New for 2022 Thorpe Park has begun offering behind-the-scenes tours of Saw The Ride. For a limited time, you can go into areas not normally seen by guests and explore how the rollercoaster works with your VIP host. The tour is broken down into 4 areas, outside, the station (including the control booth), the maintenance area beneath the station and The Saw Bathroom (which is the room you go through before travelling outside)
Starting in the Saw The Ride plaza our tour began with our VIP host pointing out facts about theming around the plaza. Such as the shipping container used for the shop, such as the opening date and year being painted onto the container along with other details such as the project name for the ride and the capacity of the ride.
After waiting for the ride’s queue to finish and for the ride to close for the day we headed into our first behind-the-scenes area, the bottom of the lift hill! Most rollercoasters have a transfer track to move trains off and on the circuit, however, this is where Saw The Ride is special and has a turntable to get trains off and on. With the ride not running the area is very quiet and you can spot lots of extra details you didn’t even know we’ll be there for! One thing we didn’t know was that during the day, a special noise is played to deter birds in the area. Stopping them from getting hit by the rollercoaster. Walking up and down the old Canada Creek Railway track you could get very close to the rollercoaster, taking as many photos as you liked! You could even spot some old railway sleeps from the old Canada Creek Railway ride which was removed a few years ago. This will also be the last time you can catch a glimpse of Loggers Leap and one of the pump houses which runs down to the bottom of the first lift and drop of the old Log Flume.
After spending half an hour outside we headed to the ride queue line walking up the queue line we spoke about the guns hanging from the ceiling and that inside the queue line for the ride there we’ll have original props from the Saw films. Such as the cross trap and a billy doll from the saw film, and that’s just on the ground floor! Another original prop from Saw Films can be found when you re-enter the station after riding the rollercoaster. Nothing can prepare you for how spooky a rollercoaster station is will all of the lights are turned on and not any guests are inside it. With all of the lights turned on and with a sharp eye, you can notice details such as fake blood splats on the bottom of the Saw trains and logos on the cars. Did you know on each restraint the Gerstlauer ride logo can be seen?! Walking around the station you could walk anywhere as long as the floor was concrete otherwise you would have to wear a harness. A quick glimpse into the control booth for the ride we got to see the control panel and see what an operator would normally see. Unforncently there are no photos allowed in the control booth! That’s one secret Thorpe Park doesn’t want to get out.
We could spend hours looking at the posters of traps located around the saw ride station but our next stop was the rollercoaster maintenance pit which sits just below the ride station. Down a flight of stairs and minding your head if you were tall you found yourself below the trains with wheels everywhere! This is a very cool view of the ride and not one a normal guest ever sees. This is one of two locations where the parks maintenance team will fix the ride’s cars and run daily checks. This is an area that when the ride is operating no one not even the maintenance team can access. We did notice that the wheelbase for the ride cars (called the boogie) wheels aren’t tight to the track meaning you can spin the bottom set of wheels. Don’t be followed, these wheels are very greasy and your regret it after!
Down to the bottom of the ride, into the pit where you can see the first drop of the ride and where you roll over a dead body squirting water onto unexpecting guests. The final room of our tour was by far the coolest and had the most hidden detail of them all. Did you know when you roll over the dead body the body has a face, and a foot and there’s a replica of the Saw Bathroom scene with toilets?! It’s crazy the amount of detail that Lionsgate and MErlin Magic Making put into this ride. If you are brave enough our VIP tour guide even let us write our name in the dust and grease on the track.
This VIP cost us £55 each and we had the most amazing time, we probably overran the tour by asking lots of questions but the tour lastest around 2 hours and was a great insight into how the ride runs and some of the hidden details found around the ride station and ride area.
