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I'll give my honest immediate reviews now. I'm honest here. This isn't "TPM Josh" talking. This is "JoshC., Thorpe Fan but fair" talking. DeadBeat Ehhhhh, not for me. Visually it looks great; no dead spots. However, the story is a little...lost. The pre show talks about a rave being hosted by a DJ. But there's no reference to the DJ when you're in there. The maze is just going through a club / bar / similar areas. It's cool, but very incoherent. The maze isn't the longest, but makes best use of its space. They've also cleverly designed the maze to make it feel like you're repeating yourself / going in circles, which I liked. However, this had a downside of a group thinking they'd gone the wrong way and turned back on themselves. That's just something which needs actor knowledge though, so no issues. It's a bit of a passive experience too, with you watching clubbers and demons (known as "Viscerals") interacting with each other. There's nothing wrong with passive experiences / scenes, as they can create fear, but it's not for me. The final quarter is much more interactive, just focusing on the Viscerals, and is nice. The finale is great (some have said it's like The Cellar at Tulleys, of which they ain't wrong, but so what) It does need time to bed in and the actors to really know what ticks. It needs tweaks with the presentation and story line too. A big positive though: I did it 3 times, and it was very consistent. Consistency is a huge thing to sort out in mazes, and it's something directly within the park's control during the event (in that, they can encourage / coach / train actors to be consistent, they can't change say the space the maze takes). Based on today, it's great to see they had that right, as even on previous press nights, mazes haven't been consistent run to run. Hopefully that continues. My personal opinion, is that the maze needs to start off completely as a rave. No scares. No viscerals. Just pure fun. There are already "dancers"/"ravers" actors, just make them happier, with a bit of an edge if necessary. Then have a scene where everything goes wrong, and it's purely demons. It involves you in the story, and creates the necessary distinction. Stitches This remains very similar to last year. Which means I don't like it. It's a completely passive experience, focusing on creepiness and a fear of what is happening to others, as opposed to what is (or could be) happening to you. Absolutely fine as a maze, and there's a place for those experiences as it gets people. but not for me. Was a bit disappointed they didn't change the mirror scene at the start. They could have put something different there. Survival Games My favourite of tonight, although I will have extra bias as there was only 2 of us in the whole maze. It remains intense, in your face and hands on. That's great. It's not for everyone (like Stitches), but it is for me. I heard some mixed reviews through the evening, so I think actors need to bed in and get used to what they can and can't do with guests, but that comes in time. 2022 Survival Games was exactly the same. There's currently no chainsaws in the finale, for reasons I'm not sure I can say. I believe they're working on it though and they should return. Trailers A very good version this year. 3 scene: -Hell Cell has been changed into Creek Freaks -Vulcan Voodoo has been changed into Knock Knock -Ship Happens and Nightmare on Staines Street have been turned into The Sleeper Express Knock Knock is a nod to Death's Doors, and re-uses the good costumes there. The pre-show is now no longer a cinema employee, but The Director. The pre show is a bit meh for me, but it is fan-servicey, which is what the whole maze is. However, they've completely cut the second pre show in the cinema screen - meaning the removal of what I unaffectionately referred to as the "orgasming actor" - HURRAY. The premise of the maze is much the same. Unfortunately, the new scenes aren't so much "new". They are just overlays of what was already there. Creek Freaks still has the prison bars from Hell Cells, but they've got Buckwheat actors and some stuff added to the walls. Knock Knock is still in a wooded area, but with doors added. Sleeper Express has the same layout as the other two, just made to feel more like the maze. It's fine, but don't go in expecting something totally new. As I say though, strong maze. Good cast, and the maze works well. The Crows This hasn't quite hit the highs of last year yet, but it's still very good. The new fenced section looks cool from afar, as well as very big, but it's not. There's two routes too: One which takes you in that fenced section, one that takes you round. The ended is incredibly dense with smoke (I expect that might change soon tbh, but if it doesn't, great!). It's a great scare zone and I'm glad they've kept it. One point of note: It now starts a little further down the pathway, with a little queue made of hay formed, which should help the batching into it. Creature Campus Only caught a glimpse of it due to how busy the night was, but it looks nice. The removal of the werewolves and vampires has meant they've brought the music into a more modern era, and it seems pretty cool. Will be watching properly tomorrow. Lucifer's Lair My absolute highlight of the night. There's a fire / dance show which is INCREDIBLE in my opinion. It's only 8 minutes long, but there's so much crammed in there that it felt twice the length (in the best possible way). The concept of the zone is perfect. The actors are fab. I expect I'll spend a lot of time round there this year. IT 4D Didn't watch. Will watch tomorrow. Little bit of theming dotted around the cinema. Is cool. This is a strong Fright Nights. Maze-wise, they do have 4 mazes which are good. And I will say this again as I have done in previous years: If you take any maze this year and put it in any other FN line up from before 2020, it would almost definitely be the highlight and best received. If not, it would rival Big Top, Ex10 or Asylum. That's the quality of the mazes on show. I don't think any of them are worth £10 still. The £5 mark would be best. £6-8 is reasonable. But beyond that is pushing it. And I think Thorpe are very formulaic now: pre-show, wander around highly themed sets in a linear fashion, flashy ending. It's another reason I like Survival Games so much: it breaks that formula. I hope we see something different next year. There's still stuff to iron out, and not all of it is for me, but I think this is again a good showing. I hope it stands the test of time for the event.

