Marc
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Posts posted by Marc
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Park are advising not to turn up tomorrow if you've not pre-booked! Going to be another busy one!
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6 hours ago, Mattgwise said:
Only problem I found is there are a lot of areas around park without speakers or with broken speakers. Nothing playing on detonator, quantum or Colossus station and queue.
I think they work but are a little quiet!
Also the green mushroom speakers around Bush BBQ which haven't worked for as long as I remember are now working - speakers on Old Town BK also working
Stealths area has also had some attention and is sounding good
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Went on today - train effect is back on (and had some great reactions in our group)!
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26 minutes ago, ChessingtonSam said:
This is Merlin we're talking about. Of course they will!
Can you give me an example of an area Merlin have done anything like this too? Cbeebies is done pretty well and well received - cant think of any others
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https://www.thorpepark.com/events/fright-nights/# - theres a calendar here with the dates by prices - can only assume the 29th is very close to selling out causing the much higher pricing.
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2 hours ago, pluk said:
When the plans for a big building went in I seem to remember a SpiderMan type ride system being what many were hoping for/expecting, myself included. How much better could that have been? And surely affordable considering the spend that has been and continues to be required on Ghost Train. And it's tested, reliable technology now, wouldn't have had all these ongoing issues.
I think its worth remembering though to build a ride of that scale would of easily been 3/4 times the budget they had for DBGT - didnt Spider man / Transformers cost way over 100m dollars and thats a while ago now! I disagree we've got less than an immersive tunnel will have delivered - if Merlin can iron out the bugs with this I think they will be onto a winner.
The point i was trying to make i guess is that in Ghost train they have thought outside the box and given us a fairly unique attraction - whilst the finer details of it need work it gives me hope we can still see new exciting things from Merlin.
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^ To be fair - credit where credits due Merlin bought us what is a very unique new idea - back when this was announced people were expecting little more than an immersive tunnel - in the end we got an if not perfect, unique new dark ride experience. I know its not everyones cup of tea but it does prove Merlin will look into new ideas and not just stick to the safe bets - Im pretty excited to see what this new element is and hope it addresses alot of issues people have with the ending of the ride.
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5 minutes ago, Martin.C said:
They better not be using the space of the existing shop today for a stupid cheap walk-through section with actors jumping out at you just like they did with Sub Terra later down the line back in 2012. The shop and exit is fine as it is, do not fix what ain't broke.
This does raise another question though if this was to be the case. Does the baggage hold room close as well? I can't see any other way it can be relocated if the exit is to be re-routed further back from the entrance.
In terms of going through the long list of "things to fix" for next year, this would be low on the list for me. Number 1 would be reliability first, followed by operations next. Guess we will find out soon what the park believes should be done to improve the frankly dismal feedback it has received from guests this season.
The bag room hasn't been used for a few weeks now - I guess the sudden closure of it makes sense if they are to use that space - Assuming they are going to use up the bag room and atleast half the shop they have a fairly large space to play with... much bigger than a maze would be?
Also I agree with the reliability but I'm sure they will work hard on that over closed season regardless of this.
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This comes up every year - I don't think a topic on it is needed and posts about particular trips can be posted elsewhere!
- ThorpeTella and Glitch
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As much as we like to blame Merlin for everything, Bubbleworks was pretty awful long before Merlin bought the Tussauds parks.
Over the past few years Merlin have actually made some fairly decent (non-ride) investments into CWOA - Hopefully if it is to become a Gruffalo themed attraction we see improvements!
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Yeah i do agree no matter how long they make the vr (within reason) there will always be a situation where something happens on a train and needs dealing with - although with better timed VR they could eliminate the issue 9 times out of 10 which would be a vast improvement.
Agree about the queues / throughput - the experience is more important in a ride of this type.
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14 minutes ago, Coaster Jamie said:
My point is, they shouldn't need to simulate someone grabbing your leg! They've spent £30 million on this attraction, it should entertain/scare people without ride staff having to poke you, the whole idea is just ridiculous IMO.
