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The park have even realised its a complete and utter waste of everybody's time and energy, so they are slowly destroying the one good part it has, ready for it to abolish that section next year completely. Demolition crew been organised yet? I am so glad I do not waste my time on this attraction anymore.

I have a simpler solution.
 
...DEMOLITION.

A complete revamp. Bring in someone with fresh ideas, money should be spent on the maze itself and not ip.  

Quality over quantity.
 
Better organisation, maybe a rethink on the maze queue system.
 
Close Derren Brown Ghost Train for good and create a haunted station themed maze. ?  
 
No more pound land theming  and less of these !!!!

Ok, we have reached the point of a joke. Nice early April fools Thorpe with that advert you would never let standards be that low . 
 
Oh hang on... Loggers mishandling, Old town/ghost town, Nemesis Inferno is filthy,  dbgtrotd is still the worst Merlin investment to ever be made, Rumba is in a sorry state, tidal wave shortcut removed, twd is still horribly out of place, Swarm is looking dreadful, the dome is boring and empty, poor quality food, appalling social media team and then there is Colossus where there are not enough words in the English language to describe the sorry state that structure of rust is in. 

Alright, I've had a day to think over what these dungeons are like after experiencing it last Sunday and are going to be brutally honest with it now after the experience I had and will present my opinion of it as a paying customer who dedicated nearly an hour of their 10am - 5pm day on this thing; not as a theme park blogger who is in Merlin/Alton's good graces and paid zilch to experience it.
 
Contrary to all the positive reviews that are going around right now for it from all the theme park bloggers/vloggers/YouTube "celebrities", I'm sorry, but this is without a doubt the worst Dungeon I have done and I would go as far to say the worst attraction Alton Towers have ever given us in the 21 years I have been visiting this place year-on-year since 1998, and that's saying something. It goes almost entirely against what makes all the other Dungeons enjoyable attractions and it falls flat on delivering a comprehensive experience for guests with no proper thought or imagination put into the product and here's why.
 
All the other Dungeons I have experienced immerse you properly into each scene with details and theming across every corner, from the flooring, walls, scenery and the actors. Despite many of them having bare roofing such as the London one for example, you tend to forget about it all with every scene and focus your attention on the actor and surroundings, as per you should, so this missing detail never really posed a problem for me with the others. With the Alton Towers one however, the very opposite occurs.
 
For every scene you go through, I kid you not, there are flat black walls literally everywhere you look from the sides, behind you, the ceiling and even amongst the theming where the actor stands. It look horrendous and every room made you feel like you were in a big black box that had been assembled quickly and cheaply with timber wall panels. There was no texture to any of them, no deformation and no disguising of the walls in any room to make you feel as though you are in a dungeon. It just looks incredibly lazy and cheap and no attempt whatsoever was done to immerse guests 360 degrees unlike all the other Dungeons.
 
The entrance to the attraction I still hold the view looks disgustingly ugly and cheap. Whilst in-person it looks a little better than through a screen, you can tell it was built on a budget with the randomly placed barrels and crates outside the entrance, along with the temporary fire torches fenced off. Most unforgiving of all is there is still an entire section of the entrance to the left in front of the lift towers with nothing but a giant 30ft black wall. Clearly the park ran out of wooden supports to cover this up properly during construction, so their solution to this problem was to pop down to the local B&Q and buy 50L of Dulux EasyCare Rich Black paint to cover up the shadows of the deceased Oompa Loompas peeking through the 2D windows. I'm guessing with the amount of black walls inside the attraction they had plenty to spare to cover this up too...
 
Take a look here at what I mean. Taken on Sunday 24th March. It's so revolting to look at:


 
As for the Black River boat ride, it's the same story - paint every wall black and leave it. The ride follows through the same route as Charlie, but believe it or not, it's now even barer than before with very little decoration or theming present in any portion. There are a few projectors on flat walls as you go round showing the shadows of victims being tortured, a couple of water jets to get you wet, a single animatronic which just bobs up and down ever so slightly in a cauldron, a single projector on a mannequin head and a single oddly-placed smoke machine. That is quite literally it for 4 minutes straight. There are no proper special effects anywhere inside, many zones had no audio playing, there are just black walls and tunnels for 80% of it and most unforgivable is the park were too lazy to remove the old theming from Charlie such as the water wheel in the station and the mirrored section towards the end where Sonic used to be on Toyland Tours. There is so much empty space and wasted area on this ride now that it makes Charlie look like a masterpiece compared to "Black Walls - The Ride". It's so, so bad.
 
From here, it's pretty much your bog standard Dungeon attraction where there are various scenes stolen copied from other existing ones. Each scene did have its little twist added to the script referencing Alton Towers instead, but 95% of it was exactly the same as all the others. The Plague Doctor was 100% the same as the London one (though with very few effects) and so was The Torturer. The Judge scene was a little different but followed the same procedure - 3 people chosen, 1 found guilty after just saying where they were from. The Highwayman was identical to Ms. Lovett's pie shop mixed with Sweeney Todd at London where it used identical sound effects and audio and had the moving chairs with prodders. Lastly, the Haunting for the last scene was pretty good overall I will admit with some nice use of lighting and sound effects, similar to Witches of Warwick. Was a decent finale.
 
