Thorpe Park

Thorpe park is a great place to go as it is for everyone. There are big rides, small rides and even a beach for those to small for some rides. My favourite ride was saw the ride as it was intense and fast. I was so happy with my day out we bought gold merlin annual passes. Compared to chessington Thorpe park is definitely better.

Thorpe Park is one of the best parks outside of the USA. They have 5 roller coasters and a good drop tower. Angry birds land is the children area in Thorpe Park and is home to 23 rides. My personal favorite roller coaster is Stealth. Swarm and Saw are also great rides. The ten inversions on Colossus are unbeatable. Stealth has a 4.8 G-​Force acceleration and is 82 mph. It is an amazing feeling when you shoot up the top of Stealth’s 205 foot tower and then you plummet straight down at a 90 Degree angle drop. Thorpe Park has a Hotel/​resort inside the park that you can stay at. The drop tower is called Detonator Bombs Away. It was shocking because I thought it was just a drop tower but it actually shoots you down rather than dropping you. It is 125 feet and 59 mph. Great overall park that you should go to.

In my opinion, the best amusement park in the UK! Just visited on Saturday, the rides are fantastic, with the big ones on par with Six Flags in the US.
For me, the one I don’t like is Colossus, it seems to be the only one that pinballs my head between the restraints, coming off with a sore head and bruised ears isn’t my idea of fun, even if it does flip you upside down 10 times…
Swarm is a favourite, but keep your mouth closed if you’re at the front, otherwise you might end up with a mouthful of flies! Also the ones on the edge do get a slightly wilder ride. I found being in the last row, facing backwards was a lot of fun if you just went limp and let the ride throw you about. The harness isn’t just the standard bar, it has an extra webbing that really holds you to your seat.
Stealth is a given as a ride to go on, but since they normally only have one or two trains running, even though it’s a fast ride (about 10 – 12 seconds all in all), the turnover isn’t that quick!
Nemesis seems a little tame these days, one of the older rides it’s definitely suffering now… It’s a good ride, but it could do with a tune up. Saw is still brilliant although some technical issues, the first time, we went straight past the puppet without any narration and the screen didn’t come on to tell us «Game Over», nor did we get the closing spiel, everything worked the second time around though.
Give X a miss, it’s just not worth the time…
Finally Tidal Wave, my favourite ride, here’s a tip guys, always carry a ziplock, it’ll protect all your valuables! And bring a change of clothes! You’ll need it!
In terms of food, it’s Pizza Hut, Burger King and KFC. You’ve had it before, and you’ll have it again… It’s the rides you come for! They’ve got lots of games of chance and arcade games, but they weren’t the focus of this trip, it’s all about the rides. Grab a map and plan, the paths between rides aren’t always straightforward, it might look like you can just go from Stealth towards Swarm but you can’t! Most of the rides only have one way to get to them. Think of the main square as a hub and rides as being at the end of spokes with no actual ‘wheel’.
Finally some tips, you don’t need the lockers unless you have something really heavy, all of the rides have somewhere secure to leave your things while you’re riding. Finally, if you don’t bring a change of clothes, do Tidal Wave first, you’ll dry off during the day instead of being cold and wet in the car/​train on the way home.

Such a great place. Easy to get to with the well organised shuttle bus from Staines and despite going on Good Friday, we managed to do 4 of the big 5 rides in 2 hours. Friendly staff. Only thing I’d suggest is having a healthy food option.

Thorpe park is fun. Tidal wave is unreal. imagine me going on and not knowing anything about how wet you get… thank god i took my rolex off before going on!!! Stealth was probably my favourite ride because its just sooo fast! I also really liked Saw and Nemesis. Had a really decent beef burrito from desperados too! a fun day out!

