JackR

The only part I can remember with certainty is the first part. The main room has four doors to choose from, and two of them lead through the garden area and back into the main room... In the floral wallpaper room there is the door that leads to the control room and the door that leads to the mask room. From the mask room you can enter the basement with the doll or head on towards to the lab. The final door leads to a dark room and you can either go through the mask room or through a room with chains and a bed in it from there. All of the routes take you to the same place in the end.

For those of you who want to know how to get the control room in Cabin, enter the left door that is opposite the fireplace. It will take you into a room with a wolf head mounted on the wall and floral wallpaper. The door to the control room is covered in wallpaper so it's pretty easy to miss. It's on the left wall right next to the Wolf head but it only opens periodically as it's on a timer. I guess you could wait around in the room if you wanted to because there's no actors in there and the door will unlock eventually.

Just got back from Thorpe and the queues were minimal tonight. Managed Asylum and MBV twice, Saw: Alive once and Cabin four times. I never bothered with BWP because the queue was horrendous when it first opened, but I can do that another time I guess... I thought I'd put up a nice review for you all though and I will include spoilers, so be warned! The Asylum Very good as usual, seems that it's a bit longer this year which is only a good thing. The tweaked ending is also much better and I ran out of the exit both times. Lots of smoke in the corridors and the strobes were intense as usual. The only thing I would say is that the siren was quiet! This was definitely the most intense maze of the night which is to be expected I guess! PROS: - Lots of smoke - The actors cooperated well. - Very good ending CONS: - Sirens were quiet Although nothing has changed too much, The Asylum is still the only maze that actually makes me nervous. 7/10 My Blood Valentine I wasn't blown away by My Bloody Valentine. It was basically E10 without the gimmicks. The scares were fairly weak and the ending was even weaker. It was nice to see some roaming actors outside however. The themeing was okay I guess. I could recognise old parts of E10 such as the tunnel and cupboards, but I definitely preferred E10. I feel that Thorpe have made a mistake getting rid of that this year, but that's just my opinion... I liked how it was free flowing though; nice to see Thorpe try to work around the traditional conga line. PROS: - Roaming actors - No conga line CONS: - Weak scares - Weak ending - Poor themeing Overall I was disappointed by this maze, although my friend said it was the scariest of the night! 4/10 SAW: Alive! I feel that I know the maze by the back of my hand now, so it was fairly repetitive; although if it was my first time I would have been very impressed! The actors really took on their roles well, rolling around the floor and getting multiple jump scares. There was loads of fog and it was extremely hard to navigate around the last few rooms whilst the actors jumped out at you! The policeman at the start separated my friend from the group and made the experience very interactive. He was also very physical grabbing my waist to move me. The actors being able to touch you definitely gives us one up on the Americans in my opinion. PROS: - Very good actors - Lots of smoke - Great themeing -Actors all physical and interactive CONS: - Not intense like Asylum. Although I thoroughly enjoyed Saw as per usual, it just wasn't intense like The Asylum is. For an over all experience, I was extremely impressed but based on scares alone, Saw Alive didn't quite cut it... 7/10 The Cabin in the Woods My first impression of this maze was a very positive one. What an improvement on The Passing! Walking through the first corridor after the stone entrance had everybody scared even though we hadn't even properly entered the maze yet. There was some kind of material on the floor that managed to surprise everybody. The first room was very well themed and because I only entered with one other person, it made the experience of choosing a door very intimidating. After four run throughs I managed to experience every room (even the control room!) and I really like how re-rideable the maze is. The number of different routes you could take really means that each go differs from the last. The last part of the maze is nowhere near as well themed as the first part, although it's still a major, major improvement on The Passing. The scares were fairly weak towards the end in my opinion, but the actors still worked well together and they should be commended for that! The ending was very weak, which was a shame as the start was so strong! The main down fall of this maze though is the logistics of it. Because of all the routes you can take, you usually find yourself bumping into other small groups or catching up with the group in front. I suppose the number of people in the maze cannot be reduced without sacrificing through put however. It will be interesting to see how Cabin copes when the park gets busier... PROS: - Very re-rideable - Well themed - Major improvement on The Passing - A very imaginative concept that stands out from all of the other corridor based, conga line mazes out there - The scary music playing throughout added to the tension - A large variety of characters, although there were no pumpkin heads! CONS: - Scares not very intense - Weak ending - Lots of congestion Overall, I was blown away by the concept of this maze. If it wasn't for the congestion in each room, it would have been executed near perfectly as well. Like all of the other mazes bar Asylum, I would have liked more intense scares, but things like scares just depend on the actors I guess. 8/10

The queue for NI is horrendous so the batching staff have announced a 'power hour' where they will attempt to reach the highest possible throughput on NI in one hour (whatever that may be). They're calling forward smaller groups to fill spaces and giving people less time to faff around finding their seats. Staff should be commended for their efforts to minimise queuetimes!

