Inferno

Great news. I was wondering if anyone knew if the second train has tested yet? Also I've seen some videos of the trains going around with the water dummies 'open', letting all the water come out around the circuit. Does anyone know what would be the purpose of this? I'm assuming simply that it's easier to empty the water this way than take the dummy out of the seat and tip it over! But wondered if there was another reason?

Wow that’s really good to hear for an off peak day. I assume this is all in prep for the onslaught for the rest of the year when Hyperia opens? I’m assuming some of these staff will go to that now that they’ve done some similar work on the other rides? Things are really looking up at Thorpe

I agree with what's been said really - a new flat of some sort on Slammer's site would be great. A dark ride to replace the stupid Ghost Train would be good too. I understand the shop in there (which is brand new) is now empty? I wonder if it's flopping (again)... Ghost Train replacement might be on the cards at some point? I guess it depends on how the numbers look when Hyperia opens. Coasters really are the crowd-pleasers for Thorpe, so maybe another coaster in the next 4 years? There's plenty of space for one over on the very expensive bit of land they created behind Stealth ages ago! However, what I'd REALLY like to see! Personally, in the longer-term, I'd like to see Walking Dead and the entire pyramid building disappear, along with Slammer, the megastore and Storm Surge. That would clear a lot of tacky dated crap from the centre of the park, for a pretty big ride and central area there. I think it would make a nice central plaza with either a coaster or a big water ride, with shops/restaurants. Whatever happens, I think we will see some serious investment across Merlin over the next few years if Universal gets the go ahead. They're already investing heavily in Thorpe (finally) with all the sparkle improvements and Hyperia. With the new brand they've also promised a vibrant new future, so hopefully this is a sign of great things to come.

I don’t at the moment. I was a pass holder for I think 15 years and stopped a few years ago because of having kids. Will pick it up again soon I think though, it’s still great value even though I’ll need to buy it for all the family this time 😬 I do miss it.

Watching it go around, it does look like it's going to be cut short at the end. It also seems much shorter than I seem to have imagined it being 😬 And that's with it going slowly! Still - what a ride. Very exciting to see it going around for the first time! The first element is taken at a good speed even this early in the testing, and the hangtime looks wild towards the end.

Hyperia has just dispatched from the station for the first time, within the last minute, and is currently at the bottom of the lift waiting to ascend. Live stream here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwCOiaDEU9c

Hmm.. hopefully it’s going to be ok. They got the first train in and on the track within a couple of days so hopefully it’ll be the same for the second! the timing does feel tight on this doesn’t it 😬

I agree with the comments about the queue. It’s a massive shame we have cattle pens in literal cages again. Considering the ride is literally built on a lake surrounded by woods, it’s a shame some of that wasn’t used for the queue. I hope it’s got a great throughput so it’s not such an issue being stood in the cages. In a few years at least they’ll hopefully bypass the worst of the cattle pens, like they do with Swarm now, since it won’t get a full queue often.

How weird… these are pretty major rides to have unavailable.

You don’t need fastrack for UK theme parks though, and the absence of it from this pass will only help the queues move faster, including the Fastrack queue.

It does feel a bit like Chessington is a bit behind compared to the other Merlin parks. They still seem to be stuck in the money-grabbing Varney era, when Thorpe and Towers have had a big leadership change and a new way of thinking. Keeping Rattlesnake closed on peak days is dreadful and feels a lot like what Merlin were doing across the board when they were scrounging for savings for the shareholders. Embarrassing and unprofessional. At least Mandril has had its air gates changed to allow the station to actually be used now. Does Chessington struggle to retain engineers or something? They seem to have constant problems with availability and reliability, more so than anywhere else.

I quite like it. You can still tell what it is. Just like a lot of the other apps out there, it doesn’t need to have the whole logo or the name or the app.

Any thoughts from anyone who has been at Thorpe these past couple of days? The pics I’ve seen look great. Definitely a massive improvement. The area leading up to Hyperia looks very good from what I’ve seen. The entrance on the other hand really doesn’t look great - hopefully this is on the cards for the next year or so.

I haven’t been yet - going next month - but everything I’ve seen looks incredible. I love a good dispatch sequence and this one looks fab. The whole station interior looks extremely good!! A lot better than the old one with the dreadful audio. The eye is pretty cool. Can anyone confirm what it actually does? I've seen that it closes (Nemesis sleeps) when a train is not going round, ‘looks’ to the right when a train leaves the station to watch it going up the lift, and “shakes” and roars when it goes over the station - but does it also follow the train around the track or do anything else? I’m fascinated with it to be honest - think it’s great what they’ve done with it and it really does set the bar high for future projects

This all sounds very promising. Finally some investment in some general upkeep! I’m hoping that when Universal opens, Merlin’s parks will have no choice but to keep on top of all this every season, and there will be no need to spend millions in one go to fix years of rot and decay. Still, this sounds great! Looking forward to seeing what’s new!