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- Fan boys ‘designing’ audio for Thorpe Park’s Fright Nights and then watching the forums for comments and getting all defensive because nobody really understands the complete lack of artistic or creative design. “Woo cameos from the theme park community - intense!” - Flashing, multicoloured LED park wide lighting with no design or thought whatsoever - Significant lack of maze design, coherent theme and complete lack of quality - No Big Top - A non-show in the Dome where actors chase guests to some music because the competency to build the maze was no longer available - Another laughable, confused, messy marketing “campaign” - Black walled mazes (oh, they almost left Fright Nights) - Vulcan Peak Goodbye Fright Nights.

Quite sad to see the person involved in something creative responding to criticism in a very "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE SUBTLETY OF MY DESIGN" approach... Like, I've no idea how it actually sounds, but most people aren't going to be sat around Amity Cove listening to the music in order to 'get' it... You might get lucky and hear another part of it as you pass through, but if you need extensive listening to understand it then you've already failed at the job at the creative aspect of passing on the story for guests... Consuming other media to get the full story only works for those who are dedicated, this goes for games, movies and anything else...

Unprofessionalism from many people at the park this year. Certain people predictably still obsessed with using theme parks to further their careers and trying to earn status amongst fans then. Would theme park 'personalities' please stop trying to be the Fright Nights mascot. In reality, a huge amount of collaboration and differnt teams go into putting on these events, most the work never gets seen – because what matters is the end result. But when people start going online to claim "hey I've done this, it's mine, enjoy my work everyone" then you know what people's real agendas were. Fright Nights this year is clearly very poor, perhaps budget from the lords above was a big factor in that. Either way it's a bit sad to see we've got to a state where the people involved in an event and their mates come on to a forum to tell people how clever and smart their work actually is. A bit like when we had Bradley Wynne tell people on Facebook how actually clever Derren Brown's Ghost Train was and how its "supposed" to be disjointed. That's not the point when the end result just doesnt entertain. I'd wish Thorpe Park all the best for next year and hope it goes better. The park needed a really strong Halloween event this year and just didn't manage it.

Normally adding layers of story to the area music wouldn't be that bad, but at Thorpe (and more importantly Amity) where less than a half of all speakers actually still work, having guests have to wait around 15+ minutes to understand why the same music that plays all year round is playing is laughable. Especially in queues like Stealth where only two of the speakers in the plaza actually work. If having a few 'theme park celebrities' (a very loose term - haven't heard of half of them, not sure many of Thorpe Parks target audience have either) is a cheap way of them getting some more guests in, that is laughable. Why not use the Imascore loop created for FN last year, and spend some of the money that was used to create the new loops on the mazes that lack quality or depth. I'm no expert, but Imascore can't be cheap, and it sounds a lot better than a couple of theme park fans creating a dream WWTP playlist. Why not use something for more than a month.

Couldn’t say it any better myself ?

Agreed. I see where Nick was going with the whole Amity audio but it just didn't work at night, it was too subtle and way too cheery for halloween. Just sounded like a normal WWTP radio unless you sit and listen closely, the music needs to be made with the general public in mind, not so subtle that only enthusiasts notice. It stuck out like a sore thumb. Park audio this year was generally disappointing For those who have played Fallout 4, Diamond City Radio is a great example of what WWTP should have been similar too.

So far all they've done is sack the Divisional Director. Arguably not the best resolution, and definitely not getting to the root of the issue. Hopefully there's a more intensive attempt at shake up ahead, as the entire structure and direction of the park needs rectification. The constant U-turns and unprofessional management need to go asap.

I'm genuinely - pleasantly - shocked to hear this Samurai news! Maybe they should move Ramases Revenge to Thorpe too, finally, so it can be back to it's best

Anything will be better than what's currently there, because the park have been using the same dodgy mp3 that you used to hear all over YouTube since the change a couple years ago. Very silly when Vampire used to look and sound so fantastic. It's like if Wicker Man's audio was 'lost' and replaced by a bad quality download in 10 years time and all the lighting and scenery stripped out with no replacement. Very careless and unprofessional. The vampire station needs a lot more than just a change of soundtrack though. It needs all the speakers repaired and the dead spots fixed, and really just a total overhaul of the station now that it's become incredibly bare.

You guys are absolutely brutal this year.

