Thorpe Park - Great day out for everyone! (Thorpe Park)

Member Name: jaylad

Product:	Thorpe Park
Date:	07/06/01 (1211 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rides for everyone, Accessible from M25, Always improving the park

Disadvantages: Entrance fee can be expensive

Thorpe park is now a really varied place for any age, small toddler’s upto teenagers and twenty-something’s. The park is actually aimed at 3-13 year olds, but I assume this is likely to change as the park improves.

Thorpe Park is owned by the Tussauds group which also owns Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures. Thorpe is around the 4th most visited ‘paid for’ tourist attraction in the UK, with about 800,000 people visiting every year!

It’s located in Chertsey, Surrey. Its about 10 minutes from the M25 off junction 13/11.
Admission is quite expensive, about £19 for an adult (2001 season).

Like other Tussauds parks, the place is split into several differently themed areas.

You have Neptunes Kingdom, which is the first zone you enter. There is a massive dome called Atlantis with loads of shops and a café. This zone is more for the kids, the main ride being Depth Charge. This is a huge water chute ride where you ride small dinghies down from the top. It’s quite high, and fun- apart from the queue which we queued for 45 minutes in! In Neptunes Kingdom there is also the beach – yes a beach with real sand and water fountains and slides for the kids to paddle about.
The other zone near the entrance is the Lost City. Here you have Vortex, which wasn’t open when we went, but is meant to be one of 3 main rides this year. It looks as if you swing from side to side and spin around at the same time, hard to explain!!
The Zodiac is a wheel that basically spins upside down which does make you quite sick! The last ride here is X:\No Way Out – a rollercoaster in the dark that goes backwards! Quite tame, but very fun and you can buy a photo of you on it!
They are currently constructing the new ride for next year – a giant 10 loop rollercoaster that looks good, this is going to be the main ride in the Lost City.

Amity Cove is a small zone with one ride &
#8211; but probably the best – Tidal Wave. Basically you sit in a boat with about 10 people, go up 85ft, it then goes down a chute and the wave at the bottom totally drenches you – I mean its like being pulled from a lake! The queues are quite short for this too!

The ‘central area’ near the back of the park includes Thunder River, where you go round rapids on huge ‘tyre boats’ and get quite wet. There is also Detonator, one of the new rides where you are hoisted up a tall tower and then dropped, if the other rides don’t make you sick – this will! (Shame the queues were always about an hour long) There is also Pirates 4D, a 3D cinema, where you also get wet, and the seats vibrate and make you jump! Also for smaller kids, the Flying Fish – a small tame rollercoaster is here and it’s quite fun.

Canada Creek is the zone right at the back of the park. Here there is Loggers Leap, another log flume where you go down a 50ft chute. Virtual queuing is available on this so you come back at a certain time and you only wait 10 minutes to get on – If its not in operation then a 2 hour queue is not uncommon!
Calgary Stampede is one of those rides that make you so sick it’s untrue. It just spins you round and round, also swinging about and going up and down – Its no surprise that there’s usually a very short queue!!
The Canada Creek railway station allows you to take an old fashioned train to Thorpe Farm – a working farm with loads of animals to see. There is a restaurant and gift shop here too. You can take either the train back, or the WaterBus, a ferry that takes you over the lake and back to the main park.
The last zone is Ranger County - a bit more aimed at smaller kids, there’s Miss Hippo’s Fungle Safari, a toddlers car ride through a mini jungle, and Mr Rabbits tropical travels – a very relaxing boat ride. Mr Monkeys Banana ride is a sma
ll swinging boat – but it’s a lot worse than it looks! (and don’t eat before going on it!)
There is also a carousel for really small kids and families.

There is a really small zone in the centre of the park called Octopus Garden. It has loads of rides for babies and very small children.

Shops wise – there are loads of them, selling loads of keyrings, mugs, t-shirts etc. They can be quite expensive. There are also loads of places to eat. There are 2 Burger Kings, the biggest KFC in the UK and various other eateries including a Costa Coffee.

To sum the place up, I would say it’s a great day out for anyone. A family will have lots of fun but so will teenagers – as there are a few rides to suit all tastes. As Thorpe Park improves, the attraction will be aiming themselves at older people and teenagers so hopefully there’s lots more to come!

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