As for the acting though, I've gotta hand it to those in there, they did a fantastic job in every scene. The actors performed brilliantly with plenty of adult humour which I liked and were interacting with guests very well. In fact, I would go as far to say the actors Alton have for this Dungeon are better than any other I have done before, so well done for hiring the right people!

But that all aside, even though the acting was brilliant, the rest of it was a total mess. The biggest problem I have is the fact so many areas of the attraction consist of nothing but black walls everywhere in every scene and it's the dominating and most noticeable feature of every room. Each scene I would say is 70:30 in favour of black walls to theming and it looks really rushed in many areas, especially the transitions between each scene which once again are just black walls with no theming or detail put into them either. It is quite literally one giant yet claustrophobic rectangular black box one after the other for the majority of the experience. With the other dungeons, you at least have stuff to see, hear and feel which the London one is especially good at. But for the Alton Towers one? The only thing you can smell is the fumes of freshly coated black Dulux paint mixed with touching the sloppily finished un-sanded walls, and flooring which still has outlines of Charlie's theming and fencing present. It really is genuinely like this inside.
 
The thing to bear in mind is that this is an attraction every guest unless you are an AT Premium Pass Holder will need to pay £5 for in order to experience, and I am telling you right now, I was really cheesed off my money went on this experience after finishing. There is no way in hell this is worth the upcharge the park is enforcing, because you can get a much better Dungeon experience across any other corner of the country for free compared to this if you are a MAP. It's completely unjustifiable in my view given there is a serious lack of quality and finish present in this version and you are frankly better off getting two medium Costa cappuccinos in Forbidden Valley for your fiver.
 
Now, you might say "it's not finished yet hence the black walls", but I would then question why the heck are the park charging customers for a half-baked product if it's evidently not ready? Either open it when it's 100% right (yeah, just like DBGT remember...), or have some decency and not charge guests at all for it until it is fully completed.
 
Lastly, I want to emphasise on a point @Martin Doyle made above a few posts ago. You might be reading and hearing many great reviews out there for the Alton Towers Dungeon right now from all the big and famous theme park fans out there with a massive following, but please take what you hear from them with a massive grain of salt. These are the same groups of people that praised Thorpe Park's Fright Nights last year with some going as far to say it was the "best Fright Nights yet", so it's obviously evident some of them are in Merlin's good graces when writing their reviews and are restricted on what they really think about it.
 
Instead, I implore you to focus your attention and effort on those who have actually paid the £5 admission for this attraction and dedicated an hour of their time in the park for it. These reviews are far more credible and realistic through my eyes as they tend to speak their mind properly with no filters in place and aren't towing the company's line of being overly-positive about everything Merlin creates.
 
To summarise my experience of the attraction, it would be this - a lacklustre, short-sighted and rushed mess that made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory look phenomenal in comparison.
 
Still, it is better than nothing right?............Oh wait, black walls are nothing............
 
Alton Towers Dungeon - 3/10

Exactly, because all the enthusiasts knew to expect it because they saw a CGI image of it, on a made-up background, from an exaggerated angle that didn't exist in the ride. Merlin continue to prove they care a lot more about advertising than the actual rides they build.

There was also a lot of nonsense said about it by some enthusiasts wanting the attention. I remember being told it would change theme parks forever and was going to make Disney and Universal quake in their boots (haha). Although I'm not trying to tar everyone with the same brush or blame people for being excited, I was excited too.

The scene as-built is not impressive or even noticeable, there is zero showmanship. When you set a big centrepiece like that it's all about the architectural approach which was just not thought about, very sad because like you say if you bother to look closely, it's actually a very good illusion and effort went into it. Whatta waste!

I kind of find DBGT fascinating though about how not to do an ambitious ride concept. All the mistakes they made were the same mistakes that plague most of Merlin's projects but this time on a bigger than ever scale. I'm glad it was made rather than not made but it's a kind of tragic tale of a great idea struggling to make it.

Stop wasting money on it and knock down the whole ride. Then put a real ghost train in the building.

Quality.

Can’t really say more than what has been mentioned but....well.....fright nights? Sh1te nights more like.  It’s not ALL bad but just a combination of things and bad management/fast track over selling.  I skipped a few rides tonight with RAP because the queues were horrific - the Colossus queue was halfway through the damned shop ? and the dispatching were slow (going by the times the trains went up the lift hill - I actually thought for a while it was on one train).
 
Thorpe have really lost their sense of direction and I think for a lot of people it’s going to take a lot to entice them back.  It’s just a shame when ride staff get abuse because of naff decisions higher up.  I’ve seen so many staff this year looking fed up and on one occasion saw a girl working on Saw in tears.  
 
Usually this time of year I’m gutted that the parks closed season is approaching but this year I’m relieved ?.  

