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Detonator was always one of my favourite rides at Thorpe back in the day, but don't find it anywhere near as forceful as it used to be since the pistons have been removed. Anyone else find the new voiceover really annoying too? I personally can't see Detonator going in the near future. This is the first extended downtime its had in a long time, and its very reliable overall. Would love to see a taller tower replace it when that time comes though.

There aren’t any - they weren’t needed. The only trims are on the splashdown

Also it isn’t a very good look to actively promote Hyperia on all their social channels today too. Surprised it hasn’t been removed yet.

Oh dear. Was only a matter of time really after seeing them slow tests. I imagine they’ll have to get the crane back to get the train off?

I assume they’re waiting for a part as didn’t seem to be any visible work taking place when I’ve been there. Ride availability page is no longer showing a date when it’ll be back.

Such a shame. Seems like Saturdays are cursed for Hyperia 🤣 @JoshC. Yeah I was also unsure why they haven’t built a front row queue on the right? If it gets full they can just close it.

I thought it could be that, out of interest do you know why this isn’t done halfway through the season? Or do they have to do it a couple times during the season?

Have seen this a few times, especially on Stealth where its just used for them to chat and comes across quite rude to guests. Definitely more useful on certain rides I think, saw a couple instances today they were really useful on Hyperia and do think the positives of them do outweigh the negatives overall.

Got to the park just after 2 and managed 4 more rides on Hyperia today, 2 x row 6, row 9 and finally a go on the back! First 3 rides using the SRQ and last ride in the main queue. My thoughts from opening day remain the same, but definitely appreciated the stall much more today. I think before I was so blown away at how good the outer bank was I didn't really appreciate how good the stall is too. The first drop on the back is incredible. Got really lucky on my last ride, got off just after 5 and managed to get back in the queue at 5:04! They closed the queue just after I got back in. There was a group of 4 behind me that got let in the pre queue, but then weren't let in the main queue. Bit out of order to be honest, yes it was after 5 but due to the miscommunication and for the sake of ruining 4 peoples day they should've just let them through. I was interested in what kind of throughput this gets, and I didn't have anything better to do being on my own so was timing the dispatches in the SRQ. Ranged from around 1min 40secs - 2mins, so about 600-800 an hour. Not great. Yes the main queue moves really quickly at the moment, but we have really small numbers or RAP and Fastrack. The team working on Hyperia are great and run it flawlessly, it very rarely stacks. What lets it down is how long it takes for the train to get back in the station, hopefully thats something they can change in the future. Did notice a couple times today, with them double batching the air gates this did cause some confusion and guests boarded the train when other guests were putting bags away. This slowed things down as caused faff with restraints having to be unlocked to go back to the airgates. Still feels so surreal we've got this at Thorpe and its here to stay. Probably won't go back now till midweek September where I can ride it all day!

Good guess! On park now and they’ve put a big screen up, a bar and a Ben and Jerry’s stall.

In answer to your question re Swarms restraints, yes they have been altered. Before, the vests would lock in place when the train was dispatched. This season they no longer lock in place. Much more comfy and I can actually breathe on the breakrun now 🤣

Unsure if Colossus' new PLC means they can unlock individual restrains. One thing I have noticed though is before they had to lift up every restraint regardless if someone was going to be sitting there or not, with the new PLC they can just leave restraints down. Helps speed up ops on quiet days but obviously won't really have an impact on busy days when throughput matters. Stealths single rider is an interesting one. The park haven't added it as they're worried it'll make the throughput worse and I can kind of see that, every visit I've had this year they haven't batched people into rows and just flood the airgates with guests. It definitely slows things down having to close restrains when no ones sitting there, but would it slow things down more batching people into rows, as well as dealing with the Fasttrack and RAP queue? It all depends if they could keep up. Good throughput on Swarm there @Mattgwise. I've found it to be pretty terrible this year and seen it stacking most of the time, think not having the bag drop really shows things down. Your reading does show though they can still get a good throughput though with the right team. I was thinking though, on peak days (Saturdays and school holidays etc) they should open Swarms bag drop to help with throughputs similar to what Towers do with Smiler and Thirteen? All depends how much it helps with throughputs though only Thorpe will have them stats.

