Thorpe Park (Thorpe Park)

Member Name: Palmer89

Product:	Thorpe Park
Date:	19/06/09 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rides, great fun, transport liinks

Disadvantages: Not as much an experience as Alton Towers

Thorpe Park is probably the 2nd best theme park behind Alton Towers, although I don't think it's for the quality of rides, the quality at Thorpe park is very high, with great rides such as Colossus, Stealth and Nemesis inferno being some of the best rides I have ever been on, the location makes it easier to get to than Alton Towers so why is it not as good, the experience maybe, the cost, the queues?

In my opinion Thorpe Park is well up there with Alton Towers as the best theme park in the UK, the pricing it virtually identical for all ages and fast tracks, the rides are of equal quality, the one thing that Thorpe Park is lacking at the atmosphere and the size of the park, whereas you can get lost in Alton Towers, there's only certain areas you can get to in Thorpe Park before you end up where you were 5 minutes ago.

The queues are probably less at Thorpe Park than anywhere, the longest we had to wait for a ride was Nemesis Inferno and that was just after the park had opened, 30 minutes was the waiting time for probably the parks most popular ride, we ended up getting on Stealth towards the end of the day for around about the same time.

Mainly then, what is the reason for Thorpe Park being behind Alton Towers, perhaps it's not sold as much as Alton Towers is, not as much TV advertising, not as many offers, personally I feel Alton Towers is more of an experience, you feel like it's a proper day out, you even need to get on a monorail to get to the park at Alton Towers. Thorpe park is a theme park, Alton Towers is a day out, that's my personal view, but Thorpe Park is well worth the money.

Stealth was heart racing as we moved our way up the queue, watching people be bought to extreme heights just to come straight back down again in what must have been a 20 second ride, you certainly feel your heart in your mouth on the way up and down at high speed. Colossus was the first ride we want on during the day, queued for a reasonable time before getting on the ride, I was sat next to some kid who took his safety belt/harness off as we were being cranked up the track...I thought I was going to witness a death until he very sensibly put it back on, the ride itself is great, loops, turns and numerous corkscrews which see yourself going over and over feeling like it'll never end. Nemesis Inferno was possibly even more fun, sat in a seat waiting to head off after seeing all the 'make sure your shoes are tight' signs left me feeling nervous as to what was about to come...what was about to show was a brilliant up and over ride which doesn't give you a seconds piece before the next heart stopping loop.

Of course, now there's a new Saw ride which I soon hope to experience, have been told it's very good but I wonder how much it's going to live by it's name, whether it'll actually be any good or whether people are hyping it up because it's based loosely on the film series, here's hoping it's a great ride.

Overall, Thorpe Park is a brilliant theme park, the rides are superb and just as good as Alton Towers, I just feel you don't get the sense of something else at Thorpe Park, it's a park with rides, Alton Towers is an experience, a park with rides, a park where you can do other things and have a great day out.

Summary: Ever closing on Alton Towers