JoshC.

Remember that The Curse used the smaller side of the beach and a similar area and was a lengthy enough maze. Interesting that they've gone for separate tents and such rather than one big tent. Definitely means we won't hear complaints of unthemed tents though which is fab.

Have you tried speak to the park about this? I'd be surprised if they hadn't come across this situation before, so they might be able to offer more advice / help. Depending on when he finishes and where he lives, the train might not be possible since that usually stop running just after midnight.

We genuinely had no clue what to expect from it, and I guess the waiting did build a lot of suspense. But it just ended up being very anticlimactic and disappointing. Will be interesting to try it again and see what I think of it knowing what to expect.

But if we're judging Valhalla as a water ride, which is where this whole conversation stemmed from, then its merits as a dark ride surely mean nothing? I haven't ridden Valhalla for the record, but it'd take an awful lot for it to beat Chiapas for me.

Love this comment - still 18 months away from a possible roller coaster possibly opening at a UK park and it's already being described as a possible Nemesis beater.

Keep the rides and rename your park 'Chessington Resort'. Invest in new hotels / resort things and retheme rides constantly. For the truly authentic feel, make sure you have rides closed for months at a time.

I think this is the most important thing here. Practically every park in the world will run on reduced capacity if they can get away with it. I saw it happen at places like Phantasialand and Efteling for example (even Baron was on 2 out of 3 cars during our stay, a day after it opened!). So let's not moan at Thorpe for wanting to run 1 train operations. The trouble is that they're giving this reason of "low demand" publicly. We all know that behind the scenes, it is likely that cost cutting is the root of this issue, but they won't want to say that. But saying that it's low demand is quite frankly just the park shooting themselves in the foot. Arguably, anything above a constant 15 minute queue warrants full capacity at Thorpe, and that doesn't seem to be the case.

The pit is meant to be 3.5m deep; so actually a lot deeper than what it looks! Here's a quote from the plans:

There will be roaming actors around the park. Their job will almost definitely be to add to the atmosphere and indeed scare people. Some may go around with the intention of going to people and trying to scare them, others may wait for people to approach then before interacting. It can be pot luck whether you see them or not though. They might also be instructed to not scare guests outside of mazes of they look particularly afraid of the actors, but that's not something I'd say with certainty to be honest!

I noticed this too. What I think is the case is that this £1 fee is a "reservation fee" (as opposed to a "booking fee" like originally assumed). So, what the park are essentially saying is "You can reserve your space in advance for a £1 charge, or arrive on the day for free, but risk being turned away". Last year, the park were essentially saying "You can reserve your space in advance for free, or arrive on the day for free, but risk being turned away". It's no different to what was initially expected I reckon (that this is happening to stop people bulk pre-booking for days they may not go to), but they've phrased it rather badly.

They are doing one on the 8th; they have confirmed this over social media. I guess they'll announce it officially and start selling tickets slightly closer to the event (possibly after formally announcing Breakout?)

Better late than never ey? I've condensed down this entry so that it's easier for me to write / more people read it / I actually decide to write it... With Baron already ridden, and 2 full days (10-8) at Efteling left, we knew we'd be able to take our time with the park, and were in no rush to do anything straight away. We covered the whole park easily within those two days, and had plenty of time to reride our favourites too. So, to cut to the chase, I adored Efteling. I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did, as usually the fairytale thing isn't always my 'thing', but I just loved the place. From the rides, to the ride themes, to just the general setting and atmosphere of the park - it's all just beautiful and brilliant. I won't go through both days extensively like I did with the other days, but just touch on some stand out attractions to me... Vogel Rok, the park's indoor coaster, was surprisingly fab, mixing a fun layout, with nice theming and effects, and pretty cool onboard audio too (and you don't realise just how loud it is until you get back into the station!). Solid ride. Whilst Vogel Rok was an instant hit for me, Droomvlucht left me a bit unsure after my first go. Droomvlucht is an awesomely themed dark ride with a great story and neat finale. But after my first go, I was left a bit unsure what to think of it; I could really appreciate the theming and everything, but the ride didn't leave me with as big a smile as everyone else in the group. I'm not too sure why; I think it might have been because it was one of the first rides we did on our first day there, and I still hadn't got into the proper fairytale mindset (if that makes sense). I enjoyed it more on the second day, but again, still not as much as everyone else. I can really appreciate it as a ride, and do think it is a great attraction, but I guess it's just not really my cup of tea.. Had a mighty impressive entrance though! Sticking to the dark ride theme, Villa Volta - the park's madhouse - was a ride that left me a bit disappointed. The ride itself was actually great and I really enjoyed it, but one thing which really ruined the overall experience for me was the doors. You could easily see that there were two sets of doors to the ride area when they opened and closed, and it spoils the illusion completely for me. Maybe because this was my 4th madhouse in 5 days I was subconsciously looking for flaws, but it's just a shame really, as it did let the experience down for me a bit. To round off my noteworthy dark rides from Efteling, I'd have to mention Fata Morgana, the absolutely fab boat ride. The sets, theming and effects are just outstanding, and I really was blown away by the quality of it! The park's headline show, Raveleijn, has clearly had a pretty penny Euro spent on it. It's a good show, and it was easy enough to follow the plot despite the language barrier. Some real top quality effects used as well. But at times, it felt like there was just too much going on, and you just didn't know where to look. Maybe not necessarily a bad thing to some people, but it just felt like too much was being crammed in at times. Turning attentions to a couple of the more thrilling rides the park has to offer, the first ride we headed to was De Vliegende Hollander (aka Flying Dutchman). This water coaster was beautifully themed (naturally) and had a decent outdoor section to go with it. Unfortunately, much like Supersplash at Plopsaland, I found the actual coaster somewhat uncomfortable, which is a shame. The thoughts of the discomfort have stayed with me almost as much as the amazing effects, theming and atmosphere inside the attraction, so it's just a bit of a shame. I did really enjoy it, and did it a couple of times of course, but the discomfort just stops it from being a truly magnificent ride for me. The park's duelling GCI woodies, Joris en de Draak, were much more of an overall hit with me however. The layouts of both the coasters are brilliant fun with some good airtime moments. I do like how the coasters do actually 'race' as well, with the winner being announced and everything. Originally, we thought it was fixed to some degree (as we were seeing alternate sides winning), but it does seem to be a true race? Of the two sides - fire and water - I slightly preferred the fire side, just because it seemed to have slightly better airtime. I also enjoyed the theming for the ride, including a fully animatronic, fire-breathing dragon, though I guess it's a bit of a shame you don't really notice it on ride. (As a side note...After being treated to brilliant rides on Troy as well, it was hard to tell which woodie I preferred. I think if you had asked me after my first day at Efteling, I'd have said Troy. However, after my second day, I would have to say Joris; it's just got sheer fun and joy factor in its side!). The other attractions on park are a bit of a mixture. I enjoyed Piraña, the park's rapids, but then rides like Python (Vekoma looping coaster), Carnival Festival (carnival-themed dark ride) and Bob left no impression on me other than disappointment unfortunately. Some of the other filler rides are fun though. Worst attraction in the park goes to Spookslot, a completely random 'show' which was laughable for all the wrong reasons. The Fairytale Forest area, however, was absolutely fantastic - we spent a good couple of hours walking round on our second day! Also loved the Aquanura fountain show; fantastic way to end the day. The only good thing about Python is the signage. Fairytale Forest is full of characters. And, because I love it so much, just one final word about Baron. Despite the lengthy queues during our visit for it, I ended up riding it 5 times. I guess that it speaks volumes about how much I enjoyed it that I was happy to wait up to an hour for it when other rides on park had 10 minute queues, and even leave the rest of the group to join the single rider queue whilst they did other rides.. Overall Efteling thoughts: Like I said at the beginning, I adored Efteling, perhaps more than I thought I would. Genuinely somewhere that I just love and can't wait to go back to. --- Leaving Efteling was a hard thing to do, and after having dinner at the Bosrijk restaurant, we left and set our sights back to Belgium. We arrived at our last hotel of the trip just before 11pm, and fortunately was only 10 minutes away from Bobbejaanland.. Though more on that park next time...

Agree with Altitude that this is the weakest one this year; obviously one just to keep the hype train chugging along. BWP was very meh in its first year, but last year it was fab. There's still loads of room for improvement of course, but I do think they're heading in the right direction! Would be interesting to see them try the tension idea in an indoor maze though.

