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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Itgoeshowhigh said:
Due to the issues with Hyperia, would Mack possibly offer a compensatory deal to Thorpe for a future coaster?
Something like, we’re sorry Hyperia has been a bit problematic, as a goodwill gesture we can offer you 20% off a nice extreme spinner for that field behind swarm.
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Honestly think it's far more likely that the relationship will break down unless it gets sorted.

Who knows whether it's a Mack issue or a Merlin/Thorpe issue but the point is neither come out of it looking good and the likely consequence of that is a reluctance to do business again.

You would hope that something is being done to rectify whatever the issue is now for good but as always seems to be the case with Merlin it's beyond frustrating that they seem to wait until the season starts to do this stuff. I'm no technician so I could be way off with this, but to my untrained eye this ride isn't going down because of the strain of running 8 hour days, it's having an issue, being remedied and then going down again within 30 minutes - surely whatever this problem was could have been identified over the 4 months that the park has been clsoed and ideally been dealt with then? If the issue was so major that it couldn't be dealt with over the winter then at least they can communicate that to the public as they did last year so that people plan accordingly.

I'm meant to be going on Saturday, will probably go anyway as I've not been to Thorpe for 6 years purely because last time I went the 'Merlinasation' made me not want to go back any time soon - for all the stick AT gets on here I think Thorpe really was far worse, at least back then. But anyway they do have good rides and thankfully the reliability of those rides has been much better of late from what I've seen so I'll have a good day with or without Hyperia, albeit I wouldn't have planned the trip were it not for Hyperia.
 
Rob said:
It is somewhat unfortunate that Thorpe seem to have bought the world's most unreliable Mack coaster. You do have to start to wonder whether it is a Mack problem or a Merlin/Thorpe procedural problem.

On the face of it Voltron is far more technically advanced than Hyperia yet usually operates without issue.
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Not a lot of volition was new, just a big combination of them, their lim's have been used for a while, the turntable has been used on powersplash whilst probably a slightly differnt design, it will be similar to the other models.

If the chain lift is a new design (longer and steeper than mack has made) that is a difficult problem to solve and there are quite a few issues that could crop up.

I would guess it may be more likely a Mack rides issue, It is unlikely merlin would have done anything to ruin it yet (as it sounds like a mechanical problem).
Josh555 said:
You would hope that something is being done to rectify whatever the issue is now for good but as always seems to be the case with Merlin it's beyond frustrating that they seem to wait until the season starts to do this stuff.
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I think they thought the issue was solved back when they fixed it.

They can't really start that much earlier as essentially every train for every ride has to be completely disassembled inspected, then reassembled that takes quite a while.
 
flyingguitar said:
I think they thought the issue was solved back when they fixed it.

They can't really start that much earlier as essentially every train for every ride has to be completely disassembled inspected, then reassembled that takes quite a while.
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Surely it would make sense to do all of this 2 weeks before the season starts so that any of these issues are highlighted then?
 
Josh555 said:
Surely it would make sense to do all of this 2 weeks before the season starts so that any of these issues are highlighted then?
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They do, they test the ride for a while to ensure it is good, whilst I am not sure how long they tested hyperia, it was testing weeks before it opened. I also think there are regulations requiring the rides to be run and tested to be certified at the start of the season (although it is a bit fussy due to many sources being American with differnt rules)
 
flyingguitar said:
They do, they test the ride for a while to ensure it is good, whilst I am not sure how long they tested hyperia, it was testing weeks before it opened. I also think there are regulations requiring the rides to be run and tested to be certified at the start of the season (although it is a bit fussy due to many sources being American with differnt rules)
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It just seems incredibly coincidental that the problems kicked in on opening day.

It feels as if they must have been aware of the issue but didn't want to publicise it initially so as not to affect visitor numbers but that is probably just me being sceptical.
 
Josh555 said:
Honestly think it's far more likely that the relationship will break down unless it gets sorted.

Who knows whether it's a Mack issue or a Merlin/Thorpe issue but the point is neither come out of it looking good and the likely consequence of that is a reluctance to do business again.
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I might be wrong, but my gut feeling is that rifts between parks and manufacturers will generally heal over time (maybe after around 15 years or so), because: (A) there aren't many other manufacturers for parks to choose from, (B) there aren't many other parks for manufacturers to choose from, (C) the rift between companies is sometimes down to the managers involved, who will eventually leave said companies, (D) manufacturers will often improve their offering in the meantime, and (E) it may be revealed in the meantime that the other manufacturers aren't much better!

