JoshC.

I don't expect to ride any more notable new rides this year, so here's my current Top 10% (with new in bold): Rank Coaster Park 1 Toutatis Parc Asterix 2 Taron Phantasialand 3 Taiga Linnanmäki 4 ArieForce One Fun Spot America Atlanta 5 Untamed Walibi Holland 6 Skyrush Hersheypark 7 Oz'Iris Parc Asterix 8 Helix Liseberg 9 Der Schwur des Kärnan Hansa Park 10 Kondaa Walibi Belgium 11 Lightning Rod Dollywood 12 Iron Rattler Six Flags Qiddiya City 13 Phoenix Knoebels 14 Falcons Flight Six Flags Qiddiya City 15 Twisted Cyclone Six Flags Over Georgia 16 Hyperia Thorpe Park 17 Balder Liseberg 18 Lost Gravity Walibi Holland 19 Joris en de Draak (Water) Efteling 19 Joris en de Draak (Vuur) Efteling 20 Jersey Devil Coaster Six Flags Great Adventure 21 Colossos - Kampf der Giganten Heide Park 22 Manta SeaWorld Abu Dhabi 23 Kingda Ka Six Flags Great Adventure 24 Candymonium Hersheypark 25 Goliath Walibi Holland 26 Nemesis Alton Towers 27 El Toro Six Flags Great Adventure 28 Troy Toverland 29 Black Mamba Phantasialand 30 Mahuka Walibi Rhône-Alpes 31 Fønix Fårup Sommerland 32 Mystery Mine Dollywood 33 Flying Aces Ferrari World Abu Dhabi 34 Hyperion Energylandia 35 Lisebergbanan Liseberg 36 Van Helsing's Factory Movie Park Germany 37 Juvelen Djurs Sommerland 38 Batman Gotham City Escape Parque Warner Madrid 39 Pulsar Walibi Belgium 40 Voltron Europa Park 41 Silver Star Europa Park 42 Goliath Six Flags Over Georgia 43 Shambhala PortAventura Park 44 Nitro Six Flags Great Adventure 45 Nemesis Inferno Thorpe Park 46 Storm - The Dragon Legend TusenFryd 47 Colorado Adventure Phantasialand 48 Wild Eagle Dollywood -ArieForce One is filled with aggressive air time, but doesn't do it to a level that it becomes uncomfortable. It's very much what I like in a coaster. -Lightning Rod is similar, and has the added bonus on a gorgeous terrain. It's a shame it doesn't have a launch any more, but it's still a heck of a coaster. -Iron Rattler is the definition of New Vekoma. Sleek, smooth, fast-paced and a TON of fun. Plus on a first ride, the tilt at the front is pretty unnerving. -Falcons Flight is a weird one. But it's filled with some incredible moments, such as the second launch up a cliff (taking you to speeds of about 100mph and heights of 600ft+), the hang off the cliff, THAT third launch and then a finale at huge speed. Those moments are enough to bring it to such a high standard, even if the overall package isn't the most imaginative or cool layout. -Twisted Cyclone comes alive in the second half. I'd have loved more than the 2 rides I ended up with, but I got rained out of the park. -Mystery Mine isn't exactly the best coaster in the world. However, the overall package is something I adore. -Goliath creeps in nicely with the majority of the B&M Hypers I've done. It's just great fun. -Wild Eagle makes such brilliant use of its terrain and has a cool layout. Plus some pops of airtime is cool.

I agree with basically everything you said about the park. I was left a bit underwhelmed by Mecalodon - I think because I expected a bit too much when I went on it. BUT there's no denying it is a good fit for the park. Loup-Garou has a special place in my heart as it was my first major woodie, and even last year I enjoyed it still - I think a retrack would have been enough for it. But again, there's no denying that the RMC treatment will be a huge benefit for the park. The park has been on a huge upward trajectory the last decade, and it seems to just be continuing.

There's a few contributing factors I think... -Post-big investment lull. As Benin mentioned, there can be lulls after big investments at parks. Not every park, but it is common. It's funny because historically Thorpe was good at avoiding that by having some marketing gimmick for the year after a big investment (Stealth's "upgrade", Saw with Saw Alive, Swarm's Brave it Backwards, DBGT and Rise of the Demon). Hyperia didn't have that, and there's not been anything to follow up. It happens, but it's very bland, yes. -'Time thing'. I assume by this Matt you just mean getting older, and that does play a part of it too I reckon. You get older, and busier, and times just change. And also ties in with what Benin says about the world being general a bit rubbish right now. -Lack of updates. There's things happening at the park, whether it's little touch ups here and there or bigger things behind the scenes. Admittedly right now that is minimal, but it is there. But there's less noise about it all now. The Passholder Group on Facebook closed down. Jack Silkstone, who has been the main source of such things for a few years now, has moved into a more professional capacity so isn't making the little update videos. Fansites (like TPM) have succumbed to the time thing. And there's just very few places providing general updates. -Lack of anything to be excited about. There's no plans to the council for anything new. There's no rumours of anything new coming. Other parks in Merlin are getting things and Thorpe aren't. We're kind of just ticking on by. It makes it hard to have the same enthusiasm. On a personal level, I found 2024 to be such a huge buzz of a year for Thorpe. New coaster, obviously, but the Sparkle Project invigorated lots of other parts of the park. There was optimism for the future and such a positive. Since then, they've followed that up with a much-needed open space by the front of the park (although that execution has split opinion), and nothing else. The park is effectively exactly the same as it was 2 years ago, even down to food outlets. With seemingly nothing new on the horizon, there's only so long one can revisit the exact same place before a bit of burnout hits.

