Visit to Thorpe Park

Went to Thorpe Park today and it was great. I tweeted and twitpic'ed throughout the day, posted here for prosperity.

We planned our trip ahead of time:

-- "Off to Thorpe Park for the day. Have advanced booking, hope to be one of the first in the park, going straight to Saw!"

When we got there, we had to queue for our tickets (booked and paid for in advance), then had to join the regular queue to get in. No separate line, no VIP treatment:

-- "Might not be first in... #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/397ub"

-- "Having queued for advanced tickets, am now back out in the car park queueing for the entrance... http://twitpic.com/39834"

Once in we headed straight for Saw, and watched the engineers test Colossus:

-- "First test ride of Colossus #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/398gg"

Saw didn't open until 10am:

-- "Saw now open. Have been in the queue about 20 mins, and just been told it'll be 1h45m till we're on! #thorpepark. http://twitpic.com/398o8"

1h15m later and:

-- "Just off Saw. The beginning was better than the big drop, nice surprise. #thorpepark"

Things went downhill from there though, as we found out:

-- "Argh! Stealth isn't running, that was the ride I was looking forward to the most. Queueing for No Way Out now with fast track. #thorpepark"

A short while later:

-- "X:\ No Way Out a bit disappointing, Tidal Wave next. Looks broken down though. #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/39aln

We dumped our bags and pockets into a locker (£1 non-refundable) ready for the Tidal Wave, and didn't make it back until we'd done most of the other big rides:

-- "Still loving Thorpe Park. Tidal Wave: done. Rush: done. Colossus: done. Nemesis: done. Fast Track ticket worth every penny. #thorpepark"

Yes, the £9 Fast Track ticket probably saved us 7 hours of queueing. By the time we'd done those rides it was time for some lunch, and when we were done the Accelerator Fast Track was sold out for the day. Not that it mattered so much:

-- "Slammer out of order #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/39gjv"

Without the Fast Track to 'queue jump', things were a lot slower:

-- "Vortex at Thorpe Park. #thorpepark Queues gone mad now, 4 hours for Saw, 2h30m for Nemesis, 2h for Colossus. http://twitpic.com/39hy1"

While we were queueing for Vortex we saw Stealth was back up and running. Maybe things were looking up again after all? We went over there at 5:15pm only to find:

-- "Thorpe Park update: Stealth is running again after a motor issue. Queue time: 3 hours! (Park closes at 7pm) #thorpepark"

Some you win, some you lose.

-- "Bailed on queueing for Stealth, gutted we missed it. #thorpepark Home now, time for dinner and some relaxing in front of the TV. #reddwarf?"

A few additional photos:

-- "http://twitpic.com/3aasn - Saw at Thorpe Park"

-- "http://twitpic.com/3aawi - Saw at Thorpe Park"

-- "http://twitpic.com/3aawr - Stealth at Thorpe Park"

-- "http://twitpic.com/3aay3 - Stealth at Thorpe Park"

Overall, a good time had by all, definitely recommended.