JoshC.

I think it's worth a visit during the year if you're going to be near the area. As I say, even if you're not interested in the history side, it's definitely an interesting place to visit. Though, as Fred said, be prepared to pay for extras, such as the Dungeons and the Merlin Tower (based on the TV show Merlin, that is). At Halloween, I'd say it's worth going to more though. So yeah, whilst I'd recommend it, I wouldn't say that at any time of the year it's worth travelling half way across the country for, as there's that much to do there (9 hours, though enjoyable, felt a bit dragged out for example). However, if you're quite close / going to pass it somewhere, definitely worth popping in.

A Press Release has appeared on the park's website. No new information really, just the same old 'IT WILL BE GREAT' marketing.

That's Easter Weekend I believe, so they'll no doubt be doing an event. Will be interesting to see if it's another Ministry of Sound event or something different; would love to see the return of Twisted Carnival personally!

Clicking the logo takes me to the main forum bit (forum.maniahub.com), I'm talking about the main page as in thorpeparkmania.co.uk, which is why I have to go to Hub Bot posts to get onto the main site.

This Saturday, I visited Warwick Castle for the first time. The trip was my first ever to Warwick Castle, as well as a first for the three others I was with. Being the final weekend of the Castle's Halloween event, 'The Haunted Castle', it was open till 9 (for the first time as well, apparently), so we arrived just before 12. The site of the Castle just after the entrance, with added smoke! The Castle is certainly an impressive site. Looks very impressive whatever the weather as well (come rain, shine or lit up - experienced all three in one day!) First up for us was the 'Flight of the Eagles' show. Bog standard show with a couple of eagles and an owl; was interesting and entertaining for all. EAGLE! After that, we went to our first scare attraction of the day, The Haunted Hallows. We weren't expecting this to be scary in any way, as it was only listed as 2/5 ghosts and 'spooky', but it seemed like fun I guess. There's nothing to really spoil I guess, and now the event's finished it may not matter if I say about what happens as it may not be brought back next year, but...just as warning, this does contain spoilers. So, you walk through a make-shift corridor which has a few paintings in, one of which talks and had light up eyes. Could be scary for little'uns I guess. In a similar fashion to Alton Towers' Haunted Hollow route, from here on it, it is just an outdoor route with some gargoyles and other bits of theming scattered around. The first shock comes in the first big scene, where a skull squirts water at you, which goes off on a regular basis. I got caught right in the face and it completely caught me off guard...much to the enjoyment of those around me. The next major 'scene' involved a cobwebbed dining table with skeletons, and these guys overlooking. Was sorta hard to tell at times if they were real or not.. Next, there were two alternative routes (which lead you to the same place very quickly), with one just a bit mistier than the other. When the split routes come back together, this creepy, silent character was waiting. Certainly scared a couple of little children in front of us. Dunno why, but I like this photo.. At the end of the route, you meet this fellow. He rewards (young) children who make it through with sweets! Some general exploring was done, and we went to the mill and walked along the River Avon, enjoying the nice views. The River Avon. A view of the trebuchet; more on this later. After some general walking about and exploring the grounds, we made our way to the main Castle grounds and decided to head up the man-made hill (which I always forget the name of :$). Certainly gives a nice view of the area and Castle: Tried the panorama mode on my phone at the top, but it's hard getting a good position to take it. We then decided to trek up the Towers and Ramparts, which gives a warning of having 537 stairs to climb. Again, some lovely views and bits and bobs of history thrown in, and some devilish spiral staircases to tackle. Along the route, there was a room showing the episode of Most Haunted that was filmed at Warwick Castle as well as some other bits and bobs relating to the place being haunted. I was quite surprised as to how high how up it was. Lovely views of the town of Warwick. The end of the route of the towers brought us to the entrance of Kingmaker, which I found to be a Madame Tussauds-esque history walk. I was genuinely surprised as to how life-like the models really were! This part of Warwick Castle in particular strikes me as to just how well they succeed at catering for all ages. Everyone had a good laugh and learnt a couple of bits and bobs whilst at it - exactly what the attraction sets out to do. Me looking good with a helmet on. A quick visit to the Gaol happened afterwards. Pretty much a pitch dark room. (Though some Gangnam Style dancing went on down there... ) More milling around and such occurred, and we watched the short Dream of Battle film and wandered around the Castle as well. Unfortunately, most photos inside the Castle haven't come out very well, but photos can't justify the beauty and striking-ness of the inside. It just looks amazing, and has an amazing feel to it. It really is something you have to go to 'get it'. Model of the Castle. We went on a tour around the Castle courtyard (was called the 'Ultimate Tour' or something I think) which was interesting and fun, and then watched the trebuchet show. Whilst I really liked the way they performed it (and, of course, watching a trebuchet fire a fireball!), it was a bit ruined by the music, which was too loud and felt unnecessary. It just distracted from the show and made the speech more difficult to hear. I did prefer the evening showing as well, as that had a bit more story to it, but nonetheless it was good. I'll try and upload the video of the afternoon show at some point. It was nearing 5 and stomachs were rumbling, so we went to The Coach House restaurant. Pretty decent food there, and with two meals for £13 (plus AP discount), it worked out pretty cheap. I didn't even eat all