Matt N

April 20

Hi guys. With Thorpe Park Mania being a Thorpe Park fansite, many of the site's discussions centre heavily around attractions operated by Merlin Entertainments. One of Merlin's key products designed to appeal to people who visit Merlin attractions more frequently is the Merlin Annual Pass, which gains you entry to all of Merlin's UK attractions for a whole year, amongst other privileges. I'd wager that some on here visit Merlin attractions pretty often, but at the same time, some hold great disdain towards Merlin and want to give the company as little of their money as possible. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know; do you currently have a Merlin Annual Pass, and if not, have you ever had one? If you don't have one, what puts you off buying one?

Personally, I do not currently have a Merlin Annual Pass, but have had one in the past. We very often used to have them as kids, and we used to have them in alternating, non-Florida years going into my teens. The last season when I had a Merlin pass, however, was 2021. I had a Premium Merlin Annual Pass that I purchased in February or March 2020, and it got extended by a stupid number of months to something like December 2021 due to the COVID lockdowns. My parents and I really hammered the Merlin parks in 2020 and 2021; I reckon I got 10 park visits out of that pass!

However, I have not had a Merlin pass since that 2021 season. These days, I don't have a Merlin pass simply because I'm not sure I'd get value for money out of one. Living in Gloucestershire, I don't really live close enough to any of the 4 theme parks to visit them super frequently, and to get value for money out of even the cheapest tier of Merlin pass nowadays, I'd need to do at least 5 Merlin park visits per year. I'm not sure that I'd necessarily do more than 5 in a typical year these days; in a typical year, I probably do a minimum of a 2-day visit to Alton Towers and 1 or 2 days at Thorpe Park. If either park has a new notable draw, I might also do a day at Chessington or Legoland. On occasion, I might do two 2-day visits or a couple of extra day trips to Alton rather than just the one weekend, but those occasions are getting rarer. I'm probably going to be spending a 3rd day at Alton at some point in 2024, but that's only because we got given a free return visit due to visiting on 23rd March, so it's not a "paid" visit to Alton. Had we not had that free return visit, we probably wouldn't be going back to Alton this year.

When we were kids, we used to get value for money out of the Merlin passes because we used to do things like go to London and do some of the midway attractions at least once a year, as well as going to Warwick Castle, our nearest Merlin attraction at a 1.5 hour drive away, once or twice a year, alongside the annual weekend at Alton Towers. But we don't really go to the midways so much anymore; the last time I visited a Merlin midway attraction in London was no later than 2015, and I haven't been to Warwick Castle since 2017.

But I'd be keen to know; do you currently have a Merlin pass, and have you ever had one? If you don't currently have one, what puts you off buying one?

March 27

Out of interest, what have operations and ride availability been like at Thorpe Park this year?

It seems like both Alton Towers and Chessington have been struggling, with sporadic ride availability, reduced capacity on many attractions and a number of rides still closed, but I haven’t heard too many similar horror stories from Thorpe Park this season. To my knowledge, Samurai is the only ride still closed, and that’s only due to the paint job over-running slightly, meaning that it should be open soon.

I’ve also heard relatively good things about Thorpe’s operations this year.

Are things OK at Thorpe on the operations and availability front so far this year?

Cal · March 26

On 3/25/2024 at 12:58 PM, Cal said:

Thanks for this @Matt N always find these interesting!

Its so satisfying being in the Nemesis queue, always seem to have a good team running it and the queue constantly moves. Nice to see Oblivion is being ran slightly better this year hopefully that continues.

Only timing I got last week was in the Wickerman queue as I was bored and was interested how it does on 2 trains. Were dispatching trains roughly every 2 mins so 720.

Hopefully this is the start of slightly stronger ops on Oblivion! In previous years, it's often had slightly weaker operations, with throughputs slipping to 800-900pph on occasions, so I was pleased to see this improved throughput reading!

That's an interesting finding with Wicker Man. Clearly it was going a bit slower during your visit, as both of my readings had it closer to 800pph, or dispatches roughly 10s or so faster.

March 26

For anyone interested, I managed to see Nemesis Reborn for the first time last weekend (23rd & 24th March). I promised a longer written review of the project in my trip report from the weekend, so here it is!

Let me start with the theming and overall Forbidden Valley area. The change in vibe from Nemesis to Nemesis Reborn has certainly been divisive throughout the construction process, but I have to say that overall, I'm a big fan of the final product. The area looks absolutely fantastic, and in my view, the new changes have added a real energy to Forbidden Valley that it arguably lacked before. I heard a review describing the new-look Forbidden Valley as "dynamic", and I have to say that that is an excellent descriptor, in my view! Pretty much every new theming element in the area has some degree of audio, movement, or both, and it does give off a sense that things are happening around you and really elevates the atmosphere beyond that of the previous area. In terms of some particular positives for me, these include:

I have to say that the eye is an absolutely stunning piece of theming; it's just huge, and while I did not personally see the teeth move, I think it still really delivers on visual impact alone! The screen is very convincing, and overall, I do think that it serves as a very cool focal point of the new area!
I was originally unsure on the loss of the original queue layout, which involved you going under the ride, but I have to say that the new queue was a pleasant surprise! It's littered with bits of theming, and they've woven some very nice bits of storytelling into it, in my opinion. As I said about the wider area above, most of these new theming pieces have some degree of audio or movement. I particularly like the helicopter near the stall turn, which has some nice audio, smoke and movement, and the Phalanx lab, which has some nice bits of storytelling audio associated with it. Overall, I do think that the back portions of the queue are overall far more interesting than they were before, and while the lack of queueing under the ride is a loss compared to the previous iteration, I think the new theming and storytelling makes up for it!
On that subject, I do really like the new views of the ride the queue provides. It is very cool to be able to look over the whole ride area, and you do still get a couple of the close encounters that the old queue was good for. The stall turn comes pretty close at one point, and you are also close to the first drop!
The new station is awesome, and a huge improvement on what came before! I always said that I liked the idea of turning the station into the inside of the monster, and I have to say that I think they've executed this brilliantly! The new dispatch sequence is brilliant, the new audio in there is brilliant, the lighting is brilliant, the theming is brilliant... it's just brilliant all round, really!
I have to say that I think the Nemesis monster itself looks better than it did before. I think the darker grey/black paint job really suits it, the new tentacles look brilliant, the tail at the back looks better, and overall, I think they've done a really good job of refurbishing it! It's faithful to what was already there while also being enhanced and looking wonderfully shiny and new!
Perhaps controversially, I think that the new soundtrack is awesome, and much improved on what was there before! I'm not too much of a music nerd, so I can't go into too many specific nerdy details, but I personally think that the new soundtrack sounds a lot more exciting, dramatic, and just overall more catchy and pleasing to my ear! It sounds like the soundtrack to a really awesome Hollywood monster movie, and I personally much prefer it to the old one, as good as the old one was.
I really like some of the new triggered effects. For instance, I think that even something as simple as the smoke spraying the train going through the zero-g roll is really cool and really adds something to the overall theming!
I've heard people say that the overall area gives off quite a "Swarm" vibe, and I do agree with this somewhat. However, I've always loved Swarm Island at Thorpe Park as an area, so that's certainly no bad thing, in my view!

There are probably more, but those are just some of the ones I could think of! However, I don't think the new theming is perfect. Some minor areas for improvement from me are:

As much as I do really like the new black aesthetic of the area and fences (it's definitely grown on me a lot since the initial reveal!), I think that if I'm being really pedantic, they could have gone for some slightly more interesting ride area fencing. For instance, maybe even just having some red lights on top and slightly more beefed up fencing, to give off the impression of it being in an enclosure similar to something like the raptor paddock on VelociCoaster, would have been really cool!
Again, I'm being really pedantic here, but I do think that the helicopter near the stall turn is perhaps slightly too small. The one at the entrance to the area looks absolutely brilliant and is really impactful, but I think this one is perhaps a bit too small to have that sort of impact.
If we're thinking wishfully, I would have loved to have seen the budget stretch to a retheme of Galactica to make it fit with the rest of the area, as that ride does stick out like a sore thumb when the rest of the area is so wonderfully themed and cohesive. However, I fully appreciate that that's wishful thinking, and I'm happy that they put more into the rest of the area as opposed to spreading themselves too thinly and trying to include Galactica if the budget didn't allow for it.

