Leaderboard

I did - paid for the ticket though (RIP Pass bought in February 2019) - have to say, that's a complete no brainer, never queued all night, multiple runs through mazes, a drink, £10 of food and a t-shirt all for £87! Maze count: Coven of 13: 5 Hellements: 1 Creepy Cottage: 4 Twisted Clowns: 2 Wastelands: 2 Chop Shop: 2 The Island: 1 The Cellar: 3 Haunted Hayride: 1 In Merlin terms, that's £210 worth of mazes Coven Of 13 was evidently a highlight, and Cottage always is too - mainly we feel the actors there have to work even harder than the others.

Yeah that was my thought - I'd say the host probably takes you up the exit (Not in that way), but I can't say that justifies an extra £150pp.

I attended the passholder preview event a couple weeks back and I must admit I was slightly disappointed. It was my first Fright Nights event so held high expectations, but can't help but feel a little let down. Trailers, as incredibly themed as it was, I felt lackluster in scares. As the scenes themselves were so very small, I found the majority of the scares to be massively predictable and probably didn't jump any more than once or twice. Granted it's a new maze, and is inevitably going to return year on year judging by the amount of investment that clearly went on in there judging by the external and internal scenery, so fingers crossed it's a maze that only gets better with age. I must say, though, I was pleasantly surprised by Creek Freak Massacre and even Platform 15 after seeing it being slated by the majority of people that have visited it over the years 😂 Hoping to get at least one more visit in before the end of the season to re-evaluate my thoughts, but ultimately felt like the things that were being hyped up the most this year (Trailers & Legacy, Legacy mostly because it has only just started so I never got the chance to see it) turned out to be quite the disappointment - certainly glad I only paid £5 per maze, I definitely don't think either of the three are worth the £10 price point.

There is now an announcement at the end of the show, said by a plain woman's voice, saying that the show has now ended, thank you for watching, please exit the Beach. It's very bland and a testament to the weak ending of the show. I stand by my statement - it's one of the weakest fire and light shows I've watched. But it's still a fire and light show, and they're always good. Hopefully the park carry on with it in future years.

It’s difficult though isn’t it. I bet a lot of people wanted a “throwback” show of some sort, because it sounds fantastic - and that’s exactly what they’ve done. The thing is, a lot of Thorpe’s audience were toddlers (or not even born) when FN started, and I’d like to bet that most people at the park on a given night have only visited FN once or twice, maybe even never before. (I’m pretty sure even Mr Silkstone himself has said he only started going to FN in the last few years, and didn’t get to do Asylum) A lot of guests simply don’t care about the details either - for example I drag Mrs Inferno to all sorts of scare events, and she enjoys them but I don’t think she could name many past mazes or place the theme tunes tbh. Most people aren’t all that bothered, they just want to enjoy it for what it is at the time. I think this sort of show was really only going to appeal to a few hardcore fans, and mean nothing at all to everyone else. I love that Thorpe have put it on to be honest, and from what I’ve seen online it looks like a great effort. Given a “throwback light show” brief, I couldn’t have done any better! I’d have probably added a big screen and had a defined ending of some sort, but really I think they have done a good job, especially if they (I assume) had a tight budget and short timeframe. If it’s not well received, it was worth a go. They tried something. Looking forward to seeing it in person this week

Yeah the Perfect Day is an odd one isn’t it. I remember hearing it a few times at FN that year because it was the theme song for that terrible film, but it doesn’t stand out to me as iconic at all, especially as there were only a few roaming actors. I would have said Asylum’s “other” theme tune was more iconic than that to be honest. Or maybe Studio 13’s queue music (although hardly a banger for the show, granted!) The one that stuck in my mind as “THE” Fright Nights song was always this one from My Bloody Valentine. (Skip to 1:25 🥲) It’s all subjective though isn’t it 😊 I guess it depends what you hear when you’re at the park, what you were doing at the time it played, and what sticks in your memory! I’ve had a huge wave of nostalgia listening to those just now! I miss the “old days” (not that it was that long ago!)

Thank you, had a great time! 😃 Didn't try Colossus, but rode all the other big coasters, rush and detonator no problems!

DEAL WITH NETFLIX CONFIRMED @ FORP PARC????!!!!! Like and hit that subscribe button!

