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Seen lots online today that non ambulant guests will no longer be able to ride Hyperia, at least for the moment. I imagine this has come from Mack in response to the Stardust Racers incident. Apparently this was getting announced on the PA throughout the day and lots of RAP guests being turned away. Must be frustrating for people that have been on before, but guess it can't be helped if its come from Mack.

My visit to Thorpe Park yesterday made me oddly reflective about my rankings. Why a visit to a park I’ve been to many times made me feel this way, I’m not too sure, but my rides yesterday, particularly Hyperia, definitely made me think about things and definitely made me reconsider some of my ranking positions! As of today, my new look top 10, with some justifying remarks, is as follows (movements underlined): Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal’s Islands of Adventure: I have, for some time, been hesitant to put VelociCoaster on the top of my list. However, having thought about it, I think it’s the ride that really most deserves to be my #1, simply because a ride has never hit me quite like VelociCoaster, with my second ride being a particular standout. I was reduced to fits of laughter and awe after it like no other ride I’ve ever been on, and thinking it through, it is probably the most objectively flawless coaster I’ve ridden and there’s not really anything I would change about it. There is so much that this ride does well; it packs a great sense of speed throughout, with the second section in particular feeling ridiculously fast, there are many sublime moments of ejector airtime that really whip you out of the seat, there are some truly brilliant inversions, and overall, it's just a truly stunning, spectacular coaster, in my view! In terms of some specific highlights; it's hard to pick from the wonderful array of sensations on offer. But if I had to choose a few, the second launch is absolutely obscene, packing a euphoric thrill like few other rides I've ever experienced, the top hat is sublime, packing some breathtaking sustained ejector airtime on the back in particular, and the mosasaurus roll is an absolutely mind-blowing inversion that throws you out of the seat with some sublime sustained negative g-forces and ensures that you fly into the final brakes blown away! Overall, VelociCoaster is a truly stunning coaster, in my opinion; its blend of stunning airtime, impactful elements, fun, comfort and rerideability certainly make it a worthy #1! 10/10 Shambhala - PortAventura Park: As someone who has always loved a B&M Hyper, and held Mako as my #1 for many years, I had very high expectations for Shambhala, and it did not disappoint; it’s an absolutely sublime coaster! As with Mako, the sustained airtime is glorious; the first drop is wonderful, and every single hill had brilliant sustained air! But there were a few little things that pushed it the distance above Mako for me. Unlike Mako, Shambhala keeps the thrills going right to the end, with every hill delivering, and as a result, I think it flows a bit better. The enhanced height and speed also really added to the ride compared to Mako and Silver Star for me, and another aspect I loved on Shambhala was the speed hill, which seemed much more notable in my mind than the similar element on Mako. Overall, though, Shambhala was just wonderful, and I loved every single one of the 7 rides I had on it while in Spain! Mako - SeaWorld Orlando: It may not be top dog anymore, but Mako has held a special place in my heart ever since I first rode it back in 2016, and my 2023 revisit to SeaWorld (where I had 5 rides on it) reinforced my love for it! The sustained airtime is absolutely biblical (particularly in moments like the first drop, first airtime hill and speed hill), the sense of speed is wonderful, it's blissfully smooth, and overall, it's just such a fun, thrilling and rerideable coaster that I could (and indeed tried my darnedest to) sit on all day! I truly love this ride, and on my 2023 revisit to SeaWorld, it didn't disappoint! 10/10 Hyperia - Thorpe Park: Yes, it’s not the longest coaster in the world. Yes, it’s a little rough around the edges presentation-wise, with that splashdown and lake looking ever ugly. But my word, all of that gets put aside when I think about just how spectacular the ride experience of Hyperia is! I loved it last year, but I loved it even more this year! I love a good hyper coaster with height and speed, and I also love rides with lots of sustained negative g-forces, so Hyperia ticks all my boxes, really! For a ride that’s not that long, it packs a huge amount of highlights; that first drop is absolutely unhinged, with phenomenal sustained ejector, the drop out of the junior Immelmann also packs phenomenal sustained ejector, the outerbank packs wild sustained weightlessness, and the zero-g stall is also very potent with huge amounts of sustained weightlessness! Heck, even the final outerbank and hill deliver decent weightlessness; few rides show quite so much dedication to the art of throwing you out of your seat for extended periods of time, and every inch of Hyperia delivers, with the speed throughout also being phenomenal and the weightlessness being both impactful and sustained! Further to that, the ride is also so smooth and comfortable, with those Mack trains making it a delight to sit on and ensuring that the ride is never uncomfortable or too much. Overall, then, I absolutely adore Hyperia and think it’s sublime; it’s grown on me every time I’ve ridden it, it leaves me in fits of laughter at the end every time, and it has been a phenomenal addition to both Thorpe Park and the UK more widely! 10/10 Silver Star - Europa Park: I had quite low expectations for this coaster given that it's not overly well liked, but I have to say that I was blown away; I absolutely adored this coaster! It has wonderful sustained airtime, it's smooth and comfortable, it has an awesome sense of speed, the ending is absolutely brilliant, packing some phenomenal ejector airtime (particularly the MCBR exit), and overall, this is a stunning coaster that I absolutely loved! I do rank this below Mako and Shambhala due to my feeling that its airtime, while stunning, never has quite the same impact as some of Mako or Shambhala’s strongest moments, in my view, with the first drop in particular definitely being weaker than Mako or Shambhala’s. While smooth in its own right, it also isn't quite as blissfully smooth as Mako or Shambhala, and further to this, I felt it to be slightly less consistent, as I did have 1 or 2 slightly weaker rides on it during my trip to Europa. Nonetheless, Silver Star is a stunning coaster with phenomenal sustained airtime, and I love how it is incredibly rerideable and keeps the thrills going right to the end with that awesome post-MCBR section! 10/10 Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa: This ride is phenomenal! In terms of some key strengths, it’s absolutely relentless in pacing and has some of the strongest ejector airtime I’ve ever experienced, and some of the big hitters in the layout like the first drop, outerbanked turn, death roll and wave turn are truly sensational elements that are right up there with the best, in my opinion! The first drop in particular is insane; whipping you far out of the seat with ejector airtime for a surprisingly sustained period of time never gets old! There are also some absolutely top-drawer moments of ejector airtime elsewhere in the layout, and the ride is smooth and rerideable! In retrospect, I think I was overly harsh on Iron Gwazi at the time I rode it, fixating on its very tiniest imperfections to try and quantify the slight disappointment of it not quite living up to my wildly high expectations on the very first go. This is going to sound odd, but Iron Gwazi is a coaster where the more I sit back and think about it, the more I actually love it. Thinking back, it grew on me considerably the second and third times I did it once the weight of expectation was off its shoulders, and it is genuinely a top tier ride that is more than deserving of a top 10 placement for me! I do wonder if it would go up a few spots with a future reride. 