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I went on the BTS tour of the park today. Great tour it should be said; it was headed up by Russ, who is a fantastic speaker. I did mean to ask about the screen, but honestly forgot. It does seem like it won't be fixed for start of season (I believe the park said this in the passholder group a few weeks back too). A real shame. Hopefully they can hide the dead pixels with whatever they put on the screen. Okay, now time for some updates. Everything is still a Work in Progress it should be stressed Toilets Loo enthusiasts rejoice. All the toilets have received some love. Swarm toilets. The walls have been painted green (originally white), and no more foot pedal sinks Megastore toilets are nicely themed Tidal Wave The rebuilt bridge, with the original Pier 13 style. The fire effect is proving very tricky to implement, but is being planned still Big Easy Boulevard Stealth Colossus The park have released that the entrance is a bit flat, and so are looking to add more colour/depth to it, although this will happen mid-season. The shop front looks nice. In terms of the rest of the repaint, and indeed a Sparkle Project continuation, the park hope to do that either next closed season, or the closed season after. The park want to do it regardless, and recognise they need to keep up appearances - literally - now that they've started to do this. Personally, I hope it happens next closed season, as it does look a little jarring in places. The park is looking lovely though, with the Hyperia area coming along and looking smart. There's other small updates too, such as KFC getting refitted and other new food places. Some parts of the park are still a bit tired looking / haven't really been touched. Rumba/Inferno is the big example I would say. And the Sparkling up does highlight how tatty some parts of that area, and the likes of Swarm and Saw, look. I do wonder if this means that, come opening, some enthusiasts will focus too much on those and not the fab stuff that we've seen heavily documented and shouted out about. But yes, it's clear to see the park have put time, effort and money into things this winter, and they're taking strides in the right direction. I'm excited to see what will happen and hope their plans pay off!

You'll have to forgive a bit of a link dump, but during a BTS tour I got to see a bit more of Hyperia and some fun facts... https://twitter.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1766791884666544449?t=c96RATcXM8UrrzRA8-7ObA&s=19 Some views of the site. SRQ is confirmed. The ride will be complete in the next day or two, weather dependent, with trains arriving on site this week. The exterior of the station building is complete. It was heavily suggested there will be some cool dispatch sequence in the station. https://twitter.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1766797980240109858?t=0xMAcaISYwT5khd0YDG80Q&s=19 No on board audio https://twitter.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1766874159068455258?t=PDHRqEdLGuNipTVLBcEG_w&s=19 Hyperia is easily seen across the whole resort. There will be a backstory to the ride. Not clear whether it's just a short piece they've written to appease geeks, or whether it will be conveyed in the area / queue line. It's fairly basic. I can't share what it is sadly, but yeah, it's a simple story. The ride doesn't need it anyways. In terms of the viewing area. This was planned but has been cut because it was later realised that it would require a lot of fencing which would ultimately distract from the whole area and the view. The ride's camera point will either be at the bottom of the first drop or prior to the splash effect. One final thing. The early thoughts for Hyperia were coming together in April 2020. The ride was approved by the old Merlin exec (ie Nick Varney, etc). This means that Hyperia is a sort of hybrid of Merlin philosophies, old and new. Had it been a 'new Merlin' project, it's possible that things might have been a bit different, with more theming / styling present.

Just turn the ruddy thing off Credit Coastersnaps on Twitter or "X" as no-one calls it.

Damn I'd forgotten about this. Swarm was also meant to have a viewing area of sorts that took you up to the helicopter. There's a reoccurring theme here....