JoshC.

The park clearly love that that thing after the second launch, as that's all they're posting...

Innovative? Yes. But not successfully. Sure, Hellements is one of the better versions of a hooded maze, but it's still weak. Volt lasted one(?) year. Wastelands uses an idea which has been present in mainstream mazes for over 10 years now. I'm not saying they have tried to be innovative or have some differences. But aside from Hayride and Vixi, their mazes are very standard, run of the mill attractions. Some are done well and have cool features. But that's not enough to put them in contention with some of the best Halloween events in Europe...in my opinion at least!

Think about this logically. They are adding an 11th attraction. They added a new attraction last year which saw them expand the overall size of the site. If they were looking at reducing costs, they wouldn't be doing that. They're not going to cutback live entertainment. Biggest, they still have a way to go to hit Movie Park Germany's 17 advertised Halloween attractions (even if it's a stretch to call some of them Halloween attractions). Best is obviously subjective, but they're a long way off being up there with the best in Europe imo. There's only so much you can do with 'long maze where actors jump out at points throughout' concept.

They seem to be much more erratic than last season when it comes to uploading them. The length of time between uploads doesn't necessarily mean they have stopped.

I believe at one point they were considering just giving you 11 slots/'tickets', and you could use them for whatever attractions you wanted. So, if you wanted to do all 11 attractions once, you could, but equally you could do 1 attraction 11 times. I guess in the grand scheme of things, 11 attractions is still a lot to do in the time frame, so making them unlimited doesn't make much difference. One of the reasons for them trying this different method is because of the expansion of the event. This year will have 11 attractions. And many of them aren't exactly short either (eg Wreckoning being a 2.5hr walk through*). How many people who went last year did all 10 attractions without using a Fastrack? Very few I imagine. I did, and it was a route march of an event: one to the other, to the other, with not much time to just wander. You had to plan things well and get just a little bit lucky. Those who aren't prepared for that will almost definitely not have done every single attraction. If the place marketed 'one price, 11 attractions', there would be an increase in people feeling short changed 'because they didn't do everything'. This is especially true when you are having your ticket ticked off every time you do an attraction. Market it as unlimited attractions, choose from 11 makes it feel a bit friendlier. People will come away with a "Oh, we could do as many as we wanted, and we did 9 of them - it was great!" mentality rather than a "We only did 9 out of 11 attraction we could have done". Obviously there will still be people who feel short changed and there will still be complaints. But this certainly minimises it. I'm sure they've thought through the queueing aspect and all of that (personally, I doubt this will not make much difference to queue times since they never did time slots). Their Fastrack system works, so no problems there either. And if it doesn't work, they can revert back to their usual system next year. At some point, though, you have to wonder if Tulleys are expanding too much. Should an 11th attraction have been a priority now? Arguably not. *possible underestimate

Current progress: And a couple of nice overview shots: From centre(ish) of the park, looking towards the new developments From near where Abyssus is, looking across what was the whole park in 2018. All images from here: https://www.facebook.com/Drone-Vision-Marker-Grafik-102765977827368/

ANPR is an interesting idea for sure. I don't know of any other parks that use ANPR (though feel free to correct me). So it makes you wonder why no park has, given the technology has been around for a while. Is it simply because no other park has felt the need to? The cost generally? The big issue I see is that when people visit a theme park, they become stupid. Can you clearly explain the ANPR system and how to pay for parking to stupid theme park guests who have lost all common sense? I guess we'll see. I mean if it works, great. But if it doesn't, it's just another costly experiment that's failed, and will annoy people even more when people have to park on dodgy gravel plots (which I know the park can't do anything about).

If you look at the entrance of the corkscrew (bottom middle of picture), you can see they're now starting to paint the track grey (sorry @Mark9)

I'd take Towers 2010 marketing over Thorpe 2019 marketing tbf

In conjunction with the park, Aroma Prime have released the same smells used in some of the Fright Nights attractions.

Thorpe's food prices are hardly cheap for the quality of the food on offer. Some places are okay, but most aren't. In terms of pure price, it's about in line for what I'd expect from a theme park though tbf. Doesn't make it right though.

Another look at that drop thing: The trim is also on the standard Shockwave model, so presumably something Vekoma have taken into account when designing it. May also act as a way of creating a very slow, near-holding, drop akin to what we're seeing on the top hats of Pantheon and Asterix's 2022 Intamin..

