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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

The problem with a soft opening is that it suggests they are not confident about further issues arising. If it borks even with a soft opening, the damage is still done as the media will be all over it. Plus it will seriously **** off all those that were planning to ride it on opening - your die-hard guests!

Do something "wild" like "fast-er pass" if they are wearing a coaster-related T-shirt/hat or some silly gimmic. The hype was created for coaster enthusiasts, and coaster enthusiasts re-created/replicated that hype. Reward them.
 
What I’d say to that, though, is that the big “opening” was on 24th May, which would in theory negate the need to do a further big, hyped up opening. If the opening has already happened, why do they need to do another one?
 
From a purely crowd management perspective, you can't just unexpectedly open the ride in the middle of the day, there would be a stampede.

Thorpe have managed the Hyperia crowds extremely well up until now, but it relies on being able to funnel people through security and the extended queue, which I think can only be done safely at the start of the day.

I hope they do get it open before the weekend, bar any further technical issues there seem to be no compelling reasons to delay, but I am sure it will be planned very carefully. Wouldn't be surprised if Friday or Saturday is selected as the "relaunch" date with a couple of days' advance notice.
 
Smiley said:
The problem with a soft opening is that it suggests they are not confident about further issues arising. If it borks even with a soft opening, the damage is still done as the media will be all over it. Plus it will seriously **** off all those that were planning to ride it on opening - your die-hard guests!

Do something "wild" like "fast-er pass" if they are wearing a coaster-related T-shirt/hat or some silly gimmic. The hype was created for coaster enthusiasts, and coaster enthusiasts re-created/replicated that hype. Reward them.
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It won't be a soft opening as such. Soft openings are periods whereby a ride is not officially open, but may operate for part or all of a day as part a day before a full opening. This gives a park time to work on finishing touches and refine operations.

For Hyperia, they can just open it when it is ready. Sure it is new, and there is a lot of hype, but when any other coaster is down for a period of time you would not expect a park to announce the re-opening date.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
From a purely crowd management perspective, you can't just unexpectedly open the ride in the middle of the day, there would be a stampede.

Thorpe have managed the Hyperia crowds extremely well up until now, but it relies on being able to funnel people through security and the extended queue, which I think can only be done safely at the start of the day.

I hope they do get it open before the weekend, bar any further technical issues there seem to be no compelling reasons to delay, but I am sure it will be planned very carefully. Wouldn't be surprised if Friday or Saturday is selected as the "relaunch" date with a couple of days' advance notice.
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As opposed to telling people to book in the masses on a saturday creating another opening day 4-6 hour queue?

id say its far more sensible to do a midday rope drop and allow the lucky guests and the lingering thoosies (there was a lot on friday and saturday. me included) to have there fun on it.

announcing another opening date to me would only put more pressure on the park and hyperia to be open all day. any downtime or an early close etc would only result in bad press again.

just let the ride organically open. the influx of guest prebooks will flow naturally then instead of hysteria (maybe it should be called that )
 
It's worth noting that the current Shark Cabins Fastrack offer expires after today;

1718023816675.png

Only reason I can think of for them ending that offer on a day like this is they are anticipating being able to offer Hypera Fastrack again, which, coupled with the recent testing, could possibly indicate that they're expecting Hypera to reopen sometime this week (maybe even as early as tomorrow). We'll have to wait and see though of course.
 
A soft opening is nuts, and is a slap in the face to anyone who planned to visit in the first week.

Get some social media ju-ju on the go. "Fast-er pass" for anyone that:
- wears coaster branding
- can show a post on any coaster forum (before announced)
- photos of people riding/in front of coasters
- etc, etc.

This IS still a good marketing opportunity - to reward coaster enthusiasts.
 
Any time they reopen it will upset those who planned visits from the 25th onwards.

I've still had no contact from their GS regarding my complaint on the handling of the closure in the first place.
 
Smiley said:
A soft opening is nuts, and is a slap in the face to anyone who planned to visit in the first week.

Get some social media ju-ju on the go. "Fast-er pass" for anyone that:
- wears coaster branding
- can show a post on any coaster forum (before announced)
- photos of people riding/in front of coasters
- etc, etc.

This IS still a good marketing opportunity - to reward coaster enthusiasts.
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Thoosies are about 0.1% of their customer base.
The ride has officially opened, so why bother with anything else?
It would simply draw more attention to the closure.
 
[insert looks slow joke here].

In relation to the re-opening, just mirror The Smiler's opening day. Open around midday with no prior announcement, and then confirm on the website and social media. I doubt there will be an on park stampede to contend with, and just abide by their queuing system which was in place from opening day. The less fuss the better really.
 
Smiley said:
A soft opening is nuts, and is a slap in the face to anyone who planned to visit in the first week.

Get some social media ju-ju on the go. "Fast-er pass" for anyone that:
- wears coaster branding
- can show a post on any coaster forum (before announced)
- photos of people riding/in front of coasters
- etc, etc.

This IS still a good marketing opportunity - to reward coaster enthusiasts.
Click to expand...
If the official opening day hadn't happened, then yes. But it has, as has the press night. It's now down for technical reasons and will re-open at the earliest possible opportunity. They may or may not announce it beforehand. If they do announce it beforehand, it is going to be a pretty last minute announcement, so chances are a lot of people who were meant to be there over the opening week will not either be able or even want to change their plans to go!

And Thorpe Park are not going to leave it closed for another week just so they can make an announcement and allow people to make plans to visit.

It won't be a soft opening. It will just open when it is able to open. That could be 4pm today, it could be 10am tomorrow, it could be 12pm on Wednesday. Who knows!
Manchester1894 said:
Woah.. that outerbank turn 🤯
From: https://x.com/Reaquire/status/1800146153570517073?t=yR9VsBMPhWwuMnPcfGg7Kw&s=19
Click to expand...

Would have really compounded their misery if it stalled! All the more reason for not announcing when it will re-open, something could still go wrong between the announcement and it opening.
 
I sat and watched it test for a few minutes while eating lunch, and the thing that struck me is just how much difference the presence of mass in the train seems to make to the speed it takes the elements at. The ride was quite noticeably slower with an empty train than with a filled one, I noticed.

They’ve also done some tests with the ride starting from a dead stop at the top of the lift hill. Some of those with an empty train were quite agonising to watch!

I should say that it has been quite windy today on and off. It also hasn’t been the warmest either.
 
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