Han30

As much as most of us are critical of Merlin, this is really nice to read - nice one Thorpe 👌

My older sister works in retail and someone went into where she works, purchased whatever and then declared she was off home to self isolate as her husband has been tested positive - it’s idiots like that with zero respect or care for others that are making this situation far worse. If the parks open on Saturday I’ll eat both my cats - I mean, that may happen anyway thanks to the selfish gits striping supermarkets bare. Times like this I’m ashamed of how humans behave - pure greed and lack of consideration for others

I think Merlin will only close the UK parks if they are told they have to - would be surprised if they did it voluntarily though I’d be happy to be proved wrong

On more than one occasion (guessing must happen a lot during busy times) they’ve filled the Vampire with RAP users/carers - dread to think what would happen if an evac was needed

Just read that Disneyland Paris will be closing 15th March until the end of the month.

Absolutely agree with you (especially the bit about sink fast tracks - don’t give them ideas!). Thing is I, and probably most people inadvertently touch their face without even realising it - also the bogs at Chessie are bloody disgusting at the best of times - there are certain ones I just won’t venture into because they are that bad. Just thinking about queuing to get to the sinks kind of makes my stomach turn a little

Since the coronavirus numbers have gone up in the country it is something that has concerned me - I have health anxiety on top of crippling anxiety and I should keep away from reading click bait scare mongering articles. However, it is something none of us can ignore especially at the stage it’s at now. I have tickets to preview day at Chessington and am possibly not going to go now. I know it’s possible to catch it anywhere (had a woman sat next to me coughing away happily in the docs waiting room without covering her mouth). My main point of concern is that at parks you have no choice but to touch restraints - even if you’re someone that doesn’t hold on on rides. Maybe I’m being daft or over reacting - the problem is you could be excellent at hand washing but many people aren’t - especially the ones who use the toilet and walk straight out 🤢🤢.

I’d buy a Saw Alive smelly thing - always loved the smell of it in there - reminded me of bacon 😂

Jeez this has spiralled a bit. Whilst it’s not ideal to cut yourself at a theme park and for me it did hurt a fair bit, not once did I think “oh I’ll pop into guest services and make a complaint” - at the end of the day, the medic cleaned up the cut and said she would flag it up so hopefully someone had a look in that tunnel. Accidents happen and yeah it’s not fun to walk around with blood on your trousers, it’s not like my leg was hanging off. There are many ways that guests can injure themselves at a theme park - mostly due to the guests pratting about. That said when you are following the rules and hurt yourself through no fault of your own it’s not great. With the amount of people who have gone through that tunnel it’s inevitable that it would endure wear and tear as would any maze so I’m assuming a nail must have come loose at some point. For me I was just grateful that the cut was cleaned up to avoid infection. In hindsight I should probably have alerted staff at the maze however at the time I just assumed I’d bashed my knee awkwardly owing to the fact that the people I was with were fine (I once grazed my knee quite badly and it bled on IACGMOOH because I don’t crawl well). Anyway...... Went to Thorpe again today and it was pretty busy but ended up having probably the best day there for a long while. Quantum opened (whoop) so had 2 rides on that and it felt pretty intense maybe because I’ve not ridden it since I can’t remember. Stealth front row - once in daylight and once in the dark was brill. Staff were really friendly and the actors today I thought were brilliant. The Amity High guys are so good and I love the way they interact with guests as well as their dancing. We didn’t do Blair Witch as I thought it was a bit naff 2 weeks ago and I’ve not even tried P15 yet. Creek Freak was fab - the actors in there have such energy it makes me feel really old. Thankfully avoided the tunnel on both goes - on our second go I was finding the smells and smoke in there quite overpowering so put my scarf across my face as I felt I couldn’t breath (that plus anxiety). We were at the back of the group and the first chainsaw guy had already scared the people in front but could see my niece and I were ok - he then gestured at me to pull the scarf down and I thought he was going to rev his chainsaw or chase us but he asked if I didn’t like the smell and I explained that it was affecting my breathing so he let us past which I thought was nice. We ended up with a teenager attached to us in the strobe section as she’d got split up from her friends and was bricking it so my niece and I lead her through the strobes and to the exit. Guy with the chainsaw at the end was brilliant and full on chasing people out. Living Nightmare - oh dear. Got a couple of jumps but it’s literally like a walk through unlike when it was Cabin in the Woods and you were in there for a decent amount of time. Just feels rushed and a bit of a waste of time - we did have Negan at the beginning which was the best bit as the actor was pretty good. Do Or Die - never been a massive fan of this maze however I prefer it over Living Nightmare. Tonight was the best run through ever - my niece and I screamed so much and the actors in there was pretty intense. In the first shipping container thing, my niece and I got split up from the rest of the group and went in this weird side corridor thing and in this kind of tiny side room where 2 actors were talking to us and telling me I was in the wrong place while pointing at my hoodie (was wearing a Galactica one) - after a couple of minutes they let us past and shouted at me that “it’s not even a good ride” which made us laugh. By this point the rest of the group were no where to be seen so for the rest of the maze we had actors jumping out at us from all angles - I came out actually shaking and my voice was sore from screaming so much - very very impressed with the guys in there tonight. So yeah whilst it’s not the best fright nights it definitely beats last years event - I do miss Saw Alive though but I think Creek Freak is brilliant. For me, Blair Witch and Living Nightmare are pretty boring and a bit meh. I’ve not yet tried Platform 15 this year and that Fanta thing wasn’t open. Would love to see a maze return where Jungle Escape is - I loved Asylum and Studio 13 and it would be nice to have another indoor maze. Impressed that Thorpe have also opened Quantum although it did break down towards the end of the evening. Loads of guests wearing Halloween costumes today - saw several nuns, a few Billy puppets and a Chucky amongst others. The park just seemed to have quite a positive vibe today which was really nice

