Leaderboard

Right, I’ve finally ridden it twice now to get a good idea and feel for the ride. Given how against the idea I am for turning X into this, this might be a surprising statement to some I’m about to make but...... I liked it. I genuinely liked it. For the most part, an awful lot of it remains the same as before such as the corridoors, trains and station area, but the big differences lie inside the pyramid itself. There are plenty of interactions with guests on the brake runs and various turns and corners from beginning to end, mostly just static walkers lit up along with some theming and TV screens present on one brake run, which does incidentally have the random stops put back in place, but for a decent reason this time. The pre-show room was quite nice and had some relevance to the whole experience this time unlike Wicker Man’s one and it makes good use of the audio and lighting effects present inside. However, the supposed window behind you with a TV screen was poorly done, mostly due to the massive air gap between the filter and the screen, so that ruined the effect slightly. But besides that, this is a nicely done room. The walks from the entrance to/from the station are the same layout as before, just with added details and a shed load of themed audio and lighting effects. Thankfully, none of it is on an endless loop and changes every few minutes, so there is some variety offered here. As for the station, the old lifts from the last decade have been demolished and the back of a van with wooden boxes containing supplies has been added here instead. Much better than before and doesn’t feel as cramped in this area to previous. But inside the station? It’s almost identical to before, just with a lot less lighting and added theming and audio on the platforms this time. The ride experience itself is more or less exactly the same, just with some added scenery on two of the brake runs and lift hill, not much else. There was a big TV screen used between the 2nd and 3rd brake runs which shows someone shooting walkers in the head as you travel past at fast speeds and the last turn before the final breaks has a nice smoke effect you pass through lit up in orange before reaching the end of the ride. So overall, whilst in truth this overlay of X is not amazing or groundbreaking, the park have done for the most part a pretty decent job with what they had and similar to Wicker Man, the best parts are the theatrical side of the experience, mostly down to the various audio and lighting effects used. Some of the theming was quite good too with lots of references to X:\ No Way Out. But the whole thing wasn’t consistent in this retheme at all and this is present especially with the queue line and coridoors. Whilst the inside looks nicely detailed, the outdoor queue looks horribly cheap with no resurfaced paths, no attempt to remove broken Bose speakers, the watch tower looks nastily cheap up-close, the baggage room has no detail or attempt to be themed at all and the indoor corridoors still have a lot of it’s roof wide open with light leakage everywhere which I was hoping would be refitted finally. My big issue is I still cannot get over the fact the park have turned what was rightfully a popular family coaster between 2013 - 2017 into this. This update just feels needless and for the most part, rushed. Whilst the ride was fun no doubt with the interactions and additional theming added, to see those between 1m - 1.4m no longer ride this coaster after 4 years annoys me greatly as it’s unfair on them in my view. This retheme didn’t need to happen. Ignoring my concerns about this shutting away families, the ride itself is not bad for what it offers and was still enjoyable, though it was nowhere near the absolutely, ludicrously laughable claim of being “15/10 on the scare scale”, not even close. Heck, I find the fastrack queue for I’m a Celeb scarier than this ride. All I’ll say is give it a chance and see what you think. As a massive skeptic of this update, it was better than what I was expecting. Then again, I had zero expectations for this beforehand anyway, so that’s not saying a lot.

For those who are avoiding my review of the new thing, I had some musings about X, which I'll share here too... I can't help but wonder what Thorpe could have done with X if they had the budget TWD had. Or even half the budget. They really could have created an attraction where you rode "on a wave of light (and sound)", went through tunnels of light, etc. I imagine that having the trains 'chase' lit up track, with lasers and smoke effects around, along with an extended original soundtrack would have been more than possible, along with some fun lighting effects in the entrance and exit walkways. I reckon I'd have loved that, as would a large majority of people. I know it's not as easy to market, and Thorpe's research shows there isn't the demand for a family coaster with a disco rave theme. But with the money spent, they really could have created something truly original and fun, and turned X into the pyramid-shaped gem of Thorpe Park.

As I said on press night. If you polish a sh*t it is still a sh*t.

I've got no problem admitting I was wrong and I'm very happy to report that I was most certainly wrong and too quick to cast judgement on Wicker Man. Never again will I doubt GCI, their track record is still perfect. Now while I still agree that Alton Towers could and should have done more with the UK's first modern wooden roller coaster, what we have ended up with is great. The Story: Wicker Man's story about the creepy cult of weirdos, worshipping the Wicker Man for years in the forest and bringing him sacrifices in return for one day him returning their favour and gifting them with freedom and safety, is simple, effective and quite unnerving, I like it. Theming & Effects: Those involved have done a great job with the theming. The Wicker Man himself, in person looks damn impressive. The sheer amount of fire, mist and smoke effects used (please keep these running for the life of the ride) is so overwhelming and surprising and really adds to the experience. Not only that but the buildings (preshow and station) inside and out are incredibly well done. As a package, as present, Wicker Man is probably the best themed roller coaster in the UK. Queueline: After a couple of switchbacks to begin with, the queue ends up becoming a nice swooping semi circle which provides great views of the coaster layout and really helps build excitement. This style of queue over the crap that is Smiler's queue anyday, much appreciated. Preshow: I really enjoyed this, it's creepy, gets you hyped for what's about to transpire and in all honesty is alot of fun to watch. The Coaster: This little GCI is great. Great laterals, a few pops of good airtime, 1 insane ejector moment, that perfect amount of out of control that all woodies need and a real sense of speed. Also to my surprise, it's alot longer than I was expecting, so you get a decent length ride out of it. If you're into ranking things, after 2 laps, I'd probably put Wicker Man above Wodan and Troy, just below Draak, which I feel is a stronger layout and the racing aspect adds so much fun to the experience. I really feel Wicker Man is going to do great things for Alton Towers and I really hope they can quickly improve the up time and maintain both the coaster and effects to the quality they were on opening.

