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Isn't the idea of building a tall hyper coaster to actually use the speed gained from that height for a long and adventurous layout? I think this looks like it will have a couple of fun elements, but will hit the break run before it really has a chance to do anything. It looks like a post-lift duration of less than 30 seconds, which is unfathomably short for a hyper coaster. It looks like a hyper coaster by definition, but really, not a hyper coaster. It's compact, doesn't take you anywhere outside of its self-contained area, and very very short. I was hoping for a ride that actually takes you somewhere, on a journey, with a decent length and some tall hills. As well as it not really fitting the bill of a hyper, the other issue is that Thorpe really needed a long and impressive coaster to balance the short coasters already at the park. This adds to the problem as it will potentially have a shorter duration than even Swarm? It feels like this is the bare minimum Thorpe could have gotten away with to get the UK's height record. It looks like a layout that's been designed just to get the height record, rather than to be a decent coaster.

I've got to admit, the more I see of this coaster, the more it grows on me; some of those elements look like they could ride excellently, and I think we could be in for something special here, even if it might not be an airtime machine per se!

I think I made it sound worse than what it is. Ultimately everyone seemed understanding of the need for expansion and investment, but found that the noise from tannoys and some screaming can carry over the lake. The concern was that the park didn't fully appreciate or understand what the base level of noise can sometimes be. I think it's easily rectified with some dialogue between both sides, which is the point of this consultation. I don't think it's a particular bump in the road, and don't think people will end up being against the investment. I'm sure a good resolution can come from this. It was to do with traffic. Peak times around the park are congested (not just because of the park of course), and I'm aware in the past construction of rides has highlighted this further. I'll give a summary of everything I can remember, but obviously we'll have actual pictures and stuff tomorrow: The Ride I will give an honest reaction here: when people see the visuals shown today, I think people will be divided. It didn't look that long. Looks can be deceiving and it was hard to get much of a feel from quick looks at the visuals. It's a very densely packed layout. It goes over the central lake a few times, but doesn't sprawl much. It has quite a few high points, again all closely packed together. It gave me a little bit of Steel Curtain (Kennywood, USA) vibes in some sense, where there's a lot of elements packed together. Looking at it, it's hard to tell if there were inversions or not. The visuals are very loose. There's elements which look like they could be inversions, but they could also be non-inverting elements. IF there are inversions, we could be looking at the world's tallest inversion. We could be looking at anywhere up to 6 to 7 inversion or so. There's also a splash zone, which could indicate a splash down too. But it didn't look like it was near any track. Very confusing. So this will be very interesting to see people's reactions when we get a look at the visuals. Other details -Manufacturer: The official line was they are still talking to multiple manufacturers. One member of the team speaking at the consultation said "there's people doing noise tests on a similar ride in Turkey". Would suggest the Flash clone, and hence Mack, but who knows. -Other rides: No other rides were shown in the area. -Existing rides: They said they're looking to retain "at least one of the existing rides". -Height: 72m/236ft -Speed/Length: Nothing said Timeline (if all goes to plan) -Today to January 2022: Consultation period -Spring 2022: Plans submitted to council -Summer 2022: Plans approved -Late 2022: Construction starts -Date TBC: Ride opens. They did mention 2024, seemingly by accident. It also seems likely, given the timescale. It does beg the question why Old Town needs to close now if construction isn't due to start until late 2022. I guess they could do some work during 2022 to prep, with main construction starting in 2022. It also answers a potential question about Creek Freak Massacre. That could certain return next year if work around that building hasn't started by next October. Project Name One of the visuals labelled the roller coaster as Project Exodus. So that answers that. Track Colour Stealth is coloured white on the top to blend in with the skyline, then has blue elsewhere. The park are considering something similar with this, but nothing is confirmed. Visitation The park said that they see the need for investing as a way of stopping declining visiting numbers, and getting people coming back. They don't expect the visitor levels to rise up dramatically. They also acknowledged the potential for competition from London Resort. Personally I found it convenient that Merlin don't think it will happen, but they'll cite it as a need to invest in a new ride. ha Anything Else I can't think of anything else major. There will be lots of trees cut, but these will be carefully chosen and likely lots of ones which are dying. The area isn't of any ecological interest. I'm sure everything else will come tomorrow and I'll remember more. Locals The actual consultation was fine (at least, the one I went to was). Maybe a couple of questions which were more geek-oriented, but it was nice to see people being respectful that this was a process for locals. That said, it's a little disappointing hearing and seeing people online referring to people as "Karens" for bringing up concerns. I don't think that anything raised by anyone was unreasonable. These are people with genuine concerns, some of whom have lived in the local area for many years before the park became filled with thrill rides. As I've said, I don't think anyone is against development particularly (and indeed, even those with pressing concerns acknowledged that it looks and sounds good for the park), but these are people's lives. I think it's worth stressing time and time again, there's a pretty good two way communication between the park and locals, and both sides are keen for that to continue. I just hope that everyone appreciates that, and don't berate people in any way for having concerns. It's not like they're even being Roper-esque (Alton Towers reference), they just want a very happy and respectful compromise.

