Hyperia - New for 2024 (Ride thread)

[JoshC.]

Hyperia officially opens tomorrow, ending a 12 year drought of new coasters at Thorpe.

 

Tonight is the press launch, which means there will be plenty of reviews about. As such, for anyone who doesn't want the station interior spoiled - or doesn't want to hear people's views - we'll have this thread here. We'll keep the other thread for construction / archiving. 

 

I'll post my views on Hyperia here tonight, and look forward to reading plenty more tomorrow!

[Glitch]

Kinda feel sorry for the club XX people, seems like everyone has already been on this coaster despite them being the first lol.

Enjoy your rides everyone hope it lives up to expectations.

 

When are the crowds due to die down next, that’s probably when I will go and try it out, guessing though that will be post summer now

 

 

[Benin]

Seeing it from the M3/M25 junction today did make me more excited.

 

Doubt any competition members would honestly believe they'd be the first riders. Public maybe, but given Merlin's love of a "celeb" night and the boy's club Thorpe is becoming was never gonna happen.

[Jax]

Judge here I guess

[Glitch]

Looking at the POV we better get a log flume in the future to interact with the swamp. The splashdown looks fun too!

[JoshC.]

So if I don't write my review tonight, I probably won't at all.

 

Equally, I am very tired and have an early start tomorrow, so forgive me if this is patchy or brief.

 

I'll preface this with my usual press night statement: I know some people will say "oh, you're opinions are biased, you have a vested interest to be positive" or "you're a Thorpe goon, of course you'll only say positive things. My review will be as honest and truthful as positive, based on my experiences. I've been at pretty much every Thorpe press event since Swarm's back in 2012. In the past, I've told managers to their faces when I think something is rubbish. I've congratulated people for successes. I've said when something has disappointed me, surprised me or just 'not been my cup of tea'. 

 

I was able to get 3 rides during the course of this evening. All of them were back row, and one of them was a night ride. I wanted to mix it up a bit - especially to get a front row experience - but it's just the way it worked. 

 

I will say I found the evening a bit frustrating, with the initial opening being a bit chaotic, although I appreciated the effort for an opening ceremony. I'm sure tomorrow will be smoother, as the set up and organisation is a bit different, but tonight was a bit clunky.

 

So anyways, the ride.

• The lift hill is quick, especially in comparison to Big One. But it still feels like an eternity going up. And seeing the park beside you and how you tower over it, is really something. And when you're stood very close to it, you realise: this is tall.
• The drop. My god the drop. It feels like you're being thrown out to the ground at the top. You stay out of your seat during the twist, which adds to the feeling you're just going to die frankly.
• The non-inverting Immelmann is fab, giving a nice pop of airtime.
• The outerbank dive is fab. You are genuinely out of your seat the whole time, as you slowly twist upside down. Such a weird sensation, but so very cool.
• Quickly going into the stall, you're again left hanging (literally). 
• The water splash effect does have trims which does notably slow you down, but it doesn't slow you down so that you feel like you're going significantly slower. Think of it as a "gentle press on a car's brake" type of trim, rather than a "harsh car brake" trim. Towards the back, if you stick your hands out, you get a bit wet.
• The outer banked airtime afterwards offers some surprising ejector. After my first ride, this was actually a highlight, for how surprising it was. After multiple rides, it's not the highlight, but still definitely a highlight. 
• The airtime into the brakes is fine. Maybe not the strongest ended, but still a nice pop
• The brakes roll the train into the station very slowly

For me, this is my favourite UK coaster I think. I still need time to digest, and I'd like to ride it in other rows too. I also hear the front row is a completely different beast (a lot "floatier" rather than "intense / aggressive"). But yeah, this is a fantastic ride. It doesn't feel too short, as it packs a lot in, and hitting the brakes is that sort of "omg" moment, as you process it all. Could it have had another element after the water splash, perhaps to negate the need for a trim altogether? Possibly, but it doesn't harm the ride.

 

I didn't notice a "Mack rattle" during my rides. However, I do think it has the potential to do so, and could end up riding rough in the future. That will come down to how this type of Mack ages, and what Thorpe do to look after it.

