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Any bakers in the house? Whats going wrong with the doughnuts that they fall apart when hold them up and are a yellow colour inside?

Those posters - my guess, now that the new stuff doesn’t seem to fit, is that there’s a new room in Trailers based on X:\NWO - one poster clearly says X, and the other resembles one of those manakins there used to be on the old X:\NWO brake runs.

Ultimately the park are keeping the line up the same and adding a free scare zone (and a lack of free stuff was something people complained about last year). So that's good. I can't lie, I'm a bit concerned about how they'll effectively staff all that, but we'll see. I wonder whether we'll see much in the way of changes to the existing mazes. At the very least, the posters that appeared outside Trailers don't match up with the description of the new scare zone.

Lineup has been released for 2025. - 4 scare mazes from last season returning - The crows scare zone - IT 4d cinema - Lucifers Lair - Creature Campus with a new show ‘Shock to the system’ - A new scare zone revealed soon ‘Something lingers in the shadows... a place even the damned dare not tread. This Halloween, we open the gates to an all-new realm - where lost souls wander in purgatory and time stands still. But beware: step inside, and you may lose all sense of where you're going... or why you came.‘ In an ideal world it would’ve been nice to see something new in Trailers place, but this is still a good lineup and to be honest another free scare zone is exactly what the event needs in my opinion. Looking forward to seeing more details and where it’ll be located?

So - no new maze (not that one was necessarily anticipated...) A new scarezone. Creature Campus show gets a retheme.

pom ba da bom bom bom

I think it's worth pointing out that Survival Games ended up costing more than Trailers. And Creek Freak Massacre was, at the time, the park's single highest investment for a maze and lasted 3 seasons. So high cost doesn't mean it has to be around for a long time, although I understand the point and broadly don't disagree. I've seen people on social media talking about how Trailers in particular is "old". It's a very interesting discussion point. It's had 4 seasons now, and last year was the first year we saw substantial changes to it (though arguably, those changes weren't really substantial, just a redress), and is the oldest in the line up. But in the past, the park had mazes last for several seasons... Asylum - 9 seasons Saw Alive - 9 seasons Se7en - 6 seasons Hellgate - 6 seasons And there's even more recent examples of mazes lasting a few years... Platform 15 - 6 seasons Blair Witch - 6 seasons (with a brief gap) The Curse - 5 seasons Containment - 5 seasons Obviously the glaring difference right now is the fact the mazes are upcharge. But then, plenty of places keep mazes for a long time. Towers is a fine example. Lots of international parks (some of which have better Halloween events than Thorpe) do. And scream parks, some of which have mazes set up in situ all year round, have kept mazes for a long time (Tulleys has 5 mazes which are at least a decade old, have just retired one which was 15 years old, and have a couple which have been rethemed but are otherwise the same). My point is, keeping attractions the same for a long time isn't uncommon at other places either. Thorpe certainly gets held to a high expectation with Fright Nights. And recently that's at least partially their own doing thanks to the high maze costs, and their own marketing hype. But at the same time, I don't think a maze potentially having a run of 5 seasons is that long or necessarily a bad thing. It will be interesting to see what happens this year. The park have introduced a new maze every year since 2010 (if you include Saw Alive). Okay, there's a couple of loose definitions of new in that list but still. It's the expectation that there will be a new maze every year. In the same way in the past there was an expectation of a new ride every year. But with changing budgets and a complete behind the scenes overhaul, plus this being the last year that Thorpe run Ents themselves, who knows what this means. But if they don't introduce a new maze, I'll be very interested to see how they market the event and where they place their focuses.

I think there’s a discussion to be had around permanent maze spaces. Theres a higher cost to create the mazes in permanent spaces. For stitches and survival games this is even more apparent. The quality of mazes has gone up and it saves them setting mazes up every year. However because of the high cost and its that it’s a permanent feature. It has to operate for quite a few years and you start getting bored of mazes. Trailers for example, I see everyone complaining that it’s still here and it’s defintely one of the weaker mazes too. However it has to come back to make it worth it

Parm Pap is referencing the current repaint of Trailers' entrance, which was looking rather tired... https://x.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1947946070564368440?t=sTe6cAWh7v_3yI8gFwd9Mg&s=19

bor bor cha, bor bor cha, bor bor cha and the bor, cha, bor tick tock, tick tock, trailers, tick tock paint nice paint nice nothing new budget's gone

Wow, that's incredible. I have a old prop from vampire somewhere.. it's probably in one of my old boxes

No Russ, no Tidal Wave flame effect 😥

Thanks, both! I doubt I'll end up doing it anyway. If there are probably actors in it, I'm not sure I'd want to take the chance, and besides, there's too much at Thorpe that I actually like for me to be overly worried about not having done The Walking Dead! I'll probably be far too tempted by the bigger coasters on my next visit, particularly seeing as I definitely need more goes on Hyperia...

