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we have all had enough of this thing. nothing cryptic about it anymore. it just doesn't work.

I was lucky to experience a valley on Mandrill on Sunday, we just came to a stop at the boost launch area before the helix. I found it quite exciting as we would have to experience the rides swing launch to get it going again. I really enjoyed it as well. Mandrills launches are quite punchy as it is so going back and forth through the section was pretty satisfying. I am actually quite a big fan of Mandrill tbh, I've heard all the arguments about it being the wrong fit and whatever, however every time I go on it, it gives me a lot of joy and the queues for it never seem crazily unreasonable.The team always seem really on it when it comes to batching, loading and dispatching. It also has the B&M quirk of being incredibly reliable, 3.8% downtime for the last 7 days, and beaten only by Nemesis Reborn.

You know things are bad when the joke account is being serious.

Apologies for double post but by all accounts, Hyperia has operated successfully since opening. Hopefully the issue is now sorted...

Legend goes that an old woman pleaded with the Monks of Thorpe Abbey for the charity of a coin. They cruelly dismissed her. Scorned, the old woman screamed a cursed... "For every piece of Kingda Ka that falls, a month of Stealth's life will be taken" And sure enough, after Kingda Ka was removed, Stealth was shut for a month. --- All I'm saying, is that if Stealth remained closed, that will be the story for the Fright Nights mazes that will take its place. Hex Inferno - The Revenge of Stealth

Definitely recommend checking out Vibes Bar and Kitchen in the dome. Genuinely shocked at how tasty it is considering the mess of food a the parks the last few years.

Yeah, track replacing seems to have been pushed aside for now. Whether it was the issues with the previous new piece of track, a shift in strategy or something else that is the reason for that, we'll never know. I'm not a fan of Colossus - I can tolerate it on the front row (which is the only place I've ridden it in the last 8 or 9 years, and even then, I can count the number of rides I've had on it on one hand). But it does still seem to attract a reasonable crowd and runs reliably enough for now. But yes, it doesn't quite have the draw of a Nemesis or a Vampire. On the other hand, the park still have plenty of other development spots before they'd have to consider ripping rides out, so Colossus may hang on for a good while yet. My biggest concern with losing Colossus would be that we would no doubt lose the fun pathway that goes through the ride. Merlin just don't build rides which interact with walkways these days, and I'd be surprised if a potential Colossus replacement has anything beyond a straight pathway running alongside the ride, as opposed to a nice hill or similar.

Bit like the Tidal Wave fire effect 😁

I wonder if with the cuts / redundancies, the people who would usually be responsible for things like that (ie app / website updates) have been let go / had their job modified and people there just haven't joined up the dots for what needs to be done?

Depends. Given most will work in and around Midlands, you'd have to move closer to Bedford, and would the wages be better or as good as anywhere you could get nearby? Universal have their own creative team. They don't need the minds behind Hyperia.

Always assume sarcasm. Like any project anything could happen to it. But once Universal had to reveal their hand it had far more chance than London Resort ever did. Everything crossed.

What @Inferno said is spot on - Hyperia rapidly becomes known to the public as "the ride that's never open" - and then attendance falls and doesn't hit the expected returns Vs the investment, and then you end up waiting for another 12 years for the next big coaster again. Ok maybe that's an exaggeration, I think Dezza Brown the original white elephant didn't help there, but you get my point. As I said before, it really shouldn't be this much hassle getting on a sodding rollercoaster. First world problems and all that I know -June 11th and 12th 2024 is still a fresh wound 😛

Thanks for the concern @Cal 😀 Headed straight for it this morning, opened at 1015, on at 1035. Was hoping for another ride or two once the queue died down, it had been 50-60 minutes all-day. Stealth was down this morning and then opened at 11 as I walked towards it, it was a glorious moment entering the 5 minute queue. RIP Hyperia, Stealth 4eva.

Will we be tracking Hyperias opening time everyday this season or is this just a March/April thing?

I've noticed that Mondays especially have become busier - possibly people having long weekends I assume. But yes - mega quiet periods seem to be few and far between, the quietest is September before Fright Nights start, really.

It really shouldn't be this difficult and stressful, should it?!

Todays BBC article has some interesting info on this, "only Universal park to be in Europe", talking with local educational establishments, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yrg95rp5wo The site is far more suited as a "brownfield site", which will help with planning/development, and lack of massive industrial employers suggests more potential workforce.

Fingers crossed for a @Parm Pap update soon.

Glad we've just changed the name of the Hyperia tracker to Stealth.

Last weekend (April 12th), I finally got to meet industry legend John Wardley. It’s pretty clear 2025 is not the year to be visiting Chessington. With Project Play under construction and Wild Asia mothballed, under the guise of early construction for the Minecraft area. Operations were mixed, with mandrills being decent, despite a breakdown and Vampire doing a decent 2 train op, with just two platformers (one of which was batching). Rattlesnake’s operations were atrocious. The less said about the hideous Tiger Rock tunnel changes, the better. It looks more like an industrial estate than a theme park now. Now onto the event. At first there was a Vampire themed buffet in the temple restaurant. Buffets are known for either quality and quantity, unfortunately this one was neither. Burgers were the main event and as expected tasted vile. Salt, pepper and ketchup couldn’t polish this monstrosity. The curry was at least was just about edible. The desserts were comparatively bette. Black died soft serve, sundaes, sweets and jellies comprised the selection. Thankfully the event improved from here, the VIP team were generally attentive and chatted to everyone and we got a Vampire themed welcome drink. After making our way to the event suite, the main event kicked off. In the first segment John Talked about the different projects he’d worked on. Things mentioned included how the park almost became a housing estate, due to it being a failing attraction, his work with the McNamaras at the (sadly now closed) Oakwood and early ideas for the Vampire. Wardley reckons the ride still has much life left and the trains have less impact on the track than say Nemesis. On the second segment, John answered attendees questions. He said Universal GB wouldn’t impact the U.K. parks as much as people think and it’s not a David and Goliath battle. He also mentioned as far as developments go at the park. We would be in for a treat. At the end, one of the park’s long serving ride engineers Martin went through a lot of the ride’s mechanical statistics and gave away a few random ride bits to some who answered the most correct/accurate answers. There was then an opportunity to meet John, have things signed and have pictures with him. And now the 12 million pound question, was it worth it? At £125, even after discount it was perhaps an eye watering amount to spend, regardless of circumstances. On hindsight the food was mostly disappointing and other features were interesting, but I guess the important thing was this. I finally got to meet John Wardley. The man and legend who brought many of the countries most exciting attractions to life and such an inspiration to many. Without Wardley, Chessington may have well become a large housing estate.