my dinner, which shocked me just a little bit, as normally I'd finish that size of meal (I certainly do at Thorpe and Bar 360!). By the time we'd finished, it was dark and a little bit drizzly, but it was time for what I was looking forward to the most - Séance: The Curse of Mary Black, which is the 'big' scare attraction of the event (I exclude the Dungeons as I believe they're their all year round. Speaking of them, didn't visit them due to the additional cost, but ah well). However, as we were there and we enjoyed it so much earlier, we went through The Haunted Hollows again, which was better in the dark, of course, and the actors certainly interacted with us in a different way to that of younger children / families, which was good to see. One even followed us for a while, which was good. Again, spoilers of Séance will be here - you've been warned! Before you queue, it is apparent that you have to wear full boiler suits for the maze, which is a bit confusing. When I asked why, the reason was 'because you're about to enter a crime scene, and cannot contaminant the area'. Crime scene = scary stuff. Good looking shot of me in a boiler suit. Though I put mine on inside-out... So then, the actual maze. Well, thinking about it, I'm not sure maze is the right word, but I'll use it as it's easier to say than 'attraction' or whatever else. You get batched in quite large groups (around 20, maybe more) and then get escorted into a room by a tour guide (also in a boiler suit). The tour guide explains that just over a year ago, a woman killed seven people in the house we are in. We are told that we're the jury, and we're to tour the house, examine evidence and reach a verdict as to whether she's guilty. We then watch a tape with a police recording, where a possessed woman calls the police saying 'They're all dead...I killed them...it's still in the house', amongst other things. Interrogation footage plays, and footage of her possessed is found as well. We're told that all the victims have had their eyes gouged out as well. Whilst the video is playing, the tour guide disappears and slams a door, which provides a nice jumpy moment. After the video, we're escorted through a couple of rooms, with just the tour guide's light to help us see, and told of the deaths. We then reach a staircase, where the tour guide goes up a few stairs and explains to us about Mary Black, and how she was in the house 100 years ago and her eyes had been gouged out and mouth sewn up by others living in the house. It's at this the torch starts 'cutting out', so the tour guide goes to find the emergency lighting, and as soon as he moves, a woman in black can be seen to be behind him, and she walks upstairs. Of course, everyone but the guide sees this, and it really catches you off guard. I still can't work out how they pull it off! Then, once the emergency lighting (and the torch) is sorted out, and the guide said 'By the way, if anyone wants to leave, just say and I can organise for security to make sure you get out the right way'. Then it's up we go. In the next room, someone started to have a bit of a breakdown. She was scared and wanted to leave, and started panicking, shouting she didn't want to go alone, and then runs off with someone screaming. The guide chased off after them to ensure they went the right way. After this, we were quickly moved on into the next room, and soon after the guide closes the door, there's a knock at the door, which he ignores. Then, there's a very loud knocking and rattling sound, which startles everyone. The door opens a little bit as well, and we're hurried along into another room. More story is given, then the lights cut out again and after some effects, a door opens and a victim is standing there, with her eyes covered as though they've been removed. This causes much panic, to which the guide leads us to a secret passage, which gets us to Mary Black's bedroom much sooner than planned. After a bit more story, the lights go off AGAIN and what looks like a painting actually turns out the be screen starts playing. It shows images of Mary Black and how her eyes are missing and her mouth sewn up, and the tour guide disappears. The next bit is a bit predictable - Mary Black appears in black (though out of nowhere), with eyes missing and her mouth sewn up. It causes a lot of panic, and with lights going off and on slowly, it disorientates you and you don't know where Black will be. All of a sudden, she disappears, and the tour guide reappears, shaken. He then tells us to go back to the hidden passage, and opens the door, only for a female victim to be standing there and she then walks in (this scares many people, as they're all brought close to the door). The guide rushes to another door, only for another victim to be standing there and cause plenty of scares. You feel trapped and unsafe; the audio and lighting add to the chaotic feel, and after a while, the guide finds another door which leads us to safety, thankfully. All in all, it's a nice little attraction. There's some obvious bits, and the person who runs away screaming with someone are both actors, who end up being the victims later on. It builds a lot of tension, but doesn't last very long, much like the chaotic feel near the end. It's all good, but just needs more of it. However, with only 5 actors (Mary Black, 2 victims, and 2 tour guides, who alternate groups) and with only 1 group being in the entire maze at one time, I guess this is understandable. The fact we did it later on in the evening though is testament to how much we enjoyed it. 6/10 After that, we wandered around a bit, went back up the tower for night views, and got views of firework shows in EVERY direction; a really beautiful site! We must have stayed up there for a good half an hour watching various firework shows. As said, we watched the second fireball trebuchet show, which was slightly better, and went through Séance again - in fact we were the last group of the day, though it felt a bit rushed unfortunately. The day ended there at about quarter-past 9. It was a great day, and I really enjoyed it. Warwick Castle is somewhere I'd recommend for everyone to go to at least once - even if you're not a big fan of the history side of it, it is a great day out, and I'll certainly be going back again.

