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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.

we have all had enough of this thing. nothing cryptic about it anymore. it just doesn't work.

I can't believe we're nearly at four years of this twaddle.

For me, my TP season ended yesterday having jumped in for an extra day due to the changing weather forecast, a great day for me. It could not have happened without the Staff and it would, like life, be easy to thank those who helped me directly. There are many staff whose contributions to that, and all my TP days, are normally not acknowledged. I do thank everybody from the cleaning, washroom, maintenance, management, security, gardeners and ride team, a lot of people. Just like the bus on which I ride to the Park, so seldom do I hear a "thank you". We, as visitors, don't get the chance to wish those well in their futures who, within a few days, won't have a job. Just my thoughts.

I'm really impressed by the ride teams at Thorpe. We really take for granted how hard they work to keep the rides moving so efficiently. It's really telling how good we have it, The Swarm probably had the worst ops but they were still only stacking trains for about 10 seconds per cycle (and that is an exaggeration). The Hyperia team must have been chosen by the goddess themselves, because they run that ride so well, never stacking, always dispatching as soon as they can. Also shout out to Inferno's team who were doing a great job. They need a batcher though as lots of trains going out with two empty seats next to each other. And finally, the older I get the more I see myself preferring Thorpe's coaster line up to Altons. As much as I like Nemesis Reborn, I think the rest of the line up is either gimmicky nonsense, run awfully or just dull. Whereas Inferno is running the best Ive seen it (honestly, it's so good right now), Stealth and the Swarm are just so much fun, Hyperia manages to be open ( ) and I still love hanging out around Colossus and hearing that music. In general Thorpe is just a better experience all round. Better hours, better rides, better food, better operations. I would have never said that 20 years ago, but now, to me, Thorpe is in a different league.

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

Closed season bingo!

I have some throughput timings from my trip to Thorpe Park yesterday that I’d like to report! I managed to grab the following timings in the park yesterday: Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains): 717pph (unknown number of trains, average of 3, 20th September 2025) Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains): 833pph (2 trains, average of 10, 20th September 2025) Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 977pph (2 trains, average of 5, 20th September 2025), 1,024pph (2 trains, average of 4, 20th September 2025) Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars/2 stations): 742pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 10 singular cars, 20th September 2025), 788pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 4 dual dispatches, 20th September 2025) Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains): 975pph (2 trains, average of 10, 20th September 2025) The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains): 1,046pph (2 trains, average of 9, 20th September 2025) In terms of some specific insights: Stealth had possibly the best operations I’ve ever seen on there; these operations were phenomenal! The staff were sprinting down the platform, and they were very frequently outpacing the 40s dispatch timer on the platform, something which I’d largely thought redundant in previous years! 70-75 second dispatch intervals were being hit very consistently, and the slowest I saw was about 80s, which is incredible! The Swarm was also operated very well given that it seems to have been a tad inconsistent as of late. When I was in the area, the ride was consistently achieving minimal to no stacking, the staff were efficient, and I saw some dispatch intervals as quick as 90s or below. Great job! Hyperia was operating well, and seems to have improved compared to its opening year, with 80-90 second dispatch intervals being attained pretty consistently where closer to 100-120 seconds seemed par for the course in 2024. From what I could see, the ride was consistently not stacking and was very often dispatching before the train in front hit the brake run; at its quickest, I saw them dispatch when the train in front was negotiating the final outerbank after the splashdown. I do think the slow brake run on here makes throughputs slower than they could be when the ride isn’t stacking; if the brake run was faster, I think it would shave at least 10 seconds off the dispatch interval! Nemesis Inferno seemed to be operating well, with minimal to no stacking being quite frequent. I noticed the staff were trying to hurry people along on here. Overall, then, I thought operations were broadly very good at Thorpe yesterday! Stealth was phenomenally operated, I also thought The Swarm was particularly well operated, and overall, most things seemed to be doing well! I’ve given up hope of Colossus ever attaining a particularly decent throughput at this point, but even that didn’t appear too slow by Colossus standards.

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.

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!!

