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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Matt N said:
I start by simply asking myself “did I get that 10/10 tier feeling of enjoyment from the ride?”
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Yep totally get that, that's all that matters really isn't it.

rob666 said:
Now Peter, come on, there is that beautiful thing called rounding...perfectly legitimate.
Out of a hundred say, the few minor niggles could be counted as a point loss each, so 97/100...but going to the nearest whole number for clarity, that would remain a 10/10 ride without any genuine concern.

Meaninglessly score your meaningless credit records as you like Matt.
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/100 is a much better system tbf.

Hyperia for example...

Drop 9.5/10
Airtime 8/10
Hangtime 9.5/10
Intensity 8/10
Speed 7/10
Comfort 9/10
Smoothness 7/10
Inversions 8/10
Length 4/10
Rerideability 9/10

Overall - 79/100

It's been a slow day at work.
 
".../100 is a much better system tbf..."
Every opinion is sacred.
No it isn't.
/10 is simpler, and fairer, more inclusive method of grading for the less numerate.

Very wet day for a gardener...

Oh, and don't mix fractions and decimals...9.5/10 indeed, stick to one or the other...do you mean 19/20.
 
To be honest, I don’t personally score these things empirically in that category-by-category way; I assess it primarily by sentiment and how much I enjoyed the ride rather than in terms of categories. There are coasters in my 10/10 tier that would score quite poorly in a category-by-category scoring system like that, but I rate them highly because of just how much fun they are and how much I enjoy them; my sentiment towards them is overwhelmingly positive.

I initially think to myself something along the lines of “was that a 10/10 tier level of enjoyment, or was it only a 9?”. To determine exact ranking within a tier, I might then think through more specific aspects of the ride, but determination of the actual out of 10 rating tier is based on my sentiment towards it and my pure level of enjoyment rather than any empirical scoreable factors. I can quantify specific reasons why I enjoyed a coaster as much or as little as I did, which helps determine the tier, but I mainly base it on pure sentiment and enjoyment level. Some might think it’s arbitrary, but I find it a useful starting point that helps me to rank things. The out of 10 rating system also provides prime opportunities to empirically compare parks’ coaster lineups and such like for like and properly delve into the stats!

Of course, there are rides in each tier that are more strong within that tier than others, or else the whole principle of me ranking things falls flat on its face. Hyperia at #5, for example, is a stronger and more secure 10/10 than Icon at #11. The rides within a tier will not necessarily be at exactly the same level, but I find them broadly on a similar level of quality and enjoyment as each other. I guess I could probably get more granular with the tiers and split them into “sub-tiers”, if you will, but I’ve never bothered with that, personally.

I’m conscious that we’re getting a bit off-topic, so I guess I should draw the line there…
 
I haven't ridden it yet (except virtually) and already disappointed by the length 😁 it's amazing how much track you can fit into small spaces, and Hyperia seems to have plenty of space. Don't really see a point in scrubbing all that energy off at the end. Put in a high-G flat 360 or something (a la Goliath/Swarm) or some air-time combined with the trim.
 
Firstly, this is my first post as a new member. Secondly, as will become very obvious why, I need to point out that I do not work for Merlin. Also, anyone that knows me personally, will be very aware I am NO NO fan of Merlin, either. Disclaimer over, reason will be obvious.

I found this website a few months back, whilst looking for RELIABLE information on Hyperia, and its teething issues. I found the site very informative, with a wealth of information on Hyperia and "Merlin" attractions in general.

A few days back, a rather "heated" discussion of Hyperia "closing early" last Saturday took place on here, when the park was open until 9pm. For the reasons above, I just felt compelled to post. As there is another late night this Saturday, and as we approach the darker nights, I feel it is important that sites such as this are there to provide reliable information to others. It certainly did that for me, with Hyperia, and more recently Wicker Man, and the likely availability of rides.

