Thorpe Park Resort

Sun May 20, 2012 12:11 pm

For me:

Joint 1st - Swarm / Saw. Love the zero G roll on Swarm, also like the slight differences in the ride depending on where you sit. For me, front far right is unbeatable

Yes, it's not the most intense ride; but I come off grinning every time. The trains are such beauties as well! I went to the opening of Saw, and must admit, it has progressively got rougher with every visit since then. But it's still the ride I will run back through the queue line (on quiet days) to ride repeatedly. Love the pacing of the ride, the vertical lift hill and the final little drop after the brake run; the lightness of the cart and the comfy restraints. (Can anyone else recite the Jigsaw speech from the start of the ride too?

)

2nd - Colossus. It's rough, it's poorly themed and in need of a spruce up; but those inversions are worth it!

3rd - Nemesis Inferno. 'It's alright'

4th - X:/ Let Me Off. Really like the themeing, shame about the ride.

5th - Stealth. I totally get why people love it, but that launch actually HURTS. Once was enough!

AdrenalineAlex · Sun May 20, 2012 4:40 pm

BananaRoll wrote: For me:

Joint 1st - Swarm / Saw. Love the zero G roll on Swarm, also like the slight differences in the ride depending on where you sit. For me, front far right is unbeatable Yes, it's not the most intense ride; but I come off grinning every time. The trains are such beauties as well! I went to the opening of Saw, and must admit, it has progressively got rougher with every visit since then. But it's still the ride I will run back through the queue line (on quiet days) to ride repeatedly. Love the pacing of the ride, the vertical lift hill and the final little drop after the brake run; the lightness of the cart and the comfy restraints. (Can anyone else recite the Jigsaw speech from the start of the ride too? )

2nd - Colossus. It's rough, it's poorly themed and in need of a spruce up; but those inversions are worth it!

3rd - Nemesis Inferno. 'It's alright'

4th - X:/ Let Me Off. Really like the themeing, shame about the ride.

5th - Stealth. I totally get why people love it, but that launch actually HURTS. Once was enough!

I don't understand how people can think Colossus is poorly themed, it is very rough and needs a spruce up but I think it's one of the better themed rides of the park.

AstroDan · Sun May 20, 2012 4:47 pm

Colossus is one of the best landscaped coasters in the UK.

It has just been terribly looked after by a succession of managers at Thorpe Park.

Sun May 20, 2012 4:53 pm

Rust and dirt aside Colossus is a very nice looking coaster if you ask me. There are some areas of theming on it which are beautiful, like the elaborate mosaic on the floor under the cobra roll. The station isn't exactly a tin shed inside either. There are some really nice touches around the ride, and the landscaping is second only to Nemesis in the UK.

I think people are quick to call it poor themed due to the current state it's in, and also the fact there is no real theme if that makes sense. Yes, it's part of the Lost City area of the park, and there is a bit of a hint in the name, but is there any real explanation to the ride and it's theme? I wouldn't say there is. Like Th13teen, there is some very good theming to parts of it, but there's no real explanation to it. If the ride or area had some form of backstory or idea which is made clear throughout the area and the ride it'd probably be better received

I do still think it is a wonderful looking ride though (A lick of paint wouldn't go amiss though Thorpe

)

Sun May 20, 2012 5:15 pm

The whole ride needs painting, both track and supports, the rockwork needs touching up as its all faded and just a general tidy up.

Unfortunately, the Lost City no longer has the same effect it once had before the Saw attractions opened up. Originally, the ride went over the lake itself and you could stand on the bridges and look right out across over Abbey Lake. It was something quite special.

Sun May 20, 2012 8:11 pm

By themeing I wasn't referring to the landscaping, the bunny hill/cobra roll bridge is great to look at in terms of track interaction with it's surrounding area. The problem is that whenever I notice the themeing elements such as the water mask feature; I'm noticing them because they are faded, littered and moldy. Also when you consider how much impressive imagery there is surrounding the Aztecs, it hard not to think of set pieces which could have been far more striking around the ride. Also, where's the story?! Aztec times are full of interesting ones. Plus, the big pathways around it have no sense of area theme; it just looks like a plain highway to Saw Island with some decorative inline twists. There's just nothing particularly immersive about it as a whole experience.
Plonking that eyesore Storm Surge next to it doesn't help matters either.