New water feature in the Hyperia queue

Stealth is back open today 😅

It's alive!!! 5fd2386bbb246854d662bfb97b9db6fe.mp4

It's a curious thing with Colossus actually. Unlike Vampire and Nemesis which I couldn't imagine their respective parks being without, Colossus is majorly overshadowed by pretty much every rollercoaster they've built since. I actually quite like it but there's no denying that guests aren't the biggest fans of it. It could be easily replaced by a more modern, multi looper and not be as rough. With that being said, I find it rather harmless and does its thing rather well. The first half in particular is so well paced and I personally find it really enjoyable.

Yeah agreed. The whole park in general is looking pretty fresh and definitely the best since I've started visiting around 2010. Colossus and Stealth in particular look the best they've looked since I've started visiting. Vortex is nearly 24 years old but looks and runs like a brand new flat... They confirmed on the passholder group that the re-tracking was a multi year project and large sections of track would be replaced. I remember them saying that track that needs replacing won't be repainted, but since then no track has been replaced and the whole layout has nearly been painted? As far as I'm aware, in 2023 they just repainted the original bit of track and put that back on rather than get a replacement from Taziker, so that section that didn't fit was never actually replaced.

Every time I see an old video of Thorpe, it makes me realize how different Colossus looks now. It really does look the best its done in years. On another note, does anyone know what happened with the re-track project? I would assume its been cancelled after that segment not fitting and not seeing any track get replaced since. If the park were doing bits of re-tracking, surely at some point soon parts of the track will come to the end of there life and need replacing?

Noticed they're open an additional day, Wednesday 23rd April was previously scheduled to be closed but it'll now be open

I would expect a lot of the Merlin staff are probably eyeing up a potential move over to Universal at some point. Considering the redundancies the company is going through, I wouldn't be surprised.

The sources in that BBC article just sound like people who they probably found lurking around the fence trying to get first glimpses. Feel sorry for the security if/when construction gets started. Having to deal with certain influencers appearing almost daily.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz95n2837vgo It's happening!

So didn't manage to get Hyperia today 😔 Had a surprisingly smooth ride on SAW. Nemesis is awesome and has aged like a fine wine. Did Stealth and Swarm, had a Burger King and a pint, and then went home. I do feel for the park, they have had issues with their last two installations (Derron and Hyperia).

It was early this afternoon after a breakdown I believe. How dare you get a video you might get kicked out for this 🤣 Rumba rapids will now be opening in June instead of May to compensate for crane hire costs.

Scaffolding and crane on their way! How much must that cost to keep parked up?! Have they bought it? Either way, fair play... 20250402_152636.mp4

Oh…. It stalled this morning? Come on now. Getting a bit embarrassing. I’ve worked for companies who have made legal ultimatums with suppliers for reputational damage, for lesser things than this. Management asking staff to try to stop photos being taken is evidence that they are trying desperately to protect their brand. It can’t go on like this for much longer. I’d say really it’s reached the point that it’s become too big an issue to tolerate. I agree with Pap (!) - ultimately Merlin have been sold a very expensive product that just isn’t fit for purpose. I really hope this is actively being worked on urgently, because theme parks can’t really afford cock ups these days. Big investments have to hit the mark and bring in the money reliably and consistently. Being closed or on half capacity regularly, with negative publicity every few days, is unacceptable for such a huge investment. I hope Mack are taking responsibility and working on a solution…. If not I can’t imagine Merlin to be a company who will play nice if they have been screwed.

Id argue it’s virtually impossible to never send empty trains, they were doing their best not to when it was colder a couple of weekends back but you still will have a point where you need to - for example last trains of the day. I really hope Mack really can come up with a proper solution for this, I know it has new wheels but it seems it’s going to need some more drastic changes to ensure it can reliably run in the future.

white elephants work sometimes.

Hyperia opens at 4.05pm. Fingers crossed the issue is sorted....

Not for a very long time.

Well it didn't last very long, queue has been cleared. What on earth did they do to the lift hill over closed season... 🤣

Why would you be nervous? If it doesn’t open you’d be entitled to compensation in the form of a free fast track and the right to complain on Twitter

Thought I would celebrate the arrival of the 2025 season, by recording and arranging the ride’s theme.

Kumba is now officially SBNO and last operated in November. As influential as this ride was, it does feel like its time may be up. There's been no information from the park yet which is slightly unusual.

It’s a shame because barely 12 months ago, with great fanfare, the new brand was launched which was based on being open and transparent - things like this were championed as the new way forward… The annual new season videos were also missing this spring.

Damn I'm there tomorrow. Not looking good. 😔

So... Hyperia has been down all day. Twitter saying a drive wheel issue on the lift.

Hyperia's having a fairly bad opening day.

See they're doing lift hill walks for Hyperia. For £120. And you need to have done a track walk on Colossus, Oblivion or Swarm within 3 years. Seems a bit off to enforce that.