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JoshC.

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  1. JoshC.
    After a day spent doing some random stuff in Berlin, the weekend was the main reason for the trip: the two random small parks just outside Leipzig. The first one was Belantis; a medium-sized park owned by Parque Reunidos (who also own the likes of Movie Park Germany, Bobbejaanaland, Mirabilandia,...). It was sadly an extremely wet day, with showers pretty much non-stop from about 8 in the morning. Fortunately, it meant the park was dead, and the park didn't close anything major in the weather. So, moving on...
     
    Huracan
    Arguably the park's headline attraction is Huracan, a Gerstlauer Eurofighter which opened in 2010, but was largely retracked this past winter. It rides as you'd expect a Eurofighter to ride really: fun, little bit uncomfortable, but nothing extremely intolerable. It has a nice unique layout, but doesn't really have any stand out moments. So yeah, in short: a fun enough but somewhat bland experience.

    Fun fact: Belantis also opened up a kiddie coaster called Huracanito, a ride where you have to be less than 1.2m tall to ride! tbh, it looked too intense for me.
     
    Cobra des Amun Ra
    The park's newest coaster is a Gerstlauer family coaster. Themed around a snake belonging to the Egyptian god Ra, this had a surprisingly nice indoor queue which was rather well themed. The coaster itself was actually really good: nice and whippy, well paced and you get two circuits on it. A nice surprise coaster!

     
     
    Drachenritt
    The park's final coaster is a Gerstlauer (see the trend?) bobsled, and actually a mirror clone of Paultons. Having not done that yet, I didn't know what to expect, but it was a ton of fun, with lots of fun pops of airtime, and a nicely themed experience! Again, a really fun ride.
     
    On paper, the park has a nice selection of non-coaster rides too. The true highlight has to be Fluch des Pharao, a log flume ride with Stormforce 10-style boats, which takes you into a 31m high pyramid. Though not very wet, the ride has a few quirky tricks, is nicely themed inside the pyramid and caught me off guard a couple of times. Very much a typical 'wtf' ride you'd find in Europe! The park also has a Gerstlauer sky fly in Götterflug, though I didn't see anyone manage and flips (hard to tell how much the weather played a part in that) and a random pirate drop tower that sways side to side which was equally very fun. There's a lot more too (including a random mini zip line which is free), but it's all pretty bog-standard and not worth mentioning..

     
    The park has one major dark ride in Verlies des Grauens (Dungeon of Horror): a madhouse ride which very much feels like it could be taking place in a dungeon. Of course, madhouses in a foreign language can be difficult to grasp, but this hasn't stopped me enjoying some out there, and with my basic German knowledge I was able to get the gist (some sort of crystal had been stolen and it relates to the wizard Merlin and only we can get it back or something). But even with that vague context, the madhouse portion was weak: very little seemed to happen, and it was all rather unimpressive, and probably the worst madhouse I've done. Even if I'd fully understood the story (I think the madhouse section is something to do with guests being tricked by the supposed good-guy in a massive plot twist), I doubt I'd have enjoyed it much: everyone around us looked rather unenthusiastic. 
     
    This is probably making Belantis sound like a pretty alright park, but honestly, it was very mediocre. No doubt the bad weather didn't help, the lack of people on park and the fact I bruised my ribs the days before and was in a reasonable amount of pain probably detracted from my fun even more. But really, the park just didn't feel like it had much to offer. The Eurofighter isn't something anyone will really be clambering to re-ride. The family rides are fun but pretty standard. And whilst some rides are nicely themed (in particular the newer ones), the park as a whole is very devoid of anything fun and interesting to make you feel like you're at a theme park. When the park has such an average line up, that doesn't help.
     
    One final thing though: the staff on park were fantastic. All very friendly and helpful and super upbeat despite the weather. They were all really chatty, most spoke good English too (handy when my German failed me!), and just in general made the day a tiny bit brighter. So that's always nice to see.
     
    The park closed at 5 (though staff were telling us they were considering closing early due to the weather and lack of people), but we ultimately left at 3ish to dry off and prepare to spend the evening in Leipzig. Before heading into Leipzig, we stopped off at the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, which is a monument to the Battle of the Nations, and stands at an impressive 300ft tall. You can pay to enter, but we just had a look around the outside. We wandered around Leipzig for a bit, had some food, then ended up going to a bowling alley near our hotel on the outskirts of the city centre. The city was heaving following a football game, and we quickly found out that Leipzig was quite a 'hipster' city, leaving us with little to entertain us really.
     

    Völkerschlachtdenkmal
     
    So yes: Belantis left me ultimately unfulfilled but equally, I wasn't surprised. Leipzig is a bit meh too. Could Freizeitpark Plohn save the weekend? Find out soon...
     
    NB: all pictures stolen from online as my phone hated the rain
     
  2. JoshC.
    And Day 5 brings an end to the trip, where we spend a few hours at Dennlys Parc, which is about an hour from Calais...
     


    Covid Measures
    Face coverings on rides if you're over the age of 11. Some queues had social distancing markers I think, and people kept at a sensible enough distance. The visit was the day after face coverings has become compulsory in shops again across the whole of France, so I expect that the idea of social distancing might have been on people's minds a bit if it was pushed a lot by the media.  

    A long meandering drive meant we arrived to the park about quarter past 10, and their first (smaller) car park was approaching full-ness, and a couple of coaches of young school kids were entering the park. A little bit of a worrying start, but it turned out not to matter as the park was pretty quiet all day, with basically no queues.

    First stop of the day was Nitro, a Mobius loop coaster where you do both sides in one ride. It's an okay ride, the concept of course being quite novel, especially with a hint of duelling (though I wish it was timed so that cars went over the air time hill at the same time). However, there's a really nasty turn half way through the 'left side' of circuit, which gave a really uncomfortable lateral jerk. Was not a fan. Plus there was little leg room in the front row of the car, making it a bit uncomfortable.

    We rode it later in the day too, so it's not horrendous, but that was more out of 'needing to drag a bit more out of the park' than really wanting to reride.  

    We did some of their family rides, including their new-for-2020 ride which was a pedal sky car ride called Xotic. It wasn't a very exotic experience tbh. Next stop was a ride on their figure 8 spinner for the +1 (made by a company called Gesotto, who I'd never heard of before - another one for the manufacturer count I guess!). All that led upto a ride on Furio, their Soquet coaster which was by 200th cred. Boom, achievement unlocked right - I'm slightly less basic now...

    I remember being a younger, very basic goon sitting on 20 creds thinking how cool it would be one day to have 200 creds; a 'bucket list' sort of thing. So it was nice to hit it, feels a bit more substantial than any other milestone I'll probably hit (unless I magic myself to 1000 one day)..  
    I even made a terrible sign and felt like a pillock getting my photo taken. Never again.

    Furio itself was a bit meh. Not the good level of wacky that some Soquets are.
     

    Looks nice though with the trees

    With creds done, it was just a case of ticking off rides. One intriguing ride was Squadron 33, which is a mix of an Enterprise and Gerstlauer Sky Fly..

    As I've said, I hate spinning rides, but I'm also a sucker for doing something a little different and unique (most of the time), and I don't usually mind Sky Flys (though I hate Enterprises..), so I gave it a go. But damn did I regret it. I was able to rotate myself at points - I think! - but the double spinning motion really hit me. It was much more difficult to judge when you'd be upside down. However, you can get some really cool 'drops' if you time your rotations right.
    Definitely not my cup of tea, but a really solid and different ride in fairness!  
    After recovering and doing gentler rides, we'd managed to squeeze to just past midday, so had lunch at the restaurant near the front of the park. They had "tacos" on the menu, with a variety of fillings (Mexican, doner, vegetarian, etc). I ordered a Mexican taco, and was somewhat disappointed to find that their version of a 'taco' is in fact a panini... Still, was alright for price.

    It turns out that after lunch I didn't bother taking any more photos, which probably says something about my feelings about the place. The afternoon was spent doing some of their other family rides on the side of the park that doesn't have creds and a couple of rerides. A particular highlight was their water boat ride, where you drive your own dingy around what's effectively a pool, which also has a water gun attached. You get a solid 3 minute cycle to just squirt people, including helpless people in the queue, and bump around. Pure, simple fun - but also very wet! And, in fact their rapids ride was decent as well - also very well, and actually built by, you guessed it, Soquet.. Oh that random French company, you're full of surprises.
     
    I lied, I took one photo after lunch...of this pistachio ice cream I had. It was tasty. So enjoy this final photo...

    The park also had a 'sitting on a rocking chair with a gun in front of a screen and shoot things' attraction, behind their spinner, but it was closed all day. No sign explaining why and nothing on the website, so not sure if because of Covid or if it's just buggered.

    We managed to drag the day out till just after 2pm, before ultimately deciding to move on. With no creds or nothing of particular fun en route between the park and Calais, where out half 7 ferry would eventually await us, we decided to divert to Cité Europe, the large shopping centre by the channel tunnel terminal, to kill a couple of hours before a stress-free journey home.

    Final Dennlys thoughts: My trips have a habit of sticking on a smaller park after visiting great parks to end it (my first major European trip saw me end with a visit Bobbejaanland after multiple days after Efteling and Phantasialand, for example). Unsurprisingly, Dennlys felt rather flat after an incredible day at Asterix. The park is nice and has a few cool rides for a family group, but felt a little weak compared to some of the other smaller parks from the trip.

    And so that's that - thanks for reading! 
  3. JoshC.
    First off, I understand that the Blogs feature was introduced with the intention of Trip Reports going here, but I'm still going to continue these sorts of blog entries here and in my other blog from time-to-time (if that's okay of course!)