 

There is a neat little dispatch sequence as the train leaves the station:

https://twitter.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1793709598886822387

 

Other bits:

• Mack employees are naturally very happy with the result, and generally and genuinely all love it
• The ride warms up a lot during the day. During testing phases, it could be take 42 seconds to complete the circuit in the morning, and then drop down to 31 seconds by the afternoon / evening
• Operations are good on two trains. They removed one to help alleviate pressure on engineering for tomorrow. There were a few shutdowns this evening, partially due to some issues with gates, and also due to someone flying a drone around the ride. Operation on one train is slow.
• The plaza looks quite nice. It needs some polishing off, but it's good.
• The ride area, however, is definitely unfinished. It needs tidying up, planting to go in, etc. But in any case, it was always going to be a couple of years before this really looked nice.
• There will be an opening ceremony / shows for the first few days as a minimum. It's a nice little thing
• There's some boards around the ride area telling the story of Hyperia, sort of. They're nice, but the backs of them are plain and easy to see around the area, and stick out like a sore thumb

https://twitter.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1793701505725530465

 

Overall, Hyperia is a fantastic addition for Thorpe Park, and for the UK. It's exactly what the park needed. I really enjoyed it, and it's a "Top 10%" coaster for me. 

 

I'll leave you with my first ORP (me on the left):

[Marc]

Had a great day today. Joined the queue at the very back of the entrance bridge at 8:30 and got on at 14:45 - so a *very* long wait (which did include a few shutdowns)

 

I can’t state enough how well the entire thing was organised, there was no issues which were seen at other coaster openings, I genuinely don’t think it could have been planned better.

 

The ride is fantastic, each element on it is perfectly executed, obviously nothing like we’ve seen in the UK before. Personal highlight being the over banked turn, your literally out of your seat the entire time. Also for me it didn’t feel short atall, initially I was abit worried it was a bit short but it’s paced very well.

 

Really hope it’s a hit for them!

[Han30]

Went today for opening day and had one of the best days at Thorpe in a long time.  There was just a great energy there, guests seemed happy, staff were brilliant.

 

It’s the first opening day I have attended for a coaster at Thorpe and I’m glad I went.  Of late I have become quite critical of Thorpe and wasn’t even hugely excited for Hyperia despite following the construction but seeing it for the first time in person flying around the track was awesome.  Then - riding it - wow!!  It’s only my second hyper coaster and my 70th cred (which is crazy low for an old gal like me 🤣).  Honestly I was blown away by the entire ride experience.  Was great to see people on the trains coming out of the station genuinely excited then returning clapping and cheering - to be a small part of that was fab and I’ve sort of gone from not wanting to continue with my pass once I’m out of my 12 months to really wanting to keep it.

 

I think Hyperia will make a massive impact on the park for a long time to come and it feels that this is exactly what Thorpe Park have needed for a good few years 

[Mattgwise]

It really was an amazing atmosphere all day and great to see everyone so happy, staff buzzing, and the whole day operationally just outstanding. 

 

Watching everyone clap on practically all trains dispatched and returned was nice to see... 

 

 

[Mark9]

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)

[Benin]

In the RAP queue already. Let's gooooooo!

[JoshC.]

She dead:

 

 

[Inferno]

Oh dear - all day as well……

hopefully it’s a quick fix and it will be back tomorrow.

 

wonder what it is?

[Benin]

Literally no information given to us on park.

 

Poor show from staff.

[tactic]

Shame to hear she’s having some issues. So glad I got down yesterday even if I did queue for like 6 hours, it’s truly an amazing ride. Goes straight to the top of my albeit rather lacking list of ridden coasters!

 

Also to echo what people have been saying on here, the queue system was insanely well organised, no pushing, people were good natured, cool mist being sprayed in the queue and the staff being super friendly and well drilled for when you needed to go to the toilet. Congrats to thorpe on the front, brilliant system!

[Benin]

Queue system complete opposite today as no staff to be seen.

 

Amazing how quickly this park goes back to the normal.

[Cal]

So I went yesterday afternoon, got to the park for 1:30 and managed to get on Hyperia twice and the rest of the park. Easily one of the best days I've had at Thorpe in years, such a great atmosphere even right up until 10:30pm. I'll share my thoughts later on. 

 

 

I am absolutely gutted for Thorpe to read they can't get it open today. After such a successful opening and running flawlessly pretty much all day yesterday this is a big blow for the park.

