On Being Discovered
A few brief remarks on Thorpe’s Be Discovered event that I went to yesterday afternoon:
As could be expected on Good Friday, the park was packed. Arriving at 2:30pm, every available bit of car park was being used - even the field at the back. I’m not looking forward to busy summer holidays 
A red carpet has been laid between the ticket kiosks and the entrance gates - the world’s shortest and lamest red carpet?
The other elements which made it a “special event” were a big stage in the Dome for all the talentless wanabees to perform on (I’m guessing - we didn’t stick around to watch), and … that’s it.
Thorpe’s marketing machine has been in overdrive hyping up this special event that turned out to be just a normal day in the park with an added karaoke contest.
Queues for most things were over an hour, but we already knew that would be the case.
Rides were open until 10pm - wahoo for dark riding!
Stealth’s reliability completely sucked. We stood in a supposed 70 minute queue for well over two hours as it managed to break down three times.
Quote of the day (from WWTP Radio DJ): “Thorpe Park operate a strict no smoking policy in all of its queuelines. I know you all fancy a crafty fag now and again but you can’t really do that here.” No, really I don’t. Or that either.
Flies are tasty - especially when you encounter a face full of them 205ft in the air.
Stealth in the dark is … how would I know? Again, another hour long queue only to be turfed out of the line just before 10pm after Stealth went down again. Got an exit pass though - but not one of the elusive Stealth ones.
All credit must go to Stealth’s platform staff who were leaning over the station fencing and entertaining the queueline throughout the breakdowns.
Final night ride on Nemesis: Inferno. This thing rocks after 12 hours of continuous operation! Dare I say approaching Nemesis standards?
Ride Count after 8 hours in the park:
Rush x 2
Vortex x 2
Nemesis: Inferno x 2 (once through SRQ)
Stealth x 1
As I said, it was fairly busy.
Overall, a good afternoon/evening in park. The special event consisted of nothing, but late night opening was brilliant. Stealth’s ride reliability sucked.
And now I’m off to do it all again…
