Dodge2002

Something serious must be going down in which case, because they've already hired actors for the whole season, some that haven't even started yet. Perhaps we'll see actors around THE SWARM all year round Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Either that or 20 odd people just got made redundant... I'm glad Thorpe have finally realised what a waste of money the maze was being open though.

I think they should just scrap actors altogether bar-fright nights. The fact of the matter is, they're just not very good. There's only so many times you can put up with the cliche'd lunatic grunting in your ear, or the mad man running up to your face and stopping at the last minute. None of the actors in Saw have any creativity whatsoever, probably because its such a new concept. All they have to go off of is the same old stuff, or maybe they're not allowed to do anything new? Who knows... But anyone with any real appreciation of drama should agree that the scares are just cheap, and their approach is very much "people are screaming...that'll do" I think Ex10 worked so well because the whole experience didn't rely on the actors. So if they were going to create a new "experience" attraction, they should go down the lines of creating something similar. Think Sub Terra's lifts...only you're in one 1/10th the size and you're the only one in it. You exit the lifts, then you walk through this attraction where you have to crawl, climb and jump over obstacles, while some unworldly creature watches. Replace the actors with loud noises and a few 4D effects, like the breathing of a monster on your neck as you crawl through a gap, then it slobbers down on you. Probably waaaay of the mark here though, and it'll just be a Topspin.

A 230 ft Booster would be insane! Thats like twice the size of a standard one, and they're already massive. Unfortunately though, even if they did get to build another 200ft+ ride, I doubt Thorpe'd waste that height on a KMG Flat ride.

Just out of curiosity, whats the actual benefit of running any ride on a reduced amount of trains during non-peak times? Is it just less tear and wear, or somehow more cost efficient?

As far as I know, these days they only ever come together in Bristol, once a year. As they have been for I'd say a good 10 years now.The Mellors group just put up an observation wheel in the City Center too, so they're probably quite friendly with Bristol city council right now, so I'd suspect they probably pump some sort of cash into it to keep them coming back.It's a shame because the set price format is well worth the money, they had the refurbed runaway minetrain from AA, A topscan, A KMG Speed, and a KMG freakout, which just these 4 alone at a normal fair would cost more than entry, never mind the supporting rides. But I guess its only really financially viable after a certain threshold of visitors.(Sorry to go off topic)

Isn't the "experience" the fire truck?

Well I just went on a topscan at the traveling fair circuit called Funderworld here in Bristol, and all I can say is, wow.I don't know what to think really. It was insane, and faster than any Topscan I've ever seen or been on. It was violent and aggressive and contorted me in all different directions, I've never greyed out on a ride before but it happened today. In fact I'm still hurting.It kind of made me appreciate how floaty and comfortable Samurai is, but at the same time made me realise what the same ride is actually capable of. I understand entirely why they don't run it on max settings though, as its just way to violent, it makes Saw look like a B&M.

I'll have to say yes Saw is damn rough...sometimes.Yes it gives me a slight headache that lasts a few minutes after, and yes I brace myself A LOT during certain points.But I really don't care. It's a fun ride that is full of intense and interesting inversions that you'd never see if Thorpe was some kind of B&M only park. On the flip side, the park would be just as bad if it just full of Gerstlauer coaster. Every company has its quirks, and that's what makes a park like Thorpe so unique, because it has it all.

I don't think they're allowed? Isn't the BBC's policy that they're not allowed to plug any product/brand name on air.

The joints were covered in crack detection paint, the other day.You just have to ride it to comprehend the ridiculous amount of stress the ride goes under, it almost boggles the mind when it stops to spin the other way how much pressure it must endure.I'd assume a lot of day to day down time is due to the air compressor flagging errors (I'm assuming its air powered?). It's a dangerous thing, if something goes wrong that tank could go boom and destroy most of the surrounding area! Much like a car engine, the amount of pressure going through probably a very small gap has to be absolutely perfect, and it wont budge until that requirement is met.

The ride is really weird without any music. I loved the techno rave, but I'd settle for the original song over nothing.I wish they'd settle on what they're going to do with this ride. The queuline was actually looking pretty presentable the other day, but the ride just isn't interesting enough on its own. And it's kind of amazing what a bit of loud music and flashing lights do to enhance the ride, imo.