If travelling at 80 mph upside-​down is the kind of thing you are into, then Thorpe Park is definitely worth a visit. If you think you can stomach consecutive loops and twirls while your head bounces left and right and your vision goes blurry, then again, Thorpe Park is the place for you to go.
If you have a low tolerance to queues or bees, then go somewhere else.
I arrived nice and early and left when the doors closed with only a small break for lunch. Managed to do all the main 5 rollercoasters but not anything else apart from that. That is hardly a compelling pace for a 9 hour period.
Still, those 5 rides where absolutely awesome. By order of preference, I would say Inferno and Colossus were my favourite ones, both with amazing loops and speed. Word of advice: standing on the special queue to go on the front row is probably a mistake. While you and your 3 friends wait for your precious seats dozens and dozens will just go on and enjoy the ride on all the other rows available. Hardly worth the extra 25 minutes.
Saw and Stealth are also great. Saw has this amazing rise & fall that makes you wonder how did you agree to such ride in the first place and Stealth is as fast as it gets before rocketing towards the sky in a 90º angle. Mind-​blowing.
I felt that their newest ride, «The Swarm» pales in comparison in terms of adrenaline but compensates in terms of scenery: you ride right through a massive billboard!
We probably made a mistake mid through the morning, albeit a fun mistake: we went for a ride on the Tidal Wave and got completely soaked for the rest of the day! Bring a towel with you if you plan to go on any of the water rides as you are bound to get wet.
In terms of costs, me and my friends got some 2−4−1 tickets online so that worked out alright. Transport from London via train and then shuttle is also quite cheap (train ticket was around 5£ and shuttle was 3.5£, both return). There are plenty of fast food chains so you get a cheap meal if you want — I didn’t see many options apart from that, so if you are picky with your food you will be better off bringing something from home. Also, be mindful that the snacks are really overpriced, with a normal bottle of water easily costing 2£ (in all fairness, this will hardly come as a surprise…).
Overall, it is a great day out with loads of fun rides. It’s a shame that most queues take between 40 minutes to an hour or you’d get the chance to make more out of your time but that’s kind of expectable from such a popular location. It’s worth mentioning that all major attractions are within small walking distance from one another so that’s a positive.
If you are really a fan of amusement parks, then it might be worth considering spending the night over in their bunker-​bed hotel, don’t I’m not sure about the prices.

I’m writing this a week after my visit and my voice is still sore from just screaming on the rides.
I actually organised this a few months ago and then it got postponed til last monday, we got everyone to come, take days off work, finish exams etc and we were so lucky to have good weather on the day we went as well. Also pick a weekday and not in the holidays. Most rides still had a 45 minute wait but it’s much less busy than weekends or holidays.
Normal tickets for Thorpe Park cost £42, but since I organised it and we’re all chinese. So thrift gene on, we turned up with MORE than enough 2 for 1 tickets. Not including parking charge but that’s like £1 extra for 10 of us each, so we essentially only paid £22 each.
What you need to know about the park. It’s really not good for those who hate big rides. You’re wasting your money if you just go to be bag person, so you MIGHT as well get petrified. Stealth was just fast. You don’t have time to scream, they said. I still did. X no way out, the ride that goes backwards but because its also pitch black, you see nothing so you can’t be scared, it just seemed a little tame. Colosseus was just dizzying, definitely wakes people up. Rush is a great ride too. I like nemesis but the others just seemed more fun and scary!
I didn’t end up going to swarm because the motion sickness was setting in, so I went for calmer water rides instead. (the ones that aren’t tidal wave.) I also have a penchant for the non-​mechanical attractions around the park such as BIG BASHING BALLS. I swear Thorpe Park marketing people just like making dirty jokes within the titles. Basically paddling pool + zorbing like bubble ball. You go into hamster mode. Best if you take socks off before you get into the ball. Also. leggings if you are a girl. Don’t fancy flashing the number of men that like watching girls at thorpe park.
It was an epic day out. 1 star knocked off because they made princess peach and mario hang herself at the tombola attractions. I was SHOCKED.

