Mark9

Can you name a single ride that runs flawlessly every day, for its entire existence? 

Had another day at Thorpe for my birthday on Friday and a few more thoughts about operations. 
 
I'm kind of blown away by Thorpe's operations at the moment, I hope that somehow they are getting the feedback that the hard work the staff are putting in is having a positive effect. For example, I've been pretty complimentary about Inferno and Stealth so far this season and that remains the same. What iIwasn't expecting was Colossus and Samurai to be operating so well. I don't normally bother with those two (because people I'm with never want to ride them) but I was keen.
 
Colossus was exemplary, especially as a ride that always struggles to operate well with its bulky restraints. We joined the end of the queue just under the first corkscrew and the operator announced it was a 45 minute wait. Back in the day that may have been true, but on Friday it ended up being 10 minutes from that point to on the ride. The ride wasn't stacking for ages like it used to, the staff were just on it.
 
Samurai, bless the poor platformer. By themselves, completing all tasks and yet was efficient and speedy. Mightily impressed. 
 
The Swarm seems to be less consistent so far, it happened to be good on Friday but I've seen it have bad stacking on other trips. 

Two trains of thought here.
 
Hyperia is the best UK rollercoaster if you think purely from the rollercoaster itself. Could it be better, yes, but actually it offers something completely unique to anything else the UK currently offers. 
 
Nemesis: Reborn remains my favourite UK rollercoaster because it offers an overall better experience from a theme and layout perspective. You could build Hyperia anywhere, but Nemesis Reborn, is truly unique. 
 
 

Top tip. If you aren't in that queue for Hyperia super early, just go do everything else. We managed Stealth twice, Inferno, Rumba, Swarm, Flying fish (on a 5 lap special) and Quantum in an hour because the rest of the park is beyond dead. It helps that the rides were run to perfection. They were running Inferno and Stealth like there was a 90 minute queue out there. 
 
Hyperia. I don't think there's really any doubt that it is one of the best rides in Europe. I can't help wishing that it was just a little bit longer because the ending feels so abrupt and I personally wanted more of what Hyperia was giving. I also couldn't help wonder what its hourly capacity is and now much RAP was creating the queues today. We ended up waiting four hours but I know people waited over six hours for it. 
 
A few thoughts:-
 
- This felt like one of the most intense Mack rides built. That first drop and the pull out.. I don't grey out very often on rides so this came as surprise. It's far more intense then I thought it was going to be
- I'm very happy that we have a fully air time focused ride. There's four major ejector air time moments and all four deliver. The outer-bank turn was delicious and so unique. 
- Love the campy show. The picture online of the show going on whilst they evacuate Saw in the background - perfection. 
- Shame that the viewing area got cut. This ride demands to be looked at but there's not many areas to actually view the elements. There's pretty much the ride exit and some of the ride queue. The splashdown is purely for the audience that doesn't exist as they can't see it.
- Ride team were doing well with a brand new ride. Regularly sending trains just as the other one hit the break run. This will need to continue unabated because the demand for Hyperia is going to continue to be huge. 
- Not sure why they routed the queue line to go around the lift hill motor as its pretty loud and unpleasant. 
- Relatively reliable. It had three breakdowns whilst we waited in our four queue; but so did Colossus and that has no excuse at this point. 
- Park was very well organised with the queue. Fair play to them, it was well structured and messaging was very clear.
 
 
Of the three Merlin parks in 2024, Thorpe has had the biggest improvements with excellent operations across the board, fantastic refurbishments and upgrades (Samurai, Detonator, Stealth) and I think the rebrand has been a success to be honest. There's a consistency that had been missing and I think Hyperia is the perfect ride for this Thorpe Park. 
 
Looking forward to getting back in three weeks for a more normal trip. I hope everyone visiting over the next few weeks enjoys their ride on Hyperia as the future of rollercoasters really has properly arrived in the UK. It took long enough.
 
(Thoughts and prayers for Icon)

Top tip. If you aren't in that queue for Hyperia super early, just go do everything else. We managed Stealth twice, Inferno, Rumba, Swarm, Flying fish (on a 5 lap special) and Quantum in an hour because the rest of the park is beyond dead. It helps that the rides were run to perfection. They were running Inferno and Stealth like there was a 90 minute queue out there. 
 
Hyperia. I don't think there's really any doubt that it is one of the best rides in Europe. I can't help wishing that it was just a little bit longer because the ending feels so abrupt and I personally wanted more of what Hyperia was giving. I also couldn't help wonder what its hourly capacity is and now much RAP was creating the queues today. We ended up waiting four hours but I know people waited over six hours for it. 
 