Enjoy some jumpy Thorpe marketing... The teaser video for The Passing back in 2012 was also rather creepy. And the 2010 one was a bit intimidating too. Unfortunately I can't find links to either of them now! So some of the teaser videos in the past have been a bit scary / intimidating. I think it's worth remembering that teaser videos are just meant to give a glimpse as to what to expect (that should be a general thing for things like films, TV shows, etc, not just scare mazes!), so they won't always have to be that scary. Also, I can't not put in the Freezer advert here, just for the sheer hilarity of it:

I get what you're saying, but I still think this is darker. Marketing never said it was a snuff film for the record though, just called it a horror film. The trouble with the Director video last year was the overuse of effects cheapened away from the darkness. Maybe that was the point, since that video was also aimed to be one that shows on the screen by the entrance, but it certainly did take away from the dark aura it could have had. But then, I still loved that video and it set up the scenario for Studio 13 just fine. The Big Top campaign feels a lot darker and, most importantly, more serious. The 'Run away with the circus' video is the stand out one to me. The other videos wreak of irony to me with a bit of dark humour thrown in. Everything just feels a lot darker, and this seems to be a much more serious attempt at creating a stand-out, long serving Fright Nights attraction. Isn't Blair Witch basically an attraction all about tension? The finale is still a bit lacklustre, but the whole of the route before then is all about building the tension, making you wonder what's ahead, etc. I guess the fact that it only has a 2/5 star rating speaks volumes about what Thorpe / Thorpe's target market think about tension-building attractions though? It's a shame there hasn't been any real teasers for BWP to show people what to expect, but I s'pose that's the point; keep people guessing and on their toes. I'd really love for Thorpe to do a similar attraction if/when the BWP contract runs out, and give it a bit more limelight. That sort of attraction could be a real gem in a Halloween event if pulled off correctly!

Visited Chessington today with the family; main reason being that my Mum had a BTS tour for the animals booked, and because my family liked Chessington. The place was pretty dead, with only Truckers really seeing a queue. But the park itself felt like it lacked any atmosphere as a whole; I've visited the park on dead days before, but the atmosphere was still there. But today, it just felt very lacking. Even my family felt the same about it, even though they've enjoyed every visit they've made over the past few years. Also, the food / service in the Zafari Bar is rather substandard... The Zoo area was decent and the BTS tour of the zoo was apparently ace, so some positives at least. But the theme park side of the place just left everyone a bit disappointed..

For those who haven't seen, the zoo's male lion - Ashok - was euthanized yesterday after a bout of poor health. He was 18 years old (which seems to be about the lifespan of Asiatic lions according to some sources online).

Looks fun. Nothing special, sure, and I prefer the look of themed dive machines (especially ones which drop into the ground), but it looks fun.

When we were there, the ERT only included a few of the smaller attractions / a couple of dark rides I think. Might change throughout the year though of course. Could of course use it to queue for the big rides beforehand, but with 2 days, that should be enough to do everything of note. The advertised ride close is for the queue line, not when the ride stops operating.

I would imagine installing trains from a different manufacturer would be risky business. It could potentially invalidate some form of 'warranty' from the original manufacturer, or even damage working relationships between the two parties. This could especially be the case when the original manufacturer is still very much activate. It's probably possible, but it just wouldn't happen.

Humorously, it opened about 10 minutes after I posted that.

Rattlesnake is closed at the moment.

I meant advertising / promotion, since I class that as the same as marketing. What you are calling marketing I'd call research to be honest. But even with the heaviest of promotion, if people are still having to ask what it is / need it explained to them, surely that hasn't worked? I was talking about major additions, of which many you list aren't really. Oblivion TBH is a weird one, but I have no problem with Gardaland taking heavy inspiration from Oblivion, and presumably most of the Italian audience don't know the connection. I'd have preferred a more original name, though.

Surely the lack of interest in what the ride is comes down to poor marketing as a whole, rather than an obscure name? A bad name doesn't help, granted, but if people are interested in it at all unless someone has to physically explain to them what the ride is, something has gone wrong with marketing as a whole? Interested what other attractions you think have been lazily named / named with a "cool" formula. Certainly in terms of major attractions, the likes of Swarm, Raptor, Smiler, Flug and Scorpion Express aren't that formulaic, and all fit in with the story given to the ride? Maybe I'm just easily pleased / not that fussed.

As anyone who read BenC's Italian trip report may already know, Cinecitta World hasn't been that busy recently. So much so that they've decided to significantly change their open season and reduce the number of days they're open. http://www.theparks.it/cinecitta-world-p1147/notizie/2015/09/il-parco-chiude-inaspettatamente-questa-settimana-n1811/(In Italian, but Google translate is our friend) Hopefully the park can have a better 2016 season, as it does look like a lovely park!