Marc

Same as above really enjoyed the event - nice to see the park celebrate the ride with its model becoming more and more rare I do hope they do everything they can to keep it going as long as possible.


Also bought some of the cable - it’s a lot for what it is but it’s presented really nicely and the little extras were a nice surprise too!

Same as above really enjoyed the event - nice to see the park celebrate the ride with its model becoming more and more rare I do hope they do everything they can to keep it going as long as possible.


Also bought some of the cable - it’s a lot for what it is but it’s presented really nicely and the little extras were a nice surprise too!

I really wish they could drop the “place your heads back and brace your selves” from the inferno dispatch announcement and have it back to how it was with the thuds as they pressed dispatch before it went into the music, I know a few years ago they went through and added pre dispatch safety announcements to all rides but since then Hyperia has opened and didn’t seem to need one so would be nice if Inferno could have the same!

An absolutely crazy day
TP has been closed on some recent Wednesdays, but I noticed it was available today and with the weather looking the better option, I went.
A staff member who knows me told me that there were maybe only a couple of thousand people attending. oddly enough, I wanted to ride Stealth, and as there were hardly any guests on the ride or platforms, the gate was kept open so that people could re-ride, and that continued to beyond the lunch hour, with so many guests telling me that every ride was walk-on. During the time, some people wlo lived within a few miles had also then attended due to seeing online the short queues. 
As much as it pained me, I left Stealth and had two walk-on rides each on Nemesis Inferno, Hyperia, Saw, Colossus and Swarm before dragging myself back to Stealth, where the re-ride gate was open and announcements of "re-ride just get on", several were running to get on again, and there were loads of conversations between people and staff, many discussing their crazy ride totals for the day.
There really were few guests and no waiting for rides one wanted.
Staff were really upbeat and helpful. It really was a crazy day..

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.

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!

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!

At TP today, as the weatherforecast was so good. Luckily got to ride Stealth and thought it was a little slow going over the top, so (as I am familiar with the them) I mentioned it to the team. I observed the next twelve launches, thought that the transitions over the top were getting even slower, and again expressed my concern. The team offered me a ride and I informed them that I would not, as I believed the next launch would rollback. They launched, and it rolled back, I went for lunch.

👋

As you’ve no doubt noticed we have updated the forum software to the latest version which does have a number of visual differences.

You’ll notice it also finally supports dark mode and will be based on your phones / computers setting - something I know a few people have asked for!

Our old skin is not compatible but we will work on this over the next few weeks to make it feel less generic.

One change you will notice is you can no longer login with your username and must login with your registered email - if you have any issues with logging in please feel free to reach out over social media or you can email contact@thorpeparkmania.co.uk

Let us know any feedback here also!

Id argue it’s virtually impossible to never send empty trains, they were doing their best not to when it was colder a couple of weekends back but you still will have a point where you need to - for example last trains of the day.
 
I really hope Mack really can come up with a proper solution for this, I know it has new wheels but it seems it’s going to need some more drastic changes to ensure it can reliably run in the future.

Considering there are brackets for trims which would end up with the train going even slower through that element it does seem that something was massively miscalculated 

Rest in Pieces. 
 
 

I’m very glad to have got on it this year - even 19 years on the speed and height of this thing was still incredible and very grateful to have got on one of the 2 most iconic hydraulic launch coasters.
 
I do think the way they’ve handled this is a complete joke, as mentioned already this is a iconic ride known all across the world, to just close with no warning is pretty shocking, had it been opening next year for a “final year send off” I’d have renewed my pass, made the trip over. In some ways I can almost understand the other rides closing which were less well known to close, but to close a ride of this stature with a little press release a few days after it closed just seems wrong to me.

I know lighting wasn’t really made a big deal of from the park during the sparkle project but now it’s fright nights it’s the first real chance to see all the lighting installed and it’s really pretty impressive.
 
