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Seeing some people defending half term will always be busy. At what point will Thorpe take action and improve guest experience whilst perhaps upping the prices or adding more attractions

They did try it last year too (okay, the very last day of September, but still, a week earlier than this year). Again, doesn't seem to have been as viable as later dates. But it isn't to do with the amount the park are taking in, it's to do with the fact there's not enough people wanting to work for the park. It's something pretty much every park struggles with. Yes, Merlin could consider paying staff more than minimum wage and that may help. But how much more they'd have to pay to convince more people to work seasonal jobs with unsocial hours to make staffing issues less an issue is a real big question. Even if Thorpe paid more than supermarkets, for example, how many people who are working in supermarkets (which have clear, set hours) would change to working a job with not-set hours where they then have to find a job every winter? Halloween is a specifically tricky time for staffing in the UK parks as their younger workforce go off to uni just before, meaning they lose a fair old chunk of people. It's a good point. But then say they reduce maximum capacity by 5000 people. That's up to 5000 people who would be visiting who won't, and may potentially visit a competitor. Thus, potentially, they lose a customer, a competitor gains a customer, and they may not get that customer ever in the first place. Say they just chuck tons of attractions in the park, and the quality of those attractions is not-great. People then won't want to visit because the quality is bad and it's busy. There's so many potential things the park could do, but they all come with setbacks. If the park wanted to go for more HHN style mazes (continuous congo line) to increase throughput, they would have to completely change the style of their mazes, and include significantly more effects (both automatic and actor-triggered). But that would probably change the experience for the worse. Again, this is an issue which loads of large, popular parks face. Some aren't faced with the staffing issues so much thanks to being year-round parks, so people don't worry about being in seasonal employment. Other parks introduce significantly more shows, roaming entertainment and just non-ride attractions to help soak up the crowds. There's no quick or easy fix to this issue, and it happens every year. As I say, I think the best thing Thorpe can do moving forward is design mazes which have actually good, consistent throughputs. That, along with scare zones and shows, will help allow people feel like they can get their money's worth with Fright Nights.

It might aesthetically look the best it has in over a decade, but Chessington is fundamentally broken. Most of the new rides built and supplied by cheap manufacturers, with low throughputs and regular break downs. Mandrill might be the best investment in years, but it’s still a weird choice given other options. Not helped either by Merlin’s extreme & unnecessary safety reactions, making what’s already a questionable throughput dire. The rest of the park is still the same story. Old/ageing rides struggling to operate on lower throughputs and increasing breakdowns. Tiger Rock & Dragons Fury were down frequently during the day. Tomb is an absolute mess. Howl’oween was generally fun (albeit no Creepy Caves) with some excellent shows and entertainment, but seriously needs to go back to 8pm as you basically get half an hour of atmospheric park lighting and everything. Management, car parks, queue distribution, infastructure, F&B and so much more is keeping this park from being something great. Like I’m sure it was a long long time ago. However most of the above is unlikely to be improved soon, if ever.

Was just saying on Twitter, I think part of the problem is a lack in number of mazes too vs previous years. Yes, quantity doesn't always mean quantity (See Vulcan Peak), but as someone who has been going to Thorpe for donkeys, paying out £30 to do 3 mazes (on Friday 13th) and then nearly not getting all 3 done (with 5 mins to spare) shouldn't be a thing... Ok, so we got to Stitches queue at about 6.15, and we stopped for 10 mins to grab food and walk, but honestly, I was not expecting it to be a stress. I don't think that makes me stupid, and I genuinely did not expect queue levels to be the size they were on that Friday. That said, our queues on 13/10 pale in comparison to those over the weekend. Reading online of people getting just 2 or 3 rides completed in a day - that's nuts to me, sorry. Something is wrong somewhere - I genuinely can't recall queues like those seen over the weekend on previous Fright Nights, unless I'm mistaken? 120+ minutes on anything significant - 100 mins on some flats. Bonkers.

Once the world realises that capitalism is evil.

Stealths fading changed mid construction - can see its original look here but it never opened like that, not sure why they would really bother once it’s up unless they had to.

A significantly new entrance area is unlikely given we haven't seen plans yet, but not impossible. The park are restricted with how much they could do there, but they certainly could revamp it.