JoshC.

Let's compare this to Swarm at this stage in 2011 then: (Image from TTP) Or Black Mamba, two months(!) before it opened: (Photo from TPR) Or even Zufari at this stage in 2012: (Image from theme-parks.org) Or Chessington's 2016 development: .... --- It seems silly to compare completely different projects during their construction, especially on details such as theming, which are left till later on in the process in many places. Comparisons would be much fairer when both areas are open at the very least, though even then, it does feel a bit out of place to do so.

An 8 second video was released on Thorpe's FB too, just using old stock footage. Would suggest that it'll be a maze too! Bet it will be in the Marquee.

I've never said Fright Nights was an immersive Halloween event? I've just said it was popular and one of the biggest in the UK. Personally I never got the fuss about Scarefest with its atmosphere in 2012 - other than the mazes, there was the hearse, a few pumpkins and some coloured lights. Not exactly a brilliant atmosphere. Maybe it was a bad year, but it's not exactly much different to what Thorpe did last year. I don't see how you can call Fright Nights half-arsed given how much they offer. Whilst there's not much outside the mazes, the mazes themselves are still of some decent standard theming-wise at the very least. Then again, I don't see how you can call this season's Howl'o'ween half-arsed given we haven't seen what they'll do outside of the Halloween attractions... Thorpe hit capacity on a few days during Fright Nights. For a park to hit capacity, that means it must be very popular in its own right surely? And in those cases, any park would be very busy. The long queues at Fright Nights at least won't be helped by the mazes' low throughputs, which are always going to be the case by the very nature of the attractions.

You see, I think there's still plenty of space large scale rides. There's the unused island behind Swarm at the moment which, along with the old Treasure Island site, is huge. Plenty of space for a coaster and decent non-coaster in my opinion. The Shark Hotel won't be around forever either, and that site was previously marked for a coaster as well. Some rides will likely be reaching the end of their life sooner rather than later, and some are already on borrowed time. So I reckon there's still plenty of space for new future developments - large and small. I'd personally be surprised if another major dark ride comes before a major coaster though - turning into a family park means they still need a major, decent family coaster in my opinion. So I wouldn't worry too much about it being a long time before a new major coaster comes to be honest - even if a few years sounds like a long time, it will fly by! Agree about the rebrand - it kind of feels like the park in 2008/2009, when the thrill seeker brand was being pushed onto the park, but there was still a family feel in the posters and the like. Then in 2010 they finally did the overhaul to get everything together. But now we've got the opposite - there's still a few big heads and SHOUTY WRITING around (especially in Canada Creek), but the park are trying to focus on this nice 'Island Like No Other' thing. Do a nice brand overhaul and push the Island Like No Other thing more - a simple enough thing which would do wonders in my opinion.

I'd be very surprised if they bought Carnival of Screams to Thorpe; just doesn't really make any sense. Any old theming from CoS has likely either been re-used elsewhere, scrapped or sitting in a warehouse as part of history collection (most likely the entrance, if anything).

To be fair, the park was rather quiet yesterday and the rain was rather miserable at some points. In those sorts of situations, it wouldn't be unheard of for any park to cancel any form of show last minute. Given that it was only a set of small acts, I very much doubt many guests would have come specifically to see them. It's a shame such a thing was called off, but it's not exactly the worse thing in the world.

Jesus Christ, how or why would anyone want to compare a dark ride to an entire new area? They are completely different projects with completely different aims. Not taking anything away from this as I'm sure it'll be fab, but to try and compare this to WC16 is, wrote frankly, ludicrous.

Bare in mind that it says there's two new experiences, not necessarily attractions. I personally reckon we'll get a new scare zone / maze with a circus theme, and a newly styled overnight experience (again with a circus theme).

All of the film-themed mazes are returning this season; it's part of the contract they have with Lionsgate.

From Thorpe's Twitter. Interesting stuff!

I don't get your vendetta against Fright Nights James. Thorpe experienced some of their highest attendances in the past few years during last season's event. They will be keeping it at least as large as last season's event. With 5 scare attractions, roaming actors and out of hours extras, it is one of the biggest Halloween events in the country. A few days where they got higher attendances than expected isn't going to drive many people away, nor will it stop the park expanding the event.

If you didn't go to Guest Services / a feedback machine to mention how good he was, I'd recommend sending an email to the park. It'll only take you a few minutes, but an official mention about how good they were is usually very much appreciated and goes a long way!

The point I'm making is people won't be "chucked out", they'll choose to leave earlier. It is something you surely notice anyway - the final hour of the park being open is noticeably quieter. With food, people are more likely to buy lunch on a 10-4 day in my opinion. People will have been on park longer and well be more hungry, especially if they opt to eat at around 12-1pm. Either way, I do think 10-4 openings would be better to the park than a 5pm close.