A few thoughts:-
 
- This felt like one of the most intense Mack rides built. That first drop and the pull out.. I don't grey out very often on rides so this came as surprise. It's far more intense then I thought it was going to be
- I'm very happy that we have a fully air time focused ride. There's four major ejector air time moments and all four deliver. The outer-bank turn was delicious and so unique. 
- Love the campy show. The picture online of the show going on whilst they evacuate Saw in the background - perfection. 
- Shame that the viewing area got cut. This ride demands to be looked at but there's not many areas to actually view the elements. There's pretty much the ride exit and some of the ride queue. The splashdown is purely for the audience that doesn't exist as they can't see it.
- Ride team were doing well with a brand new ride. Regularly sending trains just as the other one hit the break run. This will need to continue unabated because the demand for Hyperia is going to continue to be huge. 
- Not sure why they routed the queue line to go around the lift hill motor as its pretty loud and unpleasant. 
- Relatively reliable. It had three breakdowns whilst we waited in our four queue; but so did Colossus and that has no excuse at this point. 
- Park was very well organised with the queue. Fair play to them, it was well structured and messaging was very clear.
 
 
Of the three Merlin parks in 2024, Thorpe has had the biggest improvements with excellent operations across the board, fantastic refurbishments and upgrades (Samurai, Detonator, Stealth) and I think the rebrand has been a success to be honest. There's a consistency that had been missing and I think Hyperia is the perfect ride for this Thorpe Park. 
 
Looking forward to getting back in three weeks for a more normal trip. I hope everyone visiting over the next few weeks enjoys their ride on Hyperia as the future of rollercoasters really has properly arrived in the UK. It took long enough.
 
(Thoughts and prayers for Icon)

Top tip. If you aren't in that queue for Hyperia super early, just go do everything else. We managed Stealth twice, Inferno, Rumba, Swarm, Flying fish (on a 5 lap special) and Quantum in an hour because the rest of the park is beyond dead. It helps that the rides were run to perfection. They were running Inferno and Stealth like there was a 90 minute queue out there. 
 
Hyperia. I don't think there's really any doubt that it is one of the best rides in Europe. I can't help wishing that it was just a little bit longer because the ending feels so abrupt and I personally wanted more of what Hyperia was giving. I also couldn't help wonder what its hourly capacity is and now much RAP was creating the queues today. We ended up waiting four hours but I know people waited over six hours for it. 
 
A few thoughts:-
 
- This felt like one of the most intense Mack rides built. That first drop and the pull out.. I don't grey out very often on rides so this came as surprise. It's far more intense then I thought it was going to be
- I'm very happy that we have a fully air time focused ride. There's four major ejector air time moments and all four deliver. The outer-bank turn was delicious and so unique. 
- Love the campy show. The picture online of the show going on whilst they evacuate Saw in the background - perfection. 
- Shame that the viewing area got cut. This ride demands to be looked at but there's not many areas to actually view the elements. There's pretty much the ride exit and some of the ride queue. The splashdown is purely for the audience that doesn't exist as they can't see it.
- Ride team were doing well with a brand new ride. Regularly sending trains just as the other one hit the break run. This will need to continue unabated because the demand for Hyperia is going to continue to be huge. 
- Not sure why they routed the queue line to go around the lift hill motor as its pretty loud and unpleasant. 
- Relatively reliable. It had three breakdowns whilst we waited in our four queue; but so did Colossus and that has no excuse at this point. 
- Park was very well organised with the queue. Fair play to them, it was well structured and messaging was very clear.
 
 
Of the three Merlin parks in 2024, Thorpe has had the biggest improvements with excellent operations across the board, fantastic refurbishments and upgrades (Samurai, Detonator, Stealth) and I think the rebrand has been a success to be honest. There's a consistency that had been missing and I think Hyperia is the perfect ride for this Thorpe Park. 
 
Looking forward to getting back in three weeks for a more normal trip. I hope everyone visiting over the next few weeks enjoys their ride on Hyperia as the future of rollercoasters really has properly arrived in the UK. It took long enough.
 
(Thoughts and prayers for Icon)

Top tip. If you aren't in that queue for Hyperia super early, just go do everything else. We managed Stealth twice, Inferno, Rumba, Swarm, Flying fish (on a 5 lap special) and Quantum in an hour because the rest of the park is beyond dead. It helps that the rides were run to perfection. They were running Inferno and Stealth like there was a 90 minute queue out there. 
 