Actors are in there in the afternoons most days this year in my experience. They always place a sign outside the entrance when there are actors, and there almost always won't be actors in there if that sign isn't out. If you want to experience it without actors, I'd try to ride it before noon.

It could be as simple as spending existing budget with the future in mind. They clearly had some form of budget set aside for the “sparkle project”, which (to some extent at least) was for the purpose of improving and polishing the existing park in general. What better way to achieve that than to tidy up old and defunct things, which at the same time will reduce the cost of a project later on as the clearance step will be partially done. Seems like quite a sensible decision to me as it has the future in mind.

I’m sorry I can’t answer your question, but in my experience it’s extremely rare, and on the few occasions when they have had actors in there during my visits over the years, it’s simply one in the pre-show room, but the “scares” are minimal and it’s more of an “opening and closing the doors” sort of role. Another actor or 2 is then in the corridor just after the station exit, although realistically the scares here are minimal too and it’s more for show as you file past. My advice would be, if you’re really wanting to ride TWD, depending on your phobia of course, it isn’t comparable to a scare maze and is a very brief interaction. You’ll be walking past them for a few seconds at most, and the environment doesn’t lend itself to being scary or really give the staff any opportunity to hide. you’ll also be one of a trainload of people so it’s safety in numbers! If you just come through the doors, keep your head down and walk, once you’re in to the narrow corridor you’re past where the actors usually are (if there are any!) I think there will always be someone in the preshow room, who often has a mask of some sort on, but as I’ve mentioned it’s far from a scary experience and really no different than any member of staff dealing with a preshow 🤷‍♂️ Do they even have actors in there anymore actually?

Out of curiosity, how often do actors appear in The Walking Dead? And do they ever appear when not advertised outside? I only ask because I haven’t actually done it since the retheme due to a bit of a phobia of/aversion to costumed actors, particularly scare actors. I rode the coaster hardware itself in 2014, prior to the retheme, but I haven’t ridden it since. I’m wondering if I should rip the plaster off and try it next time I’m at Thorpe, but I’d really prefer not to risk it if there’s a strong chance of actors being in there.

Any Hippogriff ride. I will never wait an hour for a Vekoma junior coaster. Not on your life. I don't generally spite myself out of any rollercoaster. If I've done it before then I won't do a lot of Gerstlauer rollercoasters. Saw is awful to ride, Smiler is painful to queue for. Eurofighters are generally quite meh. Generally I avoid Tidal Wave type rides now, there's no fun in walking abound in soggy clothes.

Certainly a shame that Russ left. We'll never know exactly what he was responsible for, but he obviously served as a face for the park for a long period of time via Jack's videos, having a reasonable open Instagram page and being quite visible on park. He joined as a director at the park at a time when there were several directors coming and going at the park, before the current long-running stability we've seen. Regardless of what's happened at the high Merlin level, and the issues this is causing Thorpe and the other parks, I do think Thorpe's current success was built on stability at their leadership level. I'd expect that the role description is sort of all-encapsulating. In other words, it's not saying "Rethemes and lands are coming", but rather "If a retheme or a land was to come to light, it would be in the remit of the Creative Manager". I imagine that part of the reason the role was created is because the Entertainments Department is set to be outsourced, like Towers and Legoland. So the person's previous role, which was related to Ents, would change significantly, so it makes sense for that role to develop and make use of the creative skills they have. The big thing here is that there's now someone looking after the "creative maintenance" of the park. Hopefully that means ride effects. So hopefully there's some positive changes there (looking at Swarm and Inferno), and also moving forward, there's someone at Thorpe who can liaise with MMM to say "This is not a worthwhile effect we can realistically maintain, do not include this" (looking at the Hyperia splashdown)

It is a weird one and I don't think we really know the answer to the question of "Why now?" Obviously having an SBNO ride doesn't look nice. But it had been SBNO for ages, and stood right by a year-round attraction for a while. So it's not like now was the hot time to do it. One point which people might not be aware of is that the park made use of the ride for staff training (work at height in particular) after it closed, which was in many ways more convenient than using another ride. They didn't need planning permission to remove it (even if they did submit an application). I reckon there is some legs to the school of thought of a ride going there at some point. I wonder how much it actually cost to remove? I wonder if that extra cost proved to be a hurdle to adding a ride there in the past, so they ultimately decided to remove it now so when they choose again to add a new ride, it's slightly less expensive. A new ride could still go there next year in theory, but I'd be surprised.

