ScottishChris
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Legend
I am just back from my first ever trip to Thorpe Park and have really mixed feelings.
Firstly, I arrived at 10:15 and got parked fine and I was through bag check and into the park by 10:30-ish.
The main draw for me was Swarm, so that was my first stop. With it being a nice day, the rest of the UK seemed to have decided to be on park too. the wait was advertised as 1hr, it was 1hr 20. The ride was good, and it was my first wing coaster. I was impressed with the themeing and some of the near misses were particularly good. The big issue, however, was it's length - it was way too short IMO.
Next was Nemesis Inferno. Operations were really poor - they seemed to take an age to check restraints and the guy on the Op's board was constantly talking over the mic. You couldn't understand what he was saying - even the ride op said it was annoying... he just wouldn't stop talking. The wait was 1hr (plus 15 mins for the front row). It is a very good coaster - really intense... just not as good as the original!
Lunch was a burrito - it was actually quite tasty and not too pricey (Burrito, tortilla chips and a drink was less that £8 with my MAP discount).
Stealth... yeah - it is what it is. I liked it and all, but it really just does that one thing and you know exactly what it will feel like before riding. It would have been nice if they have put a few bunny hops in, or a few turns to make it different. The Op's here were outstanding. A 30 min line on a busy day - the guys were pumping out trains so quickly.
Saw - It was a 50 min wait. It was fine, but I expected more from the indoor section - I thought there were going to be actual scenes, but when there wasn't it was a let down. That was my expectation though and nothing I had seen. The main issue I had here was with FastPass - there were so many and I cant see how they got on that much quicker than the actual queue. That said, there was a good 10 - 15 mins where the queue seemed to stop just to put FastPass on.
The Walking Dead what a great preshow - sadly the ride didn't live up to this. The young lady on the queue was doing an amazing job creating groups to fill trains - why can't all your staff be like her Merlin? Because of her the line was 20 mins - if that.
Colossus - it took over 8 minutes for them to dispatch my train. The issue is with the restraints and larger guests. You need to be checking larger guests in the queue Thorpe - 1. your through-put will go up. 2. You will not embarrass guests by telling them they can't ride in front of a full station and 3. you won't make people wait for 70 mins for a ride they won't be allowed to ride.
Honestly, the poor ride ops had to re-check the restraints on my train 6 times. 4 people were told they were too large to ride. How can this be a good thing?
So, to summarise - ride-ops, on the whole, are pants. They have a good number of staff so there is no excuse. The park was much smaller than I expected - I knew, roughly, what was there but was surprised at the size. Finally - it was busy. Thorpe is clearly in a good area to be get people to the park easily - I don't understand why they don't attempt to make the park have a longer operating season or even year-round.
It was a good day - the sun helped, people were friendly. Don't think I will be pushing the boat out to return anytime soon though.
The stand-out worst thing of my day was stopping at services on my 4 hour drive home to be told KFC had ran out of chicken. I was told "you can have anything you want from the menu... except chicken".
Firstly, I arrived at 10:15 and got parked fine and I was through bag check and into the park by 10:30-ish.
The main draw for me was Swarm, so that was my first stop. With it being a nice day, the rest of the UK seemed to have decided to be on park too. the wait was advertised as 1hr, it was 1hr 20. The ride was good, and it was my first wing coaster. I was impressed with the themeing and some of the near misses were particularly good. The big issue, however, was it's length - it was way too short IMO.
Next was Nemesis Inferno. Operations were really poor - they seemed to take an age to check restraints and the guy on the Op's board was constantly talking over the mic. You couldn't understand what he was saying - even the ride op said it was annoying... he just wouldn't stop talking. The wait was 1hr (plus 15 mins for the front row). It is a very good coaster - really intense... just not as good as the original!
Lunch was a burrito - it was actually quite tasty and not too pricey (Burrito, tortilla chips and a drink was less that £8 with my MAP discount).
Stealth... yeah - it is what it is. I liked it and all, but it really just does that one thing and you know exactly what it will feel like before riding. It would have been nice if they have put a few bunny hops in, or a few turns to make it different. The Op's here were outstanding. A 30 min line on a busy day - the guys were pumping out trains so quickly.
Saw - It was a 50 min wait. It was fine, but I expected more from the indoor section - I thought there were going to be actual scenes, but when there wasn't it was a let down. That was my expectation though and nothing I had seen. The main issue I had here was with FastPass - there were so many and I cant see how they got on that much quicker than the actual queue. That said, there was a good 10 - 15 mins where the queue seemed to stop just to put FastPass on.
The Walking Dead what a great preshow - sadly the ride didn't live up to this. The young lady on the queue was doing an amazing job creating groups to fill trains - why can't all your staff be like her Merlin? Because of her the line was 20 mins - if that.
Colossus - it took over 8 minutes for them to dispatch my train. The issue is with the restraints and larger guests. You need to be checking larger guests in the queue Thorpe - 1. your through-put will go up. 2. You will not embarrass guests by telling them they can't ride in front of a full station and 3. you won't make people wait for 70 mins for a ride they won't be allowed to ride.
Honestly, the poor ride ops had to re-check the restraints on my train 6 times. 4 people were told they were too large to ride. How can this be a good thing?
So, to summarise - ride-ops, on the whole, are pants. They have a good number of staff so there is no excuse. The park was much smaller than I expected - I knew, roughly, what was there but was surprised at the size. Finally - it was busy. Thorpe is clearly in a good area to be get people to the park easily - I don't understand why they don't attempt to make the park have a longer operating season or even year-round.
It was a good day - the sun helped, people were friendly. Don't think I will be pushing the boat out to return anytime soon though.
The stand-out worst thing of my day was stopping at services on my 4 hour drive home to be told KFC had ran out of chicken. I was told "you can have anything you want from the menu... except chicken".