This is going to sound like a bit of a silly question I know, but is there a direct link to the main TPM page on the forums? Any time I'm on the forums and want to go to the main site, I always end up going to a Hub Bot post and going clicking the article link, which though not difficult, is a bit tedious and annoying.

Think there's been a bit of miscommunication here... Jack asked if Vekoma do spinning coasters. Benin posted about spinning coasters in the dark being done before (with regards to an earlier post). Jack mis-read, believing Benin's post was in response to him. He then meant to say that he himself should do some research before posting. Following on from some research of his own, he realises that the coasters Benin mentioned were done by Maurer Sohne, and posts again saying this. Of course, Benin's post was never in response to Jack's, hence the confusion. Anyways, more on topic, would prefer it if the cars were kept backwards, etc. etc.

"Unlimited Fastrack sales" is definitely not the right way to word to. Unlimited would imply they would sell as many as they can, with no consideration about any other pieces of information. As Benin says, they have no upper limit / cap on the number they sell per day. This means that they're not saying 'Okay, every day this year, we will say at most x many Fastrack tickets', but instead 'We'll sell this many to ensure Fastrack users wait this period of time in proportion to the main queue'. So, no where near unlimited, as they won't sell so many the Fastrack queue goes above a certain waiting period, but it just doesn't have an exact bounded number. Certainly an interesting system and different to how I would expect it to be run.. I'll muse over that for a while before I say what I fully think. However, it's really good you got such a clear, informative and helpful response. Normally, you find that such responses feel very general and feel like they've just been copied and pasted. However, this has obviously had a bit of thought into it and gives information about Fastrack, helping give a more helpful and specific response to the complaint. Good to see.

Paranormal Activity 4 Like Ryan, I'm a fan of this franchise, and despite Ryan's poor review, I bit the bullet and decided to watch it yesterday. So, the beginning starts off ridiculously slowly, and - I think - adds in a scene which adds nothing to the plot of the film. There are so little scares in the film it can't be called a horror film. There are a couple of jumpy moments, but they're faux scares which make you feel hard-done-by. And, of course, it always leaves you thinking how people can be so idiotic that when they have clear cut paranormal activity on camera, they don't think 'Hey, rather than sounding crazy, I'll show someone some evidence', especially when people are slightly scared. The plot itself makes little sense if you ask me, leaving many things in the film unexplained, and answers few - if any - questions about the previous ones. I'll spoiler a list of questions from the films that I can think of: One thing I want to end with though. Despite the flaws this franchise now has, in that the past two films have been poor, with the third being pointless, and the fourth just being there and not doing much, the film is successful at building tension. People have begun to fear what could happen, as opposed to what is happening, and when you do that well in a horror film, it just works. It's just a shame that what does happen doesn't compliment what you fear will happen very well.. 5/10

Right, to avoid a long and rambling post something which will leave many people uninterested and bored, I've got a blog entry about Fastrack - http://forum.maniahub.com/blog/10/entry-349-how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-fastrack/ For those who don't want to read a long, possibly boring, rambling entry with a fair bit of maths, basically what I've done is worked out how on The Swarm, if there are just one or two Fastrack groups on a ride, it can increase queue times for the main queue quite dramatically. Furthermore, it shows how the current system of Fastrack slots not being strictly adhered to makes the problem much worse. All of this seems obvious and already known to a degree, but it shows just how bad it is. I've also given a couple of suggestions on how to improve the Fastrack system, and quite simply, I think the best one is to make Fastrack time slots much stricter, give verbal information about if you miss your ticket slot without good reason, you won't be able to use it, and thus make the system work and flow better, and make the numbers at any given point more predictable. However, one thing which always needs to be thought about is how Fastrack is a premium service, and a balance needs to be made so that this premium service does deliver to those who are willing to pay, and I think that is a lot harder to achieve than most people may think..