Just queued 2 hours for Saw and there was a pile up at the air gates, the last thing they would need at Fright Nights is screaming girls on top of the packed loading bay! There's practically nothing to report in terms of Fright Nights though. Nothing on the beach or in the arena and I could see nothing along the CCR pathway or on the Thorpe Farm site. No advertising either other than a slide on the electroning billboard by Nemesis. EDIT: The lights were on in Asylum but both the entrance and exit doors were bolted shut.

I'm on park now, I'll look out for progress but I've only been on the Swarm/Stealth side today and there's nothing to report here. I'll post any worthwhile info I see here throughout the day however.

At the end of the day, MAPs are great value for money. I went to Thorpe 15 times last year aswell as Chessie/Alton/Midway attractions and I'm sure that gate prices for all of those tickets would have dollied up to a bit more than the £120 I paid for my Standard pass. An extra £5 for mazes and 5 hours of extra ride time isn't really too much to ask for in my opinion. With Alton most people are limited to one go in each maze due to the cost of re-runs or lack of avaliable tickets. I go to Fright Nights for the mazes, and I want to be able to use them freely. I really couldn't care for night rides if I'm honest... *Prepares to be slated by everyone for that*

The only way I could see the BWP working in the woods is if the train track was boarded over to make it a safe path. Imagine the number of screaming girls that stub their toes and trip over the rail sleepers... Also, forgive me if I'm wrong as I'm yet to actually see The BWP but isn't there a house/shack thingy in the film? If so we could be seeing that in the walkthrough.

I remember last year going in The Passing, and me and a friend went through the latter part of the maze on our own. Whilst the maze was nothing special, being on our own really helped make the whole experience a lot scarier! If you was stuck in the woods in a small group it would be really nerve racking! Does anybody have any pictures of the woods on that note? I've never actually seen it and I'd quite like to see what it's like in there. Also I vividly remember the Nemesis Inferno station when 'hell froze over'. Does anybody have any pictures of that too? I've been looking for a while and have had no luck finding any!

I could just imagine the MBV maze. I reckon it'll be in the old X queue and there'll be a load of rocks in the first corridor. You'll be told about some psycho murderer at the start and then crawl though a 'confined mineshaft' which is really the tunnel from The Passing last year. Then you will venture 'deeper into the caves' as you walk down the ramps in the X queue. Lots of rock work and a few screaming people before you're chased by a pick axe wielding lunatic for the finale. Thats my bet.

To be honest, I think that it would be better to have You're Next roaming characters instead of a maze. There's not much actors can really do other than deliver a few jump scares if you think about it. Roaming actors chasing you in those masks though would be horrifying! Other than that, I think all of the mazes are great. BWP should be very creepy if executed well and I don't really know much about the other films; although I could picture the miner chasing you around a tunnel/shaft in the MBV maze. Also not too fussed about The Asylum. I loved it, but a new maze is always welcome, especially if it's a Dead Silence one!

Those masks really are quite creepy, I'd personally love to see a 'You're Next' maze! I also think that a 'best of' maze is a pretty good shout to be honest. I could imagine Thorpe marketing a maze saying it's ''the best of horror in one maze'' or something cheesy like that. I didn't plan to renew my AP this year but I might have to and make a few trips to Thorpe this October!

It's only a matter of time before some poor person books a time slot and their phone battery dies...

I agree with Josh on this one, I think this concept relies too much on people understanding how the system works and being able to time keep. I can see problems arising when somebody misses their slot and kicks up a fuss or something silly... In theory it's a great idea and I'm delighted to see that Thorpe are consciously trying to remedy the issue of long queue times at the park, but this reservation system could just turn your day into a huge timetable. I dread Fright Nights when every ride is booked up or 'normal' people wait for ages because reserved guests take priority. I've also just returned from holiday and I met somebody who was talking to me about this system being used at SFGA. She said it' just makes the day stressful if you have a day full of reservations.

Finally got a chance to ride The Smiler yesterday. The queue was 2 hours during ERT before the park even opened so I had plenty of oppertunity to gaze at the ride whilst I was queuing. It's a majorly impressive ride and the curvature of the track actually had me in awe, so from an offride perspective I thought that The Smiler was incredible. However, I actually found The Smiler incredibly rough. It might be due to the fact that my shoulders were wedged againts the OTSR (I'm 6'3) but I felt a jolt on almost ever inversion other than the inverted drops. I'm not even lying, my ride on Rita was less rough yesterday!

Is The Swarm now being marketed as 'The Swarm: Mutated'? Not to sound like too much of a whinny enthusiast, but if so then I give up with Thorpe...