To some degree it does - Ive ridden this thing a good 20/25 times and find riders reactions pretty interesting (listen out for the screams, particularly when the woman appears stood infront of you after breaking through the window, when the daemon grabs the man, when the daemon comes face to face to you) - for what ever reason they wanted to simulate somone in the VR grabbing you - the best way to do that is with staff and this goes often get a big reaction from guests.
4 minutes ago, Martin.C said:I have had instances during the 1st half of the VR sequence where I have sat for up to a minute occasionally as soon as the carriage goes black and you hear nothing but screams. Ideally, this should only last a maximum of 5 seconds and the train moves again to the underground station. But due to the fact the other train ahead is still in the process of moving to the other side of the underground station on the transfer track or unloading guests (especially if 3 trains are running), this also causes a delay. The same process occurs during the 2nd half of the VR experience too and more noticeable this time due to the victorian train carriage ahead being the only place to dock the currently moving train stuck on the green smoke scene.
Your right about the timings - interestingly in all my rides ive only had the screaming in a dark carriage (the first trains version of the green smoke) twice, and one of them was during Tech rehearsals.
What i always find particularly interesting with this is that the staff actually do run it quite well - they are in my experience at-least very quick at getting people on the train sat down and the train dispatched - but still this green smoke will loop for the majority of rides (i have had a handfull of rides where this dont loop - one time it didnt even finish playing) - I do disagree that it couldnt be fixed though - they could simply make the VR sequence on the 2nd train longer before the "hold scene" is even required - I really am looking forward to what they do with it in that respect.
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Im not saying its its good or bad - i was more getting at using staff to grab lets was probably the most realistic way to achieve what they were trying to get at in sync with the VR - I guess if thats good or bad is more to do with the VR film than anything.
You are right though - It does get the most reaction, along with the Deamon everyone loves to hate getting right in your face!
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7 minutes ago, Coaster Jamie said:
^ I hate the interaction from the staff on the train, a £30 million pound investment should be good enough without some random person walking around poking you - it's laughable really.
No amount of money could simulate somone grabbing your leg in time with the VR - the leg ticklers tried but never really achieved it and i guess were removed.
QuoteOverall a disappointing 2.5 out of 10. Think they should focus on getting it to work before adding a new destination!
I get what you mean - but even when its all working i still feel the 2nd VR could do with some work to avoid the hold scene and am hopefull this is something they look at!
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1 hour ago, Coaster Jamie said:
That's nice for you - but surely if the train crash wasn't working then it's not at the same standard?
On the rides I've had since my first go there have been a multitude of different issues including;
- VR footage jerking awkwardly, 'flipping' over and a bar appearing across my screen. This has happened A LOT.
- Green mist screen for over 10 minutes on more than one occasion
- No audio on VR headset, or on some occasions audio, but inaudible
- Mist effect in train carriage not working (only seen this work once!)
- Train crash effect not working and awful attempt to 'hide' that meaning that we missed the part with the shadow as well!
- Interior audio and queueline music not working/cutting out
Im not disagreeing with any of your points - the vr headsets do "glitch" and move around when they shouldn't.
The green mist for me is the biggest issue with the vr - I can forgive the 2nd train almost till this green mist completely kills the pacing - although this is hopefully fairly easily fixed with new vr! I won't lie I've seen the mist effect on the trains work every time (it goes off just as it says to take off your headset on the vr) possibly s bit to soon and is cleared by the fans pretty quick.
The live action scene was abit different on my last ride - they had us focusing on the tunnel whilst an actor got into position ontop of a smoke vent on the floor for us to turn around to an actor stood there in the smoke lit by the stobing lights from the static train behind - I hope the train crash scene is back on soon though!
Part of me feels they were maybe abit too ambitious with this - it may not seem it but the amount of engineering behind this is pretty incredible- the ride system it's self is so unique and is an impressive bit of engineering in its self - with the vr being used there's always room for improvement and I truly hope they do and the attraction makes use of the potential Which I think it has.