10/10 Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park: Wodan strikes the perfect balance between pure demented insanity and amazing fun factor and rerideability, in my view! It’s an absolutely relentless coaster, with phenomenal pacing right to the end, and it has quite a few really surprising pops of ejector airtime, including an excellent first drop, but it’s also a really smooth and comfortable wooden coaster, and it just manages to be a ridiculous amount of fun! Overall, Wodan is such a fast, airtime-filled and fun coaster that I absolutely loved on my visit to Europa Park! 10/10 Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal’s Islands of Adventure: Dismiss this as a “family” coaster all you want, but I think such quick dismissal would be a huge mistake, because this ride is phenomenal, in my view! Of the rides in my top 10, I’ll admit that this one probably has the least tangible reason to be there. However, the key reason why Hagrid’s ranks so highly for me is that purely and simply, it is a phenomenally, impeccably fun roller coaster! In terms of some specifics, the low-to-the-ground turns were a lot more thrilling than I expected and the launches were surprisingly punchy and great fun, but unlike many coasters, my love of Hagrid’s is for a much broader reason than any specific features of the ride layout. It is just so, so fun, and the ride will always leave you laughing hysterically and smiling on the final brake run, and that for me is really important. Riding Hagrid’s taught me a crucial lesson about my taste in coasters; it taught me that a coaster does not necessarily need greatness in the form of tangible elements for me to love it, and that fundamentally, all a coaster needs to be is fun. Hagrid’s is not the most intense ride by any means, but if you want pure fun, I’d struggle to recommend many better coasters than this one! 10/10 Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Going back to Icon after 6 years, I did wonder whether I’d still love it as much as I did in 2019… but if anything, I only loved it more! Icon is not a massively intense ride, but I just find it a huge amount of fun! There’s a great amount of airtime to be had on the ride, for a start; the top hat at the beginning really shines, but the other great moments like the twisty sequence down into the second launch and the junior Immelmann also stand out, amongst others! There’s also some lovely hangtime, with both the first roll and the junior Immelmann providing just the right amount of floatiness without feeling sickly! The twisty layout also keeps the ride feeling interesting, in my view; I ride Icon feeling like I’m twisting and floating all over the place, and I find it so much fun! It’s also so smooth and rerideable with comfortable restraints, and overall, I just find it an immensely enjoyable coaster that definitely remains deserving of a top 10 spot despite me having previously demoted it out of the top 10! 10/10 Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando: I went into Ice Breaker with low expectations in 2023, but I have to say that these were hugely exceeded; Ice Breaker is ace, in my view! For such a small ride, it packs surprising ejector airtime in numerous places; the swing launch is great fun and has airtime in spades, the top hat is brilliant, the junior scorpion tail has some absolutely lovely floaty airtime, and the main layout is punctuated with other fun ejector pops! As well as this, the ride is really smooth, keeps a good pace throughout, and is generally a really fun and rerideable coaster! 10/10 Ice Breaker was more of a beneficiary of Wicker Man going down slightly than something I actively chose to move up. I’ve also made a few changes to my wider top 30, and it is now as follows (changes in italics): Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal’s Islands of Adventure (10/10) Shambhala - PortAventura Park (10/10) Mako - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Hyperia - Thorpe Park (10/10) Silver Star - Europa Park (10/10) Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10) Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park (10/10) Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal’s Islands of Adventure (10/10) Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10) Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Wicker Man - Alton Towers (10/10) (While I will always love Wicker Man, and it still reduces me to fits of laughter every time, I think the weight of some genuinely top-tier rides above it now makes it hard to justify putting Wicker Man much higher than this. I also realised on my most recent visit to Alton Towers that it suffers a little from what I call “magic seat syndrome” in that a ride on the back 3 or 4 rows is quite markedly better than a ride elsewhere on the train. I like a ride to be reasonably consistent and deliver something reasonably close to its best experience in any seat at any time, so this “magic seat syndrome” does lose Wicker Man a few points for me, as much as I love it.) Oblivion - Alton Towers (9/10) (As much as I’ve said for years that I preferred SheiKra to Oblivion, my most recent Alton Towers visit made me realise that Oblivion is absolutely my preference out of the two; while Oblivion is short, the speed in that tunnel is insane!) Stealth - Thorpe Park (9/10) (Short though Stealth is, my recent visit reminded me just how much I can’t get enough of that hydraulic launch! The top hat airtime is also brilliant!) SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10) Nemesis Reborn - Alton Towers (9/10) (Some of my recent rides on Nemesis have made me feel that it deserves to be my highest ranked B&M invert ahead of Montu. The sense of speed is awesome, and the layout design is truly inspired, with that first drop-corkscrew-helix-zero-g roll sequence being absolutely legendary! The front row ride in particular is also absolutely wonderful!) Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10) The Swarm - Thorpe Park (9/10) (My ride on Swarm yesterday was absolutely excellent; it packed great speed, it had some wonderfully floaty inversions, it had good forces, it was smooth, and the restraints were also a lot less bothersome than they have been on some previous rides. I was certainly reminded why The Swarm spent a 2-year stint as my #1 coaster prior to me riding Mako in 2016!) Red Force - Ferrari Land (9/10) Revenge of the Mummy - Universal Studios Florida (9/10) Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10) Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (9/10) Blue Fire - Europa Park (9/10) Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) Kraken - SeaWorld Orlando (8/10) Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (8/10) (As much as Nemesis Inferno is a really decent coaster in its own right, with very little not to like about it, it didn’t seem to be hitting quite as much for me on my recent Thorpe visit, and I do think it lacks a certain… special spark that makes the original Nemesis so good compared to other looping B&Ms) Rock’n’Rollercoaster - Disney’s Hollywood Studios (8/10) Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10) Thirteen - Alton Towers (8/10) (My most recent visit to Alton Towers made me realise that I enjoy Thirteen more than I often think I do, and that it deserves to be a few spots higher than I previously had it!) Gold Rush - Drayton Manor (8/10) (Gold Rush was such a pleasant surprise when I rode it in 2024, and I’d have it pegged at a similar level to Thirteen, so I decided to move it up a touch as well!) Gringotts and Uncharted were reshuffled out of the top 30. In general, I am a firm believer that intensity is not the sole arbiter of ride quality, and I rate coasters based on how fun, thrilling and rerideable they are, and how much I enjoy them. Interestingly, I make this the first time since at least 2014 that I have not had a B&M as my #1 coaster! Although knowing how indecisive I am, I’m sure I’ll want to reshuffle the list again at some point…