There’s a lot of focus on WWTP which is a shame as a lot of the park wide audio is quite good - as has been mentioned the Colossus track is probably my favourite - especially in the station (video below) although I did notice sometimes the normal track plays - I don’t agree with there should be one / two tracks park wide - even with speakers not working during normal season we have themed audio for the areas and it works so I think it’s good this year we’ve seen the areas go back to having their own Individual Fright Nights tracks. Goung back to WWTP I do see what it’s trying to do though it is subtle - back in 2006/7 maybe we had a fright night themed WWTP which had Halloween songs between the standard Big Bob voice overs which worked but was pretty cheesey. Agree with comments on the lighting - would be nice to see the LED lights set to just one colour in the areas which they are used. For all the bad points regarding the mazes this year one good thing to come out of this year IMO are the roaming actors, the guys over at Amity do a great job of generally being pretty freaky, always interacting too which is nice to see. The Big Top clowns also I feel would have a lot more praise if they weren’t a “replacement” for one of the best mazes the park has had, on their own the show does a pretty good job of scaring anyone in the dome and causing general havoc in there whilst when there roaming park wide they do a good job - it’s just a shame it’s at the expense of The Big Top. There was also a Zombie Flash mob there on Saturday - saw some videos which looked good hoping it returns next weekend! Overall for me id say the biggest problem with Fright Nights this year is the lack of a stand out attraction - we’ve always had one (The Asylum, Cabin, Big Top) where even if you had bad run throughs on the other mazes - these are almost certain to deliver, this year im not certain what the headline attraction would be.

My second year at Tulleys started off with high hopes following a brilliant event last year. We were fortunate enough that it didn’t rain on our visit however all the queues and plenty of tables are under cover if it had of rained. The whole event was just as immersive as before with street actors being the first to greet you as they roam around the open areas and even lurk in the bushes! Before you continue, note that this does contain SPOILERS so avoid reading further if you don’t want to know what happens in the mazes. On to the haunt reviews in the order we did them: The Creepy Cottage We started off with the least scary maze to get us in the mood. It felt similar to last year, had quite a few scares from the actors. The cottage was quite dark and atmospheric in places. Not too scary but the groups were well spaced so we never caught up to another group resulting in good actor interaction. Many of them are chanting gibberish that sounded kind of like Latin which was certainly creepy. Overall a strong Tulleys classic. The Coven of 13 The Witch themed maze was pretty much the same as last year. It starts off with the inflatable laser room with actors hiding below the lasers. I had a good jump scare from at least one here! The outdoor section was creepy but you could still see the actors coming here like last year. The actors in the cottage were targeting more scared people in our group, if you show fear you will certainly be picked on more! Just coming out of the cottage some, I’d say late teenage boys were properly jump scared by an actor who made them scream and run which was hilarious. The final scene with the caged witch was just as impressive. I’d still like to see some more separation in the outdoor sections but the rest I enjoyed. Circus of Horrors A great show which I’ve never seen before. There was a rather camp Vampire as the host who introduced a range of impressive acts; sword balancing, sword swallowing, fire eating, burning limbo, nose drilling, high ribbon acrobatics, contortion, cutting string out a stomach and more. The show was well paced and not too long. I found it very entertaining and in the end, definitely worthy of Tulleys lineup this year. Twisted Clowns 3D This maze was one of my top favourites this year. The actors in here are brilliant and highly interactive. Practically everyone in the group was picked out by someone. They’re funny yet sinister, making comments about people coming through. The electronic circus soundtrack and bright UV paint make it such a fun maze too. There are a few funhouse elements such as a shrinking corridor, inflatable corridor and a trommel tunnel. In summary a highly interactive maze. The Chop Shop I was fearing this maze the most from last year however I feel like it’s been toned down this year. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s a brutal maze but last year it was overwhelmingly intense. The lights which used to go off for a few seconds that I found horrible in the narrow corridors has been replaced with a constant, slow strobe. The actors don’t get up in your face with the chainsaws either and aim them lower down. As much as it is a bit of a gimmicky maze, it’s still a horrifying experience that I think I could attempt again now it’s not as insane. The blood stained corridors are endless and you’re constantly looking around corners. The Colony: Dystopia The epic, extended version of this maze returns stronger than ever this year. Endless fields and pitch black tunnels combined with an army of tribal actors makes this my absolute favourite attraction at Tulleys. There’s a very surreal moment where you leave the fields and enter a completely white container filling with smoke the further in you went. Actors wearing gas masks and bright coloured eyes stopped me and stared directly at me without saying a word. Honestly I thought I was hallucinating at that point and it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in a scare maze before. In the fields the actors follow you from behind moving in and out of the shadows. There are lookout points, walkthrough huts, campfires, dark tunnels, a catacomb and the end being the narrow chainsaw corridor on the other side of the farm. Even when there are no actors in certain sections, the completely dark and quiet fields and tunnels keeps you on edge making eventual encounters even more frightening. I can’t praise this maze enough, the scale and layout of it is just epic. Horrorwood Haunted Hayride A special attraction only found at Tulleys, it was very enjoyable. Many scenes remained the same as last year with the highlight being the amazing actors jumping on and off the tractor on the way round. The big effects returned too with plenty of fire, a few air cannons and falling platforms. The only thing I missed from last year were the pole dancing nuns. Still a must do at Tulleys as you get to have a nice sit down ride while the actors come to you. The Cellar: Imprisoned My other favourite maze at Tulleys has been improved and extended this year. Plenty of animalistic actors jump scare you from hidden corners. A large snake head coming out of the wall at one point was completely unexpected. The new strobed cage maze was brilliant. Very disorientating. Every section of the maze had an actor in there this year. VIXI Tulleys hooded maze was pretty much the same as last year. The bags completely black out your vision and there is clear instruction from staff before you start. you go through the cold wind to an area where actors sneak up and whisper demonic noises in your ear. You go past some flowing water and then into the flamethrower room. Again you can feel the heat from it every time it goes off. A staff member instructs you to remove the hood at the end so you can remove it yourself. Then you exit, or do you? You go through a meat room with hanging bodies and a cage maze with falling barrels. After getting round the actors here, you exit the maze for good. I’m not a huge fan of hooded mazes but this does have elements for your other senses so it doesn’t feel completely pointless. Personally I just don’t find this type of maze as scary. In conclusion, the event has largely remained up to the same high standard with many improvements made. It was a fun night of entertainment with only just enough time to do everything on offer. Already booked a bounce back to go again!

