Thorpe Park, Chertsey, UK

One of the UK's most popular theme parks is Thorpe Park, in fact Thorpe is one of the few parks in Britain that can claim to be a themed park, rather than an amusement park thanks to it's themed areas. In addition the park is close to London giving them a steady influx of guests. So what's the park like?

One of the first things that struck me was the size of the park. Thorpe is always going to get comparisons to Alton Towers, compared to Alton, the park is tiny. Nevertheless the park does manage to squeeze a lot in the space. An important thing to note is that Thorpe is very much aimed at thrillseekers, rather than younger families, thus the ride collection is very much for older kids, although there are a few rides for the smaller children.

Speaking of the London area, it doesn't help the prices of the park. £32 is a lot for entry to Thorpe Park and is again something that will cause comparisions with Alton Towers again. If I hadn't got in with an annual pass, I suspect I would have felt a bit ripped off. If you are planning on visiting I recommend doing so with a voucher, or as part of an organised trip, anyway to reduce the price.

The food isn't that bad at the park, however it didn't really stand out while I was there. There is certainly a good range of food at the park, a lot of them are franchisied outlets however, I personally prefer the own brand food outlets.

The park is open from 10am till 6pm, and opens even later on special occasions such as Halloween. Thorpe has decent public transport links and there's enough parking spaces should you travel by car.

I'm probably not going to make any friends saying this, but I wasn't that impressed by Thorpe Park, which considering it's rides selection is quite odd. It wasn't that Thorpe was bad really, I think I just went expecting more. At the end of the day I feel Thorpe Park is maybe a little over hyped by some people, and especially when combined with the price, tends to remove the park from the great category.

Glance at the Park

Thorpe has 5 themed areas. The first you find when you enter the park, Port Atlantis. It is home to the usual shops and food emporiums found at a park entrance.

Head out of Port Atlantis, you wander past the Neptune's Kingdom water park into the Lost Kingdom. Here you'll find the bulk of Thorpe Parks thrilling flat rides. Here you can find the Rush screaming swing, Quantum flying carpet, Samurai top scan, Zodiac enterprise and Vortex pendulum ride. The area is also home to two of Thorpe's five rollercoasters. The first is Collosus, until recently the world's most inverting rollercoaster, a record it now shares with a rollercoaster of the same design in China. This is a fun ride, though a little rough in places, the highlight for me being the four consectutive barrel rolls over water and land. The other coaster is X: No Way Out, often refered to as X: WTF by enthusiasts. This is mostly due to it's habit of stopping randomly at several points due the ride, to allow several special effects to happen, such as air blowing at you. This all takes place in the dark, inside a birghtly coloured pyramid shaped building. While the ride is fairly smooth the coaster itself is nothing special really. In particular the theing doesn't really work, a Mayan retheme was rumoured, and this would be a benefit I feel.

Moving on towards the rest of the park, if you head towards Amity Cove you pass through the kiddie area of the Octapus' Garden. While Thorpe isn't really aimed at children, these small rides are here to try and accomodate them. Adults can get some food from the nearby stalls.

Amity Cove is the next area of the park and this is home to three of the parks major rides. The smallest is the Flying Fish powered rollercoaster, a fun little ride for all the family. Next is Tidal Wave, a Hopkins water chute. Beware, you will get wet on this ride! Finally there is Stealth. This ride often pulls a big crowd as it towers over the park at 205ft, so be prepared for a big queue. The launch is well worth it however, it is a great start to the ride. The rides main problem is it's length, it's so short you may well feel ripped off, especially if you've queued for a while. I recommend it if the queue is an hour or less. More than that and you might prefer to spend your time doing other areas of the park. The other major bugbear I have with Stealth, other than it's length, is the name. For a rollercoaster themed to 50's drag racing, Stealth doesn't really fit. While it would be a good name for a military themed coaster, Stealth does not make me think of drag racing. I can't help but feel a name like Burnout, would be more appropriate.

Towards the rear of the park you will find Calypso Quay. This has 4 rides, a Fabbri built drop tower called Detonator, the Rumba Rapids, Storm in a Teacup teacups and Nemesis: Inferno. This is one of only two Bollinger and Malibard built inverted rollercoasters in the country, the other being it's sister Nemesis at Alton Towers. This brings me nicely onto the second Thorpe Park naming niggle, Why does the ride need to have Nemesis on the front of it's name anyway? The ride is pretty good on it's own and doesn't need to use the Nemesis name to try and draw extra attention to itself. Personally, I feel the ride should just be called Inferno, the majority of the park patrons call it that anyway. The ride is a good B&M inverted rollercoaster, with a good beginning, and well worth a ride if you're there.

Next to Calypso Quay is Ranger Country. This has the park's show stadium, the Arena as well as a selection of rides suitible for small children.

Canada Creek is a similar theme to Ranger Country and located it between Ranger Country and the Lost City it is home to the bigger rides, such as the S&S Sky Swat and the Logger's Leap log flume. For people after tamer rides, the is the Rocky Express mini train and the Canada Creek Railway, as well as eating outlets.

One area I haven't mentioned, mostly because I went in October when it wasn't operating, is the outdoor water park, Neptune's Kingdom. It can be found in between Port Atlantis and Amity Cove and as a small selection of pools and flumes.

Leonardofury, Last modified 09/02/08