Let's now discuss the ride itself. Now, you might think that there isn't loads to discuss because, well, it's the same Nemesis it's always been. And to an extent, that is true. However, I still feel like I want to talk about it a little, as the retrack has given me some thoughts.

Overall, it's great to have Nemesis back in the lineup. It's an excellent, excellent coaster, and getting back on it over the weekend definitely reinforced how much it adds to Alton Towers' lineup. I have long held the view that I don't rate Nemesis as highly as many enthusiasts, and while I stand by that view to an extent and would say that the retrack hasn't drastically changed my opinion of it, I think that I have a newfound appreciation for it in some ways and that I would perhaps rank it a few spots higher than I did before visiting Alton last weekend. I had 2 rides; a row 7 inner seat and a row 4 outer seat. To me, the ride felt a little bit faster in spots (particularly the two turnarounds), definitely smoother (it certainly didn't have any of the headbanging that the original was prone to in its latter years!), and definitely just as thrilling and exciting as it ever was! This isn't anything new, but I have to say that riding Nemesis again gave me a new appreciation for some of the more unique aspects of its layout design. That opening salvo, where the speed just builds and builds out of nowhere, is particularly awesome and so exciting, and I have to say that I think that the way the ride keeps its pace right to the end, closing with that snappy final corkscrew, is just brilliant! And overall, I think there's something intangibly... pleasing about the way it rides. Is Nemesis my favourite coaster at Alton Towers? Definitely not. I definitely enjoy Wicker Man discernibly more than the rest of the coasters in the park, and I think that Oblivion may also usurp Nemesis for me too. However, Nemesis is a very solid 3rd place within Alton Towers for me, and while not a top 10 coaster, I'd definitely say it's a top 20, possibly a top 15 if I'm feeling generous (I haven't quite decided on its exact placement post-retrack yet; it was at #18 out of 111 before, but I could definitely see a touch of upwards movement if I took another look...).

One thing I've often heard discussed is a notable rattle on the retracked version. I don't know if I just rode on the "good" train both times I did it, but if people hadn't mentioned it, I honestly wouldn't have thought anything of this rattle despite having a relatively low roughness tolerance. The ride felt perfectly smooth to me; I hardly felt a thing on the row 7 inner seat ride, and while the rattle was slightly more noticeable on the row 4 outer seat ride, it was certainly nothing that even vaguely impacted enjoyment for me. I'd liken it more to the relatively benign "Mack rattle" on Icon than the rather distracting bounce on something like Mandrill Mayhem.

So overall, then, my view of Nemesis Reborn is profoundly positive. I think the project deserves all of the plaudits it is getting, and while I can quibble all I like about not rating it quite as highly as many, it's simply great to have Nemesis back at Alton Towers. She really is back with a vengeance!

Here are some photos I took of the ride and area:

Cal · March 24

For anyone who's interested, I managed to time various ride throughputs on my visits to Alton Towers yesterday and today. The throughput readings I managed to attain are as follows:

Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 871pph (3 trains/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 10)
Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 1,301pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8 )
Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 1,146pph (5 shuttles/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 7)
Rita (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 394pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 5), 357pph (1 train, 24th March 2024, average of 8 )
Runaway Mine Train (Theoretical: 1,061pph on 1 train): 473pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 4) Note: The back car was missing, so the 473pph figure, which assumed a full train of 46, would have been more like 432pph in reality due to the train actually only carrying 42 riders as opposed to the usual 46. The average dispatch interval was 5m 49s, for reference.
Wicker Man (Theoretical: 952pph on 3 trains): 829pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8), 770pph (2 trains, 24th March 2024, average of 8 )

I also have a few other side observations and insights to offer:

Operations on Nemesis Reborn were noticeably slower today than they were yesterday. Yesterday's operations, listed above, saw dispatch intervals of 90s or less and little to no stacking, with a train often being dispatched as the one in front of it was still completing the course. Today, however, dispatch intervals of no faster than 2 minutes were being attained and stacking was routine. I'm not sure what the difference was, but today's operations were notably slower. I was unable to get a proper timing, but a brief attempt I made at timing saw a dispatch interval of over 2 minutes being attained, and I'd say that this was quite par for the course for the time I was in the queue. Pretty much every train I saw stacked outside the station for a notable period. For some perspective, I waited 60 minutes from the gun for my ride yesterday, while I queued 50 minutes from a little before the Phalanx shipping container lab for my ride today.
The Smiler looked as though it might have been running 4 trains today, but I wasn't sure. I say this because the ride was often attaining perfect duelling, which I wouldn't imagine is possible on only 3 trains!
I noticed that the intervals on Galactica appeared to be pretty inconsistent when I was doing the timing above. The intervals appeared to range between 80s and over 3 minutes!

March 22

I actually question whether Thorpe will ever pursue a permanent hotel at this point, or whether they even need to.

A “proper” hotel doesn’t seem like it would fit the target market the park is trying to attract, and in general, Merlin have seemed less enthusiastic about making Thorpe Park into a “resort”. Unlike Alton, Chessington and to a lesser extent Legoland, there isn’t an awful lot else to do at Thorpe aside from the theme park itself. I do think that that would limit the success of a permanent hotel at Thorpe, as it would mean that the hotel couldn’t really open outside of Thorpe Park’s regular season.

I honestly think that for the time being, Thorpe are fine with the hotel arrangement they have. I reckon that with their current target market and positioning, as well as the offerings of the other two local Merlin parks, they’ll do fine out of mostly pursuing day trippers and not really dipping their toes into the “resort” market.

March 21

If anyone is interested, Theme Park Worldwide have filmed a video walking around Thorpe Park with Russ, the park’s operational manager, and documenting some of the changes that have taken place as part of the Sparkle Project over the off-season:

Some interesting details from the video include:

The return of Tidal Wave’s fire effect is planned, but Russ could not give a concrete timeline.
The return of The Swarm’s fire and water effects is also planned. At least one of those will be ready for the start of the season, but I can’t remember which, off the top of my head.
Samurai will not be opening at the start of the season, as it is being refurbished and its repaint is still ongoing.
The reason for Colossus not being fully repainted this off-season is that a full repaint would have resulted in the ride not opening until later in the season, which Thorpe Park did not feel would be ideal.
Colossus’ entrance paint job is going to be altered further. Thorpe Park has taken on board the feedback about it being too yellow.
Saw’s chainsaw blades over the drop will be spinning again for the first time in a number of years in 2024.

I have to say, the park is looking brilliant! Everything looks very fresh, Big Easy Boulevard looks really nice, Hyperia is looking awesome, and overall, I am thoroughly excited for this season at Thorpe Park!

March 13

Hi guys. In recent weeks, the construction of Hyperia at Thorpe Park has been turning a fair few heads. In particular, the first drop for the ride seems to have garnered a lot of attention, with its sharp vertical profiling and twisting gaining plaudits. That drop certainly looks unique, and I've heard some say that they think it could be one of their favourite first drops in the world! This got me thinking about some of my favourite coaster drops in the UK, so today I ask; what is your current favourite coaster drop in the UK?

Personally, I'd have to go for either the first drop of Oblivion at Alton Towers or the first drop of Megafobia at Oakwood.

I love the drop on Oblivion because I just love the phenomenal sustained airtime it gives, as well as the sense of speed you get rushing through the tunnel! Oblivion's first drop has you flying out of your seat for what feels like ages, and I absolutely love that! And when you get to the bottom, I do love the raw sense of speed that the tunnel gives; I know that Oblivion isn't the fastest coaster I've ridden, but the sensation of speed in that tunnel would definitely have me believing that it was in contention for the title if I didn't know any better! Finally, the other thing I love about it is that it is huge. We don't have that many big coasters in this country, and we have even fewer big, straight first drops. As such, I do love that Oblivion has a properly sizeable first drop that's able to provide a real sustained sensation!