    Anyways, as most will know - or have worked out - I'm a university student, and I've just finished my first year (woo!). I decided just to do a quick entry just going through what it's been like, the ups and the downs and such, and just give a small insight into 'uni life'. Hopefully it'll be interesting to some, and may even help people who are thinking about going to uni / going to uni this year in some way. Either way, hope you enjoy!

    So yeah, despite missing my offer effectively by two whole grades, I got accepted by my first choice - the University of Warwick, to do Maths. It's regularly ranked in the Top 10 universities in the country, and the Maths Department was this year ranked 23rd in the world. Personally, I don't like the idea of university rankings, as there's no fair way, in my eyes, to rank universities, as many surveys will focus on student satisfaction (and so students could just rate highly to improve post-university prospects), research successes (which has little to do with degrees) or results (and due to the wide range of courses and their difficulties at all the universities, that just seems silly). Nevertheless, it's nice to see 'my uni' ranking well..

    The Maths department is also home to one of the country's more famous mathematicians - Ian Stewart. Not only has he had many successes with his research, he's also a popular science author, with a ridiculous number of books to his name (80 something I think), and has also worked with Terry Prachett on the 'Science of Discworld' books. Whilst he's now retired, he still hangs around the department a lot and gives the occasional talk, and he's always happy to have a little chat with people and sign a couple of his books (which I've taken advantage of). I guess you could say he's one of the 'John Wardleys' of popular Maths. I also found out my Personal Tutor before arriving at Warwick, and after a minute of research, I found his Wikipedia page(!) and it turned out he has had a few prizes for his research - found that a bit daunting to be honest!

    Now, before arriving to uni, I didn't know what exactly to expect. I was moving 100 miles way from home, and whilst I knew 1 person on my course, I didn't really like them, so wanted to try my best to avoid them. So, I was in the usual uni position - moving a long way away from home, knowing no one, not really knowing how to cook, afraid of budgeting properly, as well as being not so confident and having a difficult course looming! I do think some people, especially in the media, forget just how much students have to deal with when moving to uni, and make it seem much simpler than it really is.

    But, strangely, when I had moved in and everything, it all just seemed to work. Everyone was nervous, in the exact same position, and even if they were a confident person, being plunged into that sorta situation brings most people to jelly. One thing which scared me was the fact that I didn't drink, and feared that would hinder my chance to make friends with people / I'd be forced into drinking. That did not happen. A fair few people were similar to me, so it really was no biggie. So, seriously, anyone who's thinking about uni and doesn't fit the 'media-portrayed student' of loving to go out get smashed every night - don't worry, uni is not really like and that, and if you're not that sorta person, you will be fine!

    Now, unlike most unis, Warwick doesn't have a traditional 'Fresher's Week' (ie the first week of first term has no lectures, and you can party and get to know people and stuff). Instead, we have lectures from the start, but have a 'Fresher's Fortnight', where there's loads of special events to help people adjust to uni life, but still have lectures and classes and whatever else. Seems nasty, but that's university!

    So, for my first two terms, I had in the region of 20-24 hours of contact time a week (may not seem a lot to those outside of university, but trust me, it is a lot for university. For example, History students and Warwick have 8-10 hours!). I had 2-4 assignments due a week, which for the most part was just a series of questions. Usually, an assignment would take me 3-6 hours, depending on difficulty and length, and that's whilst working with others. Each assignment counted to each individual module, and each module counts to my overall grade for first year, which was 10% of my overall degree (despite first year for most degrees not counting). So, needless to say, it was essential to do them well! I'd also spend a few hours a week going over notes, writing them in neat, etc. So, some weeks, I could be working up to 55-60 hours a week; even then, I always felt like I 'could be doing more'.

    I'd like to point out that's probably not the norm for your average student (in case anyone is getting a bit scared or put off!). Maths at university is EXTREMELY different to at GCSE and A-Level, and so at any uni requires a lot of contact time to explain and teach everything, and a lot of time outside of lectures to actually understand what you need to. Other subjects tend to have less contact hours (except science subjects, which have lab sessions, which can last several hours at once!), but a lot more reading material to be read in your own time (so whilst people doing History have 8 hours of lectures a week, they could spend 5-10 hours reading and making their own notes, for example). Then they'll have essays and such as well, so probably a rough estimate would be about 40 hours a week working, in theory.

    The third and final term of the year at any uni is defined by one thing - exams. It's a shame that exams are the easiest way to grade somebody (which, after all, is one of the key points of uni - to get a graded degree), as it doesn't always reflect somebody's true potential; whatever level. At least at university, the lecturer will write the exam, rather than a group of old farts in some office, and so reflects what you have been taught directly, but still. So, I had a whole one hour contact time a week with my supervisor, where with 4 other people, we could ask questions on stuff we were stuck on. It wasn't particularly helpful, as there's so much stuff and so little time, and everyone struggles with different things. So, basically, I'd spend all day revising, and about 2-3 evenings a week, I'd relax and watch a film or something.

    When I wasn't working, I'd normally just be relaxing with my flat mates. Normally we'd watch a film or a few episodes from a TV series a couple of nights of a week, play board games, etc., some people would go out a couple of times a week to the Students' Union (personally, I went out about two or three times in the first two terms, and not once in the last term), or pop down to the pub every now and then. It may not sound like much, but you can spend so many hours just doing stuff like this, before realising it's 2am and you probably should get some sleep 'cause of a dreaded 9am lecture!

    When it came to things like shopping and cooking, I was fine with that. I was able to get my weekly shopping bill to about £20-£25, sometimes cheaper, but was still able to have a variety of food, which was healthy as well. More importantly, I pretty much stayed away from all ready meals, apart from an Iceland pizza once every couple weeks (which I'd highly recommend btw - only £1 and absolutely brill!). I was able to find time to cook decent, healthy meals every day, and quickly found myself to really enjoy cooking, and to be pretty decent at it. I did briefly turn into one of those people that takes photos of their food and shares it all over Facebook; I am no longer one of those people thankfully!

    I guess one of the last things to talk about should be results. For those a bit unsure, the classification of results goes:
    -First (at least 70%)
    -2.I: two-one (60-69%)
    -2.ii: two-two (50-59%)
    -Third (40-49%)
    -Fail (less than 40%).

    I was disappointed to find out I'd gotten 56% for my first year, which after all the work I had put in, I felt wasn't a true reflection of my ability. However, I did find that this did include an exam I missed due to breaking my ankle, which for the time being has been scored a 0%. So, when I sit the exam in September, as long as I pass the exam, I'll just sneak in a 2.I (with my grade probably bumping up to 61-62%). Whilst I would have wanted higher, I was hoping for 68%+ honestly, it is something I will take. It was first year of uni, and some modules didn't play to my strengths, and so dragged me down quite a bit. Other years are worth more overall, and I have more choice in modules, so I can focus of my strengths - focus on the positives I guess.

    Well, that ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated - sorry for the rambling, and congrats if you read that all! But yeah, hopefully that has given a bit of insight into the world of being a student. Just a couple of final points - what you tend to hear about university is it's the best time of your life, you'll look back fondly of it, etc., and the media focuses a lot of the partying side of it. However, what tends to be mentioned very little is how hard it can be away from the academic side. University is emotionally draining - you're away from home, and so much is piled on you so quickly at times. If you go to university, whatever you do, wherever you go, it's difficult to cope, and mild depression is more common than you may think. I hate to practically finish on such a down note, but I do remember Benin (I think) saying something similar when the topic of uni was being discussed on the forums before Sidders, Smidget and I started, and I admittedly thought it was an over-exaggeration. However, it's true - university is extremely tough in a personal sense, as well as an academic sense, and there's no way you can prepare for that in my eyes. It's something that's sometimes forgotten in the stress of it all, but I think it's safe to say that, at some point during a student's life at university, there'll be tough moments where you feel you can't deal with uni, for whatever reason, and you need to try and work your way up from what can feel like rock bottom. Though, I guess university is meant to help prepare you for life. And, well, that's life.
    (Again, sorry about the length of this. Really did not expect to ramble on this long! :S )
  4. JoshC.
    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!
  5. JoshC.
    This past week, I hit up a few European parks in search of some new creds, and to go back to some places I enjoyed last year.  Just thought I'd throw in a few thoughts from my visits...
     
    Plopsaland de Panne
    Went here last year, and had a lot of fun.  With Heidi originally planned to open July 1st, we decided to return for some wooden coaster goodness.  Alas, it wasn't meant to be as Heidi Spiti is too loud at the moment, and sound barriers are still being constructed.  


    Looks like a fab little coaster, and I'm sure when it opens - and is fully themed - it will be a great addition to the park!
     
    Also new since my last visit was the gigantic castle housing a restaurant a teacups:


    For what it houses, it's pretty insane.  The level of detail and the sheer scale of this is completely unnecessary for a restaurant and teacups.  Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come in the future from the park, but one can't help but wonder if the investment would have been better placed elsewhere in the park.
     
    I had hoped to try out a few more attractions we missed out on last due to closures (namely their starflyer, Disko and The Bat; their random suspended coasters).  Unfortunately, both the starflyer and Bat were closed, despite being listed as open on the park's website.  A bit disappointing, but nothing major.  Their disko was open though and has a nice, lengthy cycle, and is nicely themed.
     