Hyperia. I don't think there's really any doubt that it is one of the best rides in Europe. I can't help wishing that it was just a little bit longer because the ending feels so abrupt and I personally wanted more of what Hyperia was giving. I also couldn't help wonder what its hourly capacity is and now much RAP was creating the queues today. We ended up waiting four hours but I know people waited over six hours for it. 
 
A few thoughts:-
 
- This felt like one of the most intense Mack rides built. That first drop and the pull out.. I don't grey out very often on rides so this came as surprise. It's far more intense then I thought it was going to be
- I'm very happy that we have a fully air time focused ride. There's four major ejector air time moments and all four deliver. The outer-bank turn was delicious and so unique. 
- Love the campy show. The picture online of the show going on whilst they evacuate Saw in the background - perfection. 
- Shame that the viewing area got cut. This ride demands to be looked at but there's not many areas to actually view the elements. There's pretty much the ride exit and some of the ride queue. The splashdown is purely for the audience that doesn't exist as they can't see it.
- Ride team were doing well with a brand new ride. Regularly sending trains just as the other one hit the break run. This will need to continue unabated because the demand for Hyperia is going to continue to be huge. 
- Not sure why they routed the queue line to go around the lift hill motor as its pretty loud and unpleasant. 
- Relatively reliable. It had three breakdowns whilst we waited in our four queue; but so did Colossus and that has no excuse at this point. 
- Park was very well organised with the queue. Fair play to them, it was well structured and messaging was very clear.
 
 
Of the three Merlin parks in 2024, Thorpe has had the biggest improvements with excellent operations across the board, fantastic refurbishments and upgrades (Samurai, Detonator, Stealth) and I think the rebrand has been a success to be honest. There's a consistency that had been missing and I think Hyperia is the perfect ride for this Thorpe Park. 
 
Looking forward to getting back in three weeks for a more normal trip. I hope everyone visiting over the next few weeks enjoys their ride on Hyperia as the future of rollercoasters really has properly arrived in the UK. It took long enough.
 
(Thoughts and prayers for Icon)

Top tip. If you aren't in that queue for Hyperia super early, just go do everything else. We managed Stealth twice, Inferno, Rumba, Swarm, Flying fish (on a 5 lap special) and Quantum in an hour because the rest of the park is beyond dead. It helps that the rides were run to perfection. They were running Inferno and Stealth like there was a 90 minute queue out there. 
 
Hyperia. I don't think there's really any doubt that it is one of the best rides in Europe. I can't help wishing that it was just a little bit longer because the ending feels so abrupt and I personally wanted more of what Hyperia was giving. I also couldn't help wonder what its hourly capacity is and now much RAP was creating the queues today. We ended up waiting four hours but I know people waited over six hours for it. 
 
A few thoughts:-
 
- This felt like one of the most intense Mack rides built. That first drop and the pull out.. I don't grey out very often on rides so this came as surprise. It's far more intense then I thought it was going to be
- I'm very happy that we have a fully air time focused ride. There's four major ejector air time moments and all four deliver. The outer-bank turn was delicious and so unique. 
- Love the campy show. The picture online of the show going on whilst they evacuate Saw in the background - perfection. 
- Shame that the viewing area got cut. This ride demands to be looked at but there's not many areas to actually view the elements. There's pretty much the ride exit and some of the ride queue. The splashdown is purely for the audience that doesn't exist as they can't see it.
- Ride team were doing well with a brand new ride. Regularly sending trains just as the other one hit the break run. This will need to continue unabated because the demand for Hyperia is going to continue to be huge. 
- Not sure why they routed the queue line to go around the lift hill motor as its pretty loud and unpleasant. 
- Relatively reliable. It had three breakdowns whilst we waited in our four queue; but so did Colossus and that has no excuse at this point. 
- Park was very well organised with the queue. Fair play to them, it was well structured and messaging was very clear.
 
 
Of the three Merlin parks in 2024, Thorpe has had the biggest improvements with excellent operations across the board, fantastic refurbishments and upgrades (Samurai, Detonator, Stealth) and I think the rebrand has been a success to be honest. There's a consistency that had been missing and I think Hyperia is the perfect ride for this Thorpe Park. 
 
Looking forward to getting back in three weeks for a more normal trip. I hope everyone visiting over the next few weeks enjoys their ride on Hyperia as the future of rollercoasters really has properly arrived in the UK. It took long enough.
 
(Thoughts and prayers for Icon)

I heard there might also be some kind of restraint. 🫣

Colossus is standing right there. No story, no thing. 
 