As for Megafobia; that ride's first drop in the back row needs to be ridden to be believed, in my view! On the back, you get absolutely hurled out of the seat by the most ridiculous moment of ejector airtime! I've ridden over 100 coasters now, and few other coasters I've done have an ejector-filled first drop quite like Megafobia's. Certainly, no other British coaster has an ejector-filled first drop quite like Megafobia's, in my view. It isn't overly tall, though, and last time I did it, it was tarnished by quite a rough landing at the bottom (although the retrack has hopefully fixed this problem... I'll see for myself in May!). It also only properly hits in the back, from my experience, so it does lose a couple of points for consistency. Nonetheless, that back row ejector airtime is quite something!

I have a tough time deciding between the two. If I had to pick, I'd probably choose Oblivion because I do love the sustained airtime, speed and raw size of it, and it is also consistent. Although as said, that back row ejector on Megafobia is quite something, in my view!

But I'd be keen to know; what is your current favourite coaster drop in the UK? And as an aside; do you think that Hyperia's first drop could possibly clinch the title for you whenever that ride opens?

coasterverse · December 13, 2023

If anyone's interested, I decided to have a bit of fun this evening and cobble together a rough Planet Coaster recreation of Hyperia to gauge a rough idea of the sort of forces and speeds we might be hitting through some of those elements.

I'm aware that the profiling and such aren't perfect, and as such, I'd take some of the exact g-forces with a pinch of salt (for instance, I don't think we'll be pulling 5.6G at the bottom of the dive loop...), but I built the large elements to roughly the same sort of height as they will be in real life (lift hill 236ft, Immelmann 157ft, large outerbank 164ft, dive loop 137ft, small outerbank 65ft, final airtime hill 48ft), so I think it should give a rough ballpark idea of speed in particular. I hope you like it!

Here's a POV and some cinematic shots of my creation:

And if you don't want to watch the video, here is the heatmap of vertical g-forces throughout the ride:

As well as the heatmap of speed throughout the ride:

And the stats of the ride:

And just for fun, here are some shots of the layout in the day and at night:

In terms of speed and forces; I think it paints a very promising picture! If my recreation is at all accurate, it suggests that we could be absolutely flying through the Immelmann, with the ride maintaining a speed of nearly 50mph even at the Immelmann's highest point! The other two large elements maintain speeds of 35-40mph at their highest points. In terms of trimming in the splashdown; I erred towards the more fierce end of the trimming spectrum and went for a deceleration rate of 4m/s2, which reduced the speed by 10-15mph. And even then, the outerbank and final airtime hill still appear very potent, with negative g-forces of nearly -1G still being registered in both elements! So overall, then, I reckon Hyperia could pack some brilliant g-forces throughout and hold its speed really well!

I hope you like my recreation! I have to say, this has also reminded me just how much fun getting stuck into a good Planet Coaster build is... I really need to get back into Planet Coaster, as I haven't really had too much time for it as of late and it shows. I haven't updated any of my ongoing park projects for the forum in nearly 2 years!

If you'd like to play with my recreation yourself, here's the Steam Workshop link where you can download it from: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3113374891

November 11, 2023

I know it’s a different park, but Alton Towers have always created a slightly modified version of their logo to fit whatever the new ride of the year is whenever they’ve built something major. Over the years, we’ve had the orange version of the logo for Wicker Man, the yellow and black swirly version for The Smiler, the green version for Thirteen, and the purple version for The Curse at Alton Manor, and that’s just off the top of my head…

With this in mind, I wouldn’t mind betting that Thorpe might have an edited version of the logo specifically for Hyperia’s opening year.

JoshC. · November 11, 2023

I’m wondering whether the new logo might have some sort of coaster track or something in it.

I know it’s a well-worn approach for a theme park logo, but I would argue that coasters are one of Thorpe’s biggest selling points, particularly with the logo change coinciding with the opening of Hyperia.

coasterverse · October 9, 2023

Sorry to double post, but I’ve managed to find video confirmation courtesy of an Instagram reel from Dominic Gardner:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyLUqY_NUJG/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D

Interestingly, it looks as though they’re starting with the huge outerbank into an inversion.

October 9, 2023

I have exciting news… according to John Burton’s Instagram story, Hyperia has gone vertical!

This is the day we’ve all been waiting for… I, for one, frankly can’t wait to see this beast of a coaster take shape!

October 7, 2023

Hi guys. 2024 is set to be a pretty big year for UK roller coasters, with four different roller coaster-related projects happening for next year. These are:

Hyperia at Thorpe Park, a Mack HyperCoaster that will be the UK’s tallest and fastest roller coaster.
Nemesis 2.0 at Alton Towers, the rebirth of the much-loved B&M Inverted Coaster that is widely accepted to be the most revered UK coaster.
Drayton Manor’s new coaster, an Intamin lift and launch coaster with spinning trains.
Legoland Windsor’s new coaster, a duo of Zierer family shuttle coasters.

It’s certainly a big year for UK roller coasters when you look at this motley crew of upcoming rides! But I’d be really interested to know; which of these 2024 coaster projects are you most excited for?

Personally, I’d have to pick Hyperia at Thorpe Park. It’s so exciting that the UK height record is finally being broken after 30 long years, and even besides that, I think the layout of Hyperia looks phenomenal, with some really unique and impactful elements. I can’t wait to see how that first drop and outerbank into an inversion ride in particular, and the other elements like the Immelmann, stall/dive loop, and the outerbank should provide a real breath of fresh air to the UK coaster scene and provide sensations that have never really been felt on a UK coaster before! I have a huge amount of faith that it will be a big hit, and while it would be overly presumptuous to count your chickens before they hatch, I think that there’s a fair chance that we could be looking at the ride that will finally unseat Nemesis from the position of “most revered in the UK”!

I am excited for Nemesis’ rebirth, but it is a coaster that I’ve already been riding for 10 years rather than anything new, so it does lack some of the anticipation of a new coaster project for me.

I’m also excited to see what Drayton Manor’s coaster turns out like. It sounds like it could be a really intriguing ride, and I’m so glad to see them back on the coaster building map after so long!

Legoland Windsor’s investment looks great for that park, and I’m sure the two coasters will ride really well and go down well with the target demographic, but I’m not as personally excited for them by virtue of them not really being aimed at my demographic.

But I’d be keen to know; which of the UK’s 2024 coaster projects are you most looking forward to?

Inferno · September 26, 2023

In some interesting news, Scott from Your Experience Guide was told on a lift hill climb that Colossus is getting a technical upgrade for 2024 that will result in restraints being able to be released individually. This will mean that when a rider doesn't fit or needs their restraint adjusting, their restraint can be released on its own as opposed to the current situation where every restraint on the train needs releasing and rechecking.

This should really help to improve throughputs on Colossus, as by my observation, the constant need to release and recheck all restraints due to guests not fitting or restraints needing to be adjusted is one of the biggest bottlenecks that's hamstringing the ride's throughput at present.

Source:

(Go to 2:55 if the timestamp doesn't work)

September 20, 2023

Hi guys. We all have our favourite coasters, those rides that we rank really highly; for me, rides that come to mind in this category include phenomenal coasters like Mako, VelociCoaster, Silver Star, Hagrid's and Iron Gwazi, amongst others! Often, there will be a common thread running through our favourite coasters in terms of certain attributes they share to some degree. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know; what do you generally favour in a coaster? What makes a coaster good for you? What kind of coaster elements and attributes really tick your boxes?

Personally, I'm going to answer this through both an analytical and instinctive lens.

Looking at this analytically, I decided to play about with my full ranking of all 111 coasters I've ridden, plotting the correlation between Ranking and Height, Speed, Length, Inversions, Total Rides and Year Opened. Total Rides might seem like an odd metric to test, but I added it in because I wanted to figure out whether that good old chestnut nostalgia has much of an effect on how highly I rate a coaster. Will I rate something that I have an enmeshed relationship with and have ridden numerous times more highly than something I've only ridden once?