2012 Update
Despite the doom-​mongers warning me that the park would be horribly busy on a bank holiday weekend, I braved Thorpe Park yesterday. In the event, the weather was dry and definitely better than today and the park was actually empty — perhaps people were watching the Derby/​at Jubilee street parties or away as it’s half term
I got a nasty shock when I was asked whether I wanted a £4 parking ticket at the ticket booth. To be fair, I had been expecting Thorpe Park to charge for parking after Alton Towers started doing it but there are no signs telling you about this car parking charge as you drive in
Just a word about ticket prices. The full price adult ticket at the gate is £42 but there are always all sorts of offers for 2 for 1 tickets or to get tickets through the supermarket loyalty schemes. If you can’t get one of those, try and get a group discount if you’re in a large group or be organised — you get 40% discount if you book 2 weeks beforehand through the Thorpe Park website
A nice touch was that they opened the park and and started running the rides 15 minutes before the advertised opening time of 10am. At the end of day, you were allowed to join ride queues before the advertised closing time of 6pm
I headed straight over to Swarm, the park’s new coaster. It’s the UK’s first winged coaster where the seats are attached to the train on prongs sticking out on either side. This leaves your feet dangling. The new area is decorated very nicely with a disaster theme of aliens having attacked the park — there’s a blown up fire engine and helicopter in the area though beware that the fire engine’s water cannon still has enough life in it to get you wet! Swarm was good but it still can’t dislodge Stealth from the top of my personal chart
As mentioned before, the park was quiet and by 12pm, I had ticked off all the coasters in the park — Stealth, Colossus, Saw and Nemesis Inferno as well as a host of other rides. Queue times didn’t exceed 30 minutes all day on any ride though I have to say that some of the ride queue times advertised on the indicator boards at the ride entrances and on information boards round the park were a tad inaccurate
One disappointment was that the 4D cinema isn’t running at all this year. Sadface.
Though it’s still relatively early on in the season, there was also no show going on in the outdoor theatre and I didn’t see any signs promoting forthcoming shows or waterskiing shows on the lake which I’ve seen in previous years. Perhaps they’ll come on later
I was very pleased to see that there were no breakdowns unlike on my previous visits. Logger’s Leap was down for awhile but they did get it back up and running by the afternoon
The food at the BBQ place round the back of the park was decent — had some nice ribs. Another little treat I can recommend is a bag of freshly made warm donuts
Well done, keep it up. Their Merlin annual pass is also now better value, having added London Dungeons and Legoland to their existing stable of the London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Warwick Castle, Chessington World of Adventures and Alton Towers

I can remember queuing for this ride many years ago when it first opened a buzz of excitement for the first backwards ride. I have probably been on it over 50 times since then. To be honest it is one of the tamest rides in the park now though a good starter for the near teens in there quest for adrenaline rushes. Would I queue now well no but if the park is empty like today then worth jumping on

This is a fantastic place for kids, however in my opinion children above the age of 11 will like this alot, younger children are really not catered for bearing in mind the price you are paying which is expensive. So for adults and teens its FANTASTIC but for younger kids be aware they may not like it as much as the only rides they will go on is the water ride ones (and get DAMN wet as well!!). In my opinion Chessington World of Adventures is better suited for younger kids. However, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Date night turned into date ‘day’ a Saturday a few months ago when we went here for a visit.
God I love this place. There are probably six — eight REALLY fast/​good rollercoasters, and the rest is a mixture of slower ones, silly games and kids stuff. But those few are well, WELL worth the trip alone.
When we went, it was Stealth (mind numbingly fast), Colossus (a classic), Nemesis Inferno (you’re fllllllying!), Rush, Samurai, Slammer and X-​No Way Out (BACKWARDS IN THE DARK).
We went on a 2 for 1, booked online ahead of the day, and it was pretty empty. The way to do it is NOT to buy a queue jump for all rides, which is pricey, but to do it individually for each coaster if the queues warrant it. We did that, and it worked like a charm.
I’d go back once a year for the hell of it. Total blast.

Thorpe Park was built in 1979 with the intention of creating a water based theme for the park.
In 2009, the park had 1.87 million visitors, making it the second most visited theme park in the United Kingdom, after Alton Towers.
It was sold to The Tussauds Group in 1998 and was heavierly marketed towards the teenage and young adult market with a series of exciting new rides.
These include the new Saw ride and Saw Alive, live action theatre experience based on the scary Saw film series.
This was my first time at Thorpe Park and even though I am no longer a teenager, I felt a burst of excitement at entering the park and hearing the laughs and excited screams of the people enjoying themselves.
Though thrilled by the scary rides in my youth, I decided to stay clear of them and stuck to fun, if a little wet, Water Rides. I played some Air Hockey and rode a Banana Boat.
All in all it was a great afternoon and choosing to go out of the summer holidays meant I didn’t have to queue for anything.
And that is a bonus worth screaming about!

