Thorpe Park Discussion Thread

[BudtheWeiser]

If you choose swarm make it backwards and make sure you get the side thats across the bridge much more forceful that side

[AusCoasterFan]

Had a decent day at Thorpe Park Friday. I was hoping it wouldn't be too busy, but it was, especially with the large number of teens who I think were probably supposed to be at school!

 

Anyway, I was alone for the first couple hours as my friends who I was meeting up with at the park wouldn't get there until around 12. I chose to avoid Swarm until later as I assumed the queues would drop later in the day. This happened to be true.

 

I firstly rode Stealth thinking it would only have one train operating and that I better get it done early. It actually had two trains running, so I was very impressed. The wait was obviously minimal as the park had only just opened. The ride itself is solid. Nothing special. Kind of like a half-finished Xcelerator.

 

Next I rode Nemesis Inferno, which was barely more than a 5 minute wait. I heard that it is pretty average, but I wouldn't agree with that. I found it to be highly intense. Not quite Batman or (Nemesis as I found out the next day), but still very good.

 

Saw was the first ride I encountered a queue. It was a little over 30 minutes, but well worth the wait. I thought Saw was great. I love the theming and indoor section. It really packs a punch with really high positive Gs and a decent pop of airtime. But it is rough, especially the transitioning into the dive-loop and turnaround into the final brake run.

 

Colossus became my 50th coaster today! (That's if you include the Intamin halfpipe coaster at Wet 'n' Wild, Gold Coast) I wasn't all that expectant for a great ride, but after around an hour wait, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't that rough and surprisingly intense. Even the quad heartline roll felt so much faster and extreme than it looked on Youtube. The final heartline roll took me off guard too... I was seriously surprised at how good Colossus was.

 

The last major coaster I rode was Swarm. Here I met up with my mates, and after less that 40 minute wait we hopped on the right side. I hear the left is better, but I don't care that much. It can't be that different! It turned out to be easily my favourite ride at the park. It was so smooth and provided an awesome flying feeling with nothing above or below you - almost like a smooth version of the second half of X2... The wing over drop was perhaps that best bit, but I thoroughly enjoyed the near-miss elements. In the turn around over the lake, I had my arms out and my right hand actually hit the water and splashed my mates behind me. It really surprised me how close we got to the water! I wasn't expecting that!

 

The rest of the day, I rerode Saw, Nemesis Inferno and Colossus with my friends, and got a ride on X just before I left. I managed to try the back of Nemesis Inferno, which was better in my opinion - actually more intense. Colossus was perhaps equally good front and back., while X sucked! It had nothing to offer. The dark arena with flashing disco light and disco music was a pretty cheesy idea and offered limited thrills. It was pretty rough too, considering how slow it was. Still good for families I suppose.

 

So there you have it. A good day at the park. The main negatives being the staff were rather grumpy and unfriendly, and the demographic of people at the park was a little off-putting. The main positives were that the rides were surprisingly good - better than I had been hoping - with the exception of x, and Stealth to a certain extent. Also, all the coasters had very efficient operations with none of the coasters running below two trains. Hear that Six Flags Magic Mountain?!

 

If I had to rank the coasters, I'd go with: Swarm, Colossus, Saw, Nemesis Inferno, Stealth, X... That's if you're interested!

[jray21]

Sounds like you had a pretty decent day at the park!

[rctneil]

I got to visit Thorpe Park last night as part of their Annual Pass holder Fright Nights preview event. We were let into the park at 6:30 and went off to locate the mazes. First that we came across was Cabin in the Woods, this was set in the back of the X building and was off a new style where the maze is free flowing and you can choose your route through. It was the only horror maze that I actually got totally lost. It was also very nicely themed and really enjoyed it.

 

Secondly we did SAW Alive, after quite a long queue we survived the maze. It's practically identical to every other time it has been open but there was a lot more mist keeping upcoming scares hidden which actually improved it a lot.

 

3rd was the Blair Witch Project, this turned out to be located on the train route down a large uneven pathway. Not a lot happened and you couldn't see much of the limited theming due to limited lighting. I saw 1 actor jump out and that was it. Highly disappointed here as it has a huge amount of potential and I think has one of the best locations for a scare maze and would be excellent if it was well used.

 

4th was My Bloody Valentine. Now this maze had an approx 1 hour queue zigzagging throughout the arena. Quite a few actors kept roaming the queue area which kept people entertained and they did a tremendous job. This was also the second free flowing maze but didn't seem to have multiple routes except at one point where they split people up to go either left, down several very long and very narrow corridors or right through crawling tunnels. A lot of this maze seemed very open and scares were throughout. Overall I thought it was just average.

