Leaderboard

Alright, I've had a day to think over what these dungeons are like after experiencing it last Sunday and are going to be brutally honest with it now after the experience I had and will present my opinion of it as a paying customer who dedicated nearly an hour of their 10am - 5pm day on this thing; not as a theme park blogger who is in Merlin/Alton's good graces and paid zilch to experience it. Contrary to all the positive reviews that are going around right now for it from all the theme park bloggers/vloggers/YouTube "celebrities", I'm sorry, but this is without a doubt the worst Dungeon I have done and I would go as far to say the worst attraction Alton Towers have ever given us in the 21 years I have been visiting this place year-on-year since 1998, and that's saying something. It goes almost entirely against what makes all the other Dungeons enjoyable attractions and it falls flat on delivering a comprehensive experience for guests with no proper thought or imagination put into the product and here's why. All the other Dungeons I have experienced immerse you properly into each scene with details and theming across every corner, from the flooring, walls, scenery and the actors. Despite many of them having bare roofing such as the London one for example, you tend to forget about it all with every scene and focus your attention on the actor and surroundings, as per you should, so this missing detail never really posed a problem for me with the others. With the Alton Towers one however, the very opposite occurs. For every scene you go through, I kid you not, there are flat black walls literally everywhere you look from the sides, behind you, the ceiling and even amongst the theming where the actor stands. It look horrendous and every room made you feel like you were in a big black box that had been assembled quickly and cheaply with timber wall panels. There was no texture to any of them, no deformation and no disguising of the walls in any room to make you feel as though you are in a dungeon. It just looks incredibly lazy and cheap and no attempt whatsoever was done to immerse guests 360 degrees unlike all the other Dungeons. The entrance to the attraction I still hold the view looks disgustingly ugly and cheap. Whilst in-person it looks a little better than through a screen, you can tell it was built on a budget with the randomly placed barrels and crates outside the entrance, along with the temporary fire torches fenced off. Most unforgiving of all is there is still an entire section of the entrance to the left in front of the lift towers with nothing but a giant 30ft black wall. Clearly the park ran out of wooden supports to cover this up properly during construction, so their solution to this problem was to pop down to the local B&Q and buy 50L of Dulux EasyCare Rich Black paint to cover up the shadows of the deceased Oompa Loompas peeking through the 2D windows. I'm guessing with the amount of black walls inside the attraction they had plenty to spare to cover this up too... Take a look here at what I mean. Taken on Sunday 24th March. It's so revolting to look at: As for the Black River boat ride, it's the same story - paint every wall black and leave it. The ride follows through the same route as Charlie, but believe it or not, it's now even barer than before with very little decoration or theming present in any portion. There are a few projectors on flat walls as you go round showing the shadows of victims being tortured, a couple of water jets to get you wet, a single animatronic which just bobs up and down ever so slightly in a cauldron, a single projector on a mannequin head and a single oddly-placed smoke machine. That is quite literally it for 4 minutes straight. There are no proper special effects anywhere inside, many zones had no audio playing, there are just black walls and tunnels for 80% of it and most unforgivable is the park were too lazy to remove the old theming from Charlie such as the water wheel in the station and the mirrored section towards the end where Sonic used to be on Toyland Tours. There is so much empty space and wasted area on this ride now that it makes Charlie look like a masterpiece compared to "Black Walls - The Ride". It's so, so bad. From here, it's pretty much your bog standard Dungeon attraction where there are various scenes stolen copied from other existing ones. Each scene did have its little twist added to the script referencing Alton Towers instead, but 95% of it was exactly the same as all the others. The Plague Doctor was 100% the same as the London one (though with very few effects) and so was The Torturer. The Judge