Thorpe Park

 On the 22nd of June, following a successful date night the night before, we went off for a cheeky Thorpe Park weekend. We have both of course been to Thorpe Park, however we have never been together until now.

Hilariously, it was about a year ago almost to the day that we last went, and yet we both went with different people and managed to avoid each other the whole trip. Weird yet true.

Regardless, this place isn't a massive one for photo opportunities, but I have included the ones we did get, and fun fact about me; turns out I am no longer a roller coaster person! You heard it here first folks, while Jamie is and by the looks of it always will be an adrenaline junkie, I can no longer handle the fast and high paced coaster life. My speed was Dobble Tea Party which we went on about 4 times...

So the day started with the standard maccies breakfast at a service station while I tried to do my make up in the car. Once the 4 hour drive was complete we rolled into the park without any trouble at all and the first ride we went on was Saw.

I have never been on Saw before, Jamie has and loves it. In the event I ever go to TP again, I'd probably go on it again, but perhaps not by choice. That make up I had gone through the trouble of putting on in the car? Gone following a face full of 'blood' (it was water) to the face within seconds of zooming and spinning. Jamie is screaming for the ride to go faster, I'm just screaming and plotting his murder. A successful first ride? Yes, although I was shaken and beaten up slightly from such a brutal ride as I was thrown about in my seat.

Next up we went off to the arcade and spent about an hour trying out different games and continuing our competition started during date night the previous evening. What we have learnt is that Air Hockey is no longer Jamie's game and Lauren has an epic power shot. It is safe to say that across that weekend, she was the victor. 

Following the cashing in of several arcade tickets we hit Dobble Tea Party for the first time, had a leisurely lunch at Burger King (the new one located by the new ride you'll never catch either of us on) and then once the food had gone down we headed for Mr Monkey's Banana Ride purely because it was empty and nearby.

We then headed for Rumba Rapids for a gentle little boat ride before moseying down to Ghost Train for a little spooky thrill. Yet another one by chance where we got to practically walk right on, the ride was not as popular as when we both went last year, and actually ended sooner. Beforehand I remember being led to a fake gift shop as the ride wasn't over and there was one last fright, this time you got led off the train and chucked out into the real gift shop- slightly underwhelming the second time around. Hats off to the actors though, they really give it their all.

To end our Saturday visit we went off to ride The Flying Fish and then took ourselves off to The Crown Hotel for a few drinks, cosy dinner, and passing out in bed.

The hotel was adorable, only the bipolar pub landlord let it down as he screamed at his staff members and there wasn't anything we wanted available. That I can deal with, him reducing his female staff to tears was not. So we had our tasty 3 courses seen below alongside a few drinkies and took ourselves off to bed to debrief, shower, and sleep.

Because we are food orientated people, I can't not take a moment to talk about the food we had while here. To start we shared bread with black garlic butter, then had buttermilk chicken goujons with coleslaw.

For our mains, Jamie had fish & chips served with tartar, curry sauce, and mushy peas. I branched out and went for the pork belly with summer pickles and cajun wedges which were a little over seasoned and dry for me despite the addition of gravy which did not go with the rest of the plate, but otherwise the meal was beautiful. 

For pudding we decided to share. As someone who is lactose intolerant, allergic to honey and plenty of other things, we elected to get another bowl full of assorted ice creams and sorbets so that we could switch out the honeycomb ice cream on the fruit crumble and Jamie could also get his ice cream fix. The fruit crumble had to be the best course of the meal, gooseberry, apples and rhubarb made for a tart yet yummy combination that was complimented perfectly by the sweet crumble topping. The little bees were also a cute addition.

Then I wouldn't be doing my duty unless I shared a photo of the bakewell tart cocktail I tried that night. Tastes of what it should, but was far too sweet!

Waking up the next morning we treated ourselves to a complimentary full cooked breakfast and pastries. Then we went back to our room, I slayed Jamie on Mario Kart (we had brought the switch) and then we packed up everything ready for day 2 at Thorpe Park.

The very first ride we went on that day was Quantum. It was something I thought I could handle and yet for some reason it triggered a slight panic attack. I think it was the full rotation that did it. But after that Jamie's protection instinct kicked in and it was agreed no more speedy/height related rides for that day. We were both pretty knackered from the day before still, but we found that we were having more of a fun day being spontaneous than being thrillseekers and so that's what we decided to do.

Another few rides on Dobble and we trotted off to the arcade to finish up the ultimate battle we had started. At this point we were level, but it only took me a quick zombie themed skee-ball game to retake the lead. We then decided to have a little lunch, taking advantage of the new street food themed pop up boxes dotted around the park since the removal of Angrybird land.

We tried some yummy Apple fries first of all before running off to Storm Surge to get our feet soaked. Jamie had never been on this ride but he enjoyed it.

After one last go on Dobble and grabbing a halloumi wrap from the Veggie Box, we decided to hit the outside game stands to try our luck at winning a prize. The idea was for Jay to win me the life sized Pokemon I deserved, but sadly we were outta luck on this occasion.

Not deterred we did one last round of air hockey and decided that the sun had fried us, we'd had a good innings and following Tidal Wave we'd grab some doughnuts and call it a day.

We did just that, got absolutely drenched, TWICE (after collecting our bags and walking to the exit another boat came down and the tidal got us then too), and collected our sweet bounty.

Driving away from TP, wet and sleepy we then made the long trek back home for pizza and cartoons.

While aesthetically Thorpe Park has made some massive improvements, I still enjoyed the nostalgia. I feel like maybe there could still be some improvement in terms of food options considering there is now 2 Burger Kings, but otherwise I love going. The rides seem more clunky than I remember and a lot more terrifying than last year, but I reckon I have at least one more TP trip in me, hopefully to finally experience Fright Night.

Jamie loved our trip and never realised there would be more to the fun than just the rides, he thought boredom would strike during our wait times and while planning what to do. However, our sheer childishness easily bounced off of each other and we made a fun filled weekend even more fun. We went to TP with the idea of having a purely childish weekend, indulging our inner kids again, and we did exactly that. There was a lot of laughter, plenty of competitiveness, and full bellies the whole time.

It was a cute date, and of course TP is family friendly so what's not to love? Next up for Theme Parks we are going to try Chessington before I get too scared to ever step foot on a coaster again! Jay has never been, so we are planning our trip for July to coincide with their summer festival. It should be fun!

DISCLAIMER: Now for the official bit. This blog does not receive any paid promotions from the places mentioned above. We have not been approached to promote or act as spokespersons for any attraction mentioned within this post and this is simply a post intended to act as a day in the life of a couple on a cute date. All photos included are taken by ourselves and as such the rights for these images our ours, no links, brands, or companies mentioned otherwise belong or are associated with Phantom Adventures UK. We are responsible only for this blog. Opinions are our own and not influenced by any third party source.. 

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