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And I remember the days when Wildmouse was a coaster at Blackpool

I need to voice my honest opinion. This year's Fright Nights is the worst I've ever been to. Compared to last year, which in my opinion was damn near the best year of Fright Nights in the now 5 years I've been visiting for, this year is shocking. I've tried to squeeze as many positive aspects out of this year's event but the truth is there simply isn't many. A positive to start: Platform 15 is genuinely great. In my opinion it's the best it's ever been. The cast are fantastic, set is fantastic, even the tunnel is scary this year. I have to say as well, I have had some great runs in Blair Witch too. Admittedly this has definitely been more hit and miss and yes, it is VERY short. But as a maze in general, it's okay. This is where most of the positives end for me. Zombie Hu... I mean Dead Creek Woods. It's lazy. It's there just to say it's the park's biggest lineup ever. Quantity over quality is a phrase said many times in this thread and for good reason. There's no set, there's... nothing. The cast are great and are trying their best to make a poor maze the best they can, but you simply cannot fix a poor maze, no matter how good the cast is. Saw Alive is Saw Alive. I don't mind it, the theming is fantastic. I don't find it particularly scary and I've done it so many times at this point it's just boring. Living Nightmare is Living Nightmare. The extreme version was terrifying, and the maze really should be running at that intensity. Obviously not with the amount of actors it had during the extreme run, that's not possible. It's short, Negan has gone and walkers just are not scary. The sets are brilliant but that's about the only redeeming quality. Do or Die. It's worse than Sanctum. I'm sorry, but it is. Sanctum was bad, but it was funny! The cast threw in some brilliant improv dialogue that made the maze just great fun to go in, as bad as the theming and overall scare quality was. Do or Die is Sanctum, but with all of the fun sucked out of it. Black walls, awful Chop Shop rip off soundtrack, very little scares. Sure you go in a few shipping containers but literally nothing happens in either. To be fair however, the bus scene at the start is pretty good. As a whole though, it's very unimpressive. I'm not even going to talk about Vulcan Peak because it's actually disgusting that it's even allowed to operate. It's the worst scare attraction that I have ever done in my life. Seriously, who the f*ck thought it was acceptable to open that? The Big Top: Showtime is just depressing. Why is it not a maze? Why? Why!? I don't understand why it was decided that the best at the park for the past two years should go? I'm all for the idea of a show in the Dome but it should not have been The Big Top. The best part is hearing the soundtrack blared in the Dome. Saying that, I do love the roaming team this year and again, I'm all for having a set of roamers but it should not have been Big Top. I can't judge Amity, Screamplexx or Containment as I've not done them but I doubt my opinion on the event will change. Sure, 7 attractions is a great idea in theory. But when only three of them are all indoor and four of them are either partially or entirely outdoors, it doesn't work. And when the majority of those scare attractions are the lowest quality of scare attractions in the country, it doesn't work. It's quite depressing that the worst maze at The Howl, a low budget scare event on a small farm, is better than all but one of the mazes at Fright Nights, one of the biggest scare events in the country.. I've tried to see as many positives in this years event as I can, but the truth is there is not many. Platform 15 is genuinely great and I have had some good runs on Blair Witch. Those aside... well what can I say? I feel sorry for the casts that have been put in some of these mazes, they are all great actors but the quality of mazes they've been given to work in is simply awful. If the lineup remains the same next year with no sign of improvement, I won't be going back. And I won't go back until the improvements that are desperately needed are made. Bring back The Big Top, scrap Vulcan, Sanctum and Dead Creek. Bring back longer, quality indoor mazes that we had in previous years! I would much rather the smaller lineups we've had in previous years which have had quality mazes, than the bigger lineup with the absolute dire quality we've had this year. I'm going back tomorrow, for no other reason that I promised to go with friends months ago. Should've convinced them not to waste their money and go to Tulleys instead. I'm honestly more excited to get a Bacon King meal from Burger King than I am to go in the majority of the mazes. At least a burger is enjoyable, unlike half the mazes the park have installed...