When I tested this out, the ranking of how highly correlated certain attributes were with ranking were as follows (I've reversed the direction of the correlations to clear things up; the raw correlations given by Python were negative because ranking gets lower as a number as you rate something more highly):

Ranking	Attribute	Pearson Correlation Coefficient (2dp)	Spearman Correlation Coefficient (2dp)	Average Correlation Coefficient (2dp)	Strength of Correlation based on Average
1	Speed	0.57	0.57	0.57	Moderate Positive Correlation
2	Height	0.52	0.53	0.52	Moderate Positive Correlation
3	Length	0.47	0.48	0.47	Weak Positive Correlation
4	Total Rides	0.37	0.52	0.44	Weak Positive Correlation
5	Opening Year	0.33	0.39	0.36	Weak Positive Correlation
6	Inversions	0.18	0.21	0.20	No Significant Correlation

So my rankings would suggest that the attribute I favour most strongly in a coaster is greater speed, with there being moderate evidence in favour of me generally favouring greater speed. There is similarly moderate evidence in favour of me generally favouring greater height, there is weak evidence in favour of me generally favouring greater length, a higher number of total rides and a newer opening year, and there is insufficient evidence in favour of me generally favouring inversions.

To be honest, I would have instinctively said that speed was my favourite of the main 4 statistics before even doing that analysis, so that tallies up quite well, really!

If you were asking me more instinctively what I enjoy in a coaster, though; I would have to say that simply put, I really enjoy coasters that are fun and thrilling, with good smoothness, comfort and rerideability. The main fundamental criteria for me to rate a coaster highly are simply that it's fun, thrilling and rerideable!

There are specific elements I do enjoy, however. In terms of specific elements I enjoy; I absolutely relish the feeling of airtime on a coaster, and 9 times out of 10, a coaster in the upper echelons of my rankings needs to have at least some notable degree of airtime or negative g-forces. That's definitely something I specifically look for and rate highly in a coaster. I also really relish a coaster with a great sense of speed, and to be honest, I do often tend to gravitate towards taller coasters; for instance, a 200ft+ coaster is nearly always a winner for me, with 4 of the 6 200ft+ coasters I've ridden being in my top 10 and even the 5th being only just outside it at #12!

But I'd be keen to know; what do you generally favour in a coaster? What makes a good coaster, in your opinion?

September 19, 2023

On 8/3/2023 at 9:31 AM, Matt N said:

I realise that I haven't posted a top 30 in a while, as I only did a top 10 with descriptions when I initially got back from Florida. My current top 30 is as follows:

Mako - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10)

Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure (10/10)

Silver Star - Europa Park (10/10)

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure (10/10)

Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park (10/10)

Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10)

SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10)

Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10)

Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10)

Wicker Man - Alton Towers (10/10)

Oblivion - Alton Towers (9/10)

Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10)

Revenge of the Mummy - Universal Studios Florida (9/10)

Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios Florida (9/10)

Blue Fire - Europa Park (9/10)

Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10)

Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (9/10)

Rita - Alton Towers (9/10)

Stealth - Thorpe Park (8/10)

Nemesis - Alton Towers (8/10)

CanCan Coaster - Europa Park (8/10)

Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10)

Kraken - SeaWorld Orlando (8/10)

Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (8/10)

Rock'n'Rollercoaster - Disney's Hollywood Studios (8/10)

Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10)

Thirteen - Alton Towers (7/10)

The Swarm - Thorpe Park (7/10)

Slinky Dog Dash - Disney's Hollywood Studios (7/10)

Arthur - Europa Park (7/10)

I should also say that after discovering some exact dates and confirmation of early theme park visits, I decided to change my coaster counting methodology and ditch my "enthusiasm start date", increasing my coaster count to 102. I had initially hesitated to rank and rate the added +3 from Disneyland Paris in March 2011, but when I sat down today and properly gave it some thought, I realised that my vague recollections of the rides I did at DLP are better than I had previously given myself credit for, and that my vague recollections of some of the rides I already had ranked and rated weren't much better (mainly a fair amount of Chessington, which I haven't done since 2014), so I decided to have a go at ranking and rating them. I did these coasters many years ago, so my recollections are vague and I can't remember too much in the way of specifics, but thinking about it, I do remember a vague hierarchy of enjoyment, and based on my vague recollections, I have decided upon the following placements and ratings:

My highest-ranked coaster from DLP is Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland Park. This is the ride I remember most, and I remember thinking it was pretty fun at 7 years old; it was the only coaster I rerode, and from vague memory, I rode it 3 times or so. I figure that it was fairly similar to the Florida version that I did in 2019, but I do remember enjoying this version a little bit more at the time than I later enjoyed the Florida version, so I opted for #34/102, one spot higher than the Florida version, and a 7/10 rating. On a fun aside, this ride was of one of only 3 coasters I've ever been evacuated from (with the other two being Wicker Man in 2018 and Hagrid's in 2023)!

My second highest-ranked coaster from DLP is Crush's Coaster at Walt Disney Studios Park. I remember it being pretty good at the time, and possibly more fun than Spinball, but it probably wasn't quite as good as Dragon's Fury, so I opted for #45/102, one spot below Dragon's Fury, and a 6/10 rating.

My lowest-ranked coaster from DLP is RC Racer at Walt Disney Studios Park. I don't remember it being anything especially spectacular even at 7 years old, so I opted for #69/102, just below the similarly unremarkable Atlantica SuperSplash, and a 4/10 rating.

I know it's weird that I suddenly counted these rides as part of my count and ranked them, but I finally felt able to add them to my count and visit log after finding out the exact visit dates and ride counts and such, and discovering that I hadn't ridden anything I didn't vaguely remember riding. I'd never rated and ranked them as I thought that my recollections were too vague for me to rate and rank them, but after giving it some thought, I realised that my recollections were better than I'd previously given myself credit for and that some of the rides I'd already ranked were things I had relatively vague recollections of.

If you're wondering why I only have Big Thunder Mountain from Disneyland Park and Crush's Coaster and RC Racer from Walt Disney Studios Park:

I wasn't tall enough to ride Space Mountain or Indiana Jones.

I was tall enough to ride Rock'n'Rollercoaster, but I refused to ride it because someone from primary school told me it would give me tummyache...

I have no memory of ever having ridden Casey Jr, and I found no evidence to the contrary, so it's not counted.

If you'd like to view my full, exhaustive ranking, here it is: https://captaincoaster.com/en/tops/192

With my year now having ended, I figure that I should update my top 30 again, as I have visited Flamingo Land, Brean Theme Park, Thorpe Park and Chessington since I last posted my list. This resulted in 1 new addition to the top 30 and numerous reshuffled entries, as well as my coaster count increasing to 111.

Following some consideration, my end of year top 30 is as follows (for some idea of proportional ranking, I've also put the minimum thresholds for my top 10% and top 25% next to their respective rankings):

Mako - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10)
Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal's Islands of Adventure (10/10)
Silver Star - Europa Park (10/10)
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal's Islands of Adventure (10/10)
Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10)
Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park (10/10)
SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10)
Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10)
Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10)
Wicker Man - Alton Towers (10/10)
Oblivion - Alton Towers (9/10) (Minimum threshold for top 10%)
Stealth - Thorpe Park (9/10)
Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10)
Revenge of the Mummy - Universal Studios Florida (9/10)
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios Florida (9/10)
Blue Fire - Europa Park (9/10)
Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (9/10)
Nemesis - Alton Towers (9/10)
Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10)
Rita - Alton Towers (8/10)
CanCan Coaster - Europa Park (8/10)
Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10)
Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10)
Kraken - SeaWorld Orlando (8/10)
Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (8/10)
Rock'n'Rollercoaster - Disney's Hollywood Studios (8/10)
Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) (Minimum threshold for top 25%)
Thirteen - Alton Towers (8/10)
The Swarm - Thorpe Park (7/10)
Slinky Dog Dash - Disney's Hollywood Studios (7/10)

