tomathy

Warning, somewhat negative post coming up. Had my first visit to Thorpe this year yesterday and given the warm weather and it being the summer holidays the group I was with and myself were ready for what we knew would be a very busy day. I don't tend to have the same amount of spare time as I did when I was younger and so I hadn't put a lot of planning into attending, we are all MAP holders so figured that it would be fine. So on arrival to the park, we see Saw isn't on the app (extended closure) and more than half of the attractions had not opened just after 10am. Slightly disappointed we make our way to Stealth, queue for 45 minutes on a one train service, broke down, received a fast track. Not a great start, realistically no real problem though. After some filler we make our way to The Walking Dead, see the hosts closing the gates as we approach after what looks like a full evac, make our way to Ghost Train instead. I'm not actually sure if I think Ghost Train is an improvement over the previous incarnations of the ride. The ride system could 100% be better utilised though and we really felt for some of the actors who were obviously giving it their all but with very little reaction from the guests on our train. Chapel scene is a big build up for that scare, slightly too quick but nice to see a decently size physical effect. The finale on the train was somewhat laughable with the leading to almost everyone on our train laughing. Actual ending feels super stale now, and the additional shaking effects are a bit too travelling ghost train for me. Lunch time, we wanted to try the Tacotaria and honestly this was ridiculous. I really feel for the staff working in here yesterday, after queueing for almost 20 minutes to get food we were told that they had no beef. This is fine, we swapped to chicken. Also no fries. Again fine, nachos instead. No naked burritos because they didn't have the right bowls to put them in. Kinda the final straw for our group considering these made up 4 of the 5 meals we wanted. Staff said that they had all of the ingredients but had been told that they could not serve them in a different container, just seems ridiculous to us. Went to Peckish instead, where we received most of options we wanted (although they ran out of jacket potatoes halfway through our group). Watching staff sit around whilst one person makes 5 meals is irritating whilst you're trying to make the best of your day out. A few extra points to add: Ride availability triggered the Island Return Guarantee which is great but doesn't really change how we felt about the day. Staff at some attractions were incredibly rude, even called us out during rides over the tannoy after overhearing one of our group state that they thought that the staff were being rude. RAP queues are still large, and I know this is an ongoing debate and I fully believe that this system does need to exist for people who struggle to queue for both physical or mental health related reasons. Hard to stand by it whilst listening to groups bragging about faking evidence, not even providing it and just getting the pass from guest services anyway, and in some cases people showing their pass for 4 others to ride but not riding themselves. Surely this isn't how this system is meant to work, but whether it be guests abusing the system or staff not bothering to implement it, something needs to change. Saw appears to be down indefinitely at this point, not all guests were aware of this though and some had bought fast track for the ride on the app during the date of our visit. It should not be possible to buy fast track for a ride that isn't planned to be open. Overall we've had some really good years out of the merlin passes, and they are extraordinary value for money, but the quality of the days out at the parks has been going downhill as far as I'm concerned for a few years now. I've got to the point where I no longer enjoy my days out on park (not just Thorpe, Chessington and to some degree Alton are the same). I think it's time for me to give merlin a rest for a few years and go and enjoy other attractions that we haven't had the chance to visit yet. Apologies for the long and somewhat negative post, but I think a lot of these things can be overlooked by a lot of people based on being able to visit the park regularly and the passes being good value, but when there are other reasons for not being able to visit as often as before, the quality of a day out on park quickly diminishes. TLDR: Busy day, poor ride availability, rude staff, poor operations regarding both food and rides, fast track money grabbing, probably going to get rid of my merlin pass.

Annual visit to fright nights for me and my family was on Monday, typically we also go to Alton Towers for Scarefest but considering the lineup hasn't seen much change this year we haven't bothered. Apologies for any negativity, try and frame it as a bit of sarcasm where possible. Trailers Overall we had a better run through of Trailers this year than we did last, there were more actors in place this year in our run. Only changes we noticed was the lack of the original actor meeting you back in the lobby before the finale of the maze, I assume this is to increase throughputs though, not exactly a change that I was at all bothered about. Without the hype that it had last year I really enjoyed it, it's not the strongest maze for scares but the sets are really nice and the actors were giving it their all. Creek Freak I don't know if its just me but this seems weaker than it has been in previous years. There didn't appear to be too many actors in there, however when they were present our group did get some really good scares. Just a pity that we wandered through most of the middle portion of the maze without seeing any actors at all. Like I said, I don't think this was Creek Freaks strongest year, still enjoyable but was hoping for a much more intense experience within Survival Games. Survival Games I was really looking forward to this maze, the reviews had mostly stated that it was fairly intense and that it had been jam packed full of actors. Firstly, the story seems pointless with the current guise of this experience, I understand this could just be teething issues with it being its first year but nobody else in my group was at all aware of why they were competing in the "Survival Games" or what it was for. After being pulled (and by pulled I mean somebody gently placing a hand on my shoulder and asking me to come with them) I fairly quickly caught up with the person who was taken before me. I only saw one other actor between this part of the maze and the main arena. Once in the arena it was clear that far too many people had been allowed in at once, there was a steady conga line of people making their way through the maze with most of the actors simply standing still and waiting for people to interact with them. I, by chance, made it straight to the exit room and was sent towards the runout which again contained no actors. For what is being sold as the most extreme (and most expensive) fright nights attraction to date I feel that this was a particularly weak experience. I'd love to say that I'd give it a second chance but paying another £10 for what could be another poor run didn't really appeal to me. Legacy Better with the screen, would be even better if the fire effects were working. A fire and light show without the fire does suddenly feel like you've walked into a particularly odd nightclub that only plays music that could be loosely linked to thorpe/halloween. Why does this feel like an advert for the park? Crows of Mawkin Meadow Great to see this expanded, the actors here were doing a great job within both sections of the walkthrough. The use of the Saw Alive queue seems so obvious that I don't know why it wasn't done before. Deaths Doors Surprise highlight of the event for us, not because of scares though but instead down to one unfortunate actor who managed to get his poncho stuck in the door that he left from. Watching him shouting "GET PUMPKIN MAN!" repeatedly to get the other actor to let him out had us and quite a few others in stitches. Later on we asked him if he still had his poncho only to get a very snappy "NO" back from him. Fantastic interaction, and well played given the unfortunate situation. Overall I noticed that the mazes all have queue times listed within the app, however this is only useful if they are moderately accurate. Trailers for example was listed as 0 mins on the app, but we queued for 40mins at 15:10. This wasn't helped by the fact that there wasn't a member of staff checking tickets at the start of the queue. From what we gathered, plenty of people didn't have tickets until later in the day but were joining the queue now anyway. Survival Games was listed in the app as a 45 minute queue, upon arrival there was no queue at all, nor was there a queue when we left the area, still listed as 45 minutes. Ride queue times were vastly inaccurate as well. It's a shame to see the event in the way that we did, I understand that in some cases we were unfortunate but when you're paying £10 per person per maze you do somewhat expect the experience to be a little less flawed. TLDR: Trailers was fun, Creek Freak had some decent scares but lacked actors, Survival Games really lacked actors, Legacy exists but unsure why, Crows was much better, Deaths Doors was great, queue times were being silly.

