Location
Thorpe Park is located in Chertsey, Surrey near Staines. It is the second most popular park in the UK, Alton Tower is the most visited.
You can reach there either by car or train but the best way to get there really depends on where you are heading out from. The park is located west of M25, where you can turn of junction 11 and follow the brown signs: postcode KT16 8PN. Car parking is £2.00. If by train, get the South West trains from Waterloo to Staines and bus 950 (every half hour) to the park. The buses are a bit of an annoyance though as you need to keep checking the timetable and make sure you come out of the park in time to catch the right bus so that you don’t miss your train back.
Ticket prices
Tickets can be bought either on-line or on the gate. You can make a saving on the ticket price if you buy online, although the cheapest way to get into the park is probably by waiting until the day you decide to go, and then pay at the gate and with your 2 for 1 voucher.
The online price for an adult ticket is £30.60 however if you want to use the 2 for 1 voucher, this will be based on the gate price. The gate price is £40.80 – so with a 2 for 1 voucher it will be £20.40 each for you and your friend. Nice! The cheapest option there is...
Best time to go
My main aim when going to theme parks is to try and avoid the crowds and the most busiest times. The worst time to go to any theme park would be during the summer holiday months when kids are off of school and its summer so everyone enjoying the season. I would just avoid the end of July, all of August and the beginning few weeks of September. It doesn’t leave much choice but it is worth going to the park during May or June. The park opens around the end of March in spring but the weather is normally really unpredictable then and if it rains its likely to ruin the whole day – but if you keep a watch of the weather and know a good weekend is due in April then that may be a good time to visit. During the end of the year, its best to go at the end of September as it quietens down by then.
Some years we end up going during months of July or August and every time we do we just end up regretting it and wished we had just planned better, so make sure you choose the right time to go to avoid getting really annoyed!
The rides: Best & most popular
Thorpe Park is divided into seven sections all with different names. These locations are: Lost City, Amity Cove, Calypso Quay, SAW Island, Canada Street, Neptune’s Kingdom, Ranger County. Below, I’ve listed a few rides you may find in each section.
1) SAW Island: This region of the park is themed around the SAW horror movies. It’s attracts a large number of people. As soon as you arrive around the SAW Island area, you will not miss that SAW drop. The theming in both of these SAW attractions are probably the best in the park.
* SAW the Ride – SAW the ride is an incredible rollercoaster and my favourite of the park, it takes you on an exciting nightmare journey - the gruesomeness and tenseness it provides is perfect.
It features the amazing inverted drop which is definitely the highlight of the ride and the highest point you’ll be at is around 100 feet - the ride reaches a maximum speed of 55mph. The theme-heavy surroundings really sucks you in and gets you feeling anxious and excited - the perfect mood as you enter the ride; even though we waited around 2 hours to go on this coaster, it was worth every minute of it when we finally boarded it. It lasts around a minute and 40 seconds. This ride may always have one of the longest queues in the park due to its popularity. Don’t miss out on the fun; the ride is just genius.
* SAW Alive - SAW Alive opened a year after the rollercoaster - it’s a “maze” with lots of different rooms in which around 8 of you enter in at a time. You are made to stand in a train (!) – hands on shoulders; you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but we did! It saves you from loosing your way inside as its dark and we don’t want to be lost and trapped inside that maze! First you get your picture taken with Billy, just at the start of the ride which you can buy at the end for £7.00; then you continue inside to what lurks in the darkness... Inside are zombies (live actors – make-up and dressed up) – they are all attracted to you; their job is to scare you and make you jump! It’s a lot of fun and a nice thing to do as filler between other rides.
2) Amity Cove:Amity Cove’s story is that it's a fishing village badly devastated by a storm and resulting in most of the town being ruined and sunken underwater...
* Tidal Wave– This ride is great – another of my favourite and the best water ride by far. This ride features the 64 feet drop which literally drenched you to the core because of the immense splash-back. You will reach a speed of 45 mph during this drop which is very fast for a water ride! The theming around the park is nice and interesting – it’s set in New England and features the sunken house in the centre of the water, the sunken bathroom, and other ruined buildings. The thing about water rides and “Tidal Wave” especially is during the summer months the queues may involve a 60-90 minute wait; if it’s a cooler day the queue length can drop incredibly.
* Stealth – “Steath” is another rollercoaster with a great theme. You sit in a 1950’s fast American car on a highway racetrack which goes up to a 80mph speed in only 1.8 seconds...It then heads straight up reaching a height of 200 feet and then straight back down again. The entire ride consists of lots of constant up and downs and during most of the ride you really feel weightless! In my opinion this ride is probably the most extreme of the park – you can tell if you are going to like it or not, just by looking at that massive curve hill. Don’t go on the ride if you’re not sure about that particular feature of the ride as it is actually a lot more extreme than it looks. Otherwise – don’t miss it, it’s an amazing thrill!
* Storm Surge – This is the new ride for 2011. It is basically a very big pool slide were you get into a big rubber donut like boat.
