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So if I don't write my review tonight, I probably won't at all. Equally, I am very tired and have an early start tomorrow, so forgive me if this is patchy or brief. I'll preface this with my usual press night statement: I know some people will say "oh, you're opinions are biased, you have a vested interest to be positive" or "you're a Thorpe goon, of course you'll only say positive things. My review will be as honest and truthful as positive, based on my experiences. I've been at pretty much every Thorpe press event since Swarm's back in 2012. In the past, I've told managers to their faces when I think something is rubbish. I've congratulated people for successes. I've said when something has disappointed me, surprised me or just 'not been my cup of tea'. I was able to get 3 rides during the course of this evening. All of them were back row, and one of them was a night ride. I wanted to mix it up a bit - especially to get a front row experience - but it's just the way it worked. I will say I found the evening a bit frustrating, with the initial opening being a bit chaotic, although I appreciated the effort for an opening ceremony. I'm sure tomorrow will be smoother, as the set up and organisation is a bit different, but tonight was a bit clunky. So anyways, the ride. The lift hill is quick, especially in comparison to Big One. But it still feels like an eternity going up. And seeing the park beside you and how you tower over it, is really something. And when you're stood very close to it, you realise: this is tall. The drop. My god the drop. It feels like you're being thrown out to the ground at the top. You stay out of your seat during the twist, which adds to the feeling you're just going to die frankly. The non-inverting Immelmann is fab, giving a nice pop of airtime. The outerbank dive is fab. You are genuinely out of your seat the whole time, as you slowly twist upside down. Such a weird sensation, but so very cool. Quickly going into the stall, you're again left hanging (literally). The water splash effect does have trims which does notably slow you down, but it doesn't slow you down so that you feel like you're going significantly slower. Think of it as a "gentle press on a car's brake" type of trim, rather than a "harsh car brake" trim. Towards the back, if you stick your hands out, you get a bit wet. The outer banked airtime afterwards offers some surprising ejector. After my first ride, this was actually a highlight, for how surprising it was. After multiple rides, it's not the highlight, but still definitely a highlight. The airtime into the brakes is fine. Maybe not the strongest ended, but still a nice pop The brakes roll the train into the station very slowly For me, this is my favourite UK coaster I think. I still need time to digest, and I'd like to ride it in other rows too. I also hear the front row is a completely different beast (a lot "floatier" rather than "intense / aggressive"). But yeah, this is a fantastic ride. It doesn't feel too short, as it packs a lot in, and hitting the brakes is that sort of "omg" moment, as you process it all. Could it have had another element after the water splash, perhaps to negate the need for a trim altogether? Possibly, but it doesn't harm the ride. I didn't notice a "Mack rattle" during my rides. However, I do think it has the potential to do so, and could end up riding rough in the future. That will come down to how this type of Mack ages, and what Thorpe do to look after it. There is a neat little dispatch sequence as the train leaves the station: https://twitter.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1793709598886822387 Other bits: Mack employees are naturally very happy with the result, and generally and genuinely all love it The ride warms up a lot during the day. During testing phases, it could be take 42 seconds to complete the circuit in the morning, and then drop down to 31 seconds by the afternoon / evening Operations are good on two trains. They removed one to help alleviate pressure on engineering for tomorrow. There were a few shutdowns this evening, partially due to some issues with gates, and also due to someone flying a drone around the ride. Operation on one train is slow. The plaza looks quite nice. It needs some polishing off, but it's good. The ride area, however, is definitely unfinished. It needs tidying up, planting to go in, etc. But in any case, it was always going to be a couple of years before this really looked nice. There will be an opening ceremony / shows for the first few days as a minimum. It's a nice little thing There's some boards around the ride area telling the story of Hyperia, sort of. They're nice, but the backs of them are plain and easy to see around the area, and stick out like a sore thumb https://twitter.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1793701505725530465 Overall, Hyperia is a fantastic addition for Thorpe Park, and for the UK. It's exactly what the park needed. I really enjoyed it, and it's a "Top 10%" coaster for me. I'll leave you with my first ORP (me on the left):

Looking at the POV we better get a log flume in the future to interact with the swamp. The splashdown looks fun too!

Judge here I guess

I’m thinking of heading up on the 3rd and am curious to see whether they’ll be some sort of overspill from half term! The dynamic price is looking pretty par for the course as is. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Seeing it from the M3/M25 junction today did make me more excited. Doubt any competition members would honestly believe they'd be the first riders. Public maybe, but given Merlin's love of a "celeb" night and the boy's club Thorpe is becoming was never gonna happen.

