[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

[Smiley]

Completely unacceptable comms. Like, running a theme park is THEIR JOB. I imagine it's as much to do with a strict noise curfew as anything, with a hard 10pm cut-off. But it's not rocket science to communicate it in a simple way, and organise for the strict 10pm to be met without closing the queue so early.

It shows a lack of accountability at Merlin and a lack of focus on the details of customer excellence. Why not keep a 45 min queue open until 9pm (close the FP/RAP queue), and state the ride closes at 10pm sharp and anyone still in the queue at 10pm will get an open FP to ride another time.

Where shall I send the invoice TP?

 

[owenstreet7]

Completely unacceptable comms. Like, running a theme park is THEIR JOB. I imagine it's as much to do with a strict noise curfew as anything, with a hard 10pm cut-off. But it's not rocket science to communicate it in a simple way, and organise for the strict 10pm to be met without closing the queue so early.

It shows a lack of accountability at Merlin and a lack of focus on the details of customer excellence. Why not keep a 45 min queue open until 9pm (close the FP/RAP queue), and state the ride closes at 10pm sharp and anyone still in the queue at 10pm will get an open FP to ride another time.

I understand Hyperia ran until close to midnight on opening day which was what appeared to have caused or contributed to the extended downtime as it ran for 14 hours straight.

I believe Thorpe Park are keen to prevent a repeat of that which is why the queues can close early if needed.

 

[Bowser]

Completely unacceptable comms. Like, running a theme park is THEIR JOB. I imagine it's as much to do with a strict noise curfew as anything, with a hard 10pm cut-off. But it's not rocket science to communicate it in a simple way, and organise for the strict 10pm to be met without closing the queue so early.

It shows a lack of accountability at Merlin and a lack of focus on the details of customer excellence. Why not keep a 45 min queue open until 9pm (close the FP/RAP queue), and state the ride closes at 10pm sharp and anyone still in the queue at 10pm will get an open FP to ride another time.

Where shall I send the invoice TP?

Not notifying some customers that a ride is closing early is unacceptable so instead closing it to disabled customers is the answer? Not sure you've thought this through, your invoice has been returned.

 

[DistortAMG]

Interesting to hear how Coaster Studios seem happy with the length of this ride based on how intense it is. Implying that it is the perfect length given its intensity.

I am intetested to hear @Matt.GC 's thoughts on this.

 

[Islander]

I understand Hyperia ran until close to midnight on opening day which was what appeared to have caused or contributed to the extended downtime as it ran for 14 hours straight.

I believe Thorpe Park are keen to prevent a repeat of that which is why the queues can close early if needed.

I highly doubt the extended downtime right after opening was anything to do with long operating hours.

 

[DistortAMG]

I highly doubt the extended downtime right after opening was anything to do with long operating hours.

I'll second this. These are industrial machines. They could run 24/7 quite easily if enough preventative maintenance was in place.

The extended downtime was teething issues, something almost every coaster gets when it is new.

 

[Smiley]

Not notifying some customers that a ride is closing early is unacceptable so instead closing it to disabled customers is the answer? Not sure you've thought this through, your invoice has been returned.

Not really. You can't accurately manage the queue if you don't know how many FP/RAP might turn up at the last minute. So close all the queues at the same time. You did notice I suggest it was closed to FP also, and of course is communicated to all. If you're doing "queue management" to a specific closing time, you need to accurately manage the queue you have - not extra additions to it. Not sure why this doesn't treat everyone fairly.

 

[Dhev123]

let's hope they don't do this for fright nights

OR

They actually advertise if it will close earlier

 

[The_bup]

let's hope they don't do this for fright nights

OR

They actually advertise if it will close earlier

Well they’ve already advertised Hyperia in the dark, their fate seems to be sealed!

 

[Matt.GC]

I am intetested to hear @Matt.GC 's thoughts on this.

No one wants to hear my thoughts on anything mate . Sometimes I cringe at my my own!

I'm not clued up on my YouTubers, but that's the young American couple with a large following isn't it? So they're used to riding long American coasters and I believe have also ridden DC Rivals, so I understand seeing the merit in their opinion. But don't they also hang around with that over excitable Silverstone guy? The guy who's basically an employee of Thorpe by this point?

If he secured them some sweeteners then I'd doubt they'd want to crap all over Brake Run if Thorpe have been hospitable towards them. Not sure on the context of them making such a statement, but the fact they've even mentioned the length would indicate that they feel it is an issue that needs to be addressed/defended in the first place maybe? Like it's the elephant in the room?

And don't they also think that The Smiler is the best coaster at Towers !?

