Dips

September 11, 2013

At Thorpe Park: Colossus

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Thorpe Park’s first big thrill ride, Colossus built in 2002 is a 10 time inverting roller coaster.
I have been on the ride 3 times, once in 2010, once 2011 and once this year.

The ride queue is situated right under the ride and gives you something to watch as you queue. Unfortunately due to its popularity, the ride queue time can rise up to 3 hours. The downside of the queue being situated under the ride is that because of the age of the ride, it is quite a loud rattle and bang every time the coaster goes over your head. Although it certainly makes you eager to go on the ride. The throughput of the ride is 1050 people per hour and this just shows you that if you were queueing for 2 hours, that means that 2100 people had queued before you.

The ride starts of with a 45 degrees climb on a chain lift hill, taking you 30 meters up. The coaster rattles over the top and bends round a corner before dropping and speeding through a loop the loop, and then another one! Wow.
The ride reaches a top speed of 45 mph and has a max g-force of 4.2
Some other features of the ride includes, 5 heart line rolls (Click here for an explanation), 2 corkscrews, a cobra roll and a vertical loop.

As the ride was built in 2002, it is fairly old now, due to this it is a very rough ride and it involves quite a bit of head banging. It is a good idea to keep your head forward during the ride, this reduces head banging.

Colossus had a fabulous trick at the end that if you’re a first time rider it will take you by complete surprise. Just as you think the ride is over, the coaster does an anti-clockwise in line twist, this is my favourite part of the coaster!

Overall this is a worth while coaster, but because of its age and rough ride it is not as brilliant as it used to be. My suggestion is that if you are at Thorpe Park, go on the other four main coasters first THE SWARM, SAW, Nemesis Inferno and Stealth and then go on Colossus.

Here is a link to a video of Colossus

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August 30, 2013

At Thorpe Park: Nemesis Inferno

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Thorpe Park’s Explosive Nemesis Inferno inverted roller coaster is situated in the middle of the park. The ride is an inverted roller coaster which means that the track is above your head and your feet are hanging.
Inferno is themed around a volcano. You start off inside the volcano and do a few short twists and turns and then climb 35 meters before really starting the extreme ride. You rise by chain and then endure a loop the loop and an Immelmann loop. The exhilarating ride includes rolls, twists, turns and loops. It is a great ride.
The coasters on inferno have four seats per row and 7 rows. I suggest going in the outside seats in one of the middle rows for the best riding experience. This is because at the front you get a very smooth ride, and on the outer side of the seats you feel more of the turns.
Nemesis Inferno reaches a top speed of 48mph and feels super fast the whole way through.
It is not a very new coaster as it was built in 2003 but is still a great ride.

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August 29, 2013

At Thorpe Park: SAW – The Ride

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Thorpe Park is a theme park full of thrilling roller coasters, rides and attractions. In 2009 Thorpe Park opened a new roller coaster, SAW.

If you’re up for a thrill then SAW is definitely the ride for you.

SAW were a series of 6 franchise horror films about a guy who basically sickly kills people. SAW – The Ride is based on all six films.
Along with SAW – The Ride came another attraction, SAW – Alive. SAW – Alive is a maze filled with live actors and sections from all six of the films. In its first year it was very popular but it’s popularity has decreased since and rumour has it that it will be dismantled this year.

Like The SWARM, SAW us a intensely themed ride. I have never been in the normal queue for SAW as I have always bought a fast track pass for it but apparently it is a queue full of scenes from the movies and things to build up the scene. The fast track queue is similar apart from it doesn’t have any cages with scenes in. At the end of both the queues there is a small video from Billy (Jigsaw’s puppet) about “The Game” and how you will lose! (Note: Jigsaw is the “Bad guy” in SAW).

The coasters on saw are four seats in a row and two rows long, so they are very manoeuvrable and agile making the roller coaster a thriller of a ride. The coasters on SAW are very frequent and come and go quickly. Two go off at once and if you go on the second coaster you get a short talk from Jigsaw. This helps stagger the coasters.
The ride go forwards and I front off you are some swinging axes, it looks like you will get hit by them until you do a sudden drop into darkness. I won’t give any more horrors away, I’ll let you find out yourself but what I will tell you is that this ride has some serious drops, loops and twists.

SAW includes a thrilling 100 ft/30 meter vertical climb and then a 100 degrees angled drop going inwards and racing under spinning blades. (As seen above in photo).
SAW twists through a speedy Immelmann loop and accelerates and brakes through numerous twists, loops and drops. During the ride SAW reaches a whopping top speed of 55mph.

This is my favourite roller coaster ever and I make sure I go on it every time I go to Thorpe park.
If you’re up for it, go for it!

August 20, 2013

At Thorpe park: The Swarm

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This morning I went to Thorpe park with my dad. Travelling was easy and on arrival we queued for around 25 minutes to get on after pre booking online. We entered and were handed a leaflet telling us that on the new ride, The Swarm, you queue on your mobile phone. The app tells you when you will be let into the ride and so theoretically you can be sitting in a cafe queueing for a ride. This idea is great, if it works. We got into the park and signed up for two. It told us that in 10 minutes we will get through. We got through and waited for about another 10 minutes before getting into Thorpe park’s new coaster.

This ride is themed around a UK disaster, a plane has crashed along with a flaming fire truck and an upturned police van, a helicopter is sitting in a wreck and a lorry cab is sitting on its side.
After depositing our bag we boarded the ride to hell!

The Swarm has two options of ride. 1.Forwards
and
2.Backwards
We started off by going on forwards as that was what we booked online and we were off!
A long ride slowly upwards, facing the sun, started us off and then we did a 180 degrees zero G roll extremely slowly and then the rest of a reverse Immelmann loop. The ride continued with loops, turns and drops that remove your stomach! You crash through a billboard and under the wing of a crashed plane.
During the ride you reach a top speed of 57mph!

The coaster consists of 5 forward facing rows and 2 backward facing rows. So far today I have ridden on The
Swarm 3 times. On the first time I went forwards and in a middle row, the second I went backwards, and the third forwards in the front row. I have to say that going forwards in a middle row was definitely the best, as you feel your stomach drop the worst and feel the turns the most. If you want a smooth ride then sit at the front. Sitting backwards made me feel slightly nauseous and I don’t recommend backwards as there is also a longer queue. This ride is great and that’s why I have been on it 3 times in one day! WOW.

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