It takes you on an uphill climb till you reach the peak of around 84 feet. You are then gradually decend back down again on the meandering slide. As this happens you will be spinning madly out of control – making lots of meandering turns in the process. Once it’s over, which happens very fast, you will feel very dizzy. It a fun ride, but really not great if you hate feeling dizzy. If that ride went on spinning anymore than it did, it would give you a really sickening feeling. The ride lasts around 5 minutes – which is quite long, but majority of the time is taken doing the uphill climb and the drifting in the boat leading you to the exit.
3) Lost City:
A lost civilisation theme with a more good rides here:
* X:\ No Way Out – I really enjoyed No Way Out; this coaster is pretty small even though it looks big for outside and the cart is also smaller than the average coaster cart. What’s great about this ride is that it goes backwards. At first I thought it would be scary to do this, but actually, it very relaxing! It’s the type of ride you’d want to sit on all over again, just because it was just so chilling. It never does change direction, like you might think it would but mid way though it does pause and halt just randomly, to add some suspense. You will know what to expect from this ride though because you can see it just making circles even in the dark indoors. The ride is quite unique the park – the only thing though is that a rollercoaster in a limited indoor space means it will just go round in circles and because of this is does make you feel a little nauseous due to the repetitive movement.
* Colossus – This is the one which features the many corkscrew twists and turns and has ten vertical loops. The highest point you will reach is around 98 feet high and goes at a maximum speed of around 45 mph. This ride is easy to find as it is centrally located in the park. The actual cart fits probably around 20 to 25 people in one go (seated in pairs) which is good for the queue as you will notice it move along at a good pace – that is not to say the queue length will be any shorter! We had to wait around 60-90 minutes to get on this ride. The whole ride lasts around a minute and 45 seconds and it will make you feel really dizzy when you come off of it. Not my favourite coaster in the park, mostly because I’m not a big fan of the corkscrew twists so much. Still, it’s a good coaster.
* Samurai – From all the rides I’ve been on, I think Samurai is probably the one I dislike the most. Its looks great but it is one of those fun-fair type rides in that it does the same motion over and over again, giving you the motion sickness feeling and making you feel dizzy and nauseous. Honestly, if you hate being spun around more or less with the exact same movement, in a wave-like style, then you will not like this one – keep away from it. But other than that, it is another one of the popular rides at Thorpe Park…
4) Calypso Quay:Themed around a Caribbean Quay which feels very vibrant and lively and consists of the water ride “Rumba Rapids”.
Other rides there are:
* Nemesis Inferno – Your legs are hanging off this one to give it that extra thrill. The theming is really great. As you queue up for the ride, it’s as if you are going up the volcano. The ride is supposed to be on a volcano and the creature Nemesis Inferno created the volcano (don’t worry, you can buy him in the souvenir shop later on...). Even when you are on the ride, the theming does not end there; almost like the SAW ride, as you initially take off, you will come across red hot lava (red lights) and heat (dry ice) which looks amazing and makes the experience that bit more exciting. The ride fits in around 30 people as well, like Colossus and you sit as four in a row. The highest you’ll reach before being dropped is 95 feet and will reach speeds of around 47 mph.
* Detonator – You may look at Detonator and think it’s just not worth the time queuing as it last only around a few seconds. I think its great though – its basically a massive drop tower. The background music plays a ticking bomb ready to detonate. As the ride begins and you are lifted upright and vertically upwards. It seems the ride never stops rising, and you start getting the heights feeling. Once you reach the top you will be 115 feet high and have an nice view of the rest of the park while you are paused there for a while waiting to be dropped with a countdown to zero. Once you are finally dropped you will reach a speed of about 46mph and experience the incredible weightlessness feeling. I would really recommend this ride – even though it one you could so easily ignore.
5) Canada Creek:Another brilliantly themed area of the park – Canada Creek is themed around the Canadian Rockies. You will find “Logger’s Leap” here – the classic water ride based on a log floating around the rivers on the Rockies and “Slammer”.
6) Neptune’s Kingdom:This is the water-themed family attraction; it a mini water park near the entrance of the park and has its own beach which looks like great fun for young children and the family. Rides in this area include a four lane slide for racing at “Depth Charge” and a three lane big and spinning water slide “Wet wet wet”. Great for those hot summer days!
7) Ranger County:Ranger County is themed around an African jungle with lots of jungle animals – a fun adventure for kids with lots of ride for them as well. You won’t miss this section of the park as you may end up passing Mr Monkey’s banana ride many times to reach other rides.
Few other things
* Queuing: Depending on when you go, the queue length can vary. If you go during May or June or September, you will surely be waiting in the queue less than if you go at the end of July and in August. If you do go during these peak summer months though, it may be a good idea to get to the park early just when it opens, like 9.30-10.00am and go straight to the more popular rides first, like SAW rollercoaster, Colossus or Stealth. You will find though that no matter what month you go, the queues will become quieter around about 5.
30pm – if the park is not due to close soon, and they are allowing people to still queue up, it may be a good idea to take advantage of the fact that a lot of people have left the park and gone home, and enjoy some more of the rides.