Day 8 Morning now and an attempt for the stupid hotel to redeem itself. Apparently it afforded fantastic views of Mount Fuji, sadly the reality was it offered fantastic views of a man's house and some trees, redemption failed... This morning we were headed to our new hotel (this time a real one) in central Tokyo, where we were going to spend the rest of our time in Japan. After dropping off our trusted car and paying over £200 in toll fees, we ditched our luggage at the hotel and jumped on public transport (we will get back to this later) on route to a very special event. My friend had discovered that K-Pop group Oh My Girl were in Tokyo for a 1 day only special event in a popular Japanese mall and through multiple emails with the event team I felt I at least half understood what was happening and when. To over simplify a ridiculously complicated process (trust the Japanese)... Oh My Girl's debut Japanese album was on sale in the mall and in every album was a photocard of one of the members and depending on how many photocards you had you got to claim various awesome rewards, I think you can see where this is heading. 1 photocard got you a high five with said member, 2 photocards of different members got you the option to pick your bias and have a prolonged handshake and chat and 2 photocards of the same member got you a signing with that member and a selfie. Complimenting meeting the girls by redeeming your photocards, was those who bought 3 albums or more got to attend 2 mini concerts. The 2 hour queue to buy CDs flew by in minutes and soon I was holding 3 copies as if they were gold, they sure cost enough. I got spited quite hilariously in which photocards I received but thanks to trading with my friend I was able to be a position to get a handshake with my favourite member, Arin. After the awesome first mini concert I had my one on one meeting with Arin. If you've ever met one of your favourite K-Pop idols you'll know exactly how I felt, if you haven't you couldn't possibly understand. Now with only 1 card left I convinced myself to queue up again to get another CD, to gain the opportunity to get another handshake, this time with Seunghee. After an even better second mini concert (Arin recognised me from our previous meeting and waved), I got my handshake with Seunghee, who spent our entire life changing interaction in shock that a random English bloke had come to see them in Japan, for the record I'd do it again. The entire experience felt like it had lasted an hour (the best hour of my life) but had actually gone on for a little over 7, meaning that by the time we were finished there wasn't very much left of the day. On one of the previous days I saw on the tv in passing something about a typhoon. While in McDonalds still in a daze after the day's event, my friend told me that, that typhoon was going to hit Japan in 3 days and it was going to pose danger to properties and life, great I thought, I wonder if Fuji Q runs in a typhoon? Joypolis - https://rcdb.com/5256.htm With it now raining aswell as being late we gave up on original plan of doing Joypolis and Tokyo Dome and chose instead to just hit Joypolis. Rather luckily located 5 minutes from the mall, Joypolis is a sadly quite disappointing arcade featuring a Gerts spinner. When picturing a large scale arcade in Japan of all places, I thought of floor upon floor of countless ultra high tech arcade machines and an atmosphere that was bordering on too intense but alas no. Tokyo Joypolis is 3 floors of really not much at all worth doing, with Coral Island at Blackpool having a far better atmosphere. Gekion Live Coaster - https://rcdb.com/6453.htm Gekion Live is a Gerts spinner that's half arcade machine, half coaster. You start out playing a rhythm based game while the coaster slowly slithers past screens in the dark. Then you are tire launched out into the arcade and through an inline, which is by far the best bit of the ride. After the inline you leave the arcade again and enter a room with a light show and screens while the coaster doesn't really do much of anything. Nothing of note really took place in the final part of the coaster and hardly any spinning either. It's certainly interesting and different but it isn't very good. Day 9 For those keeping score at home, on one of the days we had the car we managed to knock off 3 parks in a day and came damn close to also getting a +1 too. Well today we were going to try that same approach but on Tokyo trains, what could possibly go right? The Tokyo transport system is an absolute mess. On top of the fact it's incredibly complicated (google the map, I dare you), different bits are also owned by at least 5 different companies. You need different tickets for each of the different companies, so it's not uncommon to need 3 different tickets for 1 trip on the metro. This means that the super value day passes you can buy from the many companies only work on their little bit of the network and as soon as you leave you have to go back to paying again and it's not obvious who owns which bit so you'll almost certainly be paying the fare adjustment costs and getting beeped at by the barriers for doing it wrong. Then there's the cost... 1 - 4 stops on the metro costs you 3 pounds, 4 - 8 stops costs you 6 pounds and so on, which is why the day passes would be super handy if it wasn't for the fact as mentioned they are company specific and once you the leave that company's bit you'll