JoshC.

Only old maze I really miss is Se7en. I really enjoyed the concept of the maze and there were some great scenes with great effects in there. The blank areas between scenes were very meh, but it was overall a good maze in my opinion. -Curse was always underwhelming to me; nice to look at, but never more than people shout 'Arrrrr, me mateys'. Shame I didn't do it in its last season, as apparently it was good -Asylum was very meh, and liked giving me a headache. -Hellgate was a bit meh too. Some of the others I miss in some ways - I'd have liked to try Passing a couple more times / see it develop over a couple of seasons. Could have been a really nice attraction. Experiment 10 was great too, but needed some of its issues sorted out, and unfortunately MBV just doesn't match up to it. So I 'miss' them in the sense of I'd like to have seen them have more time to possible develop. I wish I'd done Freakshow 3D too. Sounded like a nice and clever concept (and then it would have given me a full house on Fright Night attractions). Shame it's all be painted over and the like. But then again, I'm not complaining with what we've got. Cabin is a brilliant maze with a fantastic idea. MBV inherits some of Ex10's issues and some new ones, but at least uses small spaces and good theming well. Saw Alive is a solid conga line style maze. Blair Witch was great last season, and showed that Thorpe can utilise suspense in their attractions. Studio 13 had a fantastic premise and is to the date the most immersed I've felt in a scare attraction. So, very happy with what we've got at the moment!

I saw this and expected to see "something other than graw" as a member now. But close enough ey..

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of this, but the Tetley Tea character that recently appeared on a themed bench by the Teacups, then disappeared following some damage, has returned! Hopefully it can stick around longer this time!

I don't recall any kitchen scenes from Studio 13 / Asylum / Freezer? Sure the guy wasn't just pulling your leg? IAC was closed today too though, for the record.

Truckers had had Fastrack for a couple of seasons now (since 2012 I think?).

I'm with SCB on this one - effects-based rides are different to rides with effects.

*Insert a suitably sarcastic comment to celebrate*

Yeah, definitely my main issues were with the park were clearly older parts of the park. I could at least appreciate the quality and effort in some of the newer rides I didn't like (Mystery area, Talocan, etc), and Taron already looks fab, so it's great there's a positive outlook. If Temple and Hollywood get replaced, I'm not even sure my wildest dreams could come up with sort of quality attraction they could do in that space...

Lazy retheme of Peeking Heights it is then.

Hotel tickets include Summer Nights.

Agree with Benin that whilst they may not give the exact theme (then again, why would they want to?), they give the generic feel and theme. This marketing campaign is a bit odd though, since the boards around the construction site and the website have very different tones and feel to them. Of course the website will give a better indication to the ride's feel, but it just feels...odd, almost like there was a change in idea or something.

Never too early to advertise for Halloween events in my opinion. Didn't the Scarefest hearse appear at like the beginning of August last season? Just a shame they decided to put it on the Market Square compass, which is arguably the coolest thing Chessington have added in the past couple of years.

I'd be Lez Cougan, since we are all Lez Cougan. Alternatively, I'd be Gustave Hooghmoed. [Yes, I'm really that much of a geek]

Looks like it's lights out for everyone then.

The amount of time it took for a pun to appear in this thread is shocking.

One Chessington meet a year is already one too many in my books.

You see, I see people say about Thorpe only going for dead IPs, but the 3 ones they have all round the season aren't really dead... -Saw is one of the most iconic horror franchises of the 21st century. Yeah, nothing's happening with it at a moment (though a reboot / sequel is apparently going to happen sooner or later), but everyone still knows what it is, and loads still want to experience it. -Angry Birds has topped download charts with its new game and will be there for ages. It's got a film coming out next year. I bet merchandise sales are still really strong across the world too. -I'm a Celeb still attracts millions of viewers, and still peaks between 8-10million in it's most recent series I believe. It's got a contract for at least another 2-3 series as well I think. It might be a bit past it in terms of which celebrities they attract and less things are surprising now, but it's still current and by no mean dead. -The Fright Nights ones are a bit of a mix, but I think they've gotten good IPs for a theme park environment. So Thorpe have gotten good IPs to be honest. They may not be at the height of their popularity, but they're far from dead or out-of-fashion. If WC16 is an IP, then I'm sure the park will have gone for something popular and with sticking power.

Hunger Games really doesn't fit in with the Minds Wanted stuff, unless it was a ridiculously complex spin off. Also, didn't a new park in Dubai get exclusivity rights to the IP? Really can't see it happening at Thorpe to be honest. I'm not getting Smiler / Ministry of Joy vibes either. Yes, there's similarities in that they're about the mind and trying to change you, but the tone is completely different to me!

Leaflets are now on park advertising the site... (From TPM FB)

Official announcement made: https://www.altontowers.com/things-to-do/scarefest/ Possible spoilers.. -Sub Species will split you up, and has two possible endings. Sounds very much inspired by Experiment 10. Actors also touch you. -The Haunting of Molly Crow blindfolds you for the majority of the experience. It'll be interesting to see how that experience turns out. No real new details, and no news exactly where the new mazes will be.

