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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?

She's had a few test runs today. Looking quite promising. The launch bunker doors were open the other day. Perhaps they've done a cable change too.

Though a different situation to last year (where Stealth effectively opened weeks into the season), it must be a concern for the park that for the second year running they've had early-season issues with Stealth. The issues with hydraulic launches are well documented now. And one as powerful as Stealth will add to that complexity. At the same time, Thorpe are well-versed in dealing with complex, unique and temperamental rides (for better or worse). So hopefully they're not thinking of giving it up yet. But equally, from a purely business perspective, if this keeps happening, one has to expect they'll at least consider changes to it.

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.

Stealth is back open today!

Heard news that she's been testing today 😀

Interestingly Stealth has updated on the app to closed. Rather than closed all day or closed today. Perhaps some hope 😀

Not as off yet, nobody has told me anything; whether that's a matter of not being able to tell idk but we'll just have to wait and see

Thank you for the update, hopefully they fix it soon (and hopefully fix the second return motor to up the catch car return speed) maybe go on some of the rides in close vicinity like Swarm or Detonator to get a good view of whats going on. I am in contact with Zone 3 staff so I shall ask what's going on 😁

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.

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.