Coaster

Well Whirlwind at Lightwater Valley isn't knackered and that runs on the most intense setting possible so Chessington must have maintained it poorly.

People can decide for themselves, it's about responsibility. You shouldn't need to know about those around you as they can decide for themselves whether they still feel up to it.

I would like to see a brand new Topscan that can run on the best setting.

This must be a planned closure. It's just too much of a coincidence that it's happened the past three years.

I've heard that the atmosphere is amazing (BPB at night is amazing anyway), and there are roaming actors around the park but the horror maze isn't anything special, just a bit of fun.I will be experiencing Vampire Beach this year and am looking forward to it, mostly just to be back at the park and in the dark!

I met him as well!

Really good preview event yesterday. I have posted my reviews in the Fright Nights topic so I'll just post the ride and maze count here. Maze Count: My Bloody Valentine x3 Cabin in the Woods x2 Studio 13 x1 Saw Alive x1 The Blair Witch Project x1 Ride Count: The Swarm x2 Stealth x1 Nemesis Inferno x1 Colossus x1 Saw: The Ride x1 X x1 TOTAL: 15

It's an improvement on what Thorpe use to cover their fences... (They don't).

No! Guests can decide for themselves whether they are in full enough health or not to reride! Personally if staff don't let me reride when there is no queue at all then I see it as a massive downside to the day considering that I'm not affected.

Every other year?

I rode them both earlier on in the evening and they were on two, so they must have taken them off later.

The Preview Night yesterday was fantastic, all coasters were on two trains and the mazes are top notch this year. POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD. Here are my maze reviews as promised: Cabin in the Woods This maze has improved to no end this year! Theming is high quality (and more of it), audio nice and loud, actors on top form and the new additions are fantastic! (Especially the mirror/window scene but I won't spoil it). Lighting has also been improved so that you can still see the really nice scenes, whereas the basic corridors have more frantic lighting and smoke. Overall I am really impressed at this superb attraction this year. Whilst not scary it is brilliant fun, and made me jump on more than one occasion! As always however, there is still room for further improvement and I would like to see a better ending next year. 8/10 My Bloody Valentine This maze has also improved hugely on last year, mostly due to the addition of more lighting. The theming in this maze is actually amazing, and it is much better this year as you can see it. Actors were also brilliant in this maze, with the murder scene being my favourite (where Harry Warden is murdering another actor) - this was actually convincible! The ending was also better, as there was a really good jump scare on all three of my goes (and it varied which is also good). The audio was nice and loud in this maze as well. Again there is still room for improvement, and I would like to see more bloodied bodies around the maze and blood on the walls etc. 8/10 Studio 13 I was disappointed by this maze. The audio was rubbish both in the queueline and maze. It created no atmosphere at all, was too quiet and didn't give the maze a sense of fear. The strobes were good, but the audio let them down as they didn't fit with the calm, dull music that was playing. Strobes need to feel frantic, crazy and they only work if the audio suits them. The theming quality in the maze was good in some parts, however a lot of it was just black walls which was a bit disappointing. Also it was hard to see any of the theming with the lighting. The first corridor still felt like Asylum, but apart from that it didn't really resemble it which is good (however there was some chain fencing). The chainsaw finale was still there but didn't work anywhere near as well as last year, as the hiding places were gone and the room just painted black. Overall I much preferred Asylum, and am quite disappointed that this didn't live up to it. Bring back Asylum I say! 6/10 Saw Alive Basically the same as usual, but with better lighting. The theming quality is really good but that's where the positives end. The actors don't really seem to understand the films (apart from a few), and are in the wrong places in the maze - for example in the pendulum room the actor was just walking around rather than in the trap. The weakest maze this year in my opinion. 5.5/10 The Blair Witch Project I really enjoyed this! It has been improved a lot since last year with new theming and much better actors. The finale shed was also much better this year. Great family scare attraction, and it achieves what it sets out to do this year. 7/10 Also, most mazes had new smell effects this year which was good! Yet again there was barely any park-wide theming, although this was the preview night so hopefully they will add more. However the majority of scare attractions had improved greatly, and if we still had Asylum instead of Studio 13 and some park-wide theming then I would call this the best year for Fright Nights yet. As it stands however, it's missing it's signature attraction. I am visiting the event three more times this year so hopefully Studio 13 will improve.

Just back from a fantastic preview event! Cabin in The Woods and My Bloody Valentine are both fantastic this year. The new lighting in MBV means that you can actually see the actors and well themed sets, and Cabin has also had lots of improvements which add to it a lot! Studio 13 was a bit of a letdown for me - I enjoyed it but it didn't have any sense of fear, nevertheless it was fun. There didn't seem to be many actors though so maybe I got a bad run through it. Blair Witch was much improved. Saw Alive was the usual, although again it was slightly lighter which is really good as you can see the theming. The maze as a whole still doesn't do much for me though, and I'd say it was the weakest maze today. Full reviews coming tomorrow.

It's Annual Pass Preview night tomorrow. Hope that means we aren't going to get queue jumped by a load of "celebrities"!

New music? Where have you found it? (Or are you there?)

LOVE the entrance lighting! Also, "better than Asylum?" This sounds promising!

As long as the whole floor of Studio 13 isn't green carpet (as it was fitted for the Braniac event) then I'm happy! In seriousness, my guess is that the main room of Studio 13 will be the same concept as Asylum (strobes above the scenery), and I think they will reuse some props and walls. However I would imagine that the first corridor section will be completely different (judging by the picture of the window which I assume is at the beginning), and the end corridor will probably be similar. I am not expecting the entire maze to be brand new, and I don't mind them reusing things as long as it doesn't still feel like an Asylum.

Oakwood are getting Sleepy Hollow (rumoured to be a Wild Mouse), BPB is rumoured to be getting an Air Race but apart from that there is nothing Two boring years in a row as far as new UK investment is concerned.

I like it. Very much looking forward to hopefully visiting this park if it opens next year.

Ah nice, glad they are reusing that! Not sure why it would be playing inside the maze though. To be fair the Asylum music was also used for Freezer so it's more just a general Halloween track, and as it really suits horror mazes I'll be glad if it is used again.

The theme music or sirens? To be honest both would fit the new maze just as well as they fit Asylum. Glad to hear that the chainsaw is probably back! Scruffy Dog did the theming for My Bloody Valentine last year so they may well have been called in to make some final touches to the other mazes. Another little advert clip:

If the park is dead by 8pm like it was last year then I hope they just stop running the system as it would be stupidity to have to reserve a maze if it was walk on...

Blimey, they really are going all out with the actors this year - neither of these will be cheap to recreate! I'm impressed.

Th13teen! My Bloody Valentine or Cabin in The Woods?

Great, well that's my friday visit and second sunday visit ruined... Last year the mazes didn't have queues after 7pm on sunday so it's not needed! Not impressed with this. There'd better be a normal queue still open.