JoshC.

The 'nothing has changed' thought process is interesting. I don't disagree (because it is true), but I don't view it as a bad thing. Fright Nights is in a position where there's 4 mazes, each with very different themes, plus some scare zones and shows. It's a strong position to be in. Plenty of theme parks and scream parks keep mazes for a long time, and also sometimes have less diversity in themes. So what Thorpe have done this year is no different to what the majority of the scare industry do. Obviously there shouldn't be complacency from the park. And there's room for improvement. And charging for mazes creates a whole different dynamic and level of expectation which the park need to navigate still. The issue for me would come if we have repeated years of little-to-no changes. That's thr aforementioned complacency. If this year brings more consistent operations / effects, tweaks to some mazes and a stronger park atmosphere, I'd see that as a massive win. Then next year the park can continue to diversify and change their offering.

This thread has been quiet. I guess that's not a surprise - no new maze, scare zone yet to be announced (with no obvious work happening), minimal construction updates. Well let's change that with some construction updates: The Crows is getting another new route / layout I'm a little concerned that it could become a little too "outdoor scare maze" looking at that. But we'll see. One of the biggest issues I've had with The Crows in the last year or two is the higher security / plain-Thorpe staff in the attractions, which I believe comes from the fact it has less CCTV / no e-stops. If they keep building it up like this, they may as well go for e-stops and take the potential operational blips over neutralising the experience with many non-actors. Or take a step back to what it was like in earlier years to reduce the number / need for such staff. Creature Campus set is same as last year: And the stage for Lucifer's Lair is in the same spot (which was definitely better in terms of footfall and guest flow compared to its location in the past): I have heard the scare zone will be announced this week (although that's not a surprise...it is less than 3 weeks until the event starts after all). Given there's no obvious work happening anywhere on park, I expect that means it will be a more literal interpretation of the word "zone" (ie not a walkthrough like Crows / Death's Doors was). Which is fine; the scare-zone side of Lucifer's Lair works well in that regard, so another area of the park like that is no bad thing in my books!

I've never seen that issue before. Potentially a side effect of visiting when quiet. I don't think signage needs removing or anything. Simply that batching staff need to remain clear with telling full groups to go up the left stairs.

No difference. The park run both events on the same day, but it doesn't matter whether you buy a Spooky Days or Fright Nights ticket. You still get access to park from 10am-11pm. Officially Spooky Days runs till 5-6pm, with HFN starting at 6pm. In practice all that means is the scare zones are friendlier until 5pm, and then scarier after 6pm.

Just as an update, I've just purchased my Halloween attraction tickets for Walibi Holland. The absolute cheapest way of buying tickets for all the Halloween attractions (which consists of 4 mazes, 3 experiences and 2 outdoor walkthrough) costs 116.50euros (just shy over £100). That includes a "before dark" ticket where you have to do 3 mazes and 1 walkthrough before 7pm, which is very tight to do since most open at 5pm. It is experience, but genuinely I think is worth it.

Walibi Holland (when I last went in 2019) was by far the best Halloween event outright I've done. Their standard mazes are good quality. They excel with their 'experiences' (of which they have 3), which are more intense, smaller groups / alone. Their scare zones, which they have several of, are brilliant, along with whole park atmosphere. It gets CRAZY busy though. I'm returning there this year for the event. I've had to budget to include ride and maze Fastrack - whilst it's possible to do all the Halloween stuff without extras, you will be rushed off your feet, and will almost definitely not get a chance to do any rides in the dark without it. I did Traumatica at Europa Park last year. Given it's Europa, the operations leave a lot to be desired (their Fastpass is necessary), and the quality of the mazes is very mixed. Atmosphere is very good though. You need to book in early September to have a chance of getting Fastpass / doing the alone experience. Linnanmaki have a fun event, but nothing to write home about. I haven't done any more, but some notable ones... -Walibi Belgium rebranded their event last year into Ibilaw. The best years of their Halloween event are arguably behind them, but they still do well (the Zombie Bar hasn't been around for a while) -Spanish parks tend to do great Halloween events, if you can deal with the queues / atmosphere. There's also a very well received scream park, Horrorland -Liseberg is pretty consistent

Potentially weather related; been storms about in the local area.

