Leaderboard

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):

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!

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.

Judge here I guess

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

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

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

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

They do like to try and announce things when Merlin do - Tulleys have 3 question marks on their website. Appears Circus of Horrors and The Island/Colony has disappeared, so would suggest 2 are replacements for those and one new haunt. Wastelands extension/haunt 2 finally happening?

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!