It’s not conked out.....yet

That is pretty much what happened to my leg - I’ll insert a pic but apologies as my legs are awful. With me it hurt as soon as I felt something hit it but I didn’t think it was that bad until exiting the maze - at that point my leg felt wet and the blood was coming through my (thankfully black) trousers. I had some plasters on me as I tend to carry plasters/headache tablets and various stuff with me to cover nearly all eventualities but was worried about it getting infected so I went to the medical centre who were fab and cleaned it up and whacked a decent sized plaster on it - I told the lady who was cleaning my leg up that it happened in the tunnel part of Creek Freak so she said she would flag it up. I’m assuming they did an incident report as I had to write my details on a form. That pic I took the day after it happened (went on the 5th Oct). Still can’t put pressure on my knees and got a lumpy bruise below where the cut is but it’s not even been 2 weeks yet so needs some time to heal. The 2 people I went with were fine and didn’t hurt themselves so I think there is/was maybe a small ridge which I was unfortunate to whack - probably not helped by the fact I was trying to get through the tunnel as fast as possible thinking a chainsaw might be behind us!

@Platform15fan in Creek Freak there is a section where a few people in each group have to crawl through - did this the other week and somehow managed to cut my knee at the end where the tunnel finishes - just a heads up - second time I purposely stayed at the back of the group and avoided having to crawl

It is frustrating that they spent so much money on it and lets face it, it’s awful. First time I rode it in 2016 I really enjoyed it even though the storyline made little sense - after a couple of rides it quickly became boring. When they updated it in 2017 the story made more sense and the ending hugely improved the experience but that middle section which used to have lights on a stick used to be so good - now it’s just bizarre and pointless. Now the demon has gone at the end (which these days is my fave part - the exit) it’s actually laughable - some guy coming out coughing and walking like he has soiled his pants isn’t scary. I wish they’d just kept the arena - at least they had a decent space for mazes in there

And he’ll say “oh my god” at least 50 times

There are plenty of people who prefer Inferno over Nemesis. I personally prefer Nemesis - I enjoy the layout more and the fairly compact layout of Inferno often makes me dizzy (it’s the only coaster at Thorpe that has made me sick). That said, last Monday I rode Inferno front row and enjoyed it SO much more. Anything pretty much that moves quick or spins gives me terrible motion sickness so I sympathise however I always take motion sickness tablets which definitely help (stugeron - you can get it over the counter). On the subject of forces - that’s something that has affected me in the past couple of years - I often struggle to breath and occasionally grey out on The Swarm and the only thing that stops it happening on Inferno and Nemesis is keeping my legs out straight all the way round (weird but it helps) I absolutely love Black Mamba - after my first ride on it I said “that’s better than Nemesis” however after my second ride it got relegated to just under nemmie purely because the first part of Mamba is brilliant but towards the end it just loses a lot of its force - Nemesis for me is brilliant from start to finish. The station turning on Black Mamba though is amazing.