Tonight - BEST FRIGHT NIGHTS EVER Tomorrow - where did all the actors go?!

Thanks for the in-depth review JoshC Thorpe Park Fan. Have to say.... I don't really feel too bad about not doing Fright Nights this year. I think I did the same thing when Trailers was new and then went the next year when SG was new so the effort and expense was worthwhile I know this is unlikely to change, and keep repeating myself, but the £10 a maze fee I just can't entertain when every FN seems to be busy now as there are purposefully no "quiet days" meaning the likelihood of a "busy" run through in a massive group is always a risk. Plus I still feel burned by paying out for all the mazes last year, and nearly not getting them all done (by mere minutes). Impressed that Lucifer's Lair is evidently so good when it's not an upcharge. Bit of a shame there's no Death's Doors either this year, that was a fun - free - addition.

As are the park - the last car was lifted off the track at around 4pm this afternoon - unfortunately not giving enough time to open for the day guests but I’ve no doubt if it had been a 6 or later close it would have opened! The stalled train isn’t in the maintenance shed as of around 10pm tonight, I would guess they would hopefully be able to get it over there tomorrow and work on building it up tomorrow, I guess as you say the issue is when they can test it before the weekend! Im not sure why it would be closed, assuming there’s no issues with it testing tomorrow I’m certain it will be open!

With the VIP Preview Event tonight and opening tomorrow, it's that time once again to open up a spoilers thread... This thread remains open for general, non-spoiler discussion. Happy Fright Nighting!

