Here's my mini-review of Thorpe Park based on my visit on 4th November:
Park was dead, so everything except the "I'm a Celebrity" Maze was pretty much walk-on.
The Swarm: Excellent, well-themed and a great ride with all the near-miss elements. We forgot to go back to do it backwards though.
Stealth: Suspisciously quiet when we entered the queue-line, followed it around to find an empty operators' booth and no train on the track. Turns out it was closed, they had just forgotten to close the gate. Shame really, because that's a headline attraction.
Tidal Wave: Closed, looks a mess with all the water gone.
Nemesis Inferno: Now this one surprised me because it gets a poor reception compare to the original, yet I felt it was 95% as good as Nemesis. Were allowed to do two laps due to it being so quiet.
Colossus: Really great ride, but rough, very rough. My wife, being a lot smaller than me came off in tears from having her ears bashed around so much. The four heartline rolls in succession seems a bit lazy, but being so close to the walkways below, it's visually interesting.
Samurai: Pass the sick bucket please! I was ill for a good hour after this. Interesting to see that the ride doesn't self-park at the end of the cycle, instead relying on the assistant operator to give hand signals to the operator like he's reversing an HGV. With the Smiler incident, I was very surprised to see a ride under manual control, and thus at the mercy of human error.
Logger's Leap: Excellent log ride, one of the best I've been on. The double-drop makes it so much more exciting than the single drop of Alton's glorified bathtubs. Call me old-fashioned, but I like a log-themed log flume.
X:\No Way Out: A bit tame, but brought back a little Black Hole nostalgia.
SAW: Great ride, far more enjoyable than the Smiler. Again, great theming, the 8-seat cars really whip around the track and that drop is just incredible.
I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here Maze: 35 minute queue for this, not worth it, even though it did buy me some time to recover from the Samurai's effects.
Storm Surge: How refreshing to see these smaller-style, intimate rides, I thought modern H&S had pretty much killed these off.
Rush: Kept having technical difficulties, eventually got on to find the restraint padding held on with duct tape, and the couple sat beside us had to leave their seats and wait for the next ride because their harnesses weren't registering as locked. Harnesses did register as locked once the seats were empty. Not very reassuring, so I held on! Could do with being a bit longer, although I suspect this is limited by the holding capacity of the air tanks.
Quantum: An absolute jewel of a ride, not as tall as I was expecting but can really pack a punch. If Alton wanted to replace the Pirate ship with something having a smaller footprint, would recommend.
Vortex: Been on similar things at travelling fairs, great for turning the tummy over, yet doesn't spin too quickly so you avoid emptying your tummy.
Depth Charge: Like Storm Surge, I was very pleased to see a more traditional, intimate thrill water ride. You can really get some speed up, but I did stop just short of the end barrier. On a wet day I reckon I could make it all the way.
Detonator: Bombs Away: I almost left the park, having developed a bit of a phobia of drop-tower rides. In fact, last time I was at Drayton Manor, I skipped Apocalypse, and the thought of a launched drop-tower was even worse. However, I turned around just as I was on the bridge off the island and went back to ride. Not as fearful as I had feared, if anything, a bit more tame than the standing seats of Apocalypse.
Overall, I was very impressed with the park. It was a bit light on staff, which I suppose was due to the time of year, but then it was light on people, so almost everything was walk-on. And on the subject of walking, it is a pleasure to have everything so close together. We'd done everything we wanted to by 15:00.
