Thorpe Park | Oh So T Travel Time

For Andy's 25th Birthday we headed to Thorpe Park for some belated celebrations. As most of you are aware, we brought a house in February 2019 (I know, we're like proper adults now!) and the budget was a bit tight given the renovations we wanted to do and the furniture we needed to purchase. I had hoped to take Andy away abroad for his birthday as it was first year on a real wage as a trainee solicitor, but life had other ideas and that meant we needed to do a little 'staycation'. 

Andy and I love rollercoasters and, weirdly, the one theme park he'd never visited was Thorpe Park. A little google later, a cheeky deal on the Hilton Hotel just near Thorpe Park and I felt onto a winner. Our little trip was all booked and I even made a cute pop out insert to go in Andy's birthday card to 'give' him his gift. 

We decided to drive to our hotel as it had free parking and meant we could be well rested for our two days of park tickets. The drive from Manchester was around 4 and a half hours and we arrived just before 5pm. Our room was a beautiful double bedroom with amazing decor and very spacious. We got dressed and headed out for a little walk to a nearby pub for some food, games and a drink before we got an early night ready for our adventure. 

Our room came with a free breakfast so we were up at 8:00am to get our continental buffet with a full english. We chose a lighter breakfast as we knew we would be spending the day on rollercoasters and we didn't fancy being sick during the day. 

The security at Thorpe Park is like security everywhere else currently. Airport style with bags being checked fully for anything suspicious. The security check wasn't intimidating and the people were very lovely. I think it is important to remember that whilst it is time-consuming and slightly frustrating the checks are really for your safety and made me feel more secure that nothing bad would happen. 

To enter Thorpe Park you have to cross a bridge as it is an island and it is the perfect place to snap a cheesy photograph or in my case three. Andy was itching to get inside as he wanted to get the map and decide which rides he wanted to go for. As I had been before I was a bit more relaxed about the whole thing and felt we didn't need to rush as anything we couldn't do that day could be done tomorrow. Thorpe Park have a great offer where you only have to pay for 1 days ticket to get a second free (I mean it is advertised everywhere but I've tried to keep that a secret from Andy). 

After we spent a few moments relaxing and enjoying the views we headed through the plaza of food and check in for the Shark Hotel to enter the adrenaline zone and go and ride some rollercoasters. To walk the entirety fo the site takes around 15 minutes from one end to the other. It takes a little while to get your bearings but afterwards you will be able to zip around to all your favourite rides and even get to do them a few times. 

The first ride that we decided to do was Stealth as it is the biggest rollercoaster in the UK. Stealth shoots you up in the air and goes 0-82mph in 1.9 seconds, it is really fast. The queue time staled 1 hour when we first arrived, however we were probably only queuing for around 20 minutes, probably less than this. 

Stealth is located near the amity beach area of Thorpe Park. The amity beach area is themed as a sea side/ coastal town that has been hit by a tornado. The tornado caused a whole host of problems, including placing a shark through a wall. 

The amity beach area has an actual beach which little ones can take a dip in whilst you relax on the beach. It also hosts most of the water rides as well included storm surge and tidal wave. Be warned that doing tidal wave will get you very wet so it is either a first ride or an end of the day ride. We did it towards the end of the day as we had clothes we could change into. 

As it was my second going to Thorpe Park, I let Andy chose which rides he wanted to do and we just jumped between each zone and went with the flow. The queuing times were always way shorter than the estimated time by at least half on the day and the longest queue we had was for Derren Brown's Ghost Train which was around a 2 hour wait.  

I thought instead of just rattling off every ride we went on, as that would be pretty boring, I would do a top 3 and then bottom 3 so you can get a flavour of the must dos and the ones to not waste your time on. 

Top three

1. Saw the ride - by far my favourite. The whole theming around the queue is brilliant with a few hidden surprises in there as well. If you are lucky there will be a few live actors in the queue ready for a real scare but unfortunately they aren't always in the queues. 

The track is brilliant and the view you get of the park is pretty amazing. Everyone seems in very good spirits when they are in there, some slightly scared and some just having a laugh. 

2. Stealth - This is a fast adrenaline rush of a ride and is almost over before it even began. It is a lot of fun and the first two seconds really take your breath away. You also get another lovely view of the 

park and an idea as to where all the other rides are located. 

3. The Swarm - This was a new ride that I hadn't been on before and it is set in a town that has been destroyed by an unknown entity and the rollercoaster is technically 'the swarm' that has destroyed it. The scenery is wonderful here and the design and staging is wonderfully done. This ride is a bit like air at Alton Towers but way faster and better. 

Bottom three

1. The Walking Dead: The Ride - My major issue with this ride was not being informed there would be live actors in the ride itself. I had an AWFUL experience at Alton Towers on their Nemesis Sub-terror ride, some actors just take it wayyyy too far and I ended up pinned to the cage and had a panic attack. I am therefore extremely weary and cautious of live actors at these things. Andy had reassured me that there wasn't any live actors and the minute we stepped inside I knew for a fact that I was in trouble. 

The actors are well hidden and the setting is as if you have been taken into safety and then zombies breach the compound. My worst nightmare come true to be honest. You then get taken on the rollercoaster to safety, exit into a canteen and get jumped by zombies... I basically jumped into Andy's arms and got screamed at to close my eyes whilst I was dragged out of there running full pelt for the exit. We got outside and I just broke down (second panic attack woohoo!!). 

The ride itself was pretty good, I just would have liked a warning to mental prepare for that possibility and avoid the panic attack. 

2. Storm Surge - If you have young kids this is a great ride but if you don't I don't recommend the excessive queue time for a very poor ride. You get a little wet and go down a slide. It wasn't worth the massive 2 hour queue time and I was very disappointed afterwards that we wasted that time. 

3 - The inflatable bouncing ride - This would have been brilliant had I not lost my top and flashed to works (embarrassing!!!). I had a loose long top that I caught on the inflatable beams whilst jumping on it. The straps just stretched and down came my top and bra... Awks!! I kind covered myself up laughed it off with the team and kept tight hold of my top the rest fo the way around. It was a lot of fun but I have just about recovered from the embarrassment haha! The beast that made me flash is pictured below... 

We got to do all of the rides twice on our first day, which was really good going, and we decided to head back just before closing to avoid the queues. We went back to our hotel, got changed and headed to another pub for some food and watched the football with a few drinks. We did do our second day at the park, but as we'd already done everything we wanted to do we didn't feel there was much point in staying for the whole of the day and Sunday was much quieter. We did our favourite rides twice and then hit the road early to make sure we were home and well rested for work the next day. 

I loved our little trip down to Thorpe Park and really enjoyed our 'staycation'. I wanted to write this post now to try and showcase some of the things you could do during a 'staycation'. Given the situation with COVID-19 this may be a reality for many of us this year and I highly recommend a short trip to Thorpe Park or other theme parks in the country. 

We hope you are all keeping well at these trying times and abiding by the Governments rules to ensure we all stay safe! If anyone is struggling to cope with COVID-19 we're only a message away on our socials and we all need to band together during these trying times. 

We hope this post has given you an insight into a potential staycation and it put a little smile on your face. 

Until Next Time

T

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