I will start by apologising for the dreadful quality of my photos. My phone fails at life in the dark, and it was hard to stand still take take photos because I was holding up the queue! I'll also point out now that I don't have any on-ride pics/vids. Sorry.
X At Thorpe Park re-opened to the public on Good Friday to, well, no fanfare whatsoever. I just so happened to be at the park with some friends from work. Somewhere around 3pm, whilst they were riding Storm Surge, I thought I'd go and have a quick look to see how X was coming along, only to find a queue starting to gather outside! I asked the ride host on the door if this was just a short term thing (ie soft-opening) or if it was open for the whole day and was told that it was open until park close. I also asked what day it had re-opened and was told "Earlier today". (Thorpe eventually put a note on their Facebook page to say that it had re-opened at 6:13 - 47 minutes before park closing!)
The first thing of note is the obviously temporary nature of the signs outside. They're literally printed onto paper and blu-tacked over the old signs. Classy. Hopefully they'll be able to replace these for something more permanent asap. The height measure is also yet to be updated to reflect the new lower limit.
The queue was held outside, and only batched into the building in small groups. This meant that very little of your queue time is spent inside the building. The only difference noticeable from outside is the music that plays in the area. I'm no expert, so I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like stock, royalty free, generic "dance" music. You know the kind of thing they always put as the background music to a "nightclub" scene in a computer game? Yeah, that.
Once inside, the corridors are a good reflection of the ride refurb as a whole actually. Some of them have cool new lights, whilst others are unchanged from before. There's only 2 types of new lights, which are repeated in several places, so they quickly lose their "Ooooh, look, pretty!" factor.
Now, I lose track, because the last few times I rode X:\NWO, the bag room kept moving. Its now up by the platforms, and looks like nothing has changed.
From there you pass through the "fake lift". Unfortunately, its still in the unused, neglected state it was before. I don't think its had so much as a lick of paint on the inside, and there's just a big hole in the ceiling where a grate etc was before. The doors to the platform are just left open.
You then arrive on the loading platform, where nothing has really changed.
Then the sparkly trains appear. I've seen these referred to as "new" in many places across the t'interwebs, but I'm not convinced. I mean, why bother with the rocket shaped bits now as they don't fit with the "theme". I think its more likely they've just been refurbed. Anyway, they look quite smart, and the individual lap bars are a definite improvement.
On to the ride itself. I didn't really know what to expect. I was hoping for a disorienting, completely mad experience similar to (R)Evolution as Bobbejaanland. I suspected it'd actually be "a couple of strings of pound shop fairy lights and a iPod dock". Unfortunately, the end result is far closer to the latter.
The ride room is completely open in the same way as it was before. I couldn't see any evidence of the "tunnels of light" that the pre-opening hype promised. Speakers around the room play the same stock music from the queue. There are quite a few decent "disco" light units placed around the room. These do produce some really nice effects that you travel through around the ride, but they also light up the whole room to an extent, meaning that you can see the rest of the track around you. Several of the ride's original theming features (such as the dummies on the lift hill) remain, for no apparent reason.
The ride itself is completely unchanged, apart from now facing forwards instead of backwards. There are still irritating pauses on every one of the million lift hills. There are still the simulated "roll backs" etc on some of these, which are now even more pointless than before. They made sense and were a nice touch in the context of the ride's original theme, but now serve no purpose whatsoever.
The exit through the corridors is more of the same as the entrance. I wonder if they got some kind of "5 for the price of 4" deal on those purple and blue lights?!
Overall, the posh disco lights are pretty, but do little to change or enhance the overall ride experience. The main attraction for some was going backwards, which has obviously now gone. The main annoyance for many was the constant stop-start throughout the ride, and this remains.
It seems that they're trying to aim this more at "young thrillseekers" in the same bracket as Flying Fish. However, given their strategy over the last few years, I wonder how many of these are left still visiting the park. I also wonder how clear this is from the brand/theme of the ride. I suspect in reality what they'll actually end up with is hoards of 19 year old chavs who are pissed off because "I queued an hour for that?! I doesn't even go backwards anymore!"
Once again, this comes across as being a rushed, under-funded, missed opportunity. Ride once to say you've done it, then put it back to the bottom of the "CBA unless its actually walk-on" list.
