Dodge2002

Seeing as Thorpe Park themselves posted on this very thread that it was planned to be open for Fright Nights, I don't think I'd believe a word anyone says anymore, even if it were the freaking president of S&S rides.

I get the feeling there is something quite seriously wrong with Loggers Leap. Its been down for my past three visits, and I don't think its made it past 1pm before being condemned to be shut for the whole day.

After my second visit, I'm a bit disappointed with how fast things have degraded since my first visit a couple of weeks ago... Firstly the You're Next actors. We saw two of them stood there having a conversation in plain site, and a woman in a grey hoodie who stuck out like a sore thumb? What the hell was that all about? Had she forgotten her costume or something? I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it, had I not noticed the fact she was wearing nail varnish too. Seriously, I know I sound picky, but these actors get paid £70 a day. Do they not have even a basic level of uniform standard? If I was their supervisor this would be absolutely unacceptable. On the whole there is a real lack of professionalism surrounding all the actors if I'm honest. We saw one walking in to Saw chowing down on a hotdog, we caught 2 discussing their shifts in Cabin in the Woods, we saw the director check his phone multiple times and the assistants wig was basically falling off. This job role should be treated no differently then a stage show. Could you even fathom an actor getting his phone out while on stage? Generally as well, presentation is annoying. MBV, why is acceptable for them to just dump left over scenery next to the entrance? It ruins the atmosphere completely and shows they don't care at all about attention to detail. Would it REALLY have been that hard to move it out of sight? The Asylum is still just far too overcrowded. We ended up with a 3 group bottleneck, and we weren't even particularly going that slow. Not to mention the fact there were 15 people in our group as it was anyway. Cabin in the woods...well the first run was as good as ever, although the Control room is essentially pointless now. For some reason they took out the suspended ceiling and you can now hear X's music and cars rumbling round, and if you look up you see the pyramid. The camera had been fogged over for 2 days in a row now, so you can't actually see what's happening in the room you're supposedly controlling. The second run however was totally unacceptable. We joined the queue at about 9.30pm, and it was supposed to be around 2 hours wait time. Evidently the maze supervisor had decided she wanted to go home early, and thought it would be a great idea to clear a 2 hour queue in the space of about 30 minutes by forcing a huge stream of people in the maze at once. We walked straight through the dark corridor into the entrance, and the host was stood there forcing people to go in to the doors she decided for us. Eventually a gigantic bottleneck occurred on the ramp and chaos ensued. As we walked out, there was an actor being rushed out, bleeding. Obviously they lost all control of the maze and she got hurt as a result the supervisors poor direction. Needless to say, if I had paid for a fastrack I would be fuming. Which brings me to my next point. Fastrack has absolutely ruined this event. Every single Fastrack queue was overflowing. The fact that Colussus was on one train operation and still selling fastrack goes to show that they do not give a toss about keeping queues down, and only care about money. I visit enough times off peak to not care about missing out on some rides, but if this were my one and only visit and I had paid for a fastrack to get on every ride, but ended up waiting a hour to get on Saw, for example, I would be absolutely livid. We were lied to about the queue times outside of MBV. We reluctantly opted to go for a fastrack as my friend desperately wanted to go on it and were quoted a 10-15 minute wait. We waited 50 minutes. I honestly wouldn't have cared if she had told us this, I probably would've passed on the maze altogether. This is not right at all, and after guest services refused to do anything about it, really I think the next step is to talk to Trading Standards, because they are flat out lying to make money. I really do not want free priority passes or free tickets, I just want this anarchy to stop. They really need to go back and fundamentally think of a solution to the throughput problem. When its quiet and you aren't literally being herded through the mazes like some sort of Universal attraction, they really are amazing. But considering the lack of attention to detail, they're pathetic unless the actors are given time to do their thing. /rant over

Does anyone happen to know if hospitality fast tracks can be used on mazes or not? I'm pretty sure the answer used to be no, but just curious as the whether that's changed or not

Why on earth would anyone in their right mind pay £15 to enter a club with a second rate sound system and lighting rig, pay £4.50 for drinks (and that is NOT an exaggeration) and no local amenities if there were no rides working too? If people really are going for the club night alone, they need to get out more...

