Inferno

To be fair I can understand why they would go with 2 trains - as good as 3 would have been, I can’t think of many companies that would spend more money on something than they absolutely have to. This situation is also totally out of their control really, so one train for a short period of time isn’t too bad realistically. it sucks, but it’s understandable. What annoys me is that Fastrack is still being sold during this time… on the busiest days of the season, with one train on the new coaster….. come on. There should be a total stop to fastrack sales for Hyperia until it’s back on 2 trains. When things happen outside of your control, fine. but they can control Fastrack sales, and have chosen not to bother. That’s poor.

Oh interesting.... I wonder how things will develop during the event.

That’s incredible - well done Thorpe 👏

Agreed - if they can get it open and can limp through tonight on one train, there’s no reason they can’t do the same tomorrow - all the staff etc will be there anyway I assume, there’s no reason not to run it, until the time comes to cycle the other train round to test. I do feel for everyone working at Thorpe though. There’s nothing they could have done about this, and clearly they’re working bloody hard to try to keep things going. I'm seeing ads for “Hyperia in the dark” on instagram today - it sucks for everyone involved that this is happening. With surprise things like this, I imagine it involves people working overtime etc? I can’t imagine there’s a lot of time for things like this as part of the BAU! I’m sure they’ll have it back up very quickly.

Great news. Realistically I can’t imagine it would take that long to get the stricken train back on track in the maintenance shed - of course I know 0 about the subject, but I would hope it’s just a case of getting it back on and running the necessary tests. A bit of a panic job I imagine given the busiest time of year starts in a minute. I wish it had a third train 🙄

I really hope so. Having to muck about with water dummies every time it tests for years to come wont be good!

Forgive my ignorance, would they need this train to be out of action for long? I can’t imagine there would be much wrong with it as it’s literally just running on the rails, surely? Hopefully it’s all back again very quickly on 2 trains, and they can keep nursing it until the end of the season. I imagine this means Saw will have some downtime again at some point too due to the crane?

Well done Josh 😂 I get the impression that Hyperia is an absolute nightmare to keep running. I know it’s in its first year, but it’s been a lot hasn’t it. For some reason I thought Macks were supposed to be quite reliable? I guess not! This is a huge blow before fright nights, and just after it’s 5 day planned downtime 🙄 I’m sure they’ll get this back on again soon, but It’s going to be a busy closed season while they sort these underlying issues out, and finish off the area and queue

It was quite windy yesterday - that mixed with the cold, I suppose could have had an impact? They kept playing the “we might shut down because of the weather” announcement so it must have been getting close to borderline I assume 🤷‍♂️

I had a similar thought - perhaps if there are plans afoot for a new coaster 3 years from now, a Swarm retheme (or “sort out”) might be coming just before, as it will finally get the passing traffic it needs!

I wonder if they will decide it’s worth spending money on speeding up the train entry? I certainly hope so. it seems to rely on gravity to allow the train to roll down in to the station at the moment, so I assume it would need actual modifications rather than a bit of adjusting. Fingers crossed.

Yes it was the same today. There seemed to be a long pause before any restraints are checked each time. Weird.

Maybe this is a hot take - but is anyone else finding the Swarm to be really dreary lately? The actual coaster itself is still fab - but the area and theme just feels more dull and lifeless than ever. The main offender to me is the gentle organ / guitar chord music in the station - I find it so boring and depressing, and just doesn’t seem to set the tone for the ride at all. I didn’t particularly care for the ‘alien sounds’ that were in there when it opened either, but it was a lot better than this. The whole area is also looking very tired and run down. Since it’s supposed to be an unfolding alien invasion, there’s no reason that everything should look so old. The faded pink fire engine in particular looks terrible. Also not one of the TVs in the queue work at all, and haven’t really for years, making the news audio feel a bit weird. In fact, not one of the effects actually work…. The dispatch audio is dreary and misses the mark for me too. The aliens have supposedly ripped the roof off the church and are taking people away, and the dispatch is a very calm well spoken person saying “this is it. There is no escaping the swarm. Sit back and pray”… come on. Where’s the drama? I think we could either do with the original YMA6-based track back, blasting across the area, or if not that, something else. The music and audio for the Swarm just doesn’t work in my opinion since it was messed about with. I think the Swarm is a great ride, but it’s suffering from neglect out there away from the rest of the park. It feels forgotten about! I think it really does suffer from lack of footfall because of where it is. Hopefully this is on the list for some TLC this winter. The coaster is still standing, but the theme is dead in the water.

A note on operations today, which was quite a busy one. A very poor start to the day with half of the main rides down, but by lunchtime everything was finally open. Operations were generally very good across the park, particularly on Hyperia, Stealth and Colossus, where the staff were really going out of their way to help speed things along. Also, I know this is a bit weird, but I think it’s good to point out things like this that tend to go unsaid - Thorpe has some very good and well maintained toilets! Spotlessly clean and smelling of bubblegum, they really are on top of some of “the little things” that actually make quite an impact on your perception of the park.

