Coaster

Are they?

I wouldn't visit Alton Towers on a 4pm close day because hours as short as that don't appeal to me. If the park was open longer, I would be more likely to visit.

I have been on a behind the scenes tour of Valhalla so it's possible (in small-ish groups) but I don't think PB would want to open it up to daily guests, it's not the easiest building to navigate and the interior looks very different with the lights on. It would also depend how much work was taking place inside the ride daily I guess.

I'm in two minds about the idea of closing Valhalla for a year. It certainly is a problem area for the park with astronomical running costs and it hasn't been impressive enough to justify these costs for a few years IMO. The state that thing was in this year, it may as well have been closed. If the closure enables them to restore Valhalla to its former glory and reopen in 2021 with the dark ride element as impressive as it was when new, I fully support it. Whilst the effects are costly, they could potentially make modifications to the way they operate so that they are more reliable and cost-effective without changing much of what the rider actually sees. On the other hand, my concern is that making the ride more sustainable could mean taking out the impressive effects and replacing them with cheap alternatives. We have already seen key elements of the experience broken all year, so they could be planning to make cheap replacements (e.g. timed lighting and sounds instead of fire). Valhalla was my favourite ride at its best, but it was designed as a theatrical experience with the most ambitious special effects I have ever seen. These do break from time to time, and I don't remember a time where every single effect worked at once, but in the last 2/3 years they've stopped fixing them and the general standard of scenic presentation has plummeted to rock bottom. In its hey day it was truly the most amazing ride I've ever experienced though that is difficult to believe when riding it today. The other thing to consider if Valhalla spends a year out, is that we have essentially lost two of the park's best rides (even if only temporarily in Valhalla's case) and only gained Icon. Valhalla isn't the same ride anymore and a refurbishment could either restore it to its former glory or ruin it further.

It's closed season again, which parks did you visit in 2019 and how many times? If you are visiting any parks over the winter these can be added in as and when! I'll start; Blackpool Pleasure Beach x8 Thorpe Park x5 Cedar Point x3 Phantasialand x2 Liseberg x2 Alton Towers x2 Kennywood x1 Six Flags Great Adventure x1 Coney Island x1 Kings Island x1 Toverland x1 Efteling x1 Walibi Holland x1 Duinrell x1 Oakwood 1 Tusenfryd x1 Quite a busy year for visiting parks abroad, less UK visits but still a few.

Valhalla has had lots of issues this year. Boats sinking with riders in on more than one occasion, there was one instance where riders had to evacuate themselves from the boat due to the water being waste deep! Bumps between boats, this does happen from time to time but it shouldn't do with Valhalla's ride system, also bearing in the mind the ride hardware was designed to run 20+ boats and bumps when running 8, not good. I have experienced a few bumps and it can be quite brutal, bearing in mind how heavy the boats are. Issues with the block system around the first turntable (I experienced this first hand). The ride hardware is knackered, all of the above have come from publicly posted reports/pictures and/or my own experiences on the ride. Effects have been dreadful this year, most of the fire has been down all year (I have heard due to the splash from the final drop flooding the sensors), ice room not working at all, I could write an endless list of how poor it has been on my rides but I'll just say that it has essentially been a clunky oversized log flume in the dark this year. I do not believe the rumour that the ride will be SBNO next year until it's confirmed reliably, but at the same time, there are reasons why it might have to be.

Depth Charge, Rocky Express and Teacups all seem very reliable and give families something to do, why do they need to go?

I haven't and won't be.

It would have been better to allow the passholders in this week and not next week surely?

Bring back Calypso BBQ.

Adventure Island.

The 8pm closes during summer were changed to 6pm at the last minute "BPB style" if I recall correctly.

Woah, how can you turn people away who have prebooked tickets already?

Lumber Jump?

This is nothing like the situation that lead to the Wild Mouse's closure. No similarity whatsoever. I agree that a lot of new measures are OTT but in this case it clearly isn't the fault of the guest, if a nail is sticking out of the floor and able to cut into someone's leg in the pitch black I think that is quite serious.

People love to complain? Is that really the case when it's caused serious injury to people?

