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Had my first ever visit to Gröna Lund last Saturday. It’s a nice little park, and really impressive how much they’ve managed to cram into such a small space. Monster is a brilliant little B&M Invert. It’s amazing how well they’ve made it fit in the park - it just looks like it’s always been there. The underground station is really unique, and so is its layout for an invert. That airtime hill completely took me by surprise and was easily the best airtime moment I’ve had on an invert before. It’s silky smooth and definitely sits high on my invert list. Unfortunately, I got spited by Insane, which didn’t operate all afternoon/evening while I was there. I was particularly looking forward to it since I’ve never had the chance to do a Zac Spin. Not sure why it was closed or how long it’s been down? As a big drop tower fan, I was really impressed with their lineup - three towers all offering different experiences. Definitely the best drop tower selection I’ve seen at any park, and it makes sense given how limited their space is. The S&S tower was solid. It starts with the “shot” mode, then slowly takes you to the top for the drop. I like the towers that do both rather than just one or the other. Ikaros is an Intamin Skyjump, and after doing some research in the queue I learned Falcon’s Fury is the only other one, which I've also ridden. Surprised Intamin hasn’t sold more of these. The views were fantastic, but I found the ride itself pretty forceless. Hard to compare directly to Falcon’s Fury since it’s been 10 years, but I’m pretty sure Ikaros breaks lower down and swings a lot more on its return. Falcon’s still looks more intimidating though. Fritt Fall was my favorite of the drop towers - an Intamin the same as Apocalypse and Condor. These never fail to deliver and this was no different. The park also had a nice bar with views over Stockholm. You’re not allowed to leave the bar areas with drinks though so they can “watch” you, which made me laugh. ‘Vilda Musen’ the parks Gerst bobsled is decent, and Twister the gravity group woodie was okay. Smooth and a decent family coaster, but nothing to write home about. The day ended on an annoying note. The park closed at 10pm, and while I was at the front of a queue for my last ride, the host came down the queue to tell us their boss had said they had to close now and we wouldn’t be able to ride. The time was 21:57. Bit annoying since it was still before 10 and I was already in the queue, but it is what it is. On the way out I also saw them turning people away (already in the queue) for one of the drop towers too.

I'm not really feeling it for FN this year, normally by now there is a bit of excitement, and although I think that trailer isn't bad I can't put my finger on it as to why i'm not feeling it. We shall see!

Rollbacks mean loss of ride time; done one in the past, don't need another. The team on Stealth have to observe the train until it's cleared the top hat, but the number of rollbacks are so few, they can achieve faster launches by their present routine.

So let's dissect this a bit more / share some of my thoughts... I really like that they're making Lucifer a central figure this year. I've said repeatedly that this is something that park should look to do - have a headline character who is prominent in both marketing and on park. When the park introduced the Director character in 2013 and 14 (and even the Governor character in 2012), it was a nice touch. It didn't necessarily fully hit the mark as there was a lack of consistency due the character (naturally) having to be played by different actors. And the on-park character didn't quite marry up with the marketing character. But the park have had form there, and it worked. One criticism that occurred in 2015 was that the Figaro Bros were featured so heavily in marketing, but had no on-park presence (even in the original Big Top), which is why the park veered away from central characters. They've slowly reintroduced the concept of headline characters with "Fear" in 2021, the Locksmith in 2022 and the Toymaker in 2023. Again, they featured heavily in marketing. But aside from the Toymaker (who was only used for a special BTS tour of Stitches), had no physical on-park presence. Lucifer's Lair - in my opinion - has been the highlight of the past two Fright Nights. And given the plan to have the stage on the Beach this year, it wouldn't be surprising if they were hoping to turn that zone into a bigger thing this year. Having Lucifer has that central figure just works for the current Fright Nights set up. As a slight critique (possibly even a long-term suggestion), I'd rather the park have an 'original' character, as opposed to 'just' the devil, but they can make it work. I've banged on about this enough times on here, but if you look to Walibi Holland, their Eddie the Clown character has been a headline character for much of the park's Halloween event's history. Eddie the Clown and Walibi are synonymous now. And it leads to great marketing (and more recently, merchandise) opportunity. Thorpe can recreate that, in their own way. Now, the actual event. Upfront, I'm not enthused by Purgatory Town. It's being marketing as an 'interactive' scare zone, or a speak-to-characters zone. I'm getting a bit of a Swarm Invasion vibe, in that I expect there will be minimal theming and minimal actors, and guests will 'get out what they put in'. That is, you can walk through the zone and have basically no interaction with the actors, or you can spend time chatting with them and find out their story and lore and build up from there. The key difference is Swarm Invasion had an actual coaster with a backstory to help it, whereas Purgatory Town has...well, no pre-existing lore. Another issue is that Fright Nights has become quite...passive. A common discussion point on here, at the very least, is that the mazes are like walkthroughs of very well-themed sets, with less actual engagement. I'd argue Stitches and Trailers highlight that extremely well, but even DeadBeat has its moments. Now whether that's a good thing, a bad thing or just a thing is almost a mute point. If the reason the park are creating these passive experiences is because that's what guests enjoy and respond best to, then creating a scare zone which is the opposite to that is a hard sell to guests. Again looking to Swarm Invasion, that didn't exactly light the world on fire, and that could be because of the high engagement level required. The fact we're less than two weeks from the event starting and we have no theming or build is also telling of what to expect on that front (ie: not a lot). I'm certainly not writing it off, as we don't really know a lot about it still. But all signs point to this being little more than a nice experiment for the park to try. However, it is great to see Fright Nights further spread out across the park. Next thing to note is Survival Games changes. Hard to know what expectations should be, but the video and promo image make it look like the characters in the maze will be different at the very least: There's mentions of a "toxic twist", and any part of the marketing related to Survival Games does feature a strong electricity motif too. Trailers getting two new scenes is perhaps not unexpected given the new posters that appeared. A little excerpt from the park's press release gives us a bit more on what to expect... Evil experiments could be Experiment 10 (which could be the X poster seen) Forbidden Forests could be a Blair Witch throwback I hope that - unlike last year - the new scenes are more than just a redress of existing scenes. I know it's a less-common opinion, but I'm fine with a quieter year with no major new attractions as a one off. I'd argue that Purgatory Town isn't even necessary this year. But we'll see what happens!

