Thorpe Park in Surrey, near London is one of the UK’s most popular theme parks and so coming with that, the park are gonna try and drain every last penny from you. Listed here are some tips and loopholes that can help you whether you’re a first-timer or local to Thorpe Park. Some of the best tips are saved for the further on you read!
Check CrowdCalendar
If you’re flexible with the day you plan to visit the park, I would first highly suggest using the website Crowd Calendar as it shows accurate crowd predictions for the day you plan to visit as well as average queue times and the crowd level percentage. Another bonus tip is to not just check the date you plan to visit but also the date of visit exactly a year prior as the website updates afterwards to show the exact crowds/percentages to the fullest accuracy.
Always book online in advance BUT NOT direct from the website
Thorpe Park always claim that booking your park tickets in advance is the cheapest option however, most of the time you can in fact buy them way cheaper from other sites that always seem to be running ticket promotions such as Cadbury, Kelloggs, and Carex.
A little known secret is that in most cases you don’t have to actually purchase one of these products to get the promotion and can just go to the link on their the webpage and it’ll let you buy a ticket. However, if it does end up asking for a promotional code then the next time you’re in a supermarket just take a photo of the barcode for a product running the promotion as that tends to be what it asks for. It’s worth doing for the big savings you can get.
Another note – It’s worth checking the different promotions each time you visit as due to park tickets working on a dynamic pricing system, it may turn out to be cheaper to buy from a different one. Attached below is a table showing the difference in cost for a 1-day ticket for 1 person buying direct from the park compared to one of the multiple promotions that they frequently run.
| Ticket Seller | On-the-day price | Online in advance price |
| Thorpe Park (Direct) | £68 | £32 |
| Cadbury | £68 | £15 |
| Kelloggs | £68 | £23 |
| Carex | £68 | £27.20 |
Use Student or Blue Light Card Discount
If you are eligible, it might also be worth checking student discount or Blue Light Card discount for park tickets as they may end up cheaper than the other promotional deals listed above and can be used all-year round. It’s worth checking both main student discount websites Student Beans and UNiDAYS as sometimes they can be cheaper than the other.
| Ticket Seller | On-the-day price | Online in advance price |
| Thorpe Park (Direct) | £68 | £32 |
| Student Beans | £68 | £24 |
| UNiDAYS | £68 | £24.50 |
| Blue Light Card | £68 | £27.50 |
Staying On-Site At The Park Can Be Much Cheaper
If you’re travelling from afar or want to make it a 2-day trip, you wouldn’t think it but it can sometimes turn out to be way cheaper to stay at the Thorpe Shark Cabins over a nearby Travelodge or Premier Inn in Staines or Chertsey. They only seem to run a package deal for the Shark Cabins which includes 2-day park entry, 1 night in the cabins, free breakfast, free parking, 10% off in shops/restaurants and 1 hour fastrack on the second day. As seen below you can get all that from as little as £47 per person.
Don’t Buy Food On Park
Food on park can be VERY pricey and poor quality nowadays so I would advise away from buying food on park and instead stock up beforehand from a supermarket like Tesco/Sainsburys. The park doesn’t enforce any rules on bringing your own snacks/drinks into the park so you’re completely allowed to bring in a Tesco Meal Deal for £3.95 (currently), which will save you a load from buying lunch in the park. You can even get ice-creams and a Krispy Kreme doughnut now with Tesco so use this to your advantage!
And if you do buy food…
A Theme Park Saver tip which I’ve used in the past is to purchase a kids meal at the on-site quick service restaurants instead of the full adult meal as it’s more value for money. Thorpe Park only seem to do kids meals at Burger King and KFC unlike the in-house restaurants at Alton Towers or Chessington but this can potentially save you quite a bit of money as they can surprisingly fill you up for the rest of the day.
Merlin Annual Passholder Special Discounts
If you happen to be the owner of a Merlin Annual Pass, most Merlin parks in the country offer discounted food/deals which can be seen on a board at the entrance or near some of the main food kiosks. At the time of writing, Thorpe Park don’t seem to do this promotion yet but I will update as soon as I spot anything.
Don’t Buy Water On Park
Don’t be fooled into buying bottles of Smartwater on park for £3+ as there are plenty of free refillable drinking stations that you can top up from throughout the day. Another bonus tip is if you find any Coca-Cola Freestyle machines around the park you can dispense free ice cubes from them to put into your drink on a hot day to cool you down! You used to be able to dispense free water from these too but I believe they no longer do this.
At Thorpe Park, there are free refill stations at:
- The Swarm (outside the toilet block)
- Big Easy Boulevard (outside the toilet block)
- Hyperia (outside the toilet block)
- Behind High Striker (near Donut Factory)
- Tidal Wave (opposite KFC near the entrance)
Get food/shop discount on park
Merlin Annual Passholders get a 20% discount on most food and shop purchases on park however in some cases, you don’t need a pass entirely to get this discount. When ordering from a self-serve machine in one of their restaurants, at checkout when it asks to apply an annual pass to get a discount, you can manually enter in any number and it should grant you 20% off your meal! This is because it appears that Merlin don’t link their tills to a database with annual pass numbers on which is why this works and there is also no minimum spend for this either.
This can also be done at manned tills such as in the Megastore or Donut Factory where by asking if they accept MAP discount they will press a button on the till to give you 20% off. But use with caution though as they may ask to scan your pass to or stop this loophole at any time. I accept no liability if you choose to do this so do so at your own risk!
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