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THORPE PARK Resort Happy Height Day reviewer thread. Non testers: tell us what makes the ultimate fun day out and you could win THORPE PARK Resort annual family passes worth £196 NOW CLOSED

245 replies

AngelieMumsnet · 21/03/2014 10:28

This is a thread for the 50 Mumsnetters who attended the Happy Height Day at THORPE PARK Resort. Thanks for going, and we hope that you and your family had great day!

Here's what THORPE PARK Resort say: "We see so many excited kids every year who have just reached 1.4m and are now tall enough to have the ride of their lives. At THORPE PARK Resort we're championing this achievement with our Happy Height Day, and celebrating the moment these kids experience a whole new world of thrills!
Whilst we love seeing these kids giddy with excitement to ride on Stealth for the first time, with over 25 rides and attractions throughout the Park and with a new ANGRY BIRDS Land opening in May, there really is so much to keep the whole family entertained. And that includes those under 1.4m"

Below are some questions for you to answer, but do feel free to add any other comments you or your family may have.

Please remember to also write a review of your day on the MN review area here

  • Who was in your group and how old are the children?
  • Have you been to THORPE PARK Resort before, if so, when?
  • What was your, and your family's, overall experience of Happy Height Day?
  • What were your/your DCs highlights of the day?
  • Which, if any, attractions/ rides would you most recommend to parents with children who have just reached 1.4m in height?
  • Overall, would you recommend THORPE PARK Resort to your friends and family if it came up in conversation? If so, why? If not, why not?

Please also upload any photos of your family enjoying their day out THORPE PARK Resort to this thread. Please note photos may be used by THORPE PARK Resort on Facebook, their website and possibly on other marketing material.

For those of you who did not attend Happy Height Day, what makes the ultimate fun day out for you and your family? Everyone who adds a comment will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win THORPE PARK Resort ANNUAL PASSES for a family of four worth £196

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

OP posts:
Thread gallery
71
Pantone363 · 22/03/2014 20:50

I only saw 3 lots of MNers, family in the 360 grill mum had a lovely top and her DH was groping his chest Wink

MNer who I spoke to whilst wrangling 3 soaking wet kids next to the tidal wave! Sorry I couldn't chat more but I was bloody freezing and knew if I didn't get them dry soon we'd have to go!

And MN family in the pass office whilst I shouted at DS because he was moaning about a tiny graze on his arm!

TheHumancatapult · 22/03/2014 20:50

part 2

sorry this bit is long and this does not and not meant to take from fact for my other dc it was good

now we come to the not so good and from my point of view and ds 3

Im a full time wheelchair user.Ds 3 a part time user. ANd while not being completely surprised I am disappointed that Thorpe park like most uk parks can not seem understand that actually we may like theme park rides and fast ones .
We got in fine ( carers allowed for free ) now that's nice but actually I am a single parent to 4dc including one with sn and don't ever have a carer at home

But at Thorpe park ( and others ) all of a sudden i become in capabler and have to get my wristband band must have a carer all times on rides .Even though pointed out I do not want to or need to use fast track assistance quite capabler of queuing just need access.
Mind I was handed a booklet which then proceeded to tell me which rides I can not go on .Would been quicker to say which rides I could ride ( answer is not a lot )

Before anyone else yells H&S can I point out me dd and ds3 was luck enough go to Orlando and all the rides are accessible including the very big coasters and not once wa si made to feel like a child by being asked wheres my carer There all they wanted to know was could I transfer to ride from my chair ( they had slopes and or lifts to rides ) and Usa has a much more sue culture to >So do feel Thorpe park and all uk theme parks do hide behind H&S

