Richard Bannister

Day five of my trip was originally going to consist of an entire day at Thorpe Park, but I decided to change my plan about ten days before travel when it became obvious that the new coaster I was interested in would likely have a queue of between two and three hours for the entire day. I can just about tolerate that length of wait for my first lap on a new signature ride, but I no longer have the patience to endure more than an hour at most for a second or third lap, no matter how good the experience may be.

As such my morning began with a two hour drive north-west to Drayton Manor, the park where I experienced my very first roller coaster way back in 1997. As ever my primary interest was in the new-for-2024 Gold Rush, but I was also anxious to renew my acquaintance with the recently reconstituted Shockwave to see if coaster credit number one could still hold its own more than three thousand coasters later. My visit was successful, insofar as I was able to do everything that I wanted to do in a shade under three hours. That being said, it would be remiss of me not to record and comment on a whole series of operational issues, most of which resulted from what appears to be a corporate policy to maximise profit at the expense of guest experience.

Drayton Manor sells admission and parking via its website, and I elected to pre-purchase both in order to save time. It was only after payment had been taken that the system informed me that a car registration plate would be needed in order to finalise my booking. I didn't have one available at this stage as I knew that I was going to be in a rental car. There was no option to bypass the system or enter the details later, so I typed in a variant of “don’t know” and sent an email to the park to ask what to do. Giving credit where it’s due, I had a reply within hours telling me that I should take a parking ticket on the way in then visit Guest Services inside the park, who would be able to enter my details into the system manually.

For most of the year the park is open from 10:30 to 17:00, nominally giving guests six and a half hours to enjoy the various rides and attractions. Unfortunately the vast majority of these don’t open until 11:00. Worse yet, queues will close early when capacity is reached, reducing availability yet further. I’d been warned ahead of time that Gold Rush was on the list of rides not open until 11:00, so it didn’t catch me out – but I’m going to complain about it anyway; what on earth do management hope to gain by not having their heavily-promoted and brand-new family coaster ready to operate when guests arrive? Is the cost saving really worth the negative reviews?

As it was my day began with me power-walking from the entrance to the coaster formerly known as Shockwave. The ride in question was advertised on the queue time screens as being open, but it wasn’t; operators waiting at the entrance advised that a technical hitch had arisen and that we should come back later. Mechanical gremlins happen, and issues can take time to fix, but it’s very hard for me to understand why the problem wasn’t reflected on the queue time screens.

Rather than bulldoze my way back across the park I decided that I’d sort out my parking. I queued for about ten minutes (completely obliterating any time saved by purchasing online) and in due course spoke to a friendly lady who took my voucher and promised to enter my details into the system once the crowds had died down. I’m really not sure why it couldn’t be done on the spot given that I’d queued for service like everyone else in line, but I decided not to argue; instead, I let her know that I’d be leaving the park around lunchtime. She promised that it would be done within the hour.

It was now twenty minutes into my park visit – or for preference 5% into the operating day – and I had yet to even make it into the queue for a ride, let alone board one. Rather than faff around any further I decided to do a cycle on Thor, currently the newest of three Zamperla Disk’O Coasters in the United Kingdom. The programme in use today had five full-speed passes in each direction, and I enjoyed it immensely. I’m not going to count these, not now, not ever, but I'm going to make more of an effort to ride the ones that I haven't done when time permits.

I made my way across to Gold Rush, arriving amidst a sea of humanity just in time to hear an announcement advising that opening would be delayed by about ten minutes. The staff member didn’t feel the need to either apologise or provide a reason, presumably because we’d already paid for our tickets. After fifteen minutes of no visible activity the gate was opened and the multitudes flooded in.


The ride is the first installation of what Intamin describes as a “Family Lift and Launch Coaster”. It looks at first glance like a fairly run-of-the-mill mine train, with a tyre-drive lift, a sequence of airtime hills and turns, and a show building where the action comes to a halt for a few seconds before a tyre-drive launch gets things going again. However, there is a dramatic surprise for the unsuspecting visitor: a pair of track switches that allow for two distinct ride sequences.

Sequence one begins with the train cresting the lift hill in traditional fashion, followed by a gravity section (let’s call this part one) that concludes in the show building. The train then launches backwards into part two: a series of airtime hills that conclude on the lift with the train facing backwards. The train is lifted to the peak, though it does not crest. Instead, it rolls back in boomerang fashion, traversing part two while facing forward. On returning to the show building a quick tyre-drive boost leads to part three: a few final hills and a brake run.

Sequence two begins with a rollback from the top of the lift hill into part two, which is negotiated backwards. This time the train launches forward out of the show building for the second journey around part two, leading to the lift hill and eventually part one. There is no stop in the show building on the second pass; instead, a gentle boost leads to part three and the end of the ride.

The same length of track is covered regardless as to which sequence is in use. The only differences are in the order of parts one and two, and which way around part two is experienced first – from show building to lift, or from lift to show building. The cynical reader might suggest that the random element of Gold Rush is but a gimmick, and while that position is not entirely without merit, I’d suggest that the different experiences represent a genuine upgrade, adding interest and variety to what would otherwise be a decent if largely forgettable family coaster. The only catch, if such it be, is that this randomisation is no longer happening; as of this writing the first sequence is used until 2:00pm and the second sequence for the balance of the day. As I was riding in the morning hours I got to enjoy sequence one.