Thanks @planenut! I actually completed my Master’s over the summer just gone (I started in September 2024 and handed in my final dissertation just over 2 weeks ago), and have recently joined the wild world of full-time employment!

Another good report Matt along with good pics. Enjoy your studying, remember, it's not luck but you proving your worth.

They were using empty trains following the strong wind closure. Some of those empty tests were agonising in terms of how slow they were; the ride looked close to stalling in that outerbank! When the ride was initially testing before reopening prior to the strong winds, though, they were using water dummies. They were unscrewed, and water was spilling everywhere!

Glad you managed to get a couple rides on Hyperia in the end! Out of interest, when they were testing after strong winds did they use water dummies or empty trains?

I think there's a bit of a rose-tinted specs here to be fair. 2013 was the only year when maze queues had actors. Saw The Ride had a couple of actors in the queue on and off (both during and outside of FN). But it was more the exception than the rule in the past. The "getting locked in cupboards" only happened in one maze, for 2 years. Now, the likes of 2011 and 2013's Fright Nights still remain some of the strongest editions of Fright Nights even now. So it's completely valid to miss those editions and compare to them. But they weren't always like that, and still had their own issues. Queue times back then were very long even back then, outside of a few select dates, making lapping mazes uncommon. Sadly, anyone under the age of 20 won't understand what those amazing Fright Nights of yesteryear were like. Even anyone under the age of 25 won't fully appreciate what it was like. We're in a complete new age of Fright Nights, and of Halloween attractions. This certainly should be a focus for a quieter year. Spending time, resources and money on ride soundtracks - whether it's a park-wide idea or ride-specific takeovers - will really add to the overall atmosphere of the event. It's not exactly necessary (many parks don't do it at all), but it will improve an event like Fright Nights. In the past, simply using Midnight Syndicate (which of course is royalty free) did the job. That could still work now to be fair. But if they wanted to be more original, that would work too. I think it's easy to forget the shortcomings of each of the mazes you listed (as well as other well-loved Thorpe mazes from the past), and those may be highlighted more in the current line up, even if they were including in the ticket price. -Asylum is repetitive, and it's 'trick' (a strobe, mesh maze) is used as scenes in so many scare attractions. I get why people loved it (even if I didn't), but a maze which is an elongated scene from other mazes might not capture people's imagination. -Experiment 10 was short, even by 2011's standard. It worked, and the first half made up for it. It might work well as a free maze now, given the other mazes would be notably longer, but its length would be an issue. -Cabin in the Woods suffered from a very congested second half. It also got progressively worse each year, with the first half becoming further and further away from the original design and plan. This is me trying to be objective and nit-picky, yes. But I think there's lots of discourse about previous mazes in general, and people do look back too fondly. Give it a couple of years, and I reckon there'll be people crying out for the returns of Do or Die, Roots of Evil and even Vulcan Peak. But yeah, there is now a clear identity of what a Thorpe maze "is". It's very similar for Tulleys - everyone knows what a Tulleys maze "is". It's fine to have an identity and to do what works for you and your audience. But it does create a bit of a 'same old, same old', doesn't it. The social media thing is a good point, with the rise of it all. Prior to 2015, you never had anyone allowed 'officially' to take footage inside mazes except the park really. I'd argue that leaves us with these rose-tinted specs more, but that's a different point. People do judge on the look things a lot more. It will be interesting to see how Universal manage HHN in the UK. The near continuous flow of guests is very uncommon across European Halloween attractions in general. So I wonder how the public will react to that compared to how we usually operate. I don't think Thorpe (or any scare attraction in the UK) should try to play the same game as HHN though. They'll lose. Better to craft out a niche than play someone else's game and lose terribly. I imagine many guests however will look at it as a direction competition regardless though, so they'll have to compete. I think the biggest issue that Thorpe will face, at first at the very least, is that I expect actors will be chomping at the bit to work for Universal. If I was a scare actor, the opportunity to work at the first HHN UK would be something I'd be hugely tempted by. And if Thorpe is my otherwise closest major event, Bedford isn't exactly a huge upheaval to my life for a couple of months.