scene was a little different but followed the same procedure - 3 people chosen, 1 found guilty after just saying where they were from. The Highwayman was identical to Ms. Lovett's pie shop mixed with Sweeney Todd at London where it used identical sound effects and audio and had the moving chairs with prodders. Lastly, the Haunting for the last scene was pretty good overall I will admit with some nice use of lighting and sound effects, similar to Witches of Warwick. Was a decent finale. As for the acting though, I've gotta hand it to those in there, they did a fantastic job in every scene. The actors performed brilliantly with plenty of adult humour which I liked and were interacting with guests very well. In fact, I would go as far to say the actors Alton have for this Dungeon are better than any other I have done before, so well done for hiring the right people! But that all aside, even though the acting was brilliant, the rest of it was a total mess. The biggest problem I have is the fact so many areas of the attraction consist of nothing but black walls everywhere in every scene and it's the dominating and most noticeable feature of every room. Each scene I would say is 70:30 in favour of black walls to theming and it looks really rushed in many areas, especially the transitions between each scene which once again are just black walls with no theming or detail put into them either. It is quite literally one giant yet claustrophobic rectangular black box one after the other for the majority of the experience. With the other dungeons, you at least have stuff to see, hear and feel which the London one is especially good at. But for the Alton Towers one? The only thing you can smell is the fumes of freshly coated black Dulux paint mixed with touching the sloppily finished un-sanded walls, and flooring which still has outlines of Charlie's theming and fencing present. It really is genuinely like this inside. The thing to bear in mind is that this is an attraction every guest unless you are an AT Premium Pass Holder will need to pay £5 for in order to experience, and I am telling you right now, I was really cheesed off my money went on this experience after finishing. There is no way in hell this is worth the upcharge the park is enforcing, because you can get a much better Dungeon experience across any other corner of the country for free compared to this if you are a MAP. It's completely unjustifiable in my view given there is a serious lack of quality and finish present in this version and you are frankly better off getting two medium Costa cappuccinos in Forbidden Valley for your fiver. Now, you might say "it's not finished yet hence the black walls", but I would then question why the heck are the park charging customers for a half-baked product if it's evidently not ready? Either open it when it's 100% right (yeah, just like DBGT remember...), or have some decency and not charge guests at all for it until it is fully completed. Lastly, I want to emphasise on a point @Martin Doyle made above a few posts ago. You might be reading and hearing many great reviews out there for the Alton Towers Dungeon right now from all the big and famous theme park fans out there with a massive following, but please take what you hear from them with a massive grain of salt. These are the same groups of people that praised Thorpe Park's Fright Nights last year with some going as far to say it was the "best Fright Nights yet", so it's obviously evident some of them are in Merlin's good graces when writing their reviews and are restricted on what they really think about it. Instead, I implore you to focus your attention and effort on those who have actually paid the £5 admission for this attraction and dedicated an hour of their time in the park for it. These reviews are far more credible and realistic through my eyes as they tend to speak their mind properly with no filters in place and aren't towing the company's line of being overly-positive about everything Merlin creates. To summarise my experience of the attraction, it would be this - a lacklustre, short-sighted and rushed mess that made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory look phenomenal in comparison. Still, it is better than nothing right?............Oh wait, black walls are nothing............ Alton Towers Dungeon - 3/10 EDIT: I rest my case when saying Alton are trying to make this thing look amazing by getting all the famous theme park bloggers and YouTubers onboard the hype train. This video has nothing but the MAP holders group, theme park vloggers like Shawn and bloggers like Cupcakes & Coasters giving their opinion:

Is this some shade at Thorpe? 😂

Perhaps you missed the part where I said I’m “actually a big fan of the dungeons” (matter of fact, Edinburgh and Amsterdam are my two favourite M£rlin attractions) so yeah I think it’s safe to say I gave this every chance possible and wanted it to succeed. For the record, I DID focus on what the show lights wanted me to see... however when the lack of theming in the walls and roofs stick out like a sore thumb (you don’t really have to be Sherlock Holmes to spot them!!) it is quite difficult to turn a blind eye to it ESPECIALLY for somebody who as he has just said, has done every other UK dungeon plus Amsterdam so I would like to think I have a rough idea of what the dungeons are capable of as thematic experiences. I went into this with an open mind hoping for it to be good however I’m sorry but on this visit, it fell flat. I don’t care if “other opinions are positive”, this is MY opinion which I feel I’m entitled to regardless if it differs from the majority or not

StevenVig being unnecessarily sarcastic about a justified comment? Shock horror

Well here's a story, I actually enjoyed Walking Dead! But I don't think it will be successful (and apparently hasnt been). The reason is, entertainment has once again been sidelined in favour of marketing formula. The formula is broken. "Every ride must have a world first or an IP" is broken. The ride before this had a wider appeal and attracted an age group much more fitting for the experience. X No Way Out was never designed to be a super scary ride and it never could be. It had a scary edge because of the weirdness and darkness, but it was more than that and could be enjoyed by older kids and young teenagers. By making it themed to a violent horror show, it puts off people who don't like it. Those who do like it will be disappointed, because it's just a dressed up family coaster with some corridors. And those who've never seen the show may be put off by the promise of "actors touching you" and 'extreme' horror (which doesnt really exist). So who are you left with? Who is this ride for? Once again the IP formula shoots the park in the foot. Add to that how poorly designed the entrance and surrounding area is means nobody can find it. So nobody's going in! The ugly barbed wire opposite the sorry remains of Octopus Garden and a big cartoon sign saying "Poop deck" is just the most hilarious thing Ive ever seen. Possibly worse than Legoland's Haunted House as worst Merlin entrance ever. The preshow is total garbage. But after that, the simple fact that something happens during the ride now (like was always intended to) suddenly makes this a fun ride. X was calling out for this for about 20 years! It's insane that it took this long. We now have animations and moments during the stopping points, which creates a memorable ride. The sound design is fantastic too! But again this appeals better to a younger audience than Walking Dead fans. The effects are mostly good and very well timed (although a couple are pretty hokey and I dont like the TVs). This would have worked really well as a family haunted ride, but people expecting extreme horro will just laugh. I enjoyed it, but it should have been done properly. Shouldnt have been IP, should have happened 20 years ago and should have used the preshow rooms instead of just endless corridors. Then it could have been a family staple for Thorpe Park, rather than another Merlin 5 year failure.

2019 advert is released... Wow... A truly dreadful advert like no other...

Hi all, went to paultons park today and had a lovely day, weather brilliant too and of course being the middle of the week, crowds were quite light. thought I would post a brief construction update, wow I never realised this new land covered so much ground , it’s covering quite a big area that what I thought, I’m really excited to see what paultons are capable of achieving, if lost kingdom is anything to go by, I think we are in for an impressive treat constuction pics are hard to get, there is a bit construction fence all around the area with no peep holes, and no big high advantage points, I could have poked my phone over the fence but didn’t want to take advantage and faced being told off by staff, the only ride that kinda works getting any pics of the scope of the area is on windy castle which works when your car is stopped at the top so here is the best I could get so things we know for sure or rumoured name tornado springs(confirmed) at least 5-6 new rides according to gossip heard (only rumoured to the exact count but we know there will be a few, another new coaster maybe??) rio grande WILL return and will be extended to run through or around the new area(confirmed as the park have said will return in 2020) wave runner WILL feature in the new area and be rethemed to fit in the new area(confirmed as the park was doing work all around the ride putting up timber sheets around the outside of ride. New area opening may 2020(confirmed as the board around the area says so) RIP panning for gold and mini golf attraction which is making room for the new area, it’s all gone Super excited to keep up with construction on this, can’t wait to see how it looks

Having now done all the UK dungeon attractions aswell as Amsterdam and being somebody who is actually quite a big fan of the dungeons, I can quite categorically say that this is easily the worst of the dungeons by a mile. First off I will start with the positives and say the acting quality was strong as was the final scene with the haunting. HOWEVER and without given much away,I find the amount of black walls and blank corridors between the scenes to be absolutely horrendous. Half the joy of the other dungeons in the UK (which gentle reminder, premium pass holders get FOR FREE!!) is the level of detail and immersion that guests get. This dungeon however I can honestly say that when it comes to detail, it makes Charlie and the chocolate factory look like Pirates of the carribean and I am not even close to joking. In terms of the whole “it’s not finished” malarkey I have heard, well if it’s not finished then don’t have the cheek to open it unfinished and then have the nerve to charge extra for what frankly is a very half heartedly executed experience. Again I reiterate that there ARE positives with the acting ability on display as well as the finale. However that does not save an otherwise lacklustre and needless addition to Alton Towers. Honestly I know I could say “it’s better than nothing”, but in this instance I genuinely think I would prefer literally nothing.