Who's ready for a good ol' fashioned bit of speculation... So people have seen and brushed aside the 'TP-RMC 22' gag in Trailers. TPM even did a (admittedly somewhat clickbaity) article discussing what it means: https://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/07-10-2021/New+for+2022%3F!+RMC+and+Egypt%3F%3F In short: yeah, it's a joke to get people talking and/or laughing. Now if they put TP-RMC 23, it might have got people's attention a bit more. But what if there's something else hidden in Trailers? Some may remember I tried starting up a theme park blog earlier in the year. It's still alive and kicking, but I haven't updated it in ages. The last post on there (cheeky plug) was about the Easter Eggs / references that had appeared on some graffiti-decorated grabbing machines opposite Ghost Train. Most of them I was able to figure out. One I couldn't figure out was Exodus: I wracked my brain and can't think of any relation to has to anything Thorpe-related. I asked around, and no one could think of anything either. Heh, fair enough. Could be anything. And in Trailers, it appears again, albeit slightly more subtly: Okay, it has the obvious X:\No Way Out link, but it's also clearly there to say 'Exodus' too. Pushing the boundaries of coincidence now. Obviously could still mean anything, could mean nothing. Could even be Thorpe making something out of nothing to get people talking and making post like these. A speculative mind could start trying to put 2 and 2 together here though. That poster has trees in the background, with a vague look of the trees which go around Old Town. Trees are being cut down round Old Town, and Platform 15 is closing. So could Thorpe finally be building a coaster again, have it going round Old Town, and the project name is Exodus? Nah, probably not... Unless..?

Correct me if I am wrong But unless the upcharge for mazes is just the cash grab I said it was last year, isnt the whole point of upcharge timed ticked maze admission to STOP long waits?

Jack Silkstone has made a documentary about the Big Top. It includes a look at 3 versions and interviews with members of the Ents and Tech teams at the time. Really good and well worth the watch!

Underrated pun

You certainly could fit a (small) Raptor into the X pyramid...in theory. In reality, ripping out the track, and then building a new coaster inside the building would be wildly impractical. So I wouldn't expect to see something like that. Of course, they could just rip out the whole pyramid, and along with the Slammer site, that opens up a big plot for a new coaster. But then ripping out the pyramid has a whole host of knock on effects, and would itself be expensive.

I didn't do it last year and haven't watched the POV. However I imagine it's the same as last year, where it was tweaked and received a new storyline in light of Covid. Last year's version was still largely well received so if it's very similar I imagine it'll still be going down a treat.

Very much agree about Perfect Day tbf. It was only used at one Fright Nights (albeit a good one), and wasn't the best fit then. It's a choice which is lost on everyone except a select few, which makes for a terrible ending. I wonder how widespread knowledge is even of the Director character too. It was only really used for 2 seasons. Obviously a recognisable name/character amongst enthusiasts, but beyond that, do people remember...or care? The MBV and Studio 13 soundtracks would have been good additions (that Studio 13 soundtrack is from the MBV film score...wonder if there was some potential issues using it?).

Mainly a reference to the fact that the ending is practically his intro lol, I'm assuming Perfect Day has some kind of connection to Fright Nights but I can't find it (admittedly I've only been going to Fright Nights for two years so I'm probably not the best person for it).It's also not necessarily a bad thing that he's had some involvement, but it does run the risk of becoming too obscure in places

I still don't understand why perfect day is now seen as the flagship song of fright nights. The You're next characters were neither amazing, something to be remembered or a Thorpe IP. Rather a film with an IMDB rating of 6.6/10 why is this now seen as the best music ever present at Fright nights. TBH I would much prefer the ending to be some crazy rendition of the Thorpe Park happy birthday music. In my opinion, although I won't be able to see the show due to pass restrictions the show looks like its seriously lacking visual screens and perhaps some dancers, but not of the PG amity kind.

Glad that you had a good day. Anybody with long legs or who suffer from leg-cramps would suffer on Colossus.