have to start paying those prices again. Also not helping things is the fact that Tokyo rail/metro companies seem to be staffed by the worst Japan can offer. Anywhere else in Japan they'll go so far out of their way to help you that it makes you feel guilty but on the trains at BEST you'll get "sorry no speak English". We originally intended to start our day at Sea Paradise but after getting not quite half way there and realising it had already taken an hour due to train faff, we came to the conclusion that we'd have to ditch it if we wanted to hit the 2 preferred parks today. Yokohama Cosmoworld was our next destination and we arrived in Yokohama station at 10am, it was just a shame the park didn't open until 11... Shortly after arriving it began to rain so we killed the hour in the second Starbucks of the trip, I really am starting to associate Starbucks with disappointment. Talking of dissapointment... We got to Yokohama Cosmoworld a little after opening to the site of both the major coasters being under tarp. After asking guest services they told us they'd walk the track at some point and if they looked dry they might open them. The coasters really weren't worth waiting around for so we opted to just move on to the next park. On the way out we ticked off the kiddie cred which rather insultingly was open. Yomiuriland - https://rcdb.com/4968.htm With 2 parks missed, hideous amounts of train faff and the rain still falling on and off we really needed Yomiuriland to lift our spirits and it certainly did. As we were on the cable car that takes you from the station to the park entrance it began to rain again and it really did feel like all hope was lost. Though when asking the man at the ticket office if the coasters were open he replied "they might close if the weather gets really bad", so there's hope you say? Bandit - https://rcdb.com/1218.htm We powered straight to Bandit, the tallest jet coaster in the World! Bandit is a monster, at near 260 feet tall and over 5,000 feet in length it almost doesn't seem real, but don't worry it gets even more insane... Not really paying attention in our rush to get to the coaster it turns out we entered the queue for "Wet Bandit", this is a special mode they put Bandit in during the summer months and oh boy was it something. Before being dispatched Big Bang's Bang Bang Bang (K-Pop) song played while the the staff made everyone clap along. Then you dispatch and as you take a turn to the right towards the lift hill, a giant water geyser goes off absolutely soaking everyone. I spent the entire lifthill laughing, thinking what the hell just happened, will anything else happen? As soon as you begin to descend down Bandit's massive drop, from the trees to the left of the ride water is shot an easy 200 foot in the air landing on you by the time you reach the bottom, Jesus Christ! Almost Valhalla wet now and laughing so hard I wasn't braced so getting the crap beaten out of me, this was awesome. Wet Bandit's final surprise was a wall of water awaiting you on the entry to the brakes, madness. So I just came from a park that's waiting for the track of a jet coaster to be dry while I'm riding the World's tallest jet coaster that's shooting water 200 feet in the air and then on the track, makes sense right? I'll more than forgive it for it's age and charm but it's fair to say Bandit is a bit of a rough monster, nothing serious but certainly some vicious jolts in places. Wan Wan Coaster Wandit - https://rcdb.com/3253.htm One the best named coasters out there. Momonga Standing And Loop Coaster - https://rcdb.com/1219.htm This Togo coaster gives you the option of riding in sitting or standing trains using a switch track in the station. The sitting train offered a rather meh ride but the standing one was quite fun. You are actually fully standing on the Togo coasters as opposed to sitting uncomfortably on your balls like on Intamin stand ups. The exposed feeling of truly standing with not much holding you in really makes the standing aspect appealing. Who knew Togo were the kings of the stand up coasters? Spin Runway - https://rcdb.com/13431.htm Spin Runaway is another Gerts spinning but this time themed to working in a fashion factory, no really. Unfortunately after the highly detailed queue, the coaster itself takes place in almost complete darkness and much like Gekion from earlier it really doesn't do much of anything exciting. Is this going to be a recurring theme for Gerts spinners or are Japan just unlucky? From disappointment to probably the best ride in the park, sorry Bandit. Splash UFO is the park's rapids ride, a rapids ride themed to cup noodles, how Japanese is that? This thing was insane and I'm certain it was built by those lunatics at Hafema. I was expecting a slightly tame indoors rapids with cup noodle theming but was presented with River Quest's whirlpool, bouncing off walls at 40mph, steep drops and sheer terror, I absolutely loved it. With all the rides we wanted to do done now, we went for a ride on the Ferris Wheel. Yomiuriland was great and brought the day back from total failure. Quality rides combined with a really wacky sense of fun made for a really enjoyable few hours. To end the day we picked up our hire car for our trip to Fuji Q the next day. We had forgotten to ask for the ETC card so discovered it was going to cost us £84 return in tolls to get to Fuji Q... Thanks for reading, next time Fuji Q and the awesome Eejanaika.

