JoshC.

Phantasialand have done an awesome blog post detailing how Mystery Castle essentially works and clarifies the settings it has... https://phantasialandblog.de/funktion-mystery-castle/ So basically, it had 3 settings: 1) Short 2) Longer 3) A little bit longer They use setting 2 up until 2pm, then use setting 3. Depending on the exact weight of a row can change how forceful the ride feels (understandable really). Great to see awesome posts like this! And it's nice to have some clarity over the ride. Just a shame that I find both settings very meh.

Oh great, you'll end up breaking it and we'll have ANOTHER ride closed all of Fright Nights...

I'm not trying to sugarcoat things really. It's easy (and true) to look at Thorpe and go 'so many rides are closed, this isn't good enough, what on earth is going on??'. But there is a more balanced viewpoint to things rather than just going 'Thorpe have got loads of closed rides, they're doing everything wrong, everything will be terrible'. But in fairness, Loggers is now all but a memory and Slammer is an ornament. It doesn't look good on the park - especially when so many ask about Loggers and many will question Slammer when Fright Nights comes - but there's only so many times their closures can be bought up at every point before you tire of it a bit. They're gone, and it's time to accept that and move on. I'm a Celeb is something that will never open at Fright Nights. Staffing the Fright Nights mazes is tricky, adding in a non-scare attraction to the mix makes things harder. There's also been a large worry that people will expect it to be 'Fright Night-afied' and be scary. And no matter how hard you try to tell the masses 'We have loads of scary mazes around, but this isn't a scary maze, it's a family fun maze', the masses will not listen. Which then leads to disappoint, etc. There is the question about whether it closes too early, but all the actors / staff associated with it pretty much straight away focus on Fright Nights (set up, rehearsals, etc), so the manpower is put to use. So effectively we have lost 2 rides for this Fright Nights (okay, you can argue 3 compared to last FN, but 2 rides compared to standard operating this season). It simply isn't good enough. But Rush is clearly down for essential maintenance and something outside of Thorpe's control (something which doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the average guest, granted, but something that enthusiasts should at least be understanding of), and Rumba is a mystery (the official word they're saying on their Twitter at the mo is that it's a "seasonal attraction this year", but if we're being realistic it's likely down to budget...but more on that later). I understand where you're coming from at the moment as it can seem that way, but it really isn't. I think maybe you're over-stating Rumba's place in the line up, as despite the general consensus here, Rumba is completely overshadowed by Storm Surge. Not saying it doesn't have a place, but I think over the coming months, it won't be as missed by the public as you think. That's not to say that that makes it a good decision or anything; simply saying it's not AS bad as you think it'll be. Whilst true it did stay open until 10pm in the past, that did change to 'close at dusk', and in a time where Merlin are so over-zealous on H&S, it's not something I could have seen changing back. But with Platform existing, it basically makes the argument null and void since Loggers would have closed when Platform opened. My point was more that the attraction line up hasn't reduced in number. Loggers left, DBGT came. So the line up hasn't been reduced. And during Fright Nights, people are going to be more interested by Ghost Train than Loggers. I haven't forgotten that at all - but you were the one who mentioned that FN days were going to be hell, so that's why the conversation is geared to FN. Honestly, I think it's ludicrous that there hasn't been even a couple of quid knocked off ticket prices given that there's 2 rides which are closed which shouldn't be (3 if you include I'm a Celeb, but I won't since they've been upfront from the get-go this year it wouldn't be open in September). They can dress it up all they like with 'closed for planned maintenance', 'this is a seasonal attraction', 'rides are subject to availability', but it's not good enough, and a small gesture like that would probably go a longer way than they think. Certainly was only recently that they said they would close it early and actually did (I think it was only last season?), but they have said since about 2012 they'd close it early (just rarely followed through with it). But in all honesty, following the Drayton incident and once again Merlin's current over-zealous H&S approach, I couldn't see them wanting to keep it open in the dark now. Again though, I think you're making a bigger deal out of a rapids ride not being open. During Fright Nights in particular, there will be very few people who go saying "The rapids ride is one I must do". And there won't be a large number of people who stick it on their list to do anyway. It will be a 'we'll do it if we get time' or a 'we'll do it after lunch' ride. With it closed, the majority of people will just move on with their day (and probably gravitate towards Storm Surge). Again, I'm not saying it isn't an issue - if a park has a ride to offer, they should offer it! If they don't, it will cause disappointment, even if it's slight, to some guests, which is something they shouldn't do. But I don't think it's as big an issue as people on here think. One thing to note is that the "lifeguards" on Rumba aren't lifeguards; they are just normal rides hosts in certain positions. Their job is to tell people to remain seat, sit back down if they do stand back up, and act as another set of eyes to keep track of guests in case of an incident (so that the ride can be e-stopped as quickly as possible). They won't do 'lifeguard duties' of jumping in the water to save people if someone falls in; something which loads of people actually think they will do! However, it is true that the staffing costs have risen considerably. Following the Drayton incident, extra staff were dotted around the course and a second operator was introduced. Storm Surge and Tidal Wave also received extra staff to watch guests in case they tried to jump out of the boats (something which was very common on Storm Surge in particular). Slowly the staff numbers were reduced, by Rumba in particular still has many more staff than it was budgeted for at the start of season. From what I've been made aware, because Thorpe were overspending so much on these extra staff for H&S, they did try to get the extra budget to fund it, but ultimately it was rejected. Thus leaving Thorpe with the conundrum of whether to cut back to the original staffing levels (which staff and management didn't feel comfortable with), or continue overspending until money dried up. Given the number of extra staff required over the season, it'd make sense that it's around now that they simply don't have the money. So that would at least explain the situation Rumba is currently in. Of course not excusable to your average guest who will be disappointed to see rumba closed, but at least in some way understandable that Thorpe tried and were doing things for the right reason.

