tactic

Well how about this?!

I have seen them counting down the inferno dispatches, going ‘next train leave in 30s’ then counting down, but I think it depends on the operator. Haven’t seen it this season but the last 2 it’s definitely happened to me on multiple occasions.

Well having it closed will do no 'arm to the line up.

This was approved this week: https://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/index.php/2025/05/25/project-pivot-approved/
 
Whether they decide to try and get it ready for Fright Nights or just wait until next year is the big question now

I did a Hyperia coaster climb this evening.
 
There was some chatter when it was made live about the cost being expensive (£120). It is, no beating around the bush. But it is worth it. My experience was about 3hrs all in, and included lots of time spent scaling the ride, time spent in the console and time spent around the turnaround outside the station, with lots of opportunities for photos, fabulous hosts and a great vibe. 
 
Find attached a variety of photos (of me). I'll write a proper TPM article later.

Try not to laugh in first 15 seconds challenge:
 
https://youtu.be/0RyqNJamtpE?si=zCpnRAN5XGgW7ZUh

we have all had enough of this thing.
 
 
nothing cryptic about it anymore.
 
 
it just doesn't work.

So thoughts and notes from yesterday, which was a "VIP preview" for the season, where the park was open 10-3.
 
-We're light on changes. A couple of tweaks to F&B is really all that is "new"
 
-Repaints for part of Colossus and Depth Charge look nice. The small side of the Beach looks nice, also repainted, but it highlights the grime of the large side.
 
-Hyperia grass is nice. Could be extended more. They've added benches to the plaza which isn't a bad idea, but they're atop the wings on the ground, which irks me a bit.
 
-Many new pieces of merchandise, which are the usual high quality we've come to expect 
 
-Hyperia had issues yesterday, in large part due to the cold. Hopefully better today. Stealth had an issue during testing and didn't open.
 
-The park usually stumbles during first day or two of opening, and yesterday wasn't any different, with the cold affecting weather, and reliability being a bit on the weak side, but it did improve. I've been to significantly worse first days. 
 
-There's a few other bits and pieces around the park. Solar panels atop Ghost Train (but you only see them if you look for them on other rides). Walking Dead has had creative tweaks to the post-ride section. Some speakers seem to have been fixed. Tweak to end of day of audio.
 
If 2024 was Thorpe's year of improvement, 2025 is their year of stability. That's not a bad thing. But after a couple of years of multiple changes, it will have a different 'new season' vibe to it. 
 
The kicker for the park this year will be the quality and reach of marketing. That will be what makes or breaks them this year, with little to shout about in the way of new things 

Right ok let me have a go
 
Swarm ST 0 (if you ride you get caught by the aliens and will be got...?)
 
Rush ST 1
 
Playground ST Unlimited (you can enter from anywhere?)
 
Please tell me I got it right?????

Ding dong no
 
The sky is dark, the coast is rocky, the island mountainous. Construction is far away.
 
Wait bugger wrong account

It can be somewhat awkward trying to plan/book trips over the winter. Some parks won't have fully finalised or released their opening hours, tickets, etc, others may not have transport links confirmed.
 
I'm not saying that's the case here (I haven't used the Shuttle Bus), but it will be something to keep in mind if you're booking stuff now.

This year I decided to track all of my rides on Hyperia, over the course of the season, I managed to experience 92 rides. It is interesting to note that it took me my 33rd ride to get the front row (and 34th to get my other missing row which was Row 4), and then by the end of the season the front was my second most ridden row behind the back row.

I've just come across this document which does confirm this area will be accessible before the park opens.
 
'The proposed new seating and gathering area will provide a location for visitors to dwell when they arrive in the morning prior to the rides opening, and after they have passed through the ticket kiosks and security/bag check. This will assist in reducing queues and improve guest experience.'
 
 
It also states that the stage will host up to 18 shows/events over the season in addition to the entertainment already provided. So sounds like they're planning additional events over summer maybe? I know they used to hold some concert type events (back in 2015/16 maybe) unsure how successful they were? 
 
'In addition, it is proposed that the stage will host up to 18 shows/events over the season for bands where the music will be louder and more like a concert format (capacity of 2,000 guests). These events will take place through the year. To protect residential amenity, noise levels will be reduced at 11pm to the pre-agreed park levels.'
 
'The only new activities will comprise up to a maximum of 18 days per annum where events can take place up to 95dBA within the audience area. These events will be carefully managed and will end at 11:00pm.'

I visited a few weeks ago on a Monday and Last Night (The 3rd) and here is my honest thoughts. No holding back here lol.
 
Stitches:
This is my favourite maze of the 4. I find Stitches very eerie to walk through and both run throughs I had were both very lively. I love some of the disgusting costumes like the oversized teddy bear, the puppet doll, and the gorilla. The actors also seemed more than happy to play off the already creepy vibe and give great startle scares. I found the scares varied and energetic on both runs, and the finale seemed a lot better than last year and managed to really work on both runs. Stitches is a long, well themed, and unique maze that should be kept for longer. 
 
