Thorpe Park TR (15.4.12)

[89James89]

Well given that M's (my girlfriend) brother and his girlfriend are down from Scotland for Easter we decided to hit Thorpe Park today. Hoping that crowds would be light due to it being the end of the holidays and a Sunday we left at the crack of dawn to enjoy a fun filled day.

 

Fast forward 7 hours later it would seem that the whole crowds being light assumption wasn't at all misplaced. I think the longest wait we had all day was for Saw and that was only around 30 minutes. Anyway here are the pictures that I took while there as well as annotations and other such stuff. (Apologies for blurry photos and terrible shot's I hardly use my camera and am not used to taking decent photo's)

 

 

Yay for a inviting sight I haven't seen a couple of years (I live in the South West of England for those wandering, on the south coast of Devon).

 

Wait a minute that wasn't here last time I was here. That must be Swarm, honestly one of the ugliest placed coasters I've seen if you ask me. It sticks out like a sore thumb and doesn't really improve the skyline still looks aren't everything.

 

Come to think of it neither was this here last time I visited. Quite randomly places really (Can't remember what was here before hand but think it was some games and a small kiddie ride wasn't it?). Doesn't look like you get too wet is always a bad thought to have in your head when your queueing for a water ride. Turns out the splash at the bottom is a big wetter when your in the boat so came off of this one pretty wet. Plus the ride ops decided to empty the boats after we'd just boarded so we had a boat full of water which got our feet soaked. Thorpe Park is trolling me.

 

Artistic shot of Nemisis's flaming cousin with Stormsurge frame (or oh look a train lets get a pic despite how its going to look).

 

Another shot of Inferno. A cool ride if you ask me though not incredibly forecful. Still I'm sure it ran a lot faster than the last time I went on it. This was the scend ride we rode after expreincing X: I wish I'd Never Found A Way In. Still we had only spent about 5 minutes queuing up to this point so can't complain too much.

 

This was next. Awesome forces on the launch and great airtime on the hill right before you hit the breaks. Coupled with another 5 minute queue equals big win for Stealth. Felt faster this than last time (which having just checked wiki is because the trains are lighter or something) but seriously does anyone know why its called Stealth? I'm probably being stupid but I'm not sure what the name has to do with the whole Amity Cove Raceway.

 

Saw was the next planned ride but they had closed it to add another car and the ride attendant wasn't sure how long it would be till they opened again (Just out of wonder does anyone know how long it normally takes to add a train to a ride?). So, we decided to try and work our way around some flat rides starting with Vortex. Turned out to be a bad idea as we got as far as Zodiac before we all felt sick and needed to eat (yup that's all of two flat rides). Turns out queues are useful for settling stomach's.

 

Old El'Paso goodness was decided for that althoguh I didn't get any pictures of it so heres a random picture of M's huge hotdog that apparently they don't do big buns for (pretty sure there's screwed up connotations in that sentence somewhere) which I thought was weird and stupid.

 

After dinner we hit Rumba Rapids where I made sure I didn't try to jump out the boat and swim. Mainly becasuse it was cold and your not supposed to swim for a hour after eating food. Oh and also because I'm not completely stupid, I mean seriously who thinks that doing that is a good idea.

 

Anyway rant aside, next we headed to try and make daisy chains and sing peace songs with these things called The Swarm. Turned out that they're not interested and decided to throw me around a bit instead. These following pictures show (or rather try) it doing just that to some fellow brave daisy picking peace people.

 

 

 

 

Now despite it sticking out like a sore thumb (first picture kind of shows this), the apparently lethal dangerous bugs were amazingly gentle. God know's why all restraints can't be like this with the extra springy thing that keeps you held down without smashing your shoudlers into he restraints. Seriously though amazingly comfortable. Force wise I would rank all of the other coasters ahead of this (accept from Flying Fish obviously and X:God this hurts which just hurts) but the different ride on each side (right hand sides more forecful) and the amazing comfort of it made this a awesome addition in my opinion. Having no queues helped as well.

 

Random theming for Swarm which judging by the building they should put next to X:Running out of names. Nice new area anyways and it looks like they have a largish plot sat there ready to be expanded on so fingers crossed for that.

 

Next was this. Always have loved this ride though this year, it would seem my new found love for Swarm had annoyed it somewhat and it decided to bash me around a bit. Still not enough to make me dislike the ride. Intamin should replace the restraints with non ratchet ones though as they would improve the ride comfort.

 

Last photo and ride of the day was on this (I mean Saw even though this is a failed attempt at getting two cars and Samurai in the same photo). Now I've been on it before and knew what to expect in the inside but listening to my girlfriend muttering what the hell as we headed towards the trap then screaming as we dropped was hilarious. Easily the most intense coaster in the park for me, due not to the drop, but the speed at which you take the airtime hills and change direction this was great fun and unlike last time Jigsaw failed to give me a headache. He did follow me with a pig for a bit of the Saw Alive maze though which was funny. Realising that you were the last one in the group after you've just spent a while walking along with someones hands on your shoulders is always reassuring. They don't like it when you stare at them before they can jump out at you though. Kind of ruins their vibe

 

So yer a grat day out at Thorpe Park with maximum queue times of around 30 minutes for Saw (take that random lady trying to sell fasttrack tickets at the entrance), 20 for Colossus and 10 for a kebab (despite there only being three of us at the stand) meant it was well worth the travelling (about a 5 and a half hour round trip) and fun for everyone. Now all I need to do is convince M to go to Alton Towers.

 

Hope it isn't to unbearable a trip report.

 

Cheers

 

89James89