Isn't it jumping the gun a bit to say they're building a new flat in that spot, just because of a few fencing footers...? Why would they be starting with the fence anyway, isn't that generally the last thing during construction? That's not to say I don't think there's a good possibility of a new flat in 2013, but I wouldn't say its necessarily gonna be put there, when I saw it my first impression was that they were building a more permanent queuline for The Asylum maybe? That ride needs to go or be hidden out of site though, it has to be one of the creepiest SBNO rides I've ever seen.

They had a water dummy sat in one of the seats and all the restrains were taken off yesterday too. It was a shame because Rush is easily my favorite flat ride in the park.Poor old S&S, they just seem to be causing maintenance nightmares for Thorpe.

Was lucky enough to grab a couple of goes on THE SWARM today. In terms of ride experience, its really not something you can compare to Nemesis or the likes. It's its own experience. It's just weird, in a good way. The length is a complete non-issue when you're on the ride, and has some perfect pacing. I agree that different seats yield different experiences,As for the atmosphere, I'll be forward. I found the actors to be absolutely crap, to put it bluntly. Quantity doesn't lead to Quality. To elaborate; The entrance was just a mess, blink and you'd miss the soldiers quietly yelping "move along" One of the guys wasn't really even in character, just sort of saying "Go on through the barrier". We also decided one soldier woman in particular was just dreadful. We spotted her 4 times throughout the day just stood there doing nothing. Then at one point after meekly shouting "move along" at a group of people, she decided to stand and have a chat with one of the games stall guys. Why the hell are they allowed to do this and get paid £70 a day for it? The group of soldiers as a whole were just bad. Shouting Move every 5 minutes was just tedious and annoying.And the rest of the "loonies" showed once again how clueless whoever directs these actors is.The acting was marginally better as they didn't just stand around, and kept up the "acting" all day. However, they were inconsistent and ruined any continuity in the story. One minute the swarm was a disease, the next it was an alien, the next they were doing a Seance(Seriously what the hell has this got to do with aliens?) Oh and apparently the swarm took control of the plane and crashed it, obviously. When you looked at how professional the queuline videos were, then look at these guys, it was like looking at a bunch of GCSE drama students doing a school play. So sorry to vent. but yes I believe the actors actually got on my nerves so much that I felt the area will be even better once they've gone back to their crappy maze. This just really irks me, I'm willing to let a lot of quality issues to slip with their staff and park, but actors should be giving nothing but 100% with the amount they're paid and what I'd assume is quite a hard to obtain position.Other than that, again the bands kind of cluttered up the area, but I felt that once the park is normally operated it'll be a lot better. It was almost a pleasure to walk through the queuline and actually a bad thing that we didn't get the chance to queue a bit longer (which is just crazy really). Things seemed a bit hit and miss with the left and ride side being forced upon us. Sometimes we got told where to go, others we could choose. It really probably wouldn't be hard to sneak to whichever side you want though. The station looks excellent, and it's actually kind of a nice change to board a train at ground level, as weird as that sounds. Other than that there's not much else to fault the ride on though. It's a beast and Thorpe Park have outdone themselves.

I wonder if they bothered to hire new directors this year.Surely if they know their jobs are potentially being threatened they'll give it their all this year?I think The SWARM actors kind of prove, the acting is good, but the people giving directions are just awful at their jobs to put it blunt...It's clear that ever since Saw Alive appeared, they've been using some of the same people. I haven't had a good scare in any of their mazes since fright nights of 09. And it kind of sickens me that these guys are probably getting paid more than any other FOH job in the park. I hate to say it but I just envisage the entire directorial team behind Saw Alive as a bunch of campy drama lovies that don't have a clue...

What if they went for a "End of the World Special Broadcast" style queuline track, like on Tidal Wave?Think Fallout games, only 2012 style. Comission in a few apocalyptic tracks from You Me at Six, mix that in with Experiment 10 and the random "Somethings gone wrong" style, only this time its a news report saying "Stay inside" etc. then as you get closer to the station it begins to play gospel-like music(this imo is a must, as "rock" music playing in a church will destroy that atmosphere) Either that or we'll see something similar to how Daft Punk composed Tron's OST. While there was always that essence of their trademark electro style, they really surprisingly produced some grand tracks no different from a veteran composer.Time will tell though...