Certainly seems to be an operational cost-cutting measure. I wonder whether those dates coincide with Fright Nights rehearsals too? Not to say that Ghost Train will be closed over the event (cos I don't think it will be), but if some actors are moving over to working in mazes, it's possible that they're still being used and paid. That makes the cost-cutting sound a little less severe (even if it's not ideal to close any ride). Agree with Cal too that I'd rather see less popular closed than hours cut though.

They certainly have looked into restoring, but the fact they haven't been successful in doing so so far is pretty telling. I would say there's still a chance of it returning, but if it's not back early next season, then it's probably gone.

Not necessarily. A simple retheme could be hinted at over Fright Nights (to give people a chance to have a final ride), then marketed from early next year. Or even just announced next year. I agree a complete new ride is extremely unlikely, if for no other reason than the fact planning permission would be a nightmare. Plus the fact there is still the Beach development which could happen. One would certainly hope there's thoughts/conversations about the next *big* thing for the park. Though I imagine there's a level of dependence on what the situation with Merlin is there. Arguably though, a major investment shouldn't be the next priority, but rather a couple of medium investments to sort out the support line up (Zodiac and Rumba, I'm looking at you)

A slight correction I need to make: Ghost Train merchandise has been on sale all season, so this isn't a recent thing. Much less likely it's a decision in anticipation of its closure, but rather a way to shift stock. But hey, anything can happen I guess!

A long shot, but here goes... If anyone has any photos related to Face it Alone, that they are willing / allowing to have shared on TPM's website, please pass them my way! And I mean any photo related to it. A photo of a ticket or a poster advertising it. A photo of the selection ceremony from 2015. Or of your wonderful aftermath. I'm in the process of updating TPM's Fright Nights archive, and we don't have many photos of our own. (If you want to check out said archive, which currently has details from the past 10 years of Fright Nights in gorey detail, it's here: https://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/index.php/fright-nights/)

In an interesting recent development, it appears most (if not, all) Ghost Train merchandise is on sale / reduced. https://x.com/CalVickers33/status/1959594519923442085?t=3dYMeueKswge5Nfu0LzrBQ&s=19 Parks do tend to put merchandise on sale for rides which aren't returning the following season. Equally, they can just do if it's not popular and they want to clear space. I think it's fair to say that Ghost Train isn't the most popular attraction, and none of the merch is must-have stuff, so it's certainly the realm of possibility that they're simply getting rid of the range. However, given the financial issues and potential cost-cutting Merlin are facing, plus the fact that Thorpe are set to be outsourcing Ents next year, it also wouldn't be too much of a surprise if it didn't return next year...

Parm Pap translation service: Wait, this one actually makes sense. These must be troubling times.

ParmPap translation service: There might be an Easter Egg in DeadBeat this year which relates to the future of the pyramid. There also might not be. Who knows? --- As a fun aside though, which has literally just come to mind off the back of this, if Thorpe wanted to retheme The Walking Dead, it could be fun if they themed it to the DeadBeat universe. Effectively it would be taking it back to its X version, but you could have it as the rave before the demons took over. Keep it upbeat and happy. I'd like that.

Article here: https://archive.is/20250820155054/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-20/theme-park-operator-merlin-s-bonds-slide-after-credit-downgrade Realistically and practically, I don't really understand what much of this means or what we might see as a knock on effect. But it certainly doesn't sound positive.

Last year the package was £34 for all four thrill mazes. I believe the mazes were priced at £10-12 per person.

Yes the costs are horrific. £14-16 for one go in a maze is gobsmacking. And certainly, neither Compound or Mine Tours are worth anywhere near that price. All that does for me is make Thorpe's maze seem good value in comparison (though, I stress, I believe £10 is also too much). But then again, I guess people pay those prices. The whole cost vs demand thing probably plays a part in their logic, so there we go. Personally, I still feel £5-8 is what these mazes are 'worth', in the sense that of that's the quality they provide in comparison to what's out there (both in terms of other theme parks, and scream parks). But maybe that's just unrealistic of me. I wonder if the increase in prices is directly linked to using RWS and needing to generate more money so all parties get money. Again, thinking in terms of Fright Nights, we might need to brace ourselves...