I have attached the Tweet I saw regarding an injury in Creek Freak. I didn't report the shoelace incident as it unfortunately didn't cross my mind after exiting the maze, it was only after seeing this Tweet that it jogged my memory and I realised it was most likely the same nail that caused serious injury!

I'll try and get around to writing a full review soon, but Tulleys Shocktoberfest was absolutely incredible this year. The mazes were all on top form and Wastelands Penitentiary is unlike any scare attraction I've ever seen before in terms of both the exterior show and interior. The atmosphere around the attraction is phenomenal and I would highly recommend a visit for fans of scare events. Whilst I felt like last year was a bit of an off-year for the event, it feels refreshed and at the top of its game this year. Just amazing.

There have been a few reports of people being injured in Creek Freak's tunnel, my shoelace got caught on a nail on the first weekend but I believe some people have actually been seriously injured by it. Horrendous that these things aren't checked really.

It seems that every year a flat ride closes as Fright Nights starts.

I thought about that, it seems deliberate maybe that the park have plastered it on videos, social media and the website to get people to visit, but there's no mention of it in the park or on the map because they hope people will forget that it's how the maze was advertised to sell the tickets and therefore not have those expectations? I always go into scare mazes with no prior expectation, however, that doesn't change the principle of the marketing for this maze IMO.

Of course parks exaggerate, but to claim that Creek Freak Massacre is the most intense horror maze in the event's history is an incredibly bold claim and there is no room for interpreting it differently (unlike many of their claims) - they have literally guaranteed 100% that the new maze is the most intense scare attraction they have ever created. Whilst I didn't personally expect it to be my favourite ever Thorpe maze, ultimately the way it has been sold by the park is a significant contributing factor to my impression and review of the maze. It's fun but it does not deliver what Thorpe promised.