TBH if I was there tomorrow I’d probably pay the £20 fast track…. Do we expect the queue to die down seeems like ages since this has been done at Thorpe lol. I remember going for swarm after school on opening day and lapping it as the crowds dies down significantly.

Kinda feel sorry for the club XX people, seems like everyone has already been on this coaster despite them being the first lol. Enjoy your rides everyone hope it lives up to expectations. When are the crowds due to die down next, that’s probably when I will go and try it out, guessing though that will be post summer now

I can let you know after I've been on the 11th! The dynamic pricing on the website at least gives you an idea of which days are quieter. At a wild guess - 90-120 minutes for half term, then 30-60 on weekdays start of June?

And a new thread, for discussion of the ride, and any 'spoilers' of the station interior, is set up here:

Hyperia officially opens tomorrow, ending a 12 year drought of new coasters at Thorpe. Tonight is the press launch, which means there will be plenty of reviews about. As such, for anyone who doesn't want the station interior spoiled - or doesn't want to hear people's views - we'll have this thread here. We'll keep the other thread for construction / archiving. I'll post my views on Hyperia here tonight, and look forward to reading plenty more tomorrow!

TPM are here! We'll be posting throughout the evening on Twitter: https://x.com/ThorpeParkMania?t=XyD6ImOMwqzukHS-ClsM8w&s=09 I'll try and post an honest review on here tonight too. Will probably set up a new thread

What do we think the queues are going to be like after half term? Is it going to drop to regular term time queue lengths, or stay consistent throughout the whole summer?

I’m a bit disappointed, but not surprised, that they’re offering Fastrack already. But I suppose no business is going to turn down anyone who is prepared to give them £20 for opening a gate 🤷‍♂️ A little worrying that even at this very moment the site is under construction too, just a few hours before media launch…. This is all so exciting though - can’t believe it’s actually time to open! After all this time Thorpe are opening a new coaster! Looking forward to seeing the live blogs etc tonight. Will TPM be there?

Dynamic ticket pricing for tomorrow now up to £52... I think the most it can get up to is £59 then it's a sell out, from memory? Similarly though, am very surprised tomorrow isn't sold out. Going to be interesting to see how the crowd management goes, hats off to Thorpe for the prep on that one. Hyperia one shot Fasttracks are priced at £20.... I wouldn't even consider that price point personally but some evidently would and will do so. But then, if that's the case, then it's priced right I suppose!

Presume because it IS half term it's meant that people have spread out the visits rather than the single weekend.

I think they'll make more than enough through merch and food sales anyways in those first few days. But yeah, a surprise that they've removed those hoops to get the Fastrack. Even if they're confident with the operations and everything, and even if they're limiting the numbers, it just makes sense to have as few Fastrack as physically possible, surely? Also, they're not planning to run the front row queue from opening, so it shows they do know how to make operational decisions which could have reasoning behind them. My biggest surprise is that no date is currently sold out. With Friday and Saturday apparently having a reduced capacity, and it being half term, I'd have thought one day would be sold out by now.

Thorpe apparently now selling one shot Fastrack separately from the hoops you originally needed to jump through. Poor decision if true. Guess as the first few days haven't completely sold out they need to make up the expected income streams.

Looking forward to my day at Legoland this Friday. Nothing else going on right?

HAVE you got the blues, cos I'll be a scotch a tootin' root a tootin', dippidy dayin', and holidayin' on the twenty of the fourth of the may May may we are nearly there ! after long times of giving you all the updates you need, parm pap can sit back knowing how much you all enjoyed my work. documenting HYPERIA from day one of the project, you are most welcome for my updates. we was havin' fun, a little whizz and won, all for all and all for one, and finish what we begun dooooo do do, tick tock, tick tock, hyperia, is nearly here, are you ready for the drop, juicy drop pop on the falls of the dragon, or is it t tigers

They really are cutting it fine aren’t they!

Credit to dean8001 on Twitter for photos from today. Hurry hurry construction team, the cast of Love Island from a couple of years ago are due in 30 hours! Just spotted that the bottom photo has queue line fencing in waiting to go in still!

I feel like there must have been a bet on how many times they could say "scan" in a video.

Has anyone got the new announcements that play in the Stealth queue every now and then that they added this year? Been tryna find them for a while lol (Don't mind WWTP in the background, I'd just the full announcement that plays at the end :P) video_20240506_162117.mp4

I heard there might also be some kind of restraint. 🫣

Better to have all the information than not. Sensory issues are still fairly new to it all. Given the problems with RAP as well probably something that will be consistent across the board, and guess its no different to the standard safety boards stating the obvious either. There was also a video for the Accessibility side of Hyperia. Though I do wonder why they constantly told me to scan a QR code when I was watching it on my phone.