Live music, a parade and colourful bunting bring Mardi Gras to Thorpe Park...
Live music, a parade and colourful bunting bring Mardi Gras to Thorpe Park...
Mardi Gras is traditionally celebrated with carnivals, parades, rich foods and colourful costumes in places such as New Orleans, Dakar and Venice. It culminates with a celebration the day before Ash Wednesday (more commonly known as Shove Tuesday or Pancake Day in the UK) coming six weeks before Easter. Not that the date has stopped Merlin bringing the festivities to Thorpe Park in a new event for the 2022 season running from 19th May to 19th June!
But who could argue with taking a visit to the park with some of the family, together with warm sunshine and extended opening hours from 10am to 7pm?
It has to be done, but the massive security tent really isn't the nicest welcome to the park
Passing through the entrance, it was time for the Mardi Gras celebrations to begin
Still under construction is Thorpe's new attraction for 2022: a kids' playground - you can see why they're concentrating on special events this year!
Taking a walk over to Swarm Island
First ride of the day was on The Swarm
It was pretty much a walk-on
We followed the flags ...
... but we ended up at The Walking Dead
The main Mardi Gras hub is in Angry Birds Land
Cooling down on Tidal Wave
It was ... rather wet
Derren Brown's Ghost Train wasn't opening until 3pm
We had to book a timed entry slot for later in the day "due to capacity restrictions" aka saving money by only opening the ride for the last four hours of the day
An early lunch at Burger King
Not much going on at the Project Exodus site
Saw only had a 10 minute wait, which obviously made it the perfect choice of gentle post-lunch ride
Going over the edge
Mardi Gras entertainment on the mini stage
Having just about dried out from Tidal Wave, it was time for another water ride
But Rumba Rapids turned out to be one of the least-wet water rides
What do you call a DJ Set with no DJ? I don't know.
Having a great time at Thorpe Park!
There were some temporary stalls setup offering New Orleans style food and drink
Accelerating 0-80mph in 2.3 seconds on Stealth
At a mere 205ft, its days as Thorpe Park's tallest ride are numbered
But for the time being at least, it is unmatched
Time for some ice cream? Always.
Decisions decisions...
The Mardi Gras main stage
More temporary street food stands
Everybody loves Flying Fish ... right Jane?
Who wouldn't adore such a loveable, gentle fish?
There was just time to squeeze in a ride on Vortex before our appointment with Derren
Swinging high in the sky
The time had come for our trip on Derren Brown's Ghost Train - it was, unfortunately, rather underwhelming
The new actor-led preshow does its best to explain the overall storyline but it is still not particularly clear, and increasing numbers of VR headsets are glitching or outright broken which ruins the experience
Mardi Gras stilt walkers
Waffles!?! Did somebody say waffles?
Zodiac may be looking increasingly old and creaky, but it is still giving fun rides
Speaking of old and creaky
Nemesis Inferno on the other hand is definitely not old and creaky
The Mardi Gras parade came through while we were in the queueline. It didn't look very impressive, with just a small number of dancers and two floats!
Looping and gliding
A live musician on the mini stage
Still no DJ on the decks
Time for a nice cup of tea
We had a very gentle spin on Storm in a Teacup
Last rides of the day on The Swarm
Station flyover
Close on 7pm, it was time to wave goodbye to our day at Thorpe Park's Mardi Gras celebrations
Overall we had an awesome day in the sunshine, benefitting from a reasonably quiet park and managing to get on almost all of the major rides. The Swarm in particular was running really well, and Saw was especially smooth today. Nemesis Inferno was shuffling a little from side-to-side, but it is still an awesome ride. And of course, just spending time with family having fun is always brilliant!
A year of special events
The Mardi Gras event itself was a little disappointing: there wasn't enough going on to really feel enveloped in what should have been the carnival atmosphere. While it was nice to see some coloured bunting hung up, it felt a bit lacklustre. We spotted a few musicians but the event stages were often empty, and in general it was easy to miss most of the added entertainment laid on for the event. The "Parade" consisted of a couple of floats and a few characters walking along: a half-arsed attempt at a spectacle which was just embarrassing. An enticing early season event at Thorpe would be amazing, but at the moment while the foundation has been laid (well at least it has a nice logo), Mardi Gras needs a lot of work if it is going to become an annual Spring must-do. Let's just hope the rest of this year's event lineup is better!