I think someone's got confused with 'The Ministry of Joy' and 'The Ministry of Sound'...

This is a blog entry that relates to the hot topic of Fastrack and Fastrack sales. So why's it in here, and not in that topic? The aim here is to illustrate how Fastrack sales affect the main queue of a ride, and demonstrate what many bring up - those who pay for the premium service (Fastrack) negatively affect the service of those who do not pay for such a service (those who use the main queue). Unfortunately, this will be quite mathematically thought out, will ramble on a bit, and uses many assumptions, but nonetheless, it will show just how bad Fastrack can affect the main queue. Example - The Swarm I've decided to use The Swarm as an example to demonstrate this point. Why? Simply put, I think there's enough information to be able to show the point. So, first thing first, where am I getting any information from? Well, the following photo from TTP was taken from the Swarm Behind the Scenes event in April: The main and Fastrack queues illustrated in this plan seem to resemble that of the real queue lines, so I'll assume that these are the same. As can be seen in the top right corner, there's a bit of rough information about the queues. The main queue is 450m long, and should take 90 mins, whilst the Fastrack queue is 75m long and should take 15 mins (these are presumably guestimates). Strangely, we can see that the Fastrack queue and the main queue have the same length-queue time ratio, in that 5m takes 1 minute to queue. Presumably this would mean the guestimates given don't include the main queue and Fastrack queue working co-currently; in other words, a full main queue would taken 90 mins with no Fastrack whatsoever. The theoretical throughput, again taken from TTP, is 1100pph. So then, by the guestimates the park has made, a full queue which takes 90 mins will hold 1650 people (in theory). If we divide this down, we find that 28 people, which is a full train, are in (84/11)m of a queue, to be quite precise. Okay, now this is where I have to make a perhaps strange or unrealistic, to a slight degree, assumption. However, for the ease of calculations, and the fact this is only a rough example, it will have to do. So, I will assume that, on average, at any given point, the Fastrack queue is 2/5 full. So, perhaps confusingly, this would according to above information, only be a 6 minute queue - IF there was no main queue. Yeah, sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Anyways, being 2/5 full, this adds and extra 30m worth of queue, if we were to literally 'plonk' these people in the queue. So, being 2/5 full, there are (28)*(30)/(84/11)=110 people using the Fastrack queue. Again, unsure of the realism of this, as I don't particularly pay close attention to how many people are in the Fastrack queue, but I think this seems like a reasonable number in my opinion. Of course, we would not expect the park to send trains' worth of Fastrack guests round at any one go; it is ridiculous for that to happen. So then, we need to create a form of ratio for the number of main queue guests let in to Fastrack guests let in. Now, I don't know if this is how the park operates it - I'd hope it is something like this though - or what sort of ratio they would use, if they use it. This means I'd have to make a guess, but I'll work out two cases, which are a couple I've mentioned in the Fastrack topic. Say we work on the basis of 3:1 (main queue : Fastrack queue). In other words, a quarter of the train is made up of Fastrack guests. (NOTE: This would mean 7 people per train, which seems unrealistic, as most people will be going in even numbered groups, but bare with me). Assuming a linear correspondence to this and the throughput, the 'throughput' of the main queue will be 825pph (three-quarters of 1100). Again, I'll assume that we are in a full queue. So, in the space of 90 mins, a person would move 337.5m (which is three-quarters of the queue length). In another 30 mins, you'd move the remaining 112.5m. So then, if just a quarter of guests are Fastrack users, this adds an extra 30 minutes to a full queue. Following some additional calculations, which I can't be bothered to write up here, I can confirm that if a quarter of each ride is made up of Fastrack guests, the queue time of the main queue increases by a third. I'll cut this second case a bit short, but if we work on the basis of 4:1, a full queue would take 112.5 mins (again, to be quite precise). Again, a couple more calculations confirm that if a fifth of the train is made up of Fastrack guests, the main queue time will increase by a quarter. Personally, I've always felt that these two ratios are reasonable amounts to satisfy Thorpe's need for money, which is understandable, whilst creating a balance so Fastrack users get their premium service which they've paid for without creating too much hassle for guests. However, this is still quite a large inconvenience for ordinary guests, and it certainly surprised me. This does show how not only does Fastrack offer a premium service, it DOES give a negative effect to those who do not offer such a service. Overselling and Sales So, now time to see just how many tickets Thorpe could sell according to this. Let's take a 10-5 day, which would probably be expected to be a reasonably quiet day. Say that the Fastrack sales have time slots from 11am until 4:30pm (half an hour in each slot). This gives 5 and a half hours of the 7 hour day where Fastrack is available. Taking the first example of 1/4 of each Swarm train being for Fastrack guests, this would mean that a quarter of all guests who ride Swarm in an hour will be Fastrack guests - which is expected to be 275. Multiply that by 5.5 (number of hours in the day where Fastrack is used) and we get 1512.5, round to 1512 for simplicity. This would mean that there's 1512 Fastrack tickets up for sale in a 10-5 day. I don't really know about gate figures or the like, but if we say that there's between 8000 and 10000 guests on such a day, about 15-20% of guests will use Fastrack to get on The Swarm. Reasonable? Again, I'm really not sure, but I was expecting a figure around 10-20%, so I would say so. Now then, there are of course many issues with this, which I'll explain a bit more in a bit. However, there's the issue of implementing this is reality - it is unrealistic to assume you'll be able to shift the same number of tickets per hour all day, every day. I believe Fastrack works on