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I did a Hyperia coaster climb this evening. There was some chatter when it was made live about the cost being expensive (£120). It is, no beating around the bush. But it is worth it. My experience was about 3hrs all in, and included lots of time spent scaling the ride, time spent in the console and time spent around the turnaround outside the station, with lots of opportunities for photos, fabulous hosts and a great vibe. Find attached a variety of photos (of me). I'll write a proper TPM article later.

Saw it testing a few times today

Just got back from first trip to Europa. Wow. Where to start. Stayed in hotel Colleseio which was impressive, and to be honest a strange experience in itself that such a lavish hotel was linked to a theme park. 3 days on park and 1 day Rulantica. &nbsp The aesthetics of the park are incredible, it’s impossible not to feel the passion and pride that the Mack family have for their park. Everywhere you look it’s packed with hidden gems and is fresh, vibrant and visually stunning. More so, even after 3 days I know there’s so much more to discover, and the rich theming throughout really does elevate this park. The ride selection is second to none. I went for the coasters, but fell in love with the dark rides! Pirates detail was impressive, but live all the little hidden gems throughout the park. In terms of the biggies. Voltron was my no1 followed by Wodan and Silver Star, but also really enjoyed blue fire, the last inversion really something. Heard people talking up the ops for years, and was always questioning why people went on about them so much. Well not any more! Absolute perfection and efficiency. So obvious that the park is all about guest experience, the no nonsense approach in the stations is so refreshing to see, and keeps the queues down to sub 20 even on popular rides on a fairly busy day! Overall can’t wait to get back, going to be hard to find a park to top the all round package that Europa provides, yes there’s parks with better coasters etc, but it’s the combo of the selection of rides, theming, cleanliness, food and beverage offerings and most of all OPERATIONS! If you havent been. Get out there!!

So to bring some additional clarity to the situation... -The park are awaiting a part. This is evident by the fact staff aren't working on it actively. This means it'll be closed a while. Even when the part arrives, they will require time to test it. -It is likely a bigger / more expensive / specialist part, hence why the park didn't have one already. This takes time to acquire; it's not like they ring up Intamin and say "Can we have 1 [thing from catalogue] please?" and Intamin ship it out the next day from their warehouse either. -Time frame is unclear at the moment. How long is a piece of string. -Thorpe have no intention of getting rid of Stealth.

I've had my suspicions all but confirmed in that Stealth's and Rita's are indeed unrelated. Thorpe will do their utmost to keep Stealth going, and I don't think we're anywhere near the point where they're considering getting rid of it. For those old enough to remember, Thorpe literally clung onto dear life with Slammer. It was closed more than it was open for a couple of years. S&S stopped manufacturing parts, so Thorpe sourced things elsewhere. They dedicated a lot of money and man hours into getting the thing running. Only once it had absolutely gone past the financial point of no return did they give up the ghost. And Stealth is obviously different; it is still such an iconic ride for the park, is a genuine reason that people visit, and generates money from merch sales. I'm not saying to take Stealth for granted, but at this point, there is no reason to think Stealth is facing an imminent closure in the next couple of years.