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8 minutes ago, Project LC said:
Is there much that can go wrong with 2 lights on a pole? It seems a pretty simple thing. I suspect it's more the engineers have far more important things to be working on. Which was a concern from the start.
The only concern about the attraction that has not yet come true is the disappearance of actors which I'm sure is just a few years away.
Maybe there's other reasons for it not being on then? You say that but Amity water tower broke last week - engineers worked on it over the closed days and fixed it - just an example of how they will fix effects when they go wrong And not simply leave them when there are more important things.
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16 minutes ago, Coaster Jamie said:
It's awful that a NEW attraction is already running with entire elements not working, as well as the main element (VR) not working properly, but in all honesty it doesn't surprise me.
For those who wondered why I was sceptical about this attraction and, more relevantly, whether the standard would be maintained, THIS is why.
Out of interest is the live action scene working again yet?
You say that but the rides I had at the weekend (minus the fire alarm) are at the exact same standards as they were when it opened - the vr glitches need to be worked on I agree but I suspect it's working as well as it will without some major work over closed season.
As for the live scene the train crash bit still isn't happening - wondering if there's more of a reason behind it as the last time it had an issue was fixed the very next day.
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^To be fair it was just a coaster one - asked if we can use on maze and they wrote on it that we could and signed it.
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I was on it on Saturday - first ride on 2nd train a fire alarm went off needing an evac, 2nd ride it broke down (2nd train again) needing an evac- we were given a Priority pass valid on any coaster/ maze whilst we were in the batching area for our re-ride. After we were evacuated for the 2nd time again got another priority pass for any ride/ maze.
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Odd - must of been fixed during the course of the day then as the pre show was certainly working at around 9PM!
Have noticed actually there are 2 versions of the pre-show, one with quite alot more talking before Derren appears seems to be used much less often.
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Strange you didnt get the Pre-Show - it worked for both rides on Saturday (Even if both did end up in an Evac!) and was working Sunday - Can only assume there was more of a reason than it was "broken" :S
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1 hour ago, Coaster Jamie said:
Are they actually deleting people's reviews?! That's shocking!
Of course there not - all there for everyone to read
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16 minutes ago, Matt Creek said:
Especially considering a nearly full queue line warranted a three hour wait which as a result was only using one ride vehicle
Err not sure where you got that from but can assure you there was more than 1 ride vehicle in use - i went on twice and know I was on different trains - that and if it was using 1 vehicle then a full queue would be significantly longer than 3 hours!
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I don't really think you can blame Marketing for the issues looking at the quotes you pointed out
- The world's only fully immersive psychological attraction designed to manipulate the human mind. - very easy to see where they are coming from - the floating carriage, moving into a different station, I for one had no idea it did that and was totally impressed when it did
- The next generation of theme park experience. - As much as people won't like it / may disagree they are probably right - VR isn't going to go away any time soon I expect we will see more and more of it.
- The future for theme parks across the world. - -as above- Completely re-writes the rules for what theme parks can do. - not sure what's refer to here really tbf
- Over 1000 specialists collaborated to create this experience. - again probably true and an impressive stat.
- This attraction is not suitable for guests with psychological or neurological disorders. - no idea what these are TBH
I think it's reallly difficult for us to know the GP reaction on this - alot of the reviews you refer to are more related to technical issues with the ride rather than the experience it's self, along with that what might seem like a lot of comments on social media it's a fraction compared to the amount of people who ride it on a daily basis.
Also I don't think the tube train has been out of action for that long - I agree it's hardly ideal but unfortunately not all things can be fixed overnight, fairly sure it's been broken about a week.
As I've said when the experience works 100% as it should I think it's actually a really good experience - unfortunately a lot of the time that don't happen. If they can work on the small glitches with the headsets and headphones to get them consistently reliable and improve the VR content I'm confident reaction will be significantly better.
Fright Nights 2016
in General Discussion
Posted
To late now I guess sorry but good luck if you try it!!