Stealth has been run very well the last two seasons! 1:13 is not the best they have done as I have seen plenty of launches around the minute mark and on occasion even 40 seconds! You can see near 40 seconds on this video I took on my Tik Tok page (would be great to get a few follows guys) https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdpHUhut/

You turned down a rollback 😱 Stealth and Hyperia are both operated exceptionally well most of the time, they have great teams. For comparison, I’ve just got back from a few days at PortAventura. They were averaging about 1 min 30 secs a dispatch on Red Force, 480 people an hour. They have no seatbelts to check and less seats. One thing I did notice though, they don’t advance the train from offload into load until the train has cleared the top hat. On Stealth they advance it as soon as it’s ready.

That's good news Matt. It always amazes me when someone who's been queuing for ages gets to the platform, then delays getting on, annoying.

For those interested in such matters, I have to say that Stealth is operating phenomenally this morning; my throughput average across 10 readings was 975pph, or a train every 1m 13s, which is as fast as I’ve ever seen on here! I’ve been witnessing dispatches as fast as 70s or lower, and quite frequently, the staff have been outpacing the 40s dispatch timer on the platform (something which I’d have said was largely redundant in past years gone by). 80s is a slow interval today! It’s way faster than I’ve ever seen Rita operate, and it made an advertised 40 minute queue fly by in 15 minutes! In the current absence of Hyperia (it’s on a “delayed opening”), it’s also definitely my favourite coaster at Thorpe, so as I liked it so much and the queue is moving so quickly, I’ve decided to hop straight back in the queue for another go!

The problems it had at the start of the year seemed to start with rollbacks.. hopefully it’s not a sign of that issue returning!

At TP today, as the weatherforecast was so good. Luckily got to ride Stealth and thought it was a little slow going over the top, so (as I am familiar with the them) I mentioned it to the team. I observed the next twelve launches, thought that the transitions over the top were getting even slower, and again expressed my concern. The team offered me a ride and I informed them that I would not, as I believed the next launch would rollback. They launched, and it rolled back, I went for lunch.

New scare zone is called Purgatory Town, and will be in Big Easy Boulevard Trailers will receive 2 new scenes Survival Games has a "toxic twist" / new scenes.

I was lost, in the slipstream of my mind. it wasn't this place, and yet, it was another place, much all the same

would you like a cup of tea love? cathy! cathy, love! would you like a cup of tea!! spill the tea, we got no money, hype is big, but discus is gone

Hello everyone I was wondering if you guys know where I can find historic plans from the 90s era of Thorpe park? I can’t seem to find any on the web and am planning a project in planet coaster to recreate some rides for nostalgia 🙂🙂 If anybody know where to find these or if anybody has any that they could share with me that would be really great 😊 Thanks

The 'nothing has changed' thought process is interesting. I don't disagree (because it is true), but I don't view it as a bad thing. Fright Nights is in a position where there's 4 mazes, each with very different themes, plus some scare zones and shows. It's a strong position to be in. Plenty of theme parks and scream parks keep mazes for a long time, and also sometimes have less diversity in themes. So what Thorpe have done this year is no different to what the majority of the scare industry do. Obviously there shouldn't be complacency from the park. And there's room for improvement. And charging for mazes creates a whole different dynamic and level of expectation which the park need to navigate still. The issue for me would come if we have repeated years of little-to-no changes. That's thr aforementioned complacency. If this year brings more consistent operations / effects, tweaks to some mazes and a stronger park atmosphere, I'd see that as a massive win. Then next year the park can continue to diversify and change their offering.