Still sells lots of merchandise. 
 
Come on now. 

I do. Currently on subscription at £15 a month and it expires 200 years after I pass away.
 
Compared to some of the rubbish I waste my money on, £180 a year is great value and with some of the investment at the moment, it's easy to justify. 

Best thing about the testing was the cheers from the crowds as the train went down the first drop. 
 
The sense of community from things like this is never better then days like today. 

Best thing about the testing was the cheers from the crowds as the train went down the first drop. 
 
The sense of community from things like this is never better then days like today. 

Best thing about the testing was the cheers from the crowds as the train went down the first drop. 
 
The sense of community from things like this is never better then days like today. 

Initially guests wanted it at Helix, it got complaints that it felt unsafe.
 
Then with Icon its because  the restraints had double redundancy in case of failure, the seatbelts give it a third redundancy if something was to go wrong.
 
Looking at a few others, Copperhead Strike opened with seatbelts (unsurprisingly, Cedar Fair after all) and DC Rivals Hypercoaster didn't, neither do the majority of the Blue Fire clones, Star Trek or Capitol Bullet Train.
 
Merlin being Merlin, I can just see the guest perception taking precedent with Hyperia. This is the company that wouldn't batch a station at Mandrill and has ugly queue lines where every new ride has fences over 6 foot tall. 

Initially guests wanted it at Helix, it got complaints that it felt unsafe.
 
Then with Icon its because  the restraints had double redundancy in case of failure, the seatbelts give it a third redundancy if something was to go wrong.
 
Looking at a few others, Copperhead Strike opened with seatbelts (unsurprisingly, Cedar Fair after all) and DC Rivals Hypercoaster didn't, neither do the majority of the Blue Fire clones, Star Trek or Capitol Bullet Train.
 
Merlin being Merlin, I can just see the guest perception taking precedent with Hyperia. This is the company that wouldn't batch a station at Mandrill and has ugly queue lines where every new ride has fences over 6 foot tall. 

Initially guests wanted it at Helix, it got complaints that it felt unsafe.
 
Then with Icon its because  the restraints had double redundancy in case of failure, the seatbelts give it a third redundancy if something was to go wrong.
 
Looking at a few others, Copperhead Strike opened with seatbelts (unsurprisingly, Cedar Fair after all) and DC Rivals Hypercoaster didn't, neither do the majority of the Blue Fire clones, Star Trek or Capitol Bullet Train.
 
Merlin being Merlin, I can just see the guest perception taking precedent with Hyperia. This is the company that wouldn't batch a station at Mandrill and has ugly queue lines where every new ride has fences over 6 foot tall. 

Thank god we were spared the higher capacity crowd pleasing B&M hyper ey

I love it when Jack comes back every year or so to complain about Fastrack at Thorpe.

It's like when Steve posts every now and then to tell us how **** Merlin are. It's like a comfort blanket. 

I love it when Jack comes back every year or so to complain about Fastrack at Thorpe.

It's like when Steve posts every now and then to tell us how **** Merlin are. It's like a comfort blanket. 

I love it when Jack comes back every year or so to complain about Fastrack at Thorpe.

It's like when Steve posts every now and then to tell us how **** Merlin are. It's like a comfort blanket. 

I love it when Jack comes back every year or so to complain about Fastrack at Thorpe.

It's like when Steve posts every now and then to tell us how **** Merlin are. It's like a comfort blanket. 

I love it when Jack comes back every year or so to complain about Fastrack at Thorpe.

It's like when Steve posts every now and then to tell us how **** Merlin are. It's like a comfort blanket. 

The park need to decide whether they prioritise the main season or the winter season. If they want to do both, the engineering team need to be expanded. 
 
They also said a week or so ago that some rides like Rattlesnake and Griffons Galleon will not be open on off-peak days. Poor decision as Rattlesnake seemed to be one of the few  rides that was running well over the weekend. 
 
Merlin theme parks really test my patience at times. The general expectation at a theme park is to go and rides will be running. At Merlin it's currently a gamble if anything is open on time or for at least half the day. 

The park need to decide whether they prioritise the main season or the winter season. If they want to do both, the engineering team need to be expanded. 
 
They also said a week or so ago that some rides like Rattlesnake and Griffons Galleon will not be open on off-peak days. Poor decision as Rattlesnake seemed to be one of the few  rides that was running well over the weekend. 
 
Merlin theme parks really test my patience at times. The general expectation at a theme park is to go and rides will be running. At Merlin it's currently a gamble if anything is open on time or for at least half the day.