[Apologises for the length delay between reports - I've had an interview to prepare for recently, as well as a few other bits come up!] After a surprisingly nice sleep in the hostel of meh-service, and a slight accident where Adam reserved into a lamp post (don't worry, no damage done to us or the car!), we set off to Phantasialand! Collectively, it was probably the park we were looking forward to most. We arrived at the park for their 9am, and headed into the park. Our first port of call was Maus au Chocolat, which opened at half 9. We joined the short queue of people outside and were able to get on the ride pretty much straight away. It almost felt like a shame to have my first go on the ride be a pretty much walk-on, as it meant I didn't take in the awesome queue line as much. Enthusiast problems ey? As for the ride itself, I adored it. I loved the theme, I loved the shooting system, I loved the soundtrack, I liked the mixture of screens and real theming on ride. It can see why people think it is bit too long / repetitive, but I didn't find it like that myself to be honest. For me, this was basically the perfect indoor attraction. We moved onto the first coaster of the day - Colorado Adventure. A ride which I'd heard decent things about, but I was a bit unsure about, possibly down to my underwhelmed thoughts Calamity Mine at Walibi the day before. Once again though, my preconceptions about the ride were wrong and, like many others, I do enjoy the ride. The lift hills are very slow though and really do kill the pacing of the ride, and that feeling isn't helped by the adjacent Chiapas and it's epic speedy hill. Still, a great family ride, and does live up to hype. With it being a hot day, and with the 11 hour opening time suggesting it was going to be a busy day, we decided to stick to Mexico and ride Chiapas, which only had a 20 minute odd wait. I remember watching a POV of the ride when it first opened, and not really understanding what all the excitement was about, but I had heard brilliant reviews of ride, so went into it with mixed expectations. Fortunately, all I can really say about the ride is WOW. This must surely be the perfect water ride? Very good length, nice theming, a fantastic soundtrack, awesome backwards section, amazing final drop, and gets you a nice level of wet. Just sheer perfection. Next up was the famous Talocan, the top spin well-known for its epic effects. Simply put, after experiencing Rameses Revenge and Ripsaw a few times, I just felt like top spins were rides I didn't really rate, and were just spectator rides. But I went into this with an open mind. However, my thoughts aren't changed - whilst we were sat on the good side, and had a set of brilliant effects running during the ride, the actual ride itself is still a bit uncomfortable and just a bit meh all-in-all. Great spectator ride, average riding ride. We left Mexico and headed over to the Fantasy area of the park, which held 3 of the park's coasters. Before tackling them, we did a couple of the lesser rides in the area, starting off with Race for Atlantis. It was an awful simulator ride, with an awful pre-show (which I still can't work out if it was terrible on purpose), a juddery experience and a pretty meh film. We then headed over to Hollywood Tour, an indoor boat ride - unsurprisingly - themed around Hollywood films. It was a nice little experience in honesty, and I did enjoy it, but it certainly looked very old and tired, and in desperate need of some attention. It's hard to believe that a dark ride in this state is in the same park as Maus to be honest! Temple of the Nighthawk, an indoor coaster followed. It was a walk-on, bar a couple of minutes wait following someone throwing up (hot weather + hot indoor building + roller coaster obviously wasn't a good idea for someone). Jack and I got front row. The coaster does two things in extreme - darkness and length. The ride is very dark, bar a few lights here and there, and way too long - three lift hills, with sections that feel like they do nothing. It's a very much a burden to ride it really, and it just feels boring. Another ride which needs a lot doing to it. Random station theming is random. Safe to say that the Fantasy area hadn't lived up to the bar set by the attractions earlier in the day. Felt like I was more in a Nightmare Land to be honest. The next attractions had a lot riding on them, as it was beginning to feel like a waste coming to this part of the park. Fortunately, the next attractions were Winjas, the set of two spinning coasters. I knew a bit more about these coasters than I would have liked to as a first-time rider (I read up on them a few years back in my days of "Well this is a park I'll probably never get to"), but fortunately that didn't ruin the coasters as a whole. We did Force first, then did Fear straight afterwards. To avoid spoilers for anyone - I found Force had the better second half, whilst Fear had the better first half. I feel as if the second half of the coasters could have been better themed and had some more off-ride effects, but I do see why they've decided to keep those sections very dark. But all in all, two excellent coasters! Peaj was initially sceptical... Was difficult getting any decent shots of anything indoors with my camera... ¬¬ We decided to polish off a couple of the smaller attractions in the area, including Baumberger Irrgarten, a nice little maze, and Wakobato - a splash battle type-ride which doesn't interact with any other boats, and has no (working?) effects. It was a pretty bad ride, even if it had some nice bits of theming. The maze had bridges. Unfortunately, Phantasialand didn't get the memo that "If I wanted to look at trees, I'd go to a garden centre". With lunchtime approaching, we decided to grab a bite to eat, and were able to catch the majority of the show that happens in the China Town area. Was a nice little thing to watch whilst munching on a bratwurst and chips. We took things easy for the next couple of attractions, doing Wellenflug, the chairswing with awesome water fountains, and Das verruckte Hotel Tartiff - an epic fun house. We had no clue what sort of attraction Hotel Tartiff was, so after experiencing the fab pre-show, I