Fright Nights 2015

Entry posted by Cal October 14, 2015

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SPOILERS AHEAD

Sunday 11th October 2015

Went to Thorpe Park on Sunday from 10:30 till 10. Operations were really good all day, and didn't see any rides break down all day. Queues were minimal in the day, and all rides were walk on from 4 onwards. To give you an idea of how quiet it was, Stealth was on 1 train and the gate was still left open on the platform. MBV was walk on a lot of the night, and SAW Alive were allowing us to go on again, straight through the fast track queue.

It was a shame to see Slammer closed again, thats the second time this year it's closed 2 days before I've been. Samurai hasn't been open any of my visits this year, and Vortex re-opened late afternoon. It was running really well!

Roaming actors were really good this year, bumped into them many times, and one of them kept putting his fingers in my ears? The Cabin roamers were really good as well. Shame some of the only Fright Night theming has been lost, such as the trucks by Tidal Wave and Stealth lit up with smoke and no fire effect by Saw.

Maze count

Containment x 1

The Big Top x 2

Saw Alive x 4

Cabin In the Woods x 4

My Bloody Valentine x 7

Couldn't really be bothered to do Blair Witch, was over an hour every time I looked, even at 9 the queue was full,

Can find my full ride count here - http://ridecount.com/browse/trip/15849

The Big Top - 0.000001/10

I was looking forward to this maze so much from the initial reveal, outside theming looked great and loved Carnival of Screams, but the big top is one of the, if not worst scare maze I have ever been in. The fact you could see the red roof above the black curtains the whole time ruined it. The maze was well too open.

The first tent was utterly pointless. Both times I went on it the actor literally said 'Go left or right, it's your choice.' Either way you walk down a path of black curtains and exit that tent. You then enter the 'mirror maze' which had so much potential with the strobe lights and loud music. Again the theming was awful, you could see the red roof and it was way too short, because it was too open. 1 actor didn't do it either. The outside section both times an actor guided us straight through, none of the actor banging in the box like I've seen on youtube. Third tent was better, but not good, again way too open for any scares and lacked theming. Chainsaw ending was poor, and the second time he didn't even bother trying to chase us.

I really have been disappointed with the last 2 mazes, didn't particularly like Studio 13 and this was dreadful.

Wasn't willing to give it a second go, but saw that there was about 5 people in the queue. It was just as bad...

Saw Alive - 8/10 (6/10 Later on)

By far the best run throughs I've had on SAW, lots of Actors earlier on in the night and all very energetic and in role. As the night went on there did seem to be less actors in there so it did seem to get worse.

On one of our runs as we were having our photo taken actors came out shouting telling everyone to get back, and staff came and got us all out. I had never seen staff an actors so serious and angry, could tell something serious had happened. Found out it was all due to Travellers abusing an actor. Later that night later that night the roaming actors were banging the fence and making a laughing sound (being clowns.) The person in front of us in the queue then started having a go at them, saying 'Come to this side of the f****** fence then' and then attempted climbing over, a member of staff then stepped in and shouted saying if he continues to behave like that she'll get him kicked off the park. Not good.

Cabin in the woods - 8/10

Really enjoyed Cabin on Sunday, not as good as 2013 but was a lot better than last year. Plenty of actors and seemed a lot darker this year and lots of smoke, meaning actors were just coming out of no where. Also noticed actors were appearing from windows which was pretty cool? Didn't notice that in previous years.

No idea why the tunnel wasn't working when they've had a whole year to fix that, and the 4th time now I've been to the control room and nothing worked :lol:

Queue time said 90 minutes and we queued 25, there was a staff member standing in front of the queue (blocking the entrance) and she said 'Would you like to buy fast track the queue is a lot shorter'. When will they learn.

There were 3 actors roaming the area all night who were great, 1 of them in particular was hilarious.

My Bloody Valentine - 9/10

For the third year running, my favourite maze at the park. Not as good as previous years due to it being shorter this year, and for some reason no Harry Wardens?

Actors were really good in this, and loads of them. At one point an actor came up behind the 2 of us, and there was an actor in front of us, so we were trapped. Towards the end of the night when it was quiet the beginning actor was putting us in on our own which was good as well, but I did find my cousin shortly.

On one of the last run throughs an actor did head-but me by accident which was pretty funny, he did instantly go out of act and apologise, asking if I was alright but it wasn't hard. Could certainly see that ending badly if it was one of the travellers he head butted

Atmosphere in the queue was really good as well this year, blasting out the music and the loop has been extended this year. It's on about a 4-5 minute loop now instead of last years 1 minute. Also, the team running the maze the whole night were amazing. Never moved so quick in a maze queue before, and even though they were moving the queue quick, there wasn't too many people in the maze. Never clashed with another group in there after the splitting point. I guess not having the door this year helped.

Did see one breakdown which was due to the lights going out apparently. It was the 5th time it happened that night. Did re-open very quick though.

First time I've ever seen a maze walk on...

(Blurry I know but I rushed)

Containment

Not going to give this one a rating as you can't really compare it to the mazes, but it was good. It wasn't scary, but it was fun. It was just about worth the £8 but I wouldn't do it again. Once you have done it once it would be pointless doing it again. Actors were really good as well, staying in role for the whole 5 minutes. One of them took an agressive approach and shouted at us the whole time, and others were just acting weird? I got asked to open my mouth "because everyone loves a bit of oral" :lol:

We escaped the first 3 rooms but failed on the last one. They did say because we escaped 3 of them she would give us green bands as 3 is good but 1 of us had to take a red one, so I took it. A red band meant that actors are meant to pick on you more throughout the night which was a good idea, but I didn't notice anything.

I did witness a lot of trouble, due to the park being full of travellers. Apparently this day is known for it, however I went the same day last year and didn't notice it. I saw them chucking rubbish from depth charge onto people in the containment queue, staff must of threatened them at least 5 times but they couldn't do anything as they didn't have a radio. Also saw an evac on Saw, them threatening the roaming actors, MBV staff shouting at a group of 10 year olds, queue jumping multiple times, and a group of 10 year olds were shouting every time the Big Top host was trying to talk. Did feel sorry for the staff but there simply wasn't enough done, they just kept threatening.

Did really like the park audio this year, was nice to hear the Asylum theme being played again as well. However, did prefer the director announcements. The new ones are very unclear and couldn't understand a word any of the announcements said. Audio was also played very quietly this year which was a shame and Detonator wasn't playing any audio all night