It had the issue of slowing on the brakes before that last turn quite a lot at the start of last year. They did correct and I haven't noticed any issues since. Hopefully not starting to happen again. The vests had tweaks done a couple of years ago I believe to stop the locking/tightening.

Is it me, or has Swarm started braking a lot more before the final turn into the brake run lately? I swear it used to go quite quickly around that final turn, but yesterday, the brakes were almost stopping the train. The ride was running very well yesterday, though; smooth, fast, floaty and with much more comfortable restraints than usual! It definitely felt like the vest was tightening less yesterday; have they done work to the ride?

This is a perfect summary of my thoughts as well. It’s quite an interesting subject really, because now that they’ve chosen to go down this new route of highly themed walkthroughs and dance shows etc I imagine it would be difficult to change course. The Asylum, Experiment 10 and Cabin in the Woods are examples of excellent Thorpe mazes in my opinion at least - but I imagine they would be poorly received if they “came back” exactly as they were, even if they were still “free” (or included in the event ticket price as I prefer to say!). I think now people have grown used to what a Thorpe scare maze “is”, and something like Asylum would probably now be seen as lazy, as it had next to no theming and just 2 stock songs playing in the queue, even though it could be an extremely intense experience. I also wonder if these sort of “more basic” attractions won’t be able to compete now adays due to the need for things to look good for social media etc, especially with Universal a few years away, Thorpe need to have impressive looking attractions I suppose so they can directly compete with HHN. I expect however, the real reason is that they need to justify the prices they’re charging for a run through, so it needs to look like it’s worth paying for, more so than the need for it to be scary. As you say Cal, times have changed I suppose.

Unfortunately I agree with the above posts - other than the night rides, I just can’t get excited for FN anymore, and the teaser trailer does nothing for me at all. These new style trailers they’ve been doing over the past few years are so vague, and rarely bear any resemblance to the event what so ever. FN is massively successful, so it would be wrong to suggest that the event has lost its way. I suppose it’s more accurate to say that its new format with highly themed walkthroughs and more passive scares (at sky high prices) just doesn’t appeal to my tastes. If this new scare zone is going to be similar to Swarm Invasion however then I’m not sure it’s just me that it won’t appeal to… it was genuinely crap, and honestly was barely recognisable as a scare zone. I have to say as well, the relentless flow of throwback scenes is tedious. Clearly the past has been very much left in the past by this new direction - it’s best to leave the old stuff behind and move on since realistically FN isn’t about out and out scares anymore. I miss the genuine scare opportunities that the mazes used to offer the actors, and as mentioned above I too really miss the ride overlays, even if it is just a bit of nice dispatch music. I miss the simplicity of it all - not long ago the mazes were designed to be scary, and elsewhere in the park efforts were made to level the experience up with different music and simple smoke machines etc. Although to be fair the lighting across the park is very good now isn’t it. Having said that, I’m very aware that the event hasn’t even started yet this year, so who knows, perhaps some of this has been considered and addressed. I look forward to hearing about it! I hope it’s a successful year for Thorpe this FN, and I’m pleased to see that so many people do seem to love this new style of scare event. I’m sure it will be well received.

^ I'm not either, in fact I've only just watched that trailer for first time which shows my excitement level. I don't think thats a this year only thing though, for me Fright Nights was good in the old days of the stronger mazes and being able to lap them till 10pm free of charge. I don't have an interest in the dance shows, scare zones, or paying money to stand in queue to get a weak runthrough in a maze. I miss the old intense Fright Nights days, getting locked in cupboard in experiment 10 and having actors in queue lines etc.. I do appreciate that times change though and theres clearly a market for what they do now though, and I do think that Fright Nights is in a much better place now than it was a good few years ago. Its a strong lineup again this year so I hope they have another successful year. I will still go to Fright Nights this year multiple times for the longer hours for rides and general atmosphere. I might give the odd maze a try if it has no queue and I'm with someone that wants to, but certainly won't be going out of my way to do so. I do get the vibe that they've just added this scarezone for the sake of having something new this year. I'll reserve my judgement until we see what it is but its a shame if that is the case, as everything else on the lineup is of high quality and will be a shame if they've just added this for the sake of it. Would rather they just use them actors and have a couple in Swarms area and SAWs queue for example. Would add more than a weak scare zone IMO. On another note, I do hope they make more of an effort with ride soundtrack overlays this year. They've been redundant for a good 2-3 years now which is a shame.

