JoshC.

I've done 13 a few times this season now, and you know what. I bloody love it. It genuinely is my favourite ride at Towers now. I've always had a soft spot for it, but this year, I've really grown to love it. Yeah sure the outside section is a bit tame with all the trims, but you still get a bit of fun out of it. But it is ageing pretty well in fairness. But the indoor section is executed perfectly and is just so much fun. And as much as Merlin can get slaughtered for their dark themes, 13 works. It just does.

Some more information about Project 42... Source - https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/alton-towers-reveals-terrifying-brand-15098674 Expect some more official stuff soon I guess. Confirms that it will take place in Sub Terra (not that this is a surprise given the construction going on around there). No word on how much of Sub Terra they'll use though Similar-ish theme to Sub Species in some ways I guess, but still a different and interesting setting. Looking forward to what they have planned though!

They don't look like they're in a position where a tent pitch would go up though...

Image from Scare Tour...

Thorpe Park called. They said Tulley's are 14 years late to the party.

tbf I'd be very surprised if they didn't bring in at least one 'new' maze. Fright Nights is too big an event for them to not bring in something new. And with stuff like Blair Witch and Sanctum, they have at least got scope to change them and make them feel different enough. It's possible we could see Big Top or even Platform transformations to mazes. And for people blasting Blair Witch, I remember is being one of the best received mazes of 2015 - so there's potential for something like that to be good, even if another outdoor maze is not what Thorpe needs right now.

Unless my circumstances change, I'll be around from about 3/4ish

CHIP 7706 is a staff thing and has absolutely zero relation to Thorpe's next big thing.

Just because a maze hasn't started construction yet, doesn't mean it won't appear. Big Top V1 (or should that be Big Top V0.1?) didn't start construction until September 2015 (and it was basically mid-September too). And equally, just because a maze hasn't been advertised yet, that means little too - it's not uncommon for mazes to be announced in September. Admittedly, the rumours are cause for concern - there's no smoke without fire after all. And also the lack of any sort of advertisement until the past couple of days is a bit unusual - with The Year of The Walking Dead, in theory, attracting people who love scare attractions, it would make sense to push what's happening at Fright Nights a lot sooner? So yeah, there's cause for concern, but let's not completely rubbish the event until we hear something more concrete.

Says a lot that all the replies to the tweets are talking about potential IPs for a new attraction (none of them Blair Witch). Thorpe have conditioned their audience to expect IPs now, completely killing any potential scope for creativity beyond an IP now.

It's true that, this time last year, the Big Top tent was built and maze construction had started. Equally, when Big Top was on the beach, construction didn't start until early September. Let's not jump to conclusions about what that means, but just look at the gulf in quality between Big Top v1 and Big Top v3, and let that speak for itself for now. I hope we get something in the way of marketing soon. Whilst I hate making comparisons, Towers have announced their line up, given a tease of their new attraction, and been building for weeks now. Fills me with more confidence that their event will be under control, that's for sure.

Now that they've introduced a 4 bat rating (rather than maximum 3), hopefully that should go some way in making it a bit clearer that it's scary. Hopefully they haven't toned it down either.

Daily Star: OUTRAGE as theme park website hides reference to devastated Smiler crash.

I don't really see the point of this maze tbh?

I'll try and appear regardless of what date is chosen, though it'll probably be an evening appearance!

It's probably the unfortunate case that you've seen all the internet has to offer about the original X:\No Way Out. The theme and story was always very loose, even back in 1996 it wasn't the clearest or most obvious. The computer theme was just a case of responding to what was trendy at the time, and what teenagers thought was cool. No super deep backstory out anything of particular excitement related to anything else. It very much split public opinion, with some finding it dull and boring, some finding it sickening and some enjoying it as a fun novelty. It had to go through so many changes before they eventually had to give up the ghost and change it to X. And even then, it arguably only truly peaked in 2017 (and 2013 was a good year too tbf).

So I did this for the first time the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised. Zombie Hunt is a fun, funny, family-friendly scare attraction. There were kids in my group (I'd hazard a guess that they were as young as 6), and they enjoyed it all - even the very loud ending. The main problem is that it is very formulaic, and there aren't enough actors. It's 'walk into scene, actor appears, shoot zombie, move on' six times. Something like this should be more 'free', with a lot more characters (given the space they had, 15-20 actors would have been perfect imo), giving more scope to 'hunt' and take advantage of the laser gun system more. I'd also have liked more of a score system involved, but I imagine the tech involved in doing that is beyond the scope of the clearly limited budget this had. So yeah, all in all, decent little attraction which hits the spot. But there's room for it to have been SO much more.

Getting the exact same grades as me in those subjects when I got my results 6 years ago. Copycat. Also thanks for making me feel old.

Looks like a faster paced version of Lost Gravity, which is only a good thing in my books.

One theory I've heard is that the angle of drop was changed after the design phase. Originally the ride was meant to have a 97 degree drop (like almost all other Eurofighters), but then in mid-to-late 2008, it was announced it would have a 100 degree drop. The element immediately after remained the same, so the curvature of the drop and the curvature of the entrance to the inversion are slightly different, causing the jolt.

For this year, yes. It has always been the case that every day in October was a FN day and it was Friday, Saturday, Sunday plus half term.

The yellow crane on the right hand side of the photo has also been taken off site, paving the way for the launch track to be built.

The problems with that are: -You have to keep staff later, meaning you have to pay them more. -You alienate anyone who isn't planning / able to stay till end of the day. -You eat into the time after park close that engineers have to do daily maintenance to the ride, which could result in more problems the day after. It does solve some issues that the current set up has, but it creates many many more. The trouble in the past is that Priority Passes were handed out like water. This year they're more like Coke - still on tap, but hidden away and a lot more restricted.

*20 seats in operation