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If anyone’s interested, I have a few throughput timings and insights from my Thorpe visit last Monday: Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains) - 786pph (2 trains, average of 4, 13th April 2026) Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains) - 770pph (2 trains, average of 4, 13th April 2026), 763pph (2 trains, average of 10, 13th April 2026) Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 1,023pph (2 trains, average of 6, 13th April 2026) Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars) - 854pph (unknown number of cars, average of 8, 13th April 2026) Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains) - 827pph (2 trains, average of 9, 13th April 2026), 860pph (2 trains, average of 6, 13th April 2026) The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains) - 946pph (2 trains, average of 10, 13th April 2026), 1,022pph (2 trains, average of 5, 13th April 2026) Overall, then, I would have said ops were pretty good, but perhaps not as high-end as I have seen in a couple of cases. Colossus was doing pretty well in my brief snapshot by that ride’s standards, and Saw was smashing it! Inferno and Hyperia were also doing well. Some others were still good, but perhaps not as high as I have seen. For example, Stealth, consistently attaining slightly below 90s between dispatches, seemed somewhat slower than on my last visit back in September, where the staff were pumping out trains at a rate of knots and attaining nearly 1,000pph. Swarm also seemed slightly less consistent. That is me being persnickety, though; operations were generally good, and ride availability was also strong throughout the day! One thing I did notice is that Inferno was batching at the station entrance, which I found a bit odd… I wonder why they’ve changed this for 2026?

I believe it sounds an alarm if the restraint comes down enough to indicate that the person in the test seat would fit. Very annoying I know - would be better to have a green/red light like I've seen at other parks 🤣 At least its working though I guess! SAWs test seat does the same.

And what does Parm Pap like, beyond long-winded ways of saying (I presume) "the water effect won't make a splash back soon"?

Something I've noticed with Zodiac testing is that its actually reaching the full 90 degrees height and staying at full height for a few seconds before it starts to lower again. Haven't seen it reach full height in years! Will be interesting to see if it does that when it opens or if its just engineers running it in manual.

Zodiac has been doing a lot of testing so far this season so will likely re-open soon. I do agree with your point though. I’d love to see Thorpe add some new flats rather than slowly losing them like we’ve seen at other parks.

Thanks for this Jax, I will keep an eye on the ride activity. It's a shame she's such a complex ride but nevertheless the engineering team do an amazing job trying to get her back. Must be a hard job for them

Operator was clearly just feeling generous, unless they run 5 laps as standard now. But they do usually adjust laps based on queue time.

Never seen that before, and it hasn't been like that all of this year. Could just be because the weather was nice and staff wanted to more be outside. Could be they're trying it there to advise people of potentially long waits for front row (it holds a lot of people). Could be a security thing. Will be interesting to see if they carry on doing that; it's certainly a bit further away from the rows so harder to see

The operator can control the amount of laps, so it usually runs between 2-5 laps. 3 laps is pretty standard, 2 when its very busy and then 5 when its quiet. I've personally not seen more than 5. Odd they were doing 5 laps if it was busy though 🤣

Colossus getting a higher throughput than Hyperia I do hope they consider throughput for their next big coaster. No matter how hard the staff work you can't really achieve a high throughput on it and when its the most popular ride on park, with a huge RAP and Fasttrack allocation it struggles on the busy days.

Shuffles around at that level aren't all that uncommon. I believe the previous VP of Legoland Windsor has moved to a broader role within Merlin. Obviously we don't know the exact day-to-day responsibilities of the VP / Divisional Director roles of the parks, but as has been mentioned, the past few years with Neil in charge have seen lots of positives with operations and general improvements. Thorpe has, for the last couple of years as a minimum, been generally considered the best operated Merlin UK park, with the best reliability, best food, best Halloween event and just in general doing well given the relative tight purse strings from Merlin above. That certainly won't be down to one person, but things like that happen when you've got good leadership in place.

It has been announced that the VP of Thorpe Park is stepping down from his role. They never last long throughout anything, however Neil has lasted quite a long time. No idea what this means for the future

Interesting point on the ages of the flat rides. Given the forces and the fact it was the first large swing id have thought that rush will be first to be replaced. I'm sure they could replace it with a far more efficient modern version. Something that I'm sure is far more appealing with where energy prices will be heading.

They should have kept the price high. It's weird Towers is charging £20 for one of their coasters, yet Thorpe have reduced the cost of a one shot of their newest coaster foe their newest coaster. I'd hope that yesterday's long Fastrack queues is a one off due to the mixture of the taste unlimited Fastrack, first day having extra Premium Passholders, etc The Premium Passholder perk of one free Fastrack per visit is a real wildcard and I expect we'll see lots of quirks over the coming weeks. I agree most people will end up wanting to use their's on Hyperia at Thorpe.