Survival Games:
I had one run with no separation and on my second I was alone for the first half. In the arena on both times I found myself in a conga line of people and no actors in sight. The conga lines slowly lingered towards the exit, the conga line on both runs meandered to the end casually strolling through the equally flat finale. P*ss poor. I hope it goes next year as this year it just felt dead. The arena on both times just felt stuffed full of people and no actors to cause chaos- the arena is bloody lifeless now and it completely makes this maze a disaster.
 
Trailers:
This maze has grown on me over the years. It is not the scariest maze but I feel it has a nice variety of scares, mostly good theming, and the casts do really shine in here.
Even though we caught up with the group in front the actors still managed to power their way through our group. The acting quality was really high and I liked the new buckwheat scene. The new scenes are honestly a bit lacking in theming but the Platform and Creek actors both were totally great in their rooms which helped me forget. My conclusion is Trailers is a good maze that belongs in the line-up even if just for being a fun concept with some cool ideas.
 
Deadbeat:
Deadbeat is a frustrating mess of an attraction. I like the idea of the theme but I feel the design really is a let down with this one. The concept is cool but walking through it just doesn't make much sense? I find it is a little hard to follow and some rooms I wonder why they are there? It also is strange with the multiple slot machine rooms where not much happens, the room with a dancing girl?
 
I think where DeadBeat feels weak for me is seemingly the design for actors. The actors we saw were brilliant but with the loud dance music it made their great scares fall flat. A noise for an actor really I think is an important tool for grabbing those scares but all the actors are fighting against an overly loud soundtrack. I think a more sinister lowkey soundtrack after the initial rooms would be so much better. The maze also seems to lack much in the way of hidey holes, actor runs, and honestly it seemed not very actor friendly. A lot of the actors still made it work but even with brilliant efforts we still walked out thinking it was terrible, and quite frankly I would say it just feels poorly designed. I hope they "Big Top" this as like Survival Games, it was pathetic. To think I paid £10 for either makes me feel sick.
 
Lucifer's Lair/Creature Campus:
Great talent here with the shows. Both bring a lot to the park and the atmosphere, and I hope both of these are here to stay. I like the variety that Lucifer brings, and I feel like it gives Fright Nights a real meaty catalogue of stuff to see. Bored? Head to Lucifer's Lair there probably is something going on now or soon.
 
Crows: 
Though not too long and not many actors, The Crows were enjoyable. I do think a full scale maze would be really brilliant if it brought back. I do think it is worse than last year for sure in regards to amount of actors.
 
Overall: Good event with honestly very mixed opinions on mazes. Stitches and Trailers I feel like gives me hope but if DeadBeat is the new style we are getting, I want to get off the train lol!

Hotels for Europa are great but expensive. Depends on budget but Rust is full of B&Bs that are walkable distance to the park.
 
Phantasialand is same situation really.

Here on park today. It is very very busy.
 
Got on the first train of the day for hyperia for it to break down when we were on the break run after our ride. The train in the station was then sent into the maintenance shed not to be seen again; still running one train now and boasting a 200 minute queue. Glad I got my ride early!

After asking around a little bit, I'm under the impression now that the scheduled late ride openings is not budget cut related.
 
The park aren't cutting staff hours / having less staff on park. Instead, the park are using the off peak days to further train staff - particularly engineers - allowing them be able to work on more rides. Usually this can only be done during closed season, or slowly, with only 1 or 2 people at a time. This allows more people to be trained at once.
 
The park are simply seeing if this becomes a more effective way of training people, without damaging guest experience. A couple of rides opening a couple of hours later isn't ideal, but I guess if it doesn't have a notable negative impact on guest experience/feedback, and it allows staff to be multi-skilled and the park to run better on busier days / in the long run, I guess it's a good payoff.
 
It's not a set in stone thing. But the key takeaway is this isn't a budget cut.

Not sure what I think about the pricing, even with the passholders discount on the mazes (I'm assuming they're doing that this year, although I haven't looked yet) paying about £8 each for 4 mazes is quite a big asking price for me. Although, I don't think I'm going to be able to make it this year, which I'm really disappointed about, I always look forward to my yearly FN trip. But then I guess it's partly my own fault for making myself so busy over the October holidays...

I'm 6ft4" and have always been fine with the rides. Hardly ever stopped due to the fact that I'm tall and the one time I've been measured on the Swarm all was good.
 
Have fun on your visit!

Earlier in the day, I promised to write a longer review of Hyperia when I got home. Well, here it is!
 