20th September 2025: Thorpe Park Hi guys. Today, I took my first visit to Thorpe Park of the season. While there hasn’t been anything new at Thorpe since my last visit, I was still keen to get back and experience some of my favourites again! I was particularly excited to get back on Hyperia given that I’d only ridden it on one visit last year and it definitely made its mark on me, making its way into my top 10 and christening itself my favourite UK coaster! Also, I was frankly keen to get back to a park after the end of my Master’s degree and the start of my job; I wanted to have something to look forward to after an intense summer, and what better than a trip to Thorpe Park? The day started early, with me leaving home at 6:30am this morning to make my way across the Severn Bridge to Bristol Parkway to catch a 7:21am train to Reading. I then changed in Reading to catch a train towards Staines. All in, this took around 2 hours, and it was mostly a very smooth journey. Incidentally, I’m always surprised at how quiet South Western Railway trains are, and how well stocked they are in terms of carriages. We had 8 carriages going from Reading to Staines; on Transport for Wales, CrossCountry or GWR back home, anything more than 2 feels relatively exuberant! I then decided to use my good friend Uber to get between station and park, which once again worked really well; after having a very friendly chap who asked me lots of theme park questions drive me to the park, I arrived at around 9:45am: After getting to the park, I initially had to wait around 30 minutes in a queue for security before entering; that’s the longest I’ve waited there in a while. After getting through this, though, I got in at around 10:15am: Due to my long security queue, my usual strategy of heading towards Saw and Colossus and knocking those out with minimal queues was stymied, as they already had queues approaching an hour. Resultantly, I decided to head towards a different area of the park and ride… Nemesis Inferno Nemesis Inferno was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so I decided to head over there. As I was approaching, the queue time increased to 15 minutes, but I didn’t think it looked like only 15 minutes, and a little bit after I joined, an announcement came over the tannoy stating it to be 45 minutes. As it turned out, though, the queue took only 25 minutes in reality due to good operations with minimal stacking; it’s always great when expectations are exceeded! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and it was really good! I’ve always liked Inferno, and today was no exception! The ride was smooth, it had good forces, it had good speed; what’s not to like? I’ll admit, though, that I don’t think the ride did it for me quite like Nemesis Reborn up at Alton Towers did back in July; the original definitely has something special about it that Inferno, while a perfectly decent ride in its own right, doesn’t quite match: After I got off Nemesis Inferno, I headed to a nearby flat ride… Detonator Detonator was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so as I do love a good drop tower and I hadn’t done Detonator since 2023 (I think?), I was keen to give it a ride. The queue took slightly longer than advertised, taking around 15 minutes, but it was still short, so I can’t complain too much. So, how was the ride? Well, I am a fan of a good drop tower, and Detonator is a really good one! I’ve always loved how deceptively forceful the Fabbri towers are for their relatively diminutive stature, and if anything, Detonator was more forceful than I’d remembered. I was launched all the way out of my seat and stayed there for the whole journey down, and it was awesome! It was also my first time back on there following the Big Easy Boulevard retheme, and I have to say that I really like the changes; they add a really fun new element to the ride: After I got off Detonator, I headed for another coaster… Stealth Stealth was on an advertised 40 minute queue time, so as it was one of the shorter queues at this point, I was nearby and I hadn’t ridden it yet, I decided to take a spin on there. I had a very pleasant surprise in the form of the queue on here. While advertised 40, I only waited 15 minutes, likely in no small part due to some of the best operations I’ve ever seen on Stealth. The staff were absolutely throwing the trains out; pretty consistent 70-75 second dispatch intervals were being attained on there, my logged throughput average was almost 1,000pph, and the staff were very frequently outpacing the 40s dispatch timer on the platform (something I’d thought to be largely redundant in years gone by). Great job! But enough about ops; how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and it was absolutely fantastic; as per usual, the launch was fantastically punchy, the speed was phenomenal, and the airtime over the top hat in the back was on point! I do absolutely love Stealth; it’s easily my second favourite at Thorpe and among my UK top 5, and despite it being much shorter and slower than Red Force, I actually think I prefer it to Red Force. That hydraulic launch packs an unrivalled punch, and it’ll be a sad day when these hydraulic launchers go extinct: After I got off Stealth, the state of the queues elsewhere, and the comparatively short queue and high enjoyment I got from my Stealth ride, meant that I decided to go straight back round for another Stealth lap. I was seated in row 8 this time after a 25-30 minute wait, and the ride was once again fantastic! After my Stealth reride, I decided to head over to another coaster I hadn’t done yet… Saw The Ride Saw was on an advertised 65 minute queue time, but I decided to give it a ride because I was able to exploit a secret weapon… the single rider queue! I must admit it wasn’t quite such a secret weapon today, with it still taking 45 minutes, but even still, it was 20 minutes less than the advertised wait, so I can’t moan too much. So, how was the ride? Well, I got batched onto the back on an outer seat, and as much as I’m not the biggest Saw fan, I have to admit that it wasn’t running too badly today; it was rough in places, but not nearly as bad as it can be. There was also some good airtime on there, to be fair; I think Saw has some surprisingly good bits of air in places! On a side note, Saw seemed to attract some of the more memorable guest interactions today. In the station, two separate people were getting irate with the staff about their child being too short and were requesting multiple repeat measurements, one family tried to force a young girl on to the ride who was in absolute floods of tears and clearly didn’t want to ride, resulting in an argument (I was supposed to sit next to them, but they didn’t end up boarding with me due to said argument taking up too much time), and to cap things off, I was seated next to a teenage boy who kept yelling “F***ing hell, my balls!” throughout the ride: After I got off Saw, I examined the queues and decided to go for another Stealth reride, as it was on one of the shortest advertised queues at 20 minutes. The queue took 20-25 minutes, I was seated in row 9, and the ride was once again fantastic: After that Stealth reride, it began to rain, so I decided to take cover and buy a Burger King lunch. After this, my original plan had been to head to Swarm, but after seeing a certain golden goddess testing, my plans swiftly changed… Now, you might have noticed that despite me saying it was one of my most anticipated attractions of the day, Hyperia has been conspicuously absent from the report up to this point. The reason for this is because the ride had a “delayed