Tag: Colossus

Blog, Fantasy

Thorpe Park – What I’d do if I were in charge

Loops&Lapbars

During the course of the 2022 season, we visited Thorpe Park a lot. Coupled with 2021s visits, I believe it makes it our second most visited park after Alton Towers. So, much like the Alton Towers blog, I think it would be fun to break down Thorpe park as though I were in charge!

The Good Things

Thorpe Park has some excellent coasters already, Stealth being my favourite there. Then there’s Saw, Swarm and Nemesis Inferno. All of these need very little doing to them at all.

The Walking Dead is a great little indoor coaster, that has great theming but can sometimes fall a bit short when there isn’t any live actors around the show building.

The park itself is also quite compact so getting from The Swarm to Saw takes no time at all, especially when compared with Alton Towers!

I particularly like the Amity area of the park too, its 1950s Americana theme, coupled with the destruction caused by Tidal Wave makes of r an interesting way to theme an area, and its executed very well. The radio station that play sin the area, WWTP is a laugh but also plays some excellent era defining tunes.

The Not So Good

Colossus

Colossus is the first big issue that needs tackling in my eyes. The coaster has recently celebrated its 20th operating season and has direct competition and comparison with Sik at Flamingo Land. Though I don’t feel that Sik will ever over take Colossus as the fan favourite, Sik outclasses colossus in pretty much every way except for theming and landscaping.

As Colossus is well established, the area surrounding it is quite pretty, well planted and a nice place to be. However, some of the theming elements have grown to look a bit tired. Take the cobra roll out for example. There’s plenty of room for a water feature there, and with the UKs weather, the pit usually has some water in it anyway, so why not make this and actual water feature, with fountains and such?

Then there’s the trains themselves. These need replacing as they are nothing like as good as the ones that Sik has. The lap bar restraints offer so much more freedom of movement, open up the train much more and make it much easier to get in and out of. I have read somewhere that Sik’s trains won’t fit on Colossus’ track as the versions are drastically different which would make it difficult but certainly not impossible to rectify! I hope Intamin can do something here.

Access issues aren’t only an issue that Colossus has, Stealth and Rita have the same issues, where the restraints are so bulky that the make it a bit difficult to get in and out of. The difference between Stealth/Rita and Colossus is that Stealth/Rita don’t need you to pass your bags across the train, where Colossus does. Siks trains make this much easier to deal with! Perhaps this issue could be somewhat alleviated by having baggage drop off before the station in someway.

Demographic

Thorpe Park has been through a lot of changes over the years, changing from a family orientated park, to a primarily thrill seeking park. I think this is a good idea myself as there are plenty of parks out there that cater for family’s, plenty that are focused on kids but fewer have a purely thrill seeking audience, especially in the UK. I think they should really try to add a few more thrilling attractions to the park specifically designed for younger audiences. That way the park can remain the thrill capitol of the UK as well as catering for families too. Legoland and Chessington are close enough that they can cover for the families who don’t want too many thrills, leaving Thorpe Park there to cover thrills!

If it were me, I’d be looking to couple together the few smaller attractions currently at the park into their own area, possibly closer to the Thorpe Shark Cabins. Flying Fish and Depth Charge are already ideally located for this, but High Roller could be moved closer to them, along with Mr Monkeys Banana Ride. Thorpe Park recently built a playground for kids right by Depth Charge so I think this makes even more sense.

This would not only make an area of the park that younger audiences could stick to, but would also help to alleviate another issue concerning Thorpe Shark Cabins that I’ll touch on later.

Project Exodus

This will be Thorpe Parks newest coaster, being the tallest in the UK, and possibly also the fastest too. However if I were in charge and I could do what I wanted, I wouldn’t be building exodus in its current form.

The old town section would still be used as the station area, but I’d have gone with a traditional style giga coaster that would really put Thorpe park on the map. Not only to UK guests but to international guests too.

I’d make it at least 300ft tall and have a drop that is slightly longer than that, going under ground for added thrill factor, coupled with a truly monstrous Inversion or two would see this version of exodus dwarf the current offering. I think the current plans look good, but I share a similar feeling with the rest of the theme park enthusiast community in that the proposed ride did initially look a bit underwhelming. I’m sure it’ll be fine of course, but I think a huge out and back would have looked much better myself.

Plus Merlin could get very excited in marketing the UKs first and only Giga coaster. nothing else even comes close to the 300ft height I’d be intending to build, let alone the drop I would have added. Once again though, I think the current Exodus plans will still be thrilling and a good addition, just somewhat lacking as to what they could add. Thorpe Park is, at current, the only park that could realistically add something of this height, assuming planning permission was granted of course!

Angry Birds Land

Angry Birds land sits on a substantial plot of land, has 3 attractions and splits Amity in two, separating Stealth from the rest of the area.

I’d leave the Dodgems where they are, but theme them to Amity instead of Angry Birds, move Detonator away, possibly towards Saw and bulldoze the rest!

The 4d cinema takes up so much space, along with the surrounding buildings that I think this could be better used as free space for permanent stages and show areas. Thorpe park has added a few more events over the past few years, and they lack proper areas to stage their shows, relying on any remaining free space to erect temporary installations.

If Angry Birds land was moved, not only will it bring back continuity between Tidal Wave and Stealth, but it would also allow for a large covered area for their new shows and entertainment to take place. I think the Angry Birds property has somewhat fallen off in recent years and it feels a bit dated too. Though Thorpe Park, and Merlin in general seems to really like IP based areas and attractions as of late.

Storm Surge and Rumba Rapids

Storm Surge is a bit of an eyesore, sticking out in the skyline and not really offering much in return. Rumba Rapids on the other hand was a fun little attraction that has had a lot of the life drained from it with recent incidents on UK rapids rides.

