JoshC.

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

If anyone’s interested, I have a few throughput timings and insights from my Thorpe visit last Monday:
Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains) - 786pph (2 trains, average of 4, 13th April 2026)
Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains) - 770pph (2 trains, average of 4, 13th April 2026), 763pph (2 trains, average of 10, 13th April 2026)
Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 1,023pph (2 trains, average of 6, 13th April 2026)
Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars) - 854pph (unknown number of cars, average of 8, 13th April 2026)
Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains) - 827pph (2 trains, average of 9, 13th April 2026), 860pph (2 trains, average of 6, 13th April 2026)
The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains) - 946pph (2 trains, average of 10, 13th April 2026), 1,022pph (2 trains, average of 5, 13th April 2026)
Overall, then, I would have said ops were pretty good, but perhaps not as high-end as I have seen in a couple of cases. Colossus was doing pretty well in my brief snapshot by that ride’s standards, and Saw was smashing it! Inferno and Hyperia were also doing well.

Some others were still good, but perhaps not as high as I have seen. For example, Stealth, consistently attaining slightly below 90s between dispatches, seemed somewhat slower than on my last visit back in September, where the staff were pumping out trains at a rate of knots and attaining nearly 1,000pph. Swarm also seemed slightly less consistent. That is me being persnickety, though; operations were generally good, and ride availability was also strong throughout the day!

One thing I did notice is that Inferno was batching at the station entrance, which I found a bit odd… I wonder why they’ve changed this for 2026?

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.

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

I believe it sounds an alarm if the restraint comes down enough to indicate that the person in the test seat would fit.

Very annoying I know - would be better to have a green/red light like I've seen at other parks 🤣

At least its working though I guess! SAWs test seat does the same.

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

Something I've noticed with Zodiac testing is that its actually reaching the full 90 degrees height and staying at full height for a few seconds before it starts to lower again.

Haven't seen it reach full height in years! Will be interesting to see if it does that when it opens or if its just engineers running it in manual.

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.

Haven't updated my top 10 in a while and have a few changes from 2025. New for 2025 in bold.

1) Toutatis
2) Untamed
3) Kondaa
4) Shambala
5) Hyperia
6) Ride to Happiness
7) Taron
8) Balder
9) Helix
10) Nemesis

Kondaa used to be my number one, with Toutatis in second place. After riding both again in October I decided I prefer Toutatis overall. From the moment I got on it in 24 I was addicted to it, I’ll never get bored of that swing launch. I also love its more aggressive airtime.

I might be misremembering this but think the initials related to one of the contractors that worked on the ride. I know the initials on the shop (PGB/PBG) relate to the architect involved with the project.

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.

Very late to this but...

Park count:
Thorpe x10-20?
Paultons x1 (first time in over 10 years)
Liseberg x2 (first time)
Grona Lund x1 (first time)
Portaventura x2 (first time)
Ferrari land x1 (first time)
Parc Asterix x1
Walibi Belgium x1
Walibi Holland x2 (first time)

Pretty successful year for me. 5 new parks, returning visits to some of my favourites and 3 European Halloween events. I got 29 new creds (4 of them being in my top 10) bringing me to a total of 205.

Highlights
Getting back to Paultons and seeing how much that place has changed. Haven't been since I was a kid.
Portaventura was much better than expected.
Walibi Holland was the best Halloween event I've ever been to. The Clinic and Slaughterhouse were the craziest Halloween attractions I've done, and Us vs You was a fantastic maze.
I got on all 5 of my top 5 coasters last year.

Disappointments
Red Force wasn't as good as expected.
I expected bad from Furious Baco. But that is by far the most uncomfortable and painful coaster I've ever experienced.
Insane being closed at Grona Lund. Never done a Zac spin so was keen to get on it.

2026

I still don't really have much plans this year so will probably be a quieter year for me.
I have a Merlin pass so have been to Thorpe and Towers already. I'll get lots of Thorpe trips in for sure.
Paultons for the opening of their new coaster.
Have a holiday in Turkey booked so will go to Land of legends and get on another Mack Hyper 😍
I was planning on Falcons Flight but thats looking unlikely now. Potentially a US trip instead. Was having a look at Florida but might be a bit silly to not wait for the new 2027 coaster at Universal.
Looking at doing a couple days in Madrid but nothing booked yet.

About time to move this to The Past now...

Who loves blue boards?


Interestingly there is a gate amongst those boards. A big gate; the type that would traditionally exist for vehicular access.

Whilst I don't think there's immediate plans for work to happen, it at least seems like they're planning for that to happen

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.

Hours extended today for passholders day from 11-5 to 10:30-6 which was a nice surprise, even with the park really quiet.

Woo.

Everyone's talking about it. Brand new theme park focused on Minecraft.

Theres no way that intamin is going to have a high enough capacity for the crowds this area will attract.

Fantastic news about Zodiac seemingly making a comeback soon.

It seems Thorpe are a lot more prepared for the season ahead than Alton Towers, which has several rides closed for the foreseeable future, and is continuing to struggle to open rides at opening time every day.

Hopefully Thorpe will be able to continue with their good operations and availability that they’ve had for several years now. It’s encouraging to see only 2 rides listed to be closed, for just 2 days at that.

Can I throw Second Detonator Tower in the ring? Would make the repaint make sense, as the second one will be brand new.

Top Spin: The Musical?

Boarding is going up:



It was a rehearsal day today. I fully expect the whole ride to be covered, the sign to be removed and the boarding to have something on by opening.

Another square for Thorpe Bingo everyone!

Looks like the fire effect might not be dead in the water (pun intended) quite yet...


Here's what it looked like before:

No sign of that I'm afraid!

We will never hear those beautiful words again....

RED BOAT SIT DOWN PLEASE.

I know its not exactly a big priority for the Merlin parks but I will never understand how even Six Flags in its bankruptcy era was able to repaint their coasters and yet inferno still looks god awful and they can't even finish a Colossus repaint. Baron 1898 just got a massive refurbishment and repaint and that's half the age of Inferno.

I find it incredibly frustrating that they don't mind if their parks look like a dump.