By far the best theme Park in the south of England, friendly staff and plenty of choice of rides! Been an annual pass holder for 2 years running and can see it becoming a third!!! Need of a ride like Air though :)

Thorpe Park is eyewateringly expensive. I mean, ridiculously so. Once you’ve factored in £3 for the shuttle bus, and £11.10 return train fare from Waterloo, the idea of forking over £38 for a ticket made me want to cry. So, I bought four tickets off ebay for £26 all in instead which made it infinitely more reasonable.
We went on my birthday, which happened to be the Tuesday after autumn half-​term had finished so it was a) a bit cold, hurray for jackets and b) less populated with frenetically hyperactive children and hideous queues. We still had a bit of queueing to do, about 30 minutes each for Nemesis, Stealth and Saw, but compared to the nightmares of going in summer, this was an absolute doddle. By half three we were able to walk straight onto Colossus, which was ace, but we really should have paid more attention to the many, many signs for Tidal Wave pointing out that we’d get wet as we were a miserable bunch of sodden rats on the train home.
We paid £15 for a photo package of four pictures which was much better value than buying them individually, but I made the terrible mistake of paying £20 for the two DVDs of the four of us on the Saw rollercoaster. Do not do this. It only films you from the halfway point when you’re climbing up to that huge drop, which is hilarious to watch, but also means you’re a complete fool for forking out so much for 30 seconds of the ride. If it was the whole lot, that would be utterly brilliant, but it isn’t, and you only discover that when you get home. Bit misleading as it says it’s the ride, not a tiny bit of the ride.
The rides are great, the food depressingly awful (although contrarily, our Pizza Slut lunch was exactly what was needed after a morning of abject fear and screaming). I’d certainly never pay full-​price, or go in summer, but for a wonderful day out with friends it really hit the spot. We only bothered to queue for the front seats of a ride once, on Nemesis, as it took absolutely ages and while it made the ride really fun, it didn’t need to be repeated.
I was also really impressed by the views. The park is in a really lovely area, made even more special by the combination of a lovely sunny day and trees still covered in gold and orange leaves. There was one surreal moment just as I was about to hurtle 250 feet in a straight line down from Stealth that I looked down and went Wow that’s incredibly beautiful.

Growing up in Wales, Alton Towers was always the place for me, but since moving to London I’m very impressed with the way Thorpe Park is shaping up to me a great theme park.
It is an expensive day out. We went with 2 for 1 vouchers, which you can get pretty much anywhere these days, but that means you can’t buy online so you have to join a pretty big queue just to get your ticket (tip — get there early).
I’m not one for queuing longer than about 30 mins so always buy a fastrack for the more popular rides. However, Saw & Stealth have to be bought seperately at £4 each and then you can get an extreme ticket for Colossus, Nemesis, Tidal Wave and the rubbish X for £10.
Stealth is an excellent rush of adrenalin that propels you from 0 to 80mph in 2.3s. The fastrack queue for this was over an hour so I joined the single rider queue and got on in about 20 mins (noone would come with me anyway). The other fastrack queues lasted about 5 to 10 mins.
Saw was amazing. I expected it to be just one past-​vertical drop but it was so much more. A proper roller-​coaster lasting some time with plenty of unexpected drops and inversions.
Nemesis and Colossus are fun, but Colossus bangs your head a bit. Tidal wave is great for getting soaked but you do have to hope for good weather so you’re not shivering in the queue lines all day. Detonator has a slow queue but is really frightening.
I saw 6 people ejected from queue lines for queue jumping but I have no idea how this works.
Everything else here is about making more and more money from you. The games cost a fortune (some £5 a go), the food is overpriced and photos are a rip off (£5 for a digital version, more for a print out). I avoided most of this but did binge on some doughnuts after feeling dizzy from Vortex.
All in all though, a great day out but if you want to avoid long waits for rides either invest in the fastrack or come early or late in the year.
I’ve only been to Cedar Point, Ohio, in America and that certainly had far more coasters and was a brilliant day out. But if Thorpe park keep investing in high quality roller coasters and get rid of X then it could be a 5 star experience.

