Inferno

Back from DLP last week - my first ever visit there. A few little things that stood out to me! What an incredible place overall. I'm lucky enough to have been to WDW a few times, and I must admit I did wonder if DLP would be inferior... But really, it holds its own, and honestly I much prefer Disneyland Park over Magic Kingdom. Big Thunder Mountain (and Frontierland as a whole) is fantastic - probably better than the one in Orlando. The sections under the lake are fantastic. Disneyland Park feels 'complete', and there aren't really many areas that lack theming or look unpolished. This can't be said for Magic Kingdom, which is unpleasant in places. Disney Village was very disappointing - run down , small and messy - fortunately they are in the process of refurbing it. I was expecting it to be a little more like Disney Springs, but really it's a far cry from that. Hyperspace Mountain is hysterically badly done. Far worse than I thought it would be. The Star Wars overlay is sloppy and abysmally sparse, and the queue is truly dreadful - just a dark tunnel with a couple of posters on the wall? Come on now. The coaster however is very good, and I'd have love to have seen the ride as it was intended. A very poor show really. Disneyland Park is truly stunning and I can absolutely see why this is known as the most beautiful Disney park. The Studios Park is very much under construction and is covered in temporary fences, which is to be expected, but still offers a good part day at the least with some truly brilliant attractions. Avengers Flight Force is a standout - the coaster feels fast and quite forceful, with some good theming in the queue and screens throughout the ride which work well I think. The restraints aren't great, but overall a very good ride I thought. Doesn't deserve the criticism I've read! Tower of Terror is excellent. I wasn't expecting it to be so creepy, and so different to Orlando. Ratatouille and the surrounding area are beautifully done and is a good sign of things to come at the Studios park. Something that surprised me was how horrible some of the queues are at DLP - Many of them are very sparsely themed, and incredibly cramped cattlepens. Big Thunder for example was not a good experience for us, with many of the French smoking in that undercover section where the queue inexplicably splits for a while then re-merges again (which was causing some tension among some people in front of us). Weird. I'm really looking forward to going back already. You can really see the change in quality from where Disney have taken the reigns, so I think really it's on the up!

That would be a real shame to think that Detonator could be on borrowed time if it's a struggle to find parts. It's an incredible drop tower. Hopefully all will be sorted soon and they can continue to source bits. I bet many of Thorpe's rides are starting to hit these sort of troubles now at about the same time - many of the flats were built within a few years of each other.

I wonder if they're going to put a screen up and show the football over the coming few weeks maybe? (grass is footbally isn't it?)

Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of investment in to something causing Colossus' crap operations during the off season? I guess that never happened in the end?

Well done Matt and good on you for going solo. Glad you had a great day

🤣 Great news it's back tomorrow! Can't wait to get on this. Will be there in a couple of weeks.

I've seen on Instagram that engineers have been riding it today. That's got to be a very promising sign! Could realistically be open tomorrow I suppose? Even if it opens mid-way through the day.

I've just read it actually sold out by 12:01. How on earth do people have this much spare money to burn.

To be fair, they don't have a crystal ball, and it's certainly not in their interest to have it closed! I'm interested to hear what you would have said if you were given the task of writing the statement? Because I can guarantee you, you wouldn't please everyone! 😂

To be fair, they initially said they couldn't commit to it opening before the 8th, which definitely doesn't say "It will re-open on the 8th". There really isn't anything they could say (or could have said) that would make things any better. It'll open when it's fixed 🤷🏼‍♂️ That's all there is to it. It could even open on Sunday to be fair - but it would be suicide for Thorpe to suggest that, in case it doesn't happen. Hopefully it'll be soon - it's such a shame that all the excitement has stalled a little! It'll all be worth it when things get going though. I'd love to know what happened. I suppose we'll never know.

Out if interest, does the water make any difference to the ride drop, or is it purely for athletics? As long as there's water at the bottom I suppose it doesn't make a lot of difference, otherwise that turn in to the station would be a bit sharp! Loggers occasionally didn't run any water down the drop, and to my mind it always seemed a lot faster (it was like a bloody rollercoaster going down without it). Could very well be my imagination though!

I think the the baggage holds were always a bit daft on Saw, and it was the same with Stealth. They're too close to the batching area, meaning all of a sudden everyone has to get to the bag window then immediately be batched. It is always too much of a rush and too much going on at once. on the likes of Swarm and Wickerman they were built in a better place, because there's plenty of time between bag faff and station faff. So it could all get delayed at the bag window, but there wouldn't be any effect on the station.

I don’t know about that - she apologised several times in that video.

I do feel so bad for everyone involved. They got it over the line (just) on time, and launched it perfectly - now this… Hopefully they’ll get it back up and running soon.

Is there any inkling of what might be wrong with it?

Oh dear - all day as well…… hopefully it’s a quick fix and it will be back tomorrow. wonder what it is?

I’m a bit disappointed, but not surprised, that they’re offering Fastrack already. But I suppose no business is going to turn down anyone who is prepared to give them £20 for opening a gate 🤷‍♂️ A little worrying that even at this very moment the site is under construction too, just a few hours before media launch…. This is all so exciting though - can’t believe it’s actually time to open! After all this time Thorpe are opening a new coaster! Looking forward to seeing the live blogs etc tonight. Will TPM be there?

It definitely feels very down to the wire doesn't it 😬 A lot left to do in a short period! I'm surprised the lake hasn't been re-flooded yet - I guess this will be a last minute quick job? Still - how bloody exciting. Can't believe this is about to open at Thorpe!

Well done to Thorpe for setting all this up. People are animals unfortunately, and a stampede is the last thing anyone needs. I'll be waiting a week or two before visiting I think! I wonder what the queue time will be on opening day?

There are loads of Hyperia billboards on those digital screens you see on the sides of the road, all over London at the moment. looks like there’s quite a bit of marketing going on at the moment!

Cooooool I like the ad! We're so close now - I can't believe how much work there still is to do though on the queues, pathways and landscaping 🫥

Could well be! That’s exciting if it is! I suppose the queue clearance could be with fright nights in mind, because I think a couple of weeks back weren’t they clearing out the Black Mirror stuff? The trademark application is interesting!

I agree - it’s all gone a bit weird. This recent weirdness and the prison yard queue have been quite disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, the ride is going to be amazing - I just think they’ve missed a few opportunities 😬 What happened to the “Everest” style teasers we were getting at the start? Shame they didn’t go down that road. I suppose it wouldn’t be Thorpe without a bit of head scratching would it 😂

They’ve re-uploaded it now It’s all a bit wtf. Feels like a real “doing your homework on the school bus” situation. Hopefully this disappears soon as honestly it cheapens the whole thing. They’ve made the decision not to theme the ride - I think just go with that. It’s too late to have this AI generated stuff tacked on, it really takes away from what they’ve built I think.

Wasn’t there some mention a while ago that this project came about and was all agreed under “old Merlin”, so the theming etc was left at the time? I suppose a “retheme” is possible at some point later on. Because as has already been said they do seem to value theming everywhere else, and Merlin have even said recently that they are going with immersive attractions going forward. I do agree thigh that Hyperia doesn’t really need a strong theme at the moment. It would have been nice, but it’s ok. I hope going forward though they do stick with theming their rides