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So thoughts and notes from yesterday, which was a "VIP preview" for the season, where the park was open 10-3. -We're light on changes. A couple of tweaks to F&B is really all that is "new" -Repaints for part of Colossus and Depth Charge look nice. The small side of the Beach looks nice, also repainted, but it highlights the grime of the large side. -Hyperia grass is nice. Could be extended more. They've added benches to the plaza which isn't a bad idea, but they're atop the wings on the ground, which irks me a bit. -Many new pieces of merchandise, which are the usual high quality we've come to expect -Hyperia had issues yesterday, in large part due to the cold. Hopefully better today. Stealth had an issue during testing and didn't open. -The park usually stumbles during first day or two of opening, and yesterday wasn't any different, with the cold affecting weather, and reliability being a bit on the weak side, but it did improve. I've been to significantly worse first days. -There's a few other bits and pieces around the park. Solar panels atop Ghost Train (but you only see them if you look for them on other rides). Walking Dead has had creative tweaks to the post-ride section. Some speakers seem to have been fixed. Tweak to end of day of audio. If 2024 was Thorpe's year of improvement, 2025 is their year of stability. That's not a bad thing. But after a couple of years of multiple changes, it will have a different 'new season' vibe to it. The kicker for the park this year will be the quality and reach of marketing. That will be what makes or breaks them this year, with little to shout about in the way of new things

Find it fascinating how the GP are going oh it’s just ripsaw and the enthusiasts are trying to fight back saying it’s a newer model!

Agreed, as much as a new flat in Slammers space to compliment Hyperia would've been nice, a year of stability isn't a bad thing. Especially at a time of other parks making cuts and removing rides. Nearly didn't bother with passholder day today after seeing Stealth down and Hyperia on 1 train yesterday, but glad I did. Great day, most rides didn't have a queue all day apart from Hyperia. Unfortunate about Stealth, I think the only other ride that was closed was Zodiac, which was pretty much cycling all day by engineering. Hyperia had a lot of shutdowns (I saw 5+) with trains stopping on the lift throughout the day. They were all dealt with very quickly and most of the time was back up again within 10 minutes. One thing I did notice today is they no longer send empty test trains on Hyperia after a shutdown. Once engineering attended and it was back in operation they just started loading trains again. Think we all know why that is.

To be honest, given how poorly nearly all of the other UK parks are doing right now, a year of stability sounds like exactly the right aim for Thorpe. Hyperia’s near stall and ongoing downtime however is getting worrying now that we are heading in to season 2. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a reliable workhorse does it… I really hope that they can get to grips with it. Surely they can’t keep going on like this every time it gets a bit chilly… The solar panels on Ghost Train are slightly interesting in that they’d only be installed on a structure that they intend to keep for a decent amount of time. I guess the building is here to stay, even after the ride is gone (which probably won’t be too long let’s face it).

Glad they managed to get Toxicator back open in the end. Do feel for the current management and staff as they are clearly trying. Just bad luck and not enough investment from Merlin. From what I've seen online, its running really well and looks great. We just need more of this. I'm really not sure replacing postman pat with another coaster should be the priority right now. Another flat in X Sector and Dark Forest is needed ASAP.