JoshC.

The Cult are the people dressed in red robes. The 'Night Terror' are those with the black and white painted faces. From what I heard, they were two separate groups of roaming actors during the event.

The park is usually dead at this time of the season (quite possibly the quietest time of the season). I don't think closing an hour earlier will make much difference to anyone's day (even if it's a bit of a shame).

Well, in theory at least!

It could easily be shifted to another location, but - if we're being honest to ourselves - is it worth it? It's a carousel, a ride designed to be enjoyed by families with very young children. Thorpe aren't marketing towards families with young children (and indeed, less and less are going now because of how Thorpe have marketed themselves for the past few years), and the ride is just less and less popular. It makes sense to get rid of it really; sentimental value is the only reason I can see to keep it. We're not talking about attractions like The Flying Fish, CCR or Time Voyagers, attractions which everyone could enjoy, even if they were designed for the younger market. We're talking about an attraction which is essentially just for the younger market and, unfortunately, has no place in the Thorpe Park of tomorrow.

Make me a maybe. Got a few things planned next year and money will probably be my limiting factor for this. So we shall see.

No doubt this will be the closed season discussion for many years to come, after we get our Top Spin and Colossus gets repainted.

Don't think anyone's posted it yet, but Thorpe have officially confirmed that the Carousel is just being removed, and not moved elsewhere - http://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/03-11-2014/Resort-confirm-Carousel-Closure It's a shame to see it go, especially given how many nods to the past it has, but I don't think it's really worth keeping it. It hasn't fit in with the park for years and even the new family market is for families with older children; a carousel just doesn't fit in with it at all.

I think a potential difference between this and Maus is the ride system though. Maus is a shooting dark ride and presumably is marketed like that. If this ride isn't a shooter, and the park do successfully keep what's in the building a genuine secret, they're going to have sell the story first and foremost. Using an IP makes it a lot easier to sell the story, and thus bringing in more crowds. An original concept is still possible of course, but it just makes it more difficult to get that instant success. And given Merlin's short-sightedness about wanting instant return and success, and the fact that this is a major new attraction, they're gonna want to minimise risks. I'm not necessarily agreeing with the idea that IP is the best way to go by the way, but can see why they're exploring that route.

I don't see how you can say that when we haven't heard what the budget is yet though?