I guess by 'has Jack Silkstone's fingerprints over it', that's a reference to the fact the show is effectively a throwback to a variety of attractions, past and also present? Archie Stephens also did the music for it. How much creative involvement they had is something is not clear - were they approached by Thorpe and told "This is what we want, do this please", or if they were involved in deeper discussions. In any case, the whole point of Legacy is that it's a fire and light show that was set to music from old attractions. As for the show, it's...fine. I think that's harsh on the show in many ways: a 7 minute long show with fire, lights and loud music is always going to be good. But it's perhaps one of my least favourite such shows that I've watched. Let me explain. Most of these types of shows go one of two ways. The first way is that they tell a story. The fire and lights and whatever else add to that, but the story comes first. Examples are the fire show at Phantasialand's winter event, and the end show at Movie Park Germany's Halloween event. Both fantastic. The second way is that they don't care about a story, and just go "Here's a ton of fire, lights, music and whatever else, enjoy". Example are Tulleys' Wastelands show, and even the mini fire show at the Fearstival Arena at Thorpe last year. Again, both great. Legacy tries to have it both ways. There's an introduction from a character (Fear I think), which is a bit difficult to hear with the voice it has. I don't really get the story still, but it's basically 'Fright Nights has been going for 20 years, here's the legacy of it'. Then after that, you have 5 minutes of fire, lights and music, which blends and bootlegs/mixes different Fright Nights soundtracks and soundbites. Then you get story again, and a terrible ending of Perfect Day playing (which is meant to be like an exit song, but no one realises the show has finished, so are still awkwardly waiting for the finale which has already happened). The trouble is, with the 5ish minutes of fire, lights, etc, it has too many lulls. These lulls happen when they're transitioning from one attraction's audio to the next usually, and sometimes contain some vague story idea. Lulls and breathers are fine in these types of shows if they serve a purpose. But they don't here - there's no story happening, and there's not been enough preceding or superseding it to justify it. So that's my main issue. They've tried to merge two different ideas for a fire and light show, and got the weaker parts of both of them. That still creates a decent show. But still misses the mark for me personally. I also think it's a bit too fan-servicey, which will confuse many people. After the first show, I overheard a lot of blasé and disappointed reactions. We also saw the 9pm show and it was very thin with numbers. Harder to know what the reaction was. But with a terrible ending, there's certainly no applause. It's important to note it's still be tweaked. With the delays, they only had one proper test run of it all, so it will change and improve. As I say, it's fine, and it's great to have a proper fire and light show at the park. But I'm unsure how well it will resonate with the wider audience. And I think it's too fan-servicey for it to truly be a hit. Hopefully it's popular enough to justify bringing back a similar idea on the beach next year, but maybe a bit more polished. tl;dr - I enjoyed it, it's a good addition to the line up, but not my favourite thing.

Yep, it hasn't been officially confirmed anywhere (in the sense that they haven't said on social media / website / app that Legacy is running today), but the fact they've updated the app to include showtimes suggest that it will indeed be running this evening! Everyone's favourite Thorpe Park fansite () will be there tonight hoping to see some fire...

Great behind the scenes tour of trailers for anyone interested. Interesting to hear that when they were originally planning the maze one of the options was having the maze in containers, so I can imagine the containers being used again in the future especially with no Platform 15 next year. Unpopular opinion but some of my favourite mazes have been in the containers so would love to see the return of them in the future.

The app is now showing show times of 7, 8 and 9. The message saying its currently unavailable has disappeared so I imagine its ready for tonight

Hope you're having a good day there today Kelly! Let us know how you got on with this.

It was delayed for various reasons. I hear the park have been working on it a lot the last couple of days in particular, so hopefully should be ready now, but still no confirmation. A good thing is that the park have released "Legacy Hints" on the park app over the last day, which means that something should still happen.

Hmm I’m not sure they would Re-theme X again. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but walking dead is probably the most complete experience of the coaster there has been i can’t see them changing it again before the coaster is at the end of its life. Could be wrong though stranger things have happened !

Just to update on the maze queue situation, queues are pretty nonexistent today (Sunday 10th.) Hotel guests got free unlimited maze entry on 2nd day between 3pm and 4pm, and in that time, we managed to do Trailers x2, Creak Freak x2, Platform 15 x1. We only queued 5 mins for Trailers, the other two were walk on pretty much. So it's just a Saturday issue I guess! Even now, we just passed Trailers, and the queue is only like 15-20 mins long. I guess the queues could possibly be an issue during half-term also, but today has been fine. Less actors in Trailers today though compared to yesterday, maybe about half. And Legacy still not operating.