I’d look to remove then completely, and have them replaced with a water coaster. I’d put the coaster over where Rumba Rapids is as that occupies a lot of land so would make for a much more impressive layout, and it keeps it away from Tidal Wave which should be the main focus of the area it’s in.

As for the site where Storm Surge sits, I’d probably put in a flat ride of some description, something that would fit in with the Amity theme, not take up too much space, but have a good capacity for the crowds. As for what I’d put there, I’m not so sure. The first thing that comes to mind is a Waikiki Wave, a variant of the Top Spin model made by Vekoma. I know I’ve already suggested that Flamingo Land bring theirs back, but having a ride that repeatedly rolls over and over, situated directly across from Tidal Waves splash zone makes perfect sense to me!

Thorpe Shark Cabins

The onsite accommodation is decent but not perfect. The cabins are quite small but have enough in them for a basic stay. I’d look to make a permanent hotel with cabins as a budget option, and compliment this with more well equipped rooms for a bit more luxury.

One of the biggest glaring issues is the sheer lack of anything to do after the park has closed. To combat this, I’d leave open the arcade in the centre of the park, as well as having access to the smaller rides I mention earlier, Flying Fish, Depth Charge, High Roller and Mr Monkeys Banana Ride. With these being smaller attractions, they wouldn’t need as much man power to run but would still give guests something to do besides the very lack lustre offerings in the Dome.

Live entertainment could be put on in the new staged area I proposed earlier too, or the Dome could be used for this too as that is under used currently.

Derren Browns Ghost Train

Finally there’s Derren Browns Ghost Train. This attraction needs a lot of work I think. I get the idea behind using VR to isolate you from the outside world but the headsets are very clunky to get on, and I don’t feel offer all that much. The idea is quite good but the execution is terrible and even with a refresh it still doesn’t quite hold up to expectations.

I would look to remove the ride completely and replace it with a really good quality interactive dark ride. I bet no one saw that coming!

To help it stand out from the others in the UK, I’d lean it heavily on the horror theme, like Dual, but dialed up to 11. I’d have it run slower in most places so you can take in the scenes properly, speed the cars up in certain parts to give it a sense or urgency where needed and employ actors as well.

Not only would having live actors make it so they could chose where and when to scare you, but it would also be utilised as a scare attraction during Fright Nights too. If I had to, I’d attach and IP to it, but it would be reluctantly as I don’t think IPs are needed on well themed attractions myself. However if forced to, then possibly Stranger Things would work or go down the route of Dead By Daylight and turn the game into a ride?

Since writing this, Thorpe Park has removed all mention of Derren Brown from the ride and rethemed it to Ghost Train. It remains to be seen what the attraction will run like, but I doubt that it’ll be a huge change from what it was before, but we’ll see. For now, I’ll stand by removing it and putting in something new.

The Little Changes

I’d start by cleaning up Saw as the queue line has gotten very over grown and makes it look a bit of a mess. I don’t think it keeps in with the Saw theme myself as there are plenty of show scenes in the queue line that are slowly getting lost to the wilds!

A full renovation of Zodiac should be done to keep the ride going for as long as possible as Enterprise rides are starting to become quite rare and it would be great to see this ride go completely vertical and look it’s best too. Same for Vortex, Rush and any of the other rides that need it, just a good clean up of their areas and signage.

Stealth’s station could do to be covered over a little; as with Rita, both stations are open to the elements and having a bit of rain protection would be great! The queue line could do with a bit of a tidy up too, but nothing major.

Some of the retail outlets could do with being used or closed down entirely. During our visits this year, we really wanted Mexican food from Sombreros, but it’s never open. Same with Colossus hot dogs over in Lost City, that’s never open too.

I think this might be an overall issue with the Merlin Parks in general and it does mean that expansion is much easier but they seem to build new food outlets into the areas anyway leaving the old ones even less use!

I’d definitely want a better size range for their clothing too. I’m a 2xl and I have never seen any 2xl clothes at Thorpe Park, or Chessington for that matter too. Though they do stock this size at Legoland and Alton Towers, so I’m not sure why Thorpe Park doesn’t have larger sizes.

This is one of my bigger issues as I’d love to buy their t-shirts and hoodies but they just don’t fit so I end up not spending as much in the gift shops. Since I started writing this, Thorpe Park have confirmed that for the 2023 season, they will have larger sizes which is great news!

Conclusion

This has been a substantial break down of Thorpe Park and the way it operates and looks. The park is great as it is but could be so much better in my opinion if some of the above things were changed!

Overall I do enjoy Thorpe Park as it offers some of the top rides in the UK, and though I’ve written substantially more about how the bad things are compared with the good, I’ll still be visiting regularly!

Blog, Reviews

Thorpe Park Carnival

Loops&Lapbars

For a little weekend getaway we decided on a visit to Thorpe Park, and that we’d stay on site in the Thorpe Shark Cabins. I’ll have a full dedicated blog talking about our experience with them but needless to say it’s the weakest offering of the Merlin Parks on site accommodation. That’s not to say it was bad, far from it! Just a little room for improvement!

During our visit, Thorpe Park were hosting their new Carnival event. I had a small feeling that it would be an almost identical event to Mardi Gras but aside from reusing a few assets, it felt like a completely new event from the ground up.

As the carnival events started around 12, and we had 1 hour fastpass bands due to our hotel stay, we went on a few rides first.

First stop of the day was The Swarm, and it gave a good ride and a few of the water effects were working today which was a nice bonus!

Next was Flying Fish and besides it being a very tame ride with not much to mention, there does seem to be a lot of noise coming from the front of the train as it pulls away from the station. Whether this is normal, a sign that maintenance is needed or something bigger is going on I’m not sure. I wouldn’t be too upset if Flying Fish ended up having to be removed as it is quite jerky for a powered coaster.

