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I think it's worth pointing out that as Halloween event at theme parks have grown, it is very much the norm that parks charge their passholders extra for Halloween attractions. Even moreso post-Covid. This isn't just a Merlin thing, it's an industry thing. Now there's loads of arguments that can be made both ways about this. And of course we can say that 'just because everyone else does it, it doesn't mean Thorpe should'. But I think it's a point worth stressing. Most theme parks charge for their mazes, and that includes charges for their passholders. Thorpe aren't some special case here. That means whatever the reasons they have, they won't be unique to the park, they're a common, industry trend. I asked this to people in the know, as I was somewhat confused as to how Survival Games was the most expensive maze investment myself. The answer is simple, albeit underwhelming. The cost of raw materials. At a time where the cost of everything is soaring, even things like the wood used to build sets has gone up in price (I hear it had quadrupled in price compared to even Creek Freak Massacre). That adds a significant amount of cost. Another, separate issue, is that Thorpe are once again using external companies to build their mazes. That has pros and cons. One of the main cons is the price: the external company can name their price, and Thorpe will pay, and it can mean that the cost of labour is significantly more than if they had an in-house team, or even worked with MMM. Obviously there's a marketing incentive to advertise mazes as expensive to build. People hear "expensive to build maze" and they think "it must be quality". Whether that ends up being true or not is a different matter. Ultimately I think that the overall quality of the event has improved. The park are investing more money into the event (even scaling for inflation), and have expanded in a sensible way in recent years. Big Top is a great example of a great maze, yes. It's also a great example of what I mentioned above. 2015 Big Top was made by an external company. To some degree, that would have involved Thorpe giving said company a brief and a discussed-upon budget, and from there, it was out of their hands. We ended up with a maze which had potential and was different, but not well received. 2016 and 2017 Big Top were designed in house, by the park's scenic and tech team at the time. They had greater freedom and creative control, the money that would have gone to the pockets of an external company could instead go into the maze in some way. Here's where an issue lies with the current creative identity of Fright Nights. By having mazes designed by external companies, you can get that expertise in, and get a solid product. But that doesn't mean you will get the best value for money, or the best product. But at the same time, there currently isn't the skill-set at the park is design and build mazes from the ground up. They can conceptualise, work with external companies, etc, but they can't do it all. Again, I stress that's not a bad thing. But it can hamper the processes and result in some poor experiences, or experiences not being as good as they could (/ should) be. I don't know how true it is about 'most scare attractions allowing multiple runs'. But here's the biggest thing that Thorpe (and Towers) have to deal with: competition from scare parks. 10-15 years ago, the idea of a scare park was a huge novelty, and outside of a handful, they just didn't exist. These days, they're much more common. That creates significantly more competition. The competition from scare parks when it comes to quality is very strong. In part, this is because scare parks have...less strict H&S regulations to follow (because Merlin impose such strict rules on themselves). In part it's because they have stronger creative freedom over their attractions, usually designed in-house by specialists with a passion for the industry. In part it's just because they are a scare park, and focus solely on that. It's a very broad and layered landscape now. And the comparisons that brings makes it very challenging for the parks to be on top.

Looking at the website, I think I over estimated the attraction lol!

https://yullbe.com/alton-towers/?lang=en - on the YULLBE website. Looks like its opening end of this month. Looks like a free roaming VR attraction

Yep, this is the key point: Jack, and Kieran, are not - to the best of my knowledge - directly employed by the park / Merlin. They effectively operate as contractors. This isn't too dissimilar to how Thorpe work with other companies, such as Unique Concepts. In short, by hiring them as contractors, Thorpe get their expertise, whilst the contractors (in Jack's case, himself) can get more money than if they worked solely for Thorpe, and are free to work for other companies too. If anything, Thorpe are the ones who lose out slightly, but that's the way they go about things. Access will in part be restricted for H&S reasons. I think it's notable that during Jack's on-site construction updates, it is only him (and not him and Kieran) on-site. There's a reason why we rarely see such in-depth coverage of coaster construction. I expect that the signing off and training process that Jack had to go through to be allowed on site is a lot. When Coasterstudios did their update, I noted that they were only ever on the viewing platform above the offices. So they likely went through a different H&S sign off to be allowed on site. I'm certain that their presence was pre-approved by Thorpe, and not Jack just having a jolly with mates and letting who he wanted on site. As for why them and no one else. Ultimately, Coasterstudios is huge across the pond, so will get a little more enthusiast buzz created in America, for very little cost. Now here's the thing, with the more Thorpe / UK centric sites. Who do you choose outside of Jack? Do you choose DG95, who is clearly very passionate, but has a limited fanbase and who's videos are more rough the edges? Do you choose Attraction Source, a large fansite who work with Merlin for paid extra events and produce higher quality videos? What about ECC, with their broad reach? Or CoasterForce; again somewhere with broad reach, one of the longest-running fansites about and who produce quality content? And what about TPM? We're the only sole-Thorpe-focused fansite around now; our reach on social media is very big (and our Facebook, in particular, attracts people far beyond the usual enthusiast circles). So yeah, how do you choose? Why should any of them get access? Maybe it's just a case of asking - I don't know if anyone else has, but I know TPM hasn't. Ultimately, as awesome as it would be to go onto a coaster construction site, I don't know what TPM (or anyone else) can offer that's different to the content that's already been produced by someone else. So why should anyone else get access...