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End of season 'I don't give a toss anymore' settling in probably.

Just to chime in on this as I was involved with this project. The trucks used to deliver the material and the excavation machinery were used to compact the earth as it was filled in. I seem to remember we handed over the SAW island to the project team pretty much a couple of months after we had finished infilling. Same with SAW Alive. For The Swarm, think it was about a year, maybe 2 after infilling completed that they started on construction for that project. Any ride structures foundations actually go through the infilled material and into the bedrock below. From memory think the SAW foundations go to 50m

I know lighting wasn’t really made a big deal of from the park during the sparkle project but now it’s fright nights it’s the first real chance to see all the lighting installed and it’s really pretty impressive. To start with it simply for the most part looks really good - most of the rides have color coordinated lights, what’s also nice is the new lighting seems to be able to do various effects such as around inferno the lights do some sort of flame effects shining onto the ride. On that point I believe this is one of the first times the parks actually lit up the rides too, of course Stealth and colossus have had lighting before but other than that most of the lighting was more there to light up just the paths, now themed lighting is directing up to the ride structures them selves which look great. Finally not only looks good but there’s been some decent thought into how they work too - Vortex for example the lights are all white to start when loading, then when the ride cycle starts the lights all change to their “themed” status, also noticed when leaving at around 10:30 all the lights around the park lighting up the paths had changed to a standard white light, small things but nice to see some real thought has gone into how it all works, it’s clearly been a big investment and does make a difference!

On positive side, good to have Hex back.

Depends who you ask. My first visit this season was an absolute disaster. Especially when they trotted out the old "well you have a MAP" line. However Towers aren't in my good books now. So I guess overall the race to be the least worst continues.

I find the 3rd train debate quite interesting, I remember back in the day Stealth would indeed have 3 trains serviceable, but it would still have technical issues causing it spend time on one train - I guess it shows that sometimes rides are on one train for a more complex reason than the other one is simply broke. As Benin says now a days they use the 3rd train to have a continuous cycle of “winter” refurbishment on the other, whilst it may result in the odd day where a train has a genuine fault it won’t be able to run full capacity it’s probably very very rare. In my opinion Thorpe / Merlin shouldn’t have to buy more trains than the ride can run to ensure 2 trains are always available, trains shouldn’t frequently be having to be craned off the ride and rebuilt. I have a feeling in an alternate world if Mack hadn’t built Hyperia and it faced similar issues the manufacturer would be taking abit more of the slack here.. As for the fastrack debate I see both sides to it, I’ll admit I bought fastrack for it on Sunday, if fastrack wasn’t available the person I was with wouldn’t have rode Hyperia. The first time we rode it the fastrack queue was empty and the 2nd maybe 20 or so people in front of us, so it don’t seem like it’s being sold excessively. It seemed a bigger issue when the queue had to be evacuated on the Friday and everyone had priority passes for it, again it’s a tough one and I can see why the park do give out priority passes in this instance. It’s worth noting after it shutdown and priority passes were issued you could not buy any fastrack for it.