Agreed. I was disappointed when I saw it, but take away the short ride time, I think this will pack a punch and feel out of control! Looking forward to it being built and following construction, before being able to ride it. Still believe it could be a UK favourite for many.

It’s been really interesting reading everyone’s opinions today. After checking the website on and off today I’ve come to the conclusion that, yeah, it’s not what I would have built, nor is it what I expected them to go for, but I think it’s still something special, to get really excited about! I think it’s very easy to sit at home imagining what we’d build in planet coaster - but in reality Merlin just don’t tend to build really long coasters. It’s just not what they do. And actually, that’s ok. None of the other beloved Merlin coasters are long, and they’re still great. I think we might have been unrealistic thinking that Thorpe would get a super-long hyper - that would be a lot of track to buy, and a lot of maintenance to keep up as well. They have no real need to build that sort of thing. Merlin are used to building short, 100ft(ish) coasters, so actually the fact they’re going for the UK’s tallest is a huge leap forward. (A loggers leap forward I guess) Yeah - I still think it’s a missed opportunity to have a coaster this tall and not make the most of it by building something longer, and I’d have really liked to have seen a MCBR and multiple trains, but compared to Thorpe’s other coasters this one does appear to have a lot going for it. The country seemed to go wild for a 100ft eurofighter in 2009 - this feels a lot more special than those sorts of investments that we all lapped up not so long ago. I’m still hopeful that the layout will be revised and the track length will be longer than what we have seen today when the official plans go in, but this looks very promising!

OK, so I've had a chance to have a look at the plans, and here's my honest reaction. Is it what I was expecting? No. Is it exactly what I wanted, and what I would personally have gone for? No. Do I think it has the potential to be an excellent ride, and is it something I'm excited to ride? Definitely! Do I think this will be a great, successful investment for Thorpe, and really give them the new zap of momentum they arguably need? Almost certainly! If you want specifics, some initial thoughts of mine include: The UK height record finally being broken is huge news, as is Thorpe Park finally getting a new coaster; put those two things together, and I can't really complain! I'm extremely grateful to Merlin that even one of those things is being done, let alone both, so in that sense, that renders any complaints I have overly nitpicky and totally pushing my luck! There are elements on this that look like they could ride very well; the drop looks superb, as does the big overbank! As much as this isn't a B&M Hyper like I was hoping for, Mack build some excellent stuff, and when taking target market into account, I think most of the new-gen Mack coasters I've ridden have been excellent rides that I've thoroughly enjoyed, so I don't see why this shouldn't be the same! I've got to say, as much as this won't sprawl and dominate over the entire park in the vein that an out-and-back hyper would have done, I do think this will still look very impressive on the skyline; a 236ft lift hill is nothing to be sniffed at, and I think those big, tall elements will make it look very impressive indeed! I said previously that I felt Thorpe needed a ride that sells itself and makes a statement, and even though it isn't some big, sprawling out and back coaster, the visuals make it look very dominant indeed, and based on that, I think this looks to tick those boxes perfectly! As I think I said before during the rumour stages; even though I was predicting a B&M Hyper, I'm not sure that Old Town is the ideal site for a Thorpe hyper (for a hyper, I would have used the island behind Swarm for a station and had an out and back layout wrap behind Swarm and work its way towards the front of the park, personally). With that in mind, I think they've done extraordinarily well with the space and Merlin's budget; they've packed a lot in to that site (which is quite small by hyper standards)! The length doesn't bother me; it looks to have a fair amount of elements, and the ride duration doesn't seem obscenely short to me by any means based on renderings (it's about 30-40 seconds, isn't it?). If it was like Stealth or Oblivion and literally did one hill before flying into the brakes, I would perhaps identify with the criticism a little more, but as it is, the length of this doesn't bother me; I don't even think it seems overly short myself! If I'm being completely honest, I'll confess to being ever so slightly disappointed that they haven't built something with more of an airtime focus (as much as I'm sure this coaster will have airtime, it looks to be focused more on big inversions and hangtime); the UK lacks coasters that focus strongly on airtime, and this doesn't seem to fill that void based on the layout we have. I think a hyper was the perfect opportunity to give the UK a true airtime machine and I don't think this looks like an airtime machine per se, but in Merlin's defence, I'm admittedly unsure in hindsight if they could have even pulled off such a ride within the site being used and the limited amount of money that Merlin have to work with. Also, that is me being unfairly nitpicky, and I don't know how much the average visitor would really crave a huge airtime machine, so in that regard, it's a moot point; I am completely insignificant in the grand scheme of things, so who cares what I think? I'm sure most people will absolutely eat this up regardless of how much airtime it has! Controversial opinion; I'm not sure if this will be as intense and relentless as some are making out. Most of the elements look very big and drawn out; at first glance, it gives me strong Steel Curtain vibes, and while that ride has been received well, I'm led to believe it's not especially intense. Pair that with the fact that Mack coasters don't generally tend to be obscenely intense anyway (this is based off the ones I've done, though; I don't know about the newer stuff like RTH or Hurricane), and I'm not sure this will have the strongest positive g-forces, nor will it have nutty pacing; I think the sheer size of the elements could mean that the focus is more on hangtime and sustained floaty sensations as opposed to spine-separating positive g's and relentless pacing, and it's worth noting that the only real low elements on the ride will have had some speed shaved off of them by the water brake (don't get me wrong, I'm sure the ride won't limp through those elements by any means, but it will certainly be slower than if the splashdown wasn't there). I'm not making that out as a bad thing by any means (in fact from a personal preference point of view, I actually think Thorpe could do with something a little more rerideable as opposed to out and out intense, so I'd be pretty happy with that!), but I don't personally think the ride will be phenomenally intense like some are making out. I'm open to being proven wrong here (and I'm sure some of you will prove me wrong on this, as I seem to be in a minority predicting this!), but that's just my initial thought based on what I'm seeing. That's just a few honest thoughts that leap to mind for me; I apologise if I come across a bit ungrateful and nitpicky in places, but I wanted to provide a balanced opinion and be completely honest with you all, providing both my pros and cons. But to sum it up; exciting stuff, and while it's not what I personally had in mind, I'm sure it'll be excellent!

