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Thorpe Park: General Discussion
Unicorns_are_lovely
TS Member
Fab! Thanks KingNemesis 
Unicorns_are_lovely
TS Member
The crowds are manic, queues regularly hit 3 hours during half term week, I've also heard such horror stories of girls being touched up and bags ransacked in queuelines, it's not somewhere I would go if I had a choice, but that's my opinion and others might disagree.
We are going tomorrow evening for the preview event, but won't return again this year, Thorpe is a hell hole this time of year IMHO...I'm also a miserable old frakker who doesn't consider it fun to be chased around a maze by a zombie, but that's just me lol
Unicorns_are_lovely
TS Member
Doesn't sound like my cup of tea! Thanks for the heads up
SuperMuscleMan
TS Member
I went last year on i think thr first friday of the event. Ques were not far off from walk-on for most of the rides (except dbgt). Id recommend if your not into the mazes and you want rides in the dark its a great event during the first few days.
Went to the MAP event yesterday. Thorpe really isn't in a good place with ride maintenance at the mo (or ever?) So up on arrival, the following rides are SBNO:
Loggers
Slammer
Rush
Rapids
I'm a Celeb.
Rides closed all day:
Vortex
Zodiac
So we head to Colossus first, closed. So we head to saw and it's open! Get off Saw, go to Samurai, closed. DBGT, closed, Inferno is open but donning a 30 min queue (Monday in Oct, wtf?), Stealth closed, Det closed, Swarm closed. So back to Inferno, we now can see why this has a long queue...
(This is all hand on heart true btw)
20 mins into the queue for Inferno, it breaks down (like seriously, when the fuck do B&M Inverts break down?!). We're patient though, so we waited. 10 mins later queue evacuated. FFS. Colossus looked open so we headed there. 15 mins into the queue, it closes. But what's the point in leaving, nothing else is open?! Over half hour later it reopens. We got there for opening, and it's now 1215, we've been on Saw and Colossus.
We then headed to Swarm as it looked open! 5 mins into the queue.... yep you guessed it. Again, no point in leaving, 20 mins later it reopened. Stealth looked open so we headed there. Got to the gates after a quick 5 min queue.. closed, 10 mins later they evacuate the queue. This is all true, not made up at all or even remotely exaggerated.
We then done X, DBGT and Det. Including stopping for food etc, all that took us to half 3. And we hadn't even been on all the coasters, and the park would be closing at 4pm. On a quiet Monday in October, that's pretty much all we got on during the official opening hours...
Credit where is it due though, things improved as the night went on and the ride count did increase dramatically, but seriously, imagine rocking up and paying on the day for 6 hours of that?
Loggers
Slammer
Rush
Rapids
I'm a Celeb.
Rides closed all day:
Vortex
Zodiac
So we head to Colossus first, closed. So we head to saw and it's open! Get off Saw, go to Samurai, closed. DBGT, closed, Inferno is open but donning a 30 min queue (Monday in Oct, wtf?), Stealth closed, Det closed, Swarm closed. So back to Inferno, we now can see why this has a long queue...
(This is all hand on heart true btw)
20 mins into the queue for Inferno, it breaks down (like seriously, when the fuck do B&M Inverts break down?!). We're patient though, so we waited. 10 mins later queue evacuated. FFS. Colossus looked open so we headed there. 15 mins into the queue, it closes. But what's the point in leaving, nothing else is open?! Over half hour later it reopens. We got there for opening, and it's now 1215, we've been on Saw and Colossus.
We then headed to Swarm as it looked open! 5 mins into the queue.... yep you guessed it. Again, no point in leaving, 20 mins later it reopened. Stealth looked open so we headed there. Got to the gates after a quick 5 min queue.. closed, 10 mins later they evacuate the queue. This is all true, not made up at all or even remotely exaggerated.
We then done X, DBGT and Det. Including stopping for food etc, all that took us to half 3. And we hadn't even been on all the coasters, and the park would be closing at 4pm. On a quiet Monday in October, that's pretty much all we got on during the official opening hours...
Credit where is it due though, things improved as the night went on and the ride count did increase dramatically, but seriously, imagine rocking up and paying on the day for 6 hours of that?
Inferno was no better in the evening, what should have been 5-10 was 30, the rest not so bad, walk on on X, swarm & stealth.
No idea why Inferno was so bad, especially when the newbies were doing their training on stealth all evening.
Didn't do the mazes, but place was empty and rides in the dark are fun so good evening all round.
No idea why Inferno was so bad, especially when the newbies were doing their training on stealth all evening.
Didn't do the mazes, but place was empty and rides in the dark are fun so good evening all round.
They do, the 'weather delay' is the goto excuse, for instance the breakdown on Swarm around 8pm was caused by one of the ride ops not keeping his hand on the button properly but if you asked during the delay they were telling people they didn't know and it might be weather related.
Blows dust of my account...
This is something which confused me for quite a while, but there is a logical reason behind it...