think all our faces lit up when we realised what it was! With lunch settled down, the next stop was truly obvious to us - Black Mamba. I'd heard great things about Mamba, and with the similarities to Nemesis, I was very excited. With a very short queue and plenty of time left in the day, we opted to do front row for our first ride, knowing we'd have time for back row later on. I absolutely adore to the station; so nicely themed! The ride itself is good too and another coaster I really enjoyed. I feel as if the ride does too much too soon, leaving the end of the ride to feel a bit lacklustre. It's not a terrible thing of course, as the ride is still nicely paced and does a lot with what it's got, but I just think something else is needed at the end really. I did like the idea of how you enter the station building and are in darkness before returning to the station; it just seemed to work. Station! (Unfortunately, having flash on has taken away the really awesome atmospheric lighting). With only two major rides left, we headed over to the Mystery area for two rides I'd heard some good reviews about. First up was Mystery Castle, which was walk-on. The queue was fabulously themed and so so atmospheric. The loading for the ride was great, and I really liked how the control booth was in the middle of all the towers; it was another little thing which really worked, and makes the experience so much better. However, the ride experience was a bit underwhelming. Too short, no standout special effects. It even felt quite small; like it wasn't using the full height of the ride? It does seem we caught it on a day with short cycles, which is a real shame. One thing I did like about the ride itself was how at one point I genuinely couldn't tell if we were going up or down - we were quite obviously moving, but my sense of direction had be distorted enough for me to have no clue what was happening! Just a shame there couldn't have been more of that really. We then moved next door to River Quest, the park's 'rapids' which had a 20 minute queue. Not really seeing any of the ride before, and fortunately avoiding POVs online, I was really intrigued by this. But, at the end of it, I was a bit disappointed. The ride itself lacks any real theme or theming, it isn't very rapids-y (a by-product of the space issue with the ride I guess) and left me absolutely drenched, especially from the waist down. Yes, I know it's a water ride and you're meant to get wet, but I just don't like get absolutely drenched! As I say, a bit of a disappointment really. We still had quite a few hours left on park, so we went into China Town to do the attractions there. Their madhouse, Feng Ju Palace was very average, possibly the worst I've done given how bad the pre-show was. Then again, since this was the third day in a row of doing new madhouses, I think I was beginning to tire of them a bit! Their omnimover, Geister Rikscha, was also very average really, which was a bit of shame. With everything of note now done, we essentially had the rest of day (I think 3-4 hours?) to do rerides and the some of the park's shows. We saw Pirates 4D which was a great blast from the past, as well as the on-park ice skating show, which was good fun. We re-rode all of the major attractions I think (though I gave a miss on River Quest, but in the end, the guys came off practically bone-dry; typical!). Back row on Mamba was a particular highlight! The day ended with us being the last group of Maus au Chocolat, with the queue line being shut as soon as we joined and the staff in the station area not actually knowing we were coming. The fact we rode it 3 times during the day and I didn't tire of it says to me that this will probably be one of my favourite rides for a long time to come! With the longest on-park day over with, we had a nice hour long drive to Dusseldorf, where our next hotel lay in wait. It was a decent enough hotel; easy enough for me to crash out and sleep whilst the rest of the group discovered what highlights Dusseldorf had to offer (which, if I remember correctly, wasn't much!). Final Phantasialand Thoughts: All in all, I really enjoyed Phantasialand. It is obviously a top quality park with some truly fantastic attractions. The trouble I have is that there are quite a few attractions on park which are either very meh or are crying out for something to be done to them (or even just scrapped altogether). Whenever I think about the park, the first things which come to mind are the likes of Maus, Chiapas, Winjas and Mamba, but then the likes of Temple, the Mystery and China Town attractions and the poor filler rides in the Fantasy area just leave me with a bit of a disappointing after-thought. That being said, I still really did love the park, and genuinely can't wait to go back to it!

There's still plenty of time for an announcement - most seasons Thorpe have added something new to Fright Nights, they've announced it specifically in late-August / September time. The only time I can think otherwise is 2013, when they announced the Lionsgate sponsorship in July-time. If they made IAC a more scare maze friendly experience for FN or moved Studio 13 into a tent / the marquee, I'm not going to begrudge the park not adding in a new FN maze, when we've continuously had new mazes since 2010. Still would love to see more out-of-stuff though (like a proper scare zone, for example). If the park are adding in a new maze though, wouldn't it be nice if they could do a Sanctuary and theme it as a back-story to WC16. I'm sure they could shoe-horn it into the park-wide movie theme, and would work as some brilliant advertising for the ride if they did!

Aren't you the one who says Thorpe ignore guest feedback?Now that they've listened to it, it is now "an excuse"? --- Since this is a long term thing, I hope the park have been able to edit out ask reference to the cyclone in the Ant and Dec video.

You see, I was thinking this; it just seemed too blunt. But according to the TT article that posted the picture, it was handed out to a guest. If true, it makes it difficult to go with the whole "it shouldn't have been posted online" argument. :/

It'd be about as cool as Loggers' new tunnel, and Nemesis going backwards.