* Eating / snacking: Everyone wants to have lunch at 1.00pm. I know we do too, and its really easy to decide at the start of the day that we’ll have lunch around 12.00pm or 2.00pm, but at 11.00am you may have already snacked and not feel hungry enough to eat at 12pm and 2.00pm is now just too late! The only solution though is try to go just before 1pm as you may be able to beat lunchtime by a bit. It’s always busy around the food places at Thorpe Park anyway.
Most of the places to eat are located around Amity Cove and Canada Creek, which is around the centre of the park and near the main entrance. You can also pick up snacks like drinks, donuts, chips etc everywhere else in the park. During some queues, they have little shops where you can pick up an ice-cream or crisps or something to pass time in the queue.
* Ride photography: On- ride photos can be bought at most of the big rides in the park. SAW ride also offers on-ride videos which are interesting – each seat has its own camera located behind the head-rest of the row in front of you which takes a photo and a video which lasts about 15 seconds. You can buy these at the end for £7.00 or £15 for the DVD (is a little pricey). For other rides, you can by the photos for £6.00 or go for the big collection for £20 for five photos, key rings , magnets or mugs.
*The Map: The Thorpe park official cartoon map is misleading; you may end up going round in circles as the map is pretty inaccurate. I think there should be signs put up around the park with big arrows pointing you in the direction of the more popular rides as opposed to the sections you are in! - Because to be honest, no one really pays attention to the named regions of the park. At times you will look at the map and plan the most logical way to reach a certain ride, but when you actually do it, it gets you nowhere near there! So just be aware of this - and don’t blame your orientation skills, I’m sure they’re great, just blame it on the map.
* Fast tracking: Fast-tracking is probably the most popular way of beating the queues in exchange for a bit of cash; but even though fast track seems very tempting when the queues are huge; bare in mind that these fats-track queues can be pretty big as well for the more popular rides, maybe not be as long as a normal queue, but you will still be waiting around. You might also find you are spending away all your money on fast track when you need to queue up some more. Fast track does feels like the easy way out, but since you’ve arrived a a theme park, I don’t think its such a shock to find that you need to stand in a queue which has a 2 hour waiting time – that is what the park is open all day for!
* Lockers: In my opinion the lockers in theme parks are a waste of money. It doesn’t cost much, just £1.
00 per locker, but if you leave something in there and want to get it out again, you need to pay another £1.00 to lock it up again. Also to return back to the locker, you may need to walk half way across the park, wasting time there which could be used queuing or on the rides. I personally think, you should only bring to the park how much you actually need. If you bring a bag, most of the rides at the park have a place to put them and pick them up again and in other rides, they have a counter before you get on the ride – they take your bag in exchange for a wrist band with a number. Lockers at theme parks, are just a waste of time in my view.
Returning to Thorpe Park
* Fright Night: Fright Nights is a good reason to return back to the park for the second time in the year – its a completely different experience. Its open all weekends of October or more specifically the 7th,9th,14th to 16th and 21st to 27th which are the more quieter off-peak fright night dates. The busier dates are the 28th to the 31st October. If you go earlier in October on the off-peak dates, you will find the park generally isolated and will queuing of only around 15-30 minutes if your lucky.
The prices for adults are:
Off-peak: £43.20 at gate / £36.60 online
Peak time: £43.20 at gate / £39.00 online
(open from 10am to 10pm during all Fright Night days)
The choice is clear if you want to go on the Halloween weekend – buy at the gate. The only thing is the queues will be very big – if you can handle that though, then just get there early. Also if you have 2 for 1 vouchers and they expire in November, you can use these at the gate to cut the price in half. Some vouchers expire before October – in that case hunt down vouchers which cover October and you will save a good bit of money.
Fright Nights is all about experiencing the rides and the park as a whole in the dark night – and trust me, it is really dark in the park – there are of course lighted up area where you don't have to be frightened, but on the rides and in the queues expect to be shocked and surprised! There are live actors around the place to jump out at you and really scare you – especially around the SAW rollercoaster. There are also different mazes around the park which you go through and have all these special effects, strobe lightening and all things to scare the life out of you! Overall it is a really great experience and great atmosphere at those times and I think everyone who likes theme parks should go there at least once!
* New ride for 2012: Another reason to return to the park next year is for the new rollercoaster called “The Swarm” which is to be opened for March 2012. It will be located right beside “Stealth” on its own island, just like the SAW Island. The ride is said to be around 300 feet high with an aviation disaster theme...sounds great!
Overall: worth the money spent?
Thorpe Park has so much to offer on a full day out. There are so many choices of entrance tickets to go for, so its a good idea to figure out which is best for you eg.
group tickets, annual passes etc. If you are just visiting once a year though, the best option is definitely the 2 for 1 voucher on the gate - however it is a good idea to keep in mind that although £20.40 is not bad for a full day out, if you are constantly spending away on fast-track, photos, souvenirs, food etc, the price may reach to new levels. Just keep a track and if you spend wisely, it’s definitely worth every penny paid to enter Thorpe Park. Overall, its a brilliant experience and a really enjoyable place to visit - I will always return to do it all over again.
Some of the best rides... 
