I’ve just got to grips with some media from trips to Thorpe in the last couple of weeks:
First of all there are arty video montages (read had to use lots of dissolves to stop the video editing software messing up the audio) of Colossus and Stealth from the 20th May. There’s also another video from that day, but you’ll have to e-mail me if you want that as it’s restricted availability (and cert 18 courtesy of Rich’s filthy mouth ![[:haha:]](images/smile/smile19.gif)
).
Also now online are some photos from the uni-esque - sorry, UniS - trip on 30th May.
I�ve been to Adventure Island a few times in the past, notably both in the warmth of summer and in the bitter cold of late January. The park is one of those places that seems to guarantee a nice day out regardless of temperature, but even so I set off on Saturday around the M25 (after what happened last time I thought it a safer bet than attempting the more usual �three trains and the underground South West Trains would like to apologise for the delay to this service and any inconvenience this may cause but don�t blame us because we�re really a bus company and we never wanted to run a train service anyway� approach) with trepidation after seeing the BBC forecasting rain, possible thunderstorms and cold winds.
It was a nice surprise then to arrive on the seafront in blazing sunshine. I do like surprises.
It was not a nice surprise to leave my car and find a ticket machine that demanded more than the contents of my wallet coinage in exchange for a ticket. I do not like surprises.
After considerable rummaging around the doors, the back seat and all those little drawers dotted around my car to find the correct volume of fiscal objects, I was able to buy off the money munching monster without having to walk along the beach selling Kiss-Me-Quick hats hastily made out of pages torn from the AA�s 1987 Road Atlas.
Various club members had already arrived at one of the multitude of Adventure Island entrances and were discussing the various amounts they had paid to park in various locations around Southend. It seems the best deal was �5 for the day. Pah! My parking space had a beautiful sea view for just �2 extra.
Continue reading ‘Fish and Dips and the Mystery of the Missing Wheel’
Last year I went on a trip to Oakwood, probably the least accessible of all the UK’s parks for the majority of the population (unless you are a sheep).
With it being positioned in such a remote location, you’d have thought it unlikely that a London boy like me would be making a repeat visit for a few years. Wrong. I’d have been back this year purely because it is a brilliant park with a fantastic atmosphere. And it has Megafobia. Good enough reason then for me to go back down to Wales last weekend to visit Tom and Oakwood.
This year Oakwood has another new addition: Speed, a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter. Speed is one of the craziest coasters I’ve encountered. Take a vertical lift, add a 97 degree (yes, that’s beyond vertical) first drop immediately followed by an airtime hill barely half the height of the lift and a near-circular loop and you’ll get the idea. Physics and instinct tell you this ride shouldn’t be possible, Oakwood proves it is.
Continue reading ‘Now the Rabbit Place is Really Crazy’
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…
No, not to me: to Legoland Windsor which celebrated its 10th birthday over the weekend. After popping into Chessington for the morning, as a proud annual pass holder I went along to the Legoland party on Saturday. Paul and Rich came too. Well, to be fair, it was Paul’s idea in the first place.
“New” for 2006 is a revised version of Lego London
Continue reading ‘Happy Birthday to a pile of old bricks’
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.
Continue reading ‘Stealth Newbies’