After Flying Fish we had a go on Stealth and got a fantastic back row ride. Even Tracy, who has been a stern hater of the top hat, had fun this time around, which was pleasing to hear!

Our next stop was supposed to be Rumba Rapids, but for whatever reason, the ride wasn’t operational, and stayed closed throughout the day. This is a shame as the weather was perfect for the light spraying this rapids ride gives you!

Onto Nemesis Inferno and yet another good ride here. Nearer the back of the train this time, and we got very little headbanging at all and a lot of force in the final helix. The more I ride Inferno, the closer it gets to the original at Alton Towers, but I’m fairly adamant that it’ll never take the top spot!

As our fastpass hour was coming to a close, we managed to get onto The Walking Dead. Though lacking any live actors again, the ride was just as enjoyable as it always has been. A really nice solid ride.

Trailers: Breakout at Bozo’s

The biggest thing to talk about with regards to Carnival, has to be their reintroduction of the Trailers scare maze that first opened at Fright Nights 2021. I didn’t experience this the first time around so I can’t compare this iteration to the original but as a standalone event, it was good fun!

Breakout at Bozos follows the story of the SuperSpark cinema that regularly suffers from power surges and these surges open portals into the film’s on-show, only this time the portals work both ways so Bozo and his crew have broken free and are wreaking havoc.

Though the maze was advertised as a scare maze with a twist, it just felt like a standard scare maze to me! There were some funny elements such as being asked to kiss a shark and the Brainsburys shop but because of the rushed nature of the attraction, you don’t get time to pick up on all the scenes.

In terms of fear level, I’d say it was on par with the others I’ve done, probably not as scary as Creak freak massacre but definitely up there with Platform 15. A decent entry level Scare maze!

Carnival

The main carnival event was held behind Colossus’s turnaround, right next to Zodiac and Rush. It featured a stage, a couple of food shops, a stall selling carnival merchandise and a few paid for sideshows.

The stage played host to a few different acts through the day such as fire performances, mime troupes and a plenty of dancing and music!

The performances we managed to see were good, and the actors were very entertaining. I think the highlight for me was the Ringleader show, where he introduced his Circus troupe and faced competition from another group of his ex-colleagues, now working in the Junkyard as a rival group.

There wasn’t many roaming actors outside of the area setup for Carnival like there was with Fright Nights, or the Mardi Gras parade, but they were all in character and fun to watch, even if the mimes were a bit creepy…!

Aside from the main area behind Zodiac, there was also a smaller area called the Junkyard. This was between Nemesis Inferno’s shop and the central arcade, and had a selection of food vendors and a little space for more acts to perform, primarily the rival group to the Ringleader I mentioned earlier.

There were also a few audio tracks added to the bigger coasters. Stealth for example, featured audio about being a human cannonball, Colossus had an acrobat talking about its 10 ‘acrobatic loops’ and Nemesis Inferno played more into is fiery theme by suggesting you walk on fire and brave the heat.

Overall Carnival was good, probably on par with Mardi Gras, definitely not better but certainly not worse either!

The rest of the day

After we’d finished with Carnival, we got on more rides starting with Black Mirror Labyrinth and then Derren Browns Ghost Train. Both were as you’d expect, though Ghost Train was noticeably worse than usual. Black Mirror Labyrinth didn’t have much more to show us than the first time we tried it and really does feel like a one and done attraction already.

I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little excited to talk about Zodiac. Though the ride is nothing special, and doesn’t quite function how it once did, it was my 100th unique flat ride. It wasn’t planned at all until I looked on Logride (an app I use to track what I’ve ridden) and it showed I was up to 99 individual flat rides.

Zodiac and High Roller were showing as the last two attractions I’d yet to ride at Thorpe Park, so I had a go on High Roller before finishing off the list, and achieving my 100th flat with Zodiac! (As a side note, High Roller is classed as a children’s ride)

After we’d had some dinner at the Pizza and Pasta Buffet, we had another ride on Nemesis Inferno which was once again really intense. After Nemesis, I managed a walk-on over at Colossus to see how it rides after it’s been running all day. It wasn’t quite as rough as it has been, but still had an element of roughness to it and with Sik being as good as it is, Colossus needs looking at in my opinion!

Our next rides were a back-to-back on The Swarm, and though the earlier ride was good, these were insane! The ride runs so much better after it’s properly warmed up. It feels so much faster and yet still as smooth as it always has been. Highly recommend a late ride on The Swarm.

After that we had another go on Flying Fish before our final ride of the day on Tidal Wave. Once again we got thoroughly soaked, and even got a second dousing upon leaving the station as the next boat came down the drop! Great ride in hot weather and a perfect end to a packed day.

Conclusion

Thorpe Park Carnival was a great day out, not only for the Carnival event but the park was very quiet for the time of year. Stealth didn’t seem to get longer than 10 minute queues, and even Saw: The Ride managed to stay under 45 for the most part.

Carnival was certainly a good, enjoyable event and hopefully it’ll blossom out into an even better event next year too.

Blog, Reviews

Sik at Flamingo Land- Review

Loops&Lapbars

Since starting this blog we’ve not had many new rollercoasters open, let alone many new thrill rides. When it was first announced and given the placeholder name of Inversion, I quietly looked forward to being part of the community riding something brand new for the first time together.

The name

Firstly I’ll get the elephant out of the room and address the name. I don’t really like it.

It was named as such because the owner of Flamingo Land, Gordon Gibb, is good friends with the owners of a local fashion brand called Siksilk. This friendship has brought about a partnership between the park and the brand and with it the name for Flamingo Lands newest attraction.