    The true highlight of Plopsaland though is Anubis:


    This Gerstlauer rolling launch had a lot to live up to after I ranked it so well last time.  Fortunately it still delivered.  The exit from the launch is a bit rougher than I remember, but otherwise this is a solid coaster, with a very punchy launch, pops of airtime and a nice bit of intensity blended it a brilliant 'older family' coaster.  
     
    Actually, I don't have much else to add (for longer review, see my trip last year:  http://forum.maniahub.com/blogs/entry/693-belgerand-day-1-plopsaland-de-panne/
     
     
    Walibi Belgium
     
    Walibi Belgium was a weird one last year.  We visited on a very busy day (thanks school trips!) and arrived over an hour late to the park (thanks Brussels traffic!).  We managed to get most things done, but it was all a bit of a rush.  It wasn't a park I was dying to go back to, but it fit in nicely in the trip as a last day, was a chance to get the Boomerang cred I missed out, and also do their weird-looking new coaster, Pulsar.
     
    Speaking of Pulsar, that's where I'll start.  For those who don't know, it's a shuttle coaster featuring 3 launches (2 backwards, 1 forwards) gradually increasing to 62mph and a small airtime hill.  On, and one Tidal Wave sized splash.  It's one of those coasters where all sensible thought said it'd be naff, but I just felt like it could be great fun.  And you know what?  It's fun.  The launches are both fun and a little bit punchy (and great with lap bars), the airtime is alright, and the splash gets you wet.  How wet does depend on where you sit - the back leaves you rather soaked, the sides wet and the inside sprayed.  Front row was blocked off due to loads of water spilling into those seats during the ride - hopefully that's an issue Mack can correct soon!
     

    Geeky techy specs were about too




     
    The turntable system for loading (meaning the coaster has 2 cars) is really clever, and it means that one car is ready to go before the other has even finished.  No doubt this is thanks to Mack's brilliant engineering and clever way of locking and checking restraints.  This meant the queue was really quick moving and it must get a really good throughput (I believe they're aiming for 800ish and I can see them reaching that easily!).  The turntable was the cause of a couple of breakdowns during the day, but I imagine these issues will be ironed out with time.
     
    The combination of the ride experience, theming, slight story and music means that Walibi are onto a real winner with this attraction.  It feels different enough to their other shuttle coasters, and is a great family attraction.  Hopefully we see more of these pop up across the world!
     
    Another cred for the list was Cobra, a Vekoma boomerang:

    It was rough, awkwardly intense and just not a fun ride.  So glad I didn't waste 20 minutes of my life queueing for it last year.
     
    I won't really bore you with the rest of my trip.  The park was very quiet (longest we queued for anything was about 10 minutes for Psyke Underground), so we managed to get everything done, and some rerides of some stuff.  My opinions haven't changed much from last year (see here - http://forum.maniahub.com/blogs/entry/699-belgerand-day-3-walibi-beglium/ ).  Would like to add that I still enjoyed Werewolf, despite now having done other woodies, though naturally not as much as my first ride.
     
    Something I'd just like to throw out there was the atmosphere of the park.  With generic chart music everywhere (except Pulsar pretty much), a few rowdy guests who seemingly would never follow instructions (people standing up on their extremely rapid rapids rather dangerously) and the like, the atmosphere felt a bit dull and meh.  A bit of a shame, especially since last year's visit was overall much nicer despite the large crowds.  
     
    I feel as though I've properly 'done' Walibi Belgium now.  With Pulsar, Psyke and Werewolf, they've got 3 coasters I enjoy, and the likes of drop tower Dalton Terror and madhouse La Palais du Genie are fun rides, but there's just not enough to entice me back any time soon.  Not a bad thing of course, it's a nice enough park, just nothing all that special.
     
     
    Next time, a new-for-me park:  Walibi Holland, featuring Lost Gravity and Goliath... 
     
  6. JoshC.

    2016 Containment Review

    By JoshC.,

    SPOILER WARNING
     
    So after trying Containment again this year, it feels appropriate in some ways to do a review to mirror my review from last year, and see whether the improvements I wanted to see happened or not.
     
    For a quick run down, here's some of the things I said could be improved, and some comments...
     
    1) The preshow. 
    Last year, I felt the preshow either needed to be moved inside or just be given totally be an actor.  This year, it's given totally by an actor, who sets the scene perfectly - creepy, yet funny, whilst setting the scene and explaining the rules.
     
    2) The scare rating. 
    Last year, Containment received a 5* scare rating - something which was completely unjustified, and that the attraction could never live up to.  This year, it's been given a much more appropriate 2* rating, matching the attraction's more "panic" feel, than scary intense feel.  The attraction isn't scary, but has it's place in Fright Nights, especially with this much fairer rating.
     
    3) The cost. 
    I'm all for making this an upcharge attraction, but I was concerned £8-10 was too much, especially after seeing time slots not sell out during the second weekend of Fright Nights.  The cost hasn't changed, and there's been less marketing, but it's certainly seemed to be attracting a lot of attention too, and has sold out on a few nights already which is good to see.  They might need to allow a bit more time between groups (having up to a 30 minute wait after the designated time slot hasn't been uncommon this year!), but it's at least good to see it's selling out.
     
    4) The ending. 
    The ending still needs more for me.  I'd absolutely love another room where it shows you how many rooms you solved, how quick you were and have an actor give you the corresponding wristband, along with a final scare.  Obviously space is the main issue for that, and presumably it would add another technical layer to the attraction, making things more difficult to control in some sense.  But it would still be awesome.  However, it's nice to see that there's something a bit more after completing or failing the final room, giving an actual scare to get you out the attraction.  
     
    Other Improvements?
    One thing I really liked was how at the start of each room, an explanation to the fear your were facing was given.  Last year, I had no clue what each fear was meant to be - the four rooms were meant to be fear of touch, small spaces, dentists/needles and darkness in that order.  I thought it was fear of small spaces, foreign things, needles and darkness...  This year, a nice voiceover explained it all, before the actors then begun to do their things.
     
    The rooms this year felt a bit more logical too, and actually had things to solve rather than blindly tackle and hope for the best.  Definitely an improvement on last year!
     
    Room for Improvement?
    I noticed a couple of noise bleeds from rooms at times, which is a bit of a pain, but difficult to solve.  And there needs to be a solid way to stop groups from catching up with one another (especially if you solve the first room quickly, since there's no actor to occupy you!).  And obviously the ending.  However, these are all difficult things to solve, especially with the small space the attraction uses.
     
    All in all, Containment is very good this year - easily my second favourite attraction this season behind The Big Top.  The new challenges and new spin on the story is refreshing and has really turned this from a 'nice thing to try' to a 'don't miss' attraction in my opinion!  And with a very good cast, it's really done wonders.  I look forward to a return of it next year (hopefully), again with new scenes, fears and challenges!
     
  7. JoshC.

    15 Years of Fear - Act 2

    By JoshC.,

    Hope you all grabbed some popcorn or something during this brief intermission.  Anyways, here's the second half...
     
    #7 - Cabin in the Woods (2013-2016)
    Years experienced:  2013-2016
    To be honest, Cabin has gotten progressively worse each season for me.  I'm sure that's partly down to getting used to it all, as newbies in the maze really are blown away by the idea.  However, the original version in 2013 was by far the best.  The idea of the maze was that you would enter a room, close the door, and something would happen.  Every room had an actor and seemed to have a special effect to go with it.  Maybe I just got a good run, but it felt a lot more interactive and the aim was actually achieved.  It wasn't scary, but it was certainly a lot of fun!

     
    #6 - Saw Alive (2010-2016)
    Years experienced:  2010-2016
    I'm including this as a Fright Nights attraction, even if it didn't start off as one.  I've experienced Saw loads of times, due to it being open all season in 2010 and 2011, so I guess it show how much I like it given how high up it is.  It's got a good use of effects, which is something a fair few of the other mazes lack.  And it later years, it's become a bit more theatrical, which gives it a different feel to the others. 
    I've definitely got a soft spot for Saw Alive, and I might be over-rating it a tad, but I really have enjoyed it the past couple of years, which I guess helps!

    (Concept art from Thorpe Park)
    #5 - Containment (2015-2016)
    Years experienced:  2015, 2016
    2015 Containment was average at best to be honest.  But Containment for 2016 was fabulous; from the nice pre-show, to the fun tasks to the fantastic actors.  Everything just worked, and left me with a huge smile on my face.  The fears included were of a nice range, from the common to the not-so-common:  numerophobia (numbers), chronophobia (time), trypanophobia (needles) and haemophobia (blood). 
    It might be because this is the only escape room that I've done that I enjoy it so much, but it's at least set the bar high, and got me itching to try and another horror escape room!

    Image from Scruffy Dog
    #4 - Experiment 10 (2011-2012)
    Years experienced:  2011, 2012
    Experiment 10 was one of the most difficult ones to place on the list.  The beginning was pure genius, and the first time I experienced it, it did shock and surprise me.  But from there, it went downhill, with little to write home about.  And let's not talk about the 2012 version and ending shall we. 
    Nevertheless, the reception scene, decontamination sequence and isolation rooms were absolutely fantastic, and a brilliant way to start off a scare attraction.  If the same atmosphere and intensity from actors could have been matched during the rest of the maze, it certainly would have been higher up!

    Image from scare-zone.com
    #3 - The Big Top (2015-2016)
    Years experienced:  2015, 2016
    Obviously for this, I'm referring to the 2016 version.  Don't get me wrong, 2015 Big Top had a lot of potential and was fun on some runs, but it just wasn't up to scratch when all was said and done. 
    2016 Big Top had a nice mix of everything though.  The Madame Mephisto scene was nice, the playground area was fantastic, and showed me how a mesh-strobe-scene can work.  Then the rest of the maze had plenty of theming and nice, open, sets which all worked really well - especially the clown wash room!  Yeah, chainsaw ending doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the maze, and it's a bti cliché, but it still works at least!  It is just so much fun and is designed so that it's really easy to scare people.