I still can't get my head around how good Samurai was on Saturday. For a nearly 20 years old ride it was back at its best (after years of awfulness) So no please no replacement for now!

You may have missed Samurai on Saturday but it was top notch.

Sums up the park completely. Needs a management refresh who takes back control of the park instead of the social team...

This is why our Lord Sanbrooke was not invited to FN Press Night - he tells it like is bruv, he called Vulcan out as the worst halloween attraction ever #notimmersive. Just to throw some positivity into the mix - as much as Big Top Showtime is an insult to the iconic Big Top, the kids who were in the Dome when the clowns did their thing did seem to be having a cracking time on Saturday, and I did like the atmosphere. Just don't pee on our mini doughnuts by referring to it as Big Top plz. As I said after press night and has been said now so many times, general consensus is that it totally is quantity over quantity. The cheapness of dividing fences between P15 and Zombie Hunt woods, the black fabric "walls" in (what should be a prestigious IP maze) on Do Or Die - not good enough. Interesting thing is too, as soon as the mazes open at 3pm and 6pm, the biggest queues I've seen at those times are Saw Alive & Blair Witch respectively. And then later on, the biggest queue is at Guest Services after everyone has been on Vulcan Peak

Come on... if you put cheery 60s tracks in the mix that are used on the standard amity track, then people are going to assume its the same BGM or just pure laziness, just like I did as I walked through Amity in 4mins, hearing no FN related stuff at all. This actually ruined the atmosphere for me completely, as BGM plays a massive part in the mood. No one wants Big Bob, its Fright Nights for god sake. You can't be on here defending the track saying "had you listened longer and closer" you would have heard the FN theme. Are you standing outside Thorpe Park telling all the other guests this? I'm not going to hang around for 10mins to hear some Halloween related audio. This just means the sound design is very poor. Just sounds like it's been created as it's something a bunch of fans wanted to do. You should be able to pick out the mood instantly when walking into an area, and the amity track isn't doing this at all, this is like the first thing that should be thought about. Not that you want to recreate more Big Bob indents or include theme park enthusiasts in in the mix. Hey, now it's all available online, for what, ego feeding? what utter rubbish. Why is this even a thing in the UK, I don't see Universal posting their tracks online. The park was built for 'islands' but everything is such a mash and islands are so close and mixed, with broken speakers and poorly levelled across the park, until this is fixed, adding zoned audio for FN's isn't effective and should have just been one or two park wide tracks, designed allowing the roamers to act along with, and actually make you feel like at 3pm, it's Fright Nights, and not normal TP. Regarding ride audio, you do it all, or non at all. Saying theres more to come, err the event opened last week, it should have been done. Why would you theme only 25mins of the track. Why would you put a story into the track, in an area which no one is going to be around to listen, because the mazes are on the other side of the park. It shouldn't depend on what time you get there, it should be there ALL the time. ----------------------------------ION------------------------ This has to be the worst Fright Nights ever, everything has been thrown into it to make it the biggest, but it's all shoddy, low class, black walls, poorly designed atmosphere and mazes and then go to the lengths of using enthusiast to produce content across the park, including the vloggers, where I'm 100% sure have been paid to say it's the best Fright Nights ever, when it's the worst. I mean, 2017's top maze couldn't even come back, despite owning everything for it, apart from a tent to put it in. As for Scare zones... what scare zones? Fright Nights 2018 has nose dived. I feel extremely sorry for the Actors who are trying the hardest, as I saw in some mazes, but frankly they are not given the environment to make scares happen. Everything's so open. Instead I found them more of an annoyance, just standing there and then stamping in front of me.

Ahh, makes more sense! But what's the point in a vr ride on something that moves that little? I can't imagine how that would enhance the sensation at all? Yes, Hollenblitz one year please! Something about that KMG surf looks, er, wrong? WTF is that?!

^ I'm assuming StevenVig posted a petty response to my suggestion then... Maybe I was just at Amity during the wrong times, but I just thought it wasn't perfect for me, that's all. Nemesis station music, on the other hand, I loved.

Fright Nights to say the least was interesting. Went to the meet on sunday really good fun thank you. Anyway attraction reviews. First up the Infamous Vulcan Peak. Scare Rating 1/10 Hilarity rating 8/10 I don't know if that's how the maze is meant to run with hands on shoulders. Felt around for a rope for a good half of the maze. I also don't think there were any Actors in the maze... Anyway Platform 15 7/10 This maze last year was really good fun. Still is really good fun some brilliant sections shame about the story change but the final is a big improvement and some fab scares inside the cottage section. Only downside is the uncomfy ground. wear decent shoes to events like these. Dead Creek woods. 7.5/10 this walk through was fun a bit abundant of Actors for the first half but sadly it felt rather short. I would say this was the best scare attraction at this place. It had a simple story line but sometimes that works. then Later on in the maze the Actors where very good with some great scares. Final attraction we experienced was Do or Die. 6/10 this had a very loose storyline. some good moments but most of the time felt like we were being rushed through. came out the end feeling a bit unsatisfied. This event overall was okay the rides in the dark are the highlight this year where as last year the highlight was, yep you guessed it the Big top. One issue I found at this years Frightnights is that it lacked a final big scare with the exception of Platform 15. they seem to put there best scare in the middle of the mazes most notable in Dead creek and Do or Die. so it could use some improvements, A maze with no ending feels like a film with a good beginning fantastic middle but a lacking ending making the overall film not that good or talked about because the ending is the last thing you remember after leaving the cinema. Also one thing to note is the Audio around the park is good although a little quite in areas notably in the center of Amity. The themed audio on rides like Colossus Stealth and Nemesis Inferno really stood out, Another great part of this years event is Inferno's queue line music with the chanting and deep jungle cannibalistic ambiance. Big Top Showtime was doing its thing scaring all the kids in the dome. Overall sad to say it but this year could use improvement and in my experience is the worst Fright Nights I have experienced. Hopefully they can improve for next year. Time will tell.

