Thorpe Park Resort celebrated a major milestone this weekend with the Island reaching its 40th birthday on Friday 24th May. To mark the occasion, the Island hosted a long weekend of celebrations including the launch of their newest attraction for the summer – BounceZilla! Attraction Source visited the Island to experience the celebrations.

Bouncing into Thorpe Park Resort in time for the Island’s big, birthday weekend is BounceZilla. Located behind Rush and next to Crust, the 90m long inflatable assault course is unmissable as you approach that area of the Island. With its bright, bold colours and its upbeat soundtrack which features tracks from each decade Thorpe Park Resort has been open, as well as nods to some of the Island’s popular attractions, BounceZilla creates a party and festival atmosphere in its corner of the theme park. The course itself includes a whole host of obstacles for guests to bounce over, duck under, and crawl through and is just the right level of difficulty so adults and children alike can enjoy bouncing around the circuit. Special mention has to be given to the brilliantly enthusiastic staff, from the hosts who lead guests through a warm-up at the start of the course, the strategically placed staff members with water pistols around the circuit who keep you on your toes and shout encouragement, to the team members who meet you at the very end and congratulate you for completing it. For those who want to experience BounceZilla at a slightly slower pace, each day between 10am-12pm the attraction will operate as BounceZilla Tamed, designed to be a calmer experience especially for families with younger children. BounceZilla is a fantastic addition to Thorpe Park Resort’s line-up of attractions and will undoubtedly prove popular throughout the summer season until it departs on 8th September. You may come down the final slide exhausted, but you’ll also have a big smile on your face.

For those who have a sweet tooth, The Donut Factory offers a special new menu item – Thorpe’s Birthday Donut Sundae. Featuring a sugared doughnut base topped with ice cream, sprinkles, crumble and chocolate sauce, and completed with a fondant Thorpe Park logo, the dessert looked to be proving popular with guests. The Island’s retail outlets have also marked Thorpe Park Resort’s milestone birthday with a range of retro-inspired merchandise. As well as a mug, pin badge, lanyard, T-shirt and hoodie, a new key ring and fridge magnet have been introduced to the range in time for the long weekend of celebrations.

Also celebrating a significant birthday in 2019 is Saw – The Ride which has seen Jigsaw play his twisted games at Thorpe Park Resort for 10 years. To mark the occasion the Resort re-introduced live actors to the attraction’s entrance plaza for the Bank Holiday Weekend with a SWAT Team, Pighead, and some of Jigsaw’s victims roaming the area and interacting with guests.

Since it first opened on 24th May 1979, Thorpe Park Resort has transformed from a small leisure park with exhibitions and water activities, all the way to becoming the high thrill theme park it is today. Over the years the Island has been home to a whole host of rides and attractions, from the likes of Thorpe Farm, Phantom Fantasia (and its re-theme Wicked Witches Haunt), to the Thorpe Park Rangers, log flume Loggers Leap, and more recently some of the Resort’s biggest thrill rides including Stealth, Saw – The Ride and The Swarm. Whatever the future holds for ‘the Island like no other’, here is to another 40 years of fun and thrills.

Have you visited Thorpe Park Resort for its 40th birthday celebrations? What are your favourite memories of the Island? Be sure to share your thoughts over on the Attraction Source Forum.

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