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Yeah, thats what blasted out at 9:20, followed by a load of other pop music after. I'm really not a fan of it either. Really doesn't fit in with Fright Nights whatsoever and completely killed the atmosphere for me. Yeah its very interesting. I knew it would be big but didn't realize they make nearly half of its annual profit at Fright Nights. Would love to know what that figure was pre covid when mazes were free too. Would also be interested to see how much events like Octoberfest have an impact on visitor numbers, especially Towers where the event was better received. Thankyou! They're actually just taken on my Iphone 12 Pro Max which I've had for 5 years now. Currently waiting on the 17 so should be able to get some better photos with that soon

Currently there are 22.5 hours of queues across all attractions according to the official app. Say an average throughput of 700pph is 15,750. Plus maybe 20% not in queues, F&B stalls, shows etc is 18,900. I don't think today is a sell out as tickets were still on sale at 3pm ish. Is this a fair estimate?

Cal, your pictures are very good, can I ask what device you used? Fred (planenut)

Absolutely, hopefully it's nothing too serious and she will be back up and running soon. I have checked the website and Stealth hasn't been updated as unavailable and no planned closures either

We shall have to wait with baited breath, the engineers don't give much away.

That's quite interesting. People were saying they could hear the screeching over the music in the plaza. I initially thought it was one of the trains that was the issue but today all the trains are in shed and stayed there.

Not sure if it still does, but in the first few days of the event, the park was playing The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony shortly after closing. Apparently the reason is to represent the same feeling you get when the last song plays at the end of a good night out (ie bittersweet). Apparently meant to recreate when the park played Perfect Day in 2013's Fright Nights (which was in the film You're Next). I...don't get it frankly. But I've also seen some really positive reactions online. For me, it just doesn't make sense / fit with Fright Nights. I got why they did it in the exit area of DeadBeat (since it's nightclub themed). But parkwide? I don't know; I just don't get it. Playing other pop music too, again I don't get it. Probably has some 'hidden meaning', but yeah...doesn't do it for me. Really good point, and I certainly didn't think of it that way. Obviously there will be different schools of thought. I do still think there will be plenty of scare actors who would be more than willing to give it a go...even if just as a once off, but there will definitely be people who aren't keen on the idea (or choose to go there and then realise the style isn't for them). I'm very intrigued by how Universal will set up HHN (or whatever they end up branding their Halloween event). The European market is very different and has very different expectations and standards for Halloween attractions. Do Universal stick with what they know, and bring that slice of American culture with them, or do they try to still keep it in the same form, but add the European flair to it. If they can bring on board British / European creatives with experience of creating and running Halloween attractions, they definitely could find a way to make it work. One thing which I've noticed is that it would be very difficult for your average guest on your average night to do everything (ie all Fright Nights attractions and shows and major rides in the dark). There will definitely be many, many people who don't manage that. Whilst the park will have a lot of repeat visitors thanks to Annual Passholders, and I'm certainly all for keeping things fresh, for many people, a show feeling very similar won't have that much impact. I'm sure that there are people who are going "we didn't do X last time, let's do it this time". Equally, people who are going "we did Y last time and enjoyed it, let's do/watch it again". Of course, there will be people on the other side who crave new things / got everything done last time. It is all about striking a balance. I still maintain that one year with no big new things is fine. Equally, I'd have preferred to see some extra work go into things like park-wide theming, themed audio, etc. Doesn't surprise me. The profit in particular makes perfect sense given they're effectively introducing 4 paid attractions now, so they make more money from passholders as well as non-passholders. Halloween events always do well for parks, given the later openings and limited-offering attractions, and that's true anywhere. Equally, for Thorpe, I think it's a telling statistic. It's not necessarily that Fright Nights has become more visited, but that the rest of the year has become less-visited. Obviously both things could be true (and probably are), but I think that statistic is driven by the park being quieter the rest of the year. I'm too lazy to look at what the days were last year, but this year, Thorpe has 207 open days and 24 of them are Fright Nights dates. So they're getting about 20% of their visitors across 11.5% of their open days. Those numbers are pretty meaningless without additional context, but I'd be interested what is was like in past and how important that is.

Yeah, was certainly noticeable. Really struggling on that final corner. Planned to be closed all day today too according to the app.

Overdue Top 10 update. Top 10’s Steel/Hybrid Coasters: 1/ Steel Vengeance 2/ Veloci-coaster 3/ Zadra 4/ Eujaneika 5/ Mako 6/ Toutatis 7/ Hyperion 8/ Voltron 9/ Hyperia 10/ Nemesis Reborn Wooden; 1/ Wodan 2/ Ghost Rider 3/ Phoenix 4/ El Toro 5/ Twister 6/ The Beast 7/ Mystic Timbers 8/ Wickerman 9/ Coney Island Cyclone 10/ Joris Dark rides: 1/ Tower of Terror WDW/Tokyo Sea 2/ Rise Of The Resistance 3/ Beauty & The Beast Tokyo Disney 4/ Indiana Jones Disneyland 5/ Pirates In Batavia 6/ POTC Disneyland California 7/ Frozen Adventure- Tokyo Disney Sea 8/ Forbidden Journey (Orlando one) 9/ Danse Macabre 10/ Phantom Manor Parks 1/ Tokyo Disneyland 2/ Europa Park 3/ Universal Orlando 4/ Disneyland Anaheim 5/ Cedar Point 6/ Phantasialand 7/ Knoebels 8/ Energylandia 9/ Efteling 10/ Universal Japan Park Bucketlist: 1/ Epic Universe 2/ Dollywood 3/ Silver Dollar City 4/ Busch Gardens Williamsburg 5/ Shanghai Disney 6/ Universal Singapore 7/ Hong Kong Disneyland 8/ Canadas Wonderland 9/ Carowinds 10/ Linnanmaki N.B I like to have a variety of attractions on my favourites, just to keep it varied. Even if it is easy to dominate it with one ride type/manufacturer I.E RMCs. But this is just my opinion.