Vulcan Peak. I’m going to write a review of this as I have never laughed so hard in (or at) a maze before (Fright Night meet yesterday). The queueline wasn’t too bad, it was 40 minutes or so but the walls outside were lined with some neat looking wheat, forgetting the cheap looking plastic human hearts that seemed to have faces hanging in the bushes. At the end of the queue, our group were guided by an attendant (TP staff) to stand outside the ‘entrance’ (a standard fire exit) where we were given a speech to “never take our hats off in the maze”, then we were left there. After about 3 minutes still standing there waiting, the attendant came back round the bend in pure horror shouting directly at us “Didn’t I tell you to move?? Go inside I said!!”. Did we miss something?! So we sat down in a room already filled with other people sitting down watching a screen and a TP staff handed us small bags that were inside-out, mine had foundation smears and marks showing on it. Once the film finished people walked towards the first corridor. There was no mention of putting the bags on our heads and I noticed at least 5 bags still laying on the seats behind where some people had left them! It wasn’t particularly dark and there was no instruction of what was going on, we just followed the crowd. It became apparent that this must be the actual maze now so some people put on the bags, but the theming of IAC could be seen clearly and the bags weren’t even needed. The only “scary” part of the walk was the slightly uneven flooring. We kept stopping due to congestion ahead and the atmosphere was ruined dreadfully, we were just walking through a leafy corridor. No actors, forgettable sounds, and the lighting was still bright enough to see everything without the hood. After a few meters, we came to a tiny corridor/room with a cheap, bright white strobe light that was dreadfully placed and was lighting up the ugly ceiling, wires, and goodness knows what. We were stuck in this room for a couple of minutes just standing there due to some serious hold up and eventually the next group caught up too, causing a jam. I don’t even remember any sound at that point (was there even any??), I was laughing too hard at the ridiculousness of it all. Then, a member of staff just came finally and roughly ripped the hoods off of our heads, pulling some of my hair!! When we finally started moving again, we entered another corridor with a half deflated blow-up tight passage, and then.... the Inferno shop. That was it. It was just the most dreadful, disorganised, least atmospheric maze ever that was so bad, it was almost good. I for one could not get over the ridiculousness of it, I laughed so unbelievably hard my stomach hurt and it became a highlight. Later, the unknowing queue was coming out the entrance and slithering about 30 steps further... I’m not sure if they had as much fun as I did!!

If they can’t be bothered to replace a green light bulb on stealth after all these years so there’s no hope in them doing other lighting correctly

Nothing convinces me that enthusiasts/fans hate their chosen subject more than being on internet forums (although typing that out, that seems a pretty obvious thing to say). I remember the hate for Gruffalo when that was announced and it turned out to be a vast improvement on what had gone before and a great ride. Sometimes it's utterly miserable being here, especially when reading anything coming in the future. Fright Nights also got an absolute mauling for weeks before the event but oh look, everybody is having a great time.

I just want a high quality attraction. If it's an IP then so be it.