While it's not exactly the aspect of the project I was most interested in, I'll start by giving a few cursory thoughts on the theming and the area...
The Area
One aspect of Hyperia that has been heavily criticised is the theming and the area. I have to say that I did not personally get the hate for this; the front-of-house areas look fine to me. It's nothing breathtaking, but I think it's functional and looks perfectly fine. I quite like the black and gold aesthetic, I quite like the station, I quite like the plaza, the queue landscaping is nice enough, and the queue is by no means terrible (although not anything overly inspiring either). In terms of some aspects I would critique, however:
The queue could maybe have had a more interesting and less contained layout. I would have loved it if the queue had wound around the ride Wicker Man-style and offered various different vantage points. The ride area itself is quite unsightly at present, particularly the area around the splashdown. The lake with all of the weeds in it looks quite ugly, in my view, and I don't think the actual splashdown area is particularly pretty either. The rust-coloured splashdown track in particular does not look good at all. However, you don't notice this too much on the ride, and the ride area will probably grow to look better with time. Speaking of the splash effect, the whole splashdown is an idea that had such promise, but has turned out to be a complete damp squib. It seems to have completely died only a couple of months into operation, but I did see it working on my visit 2 months ago, if I'm remembering correctly, and I think it's a completely redundant effect even when it works. That sort of effect is designed primarily for visual appeal for non-riders, so when it's hidden behind a 7ft fence and no one can see it properly, it completely loses its purpose. If I'm being pedantic, I'm not a huge fan of how the maintenance shed looks and I would have preferred for it to parallel the style of the station. That is an extremely pedantic point, however; it's not really a big deal. Overall, though, I wasn't too displeased with the area and theming. It's not some spectacular theming extravaganza by any stretch, but I think it overall looks nice, clean, stylish and perfectly functional. I think the style works well for the sort of ride Hyperia is, and I was never expecting heavy theming from a hyper coaster.
 
Let's now move onto the far more interesting aspect of the project; the ride itself...
The Ride
Now Hyperia has been a ride that I've been excited for for absolutely ages. I watched its build process with great anticipation, and I had high expectations for the ride. But the question is; did it live up to those expectations? Well, dear reader, my answer is; yes, it definitely did! I had 3 rides today, one in row 8 and two in the back row, and Hyperia is an absolutely sublime coaster experience, in my view!
 
The negative g-forces are absolutely absurd; the ride advertises 14.8 seconds of negative g-force, and let me tell you, I can fully believe that figure! They've designed this ride for weightlessness and I think it delivers; you seem to spend most of the ride duration pinned out of your seat in some capacity!
 
The speed is also absurd; it's easy to forget just how fast Hyperia is, but let me tell you that you're quickly reminded of just how fast 81mph is when you're actually on the ride! The sense of speed in parts of Hyperia's layout is ridiculous!
 
 For me, an element-by-element walkthrough of Hyperia goes something like this:
The first outerbanked turn out of the station before the lift hill is utterly pointless; I don't know why this couldn't have just been a regular turn. The outerbanked version seemingly serves no purpose other than to be mildly awkward and uncomfortable. The lift hill is very fast. I liked the views from the top! The first drop is absolutely unhinged, and probably my favourite part of the ride! I'm a fan of a big first drop, and Hyperia's is truly wild; the ejector airtime is absolutely sublime and surprisingly sustained, and the 180 degree twist adds a really interesting additional sensation! It's definitely right up there as one of my favourite first drops I've ever done, alongside those of Mako and Iron Gwazi! The Immelmann is also absolutely sublime! I love the sheer sense of speed you get going up into it, and the sustained ejector airtime you get coming out of it is absolutely top-dollar! You're pinned out of your seat for a good couple of seconds, and the airtime is absolutely sensational! The Immelmann is another element that's right up there as one of my favourite elements on the ride! The outerbank into an inversion was a very hyped up element of Hyperia, and I have to say that it did not disappoint; it's absolutely insane! The sustained sideways ejector here is absolutely wild; you are pinned sideways out of your seat for what feels like seconds and seconds, and the negative g-forces are fairly strong in terms of force here as well! I'm not entirely convinced that I prefer sideways airtime to good old straight airtime, personally, but this element is absolutely brilliant nonetheless! The zero-g stall is an excellent element, but definitely weaker than the other three big ones for me. With that being said, you still get some very fun hangtime, and it is probably the most convincing example of a zero-g stall I've yet done (the other two stalls I've done are VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi). I dare say I still find the zero-g stall a slightly overhyped element type based on my experiences of them, but this one did convince me of the merits of the zero-g stall a little more than VelociCoaster's or Iron Gwazi's did; it is a very good element with some excellently fun hangtime! The stall is fun, but not quite up there as a standout moment of Hyperia for me. With that being said, it has very tough competition in this regard; if this element were not on a ride as stacked with brilliant elements as Hyperia, it would probably stand out more! The splashdown trim is quite noticeable. I didn't find it uncomfortable enough to significantly detract from the ride, but the braking force is strong enough that it does seem to contort your face a tad... The outerbanked turn after the splashdown was a surprisingly excellent element for me! It seemed to start with you getting some really decent sideways floater that then transitioned into a surprisingly strong pop of ejector, and I found that really interesting and fun in terms of how it rode! The airtime hill into the brakes is an excellent way to finish with a bang; that hill provides a lovely pop of good, clean, surprisingly strong ejector airtime! On this coaster, every single element hits and hits hard; there is a strong selection of standout "wow" moments on Hyperia. The first drop, the Immelmann and the outerbank into an inversion are all absolutely world-class elements, and that whole first sequence is just perfection! The other elements also hit well and provide good thrills and weightlessness, and I don't think there's one bit of Hyperia that doesn't deliver. Well, other than maybe the trim, and that weird turn before the lift hill...
 