Just got home from ithe first day and honestly today was one of the best days I've ever had at Chessie, and as you all know I have had many. Didn't go in Creepy Caves or Curse today (Curse was actually closed for a large portion of it) but the atmosphere around the park is pretty great and Trick or Treat Wood was actually surprisingly good. Music could have been turned up a bit in some areas though, still using the music I linked above if you scroll up in most areas however around the Gruffalo Arena they're playing the IMAScore soundtrack from a few years ago, one of my favourite theme park soundtracks out there. As I said, TOTW was surprisingly decent, my sister got a few genuine scares on the way round and the actor playing Xander was brilliant. All the actors knew exactly who to target, not the tiny little kids but mostly kids younger than me. Throughputs were pretty horrendous though. Speaking of throughputs, operations were up and down. At times on Dragon's Fury cars were leaving the station every few seconds, but then there's Tiger Rock. They were letting a certain amount of people into the station then not letting anyone in at all until nearly everyone had boarded, then when the ride had a delay there was no announcement, instead we had two guests go around the queue telling everyone. Then there's leaving the park. We had an interesting experience. Basically, the park was put on lockdown because a child with severe autism ran away and went missing, from what we hear. I've made no secret of my (pretty mild) autism on here and I've had to remove myself from certain situations at parks before so I completely understand, I also understand why they put the park on lockdown. That's not the problem. The problem is, why, oh why have roaming scare actors scaring kids who are waiting to leave? I wasn't around when it was going on but from the descriptions I've heard it was pretty chaotic. We had tears from my 10 year old sister as one (dressed in a black robe that completely obscured their face) stood in front of her before suddenly jumping out. There were children as young as babies crying scared. Eventually the actors were asked to leave, but it begs the question, why have scare actors scaring little kids in a kids park, especially when there's already a kid missing because he had to remove himself from an overwhelming situation? We saw more than one kid run off away from the actors. I'm sure it's great entertainment for adults and teenagers at parks like Thorpe where they're expecting it. Not little kids at Chessington. Apart from that though, as I said it was great, and I highly recommend Howloween this year.

So I went to Fright Nights last Sunday, having been going to Fright Nights every year now since 2012 I must say this is the worst one I have experienced. It's been said loads, but its very clear Thorpe went for quantity over quality and it does really show, and is such a shame as I'm sure most people would agree but would just prefer 4 or 5 high-quality mazes than this. Hopefully, the event is completely revamped next year as it really needs it. First of all I must say, I stayed at the Shark Hotel and was very very good value. Was £110 for 2 of us, bearing in mind I didn't buy an annual pass this year it included park tickets, car parking, containment, breakfast the following morning, and they even gave us unlimited fast track all day for rides and mazes!? The fast track alone is worth £300 (£150pp.) Park atmosphere felt very dead this year, I liked the sound of some of the new audio but it's either just played way too quietly or speakers are broken so in some places it can hardly be heard, some rides not even playing any music at all? Walking dead Do or Die - Yes it was better than last year, and I liked how you went inside the shipping containers this year but it just didn't feel complete? Parts of this was really good and parts of it are just lazy. A shame as this attraction has high potential. Walking dead living nightmare - Pretty much the exact same as last year for me, dislike this maze as although the theming is good its just too short and just lacks scares. Still don't know what's going on with the ending but its awful? Dead creek woods - Don't know why some people have rated this highly? Just a walk through the woods with some old toilets used as themeing, lacks scares as actors have nowhere to hide? Worst out of all of them for me. Oh actually haven't got to Vulcan peak yet ? Vulcan peak - Don't really need to give my opinion on this but worst fright night maze I've experienced to date. Don't know how they get away with calling this a scare attraction, just a walk through IAC with a bag on your head and 1 or 2 Thorpe park staff standing there with a feather to try and scare you. No atmosphere at all as way too light in there and there's annoying music/ announcements the whole time. Saw - Same as every other year, I've never been a fan of Saw but was one of my favourites this year. Blair witch - Not much happened and was way too short. Platform 15 - Although I prefer last years version of Platform, purely because of the storey and the ending, this was my favourite maze of the night. The ending was really poor, should've kept it the same. Apart from that though not a lot has changed since last year (not a bad thing), could have done with some more actors in the tunnel as there seemed to be quite a few more last year. The mid house section is still very good. Big top showtime - Was actually pleasantly surprised by this, yes it wasn't a show but I liked the idea and it worked quite well, was nice to still have clowns at the park. Just sad hearing the big top music and seeing such good actors wasted running around the dome when they could be in the big top maze Terror at Amity High - About 4 actors standing around chatting with each other/security around Stealth. This is not a scare zone. Didn't even try to be scary? It was lovely to speak with some of the management and owners of Tulleys, look forward to experiencing their event this year to see what's changed It's such a shame to see Fright Nights just get worse and worse, and other events like Tulleys and Scarefest get better and better. To think this used to be one of my favourite events and have made such high-quality scare attractions such as Big top, experiment 10, asylum, cabin in the woods its a shame to see the event fall apart.