So, I figured I may as well give a bit more insight about my views on The Walking Dead - The Ride. I know plenty of people have pretty much written it off already, and it's almost trendy to hate the idea, but I do think it's worth going into this with an open mind. The overall experience is good, well themed, and does justice to what the ride and building was designed to achieve. The entrance portal is nice. It is standard run down Thorpe style, but it is still good. The queue is, again, standard Thorpe in that it's "how much queue can we fit in one space", with just little nuggets of theming - in the way of themed signage and Easter Eggs to the show - to go with it. There's no extensions or anything, so on quiet days, you will have to walk through the whole thing, which is a pain.. Audio in the area is nice and creepy, and the watchtower looks alright to be fair. Bag room is now outside the building, and is clearly unfinished at the moment. Hopefully it can be themed up, especially to the standard of the inside of the ride. After that, groups of 20 (so 2 trains worth) get batched into pre-show. The pre-show is extremely basic - a minute long video featuring a character talking to you, encouraging you to make your way through the building because we're under attack. It's well done, and I don't think it will get tedious during re-riding, but I feel like they could have done more here. Some big special effect, to give you the personal reason to get moving, rather than some guy on a screen telling you... The walkway to the station is exceptionally well themed. You go through different areas of 'the safe zone', and as you go through them, audio is triggered saying how those zones are under attack, encouraging you to keep moving. The tone is perfect here, and really sets up the experience well. The ride itself is themed to a 'transit system' in the safe zone, and is being used to transport you to safety. It's clever, and gives you a reason to be on the ride. From there, it is just X, with special effects, and I don't think that can be stressed enough. I really hope that people have ended up being ignorant the OTT "it's the scariest thing ever" marketing approach, or are able to just look past it, else it sets the ride up to fail. In saying that, the special effects that are there are good, and really do enhance the ride experience. There aren't any animatronics, just zombie mannequins (which aren't the greatest, but to a casual rider will more than do the job). There's also screens, smoke, audio and lighting effects, all of which are used very well. The one stop during the ride is a real highlight actually, fitting in with the story perfectly, and just being a lot of fun! The ride ends with us still being under attack; everywhere in the safe zone is overrun with zombies. The post-ride experience happens, in the form of a loud noise, and is...just a bit naff? There's terrible noise bleed from there to the waiting bit before the station, so if you've been unfortunate with timings, it does spoil it somewhat. There is more to it, but I believe that tweaks were still being made, so I don't know what to say / expect from that for now. There is a lot of potential there, but it needs a bit more direction. So yeah, to round it all up... +Fantastically themed experience +A fun ride experience, with good special effects +An experience that stays true to what the original X:\No Way Out aimed to do +A cohesive story which is easy to understand -Pre-show could do with a bit more oompf -Post-show needs a bit of clarity / more direction But before I go - One final thought. I like this, I won't deny that. I also liked X. I haven't decided whether I like this more than X or not, but that's neither here nor there for now. Personally, I think X is the better thing for Thorpe now; it had potential to be a fun ride which was accessible to all. I can't help but wonder what Thorpe could have done with X if they had the budget this had. Or even half the budget. They really could have created an attraction where you rode "on a wave of light (and sound)", went through tunnels of light, etc. I imagine that having the trains 'chase' lit up track, with lasers and smoke effects around, along with an extended original soundtrack would have been more than possible, along with some fun lighting effects in the entrance and exit walkways. I reckon I'd have loved that, as would a large majority of people.

It sure is a weird way to advertise something. and with all the actors in the PR for it, which you wont get on the day. I was hoping for new train shells sadly not.. See, the idea of the safe zone is that they have "taken over X" so the remains of old X being there can work from a story point of view. despite it coming across lazy and cost saving. I do agree, they could have created their own IP relating to the music and old X, a better music and light show throughout the attraction. Like rockin rollercoaster. done something that was actually pretty neat. some video wall at the blocks. using lights and sound to make the coaster feel faster. With the budget, some pretty neat stuff could have been done! But instead gone for a decreasing in interest IP. god knows what happens in 2 years time when walking dead is dead.

I do have to say it was top form on my last visit- overall my second favorite dark ride in the UK behind Vahalla.

Good it wasn't just me who thought the departure terminal with easyJet is just the worst and a highly unpleasant place to be.

