Thorpe Park Discussion Thread

[coasterbill]

Oh god leave the poor PR department alone.

[RyanTPM]

^That's what i was thinking

[mr.sugar]

Does anyone have some tips for affordable accomodation near Thorpe?

 

We plan to make a trip to Thorpe, stay over night at some hotel and then go somewhere to London next day (in second half of october). Is there something you would recommend besides what Thorpe offers on their site?

[Morgan]

There are a couple of Travelodges within easy reach of the park, there basic, but fine for a place to sleep for the night. There's one in Chertsey which is a newer one, with some limited free parking and another in Staines, which doesn't have any parking at the hotel, but there is a large car park just across the road which is chargeable. They are both about 5 minutes from the park by car.

 

Rates for Travelodges fluctuate quite a lot, so it's worth checking their website for the rates, but I've stayed in them for as little as £30 for the night, but I have also seen them as high as £70-80. The Chertsey hotel is the nicer of the two, but Staines is located next to a big shopping centre which has plenty of restaurants and a cinema, so it has lots of choices for the evening.

[mr.sugar]

Thanks a lot for these tips .

[Henry M]

If you are on a budget, DON'T BUT ANYTHING!!! Bring your own food and wait out the queues and you could save masses.

[TheoB]

If you are on a budget, DON'T BUT ANYTHING!!! Bring your own food and wait out the queues and you could save masses.

 

If you haven't been before and aren't going for a while this is completely the wrong idea. Try and wait stuff out an I recommend visiting Swarm later on as it gets the morning crowd. Ride Colossus and Saw first they are the lowest capacity coasters. If your not visiting again for while getting fast tracks are 100% worth it.

[mr.sugar]

If you are on a budget, DON'T BUT ANYTHING!!! Bring your own food and wait out the queues and you could save masses.

 

If you haven't been before and aren't going for a while this is completely the wrong idea. Try and wait stuff out an I recommend visiting Swarm later on as it gets the morning crowd. Ride Colossus and Saw first they are the lowest capacity coasters. If your not visiting again for while getting fast tracks are 100% worth it.

 

We will be there October 15th, saturday. Therefore I expect fastpass to be handy. I gonna buy it for sure. Just don´t need to throw away money for just simple sleepover, that´s something i would like to save money on.

[TheoB]

If you are on a budget, DON'T BUT ANYTHING!!! Bring your own food and wait out the queues and you could save masses.

 

If you haven't been before and aren't going for a while this is completely the wrong idea. Try and wait stuff out an I recommend visiting Swarm later on as it gets the morning crowd. Ride Colossus and Saw first they are the lowest capacity coasters. If your not visiting again for while getting fast tracks are 100% worth it.

 

We will be there October 15th, saturday. Therefore I expect fastpass to be handy. I gonna buy it for sure. Just don´t need to throw away money for just simple sleepover, that´s something i would like to save money on.

 

Your definitely going to need fastpasses, your going during Fright Nights which basically means huge queues for everything. on the other hadn the park is open till 10pm!

[Comprox]

I am looking to hit up this park in October. I read that the Fright Nights can be very busy, but it looks like they are open on Mondays with none of the Fright Night stuff running that day. We are totally fine with skipping the Fright Night stuff if the lines are much smaller. Is there any downside to this, such as rides usually being closed on the Monday or such? I even checked a few sites that give you an idea if a park is busy on a certain day. Most don't list Thorpe and the one that did stated it was closed all October. Handy!

[mr.sugar]

Thanks guys for tips. Got my fasttrack and accomodation close the the park.

 

What´s the better way of transport around London BTW? Should I go with UBER or use public transport? We are going to arrive to Gatwick in the evening, so not sure whatever it is good to go via public transport....

[Henry M]

If you are staying near a train line then take the train, otherwise don't bother and get UBER.

[TheoB]

Thanks guys for tips. Got my fasttrack and accomodation close the the park.

 

What´s the better way of transport around London BTW? Should I go with UBER or use public transport? We are going to arrive to Gatwick in the evening, so not sure whatever it is good to go via public transport....

 

If your going to straight to Thorpe Park from Gatwick there are trains that go from Gatwick to Staines (nearest town) in less than an hour. If you are going during Fright Nights you can get the bus from the station but otherwise you can get a taxi.

https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/results?IsAsync=true&JpType=publictransport&InputFrom=Gatwick+Airport+Rail+Station&From=Gatwick+Airport+Rail+Station&FromId=1000901&PreviousFrom=&InputTo=Staines+Rail+Station&To=Staines+Rail+Station&ToId=1001501&PreviousTo=&Date=20161005&Time=2030&Mode=bus&Mode=tube&Mode=national-rail&Mode=dlr&Mode=overground&Mode=tflrail&Mode=river-bus&Mode=tram&Mode=cable-car&Mode=coach&CyclePreference=AllTheWay&WalkingSpeedWalking=average&JourneyPreference=leasttime&AccessibilityPreference=norequirements&MaxWalkingMinutes=40&WalkingSpeedTransport=average&InputVia=&Via=&ViaId=&PreviousVia=&NationalSearch=false&WalkingOptimization=false&SavePreferences=false&IsMultipleJourneySelection=False&JourneyType=&IsPastWarning=False

[mr.sugar]

Thanks guys for tips. I wanted to visit this park for a while already and finally got there. I wasn´t dissapointed and had a great time.