I'm still really torn on this coaster. I want to love it, In some ways it's everything I want in a coaster and it delivers it's elements exquisitely. But as is the norm with Merlin, there's always massive compromises. I'm just wondering if the compromises they've made with this are that unforgivable. I can't see how anyone can drop from that height, go through those excellent elements so gracefully, only to slam into a rusty midcourse and quickly retreat back to the station, and say with a straight face that this isn't incredibly jarring. It's like driving down an unfinished motorway.

 

[Call_um]

I understand Hyperia ran until close to midnight on opening day which was what appeared to have caused or contributed to the extended downtime as it ran for 14 hours straight.

I believe Thorpe Park are keen to prevent a repeat of that which is why the queues can close early if needed.

It ran no later than 10:30pm on opening day

 

[AT86]

Just saw this photo from theme park guide.

Fair’s fair - this looks much better than opening day.

 

[John]

Sadly the queue line doesn't look like that. Everything they've planted has died, whilst the front of the station is being taken over by weeds

 

[Matt N]

No one wants to hear my thoughts on anything mate . Sometimes I cringe at my my own!

I'm not clued up on my YouTubers, but that's the young American couple with a large following isn't it? So they're used to riding long American coasters and I believe have also ridden DC Rivals, so I understand seeing the merit in their opinion. But don't they also hang around with that over excitable Silverstone guy? The guy who's basically an employee of Thorpe by this point?

If he secured them some sweeteners then I'd doubt they'd want to crap all over Brake Run if Thorpe have been hospitable towards them. Not sure on the context of them making such a statement, but the fact they've even mentioned the length would indicate that they feel it is an issue that needs to be addressed/defended in the first place maybe? Like it's the elephant in the room?

And don't they also think that The Smiler is the best coaster at Towers !?

I'm still really torn on this coaster. I want to love it, In some ways it's everything I want in a coaster and it delivers it's elements exquisitely. But as is the norm with Merlin, there's always massive compromises. I'm just wondering if the compromises they've made with this are that unforgivable. I can't see how anyone can drop from that height, go through those excellent elements so gracefully, only to slam into a rusty midcourse and quickly retreat back to the station, and say with a straight face that this isn't incredibly jarring. It's like driving down an unfinished motorway.

The length thing is an interesting one.

For me, Hyperia’s length did not even register as an issue. You might notice that I didn’t mention the length once in my review of Hyperia last week, and that’s because I genuinely wasn’t at all bothered by it. Then again, I’ve never been bothered by Swarm’s brevity, which I gather you feel similarly about, and Stealth and Oblivion both sit among my top 5 UK coasters, so I’m not personally as bothered by rides being short as a lot of people are as long as the ride delivers well in the time that it has.

Don’t get me wrong, I would probably have rated the ride marginally more highly without the trim brake. For me, it would have been absolute perfection if instead of the trim, the ride had gone into a couple of straight airtime moments before hitting the wrap-up portion of the layout. But for me, it was simply a phenomenally pedantic, hair-splitting niggle that explains why Hyperia is my #5 rather than my #1 as opposed to the unforgivable deal breaker it seems to be for you. I still absolutely adored the ride, and it’s still my favourite UK coaster by a fair margin and in my overall top 5 and 10/10 tier. The length and the trim simply did not register as notable detractors from my experience.

The length did not notably detract from the ride whatsoever for me, and I didn’t personally feel that the ride felt jarring or over too soon. When I was on that coaster, I didn’t even register the length; I purely registered the brilliant sensations I was experiencing. I’m sorry if that makes me too easily pleased or not critical enough, but that was how I genuinely felt in the moment.

 

[rob666]

Well they’ve already advertised Hyperia in the dark, their fate seems to be sealed!

Err...that wouldn't be too hard, by the time the Halloween stuff starts, it will be getting dark at 6pm.

 

[Jb85]

@Matt N just to clarify - the length didn’t matter to you?
You need a word with my wife ;-)

On a serious note, you mention a pedantic niggle but don’t elaborate. What was that niggle?

 

[Matt N]

@Matt N just to clarify - the length didn’t matter to you?
You need a word with my wife ;-)

On a serious note, you mention a pedantic niggle but don’t elaborate. What was that niggle?

Yes, the length didn’t matter to me. The brevity didn’t reduce my enjoyment of the ride whatsoever, and if the length hadn’t been discussed so heavily, I wouldn’t even have thought to mention it.