I am deliberately not going to quote any single post, as that would not be fair, and make the my point far too personal focusing on one individual. Instead just want to be very clear on the facts. I was there last Saturday. Was in the queue line at 20:20 when the announcement was made that the queue line was going to close. Firstly, the queue line closed, and not the ride. In fact, at about 21:15, as in 15 minutes after the park closed, Hyperia was still running, providing rides to the people already in the queue line. Secondly, the availability page, via both the app and the website, makes it quite clear, and has done so for circa 2 months, that the queue line could close prior to the park - its very clear. In fact its even in the blurb, right at the very top, about the ride inside the app., heading "queue information".

The comments about lies, closing of ride, etc were at odds with the reality on the night.

I make the above points because I found this site a brilliant source of information. Therefore mis-information can be unhelpful at best. For the benefit of people going this Saturday, and when the nights get darker, the ride will run after the park closes (subject to faults obviously), and based on last Saturday will NOT close early. However, as is well known, and transparent, the queue line may close earlier, depending on how busy the ride is. So if you want to ride in the dark, take note of the queue line warning, and ensure you are in the queue at the right time. The ride will run upto and beyond 9pm, but make sure your in the queue well before that time.

The danger of the mis-information is people may decide NOT to go this Saturday, as they could believe, wrongly, that the ride will just close early, and Merlin lie about the opening times. They will then be deprived of a truly oustanding experience of riding Hyperia in the dark. As darkness does not fall until after 8pm, potential visitors could feel there is no point, as the ride just gets closed early - NOT true - the queue line MAY close earlier than the park.

Final point, the local council and Thore Park have licencing agreements, coverning opening times and special late night events. This is for the benefit of local residents. One major reason the queue line has to close before the park closes, is to ensure, like a pub, the spirit of the local licence terms are complied with.
 
Thorpe's curfew is 11pm. Would be surprised if they had 2 hours worth of queue given most people who visited agree the place wasn't particularly busy.

Not a fan of the whole "the ride was open, only the queue closed" argument. Merlin do like to pride themselves on the "the queues close at X hour but the rides keep going until everyone in the queue has ridden" after all.

The vagueness of "may close early" doesn't help when combined with the poor communication. If you're going to openly publicise the queue will close only to the nearby area its unfair on those elsewhere in the park no? And as stated is at odds with the heavily marketed push they were doing for night rides on it.
 
Benzin said:
The vagueness of "may close early" doesn't help when combined with the poor communication. If you're going to openly publicise the queue will close only to the nearby area its unfair on those elsewhere in the park no? And as stated is at odds with the heavily marketed push they were doing for night rides on it.
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That would result in a potential stampede though if everyone in the park was told that the queue was closing early with just 5 minutes notice.
 
Skyscraper said:
That would result in a potential stampede though if everyone in the park was told that the queue was closing early with just 5 minutes notice.
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Then give more notice.

If the ride closed at 21.15 having closed the queue at 20.30 then there wasn't that much queue to run off. They could have either stuck to the published 21.00 close for all rides, or stated that "queues will close at 21.00 with the exception of Hyperia which closes at 20.30". Putting that out with the park hours and queue times would have ensured everyone had the information early enough. If the queue was short they could have then kept it open later
 
Benzin said:
Thorpe's curfew is 11pm. Would be surprised if they had 2 hours worth of queue given most people who visited agree the place wasn't particularly busy.

Not a fan of the whole "the ride was open, only the queue closed" argument. Merlin do like to pride themselves on the "the queues close at X hour but the rides keep going until everyone in the queue has ridden" after all.

The vagueness of "may close early" doesn't help when combined with the poor communication. If you're going to openly publicise the queue will close only to the nearby area its unfair on those elsewhere in the park no? And as stated is at odds with the heavily marketed push they were doing for night rides on it.
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Is the 11pm curfew a relatively new thing? When FN were open until 10pm, was the curfew after 11pm or 11pm on the dot?
 
I never said it closed at 21:15. I said I noticed it was still running at that time, after the park closing time. For all I know it could have been open for a long time afterwards; it was simply an observation in time.

They did indeed publish the "fact" the queue would close early, in the app availability, on the web availability and in the actual blurb on the ride info inside the app. Its just dynamic based on demand and total people who are in the queue.