Noticed they started to lay this yesterday, wonder what this is for?

Tickets for today now sold out. I believe capacity was capped at 10k for 24th and 25th (although it didn’t hit this) so potentially 10k on park today. May be less though as they’re only open till 5 rather than 8.

This video is certainly the closest I've seen it to stalling. Shows how much it warms up throughout the day

Do agree with this. Although it’s been great they’ve kept everyone updated, and they never specifically said it’ll open, it’s definitely set that expectation with the dates which will disappoint a lot of people.

Such a shame. But good to see that SAW is now back open which means the crane is no longer required, and testing will start soon. Can’t be long now!

The fact that Saw was only added to the ride availability page late yesterday to be closed today may suggest they could be a bit behind schedule, I guess it'll all depend on how they get on today. Fingers crossed!

When was this video taken? It got fixed a couple weeks ago, strange if its off again...

Good to see! Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly the next couple days and they can get it testing and open asap!

Funnily enough, I noticed the exact same on my last visit on 24th. Was in the SRQ and just assumed that the batcher couldn't keep up as noticed trains sitting there at points waiting for riders. As I got closer though, I noticed it wasn't the batcher but it was the baggage hold that couldn't keep up causing a delay in getting people through. Never seen that happen on SAW before in all my years of visiting so was a strange one.

SAW is planned to be closed on Monday and Tuesday, wonder if this is for Hyperia access?

Ouchhhh Gutted for them! I've had a load of adverts for Hyperia the last couple of days, they need to look at pulling all the ads if they still don't have an opening day in site

Was great to see, even rushing people off the offload platform so they could move it to on-load. Back to Hyperia, a crane has arrived on site today which will likely be to do work on the lift hill.

Its incredibly unlucky for them, I mean look at Swarm, it didn't have a full day closed in years. I know its not something that merlin ever do, but soft openings could be a good idea in the future. Something like this could've happened and been ironed out before official opening. Anyway, here are my thoughts from opening day. Got to the park for about 1:30ish and first ride I got really lucky and only waited 1.5 hours. I waited in the main queue until the Hyperia toilets. The host asked me if I was a single and put me in the single rider queue which was overflowing. I waited in this queue for around 20 minutes, and realized how long it was and it wasn't moving, and I also just read on the AP group how people were waiting 7 hours in the single queue. So, I asked the host if I could switch to the main queue instead as I knew that would be around 90 mins - 120 from this point. I believe there was some miss-communication and the manager didn't want to put me in the main queue for some reason, so they put me in Fasttrack instead and got straight on, row 9. Second ride I got in the queue at 7:45 got off around 10:15 so 2.5 hours, row 2. - I came of my first ride thinking that is easily the best air time I've experienced in the UK. I came off my second ride saying quite comfortably that is my favorite ride in the UK. - The outer-bank turn was easily my favorite element. Chucked out of your seat, especially on my second ride on row 2. - Actually quite liked the queueline. I was initially worried when we saw the prison style fences, but the queue is nice and none of the cattlepens are particularly long. You get some nice views of the ride. - The station does look pretty bare during the day, but looks so much better at night. I love the dispatch lighting/audio, and as well when the train returns to the station. - The trims were much more noticeable on my second ride towards the front of the train, but still took the last 2 elements with good speed. - Ride team were doing a great job at sending the trains out all day. The train does return to the station very slowly though, and I do wonder if they could get a higher throughput if this was sped up? I was initially quite disappointed when the layout got revealed, and even seeing the ride testing. Yes the ride is on the short side, but I really didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I'm so glad they went for something different here, and we finally have an airtime machine in the UK. This is exactly what Thorpe needed. I can't wait to go on an offpeak day and ride it all day. This was my first time going on a coasters opening day and was easily one of the best days I've had at Thorpe, great atmosphere all day right up until leaving the park at 10:30. They did a great job organisation wise, being asked in the queue if everyones okay and need water filling up etc.. Didn't queue more than 10 minutes for anything else on park, Stealth in particular was running great as always, both times I went on they were running down the platform checking restraints, beating the countdown timer on the platform every dispatch.