I'll give it a try I guess, maybe I could be pleasantly surprised? And as for the billboard, I think putting it by the Zero G roll would work best. It doesn't really fit in anywhere else and putting it by the tiny turnaround at the end wouldn't even be worth the effort... I think the cameras for ORPs could go on the sides of the billboard, maybe it would be one that looks more like this? Just a bit larger and with the cameras on the sides? It does raise the question though, why is there a giant billboard placed randomly in a quaint little countryside village? We have to clap Thorpe though, a year on and they're still adding themeing to what is already a well themed ride. And at least they are making the effort to shake things up a bit for a season where we have no new rides at all. EDIT: Those photoshop skills are fab!

Right, so I have decided to re-evaluate my opinion of The Smiler as a name and it's now completely contradictary to what I said last night. When the name is next to the logo and the new poster that was released on the minisite, I think it fits in perfectly! I think we was all assuming that this ride would have a very sinister, dark approach like Oblivion; and whilst the story is quite sinister, the ride seems to be marketed in a different way. From the posters we have seen so far, it's almost as if Alton are not taking the story as seriously as they could be. Sure the story is quite sinister, but when you compare it to the poster it seems almost quite jokey! I think that if Alton were to develop this ride like Oblivion to have ''No happy ending'', to quote th Lord of Darkness, then a more punchy menacing name would be appropriate. But I don't get the impression that this SW will be like that. It's almost as if Alton have a dark story, but they are playing around with it and marketing the ride to be a bit less disturbing. Which is a change I welcome amongst the darker rides Merlin have been churning out as of late...

That video scared the crap out of me, I skipped to the end after the first 10 seconds or so and now I am too scared to watch the rest of it! I'm still not sure if I like The Smiler as a name either. It just doesn't seem to suit the ride regardless of how in context it is. We know that whilst smiling does have something to do with the story, it is not the main theme so I would prefer a name to do with TMOJ. Sombody on Towers Street said 'The Ministry' which I think is a great name; I feel a name along those lines would suit this ride a lot better than something like 'Oblivion' or 'Nemesis'...

<quote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="jackstevens217" data-cid="148412" data-time="1358633924"><p> You Belong to the INOCULATOR <br /> <br /> It could be an Anagram Of the Apparent words</p></quote> I quite like 'Air Clout No' for an anagram Seriously though, I went on the anagram generator and they all seem to be jiberish at most. I'm not too sure about the name though, it might grow on my like 'The Swarm' but I think it suits an element or that big spider a bit better. I'm still hoping for something really menacing and striking. The Inoculator just doesn't seem to fit in with the other ride names like 'Oblivion' or 'Air'. Having said that, Alton did name one of their main coasters Rita Queen of Speed... EDIT: Urinal Coot is also an anagram, I'm so immature

Before anybody goes off on one, the person who made this image said that anybody is free to use it if they want. With the station added into the picture, it really gives us an idea of what the bottom half of the ride will look like. I think it has the potential to be great; it just looks so complex and windy! It's also worth noting that Enterprise and Submission are both gone. It seems that we really will have some shiny new flats for the X Sector next year. I wonder if these two would have been refurbished when they were due to close last season? Ohh and on a side note, this marketing is fab!

Urgh I really do hope this isn't The Swarm turned backwards... The more I think about it the more ridiculous the idea seems, not as a gimmik but from a logistics and engineering perspective. All Thorpe would get from this is something extra to market The Swarm with, but if they are expecting it to be such a sucess, then why not just turn the whole train around? I can already picture the angry customers who 'have queued 2 hours expecting to go backwards but have ended up facing forwards instead'... And that's without even touching on how this move would even be worth it with all of the fuss Thorpe would have to go through to turn some poxy seats around. It's not just a case of unbolting some seats and switching them the other way around; they are not make of lego that you can just jumble up! I'm no expert in engineering or coaster physics but surely the stress this would put on both the cars and the passengers will only cause problems for the shiny new £18 million B&M? For the sake of Thorpe, I hope this is the retheme of X which has been long overdue, or a new flat ride of some sort. Just don't **** up one of the best rides we have seen in the UK for a long time plz Thorpe?

Right, I found a picture of the face all over a wall in west London on Towers Street Forums. It says I can't post it on here so if you want to see it you can look on Alton Tower's Twitter account or on page 105 of the SW7 thread over at Towers Street. It looks like Alton are onto a winner with a solid coaster and strong, nationwide marketing to accompany it. I can't wait to see how everything pans out over the coming months!

Thought that this may be worth throwing into the thread. Gatekeeper is huge.

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted yet. GCI have a new coaster conept. It's basically a tame Vekoma Boomerang. The wooden Ben 10 if you will... Outlaw Run trains have also been on show at IAAPA: