Leaderboard

Alright, here we go. My written review of Ghost Train, as it was opening day 2023. Spoiler-free review: Wow, okay. I'm going to throw it out there and say: it's incredible. Honestly, it's incredible. From the outset I was extremely dubious (as you can see from my earlier posts) that enough would have been changed inside the attraction to warrant this rebrand. To be perfectly honest, I thought it was going to just be a reskinned version of Derren Brown's Ghost Train - but that's exactly what it isn't. Ghost Train manages to fuse eeriness, a little bit of comedy to get you to let your guard down, and then slaps you with more eeriness. What it does, it does very bloody well - especially given the fact that this attraction was not designed to be what it is now. Ghost Train now has a cohesive story from start to finish (something that DBGT was always heavily lacking, and the park trying to shoehorn plothole solutions always just make the storyline even more confusing), and the set design is immense. It's a shame that I live so far away from the park these days as I definitely already want to go back to give it another few more rides before I give a final review, but after already queuing for about 2-2 and a half hours for Ghost Train today... I think I'm alright until the hype dies down a little 😂 Alright, here comes the spoilers. DO NOT READ PAST THIS SECTION IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE STORYLINE. I have also included my criticisms in this section as I didn't want to spoil the story: Overall, it's an incredible attraction and they've finally nailed what they were trying to do all along. Hopefully it sees some longevity, but it really is even more actor-heavy than Derren Brown ever was which is worrying. It seems we were fully staffed today, but will it have the same impact on an off-peak Tuesday? Only time will tell. As I said the other day, do not compare it with The Curse. They are two very different attractions - but as far as this attraction is concerned as it's own standalone thing... it's fantastic.

Awkward. At least it's true to its predecessor in barely working.

Spoiler thoughts from me: Some non-spoiler bits, found out during the Press Night: -Kieron Smith, Global Artistic Director for The Dungeons, was described as the "writer and director" of Ghost Train. What they means exactly I'm not sure, but in any case, it means that this has had significant input from someone who is in charge The Dungeons, which are very successful, and what this attraction should aim to be like. -The park acknowledge this will take some time to perfect. As with things like this, there will be a need to be responsive to guest and actor feedback, and things like timings, scripts, etc may need to be tweaked. The park will do this. -Not having the restriction of an IP means it is easier to change / update the story too. -A general consensus from everyone I spoke to who rode it was that it was perhaps the best they could have done given the constraints they had. There's a "ride system" in place, but it is minimal and restrictive, and was designed for a very specific purpose. The building was designed for that ride system. Replacing the ride system is pipe dream worthy at this stage. But what they've with it, and what they've turned Ghost Train into, is (as I've already said), on the higher end of what they could have done. They could have done more, but they've done a good job.

I’ve ridden it, It’s good, however it’s not a ride anymore and a lot of the GP will expect a ride or the VR. None which is clear from the outside of the attraction. Great actors, story and effects and sets. It’s good for a couple of years at a push but a waste of space for such a prominent ride. They obviously didn’t design the ride for this, hence why I don’t think it can work for a long time. It’s shoe horned in, long term use the building with modifications to the size. But build ride hardware inside, minimising the physical building being wasted, but unlimited space to build a massive dark ride.

Just finished off on Ghost Train. I'm going to be honest, it was slightly underwhelming. I spent the whole ride waiting for something big to happen, and nothing did, it just kinda felt a bit strung out towards the end. If it was a scene in the London Dungeons and other similar attractions, I’d say it would fit very well but as a ride by itself I believe it doesn’t offer enough. If someone wants to spoiler tag this feel free, I’m not sure how much info counts as a spoiler.

I just went on it. I have no idea how anyone has given this a good review. It was so bad. I'll do a proper spoiler review later, but in short it felt like a lot of overacting whilst basically nothing happened. The new theming was bare at best. Terrible. I would love to know what people who enjoyed it saw in this attraction, but I am legitimately baffled as to how it could be considered by anyone to be anything above 'dire'.

Very very brief thoughts from me as I am exhausted It's good fun. It's an actor led, story driven, Dungeons-esque experience. It's an improvement on DBGT and more rideable, but it doesn't have strong rerideability. It's on the higher end of what they could have done with the ride system in place. I have concerns about how it will run with full groups of paying guests. But that will be seen in time. Theming is good for the most part. Story is clear and straightforward. There's some cool, simple effects. It's up there as one of the better incarnations of the ride (probably joint with the 2017 version when all effects worked for me). It's not perfect, but it's a good, well rounded addition to the park's line up. Fuller review with spoilers to follow.

There’s no way I'm going to avoid seeing spoilers until Tuesday… I really want to do the attraction without anything being spoiled as I did DBGT after having watched like 3 youtube vids about it and it ruined the experience.

Keep an eye on TPM's social media channels this evening from 6pm...they might be some (non-spoiler) thoughts from yours truly from the preview event!

I do agree with that as well. When I was on it I couldn't really hear what was being said from one of the actors in the train, especially as there was a groups of teenagers right opposite me and my mate who wouldn't shut up for the enitre ride and only seemed to know how to shout. Louder speaker would have definitly helped.

I think headphones would just make the ride feel more restrictive. They are trying to go for a realistic feeling train (I think) and having to put on headphones to hear the announcements that would come through speakers in a train would just kinda break the illusion in my opinion. Also like you said they would open up lots more technical difficulties and slow down operations due to people having problems with finding and putting on headphones.

It will be far less intense than Ride to Happiness.

Me and my mate have been bored today and have been speedrunning black mirror. Our best time is 3:40, with the timer starting as soon as the door into the first video starts and ending when you leave the last door after the glass shatters. We challenge anyone to beat out time lol (no running allowed)!

tether your ghost train ride, I will never make it spooky, one day our ride will be, spooky enough to scare you, I might not be there for five more seasons but we'll make it bang average for now, I pray that we get told it's fine as it is, so one day we can remove, I love my ride, it is scary time, it is spooky time, it is woo woo time, there's a ghost this ride was a mistake, and god knows we've made a few, I started to question my role here, and they answer they gave was Mack I cannot promise there won't be delays, I wish I could sort it all out, but you'll enjoy the ride when it comes next year, and see it when it gets built I love my ride, there is scary time, there's a spooky train, it is cheap, I love my ride, there is spooky time, there's a scary train, that was ride

I definitely think that Thorpe have been told by Merlin that they have to make it work for the next 3-5 years. I can’t see this building getting any major attention now and other rides and attractions will be replaced before Ghost Train does go. Luckily they have creative freedom to do whatever, so next month it will slightly different and so on. This spot is definitely cursed, it’s going to become like the arena and stand empty for years.

I think the issue that this project always faced is that once you removed the VR and got rid of Derren Brown, there was only so much you could have done to improve the ride without spending huge amounts of money completely gutting the building. Unlike most dark ride systems, the ride system was very bespokely tailored to DBGT and the very specific sequence of events that happened within it. With something like Duel, for instance, the ride system itself had no particular quirks that were tailored to The Haunted House as it was per se, so Merlin were able to make The Curse at Alton Manor into a pretty different ride without performing any overly radical work. With DBGT, on the other hand, the very design of the ride system meant that the same basic structure of the original attraction would always need to be followed. Riders would need to sit on a train, be rushed out of the train for a live action sequence of some sort and then sit on another train to return to the offload station. And with the design of the ride vehicle not really providing much scope for added physical theming due to the VR being the originally intended vehicle for storytelling, that made the park's options very limited in terms of what they could actually do with the train portions in particular. With this in mind, I think it was complicated for Thorpe Park to make a new ride out of it because in the absence of a huge budget to demolish the whole thing and start again, the basic building blocks of the ride experience would always have needed to remain exactly the same, which would have limited the park's options massively.

Could not think of anything worse on that ride tbh.

There were no specific VIPs, I'm not calling out anyone. Basically I heard quite a few people on Thursday and Friday giving rave reviews, and then actually experiencing it was very different! My spoiler review is below: In short, I really just don't think a lot happens. The scenery is poor to non-existant and the acting is very repetitive and doesn't build up to anything. It just felt like nothing of any substance actually happened.

Unless the experience that I had on Friday was worlds apart from what everybody else has been experiencing since (which I can't see being a thing), I genuinely don't understand the level of hate that the attraction seems to be garnering? Obviously it was never going to be a Ghost Train on the same level of The Curse (hell, not even Ghost Train at BPB!) - we all went into this knowing that the ride system must remain in place because of the way the building was constructed. We all went into this knowing that the virtual reality had been removed. It seems that those that are leaving such negative reviews are forgetting all of these points? The current transit system in place for Ghost Train is built into the building, and is bloody massive. There is no way that they could've removed the old transit system and implemented something else without massive construction - be it taking the roof off and removing everything with a crane, or cutting all of the ride hardware up into small pieces and taking them out that way... both of which would have been time consuming and would have been witnessed first hand. One thing that I can imagine being a pretty large variable is the acting. As the attration is massively actor led, the quality of acting needs to remain consistent throughout - which I can imagine being pretty bloody tiresome when you consider just how emotional the actors need to be for the story to be believable. I'd probably say if you want the best experience, it's best to go on Ghost Train pretty much as soon as it opens. I've said it since Friday and I'll echo my point again, this attraction is absolutely the best that its ever been. Now that's definitely not singing its praises by any means when you consider the dire state that the attraction used to be in before the refurbishment, but they have definitely made the best out of a bad situation. When all of the effects work, this attraction has the potential to be fantastic. Sure, not much reridability, but that's the same with any theatrical performance - once you know the storyline, it won't be anywhere near as impactful. However, if you have good quality actors inside the attraction, that is what will make it reridable. I know for a fact that the actors on my runthrough were absolutely incredible - I had two gentlemen and one of them (I think he had long-ish blonde hair) was brilliant, he managed to be eerie and believable at all times. The risk you take with these attractions most of the time is the cringy GCSE drama level acting, but that's certainly not what I experienced on Friday.

First of all, if an attraction is (as you put it) dire, reviews from a media / VIP preview event aren't going to call it that. Ultimately, those events are there for those people to positively talk about and hype up whatever they've been invited there for. Saying that thing is awful publicly is just a shot in the foot and ultimately leads to them not getting invited back. So it's totally worth taking any VIP review with a pinch of salt (especially with actor led experiences). For me personally, I keep a fine line. Any negative or construction feedback I pass onto management. I have said multiple times when I don't like something, when I don't think something will work, etc. But then when it comes to posting on TPM's social pages, I focus on the positives, whilst also sandwiching in a constructive improvement. I always joke about 2018 Fright Nights, and my review of Vulcan Peak, which was little more than "Something different". As for Ghost Train more specifically, I'm genuinely curious as to which VIP reviews you feel "lied to by". I ask this because, everyone I spoke to at the event had a pretty level-headed thought process about it. Thoughts were along the lines of 'Better than DBGT', 'The best incarnation of the ride', 'It's not a must-do, but it's something I'm happy to do if the queue is right'. And the reviews and thoughts I saw posted on social media from the preview reflect that. Obviously everyone will have different thoughts and reactions. And something like this, especially in a theme park setting, will receive very Marmite reactions. But I genuinely don't know of anyone who's over-stated the attraction to be more than what it is. For what it's worth too: the experience during the media event was an accurate reflection of how the ride would run normally. No extra actors in the building. The same number of roaming actors outside the attraction (which are currently there as the ride is new, but will disappear is the coming weeks/months). There was no 'special runthrough'. The experience is, if anything, still growing, as they take on board people's reviews and make tweaks. Opening of Ghost Train was delayed on the night slightly too.

Some minor spoilers I don't even know where to start. Granted, the removal of VR now makes the story far more palatable. The preshows were done very well and set up what could have been an excellent experience. But it didn't deliver... I kept expecting this big scare moment and it never arrived. I am very suprised the fakeout shop remains but I guess that was a pricey addition to the last round of fixes? My only positive from it was the retheme of the loading platform was well done. Oh and I was out of the sun for an hour.

