Ormerod
Hyper Poster
Well since I arrived down South, Kerri had revealed to me that she had booked 2 tickets to Thorpe Park, unaware that Halloween was probably one of the most feared days to visit the place, bang in the middle of Fright Nights!
Obviously I never backed down due to the fact I had never visited the park, yet it is one of the most popular in this country which I felt embarassed about. So we arrived at about 9am an hour before the place opened. The turnout was already pretty massive... the car park was heaving and the customers hastily queued {some in some pretty freaky costumes}.
The first thing I noticed when we finally got round to entering the park that Stealth was down. I felt a bit annoyed that on the busiest day of the year, probably the most popular ride was not open.
The park was tidy on the day which is a plus. We dashed through the middle of the park anyway, and headed to what looked like the most promising coaster out of the lot, Nemesis Inferno.
The queue area is really well done I thought {the whole Volcano bit} , but the coaster itself didn't look as good up close as Alton's Nemesis.
Anyway, we were told that it would not open till later in the day, another dissapointment. At this point we just headed over to Rush, which was walk on.
My thoughts on Rush. It's a good ride, but the cycle does it no justice whatsoever. I wanted to go on Rush again later on, but I knew I'd probably have no chance.
Throughout the day we did a few more of the flats such as; Quantum, Vortex & Zodiac... which at the time {maybe 11am-1pm} were all pretty much a 5-10 min queue. Not as bad as I predicted Fright Nights would be. I was pretty dissapointed at Thorpe's themeing efforts on their flat rides.
As we passed Slammer {and realising it was also closed} we figured that X:/ No Way Out can be quickly done & it would also mean a credit for me! We waited about 10 minutes before finally getting on. It was awful & pretty much pointless, the building it sits it takes up quite a bit of space too, I don't understand why Thorpe have kept this ride in operation.
At about 2pm the park was getting a lot busier, so we knew we'd have to queue for a coaster again, to grab the main credits. So, it was Colossus. To be fair, when you approach the ride it looks okay. The terraining section that fires past the queueline is great.
It was definately a shame I had to queue almost 2 hours for the damn thing though. Inversions are really quite rough on the thing, but the drop is fine, not smooth but definately not painful. Obviously the ride is based around inversions so it is quite a bloody rough bugger, I didn't enjoy it really. To be honest after the Cobra roll I just wanted to get off and bandage my head up.
Finally we got on Nemesis Inferno pretty much instantly after we dashed from the Colossus exit straight into the queueline. What did I think? It was dissapointing, I have to be honest. The drop was alright I cannot really critiscise it, but the rest was just boring. There's not actually any intensity to it, and I think Altons Nemmy is definately a better ride, without question.
I then decided we should give the rapids a go, they opened later on and it was walk on by the time we reached them. To be fair they are similar to Altons, and pretty much adequate at best. From the water next to the rapids, I stared at the credit that remained closed.
I knew in my mind that Saw was packed, so we knew to avoid it until we could brave a 2+ hour queueline again. So we headed to the better themed area of the park, Amity Cove. I am impressed with Amity, it is miles ahead of most themeing the UK has. Tidal wave was empty almost, but it wasn't the type of day to ride it anyway. I can imagine it being rather picturesque in summer or in hot weather.
I liked this thing too!
The KFC probably deserves a mention, it fits in so well with the Amity environment.
Mazes were all packed out and Saw was absolutely rammed. Dissapointed due to not getting on any of them. {For all those that wondered, Stealth opened later in the afternoon but remained packed}.
All in all I think Thorpe is one of the best parks in the UK undoubtedly, but there seems to be no atmosphere. I don't know why, I was not drawn to the park. Fright Nights certainly drew thousands of chavs to the park which made it even worse to queue, they make a 10 min queue feel like a 2 hour queue.
I will be visiting more often, it seems like a good park to pass-by on the way to better European parks. But yes I will definately advise people not to do Halloween at Thorpe. The morning is okay but as soon as you get to maybe 2pm, you will get on hardly anything.