I visited this park three weeks ago and I had some thoughts. You can tell this was a Disney park on a budget and was obviously planned in the days where Disneyland Paris was seen as a failure and budgets were tight. When it opened, its major rides were Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise and at a push, The many adventure of Winnie the Pooh. Investment has come with an outer ring basically built on the left side of the park with it starting at Grizzly Bear Mountain Railroad, into Mystic Point, Toy Story Land and finally Frozen Land. The right side of the park hasn't been left behind though with the removal of Autopia in favour of the Ironman Experience, Buzz lightyear re-themed to Ant-man and a rumoured Tower of Terror ride themed to Spiderman. I will say this, it is most definitely a one day park, maybe even a half day. The queues here are minimal (which is refreshing for a Disney park) and a lot of the rides are basically filler (again, quite refreshing). The longest waits are for the Duffy and Friends characters near the park entrances. If you aren't interested in queuing an hour to meet Lina-Bell, you have a problem. Grizzly Bear Mountain is the parks Big Thunder Mountain equivalent and It's a really good family coaster, it lacks the jank of thunder Mountain and its backwards section is pretty weak but the rest of the ride is great. The bears are used for comedy, one rubbing its bum on a points changer, another two setting of the dynamite in the mountains. The launch is pretty powerful and there's great forces on the turns through the valleys of the mountain. Mystic Manor was closed. This absolutely sucked. Toy Story land is exactly the same as Paris's, just slightly bigger. Jungle Cruise is excellent. When we went you could wait for either mandarin or english skippers. Because the English was done in slightly broken English, it made it an absolutely hilarious time. The skippers were so fun and over the top. The finale is sublime and puts this as the best Jungle Cruise in the Disney parks. Frozen Land was fine. It still pains me that this Frozen Ever After is the big new hope for Disneyland Paris when at its heart, it's a very mid fantasyland reject and isn't really good enough. The Disney Sea equivalent is far superior. Onkens sleds is fine if a bit basic. Its best bit is the lift hilll animatronic. The rest of it is junior rollercoaster fluff. Small World is the best of the five and was in good condition. All figures and effects are working. Hyperspace Mountain is the same as the Disneyland version and is pretty fun if unremarkable. Its permanently hyperspace mountain so does need a proper refurbishment. Antman and the Wasp is dull. All the sets are just grey and brown as you are shrunk down to destroy micro-chips. This leaves you with a very bland experience. Iron Man experience is pretty good, a more modern version of Star Tours. I personally.. prefer star Tours as it feels more mechanical and less fluid. However there's no denying it is a fun and unique experience. When we went there was no parades or special entertainment as the trip was during the parks off-season. The only offering was the fireworks display at the end of the night, called Momentous which was fantastic and a beautiful display. I was pretty emotional towards the end.

STEALTH HAS OFFICIALLY REOPENED!!

Good news! It's been testing consistently today (6 times)

This weekend I went to Paulton’s fan day, the park certainly put on a lovely event. Several tours/BTS were carried out throughout the day, from seeing Cobra’s ride workshop, Storm Chaser’s OP cabin/train workshop process, the new construction area and much more. We had over an hour of ERS in Tornado Springs and Ghostly Manor (more on that soon) as well as a lovely buffet in Mel’s Diner and a Reveal/Q&A with park management. The biggest news/reveal of course was the new Vikings area (Valgard), which will include a new coaster, flat ride, restaurant and also re-themed Cobra (soon to be Raven). Surprisingly, the new coaster will be a Gerstlauer eurofighter, but hopefully the park will carry it off well, I find the smaller ones the better rides usually. Vague hints of a new water ride the following year were revealed, but not much else. Very exciting still. Magma will be a goner later this year. At least for Paultons. The lodges are several years away still. They also did a Q&A and showed how they build Ghostly Manor, which given the areas footprint/show building is impressive they got that all in. They also did a silent disco, but I left at that point. So, Ghostly Manor? My thoughts? It’s a lovely compact dark ride mixing screens and scenes nicely (they have 10 of them), plus the queue line is nicely done too. Whilst it doesn’t hit the same way as Alty Mans or Danse Macabre (which I did days earlier), it’s a decent addition to the park and great to see them finally obtaining a dark ride. Should suit the park nicely. Interesting times ahead perhaps.

Just to make it clear, Intamin have in no way stopped providing support for their Accelerators. Whilst it's true they don't offer the model any more (or at least, no one has considered doing so for over a decade), it in no way means they've washed their hands of it. Thorpe/Merlin and Intamin maintain a respectable working relationship, and that is also related to the current issue(s).

SAW's station now has a brand new pre-boarding video on the TV. No longer loops Rules Of The Game like it used to.

Needed new part, took a while to arrive. Just the way these things go sometimes.