Hi guys. Of all the things that can happen at a park, a spite is probably the most gutting. I'm sure we've all had an occasion where a ride has been closed for the day, or it's broken down, that means we haven't been able to ride it. But sometimes, some might voluntarily choose not to ride something for whatever reason. Whether it's through fear or just plainly forgetting it exists, we might sometimes choose not to go on a coaster. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know: have you ever self-spited yourself out of a major roller coaster? Have you ever voluntarily not ridden something for whatever reason? For purposes of limitation, I'm going to keep this to relatively major attractions. There are a number of enthusiasts who often don't ride kiddie coasters (myself among them); if I were to include all of the kiddie coasters I've denied myself by choice over the years, this would be a long list! If we're keeping it to more major coasters and excluding kiddie coasters, most of my examples are fairly historical now, but I have a few I could reel off! These are: Rock'n'Rollercoaster at Walt Disney Studios Park - This is probably my most significant one, and the only one I am yet to receive redemption on! When I was not quite 8, I went to Disneyland Paris, and I had the opportunity to make Rock'n'Rollercoaster my first ever inverting coaster. I was over 1.2m (but not yet tall enough for Space Mountain or Indiana Jones), and I'd never gone upside down before... but I chose not to ride it. Why, you might ask? Well, it was all because a boy from my primary school told me it gave him tummy ache... so I staunchly refused to ride it all trip on that basis alone! I'm still bitter with myself about this one 14 years on... I have provisional plans to return to DLP next year, and this is one of the attractions I care most about going on purely to avenge my 8 year old self! I don't even care if it's not that good; I just want to go on it to redeem my past self-spite! The Dragon at Legoland Windsor - It took me until I was 14 to ride this... because when I first went to Legoland at 6 years old, my sister and I both refused to ride it due to the perceived "scary" theming! I couldn't ride it on my second visit at 10 years old either, but I had a broken arm, so that was slightly more out of my control... Saw: The Ride at Thorpe Park - I did not go on Saw until my 3rd visit to Thorpe Park when I was 15. On my first and second visits in 2014 and 2015, respectively, my sister and I were still in the phase of being slightly fragile around any kind of vaguely "scary" theming. We pondered Saw on our second visit in May 2015, but we caught the restrictions board outside that said "Live or die... make your choice" on it and swiftly decided to live! I was also a bit too much of a law-abiding citizen to contravene the posted age restriction of 12... I visited in May and didn't turn 12 until July. Scorpion and Sand Serpent at Busch Gardens Tampa - On my first visit to Busch Gardens in 2016, I didn't ride either of these... because I quite literally forgot they even existed. No, I'm not joking; when we were in the park, I simply forgot they were there and forgot to ride them, meaning that I exited the park having missed 2 non-kiddie coasters purely due to my own actions! On my revisit in 2023, I made specific effort to ride them... and I'm glad I did given that Sand Serpent shut about 2 weeks later and Scorpion swiftly followed about a year after that! In terms of non-coasters, the only thing I generally self-spite myself out of these days is anything involving live actors, particularly scare actors, due to a personal phobia of/aversion to scare actors. For this reason, I never did Derren Brown's Ghost Train, I have never ridden Nemesis Sub-Terra, I have never done a scare maze, and I also haven't done The Walking Dead: The Ride at Thorpe Park since they rethemed it (I got the cred in 2014 when it was X, so I'm slightly less bothered about this one than the ones listed above). Coasters-wise, I'm game for pretty much anything nowadays (kiddie coasters aside)! But I'd be keen to know; have you ever self-spited yourself out of a major roller coaster? Or any other attraction, for that matter?

At some parks, something that I would say seems less prominent than they used to be are paper maps. As a collector of theme park maps from my visits, I very frequently don't see a paper map at some parks anymore, with things having migrated to apps. I do like a paper map, and I'm always happy when parks have them prominently on display! At many places, they don't have them anymore or at very least display them far less prominently. I'm also sad about the loss of physical ORPs. I'm a lot less inclined to buy the digital ones; I almost liked the little books they came in more than the actual photo itself!

Could’ve potentially been plans for a new flat this year or 2026 that had been cut? Or they just used part of the sparkle project budget to get it removed whilst they had the funds. Either way, shame to not have a replacement flat there yet. Hopefully soon 🤞