 

The final maze of the night was the Asylum, this was a returning maze and surprisingly I felt it was the best. The actors were on top form and the constant very powerful strobe was extremely disorientating. It was very highly themed and had an amazing atmosphere.

 

After surviving all the mazes we headed to Swarm and got both a forwards and backwards ride the end the evening.

 

Overall I enjoyed Fright Nights and i'm sure Thorpe will tweak the recipes of some of the mazes to improve them for the upcoming event days.

[zachclarke2]

Just posted this in the games forum - will post it for the people that don't travel over there. Over the weekend I built a Stealth model out of Coasterdynamix (as a follow up to my Inferno model) and it came out quite nicely. Video if anyone would like to watch it -

 

 

Thinking about a Saw model after this, time will tell I guess.

[jray21]

That reminds me that I still have to put together my K'nex coaster I got a while back. I love the high tech launch system you have.

[tooooobbe]

So, im back from my London trip and thought I could write something about my visit at Thorpe Park with my girlfriend.

 

 

We went there this monday 12th October. The weather had been rainy for couple of days and the forecast said it would be some rain during the monday aswell. When the park opened it was all empty. It was actually empty the whole day, we never waited for more then 2-3 trains on any ride (Except for front row, which often were like 10 trains).

 

Colossus - Was our first ride, went on the days first train. We sat in the middle and the ride was really good. I was afraid it would be rough but it wasnt at all. After our ride colossus shut down for about an hour, and after that they only ran one train. We went back few hours later and went in the last row - it was a mistake. It was so rough we both got a bad headache, ruined atleast one hour of fun for us. NO MORE COLOSSUS FOR US!

 

Saw - Went for atleast 5 rides, some were pretty rough and some were really smooth... Great operators, we got to reride several times and since it was running so many cars I even got to jump 3 cars ahead (since 4 were at the station). I actually made 2 rides faster then 2 circuit with one car would be. A really nice ride overall, enjoyed the pre-lift.

 

Nemesis inferno - Rode it so many times, I loved it. Was best in the rear. Great operators here as well (many rereides). It only ran one train during the whole day.

 

Stealth - Rode it many times, never in the front thought (I know it was a mistake but it would have been like 20 minutes wait instead of taking the next train all the time). Operators let us reride aswell. Great ride.

 

The Swarm - Went on it several times, once in the front. It was really smooth but a bit short. At one ride the fire effect worked, not on the rest of our rides.

 

X - Seriously? Was the worse ride I've been on (including so many flatrides). Im sure it was better in the dark instead of this semi-lightning. DID NOT RERIDE (even tho I felt sorry for the operators, they were so alone in the dark with no customers)

 

 

Overall we had a great day at Thorpe Park. The weatherforecast were wrong - it did not rain on us (even though the park was wet since the day before). The park it self is pretty poorly themed but I enjoyed how almost all rides had themeing.

[AusCoasterFan]

^ I went just a couple weeks ago. I agree with nearly everything you said. I totally agree about Nemesis Inferno. I rode front and back - definitely more intense at the back! Colossus also was surprisingly smooth for me. Swarm was great but could have been longer and X... Well that was just aweful

[medoman]

http://www.thorpepark.com/angrybirdsland/

 

Seems like a rather strange direction to me, is thorpe trying to be more family friendly? sure, everyone enjoys angry birds but seems like an odd choice for "the nation's thrill capital"

 

Theres also already an angry birds land at lightwater valley

[_koppen]

Seems like a rather strange direction to me, is thorpe trying to be more family friendly? sure, everyone enjoys angry birds but seems like an odd choice for "the nation's thrill capital"

 

Expect more family oriented additions the coming years. They have realized that the teen crowd they were aiming at the last 10 years isn't spending as much money as they would like them to at the park.

[medoman]

though actually having though about it (rather hopefully), angry birds themeing lends itself quite well to wooden rides, enthusiasts have been hoping for a wooden coaster at Thorpe for ages, but it's seen as poorly marketable.

 

Could this be a way to please everyone? an angry birds wooden coaster could attract quite a few people

 

though its probably wishful thinking

[SharkTums]

^^Yay a park that finally get it! Hopefully this will improve the place. It's possible to have thrill rides and still cater to families.

[TDR62]

Confused about where the dodgems are going to sit. I can only think of two places given that this land will be smack bang in the middle of the park. The 4D movie will obviously go in the 4D theatre thats been sitting empty for 2yrs and with detonator backed up against Nemesis Inferno I can only think of indoor dodgems in the building with a shark in it or outside squeezed between the theatre and Tidal Wave...