The Haunted Castle 2014 So, realised today was the last day of Warwick Castle's Halloween event, so decided to pop down to it and try out a couple of their Halloween attractions. Went to their Halloween event in 2012 (was unfortunately too busy to go last year), and did enjoy it, so was hoping for more of the same today. It was a very quick visit (literally, a couple of hours to try out two Halloween attractions), so no Castle Dungeons this time; hopefully the next time I'll go I'll actually try it out. Anyways... The Haunted Hollows - The Skeleton Ball Despite being only 2/5 pumpkins on my last visit, I really enjoyed this. A nice bit of fun aimed at kids, but the actors were clever enough to be able to interact with older audiences well. This year, the attraction was slightly different, with a new entrance where you can choose to go through a 'treat' door or a 'trick' door. Nothing special, but a clever little interactive touch. The attraction is an outdoor walkthrough, with lots of theming to create loads of different pathways (and one or two dead ends). Unlike in 2012, there weren't any actors within the attraction itself (maybe it was a bit too scary for kids?), but this was fine. At the end, there was a couple of actors greeting you to the 'Skeleton Ball', and a nice projection of dancing skeletons was shown. So yeah, nice little attraction which suits the audience well. However, one thing which I absolutely hated was the fact that there's a photo point MID WAY through the maze. You're forced to have your photo taken in front of a green screen as well; not like there's anything fun to it. Horrible horrible idea and just absolutely unnecessary. Blackout The 5/5 rated attraction - the big one. Blackout completes a trilogy of scare attractions: 'The Curse of Mary Black' in 2012 and 'The Revenge of Henry Black' in 2013. The Mary Black attraction revolved around a servant who was murdered in the house part of the Castle 100 years ago, having her mouth sewn up and eyes gouged out in the process. Mary's ghost still inhabited the house, and possessed someone, murdering several people in the process, and the public was taken to investigate, ending with us trying to perform a seance to rid Mary. The Henry Black attraction was to do with Mary's husband shortly after she was murdered, and how he wants revenge for what was done to Mary. From what I can gather, the attraction ended with Henry trying to burn the house down, but only managing to murder himself. Fastforward to Blackout, and we have two spirits inhabiting the house, and we need to complete the seance to rid them from the house. From what I heard, the Henry Black attraction was similar to the Mary Black one, using essentially the same route, same tricks and so forth. So, I expected much of the same for Blackout. How wrong I was... Much smaller groups (8-10 instead of 20-24) and lots more actors (4 when I went in 2012, at least 8 tonight). A longer route (starting in a different place) and no silly tricks like planted actors. The attractions is extremely dark - like literally pitch black all the time, bar the occasional light flicker controlled by the actors. The theming is still very good though; they're worked very well with the surroundings they've got! A great usage of the lack of light was the numerous life-size dolls dotted around the place, making you question if they were actors or not. Also, there were a couple of times when people saw others in the group, and jumped thinking they were actors. Very clever. I won't go into details about the attraction itself, but basically it starts of with us being told darkness is our friend, and light is our enemy, as we can only be harmed if they can see us. Pretty nice twist on the idea that darkness is scary. It ends with the seance seemingly finally completed, though I'm sure I heard a voiceover saying "It's still in the house..." Leaves me wondering - will there be a Black Part IV? Couple of things annoyed me though. One actor laughed during one scene, because of how another actors shouted whilst trying to scare someone. Lack of professionalism there really, and that did ruin the scene quite a bit. I know actors are only human and it's the last night, but if you can't control yourself in a serious situation like that, is acting the best role for you? Also, before the maze there was a photo point (again, in front of a green screen). After the maze, the photos were already printed out (yes, they printed out two copies, with different backgrounds), given to you, and then you're "You can take one home for £7, or two for £10". Seriously? That is just pure money grabbing and it just feels so cheap and awful. In a weird way, it feels bad to give the photo back and say no thanks; I wonder if some people almost feel obliged to buy the photos when they've been given to them? Seriously hope they stop doing it here and that it doesn't expand to any other Merlin places. Anyway, I don't want to leave this on a bad note, as the attractions are good fun and, for the most part, well executed. Hope that they can continue to expand and make the event as popular and successful as possible.

This is me with a skeleton at Warwick Castle. I think he felt sad for me since I had a body to go to the Skeleton Ball with.

One of the reasons they've gone for another 'dilapidated / abandoned warehouse' look is because it 'fits in with other looks across the park', according to the plans!

It's a difficult one really. Thorpe / Merlin are more than capable of creating their own original concepts and having them work: Swarm, Smiler - kinda - and Studio 13 all spring to mind for me. But it's all quite obvious what those attractions and whatever theme you stick on them, people will still come to ride it. A dark ride will be very different. Thorpe are gonna keep quiet what it is; no one will know what's inside or what to expect. It makes it a lot more difficult to make people come ride. However, it's a lot easier to say 'Come ride our new Doctor Who ride' than 'Come ride our ride about John Smith as he explores the dark depths of this abandoned warehouse'. With little visualisation about the ride itself, it's key to have a theme that will draw in the crowds. So maybe an IP will be for the best, to ensure people are drawn in. Still think an original idea could be possible mind!

To get permission to film on rides at theme parks, you need to fill out lots of health and safety forms and have the camera securely mounted to the ride in some way (I think). For the most part, they only media companies and some big fansites film on rides because it's a lot of effort for usually little reward. In other words, you're pretty much guaranteed to not be able to film on rides at theme parks.

Is all this really still going on? Swear we've got in circles more times than Robb Alvey has been on Wacky Worms. Oh well...