Well, it just said "[NO SIGNAL]" last time I went. Fortunately this means the TVs ARE working, its just the input that needs to be fixed

Well, before I was pretty meh about the story behind this ride.I'm much preferring the route they're taking this now. It's something so much more complex than "alien comes down, hypnotizes people, destroys city, some crazies prophesized it". And I like it. Sometimes you have to remember, there's plenty of time for a detailed nemesis-esque backstory later, but at the moment they're also trying to advertise a ride here. And this is pure marketing ingenuity, and I think its far surpassed what Alton ever did with Oblivion, or any park has done with any ride that I personally know of. I don't think this affects the integrity of the marketing at all, and it goes to show how many relatively cheap things can all add together to make an amazing marketing effort,

My friend who got an audition this year at Alton towers had an A-Level grade B in drama and that was it. Unfortunately she didn't make it simply because they only had a very small amount of vacancies of someone with her height, build and hair colour, (tall slim and...ginger haha) which are all things they look for. At Alton Towers, they said she could pick from The Mentalist, The Victim or The Posessed, and they had to scare a woman who was sat down on a chair in the middle of the room. If the person was scared they'd put their hand up. From what she was told by previously returning actors, is that scare quality isn't necessarily the main thing they're looking for because that's something they can be taught and pick up on. For example in the Boiler house, they were looking for middle-aged slightly overweight people to save on extra make up and costume. It's all very quick and dirty, just like any audition would be. If you're not just what they're looking for, they won't have you, regardless of how well you manage to scare people. All actors are usually on par, so if they had the choice between buying a blond wig or hiring someone who already has blond hair, they'd go for the blond girl. Getting an audition shouldn't be that hard though really, as long as you have some kind of interest in Drama. Yes the auditions are harsh like a west end play, but no, they're not looking for the next Ian Mckellen and these days qualifications mean less and less.

Well, I went again yesterday with some different friends and my goodness it was shocking compared to my first visit a week ago...Storm Surge broke down 3 times for about an hour each time, we saw people being evacuated from the boats on the lift hill 3 timesStealth broke down at about 4pm and never re started Saw broke down 3 times, the people at the front of the queue claimed they had waited 3 and half hours, because they had to let through a backlog of fastrack people firstSaws queue line was silentSeven had to do an e-stop whilst we were in the queue because "something fell off the roof" After pre-queuing for Experiment 10, the queue was evacuated after the first group due to "Technical difficulties" which the staff refused to elaborate on.Queuing for Depth Charge took 40 minutes because the conveyer belt broke, and we weren't even informedMr Monkey was down for about 2 hours during the afternoon Samurai was down for about 30 minutes in the afternoon 2 of the Queue line time boards were offThey horrendously oversold every single fast track ticket to the point were every main queue was at least 90 minutes+ even though, in Saw for example, the queue was well past the cattle pen enclosure. They were running Nemesis on one train until about 12ish for some reasonWalking around the park the speakers would randomly burst out chart music then switch back to the Saw 3 OSTDetonators Photo booth was shutSome girl took a makeup mirror on Detonator which fell out and smashed, the attendant took about 10 minutes just to sweep it up with no sense of urgency at allAfter finally going on experiment 10 with the priority passes we received, I discovered the whole maze had been ruined by the fact they were batching us in groups of 25-30. FAR more than the maze could cope withAgain, on the Asylum we were put in with a group of 15. There aren't enough actors to cope with 15 people. The chainsaw man in the Asylum didn't even start it, he just waved it about like some type of magic wandThe actor from the last room in Seven sent us out a fire exit for some bizarre reason, and we ended up in the backstage area, with no guidance on how to hell to get out of the area. It was just a nightmare. That said we still had a great time, with some wise queuing we got on a hefty 20+ rides, and all of the mazes. And I can forgive the fact that reliability is an unfortunate fact of life at theme parks. But I'm seriously shocked at how much 2 visits to the park can vary so much. Overall, for the past 3 years I've visited, this year has been my worst experience so far.