 

Planned to do a trip report, but sadly, my camera died right after arrival . So maybe next year, plan to come back and make a trip for Black pool and Alton Towers as well.

[scottjenkins]

So guys and girls, the plans released a few years back indicated a second roller coaster in the next few years behind Swarm on the island so lets start speculating.

 

Firstly, what do you think will be the next installment and secondly what would you like to see built and where?

 

I'm thinking a mega lite / sized coaster will take the land next to Swarm, however a part of me is wondering what will happen to the loggers leap site. GCI double coaster deal perhaps?

 

What would I love to see? A Flyer similar to The Flying Dinosaur would be a massive positive investment for the park as they've already got a launched, two loopers, a winged and an inverted. So A woody, flyer or dive machine would be the logical choice in my opinion.

 

Thoughts?

[livai]

that the park should return to make money,

[scottjenkins]

So guys and girls, the plans released a few years back indicated a second roller coaster in the next few years behind Swarm on the island so lets start speculating.

 

Firstly, what do you think will be the next installment and secondly what would you like to see built and where?

 

I'm thinking a mega lite / sized coaster will take the land next to Swarm, however a part of me is wondering what will happen to the loggers leap site. GCI double coaster deal perhaps?

 

What would I love to see? A Flyer similar to The Flying Dinosaur would be a massive positive investment for the park as they've already got a launched, two loopers, a winged and an inverted. So A woody, flyer or dive machine would be the logical choice in my opinion.

 

Thoughts?

 

Well this was a bust....................................

[Rollercoaster Rider]

Hope Stealth got fixed and Derren Brown is good to go in October Next Year

[scottjenkins]

Think Stealth was operating at the end of this season

[mr.sugar]

Think Stealth was operating at the end of this season

 

Indeed it was

[TheoB]

Hope Stealth got fixed and Derren Brown is good to go in October Next Year

 

Think Stealth was operating at the end of this season

 

Indeed it was

 

Stealth was just down August, it reopened late September. I can't remember what was wrong. They are also improving DBGT this off season. Quite simply making it work more than half the time would be a huge improvement though. I rode it two times and both times it was quite simply mediocre.

[Bane]

So guys and girls, the plans released a few years back indicated a second roller coaster in the next few years behind Swarm on the island so lets start speculating.

 

Firstly, what do you think will be the next installment and secondly what would you like to see built and where?

 

I'm thinking a mega lite / sized coaster will take the land next to Swarm, however a part of me is wondering what will happen to the loggers leap site. GCI double coaster deal perhaps?

 

What would I love to see? A Flyer similar to The Flying Dinosaur would be a massive positive investment for the park as they've already got a launched, two loopers, a winged and an inverted. So A woody, flyer or dive machine would be the logical choice in my opinion.

 

Thoughts?

 

I'd have liked to see Loggers Leap remain open in truth, but the same goes for the Flume at Towers!

 

I think they'll replace Loggers Leap with an RMC coaster or follow in Towers footsteps with a woodie, as for behind the Swarm, well if they could build a coaster like Shambhala or Goliath (Walibi Holland) it would bring back my interest in Thorpe Park.

[scottjenkins]

They've got a height restriction also I think. There's 2 airports very close by Heathrow and Gatwick so anything higher than Stealtgs 205 feet might be a pipe dream.

 

I may be (and hopefully) totally wrong!

[thedazza]

They've got a height restriction also I think. There's 2 airports very close by Heathrow and Gatwick so anything higher than Stealtgs 205 feet might be a pipe dream.

 

I may be (and hopefully) totally wrong!

 

Yes you are correct about the height restriction. Like you say Stealth is 205 ft tall so a hyper is a possibility, but it wouldn't be much, if any, taller than stealth.

 

For the next coaster I would guess at an RMC, or a B&M Launched Flying Coaster.

 

Here is the original rough plan for the area, this is from quite some time ago with the layout on the right being what eventually became The Swarm. The layout on here isn't that much different from the finished design, so the other coaster's layout may not be too different to what is eventually put there. But obviously plans change all the time so who knows.

 

[TM.]

Thorpe's limit is 500ft, so long no plane routes are blocked. Whilst I doubt we will see anything this high they can certainly build above 205ft.

 

In regards to tthe above plans - I suggest you forget these at this point as I guarantee they have been shelved. Thorpe's long term development plan has no ended and so those plans are now irrelevant until we find out about their next LTDP, due this year.