a half-an-hour basis, so this means that there's about 137-138 tickets for each of these slots, (which is just over the above assumption that at any given time, on average, the Fastrack queue is 2/5 and has 110 guests waiting). No doubt it's possible to think that, time slots will be more popular and others less popular, which could possibly lead to there being more slots designated to the popular periods of the day, and less to the quieter periods. It does mean that we could easily see a queue time increase by 40% (which, to reiterate the long running point, would mean the main queue for Swarm would be nearly 130 mins - over 2 hours - when it would only be 90 mins with no Fastrack at all...). Another issue, which has been pointed out in the Fastrack topic, is time slots and how they are kept to, or rather how they are not. Say a 'popular' time slot is 1pm, and many people missed their half-12 slot because of eating lunch, waiting for their lunch to go down, had the intention of going at 1 anyway or whatever, a Fastrack queue which can increase a queue time by 40%, can easily increase it by even more. Okay, I'm belabouring on the point here, Ways to Solve? So, this is where the blog becomes rather similar to the post in the Fastrack topic. Before I carry on, I'd like to say that with the two ratios I looked at, 3:1 and 4:1 Main Queue-Fastrack Queue (ie, a quarter and a fifth of the train full of Fastrack guests), we're looking that on average, about 6 Fastrack guests per train for Swarm. In turn, this will increase the queue by about 3/10, such that a full queue line will approximately take nearly 2 hours, 117 mins to be precise, as opposed to 90 mins. The idea that 6 people per ride are Fastrack guests is a little on the conservative side in my mind in my opinion. One way to solve it would be to increase prices and decrease the availability of tickets. This way, the park still make money a plentiful with Fastrack, and will not lose out on cutting tickets. Again, using Swarm as my example, if instead of having 1512 tickets, it went to 1000 (again, to make life easy when doing calculations). So, this cuts the tickets available by a third, meaning we have about 92 tickets available for each slot. Cost-wise, at the moment, if everyone bought a Swarm Fastrack (again, to make life easy, let's just assume there's no front-row Fastrack and all tickets are £5), then 1512 tickets in a day would create just over £7560. If we cut tickets by a third, and raise the cost by £1 (a fifth), meaning people would pay £6 for one Fastrack, which no doubt people will willingly pay, they earn about £6000, losing £1560. Now, I guess one great thing for the parks is Fastrack will pretty much be all profit - ticket printing costs are low, and it won't require many, and in some cases, any, extra staff on rides. So, I'd assume that what is quite a large change in money earnt won't stop profits, just decrease them. However, I'd be quite confident in saying that if the park were to advertise 'Fastrack tickets are limited all day and certain time slots sell out quick!' or something, people will happily part with their money even if the cost has gone up and, dare I say, I think the same would happen if a Swarm Fastrack cost £7. A couple of other options would be to implement just one of these without the other; either just outright increase prices, or outright decrease availability. The former of these two options means more money for Merlin, but possibly less people willing to pay if it's not as premium as they expect (ie - having to pay a large-ish amount to queue for a period of time which they'd judge as not worth the additional cost). However, we have seen prices slowly creep up over the years, and I believe that this will continue and prices will naturally get a bit more expensive, especially with the packages. The latter of the two means a full out decrease in profits for Merlin, which in terms of a company, is a bad thing. Not to say that they would never do it, but I can't see it being considered, or considered to a degree such that it would be noticed. A different and, in my eyes, most sensible and realistic idea would be to be stricter with the time slots. I guess Fastrack tickets have half an hour time slots, and it states on the ticket 'To be used within 30 minutes of the time printed on this ticket'. Yet, by the sounds of it, as long as you arrive after your time, it's fine. Why not actually enforce such a thing? Well tickets are sold, tell the guests verbally 'You have to use it within 30 mins of the time printed or you can't use it' and print it on the ticket, along with 'no refunds'. That way, they still make their money, and people have been warned - surely unless there's a valid reason for missing it (stuck on a ride, breakdown extending queue length and so forth), it's not the park's fault, so why should they have to refund it? The issue is of course people aren't always great with time management, especially if they've never visited a park before, so this may be a bit harsh / need refining. Another thing I'll briefly mention is the Fastrack packages. How exactly do they work? Is there a specific time slot for them and how does that work? Maybe they can designed so that they're as strict to times as possible, whilst still giving enough lee-way? I really can't comment much on this, and can't think of much to say seeinghow I've never had any experience with the way the packages work. So, that is that. Fastrack has a negative effect on the main queue line - fact. However, there's an issue with everything that I've gone through. I've been concerned with the queue length, queue time, etc. of the main queue, but mentioned nothing about how long the Fastrack queue will actually take. This is something I won't actually try to work out at this stage, but may do it at a later date. However, if it turns out that this leads to the Fastrack queue being not-so-fast, then all of this is pretty much...complete twaddle and everything I've modelled would need refining. I'll also point out again that I've made many assumptions here for the sheer ease of calculating this, so there will be things such as 'Hey, that's unrealistic, that would never happen', but hey-ho, life carries on.. Thanks for reading this and hope I haven't been babbling on about complete rubbish all the time. As said, if anyone sees any mistakes / problems with this, just say, as I may well have made a silly mistake somewhere. For now, that is well and truly that!