Thorpe Park so deserve the bashing they are getting on Facebook and Twitter tonight. They have delivered such a poor quality, badly managed Fright Nights this year. The park is a laughing stock,, really do feel for those poor people that are there tonight and the last few days. 

Thorpe Park so deserve the bashing they are getting on Facebook and Twitter tonight. They have delivered such a poor quality, badly managed Fright Nights this year. The park is a laughing stock,, really do feel for those poor people that are there tonight and the last few days. 

Hit the nail on the head. Everyone else is blamed but themselves. They never learn if I recall there were major issues last year too.

That’s the problem, the park won’t admit to being the problem - everything else is the problem, heck even guests visiting are a problem.
 
If there was any leadership at the park they should be forcing out an apology across social media. Admit things haven’t been right and start rebuilding confidence and trust in the park otherwise they’ll alienate even more guests.

@Marc they may not of been the main issue but they were still an issue. The weather has been known for a few days, why no advanced “islander information” advice about weather delays? 
 
Doesn’t forgive the park for a poor showing this year, as we know the divisional director has gone and other positions are being shaken up - there’s a problem at the park much deeper than weather. 

Thorpe Park so deserve the bashing they are getting on Facebook and Twitter tonight. They have delivered such a poor quality, badly managed Fright Nights this year. The park is a laughing stock,, really do feel for those poor people that are there tonight and the last few days. 

Well Thorpe looks like a barrel of laughs tonight judging by Twitter and the queue times app ?

Shots fired from tulleys ?

Sums up the park completely.
 
Needs a management refresh who takes back control of the park instead of the social team...

Unprofessionalism from many people at the park this year.  Certain people predictably still obsessed with using theme parks to further their careers and trying to earn status amongst fans then.

Would theme park 'personalities' please stop trying to be the Fright Nights mascot. In reality, a huge amount of collaboration and differnt teams go into putting on these events, most the work never gets seen – because what matters is the end result. But when people start going online to claim "hey I've done this, it's mine, enjoy my work everyone" then you know what people's real agendas were.

Fright Nights this year is clearly very poor, perhaps budget from the lords above was a big factor in that. Either way it's a bit sad to see we've got to a state where the people involved in an event and their mates come on to a forum to tell people how clever and smart their work actually is.

A bit like when we had Bradley Wynne tell people on Facebook how actually clever Derren Brown's Ghost Train was and how its "supposed" to be disjointed. That's not the point when the end result just doesnt entertain.

I'd wish Thorpe Park all the best for next year and hope it goes better. The park needed a really strong Halloween event this year and just didn't manage it.

So far all they've done is sack the Divisional Director. Arguably not the best resolution, and definitely not getting to the root of the issue. Hopefully there's a more intensive attempt at shake up ahead, as the entire structure and direction of the park needs rectification. The constant U-turns and unprofessional management need to go asap.

- Fan boys ‘designing’ audio for Thorpe Park’s Fright Nights and then watching the forums for comments and getting all defensive because nobody really understands the complete lack of artistic or creative design. “Woo cameos from the theme park community - intense!”
 
- Flashing, multicoloured LED park wide  lighting with no design or thought whatsoever 
 
- Significant lack of maze design, coherent theme and complete lack of quality
 
- No Big Top
 
- A non-show in the Dome where actors chase guests to some music because the competency to build the maze was no longer available 
 
- Another laughable, confused, messy marketing “campaign”
 
- Black walled mazes (oh, they almost left Fright Nights)
 
- Vulcan Peak
 
 
Goodbye Fright Nights. 

Give it a year or so then Ghost Train will be added to the list.
I really have zero interest in the year of walking dead malarkey.  

Give it a year or so then Ghost Train will be added to the list.
I really have zero interest in the year of walking dead malarkey.  

I'm a bit late to the party on this one. Went to Chessington recently and can't say I'm particularly impressed with Tiger Rock. This however is based on the fact that I much prefer the zoo/animals being in a separate area of the park entirely, and the theme park being a completely different part. I'm not really a whole fan of this whole idea of integrating the zoo. I've never liked Busch Gardens for the same reason. The whole Land of the Tiger area lacks theming, and the ride areas just look bare and sparse. I LOVE the new soundtrack in the station however, although this would have worked perfectly with the old Dragon Falls. 
 
To me, it's still Dragon Falls, and always will be. The Tiger head over the final drop is far too big; a huge part of what everybody loved about Dragon Falls was the fantastic view for spectators. That has largely been ruined by the huge tiger's head covering the majority of the drop. 
 
I would much rather the tigers had been added to the zoo section of the park, the whole Mystic East area simply brightened up, given a new lease of life, and Dragon Falls remain as it was, with the fantastic addition of the new soundtrack.
 
There are some new elements that I like, including the added lights/sounds in the tunnel. Although not executed particularly well, the thought of using the tunnel to create more of an impact is a good one. I just wish it had been thought about a bit more and executed a bit better.
 
Overall, I love the soundtrack and the attempt at making the tunnel more exciting. Other than that, bring back Dragon Falls.  

So this will be the second SBNO ride at Thorpe with a queue used for a scare maze ?