(Regarding points C and D: I remember Alan Sugar stating in his book that Amstrad sued Seagate and Western Digital due to them supplying faulty hard drives for his computers, but yet he ended up using them again for his Sky+ boxes because their technology had improved by then, and the personnel had changed as well.

Also: I remember somebody from Merlin stating that they would never buy another wing coaster due to The Swarm's failure to boost visitor numbers, but another Merlin executive later reversed this decision by buying wing coasters for Heide Park and Chessington)

However: I definitely agree that the issues with Hyperia could strain Merlin's relationship with Mack over the short term, and I would be surprised if the next Merlin rollercoaster is made by Mack (unless it is too late to reverse the decision).
 
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Hyperia was tempremental on passholder day 2 weekends ago, but they were very quick at re-opening it each time. It was the same issue - stopping at the bottom of the lift.

On Saturday, they tried three times to test it and every single time, it stopped at the bottom of the lifthill repeatedly. They were even trying again at half 5.
 
Coaster said:
Hyperia was tempremental on passholder day 2 weekends ago, but they were very quick at re-opening it each time. It was the same issue - stopping at the bottom of the lift.

On Saturday, they tried three times to test it and every single time, it stopped at the bottom of the lifthill repeatedly. They were even trying again at half 5.
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This video suggests that there is a problem with one of the wheels at the base of the lift hill:-


From: https://youtube.com/shorts/VNg1JDNGox8
 
I bet Elon Musk could build a lift hill 😂 Haven't seen a credible reason yet why it should stop each time. Dodgy sensors are easy to fix - dodgy PLC logic not quite so...
 
As above, no issues at all today even though there were high winds (I wouldn't call it high winds, it was more gusty at points) so operations were doing excellent work in getting the dispatches done as quickly as possible. I lucked into a front row seat and had a quick chance to speak with the ride host and she said she was relieved that they had a good fault-free day.

Queued 35 minutes in the single rider queue today but the main queue didn't go above 40 minutes all day. A very quiet one at the park!

Let's hope this week continues like today, with the good weather we're having and no technical issues.
 
Walking Dead can’t be sent with only one person in the row, which is why they were waiting for an odd numbered group to pair you up with.

Edit: the post I was replying to seems to have disappeared(?), so now I look like I am talking to myself.
 
AT86 said:
Walking Dead can’t be sent with only one person in the row, which is why they were waiting for an odd numbered group to pair you up with.

Edit: the post I was replying to seems to have disappeared(?), so now I look like I am talking to myself.
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My post has got a "waiting for moderator approval" at the top - I think it's because I was editing it, to make more sense/fix spelling mistakes. I'm not very good at articulating myself sometimes so when I read it back I think "I'm not making sense to others" haha.

So in that case of Walking Dead - even if I joined the main queue as a solo rider - I just have to accept that I need to wait until an odd numbered group come through? If that's the case, that's good info to know. Walking Dead is alright, it's not one I am overly fussed about so in the future I will give it a miss as a solo rider and go back to somewhere like Saw / The Swarm / Stealth which will take less time to go on.
 
djransome said:
So in that case of Walking Dead - even if I joined the main queue as a solo rider - I just have to accept that I need to wait until an odd numbered group come through? If that's the case, that's good info to know. Walking Dead is alright, it's not one I am overly fussed about so in the future I will give it a miss as a solo rider and go back to somewhere like Saw / The Swarm / Stealth which will take less time to go on.
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That’s right, no matter what queue you would need to be paired up with someone else to get a full row.
 
djransome said:
So in that case of Walking Dead - even if I joined the main queue as a solo rider - I just have to accept that I need to wait until an odd numbered group come through? If that's the case, that's good info to know. Walking Dead is alright, it's not one I am overly fussed about so in the future I will give it a miss as a solo rider and go back to somewhere like Saw / The Swarm / Stealth which will take less time to go on.
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That is true, Walking Dead has a train where the seats don't separate between two people which is why they can't batch a single rider alone.

I'd definitely love Thorpe Park to get Vekoma to bring in a new modernised train with individual seats and lapbars like the modern Vekoma coasters so they can offer better capacity, operations and flexibility with odd number groups.

It can be an awkward ride because of the seats, restraints and the wait for a odd number group to come along (which can be longer than other rides).
 
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