My overall impression was that of respectable and fun coaster, if perhaps one leaning a little too far towards the family end of the intensity scale. The ride statistics (a seventeen metre lift and 60km/h top speed) imply the possibility of airtime and forces, but I really didn’t notice much of either; the drops were generally shallow, with the only real excitement being the kick from the tyre launch in the show building. I’d have liked a relatively small boost to the overall speed of perhaps 10-15%, but then I’m not in the park’s usual target audience; the children I saw riding all came back to the station with smiles on their faces and that is at the end of the day what matters.

I next headed across to Wave, an Intamin-built stand-up coaster retrofitted this year with a single sit-down train supplied by ART Engineering. I’m pleased to report that the new rolling stock is comfortable and it handles the track well, with the only real oddity being what I'd describe as a curtain rail at the front that serves no obvious purpose. The layout won’t win any awards for imagination, not least because there’s a few seconds of completely straight and level track in the middle, but it’s respectable enough and holds it own more than thirty years after it first opened to the public. It was only after disembarking that I realised that I’m one of the few enthusiasts to have ridden this ride in three different positions: standing facing forward, standing facing backward, and now seated facing forwards. I wonder whether they might try turning a seated train around at some point... that could be fun.

I considered waiting the ninety minutes for a sequence two ride on Gold Rush, but decided upon reflection that I’d rather have more time at Thorpe Park. As such I made my way back to my car and to the exit. It was a little over two hours after my visit to Guest Services, but despite earlier promises my parking had not been processed. I ended up pressing the “Help” button on the exit barrier where a member of security staff raised the barrier for me remotely.

Thorpe Park is the largest amusement park in the greater London area, and as such it has always been somewhat of a destination for coaster enthusiasts. At the same time however it has never been known for what is probably kindest to describe as the calibre of its clientele. In the distant past the in-house marketing team appeared to revel in this reputation, with the official map featuring a couple doing something naughty in the bushes. Those days are gone, but the park atmosphere remains less than salubrious, especially in peak season. Today there were quite a few uniformed police officers on patrol alongside park security staff, which is not something I’ve seen elsewhere.

The only reason for my visit today was Hyperia, a custom Hypercoaster from Mack Rides with two inversions and a layout that one might describe in RCT parlance as “Ultra-Extreme”. I’d concocted a vague plan to try to ride it twice in a few hours, once from the main queue, and a second lap if desired via an excruciatingly expensive £20 fast pass. Unfortunately any hope of this going as intended went completely out the window on my arrival, as the ride was closed. An announcement over the tannoy made it clear that this was due to the actions of a guest. I had a good look around, and after a few moments spotted an engineer with a safety harness doing something in the depths of the brake run; while I have no inside information here I rather suspect a loose item may have fallen onto the track.

It was immediately evident that whatever had happened wouldn’t be a quick fix, so I went to see whether there was anything else I could reasonably ride while waiting. The short answer was no; all the attractions that I cared about had waits in excess of 90 minutes, including the six operating coasters, the Ghost Train, and even some of the scare mazes added temporarily for the season.

After brief contemplation I decided that my best bet was to camp out near Hyperia, where I waited for the better part of an hour before a test train was dispatched. This caused an enormous queue to form at the entrance within slightly less than 1.5 nanoseconds. I was a little slow off the mark, but I managed to get there with perhaps a hundred people in front of me. A tannoy announcement was made advising against waiting since the ride was being tested and would not be opening for a while, but this was ignored – and within a few minutes the queue had ballooned to the point that I could no longer see the end of it.

After numerous test runs, first with dummies, then without, the ride opened. Staff announced that they’d prioritise the fast track queue since those evacuated from line earlier in the day had been given passes, and they did just that to an extreme level; in the first hour of operation I would estimate no more than five trains of guests were boarded from the regular queue. Fortunately I was in that fifth group and miraculously ended up with a back seat for what was to be my first and only ride. (Before anyone asks, fast tracks were no longer on sale by the time I disembarked, or I would have bought one.)

It’s hard to write a comprehensive review of a major new roller coaster based on a single lap in the dark, but I’ll give it a go. From my perspective Hyperia is an absolutely superb first half of a ride. The twisted first drop could be the best initial drop I’ve experienced in my career; it felt absolutely bonkers in the back seat. The outward-banked turn and inversion that followed were equally ridiculous, and the stall afterwards was pure heaven. That, however, is basically the sum of things; a brake with faked water splash comes just twenty-seven seconds after the top of the lift, burning off most of the speed before a final turn ends up at the brake run.

In recent years there’s been an industry trend towards building shorter coasters in order to reduce costs, and I’m really not fond of it. While writing this report I did some digging in RCDB; as of this writing just four rides from the last decade show in the top twenty-five coasters by length. If I ruled the world I’d buy up Thorpe Park and build the second half of Hyperia during the off-season. I hold out an entirely foolish hope that someday park management will do the needful.