JoshC.

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.

Bit of a curveball that's for sure. My best guess is that Creature Campus and Rebel Ball will alternate on the Launchpad stage, meaning there's always something going on. One of the downsides for Creature Campus is it was pretty much non-existent outside of the performances, so having its space doubled up for something else works. It's worth noting the description for Rebel Ball lists "fire performances" as opposed to a fire show. I'll be disappointed if Lucifer's Lair is scaled back this year. It's been the crown jewel of Fright Nights since it came about in my opinion.

So Purgatory Town was confirmed as returning this year tonight. On the website, there are two more attractions to be revealed: a scare zone or show, and the maze. The new zone is something of a surprise, since - up to now - there were only 4 placeholders for that slot. All of last year's zones and shows are returning, so this fifth zone is something new (or perhaps something returning). I wonder if they're thinking of doing something like Legacy, but improved having learnt lessons from the Lucifer's Lair fire shows? Edit: Actually, I lie - IT 4D hasn't been confirmed as returning. So it could just be a new film in the cinema. The teaser trailer seemed to hint at a horror film released in 2013, so there we go.

Lucifer's Lair returning. Interestingly no mention of a new location, but also no mention of any specific shows.

Looks like it could be The Crows going there:

I was never a big fan of that location being used as a scare zone, especially in Thorpe's format of a one-way outdoor walkthrough. It's quite small and doesn't have the same impact. Equally, I always had concerns about Death's Doors and how it would handle crowds, but it coped. So what do I know. In saying that, I would prefer to see Thorpe try another scare zone which isn't just a one-way route, but we'll see.

Not usually. Most of Thorpe's IP contracts, to my knowledge, have been on 3 or 5 year contracts which can then be renewed for certain periods of time. All very flexible.

Another teaser: Saying "Mawkin Meadow" is no more does leave the door open for The Crows to return, perhaps as roamers. The maze apparently has a codename of Project Blackout. I hope I'm not reading into that too much and we're heading for a hooded maze... There's also posters flyposted around the park: Interestingly, the bottom of the poster says "has returned".

First teaser for the new maze has cometh...

SRQ is back today. I think it was a H&S sign off thing for guests to walk under the Flipz sign which was the issue. So the blocked off the RAP queue, meaning that took over the SRQ space.

It appears the Flipz sign is directly above the entrance for RAP. So either they've shut it off for today to ensure the sign is up securely / wait until they can fix it up more securely / awaiting H&S sign off, or it will have to be shut during the whole time the sign is up...

Flipz pretzels are temporarily sponsoring Hyperia:

Taller? Maybe TPM's April Fools was more prophetic than joke?

I think for Thorpe it works well, given the broad target market and vibe they go for. The cut and paste style and having it at Towers (and to a lesser extent, Chessington) does have less an impact though.

Stitches is also set up now:

In a similar fashion to Alton Towers, Thorpe now have a selection of street food stalls, all in The Launchpad. The stage is set up for Thorpe Lates, and a lot more seating is available (I think some of it moved from the old Saw Alive path now that construction is taking place there). The area was the most alive I've ever seen it, and definitely how it should be used.

The tent has been covered. It is 5 roof panels wide; Stitches is 6, so it's a bit smaller (but still very big).

Vortex (and Zodiac) look like they'll be down for a fair while longer as their entrances have been fenced off to allow for Fright Nights construction to pass through. They wouldn't need fences that far forward if the rides were open, so it's likely to stop people going so far unnecessarily.

When DeadBeat was introduced, Thorpe had a 3-maze package (of the returning 3 mazes), and the 4-maze package too. So I guess it's not totally unheard of for them to do something like this. My hope would be that this 5th maze is something different to the current norm. Paying £40 odd on top of entry for 5 "Thorpe mazes" where you're batched in a group, have a pre-show, wander round well-themed sets as actors jump out at you just feels a bit overkill to me. Yes it helps with capacity, but I'd question whether it improves the quality of the event. What "something different" looks like is of course a different question. My personal preference, once again, would be an alone experience. I don't mind spending more on something like that. But if there's not a market for that, which I accept there might not be, something which is done in smaller groups, and just 'feels' different to the norm. Tulleys had success with that with Purgatory, for example. My biggest criticism last year was how all the mazes felt the same, just dressed differently. I hope they can avoid that. I also hope that they have the finances and the numbers to man 5 mazes plus shows and zones adequately. On another a note, a tent has been set up today on Saw Alive's pathway: Whether this is the new maze, or perhaps Stitches relocated there, currently unclear.