Seems like people have a lot of free time on their hands to be able to pick up on something like that.. I guess it could be for anything really. Would laugh if it ends up being a new name for X:\NWO if that gets a name change with the rumoured retheme. In honesty though, would prefer if this was not the name of SW7.

Drop the 'The', and we have Smiler. Nemesis, Oblivion, Air, Rita, Th13teen, Smiler? I'm unsure, whilst it has the subtle sinisterness about it, it just doesn't seem very striking or powerful. Will wait until there's an official announcement before I give any more judgement. Though if I'm being perfectly honest, the first thing I thought about when I read that was Doctor Who...

Gangnam is a district in the capital city of South Korea, Seoul. Gangnam style would relate to how they live their lives their, which is apparently quite 'trendy' and 'hip'. The song in general is about finding a perfect girlfriend or something, and how he lives a Gangnam-style life. The 'Oppan Gangnam Style' line is saying how he is Gangnam Style, as 'oppa' is a word used by females to refer to older male friends in day-to-day conversation.. (At least, I think that's how it is. May not be exact, but that's the general gist of it.) As for the song, it's annoyingly catchy and I like it.

From the TS Facebook Page. So, just to check, this IS a Gerstlauer?

Unless my memory is getting a bit dodgy, I think the Zufari page has had a bit of an update, which gives a bit of a story to the attraction: Sounds very good!

Might be worth mentioning that earlier this season (I think during May Half Term?), 20% AP discount for Fastrack was 'trialled' at Thorpe, following customer feedback. Depending on the successfulness of that and what Merlin think, I guess there's a possibility that next season 20% Fastrack discount could occur.

Obviously the balance has been got wrong again. In honesty, I have no problems with Fastrack whatsoever IF it is operated properly. However, when it is a case of an unfair balance occurring (which normally favours Fastrack), it is not right and is just not being operated properly. In this case, it seems the balance has shifted to 'unfairly' favour the ordinary queue. In my opinion, the balance should be around 80:20, maybe 75:25 pushing it, for ordinary queue : Fastrack queue, but that's an uneducated guess really. Regardless, Thorpe seriously need to sort this out - the Fastrack system is just not working efficiently enough to keep main queue guests happy and allow Fastrack users to get what they pay for. What's the use in making money from a system which annoys guests and can potentially discourage them from visiting again, and spending more money? Of course, in my ideal world Fastrack wouldn't even be around, but it just creates too much money for the park to get rid of it. The least they can do, though, it make it work effectively.

As I say, not having a go or anything, was more just trying to help out, as spoilers and spoiler topics get muddled up and all that. Sorry if it came across abrupt or rude or anything. But yeah, SW7 - yay track is here! Though probably no vertical construction before closed season, it's progress! Roll on March

I guess it's just a case of going for the shortest queue then, as the Fastrack points can get rather long as well. I think the AP office is not actually issuing AP over FNs, and instead they're being done at the ATC, to speed the queue up for people collecting the £5 tickets. I only had about a 5 minute wait when I collected mine, so not too bad.

