Changa
Mega Poster
Having thankfully held out on the 13th despite thinking we would be snubbed by the Hyperia closure. We managed to go on seemingly the quietest day of the summer and maged to comfortably get two rides on the 6 hour behemoth, while having time to circle through the rest of the park!
Apologies in advance if my tired ramblings make for a difficult read. This might have been the best day that I've ever had at Thorpe park for lots of reasons. But there no single reason that I've anticipated more than...
- Hyperia - 9/10
Good god, that's a good ride. The twelve years of waiting for a new major attraction (ghost train was just a major blunder), and three years of exponential hype & speculation had put Hyperia in a position that could only lead to disappointment after finally getting a ride on it. Instead, we were treated to a greatest hits compilation of modern ride elements that catches the UK up to what the rest of the world has been up to since The Swarm. The big four elements hit so hard that it's enough to feel like a full package despite the short length.
I managed two rides on either side of the 2nd to back row. Starting with the pointless outer bank turn before the (its ultimately harmless but I think a flat turn would have been better to build anticipation) and a very fast lift with surreal views of the rest of the park below you as you climb to seemingly comical heights.
The first drop was just as insane as I had hoped, and possibly the best drop I've ever experienced. The typical whip over the top blended so nicely into the whip from the twist that the ejector airtime never seemed to end. Being pressed upwards into the lapbar for several seconds, while facing straight down at the ground, while darting between a spiders web of supports, with no sight of the track pulling up because it is somehow beneath your feet?! It's such a sensory overload of danger signals that it made me feel genuine fear on both rides.
Slamming into the pull up gave little respite as you are hammered with constant strong positives as the ground starts to roll into the sky again. The barrage of support near-misses almost get lost in the mix of other sensations when they'd be a ride highlight for something like the swarm. The top of the immelman is the first point where the ride slows for a second and you can take in what the hell just happened. Not to say that it's a bad element, the following drop down and pull up offer exemplary ejector negatives and crushing positives. But I appreciate that they could have probably squeezed an inversion here but allowed for just a small moment of normalcy between two drawn out periods of insanity.
The outer bank roll ended up being much tamer than I had expected regarding the negative forces but still competes with the first drop as one of the best ever elements on a ride. As, instead of the raw ejector of something like untameds wacky outer bank turn, the outer bank roll feels like one continuous airtime hill between floater and ejector, moreso like you are falling out of your seat and should be plummeting to the ground again. The length at which it sustains this constant feeling seems to be eternal and completely unnatural. While the rolling to -90° then into the downward barrel roll is achieved so gracefully that you don't feel the rotation. You just see the horizon become vertical then start to spin, all while you are falling "downwards"? Its an incredibly surreal, scary yet graceful element to experience and an example of absolutely outstanding profiling.
The stall has less to say about it as it's a much more straightforward element comparatively, it's very nicely profiled to give mild hangtime. You have an amazing view above you of the ground below (another surreal experience) helped by the lack of supports underneath the track for its length, and it goes on for ages. This is the only stall it have tried so I can't compare the dive loop to a twist out, but I adored the plunge into the splashdown. It seemingly extended the stall while giving it a very satisfying finale.
The splashdown was my one dud point for the ride as, while I don't mind the length at all, feeling how hard the trim hits does sap a lot of the energy out of the ride. I usually barely notice when trims hit but this felt like a bit of a short-changing when they could have just had two larger events going into a brake run and kept the duration (though that would have obviously cost more).
The lady two elements are good fun and provide more graceful ejector airtime. They're exactly what you'd expect to see and provide an enjoyable, comfortable end to the ride.
The ride area looks pretty dire at the moment. The developed areas look lovely, as the black and gold structured with tan/wooden backgrounds all looking very pleasing to the eye and feeling very contemporary. However the ride area looks like ana abandoned demolition site. It desperately needs the planted foliage to take hold, and cover the nasty edges of construction, while the lakes are looking like stagnant puddles of industrial discharge. This will undoubtedly improve by itself as the planted saplings grow into place, so it's not worth holding a grudge against, but it was quite a bizarre contrast when they invested so much in the ride but skimmed on a days worth of turf laying for the sake of the first impression.
Aside from the ride, the queue experience was a very pleasant surprise. While the queue is comprised of nothing but switchbacks, the presentation was much more pleasant than something like the swarm or the smiler. The high fencing was only for the last quarter of the queue and replaced the snickers low caged ceilings with fabric nets which were much more pleasant to be contained within. They've put a lot of thought into making the queue feel accommodating and have achieved a much more comfortable environment than the dreaded smiler queue. It also helps that we were constantly shuffling forward and never in one place for more than a minute or so. Which also made the hour long queue much easier to get through. This is also to the credit of the rides bulletproof reliability (queue times reported a 100% uptime for today) and amazing work of the op team. Their efficiency was incredibly impressive and they maintained it throughout the whole day while remaining very polite and enthusiastic. The only thing holding back the throughput is that the trains take ages to get through the fixed section of the brake run similarly to TTD, seemingly the only mechanical flaw left in the ride now that it's back up and running. As for smoothness, there was a bit of noticeable shuffling during the stall, but only because you could sort of get your bearings at that point. There were no issues with the trains that I could perceive amongst the relentless intensity, and the track profiling is nothing short of perfect.
