On Sunday, the 21st August, my cousin and I set off for the south. We stayed in a Travelodge overnight and the following morning we ventured to Thorpe Park! As this was my third time to Thorpe, I sort of knew what to expect but it was my cousin’s first time, so he was thoroughly excited.
We arrived just before opening and, once we were through the annual pass entrance, we headed straight to Saw: The Ride. The first and only previous time I had been on Saw was after a 90 minute queue and I just thought it was average to be honest, but my cousin was initially impressed by the aesthetics of the ride and the surrounding area.
After walking through most of the queue line, we met the back of the queue near the top of the stairs. My cousin was disappointed, as I had been, by the lack of indoor theming in the queue. After a short wait, we took our seats on the back row of the fairly spacious car.
We both found the indoor part very effective and quite fun, though the second half lets the overall experience down, due to the lack of force and slow pacing in parts. However, we had no problem in terms of roughness as we both found it totally smooth.
Next up was Colossus, for which we waited around 20 minutes, including an extra train being added onto the track. We selected the back row and were soon on our “colossal” journey.
I had enjoyed Colossus on past rides, but had only ridden near the front and my cousin had been on 10 Inversion Roller Coaster at Chimelong Paradise, so we both knew what to expect. The close interaction with the surrounding area greatly adds to the ride experience, though there was a bit of head banging, but it wasn’t too bad.
Another roller coaster was next, namely Nemesis Inferno. We met a short queue around the volcano and after around 10 minutes, we selected front row seats and were soon on. The gate dropped and my cousin was pleasantly surprised by the pre-lift section.
I’ve got to say it was a great ride on Inferno and probably my best, which sent it back above Colossus for me. My cousin was also mightily impressed.
From the station, we saw that Rumba Rapids had virtually no queue, so we chose this as our next destination. Luckily, we didn’t have to share a boat due to the lack of queue so after a few minutes, we were on.
Along with my cousin, I maintained the opinion that it is better than Alton’s Congo River Rapids with us both thinking it was a fun ride.
We then headed to Flying Fish and, after having to queue for it last time, I was delighted to see it was walk on.
We got four circuits and one of the ride-ops sprayed everyone with water on the last circuit, which was welcomed due to the hot weather.
With that in mind, Tidal Wave was up next. We walked through the empty cattlepens, which were later filled when the park got a lot busier, and met quite a small queue.
However, the ride broke down and they eventually had to change a boat. Luckily it wasn’t that long and we probably waited around half an hour and got to jump a bit of queue by being a two.
After entering the boat, which was carrying quite a bit of water, we headed up the lift hill and got a good view of lots of track on the construction site of The Swarm.
We. Got. Soaked. The drop was good but, in my opinion, is not as effective as that on an Intamin Mega Splash. The result, however, was still of significant magnitude.
By now we were hungry, so went to Burger King after passing Pizza Hut due to the expensive price. Can’t complain as ever.
My cousin had been building up to go on Stealth all day, and the time had finally come. The sign outside said the queue was 60 minutes, so we entered and it looked more like 20. It ended up being the latter and soon we were on, and chose the second row.
We both agreed it was a fantastic ride, the launch is awesome and it remains my favourite ride at Thorpe.
Another water ride was up next and we headed off to Logger’s Leap, which I remembered to be a great log flume with the double drop. There were quite a few people in the queue, which is a huge cattlepen, but we entered and it seemed to move quite quickly.
We both really enjoyed it; it is a really fun ride with the tunnel and drop, the meandering around the back, then the large lift hill up to the excellent double drop. Great ride.
To complete the list of coasters the park has to offer, my cousin still needed to go on X:\ No Way Out. We had visited it earlier in the day to find it closed for cleaning and later the queue out of the entrance, so we finally joined when the queue didn’t seem as bad. I had told him my opinion of the ride, but he went on without prejudgement.
It starts off well, but once it hits the first brake run, the ride kind of just dies and the rest is neither enjoyable nor meaningful. A pretty bad ride really that I wouldn’t bother with again unless someone really wanted to go on it.
I really wanted to try a flat out at Thorpe, but Rush had a big queue and Vortex was temporarily closed, so we headed for Detonator. We queued for around 20 minutes in the end, while enjoying the music and countdown.
However, we found when at the top you can hardly hear it, which does make the drop more of a surprise but what a drop it is! Really enjoyed this type of drop tower, though short, it really did pack a punch.
The park was open until 8 but, due to having to get back, we were getting picked up at around half 4. We didn’t have long left and all the big coasters had long queues so we couldn’t be bothered to queue to re-ride so decided on Storm Surge. Personally I don’t really like how it’s just plonked by X:\ No Way Out and the metal fences in the queue, but I do like what theme there is.
We did end up queuing around 45 minutes, which had significantly reduced from the 90 minutes earlier on in the day. I thought it was a fun ride, probably didn’t constitute the size of the queue but it was proper busy so there wasn’t much choice.
After, we went to get the ORP from Tidal Wave from earlier on in the day, and then left the park where we got free Dr Pepper!
Overall, it was a great day with some great rides. With The Swarm next year, the park will boast a really nice collection of coasters.
Ride count:
Saw: The Ride x1
Colossus x1 (Back)
Nemesis Inferno x1 (Front)
Rumba Rapids x1
Flying Fish x1
Tidal Wave x1
Stealth x1
Logger’s Leap x1
X:\ No Way Out x1
Detonator x1
Storm Surge x1
We arrived just before opening and, once we were through the annual pass entrance, we headed straight to Saw: The Ride. The first and only previous time I had been on Saw was after a 90 minute queue and I just thought it was average to be honest, but my cousin was initially impressed by the aesthetics of the ride and the surrounding area.
After walking through most of the queue line, we met the back of the queue near the top of the stairs. My cousin was disappointed, as I had been, by the lack of indoor theming in the queue. After a short wait, we took our seats on the back row of the fairly spacious car.
We both found the indoor part very effective and quite fun, though the second half lets the overall experience down, due to the lack of force and slow pacing in parts. However, we had no problem in terms of roughness as we both found it totally smooth.
Next up was Colossus, for which we waited around 20 minutes, including an extra train being added onto the track. We selected the back row and were soon on our “colossal” journey.
I had enjoyed Colossus on past rides, but had only ridden near the front and my cousin had been on 10 Inversion Roller Coaster at Chimelong Paradise, so we both knew what to expect. The close interaction with the surrounding area greatly adds to the ride experience, though there was a bit of head banging, but it wasn’t too bad.
Another roller coaster was next, namely Nemesis Inferno. We met a short queue around the volcano and after around 10 minutes, we selected front row seats and were soon on. The gate dropped and my cousin was pleasantly surprised by the pre-lift section.
I’ve got to say it was a great ride on Inferno and probably my best, which sent it back above Colossus for me. My cousin was also mightily impressed.
From the station, we saw that Rumba Rapids had virtually no queue, so we chose this as our next destination. Luckily, we didn’t have to share a boat due to the lack of queue so after a few minutes, we were on.
Along with my cousin, I maintained the opinion that it is better than Alton’s Congo River Rapids with us both thinking it was a fun ride.
We then headed to Flying Fish and, after having to queue for it last time, I was delighted to see it was walk on.
We got four circuits and one of the ride-ops sprayed everyone with water on the last circuit, which was welcomed due to the hot weather.
With that in mind, Tidal Wave was up next. We walked through the empty cattlepens, which were later filled when the park got a lot busier, and met quite a small queue.
However, the ride broke down and they eventually had to change a boat. Luckily it wasn’t that long and we probably waited around half an hour and got to jump a bit of queue by being a two.
After entering the boat, which was carrying quite a bit of water, we headed up the lift hill and got a good view of lots of track on the construction site of The Swarm.
We. Got. Soaked. The drop was good but, in my opinion, is not as effective as that on an Intamin Mega Splash. The result, however, was still of significant magnitude.
By now we were hungry, so went to Burger King after passing Pizza Hut due to the expensive price. Can’t complain as ever.
My cousin had been building up to go on Stealth all day, and the time had finally come. The sign outside said the queue was 60 minutes, so we entered and it looked more like 20. It ended up being the latter and soon we were on, and chose the second row.
We both agreed it was a fantastic ride, the launch is awesome and it remains my favourite ride at Thorpe.
Another water ride was up next and we headed off to Logger’s Leap, which I remembered to be a great log flume with the double drop. There were quite a few people in the queue, which is a huge cattlepen, but we entered and it seemed to move quite quickly.
We both really enjoyed it; it is a really fun ride with the tunnel and drop, the meandering around the back, then the large lift hill up to the excellent double drop. Great ride.
To complete the list of coasters the park has to offer, my cousin still needed to go on X:\ No Way Out. We had visited it earlier in the day to find it closed for cleaning and later the queue out of the entrance, so we finally joined when the queue didn’t seem as bad. I had told him my opinion of the ride, but he went on without prejudgement.
It starts off well, but once it hits the first brake run, the ride kind of just dies and the rest is neither enjoyable nor meaningful. A pretty bad ride really that I wouldn’t bother with again unless someone really wanted to go on it.
I really wanted to try a flat out at Thorpe, but Rush had a big queue and Vortex was temporarily closed, so we headed for Detonator. We queued for around 20 minutes in the end, while enjoying the music and countdown.
However, we found when at the top you can hardly hear it, which does make the drop more of a surprise but what a drop it is! Really enjoyed this type of drop tower, though short, it really did pack a punch.
The park was open until 8 but, due to having to get back, we were getting picked up at around half 4. We didn’t have long left and all the big coasters had long queues so we couldn’t be bothered to queue to re-ride so decided on Storm Surge. Personally I don’t really like how it’s just plonked by X:\ No Way Out and the metal fences in the queue, but I do like what theme there is.
We did end up queuing around 45 minutes, which had significantly reduced from the 90 minutes earlier on in the day. I thought it was a fun ride, probably didn’t constitute the size of the queue but it was proper busy so there wasn’t much choice.
After, we went to get the ORP from Tidal Wave from earlier on in the day, and then left the park where we got free Dr Pepper!
Overall, it was a great day with some great rides. With The Swarm next year, the park will boast a really nice collection of coasters.
Ride count:
Saw: The Ride x1
Colossus x1 (Back)
Nemesis Inferno x1 (Front)
Rumba Rapids x1
Flying Fish x1
Tidal Wave x1
Stealth x1
Logger’s Leap x1
X:\ No Way Out x1
Detonator x1
Storm Surge x1