Day 3 After another wonderful night's sleep, we woke up to face our last day at PortAventura. I ate half my breakfast on the little balcony thing attached to our hotel room, because after 2 days of cold and rain, today was looking to be a nice one, awesome. Today was a lot busier than the previous 2 days, not sure if that's down to the Spanish only flocking when the weather is good (they'd never be able to visit parks in the UK) or because everyone avoided the weekend assuming it was busy, then all showed up today, making it busy, fail. We were awake early enough today to slither into the park during their opening, which meant we got funky Spanish music and some form of dancing water show on the lake. . If Shambhala rode as good as it looks, I'd probably have a new top 10 roller coaster, but alas, nah. We powered straight to China to beat the unwashed masses to Shambhala. Success! Also, what is PortAventura's obsession with switchback queuelines? We rode Shambhala and Khan, then made our way back to Baco, which was just as funny as we remembered. After a snacky lunch we headed back for one last slither on Stampida. The coaster broke down while we were at the airgates, but the fantastic engineering team had the wagons rolling again in next to no time. Sadly after 4 wins, our 5th lap was to be our undoing and we lost convincingly, good things can't last forever and all that. Even though today was considerably busier than the previous 2, the hosts on all the coasters were filling every seat and dispatching as soon as possible on most occasions. All coasters except Shambhala (they said capacity was reduced due to the weather?) were running 2 trains and queues were flying. We thoroughly enjoyed our last lap of Diablo, if you told me I'd be craving multiple laps of an Arrow mine train before this trip I'd have called you crazy, but Diablo is just such a good little ride. Now that the weather had improved we decided to try out the park's rapids, while not as good as some other Intamin rapids, they were very fun and I'd definitely recommend giving them a go when you're on park. After days of walking past a dopey looking dinosaur, we thought we might as well try out Dino Escape 4D. Things started off pretty well, with the indoor queueline being very well themed, unfortunately the simulator portion of the attraction was average at best. He looks so pleased that he tricked me into his sub par attraction! We waited just over an hour for 1 last lap on Shambhala to cap off the holiday, you can't say I didn't try my best to love it, it's just a shame I didn't. As previously mentioned (and not rubbed in your faces, so calm down Mark), PA seems to get a terrible rep from the enthusiast community, based on lots of factors, none of which I saw myself. Now whether this rep comes from past truths that have now been corrected or perhaps it's the edgy hip thing to slag off PA at every turn I don't know. I just know I had 3 enjoyable and relaxing days on park and that's all that matters to me. As a park, I really enjoyed PA and I'll be excited to return if such an opportunity ever comes up. However while the park itself is great, I'm not sure the same can be said for the ride line up. Stampida is great, Diablo is good fun, but the rest of the line up is pretty average and doesn't really do anything for me. I can't quite believe I walked away with nothing good to say about Shambhala and Khan but that's exactly what's happened, oh well. The departures area of the Easyjet terminal at Barcelona airport is disgusting, with the only food on offer being badly made ham and cheese sandwiches which cost £6! Couple that with actual p**s on the gate seats and it made for a rather awful experience. As if by magic though, an evening Easyjet flight was on time, Christ! Until next time, thanks for reading.

I believe these were only added last season

After such great success with Thorpe’s latest IP: The Walking Dead, rumour has it that Stealth will be re-themed next season into a similar style as Rita at Alton Towers. The music and audio will be replaced with the same as found in the Dark Forest to save on costs. Stealth’s station and trains will be transformed with blood stains and sheet metal. The queue line fences will be replaced with a chain link barbed wire perimeter. The surrounding area will be transformed into a Walking dead themed wasteland. The “new” ride will be called; The Walking Dead Presents: Infected Stealth. (TWD PIS) What’s your TAKE on another new zombie themed ride at Thorpe?

Still not replaced the bulb for that last green light either

I would not say that the park are responding to market conditions. They are randomly changing direction presumably because of the change in director. The park seems to have no long term vision and doesn't consider that there investments are going to be there for 20+ years. This ride is another where the same mistake has happened again. Thorpe is going to look incredibly dated in 10 years time without serious investment. Not only should they consider replacing Colossus by then but also, Saw, IAC, walking dead, Angry Birds, DBGTROTD, samurai, vortex, slammer, and loggers leap. I highly doubt Merlin will be spending the kind of money ontop of new investments to make up for the rapidly aging park they have built themselves.

It’s definitely the best version of X I’ve ridden. The theming inside is really great, and there’s a story throughout which explains why you’re getting on a coaster. The post ride scene could do with some work, there’s a nice set-piece here but you hear some audio and that’s it it’s over. I hope general public aren’t expecting too much from this and realise that it is just a retheme of X (some people last night were shocked that it’s not a new coaster).

@BaronC. Did you charge your phone after the ride? Seemed like a lot of "VIPs" in the queue last night - I understand DBGTROTD broke down last night too, for a change

The Python retrack is done! I love their themed hi-vis jackets

Don’t worry Marc. Seeing as it’s the same building as XNWOTWDTR that skip will be full of....