opening” and did not open at all in the morning. However, when I left Burger King near Stealth, it was a little before 2pm, and high wind gusts were forecast to come in from 3:30pm or so. So with Hyperia having not opened at all and having suddenly started testing, and with its dislike of wind being well catalogued at this point, I decided I was taking no chances and headed straight over there to wait for it to open. I watched it test for around 10-15 minutes prior to it opening (seeing the unscrewed water dummies spill everywhere was interesting!), and the ride eventually opened at around 2:10pm. After it opened, I joined hordes of people in making a steady beeline into the queue… Hyperia As the ride opened and people gradually filed into the queue, the advertised queue time for Hyperia increased gradually, starting at 70 minutes, then increasing to 90, and eventually hitting 110 before I passed the threshold of the entrance. The queue time eventually hit 2.5 hours! I used the single rider queue, and midway through my wait, the ride actually went down for 10-15 minutes due to high winds. The gusts were registering as 26mph on my Apple Weather app, and were only set to increase… but after a few agonisingly slow test trains, the ride did thankfully reopen, and I waited 80 minutes for my ride on Hyperia from when it opened (probably more like 90-95 including the time I watched it test for), which I honestly don’t think is too bad given the circumstances. With me being initially spited out of the ride in June 2024, and with it delaying in opening and shutting for wind in September 2025, Hyperia really has done everything in its power to make me want to hate it over the years! But that’s enough about queues and wind delays; how was the ride? Well, despite the aforementioned, I’m happy to report that Hyperia was absolutely sublime, and it was possibly even better than I’d remembered from 2024! I was seated in row 8, and everything about it was absolutely cooking! There is so much to talk about with this ride; that first drop remains a highlight, with the mix of sustained ejector the whole way down and the lateral twist making for something quite unforgettable, but so many other aspects of it stand out! The general negative g-forces throughout are sublime, the speed is sublime, and unique elements like the outer banked turn and the stall dive loop also provide phenomenal hangtime and wonderfully weird sensations! And in general, the speed and execution of the entire thing is just delectable, and as well as that, it’s also so smooth and comfortable! I think it’s been a phenomenal addition to Thorpe Park and the UK industry; it’s certainly my favourite in the country by some distance, and to be honest, I’m pondering whether it should be an overall top 5 contender for me: After my ride on Hyperia, I resumed my original plan by heading over to… The Swarm The Swarm was on an advertised 55 minute queue, so as I’ve always liked Swarm and I hadn’t ridden it yet today, I decided to give it a go. Similarly to Stealth earlier, the queue was quite vastly shorter than advertised, with it only taking around 30 minutes. Once again, I think brilliant operations played a part in this; the staff were attaining over 1,000pph on here, and consistently attaining little to no stacking! But how was the ride? Well, I’ve always liked Swarm, but I have to admit that it was particularly potent for me today; I was sat in row 6, and I had an absolutely fantastic ride! Prior to Mako in 2016, Swarm spent 2 years as my number 1 coaster, and while it’s not nearly that high for me now, today’s ride made me remember why I always used to admire it so much; the sense of speed on there is brilliant, there are some great forces, there are some wonderfully floaty inversions, and overall, there’s a lot to love about it! On the plus side, the restraints were also nowhere near as bothersome as they have been in terms of tightening; have they adjusted these? Overall, The Swarm certainly went back up a little in my estimations after today’s ride; it was absolutely awesome!: After The Swarm, I’ll admit I got a little indecisive about what to do next. I briefly mulled over a reride on Detonator, and I also briefly mulled over a reride on Nemesis Inferno… but with how much I enjoyed it earlier, I made a spur-of-the-moment choice to reride Hyperia using the single rider queue. The queue was advertised at 110 minutes, and using the single rider queue, I got on in 75. Interestingly, Apple Weather said that wind gusts were now 36mph, 10mph faster than what it said when Hyperia was closed for wind earlier… yet Hyperia operated for the entire time I was in the queue, with only occasional vague threats of “we may potentially have to cease operation”. If nothing else, I think this speaks to the poor accuracy of Apple Weather! As for the ride itself, I was seated in row 5, and while I was concerned that the ride might be less potent in a middle seat, it hit every bit as hard as the previous ride, and if anything, some elements like the outerbank and the stall possibly felt more powerful further towards the front! I have to say that Hyperia today made me laugh and feel things like no coaster has in a while; in my slightly lighter year of only doing UK parks in 2025, it’s by far and away my favourite thing I’ve ridden this year, and my two rides on it have been my two favourite coaster rides of 2025 for sure: After I got off Hyperia, 6pm had arrived and it was time to leave the park and head back to the station, so I bade Thorpe Park goodbye before heading out to catch an Uber back to Staines station: Upon getting back to Staines station, I waited for my train to Reading, and I saw a rather cool Pullman vintage steam train pass through while I was there (apologies for the rubbish picture; I couldn’t take a picture of the front steam train car quickly enough…)! I unfortunately ended up being stranded in Reading for a solid hour due to my train back to Bristol being delayed by half an hour, which put a dampener on the end of the day; I ultimately arrived back in Bristol Parkway at just after 9:30pm and arrived back home at just after 10pm: So, that brings my day at Thorpe Park to an end! I’d be lying if I said it was my most fruitful day at the park in terms of ride count, with me only managing 9 rides, but even still, I had a good day and it was nice to get back to Thorpe! I particularly enjoyed getting back on Hyperia; it really is an absolutely sublime ride, and I dare say I liked it even more than I did in 2024! But as well as that, I also enjoyed getting back on some other Thorpe favourites like Stealth, Inferno and Swarm, and I just generally enjoyed getting back to the park for my first time of 2025! I rarely have a bad day at Thorpe Park, and there’s just something about the place that I really like! Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! This trip to Thorpe Park brings my 2025 season to an end. It’s definitely been a lighter year for me compared to the last couple, particularly in terms of new things (I guess that’s what happens when you choose to do a Master’s degree and have to do a dissertation over the summer), but I’ve still had some really enjoyable visits, and I have been pleased with my efficiency of coaster riding this year (despite only having 5 theme park visits this year, I’ve managed my second highest number of coaster rides in a year ever, being only 9 rides lower than last year!). I don’t know when my next park trip will be or where it will be to, but I’ll definitely report on it either way; I hope to hit the hobby a bit harder again in 2026, with some foreign travel potentially on the table!

