When I was quite a lot younger I used to go to Thorpe Park with my parents and I have quite a few early memories associated with the place.  I remember quite clearly the relaxed boat ride which would climax by going through a trippy barn with flashy lights and strange anamatronic things all around you.  I remember taking the train out to Treasure Island and being attacked by pirates who would try and give you the dreaded Black Spot.  I also remember my brother Mike falling off a carousel and smashing his head on the ground which resulted in a massive bump on his forehead which seemed to hang around for weeks afterwards.  I have vivid memories of going on Space Station Zero with my Uncle Dean and getting so bashed around that I wouldn’t go on another  roller coaster for years, yet now the same “coaster”, moved outside and renamed “The Flying Fish”, seems like the most tame ride imaginable.   Later on I remember them building Loggers Leap and being terrified of what was then the highest log flume in the UK.

Last Friday I went to Thorpe Park for the first time in 5 years and these days the park looks somewhat different to the one I remember.  Loggers Leap and The Flying Fish remain, but there are so many other rides to choose from that I didn’t even go on either of them.  Instead we (there was a group of 10 of us) started with a ride on Vortex, a large swingy, spinny thing,  followed quickly by 2 consecutive goes on the magic carpet ride Quantum.  Once upon a time both of these would have been considered pretty extreme for Thorpe Park, but these days they’re a pretty tame introduction.  So, upping the ante, we headed for the park’s newest ride, Saw. The ride itself was awesome, but the 90 minute queue was not so great.  Fortunately no other queue was quite that bad and after lunch we managed all the big coasters, including Nemesis Inferno, Colossus and my personal favoruite Stealth. There was still plenty of time to go on loads of the other extreme rides too, such as Samurai, Slammer, Rush and X:\No Way Out.

All in all it was a very good day and, while suprisingly busy for a Friday during term time, we ended up getting on pretty much everything we wanted to in the 8 hours we were there although we did end up purhcasing a fast-track ticket for Stealth for an extra £4  to save us some time.  I would have liked to got on a couple of the roller coatsers a second time and so if I went again I’d either go mid-week earlier in the year or modify my ride strategy a bit to go on the coasters first and last thing with all the other rides inbetween.  It’s also worth noting that there’s no need to ever pay the full £35 entrance fee as 2-for-1 vouchers are so easy to come by that we ended up with about 4 spares between the 10 of us.  While we concentrated on the bg rides there’s still plenty of stuff for younger kids too, so it’s definitely one for the whole family.