Tickets being released in a fortnight... https://x.com/I/status/2079115598530056412

Nice idea and advertised far enough in advance. Hope it works out for them!

Yes, the fake shop was included at the Creative's decision. The Lead Creative was someone who worked predominantly on Dungeons attractions and liked the idea of the fake shop, which is why it was included again with a couple of extras. As mentioned, internally there was more hesitation about re-including it given it had been "done" before. The hope to change it in a future year, but that ultimately never happened, presumably because of budget. These days it's obviously completely bypassed, which is a shame.

It has also been announced that Vampire, the SLC, will close at the end of next year. No replacement has been confirmed, but the park have said they wouldn't close it with nothing in works to replace it.

Ultimately, Thorpe will drag Stealth out until its last dying breath. Just like they did with Slammer. I don't see them TT2-ing it (ie converting to a LSM swing launch). Largely because there's not enough space for that. They possibly could convert it to a powerful enough LSM launch, but that'd be expensive. When the time comes, I do expect they'll just tear it down.

I've heard pretty much nothing. One of the big issues the park will face is if staff haven't worked on it in a certain time frame, they will 'lose' the ability to work on it and need complete re-training. This might be why there was a lot of testing earlier this year, to stop that from happening. It's weird though. It's on the map / app / queue boards. It's got the new RAP signage. It's clearly meant to be a part of the 2026 line up. So why is it just sat there.

Walibi Belgium has come on leaps and bounds over the last decade. I remember my first visit (coincidentally, just over a decade ago). I actually didn't mind it as a park, but it was clearly missing a lot and needed some love. There was big restrictions on the park, and lots of jokes about them only being able to build Boomerang-style coasters. The near-total transformation is incredible to witness, and every part of the park oozes with quality. Kondaa is a fabulous headline attraction. They've got a solid support line up of coasters, and an RMC will add to the top-tier headliner, and great dark and water rides. I'm a bit disappointed they chose to RMC Loup-Garou, since I really like it and think it would have just benefitted from a retrack. But at the same time, the quality of an RMC is largely undeniable. Now if only they can rip out Vampire and put something good in its place...

I think my biggest issue with it is the fact they've marketed it...like at all. In its current guise, it's an area with some seats and more space to spread out at start of day / evening. That doesn't need any marketing, videos, etc. The fact they spoke about it being a place to watch Football World Cup games when the majority of games take place outside of opening hours (and even overnight) shows it's a desperate ploy to just get people talking. Its potential is great, with space for a stage, etc. The idea of using it to show big TV events is good too. But right now, the potential isn't bring realised. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just a thing...so long as they do eventually realise said potential. So yeah, in its current guise, it won't be used much. That's fine. It's a space to open up that part of the park and be a bit quieter. And that didn't need as much pushing as it got. Let's just hope they can utilise it in the future.

I was at Thorpe on Monday for one of the 9pm closes too. Ride availability was pretty poor. One of 'those' Thorpe days - though they are fewer and further between now. I don't think the heat can take the full blame for availability (beyond Stealth, as hydraulic launches do typically struggle in heat), but certainly can't have been a good factor. In saying that, I had a good time, and there were a good number of people there until close. Was it rammed? No. Was it lively enough though? Yes. Obviously the extreme heat won't have helped, and the May half term is usually the quietest one of the school holidays (I think, in part, due to it being around exam season, so a chunk of your core demographic are actually less likely to do bigger days out). So I don't think the 9pm closes being quiet are a 'bad' thing in any way. I find it funny seeing the discourse around that if the parks are quiet on late closes, then they won't do them again. Isn't part of the reason to spread crowds out more throughout the day, improving rides per guest and overall giving guests better experiences. I think, on the whole, the late closes achieved that.

We have the first piece of marketing, earlier than usual...

Parm Pap's weather reports are more insightful than an endoscopy.

It's a cable replacement and nothing crazy. The previous prolonged closure is not ideal, but if history is anything to go by, it should be okay now.

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.

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

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.

A joy to see and I hope it works out well for them. Already seems better advertised than the last set of 9pm closes. It's not out the realm of possibility that they'd make a big deal of the space if it's open, putting extra things on there, etc. And that feels roughly when it might be ready.

I think that (quite unusually) Hyperia was only on one train, which may explain the abnormally long queue.

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

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.

Tbf John B won't have had anything to do with the installation of some signs. That'll all be because of Thorpe's internal creative / marketing.

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

Really nice to see. Likely pre-planned and then announced today to make people feel like they got bonus time. After having visited for a couple of preview days, it does feel like Thorpe is still on form operationally. It's a shame that Tidal and Zodiac aren't ready for the start of season. Depth Charge is also currently closed, which might be because of work on The Launchpad. It's equally a shame Launchpad isn't ready, but I imagine that's because of planning delays. There's been a few bits of work here and there across the park. New paving to replace tired paving. It's basic but does the job. New signs and paintwork in Saw's plaza. New effects in Walking Dead. Detonator repainted. But equally, the park feels effectively the same as when Hyperia opened (minus, of course, Rumba now). Last year, there was only one new food outlet (the Dessert place between Tidal and Ghost Train, replacing the Apple Fries unit). This year, no new food units, and only a couple of menu changes (though the Boulevard Bites menu is good and reasonably priced). Now when Hyperia first opened, and in general all the TLC that happened for 2024 with Project Sparkle, Thorpe felt fresh and alive again. And they could afford to ride that wave for a bit and milk it. But I think that that wave is petering out and they do need some bigger refreshes or something new of note now to sustain visitation. So yeah, much the same as before, but should be a good season ahead. Hopefully things like weather and such play ball for the park.