Had my first ever visit to Gröna Lund last Saturday. It’s a nice little park, and really impressive how much they’ve managed to cram into such a small space. Monster is a brilliant little B&M Invert. It’s amazing how well they’ve made it fit in the park - it just looks like it’s always been there. The underground station is really unique, and so is its layout for an invert. That airtime hill completely took me by surprise and was easily the best airtime moment I’ve had on an invert before. It’s silky smooth and definitely sits high on my invert list. Unfortunately, I got spited by Insane, which didn’t operate all afternoon/evening while I was there. I was particularly looking forward to it since I’ve never had the chance to do a Zac Spin. Not sure why it was closed or how long it’s been down? As a big drop tower fan, I was really impressed with their lineup - three towers all offering different experiences. Definitely the best drop tower selection I’ve seen at any park, and it makes sense given how limited their space is. The S&S tower was solid. It starts with the “shot” mode, then slowly takes you to the top for the drop. I like the towers that do both rather than just one or the other. Ikaros is an Intamin Skyjump, and after doing some research in the queue I learned Falcon’s Fury is the only other one, which I've also ridden. Surprised Intamin hasn’t sold more of these. The views were fantastic, but I found the ride itself pretty forceless. Hard to compare directly to Falcon’s Fury since it’s been 10 years, but I’m pretty sure Ikaros breaks lower down and swings a lot more on its return. Falcon’s still looks more intimidating though. Fritt Fall was my favorite of the drop towers - an Intamin the same as Apocalypse and Condor. These never fail to deliver and this was no different. The park also had a nice bar with views over Stockholm. You’re not allowed to leave the bar areas with drinks though so they can “watch” you, which made me laugh. ‘Vilda Musen’ the parks Gerst bobsled is decent, and Twister the gravity group woodie was okay. Smooth and a decent family coaster, but nothing to write home about. The day ended on an annoying note. The park closed at 10pm, and while I was at the front of a queue for my last ride, the host came down the queue to tell us their boss had said they had to close now and we wouldn’t be able to ride. The time was 21:57. Bit annoying since it was still before 10 and I was already in the queue, but it is what it is. On the way out I also saw them turning people away (already in the queue) for one of the drop towers too. Its a great compact little park with a great selection of rides, Monster being the obvious standout. Not somewhere I’d rush back to without a good reason to or in the area again, but I enjoyed my time there and do recommend a visit 😃