Oh I see, all I could think of was a bunch of random naked miners running through MVB like some sort of random exhibitionist's day out down a mine shaft.

I'm a bit confused as the what a naked person has to do with any of these mazes other than maybe Saw in the freezer room...?

I'm not entirely sure but it looked to me like they had started to deconstruct some of the fencing around the ride. Whether this is just to make access to the site easier or not remains to be seen.

I may as well chip in with my own review from yesterday since it's a little different to most. Starting with the mazes... The Blair Witch Project 4/10 A frustrating amount of wasted potential. The start was strong, an eerie red light and lots of fog probably the best part of the attraction. If it had been silent, and there weren't lights and rumblings of coasters coming in from outside the park then I should imagine this would have been one of the scariest attractions on the night. The actors were sparse and theming minimal, and the fact that the ending takes place going through the service area of Inferno is just laughable. I can't help but think they shoehorned this attraction in to appeal to a broader market, with TBWP being a horror classic. You're Next Roaming Actors 4/10 They weren't all that bad, but those props of damn awful. I liked the fact they had a woman going round with them acting hurt, it was a real nice touch, but they just lacked any dimensions. The scary clowns the last 2 years were far more fun. I also noticed there were 2 other Actors that went round the park too. A director and his asisstant, I spotted them in the dome and they were doing some random little show which was actually pretty cool. It's a shame there wasn't more stuff like that instead. The Asylum 5/10 It used to be the parks crowning glory of scare attractions, but nowadays its tired and showing its age. It just doesn't do it for me anymore, the actors do a poor job of keeping up with the long conga lines that go through, and the chainsaw ending is a chore, almost feeling obliged to run out of the actors way. I'm kind of sat they kept it. It really needs to either go or receive a REAL update if they plan on bringing it back for another year. Saw Alive 6/10 The use of space was impressive, and it was full of actors, but the lack of narrative still really bugs me with this maze. Full of jump scares and nothing else, the actors should really be forced to go and watch all the source material through, I genuinely think this would improve the maze tenfold. Nothing has really changed inside, and I still firmly believe this is one of the best themed attractions in the park. My Bloody Valentine 7/10 A great maze, but far too short. Without the room separation, it really gives away how small experiment 10 actually was. The theming (while not exactly universal standard) was really good but often got missed if you weren't looking around. If you try not to let the chasing phase you and actually see whats going on, you'll see some very intricate details scattered around. Its a real shame they got rid of the separation rooms though, without it, it just seems like there's no point in the maze being inside these containers, I'd much rather a tent with a facade. The use of music inside the maze was also appreciated and again the actors use of space was top notch. Cabin in the Woods 8.5/10 Flaws aside, easily the best maze I've ever been in. Where do I begin? The variety of actors is probably my favorite aspect, its very reminiscent of Carnival of screams at the Towers, with a diverse cast that do different tricks. They are also very clever and subtly set the pacing in the maze by blocking you from catching up, although most people probably wouldn't realise this. Again, the actors are aggressive and use the space well, lurking in shadows and teaming up. In one case this guy was distracting me while another girl snuck up behind me and was right in my face! The negatives for me lie probably in the fact that I over analysed the maze. The idea of choice is really only an illusion. There's only one real route you can take, with detours along the way. And as others mention the theming gets worse over time, to the point where you can see they've gaffer taped up a false wall where there used to be a ramp in the Passing. And the control room is pretty pathetic. Half the effects didn't even work. They still have a way to go to becoming the best, but all in all I would say this is the best Fright Nights yet. Ignoring The Swarm and its flood lighting, the park as always has a fantastic ambient lighting setup. Stealth looked great with its colour changing lights, and the park just looks plain beautiful when the sun goes down. The music was alright, it was nice to see it actually being consistent throughout the park for a change, but it was a bit naff. I much preferred the use of movie tracks like Saw. They've obviously fired the person who used to direct the actors or something, because frankly they seem to have been given far better direction this year. I can ignore the fact that the theming of the mazes isn't exactly big budget, because frankly the actors made up for those shortcomings. As far as theming goes, I think this is the most we'll ever get over here. Yeah its not the best, but you can tell they have made a huge effort compared to the last few years (I.e the passing, where apparently using a UV marker on a black wall is "Theming"). This of course excludes theming around the park, because of course that's nonexistent...

