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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

I don’t know if this is just me being overly optimistic, but to me, the fact that they’ve given specific dates potentially implies that they have some idea of when they hope to reopen provided everything goes well, with that hope being 30th May.

If they didn’t, I feel like they would have either have updated the announcement on a day-by-day basis or said something vaguer like “Hyperia will be down for the foreseeable future” without specifying exact dates.

It is a massive shame that the ride is having a multi-day closure when the opening hype is so high, however… an unavoidable shame, and one I absolutely don’t blame on the park, but a shame nonetheless.
 
As much as I’m hopeful that Thorpe’s announcement of exact dates may imply that they know when they’re hoping to reopen and the current intention is to reopen in a few days, a lot of people are now making comparisons to Top Thrill 2, which makes me worry that we could be in for a long-haul closure of multiple months…

A small part of me is now starting to wonder if I jumped the gun booking 10th June…

I’ll also admit to being surprised that a Mack is having reliability issues. I thought Macks were traditionally very reliable?
 
Honestly I'm surprised more parks (outside Disney and Universal) don't do soft openings right up until the summer holidays. When people hear it's open they'll turn up, but potentially not all on the same day, which makes crowd control more manageable. There's effectively no difference between a soft opening and a full opening except for that people are more understanding if it isn't open when they visit.
 
Matt N said:
As much as I’m hopeful that Thorpe’s announcement of exact dates may imply that they know when they’re hoping to reopen and the current intention is to reopen in a few days, a lot of people are now making comparisons to Top Thrill 2, which makes me worry that we could be in for a long-haul closure of multiple months…

A small part of me is now starting to wonder if I jumped the gun booking 10th June…

I’ll also admit to being surprised that a Mack is having reliability issues. I thought Macks were traditionally very reliable?
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I wonder if this is a new lift hill system for Mack? Correct me if I'm wrong but this one seems faster than the other Mack hypers, and it was making a right old racket last night.
 
An hour after they post to social media that the ride is shut until at least Thursday and they still haven't updated the website to reflect this. So folks going to the website to book their half term tickets after seeing this ride advertised on TV etc are none the wiser. More excellent communication from the park.

tp.JPG
 
Matt N said:
I don’t know if this is just me being overly optimistic, but to me, the fact that they’ve given specific dates potentially implies that they have some idea of when they hope to reopen provided everything goes well, with that hope being 30th May.

If they didn’t, I feel like they would have either have updated the announcement on a day-by-day basis or said something vaguer like “Hyperia will be down for the foreseeable future” without specifying exact dates.
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It's perhaps not worded explicitly as this, but I read into it that they know the ride won't open before Wednesday, as opposed to knowing that it will open on Thursday.

Almost certainly they need a replacement part of some description, and they know that's the earliest they'll get it.

Tim said:
Honestly I'm surprised more parks (outside Disney and Universal) don't do soft openings right up until the summer holidays. When people hear it's open they'll turn up, but potentially not all on the same day, which makes crowd control more manageable. There's effectively no difference between a soft opening and a full opening except for that people are more understanding if it isn't open when they visit.
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That's just not how Merlin work sadly. They place an extremely high importance on marketing the precise opening of a new asset, and want to see the 'benefit' of their investment as soon as feasibly (or not...) possible.
 
Anyone feel more embarrassed for Mack? Given how this was their biggest coaster with a lot riding it and to have this happen, certainly will be an awkward environment over in Germany no doubt.
 
Islander said:
That's just not how Merlin work sadly. They place an extremely high importance on marketing the precise opening of a new asset, and want to see the 'benefit' of their investment as soon as feasibly (or not...) possible.
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Alas I'm not expecting Merlin to be the trend setter for this one*. But it still seems like the obvious thing to do when both the 2 biggest park operators already do this as standard.

Once guests get used to the idea that new rides need a bedding in period and can't run for a full 8+ hour day for the first month, it'll just become the norm.
It's like expecting a new born baby to start walking and talking the moment it's born. It just doesn't happen. Yet we expect new rides to just work despite there also being a similar learning curve for both the operational and maintenance staff to overcome.

* Although Merlin do run soft openings when opening a new park. So clearly some people in the company understand the benefit to soft opening.
 
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AT86 said:
An hour after they post to social media that the ride is shut until at least Thursday and they still haven't updated the website to reflect this. So folks going to the website to book their half term tickets after seeing this ride advertised on TV etc are none the wiser. More excellent communication from the park.

tp.JPG
Click to expand...
Thorpe have now updated this, providing a link to more in-depth details on the ride availability page: https://www.thorpepark.com/plan-your-visit/resort-information/ride-availability/ (This is linked to from a banner at the top of the main website page)

Anyone who has a pre-booked ticket or passholder reservation for 26th, 27th, 28th or 29th May is allowed to move their ticket, and anyone who has a hotel stay booked for any of these dates is also allowed to move their stay.
Islander said:
It's perhaps not worded explicitly as this, but I read into it that they know the ride won't open before Wednesday, as opposed to knowing that it will open on Thursday.

Almost certainly they need a replacement part of some description, and they know that's the earliest they'll get it.
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That could well be true, but my thought was that if they didn't have a fair degree of hope to open after that date, surely they wouldn't give the specific dates? If it's some extended closure, they're just setting people up for disappointment if they only say it's shut for the next 4 days.
 
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QTXAdsy said:
For all the grief that Icon got for many saying its a bad ride (personally I don't), at the very least that ride actually worked when it needed to compared to Hyperia.
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It has only been open for 1 day, however; it may well be very reliable once whatever this issue is gets resolved.

Side Edit - For what it's worth, calldavv on CoasterForce spoke to someone who works at the park, and apparently there is "an issue at the top of the lift hill requiring the shipment of a new part from Germany": https://coasterforce.com/forums/thr...yper-coaster-2024.45090/page-173#post-1173464

Take this with as much salt as you like, but that's what they're saying. It would line up with engineers inspecting the lift hill, and as @Islander suggested, it would also line up with why we're being given exact minimum closure dates by Thorpe.
 
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