To start with it simply for the most part looks really good - most of the rides have color coordinated lights, what’s also nice is the new lighting seems to be able to do various effects such as around inferno the lights do some sort of flame effects shining onto the ride. On that point I believe this is one of the first times the parks actually lit up the rides too, of course Stealth and colossus have had lighting before but other than that most of the lighting was more there to light up just the paths, now themed lighting is directing up to the ride structures them selves which look great.
 
Finally not only looks good but there’s been some decent thought into how they work too - Vortex for example the lights are all white to start when loading, then when the ride cycle starts the lights all change to their “themed” status, also noticed when leaving at around 10:30 all the lights around the park lighting up the paths had changed to a standard white light, small things but nice to see some real thought has gone into how it all works, it’s clearly been a big investment and does make a difference!

I know lighting wasn’t really made a big deal of from the park during the sparkle project but now it’s fright nights it’s the first real chance to see all the lighting installed and it’s really pretty impressive.
 
To start with it simply for the most part looks really good - most of the rides have color coordinated lights, what’s also nice is the new lighting seems to be able to do various effects such as around inferno the lights do some sort of flame effects shining onto the ride. On that point I believe this is one of the first times the parks actually lit up the rides too, of course Stealth and colossus have had lighting before but other than that most of the lighting was more there to light up just the paths, now themed lighting is directing up to the ride structures them selves which look great.
 
Finally not only looks good but there’s been some decent thought into how they work too - Vortex for example the lights are all white to start when loading, then when the ride cycle starts the lights all change to their “themed” status, also noticed when leaving at around 10:30 all the lights around the park lighting up the paths had changed to a standard white light, small things but nice to see some real thought has gone into how it all works, it’s clearly been a big investment and does make a difference!

I know lighting wasn’t really made a big deal of from the park during the sparkle project but now it’s fright nights it’s the first real chance to see all the lighting installed and it’s really pretty impressive.
 
To start with it simply for the most part looks really good - most of the rides have color coordinated lights, what’s also nice is the new lighting seems to be able to do various effects such as around inferno the lights do some sort of flame effects shining onto the ride. On that point I believe this is one of the first times the parks actually lit up the rides too, of course Stealth and colossus have had lighting before but other than that most of the lighting was more there to light up just the paths, now themed lighting is directing up to the ride structures them selves which look great.
 
Finally not only looks good but there’s been some decent thought into how they work too - Vortex for example the lights are all white to start when loading, then when the ride cycle starts the lights all change to their “themed” status, also noticed when leaving at around 10:30 all the lights around the park lighting up the paths had changed to a standard white light, small things but nice to see some real thought has gone into how it all works, it’s clearly been a big investment and does make a difference!

I know lighting wasn’t really made a big deal of from the park during the sparkle project but now it’s fright nights it’s the first real chance to see all the lighting installed and it’s really pretty impressive.
 
To start with it simply for the most part looks really good - most of the rides have color coordinated lights, what’s also nice is the new lighting seems to be able to do various effects such as around inferno the lights do some sort of flame effects shining onto the ride. On that point I believe this is one of the first times the parks actually lit up the rides too, of course Stealth and colossus have had lighting before but other than that most of the lighting was more there to light up just the paths, now themed lighting is directing up to the ride structures them selves which look great.
 
Finally not only looks good but there’s been some decent thought into how they work too - Vortex for example the lights are all white to start when loading, then when the ride cycle starts the lights all change to their “themed” status, also noticed when leaving at around 10:30 all the lights around the park lighting up the paths had changed to a standard white light, small things but nice to see some real thought has gone into how it all works, it’s clearly been a big investment and does make a difference!

I know lighting wasn’t really made a big deal of from the park during the sparkle project but now it’s fright nights it’s the first real chance to see all the lighting installed and it’s really pretty impressive.
 
To start with it simply for the most part looks really good - most of the rides have color coordinated lights, what’s also nice is the new lighting seems to be able to do various effects such as around inferno the lights do some sort of flame effects shining onto the ride. On that point I believe this is one of the first times the parks actually lit up the rides too, of course Stealth and colossus have had lighting before but other than that most of the lighting was more there to light up just the paths, now themed lighting is directing up to the ride structures them selves which look great.
 
