Theme Park Tips

Rosedavid

We went on Monday 5th September when alot of schools had gone back but there were still alot on inset days, the biggest queue was for the vampire ride, it was an hour but was moving, others were about 20 or so minutes, we got on everything that we wanted to, I can't imagine that it would be that busy, have fun!!

redbaileys

not sure about chessington but thorpe park do fast track and this basically means you go straight to the front of the queue. we went in july and it seemed that every school in the country was there-we bought a couple of fast track tickets and went straight on rides where there were queues of over 2hours! felt slightly guilty but hey we paid for it. think the fast track tickets at thorpe park were around the £5 mark for each ride or you can buy a different one that lets you go on all the fast track rides as many times as you like but that was about £60 and thats on top of the entrance fee - ouch!

hope this helps

nikmondo

AdamBrunt wrote: »

Didn't want to read that ... we're taking our two (5 and 7) to Thorpe Park on Tuesday. Is it really that bad for under-10's ?

Also, we're going via the Sun Offer. Does Thorpe Park do the "buy a Merlin Pass once you're inside" thing or can you not do it with these sort of BOGOF tickets ?

Sorry for the late response.

Yes I took my 6 year old daughter there last year and the lady who was guiding the qeueus said if I took her inside i'd be wasting my money. She advised me to go to Chessington which was only half an hour down the road.

davidlizard

Another Chessington question:

I would like to take my own food as I have certain dietry requirements. Can I leave it in the car then leave the park to go back and get it and re-enter the theme park?

I guess what I am asking is do Chessington allow readmittance?

Thanks in advance.

davidlizard

Had an enjoyable day out at Chessington with my wife and children today. Some observations and tips.

In case anyone reads this post in the future and is looking for information about queueing times, we went on a Friday in September during term time (making best use of an Inset day), and the weather was hot. There were approx 2500 people in the park, which meant very little queueing - most queueing was spent waiting for rides to stop and we were straight on, meaning we went on over 30 rides including all the "biggies" at least once - certainly nothing longer than 10 minutes. The Wednesday of that week had just 600 people in apparently.

1. Food is expensive and mostly junk. They allow you to leave the site and come back again. Therefore take a cool box, keep it in the car and send one of your party off to fetch the lunch - decanting the contents of the coolbox into carrier bags.

2. Parking - everyone leaves at once when the site closes. Hence several hundred cars all making for the exit at the same time. Therefore park on the road leading to the exit (and as close to the exit as you can) and you get out almost straight away.

3. Stating the obvious, but do try and avoid days when the schools are off. We were walking straight onto rides that had approaching a 2 hour queueing time the previous weekend according to staff.

4. Chat to the staff - they are a very friendly bunch and give lots of "off the record" tips, e.g. where to sit on rides, how long the queues really are, if rides are closing early, and so on.

5. The height restrictions for children are rigorously enforced. Don't waste time queueing or building up false hopes if they are too short, even if its by half an inch. If they are half an inch too short, this can be made good by putting them in appropriate shoes and teaching them to stand up straight when being measured.

6. Check their website for deals - me and my daughter paid half price because we got the ticket in advance, and my wife and my son paid just £13 for both of them - special deal for parent/toddler hence the park being overrun with buggies!

jellyhead

AdamBrunt wrote: »

Didn't want to read that ... we're taking our two (5 and 7) to Thorpe Park on Tuesday. Is it really that bad for under-10's ?

Also, we're going via the Sun Offer. Does Thorpe Park do the "buy a Merlin Pass once you're inside" thing or can you not do it with these sort of BOGOF tickets ?

I managed to keep a 5 year old entertained at Thorpe Park, and he is a spoiled 5 year old who goes to a lot of theme parks. I hate Thorpe but if you get a free ticket from The Sun you can have a good day out. If you are using a Merlin Pass or are paying then Chessington is much better.

There's a log flume and a steam train ride, and iirc lots of smaller rides in the same area. There's an area with tiny rides (octopus garden) and there's a big slide. Children can spend quite a while standing under the splash from the big log flume too. There are rapids too.

Children are easily pleased really, and mine still get excited when the fairground comes to town and they beg to go on rides that are much smaller than the ones at Thorpe.

SparkleGirl_2

Hiya,

Great tips here, mine would be to just never ever pay full rpice going to Drayton Manor. I amde the mistake of paying around £25 each person, then while I was there bought a bag of crisps only to find there was a BOGOF offer!! My lesson was that there is always an offer somewhere........

thechef89

Thanks Petree! These are some awesome tips! It's smart to split up the trips between kids in different age groups. You always find the youngest/shortest one not being able to have as much fun as everyone else because of the ride limitations. I definitely will be looking out more for those coupons in the newspapers and local stores. Thanks again!

Sharon87

Tip for long queues - single seater queue

If you don't mind not sitting next to your friends/family go to the single seater queue, especially for rides which have 4 seats going across and not just 2. I did this when I went to Alton Towers, queued a lot less than most people.

jordanchaos

Thorpe Park is really starting to become 'the Alton Towers of the south'
I'm fairly sure 'when I were a lad' it was pretty much on par with Chessington, now they have brought in some pretty big rides, I've mentioned it before but the swarm is on my MUST RIDE list, I'm just waiting for the fuss to die down a bit, as jellyhead said (I hope thats a Viz inspired username!) younger kids kids will have fun pretty much anywhere! Thorpe Park is suitable for a wide aged family, even if they are mostly gunning for the teenage market. As for discounts 123 save have a discount for most of the merlin places they are up to about 50% off.

Stupid question... maybe.... but do the parks have to close due to bad weather at all? Its just i figure if I go on a day the weather is lousy they'll be less queues?