witchfinder
Giga Poster
A trip report for a park nearly everyone has been to with photos that nearly everyone has taken? Why not!
Last weekend myself and the wife has a 2-day visit to Thorpe Park. You can get a really decent deal via the Thorpe Breaks website for certain dates, and we got park entry for 2 days plus a night’s stay and breakfast at the Hilton in Bracknell for just £111, which I’d say is very good value.
This was my third visit and her first, and was more focussed around what she wanted to ride as I really wanted to see what she would go on having become more willing to ride thrill coasters after our visit to the USA last year. She fell in love with Wild Eagle at Dollywood so I was hoping Swarm would be an appealing, more local alternative
It was absolutely scorching hot weather for both days and as a results the crowds were pretty large, but we still managed to ride all the good stuff and the weather gave a good excuse to try out some of the water rides which I’d not ridden on my previous visits.
We arrived just before midday on Sunday and after some unnecessary queuing for entry tickets (turned out our printed out voucher could just be scanned at the turnstiles) we decided to eat our lunch first and then hit the rides. We amazingly found a nice picnic bench in the shade right at the end of Colossus where it turns around to go back towards the station.
After lunch we decided to cool down with a ride on Tidal Wave. I’ve been on a few of these shoot the chutes rides now and most of them don’t tend to get you that wet due to projecting the water away from the boat. Not so with Tidal Wave, as it propels the water forwards and then the boat goes under the wave. The result was a thorough head-to-foot soaking!
(Well we were warned!)
Next stop was Rumba Rapids, but just as we were about to board it broke down, which amusingly led to all the boats accumulating at the end of the ride.
With Storm Surge having a 60 minute queue, that was the end of any water rides for that day and we moved on to the creds. First up, Nemesis Inferno, since it was so close to the rapids. I’ve previously not been that impressed with Inferno. It’s a poor relative of the original for sure, and it was ranked as my worst B&M Invert. However this time around it has grown on me a bit, as we had a few rides over the two days. I do like the theming and now all the plants are well established the area is really nice.
Overall it’s fun but a bit lacking in intensity compared to the others, but Anna really enjoyed it (more than Alton’s Nemesis :O) and I’ve decided to move it above Batman in my invert rankings. One thing it does always do is make me really dizzy when I come off, probably because of the interlocking corkscrews.
Next up we headed for Thorpe’s ‘new’ addition for 2018, The Walking Dead: The Ride. It may just be a re-theme of crappy old X, but fair play to Merlin, they’ve done a great job with it. You now get an outdoor queue line, a pre-show, a variety of neat touches in the indoor corridors, some reasonable effects on-ride and even scare actors on selected days (probably only on weekends). They do put a sign up to warn you if there are scare actors on duty.
They also seem to have done ‘something’ to the way the ride operates. I won’t give any spoilers away for anyone that wants a surprise, but it’s quite impressive that they made the effort to modify the operation of a 20+ year old coaster. I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the whole package, despite the coaster itself being rather ****.
After a short break to cool down with an ice cream, we headed towards Swarm, stopping for a ride on Flying Fish on the way. I’ve never known this have more than a one train wait and this day was no exception. Probably helps that the train is ****ing massive!
On to Swarm then, which was down to a 25 minute wait by this time. Anna was a bit intimidated by the dive drop so I suggested we start on the left side as I feel the 180 degree turn is less weird on that side.
(Nobody has ever taken this photo before!)
I always knew it wasn’t going to match up to her expectations based on Wild Eagle, because despite being a wing coaster it’s a very different ride, being more focussed on inversions. And so it proved to be - she didn’t really enjoy the first ride and the hangtime elements in particular, but she was willing to try again the next day. As for me, I enjoy the ride despite the lack of intensity and short length, and it has become my favourite in the park.
We then headed back over to Stealth, and I was hoping this might become Anna’s first coaster over 200ft, if only because if she didn’t like it, it is over almost as soon as it begins. She did give it some consideration but in the end I couldn’t convince her, so I went for a solo ride and grabbed front row as the queue wasn’t too long.
(Definitely nobody has ever taken this photo before!)
I’d only ridden Stealth for the first time myself last year, both rides near the back, so I hadn’t had the joys of the view you get on the front row when you head over the Top Hat. I absolutely loved it! I still think it’s a shame the ride doesn’t do anything after that, but it definitely went up in my estimations a bit after that front row ride.
With time pressing on, we headed towards Saw and Colossus, stopping for a second ride on Nemesis Inferno on the way as the line was down to ten minutes. They had the effects on this time around so the tunnel under the station was nice and misty, which was very welcome on a hot day.
Next up was Saw, which Anna was never going to consider riding. I do really like the theme and the layout of the ride, but it does get rougher every time I ride it and when I consider it was my No. 2 coaster in my pre-goon days a few years ago, it makes me realise just how many great coasters I’ve ridden in the last two years.
(Pretty sure nobody has ever taken this photo before!)
Last ride of the day should have been Colossus, but just as I joined the queue it broke down so we decided to call it a day and managed to get out of the park just before 5pm, avoiding any bad traffic. We headed over to our hotel and had a quiet night in, apart from eating at a pretty decent BBQ place called Blues Smokehouse in Bracknell.