I understand that it’s an advertisement for the brand, fitting with attractions sometimes making people sick, as well as it being trendy to refer to something that is good as ‘sick’, but it’s really not for me. Inversion was a terrible name but I think I’d have preferred that to Sik. Maybe it’ll grow on me?

Onto the good bits

The ride is an Intamin second generation multi inversion roller coaster, featuring a cable lift hill, 10 inversions and new trains with lap bar restraints. It doesn’t really have much of a theme as the trains are very monochrome in colour, featuring a union flag design on them, as does the station.

From the front of the queue line, until entering the station, there is no theming at all. Interestingly though the start of the queue line takes you through a shop selling Sik branded merchandise and Siksilk clothing. You also leave the attraction through the same building too so in that regard it does feel all encompassing.

One thing I did notice is that the cable lift hills cable returns to the station underneath the queue line, unlike traditional chains that usually loop under themselves. I only mention this as it is quite exposed and I hope that should the cable fail that it doesn’t whip into the queue line at all!

I know Rita and Stealth have very high tension cables that run over the queue lines too and they’ve never had an incident, so it’s probably perfectly safe, I just felt it was quite exposed!

The station continues the minimalist theme, with lots of banners flying above with the Sik logo on them and little else in terms of theming. I’ve seen it described as a bit of a nightclub in the station building, which I can see why as there are event lights and loud pop music being played over the speakers. This ride really does need a theme tune in my opinion!

Kumali and Mumbu Jumbo have music in their stations that fit their theme, even if they’re not the most recognisable, at least compared to Nemesis, Big One or Helix’s soundtracks. Hopefully Sik will get one one day!

The trains are quite roomy and the lap bars offer excellent upper body freedom whilst still feeling safe. Boarding is much easier because of the lap bars as they don’t stick out quite a much as the restraints on Stealth or Colossus where crossing the train on those is quite difficult!

The ride experience

Once you’re strapped in and dispatched, the train rockets up the first hill thanks to that cable. There is quite a lot of noise as the latter part of the train leaves the station though.

Once you crest the top, you fall into a nice smooth steep curve to the left turning 180 degrees as the train enters the first inversion, a vertical loop. The train then flies into an airtime hill, into a mist filled tunnel and into the second and third inversions, a cobra roll.

Next is another misty tunnel, an airtime hill, and then into back to back corkscrews before turning to the left again to enter into a series of 4 back to back heartline rolls, then a long sweeping turn to the left and into one more heartline roll before the final brakes and back into the station.

Thanks to the cable lift, the train carries much more speed around the track than it would have on a first generation coaster. The heartline rolls are still uncomfortable though, but much less so as the lap bar helps and the train navigates them quicker.

Of all the elements on the ride, I think I enjoyed the vertical loop the most, as it gives great force and feels big.

Let me explain.

Nemesis’ loop is quite large in comparison, but it feels smaller, probably due to the proximity to the ground, as the loop is sunk into the terrain. Speed: No limits has a full size loop, but that doesn’t give the same feeling of scale either, I’m not sure why Sik’s loop feels bigger than it actually is. The speed it takes the element maybe?

I still don’t like the heartline rolls at the end though. They feel tacked on purely to get the design up to 10 inversions with minimal effort, but that’s Intamins fault, not Siks.

I’d have preferred to see a zero g stall, cutbacks or a sea serpent roll being added in someway to make up the numbers, rather than the 4 rolls back to back. Once again, I understand that this is Intamins design and not the fault of Flamingo Land or Sik, just passing comments!

It was also nice to see that the fountains at the end of the ride synchronise as the train moves past. If you didn’t notice it, you will now and I appreciate that little detail!

So how does it compare to Colossus?

I wasn’t going to compare the two here, since everyone else is. However the difference is night and day between the two, at least thus far. Colossus is a 20 year old coaster that has seen better days and I feel is in desperate need of refurbishment as it batters you about far too much now.

Sik on the other hand rides incredibly smoothly and just feels better all around. It’s faster, smoother and much, much more comfortable than Colossus is. I do wonder what would happen if Siks train was put on Colossus for a few runs. Would that sort out the issues, or is the second generation coaster just that much better as a whole package?

Colossus still has some redeeming features though, even if they are minor! It’s name and theme are much better, and its queue line is prettier (though I know that wasn’t necessarily the case upon opening). It also runs two trains too, and makes a great sound when it d2isengages the chain at the top of the hill. Sik doesn’t make any noise at all, besides the metallic clunking as it leaves the station.

To summarise then, is Sik any good?

I’d certainly say so. I might have sounded quite negative with a lot of my comments, but besides the name, I do quite like everything else about the coaster. Maybe it needs a theme, or maybe it’s current look with come to mature over time? Maybe it’s lack of soundtrack will give it some identity on its own?

All I can say for certain is it topped Mumbo Jumbo as my favourite ride at Flamingo Land, and found its way to number 6 on my list of favourite coaster that I’ve ridden, so that should say more than enough about my true feelings for this attraction than any paragraph could!

Blog, Reviews

Thorpe Park Mardi Gras!

Loops&Lapbars

Mardi Gras is something of a new thing in the UK. In writing this blog I’ve found out that the UK equivalent is Pancake Day which I can’t see Merlin Entertainments hosting in their parks, so Mardi Gras it is!

This is our first visit to Thorpe Park this year (of many to come) and though we could have picked Alton Towers, we decided on Thorpe Park for their Mardi Gras event, and to get on some rides for the first time too.

We went over two days, intending to ride the rides on one of the queiter first day and put more of a focus on seeing the Mardi Gras events on the busier second day when ride queues would be longer.

