Thorpe Park - Sunday 6th August
Day two of our Camera testing trip and an aim to get Jason’s remaining credit at Thorpe after all these years. The weather in the morning was predicting a better but not totally dry day, looked like patches of sun between rain and maybe a sunnier end to the day.
Due to some traffic and other issues, we did not arrive at the park until 10.15 am and by the time we were through security and the barriers it was about 10.45 am already though the guy a security got a good laugh at the number of cameras we had so not all boring delays.
We decided to head to Swarm first, my personal favourite ride in the park (my first wing coaster so it will always have a soft spot for me). We got a couple of photos on the mini and the go on way and in the queue. The posted wait was 20 mins but I don’t think we waited more than 15mins. We went for the back row cause we love how you get pulled through the twist after the lift hill. Jason got the outside seat this time so if we went on again it would be my turn. We’ve both been on this previously so nothing new for use but it’s a very fun wing coaster which has some great near-miss elements through a decent for Merlin-themed area.
After swarm and a couple more photos we checked the app to see walking dead closed, okay try again later. We wandered towards colossus taking photos for the queue to jump from 25mins to 50mins while we were on our way. Stealth was still at 25mins according to the app so we headed over that way. Turns out if we had just headed into a normal row it would have been closer to 20mins, but we went front row cause why not. This is when we discovered Thorpe’s shoes are required rule, there was a hold-up a couple of trains before ours to see two people get let out of their seats, we thought both were deciding not to ride as one looked rather unhappy once she got into the train. However the other returned holding her shoes, she got back in and put them on. So yeah shoes at least for Stealth are a must if you didn’t already know.
On to the ride, but first I need to point out I don’t think I’ve ever seen the burnout effect on this ride before in my time visiting the park. As the train pulls slightly forward into the launch position and the countdown begins fake tire burn smoke is pumped up from under the track behind the back row of the train, in action it looked damn cool and if this is an old broken effect they recently brought back then I’m glad old effects are getting love (do the fire at Swarm next :P) or if it’s new then nice to see older rides getting love.
Jason’s first time on Stealth was only last year so marked only his third time on the ride and he was still hoping for the rare chance of a rollback (one day we will get one on something). Still as good as ever though these rides are still the worst ratio of wait time to ride time most of the time.
After Stealth I needed a drink so we had another wander around to Swarm for some photos while we had a break, once we were done we checked on both Walking Dead and Colussus same situation as before so headed for Nemesis Inferno, not without a few photos of it beforehand. As we were in the queue it began to rain, I took the risk on seeing blue sky approaching that it would end soon while Jason opted to be safe with a poncho, for the rain to stop not 5mins later.
Nemesis Inferno went down for a little period while we were queuing but even waiting for the front row we didn’t wait more than 35mins. At this point in time (before we can get him back on Nemesis) Jason still thinks this is the better Nemesis but it has been a while since he rode the other and with the retrack happening we can’t exactly get him back on the other to test that just yet (though the plan for next year for sure). Still really enjoy Nemesis Inferno and deserves more love than it gets, I do think attaching it to Nemesis really did hurt it and maybe it just being Inferno would be a little better for people comparing them.
After more photos, it was on to Colossus cause it’s queue had finally dipped below 20 mins, and again it seemed to be an over exaggeration as once again we went for the front and that queue time was about what we waited. Still fun and my first time in front row.
Finally round to the only new credit of the day, Walking Dead as Jason somehow never rode this as X:\ No way Out or in it’s current state. I am going to preface this with I am not good at being made jump, a bit of a chicken about it so wasn’t exactly looking forward to the queue and exit as I was worried there was going be a tonne of jump scare especially when I saw them send people into the building in groups (reminiscent of horror mazes to me). Jason hadn’t really experienced my dread of being made jump before like even the idea of it kinda sends me into a straight scared state not my normal happy self, but he was a gentleman the whole time in the ride, holding my hand and walking in front the whole time in the queue and on exit. And turns out the only jumpscare is kinda spoilt from the queue (I will not be spoiling it here but you can hear it before so not really that scary).
For the actual ride I think its better than X:\ No Way Out from my one experience on that version some cool theming and the random stops on the break runs are hidden better with there being story there.
New credit down and I was craving donuts so we got a lot of donuts, so much sugar but needed. We had another wander for more photos especially as now the sun was out this is where a lot of our sunny photos from this day were taken, this wandering path in a loop of the park took us back to swarm, so we rode it again as it had a 5 min wait, this time front row.
Then we decided why not go so Stealth again for a back row ride, again tiny basically walk on queue at this point as we were getting towards closing for the day.
Finally, we walked back towards Nemesis Inferno and noticed a posted 0min wait for the last few minutes of the day and had a dumb idea, Jason would run into the queue for the front row and I would attempt to get pictures of the ride with him in the front.
A lot of trying to spot him on the lift hill and 3 trains later I see him waving at me, the two photos I managed to get turned out pretty good with you really being able to tell it was him in the photo if you know him.
And with that, it was closing time so we headed out to face the drive home. Overall a very good day and the last day we will likely be at the park till Exodus.
Queues and operations weren’t too bad for a weekend and overall the weather wasn’t as bad as it could have been, annoyingly overcast for a good chunk and our cameras don’t always like that outside of the B&W film.
Credit Counts at the end of the day:
Kate - 201 Jason - 88