I was lucky to experience a valley on Mandrill on Sunday, we just came to a stop at the boost launch area before the helix. I found it quite exciting as we would have to experience the rides swing launch to get it going again. I really enjoyed it as well. Mandrills launches are quite punchy as it is so going back and forth through the section was pretty satisfying. I am actually quite a big fan of Mandrill tbh, I've heard all the arguments about it being the wrong fit and whatever, however every time I go on it, it gives me a lot of joy and the queues for it never seem crazily unreasonable.The team always seem really on it when it comes to batching, loading and dispatching. It also has the B&M quirk of being incredibly reliable, 3.8% downtime for the last 7 days, and beaten only by Nemesis Reborn.

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!

Hello. How was your year? Here's mine- Parks visited Efteling X5 Animal Kingdom X3 Hollywood Studios X1 Southend Adventure Island X1 Chessington X1 Schwaben Park X1 Tripsdrill X1 Legoland Deutschland X1 Hong Kong Disneyland X2 Ocean Park HK X1 Himeji Central Park X1 Parque Espana Shima X1 Nagashima Spa Land X1 Fuji Q X1 Disneyland Tokyo X2 Tokyo Disney Sea X3 Thorpe Park X2 Wiener Prater X1 Fantasiana X1 Epic Universe X2 New Rollercoasters ridden - 62 I'd say my top ten new rollercoasters of 2025 are as follows- Flying Dinosaur - The most intense flyer out there. It is absolutely fantastic. Stardust Racers Green - I love this ride, the flowing elements and air time are excellent and the duelling with yellow is so good. Stardust Racers Yellow - I mean come on, they are both so good and theres very little in between them in terms of quality. Steel Dragon 2000 - Aside from the really frustrating loading, this is a really long ride that does deliver. The air time at the end is also excellent. Pyrenees - An Inverter that sits under the radar, this is a very good rollercoaster, it just has a really odd ending. Hals Uber Kopf - The vekoma STC is so good. Both it and Fienna Force are so class. I thought this was a surprisingly forceful rollercoaster and really enjoyed it. Hollywood Dream - A surprisingly good hyper coaster. I only got the chance to ride this backwards but I thought it was excellent. Harakugei - A very good RMC but I find the loading procedures really take away the fun from a lot of Japanese parks. This is still awesome but its tiresome waiting for it . Diavlo - I don't really care that this is just a batman clone, it really is an excellent version of the ride. It looks a little rusty and run done and its amazing that the park have bothered to keep it running. Glad to have got on it. Zokkon - An excellent Intamin straddle coaster. Full of unique elements and excellent pacing. Landmark moments from 2025 Rollback on Mandrill Mayhem where we were stuck just before the Statue helix. Star of some B- tier tiktok vlogs. Loved it. Evacuated from the break run on Stardust Green. Lots of fun watching Stardust Yellow continue to run. Also managing to get on it after the death in September. Finally making it to Tokyo Disney and getting on all the major rides multiple times. Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Sinbad, Indianna Jones, Winnie the Pooh and Beauty and the Beasts felt like life changing rides in my theme park career Reclaiming the 'ridden all B&M's in Europe' after getting to Legoland Deutschland Saying goodbye to way too many attractions this year. Kingda Ka, Muppets 3D, Six Flags America, Tough to be a Bug, Scorpion Express, Blade. Also our last ever rides on Dinosaur before its closure in 2026. So please share your 2025. We love content.

I know it's the red tinted glasses but I love looking back at the videos of Thorpe from the 80's and 90's. There's an innocence to the park that doesn't really exist anymore.

Glad to see that they've now changed the soundtrack on a lot of the rides for Fright Nights, after not doing it for a number of years. They're in the same/similar voice as the advert for this year. Unfortunately no change on Stealth or Samurai though, and you can hardly hear it in Colossus' station as its very quiet. The park is looking amazing in the dark this year. Lots of lighting changes and additional smoke machines making the park look the best it ever has done at night. A lot of Swarms effects have been restored and Infernos mist is pumping. I love this smoke effect on Colossus. StreamableWatch IMG_3720 | Streamable Hyperia is lit up in red from 7pm, and the lights go off as each train goes down the first drop. Really not a fan of the music that starts blasting out at 9:20 park wide though, including in the Hyperia queue 🤣 StreamableWatch IMG_3747 | Streamable Also really not a fan of the new scare zone and just seems like that was added for the sake of adding a new scare attraction. Would love to see another Crows/Towers style scare zone. Why not use the old Blair Witch route from Trailers to the Nemesis Inferno exit like before?

