JoshC.

Just worth pointing out that not all celebs are as bad as some mentioned here. Admittedly, whilst some will not queue in the main queue lines, they'll try to be as low key as possible and try to not affect anyone else's day. After all, some celebrities will want to be going there for a day out, and may well want as few people to know they were there as possible!

Does anyone know what the reride situation is like for other parks across the UK / abroad? Just curious.

I like the video - shows how the director is a bit insane and unstable. Okay, maybe they should have made it a bit more subtle, and there was a bit of overkill on the added on effects, but I still think it works well. I agree! I was expecting to see an older actor with a bit more of a domineering voice. Good on him for making his way to Director of Thorpe Park Movie Studios at such a young age though - it can't have been easy. Maybe that's why he's gone a bit crazy; taking on too much too soon?

Last year, a new, independent, scare company burst onto the scene - Twisted Attractions. Opening up in Birmingham in a disused nightclub, 'The Morgue: Live' caught the attention of many people, and got amazing reviews from the scare industry. Fastforward to May this year, and Twisted Attractions had moved to an old warehouse, bigger than the nightclub, with 'The Facility'. The reviews of The Morgue caught my attention, and upon hearing about The Facility, I really wanted to go try it out, but alas, I couldn't for a variety of reasons. After The Facility closed, it was announced that two new attractions would open in its place for Halloween - 'House of Insomnia' and 'Ward 78'. And, well, I just had to go try it out. And that's just what I did tonight, on the opening night! I arrived just before the 7pm opening and after a slight delay due to some actors being caught in traffic (to which they offered free tea or coffee whilst we waited), it was time for the scares to begin... NB: I'll give a review of both mazes in the order I did them - I'll do a non-spoiler review followed by a spoiler review (in spoiler tags). Ward 78 Ward 78 is very different to most scare attractions, in that it's designed to be done either by yourself or in a group of two. Essentially, the maze involves you going through a Victorian hospital ward where, of course, not all is well. The website describes it as follows: After being told the instructions and signing a waiver, I was given my candle (one of the electronic torch-like ones, not a real one!) and ventured down the hospital corridor... Non-spoilers: The maze involves a lot of tight spaces, loud noises and disorientation. Being by yourself already leaves you on edge and the actors take advantage of it; they like to bully you! After a while, my candle was taken from me, leaving me seemingly without hope. This actually turned out to be near the end of the attraction, which involved some nice trickery and a lot of special effects. Spoilers: So, all in all, a fun scare attraction. It makes good use of scare tactics and special effects, but I think it was a bit on the short side and needed a bit more to it. The entrance/exit. Image from ScareTOUR. House of Insomnia House of Insomnia is more of a traditional maze; you go through in groups, though there's no need for hands-on-shoulders. The vague idea is about a pair of twins in lived in a house who essentially went crazy due to mistreatment from their parents, lack of sleep and whatnot (from what I understood) at least. Here's what the website says... Non-spoilers: The maze starts with an introduction to the story, telling you about the Demurrer Twins. Very nice idea and from what I heard, very cleverly done, however, there was noise bleed from inside the attraction, making it difficult to hear. After that, we ventured into the maze. The maze is quite possibly the best themed maze I've done - lots of details and consistent storytelling theming about. Each scene follows from the previous and usually builds upon it. The maze is again very claustrophobic and makes great use of a small space. The actors are very well placed and each add to the story line - there's no 'random' actors or anything. The ending isn't particular special and is something that has been done before (indeed, I don't think it's a spoiler to say what the end is, since it's rather obvious from outside, but alas, I shall not say here...). Nonetheless, still very good. Spoilers: Overall, House of Insomnia was a very good attraction, again making brilliant use of scare tactics, tight spaces, creating a great story and some top-notch theming. I think the fact that people quickly ended up holding onto one another, even though you weren't required to have your hands on shoulders, shows how unnerving the attraction can be. In fact, the girl being me was seemingly clinging onto my shirt for dear life! Entrance to House of Insomnia - taken from ScareTOUR. It's hard for me to compare these two attractions to their previous ones, but I personally think that the creating of two attractions may have been a bad thing. The Facility was one attraction in the same place as these two, and had a Face it Alone feature as well. Instead, they've created two separate attractions, a Face it Alone one which feels like it needs to be longer and have more substance, and an 'ordinary' attraction which should go on a bit longer. Maybe it just needs more time to settle; who knows? However, I guess I shouldn't really complain when I really enjoyed both attractions! For anyone interested, the cost of both the attractions was £12 (though it goes to £14 on peak days) and I definitely think it's worth every penny! The main issue is of course getting to it, but if you're near Birmingham at some point when Twisted Attractions are running a show, definitely give it a try (they're about a 10-15min walk from Birmingham New Street train station). A link to ScareTOUR's review, where I got the photos from - http://www.scaretouruk.com/review---halloween-scream-nights-by-twisted-attractions.html So yeah, all in all, some great scare attractions from an independent company who only have good things for their future!