Toilets as I already said these was very good so hats of here .And no babychange in them so saved any MN potential bitch points

access around park etc

Now this needs a bit more thought .We was sent well ok ordered over to guest services due to wheelchairs now this be ok if the bloody building was properly accessible it has tiny doors ( someone had be found to unbolt the other as unfortunately i don't have go go gadget arms to reach high bolts )and once I moved around into building well one wheelchair and no one was getting pass without us getting very friendly ,now this can be a good thing depending who was squeezing past Grin

moving round the cafes was impossible and did point out to manager in bbq area and he looked and agreed and to be honest anyone over 7 stone was not getting between tables .Other problem was queuing areas for food and shops etc is the good old switchback style fine as takes less room not so good if your having to move a chair around .Meant I could prove the women cant reverse group wrong
Mind anyone mutters that near me I may accidental reverse onto feet and they be doing best river dance impressions WinkGrin

now ds3 is small ok he bloody tiny but we found a few rides for him .He can walk a bit but needs a chair for any distance .Yet again directed towards guest services and told he must have a wristband erm no he can queue am fortunate he fully understands and accepts thisjust needs his chair to sit and rest in .But nope he must have a carer even on ride that 3/4 years old can go on without mum and dad and said carer cant be me as I'm not his carer ( now what my paperwork says or my life is ) but this was a pita as meant someone had to be with us lot of the time .We fudged it a few times ds3 can do steps ( slow but can and can walk 25 metres in his own fashion ( think drunken sailor ) but at 18kg he often got a carry from ds1 or ds2 so got to ride
Luckily ds3 was happy to spend fair bit time waiting and was normally found sat with a poncho over his head and body making his own blue cave i reckon a with his ds

Annual pass office
Now my powerchair is a big beast as a few can testify but forget go go gadget arms I needed go go gadget neck to see over the counter and talk to the lady .So maybe a counter lower down please so poor staff don't need to stand to see and talk to me or view top of my head.Luckily no bald spots here grey hairs well that's another story

But would i recommend if you are a full time chair user going alone with a carer in a word no as you are not going be able to ride.Going with your family take a kindle a drink and chocolate and maybe some wine and accept your not going be able to ride .Maybe Uk needs to look how USA does it theme park rides

So overall yes was a good day from my older children's view and they happy I am mostly happy( wine may have helped ) .And ds3 rode a few things and he is happy go lucky so was ok and
would I go back yes because my older ones liked it and were planning test the new shark hotel adapted rooms out come May and if doors not wide enough they soon will be ny time I gone through Grin

Pantone363 · 22/03/2014 20:52

Also another bit of praise for the staff. There was a horrible incident of an adult assaulting a child and security were there very very quickly. Also the lady on the flying fish ride deleting the photos of kids sticking their fingers up at the camera as it wasn't family friendly!

TheHumancatapult · 22/03/2014 20:54

Can I say a big thank you to mn for this prize and the organising of it all and hello to the few Mn i did spot around the park

Claudiecat · 22/03/2014 20:55

Just got back after a fantastic day with one happy boy!
Who was in the group and how old were the children?
Myself, DH and DS 10.

Have you been to Thorpe Park before?
It was mine and DS's first time. DH has been before.

What was your, and you family's, overall experience of Happy Height Day?
A really enjoyable day. We were very well treated. It was nice that a fuss was made of the children getting their certificates/ photos taken. Everything was very well organised and staff friendly and very helpful all through the park.

What were your/ DCs highlights of the day?
We liked the fact that the park was compact enough to walk around easily. It was very busy but didn't feel overly so. Having the fast passes was brilliant as we didn't feel pressured to rush around doing stuff before it got too busy.
Also the magic money was much appreciated. We got snacks, drinks and DS had a good spend up in the gift shop too.
My DS did all the big 5 adrenalin rides and a couple of the water rides too. Stealth is now his favourite ride and he's not easily pleased having been a thrill ride fiend since the age of 4!
I asked him how he'd rate the day and the rides on a scale of 1-10 and he said it's off the scale,
The rides are definitely up there with the best.

Which, if any, attractions/rides would you most recommend to parents of children who have just reached 1.4m in height?
My DS is only just at that height but all the rides were completely safe/ suitable for him. It was me who was worried!