Lift hill was leaking an awful lot today and, along with the rain, caused a lovely big puddle... (Yep, it's that time of season where I'm seriously just going to post pictures of puddles)

Noticed some grass had been dug up and some temporary fences put around the destroyed fire engine. Anyone know why?

All of what you see in the above photos is for the building, and not the undercover queue line. My guess is that the grey/brown section marked out will end up containing the shop, bag drop, pre show and possibly even the station. If correct, that leaves more than half of the building that contains the ride to be built. Still a lot of space! Also, there can be an in between coasters and "slow, boring dark rides" - a dark ride doesn't have to be a coaster-style ride to be fast or exciting!

A little construction update for y'all... Things are coming along nicely; can't be too much longer before we start to see more of the building go up. This shows how big the site is too I think! From what I've heard, the marketing plan is to drip feed info every couple of months until the ride opens. So we're in for a loooooooong closed season folks.

Late openings for our parks never seem to work out. There's a reason why our parks are always open by 10. I bet it's down to a (for lack of a better word) cultural thing; when it comes to days out, people like to arrive early so they can leave early and gave the evening to do other things / get the kids off to bed / whatever. From that perspective, 10-4 is better than 11-5. Of course, 10-5 is better still, but this must surely be a knock on effect from Smiler's incident in order to minimise loss.

Not really a scare tactic, just to try and make the experience feel more real. In the small print they mention no real bugs are used in the attraction, but they will try and convince you that you'll come into contact with real things for the fun of it. The park would never use real bugs for a variety of reasons; cost, potential animal rights concerns and guest comfort being 3 big reasons I can think of.

From what I've always understood, and heard from multiple sources, when Tussauds first took over Thorpe, they wanted to have two separate park identities - one for an older, more thrill-seeking market, and one with a more family-orientation. I've always heard that Chessington was actually the first option to develop into the 'thrill park', but planning constraints amongst other things went against, hence why they chose Thorpe. So whilst officially Colossus (as we know it) was never technically planned for Thorpe, I'm pretty sure the original idea was to have a big, record-breaking coaster open at Chessington in the early 2000s? Saw's codename was chosen to throw enthusiasts away from the theme totally (especially after Stealth), which I assume Ollie's guide was getting at. Thorpe's engineering team start as early as 6am as well.

Warwick Castle's Halloween event, The Haunted Castle, returns with 2 new scare attractions... -'Condemned', which sounds like it will be in the same location as the previous 3 headline Halloween mazes. -'Outbreak 1349', which sounds like an outdoor attraction / scare zone The Haunted Hollows is returning with the attraction being made slightly scarier after 5pm. All sounds great - their previous headline mazes were good fun (with last year's Blackout, which I reviewed in this thread, being a decent attraction), and Haunted Hollows was great with actors in back in 2012 - hopefully will improve this year. Fingers crossed I can try it out this year! (Source: ScareTour's FB)

ScareTour have been able to confirm that Vampire: Haunting of the Hollows is not returning to this year's line up, with Curse of the Lost Tomb and Trick or Treat Wood being the only 2 Halloween attractions this year - http://www.chessington.com/halloween/ Disappointing; never got to try out HotH and did want to, but never had the chance / couldn't be bothered to make the effort.

Maus au Chocolat at Phantasialand.

Does it matter who does the theming? Not really - regardless of who done it, the attraction is in Thorpe and that's what guests experience! IAC was a collaboration between Scruffy Dog and Merlin Magic Making (and with advice from other companies too apparently), but it doesn't really make a difference either way, does it? I forget about Valhalla actually, what with never going to BPB. Quick look on Google Maps and it looks either a similar size or bigger; depends on how much of the 'extension building' they use for the ride.. Either way, this is still one of the biggest dark rides in the UK... I think the comment about it being the same the colour as X isn't people settling with low standards, but more just clutching at straws to look for any positives they can find though.

My comparison to Hex and Duel isn't about how the rides use space (since none of us know how it uses it!) - it is simply about how much space there is to play with. I'm still not sure 'premium' is the right word for Thorpe to be honest, but I do see what you're saying though. The thing with the hotel is it's seen set back after set back, planning problem after problem. They've been putting plans in for goodness knows how long now (I seem to think the first set of plans were put in in 2006?). Now that all those problems have been overcome, the hotel should finally open in 2018. But until then, the park did need a temporary solution - some form of hotel is better than no hotel got the park. It's not ideal, but I do think it's better than nothing. I thought you were talking about praise / indifference on here as opposed to in general though, which is where some confusion arose.