planenut

I'm really impressed by the ride teams at Thorpe. We really take for granted how hard they work to keep the rides moving so efficiently. It's really telling how good we have it, The Swarm probably had the worst ops but they were still only stacking trains for about 10 seconds per cycle (and that is an exaggeration). 
 
The Hyperia team must have been chosen by the goddess themselves, because they run that ride so well, never stacking, always dispatching as soon as they can. Also shout out to Inferno's team who were doing a great job. They need a batcher though as lots of trains going out with two empty seats next to each other.
 
And finally, the older I get the more I see myself preferring Thorpe's coaster line up to Altons. As much as I like Nemesis Reborn, I think the rest of the line up is either gimmicky nonsense, run awfully or just dull. Whereas Inferno is running the best Ive seen it (honestly, it's so good right now), Stealth and the Swarm are just so much fun, Hyperia manages to be open (  ) and I still love hanging out around Colossus and hearing that music.
 
In general Thorpe is just a better experience all round. Better hours, better rides, better food, better operations. I would have never said that 20 years ago, but now, to me, Thorpe is in a different league. 

It's an interesting question. I have spent too much of my life waiting so I don't like queuing and when it comes to riding, I do take it into account. It depends also on the people around you, and any themeing, this particularly relates to whether one is alone. The chatter amongst a group can be enjoyable, if you're included. The atmosphere can be affected, especially if the Park is "dead".

It's an interesting question. I have spent too much of my life waiting so I don't like queuing and when it comes to riding, I do take it into account. It depends also on the people around you, and any themeing, this particularly relates to whether one is alone. The chatter amongst a group can be enjoyable, if you're included. The atmosphere can be affected, especially if the Park is "dead".

It's true, really.
 
Sat on Stealth today, waiting for launch, person next to me (adult)....
"What's that wire going to the top?"
Me: "That's so if the train gets stuck at the top , they pull that cable which pulls out a valve at the top causing the whole frame to deflate, lowering everybody safely to the ground!"
My co-rider looked up to the top and declared, "makes sense"!

Saw it testing a few times today 

This weekend I went to Paulton’s fan day, the park certainly put on a lovely event. 
  Several tours/BTS were carried out throughout the day, from seeing Cobra’s ride workshop, Storm Chaser’s OP cabin/train workshop process, the new construction area and much more.    We had over an hour of ERS in Tornado Springs and Ghostly Manor (more on that soon) as well as a lovely buffet in Mel’s Diner and a Reveal/Q&A with park management.    The biggest news/reveal of course was the new Vikings area (Valgard), which will include a new coaster, flat ride, restaurant and also re-themed Cobra (soon to be Raven). Surprisingly, the new coaster will be a Gerstlauer eurofighter, but hopefully the park will carry it off well, I find the smaller ones the better rides usually.    Vague hints of a new water ride the following year were revealed, but not much else. Very exciting still. Magma will be a goner later this year. At least for Paultons. The lodges are several years away still.    They also did a Q&A and showed how they build Ghostly Manor, which given the areas footprint/show building is impressive they got that all in. They also did a silent disco, but I left at that point.    So, Ghostly Manor? My thoughts? It’s a lovely compact dark ride mixing screens and scenes nicely (they have 10 of them), plus the queue line is nicely done too. Whilst it doesn’t hit the same way as Alty Mans or Danse Macabre (which I did days earlier), it’s a decent addition to the park and great to see them finally obtaining a dark ride. Should suit the park nicely.    Interesting times ahead perhaps. 

Here today nothing happening with stealth

Just got back from first trip to Europa. 
 
Wow. Where to start. 
Stayed in hotel Colleseio which was impressive, and to be honest a strange experience in itself that such a lavish hotel was linked to a theme park. 
 
3 days on park and 1 day Rulantica. &nbsp
 
The aesthetics of the park are incredible, it’s impossible not to feel the passion and pride that the Mack family have for their park. Everywhere you look it’s packed with hidden gems and is fresh, vibrant and visually stunning. More so, even after 3 days I know there’s so much more to discover, and the rich theming throughout really does elevate this park. 
 
The ride selection is second to none. I went for the coasters, but fell in love with the dark rides! Pirates detail was impressive, but live all the little hidden gems throughout the park. In terms of the biggies. Voltron was my no1 followed by Wodan and Silver Star, but also really enjoyed blue fire, the last inversion really something. 
 
Heard people talking up the ops for years, and was always questioning why people went on about them so much. Well not any more! Absolute perfection and efficiency. So obvious that the park is all about guest experience, the no nonsense approach in the stations is so refreshing to see, and keeps the queues down to sub 20 even on popular rides on a fairly busy day! 
 
Overall can’t wait to get back, going to be hard to find a park to top the all round package that Europa provides, yes there’s parks with better coasters etc, but it’s the combo of the selection of rides, theming, cleanliness, food and beverage offerings and most of all OPERATIONS! 
 
If you havent been. Get out there!! 

I’ve learned today that apparently Hyperia has had some of its wheels replaced with nylon ones, resulting in the trains maintaining higher speeds for longer through the high points (and a shorter time to complete the circuit of course).
 
With no sign of any reoccurrence of the valleying issues for several weeks now, could we finally be in the “business as usual” phase, with the ride running reliably and consistently?
I guess it’s still too soon to say, but here’s hoping.

There was a small red crane in the plaza yesterday and the launch bunker doors were open

I've had my suspicions all but confirmed in that Stealth's and Rita's are indeed unrelated.
 
Thorpe will do their utmost to keep Stealth going, and I don't think we're anywhere near the point where they're considering getting rid of it.
 