Saw's system is set up so that it physically cannot run less than 5 cars, though I'm fairly certain it hasn't run with 5 cars (though maybe a little bit in 2009, I can't quite remember). It almost always runs 7 or 8 though, as there's no advantage at running it with less unless the cars have an actual issue. But yeah, coaster queues were quite long today. I was only interested in Swarm and X today; managed to get on Swarm in about 15 minutes and X was walk on. Ghost Train has 3 trains and loads 2 on quieter days. It's quite painful and jagged to queue for; 2 groups go in in reasonably quick succession, and then there's a long wait in between. Having all 3 trains would just be brilliant. It's a shame that 1 train op has returned now. Earlier in the season they were able to get full capacity on most things on quiet days, and apparently they were planning to do that for the rest of the season (unless there was an issue with a train a la Colossus). Wonder what's changed...

I'm fairly certain I saw it advertised there this morning, so a very recent change. Though I'm still under the impression that the cinema is being used for Walking Dead clips and the like, so maybe it's just been replaced on the website to advertise the RIP lounge. Hopefully it still happens and it's always nice to see it used, and similar things worked well enough in the past. Bring back the days of Barry and Stuart performing in there!

Suggests to me that VIXI was always meant to just be a retheme of Hellements, but the name change is there to manage expectations.

I see where you're coming from, totally. And I don't disagree with you that one major ride closure (or even an extended maze closure) one day will definitely cause more noticeable issues. However, there's only 1 ride of note that is going to be closed for the whole of Fright Nights. And that isn't acceptable. But, in itself is not the end of the world and is, for lack of a better word, manageable for guests and the park to overcome. I genuinely don't think that on a daily basis it will make things more hellish or significantly worse.

Not going to lie, I'm tiring of people using the 'Loggers is closed' argument when talking about availability, especially at Fright Nights. It's been closed the best part of TWO YEARS, it's not a listed ride and it's not confirmed to be returning. There wasn't a net loss to the number of attractions on park, as Ghost Train opened when it closed (a common theme when Thorpe open new major rides unfortunately). Plus there's the fact Loggers always closed at 5 (well it'd be 3 now what with Platform). It's not a part of the line up, it made little impact at Fright Nights. Slammer will be missed during Fright Nights, even more so since it's right next to the headline maze. However, let's not try and kid ourselves into saying it was popular or soaked up guests. When a ride that never got above 400pph never got a queue above an hour, and shutdown often, it's hardly going to make that much of an impact on a day where there's 15000 people on park.. Rumba is a weird one. It definitely helped give non-maze goers something else to do, and certainly was a good thing for families who visited during the day. But again, like Loggers, it's popularity during Fright Nights is minor, rarely getting a queue and not being a headline thing. I also wonder if it would have stayed open beyond dusk this season following how over-cautious Merlin are being with Rapids rides. Rush is the one that will be missed the most. Good throughput, always attracting a queue, well-received a next to a major maze. It was always good at soaking up queues, especially as many people would ride it before doing Big Top. Rush's closure appears to be related to the ropes needing to be replaced earlier than usual - if that's true then (as long as Thorpe were maintaining the ropes correctly which I'm sure they would), there's not much they can do. This is by no means excusing Thorpe, as there's only so many times one park can have rides suffer 'unfortunate, exceptional' closures before you have to ask questions if somethings up, but it's not an active decision they've chose to do. I presume the fifth attraction you're referring to as not being open is I'm a Celeb? If so, that's silly, since it's never opened during Fright Nights, and never will. So it's not a case of that being an attraction down. Certainly don't think anyone should give Thorpe a free pass, but if we look at things in context, I think it's easy for people to be over dramatic about how bad the ride closures are. There's one ride which is closed which will actually affect guests on a larger scale, which isn't great, but I don't think it's going to make things anymore hellish

Not really, as there's been a change in procedure this year. Obviously when the wind speed has been extremely high they've closed a large majority of rides down, but this is the first year they've been more sensitive regarding it.

