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Thorpe Park 19th April 2021

FarleyFlavors

Mega Poster
Sixteen months since I was last on a coaster! Had to put that right on the first day that my Merlin Discovery pass was usable.

Arrived for 0945. Not nearly as quiet as expected with a load of kids who should theoretically have been back at school.

There was no sign of Stealth testing but we could see The Swarm sending trains round so headed straight there. Managed to get in four rides (both sides, front and back rows) in around 75 minutes before the queue built up to a 60 minute wait.

I'd only been on this a couple of times before. It's...fine, I guess. Way too short though, and easily the weakest of the five wing coasters I've been on. Terrific theming, mind.

Stealth was up and running by this point so we strolled over. (As an aside - it's infuriating to have to walk so far from Swarm island only to see Swarm about 50 yards behind Stealth. Would it have killed them to put in a pathway between the two areas?!)

Stealth was down again but we hung around and it was up and running again in about 15 minutes. Another 15 minutes and we were onboard. No queueing for the front row (unlike The Swarm). Boo to that.

By now it was noon and all the coasters were posting 50-60 minute queues, so we headed off for a lunchtime pint.

I've had my first vaccination jab, but if I hadn't I'd have been ****ting myself. No enforcement of mask wearing nor social distancing whatsoever. Despite signs indicating that masks must be worn on the rides, about a fifth of the guests didn't bother and the ops didn't seem to give a flying one. Maskless people crammed up against each other in the lines. And no sign at all of any disinfecting of the trains. Not good.

We had to laugh at the Stealth op's answer when we asked why we couldn't wait for the front row.

"Because...social distancing".
 
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