MattyMoo

Yes agreed. And dare we speak of the Tidal Wave fire effect, or.....?
 
Looking at the app today, everything is open with the exception of Ghost Train that is current closed, and not marked as "Opening Soon", "Opening Later", "Planned Delayed Opening" or similar. So assume it's just playing up - for a change.

Was saying to Josh - I can afford to go this year, but, I don't think it's good value. £10 a maze is a lot. No maze at Tulleys is worth £10. If it was nearer £5 I'd go for it, but as I've said before, the Fright Night's model is not for me - I don't like the idea of one - paid - run through that can easily be ruined by the group you are batched with, or actors being misplaced/on a break etc. Am happy paying ~£90 for Tulley's VIP, because we normally get 20-24 runs in total on a night - so around £4 a run, and that's before you take off the £15 merch voucher and food and drink token. There's been times at Tulley's where we start a maze and straight away we'll be like "We'll do this again later because the group are slow/annoying/ruining it" (you know what I mean) whereas that is not an option at Thorpe unless you want to fork out again to roll the dice again for a good runthrough. And you know that run through is going to be nothing like the POVs from press night - whereas, genuinely - run throughs I see from Tulleys are at the same level for us mere mortals as that of the press night.

I wouldn't mind paying more for entry if it was unlimited runs on the mazes - like, the current price point would be acceptable if that was an option.
 
I went to the Blue Light day for Fright Night's the year before last with a mate - was just like the glory days, multiple run throughs with no stress!

Hyperia is open now, they had to remove a train on Hyperia around 5:15 yesterday due to an issue, and it was also running late last night for FN promo filming so I imagine the late opening will be to do with that. 
 
All the ones that say 'opening later' have a scheduled opening time between 12:30 - 13:30, if you click on the individual ride it'll tell you what time.

I see today Thorpe has "scheduled late opening" for some attractions, except... none of the attractions were scheduled to open late in the app or online...
 
At 1pm, Flying Fish, Zodiac and Detonator are "scheduled late opening" and WDTR hasn't opened yet today.
 
Are they low on techies so prioritising opening each day? What's going on?

I think a good indication of cuts is if slammer doesn’t get removed this year and sparkle project doesn’t happen again.
 
Both require investment and both were said to happen this coming closed season. So if it’s changed, it will be a good indicator 
 
 

Yes quite. I think the biggest tell of their state of affairs/management is to what extent the Sparkle Project continues over closed season.
 
It does feel like all of a sudden the pitch has shifted from closed season 2023/start of season 2024 to where we are now and it's quite concerning as to why and how quickly.
 
Hopefully this won't affect the taste and enjoyment of my currywurst pizza next week.

All this talk of Oktoberfest being rubbish means I really should dress up when I visit next Tuesday to help with the IMMERSION.

Just had a brainwave, if it is a club type scenario, the preshow could be doorstaff, and then you are split with a "you're on the list" or "you're name's not down, you're not coming in"... Just an idea, like. In the same way as good Vs bad wood on Creek.

I keep forgetting that we don't have a general "Thorpe Park 2024" thread, or an Oktoberfest thread. So I'll stick my review in here for Oktoberfest 
 
It's kind of apt too, as you'd think that Thorpe have forgotten they have an Oktoberfest event going on.
 
Oktoberfest came about in 2020 and whilst it was rough round the edges, it had potential. It's pretty much been the awkward middle child since 2021 though. It got better, but now it just feels a bit thrown together and rubbish.
 
The Oktoberfest area is basically to the left of Ghost Train's entrance, with the stage, the ski lift carrier turned benches (which are pretty cool) returning, as well as snow-covered...Christmas trees?
 
The event is leaning heavily on the more Bavarian Alps theme. By which I mean, it's the primary focus. The main Thorpe show revolves around it (the actors run a "fashion show" with what one of them should wear to go skiing). There's a set of roaming actors at set times who are "on skis".
 
And my god, the show makes me cringe. The dance elements are good for what it is. But the speaking. It feels like the actors were told to watch Allo Allo and just copy the German accents. It's grating.
 
Also, the Christmas trees. Why? The confused "Why is it Christmas?" vibe isn't helped by this song playing at the start of the family stage show:
Hilarious.
 
I should add: I believe in story, the actors are called the Furchtbar Gang. That's what it sounds like at least. "Furchtbar" is German for "terrible". So I guess the point is that they are terrible? Or meant to be terrible? But they're not - as I say, the dance elements make the grade. I don't get it. 
 