Day 7 After close to 10 hours sleep I woke up feeling considerably better but still not 100%. With some of the most exciting stuff on the trip quickly approaching I vowed that today I would go as easy as possible and drink more fluids than I've ever drunk before. Lagunasia - https://rcdb.com/5228.htm Previous reviews I've read of Lagunasia promised uncomfortable levels of friendliness from the female ride staff, a park swarming in bikini clad women and not much else, well then, sign me up! We were planning to hit 2 parks today so we rocked up for opening, only to find out that the park's major dark ride opened 2 hours after opening. Luckily we managed to keep ourselves entertained until said ride opened and oh boy was it worth the wait... Aqua Wind - https://rcdb.com/2591.htm We started with Aqua Wind, the park's Gerts Bobsled and it was better than expected. I've become a bit Jaded with these things (excluding the awesome Van Helsing) and they all blend into one but Aqua Wind's first drop was more intense than I was expecting and unlike other examples this hauled ass over the air time hills at the end. The ride's theming was really nice too. There was some sort of J-pop 360 3D cinema experience thing that looked awesome but sadly the first showing wasn't until like 2pm and would have meant missing the next park, in retrospect it may have been worth it... I had read online that Lagunasia's log flume was special and Christ was it. The flume is called Legend of Labyrinth and all but the last drop is enclosed. To spoil what you'll find inside would be criminal but trust me when I say I was utterly speechless at the scale and quality of what I was faced with. Easily the best ride at the park. Pirate's Blast - https://rcdb.com/3801.htm After politely turning down the VR option at batching, I left this coasters utterly perplexed why it was an option in the first place. 80% of Pirate's Blast takes place within a highly themed show building, with the coaster speeding past and reacting with some really nicely done set pieces. After that rather awesome section ends, you take the big drop out the show building, jolting in amazing fashion as you do, then you mince around on a patch of a grass for a bit before re entering the station. To call the ending a let down is a bit of an understatement, never mind... Stellar Coaster - https://rcdb.com/1825.htm A singing whale coaster with kick ass onboard audio, 10,000 times better than your average Vekoma Junior. 2 hours had now passed and the aforementioned dark ride was now open. Named Magic Powder, which should give you some idea of just how messed it was going to be, this thing can't be explained and you wouldn't even believe me if I tried. It would be a stretch to say I enjoyed this madness, it rather occurred around me as I was having several out of body experiences and then it ended and I'm not sure I'll ever be the same person again. An absolute must ride, just make sure you're of a semi sound mind before you enter because if not it WILL destroy you. Literally the dark ride you imagine you'll stumble on in Japan but you guess it can't exist, then Lagunasia has it and suddenly you regret everything. The following pictures were taken in the queueline and serve as a warning of what's to follow. And somehow this is the ride vehicle, please don't ask me to explain how it works because it was all a terrifying drug induced blur. And with that, Lagunasia was finished and while I sadly wasn't swimming in bikini clad women or fighting off ride staff with tins of magical powder, the park itself far exceeded my expectations. My friend's really wanted to ride the Ferris wheel next to the mall opposite the park, so we crossed over the bridge and grabbed some ice cream for lunch, living the dream. The lovely lady serving me at Baskin more than made up for the lack of female attention elsewhere and even saved me money, that'll come in handy soon. At the entrance to the Ferris wheel a sign mentioned