So is this such a big thing as is being suggested, or should it be considered more of a medium development? Hopefully they just mean from an engineering/construction point of view rather than overall budget or impact. It does suggest to me no coaster in there, as surely a coaster plus building would be a bigger rather than smaller job than just coaster, so likely a flat or tracked ride inside. Nice find! I think it's a case of there's a distinction between what we as enthusiasts/guests determine as a major new ride, and what the council will class as a major new ride though. Anything with a large amount of money invested is gonna be a major new ride to guests. However, a themed experience inside a building probably won't be seen as so major to the council. So yeah, agree with you that it's probably just from an engineering view and that it rules out a coaster. Nothing to worry about just yet! ...suddenly the building doesn't look quite so big anymore! How much space for actual ride will there realistically be? Hard to tell whether to distinction between the building 'parts' is just to show the façade differences or whether that's how the attraction will be divided. If it is how the building will be divided, and taking into account it's gonna have a pre-show, retail and all that, I don't think there's anything to worry about really! This is how I could see things shaping up... I'd be very surprised if it did end up like this mind (except the building entrance.exit and shop, which is how it says on the plans), as that seems like an awful, awful lot of space for the pre-show for example. However, it still shows how there's a lot of the main ride element - that's still pretty much the length of the arena and some alright width to it as well. In reality, I'd expect a smaller-sized pre-show to be honest, giving even more space for the main ride. So I still think the building seems pretty large all in all!

Bare in mind that that structure being built in the plaza is gonna be 8m high. Would be very surprised if they ended up building an 8m high Tardis - just wouldn't look right to me!

Eurgh, I did mean to put Duel rather than Hex there - long day yesterday! Duel's building is around 1600-1800sqm I think. Of course, Duel's building is a lot more nice in terms of shape (just a big square really), but that does give us a rough idea of just how big this thing could be. -- Couple of other points I've come across too: -Attraction could well contain ORPs; the plans mention a photo kiosk. -Some from the noise report... So we *may* be seeing a summer opening. I wouldn't read into it too much, as it could well just be implying that it will be open by summer 2016, not for summer 2016. Everywhere else in the plans just state 2016 opening really. So yeah, something to just bare in mind I guess..

I read elsewhere that the Spiderman building is about 6000sqm, whereas this building is around 2400sqm, so it's a fair amount smaller. However, something like this is still a lot bigger than Hex Duel I believe, so in terms of a UK dark ride, it is of a rather large scale I guess!

BREAKING NEWS Thorpe have submitted plans for a dark ride replacing the arena and CRC! - http://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/30-10-2014/2016-Attraction-Plans-Released All the plans can be found on the council's website: http://planning.runnymede.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/GeneralSearch.aspx (search for Thorpe Park and it's on the second page). Very exciting times ahead!

More photos from inside the mazes including CITW/MBV, again from Scruffy Dog's Twitter/FB:

SERIOUS ANSWER ALERT Personally, I'd start with either MBV (which seems to have a lower throughput than the others) or Studio 13 (since it's new). Then did Studio or MBV next - depending on what one you did first - followed by Cabin and BWP, which will no doubt have opened by the time you've done 2-3 mazes. Leave Saw Alive till last. It's the most logical way to do it in my opinion.

Ouch. The actors put a lot of effort into their jobs and really do love what they do. Many of them come back to work for Fright Nights year after year. Some are professional actors too. If you look on Twitter, some actors will favourite / retweet good reviews on the mazes they act in, so some of the actors really do put a lot of effort in their role, and ensuring that they please guests. To say they're not putting effort in is a bit insulting really.. Can only go on my experiences, but there was a very obvious and clearly told story line during both my run throughs of Studio 13. My Bloody Valentine had the pre-maze intro (which wasn't as good as last year, but still there). Saw had an intro too; no worse/better than normal. I guess as the event has gotten busier, there's a balance between keeping the queue as short as possible and making sure the maze is still to the quality that the park wants.

I'm not saying that at all; perhaps maybe I shouldn't have even mentioned about the park being busy. But surely if you're prepared to wait an entire hour to go to guest services to simply complain, you can be prepared to queue 2 hours to go on a ride, which is a much more satisfying experience? Maybe the park did 'oversell Fastrack' and it made the day more difficult to enjoy, but queueing for an hour to go to guest services isn't exactly the way to try and make the most of a day out. Totally accept that complaining in person is the best way to do it, but I just can't see people's logic in queueing in a ridiculously long queue so that they can complain. Unless of course, people do it in the knowledge that they'll get Priority Passes and sparking the never ending cycle of long queues.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/29/armed-police-halloween-event-guns Halloween events can be very realistic it seems! Just trying to imagine how I'd react in that sorta situation!