It’s been 10 years today since the horrific Smiler collision. BBC News are running coverage about the accident, but for some reason are glossing over the fact that the 2 injured riders raising this are doing so to raise money for the air ambulance charity who helped save many lives that day. I still can’t get over that it actually happened to be honest. I remember seeing the footage on the news and feeling devastated that it happened at Alton Towers of all places - somewhere many people cherish as somewhere filled with joy and happy childhood memories. I also remember visiting in the week after the park re-opened, and how empty and weird it felt being there after what happened. A very sad time for everyone involved, and for all the staff. I can’t help but wonder what Alton Towers would be like today if this incident hadn’t happened. To this day, their reputation is damaged, and they certainly took a huge hit in the months and even years after the incident. Perhaps the park would have been prosperous if this hadn’t happened, or perhaps an incident was waiting to happen anyway given the shortcuts that were being taken.

Been down for a few days, anyone know if its going through its yearly 'go down and get dismantled and put back together' nvm it reopened earlier hah

This was approved this week: https://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/index.php/2025/05/25/project-pivot-approved/ Whether they decide to try and get it ready for Fright Nights or just wait until next year is the big question now

She's back in operation now

Doesn't look like it'll be opening today. Area still barried off, couple of people milling around. The music is off and not seen it testing yet either.

Me too! We'll see what happens from here

We are so back!!!

No most don't but a small minority but have found it useful to know alongside!

Considering Rita took another 5 days or so to open after it was first testing again, I expect Stealth could be similar. It's encouraging to hear it testing on Saturday though!

I agree that they might be doing some final checks before they start testing fully. I know it's a bit different but they also stated at the time that Hyperia would only be testing on weekdays when it first started testing, so that may be something to keep in mind too.

There's nothing there now. But on Saturday one train was in the unload section and one was in the brake run section. The train can't get to the brake run section unless it's gone round and completed the circuit or they've moved the train from the unload section for the other train to be on the brake run. This indicates it tested and was confirmed to have tested by someone I know who works at the park. Given Rita had been testing last week and just reopened, I shouldn't think it'll be too long before we see the REAL Queen of Speed back up and operating again 😁

Paultons Park are pooing all over the competition in the UK aren’t they. Amazing. The change in this place since I went as a child is astounding - it’s unrecognisable. Magma going is a weird one - feels like it’s only been there for about 20 minutes

Its been back on 2 trains since Friday

Great day at Paultons today. I hadn’t been to the park for over 10 years, before the likes of Peppa Pig world so it was great to see how much the park has changed for the better since then. Ghostly Manor is a great addition to their lineup, fits the area perfectly and is finished to a really high standard. Seeing the coasters behind the scenes was really cool, particularly enjoyed watching Storm Chaser in the op cabin while it was being operated for the ERT. A little disappointed they went for a Gerst Eurofighter for their 2026 addition, but I do think it will be a great fit for the park. I think there are definitely better options out there, but think they chose this for budget reasons more than anything. Particularly disappointed that it will have OTSR’s rather than Lap Bars (the boos from the crowd were hilarious), and I do think that is a mistake. I understand their thinking, that they want it to be as accessible as possible and they feel like OTSR’s will be seen as safer by the GP, especially for their first inversion coaster. But ultimately, Lap Bars are more modern, and I think this will impact the overall guest experience and enjoyment of the coaster. New water ride teased for 2027 and then the accommodation is planned for 2030+. Great to see them investing so much and I do hope the 2026 addition is a success. They made it clear they are slowly increasing the thrill level rather than big jumps, so it seems this is very much a test. They seemed to keep repeating that this is their tallest coaster ‘yet’ and ‘to date’ so will be interesting to see Paultons future. Magma is going, they mentioned its staying in the UK so will be interesting to see what park has bought it. My understanding was that Edge will be staying where it is but just won't be part of the Vikings area.

Things are looking up

Apparently Stealth's been testing a few times today...

Studios/Adventure world still has some way to go on the park front, but this actually looks great. Must admit I had a strange liking towards studio one, but excellent work on this section. Hopefully we will see similar with the rest of the park in due course.

It'll look very weird though given you'll need to walk through a load of dead empty space to get to Frozen Land next year and beyond even Lion King being added. Making the best of the initial bad designs with the new Studio 1 mind.