Day 1

Our first day we arrived nice and early, got through security, purchased the digipass and recharged our refillable drinks then headed to Stealth. Second train of the day, pretty much a walk on and the ride delivered! I haven’t been on Stealth in about 7 months so it was great to get back to my second favourite coaster! Part of me was hoping it would be able to pull out all the stops and dethrone The Smiler as top dog, but alas, Stealth remains second!

Next we had a go on Detonator, a first time ride and another walk on. Now this ride impressed me quite a bit. Even though it’s only 115ft tall and is essentially a drop and done, it’s more than the sum of its parts. If it were simply a drop and nothing else then it probably wouldn’t have been quite as much fun, but we were at the top of the tower for a good 60 seconds waiting to drop.

The ride operator controls when you drop so you could be there any length of time. I’ve seen the ride drop immediately as it gets to the top, or be held there like we were and its just a nice fun bit of interaction for me!

After Detonator, we went to Nemesis Inferno, the parks B&M invert. Though I talked at length about how I prefer Nemesis over Nemesis Inferno, this has got to have been the single best ride I’ve had on an invert. It’s pacing was excellent, intense and very smooth too.

The ride operator was also going off the rails with singing and really pleasing the crowds and adding to the fun!

Next up was Walking Dead, besides not having any live actors today, there wasn’t much to say about it. Fun, little indoor attraction, well themed and a laugh.

After Walking Dead, we went over to Saw and queued for about 20 minutes for the best themed Eurofighter in the country.

As with Nemesis Inferno, Saw was running really well too. I’d go as far as to say it was the best ride I’ve had on Saw and and Eurofighter yet! I usually get a small amount of head banging in the transitions as it is quite a brutal ride, but not once did I get that here. I was in the back row, in the centre seat with Tracy on my left and she said she didn’t have any issues either. Very commendable!

On the inverse is Colossus however. We elected for a back row ride to see how it faired verses our previous front row at Fright Nights and it was truly awful. I’ve ridden Infusion and Hero, Grand National and Big Dipper and yet this 1 ride will stand out as the worst and most uncomfortable that I’ve ever had. I don’t know what was wrong, but we had another ride on the second day and it was bad too. Middle of the train this time though.

While writing this I’ve noticed a lot of people complaining on various social media outlets about the sheer roughness of Colossus. Maybe Merlin will retrack it and give it the attention Nemesis is getting at Alton Towers?

I’m looking forward to seeing what Flamingo land’s 10 invertion coaster is like and hopefully Colossus can be retrained to remove the over shoulder restraints to help with the head banging we had here. Such a shame as it’s its 20th anniversary and it left such a sour taste!

Once we’d finished on Colossus, we went for some dinner and to have a little break. We tried Peckish for the first time and I risked it with a Chilli dog. Needless to say I’ll certainly be having those again, not too fiery but just right!

To cool off after dinner we had a go round on Rumba Rapids and this was probably the longest we queued all day, and even then it was only about 20 minutes or so! Not much to be said really, a fun rapids ride with a good tunnel and layout, but not much more!

There’s a couple of things that could be addressed with all the UKs rapids rides. For one, you barely get wet on any of them, which is nice on the one hand but would add to it on the other. The second issue is that people don’t seem to follow the rules and because of what happened with Drayton Manor, the staff have to constantly bark orders at people to tell them to sit down and stop being a nuisance which does take you away from the ride

We then had a saunter around, taking photos and enjoying the summer air before making our way to Flying Fish for a couple of runs around. We managed a record 5 laps in one sitting as the ride op just kept it going! The most I’ve had one one of these junior coasters has been 3 on Runaway Mine train at Alton Towers so once again, another very memorable ride!

We then made our way around to The Swarm. This was another near walk on, only queuing on the bridge over to the far side seats which took no time at all. The ride was running well, plenty of thrill and the right amount of intensity on the turns!

We finished day 1 with our first ride on Tidal Wave. Due to the nature of the ride and how soaked others looked that were getting off, we saved it until last. I’ve been to Thorpe loads of times and never gotten on Tidal Wave, either the queues have been far too long, the ride hasn’t been running or its not been particularly warm for it, but today was perfect.

The ride doesn’t last all too long but its a great crowd pleaser. It has a huge splash down element and splash zone to not only soak riders but also on lookers too! There’s even a set of upcharged water cannons to further soak riders through.

Needless to say we got completely drenched on our ride and I even managed to record a decent splash with my GoPro after exiting the ride too. After that we got changed, headed out the park and to the hotel for the night.

Day 2

With day 2 being a Saturday, we decided to focus more on the Mardi Gras part of the visit and less so on the rides. We still got a few rides here and there such as Colossus (which was still rattling around) and Nemesis Inferno, but primarily we watched the shows and took in the atmosphere.

The events started around midday with ‘The Crowning of the Krewes’, a show that saw 4 party crews performing to become champions of Mardi Gras. Each act was great though some were better than others, and each had a connection to one of the rides. Stealth, Nemesis Inferno and Rumba Rapids each had an act loosely themed to them, and then there was another called Aqueous who represented water whisperers and was ‘a champion of harmony’. Not really sure what ride or attraction she was representing, if any, but she was still good!

The Crowning of the Krewes was enjoyable and after the show, each of the krewes stayed around for meet and greets and photo opportunities.

The next thing we watched was the ‘Drum Works’ community band who were very good too, though a little repetitive in my opinion! Their set lasted about 45 minutes but there was only so much they could do with drums on their own. Don’t get me wrong , it was a great showing, just a little too long for the amount of variety they offered.

While they were playing, the Mardi Gras parade rolled through which comprised of a themed vehicle carrying the Mardi Gras royals and a few members of the krewes. The parade did feel a little like it was interrupting the Drum Works band and neither stopped while the other was coming through so it did feel a little mixed up.