Just to chip in a little here, the Trailers queue on Saturday was held up massively when it opened. My group had tickets for 3:30, we were turned away when we arrived and told to come back closer to 4. Cam back, joined the queue at 4 and waited for an hour and a half due to technical issues with the maze. 2 - 3 groups would be batched in and then about 5 minutes later all of them returned back out of the entrance. Wait 15 mins, they all go back in, back out again in 5 minutes. Rinse and repeat. Looked like once they had worked out their issues things returned to some form of normality, and of course we were compensated Merlin's favourite, some free fastrack

Three injured, one critically, in ride incident at Fudstock in Barrow. https://www.lancs.live/news/local-news/three-injured-one-critically-ride-21429453 Reports on Twitter are suggesting that the ride involved is a Waltzer; potentially a restraint failure by the sounds of one report although that is purely speculation at this stage. Hope everyone makes a full recovery.

So looks like Space Mountain has had a little accident today...

I was on park on the 2nd April when they had the snowy conditions, feel sorry for people that were not passholders as communication towards guests was very mixed and at some times could only be considered poor. Upon arrival we were told Spinball was open as well as Oblivion, walked up to Spinball and were told by the ride team at the entrance of the area that it hadn't completed testing yet but was being advertised on the boards and the app as open with a 10 minute queue. Some of the boards around the park also indicated an extended ride opening because of the poor weather which we initially thought was good of the park until we realized that it was in fact a mistake and that the 5pm close was still in place. It's just poor for a park of this size to have such poor communication with guests, I can see why someone paying £55 at the entrance would be disappointed with the service regardless of the ride availability. Oblivion being the only major coaster open most mornings is a mistake with it seeming to attract large queues, especially with it running only one of its two stations as it was at the end of last season with most of the cars stacking up on the break run. You know what though, it probably is "better than nothing", but only just.

Ahh right, my bad, didn't manage to see the testing video before it was taken down. Thank goodness for that

That structure does look amazing, hope it lasts but wouldn't put money on it. The article mentions a pretty low capacity for the ride as well, hardly looks like it will make for a fast moving queue. Quote from the Stoke Sentinel.

There are various sources claiming that the girl was standing, none of them appear to have been confirmed as yet. The BBC article below claims a boy fell out a few years ago whilst standing or in another compromised position but was pulled out of the water by spectators. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-39867690 Personally, I can't see how someone could fall out of the rafts whilst being seated and holding onto the centre rail however the facts surrounding this particular incident are still not yet known. Obviously this is an awful and tragic accident with, at the moment, nobody specifically at fault. I can understand why Merlin would shut their rapids attractions, even if it was proved that there is nothing wrong with the ride itself, as the public perception of these rides is going to be negative for at least the near future given the amount of coverage this is getting. EDIT Not blaming anyone for this, its tragic and my thoughts are with those involved. Just commenting on facts surrounding the accident and the effect this may have on other parks

Seems like what could have been a worst case scenario on a coaster in Colombia. Not quite sure what has happened here, the park have said that it wasn't a mechanical error and that the ride was being operated according to manufacturers protocol. Link to article: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/disabled-man-seriously-injured-horror-10226274 Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

Hadn't even noticed that I must admit, seems odd for a construction worker at the flume site to mention it as well though and then delete the tweet?

Looks like The Wicker Man will be the name of SW8. Trademarks have been filed by the UK company Lane IP who have previously transferred IP's to Merlin closer to opening dates of attractions. https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/016221269 Personally can't see it not being this after a construction worker earlier in the year a photo of the flume construction mentioning The Wicker Man.

Looks to me like a small horror maze section being added. Might be wrong, new video nonetheless. New Video

I'm more worried about the people spending £1769 a year on the premium family pass...

Wicker Man seems like such an odd IP to pick though, it's only going to appeal to a slightly older audience as most younger people either haven't seen the film or just don't care for it. Best bet they have for the younger audience is slapping a load of Nicolas Cage memes throughout the ride and calling it a day.