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The closure was very much for maintenance checks and nothing else. Due to large equipment being in the plaza, I expect that logistically it wasn't practical / H&S-advised to also do things like work in the queue line. But yeah, it's a real shame to see it in such an unfinished way. I didn't expect it to be perfect (the ride area side of things moreso), but the queue line section is bland and sad. That really should have been dealt with. We can only hope they sufficiently add to that over winter. The ride area side I'm happy for them to let bed in. Many ride areas have been like that. Colossus is a Thorpe example. But even rides abroad like Baron 1898 (Efteling) and Fenix (Toverland) started off a bit bland and muddy, but grew into it naturally over time. I think the ride area for Hyperia will be the same. I noticed yesterday that the lake has 'returned' a bit more now, with the final remaining land that connected the two sides of land together now submerged (thanks to the rain). I'm sure over time things will slowly progress. The splashdown is verging on being the biggest waste of money if the park can't / don't reintroduce it. Whatever the reasons are for it not operating, it's not good that it lasted a couple of months before stopping. Doesn't help that, despite being 'okay', it wasn't a special splashdown in any way. Feels very much like a design choice which didn't appreciate the operational practicality. My biggest concern for Hyperia, right now, though is it stalling again. Yesterday, I saw it shutdown a couple of times. When it did test runs, empty, it was going through the outerbank twisted dive (and even the stall loop) quite slowly. I was getting serious déjà vu from a visit a few days before it stalled. This wasn't a case of it needing to warm up either. One instance was just after 5pm. It had been running reasonably consistently throughout the day, and then had a short (5-10min) shutdown. Both test cycles were worryingly slow through the outerbank. Yesterday was cool, but certainly nowhere near as cold as we're going to see over the next month. Should stress that with riders, it didn't struggle, but was slower than other rides I've had. I don't know how Macks run and if they have winter / cold-weather wheels. But if they do, it feels like Thorpe need to put them on now if they haven't already. A second valley would not be a good look or ideal for the park, especially in their busiest period of the year.

Assuming I'm reading this correctly as "the park was busy", I would...disagree. That was a "mid" day by all definitions as far as I'm concerned in terms of attendances. Which highlights conversations in the past of how the park struggles with more mid numbers. Yep, it was a bit of a shocker to start with. But once everything opened, everything looked largely reliable. Nemesis Inferno was pretty shocking with operations though...very slow for no real reason. Always good to hear this being mentioned. As weird as it sounds, Thorpe's toilets are currently up there with some of the best theme park toilets I've seen. The "new-ness" of them naturally helps them look cleaner and tidier in general. I hope that those standards are maintained consistently over the next couple of years. It's a comparatively cheaper job to have tarted them up, but makes the world of difference to guests, and had been a big want from the cleaning/maintenance teams on park for the last few years. I'm in two minds about this. No issue with it opening the same time as FN attractions and it just operating as if it were one. However, losing a ride for 3 extra hours - one which will likely receive increased popularity due to the time of year - is a loss. Especially on those peak days. Presumably the driving reason is so that all actors start at the same time, with added bonuses of alleviating pressure elsewhere and saving a bit of money. But not ideal really.

It'll be interesting to see if they make any improvements to the area over closed season. I wonder if we'll ever see the return of the splashdown? I also really hope over closed season they can speed up the time it takes for the train to come in the station from the breakrun. Hopefully they'd be able to get closer to 1000 an hour rather than the 700-800 we're currently seeing.

A note on operations today, which was quite a busy one. A very poor start to the day with half of the main rides down, but by lunchtime everything was finally open. Operations were generally very good across the park, particularly on Hyperia, Stealth and Colossus, where the staff were really going out of their way to help speed things along. Also, I know this is a bit weird, but I think it’s good to point out things like this that tend to go unsaid - Thorpe has some very good and well maintained toilets! Spotlessly clean and smelling of bubblegum, they really are on top of some of “the little things” that actually make quite an impact on your perception of the park.

I had wondered if a little more work had been done to Hyperia’s area during its maintenance this week, but today it was still very much in its unfinished state, with temporary fences lining the paths, cables and pipes draped across the mud, and a lot of areas overgrown with weeds. The splashdown is also still not working, and a few of the speakers are already blown. The queue isn’t great is it. What a ride Hyperia is though. It’s so different to anything else in the UK. Operations on there are also still outstanding - trains regularly going out long before the other returns.