Yeah to be fair fright night is pretty tragic, after last night saw alive has gone from my least favourite maze in 2013 to my favourite in 2018. Says it all

Day 1 of a three-day event with Pleasure Beach Experience took place at Efteling Theme Park in the Netherlands, where we had an hour’s ERT on Joris en de Draak before park opening as well as a full day at the park. First and foremost, the park was very accommodating to us, and the staff were all excellent and friendly. With it being my first visit to Efteling I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but I’d probably describe the park as very quirky and unusual. There are a lot of nicely themed attractions and some fun coasters, and I really liked the large spanning lakes, exceptional use of audio and some weird and wacky features around the park. Operations seemed very good aside from Baron, with multiple trains running and queues moving fast. Unfortunately, on my visit Bob was closed (to then open a week later – spite!) as were Fata Morgana and Villa Volta. Ride Count: Joris en de Draak x17 (ERT & a few afternoon rides) Flying Dutchman x3 Python x2 Rapids x2 Baron 1898 x1 Rogel Vok x1 Carnival Festival x1 Droomvlucht x1 Symbolica x1 TOTAL: 29 Onto the rides! Joris en de Draak Joris en de Draak is a fantastic racing wooden coaster with some incredible moments of airtime, strange banking and a very fun layout. Similar to Wicker Man, the ride’s queue line is landscaped around the ride well with some good viewpoints of the ride and interaction over the lake. I really enjoyed the racing element of the ride, with the trains breaking off from each other and then joining back side-by-side for the final section of the race. There were some fun interactions throughout the layout, too. The sweeping turns at both ends of the ride’s layout were great fun and felt very forceful, especially the first one where you dive suddenly to the right-hand-side – brilliant! Whilst both sides were brilliant I marginally preferred the blue one, due to an insanely brutal airtime hill that seems to appear out of nowhere… absolutely fantastic. I liked the features the ride has such as the flag announcing the winner, cheering/booing in the station and the flags being draped for the winning train; fun little extras which the park didn’t have to do, but they make the experience better. Baron 1898 Having enjoyed Valkyria I was fairly confident that Baron would at least be a fun coaster, but unfortunately, I just didn’t enjoy it. The theming is excellent. The way the music outside differs to that inside, the station building, pre-shows and everything else are just incredible, and it’s clear that a lot of detail has been put into the attraction. Ascending the (incredibly well themed) lift hill with the ghostly singing ringing in your ears, you approach the top. I found the drop was too small to achieve the freefall sensation, and the ride that followed fairly weak; the inversions didn’t feel overly forceful, the helix felt a bit awkward and the airtime hill didn’t produce any airtime. Baron 1898 is a visually impressive ride and a good themed experience, but that’s as far as it goes for me. Flying Dutchman Wow! What a brilliant attraction. From the incredible theming in the queue to the highly detailed station, the presentation of this ride is superb both internally and externally. Giving a false sense of security, you deport the harbour and things soon take a turn for the worse… I really liked the use of atmospheric lighting and audio here, and the mist screen effect is so well executed. The indoor section had a few surprises, and the outdoor section was good fun too. Python Really enjoyed this, despite it being a fairly short coaster. The inversions were forceful, as were the helix’s, and the entire ride was very smooth (I’m guessing due to the recent re-track). I wasn’t a fan of the vest restraints though, they felt very restrictive when compared with B&M’s version. Vogel Rok was awesome, a really fun indoor coaster with some interesting visual effects, fun audio and a really good sensation of speed. Symbolica has a really clever ride system and I enjoyed it, even if I didn’t fully understand what it was about! External presentation is fantastic here also. Other attractions included Droomvlucht and the Rapids, both of which were done to a very high standard with some surprises. Also, that rapids music is so catchy! Overall, I really enjoyed Efteling. It’s a big contrast to parks in the UK, and offers something different to any other park I’ve visited. I did feel that one day wasn’t enough to take everything in, as there were a few other attractions I’d have liked to experience. A few more photos below Thanks for reading