Of the 17 new coasters I rode this year, 4 made my top 10% and 5 made my top 25%, which I wouldn't consider a bad hit rate at all, personally! If you're interested, here's how I rank the 17 new coasters I did this year (the top 5 are kind of self-explanatory, as they're in the list above, but I thought some might find the breakdown of the other 12 interesting):

Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal's Islands of Adventure (10/10, #2/111)
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal's Islands of Adventure (10/10, #4/111)
Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10, #5/111)
Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10, #9/111)
Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10, #22/111)
Kumali - Flamingo Land (6/10, #44/111)
Mumbo Jumbo - Flamingo Land (5/10, #58/111)
Pipeline: The Surf Coaster - SeaWorld Orlando (5/10, #60/111)
Mandrill Mayhem - Chessington (5/10, #61/111)
Astro Storm - Brean Theme Park (5/10, #68/111)
Velocity - Flamingo Land (4/10, #78/111)
Scorpion - Busch Gardens Tampa (3/10, #91/111)
Super Grover's Box Car Derby - SeaWorld Orlando (3/10, #93/111)
Magic Mouse - Brean Theme Park (2/10, #100/111)
Bulldog Coaster - Brean Theme Park (2/10, #106/111)
Sand Serpent - Busch Gardens Tampa (2/10, #109/111)
Hero - Flamingo Land (1/10, #111/111)

I must say that I've found this year truly brilliant for coaster riding overall!

September 18, 2023

Based on my experience yesterday, the ride needs more staff before they should even think about bringing back the 3rd train. One operator was handling both batching of main queue guests and restraint checking for the entire right hand side of the train, and another was handling both the batching of RAP guests and restraint checking for the entire left hand side of the train.

These two staff were working very hard and doing a prompt job, but the lack of additional staff definitely slowed things down on there. The whole process of the operator checking restraints, pressing the send button and then having to jump over the separating fence, batch main queue guests and then jump back over to repeat the whole process again was definitely adding inefficiency, and as a result, I timed a throughput average of 418pph, which equates to an average dispatch interval of 3.5-4 minutes. In some of the slowest cases, I timed dispatch intervals of over 4 minutes. This is on a ride that I would have said was fairly easy to attain quick dispatch intervals on on paper, so I'd wager that the staffing was at very least a significant contributing factor to the low throughput.

Stacking was routine on 2 trains, and I certainly don't think a 3rd would have been of any benefit yesterday; for the time being, I feel that they'd get far more benefit out of investing into 2 additional bayloading staff than they would out of investing into reinstating the 3rd train.

September 18, 2023

I went to Chessington yesterday, and I managed to get throughput timings and insights from the 3 coasters I did.

Dragon's Fury (Theoretical: 950pph on 8 cars) - 497pph (unknown number of cars, 17th September 2023, average of 10) Note: This number assumes that all 4 seats in a car were full for the sake of simplicity. Due to a rule imposed by Chessington allowing no more than 3 adults per car, seats were going out empty more often than not; some cars were going out full, but most seemed to be going out with only 2 or 3 seats filled out of 4. Therefore, the actual attained figure is most likely a fair peg lower than the one given above. For some idea, the average dispatch interval I timed was approximately 28 seconds, and in the period I wasn't timing, I'd say that the average interval looked to be somewhere around the 30 second ballpark.
Mandrill Mayhem (Theoretical: 840pph on 1 train) - 575pph (1 train, 17th September 2023, average of 9)
Vampire (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 3 trains) - 418pph (2 trains, 17th September 2023, average of 6)
Tomb Blaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 5 trains) - I could not time Tomb Blaster exactly, as I was ushered onto the ride too quickly to gain any timings, but my very vague timing (aka checking my watch) of the dispatch I was on came to roughly a 3 minute dispatch interval, which would equate to around 600pph if all 30 seats on the train were full. (unknown number of trains, 17th September 2023)

Overall, I'd say that the park was mixed to weak operationally, if I'm being honest. The staff on the ground were working very hard and trying their best, but I would say that the park had some of the lowest throughputs I've ever seen relative to the crowds it gets. The throughputs of most of the rides I did seemed to be stunted to some degree by either procedure, a lack of staff, or both; the operations were certainly no fault of the staff themselves.

The strongest operations of the day were on Mandrill Mayhem, by my reckoning. Yes, the procedure that means that guests can't wait on the platform behind the airgates is a considerable stumbling block for efficient operations, and that's probably something that could have been avoided during the design phase, but there's not a lot that they can do to rectify that now. With all things considered, I thought the ride was being operated very well. With the cards that have been dealt in terms of the intrinsic throughput of the ride and the H&S-related loading procedure, I thought that an average dispatch interval of just shy of 3 minutes was very, very good, personally; I was certainly pretty pleased with this figure seeing as the ride only has 1 train and has to load in the way it does. The ride seemed relatively well staffed, and the staff were doing an excellently prompt job of checking restraints and such. Great job, Chessington!

Weight limits notwithstanding, Dragon's Fury definitely wasn't operating as promptly as Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers mostly does. On Spinball, the cars continuously motor through the station, with the continuously moving loading system being well utilised and not really having any kind of delay, and dispatch intervals as quick as 20 seconds are achieved. On Dragon's Fury, however, the continuously moving loading system was not really being used (I could have sworn it had one the same as Spinball's from previous visits, but I could be wrong there), and 2 or 3 cars or so often seemed to be stacked up in the station at once. With that being said, a good number of cars were seemingly running, and 30 seconds certainly isn't a terribly slow dispatch interval by any stretch of the imagination, although the weight limit definitely limits the throughput potential of the ride and the likes of Spinball do show that faster dispatches can be achieved with the same ride hardware.

Vampire definitely had some of the most surprisingly slow operations of the day, and this was due in large part to the fact that the ride was seemingly lacking staff. One operator was running the whole show for the main queue, being left to both batch and check the restraints on the entire right hand side of the train. They had one companion, who was batching what appeared to be the RAP queue and checking the restraints on the entire left hand side of the train. These staff were working incredibly hard and certainly putting all their energy into checking the restraints and batching, but at very least, I feel that a separate bayloader for each queue would not have gone amiss and would have sped things along considerably. The whole process of the operator checking restraints, pressing the send button and then having to jump over the separating fence and batch people before jumping back over to check the restraints for the next train and repeat the whole process again definitely slowed things down, and as a result, dispatch intervals of over 4 minutes were timed in some of the slowest cases, with the overall average coming to around 3.5-4 minutes per dispatch, despite Vampire looking like a ride that could quite easily attain quick dispatch intervals on paper. It reminded me of Flamingo Land, where they run things in a similar manner, and with queues being markedly longer at Chessington than they were on my visit to Flamingo Land, I don't think this method is as proportionate to the crowds at Chessington as it is at Flamingo Land.

The situation at Tomb Blaster was very similar to that on Vampire. One operator was running the entire show on their own here, being left in charge of batching, checking restraints and sending the ride. The operator was working very hard and doing a very prompt job, but the fact that they were having to do everything slowed things down, and as a result, a ride that looks like it should attain fairly quick dispatch intervals on paper was dispatching around every 3 minutes. To be fair, though, the queue was not as long for this, with me only waiting around 30-35 minutes, and the ride's fairly large train means that a throughput of roughly 600pph would still have been attained, which, if I had properly timed it, would probably have been the highest on park. Similarly to Vampire, though, 2 additional staff members (one bayloader and one operator sat in the cabin sending the ride) would not have gone amiss and would have sped things up notably, in my view.

September 17, 2023

If anyone’s interested, I rode Mandrill Mayhem and saw the World of Jumanji for the first time today.

I’ll split my review into two parts; a brief review of the land as a whole and a longer review of the main point of interest, Mandrill Mayhem.

Let’s start with the area as a whole…

The Area

Overall, I have to say that I really liked the area itself! It’s got some very nice theming; the main jaguar shrine centrepiece provides a really striking visual, and there are some other really nice sight lines and really nice bits of theming within the land.

In terms of some of the subtler bits of theming, I quite liked the Bazaar section; to me, it gave off almost Animal Kingdom-esque vibes! There are also various other nice bits of theming around the land, and while the landscaping is still a little scant at the moment, I think it will look really nice and make the area look really wooded when it’s grown in!

