Thorpe Park Resort

[Osaka12]

I'm headed to Thorpe Park this Friday for 2 days (staying in a local Premier Inn over the new shed like crash pad) aswel and due to the fact I am an Alton boy through and through and thus never visited Thorpe before, I have no idea what to expect.

Basically I realise it is a bank holiday weekend but does anyone think Friday will be a decent day for ride count? I mean I would like to ride everything once and hopefully the likes of Swarm and Stealth twice (Swarm backwards etc). I am assuming Saturday will be mega due to it being the actual bank holiday weekend and an apparent nice day in general but does anyone here have experience of Thorpe on a may bank holiday Friday? Are fast tracks really worth it?
I have read some posts about the fast track queues and they sound horrendous.

EDIT: And one more thing, If you purchase 2 tickets on friends+family discount with your Premium MAP do you still get the "come back tomorrow for a fiver" offer?

[bensaund]

Bank holiday weekend will be busy and I guess many people will book Friday off to have a longer weekend.

The main difference between Thorpe and Alton is the size, at Thorpe all the rides are on top of each other, if there are no queues, you can do the entire park in 2 hours. Thorpe always ensure you can't do this by only having one train on unless its really busy.

Top tip: Get there early, be at the gates for before 09:30 when they open, run over to Stealth, get 2-3 goes in, then over to Nemesis, then Colossus and then Saw, that should be your first half hour done. (My record is 9 goes on Stealth, Nemesis and Saw in 30 mins. After 10 the queues will start to build up. Leave The Swarm until after lunch.

Expect queues of 30-90 mins, depending on how many trains they have running during the day.

Another tip: Many people queue 40 mins + for Storm Surge, try Rumba Rapids, it is never more than a 10 min queue and just as good ride, plus your boat won't have 6 inches of water in the bottom either.

The one ride most people underestimate is Rush, until you go on it, you don't realise how fast and high it goes.

Last ride of the day should be Tidal Wave, you have gotta do it.

[Osaka12]

Thanks for the advice, we shall be arriving early. I'm going to assume it will be busy to avoid disappointment.

[Krazycoaster]

No more block breaks!!! 
Confirmed by Theme Park Guide
Also, new signs!! 
From Thorpe Park Mania

[SwEDEN]

Can't wait for a POV

[Krazycoaster]

Can't wait for a POV

Neither can I! I'm so glad they've got rid of the brakes. Might be a capacity killer but who cares?! 

[Bentleya]

X was running with the block brakes when I was there last Tuesday. It must of changed since then?

[Osaka12]

Spent the last 2 days at Thorpe and I'm glad to say we all had an awesome time! Friday was the better day of the two with a maximum queue of 10minutes on all the big rides and only 15 for the back row of Swarm! (Highly recommend your first experience of Swarm be backwards, really intense!)

Best ride in park (imo) was probably saw, purely for the indoor drops, sheer speed and vertical lift, most intense was easily Swarm backwards but tbh all the coasters there are fantastic fun and very thrilling. Stealth makes Rita feel like kiddie ride!

A tip for any Alton guys out there aswel, Wear your Smiler hoodies, They get a lot of attention. We had some great banter with the ride attendants! Sadly on a slightly different note, the general service, professionalism and attitude from majority of park staff was extremely poor. With exception to the Swarm ride attendants and the staff in the dome shop our experiences buying food, drinks, parking and rides was really bad, Alton should be immensely proud of their staff as they look like absolute saints compared to Thorpe's.

So in conclusion I guess it is safe to say a bank holiday Friday is a good time to go to Thorpe Park, you'll get a good 15-20 rides during the day and have a great time, but bank holiday sat, sun, mon are too busy and I would avoid if possible.

All in all an excellent park and I will be visiting again! Though for now all I can think about, is Smiling!

[sw7nutter]

A tip for any Alton guys out there aswel, Wear your Smiler hoodies, They get a lot of attention.