When my cousin mentioned that she wanted to take me to a theme park while I was visiting, I was a little sketchy. I’m a veteran of Six Flags parks in America so I was wondering what kind of «scary» roller coasters Thorpe Park would have to offer.
I was pleasantly surprised. Although the weather was pretty dreary (as expected), we still had a blast. We started the day off by going on a small but enjoyable roller coaster that seemed to go around and around for days. It was such a small roller coaster that I couldn’t stop laughing during the entire ride.
We also went on a water ride which probably wasn’t the best idea in the world considering the weather, but even though we got reasonably soaked we still made the most of it!
The two rides that stood out to me the most were definitely Saw and Stealth. Stealth looked like a breeze, but the experience was somewhat different. The coaster shoots you off towards a steep hill which you climb at super speed, and then you go straight down the other side. It’s basically a huge arch that you go up and over at crazy speed. I sat towards the front so I definitely got blasted with high winds.
Saw is based off of the movie. There was a giant line to get on it, but it actually went quite fast. There are 4 people to a car, which makes them pretty small and adds to the speed. You start off by riding into a dark room. You can’t see anything for a few seconds. And then suddenly you see that goofy looking Saw puppet come riding out on his tricycle and I thought to myself, «This ride is going to be lame.» I was wrong because as soon as the puppet is finished preaching with his little, «I want to play a game, etc.» speech, you shoot off and go straight down and you still aren’t able to see anything. Then you are outdoors and go down the infamous straight-​down drop, which I will admit scared me at first but once I actually experienced it, it was so much fun!
Thorpe Park was a blast and I’m glad that my cousin took me. The rides were actually decent and I was scared on a couple of them which really surprised me. And of course we bought a bag of fresh, hot doughnuts to snack on while walking around the park. Those were a tasty treat!

Twas set up perfect
For a great day out
2 for 1 tickets
Not many about
Weekday in summer
A touch of drizzle
A couple of chavs
Fo schizzle dizzle
For the most part
They weren’t too rude
And twenty minutes
Was the longest we queued
Colossus was. colossal
We saw the saw
Our nemesis was nemesis
But we still wanted more!
The one I hated
Was ‘No Way Out’
Pitch black and backwards:
Too sick to shout
The rides overall
I have to admit
Were actually quite good
I really loved it

I have to confess, I have the weakest constitution I know. I fear nothing, but it only took a couple of rollercoasters to have me clutching my stomach.
So, the fact that I had an amazing day, despite several hours feeling sea sick is testimony to the Park.
Yee Gan has given a description of many of the rides, so I won’t repeat everything he has said, other than to add SAW is AMAZING! All of the rollercoasters are fantastic. One thing Thorpe Park does extremely well is keep patrons updated of queue times. Not only are there times at the start of each queue, but digital display boards around the park telling queue times of all the rides, so you can head to the ride with the shortest wait. These times are really accurate! Phil and I went during the summer holidays, and our longest wait was 20 minutes (exactly what the board said) for the SAW. You also have the choice to queue for the front seats. I can imagine on the hottest day mid summer these queues get quite big, but we nearly always took this choice, adding only a few minutes to each wait, but certainly making the ride more enjoyable.
Most rides offer the chocie to buy photos. At £7 each, its a tad expensive, but £20 for 5 is better value. That said, you could end up with 5 identical photos. My expression rarely changes at 60mph, so use the option of keyrings or magnets instead of photos. I have 3 photos and one of each of the smaller options.
There is a wide choice of food options, and it isn’t cheap, but isn’t expensive for a theme park. Head to the Glass House to get away from the kids.
I have to agree with Yee Gan that it appears the vast majority of patrons are chavvy teenagers. On the shuttle bus from Staines station (runs every half an hour (£2 return for children, £3 for adults)) I heard the f*** word so frequently I thought one offender had Tourettes, and another was stuttering the letter f. NOT something I would recommend to any family with even a scrap of decency. In the park however, it is big enough you don’t notice them all the time, and full of families who have driven there.
I am going to give the park 4 stars. The only downside is the clientele, which isn’t the Park’s fault so much as society’s. Parents, go with your children for f***‘s sake!
Awesome day! Enjoy!