One of the biggest things that Mardi Gras has highlighted to me is how little room Thorpe Park has. I’ll bring it up in detail in a future blog about what I’d do if I ran Thorpe Park, but in brief, they need room for events!

The other issue was the lack of members in the parade. I could put this down to the staff shortages that the tourism sector are having, so I’ll let this one slide as it wasn’t a big issue, just something I noticed.

After we’d seen the parade and watched a few of the acts on the mini stages, we continued wandering around, had another few rides on Swarm, Rumba Rapids and Storm in a Teacup before heading to the shops and then to the hotel.

Overall I enjoyed Mardi Gras, the costumes, actors and stages were all well made and the park looked good in its colours. I don’t think it was as good as Fright Nights, but I doubt anything other than another Fright Nights/Firework event will top that! Still, it was well worth the visit and I’d like to see Alton Towers’ and Chessingtons take on the event next year!

Blog, Reviews

Fright Nights – Thorpe Park

Loops&Lapbars

Having tried Scarefest for the first time at Alton Towers in 2020, we made an effort to see what Thorpe Park, Chessington and Legolands events were like, starting with Thorpe Park.

We once again stopped at the Ramada at Cobham services for four nights, meaning we could initially do two days at Thorpe Park, two at Chessington and then Alton Towers on the way back, however we changed plans after we’d visited Chessington, more on that in another blog!

We arrived at Thorpe Park for our first day on Friday, expecting a really busy day but to our surprise, it was arguably the quietest day we’d ever had there. That’s not to say it was dead by any means, there were still plenty of folk about, but queues were topping out at 40 minutes or so meaning we got on plenty of rides!

Our plan was to ride rides on the Friday and do more of the Fright Night events in the Saturday when riding would mean longer queues. This was the right way to do it when we saw the queues on Saturday morning!

Anyway back to Friday and initially we were going to head straight to Saw: The ride and get the longer queue out of the way first, but due to technical difficulties it wasn’t ready for us when we got there.

Instead I rode Samurai alone as Tracy didn’t like the look of it. I enjoyed the ride and it does looks a lot more intense than it actually is. It was pleasant, gives enough force to make it interesting, but not so much that you feel ill or don’t enjoy the experience. The music while queuing is also so calming and beautiful, and during the ride it’s more aggressive and upbeat, really well done here!

Colossus isn’t as bad as I thought!

Next we queued for Colossus, and we waited about 30 minutes or so, partially because we waited for a front row (something I didn’t know was offered). This was my second ride on this Intamin 10 inversion machine, and it exceeded what I remembered from my first ride!

I didn’t really rate it that well after my first ride on it as I felt it was a bit dull and the heartline rolls are unnecessary at the end. I still feel that the heartline rolls are unnecessary but this time we both agreed it rode well, wasn’t rough at all and was generally quite enjoyable! Even though it was Tracys first ride, she said she’d do it again, so plus points here.

Once we’d finished on Colossus, we had a go on Saw, which was now up and running. Another first ride for Tracy and we didn’t wait too long before we were in the station building taking in all the scenery. Unfortunately we ended up on the first train which meant Tracy missed the little interaction with Billy the Puppet at the start of the ride, but a second ride later on rectified this!

Saw ran well, it still has its rough parts here and there, though Tracy did say she didn’t feel any roughness or headbanging at all, so maybe that’s the height difference between us causing me issues?

Black Mirror Labyrinth

This time around we’d managed to get timed tickets for Black Mirror Labyrinth as we’d missed out on them in our earlier visit. The attraction was decent, certainly better than Ghost Train, but not something that I’d be wanting to queue much for to reride. I knew nothing of the TV series before visiting the attraction, similarly with Saw and The Walking Dead, but only Saw has made me actually want to watch the shows the rides were based on!

Next we headed off up towards Quantum and the other flat rides here. We only ended up riding Quantum but took a breather and a few photos before we went off to Swarm Island.

By the time we’d gotten to Swarm Island, the Fright Night events were starting to take place, as actors start to pop up at various places in the park. For The Swarm, there’s The Swarm: Invasion, which sees a group of tin foil hat survivors causing mayhem about the place, and a couple of Swarm infected military personal keeping things creepy.

The ride itself rode well once again, we managed a front row, which Tracy was excited for until she realised how long you end up hanging at the top of the hill! Back rows for her from now on I should think!

We then stopped for a little dinner break at Burger King over by Nemesis Inferno. One thing that would be nice to see is Merlin and their franchises in their parks acknowledging those who have refillable drinks, and offer meals without a drink so you don’t feel like you’re paying for something you don’t want, just so you can get a burger and chips cheaper as a meal than individually. Little niggle but I thought I’d mention it since we regularly have refillable soft drinks in the Merlin run parks.

A little note actually on the refillable drinks. Firstly, Tracy’s cup had managed to get a crack in the bottom and they exchanged it without any quarrel at all which pleased her as she got a Fright Nights cup as she’d wanted one. Secondly, the machines seem to stock a special drink, or choice of drinks for Fright Nights. We found this to be the case at Brick or Treat at Legoland too. I didn’t notice whether Alton Towers does this though. The option is in the bottom right of the touch screen and both had different flavoured offerings!

Our next visit was Stealth, again for a first (and probably last) ride for Tracy! I have a high opinion of Stealth, I love the ride, its trains and how it operates, however, Tracy does not. She loved the launch but the top hat was a bit too much for her!

Stealth also has actors around the ride area as part of Amity High Vs LycanThorpe: Love Bites. This was brilliant! Such a good atmosphere all the time here, and actors that not only look great, but interact with you and were chasing people around and scaring folk all the time. I could have sat here all day and just watched what was going on, but other rides beckoned!

