It's been a long time since I was last at the island.
2011 was the last time I was at Thorpe Park so I never managed to do Swarm as it was still under construction at that time.
When I least came to Thorpe Park I only did a few coasters so there were a few I have missed out on such as Saw, Flying Fish, Walking Dead, and Swarm.
The park didn't seem to look as busy when we pulled up and when everyone was let out of the dome onto the park, it didn't seem as busy, but oh boy... it was really busy!
While walking over to Colossus, I noticed that Slammer is still standing and it's been closed for a while. It's not like Thorpe Park to leave permanently closed rides still standing. That's what makes Drayton Manor unique.
Slammer is an S&S Sky Swat which opened in 2005 and closed in 2017. The ride itself is unique because it was only one of two to exist in the world. The other being located at Six Flags New England (Originally owned by Six Flags Astroworld) until it was scrapped in 2013.
When we arrived at this section of the park, we all decided to queue up for Samurai first as we were literally outside and thought we might as well get it over and done with, and then head off to one of the two coasters in the area. When we queued up we decided to miss out on Samurai being the first ride of the day because it needs a minimum of 12 riders before it can go. That must certainly be a company policy because Fantasy Island and S&D's Top Scan can run at any capacity and I have been on The Beast many times being the only guest on the whole ride. It's odd but we missed out because we didn't want to stand and wait to let the queue get busier, while all the other rides get busier too.
With Samurai ignored, it was a choice of either Saw - The Ride, or Colossus.
Saw - The Ride it was! So for the first ride of the day we decided to have a go on Saw which is a new roller coaster credit for me because the last time I was at the park in 2011, I queued up for the ride inside the building on the stairs but then the ride ceased operations due to a temporary issue. So instead of waiting around because of 10 minutes left of the park, I left to go on Stealth one more time via the single rider queue, and it was great.
So this time Saw - The Ride is the first to go on!
Well... This was the second Euro-Fighter I've ever been on and it was certainly not a smooth ride. The layout was great and it was a decent coaster. The issue with the coaster is that it rattles too much and you shake around quite a bit. This is not my least favourite Gerstlauer coaster in general, but for overall smoothness, I find The Smiler have a more smoother experience.
Time for the ride I've kinda been anticipating more than Nemesis Inferno and Swarm. Colossus.
Opened in 2002, Colossus is an Intamin Amusement Ride Multi-Inversion Coaster, and what makes this coaster unique is because it was the first coaster to invert 10 times, and with the achievement it had it was also the world's most inverting coaster.
It's running a two train service which is awesome and great to see because it's been apparently running most of the season with only one train, causing very long queues throughout the day with .
Time for a back row ride!
What could go so wrong? It's only Colossus.
I was looking forward to this one in particular, reason being that this is the ex-Drayton Manor Enterprise that was called Cyclone that operated between 2003-3005.
Zodiac ran quite well and I enjoyed it more than Alton Towers Enterprise. It felt a lot more smoother than I thought.
After we had a go on Zodiac, we queued up for the KMG Afterburner called Vortex. Opened in 2001, it was apparently running on a 30 minute queue so we decided to give it a miss until later on in the day. Who want's to queue that long for an Afterburner? 15 mins tops at least.
Opened in 2003 and built by the Fabbri Group, Quantum is one of many flat rides at Thorpe Park, and this one certainly has a lot of air time!
Time for the Flying Fish. It's a new credit for me and it's a Mack powered coaster. Opened in 1983, closed in 2004, and then reopened in 2007 in a new location, this Mack Blauer Enzian isn't that bad for a family coaster. Using a small footprint, I would love to see more like these in smaller parks or even on the travelling circuit.
What's great about this ride is that it is a two lap special!
It's Swarm time! With a queue time of 45 minutes, we managed to get on in about 25 minutes instead because people were only queuing up for the right hand side, so the left side was near enough free. Only waited about 2-3 trains until we got on when we reached the end of the queue for the left wing.
Swarm was really smooth and comfortable. The restraints weren't too tight, but not too tight. It was very nice, and for my first wing coaster. It was great and one of my favourite at Thorpe Park, but unfortunately I only managed to have one ride and it was on the back row, but due to the queue times we never got round to re-riding.
The day is getting much colder and the sun has buggered off. Will I get round to to riding Tidal Wave? No.
I didn't want to ride Tidal Wave that day but next time I'll go, I'll get round to riding it.
With a 25 minute queue, no one else wanted to ride with me so we decided to head off to the next ride with is the rapids. I've done Detonator before and it's a great ride, but it's not as good as Venom. But in general Fabbri Group drop towers are usually very extreme and forceful, which this one is. But it is no new ride to me. Just that the queues are worth waiting for.
I can't remember riding these back in 2011 so this is a new water ride credit for me. I haven't been on river rapids since Alton Towers and prior to that, Splash Canyon. I love rapids and they're amazing. The boat design for this is much different compared to Congo River Rapids and Splash Canyon because it doesn't have a handle bar grip in the center of the boat. It's a bit interesting why it doesn't but on the other hand the rapids isn't the most extreme at all. It's very tame with only one section that you could get wet, and that's by the rock and rapid section by the end of the ride. It's a good Intamin Rapid Ride, but probably the most tamest out there.
5pm closure... great...