I guess it wouldn't be Thorpe without a meant-to-be operational S&S ride closed from September onwards...

Dumbfounded how Banana Ride and Timber Tug suffer from Weather Delays, yet Saw does not.. But yeah, as said above, it's a hot topic at the moment. But it's always going to cause confusion and issues with guests when they're told a ride is shut for high wind speeds, and it doesn't feel THAT windy.

Given that Sanctum is an outdoor maze, could it be that the containers are just being used as things for you to walk around to help the route? The containers were pretty beaten down in the 2015, hence why one wasn't used at all. Using them to shape the route is cheap, and has the chance to create jump scares (bashing anything against those containers makes a VERY loud noise after all). In all honesty, I expect Sanctum to be a bigger, better, more coherently themed version of Dead End; given the space behind Swarm is just blank it's all I can see working there.

The Merlin parks will calculate a 'Rides per Guest' number. This is done rather crudely, by taking the total number of people who have been on the rides and dividing it by the number of people on park. Legoland will have quite a small RpG number for many reasons. They have live shows, play areas, meet and greets and Miniland - all things which aren't included in RpG numbers - which a lot of kids will want to spend a fair amount of time in. They also get a lot of babies visit, who naturally can't do much, which pulls the average down. Quite a few rides don't have big throughputs which doesn't help either. People alao take a long time to eat too. And you'll probably get quite a few parents who decide to skip it on rides to take photos as well. All of those things drag the number down. The average RpG numbers for all the Merlin parks (and probably every park worldwide if they do it) would be lower than you expect. Enthusiasts tend to forget how much your average guest will dawdle, spend time not riding things, etc. I genuinely expect Legoland's RpG number to be between 4 and 5. For Legoland to use it publicly as a way to say someone rode more than the average number of rides is silly though. It's a simple, slightly crude, way of internally figuring out how many rides people are getting on average to keep a tab on ridership. Hopefully not too many pick up on it, else they've shot themselves in the foot. Totally agree with the bloke that 30 minute wait times are ridiculous when you've purchased something giving "near instant" ride access mind.

I guess this is more a bit of confusion about how we call certain things. What you're calling the theoretical throughput is what I'd call the maximum throughput. That would be, like you say, the hardware running flawless with no faff from staff or guests and in no way achievable. These are usually numbers you see advertised on manufacturers' websites as well. Theoretical throughput is what is quoted to the park's by the manufacturer when the ride is built. This would take in some factors, such as any extra safety precautions the manufacturer has put in place at the request of the park / to comply with certain country's H&S laws, and consider how long it'd take to check bars in the best possible scenario. Some of these are hard to measure accurately or precisely, so are normally just guesses when first quoted. But this is why it is possible for some rides to exceed their 'theoretical throughput'. Saw does it regularly as (I think?) it's one of the few rides which hasn't really lost any staff compared to its first season, safety checks on the restraints haven't changed and there's no seatbelts. So with a good team who are used to it, it's possible to go above the theoretical target. The likes of Swarm and Th13teen have also exceeded their theoretical targets; usually in their first season when they were new, had more staff and more motivated staff. Some rides have their maximum and theoretical throughputs as the same (Rush springs to mind), which means that they aren't usually reached. At first, Ghost Train had it's theoretical throughput set as it's maximum throughput, which is hilariously high but also wildly achievable since that doesn't include time to get guests on the train and wearing the headsets.. Thorpe (and presumably most parks) use the theoretical throughputs as target ones as well, but these can rarely be achieved at Thorpe / Merlin parks right now, especially with their minimum staff operating and self-imposed safety precautions. The theoretical throughputs are rarely adjusted following these. I believe Colossus' maximum throughput is advertised as 1300pph, theoretical was around 1000-1100, but at the moment 700-800 is about all that's realistic.

It's a little known fact that Professor Burp's first name is Andrei, and he was in fact a Romanian businessman. When the factory was finished, he did try to sell it to Andrex for the retheme since it matched his name so closely. But that fell through, so he had to go with another bathroom product......... That and things don't always have to make thematic sense if they just 'work'.