Love that Hyperia is lit up red this year for Fright Nights, rather than bright white. Looks brilliant 😍 https://www.facebook.com/thorpeparkmania/posts/pfbid026Rwstrftd6WfrWixrpci43qLc6PCPfHZrQTEve5Dyyrd12rC2fFvyDURntJCsK6Cl

I'm not really feeling it for FN this year, normally by now there is a bit of excitement, and although I think that trailer isn't bad I can't put my finger on it as to why i'm not feeling it. We shall see!

Stealth is back open today 😃

Colossus being closed would improve my visit 😉

There was a post on LinkedIn from an BALPA event hosted at Thorpe Park. This graph shows the direction they want Thorpe Park to take. It’s quite simple and fairly obvious but also I’m glad they are taking that direction in becoming the thrill park, nothing else. The graph also shows the way they want to improve revenue and the way they’ve done it. A few things: 2021-2023 it says “event led strategy” and in 2025+ it says “event development” to me it suggest Thorpe management want to and the plan is to bring back events. It was never the plan to drop them from Thorpe’s side. Also they state multiple times how they are keen to remove IP. I hope the management outlasts the cuts as when funding does come back, we need them to push forward with these goals as ultimately this is the correct way forward.

Just a general observation/thought. I find my enthusiasm & excitement for Thorpe Park/ Merlin parks muted this year. It’s just simply “open”, no new things to do, no events to change things up every few months, no dramas or issues. No 2025 TV advert, no real advertisement. No communication from parks e.g passholder page. Simply there’s nothing going on and nothing going to happen in the near future (excluding fright nights). There’s no evolving, it’s a difficult one as we had a period of investment and events. To simply going back to basics and providing what they have already. This is my first season since becoming a passholder which there has been no events or new attraction to keep it entertaining. I suppose what I’m asking, is this normal? Down periods in years gone by, with not much happening.

Well having it closed will do no 'arm to the line up.

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.

Went to the park last Thursday after grabbing an overnight stay deal on Black Friday for Wednesday (when the park was originally meant to be closed), breakfast included, plus unlimited FastTrack all day (including Hyperia) for just £72 total (£36 per person). I never usually stay over, but that price for unlimited FastTrack made it an absolute no-brainer. I was pretty much on Hyperia for most of the day, and managed over 30 rides on it, as well as a couple of other rides too. Saw it testing before 9am and it was open for 10. Should be standard but nice to see they’re making the effort to get it running on time this season - it’s a big improvement over last year’s late starts. As the day went on and the ride warmed up, I did notice it started to get a little jolty/rattly from around row 4/5. Might be down to the different wheel compounds they’re using, but honestly it wasn’t anything major and didn’t really take away from the ride experience. Operations were absolutely flawless all day, the team were smashing the trains out and I didn't see it stack once, trains were even dispatched before the other hit the break run which I hadn't seen before. There was a lot of people who had the same deal also lapping Hyperia, and with RAP usage on top, the main queue for Hyperia definitely took a hit. Bit of a problem when RAP and FastTrack is allocated for the whole park but people are just using it on Hyperia. Since I was staying over, I was actually there for park opening for once (normally I don’t bother till the afternoon. I hate how they keep all the gates closed until 10am. Other parks like Chessington and Towers let you in the park earlier, not sure why this one can’t do the same. Back in the day, they used to open the gates earlier (around half 9) and if rides were ready, you’d open them before opening. Much better procedure than having a bottleneck and lots of people running in my opinion. This was on a quiet day too, can’t imagine what this is like on peak days. Shame not to get on Stealth again, still not been on it this season yet. Didn't see any visible work going on last week but hopefully the issues will get sorted soon. Rumba Rapids was testing and there seemed to be a lot of staff over there training, the ride availability page shows this will be open on late May now. Vortex is running really well, and has done for the last few seasons. It still has its smoke machine from Fright Nights too, doesn’t have much effect without it being dark and the lighting etc but still nice to see.

