Truthfully we didn’t have the best visit at the start the season at Thorpe Park. Mainly due to our first visit been fairly busy and for us wasn’t all that enjoyable. However the decision to book a day off and head there on the final Friday of Easter holidays couldn’t of been any better choice. We hope you enjoy this blog & don’t forget to let us know your thoughts below or across our socials!
Game FX:
We’ll begin with their event for April and our thoughts on it. Heading into the markie it visually looks pretty awesome. The whole concept is actually much better than we had anticipated to be truthful. Purely through the whole variety of different consoles retro to new and a handful of games. The only downfall we found was there was so many of the same games across several screens. It’s something we would of liked to see less off but more variety of game choices strictly speaking more or less the Xbox side of things. However it seemed a massive hit on such an off peak day amongst everyone. The way it’s laid out and themed is beautifully done. It had a real chilled atmosphere and quite relaxed whilst escaping the rain or any bad weather. As we mentioned before the only thing needed to be improved was variety of games mainly across Xbox.
Throughputs / Operations:
Truthfully we had expected the park to be that little more busier then it was. However everything was 5 minutes after noon time and all coasters except The Swarm & obliviously Saw was running two trains. Going by previous years this is a major improvement for the operations during the more quiet days. It was nice to be able to walk straight on almost everything. All queues were kept right to the minimal even after a couple breakdowns &/or delayed openings.
Opening Hours:
We had suspected the closure to be 5pm however we were wrong it was in fact 6pm. Again this is a huge improvement in comparison to the likes of Alton Towers. They could of easily got away with a 4pm/5pm close given the lack of people on park & queues. However they stayed open until 6pm which we think is amazing!
Massive Ride Count & Re-Rides;
Truthfully we managed to get so many rides done as the weather was suppose to be awful. Before we actually got to Thorpe Park there was announcement across social media about the weather & how it could effect the ride availability. So clearly that had put people off which really made the park very quiet. Everything was 5 minutes with the exception of any late opening rides with the maximum queue been 40 minutes for Inferno. But after 1pm it all went very quiet so we managed several re rides. Stealth & Saw staff were fab and letting people go back round for re rides without leaving the station. We actually managed 13 rides in a row on Stealth & 3 on Saw. Even though Saw was running really awful it was still nice to give each row a ride and give it a little love.
New Merchandise:
T shirts across majority of theme parks this season are literally on point and beautiful. It’s incredibly hard to not completely shop ourselves out and spend a fortune on them all. Thorpe Park have also recently released their 2019 pin badges which some are gorgeous whereas others are pretty cringe. The individual coaster pins minus Stealth are pretty cringe for example the #rollin on the Colossus pin. We aren’t massive fans of that small detail whereas the rest of them pins are gorgeous. They’ve got a decent range of pins too including mr monkeys boat which is adorable. We’ve also noticed the Saw resin seems to be updated now with the 2 rows rather than 3 on majority of them.
Reusable Freestyle Bottles:
These have been our life savers and they are super affordable. If your a merlin annual pass you DO get discount on your intentional purchase and then your reactivation. Originally you purchase the bottle for £10 without discount but £8 with. Whenever you visit next take it to the dome shop and they will reactive the chip for you. You do get it reduced prices at £6 without discount but £4 with. The range of non fizzy and fizzy drinks with unique flavours is really worth every penny. It’s unlimited refills so as much as you like all day long until 12am of your visit. We’ve found this system so much easier instead of paying for a new bottle & each time you visit full price. It’s in our opinion even better than the merlin annual pass bottles
Upcoming Events:
Don’t forget to check Thorpe Park website for when your visiting next as they are hosting several different events during the 2019 season. We do believe Game FX has came to an end last weekend sadly but it’s something we’d like to see return with some minor changes. However May is the opening of the Jungle Escape Room with we believe is an additional fee on top of your entrance tickets / merlin passes. But this looks absolutely fab and something we’ll hope to do if we visiting during the time it’s open. We’ll leave the link here if your interested in any of the upcoming events and want to know more.
Overall;
After our pretty crap visit at the start of the season our last visit has made up for it completely. The amount of rides we managed to do was crazy but it’s something we needed really. Thorpe Park is looking gorgeous this season as there’s so many gorgeous plants around and it’s made a huge impact on the park. It looks really fresh and pretty around the entire island. Colossus was running amazing and very smooth in comparison to other seasons. Whereas sadly Saw is running pretty awful and isn’t great at all. But as for Thorpe park overall the changes to the island for this season are very much perfect and what it needed. The freestyle bottles are worth every penny and it’s a great system they have going on. We are really excited for the future of Thorpe Park and really hope to see a new coaster in the upcoming few years.