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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

I’m not really in a position where I can reschedule. If I’d planned a day trip, I may well have attempted to reschedule, but I’ve booked a hotel, a day elsewhere beforehand and non-refundable advance train tickets. I think I’m in too deep to do anything other than just go and make the best of it.

There’s still a chance, albeit an ever-decreasing chance, that the ride might be open on Monday. Thorpe haven’t explicitly confirmed anything beyond “not open Saturday”, and seeing as the crane work was only extended by one day beyond their original plan, I shouldn’t think it’ll open a ridiculous amount of time after the 8th provided all goes well.

But at this point, I’ve decided to reconcile myself to it not being open and will be pleasantly surprised if it is. The only thing I can really do at this point is go and make the best of whatever the situation is.
dave___ said:
All went wrong when they pinned themselves down to a hard deadline of 24th May to open the ride first of all in my opinion. Should never quote dates for anything
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Mick said:
It feels more and more like soft launches are the way to go.
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I don’t see what difference launching the ride on 24th May made. Things can go wrong at any time, and in this case, I think it was just very unfortunate that something went wrong the day after the ride opened. Whatever went wrong wasn’t wrong on opening day, so the ride was good to go on that day, but clearly went wrong between opening day and the Saturday. That couldn’t possibly have been predicted.
 
Mick said:
It feels more and more like soft launches are the way to go.
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Definitely the way to go for reliability but maybe not for the wailing and gnashing of teeth of vloggers etc who don't get invited to the press previews and miss out on that first-ride video bounty.

I'm expecting a soft open of Tiana's in Disneyworld despite them quoting the end of the month, just to stop hordes of people mobbing their park.

Matt N said:
I don’t see what difference launching the ride on 24th May made. Things can go wrong at any time, and in this case, I think it was just very unfortunate that something went wrong the day after the ride opened. Whatever went wrong wasn’t wrong on opening day, so the ride was good to go on that day, but clearly went wrong between opening day and the Saturday. That couldn’t possibly have been predicted.
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Maybe not necessarily for reliability and so on but it goes for everything else bundled into it. Give themselves an extra week to make sure the theming is up to scratch, they've cleared away all the building materials and only open when everything is actually finished. And just open it, don't have all the dramatics and planes flying smokebombs around in the sky.

See also Nemesis with the continually adding bits of Blue Peter theming to the queueline after the ride has reopened because of an arbritary deadline
 
dave___ said:
All went wrong when they pinned themselves down to a hard deadline of 24th May to open the ride first of all in my opinion. Should never quote dates for anything
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But that may not have prevented the current issue. Whatever went wrong with the top of the lift hill may have happened after one full day of operations no matter when that was. There doesn't appear to be evidence that it was rushed to be completed or similar.
 
Well there was no safety issue, just reliability (and the risk of riders being stuck on the lift, which would be an even worse FUBAR). As said previously, they'll be doing a lot of stress testing interspersed with a lot of inspection - maybe 2-3 days worth. Wouldn't surprise me if the supports for lifting the chain aren't kept around for a while.....

As for a re-opening date, that's straight out of "Marketing 101". The problem isn't changing pre-booked tickets, it's everything else - days off work, travel, hotels, therapy from disappointment, etc. That, and the fact that those thousands of people that should be in the 3hr queue are now in queues for Nemesis and Saw.
 
Smiley said:
Wouldn't surprise me if the supports for lifting the chain aren't kept around for a while.....
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These were already taken back down on the crane yesterday, with photographic proof provided earlier in the thread.

With this in mind, I imagine they won’t be wanting to get them back up there any time soon, as that would now require another expensive crane.
 
Smiley said:
Well there was no safety issue, just reliability (and the risk of riders being stuck on the lift, which would be an even worse FUBAR). As said previously, they'll be doing a lot of stress testing interspersed with a lot of inspection - maybe 2-3 days worth. Wouldn't surprise me if the supports for lifting the chain aren't kept around for a while.....

As for a re-opening date, that's straight out of "Marketing 101". The problem isn't changing pre-booked tickets, it's everything else - days off work, travel, hotels, therapy from disappointment, etc. That, and the fact that those thousands of people that should be in the 3hr queue are now in queues for Nemesis and Saw.
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this... i was hoping for a quiet few days in general at the park with hyperia being a bonus. but saturday could very well be a horribly busy day for me now. with the spite of hyperia looming in the background!
 
Matt N said:
These were already taken back down on the crane yesterday, with photographic proof provided earlier in the thread.

With this in mind, I imagine they won’t be wanting to get them back up there any time soon, as that would now require another expensive crane.
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Wonder how much it cost them for that first crane that wasn’t tall enough. They know how tall the ride is and how big the box is that they needed to lift up there….
 
Anyone who re-booked for the 8th June because they thought Hyperia might be open only has themselves to blame (obviously anyone who booked these dates before 25 May its different). The park only said they can't commit to opening it any earlier than 8th June. That offered no certainty of when it might re-open, just that it will be at some point after the 8th June.
 
Matt N said:
These were already taken back down on the crane yesterday, with photographic proof provided earlier in the thread.

With this in mind, I imagine they won’t be wanting to get them back up there any time soon, as that would now require another expensive crane.
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It wouldn't surprise me if the supports were custom-made (hence the initial delay in getting them fabricated). So I expect they'll be around for a while until the issue is known to be resolved. A crane isn't so expensive, compared to your flagship ride being out of action.

BTW, never say to pretty blonde girls that you're here to "ride the golden goddess". I got slapped three times yesterday.🤣
 
lee2804 said:
This has clearly been a major issue. Makes you wonder how safe it was on the opening day as it clearly wouldnt have broke between the close of friday and opening of sat. it would have to have broken while guests were on it.
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Well, it was safe when it opened, but not safe when it closed.....
 
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