The staff change a lot in how they talk to the GP. some days they are very friendly but others they do seem quite quiet. However they do answer your questions for example last time i was there i was asking whats the throughput of the rides and 9 out of 10 times they would have an answer by the time we got off.
As for the Smiler hoodies i always point them out and often end up having a conversation with the people wearing them and the staff do to most of the time.

[bensaund]

Stealth makes Rita feel like kiddie ride!

Indeed, it amuses me when people think Rita is brilliant.... should try Stealth

and for those out there who have been on the Dragster and King da ok the states do have bigger, but I love my Stealth. 9 time in a row in under 30 mins was one hell of a way to start off a Sunday morning

[bensaund]

Hopefully the removal of the block brakes will improve the ride. I will re-ride at some point with my nieces and I do hope there are more improvements. We all know this is never going to be a great ride, but I believe with limited budget, Thorpe have done an average job on it.

[Kirsty25]

I hated it with a passion. The music didn't start til we were half way around the ride (in fact over half way) and the stop starting totally ruined any possible enjoyment of the ride.

I won't be going back to ride it in a hurry, rather use the time to queue for a ride I actually enjoy.

[Marcus]

The new theming is better than the original theming, well anything was. X is now the party/rave coaster for TT :3

[undeadarmy]

To all the people talking about how busy it will be tomorrow, I went yesterday. It was nowhere near as bad as I expected:

Without fastrack we got on:

Stealth x2, once front row (and we had a delay due to the second car being brought in)
Saw: The Ride x3 (twice front row, first car of the day once aswell!, we headed straight for it and it was empty, at 10 in the morning)
Nemesis Inferno x1, the queue was actually long for this, 45 minutes!
The Swarm: Brave It Backwards x2, shortest time was 15 minutes.
The Swarm: Face It Fowards: x3, once on the front row, longest we queued for forwards was under 30 minutes, even though the (NEW, AWESOME LOOKING) boards claimed it was 45 throughout the day.
Colossus x1: Pretty long 40 minute queue, wasn't worth queueing for.
X: x1: 10 minutes, I was pretty impressed.
Loggers Leap: x1: Was fun, and walk on!
Rush: x2, 15 minutes the longest.

Was a good day, got on sooo many rides, didn't even need fastrack.

[TB2]

Indeed, it amuses me when people think Rita is brilliant.... should try Stealth

and for those out there who have been on the Dragster and King da ok the states do have bigger, but I love my Stealth. 9 time in a row in under 30 mins was one hell of a way to start off a Sunday morning

Indeed, it amuses me when people think Stealth is brilliant... should try iSpeed

[bensaund]

O but Stealth is brilliant for those who are unable to get out of the UK.

[cool_boy_jon]

Went to Thorpe yesterday and we got on The Swarm, Storm Surge, Collossus, Saw, Stealth, Nemesis Inferno, Rush, the rapids and The Slammer. It wasn't as busy as I thought it would be on a bank holiday weekend as we got on everything we wanted! Staff were nice and polite, Stealth had broken down all day, but was open for the last half hour of the park closing, so we ran towards it to find it had a 5 minute queue! Great way to end the day!

Thanks Thorpe Park for a great day out!  8)

[Sam198]

So, it's been around long enough now for us as enthusiasts (as with all rides) to develop a preference for a particular row or individual seat.

By the physical nature of the winged train configuration, the seats on each side of the track tend to give a very different ride experience in terms of forces and visuals alike. Which do you lot prefer, and why?

Personally, I enjoy the sensation of being on top of the banking in certain corners (in this case, the inclined loop and turnaround), and so tend to be drawn towards the left hand side for this reason alone. (Watch a POV to see what I mean by this.) Although I find the theming interaction is marginally better on this side, particularly around the station fly-over/roll.

On the other hand, being lifted up and over the inverted drop is a fantastic feeling, and the negative rotation (and accompanying forces) through the Og roll and corkscrew on the right hand side is also something I appreciate.

[TheBoyWithOneEye]

I did left becuase your higher and it feels a bit faster :/. Also the pond next to the fire engine is cool when you go past it

[Alex.D]

Right front or back seats. I don't particularly like the left side... This is based on 2012 train config. not the silly backwards seating.