I managed to do Haunted House before it shut for the near future. How this ever got approved shows how little Merlin care at the top (theyve had over 5 years planning this ride and it's turned out THIS badly?) What was already the Pathway From Hell now had this new ride with its entrance/exit backing on to it, seriously the most congested part the park! It's insane. A lot has been said about the 'warehouse' already but seriously, it's shockingly bad. You see the big black warehouse from the moment you look out at the view from The Beginning. Walking towards the ride, you see the box long before you get a proper view of the 'themed' front (which is also very cheap and boring). The "children wont see it" excuse is nonsense The queue is one of the worst cattlepen queues Ive ever seen. The development has totally obliterated what used to be a much needed landscaped buffer space in this part the park. Once looked very nice with the stream running into the lake, lots of models and the train skirting around. Not anymore! The actual madhouse ride is fun and all the kids have a good laugh, which is great but largely thanks to the classic appeal of a madhouse. It's so much better than a drop tower would have been! The party theme is fun and I think it's great they added a colourful twist, but there's absolutely no surprises for kids. All the parents were gearing their kids up for a spooky adventure, only to be greeted with en empty room and some TVs. The preshow is weirdly long considering nothing actually happens. We have a boogie with some disco balls but it reeks of "all the effects planned for this area were cut". There's nothing remotely spooky about the attraction and you feel like you're just in a metal box the entire time. Maybe this won't be so obvious for kids, but design this lazy it takes away so much fun to be had for kids in a good dark ride. The rest the park has made a steady effort to clean up and improve this year, some parts look very refreshing. But on the whole the place still feels tired and soulless. Everything is shoved in. Music will randomly fade out and change as you're walking through an area, suddenly drawing your attention to it. There's so little actual Lego or animations now, other than in Miniland. A very different park to what it used to be. I'm sure there are only going to be more giant warehouses added filled with TVs in the years to come.

I just saw the stargazing pods for the first time and I couldn't help but laugh. How are they stargazing pods when the ceiling is completely solid with no glass? You're paying to stay in a utility shed with no toilet. Why do they keep wasting money on this pointless accommodation instead on spending it on the park?

Room On The Broom is awkward and has no fun factor. The beginning scene and the kids bashing the fire flies was as excited as they got. Hocus Pocus Hall was more stupid and fun, and I think that worked better really. You didn't have to stop in each tiny, cramped room to watch a barely-moving animation or a TV. Yes, stop and watch a TV. Why? The new stop and watch format means you awkwardly need to have a staff member stopping everyone from just walking past. In a corridor, people's instinct is of course to walk down it. It means the queue is now incredibly slow too. It's just not worth the slow pace you end up with. It could have been really good, but the way it's turned out it feels like it's barely an attraction.

Ok, we have reached the point of a joke. Nice early April fools Thorpe with that advert you would never let standards be that low . Oh hang on... Loggers mishandling, Old town/ghost town, Nemesis Inferno is filthy, dbgtrotd is still the worst Merlin investment to ever be made, Rumba is in a sorry state, tidal wave shortcut removed, twd is still horribly out of place, Swarm is looking dreadful, the dome is boring and empty, poor quality food, appalling social media team and then there is Colossus where there are not enough words in the English language to describe the sorry state that structure of rust is in.

Never before have I ever witnessed something more ironic than this... Funny how so many can join a cattle pen queue this long to get a RAP but can't wait 5 minutes for Flying Fish...

I can't blame people for taking hotdogs in flasks when Thorpe now charge obscene prices for them. £12 for a hotdog and chips now. In the same venue that used to sell an entire (amazing) BBQ meal for about £7.50. And they had music. A hotdog on its own was £7.00 and people wonder why they're considered a rip off. On the whole my issues with Merlin aren't the frequency of the investments, but the overall quality that goes into the parks in terms of customer experience. Also, many of the investments that have been made were (IMO) not where the priorities should have been in terms of ensuring the parks offer a well rounded day out for visitors. Wicker Man is an exception and it has clearly done very well for Alton, which is fantastic.

By jamming a (pretty overblown) theme down your throat and trying very hard to be dramatic as you walk down a concrete path to nowhere. Honestly the old music had more character at the end of the day. The amount of times a new park marketing director (or whoever) comes in and says, 'you know what will turn around this park? New font, new catchphrase and new music!' It's just papering over massive cracks at the moment.

Merlin have enough money to build as is, the profit from Dungeon will be going straight into the bank. It's probably ticketed to cover costs of the actors. They managed to build big projects for 20 years without replacing free major attractions with ticketed ones. If the lighting and sets did their job right, you'd be naturally misdirected and wouldnt notice what you're not supposed to anyway. Guests shouldnt' have to actively focus on only where the lighting 'wants' you to, it's a subliminal thing. Not unless you purposefully turn around and look where you wouldnt think to, which I don't think is what the poster was doing. If the sets are done in such a way that you notice these things, then something's up. It won't be a major complaint from guests obviously but it all adds to the overall experience

What I find more shocking is if it’s not finished then why is it open and why are they charging money for it?

I think Hangover should be Sunken Gardens, as they're both places where people get high, which is how I assume this topic came about.

What's going on?