A massive upgrade there! To be honest all the changes they’re making in the studios park look incredible. Adventure World is going to be a very good park when ‘Adventure Way’ and the lake area open up. Lion King will add so much more as well. They have also quietly planted a literal forest around the park. It looks like it’s going to become a proper Disney experience next year. All very exciting - DLP will have 2 fantastic parks, with hopefully more changes coming to the main park soon (space mountain surely!) Can’t wait for my visit later in the year - I kind of wish I could push it back by 6-12 months though!

NEW "World Premiere" - FULL TOUR Disneyland Paris 2025 New entrance to Studios opened today. Looks pretty decent!

Ah right that’s great news. Thanks for that 😊

It went down for an extended period of time, most likely due to the same issue it has now, with no correspondence from the park at all. People speculated then that it would close but it still turned out fine. There's really nothing to worry about as stated, as if it's not open for the May half term, it'll deffo be back up before the summer holidays :3

The part is still probably in the post then lol, and have probably got the cherry picker there ready for when it DOES arrive. Remember it's also got to be given the green light from Intamin for it to be fitted, then it has to go through customs and all that faff. Despite what others are saying on social media, everything seems normal as this is exactly what happened in 2019 when the ride was closed for the same issue during the summer holidays. But the influencers can get their views up a but more by making their panic and bogus speculation videos. It shouldn't be too long now, and if it doesn't open soon, I expect they'll try their hardest to get it open for May half term, or failing that, the summer holidays. Hope this brings some clarity

I saw somewhere that Mack were on park having a look at it and will tomorrow while the park is closed, planned to be back on 2 Thursday. Not sure how much truth is in that though.

Shame

Its definitely noticeable now, it's a little rougher and jolty in my opinion, especially as it warms up and from row 4/5 onwards, but doesn't detract from the ride experience too much. I do wonder if this is a long term solution or just temporary? I got on Helix on the weekend just gone for my first time, which is over 10 years old and it was glass smooth in comparison. Also, watching the ops on Helix makes me so glad we don't have seatbelts on Hyperia 🤣

I’ve learned today that apparently Hyperia has had some of its wheels replaced with nylon ones, resulting in the trains maintaining higher speeds for longer through the high points (and a shorter time to complete the circuit of course). With no sign of any reoccurrence of the valleying issues for several weeks now, could we finally be in the “business as usual” phase, with the ride running reliably and consistently? I guess it’s still too soon to say, but here’s hoping.

Yes it was haha

There was a small red crane in the plaza yesterday and the launch bunker doors were open

Wow - that came out of the blue. I love the waterside location, and it’s cool to see it could be different to anything they’ve done before. An interesting choice of location however given how poorly the other parks have done in the area, not to mention Disney’s values and focus on inclusivity. Still. It’s very exiting to see Disney spending so much money on their parks again recently. This could very well end up being the cheaper option to visit from the UK compared with a trip to Orlando (although you wouldn’t have all the neighbouring parks of course). And it would also open up a great Disney stopover for people flying to Europe from Asia and Australia. Good news for DLP and Universal GB.

For sure! Hopefully it’ll be back within the next few weeks

I'm at the park on Thursday so might see what's going on then

Doesn’t look like it opened at all again today. Am going to the park tomorrow, so will take a look then

It ALWAYS goes silent when there's a long term closure. See Hyperia last year. It is not within the best interests of the park(s) to announce publicly any technical issues with the rides. Aren't Rita & Stealth trains the same? Just likely that the hydraulic launched coasters have a bit of a shorter lifespan. Presumably down to the launch system itself being incredibly high energy for short bursts of time so wear and tear is bound to happen. Fairly telling with there being only 10 Intamin ones operating with the last brand new one built in 2010.

Anyone know what happened?? All I have heard is the train only went half way up the top hat, rolled back and been closed since. Anyone know if this is true? I am getting concerned for stealth now guys. I really hope if Rita closes they salvage the parts and do everything to keep stealth open. Imagine Rita trains on the stealth circuit. That is if they repainted them back to Rita original colours but would still be so cool to see. Anyone reckon that's possible? I fear stealth only has a season or two left depending on operations for the rest of this season. It's literally gone silent. What if this issue continues to occur.

