Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Some good rides, BOGOF offer |
| Disadvantages: |
High prices, long queues, claustrophic park |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
no |
Earlier this year we were invited to our nephew's wedding in Dorset and since we live in North Wales we decided to make the journey worthwhile by staying 'down south' for a week. For my Christmas present last year Dave had bought me an 'experience' of feeding tigers by hand at Paradise Park (I have done a review of this if you are interested) so we decided to stay for a few days in Basingstoke and do Paradise Park, Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures on consecutive days.
How do you get there?
Starting from Basingstoke made it very easy to get to Thorpe Park - it was almost on our doorstep. It is situated between junctions 11 and 13 of the M25 however access via junction 12 of the M25 is not possible. All you have to do is leave at either junction 11 or 13 and just follow the signs to Thorpe Park.
There are also detailed instructions on how to get to Thorpe Park using public transport on their website www.thorpepark.co.uk
How much will it cost to get in?
Well as you might guess it's going to be expensive if you pay full price for your tickets. The prices for 2007 are as follows:
Children less than 1 metre in height go in free
Children 1 metre and over aged 11 £20 or £16 if you book online
Any people aged 12 and over £32 or £24 if you book online
Senior Citizen £20 or £16 if you book online
Disabled Helper £16 or £14.50 if you book online
There is also a range of family tickets, group tickets and tickets combining a visit to Thorpe Park with a visit to Chessington World of Adventures. Details of these can be found on the website. You can also buy an annual pass valid for all the Tussauds group of attractions for £95 or £285 for a family.
The other type of ticket available is a fast track ticket which enables you to wait in a separate queue from everyone else to go on your ride, thus meaning that you don't have to queue for as long and thus get on more rides per visit. You need to be over 1.4 metres to use a fast track ticket and the various prices are again shown on the website.
I hope you don't mind my not listing every single price here but I thought it would end up making this part of the review really boring!
We used a buy on get one free ticket from Tesco's so we both got in for £20. We didn't bother with fast track tickets either.
So what happened when we got there?
Well, I was surprised! We are used to visiting Drayton Manor or Alton Towers being originally from the Midlands and we always used to go off peak so Thorpe Park in the middle of August was a real eye opener for me! The queue just to get in was immense! It took us about 40 minutes just to get into the park!
Incidentally almost all of the people I could see had some kind of offer voucher to reduce the costs - I don't blame them, either!
What rides do they have?
Stealth is the big thrill seeker ride and is basically the carriage of riders is accelerated from 0 to 80mph in 2 seconds and you then shoot up and over an inverted U shaped track reaching a height of 205 feet as you go over the top and then back down the other side. As you can see it isn't a long ride but it sure looks a scary one! As I am terrified of heights I bottled out of going on this one! What a lightweight!
Colossus is very similar to the Corkscrew at Alton Towers except for the fact that it has a total of 5 corkscrew turns. Whist I enjoyed this ride I felt the number of corkscrews was a bit over the top and the feeling I got was one of sickness rather than thrill. I wondered if I was just getting old.
Detonator is a square column over 100 feet high with seats on each of the four sides. The riders are shot up the side of the column to the height of 100 feet and then fired back to earth at a speed of 75 kph pulling a G force of 5.5. I had tried this one at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and almost passed out so I gave this one a miss.
Nemesis Inferno is the big brother of Nemesis at Alton Towers which I love so I knew I would like this one. The seats are suspended in rows of four beneath the track which corkscrews, loops the loop and generally hurtles around! Again I felt that the sensation that I was hoping for was lost because the ride builders are just trying to put in more loops and more corkscrews just for the hell of it.
Quantum is a huge magic carpet affair which is suspended on two arms which turn making the 'carpet' fly in circles with the riders remaining upright at all times. I had already tried this one at Alton Towers and didn't like the unnatural sensation so again not for me I'm afraid!
Rush is basically a huge swing with 16 people sitting eight back to back with eight and it swings fast and high.
Samurai is a ride with 5 arms where people sit in a row of five on each arm and then you are lifted high into the air. Each arm spins and the whole thing turns as well giving a full view of the park (assuming you open your eyes that is!), with 360 degree spins and legs swinging in the air! No thanks!
