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Last time I went to Thorpe Pak was in 2010 and it was a hot summers day and everything was a walk on. It's a long drive for us, (200+ miles) so it takes a bit of planning and co-ordination with others so we don't get to go as often as we'd like, Towers is much closer and is usually easier to sync up with others since it's you only need a day and don't have to mess around with accommodations etc.. This time it wasn't as sunny but as a consolation price there were two new credits to collect, Swarm (actually my first wing coaster, too!) and Hyperia. Gutted that the Slammer is no more, I really enjoyed that as a flat ride it was probably my favourite flat there, I'd say my new favourite is probably Rush and it was operating on a better cycle than last time, I believe last time it was 3 full swings and this time it was 5 (I counted). I heard that they are removing the remnants of Slammer in the closed season and it's intriguing thinking what will replace it with it being close to Hyperia and if it will be tied in to the Find Your Fearless [loose] theme. We did Swarm first as Hyperia and a few others were not open till around 11.30am. This was a new credit for me and my first wing coaster. I gotta say, I really enjoyed it. Always thought the wing over drop looked crazy on and off ride when I've watched POV's and was excited to try it out and see how it would feel and I loved it, it offers a great moment of hangtime and is a great build up of anticipation for the start of the ride, kind of like Oblivion but with an actual layout after it and not just a brake run after the drop (Don't get me wrong though, I still love Blivvy) Then onto Stealth, my previous TP #1. It still rides great considering its age (only 4y between it and Colossus), some people say it has a wobble/rattle now but idk, I didn't really feel it. Brilliant, punchy, intense hydraulic launch and airtime over the top hat and then ejector at the end since you slam into that airtime hill before the brakes. If that cup of coffee you just had didn't wake you up, Stealth certainly does the trick. Onto Rush since it's there anyway, barely a 5 minute queue we were on the next one and when we were just about to board noticed the app said Hyperia had opened so after our nice ride on Rush we headed over to Fearless Valley. The area looks great, I know people have said there is a lack of theming or whatever but IMO it doesn't take away from the area and the atmosphere was great. The ride is imposing and very fun to watch dispatching and going around the layout. The app was showing 60 minutes but we queued for single rider (just the two of us but we didn't mind riding separately) but the queue moved very slowly, I'm not sure if there was just a lot of groups of 2's/4's riding or it was how it was being batched etc but it took around 60 minutes anyways idk if it might have actually been quicker to just join the main queue with never having ridden it before didn't have any way to gauge the main queue to know how long it would take from any given point. There was only one member of staff at the merge point and I heard that could make it slower since they can get overwhelmed since 4 queues merge at that point, idk though. First ride on Hyperia I ended up in row 7 on the inside and my sister was in row 5 on the outside. The ride was amazing, I didn't even know what to expect but whatever I was expecting it exceeded it. Wow, what a machine. After just one ride the whole thing was just a blur, like some of the elements you don't even remember taking them you're trying to think how it felt but it's just all so fast and all you know is that it felt awesome. Since we're talking about Hyperia I'll just add my thoughts on our second ride here too. We rode again at around 3.45pm, the queue was showing as 45 minutes so we just decided to get in the main queue since it would probs be our last ride of the day and didn't know if the single rider line would be moving slow again so we just decided we'd do it together this time. We got row 3, I sat on the outside this time which makes the outer bank after dispatch way more fun! Wanted to try and concentrate here for all the elements to try and recall afterwards lol, hands up for the first drop and absolutely ejected out of your seat all the way down, it's SUCH a good first drop. Probably the best, for me. The outer bank element that rolls over into an inverted drop as well, between that and the first drop are my 2 favourite elements. Loved the Stall too, sooo much hangtime. New UK #1 right there. (Sorry, Nemmy) In between those two rides on Hyperia we did SAW and Colossus - I had read about people saying these two (particularly SAW) were very rough and since when I went in 2010 SAW was only 1 year old so I couldn't relate, it wasn't rough then lol, I thought people were overreacting about Colossus too I never thought it was that bad in 2010 but I gotta say, I totally get that now, it's not aged well; let's put it that way. It could do with some new trains, the ones that SIK uses would be great. I heard it might be getting some track work done, idk about that though. After those two we jumped on Nemesis Inferno, which was great (as B&M inverts usually are!) Was an amazing day, and even a blowout on the Motorway on the way home the next day it was still totally worth it. Already wanting to go back again and lap Hyperia. It definitely won't be 10+ years till my next visit and thinking of staying on site next time and doing 2 days.
