Mini Trip Report, Thorpe Park, Sunday March 19th

Well I have to start this by expressing my dissapointment at the following rides not being in operation to day at Thorpe Park:

Tidal Wave

Slammer

Rush (I really wanted to go on this, really badly )

Detonator

X:/No Way Out (don't really care much about this ride)

Samurai

Depth Charge

But I think alot of this was made better by the way everything was handled about Stealth, well when the park gates opened I was quite far back in the Annual Pass queue, but as I jogged nearly all the way to Stealth there was only about 20 people in front of me(well worth the little jog), and by 9:40 it was open without any fuss or breakdowns it opened straight away(shame I can't say the same for Rita), about half the people in fron of me went to the front row queue, so I joined them, well worth the extra little wait! Alltogether that day I got to ride Stealth 4 times, twice at the front which made me happy, brilliant at the front apart from no airtime on the airtime hill, but there was some in the back row! If Stealth has a long queue don't be fooled, it goes down very quickly, mainly due to the ride staff and how they go about loading and unloading, well we joined the queue when it was at the 30minute post and we were only queuing for about 20 minutes!!!!

Another down side to the day was that Colossus was only running one train, so we never queued for it properly(single rider), as you will hear from the video of Colossus i have, it's rattling very badly, especially going through the Cobra Roll, even worse when your sitting at the back, it's not rough, it just rattles like mad and sounds horrible, it's still a beast of a coaster though! As you will see in the pics, the weather was gorgeous to day, not a cloud in the sky all day, so we thought we would bare the water rides, well Loggers Leap and River Rapids, Loggers Leap gave me a nice refreshing spay in the face(of water), even though I'm pretty sure the log we were in had a wee hole as it was filling up with water(soaking my socks ). I thought that in the cold weather(alright it wasn't that cold) they turn all the water features(that soak you) off, ie the taps and hoses that soak you on the rapids, but today they weren't, also what on earth goes on in that tunnel on the rapids? All I know is I went in there dry and came out absolutely soaked! Even though I got a soaking, the rapids here are way too short.

I suppose in a way I've kind of saved the kind of best to last, in Nemesis Inferno, such a cool ride, thats the only way to descripe it, it's just cool, I love it so much, even thought the themeing in that tunnel is horrific, it's just a cool ride, but the worst thing they done with it is it's name, not only does it begin with Nemesis but it even has the same Nemesis Logo, and due to this it is immediatly compared with the original Nemesis, if they had just called it Inferno this would never happen, it's just such a cool ride!

And basically thats all we done all day, well there weren't many flat rides to go on, apart from Zodiac and Quantum but thats just a waste of time, such a great day out though, sun shining all day long and the ride with the least down time.....................STEALTH!

Also, Mr Monkey's Banana Boat: coolest themed pirate ship EVER!!(sorry but no photo)

Thorpe Park should now consider replacing the Detonator with a real drop tower (Intamin) wink wink, well I don't mean thats as a bad word against the Detonator, it's just the Intamin drop towers are much bigger and better, and travelling rides don't suit Thorpe Park!

Very cool launch, just a shame the ride is sooo short! Well short but sweet. IMO this rides works the same way that Oblivion works, fast, short and very exhilarating!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....Also very futuristic looking trains, also not fitting in very well with the 1950's rock 'n' roll era.

Hehe! Am I the only person that thinks Stealth very futuristic logo is not fitting in with the 1950's rock 'n' roll era?

Stealth going 80-0 in 2 seconds

Stealth and oh another ride that wasn't open!

Another cool 'postcard shot' of the cool Nemesis Inferno, and the Detonator which was not exploding today

End of the day and clouds were appearing

Very Cool 'postcard shot' of Colossus

Nemesis Inferno.zip

stealth_3_135.zip

stealth_2_195.zip

stealth_210.zip

You do realise there's a good reason Tidal Wave isn't open... It's about 10 degrees outside and you get soaked on that ride...

Detonator is well better than any Intamin drop tower of the same size. Plus Thorpe can't build above the 130ft mark. Stealth was a one off for them.

I'll be at Thorpe in... a few weeks. Hurrah!

^ Thats fair enough abot Tidal Wave, I don't think it's just closed because of the tempreture, I think they are still in the middle of plastering it with Original Source advertising, which just looks silly!

How on earth were they aloud a "one off", I've never heard of that before, if you have a height restriction, you have it and theres nout you can do about it, and I've heard they don't have a height resriction.

Thats sucks if it's true, why on earth do they have one? It's on an island with not much around it apart from a motorway and some water sports place, so why would people moan, so in othre words, the Big One at Blackpool is going to be the only Hypercoaster Britain will ever have!

I went on Sunday had a fairly alright time, must say running from the Annual Pass queue to stealth is hard work to then get told Stealth might not open and get told don't start a queue up then one builds one anyway seen by the photo from the gate where I was.

as for Tidal Wave its close, due to there no chain on the lift hence why its close. they ordered the new chain last year, don't think its come yet.

I think they are still in the middle of plastering it with Original Source advertising, which just looks silly!

If your hate advertising, just wait till you do the new rethemed Bubbleworks at Chessington.

Taken from Stealth Gate last sunday before it opened about 9:45am.

Hey, I should be in that picture,I was right at the front, if you had moved a wee bit to the left I would be in it,, I was surprised how quick Stealth opened on Sunday

I didn't run to Stealth, I jogged, and it was worth it!

By any chance were you wearing a yellow jacket?

Ouch....Stealth going 80-0 in 2 seconds??

How on earth were they aloud a "one off", I've never heard of that before, if you have a height restriction, you have it and theres nout you can do about it, and I've heard they don't have a height resriction.

They do have a height restiction, and have to apply for exceptions to build over a certain height, Stealths area has the 200ft limit, the rest of the park has a lower limit...

So in other words, The Pepsi Max Big One is going to be the only hyper coaster England will ever have! Joy

They have a height restriction because the coucil say so. Theirs nothing Thorpe can do about it and does it really matter. Just because a ride is tall doesn't mean it is always better. Detonator is 115ft high and alot of people say it provides a better ride than towers like Apocalypse that is 200ft high.

Also the restriction is there because Thorpe is right under the flight path going into Heathrow.

Tidal Wave was shut because, as Toby said, it needed a new chain which it now has and is open.

And you say the trains arn't in fitting with the Amity area. They are designed to look like the style of cars from that era. Compare the front of this 1950's Cadillac to the front of the Stealth trains.

Real Car

Stealth Car

Great TR martinb. Shame about the ride closures.

Still not too sure about Stealth though, hopefully it will be just like Oblivion and just keep pulling me back for more! As I have previously metioned in this forum I havn't ridden Nemesis Inferno yet so I also have that to look forward to.

I am thinking of going in May - does anyone know when the school's have their half-terms etc etc so i can avoid these days.

Paulos

martinb did you say you had a video of Colosus rattling - sure would like to see that?

Ok, here it is, sorry I didn't post it in th TP, I had problems with uploading it!

(Major rattling through the cobra roll!!!!)

Colossus.zip

Also the restriction is there because Thorpe is right under the flight path going into Heathrow

If you notice when the planes go over the park, they're already about 10,000/15,000ft up, so I don't think a 300ft ride would do that much damage! And Stealth doesn't even have one of them red warning lights on the top!

I am thinking of going in May - does anyone know when the school's have their half-terms etc etc so i can avoid these days.

Hi Paulos

May half term dates are Sat 27th May - Sun 4th June. Hope that helps.