It really struck me that even if you didn't fork out for the mazes you could still enjoy the event (whether you liked scares or not). The zones provided enough variety that there was something for everyone. I've heard really mixed things about the mazes. From others who have done the event, many seem to rate Psychoshock as the weakest / 2nd weakest, but ones like Villa and Haunted Holidays as the best. For those normal mazes it's nice to see a spread at least as it would suggest they're all of equal quality. The quality between Clinic and Below is incredible though, and certainly justifies the couple of extra €s. Belgium's event is the next big one on my list (2021, because Intamin too). They seem to have toned down over the past few years, but last year's new headliner there seemed to be a push back to their well-known intense roots.

It's only taken me 4 months to get around the posting this.. Walibi Holland's Halloween Fright Nights is well respected in the scare industry. They pump serious amounts of money into their attractions, and have TONNES of actors to boot. They go all out. And that's one of the many reason it had been on my to-do list for so long, and why I eventually went last year. Now I actually wrote a trip report in Word a while back trying to cover the whole event. That report ended up being over 12 pages of pure text, and that was with me being concise. And that's just down to the sheer quantity AND quality of it all. The event is made of a family friendly daytime event (Spooky Days), with 3 scare zones and an upcharge scare maze, and an evening event (Fright Nights), with 6 upcharge mazes and 8 scare zones. So I won't cover them all, but I'll just instead pick out some particular highlights... The Clinic This has been mentioned on the forums a few times, most recently in my review of their VR experience, Neurogen. The Clinic opened in 2016, and is an entirely alone experience where - for the majority of the experience - you are strapped to a gurney and wheeled around a hospital and, ahem, associated areas. And in short, this attraction is genius - utter brilliance. It's definitely my favourite 'scare' attraction, and I'd say up there with one of my all time favourite theme park attractions. I won't say anything that happens here, but whilst it's alone and marketed as 'intense', it's very different to the UK definition of an 'intense'/extreme experience. Psychological, theatrical and haunting are 3 good words to describe it. The experience stayed with me for days afterwards too; it was always on my mind. Unsurprisingly, it comes in at a hefty cost - €17.50 if booked in advance. But it's worth every cent and so much more. Below The other of the park's 'intense' mazes. In groups of at most 6, you explore a set of sewers looking for vermin...though maybe the vermin are looking for you. And because you're in sewers, you of course go through the entire experience in waders, since you go through most of the maze knee-deep in water! Again, a genius set up, and felt super realistic! Again, a hefty price - this time €15 if booked in advance. And it's super limited (1 group goes in every 15 minutes!). Below suffers in one major way though: it's very short. After getting the waders on and having a walk pre-show (by means of a guided tour), you're not in the maze for long. Arguably you don't want to be in there for too long: despite the waders, my feet were feeling a bit cold towards the end. But having said that, it's still a super immersive experience and a genius set up that I've never heard of anywhere else! (Image from Walibi) Psychoshock and Other Mazes Walibi Holland have 4 "normal" mazes, which you can buy individually or get a combo ticket for €24 (which I did). However, Psychoshock was the highlight of those 4. Before going onto describing Psychoshock, just a quick word on how the normal mazes operate. They're designed to have 1500pph (for comparison, that's about 3x what Thorpe's mazes manage on average), so usually have a continuous flow of people. Every actor has an accompanying 'effects button' which they press, which can set off an array of sound, lighting, smoke and/or water effects to go with their scare. And with a large number of actors, even if you miss one's scare, you'll be hit with another, and not lose any story either. You choose a 30min time slot for each where you have to arrive in the queue for it. Too early? Not getting let in. Too late? They'll see what they can do, but otherwise, tough. Psychoshock is a fairly standard maze in theme: your generic 'laboratory with something gone wrong' vibe. But it's themed exceptionally well (apparently, this 2011 maze was designed by someone who has since gone on to design the theming concepts for stuff like Baron at Efteling), with a very good - and long! - layout. And the group I was in did this maze about half an hour after it opened, which was clearly a quiet slot. As such, out group of 3 was sent in with no one else, before we were split up in the pre show and made to go through the maze entirely alone. The actors are clearly prepared for this and knew full well how to tackle me. A particular highlight was an actor with a syringe squirting water in my face, and then at my crotch making it look like I wet myself...and with no witnesses to say otherwise! My experience of Psychoshock is likely a bit bias because of alone treatment, but I really did love it. Even ignoring that, the set up of the maze is up there with some of my favourites. The