Overall would you recommend Thorpe Park Resort to your family and friends if it came up in conversation? If so, why? If not, why not?
We wouldn't definitely recommend Thorpe Park. We are from the Midlands and so the natural choice would be Alton Towers or even Drayton Manor (which is virtually on our doorstep) It was definitely worth the journey - about an hour and three quarters.
However, that said I would probably on recommend to those with children 1.4m and above as I'm not sure those with little ones would get good value for money.

Overall the park was very clean, well cared for. Security very pro active (I saw a couple of incidents). The standard of the park was easily on a par with those we've visited in Florida.
A couple of gripes though. Although the toilets were clean, we weren't impressed with the lack of hand dryers and hot water.
Also, one thing I really did not like we're the amount of people smoking in the park. It was very noticeable and wasn't pleasant to wait for people on ride or eat around a pall of cigarettes smoke. In the parks in Florida there are strictly designated smoking areas which is probably what made me notice it all the more at Thorpe. Sort it out Thorpe Park. It would be easy enough to do and wouldn't mean having to send people round the park clearing cigarette butts up (which I saw a couple of times through the day)

We shall be making good use of our annual passes. Thank you Mumsnet and Thorpe Park for a day my DS won't forget!!

THORPE PARK Resort Happy Height Day reviewer thread. Non testers: tell us what makes the ultimate fun day out and you could win THORPE PARK Resort annual family passes worth £196 NOW CLOSED
THORPE PARK Resort Happy Height Day reviewer thread. Non testers: tell us what makes the ultimate fun day out and you could win THORPE PARK Resort annual family passes worth £196 NOW CLOSED
THORPE PARK Resort Happy Height Day reviewer thread. Non testers: tell us what makes the ultimate fun day out and you could win THORPE PARK Resort annual family passes worth £196 NOW CLOSED
Saturday22 · 22/03/2014 20:57

Pantone - was that my dh? He was doing this for some reason as we all laughed at him. My top is all photo flowery and says off duty.
If it was us, dh says he wasn't he was demonstrating how sick he felt after Colussus Grin

Pantone363 · 22/03/2014 20:58

There were designated smoking points but they were widely ignored!!

Pantone363 · 22/03/2014 20:59

Saturday yes I think so!!

Saturday22 · 22/03/2014 20:59

Well you've just made me and all the dcs laugh very loudly! At least it wasn't my chest he was groping! Grin

Claudiecat · 22/03/2014 21:00

Sorry that should say would definitely recommend.

MrsMot · 22/03/2014 21:19

We must have been lucky ledkr and got straight on. Rush certainly had a few 'technicals'. Swarm had to be closed for a few minutes as "Someone's now wearing her lunch so we have a little cleaning-up to do".

Claudiecat · 22/03/2014 21:22

I didn't even see the designated smoking areas.

TheHumancatapult · 22/03/2014 21:24

Yup swarm closed later in day about 3.40 to as some poor people harness would not lift up when came back to station .Never good sign when you see staff with a electric screwdriver and hammer and cant see Dc who had gone onto said ride My Bp may been a little high to .Luckily theirs was released with bit of brute force couple others were well and truly stuck but just one of those things and ds1 said well least know that when harness are down they stay down always good when upside down

muminthecity · 22/03/2014 21:35

Fantastic day, thank you so much MN and Thorpe Park, we all absolutely loved it. We only got home about half an hour ago (we were in the park from 10am - 7pm!) and are absolutely exhausted. I will be back tomorrow to give proper feedback.

DonutWinners · 22/03/2014 22:13

We are home and exhausted from our brilliant day out!

Who was in your group and how old are the children?
Dh, DD (10), DS (6), DD (2) and myself.

Have you been to THORPE PARK Resort before, if so, when?
It was only when we arrived, that I realised I had been to Thorpe Park before!! It was around 12 years ago that I last visited.

What was your, and your family's, overall experience of Happy Height Day?
Overall we have all had a great day out. We were very impressed with the welcome we received. The goodie bags were fantastic - the kids loved the angry bird, the free day passes, fast track tickets and magic money made our day extra special and the ponchos were a definite added bonus!