    #2 - Se7en (2006-2011)
    Years experienced:  2009-2011
    I honestly think that Se7en was quite under-rated during it's time at Fright Nights.  It got a lot of hate for being in a white tent, and I think its first couple of years weren't that well received generally, but the times I experienced it, it was a solid, dependable maze, featuring fab theming, great smells and effects and a variety of different scare tactics.
    2011 was a stand-out season for Se7en though - actors seemed to have been given more leverage on what they could do, and were very full on throughout.  Sure, some of the rooms had lost their appeal after going through it multiple times (in particular the Envy room), but things like the Gluttony room remain in my mind - and nostrils! - to this very day.  I know tents aren't the ideal situation for a horror maze, but based on how this and Big Top have gone down, I'd be happy to see more of them back in the future for greater in-maze experiences.

    Image from Theme Park Tourist
    #1 - Studio 13 (2014)
    Years experienced:  2014
    I adored this maze.  It's the only scare attraction where I've truly felt part of the story.  The beginning felt like a backstage tour of a film studio where something wasn't quite right.  The middle felt like being part of a horror film.  The end was executed brilliantly, with the horror film spilling out into real life, and definitely gave me a shock (moreso because of my expectations than anything else, but still...)
    The theming was largely very good as well, and the actors all seemed to work well with the maze in my runs.  It all just gelled really well to create quite possibly my favourite scare maze to date!

    Image from lukedysonphotography.org
     
     
     
    And that's a wrap!  Here's to more gorious years of Fright Nights...I look forward to what next season brings...
  8. JoshC.
    So Adam has once again beaten me to starting up the massive Trip Report, but hey, you know what they say, first the worst, second the best...
     
    Once again, we went for a nice 8 day long road trip, hitting up some new parks and some old parks with new stuff.  Day 1 was the wonderful French park Parc Bagatelle...
     
    Bagatelle is about an hour away from Calais (which is where we were conveniently staying after arriving by ferry at 2am), and a reasonably straightforward drive.  The set up to get into the park is weird, with the car park being one side of a road, and then you have to go through a bland tunnel and security check to get to the main turnstiles and entrance of the park.  It's all very dull and you basically just stumble into the park.
     
    Pretty much our main reason for visiting the park was to try out Triops - a Vekoma inverted boomerang, which also happens to be the first one made (though it's moved about a few times).  So once the park opened, we headed over there, only to find a flimsy chain and a small A4 sign saying that area of the park didn't open till 11am.  Whoops.
     
    After meandering around for a bit, we headed to Gaz Express, a Soquet (nope, no idea either) mine train which looks very Vekoma.  It's partially set around a pond, featuring waterfalls and splash-down-esque features, has 2 random fire effects and a random indoor section (with a very cool fountain!).  The lap bar restraints were also very concerning to look at, as they featured a large divider right where a gentlemen's groin area should go - any airtime would stop me from having children to say the least..  Fortunately, there was no airtime, and the ride itself was enjoyable enough!
     

     
    With it still being before 11, we opted to do the park's dodgems, Trafic Jam.  Thee are by far the craziest dodgems I've done; the cards skid and drift, go fast, anything goes, and you got a really long cycle (felt like a good few minutes).  Couple that along with the French just don't seem to car who they ram, it made a great ride!
     
    11am came, and Triops wasn't open.  So we joined the queue for the park's nearby spinning wild mouse (also scheduled to open at 11), Famous Jack, but, somewhat unsurprisingly that wasn't open either.  After 15 minutes in the queue, we gave up, and saw Triops testing and got over to it just as it opened.  Yay.  It wasn't as awful as I was expecting, in fact the cobra roll was surprisingly smooth, yet intense whilst going forward.  The vertical loop was horrid though, and the whole ride going backwards wasn't great.  So in other words, it wasn't awful, but it's far from great.
     



     
    Some more meandering around the park's boundary eventually took us to the pirate ship, the 'Bag Pearl'.  Unlike all other pirate ships I've done, the tire only drove the ride one way, meaning the ride took twice as long, leaving my stomach feeling a bit lost.  It had a nice setting though, next to a lake, and nice enough theming.
     


     
    After doing their water slide and having some lunch at a canteen-style restaurant (which was alright bar the fact the glass pot my custard came for dessert was chipped), we did some of the water rides.  The park has 2 log flumes, one really random one at the park's edge, giving a lovely view of a basketball court, and another decent one that gets you nicely wet.  Neither were memorable enough for me to waste space on my phone to take a photo though..  We also did the park's rapids, which featuring a fun whirlpool element, and some good spots of theming...but not a lot else.  
     
    After doing the park's car driving ride and some other general rubbish, it was back to the creds, doing Kidz Coaster (a Wacky Worm) and Spirale Express (another Soquel coaster, but a more junior variety, featuring a random sideways turn of fun).  Spirale was a bit of surprise, and the Wacky Worm was a Wacky Worm.  We did some more general junk that the park offers, including a monorail that shows you less than Safari Skyway did, and then headed to the back of the park again to do what we missed out on earlier...
     
    Famous Jack ended up being my first spinning wild mouse.  And to be honest, it was great fun.  I literally got tossed, turned and spun in every direction and it was just a bit mad.  Sure, it was uncomfortable at parts and I wanted it to be over sooner rather than later, but I can't deny I didn't enjoy it.
     

     
    We then did the neighbouring Eccentric Bikes, a side attraction where you can ride bikes with off-centre wheels, flat tyres and more around a circuit.  It was a good laugh, and also nice to finally experience what the Broncho Bikes at Thorpe might have been like all those years ago...
     
    The last major ride to do was Silver Wings, the park's new thing for 2017, a Zamperla Air Race.  It suits the park well, has some nice theming, and adds nicely to the line up.  Hopefully the park can continue to add investments like this.
     

    Each arm is named SW1, SW2,...,SW6.  The geeks in us all enjoyed this.

    The neighbouring restaurant.
     
    After some re-rides, we ended the day at Cine Dynamik, which was a simulator.  We knew nothing of the story, and once we got in the building, we were greeted by a giant clown face, florescent paint and a general wacky atmosphere.  This seemed good.  We then walked past a pre-show area (which a building layout saw suggested was once used to hand out 3D glasses), and entered the simulator.  The story ended up being about you being shrunk to small size, and entering the human body as part a vaccine.  Oh.  Then the simulator ended up being HORRID, very jerky and generally just awful, and made us all feel dreadful.  I guess the film has been changed recently, but it is genuinely the worst thing at the park and should be burnt down.
     
     
    So yeah, all in all, Bagatelle was as I expected really.  It's a small park that has the odd flash and good things, the odd general wacky European feel and a lot of generic rubbish.  But it was a nice enough day out, got a few coasters for the count, and was a nice easy day for the road trip.  
     
    We headed back to Calais and had a nose around the local area.  We ended up finding a nice little place which did pub grub and had fab service.  After that, we then went back to our dingy hotel (it genuinely looked like a prison on the outside, but was fine on the inside), played some pool, then had a reasonably early night to prepare us for Day 2, featuring Plopsaland de Panne...
     
     
  9. JoshC.
    After another refreshing night at our hotel, we trekked on over to Plopsaland de Panne for Day 2.  I'll keep this brief as I've babbled on about this loads before...
     
    We arrived at the park to be greeted by loads of school kids swarming about, so we headed straight for Heidi - The Ride, the park's coaster which was meant to be open last year but had loads of noise issues.  It's a lot of fun.  It holds its speed for most of the ride, features nice pops of airtime and the odd intense.  It's practically a clone of White Lightning at Fun Spot America, so anyone who's ridden that will no doubt know what to expect.  It's a bit on the short side, and it's a shame they didn't do more sound tunnels during the ride given all the extra fencing required. but it's still a very, very good family coaster and just what the park needed.
     
    We rode it 3 times during the course of day, including front and back, and it remained equally fun at all points - woohoo!
     
    One sad thing was how the ride opened on one train (fortunately we arrived just before all the school kids arrived to the coaster), and I imagine any sort of queue would then be painfully slow.  Not to mention the queue is just a wooden, indoor cattlepen.  It was also a 1-man op job at the time (like most of Plopsaland's rides!).  However, it did go up to 2 trains later on, and at one point had 3 staff working on, easily the most I've ever seen working on 1 ride at Plopsa.  
     


    Area looks nice

    They play the Heidi TV show in the queue, which has hilarious screenshots.
     
    We also finally got to do Vleermuis, the park's twin suspended batflyer coasters, which had been SBNO on our previous 2 visits.  These had become a bit infamous for me, as they always looked 'fun' and odd, but their life at the park had come under question several times over the past few years.  They're fun enough little coasters, even if they do kill you legs thanks to to tight restraints - worth a try if you ever visit I'd say.  (I didn't get any good pictures, so check out RCDB for photos - https://rcdb.com/932.htm )
     
    With the new stuff ticked off before 11, we then had 7 hours on park to just go around and enjoy the park, which has a solid selection of rides.  Their Gerstlauer launch coaster Anubis proved great fun again, though I've noticed it can give uncomfortable rides on the back row which is a shame.  Their Vekoma rollerskater, Rollerskater, had received some new theming which was nice to see.  And despite all the school trips, and warm weather, we never really had to queue that long for anything, which is always a Plopsa plus!  
     