Hey all, I'm planning a trip to go this friday, which obviously comes under their "Advanced booking only" policy and I had a few questions.First off, if I have an annual pass will I still have to book in advanced? It would come in handy anyway because I won't have to queue to pay the £5. If so how do I go about doing this?Secondly, does anyone know if I can still get the Family & Friends discount on these days? I know pretty much every other 241 of half price ticket is invalid that day, so I was wondering if this was also the caseThanks in advanced.

I really tried to stay positive about this maze, the attention to detail and likeness of the movies in regards to the scenery was top notchBut I gave up all hope after my visit on Friday after one of the actors saidIn a "creepy" cockney accent "Roll up, Roll up! This way!"When has anyone EVER said ANYTHING even remotely like that in a Saw film? It just made me realise these actors aren't given any sort of direction on how to act to make this a great horror film based maze.It's such a shame to see all this Saw theming wasted.

I have always wondered what the hell goes on with Thorpe's audio.I know that most big restaurant chains like Pizza Hut, TGI's etc. usually have a system in place, and the way it works is that the more food orders you enter into the system at a given time, the more upbeat the music becomes to create a vibrant busy atmosphere. I'm not saying this is something that would work at a big theme park, but it goes to show music can be dynamically selected on the fly and intelligent sound servers do exsist. For example, a long queue line could switch to a more entertaining and longer track, The more people that pass through an area, the more intense it becomes etc. I think they really need to look at their music source, because they've evidently replaced all their speakers, and the sound quality at the park is top notch, but its so inconsitent and its a waste of all this refurb money.Stealth's music cut out every time a train came to the station, The chart music at the entrance was so quiet I could only hear it at the ticket booth, on Quantum, the guy in the control booth had to ask the queue line if they could hear him because the PA kept cutting out, On the way out, The dome, the bridge, and the ticket booths were all playing completely different songs which confused the hell out of me. (On a side note, if they're allowed to play the saw main them on the bridge at fright nights why the hell couldn't they use it in the saw queuline? It's so epic!)Other than that I really don't have any issue with their actual choice of music. Chart music seems a bit odd, but lets face it, if you're gonna spend 40 mins queuing for a ticket, 90% of the people in the queue would rather be listening to it than a generic Thorpe Park theme. Using Saw music around the park is also a nice addition, because I've heard a lot of people say they recognise it, but so few actually manage to work out that its taken directly from the saw films.

I think they'd probably get a lot of hassle if they stopped people from going barefoot on Air, because on the advert it shows a woman just wearing her socks.

Went yesterday and had a pretty good time. The atmosphere wasn't quite as good as it was last year, there wasn't as much smoke, and the music was more heavy rather than atmospheric. Although I did appreciate the music from Saw in the Stealth queue since I love that song. That said. Experiment 10 makes up for it. By a long shot. I don't get too scared of mazes, (although I jump easily!) But when I was in experiment 10 I was genuinely scared. They clearly put alot of thought into it, and the theatrical values of it, Not just the acting, but with all the smoke and mirrors kind of tricks and top notch sequencing made it so worth it. In a way it makes me sad to think, that if they had done this kind of market research before this Saw Alive could have and should have been a maze like this, and it could have been a permanent attraction.The Asylum was top notch, I didn't get to go in last year, but it had changed from my last time in there 2 years ago. It was a lot longer and it was packed full of actors. Seven, well it was okay, not much had changed, I think our group was laughing most of the way through, the actors in there seemed far less interested in shock factor than the other mazes. And well, I went in a costume, I was a wolf dressed as a granny from little red riding hood, and well when we got to the lust room, the woman started shouting "OHHH GRANDMA! GRANDMA! What furry hands you have, I'd love to play with them!" and I think after that the group were too busy laughing to be scared anymore. That's not to say it was a bad thing, in a way it was refreshing to see they weren't focusing on scaring people so much, and more on an atmosphere. We went into the curse at about 9:15, and I counted a whole of 3 actors. It was awful. Now I don't know whether that was because it was late, and the queue was practically empty, but still it was a good 1-2 mins before we even saw anyone in there...As per usual ride ops etc got into the spirit of things, more than a few commented on the costume, through the PA. The roaming actors were great, you could see a swarm of people running away screaming every few minutes and you knew they were nearby. It's insane to think how this year started off so badly with the construction of Storm Surge, and yet its ending on such a high note with Experiment 10, and THE SWARM looming over the park.