Try not to laugh in first 15 seconds challenge: https://youtu.be/0RyqNJamtpE?si=zCpnRAN5XGgW7ZUh

You know things are bad when the joke account is being serious.

Apologies for double post but by all accounts, Hyperia has operated successfully since opening. Hopefully the issue is now sorted...

I agree it is a huge shame that there is quite literally nothing going on. Although to be fair over the last decade there has been a lot of rubbish advertised as “new” - the various year-round mazes and some of the events for example. The absence of those sort of things isn’t that bad in my opinion, and realistically something new isn’t needed every year. Not many parks do that do they. In recent years they have also made a lot of improvements to the areas other than the rides - the toilets to name one example. Thorpe is probably one of the (if not THE) best Merlin park in terms of general upkeep. I agree though that it is a shame there doesn’t appear to be anything at all happening again. It’s been a few years now since they’ve been able to boast anything notably new. I wonder if Colossus will finally be finished in the next couple of months at least? Despite all the cuts to spending at Merlin I’d at least expect that to be done before opening, as well as Zodoac getting sorted. I wonder if the beach project will ever happen now? I can’t help but think the money would be better put towards a larger project.

Park Count Thorpe - Loads Phantasialand x2 Towers x1 Legoland Windsor x1 Chessington x1 Efteling x1 Holiday Park (now Plopsaland Deutschland) x1 Walibi Belgium x1 Bellewaerde x1 Gardaland x1 Movieland Italy x1 Walibi Holland x1 Coasters New coasters: 26 New parks: 4 Current cred count: 434 Top 5 new coasters Kondaa, Walibi Belgium. Sitting just outside my Top 10 outright, this is absolutely bonkers in the best possible way. The only mark against it is the double down which starts off the final third of the ride, which just feels a bit unnatural to me. Karacho, Tripsdrill. Gerstlauer with some of their finest work. It sits just outside my Top 10%, is a great deal of fun. If the MCBR was slightly less harsh, this would be a lot higher in my rankings. Expedition GeForce, Holiday Plopsaland Deutschland. It's good. The middle third is a bit boring, but the first drop and finale are fab. It's very classic early 00s Intamin. Raptor, Gardaland. Good, not great. But theming is fab. MecaLodon, Walibi Belgium. The Gerstlauer family triple launch coaster is something which people have raved about. I like it, especially once it warms up, but I'm not as big on it as most. The ride type has buckets of potential though. Disappointments YoY, Walibi Holland. I liked Jersey Devil at Six Flags Great Adventure. I was disappointed by YoY, which didn't offer much even with the duelling. I also have aged and the leg arrangement was uncomfortable for me. Gardaland. It was nice and I enjoyed my day there. But it did feel a bit meh at the same time. Hals-uber-Kopf, Tripsdrill. Unlike Mark, I haven't been blown away by either of the Vekoma STCs. They're fine, I can see why people enjoy them, but they don't click for me. Other Notable Things Danse Macabre, Efteling. This thing is superb. Movieland Italy. What a strange park. But I had an absolute blast of a time. Amazonia, Bellewaerde. A fantastic rapids-esque ride from Intamin with lots of cool quirks. Slaughterhouse, Walibi Holland. I returned to Walibi's Halloween event, and this alone experience is so raw and visceral and just genuinely fabulous. Us vs You, Walibi Holland. An international scare maze which feels like it's slipped under the scare attraction's radar, because this is bloody great.

Pretty sure it still has its cable - can see it’s 2 cables going into the launch shed here and the one cut up on the floor will be the old one. It’s not completely unusual for it to be a bit temperamental right after a cable - just a shame it had to be done at fright nights!

