Thorpe Park (Again!)

Sometimes it seems like you just can’t keep me away from Thorpe Park. You can read about previous visits here and here.

First off, here’s the obligatory rollercoaster picture:

Flying Fish isn’t the wildest ride in the park, so I was able to get a couple of on-ride shots like this taken at arm’s length. It isn’t the best picture in the world, but I include it for historic reasons. It is the first picture of me for a couple of years where I don’t have a moustache. Haven’t decided if I’m going to stay that way yet.

This trip to Thorpe Park was a bit of an experiment…

After last time when we went for Halloween Fright Night and had to queue forever (and pay extra to skip queues) to get on rides I decided to try going mid-week during term time. Of course this is much easier for me when I am between contracts, as is currently the case. It was good that a couple of friends could still make it, although I’m sure we would have had a much bigger crowd if we’d gone on a weekend.

The park was, as expected, a lot quieter than last time. Queue times, even for the most popular rides were minimal, ranging from walking straight on to waiting maybe twenty minutes. The only minor hold up was where due to reduced numbers, the rollercoaster rides were only operating single trains, rather than having one train load up with passengers while another is on the track. This accounted for the longer queuing times and also meant that if you’d wanted to queue for the front seat you still had quite a long wait.

Not much new to report since the last visit. Stealth had supposedly been upgraded to go faster, but I can’t say I could really tell the difference. It’s still fast! 0 - 80mph in 2.3 seconds.

We only managed one ride on Stealth and I think we were lucky to get that. After our ride the ride closed for “safety checks”. Curiously this appeared to involve park staff poking around in the grass around the base of the downward part of the track. I had presumed they were looking for a dropped mobile phone, or camera, or something and closed the ride for their safety.

The ride re-opened later and we went back to queue. Just as we were getting near the front of the queue there was a loud clanging noise as the car came down the track. It sounded very much like you’d expect a spanner being dropped from a height onto the metal track might sound. No idea what it was, but the ride closed and stayed that way for the rest of the day. I’m guessing Stealth may have a problem with bits falling off it - not exactly reassuring for a theme park ride, so hopefully that isn’t the case.

Other than that, a great day out. Even the mandatory rain shower was light and over with quickly.