With the recent announcement of the Universal theme park for the UK, I’ve been wondering about the prospect of other similar mega-parks opening up in this country. There was of course the proposal for the Swanscombe Peninsula theme park, but this has been kicked into the long grass. Then I had an idea. Many British theme parks aren’t really themed around British culture, and with the rise in popularity of immersive experiences and living museums, I think this would be a good opportunity to trial a combined theme park and living museum attraction, that educates the British public on their country’s history through rides and experiences. I’m not expecting this to be the UK’s next thrill park, but more of a family park that appeals to all ages, consisting of a mixture of moderate rides and immersive experiences. Like many theme parks, this park would be split into different lands, with each one corresponding to a period of British history. There would be a big emphasis on theming to fit in with the area’s period, with rides camouflaged or located indoors wherever possible. Some of my ideas for areas include: - A Roman Britain themed area. - A Tudor and Shakespeare themed area. - An area themed around British myths, legends and folklore. - An area themed to British farming, particularly in the West Country. - An area themed to a remote Scottish fishing village at risk from the effects of global warming. - An area themed to a Welsh mining village, in an area where the future of coal mining is uncertain. - A peaceful “flora and fauna” area with no thrill rides, home to native British plants and wildlife. - An area themed to Wartime Britain, with emphasis on the two world wars and global domination of the British Empire during that period. - A science and technology area themed around British industry and inventions, celebrating the innovations of the past alongside those of today and tomorrow. - An area themed to British pop culture from the 1960s to the 90s, with an emphasis on the arts, sport and leisure. - The park’s hub, themed to a traditional market town in the South East of England. - A transit system to connect park areas together. Could be a replica of the London Underground. Each area would consist of: 1 rollercoaster, water or dark ride 1 flat thrill ride 2 childrens’ rides 1 immersive attraction 1 food outlet So to round things up, this would essentially combine the thrilling aspects of a theme park with the educational side of museums, and the Insta-worthy appeal of immersive experiences. Do you think such an attraction would work in the UK?

Just a post about some Thorpe Park history some people may not know. In the early 2000's, the park installed its first fast track system, which was very similar to the ones used at Disney. You would put your park ticket in the machine and receive a printed fast track ticket. The system was free to use, and ran for about 1-2 seasons until they decided to follow Universal and charge for the service The machines were ripped out but you can still see remnants of the system today. Tidal Wave: The steel structure with the red roof covering the F&B kiosk was the original covering for the fast track machines Nemesis Inferno had an actual area for the machines included as part of the design. You can see this to the right of the queue line entrance, where the retail kiosk is now located. The ones for Colossus was located where the F&B unit at the bottom of the hill (near Samurai) is now located. Loggers Leap also had machines installed, and these were located next to the entrance to the queue line. Hope this was some fun bits of information from the parks history!