Public houses are subject to similar dynamics, with last orders being called on the basis of how busy the venue is. Would not go down too well with local licencing or the police, if last orders were called 1 minute before closing with the place packed out. Followed by the packed venue serving drinks for an hour or two, with the excuse we were very busy, it took ages to serve the queue.

In practice a significant number of visitors could join the queue at circa 20:55, and also have people rejoin run from exit back to entrance, making the final queue time very long. Not really fair on local residents, who by the spirit, expect the park to wind down in a reasonable time after published 9pm closing time.

For people visiting this Saturday the distinction between queue close and ride close is very important - it is not academic or marketing hype, it is very real. For those visitors, in real life they need to know to join the queue line in plenty of time, or they will miss out on the chance to ride in the dark.
 
In my humble opinion, this is all a little over the top.

Theme park shuts ride queue half an hour early.
Nobody really cares apart from a couple of dozen individuals, the majority of whom weren't on the actual park at the time.
Precious thoosie vapours at their finest.
Any ride closing time is never very important, in the great scheme of things...missing a ride in the dark...try again another time...jeez, how many evenings on the Beach have we been spited on the Big One for one reason or another.
Stuff happens.
That is life.
 
Rode Hyperia for the first time yesterday. I’m still buzzing my moobs off how good it was. Twice, front then back. The back…WTF!!! Short ride yes, but packs a punch. Could sit on it all day. The soundtrack brought a tear to my eye, stood underneath it.
 
PJUK said:
Firstly, this is my first post as a new member. Secondly, as will become very obvious why, I need to point out that I do not work for Merlin. Also, anyone that knows me personally, will be very aware I am NO NO fan of Merlin, either. Disclaimer over, reason will be obvious.

I found this website a few months back, whilst looking for RELIABLE information on Hyperia, and its teething issues. I found the site very informative, with a wealth of information on Hyperia and "Merlin" attractions in general.

A few days back, a rather "heated" discussion of Hyperia "closing early" last Saturday took place on here, when the park was open until 9pm. For the reasons above, I just felt compelled to post. As there is another late night this Saturday, and as we approach the darker nights, I feel it is important that sites such as this are there to provide reliable information to others. It certainly did that for me, with Hyperia, and more recently Wicker Man, and the likely availability of rides.

I am deliberately not going to quote any single post, as that would not be fair, and make the my point far too personal focusing on one individual. Instead just want to be very clear on the facts. I was there last Saturday. Was in the queue line at 20:20 when the announcement was made that the queue line was going to close. Firstly, the queue line closed, and not the ride. In fact, at about 21:15, as in 15 minutes after the park closed, Hyperia was still running, providing rides to the people already in the queue line. Secondly, the availability page, via both the app and the website, makes it quite clear, and has done so for circa 2 months, that the queue line could close prior to the park - its very clear. In fact its even in the blurb, right at the very top, about the ride inside the app., heading "queue information".

The comments about lies, closing of ride, etc were at odds with the reality on the night.

I make the above points because I found this site a brilliant source of information. Therefore mis-information can be unhelpful at best. For the benefit of people going this Saturday, and when the nights get darker, the ride will run after the park closes (subject to faults obviously), and based on last Saturday will NOT close early. However, as is well known, and transparent, the queue line may close earlier, depending on how busy the ride is. So if you want to ride in the dark, take note of the queue line warning, and ensure you are in the queue at the right time. The ride will run upto and beyond 9pm, but make sure your in the queue well before that time.

The danger of the mis-information is people may decide NOT to go this Saturday, as they could believe, wrongly, that the ride will just close early, and Merlin lie about the opening times. They will then be deprived of a truly oustanding experience of riding Hyperia in the dark. As darkness does not fall until after 8pm, potential visitors could feel there is no point, as the ride just gets closed early - NOT true - the queue line MAY close earlier than the park.