     
    We then left and made our way to Leige, where we stayed in another hotel which looked like a prison on the outside, but was nice enough on the inside.  We went to McDonald's for dinner, which served macarons as a dessert - good ol' Europeans!
     
    Day 3 then arrived, and it was time for another new park - Plopsa Coo!
     
    Plopsa Coo is situated in a very hilly (and picturesque!) part of Leige, and getting to it felt like going to a more complicated version of Alton Towers.  The entrance to the car park appears out of nowhere, so the park is very well hidden amongst the countryside.  
     
    Since we arrived super early, we had a wander around the car park and surrounding area, and accidentally stumbled upon the park's bobsleigh - literally the 'ride area' could be easily accessed from outside the park...
     

     
    Deciding not to venture any further to make sure we weren't kicked out before we even got in, we headed to the entrance, where the park promptly opened at 10am.  Unsurprisingly, lots of school kids were about, and most headed straight to the park's headline spinning coaster, Vicky - The Ride (more on that later).  The bobsleigh hadn't opened due to the rainy weather, and it didn't look like it would open any time soon (with rain and thunderstorms predicted for the whole day!).  So we headed to the park's charlift...
     
    The chairlift was built long before a theme park existed on the site, and takes you 220m (~722ft) high (and the park itself is 240m above sea level!).  At the top of the chairlift is a tower, which allows for some fantastic views of the surrounding area...
     



    You can vaguely see the park here.  To the left is their measly 60m tall star flyer.  The small hill on the right is where the bobsleigh is located.
     
    All in all, our time on the chairlift and tower took us about 45 minutes, which was a great way to start the day.  Unfortunately the weather was still drizzly, so the bobsleigh still hadn't opened, and the front part of the park was swarming for kids, so we trekked to the back of the very small park.  We ticked off a water slide and log flume, which were nice but nothing to write home about, before moving onto Halvar, the park's oldest coaster.  It's a bog standard Vekoma coaster, but basically completely hidden behind loads of trees and such, which made the ride a bit more fun than it otherwise would have been.  I didn't take any photos unfortunately, so check out RCDB - https://rcdb.com/931.htm
     
    We then moved onto the nearby Labyrinth, which was a big surprise of the whole trip really.  It's an outdoor maze, made out of really tall wooden fences...with a twist.  Throughout the maze are a series of locked doors, which you need a code to open.  The code to each door is found by answering a question at a dead end of the maze.  We had no idea what was going on until half way through the maze (thanks to us just following school kids through unlocked doors).  Once we knew what was going on, it made the maze very interesting, and it's certainly a concept I'd like to try again!
     

    A question with 3 possible answers and corresponding codes.
     
    After a spot of lunch and some general wandering around the very small park, we headed over to Vicky - The Ride, which still had a very long queue.  This Gerstlauer spinning coaster opened in 2011 and was pretty much our main reason for knowing the park existed!  It looked pretty interesting, and had potential.  After going through the very slow queue (we were essentially right next to the station and it took a good 30-40 minutes...), we were on, and were left disappointed.  The layout doesn't lend itself to much spinning.  The huge cars with inward-facing seats makes it difficult to get a good weight balance.  And in general, it just felt a bit bland and meh.  Maybe expectations were a little too high, but it was disappointing...
     


     
    Because of the constant on-off rain (though fortunately no thunderstorms!), the bobsleigh still wasn't dry enough to do.  So instead we ticked off the star flyer (which felt so tiny thanks to our views from the chairlift), and the FREE mini golf, which was surprisingly decent with a variety of interesting holes, including this one which had no hole...
     

     
    It was now just after 3, and the park closed at 5.  The rain had held off for a long time.  We headed back over to the bobsleigh, where plenty of drying of the track was going on - things looked promising.  After some lurking about, our prayers were answered - it opened!
     
    The bobsleigh was set on a really tall hill, and featured a random backwards incline to take you to the top, and 2 slopes to take you down.  I've no idea how tall the hill was, but the slopes were 600m each and it was reasonably steep at some points, so it was quite cool.  There's some awesome turns and fun spots, and some neat points to really gain speed.  Unfortunately on my first go there was a crash in front of me about half way down, which really killed the experience.  Fortunately we did a second run later on, and I got pretty much to the end before encountering a kid who had stopped on the tracks - joyous.  Nonetheless, these were truly a huge highlight of the park and one of the biggest hidden gems of the trip!
     

     
    Between our rides on bobsleigh, we did a second go on their waterslide, but also did their FREE go kart track.  Unsurprisingly it had a long queue, but you got 3 circuits on a decent length track in some cars which picked up an okay enough speed for what they were.  Was certainly a pleasant surprise to be able to do something like this for free.
     

     
    After park close, we made our way into Germany and the wonderful city of Koln.  Our beautiful hotel was situated nicely between two very explicit adult shops, our room offered a lovely view of the bin storage area of the hotel, but the beds were super-comfy and the room was huge, which was 2 things the previous 2 hotels didn't have.  Woohoo!  It was also a 10 minute walk from Hard Rock Koln, not that the restaurant chain interests me that much.  
     
    So all in all, Plopsa Coo is a very nice and quaint little park.  At one point we were concerned we wouldn't have enough to do, and then seeing all the school kids we were concerned we would be stuck in queues all day.  But the park offered a great balance for us so we were able to comfortably do everything in the 7 hours the park was open, without rushing or feeling bored.  Sure, it's not a must-do park, but it's certainly a nice park and definitely worth considering if you're anywhere nearby and want a little theme park fix. 
     
    Next time, Day 4 - Phantasialand!
     
     
  10. JoshC.
    Following the recent-ish announcement of The Walking Dead coming to Thorpe, I thought I'd share a review of TWD: Breakout, Movie Park Germany's 5 Euro upcharge scare attraction.  And also share some expectations I have for Living Nightmare and Sanctum as a result..
     
    I have to say, I was really looking forward to this.  Movie Park are well known for this Halloween event, and they continually bring in big name IPs as well as original concepts (this year, they've got an 18+ maze themed to the Hostel series which looks to be at least partially an alone experience for example), so that sets a certain bar.  The maze itself was really pushed hard, on the website, on leaflets, on the park map and on park too - it was almost like it was a crowning success for the park; their gem along with their big new ride.  They advertised "the latest technologies" which helped achieve special effects, along with the standard 'intense, scary' jargon that most mazes get.  And even though I haven't watched the TV show (and still haven't yet), I knew how much scope the franchise has.
     
    Breakout Review
    Warning - spoilers
     
    After doing some queueing in some shipping containers, you reach the entrance of the maze, which is themed around the Harrison Memorial Hospital (apparently from the first series).  You could hear lots of banging to the right of the wall, which I thought was a bit of a spoiler, since an actor was bound to appear.  
     
    You get batched in in groups of about 8, and encouraged to stay together, but it's not a conga line maze.  The first scene just ends up being a standard safety scene (delivered on TVs in multiple languages), and then an actor appears from a hidden route to your left (despite the loud noises you hear outside coming from what should be your right).  It was a clever bit of misdirection, and though not scary, showed some promise.  The actor then chases away to go down the corridor on your right, banging the walls to encourage you to leave..
     
    Unfortunately from here, things go downhill.  You walk past the famous 'Don't Open, Dead Inside' doors, with no sort of effects or actor or special lighting or anything; a particularly disappointing thing since that was so widely pushed in advertised.  An actor appeared, shouting 'Boo', and doing some general arm waving to try and invade our personal space.  No context to the scenes, and I realised that it was actually the same actor as from the first scene, which begun to ring alarm bells as to the number of actors.
     
    You continue through more scenes, which are very well themed, but had little sound effects and no special effects.  Occasionally an actor appeared, but they all did the same thing - shout 'boo' and walk like a zombie who'd an accident in their underwear...  Though the theming was nice, you weren't given any chance to really interact with it - you were always well away from anything of note, and given tonnes of space with nothing filling it.  It was the worst thing a scare maze can be - boring.  
     
    The ending was cliche to say the least...  Large open space, couple of barrels and a door at the end of the room.  Oh, except a big burly man with a chainsaw appears out of nowhere by the door.  Been there, done that.  However, a tiny ray in the ending was the fact that the actor kicked down a barrel onto the floor, creating a huge, echoing thud - easily the biggest scare in the maze, and shows that there was at least a glimmer of thought put into 'how can we actually scare people' when designing the maze.  
     
    So yeah, TWD: Breakout was a very poor maze.  Few actors, little-to-no use of standard scare tactics introduced and nothing exciting or interesting to go with it.  Maybe having done a few good mazes over the years has hardened me up a bit too much, but there was just nothing of note.
     
    Thorpe Expectations
     
    Something which still sticks in my mind about Breakout is how well themed the maze was, and how well designed the sets were.  Looking at photos of the maze and looking at images from the show, they are very similar down to the small details.  So I expect that AMC / Fox have quite high expectations and demands about the theming of the maze that have to be met.  Given the Paragon Creative have been spotted on park (the company who also did a great job when making Saw Alive!), I expect that those expectations will be met, especially with Living Nightmare.
     
    From the brief description that Thorpe have released, it sounds like Living Nightmare will be in a similar vain to Breakout in that there are a variety of scenes from the show in the maze that you go through, except that they are including Season 7 in there.  Also, as we're told that we can "choose your path and decide your fate", there might be the possibility of multiple routes akin to Cabin - a nice touch which works nicely with the 'assorted scene' vibe.  
     