Not sure if it still does, but in the first few days of the event, the park was playing The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony shortly after closing. Apparently the reason is to represent the same feeling you get when the last song plays at the end of a good night out (ie bittersweet). Apparently meant to recreate when the park played Perfect Day in 2013's Fright Nights (which was in the film You're Next). I...don't get it frankly. But I've also seen some really positive reactions online. For me, it just doesn't make sense / fit with Fright Nights. I got why they did it in the exit area of DeadBeat (since it's nightclub themed). But parkwide? I don't know; I just don't get it. Playing other pop music too, again I don't get it. Probably has some 'hidden meaning', but yeah...doesn't do it for me. Really good point, and I certainly didn't think of it that way. Obviously there will be different schools of thought. I do still think there will be plenty of scare actors who would be more than willing to give it a go...even if just as a once off, but there will definitely be people who aren't keen on the idea (or choose to go there and then realise the style isn't for them). I'm very intrigued by how Universal will set up HHN (or whatever they end up branding their Halloween event). The European market is very different and has very different expectations and standards for Halloween attractions. Do Universal stick with what they know, and bring that slice of American culture with them, or do they try to still keep it in the same form, but add the European flair to it. If they can bring on board British / European creatives with experience of creating and running Halloween attractions, they definitely could find a way to make it work. One thing which I've noticed is that it would be very difficult for your average guest on your average night to do everything (ie all Fright Nights attractions and shows and major rides in the dark). There will definitely be many, many people who don't manage that. Whilst the park will have a lot of repeat visitors thanks to Annual Passholders, and I'm certainly all for keeping things fresh, for many people, a show feeling very similar won't have that much impact. I'm sure that there are people who are going "we didn't do X last time, let's do it this time". Equally, people who are going "we did Y last time and enjoyed it, let's do/watch it again". Of course, there will be people on the other side who crave new things / got everything done last time. It is all about striking a balance. I still maintain that one year with no big new things is fine. Equally, I'd have preferred to see some extra work go into things like park-wide theming, themed audio, etc. Doesn't surprise me. The profit in particular makes perfect sense given they're effectively introducing 4 paid attractions now, so they make more money from passholders as well as non-passholders. Halloween events always do well for parks, given the later openings and limited-offering attractions, and that's true anywhere. Equally, for Thorpe, I think it's a telling statistic. It's not necessarily that Fright Nights has become more visited, but that the rest of the year has become less-visited. Obviously both things could be true (and probably are), but I think that statistic is driven by the park being quieter the rest of the year. I'm too lazy to look at what the days were last year, but this year, Thorpe has 207 open days and 24 of them are Fright Nights dates. So they're getting about 20% of their visitors across 11.5% of their open days. Those numbers are pretty meaningless without additional context, but I'd be interested what is was like in past and how important that is.

Well, you know, race cars don’t need headlights, because the track is always lit.

its a interesting quirk of Stealth and a few other coasters like it. The magnetic brake fins have a couple of brake pads on them so in the event of a rollback the train will stop on the launch track so the train can advance the moment the launch fins are up rather than once the train has cleared the top hat which allows for the ride to operate as quickly as possible. Source below

^ I'm not either, in fact I've only just watched that trailer for first time which shows my excitement level. I don't think thats a this year only thing though, for me Fright Nights was good in the old days of the stronger mazes and being able to lap them till 10pm free of charge. I don't have an interest in the dance shows, scare zones, or paying money to stand in queue to get a weak runthrough in a maze. I miss the old intense Fright Nights days, getting locked in cupboard in experiment 10 and having actors in queue lines etc.. I do appreciate that times change though and theres clearly a market for what they do now though, and I do think that Fright Nights is in a much better place now than it was a good few years ago. Its a strong lineup again this year so I hope they have another successful year. I will still go to Fright Nights this year multiple times for the longer hours for rides and general atmosphere. I might give the odd maze a try if it has no queue and I'm with someone that wants to, but certainly won't be going out of my way to do so. I do get the vibe that they've just added this scarezone for the sake of having something new this year. I'll reserve my judgement until we see what it is but its a shame if that is the case, as everything else on the lineup is of high quality and will be a shame if they've just added this for the sake of it. Would rather they just use them actors and have a couple in Swarms area and SAWs queue for example. Would add more than a weak scare zone IMO. On another note, I do hope they make more of an effort with ride soundtrack overlays this year. They've been redundant for a good 2-3 years now which is a shame.