I like people calling this one of the shortest hyper coasters ever when Stealth is literally right there. To be honest, the layout they’ve shown is really ugly. It also does nothing to solves Thorpes issues. But as a means to stop the bleeding of visitor numbers, it will do.

It would make more sense to have the splash down the other way round. The issue is its over so quickly it has to bleed off a lot of its speed before that last outer banked turn or the stresses on the ride and the discomfort to the people would be too much. I think it will be absolutely flying when it hits that splashdown as it will entering it from about a 180ft drop.

https://www.facebook.com/thorpeparkmania/posts/10166301025505624 https://www.thorpepark-consultation.com/ TPM will post a more detailed analysis later

Thank you for relaying it all @JoshC.!

Sorry, should have expanded a bit more. The layout shown wasn't "short", a la a Dive Machine. I reckon it could still be the longest ride on park. But, I think it was on the shorter side for a hyper coaster (but that's a personal opinion) Unlikely. They have also shown sight surveys from various views outside the park in the local area. These show how the coaster will impact the skyline and views for locals. Whilst superimposing the layout of a coaster isn't the most difficult to do, they usually only do that with a final (or near-final) layout to give locals (and the council) a concrete idea of what is to come. Hopefully this will all become clearer when the consultation website goes live and shows the same pictures that were shown during the presentation! It's hard to put across everything that was discussed clearly, whilst also trying to set expectations right!

Installing the 2ft booster seats to retain the UKs tallest coaster. 😉

And breathe. As a local, I attended. I aired a question of concern I had, speaking with a member of the presenting team afterwards. I will give a brief rundown of what we know. I'll try and post in more detail later. 1. 72m / 236ft high. 2. A proposed layout didn't give anything away in terms of manufacturer. 3. Someone did say "There is a team performing noise surveys on a similar ride in Turkey" 4. The current design suggests a station roughly where the old train station is. It is compact round the Loggers lake. 4a. A "splash zone" overlooking the lake 4b. Possible inversions, but maybe not. Hard to say. 4c. If inversions, then maybe world's tallest inversion is possible. The general vibe was that people are frustrated with current noise levels and how the park is operating, but don't seem particularly opposed to a new investment. As I say, I will try and post more later. Please remain calm.