Yeah, basically what Merry-go-girl said. What I was trying to get at was having a strictly older target market means that there's a larger creative scope for the actors and any possible park wide theming. This gives the chance for the event to be better.

It doesn't. My point more was making Fright Nights specifically just for the older market (by recommending it to be 13+) gives the park more opportunities to make the event better overall. Specifically, gives them a chance to allow the roaming characters to do more, and maybe even have some decent park-wide theming (a long shot, I know). I get what you're saying, but I don't think calling it a "family" attraction would be the best way about it. A lot more emphasis on the fact it's a 2* scare rating and how it should be a tamer experience than the rest is needed though.

In fairness, mazes about a serial killer, evil governments killing teenagers, a miner going on killing sprees or deranged madmen making innocent people star in a horror 'film' are a lot less family-friendly then creating a profile on Tinder... It's a difficult one; Thorpe are trying to be welcoming to families again, but are still focusing on the 16-24 year old market. It seems like they want to make Fright Nights the time for 16-24 year olds and no one else, and then make the rest of the year more open to everyone. Best way to go about getting in the family market? Probably not. Good way to improve Fright Nights? Yeah, I think so.

I don't think Thorpe are lacking in space. MHFS and island behind Swarm/Stealth are empty spaces just waiting for development. Places like the arena, Canada Creek, the beach and the Shark Hotel island are in need of work as well in my opinion, and can be redeveloped to accommodate new attractions. Given a park of Thorpe's size in their situation, I think that's quite a reasonable amount of space! I'm not saying Thorpe have lots of space to spare, they have to use what space they've got wisely, but I don't think it's as bad as some may think.

One of the Tinder profiles that Ryan was mentioning earlier... (screenshot retweeted by Thorpe's Twitter)

Can't think of 10, but the links of Son of Beast (because vertical loop on a woodie), Ring Racer (because fast), Thunder Looper (because why not?) and Big Bad Wolf (again, because why not?) all spring to mind. Wouldn't have minded being able to have tried out Space Station Zero, just to see what it was like I guess. And the broncho bikes at Thorpe sounded fun..

I'm a no I'm afraid. It's a shame, if it was the 17th/18th , I'd have made an appearance, but alas I'm either traveling back to uni that day or at Alton Towers. Hope everyone has fun and all those who do Face it Alone live to tell the tale...

Where have you heard that from just outta interest?

I personally think Thorpe's non-conga line mazes have been pretty good, and don't see any reason why Studio 13 can't continue that good trend. Given the story behind the maze, I think there's good opportunities for the park to utilise a non-conga line experience as well.

"It's not your successful friends posting inspirational quotes on social media." Oh, the irony.

Saw most definitely does not have nine trains, just for the record.

Who wants to see awesome night time shots taken by Liseberg of Helix? Everyone of course! Beautiful; can't wait to go next year!

Happy birthday to Cameron (ie coastercameron98)!

The last time Thorpe ran Stealth on one train, which I believe was a couple of months ago, they got ripped to pieces for it. And yet within a week or so, it got back up to two trains. That time, the reason for one train op was because one train was broken and the other was receiving maintenance. So, given the park's record in this sorta situation, I expect it'll be a similar issue this time around and that Thorpe will work as quickly as possible to get it back to two trains.

Right, not wrong.

"Catch the Mouse" is it?

*Awaits an angry pluk to give a link to the Health and Safety thread and explain the lack of three trains isn't H&S-related*

That's a fair point; unless it's going to take a long time to clear (for reasons we may not know), though that seems unlikely. The more I think about it, the more it would be a good space for something for Fright Nights; like maybe for the overnight experience or something. I guess there's nothing stopping it from being used for both Fright Nights and a future development too! EDIT: This is something I've always wondered. I'm pretty certain it can't be kept wholly secret, so if someone contacted the council's planning office directly and enquire, then the council would have to allow them access to it. Also, people within a certain radius would be informed, and usually sent all the details. But there might be a way for them to ask that it's not put online!

I hate adding fuel to the fire, but... A lot of the previous investments haven't required many (if any) trees to be taken down. ABL, Storm Surge, Stealth and Rush all replaced rides/sideshows that were in operation, so the work on those areas would naturally be left as late as possible. Swarm, Saw, Saw Alive and Flying Fish were all on infilled land, and didn't need any trees to be taken down. So really, the last time Thorpe had to clear a tree-area for a ride was for Slammer, and that started quite early (which I guess was more for flattening out land?). All I'm trying to say is in the past, there's been little need for Thorpe to start work like this for a new attraction. So, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that this removal is for a permanent future development. What that development is and when it arrives, however, is sheer speculation and rumours, and there's nothing concrete we can say about that.

This was tweeted Southampton University's SU and retweeted by Thorpe Park. Linky - https://twitter.com/YourSUSU/status/515447375553654784/photo/1 Could this be one of the 13 roaming actors?! And could we see 12 others crop up around 12 different places? Would be a different way to marketing FN, and could be effective!