    I must admit I'm concerned about what sort of scares we're in for.  Thorpe have gotten a reputation that their style of scare is 'growl in people's face, brush against their arm and slam against a wall' and move on.  Though I don't strictly agree with this (and we've seen them move away from that with the likes of Big Top, Blair Witch and Platform 15 in my opinion), I certainly see where people are coming from.  And it feels almost inevitable that we could be in for that treatment here.  I'd really love to see some effects that play on the senses more here - smells are something which are particularly under-used by Thorpe.  And I feel like having a hospital scene, for example, which is literally 'cold' would work well.  Couple in some other effects here and there, and it would work really well.  But I'm just not sure we're in for that.  
     
    As for Sanctum, given it's said to be an outdoor maze, and from the little we've seen of it, I get a feeling like it will be a bigger, better, more-coherently themed version of Dead End.  The general story seems to be 'death and destruction wasteland, you enter a safe bit, but oh wait, it's not safe' - something that Thorpe can do well.  The containers could act as means to create a long route to walk around, and be used for impact scares.  Chuck in a couple of set pieces and bits and bobs and it'll be a fun little maze.  I'm not expecting anything groundbreaking, but it has the potential to be a perfect filler maze, as well as helping spread the crowds around.
     
     
    tl;dr - Germany's Walking Dead maze is on the whole, naff, but the theming is good.  I expect good theming at Thorpe and hope they can produce something different in terms of scares.
  11. JoshC.
    No creds or parks to report on in this blog post, but there'll be a few visitor attraction things. So yeah, still give it a read...
     
    Monday morning came and, for whatever reason, no parks seem to open on Mondays in Poland during off peak (Legendia only opened Friday-Sunday, Energylandia closed on Mondays). So, in an unusual twist for my trips, we planned a full day of non-theme park stuff and culture.
     
    The first stop of the day was Auschwitz, which was just over 30mins away from Legendia. We didn't go for a guided tour, instead opting to tour the area ourselves. I won't really go into any more details, as I don't think I need to explain just how harrowing of an experience that is. We spent a couple of hours there.
     
    We then made the hour long drive into Krakow, where we were going to general touristy stuff, bit of sightseeing, eat at the Hard Rock etc. A bit of research the night before gave us some really interesting-attractions to visit:
    Lost Souls Alley - a horror maze / escape room style experience
    Krakow Pinball Museum - a 'museum' where, for a small fee, you can play over 40 different pinball machines and classic arcade games as much as you like
     
    After a bit of wandering round, we found a third attraction of interest - Exit Room, an escape room.
     
    Exit Room
    https://www.exitroom.pl/
     
    We stumbled upon Exit Room whilst trying to find Lost Souls Alley, and decided to book a room. They had 8 to choose from, and we opted to go for the Wolfenstein themed room. Not related to the video game series, bit sharing the same story. You are locked in a room, have an hour to escape, and the way to escape is to find the pieces of a gun to shoot an animatronic Hitler(!). It also started out quite nicely, as we were blindfolded at the start to disorientate us, and one of us was locked in a separate room to escape from as well. We didn't escape, and sadly there was no timer to give us the encouragement, but it was a very well presented escape room, and staff spoke excellent English!
     
    Krakow Pinball Museum
    http://www.krakowpinballmuseum.com/aboutus.html
     
    This place is a real fun little gem! For about £8, you get unlimited access to lots of machines and arcade games (some classic, some new). It's a really chilled out, relaxed atmosphere, not busy, etc. Drinks were also cheap as well (everything in Poland is cheap, but in comparison to the rest of a city centre, the drinks were cheap too!). The best part was you were given a wristband, and could pop in and out throughout the day. We really got our money's worth!
     
    It's a little bit geeky, maybe a guilty pleasure for some, but it's definitely something I'd recommend looking into if you're spending the day round there.
     
    Lost Souls Alley
    http://www.lostsoulsalley.com/index-en.php
     
    I don't even know where to start with this. This is an experience which will probably stay with me for the rest of my life, and not in a good way. I didn't want to write a dedicated thing about it, but I think I'm going to have to. It requires so much explanation and set up to truly understand what this attraction is, and why it haunts me so much.
     
    So yeah, suffice to say I didn't like this. Standby for more details; I'll link the thread when I've written it...
     
     
    Krakow was a wonderful city to explore in general though. Lots of pretty buildings, the people were brilliant and the food was ace. The day we visited happened to be the anniversary of the Soviet Union invading Poland in the lead up to WWII (1939), which is also when the country's President and Prime Minister fled the country. There were memorial services throughout the day in various locations, which again were pretty hard hitting.
     
    Another standout feature of Krakow, which sadly I didn't get a decent photo of, was a fire-breathing dragon statue by the river. Completely random, but very cool.
     
    We left Krakow in the evening to go to our nearby hostel, which was very nice and simple. As I've said, it's a wonderful city, and it was nice and different to for me to spend a fully doing non-theme park stuff on a theme park trip...
     
    Coming soon, Energylandia, with it's 10000000 creds, and other random stuff.
  12. JoshC.
    Opening autumn last year, The Bear Grylls Adventure already feels like a forgotten Merlin attraction in some sense. No real fanfare when the attraction opened, and still no advertising, it's a weird scenario. Apparently a big advertising push is coming this spring though, so maybe that will help get the word out there a bit more.
     
    What is it?
    This is one of the hardest questions to answer, but I'll try. BGA is split into several different activities, and you can pay to do basically any combination of these:
    -Basecamp. 4 activities in one: Survival maze, Escape room, Archery and Assault course
    -High Ropes Course. Outdoor free roam high ropes course
    -Climbing. Indoor rock climbing on several different types of wall
    -iFly. Indoor skydiving experience
    -Snorkelling. Self explanatory
    -Diving. Dive in a cage surrounding by animals, including sharks
     
    Basecamp is very much the standard go to option, with maybe one or two extra activities added on. To do all activities is an 8-9 hour day.
     
    I ended up doing this today, opting for Basecamp, the High Ropes Course and Climbing. You choose timeslots for the activities, and we went for Basecamp - 11am, High Ropes - 1pm, Climbing - 3pm.
     
    Bear Tags
    Bear Tags are the big piece of tech for BGA. It tells you where you need to be at what time, vibrates when it's nearly time, acts as a check in for each activity, your key to a locker (lockers are free, as you're not allowed anything with you on any activity), etc. It also acts as a ticket for scanning photos to you too. You can put your card details on there and use it to pay for stuff too.
     
    Ours proved to be temperamental during the day, with one dying half way through, sometimes not vibrating at the right time, not scanning, etc. The idea behind them is nice, so hopefully the technology can work out too.
     
    Basecamp
    Basecamp is the hardest thing to describe, as it's a very mish-mashed experience. You share this experience in groups of 16-20, and is advertised to take 90 minutes, as well as a Bear 'ranger' who guides you round the activities.
     
    You start off with a Survival Maze:
    This is basically like what I'm a Celebrity should have been. It's hard to describe it without giving spoilers, but in short it's a 20 minute guided tour through various challenges and activities, based on certain fears and survival elements. As I say, imagine Thorpe's IAC maze, but amped up a level to actually try and test people.
     
    I'm not quite sure how I felt about it in the end. It's hard to tell whether it's "so bad it's good" or "bad". Our guide was very over-the-top cheesey at times, and again, hard to tell if it made it worse or better. So I finished the first element unconvinced. 
     
    Escape Room
    After leaving the maze and having a photo opportunity (not forced, and you get digital copies included with the Basecamp ticket!), we were then guided around the building towards the escape room. 
     
    The escape room is a 7 minute timed challenge, up to 10 people per team (there's two rooms so no waiting around), which simply requires finding one 4 digit code. The ranger guide gives you a clue at the start, and you have to decode messages, radio clues and writing on the wall to crack the code. Neither team in our group managed it, and it's one of the weirdest escape rooms I've done. I don't like the way it presents clues. 
     
    Rather awkwardly, the escape room leads you to an unthemed, essentially staff area, to get back out.
     
    Archery
    Archery is archery - it's what you'd expect! You're given a very thorough briefing and demonstration, and then get to shoot 10 arrows. It's good fun, well presented and though it's always nice to have more arrows, this felt like a good fair number.
     

     
    Assault Course
    Up until now, the Basecamp experience had been linear and we were guided in a group. After Archery, we were told we were free to do the assault course at 'any time', and you get two goes for it. Basecamp is advertised as a 90 minute experience, we were an hour in and the assault course is 25 minutes, most of which is spent warming up and safety talks. With High Ropes booked for 1pm, we decided to have a lunch break, and then do the assault course later.
     
    We did it at about half 2, and honestly, this is full on! Said to be based off a Royal Marine's assault course, you spend a lot of time before stretching, running on the spot, etc (which in itself was pretty tiring). You're part of a large group, but sent round in groups of 2-4. The assault course is fairly standard fodder - balancing, high/low beams, crawling under nets, climbing up nets, and included a jump over a 6ft wall and ascending/descending monkey bars. You can skip any element you can't do (I tried the monkey bars and failed miserably).
     
    Rather nicely, you're given an anklet which acts as a timer, so you can see your time. I managed it in about 2m40s, which was in the top third of everyone in the group. Fairly happy with that, but it left me proper exhausted!
     
    High Ropes Course
    The High Ropes Course takes place outside, in a stand alone structure which - at its highest - is about 60ft tall. To leave the building, you zipline from above the entrance (themed to a helicopter) towards the course - normally the finale of a high ropes course, but still fun nonetheless!
     