It could definitely allow them to advertise it as a FN attraction. Especially as they lost creak freak. I know there are some very minor story based things on the outside on posters and timetables. However, the outside isn’t really themed to the specific story. Could change the stop in the middle once in a while and therefore the story

It won't be a straight out doubling for the number of actors, as not all are linked to the trains. Though, in saying that, the attraction can probably run with about 14-15 actors ( ) (including actors to cover breaks, to ensure the same number are in the attraction at any given time) as a bare minimum at the moment. On top of that, they would require 6-7 ride hosts too (again, as a minimum, but also including people to cover breaks). There's currently also a couple of roaming actors outside the entrance, but I imagine these are more 'new ride hype' actors, which usually disappear, as is the case for many attractions. Last year, DBGT was running with 6-7 actors and 10-11 ride hosts. So the number of total staff isn't significantly greater than how it was last year. And it's currently less than when DBGT originally opened. Equally, the park is a lot more Entertainments-focused now, with a much larger Ents department and budget. With events most of the year, the Thrillmakers show outside of events, the park clearly have a greater scope to ensure actor levels remain high. The issue will come, somewhat ironically, around Fright Nights time, when (as with most large horror events in the country), they'll struggle to suitably staff the FN attractions, and start to pull actors from the permanent rides. TWD:TR hasn't had actors in any of my goes this year...whether that's bad luck or because the focus is away from that now, I'm not sure.

Not ridden this yet, but from the reviews I’ve read or watched I’m impressed with the work that’s gone into this. Honestly thought it would be undercooked, but everyone seems positive. Can’t wait to give it a go tbh. given the limitations of the ride system, it sounds as if Merlin have nailed it. Which is 3 attractions nailed this year. Think they’ve definitely raised the bar. Which makes me excited for the future

Things are going well then? Can’t say I’m surprised.

It's definitely open today.

Just a note to say don't wear your Mardi Gras beads on SAW as I lost both of my sets in one of the final dip before the break run entering the station. Saw them rise up in front of my very eyes and then they were gone 😆 Also, I would rate our ride on SAW as "OK" which really is high praise. Leaning forwards in the restraint definitely helps, and maybe looking over to the Exodus construction site maybe distracted me from what was happening also.

I’ll be riding it today, hopefully at least a couple of times. I’ve always seen DBGT through rose-tinted glasses (regardless of how bad it rode the majority of the time), so this attraction is already off to a bad start in my head. I’ll have a spoiler-free and spoiler-full review at some point today or tomorrow posted here - I promise not to sugar coat anything and my review will be nothing short of totally honest. That being said, as a big fan of Dungeons attractions (yes, even the Towers dungeons!), I am super excited to give it a whirl.

They were leg ticklers - they would randomly go off at the end of the ride when the train I assume reset, they were removed not long after though.

It’s so hard to judge, I want to believe that. However that’s the line from most attraction openings. I trust TPG, however it’s easy to get caught up in the hype.

love the effort they’ve gone to, to hide the people from DBGT on the podium. Feels very DBGT from what I’ve heard, meant to start at 6pm nearly 7pm and still not open. Still got it’s issues with the train then 😂

I know I’m probably dreaming beyond reality,but I hope a tracked ride system has been installed. I was looking on Interlink (a website for second hand rides). The ride was a Ghost Train. I would say the quality of the carriages and track is on par with Alton Manor. A proper Dark Ride is just what Thorpe Park needs. Thorpe’s had multiple walk through attractions. In over 40 years Thorpe has only had one proper Dark Ride. The Dark Ride was the ill fated Wicked Witches Haunt that burned down in the year 2000.

Colossus is opening today It beat Ghost train by 1 day, just got Mr Monkey to go!

I don't agree with a lot of what you say, but my word you know things are bad when visiting a BEEFEATER is cheaper than eating on park. Now that's saying something.

Apparently, people have been on the ride today and apparently it’s been a really bad experience with multiple effects already not working 😂