I had wondered if a little more work had been done to Hyperia’s area during its maintenance this week, but today it was still very much in its unfinished state, with temporary fences lining the paths, cables and pipes draped across the mud, and a lot of areas overgrown with weeds. The splashdown is also still not working, and a few of the speakers are already blown. The queue isn’t great is it. What a ride Hyperia is though. It’s so different to anything else in the UK. Operations on there are also still outstanding - trains regularly going out long before the other returns.

Hyperia has opened earlier than planned following the maintenance this week

There are definitely enough event days to justify it - also don’t forget the football / Wimbledon things they do as well, all of these things need a space building every time. it’ll also be a good way to enter the park if it’s done nicely - much better than passing over the random beach which is closed for much of the year anyway

There’s definitely something up here isn’t there - during my recent trip (and in the random queue time checking in the weeks leading up to it) BTM went down for several hours every day without fail. Actually this and Space Mountain had dreadful downtime, lasting several hours, every day all week. Weird, and very impactful given how the park has been.

Do we know what actually happened to TT2?

It also feels fairly new to me. I know I’m old, but it really does feel like only a few years ago Wild Asia and Scorpion Express opened. In my mind they’re among the “newer” things at Chessington 🤷‍♂️ Perhaps there are other plans for the likes of Tomb Blaster tba? I agree with the comments about tiger rock - although they’ve only just tarted that up haven’t they 🙄

Wow, this was a bit out of the blue wasn't it! Great news. Hopefully the coaster has a good throughput. With all this and the waterpark hopefully coming soon, Chessington has a good few things to look forward to, as long as they can keep some rides open occasionally.

Zufari now says "Closed for the remainder of the season".

That's interesting that this is happening. I wonder if Merlin will weirdly benefit from Universal arriving in the UK? The likes of Disney, Europa and to an extent Phantasialand etc all have enough clout to attract people from abroad on their own. I don't think any of the UK parks are really able to do that at the moment. I think a resort like Universal might though - and I do wonder if their guests might take a trip to one of the Merlin parks 'while they're here' sort of thing? A bit like how people go to Orlando for the big parks, but visit Legoland 'while we're here', as you certainly wouldn't fly across the globe for a park like that on its own. I think as well it's worth mentioning that actually prices for everything, and the cost of living in general, must be playing massively in to it as well.... One thing I noticed on my recent visit to DLP was that the food and drink was cheaper within their parks than it was at Merlin's, and that was at Di$n€y. Also we very much made a conscious decision to cut back on these sort of things to enable us to go to DLP - I bet there are a lot of people in a similar position, sacrificing smaller treats like a day at a Merlin park to allow them to go abroad on holiday etc? I think really UK park visits have become a luxury for a lot of people here compared with how it was just a few years ago. For me personally, what used to be an "oh go on then, let's go to Thorpe at the weekend" decision has now become quite a planned landmark day (if you know what I mean) - it's not something that can really be done on a whim to the extent that it used to be. Whatever is going on here, Brexit and cost of living aside, closing attractions and winding down isn't going to attract more customers 🤷🏼‍♂️ Hopefully investment continues across the Merlin parks and things pick up, especially if Universal does go ahead - it would be amazing for the UK to become a bit of a theme park destination wouldn't it!

That’s good really. To be fair, they don’t seem to be doing this on weekends and it does seem to be limited to only the quietest days of the season. Hopefully that’ll be it after these next couple of weeks, because actually operations seem to have been great this year

See, this is an interesting one to me. I agree, the actual mazes themselves are a lot better in terms of theming, duration, and overall quality. But as guests, are we having a better time? I’d argue that no, we’re not necessarily. Yes, of course we are having a very good time, but better? The standout mazes from the past for me have been Experiment 10, Cabin in the Woods v1, and the beloved Big Top v2. While they were far simpler and shorter than todays mazes at thorpe, they were just utterly fab, and I thunk because they were at no additional cost there were no great expectations - it was just a good time with no stress, which you could also repeat several times if you wanted. I don’t know if I can put my finger on it, but something about paying this much for a single go at a maze just sets expectations higher than they need to be for what a scare maze is. I sort of think it’s all lost its way a little bit if you know what I mean? The Asylum for instance, while it was adored years ago, would risk being deemed a joke these days because it would lack all the backstory, “nods”, heavy theming and grandeurs that we now have - even though actually, it would still offer a very intense, disorientating, scary experience, full of jump scares, and would be included as part of your day. I also think mazes a few years ago used to feel genuinely scary, whereas now adays dare I say that parts of some modern mazes can sometimes feel a bit like a tour through a highly-themed set…… (I know this is quite the hot take, I’m sorry!) Anyway,, my apologies, 1. I’ve gone off topic. 2. I’m sorry for appearing negative - genuinely, I do think this year’s lineup looks amazing, and I am genuinely in awe of what the designers and actors achieve these days in such short spaces of time with limited budgets. There’s no denying that the scare industry is achieving amazing things! I’m just a bit sad that it’s all got this expensive that’s all, and I miss that it used to be simpler. I very much look forward to the reviews etc and seeing what comes next