So I visited Efteling for the first time recently. This park exceeded my expectations, and I was going to say its a Disney quality park. However, considering Efteling is older than Disneyland, should I be saying "are the Disney parks Efteling quality?" We spent 2 days at the park arriving around midday on the first. We didn't realise there was a national holiday, so the park was quite busy, however queue times averaged around the 30min mark, with Danse Macabre having a 60min queue pretty much all day for both days. Symbolica - Loved this ride, the level of theming was very high, and refreshing to see they didn't resort to using screens inside the attraction. There is a bit where all 3 cars face a balcony, which would have been an ideal place to put some screens, however there was a lovely diorama with butterflies so props to Efteling. Also great to see the park celebrating their mascot Pardoes by giving them their own attraction. I also loved the fact that you can choose between 3 different alternate endings, however we only got to experience the one. When we returned to do a re-ride at the end of the 2nd day the ride had closed for technical issues and didn't reopen. Vogel Rok - Awesome indoor coaster, decent amount of theming in the queue. Quiet forceful in some places. Joris en de Draak - loved these dual coasters, probably one of my favourites of the whole trip. Loads of fun pops of airtime. Loved the little details, such as the flag spinning at the end to signify the winner and the flags dropping in the station on the winning side. Droomvlucht - loved this ride, the sets were impressively large. Also was not expecting the spiral ending. Pagode - I've never been on this type of ride before, and we rode it as the sun was setting. Beautiful views across the park. Python - I was surprised at how well this rode and was quite forceful. I think its great that Efteling decided to completely re-track and keep its first major thrill ride, where other parks would have removed it. De Vliegende Hollander - this ride was amazing, the level of theming in the queue and the station blew me away. Reminded me of PoTC. The bit of the ride that goes into complete darkness with the fog actually made me a bit claustrophobic, and the ships "jumping" out of the dark were a nice touch. The coaster portion was decent, and we got lightly splashed at the end. The area theming was amazing as well. Baron 1898 - decent ride, amazing theming. Probably the only "let down" ride of the trip (and I use that term loosely as it is a world class ride) as the only other dive coaster I have been to compare it to is Oblivion. Carnaval Festival - loved this, reminded me of Small World (although the tune is not as offensive as Small World haha) and Toyland Tours. Love to see these old school attractions still running. Fairytale Forest - we spent around 2 hours in this, and we missed a lot. We underestimated how big this area is! My standout for this first visit was the Indian Waterlillies. Danse Macabre - this attraction was the standout attraction for me of the whole trip. I don't think there's much more I can say about it other than its incredible. We waited both days until it got dark to ride this as the darkness really added to the atmosphere. I would say Efteling have knocked it out of the park with this ride, its so well done. Probably the best POV I have seen online is the DLP Welcome one (link here: NEW RIDE Danse Macabre FULL ON RIDE - Efteling - World Premiere Dynamic Motion Stage). Park Ops - this is an extremely well run park, each of the F&B units had at least 3 staff in them, and the park and toilets were spotless. All of the attractions were running multiple trains/cars and the queues moved quickly. On our 2nd day we guesstimated they had a gate figure of around 10-12,000 and the park just swallowed it up. Each attraction appears to have been built with throughputs in mind, and considering the park doesn't run a fast track system they appear to do well with this. I got asked by a member of staff on a coffee unit what I thought of the park, and when I gave my feedback (which was positive) they said "thank you". I got the impression the staff were really proud to work there, and took ownership of it. We ate at the pancake restaurant Polles Keuken (amazing pancakes, although I would recommend pre-booking as the walk up queue can get quite long). The thematic elements in the restaurant added to the whole experience. We had lunch/early dinner at the Het Witte Paard restaurant. This was was around 15 EURO for a decent hot meal and drink which is amazing VFM in my opinion. In fact, the whole experience I felt was really good VFM, with park tickets costing 38 EURO and parking 12 EURO. My only gripe is that the hot drinks were all one size (small) and were 5 EURO, but this wasn't a big deal. We also ate at the Fabula Restaurant which was very good. The indoor play structures looked a lot of fun for the kids. We visited the Winter area that they had just finished setting up which was very well done. Park merchandise was very good, and I spent a small fortune on gifts, something I rarely do at a theme park. They also sell the various scents from the attractions which was a very unique thing to see. Parkwide and attraction sound/music were on point and very memorable. Entry to the park was quick and efficient, and the park entrance building is amazing! Construction on the new hotel looks like its progressing well, and I'm sure will be an awesome addition once it opens. Attractions we missed: Fata Morgana - closed for maintenance Villa Volta - didn't get time to get round to it Pirana - didn't get time to get round to it Raveleijn - they were running one show a day and we set an alarm to ensure we would be there on time. However we forgot we set the alarm and the alarm went off when we were in the middle of the queue for Baron. Stoomtrein - didn't get time to get round to it Max & Moritz - didn't get time to get round to it I'm sure we missed a whole lot more as the park is massive, but gives me a reason for a return trip! All in all, an amazing park. This park and Phantasialand are filled with magic, wonder and whimsy which I think is missing from a lot of theme parks now. We stayed at the Center Parcs De Vossemeren onsite hotel which is around a 1 hour drive from the park. We payed 40 EURO (each) a night for 3 nights which included access to the waterpark and breakfast! We took a day out of our trip to chill at the Center Parcs which was awesome! Can't wait to see what Efteling do next!