For those old enough to remember, Thorpe literally clung onto dear life with Slammer. It was closed more than it was open for a couple of years. S&S stopped manufacturing parts, so Thorpe sourced things elsewhere. They dedicated a lot of money and man hours into getting the thing running. Only once it had absolutely gone past the financial point of no return did they give up the ghost.
 
And Stealth is obviously different; it is still such an iconic ride for the park, is a genuine reason that people visit, and generates money from merch sales.
 
I'm not saying to take Stealth for granted, but at this point, there is no reason to think Stealth is facing an imminent closure in the next couple of years.

Went to the park last Thursday after grabbing an overnight stay deal on Black Friday for Wednesday (when the park was originally meant to be closed), breakfast included, plus unlimited FastTrack all day (including Hyperia) for just £72 total (£36 per person). I never usually stay over, but that price for unlimited FastTrack made it an absolute no-brainer.
 
I was pretty much on Hyperia for most of the day, and managed over 30 rides on it, as well as a couple of other rides too. Saw it testing before 9am and it was open for 10. Should be standard but nice to see they’re making the effort to get it running on time this season - it’s a big improvement over last year’s late starts.
 
As the day went on and the ride warmed up, I did notice it started to get a little jolty/rattly from around row 4/5. Might be down to the different wheel compounds they’re using, but honestly it wasn’t anything major and didn’t really take away from the ride experience.
 
Operations were absolutely flawless all day, the team were smashing the trains out and I didn't see it stack once, trains were even dispatched before the other hit the break run which I hadn't seen before.
 
There was a lot of people who had the same deal also lapping Hyperia, and with RAP usage on top, the main queue for Hyperia definitely took a hit. Bit of a problem when RAP and FastTrack is allocated for the whole park but people are just using it on Hyperia.
 
Since I was staying over, I was actually there for park opening for once (normally I don’t bother till the afternoon. I hate how they keep all the gates closed until 10am. Other parks like Chessington and Towers let you in the park earlier, not sure why this one can’t do the same. Back in the day, they used to open the gates earlier (around half 9) and if rides were ready, you’d open them before opening. Much better procedure than having a bottleneck and lots of people running in my opinion. This was on a quiet day too, can’t imagine what this is like on peak days.
 
Shame not to get on Stealth again, still not been on it this season yet. Didn't see any visible work going on last week but hopefully the issues will get sorted soon.
 
Rumba Rapids was testing and there seemed to be a lot of staff over there training, the ride availability page shows this will be open on late May now.
 
Vortex is running really well, and has done for the last few seasons. It still has its smoke machine from Fright Nights too, doesn’t have much effect without it being dark and the lighting etc but still nice to see.

Todays BBC article has some interesting info on this, "only Universal park to be in Europe", talking with local educational establishments, 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yrg95rp5wo
 
The site is far more suited as a "brownfield site", which will help with planning/development, and lack of massive industrial employers suggests more potential workforce.

First run yesterday..........the only coaster to have run this year.

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Someone told me on Friday that the SRQ took an hour, good luck if intending to ride it.

Stealth on Wednesday was managing a rate of 1200 per hour with two trains.
 
You still get people who have queued for a long time, standing there looking at empty seats needing to be told to move.
 
A young lad decided, once in the seat, that he was not going to ride. His mum was not pleased telling me that she had just paid £15 for his fast-track ticket.

Stealth on Wednesday was managing a rate of 1200 per hour with two trains.
 
You still get people who have queued for a long time, standing there looking at empty seats needing to be told to move.
 
A young lad decided, once in the seat, that he was not going to ride. His mum was not pleased telling me that she had just paid £15 for his fast-track ticket.

Very well done, and thank you . Those of us, especially this dinosaur, can have no idea of the complications of setting up a site, trying to transfer sections across, and having to put up with any unhelpful comments.
 
Thanks, Fred (planenut)

Train One, refurbished and back on track.
having been working on this train for over a year, this train has only it's original chassis, everything else has been renewed, even the bodyshells and seat moldings. One could have not have failed to realize the degradation of the foam on the restraints, which resulted in concaves developing on the underside caused by the effects of human perspiration; now the comparison with train two which remains in use emphasizes that. Some of the new rotating joints are harder to move for the moment.
 
Train three is now off track and undergoing refurbishment.
 
This work does conflict with the remarks of another rider yesterday, who insisted that they had seen a report which stated that Stealth "is to be removed at the end of the season", really? this work proves that Stealth is here for a good few years yet.
 
 
 
 

Apparently it's been decided as too costly.

Train One, refurbished and back on track.
having been working on this train for over a year, this train has only it's original chassis, everything else has been renewed, even the bodyshells and seat moldings. One could have not have failed to realize the degradation of the foam on the restraints, which resulted in concaves developing on the underside caused by the effects of human perspiration; now the comparison with train two which remains in use emphasizes that. Some of the new rotating joints are harder to move for the moment.
 
Train three is now off track and undergoing refurbishment.
 
This work does conflict with the remarks of another rider yesterday, who insisted that they had seen a report which stated that Stealth "is to be removed at the end of the season", really? this work proves that Stealth is here for a good few years yet.
 
 
 
 

Having done the ride in the front, back and middle, it is without a doubt a stunning ride. Operations seemed very good yesterday. 
 
It’s a shame the splashdown looks messy at the moment, but hopefully this is something that can be sorted sometime. 
 
The moments of floater, ejector and hang time on this ride are simply immense IMO. 

As an ERT it was disappointing,  as a ride it is brilliant. It's okay for me as I live locally but many members travelled a long way and had paid.
 
What adds to the annoyance is how late the ride opened to the general public with staff members re-riding the "test" runs; not tactful.