 

I got told by an operator the shutdowns yesterday were mainly issues with the gates which were tripping the ride out, so would be interested to know the issues today.

[Benin]

Yeah this morning didn't go well.

 

The lack of communication on park is a failure of basic customer service. The socials announcement happened at the same time the plaza holding pens were let loose, and when we got to Tacotaria another guest (from the numbers leaving the queue) told us the news.

 

That is a lot of space where no staff where located either to redirect or inform, and that is unacceptable given the general consensus on yesterday.

 

Very disappointed. Especially with the usual "well you have a MAP" response. We are not local or easily able to organise a visit given personal circumstances (especially when they were handing out Fastrack to people lucky enough to be kicked out the "proper" queue).

 

Thorpe will always be Thorpe.

[Benin]

Park just confirmed its broken until 29th May.

 

Really borked. 

 

[Marc]

7 hours ago, Benin said:

Yeah this morning didn't go well.

 

The lack of communication on park is a failure of basic customer service. The socials announcement happened at the same time the plaza holding pens were let loose, and when we got to Tacotaria another guest (from the numbers leaving the queue) told us the news.

 

That is a lot of space where no staff where located either to redirect or inform, and that is unacceptable given the general consensus on yesterday.

 

Very disappointed. Especially with the usual "well you have a MAP" response. We are not local or easily able to organise a visit given personal circumstances (especially when they were handing out Fastrack to people lucky enough to be kicked out the "proper" queue).

 

Thorpe will always be Thorpe.

Did they give you anything when they cleared the queue? Saw from a Vlog they were handing out hyperia fastrack’s.

 

Shame it wasn’t managed as well as it was yesterday, given they let people into the park early etc does seem what ever is up was found very last minute.

[MattyMoo]

That time period announcement screams a broken part, no?

[Benin]

7 hours ago, Marc said:

Did they give you anything when they cleared the queue? Saw from a Vlog they were handing out hyperia fastrack’s.

 

Shame it wasn’t managed as well as it was yesterday, given they let people into the park early etc does seem what ever is up was found very last minute.

 

We did not as we weren't in the "proper" queue, which is an amazing cop out given there were no staff stopping people joining the route when they opened. Last minute maybe but given it hadn't tested once in the hour we'd been there definitely should've had management further up the queueline.

 

Shall see what happens with our complaint. They have provided an opportunity to rebook RAP on any day up to 30th September regardless of being fully booked.

[JoshC.]

On 5/25/2024 at 3:04 PM, Benin said:

Yeah this morning didn't go well.

 

The lack of communication on park is a failure of basic customer service. The socials announcement happened at the same time the plaza holding pens were let loose, and when we got to Tacotaria another guest (from the numbers leaving the queue) told us the news.

 

That is a lot of space where no staff where located either to redirect or inform, and that is unacceptable given the general consensus on yesterday.

 

Very disappointed. Especially with the usual "well you have a MAP" response. We are not local or easily able to organise a visit given personal circumstances (especially when they were handing out Fastrack to people lucky enough to be kicked out the "proper" queue).

 

Thorpe will always be Thorpe.

 

Real shame this. The organisation and communication was great on Friday.

 

Obviously things go wrong and rides can break down / have issues at the last minute, but the way they handled and communicated it yesterday is just poor. It highlights a bigger issue of "MAPs don't need compensation" too. It's a pretty narrow view that if you have a MAP, you can just return whenever, so don't need compensating. Even a free drink voucher would be something to make it feel like you're not getting kicked in the teeth.

[Coaster]

I found it disappointing that the queueline marshals were left to announce to everyone that the ride wouldn't open.

 

Why weren't management in attendance?  It felt really poor for them to hide away and let their front-line staff take so much abuse and shouting from guests; it wasn't nice.

[Benin]

I believe management were at the front of the queue throwing Fastracks at people.

 

Probably no one passed the information to the plaza or were prepared to divert everyone. A manager only turned up to Tacotaria after we found out and were moving away.

 

Happy to lap up the adoration but when it goes wrong nowhere to be found. Sounds very familiar. Think they were fortunate that a number of guests Saturday were goons who had already ridden as Guest Services wasn't rammed.

 

One thing positive is that they're still standing firm on the pre-booking RAP. Whilst we were sorting our official complaint there were a few chancing their luck and none were given out. Shame that the staff weren't always signing the cards properly still.