Sorry for the double post, but this one does contain spoilers. I figured I should separate them! Trailers: Enjoyed this despite the long wait and gigantic group size (17 people) Pre-show was super rushed and didn't catch much of what was said. Loved all the tribute rooms, especially the part for Big Top because that was a favourite of mine so just hearing the soundtrack made me giddy. The group behind us swiftly caught up and formed a rather large blob of a group trying to squeeze through with a lot of swearing about being squished going on. By the time we reached the second room with a long speech, we were crammed in wall to wall like sardines. It certainly didn't feel covid safe in the slightest. Then we were ushered out. I'm not sure what the finale was supposed to be because there wasn't really one. Creek Freak: Seemed largely the same as previous runs in the past only with less actors. Not a lot really happened. Platform 15: Didn't get to use our ticket for it as stated above. Crows: Pretty cool idea but most of the actors seemed half-asleep aside from the last guy, who was pretty awesome. We didn't manage to see any of the shows or spot any roaming actors. Legacy show not in operation.

Maybe Legacy has been installed by the same people involved with the new for 2021 Tidal Wave fire effect 🤔

I thought Trailers was honestly great. Some excellent references to previous mazes with a very reasonable length too. Not necessarily the scariest maze, but still lots of fun. Glad to see them using this area for mazes again. Definitely got some Stranger Things type vibes here. Creek Freak Massacre I found to be very enjoyable as always. Missed this maze a lot last year so it’s nice to have it back, especially since it’s based on me turning into some hillbilly! Platform was perhaps the weakest last night, but yet still performed to what was perhaps it’s strongest level since opening. The actors really set the scene and I loved the animatronics at the start, which looked great and not like something you’d find in Asda! I strongly enjoyed the Crows walkthrough which was different and the parkwide soundtrack is decent enough. My only major gripes during yesterday’s event was the entrance process wasn’t greatly organised and there were few food options open. Even KFC and both BKs were shut, with Infinity only serving hotel guests and some outlets closed despite being advertised as open.

Staff at tulleys have to declare there covid status when they are employed in terms of vaccinations etc I'm sure they have some idea of what they are dealing with. Admittedly a lot of there staff are only 16-18 so will be unlikely to have had both jabs yet.

Was just watching Theme Park Guide's video of Trailers and noticed this in the background of one of the scenes! TP-RMC 22, could it be?! Or are they just messing with us...

Lots of positive reviews coming from staff previews. I still wonder if their opinion would change if they were charged £10 to go through a maze..... for me nowadays the press night preview videos is enough.

Squid Games, Episode 5 Theres a sample of the original Colossus theme at the start of the episode. Incase anyone cares

An hour! Used to have it up and running within 15-20 minutes when it rolled back. Has it been windy / cold the last few mornings?

Whilst it's true the park have done work to the system to make rollbacks less of a thing, they will still happen. It's just one of those things with launch coasters, even with modern ones. Getting it back open quickly is a good sign, in theory, that they were able to pinpoint the reason why it rolled back and feel confident it wouldn't happen again. Then again, I hear it also rolled back this morning too. Could be a weather related thing given the reasonably quick change we've had from warmer and humid weather to colder and wetter weather?

Samurai was running really well yesterday, running at a decent speed once again and a decent cycle. Believe the only reason it was running a lot slower was they needed the new parts to settle in.

If you like images from the sky showing a reduction in the number of trees in a random location, boy do I have a treat for you... There is very much a clear and obvious removal of trees over the year period between March 2020 and April 2021. So, what does it mean? Who knows. One would certainly have to raise a suspicious eyebrow at this slow deforestation and the fact that this is Platform 15's final year. But here's the thing. Cutting down trees is a very simple job in the grand scheme of things. If an investment for 2022 (or 2023, or beyond) was going there, what need is there to cut down trees over a year and a half in advance? Genuinely don't know the answer there. Maybe some groundwork surveying or something? I dunno. Could this just be a sign that there's some diseased trees in the area? Or that the trees were felled for all the wood used in Creek Freaks Unchained last year? Could there be a plan in the future to create a building round the Platform 15 route to create an indoor maze space? Or could it actually be for some new ride in the future? Only time will tell I guess.

An off-ride video of Stealth I’ve put together;

Grand National is closed for the remainder of 2021 for planned maintenance. I don’t like the look of this, the last time a coaster closed towards the end of a season for “maintenance” it was torn down during the winter without warning. https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/planned-maintenance/