Ride Count:
Nemesis Inferno x1
Colossus x1
Flying Fish x1
X:/ No Way Out x1
Rush x1
Zodiac x2
Quantum x1
Vortex x1
Train Ride? x1
Log Flume x1
Rumba Rapids x1
{Sorry about the picture quality, all took on a cameraphone!}
Obviously I never backed down due to the fact I had never visited the park, yet it is one of the most popular in this country which I felt embarassed about. So we arrived at about 9am an hour before the place opened. The turnout was already pretty massive... the car park was heaving and the customers hastily queued {some in some pretty freaky costumes}.
The first thing I noticed when we finally got round to entering the park that Stealth was down. I felt a bit annoyed that on the busiest day of the year, probably the most popular ride was not open.
The park was tidy on the day which is a plus. We dashed through the middle of the park anyway, and headed to what looked like the most promising coaster out of the lot, Nemesis Inferno.
The queue area is really well done I thought {the whole Volcano bit} , but the coaster itself didn't look as good up close as Alton's Nemesis.
Anyway, we were told that it would not open till later in the day, another dissapointment. At this point we just headed over to Rush, which was walk on.
My thoughts on Rush. It's a good ride, but the cycle does it no justice whatsoever. I wanted to go on Rush again later on, but I knew I'd probably have no chance.
Throughout the day we did a few more of the flats such as; Quantum, Vortex & Zodiac... which at the time {maybe 11am-1pm} were all pretty much a 5-10 min queue. Not as bad as I predicted Fright Nights would be. I was pretty dissapointed at Thorpe's themeing efforts on their flat rides.
As we passed Slammer {and realising it was also closed} we figured that X:/ No Way Out can be quickly done & it would also mean a credit for me! We waited about 10 minutes before finally getting on. It was awful & pretty much pointless, the building it sits it takes up quite a bit of space too, I don't understand why Thorpe have kept this ride in operation.
At about 2pm the park was getting a lot busier, so we knew we'd have to queue for a coaster again, to grab the main credits. So, it was Colossus. To be fair, when you approach the ride it looks okay. The terraining section that fires past the queueline is great.
It was definately a shame I had to queue almost 2 hours for the damn thing though. Inversions are really quite rough on the thing, but the drop is fine, not smooth but definately not painful. Obviously the ride is based around inversions so it is quite a bloody rough bugger, I didn't enjoy it really. To be honest after the Cobra roll I just wanted to get off and bandage my head up.
Finally we got on Nemesis Inferno pretty much instantly after we dashed from the Colossus exit straight into the queueline. What did I think? It was dissapointing, I have to be honest. The drop was alright I cannot really critiscise it, but the rest was just boring. There's not actually any intensity to it, and I think Altons Nemmy is definately a better ride, without question.
I then decided we should give the rapids a go, they opened later on and it was walk on by the time we reached them. To be fair they are similar to Altons, and pretty much adequate at best. From the water next to the rapids, I stared at the credit that remained closed.
I knew in my mind that Saw was packed, so we knew to avoid it until we could brave a 2+ hour queueline again. So we headed to the better themed area of the park, Amity Cove. I am impressed with Amity, it is miles ahead of most themeing the UK has. Tidal wave was empty almost, but it wasn't the type of day to ride it anyway. I can imagine it being rather picturesque in summer or in hot weather.
I liked this thing too!
The KFC probably deserves a mention, it fits in so well with the Amity environment.
Mazes were all packed out and Saw was absolutely rammed. Dissapointed due to not getting on any of them. {For all those that wondered, Stealth opened later in the afternoon but remained packed}.
All in all I think Thorpe is one of the best parks in the UK undoubtedly, but there seems to be no atmosphere. I don't know why, I was not drawn to the park. Fright Nights certainly drew thousands of chavs to the park which made it even worse to queue, they make a 10 min queue feel like a 2 hour queue.
I will be visiting more often, it seems like a good park to pass-by on the way to better European parks. But yes I will definately advise people not to do Halloween at Thorpe. The morning is okay but as soon as you get to maybe 2pm, you will get on hardly anything.
Ride Count:
Nemesis Inferno x1
Colossus x1
Flying Fish x1
X:/ No Way Out x1
Rush x1
Zodiac x2
Quantum x1
Vortex x1
Train Ride? x1
Log Flume x1
Rumba Rapids x1
{Sorry about the picture quality, all took on a cameraphone!}