Perhaps “niggle” was the wrong word; that implies I had a genuine meaningful problem when I didn’t. I was more meaning “pedantic reasons why Hyperia is only my #5 rather than my #1”, and from my review, I had 3. I am really splitting hairs with these rather than suggesting them as genuine niggles or detractors, but I figure that when you’ve got a coaster count of 123 and it’s the top 5 you’re discussing, you can afford to split hairs a little and be a tad pedantic. From my longer review, the pedantic hair-splitting reasons it’s not my #1 are:

If I were to offer up some pedantic hair-splitting critiques that explain why it's not my #1, and why it's not higher than #5:

• The rattle. Hyperia's rattle didn't overly bother me at all, but the coasters above Hyperia have a more perfect blissfully smooth feel to the point where it's almost an active positive attribute in itself.
• The trim. I didn't find it overly uncomfortable, but it is quite noticeable, more so than on Mako and Silver Star, and as I said, it does sort of contort your face a bit from the braking force, which isn't the case on Mako or Silver Star.
• The fact that the ride lacks straight airtime hills. As sublime as Hyperia's sideways and inverted airtime elements are and as plentiful as the sustained weightlessness is, nothing quite beats a good old straight airtime hill for me, and Hyperia does have somewhat of a shortage of traditional straight airtime moments.

I know those are very pedantic points, and pretty much entirely based on personal preference, but when you're talking about the top 5 and determining exact placements, I think I can afford to get pedantic! When the coasters in question are this good, it gets competitive at the top, and I have little choice other than to split hairs!

As I said in that post, these are not legitimate detractors as such, but more pedantry to help me determine its exact ranking and justify why it’s not quite my #1.

Overall, the ride is definitely a 10/10 tier ride for me, and I wouldn’t say there were any legitimate detractors from the ride itself for me, but when I’m talking about my top 5, I have to split hairs a little and be a tad pedantic to justify placements.

 

[MaxPower]

Hyperia felt like half a ride to me on the two occasions I've been on it.

It's very good at what it does do though I'll give it that, just needed some airtime hills to finish it off.

 

[RicketyCricket]

Yes, the length didn’t matter to me. The brevity didn’t reduce my enjoyment of the ride whatsoever, and if the length hadn’t been discussed so heavily, I wouldn’t even have thought to mention it.

Perhaps “niggle” was the wrong word; that implies I had a genuine meaningful problem when I didn’t. I was more meaning “pedantic reasons why Hyperia is only my #5 rather than my #1”, and from my review, I had 3. I am really splitting hairs with these rather than suggesting them as genuine niggles or detractors, but I figure that when you’ve got a coaster count of 123 and it’s the top 5 you’re discussing, you can afford to split hairs a little and be a tad pedantic. From my longer review, the pedantic hair-splitting reasons it’s not my #1 are:

As I said in that post, these are not legitimate detractors as such, but more pedantry to help me determine its exact ranking and justify why it’s not quite my #1.

Overall, the ride is definitely a 10/10 tier ride for me, and I wouldn’t say there were any legitimate detractors from the ride itself for me, but when I’m talking about my top 5, I have to split hairs a little and be a tad pedantic to justify placements.

Sorry to be Peter Pedantic but surely 10/10 is absolute perfection? If there is even the slightest thought of any negatives, it can't be 10/10.

Although by that logic surely there are no 10/10 rides anywhere in the world, even Steel Vengeance (crap RMC restraints).

 

[Matt N]

Sorry to be Peter Pedantic but surely 10/10 is absolute perfection? If there is even the slightest thought of any negatives, it can't be 10/10.

Although by that logic surely there are no 10/10 rides anywhere in the world, even Steel Vengeance (crap RMC restraints).

That’s a fair point!

I score these things on a relative system, so relative to the rest of the coasters in my count, Hyperia is a 10/10 for me. There are no notable niggles or detractors for me, and the points I raised in the quoted post are simply pedantry to explain why it isn’t quite my #1 rather than legitimate negatives, niggles or detractors. I would not call any of those points I raised above notable enough detractors for it to not be in the 10/10 tier. It’s simply that for me to determine ranking placements at all in the top tier, I have to split hairs and be that little bit more pedantic than usual!

As you say, there would be no 10/10 rides anywhere in the world if I were to consider nothing less than absolute perfection a 10/10, as no ride is 100% perfect! Even Mako and VelociCoaster, my top 2 coasters, are not perfect!

If there is a more notable detractor that’s worth commenting on through a non-pedantic lens, that is more likely to make a ride a 9/10 or lower rather than a complete 10, but even then, that perhaps isn’t a perfect rule if the ride does what it does well well enough to really wow me. I base it more on my overall relative sentiment towards the ride rather than a specific empirical rule of positives vs detractors; this is going to sound stupid, but I start by simply asking myself “did I get that 10/10 tier feeling of enjoyment from the ride?”

My rankings don’t quite perfectly follow this rule at the moment, but in general, I try and make the 10/10 tier roughly equal to my top 10% (my 10/10 tier is currently my top 11 coasters out of 123), and the 10/10, 9/10 and 8/10 tiers put together roughly equal to my top 25% (my 10/10, 9/10 and 8/10 tiers put together are currently my top 29 coasters out of 123).