Pretty good first day to be honest, grabbing all but one coaster and even getting a re-ride in under 5 hours on a hot summer day.
Last weekend myself and the wife has a 2-day visit to Thorpe Park. You can get a really decent deal via the Thorpe Breaks website for certain dates, and we got park entry for 2 days plus a night’s stay and breakfast at the Hilton in Bracknell for just £111, which I’d say is very good value.
This was my third visit and her first, and was more focussed around what she wanted to ride as I really wanted to see what she would go on having become more willing to ride thrill coasters after our visit to the USA last year. She fell in love with Wild Eagle at Dollywood so I was hoping Swarm would be an appealing, more local alternative
It was absolutely scorching hot weather for both days and as a results the crowds were pretty large, but we still managed to ride all the good stuff and the weather gave a good excuse to try out some of the water rides which I’d not ridden on my previous visits.
We arrived just before midday on Sunday and after some unnecessary queuing for entry tickets (turned out our printed out voucher could just be scanned at the turnstiles) we decided to eat our lunch first and then hit the rides. We amazingly found a nice picnic bench in the shade right at the end of Colossus where it turns around to go back towards the station.
After lunch we decided to cool down with a ride on Tidal Wave. I’ve been on a few of these shoot the chutes rides now and most of them don’t tend to get you that wet due to projecting the water away from the boat. Not so with Tidal Wave, as it propels the water forwards and then the boat goes under the wave. The result was a thorough head-to-foot soaking!
(Well we were warned!)
Next stop was Rumba Rapids, but just as we were about to board it broke down, which amusingly led to all the boats accumulating at the end of the ride.
With Storm Surge having a 60 minute queue, that was the end of any water rides for that day and we moved on to the creds. First up, Nemesis Inferno, since it was so close to the rapids. I’ve previously not been that impressed with Inferno. It’s a poor relative of the original for sure, and it was ranked as my worst B&M Invert. However this time around it has grown on me a bit, as we had a few rides over the two days. I do like the theming and now all the plants are well established the area is really nice.
Overall it’s fun but a bit lacking in intensity compared to the others, but Anna really enjoyed it (more than Alton’s Nemesis :O) and I’ve decided to move it above Batman in my invert rankings. One thing it does always do is make me really dizzy when I come off, probably because of the interlocking corkscrews.
Next up we headed for Thorpe’s ‘new’ addition for 2018, The Walking Dead: The Ride. It may just be a re-theme of crappy old X, but fair play to Merlin, they’ve done a great job with it. You now get an outdoor queue line, a pre-show, a variety of neat touches in the indoor corridors, some reasonable effects on-ride and even scare actors on selected days (probably only on weekends). They do put a sign up to warn you if there are scare actors on duty.
They also seem to have done ‘something’ to the way the ride operates. I won’t give any spoilers away for anyone that wants a surprise, but it’s quite impressive that they made the effort to modify the operation of a 20+ year old coaster. I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the whole package, despite the coaster itself being rather ****.
After a short break to cool down with an ice cream, we headed towards Swarm, stopping for a ride on Flying Fish on the way. I’ve never known this have more than a one train wait and this day was no exception. Probably helps that the train is ****ing massive!
On to Swarm then, which was down to a 25 minute wait by this time. Anna was a bit intimidated by the dive drop so I suggested we start on the left side as I feel the 180 degree turn is less weird on that side.
(Nobody has ever taken this photo before!)
I always knew it wasn’t going to match up to her expectations based on Wild Eagle, because despite being a wing coaster it’s a very different ride, being more focussed on inversions. And so it proved to be - she didn’t really enjoy the first ride and the hangtime elements in particular, but she was willing to try again the next day. As for me, I enjoy the ride despite the lack of intensity and short length, and it has become my favourite in the park.
We then headed back over to Stealth, and I was hoping this might become Anna’s first coaster over 200ft, if only because if she didn’t like it, it is over almost as soon as it begins. She did give it some consideration but in the end I couldn’t convince her, so I went for a solo ride and grabbed front row as the queue wasn’t too long.
(Definitely nobody has ever taken this photo before!)
I’d only ridden Stealth for the first time myself last year, both rides near the back, so I hadn’t had the joys of the view you get on the front row when you head over the Top Hat. I absolutely loved it! I still think it’s a shame the ride doesn’t do anything after that, but it definitely went up in my estimations a bit after that front row ride.
With time pressing on, we headed towards Saw and Colossus, stopping for a second ride on Nemesis Inferno on the way as the line was down to ten minutes. They had the effects on this time around so the tunnel under the station was nice and misty, which was very welcome on a hot day.
Next up was Saw, which Anna was never going to consider riding. I do really like the theme and the layout of the ride, but it does get rougher every time I ride it and when I consider it was my No. 2 coaster in my pre-goon days a few years ago, it makes me realise just how many great coasters I’ve ridden in the last two years.
(Pretty sure nobody has ever taken this photo before!)
Last ride of the day should have been Colossus, but just as I joined the queue it broke down so we decided to call it a day and managed to get out of the park just before 5pm, avoiding any bad traffic. We headed over to our hotel and had a quiet night in, apart from eating at a pretty decent BBQ place called Blues Smokehouse in Bracknell.
Pretty good first day to be honest, grabbing all but one coaster and even getting a re-ride in under 5 hours on a hot summer day.