There's a couple of the pop up food places alongside Ghost Train's queue, which will no doubt stay through Fright Nights, and a bratwurst grill in Amity. There's a pitiful-looking bratwurst pizza available from Pizza-Pasta.
 
In truth, Thorpe's Oktoberfest has never done it for me. Maybe I just don't like fun. So maybe this is doing the job, getting good reactions and there's a wider audience who love it. But it does feel like its been scaled back the last 2-3 years, and as nice as it is to get an extra boost during September, maybe it's time to lay it to rest.

That's not the Merlin way - website, signs, emails or otherwise 🙃

Tulley's have removed the "Scare Factors" from the haunts page, which is probably a good thing because they were pretty nonsensical anyway. We've had the best scares in Creepy Cottage on some visits, for example - all just depends on the actors. 

I've never heard of Easter eggs before, what a fantastic idea.

I've never heard of Easter eggs before, what a fantastic idea.

Just don't break it, or Stealth, thanks.

Well MAP holders aren't going to spend money on park might as well get something out of them.
 
Though I dread to think how bad a run through with some "influencer" searching for THEIR reference in the maze would be.

Nonsense.
Taziker are doing it after their successful work on the COLOSSOS RIDE at the Thorpe Park Resort.

I'm gonna throw "THE VOID" into the ring as a possible name. Likely completely wrong, but it came to me in a dream about easter eggs and nodding.
 
Also, since Thorpe have started the Fright Nights advertising, expect Tulleys to tease/update on their (sort of) 3 new additions for this year (1 new maze, retheme of THE ISLAND, new live show cos no more Circus of Horrors)

I'm gonna throw "THE VOID" into the ring as a possible name. Likely completely wrong, but it came to me in a dream about easter eggs and nodding.
 
Also, since Thorpe have started the Fright Nights advertising, expect Tulleys to tease/update on their (sort of) 3 new additions for this year (1 new maze, retheme of THE ISLAND, new live show cos no more Circus of Horrors)

The Passing returns - hopefully they’ve at least shaken off the head bags and charged the iPod shuffles before we go again.

Josh is spot on. All I will say is, last year even on a "quieter" Fright Night I very nearly didn't get all 3 mazes completed that I'd paid for. Had no idea we were "supposed" to keep an hour for each maze, and that's coming from someone who is in the cOmMunItY and not just a casual Thorpe attendee. We ended up queuing 90 minutes for Stitches as I recall last year, and we started queuing 10 minutes after the evening timeslot started. Survival Games after seemed to take forever to queue for.... We got to Trailers mere minutes before it closed, meaning that we were the very last group, and had the sort of run through that only press night VIPs normally get 😅 
 
Make no mistake, I throw no shade at any actors as they always work their socks off, but there's only so much you can do with large groups as maze staff try and clear the queues. I would have loved to have spent longer in Stitches but sadly that wasn't possible and it became a conga line with the next group. My Survival Games run through was below average because a severe lack of actors in the "arena" that's normally swarming with them for the vloggers.
 
Anyway - new maze - it's in the Black Mirror building people have worked out from coordinates in the video/photo Thorpe posted. So what are we thinking? Evidently darkness is the theme of sorts... Vampires? spirits? Just lots of pitch black? To be fair, if done well, lots of darkness could lead to maximum scares....

Oh….? So you’re supposed to show up at the start of the time slot? 
What, literally every single person on that slot is supposed to show up then?
even by their own bizarre logic, it doesn’t work… Because there will still be the same number of people queuing, it’s just they’ll all arrive at once, meaning the queue would start off gargantuan and decrease before the next slot starts.
 
God I miss the days of free mazes, you just turn up and bloody queue… what a concept.

Got to experience the "new" land last week - it's alright innit? It works, is my review. 

Only one train at the moment 🫥

It seems deliberate, there’s a huge shift in how they are communicating from the first lot of down time to now, there was a big deal and tonnes of info when it went down and again when it reopened, this time there’s just been one post about it closing and other than an unadvertised change on their website no fanfare around it reopening either.
 
Looks like it’s been testing tonight with the train full of water dummies, last weekend its first few tests only had 3 rows of dummies. Mack really need to come up with a solution, not being able to send an empty train isn’t really a great way to operate long term.