Despite a couple of small flaws, this is a comfy top 10 for me, with at least two of my favourite ever elements on a ride. This is easily the best ride in the country and is an impressive statement for Thorpe Park and privately-owned Merlin to have made. I can't wait to see how Pleasure Beach are planning to top that (that petty van surely wasn't an empty promise, right?)
- Stealth - 9/10
The station repaint is a welcome change that, combined with it's towering neighbour, has softened the rides fear factor slightly when queueing. That impression ends the second the launch kicks in, as the ride experience is just as great as ever. With the added benefit of it being noticeably reliable all day (queue times reported a 95% uptime). Maybe, after all of these years, Intamin has finally wrong out all of the kinks on the hydraulic launch?
- Swarm - 7/10
This was probably the favourite of the day between us all. We were fortunate to only queue maybe 5 minutes for it and managed a back-row ride. It was smooth, graceful and forceful, and the dense foliage growth around the island has served to improve the apocalyptic theming. All in all, it's a great ride that always pleasantly surprises me, even though it's length rarely justifies it's queue.
- Rush - 7/10
Having also benefitted from the mass repainting, rush is looking as good as new! The feeling of weightlessness is still excellent, the tiny restraints never fail to scare us when facing straight down at the pavement, and the power of the air system is wonderful. However, the ride cycle has been wittled down to one full swing before cycling back down, which just doesn't feel like enough to justify waiting for too often.
- Colossus - 4/10
It's probably been 5 years done I've been on Colossus die to it endlessly breaking down or having a 70+ minute wait. It's repaint has been long overdue and hugely beneficial to that whole section of the park. The unpainted sections stick out like a sore thumb at the moment, so hopefully these will be covered in the next phase of the great repaint.
As for the ride experience? It's still very rough and very uncomfortable. The track works in the first half is reminiscent of the worst parts of the smiler, while even the smooth barrel rolls at the end are made uncomfortable by the otsrs. Modern trains would certainly help the experience, but I don't think the ride works be fully comfortable without a retrack as well. As since I'd rise transitions without the upset body support could cause some serious discomfort. If they did, I would fully support it, as the layout itself is pretty great in my opinion. Even if the 5 barrel rolls in a row are a bit daft.
Apologies in advance if my tired ramblings make for a difficult read. This might have been the best day that I've ever had at Thorpe park for lots of reasons. But there no single reason that I've anticipated more than...
- Hyperia - 9/10
Good god, that's a good ride. The twelve years of waiting for a new major attraction (ghost train was just a major blunder), and three years of exponential hype & speculation had put Hyperia in a position that could only lead to disappointment after finally getting a ride on it. Instead, we were treated to a greatest hits compilation of modern ride elements that catches the UK up to what the rest of the world has been up to since The Swarm. The big four elements hit so hard that it's enough to feel like a full package despite the short length.
I managed two rides on either side of the 2nd to back row. Starting with the pointless outer bank turn before the (its ultimately harmless but I think a flat turn would have been better to build anticipation) and a very fast lift with surreal views of the rest of the park below you as you climb to seemingly comical heights.
The first drop was just as insane as I had hoped, and possibly the best drop I've ever experienced. The typical whip over the top blended so nicely into the whip from the twist that the ejector airtime never seemed to end. Being pressed upwards into the lapbar for several seconds, while facing straight down at the ground, while darting between a spiders web of supports, with no sight of the track pulling up because it is somehow beneath your feet?! It's such a sensory overload of danger signals that it made me feel genuine fear on both rides.
Slamming into the pull up gave little respite as you are hammered with constant strong positives as the ground starts to roll into the sky again. The barrage of support near-misses almost get lost in the mix of other sensations when they'd be a ride highlight for something like the swarm. The top of the immelman is the first point where the ride slows for a second and you can take in what the hell just happened. Not to say that it's a bad element, the following drop down and pull up offer exemplary ejector negatives and crushing positives. But I appreciate that they could have probably squeezed an inversion here but allowed for just a small moment of normalcy between two drawn out periods of insanity.
The outer bank roll ended up being much tamer than I had expected regarding the negative forces but still competes with the first drop as one of the best ever elements on a ride. As, instead of the raw ejector of something like untameds wacky outer bank turn, the outer bank roll feels like one continuous airtime hill between floater and ejector, moreso like you are falling out of your seat and should be plummeting to the ground again. The length at which it sustains this constant feeling seems to be eternal and completely unnatural. While the rolling to -90° then into the downward barrel roll is achieved so gracefully that you don't feel the rotation. You just see the horizon become vertical then start to spin, all while you are falling "downwards"? Its an incredibly surreal, scary yet graceful element to experience and an example of absolutely outstanding profiling.
