All Activity

Went from "Delayed opening" this morning to "closed". Let's remain hopeful aye. I'm at the park today so I will see if anything is going on and update you all later

Could we see it opening at some point this week hopefully?

I just came back from a pretty quiet Fright Nights (a Monday), and it was good fun! I was at the front of two of the mazes, and back at the other two, and generally I thought it was e better than last year. Anyway I'll briefly summarize the mazes Trailers: Good fun and consistent as usual, but scary is a stretch. I do think even with new rooms it is getting stale, I also find the newer rooms to be like barely noticable compared to what was there previously. Acting quality was great though. Stitches: Similar opinion to last year, it's really eerie and well themed. I was at the front and felt pretty on edge for most of it. Probably my favourite maze? Deadbeat: Last year I roasted it, and I would say improvements have been made for sure, though subtle. Last year I felt it lacked scares and felt very flat, but this year I felt like there was more actors, darker sets in places, and a lot of smoke. I thought the ending was mediocre last year but this year the two actors in the finale chased us out which was brilliant. I thought overall there was some good timed scares, a good level of them, and just overall was a good scare maze. I honestly was shocked at how much subtle changes could make Deadbeat actually really fun! Survival Games: Honestly I miss the old days when this was a intense maze that pushed limits. As the years have gone by, it seems to have just got weaker, and this year's version I thought was meh. Last year was impractical with batching, with the arena having 4 actors to 60 people wandering around. Despite this though I think removing the multi route/separation makes it feel like a tamed down version of its previous self. I do like the new beginning, I feel it gives me techno vibes and explains a narrative a lot better. Despite this though once you remove Survival Games's gimmick and USP, you begin to realize it's mostly a maze of black walls and actors insulting you. I really didn't feel intimidated enough. The lack of forcefulness like previous years felt sad. Crows: Honestly this can stay for many more years and I have no issue with it. Thorpe have literally created an iconic character, and their scare zone has been consistently fun. Purgatory Town: Cast here are brilliant, and had some hilarious interactions. Though the theming and budget of this zone can't be more £250. If the cast weren't so good, I would be more inclined to complain.

Pretty sure it still has its cable - can see it’s 2 cables going into the launch shed here and the one cut up on the floor will be the old one. It’s not completely unusual for it to be a bit temperamental right after a cable - just a shame it had to be done at fright nights!

I'm more concerned it's not just a cable replacement. Perhaps they've had to remove the cable to get to broken parts or investigate the issue further to see what is broken. If that's the case then I suspect they won't have any any spares to hand so they will have to order parts in. However nothing has been put on the Thorpe Park website regarding any unplanned closures or even marked unavailable either so it's a crystal ball to whether this is a serious prolonged closure or it's something they can fix fairly quickly.

Thorpe Park 1989 Promo | Thunder River, Phantom Fantasia, Space Station Zero, Farm Fascinating video of Thorpe in 1989.

Seriously? That's not good news considering last weeks replacement, and I 've recently been praising it up with suggestions that we still have a few years. Cable replacement is expensive, and they have be made.

The doors are open and the launch cable has been removed today.

Obtained this image from somebody that's helped me. They have corded off the area by the crest and the launch bunker doors are open. This certainly doesn't look good.

Will keep watching.

Looks like things aren't looking good for Stealth. Last tested on Friday and nothing since. Perhaps the bad weather isn't helping the situation as I know they don't like to operate it in the rain

Reasonably common for Colossus. They do it just to check for any signs of wear and tear at the joints of the ride. It will be a part of their routine and nothing to be concerned about.

Saw a man today (looked like engineer or technician) using binoculars to watch ride go past, it was dark. Any idea what that's about? He was stood on the path outside the ride area.

What has proved interesting is the flow of people towards rides that apparently "the app" shows as having shorter queues. There must be loads of people who waste their time moving between rides because of that. The same mindset as someone already seated on a ride praising a ride elsewhere as "being better"; make the most of what you have.

Stealth is on the app as delayed opening today. Let's hope she opens.

700pph across all attractions is definitely an overestimate. Mazes probably average around 400-500pph. And I can't think of any non-major coaster that would we get above 700pph consistently.

CalCal, they certainly are very clear pictures. I certainly wouldn't expect that quality from my phone, well done.

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.