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So tonight I decided to bite the bullet and give fright nights a chance. Before I say my own thoughts, I would just like to mention a brief chat I had with a couple I met in the Do or Die line. This years fright nights was the first year they went since 2008 (the best year in the events history) and the first thing they said to me was “what happened?? I remember this used to be so good!!” So this couple has not seen the decline of fright nights since 2008, they have seen the then and the now and that to me must be even worse than the decline that I’ve seen year on year. Without mincing my words, this years fright nights is EASILY the worst fright nights I have been too and I have been going since 2004!!. Vulcan peak is an absolute insult to the space that once occupied The Freezer/Asylum. It really is not only comfortably the worst horror maze in the events history, it is the worst horror maze I have ever had the displeasure of going through!! Honestly want to know who thought that maze was good enough to open to the public some of whom are paying good hard earned money to attend. The other new “mazes” to me also felt cheap and last minute.com and as a whole it just all felt rushed together this year. Next year, the event needs a major overhaul as far as I’m concerned as it really has now turned into a laughing stock in relation to both other events in the country AND what the event used to be back up until the damn Lionsgate IP’s came in. The event now lacks a “go to” maze that you know would salvage the event no matter how bad everything else is thanks to the absolutely ludicrous decision to not bring The Big Top back and that has always been something fright nights has had since the start of the event (Freezer,Asylum,Studio 13, Cabin In The Woods and Big Top) so now there is absolutely nothing in my opinion that saves this event. For those of you who are reading this who never got to see how great this event once was, I truly am sorry!!

More changes on the ride - the Zombies in the cages on the last block brake run now fall towards the train when the trains stopped, in the exit there’s a new cage with barrels which move and bang against the cage. In the queue line the barrels behind the fence seemed to be trying to do something but didn’t seem to be working tonight. Nice to to see the continued improvements! I do wish the smoke machines could be re-adjusted to fire at the train as they did when it first opened!

Just leaving this here... The park map/guide from what was, in my opinion, the best year of Fright Nights. Experiment 10 was truly Thorpe at its best, when they led the scare industry and were able to be innovative with original themes, and it was a different approach to any scare maze the UK had seen before. Of course, who could forget the roaming clowns (and the massive cake) to celebrate 10 years of Fright Nights! Compare that to what we have now