Aside from Stealth, can you give any examples of a park buying more trains than they can run on the track at any one time? I know of a couple: Blue Fire at Europa, which has 5 but can run a maximum of 4. Joris en de Draak at Efteling, which again has 5 but (across the 2 coasters) runs a maximum of 4. I'm struggling to think of more examples, but I'd love to hear more. I'd be very surprised if there's any outside of the biggest theme park players. Let's take stock for a second. One of these is a Mack coaster at the theme park that Mack owns and operates, and is the only such instance where they've done that. Efteling purchased a 5th train for Joris around 13 years after opening, following issues. These are two extreme examples. You are saying that Thorpe should, in engineering terms, be in the same league - or better - than two theme parks which are considered some of the best in the world. One of which has a huge engineering advantage of being owned by a manufacturer, one of which is open daily and has huge financial backing. I'm all for aiming high and Thorpe being the best they can be, but we have to acknowledge the limitations there. To say the park "cheaped out" by not buying a 3rd train is crazy. A 3rd train is likely a high-6 / low-7 figure number. On top of that, you realistically need to include extra space for the third train in maintenance. That costs more. Then you need more money to maintain a 3rd train. All adds up. On top of this, we have an area which looks far from perfect, and money needs to be spent there to bring that up to the quality it should be. That's where they've cheaped out. If the park were to have bought a third train, and they couldn't increase the budget, that would come either at the sake of even worse presentation, or an even shorter layout. And remember, this is all in the situation for when a train cannot be used whatsoever, which is - across the board - not that common occurrence. Incorrect. The park have not sold "more" Fastrack. The park have sold Fastrack in line with the expected throughput that Hyperia would achieve. However, that, topped with shutdowns and multiple Hyperia Fastrack tickets being given out as a result, means that the queue length spiralled on occasions. I add here: I do not think that selling Fastrack for the major new coaster when it's on 1 train is a good idea. I do not think they should do it whatsoever. However, the park are categorically not selling more Fastrack, or selling it at a greater proportion compared to when it was on two trains. I expect that the lack of MCBR was, partially at least, a conscious design choice, as opposed to solely a budget choice. The ride is fast-paced, quick and relentless. It uses every inch of its layout to provide large, swooping, airtime-filled elements. It's not to everyone's liking, and some will argue that even without an MCBR it could do more. But it's also clear what they've tried to do. I do expect there's a budget-decision behind it too of course, but again, I don't think it was "How can we build the UK's tallest coaster for as cheap as possible?". Also, in terms of length, Hyperia is the third-longest coaster in Merlin's entire portfolio. Again, that's not to say the park / Merlin shouldn't be aiming to build longer coasters, but there's a certain level of context that should be kept in mind too I think. I guess the question here: is this Thorpe/Merlin's or Mack's faults? Hyperia's issues could arguably be pinned on Mack. The lift hill thrashed itself after 1 day of opening to the public. The ride has stalled twice in the same location. Was it expected that the ride would enter the station at a quicker pace? Did Merlin check? Should they have had to? Can Mack do anything about it? Or did Merlin cheap out? Would be interesting to know what the other Mack, non-launched hyper coasters are like. Kind of goes to the point: should Thorpe (or any park) have to buy a third train to mitigate for the potential of issues which could be down to the manufacturer? Or should the park buy 4 trains, in case both trains have issues? Let's look at other issues on other rides/parks. -A few years ago, Swarm's chain lift hill snapped, just as Fright Nights started. Should the park have a spare chain on hand at all times. -Formula Rossa's launch cable snapped earlier this, and it damaged a train. That happened in January and the ride is still closed. Should Ferrari World have a spare launch cable, and an extra train, on hand at all times so they can just replace them, rather than going through the lengthy wait to get them replaced/repaired? Every park everywhere will do what they can to prevent issues. But there has to be a business balance. Should parks spend millions (literally) to allow for maximum operation at all times, to mitigate rare and extraordinary circumstances. I'm a little confused by this finale point. What problem are you saying is in the company's power to resolve? Is it: 1. The company paying more to get, store and maintain a third train. 2. The company hiring more maintenance staff, so they would have the resources to maintain a hypothetical third train. If it's the first point, that's been discussed. If it's the latter, as you have said yourself, it's an industry problem. Engineers at theme parks work unfriendly hours, in all weathers, in a role which is driven by delivering immediate customer service and satisfaction. That is unlike many other engineering roles. On top of that, the park isn't as good as many other engineering roles. But that's the same at every theme park. We can argue that Merlin should pay more, offer better benefits, etc etc. But it's not just them, it's every park. It's exactly the same in plenty of other industries. Teachers should be paid more, why doesn't a school just pay its teachers more? Doctors should be paid more, why doesn't a hospital just pay its doctors more? McDonald's servers should be paid more than minimum wage, why doesn't a particular franchise just pay its staff more? As I say, we can argue that Merlin should pay its staff more, but that's a much, much wider problem. I respect you Coaster, but honestly, I think the standard you're trying to hold Thorpe/Merlin to is just completely unrealistic and unachievable for them.