Rollercoasters

I am an occasional rollercoaster fan, so I was delighted to hear that Thorpe Park had recently opened a new ride called Stealth. And not just any old ride but a super hi-tech 200 foot tall monster ride.

So, was Stealth any good?

Not an especially sensible question, but if it got you to press the “More…” button, then it clearly worked. “Good” is an inadequate word for describing anything, let alone the sensation of being propelled from stationary to eighty miles per hour in two and a half seconds. The experience is phenomenal and, unless you are a Formula One driver or a Top Fuel Drag racer, is something you are unlikely to experience in any other way. You can see how Stealth compares to a Formula One car here.

There are more Stealth pictures and statistics here.

Thorpe Park has plenty of other rides which are also highly enjoyable, including Nemesis Inferno and Colossus. By the end of the day we had been on pretty much everything. We were helped out a lot by the Single Rider scheme which allows you to get on the rides faster if you are prepared to take up the single seats left behind when groups of three get on rides where the cars have four seats. Quite often we ended up sitting next to each other, anyway and we saved a lot of time we would have otherwise spent queueing.

Although Stealth was a fabulous ride, it is a bit of a one trick pony. A neat trick, for sure, but not quite enough to knock the original Alton Towers’ Nemesis off the top spot of my favourite rollercoasters list. Nemesis Inferno is similar to Nemesis but I prefer the original as it feels that bit more frantic as it runs much closer to the ground and through tunnels. Nemesis Inferno has improved a lot since I first rode it when it was new as the floral scenery around the ride has grown in properly and some extra landscaped pools of green water have been added. It was the ride we chose for our “just one more go before we leave” ride.

I took this rather odd picture from the exit ramp of Nemesis Inferno:

No trip to a British theme park would be complete without a mention of the weather. As you can see from this picture taken from the car park on the way out, I think we left just in time.