Coaster

It's a shame they had to move location IMO, the Tooley Street Dungeon had a fantastic atmosphere and actually felt like a dungeon, this was helped by the taller ceilings, varied room setups and overall feel of the place. The new Dungeon is good but IMO it lacks the ambience and detail of the old one; it feels too artificial if that makes any sense.

It was yeah, but will the actors really be rehearsing/preparing for Fright Nights all day every day from the 4th September to when the event starts?

https://www.thorpepark.com/rides/I'm-a-celebrity/ Well that's a sure sign that it's a successful attraction!

Visited Oakwood earlier this week, here are some photos I took of "Dahland;" The coaster itself doesn't look great, and the track isn't exactly in great condition, but in fairness the area itself is quite nice.

Because it's still a popular ride and a queue-shifter after years of operation.

I can completely understand not allowing people to queue for the front, it can be frustrating after a long queue but if the staff are trying to fill empty rows to speed up the queue then I respect that. That said, with the way they run Vampire now they'd probably have time to call for another two people from the back of the queue and they would still make it to the front before the train is sent!

It's great to see that they are already building it, rather than the "last minute rush" situation last year. As for maze itself, I'm glad to see it's in a more permanent-looking tent, hopefully this time it'll actually feel like a horror maze rather than something very temporary. Also, if it's not having an outside section then they could maybe use some of the theming for the interior.

Yuck! What a dreadful idea.

Or just a different opinion...

Some of the coasters were on low capacity on my visits nearer the start of the season, though this has improved which is good. X has been on two trains for all of my visits this year, and I remember Tidal Wave being on low capacity at some stage. Ghost Train also had a lot of seats left free on my last visit, not sure why but possibly due to issues with the headsets?

That really is saddening to read, for a park that once strived to come up with their own ideas for the rides, now arguing over which IP?! Why can't they use their own creativity to come up with something? I really can't see why they haven't looked to improve Bubbleworks as anyone can see that it's still very popular, and the idea is timeless (as opposed to IP's which can expire very quickly). The fact that it still gets long queues 26 years after opening, despite having a high throughput, says that IMO the park have at least the basics of a timeless dark ride and that it's worth keeping. They had the fundamentals of a very good dark ride in Bubbleworks; the soundtrack is excellent, the scenes would be great with some changes, more colour & better lighting and the finale would be outstanding if they actually put some thought into it rather than a black wall, cheap LED's on factory settings and a ride boat dumped on its own - I mean for a final scene with so much potential it's disgusting that it was left in such a poor state. It had potential to be an outstanding ride again with some thought put into it, IMO it's such a shame that they seem intent on slapping poorly thought-out IP's on the park rather than creating attractions that will continue to be popular for years.

I agree, when they opened Experiment 10 back in 2011 it blew everyone away, nobody had ever seen anything like it and everything was brilliantly thought-out. The idea was original, the entire maze had a fantastic atmosphere due to the audio & theming and it really pushed the boundaries of what could be done with scare attractions in the UK. ...Fast forward to 2015 and we got a sub-standard clown maze with scaffolding and curtains for theming. Thorpe need to put some creativity back into the mazes... oh, and actually make them scary again.

Stealth and Derren Brown's Ghost Train have been closed for a while, not too sure apart from that.

It has been a pretty bad year in my opinion, I enjoyed my visits just before the summer holidays but apart from that there's been a lot of rides closed, low capacity on the rides, a major water ride out of action for the year and Derren Brown's Ghost Train causing all sorts of issues. Stealth is obviously an unavoidable issue, but that still doesn't make it any less frustrating to have it closed for the summer.

That is a very good point, even in its current form Bubbleworks appeals to everyone, and it still gets long queues despite a good throughput which has to be an indicator that people still like it. With some money spent on it, Bubbleworks could have easily been a very good dark ride again, they could have given it a retheme (not back to Professor Burp, but a new, original idea to go with the existing ride), restored the scenes back to their former glory (more colourful and better lighting) and it would have been a runaway success. Instead, they go for the easy option of slapping an IP onto it and thinking "it'll do for a few years." I mean does The Gruffalo really appeal to a wide range of people in the same way that Bubbleworks still does? What a shame.

My enthusiasm for Fright Nights has dwindled after last year, The Big Top was a complete flop and the other mazes weren't up to standard. I much preferred it when the park had their own original ideas for mazes rather than the Lionsgate ones (or clowns... because no-one's done that before). With that said, I'll give the new maze a go this year, hopefully it'll be better than I'm expecting. Also it'd be great if they didn't all have powercuts every 20 minutes.

The new Chessington Halloween maze will be called Professor Burp Alive and will feature that person dressed up to look nothing like him (currently doing the tours) chasing you with ducks from the ride.

The Flume was a great ride IMO - it was long, had three drops, a tunnel and a very high throughput.

I haven't visited for years (must change that soon!), but Paultons have continually made good investments in recent years, as well as seemingly having a fantastic attitude towards customers and trying to give them the best day out possible. They clearly don't have the best ride lineup in the UK, but in terms of the overall customer experience they appear to be leading the way at the moment.

Gruffaloworks... oh wait, that's actually happening.

Boulder still broken (not even spinning), lighting still awful, moving props out of sync with the front of the train and still no sound effect on the final mummy scene. It's such a shame that a ride with as much potential as Tomb Blaster is allowed to remain in this state.

Had my last few rides on Bubbleworks today, quite sad to see it close really.

Yeah, strangely the front is the driest seat as the backwards drop is the wettest! The water didn't look clean on my last visit actually, I think it's just lake water.

An update of early groundwork for Project 2018, there are much better/more up to date updates on other fan-sites but these are the most recent photos I have, taken a few weeks ago; Access route under Big Dipper; Groundwork on the old Turtle Chase site; Markings around the proposed area, there's quite a few of these;

The water in Lost River at Flamingo Land seemed fairly clean, which was my only positive as the ride itself (and the throughput) was dire!