As per usual with Mack Rides, the trains with overhead lap bars are immensely comfortable. I think Hyperia's are perhaps the most comfortable example of this train style I've experienced. In terms of smoothness; there is a rattle. It's noticeable. But it wasn't strong enough that it massively bothered me. It was more that I could feel a bit of a shaking sensation rather than that the rattle was actively hurting me or massively detracting from the experience. It's no worse than the mild rattle of, say, Stealth. The ride was overall very comfortable and enjoyable for me, and there were no severe jolts or anything (roughness-wise, I tend to find myself more sensitive to sudden jolts than rattling).
 
In terms of some comparisons; Hyperia is comfortably my favourite coaster at Thorpe Park (it was previously Stealth), comfortably my favourite UK coaster (it was previously Wicker Man) and also comfortably my favourite Mack ride (it was previously Icon). In terms of my overall rankings; out of 123 ridden coasters, I've conservatively settled on the #5 spot, behind Mako, VelociCoaster, Silver Star and Iron Gwazi (in that order).
 
If I were to offer up some pedantic hair-splitting critiques that explain why it's not my #1, and why it's not higher than #5:
The rattle. Hyperia's rattle didn't overly bother me at all, but the coasters above Hyperia have a more perfect blissfully smooth feel to the point where it's almost an active positive attribute in itself. The trim. I didn't find it overly uncomfortable, but it is quite noticeable, more so than on Mako and Silver Star, and as I said, it does sort of contort your face a bit from the braking force, which isn't the case on Mako or Silver Star. The fact that the ride lacks straight airtime hills. As sublime as Hyperia's sideways and inverted airtime elements are and as plentiful as the sustained weightlessness is, nothing quite beats a good old straight airtime hill for me, and Hyperia does have somewhat of a shortage of traditional straight airtime moments. I know those are very pedantic points, and pretty much entirely based on personal preference, but when you're talking about the top 5 and determining exact placements, I think I can afford to get pedantic! When the coasters in question are this good, it gets competitive at the top, and I have little choice other than to split hairs!
 
One legitimate critique I will offer of the ride itself is with regard to the capacity. It's not the highest for a brand new major ride, at 700-800pph, but I think a key reason for that has nothing to do with the park's operations and may have something to do with the brake run. They were operating brilliantly, and stacking was very rare, but the train seems to take a very, very long time to return to the station and moves along the brake run track very, very slowly. This results in more idle time in the station, and if they were able to speed up the train's movement through the brake run, it might improve the capacity. Hopefully this is something the park can look into in the future.
 
But overall, I absolutely loved Hyperia! It's my favourite coaster at Thorpe Park, my favourite coaster in the UK and sits in my top 5! The weightlessness is sublime, the sense of speed is absurd, the elements are absolutely top-drawer, and all in all, it's just an absolutely sublime coaster! What a brilliant investment for Thorpe Park and the UK theme park industry!
 
On a side note, here are a few photos I took of the ride:

I’ll do a longer review later, but… WOW! Hyperia is quite something! I’ve had 2 rides so far, and am currently waiting for a 3rd in the single rider queue…
 
I haven’t decided on exact ranking spots yet, but my gut take is currently; easily my top ride in Thorpe Park and definitely my favourite UK coaster!
 
What a phenomenal addition to this park and the UK theme park industry!

Hyperias soundtracks, including the dispatch and lift hill tracks have all been uploaded to Spotify and Apple music! 
 
Great to see. Big fan of these and they sound great in the queue/area, so glad I can give them a proper listen now.
 
 
They've also released the timelapse of construction 
 
7

Finally, after thousands of launches over several years, the one thing I never wanted, I had a rollback today. Within a couple of hours of telling several people that I never wanted one, it happened. The power of the launch failed about half way down the run and we barely rose three quarters up the vertical. 
 
Still they could not get me a cuppa..........and after rolling us back to the platform, we were off within fifteen minutes.