When I went to collect my £5 ticket from Annual Passes, I was given mine there (as I had the same order number for the actual tickets and The Passing ones). I guess you could pick them up from Fastrack kiosks as well, or from ATC.

Can this post just not be moved to the spoiler topic, please? EDIT: Apologises if this was seen as back seat modding, but it just seemed strange for something to be put in spoilers by a mod when we have a spoiler topic. Was not 'having a go' at anyone or anything, more just asking. Nonetheless, I see that it has been moved; thank you!

I've noticed that if you sign up for the Priority List, dates start from 28th March (a Thursday), up to 4th November. Looks like that's the provisional opening times for next season, and opening day seems to be a couple of weeks later than it has been the past few years?

The introduction of Thorpe's new maze to Fright Nights this year has been quite a hot topic. Since 'The Passing' was announced, many were left fearing (or, depending on your views, hoping!) that their underwear would be stained brown after going through a maze which puts a bag over your head and simulates your death. However, reviews have been mixed, with some feeling as though it is not worth the additional charge, feeling as though there's many wasted opportunities, whilst some - like myself - like the attraction, but do appreciate that there's room for improvement. This entry is all about what exactly I think these improvements need to be, and how Thorpe could go about, realistically, doing this. Firstly, the maze's story isn't conveyed well at all I found. There's a brilliant section on the park's site (here: http://www.thorpepark.com/frightnights/?horror=the-passing) which outlines what 'The Passing' is all about, but I want to focus mainly on this section: We then couple this in with the maze's tagline, 'It begins with death', and it very well seems as though we are executed and die very early on in the maze. The first scene I do like, as you are pretty much read your rights and told that you will be executed. However, a couple of tweaks are needed I think. Firstly, we start the maze off already as guilty - there is no trying of us for our crimes. Perhaps a mention outside the maze during the safety talk could be given, such as "When you enter the maze, you'll be treated as a convicted criminal and have a bag put on your head." This way, it helps tie it all together a little better, and helps make the safety talks, which can sometimes be a bit boring, a bit more interesting (à la Experiment 10). Next off, get rid of the photo bit. Whilst they've tied it in with the maze story a bit, it's just not necessary, is silly penny-pinching in my eyes and just doesn't work. Also, it ruins the feel a bit at the end; after I die, I really hope I don't come across a photo booth selling a photo of my last moments... At a push, I would settle for a compromise in that the photo bit is done in smaller groups (2-3) and serves as a 'prison shot', in a way that would make it act as documentation for official purposes or something. This would not be ideal in my opinion, but if the park really wants it that bad, I think it would just work a bit better. Another gripe of mine is the walls in the first couple of scenes. They look very cheap, very quick and very rushed. In honesty, the morgue ones don't even look that realistic (something which I perhaps at first wasn't too concerned by, when the first picture was released, but hated it when I was in there. Moreover, there were others I heard commenting / laughing at it). The thing is, this can be quite easily remedied with a little bit of work. Considering what they're working with in that tunnel, the fake-ness of it really isn't that bad - there's no other alternatives really. However, they can add to it. Body parts stuck onto the wall to make it look like some bodies are 'sticking out' of their drawers, or perhaps even a bigger prop which is meant to represent a body, perhaps of a small child, on a table (meant to represent, in essence, a fully pulled out drawer). It would work well in setting the scene and just be a bit darker then it currently is. Perhaps the latter of these two is a bit unrealistic due to the logistics of the tunnel, but I just feel as though a fake body / body parts will work well there, and can be done quite easily. Now then, the actual bags. When I first found out about the maze, my thoughts were that it was going to be a bag that you could not see through at all, but it would only be on for a short period of time. However, I'm glad that this is not the case as I think what we have is more effective. With the darkness around, it is hard to see through the bags; restricting vision I found - for me - to a mere foot or two in front of me. For the entirety of the maze, this becomes disorientating and worrying. I think that the only thing which needs sorting with the bags is the speakers - I think I had troubles with mine in the sense that they moved out of place. I guess this is more just something which needs a bit of a think, so that they always stay in place when they are used. No doubt this is something being sorted out as they go along due to the whole idea being a new concept to the park. Now then, the actual simulating of death. First things first, here, I will work on the assumption that the tunnels in the maze signify your burial, the actual 'maze section' is the afterlife where we are tormented for our crimes whilst trying to signify redemption, and the scene post collection the certificate of death shows that no matter what, we will not rest in peace and be tormented for eternity. This seems to be what they are going for, so I'll stick with it. I quite like Maxy's idea that he blogged about, with a firing