that the pods had no air con and currently the temperature inside them was 37 degrees, as I was being good to myself I opted out and instead sat under an air conditioner in the mall. Hamanako Pal Pal - https://rcdb.com/4997.htm After a relatively short drive we arrived at Hamanako Pal Pal, a park I walked away from rather disappointed. The park has a weird mall like hub which you enter after purchasing tickets, this "hub" connects the two sides of the park together. There was something rather off putting about walking through a dirty looking mall type room full of arcades as you enter an amusement park. After getting out we arrived at... Mega Coaster - https://rcdb.com/1284.htm Online I'd be led to believe that Mega Coaster was some sort of hidden gem and since then I had been quite excited to give it a go. Unfortunately I found it ride exactly like I'd expected before I read the hype, completely devoid of excitement or charm and just another cred for the count, what a shame. Mini Coaster - https://rcdb.com/1802.htm +1 Jungle Mouse - https://rcdb.com/1285.htm +1 It was a shame that a park I was quite excited for ended up being a bit of a disappointment. I wouldn't recommend bothering with Hamanako unless like us you're just doing it for the creds, the park itself needs some work done to tidy it up, the staff weren't up to Japan standard and with Mega Coaster being a disappointment there's very little to keep you there. Following this we went to a mall to get food and watch Ant Man 2, both were great. We left the mall at about 9pm for the 2 hour drive to Tokyo. The first half of the journey was spent watching an absolutely beautiful thunder storm light up the night sky in spell bounding fashion. With the second half spent trying to see Mount Fuji or Eejanaika out the window, I saw neither but don't worry I promise you I see ONE of them before the end of the trip. The following is a sore subject but I really do find the honest trip reports the best reads, so you're welcome. We arrive at our hotel for the night at almost midnight. We go in, exchange pleasantries with the friendly lady behind the counter, get our rooms keys and head upstairs... I open my room door to discover that my friend without telling me has booked us into a traditional style Japanese hotel. The kind where the floor is a straw mat, there's nothing else in the room and you sleep on a half inch thick piece of cloth on the floor. I was f**king livid... If it wasn't for the following day containing something I'd have given body parts to attend, helping me to keep my eyes on the prize, I probably would have caused more of a scene and I did honestly think about sleeping in the car for a long while. It took me half an hour to kill the largest fly I've seen that was circling my room and a further 20 minutes of spraying various scents around the place to get rid of the awful smell before I managed calm myself enough to attempt to sleep on the floor. Thanks for reading, next time, 7 hours of paradise, an impending typhoon, Joypolis, Tokyo Metro, Yokohama Cosmoworld (sort of) and Yomiuriland.

Chessie does seem to be the forgotten park for new rides... I guess their hands will be forced when Ramases Revenge, at the dear old age of TWENTY RUDDY THREE YEARS OLD has to finally pass over soon. Or, they'll just leave a hole where it once stood. Or theme a maze around the old queue line a la Slammer, whilst looking on at the ride you can no longer ride, that Merlin CBA to remove.

Having ridden Vampire yesterday, I certainly didn’t find it too rough or comfortable, although I think rows, weight and time of day may be contributing factors. I just wish they were able to return/restore the chandelier lights. They used to help so much with the atmosphere of the station. However now it just looks like a terribly lit school disco and will probably continue to do so for the forseable future. Restoration of the original soundtrack would be nice too whilst they are at it.