Marc

^ 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.

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.

This comes up every year - I don't think a topic on it is needed and posts about particular trips can be posted elsewhere!

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!

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.

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. 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.

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!

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. 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!

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.

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.

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.

^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.

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.

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.

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

Of course there not - all there for everyone to read

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!

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.

Personally I think the rides biggest problem is that green mist hold scene - it wasn't obviously never meant to play in theory (just like the hold scene in train 1 which I suspect most here have not seen) but unfortunately it does and it totally kills the rides momentum. The first train is done very well - the person which ever one you get sets the scene explains what's happening and the story line - the effects on the train are all timed to perfection and when that "thing" is rushing towards you it's actually really creepy. 9 times out of 10 the evacuation scene is also done well - it's a shame the crashing tube train isn't working at the moment but when it is watching people run out the way of it is pretty priceless - whilst the actors are trying their best without it it don't quite work and always feels something is missing. On the 2nd train the vr again imo actually starts quite well with the creature tearing the side of the train off - again going of reactions it's received well just like the other passenger being torn away and your first face to face meeting with the creature - unfortunately for the ride here the momentum is completely killed by the looping green fog / random ending. Im really looking forward to seeing what they do with this over closed season - the ride has imo a tonne of potential - they've invested in the best hardware out there at the moment which also helps compared to the mobile phone VR counterparts. If they can get the ride working reliabilbly with the headsets not randomly moving around and the headphone volume perfect I really do think this ride will do good things for them.

Fairly sure they've already been told that the UK Government will not allow another referendum - wouldnt they have been bankrupt by now with the sharp fall in oil prices which their whole independent economy relied on?

I'd guess because of HC's throughput - which is a little strange at possibly the worse operated park ive been too! Still good though - great selection of rides, Express is well worth it - and dont listen to the Baco hate - Front row baco <3

I dont think reliability has much factor on the success of a ride (Stealth, Saw, Smiler) all hugely successful but with just as many teething issues!

1. Colossus 2. Swarm 3. Stealth 4. X 5. Inferno 6. Saw 1-5 can be in almost any order!

I guess it depends what they aim to change - they obviously will have a much better idea of what the GP think of it and where it falls short and what needs improving!

Friends of mine who are not enthusiasts who ive been with love it aswell - think its really cleverly done. Hopefully once they've had the closed season it can return even better with its little niggles ironed out.