One thing I did notice is that while I like the area soundtrack and think it’s quite a cool, motivating piece, the loop is quite short. I can imagine that it might get a little grating to hear the same thing over and over if you’re in the area for any extended period of time. Short music loops do seem to be quite a Chessington-wide thing, though, so perhaps I’m just being overly pedantic…

If I’m being pedantic, it is also somewhat lacking in seating. As far as I could tell, I couldn’t really see any benches or anything for people to sit down on.

Overall, though, I did really like the area; from a visual standpoint, it certainly looks very nice, and overall, I think it’s quite well executed and will grow to look really nice once the landscaping is bedded in!

Now let me move onto the main point of interest…

Mandrill Mayhem

I was interested to ride Mandrill Mayhem, as it’s certainly one of the more unique contraptions I’ve ever seen from B&M. I was very intrigued to see how a family launched wing shuttle coaster rode, as to me, that seemed like quite an eclectic combination of ride types; I, for one, was certainly very surprised when Chessington announced that Mandrill Mayhem was to fuse all four buzzwords together! But did Mandrill Mayhem live up to the hype and the fairly positive reviews for me? Well, I’m sorry to say that overall, I was definitely somewhat disappointed with Mandrill Mayhem as a coaster. I had 3 rides, and don’t get me wrong, it’s far from a terrible coaster, but I wouldn’t say that it was an especially brilliant one either, and it wasn’t one I overly rated.

In the interests of fairness, I’ll start with the positives…

The Positives

It’s a very striking ride visually; B&M track is always very visually attractive, and Mandrill Mayhem is no exception, with the track winding around the Jaguar Shrine making for a very nice visual!
I think the audio sequence in the station is quite good fun. I particularly liked the “not that way!” when the train shot backwards!
The initial sequence of elements is quite good fun, particularly towards the back. The swing launch sequence has two reasonably potent launches that are fun and punchy, the little mild pop of airtime off the launch track is quite fun, and towards the back of the train, the Junior Scorpion Tail provides some very fun floater airtime! It’s an element that I felt worked really well on Ice Breaker back in June, and it’s an element that works well here too. The Junior Scorpion Tail didn’t really do anything on the front, though; that one is definitely best experienced towards the back, in my view.

As inferred by my initial line, however, there are quite a few negatives I feel I need to discuss…

The Negatives

Once you get past the initial swing launch sequence, I honestly found the layout a little bit bland. It just lacked a certain spark, a certain… je ne sais quoi for me. I just found it a bit something of nothing, if I’m being totally frank. There were bits that I thought looked quite spicy and like they might provide some really fun moments before I rode, but they didn’t really do anything for me when I actually rode. I also don’t really think the layout plays to the strengths of the Wing Coaster as a model, and that was a concern I had from day one. In my view, it could quite easily have not been a Wing Coaster.
I wasn’t a fan of the principal helix stall at all. The helix itself was perfectly OK, but I found the stall at the top very uncomfortable and awkward to experience; it’s a part of the experience that looks a lot better than it rides, in my view.
While it’s absolutely not horrifically rough in the same vein as, say, an SLC, Mandrill Mayhem definitely isn’t smooth for a brand new B&M roller coaster. I found it to have a very noticeable rattle in both the inner and outer seats, and on all 3 rides, I came off with a bit of a headache. In a somewhat linked point, I’d also argue that in some aspects, the ride generally feels a little bit awkward and unrefined in its execution and the way it navigates the layout. For instance, in some of the more dynamic parts of the layout such as the dive to the left out of the station and the s-bend before the principal helix, the train almost seemed to shudder up and down quite noticeably, and the whole backwards lap felt a bit awkward, in my view. I don’t think dynamism and snappy transitions are really where the Wing Coaster shines as a model, and I think Mandrill Mayhem evidences that quite well, personally.
In terms of the trains, I feel that it shares the same flaws as The Swarm in that I don’t find the vests particularly comfortable, and the restraints do seem to tighten and leave you feeling quite uncomfortably constrained during the ride. That is more of a general Wing Coaster flaw than anything specific to Mandrill Mayhem, though, so that’s by the by.
Away from the ride experience itself, I do also feel that the throughput is an aspect that leaves much to be desired. The ride was being operated very well by the staff on the ground with all things considered, but I think that even for the type of ride they went for, there were some ways that throughput could easily have been increased. For instance, they could have found some way of running 2 trains and some kind of dual station mechanism on the ride, and in terms of a simpler fix, even installing full height airgates in the station would have increased the throughput by not forcing riders to wait off the station platform and only cross onto the station platform when the ride has ended. Mandrill Mayhem was the highest throughput coaster at Chessington today by my measurements, but I think the park needed a queue muncher and I don’t think Mandrill Mayhem fulfils that particular brief, personally.

So overall, then, I liked the land, but was disappointed by Mandrill Mayhem itself. The land is nice and Mandrill Mayhem itself is by no means terrible or without merit, but I do personally question whether this coaster was the right fit for Chessington as a park, or the best 1.2m calibre coaster they could have built.

Perhaps I’m just somewhat out of touch, though. I am not the ride’s target demographic; it’s aimed at kids riding their first big coaster, whereas I rode it as a 20 year old enthusiast who was riding his 111th coaster. It did seem to be going down quite well with the kids who were riding, from what I could tell, and that is the important thing after all!

I apologise if I come across overly harsh or nitpicky, as I’m aware that some of my points are quite pedantic, but those were just some of the thoughts I had.

September 16, 2023

I was at Thorpe Park yesterday, and I managed to get some throughput readings on the major coasters! Overall, I’d say operations were pretty good; in some cases, there were truly excellent operations that were the best I’ve ever seen on the respective rides!

Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains) - 592pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 7)
Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 693pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 6)
Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars) - 770pph (unknown number of cars, 15th September 2023, average of 3)
Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains) - 867pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 8 )
The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains) - 983pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 6)

I should say that I was unable to get as many readings as I would normally like (I normally aim for 10), as the queues often weren’t long enough (a very good problem to have!).

I should also say that on both The Swarm and Stealth, the averages I’ve listed here were skewed by an instance of “guest faff” that produced one particularly slow dispatch. Without these instances of faff, both ride teams were managing faster averages than the averages I have listed here. The Swarm was seemingly managing a consistent string of 90 second dispatch intervals with mere seconds of stacking (if any at all) all day, and Stealth was managing a pretty consistent string of 75-80 second dispatches, with the operators quite literally running down the train to get restraints checked! I was very impressed with the operations on both rides; the throughputs were the best I’ve ever seen on those rides in both cases!

Saw was also operating absolutely brilliantly; the average I got for it is as good as I’ve ever seen on that ride. The average listed above was also lower than what I saw at another point in the day; I did a longer string of readings earlier in the day where it seemed to be getting somewhere in the ballpark of 800-850pph, which is the best throughput I’ve ever seen Saw get, but I accidentally messed this string of readings up by pressing the dispatch button twice, so I could not save this reading and save the final average…

The picture of excellent operations was not entirely consistent, however.

The throughput of Colossus was not terrible compared to what I’ve seen in the past, but it wasn’t particularly amazing either; I’ve seen it go slower, but I’ve also seen it go faster as well.

Nemesis Inferno was also letting the side down a bit; when I sat down and timed it, it was getting a pretty consistent string of 2.5-3 minute dispatches, with the average above only being as high as it was due to a faster dispatch at the very end. Every time I rode, stacking for a fair period of time was routine, and in general, the operations seemed slower on Inferno than elsewhere in the park.

Overall, though, the operational picture from Thorpe Park was very good yesterday, with numerous rides having some of the best operations I’ve ever seen on those rides! The operations also weren’t causing much issue, for the most part; there was always a coaster queue below 15 minutes somewhere on the park, and to my knowledge, no queue exceeded an hour all day. At one point, Inferno hit “55-60 minutes” as per the tannoy, but that was pretty isolated to that ride and didn’t last all day; nothing else got a huge amount above 30 minutes, and even Inferno dropped to more like 30-40 minutes after that brief period of 55-60.

