Marc

I guess we have different ideas on what short / queue free is. Its certainly the quietest you will ever see the park during the main season thanks to the limited ticket sales! I really dont see a queue just over 10 mins as unreasonable but there you go

I agree with this, over the past 2 nights my 4 rides on Saw have all been smoother than ive ever had before.. not sure what theyve done but keep it that way!

As I said, the longest I queued was just out side the volcano for Inferno so all of 10 mins.. That in my books is "minimal queueing" ? As for queue at entrance I agree with this if it was really that long, when I collected mine at around 6:30 there was only a 5 min queue to get these.

The reserve and ride is being trailed again in September I believe after a few tweaks maybe? As for effects I noticed the TVs were down but apart from that the water skim / fire / mist at the fire engine / plane were working. Saw staff looking at the TV's trying to fix them too.

Are you joking? Apart from the queue at the entrance which I agree is unfortunate and you should contact Thorpe with your concerns, there were very little queues on park. The longest queue I saw was Inferno which was just coming out of the volcano, which on one train is no more than 10 mins.. Hardly an unreasonable time.. Apart from that you could sit on Colossus without getting off, Stealth walk though the gate and ride again X no queue and the Same with Saw..Swarm was in the station and you waited no more than a couple of trains.. and for what its worth Colossus was on 2 trains Friday night, by around 9:30 the other was going round empty as it was just poinltess.. Obviously when the rides re-open queues form at the more popular rides as thats where everyone goes, so whilst 2 trains may stop queues from forming first thing, the people quickly even out and spread across the park within 30 mins. But if thats not "minimal queueing" I dont know what is.. Again, quite unfortunate but out of the 5 summer nights ive been too, Tidal wave is apart from a handfull of people riding, is sending around empty boats all night so I dont think it would have been missed. On the flip side Stealth had been closed all day Friday and the park worked hard to get it open and managed to get it open for the event at 8pm.. According to somone who was at the station this was caused by a guests shoe falling off and they were not sure if it had managed to wrap around the track. Apart from that I saw Stealth have a shutdown at 10ish apart from that didnt see any rides go down.

Which effect is this?! going mad

I dont think thorpe need a "small" ride, I'm of the opinion they need somthing of The Smilers scale, atleast in ride length anyway. I'm not too fussed on the type, id personally like to see a Intamin hyper coaster, the new trains with lap bars look interesting and a longer length intamin may be easier to fit in than a B&M. Please stay away from Gerst!!!

To be fair, Swarms marketing was pretty much what enthusiasts called out for and I think the marketing was some of the best weve seen from the park. The problem is the GP like gimmicks, Saw, Colossus, Stealth, Smiler, Thirteen all have their own little gimmicks and have all been massively successful. Thats not a bad thing mind, most of them are very good rides

Good to see a Merlin park extending hours/days, and not cutting them Keep up the good work Thorpe!

It really depends how many Sun tickets have been given away and the weather at the time, although I shouldnt expect it to be majorly busy

Yep you dont need to enter a number just show your pass when you collect the tickets

I cant actually remember the prices of each maze last year and dont think they have been released this year but I do remember last year The Carnival of Screams attracting quite lengthy queues despite the charge, I'm intrigued how this will cope being the free maze this year, to me it seemed TOTT had much better throughputs so made more sense that being the free one.

Ive noticed abit of a debate starting around the forums about the £5 entry charge for Standard Annual Pass holders to Fright Nights with it being compared to Scarefest at Towers which have no such fee but charge for 2 out of the 3 mazes and was curious to get a general opinion on what you prefer. Personally Id much rather pay the £5 event fee which allows me to go on all the mazes without paying any extra whilst on park (Of course if your a premium pass holder I this this is free anyway so premium holders get the better side of the deal at Thorpe) I'd say the majority of the guests visiting at Fright Nights / Scarefest have an intention on doing the Halloween attractions also so id much much rather a one of fee for all mazes instead of having to pay for them whilst on park but what do others think?

To be honest I really don't think a woodie would be the best option for the park for its next big investment. I think the park would be much better off with an easy to market tall / fast Intamin air time machine. We all know a Woodie would most likley be harder to market and after the Swarm whilst it ticked all the right boxes ,it didnt have the impact Stealth / Saw bought in id much rather they went with the safe bet.

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's last years poster!

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Whilst it seems there will be a high amount of "gore" mazes in this years line up its not like they make these choices on a wim. They know what works for their guests, they will have held focus groups and what not along with guest feedback from previous mazes / other parks mazes, whilst I guess it may not be everyones cup of tea I think for the majority this years fright nights will be the best yet.

Surely we cant really judge if they are making it their own or not till the event takes place? And regarding money I'm sure thorpe will make a handsome profit from this, otherwise Merlin wouldnt be investing into it so much.. Regarding the Conga lines I think thats abit unfair, thorpe AFAIK are the only park who have tried to move away from these (Experiment 10 / The Passing ) in their 2 newest attractions whilst other parks are still very insistent on them

I didn't mean it will come close to HHN, I meant it will be the closest we have to it in the UK. For all Saw Alive's criticism's its probably one of the best themed mazes, and during its early days the acting did fit in with the Saw theme, although towards the end the acting did get abit more generic I agree.

See the thing I have with this is it seems very based on Halloween Horror Nights which are widely regarded the best of the best when it comes to horror events so it seems like Thorpe have taken that model and making it into their own. If it works for them I can see it working very well here also and I strongly believe this will be the best / biggest Halloween event we see this side of the pond.

I'd be a hypocrite if I was against fastrack really.. I've used it at towers and Thorpe and often buy the maze fastrack at fright nights too. Regarding this reserve n ride I think if they can make it work it will replace fastrack and it will simply become a system which is free for all but if you wish you can pay and get sooner time slots.

I'd say generally in that respect operations on park are much better in the last few years in regards to trains being sent quickly. I personally find fastrack is ok until there's a shutdown or something which causes a back log and its a struggle to make that up without letting through alot more fastrack than normal. Back to this Reserve n Ride, I really hope the park stick with it, I think once guests "get it" it will be quite good and totally change how you visit the park.

Experiment 10 had a good couple of years to be fair and I expect a fair lot of it will remain in place and tweaked for the maze which replaces it (assuming it uses the same structure) As for the passing I think money was spent but it was really the lack of actors which let if down which was a shame

I think Blair witch, I really like the rumours of a maze in the wooded bit of canada creek and if pulled off right I thin could be pretty amazing!

They don't run front row like that anymore, people simply wait for it like other coasters if they wish. I would like to see how the back row queue would work if they just let people queue as normal then queue for back in the station. Maybe when it's not so much of a big deal agree this season.

Thorpe Park and Lionsgate UK present Fright Nights! http://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/22-08-2013/THORPE-PARK-and-LIONSGATE-UK-Presents-Fright-Night http://thorpepark.com/frightnights/