Were either of them actually ever open until 10pm? Maybe Rumba, but I always seem to remember Loggers closing when it hit dusk / night, and Rumba certainly closed at dusk in the early 2010s.

*blows cobwebs off* I don't know if it's been explicitly discussed on the forums, but Towers' Entertainment function is now in the hands of an external team, outsourced in a similar way to how food is now outsourced to Aramark. The team responsible for that is RWS: https://www.rwsglobal.com/ I don't know exactly how it now works, and how responsible RWS are for the design of new attractions. However, the 2 new scare attractions for this year are a scare zone and scare maze, both themed and located in the Dark Forest: https://www.facebook.com/reel/24142435788755074/?s=single_unit It's worth noting that Thorpe's Entertainment function is going to be in the hands of RWS from 2026. So how Scarefest goes down this year might give an indication to how Fright Nights will go next year (which will be marketed heavily due to it being the 25th year)

Ehhh, I don't think there's any malice being towards Dean directly. Certainly looking at his socials it's all positive, with the odd "Your record will be beaten" comment, to which he's not bothered by it When he first came up with the idea of riding every coaster in the UK, he was somewhat unaware of just how many tacky kiddie creds there are about, as well as parks which don't let solo adults in. So he just changed the challenge. The guy is having fun and has got some good social media interactions out of it. All good. The world record side of it is factually incorrect though, because there's a World Record for the most number of coasters ridden in a 24 hour period, which is 74: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2017/8/national-roller-coaster-day-10-theme-park-ride-records-for-thrill-seekers-486590#:~:text=Most roller coasters ridden in,helicopters to travel between them. Last I checked, 74 is bigger than 55. I guess you could argue it's a different record, and uses parameters which are different (so you could define the records differently, but heyho). As for the reaction of others, I think it's only natural for people to respond with a "Hang on, I can / have beat that". I know for a fact that I've ridden more than 55 different coasters in one week. I'm sure that's the case with loads of new records too; people will see a new record created, realise they can best it, so do it. Obviously there's some people out there that are acting sour grapes, but heyho, that's always the case.

Audio is quite the issue for the indoor section of the ride right now. The on-ride talk from Jigsaw (if in car 2) is so quiet I could barely hear it despite being next to the puppet. There was no arrow noise during the air cannons on my ride yesterday. The scream from the Jigsaw body is definitely quieter too. Little things in grand scheme of it all, but certainly adds up.

To be honest, there won't be any real differences in how busy it is. Weather might play a factor, but the Saturdays in September will all be equally busy really. Saturdays will be the busiest day of the week, but it still won't be that busy.

Couple of potential theories: -It was found that whoever went into the ride area damaged the ride area fencing. This wouldn't have been immediately obvious, but after dealing with the people in the ride and then surveying the fencing, this would be discovered. That could take 30 minutes. I'd say that's most likely. -Further issues with people trying to enter the park / entering the ride area, which were causing further delays. -An unrelated technical issue occurred after the guest action, meaning the ride wouldn't be able to reopen.

1st September is still technically Summer Holidays, so that's a hit. It's closure is happening earlier and earlier. It's a shame. I can understand it from a cost-cutting perspective, as it is probably the best way to save money and have minimal impact on the guest experience. But closing rides is still a sad thing to do. Frankly it would be good for them to replace it with a different water ride which actually gets a decent ridership. Ideally something where the wetness riders experience can be tweaked based on time of year, so that it can be open over Fright Nights and provide relief on the busiest days of the year. I'm quite worried about Zodiac. It spent a good chunk of last season closed, and has been closed for a while now. I believe a couple of pods are currently off the structure. I do wonder whether the park are weighing their options with it. Samurai is a weird one. The app has listed it as a "delayed opening" for a couple of weeks, despite clearing having no intention to open. Hopefully just one of its usual hiccups, and not anything more serious.