JoshC.

Well at least the coaster won't be called Minecraft: The Ride. Instead it'll be Escape the Nether. The Azteca Hotel is also being rethemed to a Minecraft Hotel.

Thorpe's definition of a scare zone has always been...confused. I remember when Blair Witch first opened and they marketed that as a scare zone. But it could handle the crowds and basically always operated as an outdoor scare maze. Even in 2020 when they had loads of zones, things like Swarm Invasion and the Lycanthorpe zone had very very minimal theming. Their biggest zone successes have come in the forms of Crows and Deaths Doors, which have operated like high-throughput mazes. Their other zones have relied on shows to do the heavy lifting, which is fine, but yes, they need more to bring it to life. One of my peeves in recent years is how Creature Campus is non-existent outside the show, and it just feels like a missed opportunity. Lucifer's Lair almost always had something going on, even if it was just the actors roaming. This year may be more a struggle for that zone. Part of me wonders if they've effectively split Lucifer's in two, with Rebel Ball taking the shows, etc.

Construction has been going along at a steady pace and the exterior track has been going into place this week:

It would certainly be sod's law if the ride experienced prolonged downtime and couldn't open for an event specifically for it, and just before the park's busiest time of the year.

Quick update: https://www.facebook.com/thorpeparkmania/posts/pfbid04oZqhh1mAwhagY1x2aU1uqTHZX1GTjtw6EmRjjhnypT58ZiMvoXMZNyM9NhGGbDpl Lucifer's Lair will be scaled back this year it seems, with just the small stage there. Will be interesting what exactly happens there. It does seem like Rebel Ball could 'take' the entertainment from Lucifer's Lair which would be an interesting choice. The Crows could take quite a large space under Inferno based off how far the construction fences go back too

Park music is a bit of a mess right now. There doesn't seem to be consistency, rhyme or reason to what they've done with much of it

That YouTube channel has all the videos. As you said, the one you posted was the first. And though this wasn't a teaser, it was posted shortly after the name reveal: I believe that the Saw IP was confirmed reasonably late in the process - my understanding is that it could have even been after the first teaser video was released.

Pretty cool idea. Price / sign-up style will be interesting.

A look at some theming: Worth noting this is a different / new company for the park to use for building mazes.

A few extra details from the Thorpe Park Blog: https://thorpepark.com/blog/new-maze-2026-announcement/ That confirms we're seeing Haunted Lantern style technology, whereby the light guests are given are controlled by your location in the maze. The blog also says that Rebel Ball is at the Launchpad. An interesting wrinkle is about Survival Games: On the one shot purchasing, it has been edited from last year, to say that actors "will" touch you and you will be split up, as opposed to you 'may'. However, it is still listed as 13+ there.

Seems as though you're right Cal, though nothing officially confirmed... Couple of extra bits: Only available as a one shot ticket (£12-£14, so £2 more expensive than the other one shots) or VIP packages Actors will touch you and you will be split up. It's a cool concept and I'm intrigued by it. It feels slightly...un-Thorpe like? Which I mean in a positive way. That probably makes sense given RWS are more in charge this year. Throughput will be an interesting one. Lots of darkness, being split up, plus the presumed torches. Some mazes that have used Haunted Lantern have gone for very small groups (eg Purgatory at Tulleys), others keep group size the same. But I'm not aware of any that have split groups up before. So yeah, intrigued and excited.

Conjuring 4D replaces IT 4D: Good addition, and nice to refresh the film offering.

Hyper Coaster is probably not talked about much as it isn't that ridden. Looks like a solid ride all round though. I really enjoyed Batman GCE, but it didn't hot the upper echelons of my list. I can't describe why really, as it has lots of what I like. I'd love to have ridden it more, but my god the throughput is rubbish.

I believe they own that stage and have done since the mid 2010s (when they purchased it for the Thorpe Sounds event... I'm getting deja vu...)

I don't think on-park announcements or advertising will work all that much. I agree that using the screens around park to make it clear what time the park closes is not a bad thing. But if people are oblivious to the closing time, think it's 6pm (say), and then rock up and find out at 2pm it's actually 9pm, I don't think that will encourage that many people to stay. I think there's two things to keep in mind with later opening hours. You need to give people a reason to stay. Fright Nights is always packed until close, because there's a reason to stay (scare stuff and night rides). Summer Lates had a DJ and maybe one night ride if you join a queue late on. For many, that's not enough to get people to stay. You have to accept that people will leave early. At similar sized parks (and bigger), people leave before park close, especially when there's late closing. Just as a recent example: I went to Dollywood last month, 10am-9.30pm opening hours. All day, Lightning Rod had 45min+ queue, except in the last hour where it dropped to 5mins. People leave early. And that's fine, so long as you're busy enough during the day and people who stay late get their money's worth. I was on park both Fridays and staying late felt worthwhile. If it translated into people spending money and giving better KPI scores it's worth it. The park just need to come up with a way of making staying later more appealing, and advertising that a bit more.