JoshC.

Even if you do a great maze, you risk alienating people who haven't watched the films though. You need to choose IPs which are either incredibly popular or incredibly simple to understand that the vast majority of people know what it is about (which I think is why Saw was a great choice - most people these days know it as something where people are trapped, tortured in sick ways, then die. That, and it was popular). The trouble with such IPs though is there are incredibly difficult to execute well. With films like Cabin in the Woods for example, unless you've watched it, I don't think a maze about it would make much sense (unless you have a pre-show or make it a narrative maze). It's a risky move if they were to go down that route. But choose the right IPs and the park are sorted.

I discovered something yesterday. The entrance to the park is currently dire. Now, I've praised the entrance in the past. I've always felt that it was a great piece of inadvertent magic; crossing a bridge to an island where you can almost escape reality and, recently, find yourself landing into an island of thrills. But yesterday, that 'magic' wasn't there. When the barriers opened, there was the manic rush which the entrance just can't deal with these days. The AP turnstiles specifically are painfully slow to get through. With the new security check system, I have to say that as I was going through the turnstiles, and just about hearing the pop music come out of what sounded like a broken speaker, I felt like I was entering a dingy nightclub where everyone was just trying to rush to the nearest bar... In the past, I've been able to over-look the sellers of drinks capsules, photopasses and such. However, at the end of the bridge, there was two drink capsule units positioned which created a nasty bottleneck (the second of the bridge thanks to the security checks). Then, there was a guy standing in the middle of the remaining space, screaming and shouting about Reserve n Ride, trying to give out leaflets to no avail. Felt like I was in Staines highstreet trying to get past the Big Issue woman really. I don't know if things were made worse due to the countless people trying, and failing, to give out information about Reserve n Ride, but the whole entrance to the park felt horrid. I remember reading on the Questions to TP bit that the entrance could be changed next season - and that's not a moment too soon...

Personally, I wouldn't like to see that. One of the reasons the clowns broke out was because there was no one waiting to use the maze (I think), so it was something fun and different, and used the actors the park was paying for. At Thorpe, the mazes always have a queue, and I'd much rather not queue longer for a maze to see the characters 'break out' and scare people not waiting. I still remain a bit wary of the idea of most / all mazes being IPs, but I think it will work out very well for the park.

I'm expecting an announcement tonight or tomorrow then!

Shame they have the old logo FN, ey?

Would much rather see low budget marketing and high budget mazes. Whatever you stick on Facebook, as long as it has #FrightNights, it will be effective...

If the mazes do end up getting horror films attached to them, some won't need much work at all. Asylum to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Experiment 10 to Cabin in the Woods (more relating to the latter parts of the film). The Passing to any sort of film about death or the paranormal. Get a completely new maze to replace Curse. A few tweaks here and there and it's sorted. Would be interesting to see.

There's a difference between a family maze and family attraction though. Alton is a family park, and all their mazes are for over 14s. They still have family attractions though; shows and whatnot. There's nothing stopping Thorpe adding in a small side-line attraction for, say, children aged 8-12 and their families. It will do no harm and doesn't need to be thrust to the public's attention much. Families will find that if it's there.

Ah, one final thing I don't think haa been made clear... You can only virtually queue for 1 ride at a time. So, you can't have one ride reserved at 1pm, and another at half 1 for example. Thus, you can't possibly miss a reservation due to another reservation. The virtual queues are like real queues in the sense you can only be in one ay a time, and it's only when you finish with one queue can you join another.

Nope, didn't have to show my AP at any time! Surprisingly, people were still buying Fastrack. Granted, it wasn't as busy as I'd expect on a day like this, but people were still using it regularly. One thing I could see happening is, if we were to see this on the big 5 coasters, then maybe the other rides would see an increase in their Fastrack price to compensate?

I rode Swarm 4 times today, so can answer this for you. The first 2 times, as soon as I was out of the queue, I rejoined the virtual queue, resetting the timing. It's just like how you'd join a real queue again basically.

Ah, one other thing I didn't mention... There doesn't seem to be an expiration time on the QR codes. More confusingly, even after you've used your code, it still stays, saying your time to ride is now. In fact, checking my phone now, I still have the code from riding Swarm backwards I had at 1 today, saying I can ride Swarm backwards now. I doubt if you can re-use codes, and I guess it sorts it self out when you make your next reservation, but just something I noticed. I'm glad to hear this would just be used on major rides as well!