[medoman]

coming 2015: Angry Birds' catapult, the world's first launched wooden coaster, breaking records for speed and number of inversions on any wooden coaster

 

source: wishful thinking

[rctneil]

I wasn't exactly thrilled when I heard the news of Thorpe's addition for this year (mainly as i'm not a huge Angry Birds fan) but it's grown on me. I think it will do well at Thorpe and Thorpe really needed some family/younger style attractions so this will be fantastic. It seems as though Merlin are trying to equalise all their parks attractions so each can cater for each member of the family which is great.

 

Doing slightly more with the franchise than they did at Lightwater is also great news to me. I understand Lightwater's was an "Activity Park" rather than a "Land" but I did expect a couple of themed rides etc but I guess that's all to come for Thorpe. I hope they do it well and it should be hugely popular!

[Nrthwnd]

Other than where it's located in the park, and it's peculiar attraction still with some gp,

I could definitely see them gutting the X:/No Way Out (or however it goes) building, for an

Angry Birds indoor ride. Maybe even an indoor wooden coaster, hmm?

[larrygator]

Here's a more comprehensive article I found

 

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/games/angry-birds/angry-birds-4d-is-flying-into-thorpe-park/042643

 

Caw blimey, a 4,000 square metre themed world is on the way.

 

Rovio has been introducing tangible Angry Birds attractions to various child-friendly locations over the past year, with Lightwater Valley investing £1 million in the venture and Holiday Club Resorts signing up for themed birthday parties and cafes.

 

The Finnish games studio has now secured an even bigger deal, however, which will reach kids and adults alike as Angry Birds 4D lands at the UK's Thorpe Park.

 

It's not the first time the Merlin Entertainments-owned theme park has featured 4D, having previously used its cinema to showcase Pirates 4D, which was succeeded by Time Voyagers.

 

The concept plays a short ten-minute movie, but adds to the experience with vibrating seats, jets of water and so on, techniques that are really common at Stateside parks including Universal Studios.

 

The Merlin Entertainments-owned theme park will go beyond a cinematic experience though, opening a new 4,000 square metre themed Angry Birds land that will include a new bumper car attraction, while the existing 13-year-old, 100-foot Detonator ride will be giving an avian revamp.

 

Both Rovio and Merlin will work together on the project and the new venue is set to open in May 2014 as part of a long-term strategic partnership.

 

Mark Fisher, chief development officer for Merlin Entertainments, said: "Thorpe Park Resort is the UK’s Thrill Capital, and we believe the ideal environment for Angry Birds 4D and theme park debut.

 

"Its young adult and family visitors are the core target audience of the Angry Birds franchise and no one is better placed than Merlin to capture the fun and humour of this fantastic IP – not least because most of my Magic Making colleagues are already great fans.”

 

Dan Mitchell, director of location based entertainment, added: "It’s great to be teaming up with Merlin Entertainments and Thorpe Park Resort, and we hope this will be just the first of many projects together.

 

"We are continuously looking to create amazing experiences for our fans by finding new ways to bring our characters from the digital world to the physical world. Having the game jump out of the screen and come alive around you is going to be incredible. We are confident that the partnership with Merlin, along with 3DBA, will bring this amazing experience to life."

[TPDave]

^ So it's a new 4D film, a retheme of the drop tower and some bumper cars? Their other IP tie-ins seem to be well maintained so hopefully this will follow suit.

[larrygator]

^ So it's a new 4D film, a retheme of the drop tower and some bumper cars? Their other IP tie-ins seem to be well maintained so hopefully this will follow suit.

 

Things are looking up for YOUR park.

[jedimaster1227]

It looks like Thorpe Park is in danger of some nearby flooding.

 

http://www.independent.ie/videos/world-news/thorpe-park-surrounded-by-water-floods-hit-theme-park-30003946.html

[Garet]

The title made me laugh a little when the header is Thorpe park is surrounded by water. Isn't the park always surrounded by water since it's on an island?

[BDG]

New park map.

 

Very original and so much better than the old one, which was useless as an actual map.

 

New:

 

 

Old:

 

[SharkTums]

They both hurt my eyes!!! It seems this park is pushing more the SFMM of England agenda. TEENS AND MORE TEENS!!!

[loop-de-loop]

^I agree. Do they have to make each coaster look like it is 1000ft tall?

[Garet]

They both hurt my eyes!!! It seems this park is pushing more the SFMM of England agenda. TEENS AND MORE TEENS!!!

 

The hotel in the older map definitely makes it look like a college party

 

Although I don't like either map, that new one puts so much emphasis on the coasters I find myself barely noticing anything else in the park, it'd probably be different when I had it in my hands when it's bigger but my eyes only seem to find the coasters. It took me a while to spot samurai, the old one looked extremely chaotic but at least I was looking at everything and could see where it was.