    The course has over 30 different features, spread over 4 levels (and the higher you go, the more challenging the features supposedly get). Despite the odd look, the course was very good fun, and extra challenges were had due to the rain and sometimes quite fast wind! Out of curiosity, I asked if they shut it down in windy conditions, and they said they have a limit, but haven't reached it yet. I managed all but one feature, a particularly tricky spinning log which I didn't fancy due to the weather conditions (and my shaky legs at 60ft!).
     
    You can either get down by walking back down, or doing a death drop - essentially just being harnessed up and jumping from the third level in a very mini bungee jump like situation. Again, that proved very fun.
     
    A nice feature of the high ropes course is you can effectively take as long as you want. 90 minutes is the recommended time (including zipline and safety briefings), but there's no one checking the clock on you. I imagine within reason, you can stay up there as long as you like.
     

     
    Climbing
    Climbing came directly after our go in the assault course. Already with achey arms, and me not having good upper body strength, I knew this wouldn't be great for me. 
     
    The session starts off with 20 minutes of bouldering (low level rock climbing), then 40 minutes of climbing up 8m high walls, of varying difficulties and surfaces. You can pick and choose what you attempt. Despite all my best efforts, and help from the instructors, I simply never got the hang of it. Wasn't totally unexpected, but a shame nonetheless. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like maybe there could have been a couple more very basic / entry level walls? Couple of others in our group struggled too, but ah well.
     

     
     
    Food, Retail and Theming
    There's an onsite restaurant which serves hot and cold food, such as pizzas, nachos, sandwiches, etc. Standard Merlin fodder really, but at a reasonable price, with good value meal deals and AP discount still applicable to them! There's also a shop with BGA and standard Bear Grylls merch. Unlike other midway attractions, like Shrek, the prices are very much in line with theme park prices, and you can get AP discount on it all.
     
    The theming is a weird one. All of the activities are well presented, and within the area there's some very nice themed features and elements. There's good ambient music (the iFly area actually plays the old Air theme!!), and thematic lighting, though perhaps a bit too dim. However, the ceiling is not themed at all, and makes it clear you're in a warehouse. Given you look up quite a bit, it is a bit of an illusion breaker, but something that could be easily - and cheaply - remedied by just some cheap cargo netting! Also, as mentioned, the walkway after the escape room is terrible.
     
    Other Thoughts
    The Basecamp idea is weird. It is advertised very linearly on the website, but the activities are spread out through the attraction, making it feel a bit clunky. Given the space has been built from the ground up, I'd have thought they could have designed it so one activity leads directly to one another. 
     
    It seemed fairly lively in there, and according to a member of staff we spoke to, about 200-300 people do the high ropes course over a weekend, and 150-200 do the climbing experience. Those numbers seem quite low, so it'll be interesting to see how it develops, especially once advertising kicks in.
     
    Cost
    Given all the different options available, the cost very much varies. The basecamp experience is £20, which isn't terrible, and add-ons vary and start from £15 (you have to Basecamp I believe). But there's bound to be offers floating around, and they're experimenting with different offers for Annual Passholders (at the moment, Basecamp by itself is £1 for example). So it can be quite an expensive day (all activities together cost £160), but it's not exactly bad for the variety you get. Even better if you get a special offer!
     
    Overall
    Overall, Bear Grylls Adventure is something complete different, and offers something for everyone. If you're a well-trodden high ropes goer / climber / whatever, those specific probably won't offer much for you, but if not, it's a really fun experience to be able to do a variety of different things. Definitely something worth trying out if it does sound up your street!
    (NB: As phones aren't allowed in the activities and the lighting was low-level, I've just stolen photos off the official website)
     
  13. JoshC.
    For the first time in like 2 years, I've actually finished a trip report *dies of shock*
     
    Plohn jumped into my attention because of their new Mack Big Dipper, Dynamite, bursting onto the scene. We thought visiting in mid-May would be safe enough for the 'Spring opening', but sadly we were 6 days too early. Major spite. Nonetheless, it looks good and I'm sure it'll be a hit for the park. Onto the rest of the park:
     
    El Toro
    A GCI woodie that opened in 2009, El Toro was a curious surprise for the trip. It's tucked away in the corner of the park, and though you don't really see it, you can certainly hear it. And even when you do see it, you don't quite realise how long it is, and how much it packs into a small space. It has a fair few airtime moments, which are all 'nice' and 'floaty'. It twists around a bit and has a nice bit of interaction near the park's log flume too. But ultimately, there's nothing particular interesting about it: it's just a bog standard, run-of-the-mill woodie.

     
    Miniwah and The Secret of Gold Creek City
    Now this was a surprise! Miniwah is an indoor Mack powered coaster, with a custom layout. Set in the park's wild west / mining area, the entrance is tucked away and, thanks to the facade, it'd be easy to think that there wasn't a ride in there at all. The queue is really well themed and surprisingly atmospheric.
     
    The ride itself is fabulous as well. The ride does 3 laps: the first lap is taken incredibly slowly, and gives you a tour around Gold Creek City and it's mining area. The second lap speeds up as it becomes clear the mining area is about the explode. The final lap is then taken even quicker, with the mining area fully exploded and causing havoc throughout the city. It was beautifully done, and a really interesting way of using a powered coaster.

     
    As from that, the park have 3 other coasters: some Zierer over water which was painfully slow, a Wacky Worm and an SBF spinner, all of which aren't worth me trying to find the names for and simply were coaster counting.
     
    The park have a surprising decent dinosaur/prehistoric themed section of the park. It features a family spinning drop tower (themed like Tikal), a raft tow boat ride around a lake with some dinosaur and caveman-like statues, and some pedal rafts on the same lake. This part of the park is away from the rest of the park and in dense woodland, which really added to whole vibe. Looking at the park's website, some of these rides are named after the Flinstones too, though I didn't notice this, and I'd be very surprised if there was any official tie in...


     
    The park also features typically European stuff, like a random un-manned funhouse area with some really fun slides (and like 5 floors tall), and a Efteling-inspired Fairytale forest which was pretty rubbish tbh. There was also the 'Ghost Mill', which was a haunted walkthrough attraction which was basically hidden by the log flume. You would basically walk through the building and certain effects (loud noises, wobbly floors, etc) were triggered. It was odd and different.


     
    Probably the highlight of Plohn for me is the park's two water rides. Firstly, there's their log flume, Wildwasserbahn mit Geiserbahn (literally Log flume with Ghost Train). The ride starts off in a dark tunnel, which I guess is meant to be the 'ghost train' of the ride. It wasn't scary at all, just very random. The ride then goes outside and just does standard log flume stuff, interacting with the woodie, itself and the surrounding area, and features a couple of fun drops. It's nothing special, but just done well and a ton of fun, which gets you the right amount of wet. Log flumes, great rides ey?


     
    And finally, the highlight of the park: Fluch des Teutates. This is a ride very similar to Storm Surge: you sit in a raft, climbing up a low lift hill, and spin down a slope. It's obviously by a different manufacturer (no idea who), as the boats are like rapids boats rather than dingies, and a slightly different layout for the drop. In particular, during the drop, there are 'mini drops' which give little extra pops to the ride, and splash you. Simply put though, this ride is crazy: the boats spin a ridiculous amount on the way down, you get a good level of wet and it's just a ton of fun. It's a really unassuming ride, and just a fantastic surprise package of a ride.


     
    So yeah, that's pretty much Plohn in a nutshell. The park wasn't busy at all (it was Mothers Day in Germany, so I can't tell if that should have made it busier or quieter). But we never saw El Toro have a full train. Staff at Miniwah seemed genuinely surprised when they saw us arrive in the station. The park felt really dead, and even going slow and doing lots of rerides, we barely managed to stretch the day out to 5 hours. The park felt very fairgroundy in places, which was a shame as well, given they've got some nice theming scattered about. It's in general a shame, as I thought this Plohn could be a park I'd really like, but I ended up feeling very flat because of it. And, even worse, that means I probably won't ever return to get Dynamite...gah!
     
     
    And yeah, that ends the theme park side of the trip. We spent the Monday exploring Berlin, and tbh, it was a very meh city for me. It felt very 'European' and not very 'German', which is totally fine, but as someone who likes Germany and wanted to explore more German-feeling stuff, it was a bit disappointing. I did try a Berliner though, which is sort of doughnut, hence the imaginatively named trip report..
     
    So yeah, Berlin isn't the best trip for a theme park run right now. Belantis and Plohn are very meh and offer little. It says a lot when a strawberry farm is the best place for coasters near Berlin (though the strawberry farm is brilliant and should be visited if you're ever near Berlin..). But yeah, ticked off a few creds at least..
  14. JoshC.
    After visiting Walibi Holland last week, I got to do an attraction that I've been keen to try for quite a while now...NeuroGen.
     
    For those unaware, Walibi Holland is quite an..in your face park. They quite clearly are targeting the young adult market, and are unashamedly brash. Think of what Thorpe was doing in the early 2010s with the 'fatheads', except not quite as awful, and with the balls to follow through and stick with it. Their current slogan of #HardGaan (Go Fast) keeps in line with that, and you regularly see 'F#CK FEAR, HARD GAAN' plastered around the park. They're not a park to shy away from doing something extreme, as seen from the likes of Untamed. 
     