I visited Fright Nights on both Saturday and Sunday and experienced each maze multiple times, here are my reviews. - SPOILERS BELOW! - Creek Freak Massacre The new maze for 2019 has a fantastic presence from the exterior, however the queue-line feels a bit sparse with you being able to see the workings of the sign. There are theme music and announcements however I couldn't hear these very well due to there only being two speakers towards the end of the queue. Onto the maze itself, it's very good fun. There is some good theming, multiple routes and the actors really get into their roles. The maze uses some really ambitious effects such as the heat room, the "blade table" with water and the strobe flash rate near the end is excellent and reminiscent of The Asylum's chaotic feel. It felt as though some of the effects were not working as intended, for example the blade was just round, did not move and I believe it is supposed to have a lighting sequence on the theming object itself? Hopefully they are able to rectify this. The chainsaw scares were mixed. Out of six goes in the maze, I had one excellent one where I encountered three chainsaws; one in a corridor, one in the strobe room and one at the end. Unfortunately, the first time I saw three chainsaws however the first one wasn't working. On all four other run-through's I only encountered two chainsaws. I'm not sure whether one chainsaw was broken and they had no spare or whether it depends on how busy the maze is, but I noticed a severe lack of actors (and chainsaws!) towards the end of the evening on Sunday. We walked thorough many corridors without encountering any actors, with there only being a few in the key scenes. This was a massive contrast to Saturday evening where the maze was full of actors who took us aside into corners, split us up etc. The maze is very inconsistent. In my opinion, some more low-level scenic lighting would be beneficial in places such as spotlights highlighting the "good wood" and "bad wood" signs in the first scene as these are currently not visible under show conditions. I feel that the park's marketing let the maze down by building falsely high expectations which the attraction did not deliver. It is not the most intense Fright Nights maze ever - in my opinion. The maze is not intense; it's well themed with some good effects/scares, but even on the best run-through it felt very calm and controlled with the exception of the short strobe maze section. Claiming it to be the most intense Fright Nights maze of all time is an insult to the creators of Experiment 10 and The Asylum, both of which were, in my opinion, far superior and much more intense than Creek Freak IMO. I have also seen it claimed on the park’s website that it’s the UK’s most intense scare maze? Laughable. Overall, Creek Freak Massacre is a solid addition to the Fright Nights line-up and a huge improvement on anything the park did last year. I wouldn't consider it a top-tier Thorpe maze and unfortunately it was let down by it being over-hyped, but it's definitely one of the better ones in recent years and there is still room for improvements to be made. 6/10 Platform 15 I felt that Platform 15 was improved on the whole this year. The actors made much more of the story-line on our walk-through's and there seemed to be a good balance between scripted scenes and scares throughout. Unfortunately, there was light leaking into the long tunnel which completely spoiled the effect and made it far too predictable in terms of where actors were positioned. I could see Saw: The Ride at one point through a hole in the sheets! The new final scene was excellent on the Sunday run-through and genuinely made our group jump! 4/10 Blair Witch Again, a lot more scripted talking from the actor during the early scenes and a new addition of going around and around in circles made it... different. I really liked the long periods of pitch darkness from the original version of this maze and it unfortunately feels too illuminated now and therefore does not have the same effect. With that said, I liked the more creative route this year. 3/10 Walking Dead: Living Nightmare The maze remains largely the same as previous years but with an improved ending. The actors were doing a great job during our goes however I feel the attraction misses the mark somewhere. There is some good theming but nothing particularly stands out, it isn't scary and the strobe maze feels poorly executed compared with others. 4/10 Walking Dead: Do or Die I don't understand this attraction, why are we sitting in a bus, how are we supposed to be scared walking through temporary tarpaulin sheet fencing with bright white floodlights and what are we supposed to be "doing"? The interior of the containers was better than last year and the actors were brilliant once again, but it's just a poor attraction IMO and I really don't think we need two Walking Dead mazes. 2/10 Overall Event and Park Atmosphere Fright Nights feels improved on last year with the addition of Creek Freak Massacre and a reduction in poor quality attractions, however the event still feels a shallow rendition of its former self. Whilst we gained a new horror maze, we lost Saw Alive and are down to just two indoor horror attractions. This is not enough and we found ourselves having to wait until it got dark to walk through the remaining three attractions after doing the first two as both Platform and Do or Die rely on darkness to create a sense of mystery that would be lost during daylight. The event used to have five full-scale indoor horror mazes, what happened? I like how every scare attraction has had an improvement made to it and I have to say that the actors were largely fantastic throughout both days/evenings. It appears as though the park have taken feedback on-board from last year and tried to make changes where they can, which is great. The Amity High show outside Stealth is brilliant and created a fantastic atmosphere around the area. Lighting around the park is terrible with floodlit queue-lines (and mazes!) and hideous emergency lighting left on around Platform 15’s queue which ruined the effect that the scenic lighting would have otherwise created. One particular annoyance was that there is a bright white floodlight shining directly onto the Derren Brown’s Ghost Train entrance sign which destroys the effect it used to have with the blue light shining through and illuminating the letters (similar to the effect The Asylum’s sign also had). How can they build such an elaborate sign only to have such terrible attention to detail a few years down the line? Will we see bright flood lights shining onto the Wicker Man structure in a few years? So, so poor. The park did not feel like Fright Nights was running at all, there was none of the smoke effects in vehicles we have seen in recent years and a lack of coloured lighting as mentioned above. With that said, there was some theming dotted around in places such as old Vulcan Peak queue theming and body bags. It was a shame to see old Big Top theming dumped in a visible location whilst queueing for Do or Die. Nemesis Inferno looks fantastic with the mist working fully and a new orange light, Colossus’s station has also seen some theming added which is great and reminded me of the event’s glory days. There was some good themed audio around the park, more could be done but what was there was good. With that said, it was amusing to hear the original upbeat end-of-the-day track on Saturday night whilst leaving the dome! Overall, I enjoyed my visits to Fright Nights this year and particularly enjoyed Inferno in the dark. Creek Freak Massacre is a solid addition and with improvements could be up there with the best Fright Nights mazes, however I feel that the overall event is still lacking in quality and depth.

I just wanted to praise the way Nemesis Inferno looks at night during Fright Nights this year. The mist was fully working at the weekend with a new orange light in the queueline, it looks incredible and the best I've seen it look after dark for years. The ride itself was running very well by the evening, by far and away the best coaster experience at Thorpe in my opinion.

Saturday was moderately busy and Fastrack ratios were poor. Sunday was much quieter and a better day overall. I was at the park on both days.