Tue May 22, 2012 9:07 pm

I agree with bote,colossus looks amazing only second to the swarm. the landscaping is great.but i admit the could clean up the pool by the cobra roll. also colossus needs a repaint!

Tue May 22, 2012 9:44 pm

I don't think colossus needs a repaint, it suits the whole, Lost City theme.

And I haven't actually written a review for The Swarm so I'm gonna make this short.

Overall its a solid ride with comfortable seats, but the drop and the in-line twist were the only highlights for me, the themeing is heavy but I don't really like it, I think M£rlin need to move off of the whole darkly themed rides and be more creative like Tussauds were.

Oh and my order of coasters.
1. Stealth
2. Colossus
3. Nemesis Inferno
4. The Swarm
5. SAW: The Ride

DiogoJ42 · Tue May 22, 2012 9:56 pm

When I went on Sunday, it seems that the water effects on Swarm have been tweaked. Now, instead of creating a "splash" as the train goes past, they explode in a huge, very powerful splat, aimed directly at the train. Anyone riding in the outside seats, especially on the right hand side, will get soaked. I got hit right in the face, and it hurt like hell, as well as being freezing.
I really hope they sort that out, as it ruins the ride for me.

Also, still no fire.

Dormiens-Dave · Tue May 22, 2012 10:02 pm

How did the Thorpe cuts affect the day Diogo?

Just wondering if Thorpe are getting any stick from guests?

DiogoJ42 · Tue May 22, 2012 10:17 pm

They place was pretty dead, so they didn't make any difference at all. At one point when I showed my AP to someone in a shop, she said
"Everyone's got a pass today. Makes sense I guess, I mean who'd want to pay fourty-odd quid to come here?"

Dormiens-Dave · Tue May 22, 2012 10:31 pm

Seems a shame really considering there is a big new B&M at the park.

Tue May 22, 2012 10:40 pm

I'm not really sure what's going on with the low guest numbers at Thorpe - Towers was packed when they added Thirteen but I've only seen Thorpe busy once so far this season. Bad weather hasn't helped - I've been there on a couple of soggy Sundays and it's been deserted, but it was fine the weekend just gone and it was pretty empty. Apparently even Saturday wasn't that busy.

AstroDan · Tue May 22, 2012 10:41 pm

As far as I am aware, Thorpe Park are doing the worst of the Merlin parks in the UK at the moment.

It looks like Thorpe fireworks have been cancelled also.

Tue May 22, 2012 11:03 pm

AstroDan wrote: As far as I am aware, Thorpe Park are doing the worst of the Merlin parks in the UK at the moment.

It looks like Thorpe fireworks have been cancelled also.

I already emailed about that and RELOAD disappearing off the site and they said the events are in planning and the dates are not set in stone.
I'm guessing the website is just going under an update till everything is accurate.

djtruefitt · Tue May 22, 2012 11:05 pm

It does seem any mention of the BLOWS**IT UP event has been removed from the Thorpe website. It was certainly there last week on the events page with details on it and the club nights.

In other news this is currently on the scroller:
Please be aware that SAMURAI will be unavailable all day on Tuesday 22nd, Wednesday 23rd & Thursday 24th May. Apologies for any inconvinience caused.

AstroDan · Tue May 22, 2012 11:09 pm

Fright Nights is now on until the Saturday when fireworks were going to be. The Sunday is now an ordinary 5.00 close.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using Tapatalk

DiogoJ42 · Tue May 22, 2012 11:11 pm

Yet they still have posters advertising the fireworks all over the park.

I guess they can't afford to pay someone to take them down.

Tue May 22, 2012 11:15 pm

Samurai was having major difficulty parking on Sunday - we were lowered to the platform in the wrong place twice, and had to be lifted back up and slowly turned almost all the way round before finally being allowed off. Hopefully they're doing something to sort it out - if parking takes longer than the actual ride cycle throughput is going to be a problem.

As for Blow S*it up, I wouldn't be majorly surprised if it didn't return given how quiet it was on the Sunday last year - I don't think any queue exceeded 30 minutes, even with Slammer shut and Stealth down until the evening. On the other hand, the opening times section still says 10-8 for 4-5th November and there were still posters advertising it on park at the weekend.

DiogoJ42 · Tue May 22, 2012 11:20 pm

Swarm was well over an hour first thing in the morning, but they were on one train dispatching every five minutes.

Half an hour later it was walk on.