Once we’d moved on from Stealth, we had a go on Nemesis Inferno, The Walking Dead: The Ride, Flying Fish, The Dodgems and Timber Tug Boat. The second day we only rode Storm Surge, Rush, Derren Brown’s Ghost Train and Mr Monkey’s Banana Ride.

Ghost Train is awful

I think now is a better time than ever to talk about Derren Brown’s Ghost Train. We’ve ridden it twice and had pretty much the same experience both times. The VR is clunky and weird to put on, and I’m no stranger to VR having played PS VR and Oculus games at home.

The story line itself is quite a good one, but under utilised and just feels a bit cheap in places. The ride mechanism is good, and the set pieces are well designed too. I like how it really does feel like you’re on an underground train and the VR and physical elements do work something like well together, such as windows breaking and feeling the wind rushing in.

That being said, the experience on the whole is dire in my opinion. It should be so much more than it is and I think a lot of the issues could be sorted by removing the VR elements of the ride and having the video play out on the windows of the train. It would remove the isolated feeling that VR brings, but I think it would be offset by the experience running smoother on the whole.

To me, it’s a good set piece, with a bad VR section, a walk around a cheaply built underground section, followed by another even worse VR section, and finally a surprise element, which is arguably the best bit!

Such a shame as the ride could be so much more, and in its current state, I would advise riding it once, and then leaving it a few years like we have. Go on Ghost Train at Pleasure Beach for a better experience!

Night Rides

Our first night ride was on The Swarm, and though it rode the same as it does during the day, the darkness did add a little the experience! The surrounding area also came alive at night too! Shame the fire effects haven’t worked in a long time, as night rides would be excellent if they were to work!

Next was Stealth, which a night ride offered great views of the park all lit up, and the atmosphere around the ride ramped up to 11, otherwise it felt the same as a day ride for me!

We then headed off to Nemesis Inferno, which was excellent at night! We waited for a front row and both really enjoyed it! It would have been better if it hadn’t got quite as many lights about so it was darker but it was still a great night ride!

The real star for night rides here was Saw: The ride however! As mentioned earlier, we were on the second train, were taunted by Billy the Puppet and had a great ride in the dark! Once you head off into the trees it’s very dark and a few of the drops you can barely see, especially on back row which really helped it be my favorite night ride here!

Scare Mazes and Scare Zones

As I said earlier, our second day we didn’t ride that much and instead focused on the Scare Mazes, shows and zones about the park.

Legacy – A Fire and Light Display was a great free show that goes through the 20 year history of Fright Nights, something that will mean a lot to regular Fright Nights attendees!

The Crows of Mawkin Meadow is a walkthrough attraction with live actors posting as scarecrows that really do a great job of scaring you as you walk through their attraction. This was a great little zone, and even more so considering its included in the price of admission!

Following on from Mawkin Meadow, the Crows regularly walk about the park, scaring park goers when they least expect it and they looked excellent!

The first proper Scare Maze we did this year was Platform 15: End of the Line. It started with a hefty queue but soon moved on as you were kept in a dark tunnel waiting to enter. Your photo is taken, which is an extra charge unfortunately, before you start and then you are led into the attraction itself.

The story told is that of a train that derails, its passengers perish and are lost, frozen in time. You follow the route of the Sleeper Express and find the remains of the train and its passengers. The maze features the actual train that used to run around Thorpe Park in years gone by, and you can also see parts of Logger’s Leap too!

I enjoyed Platform 15, it wasn’t too scary, more creepy in my opinion, but was pleasant, and well executed and well worth the price of entry and the time to walk through it! Shame that the photo wasn’t included in the price though.

The other Scare Maze we tried was Creek Freak Massacre. Set inside the old station building for Logger Leap, this maze shows you a family of hillbilly lumberjacks that have turned from chopping wood to chopping unsuspecting human victims! It features smoke, loud sounds and live actors wielding chainsaws who aren’t afraid to swing them towards you! It’s perfectly safe of course and they won’t hit you, nore are the blades running, but it still made me jump out of the way!

In my opinion, this one felt a lot more intense than Platform 15 and on par with last years Altonville Mines, from 2020s Scarefest at Alton Towers. Great theming and a genuinely foreboding atmosphere, and though filled with jump scares for the most part, it was a great time!

I think I preferred Platform 15 though, it felt more traditional Halloween, still scare in places, but more atmospheric and creepy!

So this was a long blog! We had two days filled with plenty of rides, scares and fun, genuinely enjoyed Fright Nights for their 20th anniversary. Though I do feel Alton Towers 2020 Scarefest was a bit better, I’d like to come back next year and see what returns, and what’s new for 2022!

Blog, Reviews

Attraction soundtracks

Loops&Lapbars

One of the things I rarely ever hear anyone talk about are attraction soundtracks. The music that plays in the queue line, station building or themed area. Something that adds ambiance to an area, or builds up excitement for the ride you face!

I don’t know why this is as there are some excellent scores to some great rides here in the UK, and saying that, there are some excellent rides that are missing musical accompaniment!

The good!

When I think of musical scores, the first one that usually comes to mind is The Big One’s theme from Pleasure Beach or Helix at Liseberg. Both of these are euphoric dancey tracks, and even though I haven’t ridden Helix, I can imagine it fits really well. I could easily see Helix’s theme used with Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Icon, with Big Dipper and Big One behind

Another score I really like is Galactica’s. It fits the ride perfectly, has a sense of wonder about it and adds to the space exploration theme Galactica has. I love this one!

Galactica. A lovely soundtrack to a lovely ride!

Nemesis also has a great theme, chilling and foreboding, it helps to add to the terror of the area and the ride itself.