Prepare to get the rush of your life for less than £50! Ok, slight exaggeration there but you get the point of the whole experience. Been living in the United Kingdom for four years and only now do I find a few friends that can stomach the rides. I was in for a pleasant surprise the minute we walked through those gates. My friends were a little too enthusiastic about going on each and every ride but I am proud to say that I only did not opt for one ride because I was starving by then.
The food in the park can be a bit pricey unless you go for Burger King or KFC which is more to the middle of the park. We waited in some of the ride queues for while and decided to fork out the extra £3 to get a queue jumper for the rides we really wanted to go on. It was a great day out, just a pity we had to take the bus back to the train station and then only got on the train. We were knackered at the end of the day. Oh, take some of your own food with, there are plenty of places to have your own picnic!
Oh, the new SAW ride does not look so great but be prepared to wait at least 2 hours as there are no queue jumpers for it YET!

There are times when you want a peaceful Saturday afternoon activity; something you can do which relaxes you and chills you out for the rest of the weekend. However, on one of those Saturdays when this isn’t your prerogative, Thorpe Park is a great option. The rides are unbelievably good– much better than those at the other theme park reachable from London, Chessington World of Adventures, which is quite a snooze-​fest if I’m honest– with roller coasters like Stealth, the tallest roller coaster in Europe, and the new Saw ride with an 100degree drop. Wow. Not one to ride on if you’ve had a heavy night on Friday.
There are plenty of eating and drinking options throughout, most of which inevitably veer towards the junkier end of the food groups, but the selection is welcome. As with all theme parks, Thorpe Park is definitely on the pricey side at £35 for entry– although there are a lot of deals going round from WHSmith, Tesco and Sainsburys so you should be able to get in half price– and the option for fast-​track tickets which miss out the queues for the bigger rides at £3 per ride, but when you step off of one of the roller coasters with your heart beating, your stomach churning and your throat raw from screaming it somehow all seems worth it.

Situé à environ une heure de train du centre de Londres, c’est un parc plutôt agréable. Les attractions (jeux d’eau, de glisse, grandes roues et bien évidemment les incontournables montagnes russes) y sont plutôt sympas. J’ai eu l’occasion de m’y rendre 2 fois, une fois hors saison de grande affluence et la seconde en pleine vacances scolaires. La première fois, nous avons pu accéder aux attractions assez rapidement (ce qui est loin d’être désagréable), et ainsi refaire les attractions les plus intéressantes plusieurs fois. Seul bémol: vous avez fait le tour du parc en 2 ou 3 heures car celui-​ci est loin d’être immense! La seconde, les queues d’1h pour chaque manège nous ont passée l’envie de revenir!
Cependant, ce parc s’adresse tout de même plus aux adultes que Chessington park (également à proximité de Londres).

Wer Nervenkitzel sucht, hat hier den führenden britischen Themenpark gefunden mehr als 25 Fahrgeschäfte und Attraktionen bieten atemberaubende Geschwindigkeit, todesmutige Fallhöhen und Überschläge, ebenso wie einen abwechslungsreichen ganzjährig prall gefühlten Veranstaltungskalender.
Der Park bietet zudem einige Superlative mit Stealth — Europas schnellst beschleunigender Achterbahn (in weniger als 2 Sekunden von 0 80 km/​h), dem Colossus — dem weltweit ersten Rollercoaster mit 10 Überschlägen und Nemesis Inferno — ein Erlebnis unter der Einwirkung von 4,5 G Beschleunigungskraft. In diesen — drei im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes atemberaubende Attraktionen — können Gäste jede Menge Mut beweisen.
Ist nichts für die Kleinen. Ein Lunchpacket sollte man mitbringen, da die Preise, wie in den meisten Parks, übertrieben hoch sind.