Paid mazes combined with no "off peak" days killed Fright Nights for me, simple as. Pot luck to your group size and number of actors you will see, therefore experience, with no option to go again. You pay your money and you make your choice. No thanks.

I’m not going to heading to fright nights this year. Two reasons, mainly because I’m off to uni so won’t be around, but even if I was I feel it’s not really worth the trip much anymore. Nothing has really changed since last year, and bar Deadbeat last year didn’t see much change either. I feel the lineup has become stale, trailers has been milked enough, even if it gets a few new rooms; survival games is really fun in my opinion, but I’ve done it enough times now; stitches is a cool maze, but I think the experience is ruined by the amount of people you get sent in with, especially on a busy day; deadbeat was a stand out for me last year, I wasn’t overly a fan of the theme but I got separated from my group early one so had pretty much a solo run through, but even that I’m not itching to do again. It’s quite showing how the maze I most want another run through is survival games, and I’ve probably done that 4 times already. On the scare zones/other experiences, they are once again just all the same as we’ve seen year after year. Crows is so busy as the closest thing to a maze for free it’s almost unbearable, Amity vs lycanthrope or whatever it’s called now is the same as it’s been for as long as I can remember coming for fright nights and lucifers lair is just begging to be put in the new preposed stage location, it still feels so cramped around the stage and needs something new to add to it’s atmosphere too. Rides in the dark are always a great part about FN, but I feel even those I can skip on now; a 7pm close in September gets you nearly the same experience, without having to queue for 2 hours per ride. I’m trying not to be negative overall, I love fright nights so much, I’ve spent many years looking forward to October half term so I can go, but this year the same repetitiveness of it is starting to get at me. Its not a bad event by any means, and for people going for the first time, or taking a return trip for the first time in a few years it’ll be great, just as someone whose gone every year for the past 4, I can’t justify it this year. I feel I’ve written a lot so TL;DR - in my opinion the lineup is getting stale and the sheer busyness of FN (especially when I used to go towards the end of October) makes it not worth the trip as much this year, especially for me as I’m going to have to take a longer journey to arrive.

It’s back on the app today so hopefully that’s a good sign. It also looked intact when I visited on Wednesday so I’d assume they were waiting for a part which has potential arrived now?

Still no updates on Samurai, with it's position next to SAW, Hyperia & Colossus , it does tend to help suck up those oversold Fright Night's queues, so one would assume they would like it open soon....

Further to the above - it's still closed - probably dead for the rest of the season now, one would assume?

This thread has been quiet. I guess that's not a surprise - no new maze, scare zone yet to be announced (with no obvious work happening), minimal construction updates. Well let's change that with some construction updates: The Crows is getting another new route / layout I'm a little concerned that it could become a little too "outdoor scare maze" looking at that. But we'll see. One of the biggest issues I've had with The Crows in the last year or two is the higher security / plain-Thorpe staff in the attractions, which I believe comes from the fact it has less CCTV / no e-stops. If they keep building it up like this, they may as well go for e-stops and take the potential operational blips over neutralising the experience with many non-actors. Or take a step back to what it was like in earlier years to reduce the number / need for such staff. Creature Campus set is same as last year: And the stage for Lucifer's Lair is in the same spot (which was definitely better in terms of footfall and guest flow compared to its location in the past): I have heard the scare zone will be announced this week (although that's not a surprise...it is less than 3 weeks until the event starts after all). Given there's no obvious work happening anywhere on park, I expect that means it will be a more literal interpretation of the word "zone" (ie not a walkthrough like Crows / Death's Doors was). Which is fine; the scare-zone side of Lucifer's Lair works well in that regard, so another area of the park like that is no bad thing in my books!

I've never seen that issue before. Potentially a side effect of visiting when quiet. I don't think signage needs removing or anything. Simply that batching staff need to remain clear with telling full groups to go up the left stairs.

Remove the signage. I don't think it used to be there anyway.

Noticed whilst riding yesterday a potential issue with the queueing. On multiple occasions I saw odd groups split up even numbers go to the left for the main queue whilst the third person would join the single rider line. Luckily yesterday queues weren’t long enough to make it a major annoyance however I think the batching staff need to get a bit better at ensuring everyone goes the correct way or perhaps remove the single rider signage

new paint swish not long lasts, sticking plasters help bit for, swish swash tick tock ding dong dingy