I'm not really feeling it for FN this year, normally by now there is a bit of excitement, and although I think that trailer isn't bad I can't put my finger on it as to why i'm not feeling it. We shall see!

Rollbacks mean loss of ride time; done one in the past, don't need another. The team on Stealth have to observe the train until it's cleared the top hat, but the number of rollbacks are so few, they can achieve faster launches by their present routine.

So let's dissect this a bit more / share some of my thoughts... I really like that they're making Lucifer a central figure this year. I've said repeatedly that this is something that park should look to do - have a headline character who is prominent in both marketing and on park. When the park introduced the Director character in 2013 and 14 (and even the Governor character in 2012), it was a nice touch. It didn't necessarily fully hit the mark as there was a lack of consistency due the character (naturally) having to be played by different actors. And the on-park character didn't quite marry up with the marketing character. But the park have had form there, and it worked. One criticism that occurred in 2015 was that the Figaro Bros were featured so heavily in marketing, but had no on-park presence (even in the original Big Top), which is why the park veered away from central characters. They've slowly reintroduced the concept of headline characters with "Fear" in 2021, the Locksmith in 2022 and the Toymaker in 2023. Again, they featured heavily in marketing. But aside from the Toymaker (who was only used for a special BTS tour of Stitches), had no physical on-park presence. Lucifer's Lair - in my opinion - has been the highlight of the past two Fright Nights. And given the plan to have the stage on the Beach this year, it wouldn't be surprising if they were hoping to turn that zone into a bigger thing this year. Having Lucifer has that central figure just works for the current Fright Nights set up. As a slight critique (possibly even a long-term suggestion), I'd rather the park have an 'original' character, as opposed to 'just' the devil, but they can make it work. I've banged on about this enough times on here, but if you look to Walibi Holland, their Eddie the Clown character has been a headline character for much of the park's Halloween event's history. Eddie the Clown and Walibi are synonymous now. And it leads to great marketing (and more recently, merchandise) opportunity. Thorpe can recreate that, in their own way. Now, the actual event. Upfront, I'm not enthused by Purgatory Town. It's being marketing as an 'interactive' scare zone, or a speak-to-characters zone. I'm getting a bit of a Swarm Invasion vibe, in that I expect there will be minimal theming and minimal actors, and guests will 'get out what they put in'. That is, you can walk through the zone and have basically no interaction with the actors, or you can spend time chatting with them and find out their story and lore and build up from there. The key difference is Swarm Invasion had an actual coaster with a backstory to help it, whereas Purgatory Town has...well, no pre-existing lore. Another issue is that Fright Nights has become quite...passive. A common discussion point on here, at the very least, is that the mazes are like walkthroughs of very well-themed sets, with less actual engagement. I'd argue Stitches and Trailers highlight that extremely well, but even DeadBeat has its moments. Now whether that's a good thing, a bad thing or just a thing is almost a mute point. If the reason the park are creating these passive experiences is because that's what guests enjoy and respond best to, then creating a scare zone which is the opposite to that is a hard sell to guests. Again looking to Swarm Invasion, that didn't exactly light the world on fire, and that could be because of the high engagement level required. The fact we're less than two weeks from the event starting and we have no theming or build is also telling of what to expect on that front (ie: not a lot). I'm certainly not writing it off, as we don't really know a lot about it still. But all signs point to this being little more than a nice experiment for the park to try. However, it is great to see Fright Nights further spread out across the park. Next thing to note is Survival Games changes. Hard to know what expectations should be, but the video and promo image make it look like the characters in the maze will be different at the very least: There's mentions of a "toxic twist", and any part of the marketing related to Survival Games does feature a strong electricity motif too. Trailers getting two new scenes is perhaps not unexpected given the new posters that appeared. A little excerpt from the park's press release gives us a bit more on what to expect... Evil experiments could be Experiment 10 (which could be the X poster seen) Forbidden Forests could be a Blair Witch throwback I hope that - unlike last year - the new scenes are more than just a redress of existing scenes. I know it's a less-common opinion, but I'm fine with a quieter year with no major new attractions as a one off. I'd argue that Purgatory Town isn't even necessary this year. But we'll see what happens!

Stealth has been run very well the last two seasons! 1:13 is not the best they have done as I have seen plenty of launches around the minute mark and on occasion even 40 seconds! You can see near 40 seconds on this video I took on my Tik Tok page (would be great to get a few follows guys) https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdpHUhut/

You turned down a rollback 😱 Stealth and Hyperia are both operated exceptionally well most of the time, they have great teams. For comparison, I’ve just got back from a few days at PortAventura. They were averaging about 1 min 30 secs a dispatch on Red Force, 480 people an hour. They have no seatbelts to check and less seats. One thing I did notice though, they don’t advance the train from offload into load until the train has cleared the top hat. On Stealth they advance it as soon as it’s ready.

That's good news Matt. It always amazes me when someone who's been queuing for ages gets to the platform, then delays getting on, annoying.

For those interested in such matters, I have to say that Stealth is operating phenomenally this morning; my throughput average across 10 readings was 975pph, or a train every 1m 13s, which is as fast as I’ve ever seen on here! I’ve been witnessing dispatches as fast as 70s or lower, and quite frequently, the staff have been outpacing the 40s dispatch timer on the platform (something which I’d have said was largely redundant in past years gone by). 80s is a slow interval today! It’s way faster than I’ve ever seen Rita operate, and it made an advertised 40 minute queue fly by in 15 minutes! In the current absence of Hyperia (it’s on a “delayed opening”), it’s also definitely my favourite coaster at Thorpe, so as I liked it so much and the queue is moving so quickly, I’ve decided to hop straight back in the queue for another go!

The problems it had at the start of the year seemed to start with rollbacks.. hopefully it’s not a sign of that issue returning!

At TP today, as the weatherforecast was so good. Luckily got to ride Stealth and thought it was a little slow going over the top, so (as I am familiar with the them) I mentioned it to the team. I observed the next twelve launches, thought that the transitions over the top were getting even slower, and again expressed my concern. The team offered me a ride and I informed them that I would not, as I believed the next launch would rollback. They launched, and it rolled back, I went for lunch.

New scare zone is called Purgatory Town, and will be in Big Easy Boulevard Trailers will receive 2 new scenes Survival Games has a "toxic twist" / new scenes.

I was lost, in the slipstream of my mind. it wasn't this place, and yet, it was another place, much all the same