What were your/your DCs highlights of the day?
The main highlight for us was the fast track passes. We certainly wouldn't have had half as good a time if the dcs had had to queue the full time to get on rides. The younger dcs had to wait around a bit while dd went on the bigger rides, but we were glad it wasn't too much. I did ask at the kiosk how much the passes would cost us normally - the extra £75 per person is way out of our price range unfortunately.

The magic money was very much appreciated by us all. We usually take packed lunches on days out, but today was a real treat to eat lunch in the park noodle bar.

DD (10) loved Vortex and Colossus despite the VERY long wait to get on Colossus even with the fast track passes. People who had joined the full queue told my dh they had been queueing for 1hr 45mins to get on.
DS (6) was very nervous of the rides and wouldn't go on many. He did enjoy Mr Monkey's banana ride and the rocky express though.
DD (2) loved all the rides she could go on - she enjoyed the flying fish and rocky express the most!

It was good that the 'thrilling and fun' rides had pretty short queues where there was no option for using the fast track passes. We liked the fact Thope Park was very compact and we could get around easily. The staff all around the park were extremely helpful and friendly too.

Which, if any, attractions/ rides would you most recommend to parents with children who have just reached 1.4m in height?
DD would recommend vortex and Colossus. She wasn't keen on the others just yet.

Overall, would you recommend THORPE PARK Resort to your friends and family if it came up in conversation? If so, why? If not, why not?
I would recommend Thorpe Park to friends with dare devil children over 1.4m. I don't think Thorpe Park has enough to offer younger / small children unfortunately. There were a lot of teenage groups around the park (all very well behaved from what we saw Grin), and I think this park is definitely geared towards that age group.

Thank you for a great day - we loved it and look forward to returning again, with our passes! Photos to follow.

Keepcalmanddrinkwine · 22/03/2014 22:17

I will post my review tomorrow as we've just got home and I'm very tired. It was great though.

Is there any way of getting copies of the Happy Height Day photographs they took at the start of the day? I completely forgot to ask but as I signed a waiver for them to use them in marketing, they may still have them on file.

Ledkr · 22/03/2014 22:24

I'm in bed! So tired its untrue.

FanFuckingTastic · 22/03/2014 22:25

Will do my full feedback later, but just noting a few things so I don't forget them.

One park person didn't know what the gold pass was and said to my son's dad that he would have to rip it up after one use. We left that ride behind as it was only him going on and I thought that wasn't right, they were for the whole day.

Kids got stuck for a bit on the monkey banana ride, the bars wouldn't come up. Was a bit nervous looking at the ride operator looking in the manual.

I nearly got knocked off my feet on the path due to oncoming tweens and teens messing around and pushing each other, I walk with a big lilac stick, it's not hard to see... they didn't give a toss and even swore at me for getting in their way. Thankfully other people ran over to me and grabbed my arm so I wasn't going over. I get that kids get excited but there needs to be more security if there are going to be as many adultless hyper non-responsible children acting like idiots.

Speaking of that, on the water rapids ride, there were groups of these types climbing over the barrier between the entrance and exit, and the photo booth, one nearly jumped down on top of my daughter who was standing right in front of me. Once again was met with attitude when I dared to tell them off. I waited for them to get on the ride, then reported them and made staff aware there were large numbers of kids doing this and that it wasn't safe or fair to people who were queuing on the other side.

Lack of hand dryers was definitely noted, as was liberal smoking throughout the park, with cigarettes held just at the right height to get a passing child in the face. I spotted a couple of smoking areas that were completely empty.

I noted that staff were very on the ball with litter collecting, and there were loads of bins, especially if you are in a queue, but sadly there was a lot of rubbish in the water and in the out of the way places, which made it seem less shiny and clean.

Glad I didn't come in the wheelchair or on the scooter, I'm quite alright on my own on a rollercoaster, but after walking around all day today with the stick, I'd have to bring one or the other as a necessity. But it doesn't mean I am incapable of doing stuff on my own or that I need someone to come on a ride with me. I noticed a fair few rides that wouldn't be accessible at all really, but given that they believe we are unable to go on the rides, they likely don't think they need to provide the access for us? I've been to plenty of places before and hired a scooter to go round and not been treated as if I couldn't get onto a ride. This is in reaction mostly to HumanCatapault's findings and a couple of my own observations.

