Garet

Ok so for my 19th birthday i took 10 of my friends, who barely ever visit theme parks, to see what they thought of Thorpe Park. Wanting to make the trip there fun we were going to do it "Top Gear style" and some of us would take the train while others raced in a car along country roads but that involved getting up early so we opted for a convoy of cars and to keep in contact through walkie talkies. Oh and also never let your mates take water pistols with them, in a traffic jam on the M25 one of our friends ran down the motorway and squirted our other car, people were pointing and staring. Overall a great day out was had, Stealth was shut which was a shame but we had prior knowledge to that when we booked tickets so can't complain, lots of breakdowns throughout the day, about 60% of the ride queues we were in had technical problems but the staff were fantastic and we never got delayed more than 10 minutes apart from a camp-out in X's queue line, and pirates 4D having a broken projector which made everyone blind in one eye (and also making my friends vow to never go on a 3D cinema again) One complaint i do have is, i've never been a fan of the sideshows some fairs have when they are run by outside companies and this day cemented that for me. We won a huge stuffed shark and within 2 minutes of having it m it split all over the floor. I turned back to the man and politely asked him to change it, he told me that it was now my property, said a word i won't repeat on here and when i put my shark down he actually physically threw it in my face. Saying that though, one of the sideshow operators gave us a fantastic time on the sideshows and was one of the biggest laughs on the day. Rant over, time for some photos, it's my 1st attempt at a TR so bear with me. Thanks everyone for a awesome 19th Birthday You can't tell from the on-ride photo but here we are actually reciting word for word, the whole 1st series of 24, only took one circuit Rach gives the rapids a thumbs up, Leggett disapproves and Carl got so bored he went to sleep More Vortex Vortex Dale gives it a thumbs up and Rach gives it a tongue Is it just me or is Samurai missing something in the middle? Samurais underside A pile of dirt. This proves the rumors of B&M's 1st launched flyer coming to Thorpe Park must be true Tomfoolery while Pirates 4D is broken, seriously though everyone vowed never to go on a 3D cinema again, it gave everyone such bad heads due to the broken projector What X really looks like inside, a pole and a bit of track Camping in X's queue line during a break down Though i'm not perfect myself, this is a very badly timed picture of NI at the top of the loop Matt had one last chance on my camera, getting a picture of NI in the interlocking wingovers. He blew it Nemesis Inferno I did try but Slammer just wasn't being photogenic today Dale gives Collosus a thumbs up, Carl would but i couldn't fit him in frame Another from that angle Collosus from another angle After this photo Matt was fired from taking pictures There i made it better Matts not so brilliantly timed photo My brilliantly timed photo Better put up some coaster photos hadn't I Luke definitely is Everyone losing their screaming swing virginity I lied to everyone to get them on it about the restraints, this is them debating how safe a lapbar is Rush Meet British Dan, she isn't diabetic but this is her right after saying that Tidal Wave is a unacceptable amount of wetness Tidal Wave And I won!!! Heh though the Derby was a great laugh with all 10 of us going all out Funny story, this shark broke and then the guy we got it from threw it in my face and swore at me. Actually not that funny a story Rach is bracing herself, Kerry is excited and Dale doesn't know where he is Detonator Stealth...closed, moving on Unfortunately for Joe the ride operator accidentally had put acid down the flume with him instead of water Depth Charge Walking into Thorpe Park, i swear this bridge gets bigger and bigger OMG we have tickets, us doing our own take on some Americans who flew all the way out to England to see the simpsons movie a day early. Joes directions turned out rubbish, luckily this guy overheard us on the radio and gave us directions, a big shout out to you Mr lorry driver Luckily no-one running down the motorway with water pistols at this point Proper 2-way radios. No expense spared on this trip Joe in charge of communications and directions. We are screwed You know your in safe hands, when the driver is wearing sunglasses at 6am My car leading the way with some very excited passengers

Kennywood

Another screamscape update: Rob

Latest update from screamscape sounds like they may just install a less intense heartline roll which is good news for all those who didn't want to see it go Rob

Btw if anyone takes offense to that image or i've overlooked a term or gentle teasing of the ACERs offends people(if thats true then i'm probably in the wrong forum), i will remove it 1st thing in the morning Rob

