Thorpe Park

For the Lincolnshire village see Thorpe Park.

Thorpe Park is an amusement park in Chertsey, Surrey built in 1979 on the site of gravel pit which was partially flooded to make a water theme park. It added its first thrill ride in 1987, the Thunder River water ride.

Contents

1 Park Guide 1.1 Lost City 1.2 Calypso Quay 1.3 Canada Creek 1.4 Amity Cove 1.5 Ranger County 1.6 Neptune's Kingdom 1.7 Octopus's Garden 1.8 Thorpe Farm 2 Timeline 3 Future developments 4 See also 5 External links

Park Guide

Like many theme parks, Thorpe Park is split up into several distinctly themed areas.

Lost City

This area of the park contains the majority of the thrill rides, and is loosely themed around a pre-historic lost kingdom. Rides include the ten-inversion Colossus, Samurai (moved here from Chessington), Vortex, and Zodiac. Also located here, in the red and blue pyramid-shaped building is 'X:\No Way Out', an ageing indoor backwards rollercoaster which rumours suggest is due for imminent replacement. In 2005, two new rides will be added to this area, 'Rush' and 'Slammer'.

Calypso Quay

Calypso Quay is home to the Nemesis Inferno, a B&M-made inverted rollercoaster modelled on the popular Nemesis at Alton Towers. Also in this area is the drop tower Detonator, in which riders are hoisted up a tower, with legs dangling, and 'pushed' down by pneumatics. This gives a comparable amount of airtime as simply dropping from a tower twice as tall.

Also in Calypso Quay is a river-rapids ride, recently sponsored by the Ribena drinks company and renamed to 'Ribena Rumba Rapids', and Pirates 4D, a cinema showing a 3D film, with an added 'dimension' of special effects such as air blowing and water spraying. Calypso Quay also has a teacup ride and boats which take visitors over to Thorpe Farm.

Canada Creek

Themed around a Canadian creek, this area is home to the log flume Loggers Leap. Also in the area is the train station for the railways taking visitors to Thorpe Farm.

Amity Cove

A small area of the park, Amity Cove is themed around a fishing village devastated by a tidal wave. An intricately themed area, the only ride here is Tidal Wave, you are carried in a 4 tonne reinforced GRP hull up to a hight of 85 feet over a 3 million gallon lagoon. The boat is then dropped at 1.5G's, forcing 3 tonnes of water into the air to then plunge down onto not only riders... but also most of the surrounding area.

Ranger County

With a vaguely American theme, this area is mostly home to rides aimed at smaller children, such as a small banana-themed swinging ship and a carousel.

Neptune's Kingdom

Themed around the mythical Neptune, this area is home to the water chute Depth Charge, and features a paddling pool for small children (swimming costume required).

Octopus's Garden

A small aquatic-themed area with several small rides for very young children.

Thorpe Farm

Reachable by boat or railway, Thorpe Farm features many live animals, such as sheep, pigs and horses.

Timeline

• Pre-1987
  • A few attractions including the Cinamea, Magic Mill, Waterbus services, Model World, Railway, Teacups, Nature Trails and Sunken Gardens.

• 1987
  • Thunder River water ride opened.
  • Space Station Zero opened.

• 1988
  • Palladium Theatre opened.

• 1989
  • Canada Creek area opened.
    • Loggers Leap (largest log flume in the UK) opened.
    • Rocky Express opened.

• 1990
  • Re-themed Space Station Zero into the Flying Fish.
  • Carousel Kingdom opened.
  • The Rangers Show opened.
  • Drive in the country opened.

• 1991
  • Fantasy Reef area refurbished.
    • Depth Charge opened.

• 1992
  • Children's area refurbished.
    • Viking Rowers opened.
    • Hudson River Rafters opened.

• 1993
  • Calgary Stampede opened.
  • Virtual Reality Centre opened.
  • Magic Mill closed.

• 1994
  • Ranger County area opened.
    • Carousel opened.
    • Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride opened.

• 1995
  • Mr Rabbit's Tropical Travels opened.
  • Miss Hippo's Jungle Safari opened.
  • Drive in the country closed.

• 1996
  • X:/ No Way Out, the world's first dark backwards roller coaster opened.

• 1997
  • No new rides

• 1998
  • The Tussauds Group purchase the park.
  • Palladium Theatre closed.
  • Ranger Show closed.
  • Dare Devil Drivers opened.
  • Wet Wet Wet! opened.
  • Water Slides opened.

• 1999
  • Pirates 4D, a 4D cinema attraction starring Leslie Nielsen opened.
  • Carousel Kingdom closed.
  • Viking Rowers closed.

• 2000
  • Tidal Wave, a Shoot the Chute made by Hopkins Rides, opened becoming the tallest ride in the park, at that time.
  • After the fire at the park in July which gutted Wicked Witches Haunt, A enterprise was drafted in as a replacement. This ride was themed to fit into the new lost city area and renamed zodiac.
  • Dare Devil Drivers closed.
  • Bumper Boats closed.
  • Wicked Witch's Haunt closed in July after being damaged by fire

• 2001
  Missing image
  Zodiac_thorpe_park.jpg

  The Enterprise was renamed Zodiac
  • Mr Rabbit's Tropical Travels closed.
  • The lost city area was established, with zodiac and vortex as it's first rides.
  • Thunder River closed, ready to be revamped into Ribena Rumba Rapids for the 2002 season
  • The Enterprise ride which was drafted in after the fire, is renamed Zodiac.
  • Detonator, Mega Drop made by Fabbri, opened in calypso quay.
  • Vortex, a K.G.M Afterburner, opened, after a inital late delivery..

• 2002
  • Colossus, An intamin rollercoaster with a record-breaking 10 inversions, opened.
  • Safiri High Dive show opened for one season.
  • Thunder River re-opened as Ribena Rumba Rapids.

• 2003
  • Nemesis Inferno, a Bolliger and Mallibard inverted rollercoaster themed around a tropical volcano opened.
  • Also Quantum, a 'magic carpet' ride, opened.
  • Eclipse, a ferris wheel, opened.
  • A spiderman show was performed in the arena. This continued into 2004 and was replaced in 2005 by Stuntzmania
  • Calgary Stampede closed, to make way for Samurai from chessington

• 2004
  • Samurai, a Mondial Top Scan, moved from Chessington, opened.
  • New Spiderman show opened.
  • Flying Fish closed at the end of the season to make way for Project Stealth, a currently un-named intamin rocket coaster in 2006.

• 2005
  • Eclipse was removed from park and moved to Chessington, renamed Peeking Heights.
  • Slammer, a S&S Skyswat opened
  • Rush,the world’s biggest air-powered speed swing, opens 27 May after successful testing.

Future developments

• 2006
  • A new 200 foot tall Intamin accelerator roller coaster is to be built on the former site of Model World and the Flying Fish (Mack Powered Rollercoaster). The ride is due for completion on February 1st 2006 and will feature a racing theme similar to Rita: Queen of Speed at Alton Towers. The ride will accelerate from 0-80mph in around 4 seconds before heading vertically up a 205ft tall Top-Hat, it will then crest the hill and start it's descent again at 90 degrees. Following the top hat it will head over a large airtime hill before hitting the brakes. It has been described as a mini Kingda Ka only smaller.

• 2008
  • The park's fourth major rollercoaster, expected to be a B&M Flyer is due to open. Little is known about this project at present.

See also

• List of British Theme Parks

External links

• http://www.thorpepark.co.uk - Official site.

• http://www.themeparks-uk.com - Thorpe Park Guide @ TP:UK

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