JoshC.

It's strange because the rest of the park received new TVs which are basically always on and working. So is Swarm just cursed with other issues, or is there another reason why it doesn't work. The effects situation is a crying shame. It's easy to forget that when the train goes through the tower before the station fly over, it used to (/ is still meant to?) trigger the Swarm 'noise'. I can't remember when I last heard that. There's definitely a disparity between creative and operations. I find it hard to believe that Thorpe would actively have wanted the water effect on Hyperia given the way Swarm's has gone down, and how quickly it stopped working. Hopefully they can stabilise and streamline that process in the future.

With the IP references, I don't think that's a long-term strategy, but just a reference to what they did in 2023-24. -2023: Retheme of Derren Brown's Ghost Train to just Ghost Train -2024: Removal of Black Mirror, plus retheme of Angry Birds Land to Big Easy Boulevard IPs can work in certain circumstances; Saw is the best Merlin example. But obviously they have overly relied on them in the past, which has caused issues. As I say, I don't envision Thorpe removing IPs entirely. I mean, they introduced IT 4D at Fright Nights last year, so they're still actively doing these things. But they've cut away what wasn't working and hopefully are being more sensible. That BALPA slide is interesting, as it certainly feels like a few of the "maintain momentum" points this year haven't happened. -There's been no capitalising on Hyperia Year 2...I haven't seen any ads for it? -Events have regressed, not developed -The KPI focus seems to tie in with 2024's KPI focus which was related to Project Sparkle, which barely happened in 24/25 winter. The impact of the Merlin restructure, plus the delay in the Beach Stage, plus perhaps some lack of confidence in Hyperia with the early issues this season, all likely haven't helped. And that's a shame. And going onto the other conversation, I think that is felt this year. Last year, the park felt really revitalised and fresh. Hyperia opening really helped, but even prior to opening, the park felt in a good place. That feeling that hasn't been captured this year. There's next to nothing new (just a new dessert place). There was no tarting up. There's no events throughout the year to keep things interesting. It's just a bit...same old same old. And there's nothing wrong with that per se. Parks can't introduce something new every year. But the issue with Thorpe is that that is exactly what they have done for decades (even if it is just a new event, or a bouncy castle, or a maze..). And that stuff papers over the cracks. Other parks get away with not adding new stuff because they fix those proverbial cracks, or don't have them in the first place. Hopefully this year is just a lull, and things pick up for Fright Nights in particular. But sadly, it doesn't feel like the park is maintaining momentum this year.

Depends how little your little one and what rides you're looking at doing, but some general thoughts... -Flight of the Sky Lion has a horrible queue (especially if it's warm), and it does move quite slow -Ninjago and Dragon queue times often are inflated / over stated -Log flume gets you wetter than you'd expect -There's lots of play areas about; most of them are pretty decent! -Food is expensive (even by Merlin standards) -The duelling coasters have a quick moving queue, even when the queue is full

I'd imagine it's something that could happen, but given that at the moment they've made no big deal about the new audio, and no one is really commenting on it, it's a low priority. The new stuff is fine. I can't lie, I barely hear it because it's pretty quiet. I went to the park today and heard no music outside the entrance, a little on the bridge and nothing on the Dome or balcony. The more parks I've gone to, the more I realised plenty of parks don't have a signature piece of music at the entrance or their main plaza area. So I guess I've placed less care or notice on it. But it's one of those things that if the park had one, and if it was really good, it would elevate things so much. And they haven't had that really since the track used in the 00s.

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

It is one of those "you remember where you were when you heard about it" moments. 10 years ago is crazy though. I only ever worked for Merlin post the incident, but I've seen and heard of many of consequences, aftermath, etc that it resulted in. Some ideas have been frankly ridiculous and damaging to the parks further. Equally, some have led to Merlin being significantly safer and if an incident like that was to ever happen again at a major park, the probability of it happening at a Merlin park is surely the lowest. One does wonder though, what shape would Merlin (and Towers in particular) be in if it never happened.

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

I must confess myself surprised that the park didn't really do anything to acknowledge a year since Hyperia opened beyond a social media post (and ride staff wearing gold party hats, which they likely bought themselves). I'm not saying that the park had to do anything, or that they should have done anything. But last year, the park did a few things differently, such as the opening ceremony and handing out certificates to people who rode it opening day. They then did the "Hyperia day" celebration on 23rd June (23/6). It seemed like they were going in a direction of celebrating things, or pushing Hyperia in a different way. Now whether it's the Merlin restructure has meant that there's not the capacity to do that, they've lost a bit of confidence in Hyperia with its reliability issues, or they just never planned to do anything, we'll never know. But regardless of the why behind it, there's a part of me that is surprised they didn't really do anything. --- In other (vaguely related) news, Jack Silkstone / Thorpe are releasing a Hyperia documentary. I think the original plan was to release this yesterday (I'm certain Jack even said that at one point), but obviously that didn't happen...

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

I'm not there today, but it hasn't opened. Unsure if it's been testing but it not open.

Testing 6 times across a day is hardly consistent. Obviously positive steps, but let's not get ahead of ourselves yet.