It's not secret that Europa Park is by far my easily favourite theme park in the world. Every metric is ticked with over 50 rides across the resort including 8 dark rides, 14 rollercoasters, dozens of family friendly rides and amazing restaurants and shows. It also ticks many of my personal metrics in how a theme park should run; capacity and efficiency should be the name of the game when you're attracting a high number of guests a year but the beauty of Europa is how effortless it all feels. So I'll do a bit of a run down in this blog about the major rides and then just some general observations. We were there were three days in total and I will never get bored at this superb park. Alpine Express and Wildwasser Bahn In June 2023 a vast part of these two rides was completely destroyed in a fire. In 2024 they have both reopened, one a complete retrack and the other a complete rebuild. Whilst I wouldn't say the replacement of the mine is better then what has gone before, I will say that it had far more people exploring and going around it then the mine ever did. Lots of lovely little interactive areas and a lot more engaging for kids. Whilst I preferred zooming through the caves on Alpine Express then now, I must admit that this is probably the best we were going to get in such a short space of rebuilding time. They've done a really good job. The VR and new restraints have completely wrecked Alpines capacity though, it was by far the worst operating coaster at the park with 3 minute dispatch times seen. Blue Fire This ride really is timeless to me. Along with this and Maverick, it has truly changed the game in modern rollercoasters. Without those two rides we would not have Voltron, Toutatis, Hyperia, Gotham City Escape and so much more. Those two rides alone killed the coaster height wars and gave us these dynamic, exciting rides and rollercoasters have only got better and better. Blue Fire can feel a bit tame at times with a more mid layout but in my opinion it is aging superbly. It never feels rough and it doesn't have the vibration of the newer rides by Mack. The park run a four train service flawlessly. It eats through queues like nothing else and is a perfect showcase for the Mack launch coaster. Oddly on day three Blue Fire was really struggling with the colder weather. Frequent rollbacks and closures and then eventually stalling at the top of the top hat/stall turn thing at the start of the ride with guests on. A surreal sight to be sure but it was quickly fixed and opened about two hours later. For the first time, Blue Fire has fallen out of my top ten, however there's no denying the importance of Blue Fire. Wodan Running superbly. It has had sound deflectors added to several of the higher points which don't detract as such, just make the ride look weirdly blocked off from view. It has been surpassed by Thunderhead in my personal GCI ratings though as that is just a superior ride to Wodan. Silver Star Again, running fantastically. I noted in my review of Nitro last year that it was running just as well as Silver Star to its credit. What I've come to realise is that the American way of running rides is to shout and talk constantly over the PA to get guests moving. The difference at Silver Star is that it's effective and efficient despite using no communication at all. PA systems aren't used, instead guest intelligence is relied upon. I noticed that guests are the ones doing the batching, filling seats, asking for twos and getting 36 riders on those trains. Silver Star is now the only major rollercoaster at Europa Park without a batcher and it is interesting to see guests performing the role themselves. Silver Star is aging superbly as well, it is running very well and is very well maintained, but I think the queue and surrounding area could do with some work as there was broken TV's, music wasn't working properly and the Monte Carlo theme of the exhibition hall is looking a bit tired. This opened late on Day three due to the cold weather and opened on two trains but was easily managing its 10 minute wait. The Can Can Coaster Now that this isn't the big new rollercoaster, it's fallen back into its support rollercoaster role and is better for it. Still popular and still a good laugh, its hard to really fathom if this is an improvement on Euro-Sat but as time marches on, the memory fades and what is left is Can Can coaster, a lot of fun and a nice varied layout. Euro-Mir I know a lot of people despise Euro Mir for being quite rough and janky but I will always love this ride for feeling quite raw and aggressive. It has a bite to it that a lot of modern rides don't. A lot of rumours are flying around that Euro Mir is the next ride to see either a refurbishment or a replacement (X-Treme spinner????). Whatever it is, I know Europa Park will nail it. Poseidon, Pegasus, Atlantica Supersplash, Arthur, Schweisser Bobbahn & Matterhorn Blitz Covering all of these off at the same time as there hasn't really been that many changes. These were all great and fantastic support rollercoasters in their own right. And finally Voltron The brand new Voltron is an absolute masterclass in my opinion and highlights everything that is good and fantastic about modern day rollercoasters. This is a ride built to pump through numbers, achieving between 1400 and 1600 people per hour. I've waited the whole queue line, it takes around 45 minutes and you never really stop moving. It is a spectacle of modern day engineering and it's almost a shame that every little thing they've done to speed up waits and get through the numbers will never be used by other parks. Just imagine if Hyperia could achieve even half of what Voltron does every hour...(I'm being mean, ignore me) Voltron is a ride that I think absolutely slaps. It has so many unique little flourishes and quirks that I don't want to spoiler in this review. I'll talk about the things you can see such as the amazing vertical launch which has some wicked hang time at the top. It's so weird and hard to describe. The inversions are probably the least impressive thing about this ride though, it's all about the air time. Every moment where the train wants to fling you out of your seat, it will. For those that have done Ride to Happiness, it's the two air time hills at the end of the ride. That's pretty much most of Voltron. The zero-g stall is excellent too. I've done so many this year and it's between this and Taiga that are my favourites. Skipping ahead, the turntable part way through does break the flow and I wish there was more theme to this part of the ride as it does break up the pacing. It is definitely necessary but it's my biggest bug bear. Luckily the ride explodes back with a backwards launch which I think many don't know is going to happen as it's pretty hidden from view. For a Mack the launches are very good and the return journey to the station absolutely kicks arse. Ejector after ejector, constantly throwing you around and up into the restraint. The finale from the drop off the mid course into the final break run is one of my favourite sequences of any rollercoaster. It is relentless and full of g force and intensity. I love Voltron. I rode it ten times and I could not get enough of this absolute showcase of ride design. I had heard it has a rattle and roughness but I personally did not feel this. The outside seats are naturally more aggressive than the inner ones but I wouldn't say I felt any vibrations on my rides. I want more Strikers because Voltron delivered on everything I would have wanted. IMG_0944.mov There's so much more to explore at Europa Park and I've only covered the rollercoasters. Even now, a few weeks later I am eager to return as it just has so much to offer.