EDIT: I’m unsure why “average of 8” on Stealth turned into an emoji…

September 5, 2023

Disclaimer: This is a very long post with a fair amount of statistical talk. I'll try my best to simplify some of it a bit and explain a few things, but if you don't like statistics, this post may not be for you! There is a TL;DR at the bottom condensing the overall findings into a more concise format.

Sorry to bump this particular thread, but following a really interesting topic I read on another forum earlier about 2012 vs 2023 in terms of UK theme park attendance and what effect various factors have on attendance, I was inspired to revisit this dataset and explore the relationship between UK theme park attendance and various extrinsic factors, as these have previously raised some interesting discussion points surrounding the topic of UK theme park attendance.

Before I explore various different factors and their effect upon UK theme park attendance, I should firstly set out that the attendance I use is the combined attendance of all four theme parks from 1997 (the first year where all four are listed under their current guise) through until 2021. I tried all of my tests for the dataset including both 2020 and 2021, the dataset excluding 2020 only and the dataset excluding both 2020 and 2021, as I felt that the circumstances of 2020 in particular were too anomalous not to consider and I was unsure whether to even place 2021 among "normal" years, as the parks were still restricted to some degree for part of or all of the season. As such, I tested the data both including and excluding the COVID years, so that we could see the relationships exhibited pre, during and post COVID.

To test out whether a significant causal relationship exists between two variables, I used a Pearson correlation coefficient test, and the two metrics I used to determine this were the correlation coefficient itself and the p-value. To explain what each is:

The correlation coefficient is a number between 1 and -1 that denotes how strong the causal relationship between two variables is. A correlation coefficient of 1 indicates a perfect positive correlation (I.e. "as x increases, y also increases"), a correlation coefficient of 0 indicates no correlation (I.e. "x has no significant effect on y"), and a correlation coefficient of -1 indicates a perfect negative correlation (I.e. "as x increases, y decreases"). As it is staggeringly rare to have a perfect correlation, I will denote the strength of the correlation by using the absolute value of the correlation coefficient as follows; an absolute coefficient of 0-0.25 indicates no significant correlation, an absolute coefficient of 0.25-0.5 indicates a weak correlation, an absolute coefficient of 0.5-0.75 indicates a moderate correlation, and an absolute coefficient of 0.75 or higher indicates a strong correlation.
The p-value is the probability that a relationship does not exist, and it is a decimal falling between 0 and 1. It can be represented as a percentage; for instance, a p-value of 0.55 indicates that there is a 55% chance of a relationship not existing. In hypothesis testing, you want the p-value to be low if you are wanting to prove your hypothesis (in this case, that a causal relationship exists) and disprove the null hypothesis (in this case, that no causal relationship exists). I will denote how strong the evidence for a causal relationship is by using the p-value as follows; a p-value of 0.1 or higher indicates insufficient evidence in favour of a relationship, a p-value of 0.05-0.1 indicates marginally significant evidence in favour of a relationship, a p-value of 0.01-0.05 indicates significant evidence in favour of a relationship, and a p-value of less than 0.01 indicates extremely significant evidence in favour of a relationship.

Now I've explained some of my processes, let's move onto the analysis! The first external factor I tested out is one that has been particularly relevant this summer... it's that good old chestnut known as the weather!

The Weather

The weather is often referenced as a factor that could potentially be affecting UK theme park attendance, so I thought; why not test that theory out? Now, I hear you asking "Matt, there are so many different metrics of weather; which one did you test out?". That would be a fair question, and in answer, I tested out three different weather metrics; average rainfall in millimetres, average maximum temperature in degrees Celsius, and average number of hours of bright sunshine. To gain the relevant weather data, I took the months between April and October (the 7 months in which the parks are operating for the full month) for each metric for every year since 1997 from the Met Office weather data archive (https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-and-regional-series). I averaged out the values for the months from April-October of a given year and used that as that year's value for a given metric. I set the region as "England"; as all four Merlin parks are in England, I figured that the weather in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was irrelevant for this particular investigation.

Average Rainfall (in millimetres)

So for our first metric, average rainfall in millimetres, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Rainfall-Scatter-Graph-including-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.44 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	-0.16 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Insufficient
Correlation Strength	No Significant Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Rainfall-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.26 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	-0.24 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Insufficient
Correlation Strength	No Significant Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Rainfall-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.26 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	-0.25 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Insufficient
Correlation Strength	Weak Negative Correlation

So I think we can conclude that even though some signs of a weak negative correlation between the two are shown when you remove 2020 and 2021 from the equation, the overall evidence for a significant causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and average rainfall is weak; there isn't enough evidence to firmly argue in favour of a causal relationship, even if some signs point towards a weak negative correlation.

Average Maximum Temperature (in degrees Celsius)

For our second metric, average maximum temperature in degrees Celsius, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Temperature-Scatter-Graph-including-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.56 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	-0.12 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Insufficient
Correlation Strength	No Significant Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Temperature-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.95 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.01 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Insufficient
Correlation Strength	No Significant Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Temperature-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.96 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.01 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Insufficient
Correlation Strength	No Significant Correlation

So having tested the data both including and excluding the COVID data, I think it's safe to say that the chances of a significant causal relationship existing between UK theme park attendance and average maximum temperature are very, very slim. With a correlation coefficient of close to 0 once COVID data was removed, there is no compelling evidence in favour of a causal relationship existing.

Average Number of Hours of Bright Sunshine

For our final weather metric, average number of hours of bright sunshine, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Sunshine-Scatter-Graph-including-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.53 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	-0.13 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Insufficient
Correlation Strength	No Significant Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding 2020 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Sunshine-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.45 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.16 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Insufficient
Correlation Strength	No Significant Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Sunshine-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.47 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.16 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Insufficient
Correlation Strength	No Significant Correlation

So there is limited evidence in favour of a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and the average number of hours of bright sunshine. The evidence there is leans positive, but that evidence is too limited to conclude even a weak correlation, and there certainly isn't enough evidence in favour of a causal relationship.

So in conclusion, then, the weather seemingly has less of an effect on UK theme park attendance than you might expect. The strongest evidence for a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and any weather metric is presented by average rainfall, which shows some signs of a weak negative correlation, but even that presented insufficient evidence in favour of a significant causal relationship.

Weather is not the only external factor I explored, however. With our purse strings getting tighter as a result of the cost of living crisis, I thought that the economy would also be an interesting one to explore!

The Economy

With disposal incomes currently being lower across the country as a result of the cost of living crisis and rampant inflation, many have figured that the cost of living crisis may be having an effect on theme park attendance, so I thought that I'd test out some macroeconomic factors too.

In terms of the economic indicators, I tested; I tested three different ones. The first indicator I tested was annual GDP growth rate, with the figures being gained from this site (https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/gdp-growth-rate). GDP, standing for Gross Domestic Product, is a measure of the UK's economic output, and high GDP growth is often seen as a sign of a healthy economy. Our politicians frequently talk about "growth", anyhow! The second indicator I tested was annual CPI inflation rate, with the figures being gained from this site (https://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/uk-historical-inflation-rate/). CPI stands for Consumer Price Index, and the rate of CPI inflation is a measure of how much something such as a weekly shop is rising in cost by across a given time period. It's the figure used when newsreaders talk about inflation, and high CPI inflation is often seen as a bad sign for the state of the economy. The final indicator I tested was annual unemployment rate, with the figures being gained from this site (https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/unemployment-rate). High unemployment rate is often seen as a sign of an unhealthy economy.

Annual GDP Growth Rate (%)

For our first economic metric, annual GDP growth rate, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-GDP-Growth-Scatter-Graph-including-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.02 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.47 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Significant
Correlation Strength	Weak Positive Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows:

Attendance-vs-GDP-Growth-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.02 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	-0.47 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Significant
Correlation Strength	Weak Negative Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-GDP-Growth-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.05 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	-0.41 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Marginally Significant
Correlation Strength	Weak Negative Correlation

So I think we can conclude that there is some evidence in favour of a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and annual GDP growth. All tests yielded at least marginally significant evidence in favour of a relationship, and all tests suggest a weak-to-moderate negative correlation once 2020 is removed. Thus, we can conclude that a relationship may exist, but it might not be the strongest.

