bad - it doesn't look too high until you are on it (but saying that, I am petrified of heights) - it's sort of the reverse of Slammer - as in, Slammer I think looks a heck of a lot worse than it actually is (I used to nearly mess my pants just waching it!) yet Detonator looks fairly tame but is pretty intense.  I would definitely say give it a go - took me a long time but I've finally ridden everything at Thorpe Park.

 

With regards to school trips - you should notice that come 3-4pm the park becomes a lot quieter - advice would be to have either an early or late lunch to avoid huge queues at the food outlets - oh, and drink plenty of fluids, especially in this heat we've been having.

 

Have a great trip!

[Ian-S]

If the queue is short Detonator is worth the go, but if the queue is long don't bother, there are better things to do than wait an hour for a 1.2 second ride. Also bear in mind only (I think) 12 people get on each go, and the queue winds itself around the ride, so if it's anywherein the cattle pen area it's going to be a long wait.

Last time we went the queue was halfway around the ride platform when we joined it, and we waited 20 minutes.

It's definitely worth it if the queue is non-existant though

[MadHench]

thank you very much guys

 

 

oh and one last question, how exactly does reserve n' ride work? I understand the overall concept. Do you queue through the exit or is there a special queue?

Edited July 5, 2015 by MadHench

[pognoi]

It's normally signposted with a guy with a scanner standing outside.

[Celia Mae]

I advise everybody to avoid the rest of this week and next week at all costs unless planning to only use RnR....

 

 

School trip cattlepens are out today, and the whole concrete car park if blocked off for use of coaches

 

Luckily we aren't going today, SCB just needs to renew his pass!

[Mark9]

[JoshC.]

Meh, yesterday was relatively quiet. Never saw a queue above 40 minutes and coasters opened on two trains I believe. Park even opened half hour earlier than stated. Then again, I left early so there might have been an afternoon rush (though I doubt it).

You can still have nice days during the busy period.

[Benin]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Smiler incident has caused all the school trips to lower dramatically compared to the normal levels of hell...

[Merry-go-girl]

Won't most of them already be booked and paid for before the incident happened though? I doubt you can get an entire trip refunded on account of an accident on one ride and I don't think school's would be about to reimburse families out of their own pocket. 

[Ian-S]

Yeah, the schools get a massive discount, much more than the price printed on the ticket (£7 for Chessington, £9 Alton from what I saw), the local secondary offered parents a refund if they're kids didn't want to go, don't know many that tookup the offer (as it meant the kids would still have to goto school, not stay at home).

 

My sons school charged £5 for the Chessington trip and they made money from that.

[Merry-go-girl]

Dayum, there's a business there. But removing the cost, there's still the hugely disappointed children to deal with. I can't imagine they'd be put off a day out of school. 

[Ian-S]

I don't know of any schools round here that have cancelled trips to Chessie or Thorpe.

[Mitchada04]

It really depends, if you actually get in touch with the Park and book it through them you can get it cheaper, my primary school certainly did! Plus local schools get it a lot cheaper partly to do with the deal between the park and the council with the yellow school buses and "Thorpe Park neighbourhood watch"

[Ian-S]

LOL yes that's what the website says, anybody ordering school trip tickets from there deserves to pay that price.

 

http://www.chessington.com/plan/chessington-school-visits.aspx?tabnum=1

 

Click on Bookings, we went 19th May, 105 kids, I can assure you there is no way our school paid £8 a kid.

The tickets I handed out (because the 'teacher' had to hand them to the kids, who then handed them to the man on the gate with a box ) had £7 face value, mine was marked as complimentary teacher at £0.

 

I know this because of a long conversation I had with the head the day before, there were some issues and because me and sonny have MAP's I said we would use these to enter if it made things easier (they hadn't ordered enough tickets) as for the sake of a fiver (that they'd charged) I didn't want any kids missing out when we could solve the problem easily, it wasn't needed but she said to me it doesn't matter as it's not a fiver we pay and if they had to pay full whack they would as there was enough left over to cover it and the school just would buy less playground equipment that year.