Finally not only looks good but there’s been some decent thought into how they work too - Vortex for example the lights are all white to start when loading, then when the ride cycle starts the lights all change to their “themed” status, also noticed when leaving at around 10:30 all the lights around the park lighting up the paths had changed to a standard white light, small things but nice to see some real thought has gone into how it all works, it’s clearly been a big investment and does make a difference!

I find the 3rd train debate quite interesting, I remember back in the day Stealth would indeed have 3 trains serviceable, but it would still have technical issues causing it spend time on one train - I guess it shows that sometimes rides are on one train for a more complex reason than the other one is simply broke. As Benin says now a days they use the 3rd train to have a continuous cycle of “winter” refurbishment on the other, whilst it may result in the odd day where a train has a genuine fault it won’t be able to run full capacity it’s probably very very rare.
 
In my opinion Thorpe / Merlin shouldn’t have to buy more trains than the ride can run to ensure 2 trains are always available, trains shouldn’t frequently be having to be craned off the ride and rebuilt.
 
I have a feeling in an alternate world if Mack hadn’t built Hyperia and it faced similar issues the manufacturer would be taking abit more of the slack here..
 
As for the fastrack debate I see both sides to it, I’ll admit I bought fastrack for it on Sunday, if fastrack wasn’t available the person I was with wouldn’t have rode Hyperia. The first time we rode it the fastrack queue was empty and the 2nd maybe 20 or so people in front of us, so it don’t seem like it’s being sold excessively. It seemed a bigger issue when the queue had to be evacuated on the Friday and everyone had priority passes for it, again it’s a tough one and I can see why the park do give out priority passes in this instance. It’s worth noting after it shutdown and priority passes were issued you could not buy any fastrack for it.

It is worth noting the time Hyperia had a 1 hour plus fastrack queue (what I’m aware of) was on the Friday where earlier that day the queue was evacuated and priority passes handed out.
 
I checked on the app and you couldn’t buy fastrack when it reopened.

I deeply regret this throw away comment 😂
 
For what it’s worth, as someone who can barely run a bath, let alone a theme park, I think Thorpe are handling this really well and they’ve been smashing it this season, and nothing I would do would be any better.
 
However, why they can’t just dust off that spare XNWO train and get it on Hyperia as train 3 is beyond me

As are the park - the last car was lifted off the track at around 4pm this afternoon - unfortunately not giving enough time to open for the day guests but I’ve no doubt if it had been a 6 or later close it would have opened!
 

The stalled train isn’t in the maintenance shed as of around 10pm tonight, I would guess they would hopefully be able to get it over there tomorrow and work on building it up tomorrow, I guess as you say the issue is when they can test it before the weekend!
 

Im not sure why it would be closed, assuming there’s no issues with it testing tomorrow I’m certain it will be open!

It’s not open yet - sounds like a couple of the cars have been removed, I suspect if they can get them removed they will aim to open it today with the other train.
 
I do find it strange Mack even installed brackets for trim brakes before this element, I can only assumed worried it would be taking it too fast when it seems to be the complete opposite.
 
Im not really sure I think its stalling is weather related as such, it did the same in what June or July? I know it’s colder now but it’s no where near the weather conditions Mack say it can operate in. What is strange is how the ride can be running all day, shutdown and empty trains look like they are close to stalling.

I can see it being back up and running very quickly - last time they had to build a concrete base for the crane to sit on, with that already done plus the experience how to get it off the track I wouldn’t be surprised to see it open tomorrow or Friday. Seems like a crane is already on site too.
 
I do wonder where they go from here though, it was hardly cold today with minimal winds, plus the train had 3 rows of water dummies. I expect in future it will have to test with more rows of these which will make it take longer to get ready each morning.
 
Hopefully Mack have a solution ready to implement over winter.

Looks like they maybe installing some water fountains in the queue maybe? (Not my photo!)