Opening a new park and a rebuild of a whole area is a ”quiet" year. 😄

I'm happy to take digs, a forum is for discussion after all and not sure how me being a meet organiser has anything to do with the comments I made, I'd have made the same comment whether a meet organiser or not, so completely irrelevant. I would certainly never consider myself "important" either, I am nearly 30 years old not a child! If it is coming to the end of it's life then a shame, one of the best ship rides out there! Many fond memories from over the years.

What's changed? Have they finally been told to stop being rude and sarcastic to guests?

I find it strange why Thorpe have repainted the station and transfer track and supports but nothing else again...

Ride Access Pass is the most abused systems in these parks (and often impractical to use for people who actually need it!)

I think as far as guests are concerned its just an attraction at Alton Towers that you have to pay extra for. It's like Merlin are franchising their own 'brands' within their own theme parks, like calling the park's aquarium 'Sea Life'. Merlin are all about brands. Now they're using brands to make people pay extra and as an excuse to not come up with new attractions. I think that's the worst aspect of it, even if the finished result had been really good, it's just another step in the death of new ideas and taking creative 'risks'. I thought Wicker Man would prove otherwise, but all they did was copy that theme for Heide Park and turn it into another 'formula'! I heard there might be a backdoor arrangement that Merlin's midway division part-funds the Towers Dungeon to exclude from the park's operational cost. So yes, but how budgets are divided internal to Merlin doesnt really matter outside the company.

And that is precisely why I did not even bother to think about this abomination “funding future projects” I think it’s safe to say Alton Towers make enough money with 1. Food 2. Merchandise 3. Ticket sales 4. Fastrack 5. On ride photos 6. Parking 7. Hotel prices and much more for them to NOT have to start opening damned upcharge attractions... especially upcharged attractions where you can get longer and better versions of them for free!! Assuming M£rlin decide to actually give the money raised by those actually to Alton Towers and not towards building another 1 million Legolands!!

Done it. It's awful. Review later.

Do you mean to suggest Thorpe Park made a loss by not meeting that visitor target? I dont know how well they did that year but I'm sure the additional annual cost of operating The Swarm was relatively small Parks make most their profit from in-park expenditure on food and retail rather than tickets. Thorpe built new coasters in quick succession in the 2000s to increase the capacity of the park and increase the draw, to bring numbers way up, but eventually you reach a plateau. I think Merlin found that they'd already reached that point when Swarm didn't reach much higher. However it probably wouldn't have meant the Swarm was not financially viable, it just meant it didn't increase attendance to the heights they (ambitiously) wanted. I would argue they spent too much focus on endless big new rides without thinking about the park on the whole. It wasnt sustainable and you end up with today's poor value for money putting off returning guests. They have actually increased park attendance without increasing the space much, ending up with overcrowding and long queues.

I'd prefer it if Storm Surge didn't exist at all tbh.

https://www.visittornadosprings.com/ What a charming advertising campaign. It would seem we have a date and details of what it involves looking at the website.

In fairness, the actors are trained to notice these things, but they can miss them. If the actors don't see the incident, it can be hard to know the difference between someone who's injured and someone who's scared. Equally the actor may have been trying to help the person, but others may not have realised that given the heat of the moment. Though tbh, if you bash your head at a theme park and you and the people you're with refuse to get looked over, you either: 1) only bumped it 2) have no sense and need better judgement/friends

It was raining Monday I believe. When it rains, a rust-coloured liquid drips from the trains (happens on many B&M inverts). That will be the reason they were offering ponchos. Inferno doesn't run in the rain, so staff were probably offering the opportunity to ride with the poncho, or wait until the liquid stops dripping. If a vinyl was coming off from the trains, then the ride would be shut down. No theme park, especially a Merlin one, would run a ride if they're aware that there's a risk of something flying off. Plus with those things, I believe they have to use suppliers approved by B&M else they risk breaking their warranty on the ride. Tl;Dr - don't believe everything you read on the internet (but believe this post, cos I sound like I know what I'm talking about maybe)

I gotta say, the weekend over the 6th/7th April when I visited again was vastly better compared to opening weekend back in February. Had a fantastic time! Everything running near-full capacity for Saturday, short queue for everything, plenty of re-rides on Icon and lovely sunny weather. Couldn’t have been a better day! As for Valhalla, I’ve never been a huge fan of it since my first ride on it earlier in 2018, and especially after being evacuated off it back in February. But it was performing pretty damn well on the Saturday with more effects working which I hadn’t seen before, and the water vortex tunnel was absolutely brutal. Go so wet going through it that it made Tidal Wave look like nothing in comparison. Really good run on it! Oh, and Icon of course was as great as ever. The only room for improvement they could do is to get the ride opening times on their entrance boards accurate, because a fair few rides opened at 10am, but their boards said 11am, Nickelodeon Streak being the prime example where we didn’t know it was open until asking a staff member in the station.

