THORPE PARK INSIDER

Model World and Mountbatten Pavilion

Waterbus Trips and Windsurfing

Cinema 180

Thorpe Farm

The Magic Mill opened along with Space Station Zero.
Up until this time only non-thrilling rides existed including: Treasure Island, Sunken Garden, The Nature Trail, The Roman Port, The Aircraft Display, and Water Skiing

Phantom Fantasia opened

Cap'n Andy's Revue

New for this year was commando test, Park developments included more children's rides and covered picnic areas. By now the park had rides such as Roller Skating Rink

Teacup Twisters Ride opened, 2 million spent on Thunder River rapids ride and European Square

630 seat Palladium Theatre opened

Canada Creek opened with attraction's Rocky Express and Loggers Leap opened. By now the park also had its first artificial beach

Space Station Zero re-vamped to Flying Fish. Thorpe Park Rangers Show and Drive In The Country opened. The re-vamp of Space Station Zero also meant that Model World had now been split into two halves. Carousel Kingdom opened.

Fantasy Reef and it's attraction's Depth Charge and Playground opened. Rides to of left the park by now include the Ice Rink, Viking Long Ship, Saxon Long Hall (the place where these two ships were accessed from had now also been cut off for Corporate Hospitality).

Redevelopment of the children's ride area into Octopus Garden plus the introduction of The Hudson River Rafters and Viking Rowers

Calgary Stampede arrived with virtual reality center

Ranger Country opened with new rides Chief Rangers Carousel and Mr Monkeys Banana Ride, and The Magic Mill become part of this area later to have a re-theme as Tropical Travels.

New ride opened in Ranger Country called Miss Hippo's Fungal Safari. Work Project X:\ No Way Out began. Also this year Phantom Fantasia turned into Wicked Witch's Haunt.

X:\ No Way Out opened, one of the biggest investment in the history of the park. The ride was an in the dark backwards roller coaster. Themed inside a pyramid the ride has had alterations made to its queue line ever since. What could have been an amazing ride with a unique queue line featuring fake lifts sadly turned out to be the most confusing ride possible and the track was never that good. Thorpe Park was also voted most Parent Friendly.

Park voted most Parent Friendly for the second year running. Also by this time the Hudson River Rafters had gone and the rocky express had arrived.

Dare Devil Driver and Dino Bumper Boat Ride opened as did Wet! Wet! Wet!, torpedo water slides in pool area. It was this year that Tussauds bought the park, and on 19th October Tussauds was sold by Pearsons to Charterhouse Development Capital for £352million. Late 1998 the park started to test a virtual queue system where guests had a pager style unit which they scanned across different points outside rides to be given a time to go on it.

Pirates 4D opened following Thorpe Park being sold to the Tussauds Group. Pirates 4D was a 4 dimension film featuring excellent special effects. The 4D element comes from Wind and Water as well as Vibrating seats being used. Work now begun on Tidal Wave, first by filling in the Viking Rowers Lake that the ride would be built on.

Tidal Wave opened as Europe's highest water ride and Fantasy Reef re-named and re-themed to Neptune's Kingdom. Wicked Witch's Haunt destroyed in fire during July. Tropical Travels was also badly damaged and remained closed for the duration of the season. A second hand Enterprises was quickly bought from a German traveling fair and positioned in what is now lost city. X:\ No Way Out had strobe lights fitted in an attempt to improve the ride.

Zodiac, Vortex and Detonator open. Zodiac was a re-theme of Enterprise. Tropical Travels returns after being damaged in the fire last year. Construction began on Colossus due to open in 2002.

Colossus opens and Thunder River re-themed to Ribena Rumba Rapids. Colossus was the worlds first 10 looping coaster which now really put Thorpe Park on a thrill seekers map. Tropical Travels was now removed again due to the site being used for a new coaster. An info board displaying queue times also appeared in Lost City. For fright nights new attractions The Freezer and The Freak Show were installed. X:\ No Way Out had its queue line altered to not go past the two themed rooms and the revolving tunnel. Construction begins on inverted steel coaster called Nemesis Inferno. Also in 2002 Thorpe Park was named the No 1 theme park in the UK due to its massive expansion. Virtual Queuing was installed on Colossus.

Nemesis Inferno opens along with other new rides Quantum and Eclipse a magic carpet and observation wheel. A new show also opens called Spiderman. Nemesis Inferno is another roller coaster this time an Inverted coaster featuring theaming of a volcano around its station. Virtual Queuing had its name changed to Fastrack and was also installed on Nemesis Inferno this year.

New ride The Samurai, previously located down the road at Chessington World of Adventures. Also Teacup Twister got a re-theme and re-name to Storm in a Tea Cup. Sleepy Joes (a restaurant) sadly vacated the park making way for a Pizza Hut. Fastrack was installed on Tidal Wave and Loggers Leap this year.

Two new rides, Rush and Slammer. Both made by S&S Rush is a Giant Swing ride and Slammer is a Sky Swatter. Also year construction on Thorpe Park's icon ride started. Code named Project Stealth, the ride is to be twice the size of anything in the park and will lauch riders from 0-128km/h 80(mph) in 2.8 seconds.

Stealth opened as Europes tallest Rocket Coaster, blasting riders from 0-80mph in 2.3 seconds. Zodiac is also replaced by another Huss Enterprise ride this time purchased from Drayton Manor, the existing Zodiac ride had suffered terrible reliablity and spent much of many seasons closed.

This year saw the return of the Flying Fish which had left the park in 2005 to make way for the Stealth construction. Stealth also got an upgrade and now launches riders from 0-80mph in under 2 seconds.