I agree too with the poster who said the copious game stalls were overpriced, as too were the water pistols to soak the people on wet rides. The water shoots at the end of the rapids ride weren't working by the end of the day. That was the favourite ride and we went on it a few times. They were working fine in the morning as my DD got nicely soaked, kids were disappointed it didn't happen again.

My food order also went a bit wrong, everyone else's turned up but due to a computer glitch mine didn't come, and after watching three people around me getting what I had ordered I asked when it was coming. It wasn't until I provided the receipt with the order on it, but as soon as I did it was right over and delicious.

Any member of staff I spoke to asked me how my day was going and if I was having a good time, and were friendly and smiley. Even when they weren't sure what to do with the money vouchers, or the 20% discount, or the fast track golden ticket. I'm guessing there are a lot of new starters getting up to speed, will be interesting to go back in May and see if they get any better.

Did have to wait a while getting the annual passes done as they didn't appear to have my name or information and the counters were a bit high, thinking about the little ones and anyone in a mobility device. And maybe short old me. But again, staff were excellent and dealt with things quickly.

Definitely bring a poncho and a change of clothes for the wet rides, we loved getting wet, but you do get really really wet, and the water on the log flume ride that gets onto the seating rolls downhill when on the ascent to the drops, right between your legs. No I did not wet myself with fear or excitement, it was definitely the seating. Somewhere to change around about these areas would be proper good. I am glad I wore black and no one saw my "accident".

Right that's me for now, will return tomorrow with kids reviews, pictures and my final review.

Livvylongpants · 22/03/2014 22:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Notmyidea · 22/03/2014 22:28

You folks got Happy Height Day photos taken?! Missed that bit! We had a lovely day, but we're shattered too, so I'll put a coherent review together in the morning. Thank-you Thorpe Park and Mumsnet!

MrsMot · 22/03/2014 22:50

Ds3 is no doubt dreaming of roller coasters...

THORPE PARK Resort Happy Height Day reviewer thread. Non testers: tell us what makes the ultimate fun day out and you could win THORPE PARK Resort annual family passes worth £196 NOW CLOSED
pigsinmud · 22/03/2014 23:04

Yes same as Fan. Person on the fasttrack for colossus ripped pass almost in half, before dh could say anything. She didn't seem to have a clue what it was.

FanFuckingTastic · 22/03/2014 23:26

That was the same ride btw.

TickleMyTitsTillFriday · 23/03/2014 00:53

Fantastic day, will review tomorrow. Did anyone not get their annual passes today but plan to get them next time?

Jellypudmum · 23/03/2014 01:35

Myself, dh and dc aged 7 and 10 visited today.

The welcome was excellent and the bag complete with angry bird, ponchos etc was a lovely surprise.

Staff were very polite apart from a few inexperienced shop staff who looked very suspiciously at me when trying to pay with the complimentary park pounds vouchers?

Found food very good at the BBQ grill and very reasonably pitched. Loved that it was cooked fresh and delivered to our table, although the queue to order took a while to get to the front due to only two tills being open.

Although tall enough, both my dc are not really adrenalin junkies and used only the 'calmer' rides. Having said that, they loved the park and went on the Fish roller coaster so many times that we lost count!

The compact size of the park meant the navigating was easy.

My two dc are really looking forward to going back when the Angry Birds section opens.

The fast track ticket was a great luxury (one we would not usually be able to afford). However, on the day we visited, no queues seemed to be unreasonably long.

There seemed to be lots of stalls offering games etc to win cuddly toys for additional charges which could potentially quickly add up to more costs on return visits. Whilst I accept no one is forced to try these, children naturally want to win a huge teddy and are disappointed when time after time they are unsuccessful.

All in all though, a good day out. Although if think more rides aimed at less adventurous riders could well make the park even more family friendly.