Tag Archive for 'stealth'
I’ve just found a few photos on my camera that I took when I went to Thorpe’s late night openings with a couple of others back in August:
Ready for the oven 
ThemeParkDucks.com branches out?
I just can’t get enough swing & spin
Stealth was down … becoming unsurprising
At least Fish & Chips was open
A nice sunset
N:Ight fall (well, I thought it was clever)
Rumba’s better at night …
… especially when you get to stay on as long as you like
Experimenting with camera settings
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.
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…
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’
Once upon a time there was a big hole. �Oh,� said the big hole. �Why Oh Why Oh Why?�
Nothing of much interest happened to the hole for the next few years, apart from getting filled with water and becoming a dumping ground for buildings that had been made too small to live in.
Then the hole�s three parents � R, M and C � thought they could make the hole�s life better by adding the letter X. Unfortunately it turned out that then all the hole�s friends also starting saying �Why Oh Why Oh Why?� This was the third age of the hole.
Eventually, the hole began to outgrow the single letter X:\YOYOY stage and R, M and C found they could take care of it no longer. Its new parents were much more experienced in dealing with holes, but even they couldn�t keep watch over it all the time. Inevitably, this was the time that the hole had a bit of an accident and ended up badly burnt. However, rather than leaving it with its scars, the hole�s new parents decided to pay lots of money to make it better.
Thus, the forth age of the hole: Along came large piercings called Odyssey and Calypso, expanding its group of friends and making it popular with the trendy kids.
The hole�s parents weren�t happy that they�d done enough for their hole yet though. They knew that if it was to have the brightest possible future it would need something to make it stand out from all the other holes and their piercings. They knew that polite society would look unkindly on them if they went too far, but they saw a way through: Their hole was to get a double-size piercing nicknamed Project Stealth.
It�s always nice to start with a good story, don�t you think? Sometimes though the story doesn�t turn out to be as good as it was originally, due to the embellishments and tenuous links you try to include in it.
Let�s take Amity Cove by way of an example. Originally, Amity was home to a single ride at Thorpe: Tidal Wave. It was surrounded by a great story about a coastal town that had been devastated by a tidal wave. The surviving residents had just heard of an imminent second wave and their only chance of survival was to be evacuated by boat. A great story that fitted the ride magnificently.
However, it got a bit odd a couple of years later when the Tea Cup ride ended up in Amity too. There was little explanation as to why: perhaps the survivors were met by WI ladies handing out cups of tea?
The story has been stretched even more with the addition of the latest ride: The long suffering Amity residents are now on a day out at the Amity Speedway, apparently oblivious to the giant Tidal Wave looming over their heads.
Luckily, Thorpe Park is a theme park, not a novel. It�s easy to forgive the dubious story linkage when you are confronted with the theming and atmosphere of the area carved out for Stealth, their new rocket coaster.
Yesterday was opening day, both for the park and for Stealth. The morning dawned well with the park looking in a more (but not completely) finished state than on Saturday. With the exception of Slammer and Tidal Wave, all the main rides were ready for their season debut: Stealth was due to open at exactly 2ish.
Continue reading ‘Speeding Steaks’
Was it or wasn’t it? Has it or hasn’t it? Would it or wouldn’t it? By yesterday evening speculation was huge. With Thorpe Park’s Rehearsal Day mere hours away, rumours at the two extremes were circulating the Internet: Stealth had been handed over to Thorpe and they were planning on getting some managers to run it for Rehearsal Day, or there were still issues with the ride and it would not be available.Confirmation of one of those two rumours was given via the matrix display boards over the ticket kiosks this morning. Unfortunately it was the least welcome, rather than the fantasy everybody, secretly or not, had hoped for.
Stealth wasn’t alone in it’s non-functioning status. Accompanying it were (deep breath) the farm trains, Tidal Wave, Slammer and Rush.
I took the traditional start to the Thorpe season: a ride on Colossus (take the punishment, then things can only get better). I was OK with the ride for most of last season, but it’s become a little less subtle this year. Regrettably, it’s now time for me to join the bandwagon. Whoever described Colossus as running on wheels the shape of 50 pence pieces has captured the ride beautifully. Thank goodness Thorpe haven’t got any more Intamin coasters with the potential to become rough within a few months of opening. Oh.
After taking quick rides on Inferno (with a freshly painted chewing gum free floor, although the ride needs to bed back down - it’s lost a lot of it’s Nemesis-like forcefulness from the end of last season) and Vortex (complete with spiffy new blue seat lock indicator lights), I went to explore the rest of the “old” park.
Rush and Slammer both have their own Cherry Pickers at the moment - none of last year’s sharing. One of the engineers working on Rush was bashing the hell out of something at the top of it with a big hammer at one point - structural improvements? 
Beside Rush is our ever-present faithful friend Zodiac. Hold on … that’s not Zodiac. Imposter! Drayton’s old Cyclone is trying to pass itself off as the astrologically themed Enterprise. I say rename it Cyclodiac. Just for a laugh, you know.
Tidal Wave has got a new sponsor and a nasty green colour bridge.
I didn’t notice this until it was pointed out to me: the old shortcut through Octopus Garden has been closed with the addition of extra fencing and tables and chairs outside the doughnut shop.
Now read it again. It says top talent scouts, not topless talent scouts. Maybe I won’t bother buying extra memory cards for my camera after all.
After the first hour or so I bumped into some ECC peeps. We went to watch the new film, Pirates 3D. I don’t get it - to me it’s just Pirates 4D without the vibrations, wind and seagull sh … oh (again).
Before long (some would say inevitably) I found myself in the Detonator queue. Margaret D definitely has a talent for this. After witnessing the countdown stop and the people stuck at the top for several seconds on the ride before ours, I was looking forward to it even less than normal. My confidence wasn’t boosted when I sat in my seat and found the handholds had been bound up with masking tape. Damn stupid horrible ride.
The way down was much better than the way up. I’m sure I’ve never been out of my seat for so long before. Woooo! What a great ride.
Service in Bush BBQ was interesting. No food, but a mass of staff all being trained to use the till. Lucky we all appeared when we did really: it meant they could all have a turn serving customers with a huge variety of orders. Alright, maybe just coffee.
News then spread that Stealth was due to make some test runs. Time to explore the “new” part of the park.
The new Amity Cove: There’s just time for a quick car race and cup of tea prior to evacuating before the next tidal wave hits. 
Welcome to Amity Speedway
There’s a new food place too
Mmmmmm … definitely got to try this soon
WWTP Cape Radio are doing an Outside Broadcast from Amity Speedway - strangely they spend most time whittering on about back problems and something called Stealth rather than giving any race commentary.
There are some fantastic theming details scattered around.
Rita may have had the first tyre entrance, but Stealth’s is much larger and fits in a lot better. Generally more impressive.
The only non-zero-to-eighty seat in the vacinity
Flyin da flag, innit
Good things come to those who wait
Prepare for (test) launch
Go! Go! Go!
Going up…
Crawling over the Top Hat - rollback?
Not this time
Speeding towards the airtime hill
Apparently this was one of the prototype Stealth trains
This was my first Thorpe Rehearsal Day so it’s difficult to judge it’s relative strengths and weaknesses in comparison with previous years. The park seemed unready, from the unavailabilty of several rides to the half-completed main entrance gates. However, once everything’s completed this has all the makings of a very memorable season.
Thorpe Park, 2006 style. Click here for a bigger view.
See you on Wednesday!