Rode Tomb Blaster today. It remains bloody dreadful. -Every train had at least one car not in use. One train had two cars not in use. -The 'story' is beyond dull, with the voiceover being one of the worst-sounding, boring and grating things I've ever heard on a theme park -The guns are rubbish -Pacing of the ride feels so off. Partially because of the story they shoehorned in, but also just because the ride system feels like it's on its last legs -Audio is either too quiet or too loud. -Most of the screens in the on ride photo viewpoint were broken (not necessarily turned off, but physically broken). Honestly, of everything that the park are doing, adding and changing, sorting out Tomb Blaster should really have been number 1 priority.

Stealth is scheduled to be closed 23rd - 25th July. I assume this will be launch cable replacement.

It's an interesting question. I have spent too much of my life waiting so I don't like queuing and when it comes to riding, I do take it into account. It depends also on the people around you, and any themeing, this particularly relates to whether one is alone. The chatter amongst a group can be enjoyable, if you're included. The atmosphere can be affected, especially if the Park is "dead".

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.

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

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).

So finally manged to get Hyperia today. First ride was back row, and it was insane! 2nd ride was towards the back. Also did some rides I haven't done in years. Got 5 laps on Flying Fish, did Vortex & Zodiac ( which I immediatley regretted - getting older and lots of spinning do not go hand in hand), Quantum and Rush. Tidal Wave was a godsend today. Also did Swarm, SAW and Nemesis. We ate at Vibes which was very good, and price was reasonable. I also took some travel sickness tablets with me today which made the difference! More thoughts on Hyperia: Was surprised how much you are out of the seat. Didn't think it needed to be much longer, maybe a helix or additional bunny hop. Queue line leaves a lot to be desired, also think they need some sort of screening on the lift motor as its very loud. Surprisingly quite busy. Colossus broke down and was stuck on the lift when we arrived. Assuming it moved to one train operation as the queue was 60mins for a lot of the day. Stealth was out all day.

Yeah, track replacing seems to have been pushed aside for now. Whether it was the issues with the previous new piece of track, a shift in strategy or something else that is the reason for that, we'll never know. I'm not a fan of Colossus - I can tolerate it on the front row (which is the only place I've ridden it in the last 8 or 9 years, and even then, I can count the number of rides I've had on it on one hand). But it does still seem to attract a reasonable crowd and runs reliably enough for now. But yes, it doesn't quite have the draw of a Nemesis or a Vampire. On the other hand, the park still have plenty of other development spots before they'd have to consider ripping rides out, so Colossus may hang on for a good while yet. My biggest concern with losing Colossus would be that we would no doubt lose the fun pathway that goes through the ride. Merlin just don't build rides which interact with walkways these days, and I'd be surprised if a potential Colossus replacement has anything beyond a straight pathway running alongside the ride, as opposed to a nice hill or similar.

I wonder if with the cuts / redundancies, the people who would usually be responsible for things like that (ie app / website updates) have been let go / had their job modified and people there just haven't joined up the dots for what needs to be done?

Depends. Given most will work in and around Midlands, you'd have to move closer to Bedford, and would the wages be better or as good as anywhere you could get nearby? Universal have their own creative team. They don't need the minds behind Hyperia.

Always assume sarcasm. Like any project anything could happen to it. But once Universal had to reveal their hand it had far more chance than London Resort ever did. Everything crossed.

Thanks for the concern @Cal 😀 Headed straight for it this morning, opened at 1015, on at 1035. Was hoping for another ride or two once the queue died down, it had been 50-60 minutes all-day. Stealth was down this morning and then opened at 11 as I walked towards it, it was a glorious moment entering the 5 minute queue. RIP Hyperia, Stealth 4eva.

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.

It’s an odd and unfortunate situation at towers, because they’re pouring a lot of money in to things, but to “the GP” really they’re treading water and there’s nothing truly new happening… Realistically, despite the bits of investment over the last 5 years, you’d struggle to argue with these statements: - Ripsaw has re-opened - The same Nemesis is still there but is now black and red - The same Skyride is still sat there but is broken - Same old Hex has been sat there for years but is broken - The haunted house ride is still there, but has had a refurb. Don’t get me wrong, this is all money well spent in my opinion and was badly needed and overdue, but really I think AT needs something truly new. There is little that they’ve done since Wicker Man that truly offers something new. As much as I think Toxicator is a fantastic addition, it’s arguably yet another “re-opening of something that closed” if you know what I mean.