Just the one fan boy suicide so far, think he was a ACER

One thing i'm surprised no-one has pointed out yet in the whole intamin - B&M debate is what happens when B&M try something new. Yes intamin like to push the envelope and try something new and yes this does quite often cause a lot downtime/delays which are to be expected. I have seen one or 2 posts that say that this would never happen to B&M but it has. Lets flashback to 2002 when B&M had sort of pushed the envelope with their first flying coaster AIR. Now the opening wasn't delayed but the amount of down-time it had and technological problems it might as well have been, i was there just after opening day with it broke down nearly the whole day it was sheer dumb luck i was in the area when it reopened and skipped a 4 hour queue. I'm not taking a side i love rides from both companies, B&M because they are mostly enjoyable, smooth rides and Intamin because half the time its something completely different to experience. I'm just saying its not just intamin that has these problems when they try something new. Rob

I don't know if this was the incident Robb was referring to but I'm sure there was something years back (maybe even a decade) where a young girl died on Kumba, but I'm pretty sure it was a medical condition. I want to say her MOTHER even got blamed because she drank during her pregnancy or something, though I may be getting that confused with a different incident. Boredom + insomnia + morbid curiosity sometimes causes me to read about this stuff, I think I actually do absorb things occasionally! hehe join the club, exam time at uni stinks i got boredom + insomnia + even more boring revision Rob

Robb what was the Kumba incident you referred to a couple of pages back? Don't think i ever heard about it though i will go try and look it up. Rob

I would hope so, I love the expierence of Intamin's rides, but their reliability track record is gettin a bit ridiculous. B&M's rides are less thrilling and extreme, but they have a great track record for reliability and safety (Has anyone ever died or even been injured on a B&M coaster?) I think the only accident that i have ever heard of from B&M was the hulk rollback and as far as i am aware nobody was injured, and besides that i don't think B&M had anything to do with the launch part of the hulk where it rolled back. Rob

Ok guess i was wrong all the picsture i'm seeing does seem to show it being fairly tight especially with what it is placed after Rob

This is the only one I've seen: BTW, when did the park announce it would be open for the 12th? I don't think I ever saw that. I saw the media day announcement, but never a date set for an official "opening day" for the public. --Robb Thanks for that, i can see what people mean now, the other pictures didn't do the tightness (if thats a word) justice Rob

Does anyone have a picture of the heartline roll that shows how tight it is, from all the pictures i have seen it didn't look too bad. The ride looks like something worth trying, one of these days i will have to get off this island and visit Cedar Point and my 1st ever six flags (hmm now considering on my placement year, trying to find a place somewhere in the U.S.A. just so i can spend my days off trying different parks. Education first, honest) Rob

Taken from screamscape, the plot thickens even more Rob

see the thing is the other wheel assembly is to far back (or forward). On TOGO's there are only one wheel assembly on each side, and two per car. now if there would have been two on each side, four on each car..... then this whole de-railing might not have happened. *sad days for that lady* *It's not TOGO's fault! the blame rests with the park* Thanks for clearing that up for me Rob

People are on about the assembly i'm confused how comes the car tipped so badly if only 1 wheel assembly came off, wouldn't the other one on that side have kept it moderately on the track, i mean the car looks almost sideways in some of those pictures wouldn't the other wheel assembly held it sort of in place if you get what i mean? Rob

That is one serious mess of track on that Blue and purple coaster? who built it, that launch bit reminds me of intamin track but the rest of the coaster doesn't

Though we don't have q-bots in the U.K. they look very interesting, can u use them on the same ride more than once, how flexible are they on making that time they display for the ride? i remember them being quite fussy at Thorpe Park one day when we missed our half hour slotted time by bout 8 minutes because the queue at KFC was a little bit longer than we thought, queue for Rush was only 20 minutes though so we decided not to make a fuss and just queue. Rob

Official Entry #1 Marty: Hey Yetiball where are you goin' now? Back to the Future? Yetiball: Nope already been there...

2nd Entry

Sorry bout the bad quality cutting i only have paint on my laptop here at uni. Official Entry #2 Nothing On Earth Could Come Between Them... Except Yeti Ball

i don't know, i think insanity is in one of the pictures.

lol shouldn't some1 nudge legoland and point out that the high roller is gone, is that a little insanity i see on top of the tower in one of the pictures?

yes but isn't that a zierer launch? not sure if i makes any difference but pretty sure all the intamins that are being built now are OTSRs, though not sure about the one at heide park remember some pictures of the trains with them so it probably will. Having been on both i can safely say i did not feel that restricted by them and i reckon Joe Public probably prefers them heard couple of people questioning the safety of Rush just because it only had lap bars. Heh remember ages ago a discussion about restriction on Collosus just because they put a little bit of steel on the sides to stop idiouts sticking their legs out.