What people should also remember is that every coaster Paultons currently has is a clone / stock model. This is the park's first custom layout (or, at the very least, a stock model which hasn't been purchased by any other park). That's a huge step for them. The concept art shown is impressive, and if Tornado Springs' concept art is anything to go by, it'll be a reasonable reflection of the area itself. The new restaurant concept gave me Flaming Feather at Toverland vibes. I think the park have played things very safe. Vikings is a very standard theme park theme, and almost feels a little bland and against what Paultons have done in the past. A Eurofighter is a solid "my first inverting coaster" choice. I do disagree with the park that OTSRs will help make the ride more approachable. OTSRs if anything can make a ride look more intimidating and up the fear factor. I don't think people would necessarily clock or care that much about inversions with lap bars, at least not as much as the park seems to think. 2027 will be a water ride, which is much needed for the park. There's lots of rumours or suggestions of a water coaster, and that is not what the park need. A more traditional, large scale water ride, or one of the new Mack Rocking Boat water rides, is a much better suit to the park's needs right now. Positive future for the park though. Excited to see their continued development. Also, yesterday's event was decent, and great to see them offer things like that.

They close the area off for simplicity. Minimises staff required for the area, and less ground space to cover for other members of staff (cleaning, security, etc)

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.

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 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 don't believe Stealth and Rita's closures are related, although that is little more than a hunch right now. If there's an update, I'm sure it'll be shared quickly, but for now all we can assume is it is still waiting for either a part or advice from Intamin.

Chessington Studios! Chessington World of IP! It's a good IP. But equally, it's a reasonably small space, so its success might be limited by that. I do wonder whether they are consciously turning Chessington into an IP heavy park (once Temu Nintendo World opens, nearing on half of the notable things on park will be IPs). Or if it's just been sheer coincidence each time they've decided the best project was an IP and we're at the stage we're at now. Either way, it'll be undeniable for Merlin to not recognise that.

Weather could be an answer, but if they're not comfortable/able to run it in mid-to-high 20s⁰C heat, then they're going to struggle over summer. The most frustrating thing is that by delaying it until an unknown date, they will have known for a while it wouldn't be ready for today. Which means they've left it until the last second to pivot the announcement. Now yeah, it's *just* the Skyride. But it still is poor communication. I guess in their mind their backs are already against the wall. Either way they'd have gotten flack, so they decided this was the best way to deal with it. I disagree, but oh well.

I don't know who writes those tweets, but they will be scheduled in advance (likely by the month at a minimum, maybe further). It's not an ideal thing to do when the ride the choose is experiencing extended downtime. I would think it's something they could schedule more on a weekly basis, to avoid such a potential issue. There is another question to raise, which is why they need to tweet opening times every week. These tweets seem to get minimal views / engagement, suggesting it's not furthering the audience's understanding of opening hours. Just seems a tad unnecessary from the outward perspective. I'm sure they've got reasons behind it backed up with whatever analytics, but yeah, I don't fully get it

Oh 100% agree there. Big problem. But even if the UK parks continued to develop / expand like they did during their peak / like European parks are doing now, they would still hit a natural ceiling. Thorpe could never really get beyond 2.5 million visitors, for example, I'd say. The reason, in my opinion, that there is no Top 25 theme park worldwide in the UK is because no one - until now - has set out to build one. As for the last successful innovative addition in the UK...I'd argue one of Saw, Thirteen and Smiler. Only Thirteen is truly innovative there. But all 3 of them bought huge attendance boosts, which were maintained, and have lasting power. -Saw worked because of the IP, gave Thorpe the best 3 years in terms of attendance. And it's still a big name for the park. -Thirteen saw Towers go above 3 million visitors for the first time since Nemesis opened. Has the innovation. And it still has that "gotcha" moment for guests. Not a headliner for the park though. -Smiler's obviously been plagued with issues, but so many people know it, and it's branding is super strong. But yeah, the fact that it's been about 15 years since anything truly, successfully innovative washed up on these shores tells the story.

The reality of why there's no top worldwide theme park in the UK is a little more nuanced to be fair. All our major parks were first built 40+ years ago. Their locations aren't designed with being a big big hitter park in mind. None of them have the associated infrastructure outside the park to cope with more than 3-4 million a year, let alone more than double that. Imagine what the roads around Towers would be like with those numbers. What the public transport would be. What Thorpe would be like, with queues of cars backing up to the M25 from both directions. You could argue why haven't Merlin tried to utilise their understanding of the UK market to push and create that big hitter park from scratch. But equally, you then ask, do they need to, and is the UK the right place to do that. And then, until recently, no big non-UK operator has had any success inside the UK. It's a difficult nut to crack. Universal will have spent many years researching this, planning this, etc, long before we even got a whiff of the idea a couple of years back. Which is why it'll undoubtedly be a success. But yeah, whilst the "no top theme park" line is a dig at Merlin, it is probably backed up with a deep understanding of why that is the case, and it's not just 'lol Merlin suck'

Legend goes that an old woman pleaded with the Monks of Thorpe Abbey for the charity of a coin. They cruelly dismissed her. Scorned, the old woman screamed a cursed... "For every piece of Kingda Ka that falls, a month of Stealth's life will be taken" And sure enough, after Kingda Ka was removed, Stealth was shut for a month. --- All I'm saying, is that if Stealth remained closed, that will be the story for the Fright Nights mazes that will take its place. Hex Inferno - The Revenge of Stealth

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.