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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster
- Thread starter Burbs
- Start date
cloudburster
TS Member
It's just a wee bout of smoker's cough, she'll be alright after a cuppa and a toot on her inhaler.
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
I’m now starting to doubt whether booking 10th June was a good idea… if it is shut until 8th June, it’ll either be still closed and I’ll have to gaze at it without being able to ride, or it’ll be open but only the 3rd or 4th day of public operations, so it’ll probably be rammed… I think I might try and return later in the year either way. I am glad I went for 2 and a bit weeks after opening rather than straight after, though!
I do wonder whether it will necessarily be shut until 8th June, though… I don’t know if I’m just overanalysing here, but I thought that the wording of the statement was interesting.
They say that they are “unable to commit” to opening it before 8th June, and that they will do “everything in [their] power to open the ride earlier”… to me, that sounds as though they know they can open it from 8th June with a reasonable degree of confidence, but may be hoping to open it earlier if possible. If they “can’t commit” to opening before 8th June, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t open before 8th June, simply that they can’t guarantee that it will open before 8th June… as I say, though, I could just be massively overanalysing.
I do wonder whether it will necessarily be shut until 8th June, though… I don’t know if I’m just overanalysing here, but I thought that the wording of the statement was interesting.
They say that they are “unable to commit” to opening it before 8th June, and that they will do “everything in [their] power to open the ride earlier”… to me, that sounds as though they know they can open it from 8th June with a reasonable degree of confidence, but may be hoping to open it earlier if possible. If they “can’t commit” to opening before 8th June, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t open before 8th June, simply that they can’t guarantee that it will open before 8th June… as I say, though, I could just be massively overanalysing.
Have Merlin ever officially said why Hex has been out of action for so long? Or Scorpion Express?
They’ve certainly got form for sharing the minimum level of information and I’m sure the ride manufacturer won’t want things to be too public due to reputation so damage and so on
venny
TS Member
You’d think the poor way they’ve handled the communication on those two rides would be a case study in how not to do things.
Interestingly, sometimes straight honesty can be disarming. My guess in the case of Hex and Scorpion Express though is that the honest explanation is they haven’t been bothered to properly invest the money. That’s not quite as disarming an explanation.
Surely though with Hyperia that’s not the case. Everyone has tried to get it right but for whatever reason hasn’t.
Mykeprime
TS Member
I think the difference here is that they've been massively promoting Hyperia and its launch, those two are old. Nobody's booking trips for Hex and SE
Shaggy_Dog_
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Ride To Happiness
World’s fastest white elephant coaster? Ring Racer for sure. That only opened for one day as well…
I think that if it doesn’t open on June 8th then they probably need to be transparent around when it actually is going to open as they must have an idea, ie ‘we’re waiting for a part and it’s estimated to arrive on June 20’ or whatever.
But there’s absolutely no need for them to divulge details of what the actual issue is, I can’t see how that achieves anything other than appeasing a few enthusiasts.
All 99% of people care about is when the ride will be open, June 8th will be 2 weeks which is just about the right side of reasonable for a new ride - anything beyond that and they probably need to be setting expectations a bit more precisely than just releasing updates confirming when it definitely won’t be open.
But there’s absolutely no need for them to divulge details of what the actual issue is, I can’t see how that achieves anything other than appeasing a few enthusiasts.
All 99% of people care about is when the ride will be open, June 8th will be 2 weeks which is just about the right side of reasonable for a new ride - anything beyond that and they probably need to be setting expectations a bit more precisely than just releasing updates confirming when it definitely won’t be open.
Some of us are not booking trips because of the skyride closure.
Some of us are not buying passes because of the skyride closure.
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Leigh
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- EGF
I think the parks that go all out with the honesty when things go wrong tend to come out looking far better than the ones that attempt to hide things. See, for instance, the crack on Fury last year - the park explained the specific issue, why it happened and the steps they were taking to rectify it in conjunction with B&M. And, aside from the odd “Bolliger and Crackiard” joke (I don’t know if anyone ever said that) they’ve came out incredibly well and seem to have been applauded for their efforts.
Unless we’re talking about scorpion express.
Why honesty?
Have they denied anything?
Damage limitation..."The ride has problems, we are doing all we can, we will reopen as soon as we can."
Very honest.
Like those royal people.
Never complain.
Never explain.
Because you never satisfy the thoosies, whatever you say, and they are such a small proportion of the customer base...once the social media day has been done, the purpose has been realised.
99.9% of Fury's riders won't be aware of the problem last year.
Squiggs
TS Team
Thinking about it, you might actually get lucky with the 10th, if it does reopen on the 8th.
Given you'll be there on a Monday, two days after an uncertain opening day, it will be a lot more difficult for folk to arrange time off work, etc. at such short notice once they've confirmed it has opened. So the Monday could be slightly more reasonable, after a rammed weekend.
DistortAMG
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- POTC Disneyland Paris
It is called a wearstrip, not a waystrip.
One of these green things. You see them everywhere in themeparks
Manchester1894
TS Member
I'd booked the 15/16 June weekend. I know it's the forum meet up too. It's going to feel like opening weekend isn't it with how busy it all be if Hyperia opens 
Sazzle
TS Administrator
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Ouch, nightmare scenario. Looks like there are lots of learning points to be had from this, for both the park and Mack.
I wonder, given there were lots of reports from the opening day that the lift was making loud noises, whether this was an early indication something was at least starting to go wrong and there was an opportunity to avoid this? It operated for almost a solid twelve hours that day, and it has cost all parties dearly.
A bit of root cause analysis might be helpful as, in theory, this should have been identified during testing and steps taken to mitigate and remove the cause. I saw mention in a post above about soft openings - definitely not a bad shout. There’s clearly something very different about running it “live” than cycling with water dummies that created this issue and could have been spotted earlier.
I wonder, given there were lots of reports from the opening day that the lift was making loud noises, whether this was an early indication something was at least starting to go wrong and there was an opportunity to avoid this? It operated for almost a solid twelve hours that day, and it has cost all parties dearly.
A bit of root cause analysis might be helpful as, in theory, this should have been identified during testing and steps taken to mitigate and remove the cause. I saw mention in a post above about soft openings - definitely not a bad shout. There’s clearly something very different about running it “live” than cycling with water dummies that created this issue and could have been spotted earlier.