Thorpe Park "Opening" Day
10 February 2007
Traditionally in the UK the theme park season has run from late
March until early November. Thorpe Park has somewhat broken the mould
this year, declaring that they would open on 10th February and not end
their season until 6th January 2008.
So how was what could turn out to be Thorpe's last ever Opening
Day? As is traditional, not all it should have been...
The car park at 9:45 - but hey, we haven't been here
for months and I can see Stealth (kind of). All everybody
had to do was battle through the Fishing exhibition taking place in
the car park and get to the front gates.
The major new attraction for 2007 - the pub has been
enlarged and re-branded as Glass House, but it was closed. Theme
of the day.
According to the sign: Stealth, Colossus,
Vortex, Zodiac, Quantum, X:\NWO, Storm in a Teacup, Carousel, Mr
Monkey's Banana Ride, Depth Charge and Octopus Gardens.
According to real life, Mr Monkey's and the
Carousel. We took our first ride of the season on Mr Monkey's.
Then onto the Carousel, which was making some very
strange noises ...
... although we quickly realised that was just Rich
singing to the large grey rabbit sharing his boat
The whole of Canada Creek is closed off, so no more
shortcuts
Let's look at the long awaited X:\ retheme
First change: lights in the corridor
Correction: only change. I guess maybe next year then.
Yeah, right.
Snow!
Healthy Thorpe Park - apart from none of them are
working
This year's park map (as Tussauds sees it)
Possibly more accurate
Did something hit Thorpe Belle, or did one of the
fishermen have an accident with his fishing line?
Washed out signs - luckily all the price boards
still look fresh and colourful
Obviously the yucky pond cleaner has got the sack
Lake infilling around the back of Loggers: come on
2009! (Is it just me or are the diggers taking the mick out of
Samurai?)
Let's ride Colossus. Oh silly us, it's
closed. Notice the man emptying the bins? They were full
of rubbish at 11am, so when did they get filled up? Please tell
me they've emptied the bins since the final day of last season?!?
I'm sure there's something missing, but I can't
think what it is. I'll have a sit down and think about it.
Smile guys and pretend we're enjoying ourselves,
otherwise everybody's going to laugh at us for visiting a closed theme
park.
Random bit of Zodiac (Mk II) lying on the
ground. Hope it's not important.
Rush's nets must have been attacked by the
fishermen. Also, count 3 seats in on the right hand arm.
Notice something missing? Probably don't need restraints anyway.
Random bits of Rush. Moody staff don't like us
seeing this stuff (so why not put it away, hide it, or better still
screw it back on and open your damn rides???)
Shock! A working ride!
A vicious rumour circulated that they were about to
open a good ride. The rest of the park empties as everybody
immediately heads for Stealth.
Didn't the website say they'd tweaked it so Stealth
now does 0-80mph in under 2 seconds? Obviously they didn't have
time to tweak the sign too.
Andy & Chris go go go
Stealth and guess who's finger
Chris P just couldn't resist sticking his hand in
another of my photos ;)
Rich partying like it's 2006
No shit, Sherlock.
Anarchy on the trampolines. This was just before
security turned up to boot them off. Yellow flack jacket man
(necessary why??) had a tough job building his case though since the
gate was open and there were no staff around saying it was shut.
Whatever, we can't possibly allow people to have fun without
paying. Half the kids had even taken their shoes off before
jumping! Close the gate or open it up properly. Kids: 1,
over-zealous security: nil.
Pointless second paragraph
See - you couldn't even if you wanted to. And
he so wanted to.
Colossus opened ... and the Colossus window is
back!
By the way - single rider has been discontinued on
everything apart from Stealth and Flying Fish. Yes, Flying
Fish. Even the staff aren't pleased.
So this is what they've been doing over the
winter: making perwitty patterns out of the bins
Good ole' reliable Vortex
Flying Fish returning for 2007 "by popular
demand". Nothing to do with being unable to find a buyer
then, obviously.
Very windy, a raucous party, or just more junk they
didn't bother to clear up?
Tidal Wave: packed with natural stuff (aka rust)
Remember how I said SRQ was only running on Stealth
and the Fish? Well Detonator still has its SRQ sign, so let's go
take a ride...
... or maybe not - let's go on N:I instead ...
... or not.
Poor old Nemmy's got a bandage
Eww, it's dirty
No Rumba either (good job too - look at all that
yuck in the bottom)
Gloomy Stealthy
You always expect a few things not to be quite right on Opening Day
- after all the park is just getting going after being stagnant for
the last few months. However, you don't expect the park to be
scattered with bits of rides/junk or most of the big rides to be down.
I don't give much weight to the "we've opened much earlier
than normal so we haven't had so much time to get everything
ready" argument: It must have been obvious that things
wouldn't be ready unless you threw more resources than normal at ride
rehabs and a general park cleanup. 'Planning' isn't only
a nice buzzword, it needs somebody to actually do it too.
I've never been to an Opening Day quite like it, with a park
looking so unready and in such a bad state with bits and pieces
scattered everywhere. If it wasn't for meeting up with loads of
friends, it wouldn't have been half the day it was.
Poor show.
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What We Learnt Today
- Thorpe Park has been rethemed into two new zones for 2007:
Builder's World and Refuse Land
- Stealth has been tweaked to launch to 80mph in under 2 seconds
(a .3 second decrease from last year's 0-80 in 2.3secs) but
doesn't feel any different
- Crust does good tea if Cafe Nero is closed
- Doughnut machines can make doughnuts that look like turds
- Paul wants bushes
- "Sausages" is a funny word
- So is Plopsaland
See Rich's
photos here and Chris'
photos here
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