I might be misremembering this but think the initials related to one of the contractors that worked on the ride. I know the initials on the shop (PGB/PBG) relate to the architect involved with the project.

For a non-AI answer, there's no explicit reference. When the ride opened, it did have the "JBS.wrks" sign painted on the building. It was purposefully made to look faded, fitting in with the abandoned warehouse motif of the station and the general Saw storyline. Image from 2009. Back then, there was much less emphasis on Easter Eggs, hidden meanings, etc. It was likely thrown on there just to add an extra layer of 'this is an abandoned warehouse' and 'JBS.wrks' sounds like a plausible thing for a warehouse. The addition of the new signage is a bit unnecessary and doesn't add anything meaningful or worthwhile in my opinion. But equally, for some signs that were probably a couple of hundred quid, it adds another layer for repeat visitors to make things feel fresh. You could even argue that the "JBS.wrks Est 2009" signage goes against the original planned story, as the whole point is that the warehouse was abandoned and taken over by Jigsaw in 2009. But it's not that deep and doesn't matter. So yeah, no real relevance. Almost certainly doesn't actually mean anything. And very much done for the sake of it.

Very late to this but... Park count: Thorpe x10-20? Paultons x1 (first time in over 10 years) Liseberg x2 (first time) Grona Lund x1 (first time) Portaventura x2 (first time) Ferrari land x1 (first time) Parc Asterix x1 Walibi Belgium x1 Walibi Holland x2 (first time) Pretty successful year for me. 5 new parks, returning visits to some of my favourites and 3 European Halloween events. I got 29 new creds (4 of them being in my top 10) bringing me to a total of 205. Highlights Getting back to Paultons and seeing how much that place has changed. Haven't been since I was a kid. Portaventura was much better than expected. Walibi Holland was the best Halloween event I've ever been to. The Clinic and Slaughterhouse were the craziest Halloween attractions I've done, and Us vs You was a fantastic maze. I got on all 5 of my top 5 coasters last year. Disappointments Red Force wasn't as good as expected. I expected bad from Furious Baco. But that is by far the most uncomfortable and painful coaster I've ever experienced. Insane being closed at Grona Lund. Never done a Zac spin so was keen to get on it. 2026 I still don't really have much plans this year so will probably be a quieter year for me. I have a Merlin pass so have been to Thorpe and Towers already. I'll get lots of Thorpe trips in for sure. Paultons for the opening of their new coaster. Have a holiday in Turkey booked so will go to Land of legends and get on another Mack Hyper 😍 I was planning on Falcons Flight but thats looking unlikely now. Potentially a US trip instead. Was having a look at Florida but might be a bit silly to not wait for the new 2027 coaster at Universal. Looking at doing a couple days in Madrid but nothing booked yet.

Mean I don't know anyone staff wise but been told someone called Josh Reynolds has moved over.

Haven't updated my top 10 in a while and have a few changes from 2025. New for 2025 in bold. 1) Toutatis 2) Untamed 3) Kondaa 4) Shambala 5) Hyperia 6) Ride to Happiness 7) Taron 8) Balder 9) Helix 10) Nemesis Kondaa used to be my number one, with Toutatis in second place. After riding both again in October I decided I prefer Toutatis overall. From the moment I got on it in 24 I was addicted to it, I’ll never get bored of that swing launch. I also love its more aggressive airtime.

Interesting to hear/read about the troubles Towers are having (again) this season, with staggered opening and many rides not opening until well after opening time if at all. I have heard a lot about a shortage of engineers being one of the main causes of all the problems. My thought.... Has Alton Towers just become bigger than is feasible to operate? It's an enormous site with actually quite a few rides, not to mention the 6 hotels.... If you think about the sheer number of staff required to (for example) run a hotel, let alone six, as well as run the daily opening routines and maintenance on all the rides across such a large site, it equates to a huge number of people. When you also think about how remote the location is, they need to draw employees in from far and wide, which is going to be difficult for a company that doesn't appear to have the money to compete with other companies who might attract potential employees with the same skills and interests, who would prefer a permanent (not seasonal) role. Considering AT isn't open all year, thus isn't making money for a portion of the year, AND the fact that many of the staff are seasonal, it must be a constant headache to fully staff such an enormous place. When you compare this situation with that of Thorpe Park's for example, as an outsider at least, it would appear that running a smaller park with fewer aspects (no hotels, smaller site, closer to towns/cities for employment etc) is more advantageous. Unless of course the business runs and brings in money all year round, like Universal will.

Closed all day again today, no train on the track, a sign in the plaza and a member of staff letting people know, but that’s it 😭

It looks like Stealth has been having a few issues recently. It's not looking great. Hopefully it isn't too bad and the engineers have her fixed soon enough.

Teacups confirmed removal for 2027.