That squeaking noise was under discussion yesterday. There was a problem with a drive wheel at the loading platform. So hopeful that they sort things as I may only get one more visit this season.

I do get what you mean, and think a lot of people will think the same. I still think its well worth a visit for the general atmosphere and rides in the dark, but I do wonder if people in general will be put off visiting this year as there isn't a new maze? Will be interesting to see what they do next year to change things up. The IndependentOctober is the new summer for these major UK tourist attr...Halloween thrill-seekers are transforming October into a peak month for theme parks, with Merlin Entertainments revealing the period now rivals August for profitability. This article is quite interesting and really shows how important Fright Nights is to Thorpe now. Not sure how accurate it is, but Thorpe makes 46% of its annual profit in October and sees 20% of its yearly visitors in the month. It also mentions how October visitor numbers surpassed August in 2024.

Interesting they needed to do a cable replacement so close to end of season. That'll be why they're not having to open it later on now Was running fine pretty much all day yesterday just a few short shutdowns. It did seem to really struggle on the last corner into the offload and was making quite a loud squeaking noise.

I went to fright nights for the second time in 2025 last night and had a few thoughts since my first visit. First of all, this is the first year since 2020 where fright nights has been the same and I’d say since then, every year has been different….. until this year. I genuinely think this year is boring and not worth multiple visits unlike other years. Mazes: I’ve now done all the mazes multiple times over the years, I have no urge to go back into them but that’s only because I’d have to pay to go in them Zones: There is one scary zone and that’s the crows. Deaths doors a few years ago was a good walkthrough too but with only the crows really holding the line. It means that it can get pretty boring doing the free stuff. Shows: The shows are pretty much the same as last year except different soundtracks. Amity show is good and they’ve slowly transitioned the theme and story away, it makes me slightly nolstalgic for amity high. As a one off dance show with a lot going on it’s good! But lucifiers lair is difficult to judge as it’s a really solid area with a lot going on and really brings the event together. However, it feels like I’m watching the same shows as last year. The event is just like it continued from last year which to me makes it less enjoyable and I am unlikely to go again. I get however it is now a solid event, it feels more professional and you know what your going to get.

Sadly, engineers were working with Stealth today, after apparently, again replacing the cable on Wednesday. They could not open the ride all day.

I actually really disagree on the scare actor sentiment as someone who has done it for about a decade. Imagine being able to have creative freedom to scare how you like, make interesting noises, and be able to try different scares and interactions with different groups. And in between a group, while like 30 seconds, you can have a nice drink of water and get ready for the next group. HHN has endless people, no creative freedom, jump out, reset, all night, no improvisation. Endless boredom. I also worry it being such a big corporate company would make it less desirable than let's say the nearby Howl, which is run by a pretty tiny company. I actually think Universal are going to have to make some adaptions, the UK audience are very used to being batched into groups, having unique interactions with guests, and theming is only going to reach so far. Obviously you have IP's, but I don't feel IP's are enough to carry HHN in this country. Even quantity of attractions might be tough, Howl is now on 7 attractions with a live circus to add. I would argue theming in our industry is also actually pretty good now. Stitches for example, or especially Doom Town at Tulleys, which basically has HHN theming without the HHN downsides. I actually think HHN might start off like Disneyland Paris did, if they assume what they do Stateside will work perfectly in England, they're wrong. But if they adapt to use group batching, and/or give their actors creative freedom, maybe then they will dominate over Howl/Xtreme Scream/FN/Shocktoberfest

The 12pm openings seem to have been scrapped. Opened at 10am yesterday, and the message has now been removed from the availability page.

Glad to see that they've now changed the soundtrack on a lot of the rides for Fright Nights, after not doing it for a number of years. They're in the same/similar voice as the advert for this year. Unfortunately no change on Stealth or Samurai though, and you can hardly hear it in Colossus' station as its very quiet. The park is looking amazing in the dark this year. Lots of lighting changes and additional smoke machines making the park look the best it ever has done at night. A lot of Swarms effects have been restored and Infernos mist is pumping. I love this smoke effect on Colossus. StreamableWatch IMG_3720 | Streamable Hyperia is lit up in red from 7pm, and the lights go off as each train goes down the first drop. Really not a fan of the music that starts blasting out at 9:20 park wide though, including in the Hyperia queue 🤣 StreamableWatch IMG_3747 | Streamable Also really not a fan of the new scare zone and just seems like that was added for the sake of adding a new scare attraction. Would love to see another Crows/Towers style scare zone. Why not use the old Blair Witch route from Trailers to the Nemesis Inferno exit like before?

.... back open today!

Having seen all their lighting always made me imagine stealth with at least some lights. having said all that, Stealth often has a start light bulb out so, realistically, they would never cope.

Yes

Did you ever see Rip Ride Rocket?

Well, you know, race cars don’t need headlights, because the track is always lit.

Watching SWARM running round wih the led's on still makes me wish Stealth's headlights were real !

I love that they've gone through the effort of adding that, timed with the launch. Smoke effects add so much during fright nights. I quite like the one they've added on Colossus earlier in the season too.

Stealth had a couple of hiccups yesterday but was generally on very good form, and with the extended hours. For this strange period of Fright Nights, and only after twilight, there is an additional smoke effect on Stealth above the plant room, and it has coloured lights. The best observation is from the front row, as nobody at the station can see it, and those in other rows are somewhat shielded by the seating.