Something which has been overlooked... Does this suggest we could see something similar to Cabin in that you can choose rooms to go through, etc? Would be nice, and good to see the idea working out and being kept fresh.

Nothing was supposed to open this summer, just announced. Betting £10 it's this (lifted straight from the press release)... This is why people shouldn't read into social media posts too much. They mean next to nothing and only disappoint those who think about it too much.

As has been said, loading and restraint checking systems have been slowed down in the recent wave of Merlin being more cautious on the safety front (some of the reasoning behind it is also justified). I've noticed things have gotten better recently though to be fair; likely down to staff finally adjusting to the new procedures. With a good team, Inferno can be one of the best performing rides...unfortunately that doesn't always happen. Stealth performs reasonably well and consistently. It can do slightly better than it normally does (and it does!), but it's not awful. Colossus is by far the worst (even when on 2 trains). Mixture of reasons for it to be honest.

Walking Dead ey? Who saw THAT one coming... Two new mazes is great; the last time we saw 2 new large attractions at Fright Nights was 2013 (2015 had 2 as well, but Containment is not really a large one). So it's easy to forget that sort of thing. For those saying about is this really the largest Fright Night ever... We have 6 scare attractions, presumably roamers, and the cinema. There has never been more than 6 scare attractions at one Fright Nights. Couple that in with 2 big name IPs (Walking Dead and Saw), and it's fair to call it the biggest FN in my opinion. Now for a mass quote of people in no order... A lot of Platform can't be seen from Monk's Walk, and they've had all year to add to it. So there's potential for new stuff. They could also add to the 2 mile long tunnel of nothingness for new scenes. I see nothing wrong with 2 attractions of the same general theme. I haven't watched the show either, but it does sound like the attractions are going in different directions / different stories. Plenty of scope for different ideas. I'm sure the idea of 2 mazes from the same IP will be a big draw to some people as well. Will have to agree to disagree about Saw Alive's quality. But I can't really see that going until the Saw contract runs out to be honest; it is such a staple now and it has become quite synonymous with Fright Nights. Like it or not, it's currently the new Asylum! Platform 15 has the opportunity to be a good maze, and we've seen in the past they are able to completely change and upgrade mazes in their second year (Big Top, Blair Witch, etc). Interesting you say about 5 big-budget indoor mazes.. The budgets of more recent mazes have tended to have larger budgets as far as I'm aware. Outdoor mazes struggle a bit granted, since some of that budget had to be pumped into ensuring things are safer, and it's difficult to create a scare environment outside. However, Thorpe are drastically short on locations at the moment, with I'm a Celeb not a suitable space for a scare attraction, and Thorpe wanting to avoid the beach after them having loads of flooding issues in 2015 with Big Top. With no arena now as well, and shipping containers proving to only work out as a short term solution, they're in a difficult scenario (and I reckon Towers will be in a similar situation with the shipping container usage in a couple of years time..). I heard some rumours that Blair Witch was actually meant to return this year (which would also mean this year would have been the 'biggest FN' with 7 attractions), but there were some issues with the location which meant that it couldn't. Could explain why Blair Witch was hinted at returning! I don't think this will be similar to other Walking Dead mazes. It's been said how it relates more to the recent season, whereas all the other ones have been very generic from early seasons. And I really hope it's not like the Movie Park one (I'll be doing a blog post why that one was so awful). But it is my biggest concern about Walking Dead being around - the one at MPG was said to be really good, and it seemed to get a lot of praise from AMC. So if that's the standard, the bar is set quite low... There was quite a lot of hype for this, probably too much yeah. I think there was actually slightly more planned this year, but things have fallen through / been delayed. So maybe if all the original plans worked out, the hype would have been worth it. It also doesn't help that we as enthusiasts have figured out Walking Dead weeks ago. Reckon the GP are lapping this up though... So yeah, tl;dr - I'm looking for to this. There's potential, and I know that things behind the scenes have been ever improving at Thorpe. I have some concerns, but I'm remaining optimistic that they'll be unfounded.

Very few parks will have a completely spare train. Especially with the biggest manufacturers, a complete train costs a 6 or 7 figure sum, which simply isn't cost effective to have as something on standby. It does happen (Stealth being a prime example), but it is rare and doesn't always mean the ride will run at full capacity (Stealth being a prime example). Saw has the lowest theoretical throughput of the major coasters. However, it is one of the more consistent rides and regularly achieves decent numbers. It's also one of the few rides which can exceed it's theoretical throughput if it has a large enough (and good enough!) team. Colossus and Inferno are probably the 2 worst performing major coasters at the moment, though in fairness they have been doing better this summer to be fair..