Don't get me wrong, the park was very busy today with the main attractions all being over 30 minutes long. Well haven't had any time at all do to any re-rides, and the park is not too far away from closing.
Splash!
It's a good thing I missed out on Tidal Wave because I didn't fancy getting wet. It started to get much colder and it seemed like it was going to rain soon.
Headed over to Nemesis Inferno to see what the queue was like but it hand a time of at least over 50 minutes. It's really something not worth waiting for and as impatient as I seem, why queue for 50 minutes when you can go on other rides with a queue of 5-25 minutes. The more rides can be done within a 50 minute limit.
Time for Stealth!
Not how I remembered it to be back in 2011 but still a great ride. Queued up for about 35-40 minutes, managed to get some nice photos of Swarm from the queue line, but overall it didn't seem to take as long, even though it was a long time we did wait. Opened in 2006, this Intamin Accelerator coaster is surely much better than Alton Tower's Accelerator coaster by miles. Can't really compare the two but if I had to choose between, Stealth takes the cake.
It wasn't too bad for a Vekoma Enigma, but was the hype worth it in the end? I went to the ride with very low expectations for the overall feel, theming and coaster experience. The ride itself is not too bad but I thought it had a small layout. It's the smaller version of Temple In The Night Hawk. The theming and pre-show leading up to the entrance wasn't too bad and was a better than I thought. Credit to the park because it was that part of the whole ride that caused more tenseness and anxiety than any part of the ride. The coaster wasn't too special and the live actor at the end wasn't great as well. But the long corridors you run down to the ride was great. I hope the Walking Dead - The Ride IP doesn't last too long as I'd love to see what its like when it was X: No Way Out.
Queues are still really long so we decided to spend some time taking photographs of Colossus and other rides. Colossus is probably the most photogenic ride in the park, and there are many locations around the ride that you can photograph the ride from.
It's such a photogenic coaster. All Colossus needs to do is change the restraints on the train to make it become a bearable coaster. It was violently rough as others like to make it out to be, but since it's not smooth which I can agree on. Didn't help by the fact I was sat on the back row for my ride which did make it a bit more rougher, but that was my decision and I knew what I had coming.
Finally got round to riding Samurai. Still my least favouirte Top Scan, following behind Stanley Reeve's Xtreme, and then The Beast at Fantasy Island being the best one I've ridden. The ride didn't run well at all. I've heard it hasn't been running good for a while and it's had quite a lot of downtime. It ran very slow and very automated.
Finally the queue is low and we can queue up for the park's only KMG ride called Vortex.
Anything that made this interesting? You don't have to pull down the restraints because they come down automatically, and it is a park model. Only a short cycle and can hold a capacity of 32 riders. It's nothing too special but it was nice to get on and ride, as last time I didn't go on this ride.
Logger Leap starting to look like it belongs at Drayton Manor. It's a sad sight to see, but looks amazing to photograph as I'm into my abandoned or dilapidated item photography. This log flume opened in 1989 and was manufactured by Mack Rides (Heinrich Mack). At a cost of £6,000,000. This was the tallest log flume until Nightmare Niagara from the American Adventure theme park was extended in 1993, but as Nightmare Niagara has since been removed, it has retained it's title back. Even though it is not operating, it is still standing tall.
Here's a boat peaking out of the station. I hope something can be done with this ride but only time will tell. If the ride is fully going and the ride is getting scrapped. I would love to buy one of these boats as it's a very nice design and prefer them over the Alton Towers Flume boat.
*Insert John Cena meme*
Here's the operator control panel that you can see from peaking into the window. It's a standard Heinrich Mack panel with the builders plate on the right. For a target throughput of 1000 guests. That's pretty impressive and surely can be done during a busy day and people do share boats with others. I'd love to get a clear photo of the panel but unfortunately this is the best I can get.
Last ride of the day! After queuing up for about 10-25 minutes, we finally got on Nemesis Inferno.
How does it compare to the original Nemesis at Alton Towers?
I thought Nemesis Inferno was great. Better than how I remembered it, and it's a lot more smoother than the original king-pin, Nemesis at Alton Towers. The section between the station and lift hill was a great section, running low to the ground and going into a tunnel which has a smoke machine. I thought that was great. 7 years since I was last on this and it was great to be back on. I forgot how great it is. Even though Nemesis Inferno is slower than Nemesis by a few miles per hour (47.8mph vs 50mph), it's still brilliant and you can't tell the difference. Nemesis Inferno is still smooth and I loved it.
Well... hello random Miss Hippos Fungle Safari car. Thought you would have been scrapped when you closed back in 2008, but clearly not. As an ex-SBF Visa Antique Cars operator. I am so glad to see the demise of these horrible rides. They're not good!
So it's the end of the day. After having a quick look in the shop, and not buying anything. Overall it has been an alright trip and managed to do all the rides I wanted to do. Only managed to do them once, but it's just one of those things. We went to a popular park and it was very busy... Not too sure what the highlight ride was today but I did have a good time. It was nice to see Logger's Leap while it was still there. I did go on it when it operated in 2011, but it's sad to see another water ride/log flume close.
Finally got this blog up and it's taken me a while but I wasn't too sure whether to upload or not, but thankfully I have got round to uploading it. Hope you enjoyed the read of my trip report.
The next trip report should be of Phantasialand, Germany, and then I'll be back at Drayton Manor for the last time this year.
See you guys later!
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