Being a parent of teens as well as tots, we were all very excited when we were given the chance to review Thorpe Park which is renowned for its high octane, adrenaline rides.
Situated in Surrey, the journey took an hour and a half from Bournemouth and despite it being a bank holiday weekend the traffic was clear apart from a small delay as we approached due to some roadworks.
As soon as we arrived it was obvious that the park was aimed at the teen market. Loud chart music (but not so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think) was playing throughout the park and you can’t help but sing / dance along. The teens grabbed a map and started planning which of the rides they wanted to do first.
I had had a brief look at fastrack passes online before we left and decided to get the teens a pass to ensure they got to ride all the “big rollercoasters” the same day. I wish I had looked into it in more detail as it turns out it was more expensive than I initially thought, so I just ended up getting passes for Swarm and Saw as these were the most popular.
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Having the little ones with us was a great excuse for some gentler rides and I think they had as much fun on the Carousel and the Rumba Rapids as they had on the white knuckle rides – they will deny it when asked though!
We did encounter our first problem though – Eliza is under 0.9m so the only ride she can go on was the Carousel, although Callan managed to get her on the Rocky Express which she hated! That said – she was fascinated watching the rollercoasters and the only time she played up was waiting for the teens to get off Colossus which is the ride they queued longest for later in the day.
After getting a soaking on Rumba Rapids, the next port of call was Stealth – the only ride we had to bribe 12 year old Kian onto. It did look scary, but he loved it!
I found Mediocre Mum and AnnieQPR at a small Hot Dog stall next door to Stealth and decided to get a drink for me and Ice creams for the littlies. The queue looked short but it actually took 40 minutes to get served, but why time the teens had queued and ridden Stealth and found me again.
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We spent the rest of the day exploring the park and managed to do ALL the extreme rides, even “Brave it Backwards” on Swarm. The longest queue was about an hour, but most around the half hour mark. The littlies rides we barely had to queue for, if at all and they had as much fun pretending they were in the big rides sitting in the test seats and pulling faces.
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We did buy the ride photo’s as proof and took advantage of the special offer of 4 photo’s for £20!
- Check your child’s height and manage their expectations. Most of the Extreme Thrill rides you have to be 1.4m tall
- Children under 1m are free, however there are only a few rides for them to do. Personally I would leave them at home as the majority of rides start from 1.1m and above, however Neptune’s Beach will be open from 18th May, where they can play in the sand or go for a paddle.
- Get a Parent swap card if you have little or nervous kids with you so you can both experience the extreme rides without having to queue twice. This allows you to swap over at the exit.
- The queues are much shorter at lunchtime, so aim to ride the most popular rides then
- Tickets are much cheaper online, in advance – Book tickets 7 days or more in advance to save 30% – adults from £30.24, children from £23.52 (under 12).
- Or even better…buy a bottle of Frijj and you can benefit from 2-for-1 entry at the park! Head over to Frijj on Facebook to find out more.
- There are lots of “extra activities” e.g win a Teddy so limit spending money. Mine chose to have photographs instead.
- Buy an “unlimited refill drinks cup” – it is £6 but you can have it refilled as many times as you need throughout the day. We shared ours!
- Take a picnic – there are lockers available to store your belongings if need be.
- Download the Thorpe Park app for queue times and an interactive map!
Right, I’m blowing those spam comments away ^^^
Brilliant post – honest and full of tips to help future visitors get the most out of their day. I have never done any of the big rides (neither has the marketing director, I understand!) but I’m dying to do Stealth now that I’ve read all the reviews.