Cal

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.

So I went yesterday afternoon, got to the park for 1:30 and managed to get on Hyperia twice and the rest of the park. Easily one of the best days I've had at Thorpe in years, such a great atmosphere even right up until 10:30pm. I'll share my thoughts later on. I am absolutely gutted for Thorpe to read they can't get it open today. After such a successful opening and running flawlessly pretty much all day yesterday this is a big blow for the park. I got told by an operator the shutdowns yesterday were mainly issues with the gates which were tripping the ride out, so would be interested to know the issues today.

Looks like SAW and Samurai will have delayed openings for them days then until the queue dies down. Fair play to Thorpe - looks very organised and looks like their best option all things considered.

I had a couple of Hyperia adverts on youtube today for the first time. They were the opening date reveal video rather than the recent TV advert they released though

I came across this video the other day, starting at 17:01, a Nemesis engineer talks about the current rattle/vibrations on the trains. There are numerous reasons why they think it could be happening, for example with the track now being sand filled, vibrations which were once being absorbed by the track are now being felt on the train. He did say there are ways to iron this out in the future so hopefully its something they'll work on it during closed season.

Interesting! Agreed it would make sense to keep Slammers queue and use that for a FN maze so it does seem like something is being planned, and Skybound definitely sounds like a name of a flat that would fit Thorpe in that area. Sounds silly as its been SBNO for years but I'll actually be sad to see Slammer finally go 😢

Looks like the new flat in Forbidden Valley is set to be a top spin! Buzzing about this. Flat rides are exactly what towers need right now and love a good Topspin. Such crowd pleasers off ride too. Fingers crossed its a Huss

Good news - definitely will be going on the Friday. I wonder how many people will be trying to get last in the queue at 8pm to try and get a night ride 😆

They've confirmed tonight it'll be testing for the first time next week. Also, this below suggests we're getting extending opening hours for opening day/weekend which would be nice.

Night time POV Looks insane, will easily be the best coaster on park now

Hyperia has had its first riders today - didn't expect that!