You have to remember, there's going to be hundreds of thousands of people brushing past these fences, holding on to the sides, swaying them back and forward. The only way you'll be able to get a themed fence that is durable enough to withstand this is if its cemented in, and the theming made a permanent fixture. And we all know this isn't an option, as the arena for example is used at other times. I would definitely say its more of a practicality issue rather than a cost one. Its not exactly cheap to buy that type of temporary fencing (that's if they even own it, it could be rented?). I think its just one of those facts of life that you have to accept. As for the entrance, its been agreed a long time that Thorpe hate the fencing, but there's no point making a permanent fixture if they're going to rebuild the entire entrance when the hotel finally gets built.

#how #many #times #must #you #flash #a #hashtag #in #our #face?

Twisted Pictures created Dead silence, and Lionsgate are their distribution partner. TBWP also had nothing to with Lionsgate. All Lionsgate did was distribute the film on DVD. Rights to films' are a funny thing. Its anyone's guess who actually owns the IP itself really...

This will probably sound daft but if that pic is from an actual maze then you can see they're using a very high quality build. Flooring like that doesn't come cheap.

The guy from CITW just looks like some kid in a arts and crafts blank mask... to spooky for me, even more terrifying if the hobby craft price tag is still on the back.

They usually hold the auditions in the staff HQ that's hidden behind the trees to the right of the customer car park. I hope the asylum gets some attention at least, because it was looking badly run down. They also need to sort out that queue, because it kept getting knocked over last time I went from where it was so cramped...

If that's the case then they are spending around £150,000-200,000 on actors wages alone...

If anything, it feels like some behind the scenes service areas are getting a damned good clear out whilst they build these new mazes.

So its perfectly acceptable to literally shove someone into a 1m x 1m hole and make them crawl through it, but heaven forbid someone go anywhere near a staircase!

I don't think they're trying to be misleading, they're just trying to make sure people don't turn up and have to be turned away once they hit capacity weekend.

It's hard to justify paying when both mazes have previously been free and you can guarantee the changes, if any, will be minimal. If anything, I like to believe the Annual pass charge at Thorpe is justified by the later opening, and the obvious fact they actually give half a damn about Fright Nights, unlike the Towers.

As for the possibility of a CCR maze and Loggers leap, I think it'd be perfectly viable and acceptable for the whole are to be closed off for the maze at 3pm. If people are really interested in giving themselves hypothermia in the sub zero October evening temperatures, then they still have tidal wave. Also, is there a side exit from The Asylum building that leads out to the old Fungle Safari track? If so that would be the perfect set for Cabin in the Woods. I bet that area has grown right over since that fence got put up.

It seems bizarre that they went through the effort of creating The Passing and EX10 only to be made redundant after 1 and 2 years. The Passing was obviously really low budget, but EX10 not so much. It baffles me how little business forethought Merlin has sometimes...

I didn't know The Blair Witch Project was a Lionsgate film. That's cool though. This is REALLY going to pique the curiosity of Mr and Mrs average general public. And looking at the theming job that went in to Saw Alive, I think this is only good news. Unfortunately this all screams one thing to me though....paid for mazes....

Surely the Curse has got to go this year. It was literally falling apart last year, and its obvious Thorpe are keen to get rid of the tents. They could squeeze another year out of The Asylum, but it'd be nice to see it bow gracefully before it becomes a unkempt mess like the Curse. CCR and 4D Cinema have got to be prime locations for sure, for the sake of weatherproofing, I'm definitely leaning towards the 4D cinema. They are hinting far earlier than they did last year, so maybe it could be a case of multiple announcements are on the way.

Those stupid imposing drinks capsule salespeople at the end of the bridge do my nut in. If anything its a huge fire hazard and crowd crush hazard. Whoever placed them there is a thoughtless, selfish moron.