pluk

I think Lionsgate for next year is a near certainty and effectively signed up already, clauses allowing. As for the mazes and their consistency it is fair to say they can not be truly consistent due to their live action nature, the individuality of certain actors, the reactions of the guests they have to play against etc etc etc. There are a lot of variables that means it will not be the same every time, but that is only true to a point. There should be a consistency in effort, a consistency in numbers of actors, a consistency in numbers of guests, a consistency in theme and plot that still allows for more than a little variety in what the result actually is but is still a version of something that is at least good. There seem to have been too many reports of extremes of experience this year (like most other years in my experience!) where some run throughs, often following a multi hour wait, have simply been not good enough. This comes not only from here, but mostly from non geek/enthusiast friends who have told me their experiences, it is not just fan boys expecting too much! I myself have not been to any theme park Halloween events this year sadly, which is quite telling of what I think of them now. I'm not saying the new direction of Thorpe is not a good idea, and ATs overall event is always solid, but for other reasons I could not attend at the start of the event when the crowds would have been bearable and the way the parks are run latter on is not acceptable to me. It is fastrack, it is shockingly run, and I'm not willing to play that game. It's not fun. Something I have been very much a fan of this year has been the extras on offer (brave it alone, camping), that is how you add revenue without pissing everyone off a la fastrack. A very pleasing positive review of what they managed to turn camping into after a poor start.

A little review of the brave it alone experience, it is in no real detail and nothing in there that's not generally known... http://www.themeparkguide.biz/brave-it-alone-2013.php

Hit a rider, how does that work? Should that say hit someone standing in the queue? And it reads like the wheels were from the ride train, I thought they were from the lift hill?

I haven't given it a good going over yet, but from a quick flick through it seems pretty good. The 'navigation' map I'm sure will be pretty useful to first timers, in comparison it goes to show how useless the park map has become at actually being a map. Also noticed there is no update to either map or attraction list for frightnights, maybe it'd be too big a job the short(ish) event. Find my car would be a good idea, just a little GPS memory point to take you straight back.

Good to hear a more positive report coming from the busier end of frightnights.

Mark9's next post will be his 4,000th. It better be a good one...

There is no way on earth they wouldn't have thought of that, throughput management would be very heavily considered in the design. How they've overcome it I do not know, but they will have done, possibly with the ride splitting at certain points.

It's like getting my old car through its MOT. Each fault that needs repairing is not enough individually to warrant scrapping it, but when you add up all those repairs over time you realise you could have bought a new car with what you've spent. Each small outlay makes the next one seem more of a good idea to stop the previous spends having been a waste.It is quite a predicament. I'm waiting for my car to have one single problem that costs £1000 to repair and I'll scrap it, but each time it develops a little £100 fault it seems right to fix it. I imagine that is exactly what is happening with Slammer, just with bigger numbers!

If that is accurate it looks like it should be a stunning show/ride.

GCSE photography? What the actual hell? When I did GCSEs they were in academic studies, not hobbies and pass times. The world's gone mad I tell you. This sentence itself is a brilliant demonstration of where GCSE efforts should be instead! That is a superb series, thanks for it. I have a basic understanding from this book, which I'd recommend, but still I struggle. I think with the basic knowledge it is just repetition that is required to get a knack for it, but I don't put enough time or effort in to get to that point where it becomes intuitive. I really should try a bit harder at some point.

That sounds quite nasty, here's a slightly better written account from the telegraph with a witness quote There's no way out of the boats without standing so it seems he's gone over the side while standing to disembark. I suppose whether he stood too early or if this accident was possible under normal off load procedure will determine if they have to make adjustments to the ride before re opening and if they might be held liable.

Nice, I don't think I've ever Rumba'd in the dark. Do they have it well lit or is it actually dark?

Bye then, Lou.

As reported by TS on facebook, it's dead again. Suggestion is that a sheared bolt has done this to the toilet roof Which if true begs the question, what would it do to the top of your head?

Double it again, sell half as many. Jumping a queue that size is a hell of a premium product and should be priced to represent it. If it has to exist it should be for a few, not the masses.

Amazing. Could this be a turning point in how parks view the fastrack 'service'? The feedback from summer must have been quite strong for them to miss out on all that revenue it would have generated over Halloween. When it returns, which inevitably will, we can only hope it is with a much more tightly managed system. Vastly reduced numbers, with allocated times, at a much higher price. That's what I'll be hoping for.

How the hell does a ticket only attraction have a 40 minute queue. Towers were good with that last year, it should be like ToTT!

I'm not sure that it having had a retheme in the past will have much of a bearing on whether it will have another, CATCF has been through many guises for example. If the ride itself is sound I doubt they'd bother to replace it what with the large expenditure they've just made.

Excellent! Was it a one off or does it run up to Halloween? I'm told the Tilbury Fort one is supposed to be pretty good too, but think it is more family friendly than proper scary. #essextalk

The Smiler? Multiple flat rides? A whole new area for the second year in a row? I smell a simple re-theme.

Nice bit of forward planning from the park...

You only buy for one person, drawn at random. TBH the idea is usually that the presents are crap!

No, it's intermittent. Sometimes seems to go off every few minutes, other times I passed through without seeing it at all for the 10 minutes or so you are in there. It is just a single strobe in the main indoor queue, it is on the left as you go in the standard queue but is quite effective at filling the whole room with its strobey goodness.