Another thing I do like it how Imascore, who did the music for Galactica, Spinball Whizzer, The Smiler and Wickerman at Alton Towers included parts from In the Hall of the Mountain King, Alton’s unofficial theme. A very nice little attention to detail by some very talented musicians!

The same can be said for Thorpe Parks theme, it incorporates segments of the big 5 roller coasters, and the themed areas appear to have excerpts from the main theme too. I also like Derren Brown’s Ghost Trains score.

Tornado Springs at Paultons Park also has a great score, feeling very in keeping with the 1950s American theme they have there. Same for Storm Chaser, thats theme is great too, mixing 50s guitars and rock with the sounds of a raging storm.

Tornado springs at Paultons Park

Chessington World of Adventures has some good themes, its overall park theme is fun and inspires adventure, Croc Drop’s theme is also good, but Vampire’s theme is excellent and fits the ride and station building fantastically.

The not so good!

Personally I like, but don’t love Icon’s score. It has some excellent parts, but a lot of it I find to be quite lacking. I just doesn’t have the epicness in my opinion!

Rita is another rides whos score is just ok. I didn’t get to experience Thunder Rock radio when Rita was still part of Ug Land, but I could see that fitting really well. The score it has now, does still fit the Dark Forest and Rita’s final chance of escape theme, but it could be so much more. The fault lies in the fact that Rita doesn’t properly fit Dark Forest and didn’t fit Ug Land when it was there either.

The bad!

For me, the worst score that a ride has is Oblivion. The repetitive techno track doesn’t really fit the theme of Oblivion being a next level of fear that you have to overcome, riders disappearing into nothingness and not returning, but with a techno backing track? I really don’t like this one, but I do wonder what could be used instead?

Riders braving the drop (and score) on Oblivion

Aside Oblivion, I haven’t heard a score/theme that I really don’t like, but I’m sure there will be others out there that are good, not so bad and terrible!

I haven’t been to Europe or the USA to sample their delights, but I have heard a few scores like Taron’s and Helix as mentioned earlier, and I can’t wait to get abroad and see what hidden gems there are!

Blog

Cobham & Thorpe Park – Stop 7

Loops&Lapbars

After our final night in Southampton Holiday inn, we once again packed the car up and left for our next stop, Thorpe Park!

We’ve visited Thorpe Park twice before and both times we’ve enjoyed it but felt that it wasn’t as good as it should have been, so this time we gave ourselves plenty of time to take it all in.

Our first visit was to Swarm. This B&M wing coaster is well themed and rides extremely well. This was only my second time riding it and Tracy’s first, and though she was terrified initially she said she’d ride it again. It does look very intimidating with the initial dive drop and elements, but much like Galactica, it’s more of a gentle giant than it looks.

The Swarm’s dive drop

After The Swarm, we went to Flying Fish, for our first ride on this junior coaster. It’s an average ride, let down a little by the landscaping and untidy ride area, but worth a ride for the credit!

Next up was The Walking Dead: The Ride, an indoor roller coaster that was closed due to the pandemic during our last visit so we missed out on it, but we have ridden it before. I like the theming and design, and I find the roller coaster itself to be quite enjoyable, especially the second lift hill scene. I’ve not heard many good reviews of the ride, and I don’t really think it needed to have an IP attached but both of us enjoy it.

On ride photos!

After The Walking Dead, we headed to Quantum, a magic carpet style ride, near the front of the park. We queued for what felt like ages as operations were very slow, the ride operators seemed to lack training to get people on and off safely and quickly. Multiple times we saw riders loaded on and then the bars released and people moved around. We felt it wasn’t worth the queue, especially when we could have been in queue for one of the roller coasters just as long.

Following Quantum, we had a bit of a wander around, taking in the atmosphere of the park, which was quite busy. We headed over towards the Black Mirror Labyrinth, this years new attraction. We failed to realise that both this and Derren Brown’s Ghost train were timed ticketed attractions, and by the time we found out, all tickets were gone, which was a bit disappointing but not the end of the world. We rode Ghost Train in 2019 and were extremely underwhelmed by the experience.

We then queued for Stealth, the parks tallest and fastest roller coaster and a favorite of mine. The queue was slow as Stealth’s queue always is, and Tracy decided not to ride this time, but has said she’ll have a go on our next visit! As for my ride, I loved it. It was only my second time riding, and the launch is still the best the UK has to offer, and short of visiting Japan for Do-Dodonpa, I doubt it’ll get much more intense than this! The top hat offers great views of the park, as you’d expect being 205ft up, and though its a short ride, its worth the wait.

Stealth about to crest the 205ft top hat.

To cool off, we had a go on Storm in a Teacup, and then the Dodgems, and then had a ride on the Rumba Rapids before stopping for something to eat at Burger King.

By this time, it was getting later in the day so we queued up for Nemesis Inferno as our last ride of the day. Inferno is an excellent ride, and though I personally prefer the original Nemesis, Inferno is still worth the queue. Its jungle themeing and volcano are all great and when we rode, the tunnels mist effect was working which cools you off!

Once we’d finished up in the shops and collected all our photos from the Dome, we went to try and find the car. No word of a lie, this is the first time I’ve ever parked a car and lost it in the car park! We did eventually find it of course, so I sent the drone up for some aerial shots and then we drove off to Cobham services for our overnight stop at the Ramada.

Tidal Wave’s splash is easily visible!

To summarize our visit to Thorpe Park, we had a great day overall. The best visit we’ve had so far, even though Quantum was a bit of a letdown. We did also have refillable drinks courtesy of the Coca-cola freestyle system they have here which wasn’t running at its best, but we were advised when we bought our cups that they had supply issues.

Next stop Chessington World of Adventures…