Final point, the local council and Thore Park have licencing agreements, coverning opening times and special late night events. This is for the benefit of local residents. One major reason the queue line has to close before the park closes, is to ensure, like a pub, the spirit of the local licence terms are complied with.
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Misinformation?

1. Thorpe confirmed on their official social media that the ride would be open until 9pm.

2. Thorpe closed the queue at half past 8, giving just 10 minutes notice to people already in the area. Anyone else had no way of knowing.

It really is that simple; whether you deem that acceptable or not is a whole different discussion, but it's not "misinformation" to accurately state what happened on the day.
 
To be fair, Thorpe Park does still warn in a number of places that they may close the queue line early, so it’s not like the park has not warned people about this possibility.

Admittedly, they maybe shouldn’t have declared on social media that the queue line was open until 9pm if that was the case, but I think that was just miscommunication rather than blatant lying as some have accused them of.

The park did not close the ride without warning; they still warn about potentially closing the queue line early, so that should be taken into account, in my opinion.
 
Matt N said:
To be fair, Thorpe Park does still warn in a number of places that they may close the queue line early, so it’s not like the park has not warned people about this possibility.

Admittedly, they maybe shouldn’t have declared on social media that the queue line was open until 9pm if that was the case, but I think that was just miscommunication rather than blatant lying as some have accused them of.

The park did not close the ride without warning; they still warn about potentially closing the queue line early, so that should be taken into account, in my opinion.
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That's my point though; if there's conflicting information in different places, but both are coming from the park's official channels, then there is very clearly a problem with communication.
 
There is very clearly an issue with overreaction.
How many people are actually making a fuss about this?
Very few.
Sense of proportion required here for a queueline that shut half an hour early, when (we presume) all the other rides were still open.
Big high new ride, special rules apply, for all sorts of reasons, as with every new ride, for the first season or two.
Terms and conditions.
Warnings from the start of the season.
Issues from first opening.
It happens.
Often.
Suck it up.
Or find a more reliable hobby.
This is meant to be fun.
 
PJUK said:
Public houses are subject to similar dynamics, with last orders being called on the basis of how busy the venue is. Would not go down too well with local licencing or the police, if last orders were called 1 minute before closing with the place packed out. Followed by the packed venue serving drinks for an hour or two, with the excuse we were very busy, it took ages to serve the queue.
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That's not quite how the licencing act works. Your licenced hours are those in which you have to operate and sell alcohol. If your licence says you can serve until 23:00 and you're still selling alcohol at 23:01 you've broken your licence.

The amount of time given for "drinking up" varies depending on the licence given to the premises. Some specify how long customers can stay after the final sale of alcohol, some don't (leaving it up to the licencee's discretion.

Similar practices happen with temporary event licensing. Some licenses will state how long the venue / event has to close / get people out after the event has ended, some won't.

In practice, many licensed premises have longer permitted hours to serve than they advertise. Your local pub is most likely licenced until 00:00, but will still call last orders just before 23:00. This gives the pub the ability to serve those few extra stragglers just past 23:00, and not break the law, and gives ample drinking up time.

I'm unaware of the particular conditions on the license held by Thorpe Park, but it is a public record which can be requested from Runnymede council. - https://www.runnymede.gov.uk/entertainment-licenses/premises-licences-certificates
 
rob666 said:
There is very clearly an issue with overreaction.
How many people are actually making a fuss about this?
Very few.
Sense of proportion required here for a queueline that shut half an hour early, when (we presume) all the other rides were still open.
Big high new ride, special rules apply, for all sorts of reasons, as with every new ride, for the first season or two.
Terms and conditions.
Warnings from the start of the season.
Issues from first opening.
It happens.
Often.
Suck it up.
Or find a more reliable hobby.
This is meant to be fun.
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Huge numbers of people arrived to the area after 8:30pm, only to be turned away. If communication could be improved and a better last impression left, why not do it? This is a new policy for Thorpe, and has never happened before even with new coasters.

T&C's cover a park legally but they don't determine whether something is good or poor customer experience. If you're happy accepting mediocrity from a billionaire corporation then that's fair enough, but don't tell me how to react.
 
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