other mazes were all set up so they could choose to either 'batch' groups at regular intervals, or to let in a continual flow, and the actors seemed prepared for any eventuality. Was really fantastic to see them by so reactive! Eddie de Clown Eddie is the headline character of Halloween Fright Nights, and has been for 13 years. He's been played by the same person every year. And he's very much synonymous with Walibi Holland across Europe. He's effectively your standard demented clown who likes to do evil things, and a quick look at things like his Facebook or YouTube pages show the style the park have gone for with him (seriously, watch some of the videos they've produced - they're amazing!!). In recent years, the park have gone all out with Eddie, slowly giving him a more fixed presence in terms of a show and a mini area. In 2019, one of the 4 new scare zones was entirely based around Eddie: Eddie's Festival of Freaks. Taking place in an area outside the normal park, just behind Goliath, it is effectively a mini Festival! Freak show acts akin to the Carnival of Horrors, roaming 'freaks' (bearded lady, strongmen, fire eaters, etc), sideshow games, street meat, a ghost train, etc. This is all complimented Eddie's presence, with him being a ringleader of sorts, and his show: Eddie's Roast Show, where he effectively invites audience members on stage, and roasts them as harshly as possible. The whole area was chaotic, but in a good way. So much fun, and very easy to forget you're actually at a theme park event. The downside is that it's all in Dutch (which sounds stupid given it's a Dutch theme park, but they're very good at being accommodating to English speakers, as well as German speakers too). But even with the language barrier, I really enjoyed the area. Like, really did. (Photo from Walibi) Firepit and Campsite of Carnage If one area highlights the stark difference between Walibi Holland's and the UK's Halloween events, it's Firepit. An American hillbilly area (and, as such, all the actors spoke with southern American accents), the area featured (unsurprisingly) a giant firepit, live music other stalls and roaming actors (most of whom had chainsaws), along with a couple of actors above the entrance arch to the zone. The tone, however, was jaw-dropping. Firepit was all about gross, inbred hillbillies who had no problem thrusting sexual comments in your face, swearing constantly and being on the funny side of rude (just). Nothing is scary; everything is there to shock you. Because of the context of the event, being strongly pushed as a dark, 16+ event, they can get away with it, but it's certainly feels like it's pushing towards "how controversial can we be without getting into trouble?". An example from the entrance arch characters: "Welcome to the f**king Firepit...oh, but we don't mean that how y'all think we do, we mean the literal...f**king...Firepit" (the couple then proceed to imitate having sex). Personally, I found the area absolutely brilliant. It was designed fantastically. It's clear they had a vision, and they've realised it all the way through. A further surprise was Campsite of Carnage - marketed as a scare zone, but was in fact an outdoor (and free!) scare maze. A simple but clever layout, with a lot of chainsaws and sweary hillbillies. Again, it focused more on trying to shock than scare you. The ending, however, truly did scare me. You're chased into an enclosed section (which is effectively a corridor) by a chainsaw, and when inside, the actor plays a sound effect which makes it sound like you're surrounded by chainsaws. Chainsaws don't do anything for me, but when it sounded like I was in an enclosed space surrounded by 10 off them, it made me jump and I definitely picked up the pace! Amazingly, the area is also open during the day for Spooky Days (presumably to just help with capacity), with none of the sweary actors in the Firepit, and a shorter, less-chainsaw-filled version of Campsite designed for Under 12s! (Photo from Walibi) I think I'll leave it there. I haven't touched the park's FIVE other scare zones, which admittedly had varying quality, and could go into much greater detail about the other 3 mazes. Nor the stage by the entrance of the park with music acts. Or all the pop up stalls they have. But I don't want to ramble on forever. But suffice to say that, despite their lack of presence here, even the weaker experiences were still at least 'pretty good'. How expensive is it? Short answer: Very. To book everything costs about €90 on a quieter night. But even then, it could be tight to do all the scare zones and rides. If you go on a busy day and want to do rides as well, you'd maybe want to invest in their Fastpass too, which adds even more cost. The event is strictly pre-book only, but there are some good deals when they first release tickets. How busy is it? Short answer: Very. The park get up to a quarter of their annual visitor numbers in the 3 weeks that the event goes on for. Their quietest days still see them attract 10k people. I visited on a Friday, and it was reasonably quiet until about 6pm, but from then until close (11pm) it was rammed! Is it worth it? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes. Yes! YES! tl;dr - Walibi's Fright Nights is, by a country mile, the best Halloween event I've ever attended. If you like Halloween events, go to Walibi Holland. You won't regret it. The park's 'aftermovie' for the 2019 event, showcasing most of what they offered..

