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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

Shaggy_Dog_ said:
The Big One’s opening day was almost a third of a century ago which is almost ancient history in theme park terms. That’s way before theme park vloggers became a thing (and also before the rise of social media pushing targeted ads and content) and things would be managed quite differently I’d imagine at a free entry PPR seaside amusement park in 1994 compared to a Merlin park in 2024.

I think the best comparison to make would be to Nemesis Reborn’s opening day, but of course that was a retheme after a year long closure rather than a brand new ride. Perhaps Voltron is an even better comparison, but that the organisation for that was rather lacking by the park and luckily Hyperia’s has been better thought out. But to go back to Matt’s question I’d think that Hyperia’s queue in the opening days will be very long indeed.
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We will see on the day mate!
I bet the queue will rarely be less than three hours right through the summer.
It is close to London, with every teenager, service user and thoosie in the south east wanting to ride early on.
Nemesis wasn't a new ride...it only attracted the thoosies, but the first day queue was still silly.
The demand dropped right down after the first few days.
The Beach managed the Big One queue around opening very well I thought...straight out of the south gates and along the prom by the Star pub!
I only managed day two, and true to form, lost my keys off the first drop, button came off my shirt pocket.
So like me.
Good lady came over on the train with the spare key.

And back on topic...Sun vouchers start today...two free tickets to Hyperia for September midweek please...rainy day if possible.
 
Matt N said:
1,050pph is no small throughput. In Towers terms, that’s roughly on par with Wicker Man when it runs well, and when running well, I find that queue to be quite a quick mover!

Put it this way; it’ll certainly be quicker than the queue for something like Mandrill Mayhem at Chessington if it gets even close to 1,050pph!
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That's the problem though. We've had a coaster at Towers that can regularly achieve 1400pph since 1994. And Chessington is so poor throughput wise, with the monkey shuttle coaster being so poorly conceived, I certainly wouldn't be using their extremely low capacity standards as a barometer. I also wouldn't consider Wickerman to have a decent enough capacity for the park it's in, especially with the heavy weight itself, and the other coasters at Towers, are now expected to carry owing to the lack of supporting attractions.

But I get your point that it's not too bad for Thorpe I guess. Kind of. Sort of. But 1050 is top end, from a park that aren't renowned for their speedy despatches. I think they'll likely end up delivering far below that most days. Add to that the usual new ride downtime problems, and spending time in queue lines with some of Thorpes target clientele smoking, swearing, littering, spitting and vaping away. I'm trying to think of when it could be possible to visit to get what I would consider a tolerable queue time. For me, that's around the hour mark for a Merlin park. Can't see much of that happening this year, even off peak.
 
Matt.GC said:
But I get your point that it's not too bad for Thorpe I guess. Kind of. Sort of. But 1050 is top end, from a park that aren't renowned for their speedy despatches. I think they'll likely end up delivering far below that most days. Add to that the usual new ride downtime problems, and spending time in queue lines with some of Thorpes target clientele smoking, swearing, littering, spitting and vaping away. I'm trying to think of when it could be possible to visit to get what I would consider a tolerable queue time. For me, that's around the hour mark for a Merlin park. Can't see much of that happening this year, even off peak.
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Thorpe’s dispatches have grown speedier as of late, and I feel that their reputation for slow operations is not necessarily fair nowadays. There’s been a real emphasis on throughputs at Thorpe as of late with the addition of things like pre-loading screens for this year and a general increased sense of urgency on ride platforms.

When I went to Thorpe last September, Stealth, another 20-seat coaster that has much faffier trains and restraints than Hyperia, was managing dispatch times as quick as below 80s in some cases. My overall average was 80-90s and 867pph, but it should be said that this was lowered by guest faff on 1 or 2 dispatches; the team on there were frequently getting dispatch times below 80s. The likes of Swarm and Saw were also attaining very decent dispatch times.

With this in mind, I think you could be pleasantly surprised at the operations and throughputs on Hyperia. It has an easy to operate Mack train with light restraints, plenty of room to walk through and no seatbelts, and with a recent focus on throughputs at Thorpe and the general increased sense of urgency you tend to get on newer rides anyway, I think the operations on there could fly! I reckon it could have a chance of getting the better part of that 1,050pph theoretical on a regular basis, personally.
 
There’s a dedicated RAP thread where people can discuss that aspect but I don’t think there’s any need for the negative comments. Under the new system RAP users shouldn’t be waiting at all, as intended and the capacity means there will only be around 600 on site who will be limited to one ride so hopefully they’ll be indicating the estimated wait time.
 
Mack trains can be quick to load (especially without seatbelts) but a lot will depend on the baggage system in use - if guests can't drop bags off quickly when boarding then the ride probably won't be able to match Stealth's dispatch intervals.

A six car train as used on several other Mach hypers would have given them an easy win in terms of capacity, 1200 or so could have been possible and over 1000 easy manageable in real-world conditions. I've long thought Merlin don't give as much consideration to capacity as Tussauds used to.
 
John said:
Mack trains can be quick to load (especially without seatbelts) but a lot will depend on the baggage system in use - if guests can't drop bags off quickly when boarding then the ride probably won't be able to match Stealth's dispatch intervals.

A six car train as used on several other Mach hypers would have given them an easy win in terms of capacity, 1200 or so could have been possible and over 1000 easy manageable in real-world conditions. I've long thought Merlin don't give as much consideration to capacity as Tussauds used to.
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I believe they’re using the same Mack baggage system as Icon, if I’m not mistaken.

I did wonder why they only plumped for a 5-car train when Flash and DC Rivals have 6, however…
 
Just double checking that Thorpe is not in the congestion zone before heading down on Friday? Could probably Google it, but it's more fun to get you guys to tell me :tearsofjoy: :innocent:
 
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