    In 2016, they introduced a new, critically acclaimed, alone-experience to their Halloween line up: The Clinic. The Clinic sees guests visit a hospital, before quickly being strapped to a gurney, and having the rest of the experience take place strapped to said gurney. In 2017, the park introduced a year-round spin-off of the attraction: NeuroGen. Here's how the website describes the 16+ experience:
     
    So far, all pretty standard wording and hype for any scary attraction. But equally, this is a good (albeit roundabout) way of describing the experience: it's like a 4D cinema, except with VR headsets (which is actually filmed and not CGI) instead of 3D glasses. Oh, and you do it alone.
     

     
    You wait outside the building and are taken in one-by-one. You're guided into a hospital waiting room, told to walk through a door and someone is waiting for you round the corner. A walk through a corridor with some special effects (loud noises, bright lights, mist) eventually leads you to a very bright, very clinical circular room, with a doctor to greet you. You're asked to select a treatment ('beach' or 'waterfall'), and then one of 12 doors around the room opens, which you're told leads to your treatment room. 
     
    Spoilers here just in case:
     
    For the tl;dr version: basically the VR film shows you taking drugs, tripping out, being in a car crash and drowning. And, what's remarkable is how realistic it felt. I haven't experienced any of those phenomena, but it certainly felt like this was as close as I could get to it without experiencing it. And that made it pretty hard-hitting. It's a very different type of scare experience, and one which I imagine could really affect some people. It's pretty dark, and pretty bleak, which I guess makes it all the more appealing for me. The fact this is a solo experience really adds to it as well.
     
    So yeah, easily the best executed VR experience I've done, and something really rather out there too. It's brilliant to see these sorts of experiences offered in a more mainstream setting, despite being for a very niche market.
  15. JoshC.
    Last week, I visited Movie Park for their Halloween event: the 21st anniversary of their Horror Fest.  The park has 8 mazes, 4 scare zones and a variety of other things to bolster the number of attractions up to 19, with the park claiming the event to be the biggest Halloween event in Europe. We visited the park on Thursday, hoping it would be quiet: the park is open 10am-10pm for Horror Fest, with most Halloween attractions opening at 6pm and closing at 9.30pm. So it was a LOT to do. So, without further ado, let's get to it (with light SPOILERS)...
     
    The Walking Dead: Breakout
    The park's year-round upcharge horror maze, and it turns out this year is its last year. I did it on my previous visit in 2017, and didn't rate it much. As it was still upcharge, I skipped it, but I hear it hasn't changed, so I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it any more.
     
    From here, it's worth pointing out how the park's mazes work. The standard setting is that they let groups of 20 in every 60-90 seconds, are free flow and don't allow touching. There's a couple of exceptions which I'll point out when I get to them. All of their mazes have age restrictions, which varied from maze to maze, and these are enforced strictly: they DO do ID checks!
     
    Hostel

    Themed around the Hostel series (more specifically, the first film), and rated 18+, this is the park's goriest maze. It starts off with a tour round Amsterdam - you even walk through the Red Light District, which once upon a time had screens showing some, ahem, rather explicit sex scenes on them, but alas no more. And the maze continues quite happily for the next few scenes, with a party atmosphere and everything seeming happy; the actors do nothing to scare you. But, like the film, it takes a very sudden, very dark twist. Scares come thick and fast, with very gruesome scenes all around you, and plenty of actors in every direction.
     
    The finale sees the group locked in a large white room stained with blood, with speakers blaring out chainsaw noises, and the room flashing between pitch black and red lights. It was a solid maze ending, though it felt like it needed an actor with a chainsaw in there to really amplify it. A shame, but still a very strong maze!
     
    Wrong Turn

    This is the park's upcharge Halloween attraction, at 5 Euros a ticket, and you go through in groups of 6, and is also based off the Wrong Turn series of films. And it also won Best European Scare Attraction at this year's ScareCON award ceremony. This also uses Haunted Lantern (like Skin Snatchers at Alton Towers), but literally gives the group a lantern rather than a helmet. The maze is based in trough of the park's old Ice Age dark water ride, and likely makes use of a lot of the old scenery from the ride. 
     
    Following 2 pre shows (which I didn't really understand because they were all in German with no way of offering English translations), the maze begins. Being in the trough, the actors regularly positioned themselves above you to get really good jump scares. There were some awesome effects around too, and some clever pieces of misdirection to add to the scares. The end was quite chaotic, with loads of actors and a huge sparkler / firework style effect as well which caught me off guard.
     
    My main issue with Wrong Turn is that, because it has such a huge space to work with, is that it sometimes felt a little too open and that you were a little too removed from the sets at times. This meant the maze felt like it was missing that final ingredient to make it truly exceptional. But it was still fantastic for the most part and I really enjoyed it.
     
    Insidious 2
    The park's final IP-based scare attraction. Amazingly, this is located underneath the seating area for the park's stunt show, which was a great use of space! Unsurprisingly, the idea of the maze was to be creepy and build up suspense to try and get scares that way. It also made use of lots of big open sets to build tension as well.
     
    For me, it was a bit hit and miss. There were some unsettling and creepy moments, but these didn't last long, and often the actors took away from the atmosphere. This is a maze which would benefit from less (visible) actors, but instead has quite a lot, making it difficult to truly capitalise on the atmosphere. A shame, but a good effort.
     
    Circus of Freaks
    An outdoor clown maze - a set up with a lot of potential. However, this missed the mark. The maze felt a lot like the outdoor sections of Do or Die (things draped over fences), although better themed in fairness. There was some good bits and nice bits of humour (and a nicely executed animal area with gorilla costumes and the like), but ultimately this was one of the weaker clown mazes I've done in my time. And when compared with the quality of the park's other mazes, it really does miss the mark.
     
    The Slaughterhouse
    This is a maze crying out to be a Chop Shop style maze but, surprisingly, it wasn't! This was some weird beauty development laboratory that had gone rogue and cut people up instead..or something. It was nicely themed and had some good set pieces, and a couple of nice jump scares.
     
    The ending was a real highlight of the maze. It took place in two rooms with incredible dense smoke (you literally couldn't see more than 30cm in front of you), with actors then appearing out of nowhere. It was confusing and clever and just really worked!
     
    Campout
    Another outdoor maze, but taking place in the woods. Very Blair Witch esque in story, but a lot more open and with more 'actual' theming. It wasn't exactly memorable either. A couple of neat special effects but nothing exciting or special. It's worth pointing out this is rated 12+ (and is the only maze with such a low rating, as all others are 16+ or 18+), so I guess it isn't designed to be scary, but it's a shame there wasn't more to this.
     
    Project Ningyo - NEW FOR 2019

    The park's big new thing for the year is Project Ningyo, and replaces a previous maze: Deathpital. They made a big deal out of this: this was the only maze where Fastrack was available (at 10 Euro a pop!) and was the only maze where actors were allowed to touch you. This was also the maze with - by far! - the longest queue, at 50 minutes. We realised this was because of a terrible batching system: the maze takes place in a build the other side of a service road; groups of people are batched to the service road every 5 minutes, but these groups were usually cleared in like 2 minutes, leaving long periods of time where no one was entering the maze!
     
    Anyways, onto the maze itself. It starts off with your group of 20 being given a guided tour of a medical facility which (from what I understood) was dedicated to creating a serum to make people happy. You're guided into a room all together and locked in. An actor in a hazmat suit appears from the other side and gets you out, and you then walk through the carnage of what's behind the scenes at the facility. There's some nice theming, and some good smells (in particular, there was an animal testing scene which really smelt of rabbit poo!), but there just wasn't enough substance. Despite there being a lot of actors, it still didn't feel like enough, and the scares were just non-existent. The touching was effectively 'medical staff' frantically trying to guide you along and out of the way of danger, which I always find dull. 
     
    In general, the maze was rather lacklustre, my least favourite of the night. A shame really, but hopefully it'll continue to grow.
     
    Scare Zones
    The park had four scare zones, which actually covered the majority of the park (the kids area, Nickland, is a "monster free" zone). Sadly, only one of them felt defined, so it made it difficult to understand what exactly was going on.
    Acid Rain: Some sort of nuclear apocalypse area, with sirens going off and a variety of weird stuff.
    Horrorwood Boulevard: A collection of famous Halloween characters
    Dead West: Wild West themed, but dead
    Fear Pier: No mazes round here so never actually got a chance to go there.
     
    Apparently all the actors in the scare zone are just given an individual budget and a loose story to stick to, and they then get to create their own costume. Really gives them ownership, but definitely adds to the disjointed feel. All the actors in the zones did 'roam' very well though, and many had shovels to bash against ground for jump scares, which was different to say the least!
     
    Other Stuff
    -The park apparently transform their drop tower into something scarier at night time. All we saw was a flashing light. Yay?
    -There's a hypnosis show which we didn't see.
    -There's kids stuff in the day (kids maze, face painting, etc) which looked nice.
    -New for this year was an IT 4D experience - basically highlights of the IT Chapter 1 converted into 3D with your standard 4D effects. Solid 20 minute show which was fun.
     
    There's also a closing show, which was originally meant to be fireworks, lasers and fire, along with a video playing on the screen in the entrance plaza. Due to noise complaints, the firework aspect of the show had been cancelled when I was there. The show itself was pretty neat (the lasers were cool!), but it's fair to say that fireworks would have added to it. I hope that they can find a way round it!
     
     
    So all in all, Halloween Horror Fest is a very solid, very full Halloween event. It's not something I'd go out of my way to do again, but it's got a lot of positives going for it, and the headline mazes really are something. There's clearly a lot of thought put into all the mazes and what level they should be at too. Hopefully some of my experiences were just bad runs rather than the norm, and I'm intrigued to see how the event develops over the next few years!
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