Put them next to the tills so they can harness the screams of people when they look at the prices for pretty much everything.

What do you mean? In a theme park? Thorpe is on the flattest piece of flat land, there is no naturally moving water to harness for this. If you are considering something on the rapids, it'll always cost more energy to pump the water up than it will make processing it as it falls again. Otherwise you've solved the world's energy problems!

Not sure why this is being discussed 9 months after it happened? Power cuts happen, not much anyone can do about it. 🤷‍♂️

No one's mentioned yet, but it also seems the queue has received some new spooky ambient music and while it may not be the original (boo!), it still sounds pretty good (despite the fact it's a little too on the quiet side), especially with parts of the station soundtrack distantly fading in and out occasionally. Safety announcements fade into it nicely as well, instead of cutting the music right out with the annoying bat/wolf howling sound effects. Not to mention the voice itself now actually sounds menacing and fitting, instead of tired and unmotivated like the old ones*. Even the PA announcements don't interfere with the audio whatsoever! * Saying that, we now only wait for the terrible station announcements to be re-recorded by the same person as in the new queue music. Those incredibly tired "Mwa-ha-ha-ha"s never fail to be irritating...

You know what, it looks really well done. Impressive line-up of games and consoles in my opinion, and the interior is well designed and lit. It’s basically a gamer’s paradise. However, I would consider myself a pretty avid gamer and it does not interest me one bit. If I’m going to Thorpe Park I’m going because of the rides and the atmosphere, not to play videogames. I just find the whole thing a bit of an odd idea personally.

Don’t get me wrong, im not saying the park don’t have its problems, but I wouldn’t say it’s quite at the soul destroying level! I do disagree though - personally think The Walking Dead retheme of X was executed brilliantly and was their last solid investment!

No ones forcing you!

They look like they can't wait to see a fun and creative theme park industry in the future

The new advert is terrible! If they say “like no other” anymore times I think I might strangle someone 😂

Maybe it was her first day? Did you not have to learn on your first day at Thorpe? Also, suicide is no joke.

Or goat simulator is the highlight game of game fx...

Thorpe Farm returning for 2020 confirmed!!

Thanks @Mattgwise for another fantastic TPM meet!! It was thoroughly enjoyable seeing the team again and discussing the best (and not so best XD ) moments of the new theme park season. For me personally, my highlight was seeing the new animatronics on Walking Dead the Ride, which I actually forgot were there until they popped out at the end of the ride in all their glory. I definitely feel animatronics are the way to go! For any members who haven’t been to a TPM meet before, I highly recommend coming along as we are like-minded, friendly people and it is great hearing the banter in person lol. Hopefully see you all again at the Chessington meet 2019!!

I need to get to a meet soon as I miss you guys! I may bump into you on Saturday as I’m likely going to be at TP with my niece and her friend. If it’s too busy/loud, you’ll probably find me propped up in the smoking area by Inferno talking to myself 🤐 Have a fab day

I could see why you wouldn't want to visit in the current Merlin Monopoly.. If I was closer to Paultons or BPB I would honestly just live there, Merlin Parks are either starting to lose their magic or have lost their magic (Thorpe Park).. There has been glimmers of hope like Icon and Wickerman, but overall I do feel when I visit Thorpe Park these days the park has no immersion or magic at all. There is no soul, there is no immersion. Alton Towers I would say is probably the the park with the most soul but The Dungeons certainly re-affirms Alton is still a Merlin Park.. Oh well, at least we're not in Spain. Merlin Parks are run like crap but I would take Merlin's crap over Portaventura's any day of the damn week.

One would assume that the attraction is more simplified, not that HPH was the peak of imaginative walkthrough story telling, it had side parts and interactivity throughout... Room on the Broom is probably more of the kids don't use their brains so why bother being imaginative nonsense...

Small family park makes huge 'second in the world to Disney' multinational organisation look like amateurs. This is the most exciting development in the UK as far as I care to remember. This century probably. I adore everything about Paultons.