The second day of the Pleasure Beach Experience European park trip took place at Toverland, where we had a full day at the park followed by 30 minutes ERT on Fenix, and then a behind the scenes tour of the ride. Toverland is a lovely theme park located in the Netherlands with lots of nice theming/landscaping, an indoor area of the park and some really unique attractions mixed with a few exceptional coasters. The park has lots of extra features such as the fountain show, assault courses and it’s clear that they put a lot of effort into the quality of the overall park. The park was quiet during our visit meaning that one train operations was all that was needed – in addition, the queueing areas are all incredibly well presented meaning you never felt like you were waiting around for too long. Ridecount: Fenix x11 (9 on ERT) Troy x8 Dwerlvelwind x2 Booster Bike x2 Djengu River x2 Expedition Zork (log flume) x1 Maximus’ Blitz Bahn x1 Toos-Express x1 Merlin’s Quest x1 Villa Fiasko x1 TOTAL: 30 Onto the rides! Fenix Approaching the ride’s area, the landscaping is beautifully done with lakes, fountain features and low fences meaning fantastic views of the ride are possible. As you approach, smaller features (such as a stream running down the path?!) become noticeable, and the effort that has gone into the area becomes evident. This place is stunning! Entering the queue-line you find yourself navigating dimly lit passageways with spiral staircases, tunnels and terrifyingly steep stairs into and out of the station. There are a few areas once the ride starts that feel incomplete, but I believe the park are planning to add to this over the winter. Passing through a mist effect you begin ascending the lift-hill, before taking a turn and entering the first drop. This felt a lot more forceful than Swarm’s, with there being much more of a “pull-over” at the back despite the shorter trains. You then enter an excellent airtime hill, diving through a near miss before going up, over and into an incredibly forceful helix. Out of the helix you enter a zero-g-roll taken at a ridiculously fast pace, and then dive into the last few turns. Fenix is an incredible coaster, and (IMO) infinitely better than The Swarm. Where Swarm takes elements slowly and crawls over the top of inversions, Fenix throws you into them at a much faster pace whilst still retaining the smooth nature of a B&M. This, combined with the incredible landscaping makes Fenix a truly fantastic coaster. My only criticism would be that it’s fairly short, but even then, it packs a punch so you don’t feel short-changed. Troy Oh. My. Word. As someone who holds wooden coasters in very high regard, I was excited to ride Troy but also conscious that I didn’t want to overhype it. Similar to most rides at Toverland it’s very well presented, with the queue-line and surrounding area offering stunning views of the ride’s imposing structure. Navigating the first corner and lift-hill, views of the ride’s obscene layout come into view, but before you realise you’ve reached the first drop. Plummeting down the twisting first drop is incredible, and what follows is an extremely fast banked turn, then two minutes of pure joy. I won’t even try and go through the layout because it’s taken at such a pace that it makes it impossible, but you’re thrown side-to-side, out of your seat on occasion (though airtime isn’t really the focus of the ride) and the station fly-through is awesome. The ride is just utterly relentless from start to finish, yet still manages to retain a sense of comfort whilst throwing you around and really bringing a new meaning to the “out of control” sensation associated with wooden coasters. I think it’s become my new favourite coaster. Dwerlvelwind A really fun family spinning coaster with some surprising force in places, and the onboard audio is fantastic. With it being compact I’d say one of these would be perfect for a UK park with limited space, and of course with it being Toverland it was fantastically decorated both inside the station and around the ride’s area. Booster Bike A fun coaster, the launch is more forceful than I was expecting and the turns/hills at the end are good fun; also, the unique seating position adds to it. Probably not quite as good as Velocity, but still good. Merlin’s Quest was a little bit of a disappointment as it was taken far too slowly, and felt like an ordeal waiting to get back into the station. With that said, the indoor section is excellently themed though I didn’t appreciate the bugs on the outdoor section! Maximus’ Blitz Bahn is a unique ride, and a lot of fun. The rapids were a bit terrifying in a full boat, and the log flume was good (though very weird!) During the behind the scenes tour of Fenix we were treated to a walk along the brake run, as well as a look into the ride’s control panel, a walk round the first turn after the station and a long look into and walk round the maintenance shed (it’s huge!) with the second train in storage – we were only allowed to take pictures on the brake run and in the station. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Toverland; it’s a lovely family owned park and they clearly put a lot of pride into everything they do. With investments such as Fenix I think it’s definitely one to watch. A few more photos below Spot anything strange about this picture? Hmm... There were YouTuber's filming a stunt show of some sort at the park, earlier on in the day they jumped onto our boat on Merlin's quest and then back off again whilst being filmed by the park! Thanks for reading

The Swarm was testing most of today - fingers crossed for opening tomorrow

Much like towers do during fireworks, the park have bought in additional food units to help with the peak crowds over half term

I simply love a retrospective redesign.

Tover definitely sounds a lovely park and hopefully somewhere which is up and coming. Avalon looks a stunning investment and fingers crossed will be successful enough for future additions of a similar or better quality. Out of interest, how easy is it to access from Efteling and Phantasialand?

Vulcan Peak has been updated. And safe to say it's now my second favorite maze at the park. New second half was really really good with some great scares! Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

They should look at the pay structure and make significant changes. Merlin pay very poorly especially at management level and are often £6000+ less than what similar roles offer in the south east. There graduate scheme for example pays £19k-£21k while the average for a graduate business management scheme is around £27k. I would have applied for the scheme if it wasn't for the potential 30% pay cut. They must be loosing out on countless motivated highly qualified individuals due to the poor pay. Then the ones they do get are then driven away by the poor corporate structure and lack of direction. The seasonal work and the poor pay for management means that they get very few career staff. Instead they get people working for them who's sole objective is to earn money with little to no motivation to make an impact. The business structure is rotten and lacks direction. I don't believe Varney is good as CEO anymore and needs to be replaced for the next business phase for Merlin. As for the new director of Thorpe I don't believe he has a clue what the parks history or objectives were and now he's come in and completely changed it to the thing the park was trying to move away from. Merlin could be doing a lot better and I feel all of its issues stem from the top. (I feel you are the reason you lost this task and for that reason, Varney, You're Fired.)

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

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

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.

- 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.

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.

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!

I see from Facebook that today is "that" particular day where people Travel from far and wide to Thorpe Park & Alton Towers... #prayfortheannualpassholders EDIT: my fave tweet thus far is someone asking why there are so many people in high heels on park today ?