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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

I also tend to find coasters underwhelming when I ride them for the first time. Oblivion grew on me massively after a very disappointing first ride.
I have hope that, whenever I next ride Hyperia, I will be able to appreciate it more, but that depends on the airtime actually having some sort of force (I remember being unsure if I was experiencing airtime on the exit of the Immelmann until my bottom hit the seat), and it also depends on if the zero-g stall decides to do something, rather than doing absolutely nothing.
 
Bowser said:
Seems TP are doing special events on Hyperia... and they are not being well received.


From: https://x.com/DomRants_/status/1809665250964435206
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It’s the usual fan club buyouts, they pay for hire of the ride out of hours but then get upset when the park only makes one train available for their time.

Past couple of events on Hyperia has the same trend, one train and a small % of fan club getting upset and feeling entitled because they paid money.
 
ringo said:
It’s the usual fan club buyouts, they pay for hire of the ride out of hours but then get upset when the park only makes one train available for their time.

Past couple of events on Hyperia has the same trend, one train and a small % of fan club getting upset and feeling entitled because they paid money.
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Well tbf you are entitled if you're paying for something and not getting it. They basically paid £30+ for a semi-fastpass.
 
The_bup said:
£5000 mind you! I’d expect them to roll the red carped and shine my shoes in the queue if I’m paying that much!
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To be fair, the £5,000 is for the whole event and divided between the attendees rather than per attendee, which becomes far less money if you divide the cost among the likely hundreds of attendees these types of events get.
 
Why have any fins at all?? The ride is over, and
Matt N said:
Thorpe Park have now installed wheel heaters in Hyperia’s station:

This is an excellent move, in my view, that should help the ride run more reliably in cold temperatures.
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So why weren't they installed from the outset?? And why is the brake run to the station still so slow? With the amount of computing power /design/simulation available today there must be a problem somewhere....

Very happy they've got the kinks out of it. I think I'll be taking swim goggles and a balaclava in case it rains - should make for an interesting ride photo 😁
 
Bowser said:
Seems TP are doing special events on Hyperia... and they are not being well received.


From: https://x.com/DomRants_/status/1809665250964435206
Click to expand...

The problem with this one, which was the RCCGB event, is we didn't get the promised first ride of the day on Hyperia (as it opened somewhere after 2pm), but also that it was running on two trains from when it did open, all the way to 7pm where they then used the first 22 minutes of the ERT to take a train off and send the remaining train round a few times empty. Had they kept both trains on they could have just continued operations by loading the train after clearing the queue with our group and run it 7pm-8pm.

The price (excluding park entry) was £29 per person, approx 250 people. Not sure if this is a Merlin thing or a Thorpe thing as typically an ERT on, say, Wickerman, will run 3 trains.
 
Katy said:
The problem with this one, which was the RCCGB event, is we didn't get the promised first ride of the day on Hyperia (as it opened somewhere after 2pm), but also that it was running on two trains from when it did open, all the way to 7pm where they then used the first 22 minutes of the ERT to take a train off and send the remaining train round a few times empty. Had they kept both trains on they could have just continued operations by loading the train after clearing the queue with our group and run it 7pm-8pm.

The price (excluding park entry) was £29 per person, approx 250 people. Not sure if this is a Merlin thing or a Thorpe thing as typically an ERT on, say, Wickerman, will run 3 trains.
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250 people, £29 a ticket = £7,250.

£7,250 for 38 minutes of run time = £190 per minute.

748 pph on a two train run on Friday, let's half it for one train 374 pph. Capacity for the 38 minutes is roughly 236, which equates to 0.9 rides per person.

If the event was run, as promised, you'd roughly have 3 rides each (assuming average throughput and two trains). The fact that you ended up with 0.9, so someone's definitely missed out on a ride, is a bit appalling. It's not entitlement, the basic offering isn't being provided. Unlike park entry, where rides aren't guaranteed, this event is specifically for 1 hour of Hyperia extra ride time; there's not really much of a get out for that one, beyond unexpected service issues but then a like for like replacement ought to be provided, or refunds.

A single shot Hyperia Fastrack is £20, for comparison.

This most certainly comes across as a Thorpe thing, rather than a Merlin one, but the important question is just why? They've been making efforts and strives to appeal to their fanbase, and win over cold hearts and critics, what is the point in offering a lacklustre service? Is it because it's a book out, rather than an official Thorpe organised event, perhaps? I hope RCCGB are looking through their service agreement / booking agreement for the event and that there's some respite for them.
 
Katy said:
it was running on two trains from when it did open, all the way to 7pm where they then used the first 22 minutes of the ERT to take a train off and send the remaining train round a few times empty.
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Eating into the time people have paid for to remove a train is even more galling. Surely there's a valid reason for doing so?
 
It's not a great look, and I would like to think that the park would have given a partial refund for the time that Hyperia was not available. If an hours worth of ERT is paid for then that is what should be given, and if it took 22 minutes to take a train off then the hour should have begun from after that point.

Not ideal that it operates on one train for these ERT sessions either, but seems to be the way Thorpe want to go about it, probably so that the second train can go through standard maintenance checks etc.
 
Popped down to Thorpe today as I'm working in the areas and wanted to try Hyperia and the rides my family won't do.
It was my first coaster visit since 2014, I popped in last year with the kids on the way past but biggest rides were stormsurge and rapids.

Absolutely packed but it was mostly school groups who were put through a separate security entrance which looked manic.
I was very lucky with queues:
Hyperia - single rider 20 mins - main queue was 55
Ghost Train - 10 mins (advertised at 30)
Walking Dead - First train after reopening, hung around for 5 minutes as I suspected it was opening.
Swarm - 30 mins (as advertised)

Anyway Hyperia; yeah the area looks a bit naff but it's tiny anyway and after heading straight there through the park entrance temporary cattle pens and through the dome leisure centre I can't say I really noticed. Once they can remove the temporary fences and give the mud areas chance to grow back it will be "fine" not great but "fine".

The ride itself I thought was brilliant, I was in row 3 so maybe dampened but I didn't experience any real rattle, far less than my 3 rides on Nemesis: Reborn at least. The trims at the non-working water splash were the only downside as they felt quite abrupt, it may visually make sense if the water was on though I guess and make it feel like a real splashdown. The amount of time spent out your seat is excellent. Unusual for me to want to lap a coaster (traditionally a dark ride fan) but was going to head straight back into the queue on this unfortunately by the time I came off the SR had doubled in length and the main queue was 70 mins and I'm not standing that long by myself 😂
 
I am heading to Thorpe park in a couple of weeks, not been Thorpe Park in over 12 years. Would you recomend heading to hyperia first thing? or heading there later in the day?
 
Bowser said:
That image is altered, the original is in the replies.

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The original photo that you've posted is rather washed out. DigitalDan has altered the image, increasing the saturation and contrast, for his tweet. He doesn't appear to have done any further colour correction or alteration, the white balance remains the same. In real life it looks a mix between the two, but it is noticeable, especially so on the brake run.

Poor show though not to explain that the photo has been altered.

Edit: Actually, the "original" photo you've posted is a different photo entirely. It's taken from a similar, but different, angle and is much further zoomed in. It also doesn't appear in the replies for me, could you post a link to the post / embed it?
 
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