James Salter

Stealth Newbies

Sunday was the day to introduce the newbies to Stealth.

The day didn’t start well courtesy of another stone hitting my windscreen on the M3. Luckily the crack hasn’t grown too much so can be repaired for free (thank goodness for Fully Comp) rather than me having to pay the excess on yet another new screen. I may be getting a reputation for attracting water, my car’s getting one for attracting stones.

We arrived just before park opening at 9:30. In true Thorpe 2006 Season tradition, the park opened on time even though none of the rides were up and running. The cold weather is playing havoc - apparently most things (including Stealth) cannot run until the temperature is above 5C.

We headed straight over to Stealth. Within a few minutes the rest of the park had joined us.

It opened shortly after and, with the benefit of two train operation, we were on it pretty quickly. We’d met Justin in the queue - he was playing tour guide to Yvonne who’s been helping to organise this year’s US Trip. It sounds like it should be fantastic with some interesting surprises in store for the lucky few. We managed to take a quick ride on Inferno (in between breakdowns) before they had to speed off to Gatwick.
Stealth in the morning - the ideal wake up tonic
The misters are back up to strength in the Inferno tunnel By that time Tom & Rich had arrived and were taking their first ride on Stealth. Newbies #4 & #5.
Tom - over here!!
Here they come
Yep, it’s definitely them

There they go

Malcolm and Hywel (newbies #6 and #7) joined us during the morning. With most of the rides still down (Rush won’t swing, Slammer keeps getting stuck, Tidal Wave has no chain), there wasn’t much to do. Apart from ride Stealth. Again and again. :>

It’s so picturesque, don’t ya think?
A huge selection of music from the WWTP Radio truck
Well yes I do

Geek photo

Tidal Wave is feeling a little drained

Most people left mid-afternoon, but not before we had ridden Mr Monkeys and Pirates 3�D. Paul and I stayed on, opting for a Rumba ride before taking in the greatness of X:\NWO.This year X:\ has had its photos removed - apparently the cameras were moved to Stealth. This means the pyramid is now in total darkness, uninterrupted by the camera flashes. You’d have thought this would make the experience better. On usual rides it probably would, but X:\ is special. Whatever modifications are made to it just make it worse. Now it’s just a backwards rollercoaster ride in the dark, without any miniscule glimpses of track.

With under half an hour until park close, we made our way over to Stealth for our final ride of the day, opting for the front seats. No sooner had we sat down than we were asked to go and stand back behind the barriers. One of the gates had jammed shut and I think another was stuck open. An engineer was called who spent somewhere close to an hour fixing the problem.

Moody skies over Stealth near the end of the day
The sun sets over the farm as we wait for a gate fix After a reset of the catchcar, we were back on the ride. By that time the sun had set so we were able to experience our first semi-dark ride. Forget spending the night with Rita - Stealth is where you want to be!
Stealth night time riding