Well, the time came and I decided on the 20th April to make my first trip of the season back to Thorpe Park!
To be honest, it was so nice to be able to be back at Thorpe Park after all, I had not been there since my trip back at Fright Nights in October 2020.
A bigger plus side of my visit, was that it was during a week day! With my current job, I work weekends so this means that I will have days off during the week which will come super handy during school terms!
I arrived at the park just after opening and even with this, I was able to go directly to my favourite rollercoaster for my first ride and rollercoaster ride of the season and of course, that ride had to be The Swarm!
During my visit, I managed to do a massive 15 rides (could even have done more!) along with having time to stop at Infinity Gardens for my lunch which of course gave a good view while eating and having a nice refreshing drink.
Through out the day, the most a ride got to for queue time was around 25 minutes however the majority of the time during my visit the rides were walk on, even at that some of the rides were so quiet if you wanted to (including on The Swarm!) you could stay on the ride for another go and another (if no one else was around to go on / waiting).
During my visit in the morning Storm Surge was still under maintenance however after testing, it was able to open up!
As understandable due to COVID, Darren Brown Ghost Train, Angry Birds 3D and Walking Dead were all closed however these are all planned to open currently on May 17th so watch this space! For me I did actually miss the Ghost Train and Walking Dead rides, even though the Ghost Train has very very mixed reviews.
Now of course, with the park being so quiet I didn’t actually need to buy a fast-pass which was very nice and the weather being very hot all day long.
There is minor changes throughout the park such as new signs, some repaints etc.
Coming soon as well we have the brand new Black Mirror attraction which was due to open last year but was decided to be delayed due to COVD.
I did also have a very ‘first’ experience for myself where I was on SAW: The Ride, after dropping down the first drop hill right after you see Billy on his bike and before the corkscrew indoors, the carriage came to a sudden stop… what felt like a long time after, the lights came on and the ride operator advised that it has ceased operations at the moment and they were working on getting us moving again. After what felt like a further longer wait, they managed to re-start the ride (woohoo) and we got going again. We didn’t get evacuated from the ride which in some ways is good, however I’m still waiting for my first rollercoaster ride where we do need to be evacuated but at least I can say now I have been on a rollercoaster when it broke down! Well done to the staff for keeping us updated and getting us going again.
I am planning to go to Thorpe Park at least once a month, so watch this space for more updates and pictures. Sadly the brand new ‘iMagic’ ride-photo system was not available/working when I had my visit so I was unable to try out the new system, but I will be sure to try this out as soon as I can and will let you know all about the expereince.
For now, you will find the below pictures from my first visit for this year.
Founder of ThemeParkRM. Spending most of his time at Thorpe Park and loves The Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers (choo choo!)