Glad you enjoyed Efteling. Definitely a lovely park with much charm and atmosphere. Their park music is excellent. Joris is is definitely a fun great ride, and probably my second favourite Woodie and best duelling ride I’ve probably done. Dutchman is definitely fantastic and features what is arguably one of the best ride stations out there. Glad you liked Python, I’m yet to do it since the retrack. I love Symbolica, Dream Flight, Bird Rock and Symbolica. Did you do Fata Morgana, Villa Volta and Carnaval? I know Baron’s drop isn’t the best but as a ride package I think it’s excellent. Bob for me personally was the weakest coaster, so you didn’t miss much IMO.

Reminder! Just a reminder!

Queuing to get in through security. I reckon we'll be in in about 30 mins

My thoughts based on this evening unfortunately echo the above, parkwide atmosphere felt poor (apart from some decent audio in places) with flood lights completely killing the atmosphere, no attempt made to disguise mazes from the queuelines, the entire event felt very rushed, last minute and lazy. Dead Creek Woods A few actors here and there doing a decent job, not much in the way in the theming aside from some old toilets. Ehh. 1/10 Vulcan Peak What. The. Hell. This has to be the laziest most poorly executed scare attraction I've ever come across, there were no actors (apart from a Thorpe Park staff member holding some noisy box thing) and it was just generally an uneventful walk through IAC without being able to see the theming. 1/10 Blair Witch Much shorter than previous years, and lit up far too much meaning that the previous ambience and element of surprise was completely lost. 2/10 Platform 15 Sadly we were ushered through the first section without being told any of the storyline, the only dialogue we got from the actor was "stay together" - extremely poor when in previous years there's been the storyline told, a short walk followed by another stop before completing the rest of the maze. A few actors in the last section, house section was still good. 3/10 Living Nightmare Some nice theming but felt very dull and not many actors, the ending seemed to not work properly (it was clear the actor went to try to set something off, but alas nothing happened). 3/10 Walking Dead Do or Die If the brief was to use the shipping containers from MBV/E10 but strip the theming out first, they're onto a winner. The section where you were forced to push through the hanging meat was well executed and there were some decent props here and there, but overall it felt very lazy with the majority of the maze being made up of black hanging cloths and floodlights illuminating everything way before you approached. Also what is "do or die" actually referring to? What does it mean? 3/10 Sadly I'd have to say it's probably the worst year I can remember, we're talking about an event that has produced gems such as Asylum, E10, Cabin and Big Top (the latter version) yet this year felt like the laziest most ill-thought out scare event ever. Everything feels like it's been done on a shoe-string budget with no effort put into making sure actors know their lines, awfully "thin" sets and just a general lack of care. How have standards been allowed to fall this far? On a completely separate note it was also a shame that night rides weren't possible as almost everything was closed for the majority of the evening due to weather; this also created a backlog of people meaning the maze queues were much longer than they would have otherwise been. Didn't get time to do Saw Alive unfortunately.

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