Slammer consists of two giant paddles joined in the middle each with about 20 people sitting in four rows on the end. First the whole thing is lifted 105 feet in the air and then it flips over so that the riders 'free fall' towards the ground at 30 mph only to be snatched skywards again just before hitting the ground!
The description on the website reads: 'an impressive looking ride, giving both a positive and negative g-force experience, with two giant paddles rotating 360 degrees backwards and forwards around a centre axis.'
It terrified me just to look at it! I am sounding like a right wuss aren't I!
Tidal Wave is a huge water splash ride dropping from a height of 85 feet. We did actually fancy going on this one but the queues were enormous! The children watching had great fun allowing themselves to get splashed as the ride dropped into the water.
Vortex is a circle of riders in eight groups of four, legs dangling in mid air set on the end of a large pole. This then swings back and forth, over the top and the circle at the end spins. Not my cup of tea at all. I will explain later in the review why I am sounding like such a wuss!
X:\No Way Out is a fast backwards rollercoaster in pitch dark. The queues were very long for this one too so we didn't bother although it does sound rather fun!
These are the main thrill seeker rides but there are also a good selection of rides for families and youngsters, including rapids, log flume, tea cups, train and many more. Again there is a full list on the website if you are interested. We tried the Rumba Rapids which was good fun but a short ride.
There is also an area called Neptune's Beach which consists of a large but not deep pool and some sandy areas to look like a beach. Personally I thought this a strange idea, I mean if you are going to a theme park surely you are going to ride not paddle, but each to his own as they say.
Facilities
There were enough toilets on site and there were various food outlets although I didn't see anything particularly good but we did get a decent cup of tea! LOL!
So what did I think of Thorpe Park?
In short not a lot I'm afraid! The reason I have seemed to be such a wuss where the big rides are concerned is because I am purist and a lover of the woodies (wooden roller coasters to the uninitiated)!! When I tried the Pepsi Max at Blackpool I was terrified of the height but expected a real sensation in the drop but felt nothing. I got off the ride and went straight to the Grand National Blackpool's largest woodie and the sensation on that ride was MUCH superior to the Pepsi Max.
The major rides at Thorpe Park all seem to be just as much height and as many twists and turns as possible with scant regard to whether the rider gets a fantastic sensation or just fear and nausea.
I also found Thorpe Park claustrophobic. The rides were all very close to one another and with so many people on the park it all felt cramped to us.
A Redeeming Feature
As we were leaving the park we saw a queue for a 'ride' called Pirates 4D. This was obviously some sort of show as people were queuing outside a large building which looked similar to a theatre. We decided to take a look and we were so glad we did.
Before we were called in we were wondering how it could be 4 dimensional - I mean 3D is obvious but 4D? What was that all about?
We were shown inside to sit in what appeared to be a conventional theatre and were given 3D glasses to wear. There was an annoying parrot (not real obviously) sitting on a high ledge telling everyone to sit down and move along the rows etc.
Then the lights went down and the film began. It was a basic, daft short story of pirates staring Leslie Nielsen amongst others. The 4th dimension was the fact that there were special effects. When there was wind on the film we felt air blowing from all around and when the sea was splashing water shot out of the seats in front of us and from above us.
The 3D effects were amazing from swords appearing to come out of the screen at us to hornets flying at us (yes, we felt the draft from their wings and our seats vibrated with the buzzing!). All around we could hear children and adult screaming and laughing and when the short film ended there was a spontaneous round of applause!
All in all we enjoyed our day although it wasn't really what we were expecting, but we wouldn't go again and we would have been VERY disappointed had we paid full price for our admission!
The factual stuff
Thorpe Park
Staines Road
Chertsey
Surrey
KT16 8PN
0870 444 44 66
www.thorpepark.co.uk
Opening times vary throughout the year but are usually about 10am until dusk although it is open later during October for the Halloween Fright Nights. They sound like fun!
I will do a review of Chessington World of Adventures soon which was much better than Thorpe Park in our opinion.
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