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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

Matt.GC said:
I can't disagree enough with the sentiment that hyper coasters generally lack theming on the scale of Brake Run. Shambhala and Silver Star both sit on much larger plots of land, and not a million miles away from this, and both have way more theming. Big One also sits on a large plot of land and is probably on a par, yet if was built 30 years ago, and what if lacks in screwed on sheet metal wings, it makes up for with a Pepsi Max can tunnel. Like the ride length, cigarette paint job, and lack of plaza, this has nothing to do with "practicalities", or "aesthetics", or hyper coasters not typically being heavily themed excuses. It looks like it has everything to do with £ Sterling.

They could easily have built something with greater length on that plot of land, with a Stealth style blended paint job, a viewing plaza, and a ride area that doesn't consist of mud. They chose not to because they wanted something unique that broke records for marketing hype, but just didn't have the cash to meet their ambitions.

That said, I'm not against it being stylised rather than comprehensively themed. Just it being done so sparingly, accompanied by excuses as to why. The half a layout that is there looks excellent, but I wouldn't get too excited over wined and dined social media types making rediclous claims on everyone elses behalf about it being "one of the best" or "the best" in the UK/world just yet. I can't even see how something so high and fast, yet plain and short, could be described as such right out the blocks, and be taken too seriously. I remember 5 mins ago when, within the first days of them opening, such claims were showered upon Wicker Man, Icon, Sik, and Rebo. Anything that's half decent is "probably the best" whilst opening hype is high.
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I agree with you about the hype comments, for anyone not on board with that, just have a rewind to some of the reviewed of Derren Brown’s GT when it opened, I’ll admit that even I thought it was great (although to be fair I did it with everything working and that great effect with the tube train nearly hitting you).

But I do disagree with the theming/style comments, for me it’s comfortably in better nick than the Big One, I’d far rather a consistent colour scheme and styled area then absolutely nothing other than a blag Pepsi Max Tin (Tunnel) but I appreciate that I really don’t like pleasure beach so I’m probably biased there.
 
Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but there seems to be a lot of negativity in this topic. If you ignore the fact that it's short, and ignore the amount of trim brakes, and ignore the bland station, and ignore the lack of theming, and ignore the low throughput, this could be the UK's best roller coaster.
 
Funcone said:
Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but there seems to be a lot of negativity in this topic. If you ignore the fact that it's short, and ignore the amount of trim brakes, and ignore the bland station, and ignore the lack of theming, and ignore the low throughput, this could be the UK's best roller coaster.
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There aren't any trims, just the brackets!
 
5h queue and it’s a Friday when not all schools have inset days. Tomorrows going to be mental..

Deckchair and piss bottle for anyone brave enough to go this weekend I reckon. Or scrape together £20 for the fast track because Queue Simulator is not a fun ride to play

e: wonder how long the RAP queue is....
 
I did see on Facebook that apparently guest services said tomorrow has a higher amount of bookings than today but probably about as reliable as the other people on Facebook claiming hyperia's opening today had been delayed until 1pm 😂.
 
It seems like the ride itself is going down very, very well so far! Pretty much every review I’ve read and heard has at very least said “one of the UK’s best coasters”, with the #1 in the UK spot being thrown around by many, many reviewers! It seems as though there’s a lot of airtime, and it also seems as though the length is not presenting an issue as much as many thought it would during construction for those who’ve ridden. And overall, I don’t think I’ve heard one review that isn’t overwhelmingly positive!

I know you’re all going to say something along the lines of “most of the reviews are from the press event, so they’re naturally going to be biased” or “everyone’s just getting swallowed up in the new ride hype” or “the adrenaline is clouding people’s judgements”. However, I don’t personally buy that these things invalidate someone’s opinion entirely as is often made out on here. Yes, there may be an element of excitement and hype, but I don’t buy that people who attend these events blatantly lie for the sake of freebies or blatantly lie because of the opening day hype. If people thought the ride was underwhelming or rubbish, I think they’d say, and even if they may not be quite as blunt as some on here, there are ways to politely get this across. To me, none of the reviews from last night or this morning have given off that kind of vibe.

Multiple reviews I watched or read from last night were not wholly positive about the experience as a whole, so were in a comfortable place to give polite, honest criticism of the ride itself. As an example, Sean Evans repeatedly slagged off the aesthetics before he got on the ride, but stepped off the ride itself blown away and gave a very positive review of the actual coaster. Numerous reviews I read on other forums, from people who’ve attended press events in the past and not pulled any punches with regard to criticism, also had very positive things to say about the coaster itself while having polite criticisms of other aspects. Indeed, our very own @KolonelKlink attended last night and was not wholly positive about aspects such as the area, but had nothing but good things to say about the ride itself.

You can hold whatever view you like, and despite what I said above, I agree that initial reviews may not reflect how reception plays out long-term, but it seems like many in this thread and elsewhere are calling it overrated or rubbish or rubbishing the claims made by people who’ve ridden without actually having ridden it themselves, which seems unfair to me. I don’t think any of us are in a place to corroborate or dismiss the claims made by others until we’ve ridden it ourselves.
 
I'll withold judgement until I ride it, I think at the moment the only "valid" criticism people might be able to direct at it without riding is how short the ride appears to be, but then we aren't exactly graced with long ride times in this country for anything anyway are we. I'd prefer everything to last as long as the Smiler but I will take what I can get; if this is a roaring success then you never know, Merlin might plant another one somewhere.
 
Tom said:
It’s struggling to clear 700 pph at the moment. Hardly giving Nemesis a run for its money.
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Oh… I was hoping that the throughput might be a good bit higher than that.

I guess it is only opening day, and the staff may well still be getting used to their roles and procedures and such, but I was hoping that the throughput might be a good peg higher than 700pph…
 
Matt N said:
It seems like the ride itself is going down very, very well so far! Pretty much every review I’ve read and heard has at very least said “one of the UK’s best coasters”, with the #1 in the UK spot being thrown around by many, many reviewers!
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To be fair though Hyperia being “one of the UK’s best coasters” isn’t difficult at all because with a few notable exceptions the bar is set very low in this country. We aren’t blessed with a great amount of superb coasters here unfortunately.
 
Plastic Person said:
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It's good to see the park engaging in Care in the Community programs.
 
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