squad, though I had something much different in mind. I've always thought of being hung as the most gruesome way to be executed, and think there's a chance it could be played with here. As far as I remember, the bags on your head are quite large, and in one way or another, cover your throat to some degree. Personally, I think this could be taken advantage of to 'hang' each person. Unfortunately, my idea would quite probably have to cut the video scene which follows the bag being put on your head. As, for whatever reason, I missed that scene, I don't know significant that scene is, though people do speak about it as a form of highlight I guess, so at the moment, it's a case of leaving it down to those who have experienced it as to whether it would make the overall experience better, or whether the video scene could still be incorporated. Anyway, enough rambling on about that bit, here's my idea: The bags are put on our heads in the morgue section, and once everyone has had this done, they are ushered out. Actors then stop you and, put some rope around the bottom of your bag, where you throat is, putting pressure on it so that you know it's there. This would only have to be done for a couple of seconds and, if executed properly (pun not intended!) would not cause any injury and create a real shock. Assuming that there are ten people (maximum) in a group, two actors could quite easily do this, with one of them being the one who puts the bag on your head. Hopefully I've explained that the way I'm imagining it, but even if I have, no doubt there'll definitely be concerns about safety / H&S passing it. Whilst I have no knowledge on what H&S would or would not pass it, I would say that there would have to be a mention about it on the safety announcement about it (ie you will have a bag put on your head and be subject to a hanging simulation, but you will not be hurt). Also, the bags would have to cover the person's throat and have sufficient padding, which may require some form of modification to the bags. Whilst I may be dreaming in la-la land here, I do think it is possible to achieve this to some degree, but even if there's not, there needs to be a better way of simulating death, and as previously said, I do like Maxy's idea and that would work well (and be logistically easier, more realistic and quicker than my idea). Now then, the tunnels. These are an absolutely brilliant idea and executed very well. As they are, they a brilliant. My only small grumble would be that they perhaps go on for a little too long, which has meant the time in the actual maze section can feel a little short. As I say, only a small grumble, but that can easily be remedied in the maze section itself, and length doesn't have to be everything. Also, are there any smells in the tunnels? I had a cold at the time, which restricted my sense of smell, but I do think a smell in there would be very effective, whether it was of dirt (to signify being buried) or of sweat or something (sweat equating to fear, which is mentioned in the description, and not really being a pleasant smell in itself). As for the maze section, many have grumbled about the lack of theming / similarities to Hellgate. However, I don't think it's that bad. Though, I don't think the main maze reaches its full potential. With restricted vision, there's plenty of opportunity for a different type of scare, be it a bit more psychological or utilise your senses of touch / feel. I found myself regularly putting my hands in front of me / on the walls to help guide myself along the way. Now then, if they could in some way make so of the walls unpleasant to touch, or just make it feel 'un-wall-like', it could help create a sense of unease. Then the actors themselves need to take advantage of the fact people's peripheral vision is pretty much cut off. Hiding to the side, tapping people on the shoulder, only to disappear again - there's real opportunity to make people question their senses and make them feel really uneasy, which is when most people will be vulnerable to scares. Again, it's the idea of a psychological scare, making people fear what could happen, as opposed to what is happening - I find that to be the scariest thing. It would also stop scares being too samey, which was one problem I had; it was all too much of a similar scare with each actor. Varying it up a bit will help so much. Another thing which I think could work well in the maze is some an air effect or something similar. It would likely be completely unexpected due to the lack of sight and something which can target the body to make people feel vulnerable all over; after all, when you have a bag over your head, that's what you are most concerned about, as opposed to the rest of your body. Now then, the fake ending is great, and should be kept just as it is. As for the bit after it, I'm really not sure what is best for that bit. Personally, I think it needs to be a bit longer actually, in that you go past the UV lights, then go through a bit which is quite dark, then a corridor which gets darker and darker, before reaching a 'dead end'. This would be a great chance for an actor to create a scare, and perhaps even a lighting effect or something could be utilised. Personally, I think if the photos were scrapped, the maze / post-certificate section could be made slightly longer, which can only be a good thing. So, that's pretty much it. I did like 'The Passing' on my visit, though naturally, being a new venture for Thorpe, it was always going to need some work. Hopefully the maze continues to improve this Fright Nights, as by the sounds of it, it had improved from the first weekend to the second weekend, when I went, and that it becomes a regular addition to Fright Nights which improves and becomes a solid addition.