The renewal price is really good tbf. Even normal rates are good. New the passes are £179 (renewal is saving £60 / 33%) and £229 (renewal saving £70 / 30%) Just for comparisons to other passes: Flamingo Land : £135 / renewal £90 (33% saving) Paultons Park: £140 / renewal £132 (5% saving) Blackpool: £150 (no renewal rate?) Phantasialand: €195 (£162) (no renewal rate) Europa Park: €225 (£192) (no renewal rate) Given you get unlimited entry to 3 theme parks + Legoland, it's really not that bad. Hopefully the lack of sale is a sign of Merlin no longer giving away passes, making them a bit more exclusive again so they can manage things a bit better when it comes to ticket sales.

Sadly wasn't an announcement, but just another teaser, which shows a backwards POV... What this could mean is still anyone's guess. Entirely backwards coaster? Switch track? A voting system like Fury at Bobbejaanland?

Not to mention water rides cost a lot to keep the water clean too (especially stuff like Valhalla where so much is dumped on you). Tidal Wave is like the most or second-most expensive ride to run at Thorpe for example. Actually figures of how much Valhalla costs to run are pretty meaningless as we don't know a scale of the numbers. If £250k per month is accurate, how does that compare to a roller coaster? Or to Tidal Wave? Or anything else? We don't know - it's just a number.

Whilst most of it was reused props, there was new stuff too of course. But it's not just that, it's the costs of designing it all and the time spent on it which all add up. Plus it did use actors in it too. Not strictly true. 2019 events were designed in mind of steadying the ship if you will after the old director left. 2019 was never going to be a big budget year anyway, and we may have ended up with something similar even if there wasn't a change in upper management. But the ideas were never 'inherited'; they were there to do *something* whilst giving the option for paving the way for the future (having Jungle Escape return, testing the waters to see if there was demand for a GameFX type event yearly, etc etc).

The space was originally set up for shows. It had a small stage and an open area where seats could be placed. The maze space itself was more of a backstage / storage area originally. Our friends at Memories at Thorpe Park show the type of shows that were put on there. Even where The Freezer first opened, the space was still used as a show throughout the 00s. The stage was removed for I'm a Celebrity, but the entrance door for it is roughly in the same place as the stage door!

Interesting development. Jungle Escape was at one point in time meant to be returning this year, and I'm fairly certain that was still the plan quite recently. Obviously things can change though. If the rumours are true that Thorpe are using the Living Nightmare space for a season-round attraction then they're obviously down an indoor maze location and Jungle Escape makes the most sense as a space to use. So that'd be a positive. However, if that all happens, it would once again highlight Thorpe's short-term outlook and terrible decision making. Jungle Escape was thought of as a way to continue to make use of the I'm a Celebrity space for years to come, making use of the solid sets they have there, but lasts less than year because they need the space to replace another indoor space they're using for probably an equally short-term investment...

Another day, another photo:

95% of people with common sense: "I hate it when people write Merlin with the 'e' replaced with a '£'. It's silly" Me: Puts that phrase on a word filter Martin Doyle: ...

PowerPark are teasing their new coaster now, seemingly with an announcement due 3rd February (Monday)... Much excitement! Annnnd I can't justify double posting within an hour, so an edit to show a construction update:

Work on the entrance portal from the main road outside the park continues: Source: https://www.phantafriends.de/topic/1646-neu-20xx-rookburgh/page/157/?tab=comments#comment-146623 Some suggestions are that the colour is temporary and a result of some form of anti-rust material (no idea if that's plausible?), and other suggestions are that more theming will be added. Presumably the hotel name will be back-lit and the theming featuring underneath will receive some sort of effects though.

I'll stick this in a new post because why not... The European Coaster Club have some concepts for Wakala: They have said there are two lift hills: the first, which is standard, and the second which will have "slight acceleration". Curiously, there's no mention of a launch, which one would expect given the spike and the flat piece of track before it which will have to double up as a brake run too. A very odd coaster for sure.