Monday June 23rd.



Kicking things off I went back to the same restaurant as last night’s steak, which was turned into the breakfast room. It had the most mediocre food selection of any Hilton breakfast on my trip so far. The omelette, while a large portion wasn’t great (I didn’t finish it). And a rather small fruit selection too.

I had a ticket booked for Thorpe Park, and wanted to get there in time for the ride openings at 10am. Unfortunately luck was not on my side. I walked to Bayswater station and unfortunately the line was suspended due to a trespasser. So I walked back to Queensway, and took the Central + Elizabeth line to Paddington. From there, yes you guessed it I was on the Heathrow Express again.



I must have looked quite strange with just a shoulder bag and no luggage that day.


From Heathrow I took an uber to Thorpe Park. I was quite surprised that for an uberX I had a ride in a black BMW!


Unfortunately with the delays I arrived at the park at 10:45. But that was nothing compared to the 45 minute wait just for the bag search and entry into the park! (The queue was in the area of the photo below, just imagine it crammed with people!) Completely absurd, I can see why some coaster fans don’t like UK (read Merlin) parks.

My first ride was on The Swarm, a wing coaster (and my first experience on that type!). It was a fun ride, and surprisingly fast!I I liked the inversion into the first drop.



Following that I rode Stealth, my first Intamin hydraulic launched coaster. That reached 62.5 metres high at the top hat and 129km/h from the launch. I was quite nervous before riding but my seat mate told me to enjoy the half second view from the top hat. Eventually we launched and it was all a blur. We accelerated quickly and soon started climbing the hill. We did indeed had a view of the park for the brief half second at the top. Not quite as bad as I was expecting! And considering the speed the ride was over very soon!

Nemesis: Inferno is a B&M inverted coaster. I had ridden their Monster ride at Gröna Lund, but this ride was far more punchy. I liked the fun initial descent before the lift hill. A much better ride than I was expecting.


The Walking Dead: The Ride was a fun indoor horror experience/coaster mashup that reminded me of Xpress: Platform 13. There was a warning for live actors so I worried about bumping into staff dressed as zombies. A fun spooky experience. The coaster was completely indoors, so it reminded me of Eurostat CanCan Coaster at Europa Park. (And prevented me from taking any photos of the ride, unfortunately!)

Colossus (in the foreground), another Intamin coaster is known for being the first with 10 invesions (and my first with that many). I was excited for that ride but man it was rough! I was being banged from side to side and was left with a headache by the end. My least favourite coaster.

My last ride was on Hyperia (the coaster train at the top of the lift hill) - the ride I was most excited by. Mack Rides is my favourite coaster manufacturer and they did not let me down! Leaving the ride station, we descended with a sharp tilt. And ascent up the lift chain was surprisingly fast! Man that drop was so much more intense, fast, incredible than I was expecting! The ride was a sensory overload and so much better than I could have imagined!

I ended up skipping Saw as I didn’t want to have another rough ride that left me with a headache. But it does look fun!



So I rode 6 coasters at Thorpe Park, and that brings my tally to 28.