I'd much rather have Peeking Heights than Liseberg's ferris wheel to be fair. I still have nightmares about that...

^You'd have enjoyed Face it Alone in 2013 and 2014 then. Those years focused more on the alone aspect, where you were given personal interactions with actors, you had that solo rush, you did things that you'd never get a chance to do in a normal run. But at the same time, you were given the poncho to protect clothing (from water), there was nothing really sexual (aside from actors being naked in Saw...and Asylum apparently). 2015 was really the only year where there was the bordering on weird sexual side of things, with the spanking and stripping and stuff. Certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, but again it did work at the time because of how the experience was set up. For the record, I was never stripped during FiA, I never came out with physical bruises or anything like that. Worst I had physically done to me was paint all over me and hay shoved in my boxers..

Who want's an aerial photo of Phantasialand? Everyone of course... Posted by Phantasialand's Executive Assistant Chris (who appeared in loads of Klugheim videos, winter update videos, always looks extremely happy and generally seems like an awesome guy), with the caption 'The sky is the limit'. Rumours have been 'fly'ing around that the park are going to be construction updates akin to what they did with Klugheim, and that they could be due to start soon. So we *might* be seeing a nice, official, you-can't-get-banned-from-the-park-for-life-by-looking-at-it, update on F.L.Y. soon!

So The Welcoming will be held in the Mutiny Bay courtyard area (which is being turned into a Smokehouse for next year, meaning this is likely a 1-year maze). Here's a couple of photos from Dave of TowersStreet (sourced from TS Facebook)...

From what I've heard, there's no day-to-day VIP activity during Fright Nights. That would mean no Face it Alone, no Behind the Scenes and that the Zombie Academy that ran during half term week isn't returning. Would be wrong to say Face it Alone has gotten tamer each year though. In 2013 and 2014, you were given a free poncho to protect your clothes - an idea which would have been laughed at in 2015 and 2016. 2015 was by far the most 'extreme' year - it featured overt sexual references, commonly saw people stripped, gagging, being put into physically uncomfortable positions and have uncomfortable things done to you, etc. Something else was that each experience was unique - actors were given very loose directions of what they could do, which gave them free reign to mix it up every time. In 2016 (but also 2014), each experience was a carbon copy - so every Face it Aloner would receive the exact same experience. 2016 was also tamer, reeling in on the sexual side, stripping, etc. Face it Alone isn't actually that expensive to run. Actors usually stay a fair while after park close anyways, to help with a general clean down of the maze, change of costume, etc. The set up in 2015 and 2016 (where only 1 maze had FiA each night) meant that you were only having staff on 1 maze stay an extra half hour or so at most, so it's not that much. The materials used for FiA (tape, shaving foam, paint, etc) are all very cheap and probably bulk bought anyways so wouldn't have that much affect. The one thing which people probably never appreciated with Face it Alone is just how much time goes into creating the experience. It wasn't a case of just telling the actors 'do what you want', it always had a lot of thought and effort put into it. Sure, you can bombard people with masking tape, gaffa tape, baby powder, cream pies, water, etc and put them in awkward positions, but it doesn't quite work if you don't put it in a certain order, build it up so that it actually flows. It's not something that can really be done just like that. And the designing of these experiences was done as an extra; a side project if you will. If the person / persons designing them can no longer do it (say they leave, don't have the time, etc), it's a lot of energy and time to put in for something which doesn't generate a great deal of money compared to other things. So another person might not want to take that load. For Thorpe to no longer offer Face it Alone is truly a shame, and is out-of-touch with the current scare industry. Extreme and alone experiences have been growing in popularity so much over the past few years, and they're something which are really sought after in the UK and Europe in my experience. Thorpe were actually one of the first places to really introduce this on a wider, more accessible scale (both with Face it Alone starting in 2013, and with Experiment 10's isolation cells in 2011). The experiences grew as time went on, and I think they did struggle to find a balance - some people wanted full-on extreme to rival that of specialist scare attractions, some people were expecting a standard run through by yourself. It was difficult to try and advertise - and deliver! - it as something in the middle, to make sure people knew what they were expecting, so that they weren't disappointed or disgusted with what they got. But by no longer offering it at all, it means they can't continue to grow and develop with that. I hope they don't shut the door on extreme experiences completely. There is a market for it, there is the demand at Thorpe for it, and they have a brilliant chance to deliver it. Put the time in, and you'll get the rewards out of it.