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Don’t know if anyone will bother to read this but here are my experiences from yesterday. Spoilers (a little bit). 1. Creepy Cottage - Pretty much unchanged as far as I noticed, a few good jumps where I failed to spot some of the curtains, good way to start. 2. VIXI - Having had quite a good experience with it last year, I was let down when I went through the first two or three rooms with nobody interacting with me or anybody else in my group. After that there were very few actors at best and they didn’t do a great job of surprising any of us. The ending still manages to slightly redeem the maze. 3. Coven - I still love the effects in this maze, but my run through was let down by a slow group ahead of us. I’d gone first to leave myself a bit more exposed, but could already see the group ahead of us as soon as I came out of the briefing area. The swamp still gave me some good scares so I’ll let it slide. 4. Hayride - The same layout as years gone, but the actors seemed a bit scarce this time. Only a few hopped onto the trailer and they didn’t interact much with us as we were at the tractor end. Still enjoyable. 5. Chop Shop - Still one of the most intense mazes I’ve experienced. Going last, I was stopped by actors and cut off from the group on multiple occasions, making it the best run through I’ve had. 6. Colony - Again, batching let this maze down for me as we were stopped about two thirds of the way through by a group trying to get through the inflatables but hesitating. I went last again and was joined by the group behind us around halfway through. The final actor also failed to interact with us, meaning we just walked past and she terrorised those behind us, disappointed. The unique parts of this maze do make it memorable though, and I still enjoyed it for the most part. 7. Cellar - Going last again, I had the best maze experience I’ve ever had. There was no instruction to form a conga line this time (not sure if that’s an intentional change for this year) so I was free to create a gap between myself and the group which the actors abused, blocking me off and jumping out in front of me at every corner. The variety in this maze still contributes to it’s greatness in my opinion, combining Big Top’s strobe maze, Cabin in the Woods’ corridors and it’s own theming elements to create a great experience. 8. Twisted Clowns - The 3D element to the maze still makes the clowns stand out from anything else I’ve seen, and the interaction was great from them too. I was stopped for a while by a clown asking for a password before I could pass, separating me from the group and making it really enjoyable. Overall: Cottage - 6/10 VIXI - 5/10 Coven - 7/10 Hayride - 7/10 Chop Shop - 9/10 Colony - 8/10 Cellar - 10/10 Clowns - 9/10 We didn’t make any of the Circus of Horrors time slots, so can’t comment on that.

If something's crap, it deserves all the criticism it gets surely?

Compared to an actual brick built hotel which has had planning permission for years it remains pretty terrible really. It serves a purpose, it's cheap, it'll do, but it's hardly what they should be striving for. Comparisons with city center hotels aren't particularly relevant, but really, accomodation which is purely for leisure should be vastly superior (you should want to stay there) to budget functional rooms business types have to stay in for no pleasure whatsoever. While Thorpe Shark is a fairly poor, these pods are downright atrocious.

Oh Steven.

Went to Tulleys on Saturday and despite the rain it was fab. Chop Shop had me screaming and crying then I burst into tears at the exit - the actors in there are bloody terrifying and as much as I nearly ? myself, it did what it is meant to do and be scary. I’ve never screamed in a horror maze before or been so terrified (I thought Sub Species last year was bad when I burst into tears after the maze but this one I was crying throughout most of it ??) Haunted Hayride is still my absolute favourite - so unique and fun but also quite scary in places. Didnt bother with the hooded maze as they do nothing for me other than make me struggle to breath and sweat profusely. Really enjoyed The Colony and Coven aswell. The others are good but stand out ones for me would be Chop Shop (even though I don’t think I could do it ever again), Haunted Hayride, Colony and Covern. I like the fact that they are all free flow and all are decent length mazes - something that Thorpe could do with taking note of. The roaming actors are brilliant - great with guests and really adds to the atmosphere. When I was sat having a coffee there were a group of girls behind us and one of the clowns went up to them - one of the girls was terrified of clowns and he turned round and was having some great banter with the group - though when he said to the girl that was scared “don’t look under your bed tonight....I’m gonna make a sweater out of your skin” she started crying ? but the actor was fab and ended up making her laugh. Finally Circus of Horrors - wow - I’ve never seen them live before and wasn’t expecting much but the show was brilliant - really well put together and hugely entertaining - if I’d had time I would have happily paid to go and see the show again. I know some people were understandably disappointed that it was hinted that there would be a new maze but I personally think Circus of Horrors is perfect for Tulleys and it gives more variety than adding another maze - a new maze would be nice but I would personally prefer them to have Circus return and totally retheme a current maze - such as the clowns one which I think is one of the weakest. Ive not done a huge amount of Halloween attractions - literally Tulleys, Howloween, fright nights and Scarefest but Tulleys stands head and shoulders above the others in terms of theming, acting and variety of mazes and attractions. Finally, staff at Tulleys were so friendly - the only slight downside to the evening was the rain but that can’t be helped.