Annual CPI Inflation Rate (%)

For our second economic metric, annual CPI inflation rate, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Inflation-Scatter-Graph-including-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.02 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.47 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Significant
Correlation Strength	Weak Positive Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Inflation-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.01 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.50 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Significant
Correlation Strength	Moderate Positive Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Inflation-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.01 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.55 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Extremely Significant
Correlation Strength	Moderate Positive Correlation

So I think we can conclude that there is pretty significant evidence of a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and annual CPI inflation rate. Once 2020 was removed, a moderate positive correlation between the two variables was consistently exhibited, and the evidence in favour of a relationship toed the line between significant and extremely significant, so I think it's fair to suggest that there could well be a link!

Annual Unemployment Rate (%)

For our final economic metric, annual unemployment rate, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Unemployment-Scatter-Graph-including-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.01 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.51 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Extremely Significant
Correlation Strength	Moderate Positive Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Unemployment-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.00 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.61 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Extremely Significant
Correlation Strength	Moderate Positive Correlation

The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows:

Attendance-vs-Unemployment-Scatter-Graph-excluding-2020-and-2021.png

And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows:

P-Value	0.00 (2dp)
Pearson Correlation Coefficient	0.60 (2dp)
Evidence In Favour of a Relationship	Extremely Significant
Correlation Strength	Moderate Positive Correlation

So I think we can conclude that the evidence for a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and annual unemployment rate is fairly strong. All tests produced extremely significant evidence in favour of a relationship existing, and once 2020 was removed, the correlation coefficient was quite comfortably in the realms of a moderate-to-strong positive correlation. Thus, I think we can conclude that there may be a link between UK theme park attendance and annual unemployment rate!

Now we've analysed the data, I think it's about time we wrapped things up and discussed our findings...

Conclusion

So in conclusion, this analysis yielded some very interesting, and perhaps somewhat unexpected, results, in my view.

The weather is always discussed as a big factor affecting theme park attendance, but overall, the weather metrics seemingly affected attendance a lot less than you might expect within this dataset. The biggest affector of the weather metrics was average rainfall, and even that presented only very spurious evidence of a relationship with UK theme park attendance; at best, it showed minor signs of a weak negative correlation, and evidence in favour of a causal relationship was insufficient. With that being said, much of the limited evidence of relationships that was shown among the weather metrics did point in the general direction I would have expected, with rainfall pointing towards a negative relationship and sunshine erring towards a positive relationship. I was very surprised at the profound lack of trend when it came to temperature, however; the evidence of a relationship there was pretty much zero, with no real leaning in either direction.

The economy is also discussed, albeit less than weather, but unlike weather, the economic metrics seemingly affected attendance to a surprising degree within this dataset. Both CPI inflation rate and unemployment rate exhibited significant to extremely significant evidence of relationships and moderate correlations, and even GDP growth exhibited significant evidence of a relationship and a weak-to-moderate correlation. Interestingly, the evidence of relationships within the economic factors also pointed in the complete opposite direction to the one you'd initially expect, with the evidence of CPI inflation rate and unemployment rate having moderate positive correlations and GDP growth having a weak-to-moderate negative correlation suggesting that UK theme park attendance is generally higher when the economy is doing worse. That's not an outcome I would initially have expected; maybe there's something in the notion that UK parks often do well out of recessions?

I should note a few things here, however. For starters, correlation does not equal causation, and it should not be treated as concrete proof that x causes y. Just because my data suggests a certain correlation, that does not mean that there's necessarily a chain of causality that works that way in reality. I should also note that these parks do not operate in a vacuum, and these are far from the only factors affecting attendance; there are a wide smorgasbord of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and it is a phenomenally multi-faceted issue.

Nonetheless, I hope you've found my investigation interesting! If you'd like me to investigate anything else, or if you think I've done something wrong, don't hesitate to tell me!

TL;DR: I performed an investigation into the relationship between UK theme park attendance and various extrinsic factors, with a key focus on the weather and the economy. The weather was found to not affect attendance to a statistically significant degree overall, with even the metric with the strongest-seeming relationship, rainfall, only showing spurious evidence of a causal relationship and exhibiting signs of a weak-to-insignificant correlation. The economy was found to have a far more significant effect, with CPI inflation rate and unemployment rate in particular exhibiting highly significant evidence of relationships and moderate-to-strong correlations. Interestingly, it was also found that perhaps unexpectedly, UK theme park attendance seems to be higher when economic strength is lower.

August 20, 2023

Hi guys. I'm sure that many members on here are seasoned visitors to Thorpe Park, and I wouldn't be surprised if some members have "gameplans", if you will, of how to best tackle the park. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know; in your view, which Thorpe Park coaster or group of coasters is best to start the day on?

I only ask because I'm headed back to the park next month for my third solo day there, and I'm wondering whether to stick to my usual strategy or divvy it up. On my previous two visits, I've always found Stealth/Inferno to be a good duo to start on, as I've found that you can take a ride on both of those two as well as Detonator early on with a minimal or walk-on queue, which gets a fair few rides in early. However, I've wondered whether Saw/Colossus might be a better duo to start on, as both rides can sometimes amass long queues later on in the day.

What do you guys think? Which Thorpe Park coaster or group of coasters do you find to be best to start the day on?

August 19, 2023

Hi guys. Over the years, I’m sure that most of us have visited quite a few different theme parks; each year, I personally visit a mixture of old favourites alongside trying to mix the odd new park or two in there as well to enhance my repertoire and increase my coaster and park counts. Trying to visit new parks can sometimes mean that there isn’t enough time to revisit some previously visited parks, however, and as the years rattle on, a park can sometimes get pushed down and down the list until you realise that you haven’t visited in a number of years. With this in mind, my question for you today is; which major theme park have you gone the longest without visiting? Which major park have you not visited in a ridiculously long time?

For clarity, I say “major” because I’m aware that the hardier credit counters among us will likely have a number of “one-and-done” type parks where the main draw is the +1 from a Wacky Worm, Go-Gator or similar that they visited years ago and will probably never revisit.

I’ll get the ball rolling with my answer.

Personally, the major place I have gone the longest without visiting is Disneyland Paris. I have not been back to Disneyland Park or Walt Disney Studios Park since 27th March 2011. I’m not actually sure why we never went back after our first visit (although I imagine our discovery of Florida in 2012 could have something to do with it), but for whatever reason, I have not been back to DLP since 2011.

Other than the two DLP parks, there is only 1 other park where my last visit was more than 5 years ago, and perhaps surprisingly given my general level of enmeshment with the UK Merlin parks, that is Chessington World of Adventures; my last visit to Chessington was on 26th July 2014. It was actually one of my first ever parks as a young child when I first visited in 2009, with Vampire and Runaway Train (as it was then known) being my 4th and 5th coasters respectively, but I’ve only ever been back twice more, in 2013 and 2014, and I have not visited for close to a decade now. My parents never had much desire to return once my sister and I passed a certain age (I was talking to my dad about parks the other day, just before our visit to Flamingo Land, and he described Chessington as one of only two UK parks he’s ever considered “a bit lame”, with the other being Drayton Manor), and to be honest, the park hasn’t tempted me as much as some others. The addition of Mandrill Mayhem did make it more tempting, however, and I’m revisiting for the first time in close to 10 years next month!

After those two, the park I’ve gone the longest without visiting jumps all the way up to 2019, which I’d still consider relatively recent…

But which major park have you gone the longest without visiting? Which major park have you not visited in a really long time? I’d be really interested to know!

coasterverse · August 18, 2023

Where could a Single Rider Queue on Stealth go, out of interest?

In terms of removing Stealth; there are plenty of other development plots that the park could fill before touching Stealth, so unless the ride develops maintenance issues any time soon, I think we should be good for now!

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Matt N

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