The stall has less to say about it as it's a much more straightforward element comparatively, it's very nicely profiled to give mild hangtime. You have an amazing view above you of the ground below (another surreal experience) helped by the lack of supports underneath the track for its length, and it goes on for ages. This is the only stall it have tried so I can't compare the dive loop to a twist out, but I adored the plunge into the splashdown. It seemingly extended the stall while giving it a very satisfying finale.
The splashdown was my one dud point for the ride as, while I don't mind the length at all, feeling how hard the trim hits does sap a lot of the energy out of the ride. I usually barely notice when trims hit but this felt like a bit of a short-changing when they could have just had two larger events going into a brake run and kept the duration (though that would have obviously cost more).
The lady two elements are good fun and provide more graceful ejector airtime. They're exactly what you'd expect to see and provide an enjoyable, comfortable end to the ride.
The ride area looks pretty dire at the moment. The developed areas look lovely, as the black and gold structured with tan/wooden backgrounds all looking very pleasing to the eye and feeling very contemporary. However the ride area looks like ana abandoned demolition site. It desperately needs the planted foliage to take hold, and cover the nasty edges of construction, while the lakes are looking like stagnant puddles of industrial discharge. This will undoubtedly improve by itself as the planted saplings grow into place, so it's not worth holding a grudge against, but it was quite a bizarre contrast when they invested so much in the ride but skimmed on a days worth of turf laying for the sake of the first impression.
Aside from the ride, the queue experience was a very pleasant surprise. While the queue is comprised of nothing but switchbacks, the presentation was much more pleasant than something like the swarm or the smiler. The high fencing was only for the last quarter of the queue and replaced the snickers low caged ceilings with fabric nets which were much more pleasant to be contained within. They've put a lot of thought into making the queue feel accommodating and have achieved a much more comfortable environment than the dreaded smiler queue. It also helps that we were constantly shuffling forward and never in one place for more than a minute or so. Which also made the hour long queue much easier to get through. This is also to the credit of the rides bulletproof reliability (queue times reported a 100% uptime for today) and amazing work of the op team. Their efficiency was incredibly impressive and they maintained it throughout the whole day while remaining very polite and enthusiastic. The only thing holding back the throughput is that the trains take ages to get through the fixed section of the brake run similarly to TTD, seemingly the only mechanical flaw left in the ride now that it's back up and running. As for smoothness, there was a bit of noticeable shuffling during the stall, but only because you could sort of get your bearings at that point. There were no issues with the trains that I could perceive amongst the relentless intensity, and the track profiling is nothing short of perfect.
Despite a couple of small flaws, this is a comfy top 10 for me, with at least two of my favourite ever elements on a ride. This is easily the best ride in the country and is an impressive statement for Thorpe Park and privately-owned Merlin to have made. I can't wait to see how Pleasure Beach are planning to top that (that petty van surely wasn't an empty promise, right?)
- Stealth - 9/10
The station repaint is a welcome change that, combined with it's towering neighbour, has softened the rides fear factor slightly when queueing. That impression ends the second the launch kicks in, as the ride experience is just as great as ever. With the added benefit of it being noticeably reliable all day (queue times reported a 95% uptime). Maybe, after all of these years, Intamin has finally wrong out all of the kinks on the hydraulic launch?
- Swarm - 7/10
This was probably the favourite of the day between us all. We were fortunate to only queue maybe 5 minutes for it and managed a back-row ride. It was smooth, graceful and forceful, and the dense foliage growth around the island has served to improve the apocalyptic theming. All in all, it's a great ride that always pleasantly surprises me, even though it's length rarely justifies it's queue.
- Rush - 7/10
Having also benefitted from the mass repainting, rush is looking as good as new! The feeling of weightlessness is still excellent, the tiny restraints never fail to scare us when facing straight down at the pavement, and the power of the air system is wonderful. However, the ride cycle has been wittled down to one full swing before cycling back down, which just doesn't feel like enough to justify waiting for too often.
- Colossus - 4/10
It's probably been 5 years done I've been on Colossus die to it endlessly breaking down or having a 70+ minute wait. It's repaint has been long overdue and hugely beneficial to that whole section of the park. The unpainted sections stick out like a sore thumb at the moment, so hopefully these will be covered in the next phase of the great repaint.
As for the ride experience? It's still very rough and very uncomfortable. The track works in the first half is reminiscent of the worst parts of the smiler, while even the smooth barrel rolls at the end are made uncomfortable by the otsrs. Modern trains would certainly help the experience, but I don't think the ride works be fully comfortable without a retrack as well. As since I'd rise transitions without the upset body support could cause some serious discomfort. If they did, I would fully support it, as the layout itself is pretty great in my opinion. Even if the 5 barrel rolls in a row are a bit daft.