Essentially, Saw has very specific operating conditions when it comes to wind. The slightest of breezes in the wrong direction cause it to stop running (because of risk of stalling, etc), yet it can operate fine in stronger winds if the wind is going in the right direction. Other rides don't have such specific conditions; instead, it'll just be if the wind exceeds a certain speed.
This year, the park invested in quite a lot of wind speed monitors for many large rides, so that they can get accurate wind speed readings in certain locations of the park. I think Saw did have one before, but they have since got a better one? I believe the way they work is if the wind speed exceeds the maximum 'safe' level (even just for one gust), they will stop running the ride. They will only reopen it when the wind speed is consistently below the maximum safe level for a certain period of time.
Thorpe is pretty screwed with some rides though thanks to the lake. Wind speed can pick up over the lake, and huge gusts can affect rides like Vortex, Zodiac and Colossus, since they take the full brunt of it. And equally that can affect other rides all over the park if the wind is strong enough / going in a certain direction. It's a new measure, so it's probably still being tweaked so that the park can get a balance between operating safely and operating sensibly..
The introduction of the new monitors was something done mid-season, so that's why there's inconsistencies between when rides closed at the start of season to now when it comes to the weather.
It's certainly not a go to excuse in most cases. If you see 'Weather Delay' on the app / queue boards / whatever, it is because of the wind / rain that has caused it to stop running. Some staff may occasionally use it as an excuse to people who come across as a bit concerned / desperate to know more, since they can't go into actual details, and it's a easy way to diffuse people's tension. Saying 'ooh, it's a bit too windy at the top of the ride' or something will sound much more reassuring than 'someone let go of a button too early, now we need to reset the ride' in this day and age, for example.
This is something which confused me for quite a while, but there is a logical reason behind it...
Essentially, Saw has very specific operating conditions when it comes to wind. The slightest of breezes in the wrong direction cause it to stop running (because of risk of stalling, etc), yet it can operate fine in stronger winds if the wind is going in the right direction. Other rides don't have such specific conditions; instead, it'll just be if the wind exceeds a certain speed.
This year, the park invested in quite a lot of wind speed monitors for many large rides, so that they can get accurate wind speed readings in certain locations of the park. I think Saw did have one before, but they have since got a better one? I believe the way they work is if the wind speed exceeds the maximum 'safe' level (even just for one gust), they will stop running the ride. They will only reopen it when the wind speed is consistently below the maximum safe level for a certain period of time.
Thorpe is pretty screwed with some rides though thanks to the lake. Wind speed can pick up over the lake, and huge gusts can affect rides like Vortex, Zodiac and Colossus, since they take the full brunt of it. And equally that can affect other rides all over the park if the wind is strong enough / going in a certain direction. It's a new measure, so it's probably still being tweaked so that the park can get a balance between operating safely and operating sensibly..
The introduction of the new monitors was something done mid-season, so that's why there's inconsistencies between when rides closed at the start of season to now when it comes to the weather.
It's certainly not a go to excuse in most cases. If you see 'Weather Delay' on the app / queue boards / whatever, it is because of the wind / rain that has caused it to stop running. Some staff may occasionally use it as an excuse to people who come across as a bit concerned / desperate to know more, since they can't go into actual details, and it's a easy way to diffuse people's tension. Saying 'ooh, it's a bit too windy at the top of the ride' or something will sound much more reassuring than 'someone let go of a button too early, now we need to reset the ride' in this day and age, for example.
CSLKenny
TS Member
Just read this on the Coaster Force Chat Facebook group:
"So, I’ve started to hear from a few places that X at Thorpe Park will be closing forever at the end of this season, with Wednesday being its last ever day.
I’ve heard it from a few different places and these things have a habit of ending up being true - has anyone else heard anything about this/do you think it could be true?"
Haven't Thorpe removed enough in recent times without a replacement?
And didn't X just get some refurbishment work recently? Waste of money if it is to be removed.
"So, I’ve started to hear from a few places that X at Thorpe Park will be closing forever at the end of this season, with Wednesday being its last ever day.
I’ve heard it from a few different places and these things have a habit of ending up being true - has anyone else heard anything about this/do you think it could be true?"
Haven't Thorpe removed enough in recent times without a replacement?
And didn't X just get some refurbishment work recently? Waste of money if it is to be removed.
Thorpe have another “worlds first attraction” for 2018 so it could be related to X, VR anyone?
Matt N
TS Member
If it is closing on Wednesday, then that's slightly short notice. Although this is the same company that has closed Logger's Leap for "redevelopment" over the last two years and said that the Flume was closing "for the season" in October 2015. I last rode X around 3 years ago, and from what I remember of it, it was a fairly average enclosed coaster, not the best coaster I've ever ridden but not the worst coaster I've ever ridden either. I never rode X backwards but when I rode it, I thought it was a fun family coaster, but was a bit out of place when compared to the rest of Thorpe.
Towerslover
TS Member
Got to reduce the £100m capex spending somehow I guess, hope the isn't true though.