Okay, I was on park today, and tried out Reserve n Ride, of course. First thing first. Today was busy, and I mean extremely busy. The car park was on the grass and pretty much at the fence. I was on park from opening (9:30am) till just after 1. I got on Swarm 4 times today - twice each way. So, in the respect of a ride count, the system does wonders; no way would I have done 4 rides on Swarm in that period of time, along with 6 other rides, on a day like today. The way the system works, using a mobile, is very simple. You go on the site, and it shows the available rides (Swarm forwards and backwards), and what time you can ride them. You simple choose a ride, and the timer then comes up. An example... (I booked this at about 9:25am for reference). Once the timer hits 0, you are told you can ride... (Sorry for the change in time; was trying to keep it altogether but forgot ). You then simply hit a button and are given a QR code, which is scanned by staff at the main ride entrance. Said code. After that, you have a very short wait, in theory, and then your on. Staff were handing out leaflets before the park opened, people on the bridge and dome were handing them out too. It was effective tbh. As you make the turning into Swarm's island, there's a tent where you can collect paper reservations, loads of staff with leaflets, and a couple of barriers (red ones like you see in banks and places, not the metal ones), which creates a ton of congestion in the area. Most people were a bit clueless as to what was going on in the morning, and it created a huge bottleneck in the area. These aren't the greatest pictures, but it shows just how busy it was. Most of these people weren't 'getting through' either... Before getting through. After getting through. You can see the tent and the barrier-things I was on about in this photo. Even when you arrive at the main entrance, people didn't get you had to reserve a ticket. People were arriving ages before their slot. It was just manic. However, we got through and were in the queue. Once through, there was barely a 5 minute wait (with one main problem being the good old bag drop...). As per usual, people didn't seem to realise how to get on the left hand side, so were clogging up the right side, leaving the left side empty pretty much. Woo. We got a second reservation done and were on again around twenty past 10. From the time we got off Swarm to the time we were back on the island, we had done X 3 times and Flying Fish. Decent. There was still congestion and confusion around now, but a bit less than before. On our second go, where we reserved forwards once again, we headed to the left hand side, which was once again empty. There was 4 other people on our side, and no one was queueing for backwards. So rather than leave backwards empty, we asked if we could go in one of the backwards rows and were allowed. All this, and yet the right side was packed out. Needed some sorting that did. On a more positive note, the trains were flying out! Anyway, we decided to try our luck once again and reserved for a 3rd time, this time going backwards. We arrived at our time slot and low and behold... A queue. At least an hour going backwards, and probably a good 40-50 minutes at least going forwards. Oops. I later found out from a member of staff that the system had crashed which led to these problems. To be fair, it's a trial system and there's going to be teething issues. We were pretty much the last people to get in actually. So the queue fizzled away, and once we made it to the end of the queue before the station, we said we'd just go forwards, as there was still a good 10 minutes in the station. By the time we were off, the system seemed to be back on and all was well. We used the system once more later on, for backwards, and it worked fine and dandy. All in all, I think the system needs a lot more publicising before it can be judged properly. However, I'm wary as to it being successful - it relies on guests being time-efficient, guests understanding the system, the system working and such. I think it could work on one or two rides, but as has been discussed, I think it's a step too far to see it on all rides, at least now. However, it's great to see the park trying new things and aiming to improve guest experience. I'll finish on this quote, from the leaflet the park were giving out (scanner is on the blink, so can't scan it at the mo): They seem quite confident then.

Her name is Candy Holland. But this 'Kandy' seems to be about 4 or 5 guys who take over Twitter. I thought they were a band or something, but really don't know!

Thorpe are at least 12 or 13 inversions behind SFMM. Realistically, Thorpe would have to add another 2 multi-looping coasters - and hope SFMM and none - to take the record away. In a park the size of Thorpe, 3 coasters which have a main focus on inversions is a bit of an overkill to say the least.

But what's the point in Fastrack now? Why would you PAY TO QUEUE for a ride when you can freely book a ticket, join a virtual queue and do other rides, then go back to the ride at a set time and get on with, apparently, no queue whatsoever? Colour me confused now.

Only the second wing-over drop to twist counter-clockwise (Swarm being the first). Nice to see. It does look a lot better than the birds-eye view made it out to be. Should be very interesting to see how it turns out...

Okay, just so I get what this actually means... So, they get rid of the general queue and the Fastrack queue. Instead, you sign up for a time slot (I assume it'll be a 20 or 30 minute one?) and then just go along then and ride (and presumably there's a chance you experience a small queue)? This means there no 'queue' whatsoever. Seems all well and good in theory. However, in practice, I'm not so sure. Say you 'book' your ticket for 1pm, and then you're stuck in a queue for another ride at that time (due to the queue board being wrong / a breakdown / whatever). Then what? Surely there's potential for Swarm to become 'fully booked' if you will. If that happens, it would seem strange to say 'Sorry, you can't ride Swarm today as it's fully booked', especially after entering the park. I don't quite know what the queueing systems are like at DLP, so is this in any way similar to that? Then what happens if you spread this park-wide? Would you have to turn your day out at a theme park into a timetable, saying you're going to do 'Ride 1 between 10am and 10:30am', 'Ride 2 between 10:30am and 11am', etc.? Also, whilst your day may become queue free, what are you going to do whilst waiting for your time slot to come about? Not really a lot you can do. Obviously a lot of thought has gone into this, and the fact that they're trialling on the new and shiny Swarm means they must have faith in it. However, I remain a tad sceptical and pessimistic for the time being, and personally don't think it could be spread park-wide (though may work on just having it for 1 or 2 rides). Only time will tell I guess...

I never really understood the 'cookie cutter' criticism of B&Ms before. Then wingriders became popular...

Not sure if it's been posted, but the full lineup is now online... http://www.chessington.com/plan-your-trip/halloween-hocus-pocus.aspx

I doubt that the new logo is giving us any clues as to what the new mazes / attractions will be - the logo did need a change after all - but I do think, especially with the logo, they have taken some inspiration from other popular horror-related things, even if they aren't to be connected in any way.

Anyone else felt like they took inspiration from the Psycho logo... As for the new logo, I do like it, but I can't help but prefer the older logo (though I guess that could be down to being used to the old one). The new logo makes me think more of a slasher horror film, whereas the other one made me think more of a climatic horror film; though I somewhat doubt that will reflect in the style of mazes we see this year. I expect we'll see more teasers / a full reveal this week. Two FB statuses in two days followed by a couple of weeks of nothing would be peculiar social media-ing. Can't wait to see what is up their sleeves!

There is, apparently, ERT for guests who stay at The Crash Pad. However, there is no ERT for Annual Pass holders or guests who book in advance. Sometimes the park will open up early though.

The Swarm. a or x?

I feel like I recognise it from somewhere (a film or something), but not sure what!