JackR

I remember Mr Sanbrooke himself telling me a couple of years ago that Hex only tilts about 35 degrees. It still feels like you're tipping right over though. If Alton could pull off an inversion using the same method as Hex then it would be trippy as hell!

Right, as promised I will stick up a review of each maze now I have returned from my third and final visit to Fright Nights this year. Before I start I would like to say that park theming was minimal and service was complete sh*t on every visit this year. Those of you who read my post at the top of this page will know about the fact that my entry ticket and ticket for The Passing went missing off of Thorpe's computer system on Tuesday. It turns out that they were on the system today which meant my Dad and I were lumbered with a wrongly dated ticket that nobody could use... I realise this is pretty text heavy, but I'm sure there is somebody who will give it a read. Ohhh and of course, there will be spoilers! THE ASYLUM I always do the mazes in an order when I go to Thorpe, starting with The Asylum. This is the only maze that makes me nervous before entering but to be honest, I no longer see why. I'm not sure if it's because I'm so used to it (although only having ever been in there 5 times) that I'm no longer phased by this maze, but it just seems to lack the intensity everybody praises it for. Sure, the strobes and sirens are all fine and dandy if you have decent enough actors running around, but most of the times it just seems to be somebody looking at you and giggling. There was some extremely memorable moments this year in The Asylum that left me shocked though, and I praise the actors deeply for those. I like how the maze has had slight tweaks to it this year and I especially like the monitor hanging off of the wall in the first corridor, a small but very effective touch from the park. PROS: The man who threw a chair at the wallThe actors who climb and jump the fences The man with no legs who came prancing out of nowhere! CONS: The maze seems to lack the intensity it used to The strobes seem a little less violent than in recent years The ending is usually poorly executed In conclusion, The Asylum is a bit of a hit and miss. The potential is there, but it really does rely on the actors to utilize their environment and make the most of their characters to scare the audience. Overall, I will give the Asylum a 6.5/10 this year. EXPERIMENT 10 The main strong point of this maze is the psychological approach it takes. I have been with two girls this year on two different occasions who both reduced to tears in this maze. Sure, they were both wimps but that is besides the point The beginning always seems to build tension but I just like looking at the bulletins on the board by the guns. (Yes Maxy, I did see the letter the man who got new eyes!) The decontamination room is also great. I love how the actors use the lack of vision, especially when the lights go out, to milk scares out of everybody. This is the point in the maze that people really do begin to crap their pants! The cupboards are also great, especially if you are alone. I love the draped material and spraying water in the closets and the actor who burst open my door and grabbed my legs really deserves to be commended. The tunnel is a nice touch, although that is the only route I have ever taken) and the rest of the maze is also great if the actors know what they are doing. The ending is also an interesting touch, if not a bit predictable. It seems to work best if there isn't too many people in the room but today the doctor had everybody on their knees and was grabbing this one poor boy! I stumbled upon my exit of the maze and the doctor chased the group out whilst shouting ''DON'T TRIP ABERCROMBIE!'' I think you can guess what brand of hoodie I was wearing... It's the interaction like this that the actors should be praised for. PROS: Closets are great The beginning really builds tension The ending is a laugh CONS:The actors no longer have the sexy hazmat suits The strobes are no longer as intense (yes I know the reason why) The ending is pretty predictable Overall, I think E10 deserves a solid 8/10 as the best maze this year. THE CURSE Not much to say about The Curse. It was very intense on my first visit but didn't live up to expectations on the second visit. The actors are very good at impact scares but that doesn't seem to cut it for some people. The maze is definitely better than last year though! I would also have loved to been in there whilst Ricky was acting tonight, what a bummer I missed it. PROS: Excellent first runthrough Lots of fog Great impact scares CONS:Impact scares were not always enough Doesn't seem like it has too many years left in it (although no doubt Thorpe will keep it for the foreseeable future!) My final verdict on The Curse is a 6/10 overall but a 9/10 for my first run through. Seriously guys, it really was a impressive one... THE PASSING Not really sure where to start with this maze... For a fast pass maze, it really is poor as f*ck. I'm sure nobody would pay £5 for The Swarm fast pass if they knew it would mean them queuing an hour! Seriously Thorpe, get yourselves together... As for the maze, it was solid but I really feel it belongs in The Dungeons. I think it would be the perfect follow up to Extremis as that would be the perfect simulated execution. It just feels like it would fit in fine there As for the execution, a fake gunshot doesn't really cut it... Considering this maze emphasizes the 'death' part of the experience, I would have thought that Thorpe would kill you off a bit more extravagantly? The bags are flimsy and keep coming off of your head and the voices are just aggravating. I don't like the fact that you go outside in this maze, but that's just a minor thing. The next part is great though. That video really is disturbing. Thorpe really did take a bold step to be dealing with themes such as divorce, kidnap, arson, murder and mutilation! This is one thing Thorpe need to be praised for regarding The Passing, the video really is creepy! The tunnels are good too, if not a bit hard to see in! After that the maze is pretty much average. It's pretty hard to see anything and the limited vision and small groups do kind of compensate for the poor themeing. One actor grabbed the girl I was with's head on Tuesday. Considering it was just the two of us, this really was creepy! The tunnel is disorientating and thr fake ending is predictable. The ending is actually pretty weak in comparison to The Asylum, which isn't really anything to show off anyway! PROS: Creepy video Tunnel Lack of vision CONS:Ridiculously overpriced Far too long of a queue You go outside... The bags are flimsy It's too short The ending is poor The theming is even poorer The actors tended to be pretty crappy (although that is a hit and miss factor) The certificate was definitely not worth the £3 (which soon became £5) The Passing was solid, but it just lacked the intensity that the park seemed to market along with this maze. I would love to see it at The Dungeons though! I would give it a 5/10. I won't bother with Saw: Alive because that was just the same as usual. The actors tonight were pretty fab though so kudos to them! Another thing I hate about Fright Nights is fast passes. The ratio of normal queue: FP queue was 4:1 today! That really is appalling and it made queues for Saw: Alive and E10 just over 2 hours. I don't see how people would want to spent £45 getting in, £5 for The Passing and then even more money on those bloody fast pass tickets. So yeah, I like Fright Nights for the atmosphere (although it is usually non-existent) and the night rides along side the mazes that only stop by for a few days of the year. Not the fast tracks, lack of themeing and average roaming actors. Yet again, another average show from Thorpe Park and I long for them to act on The Passing next year if they are not going to do anything else!

The more and more I hear the name, the less and less I believe SW7 will actually be called The Smiler. Don't forget that SW7 is a derelict building with a robot spider thing plonked in the middle as far as we are aware right now. I don't see how anything to do with SW7 (again as far as we are aware of right now) can be labelled with 'The' in front of it other than that creepy ass face. I personally see the hypnotic face being labelled 'The Smiler' and it will be labelled only for reference to it somehow or another regarding the SW7 story. I did just think though, the station building is gonna look mega sexy once it's all finished by next year!

This was spotted on site earlier. I wonder who the manufacturer will be? As for the name, I think it's awful. I mean 'The Swarm' or 'Th13teen' are hardly amazing but The Smiler really is p*ss poor. What ever happened to the names like Oblivion and Nemesis? I somewhat doubt this will be the name though because it seems too focused around that smiley face logo. Unless the face is the single most important thing involved with the story of this ride, I think we will be referring to the face as 'The Smiler' and not the actual rollercoaster itself (thank God)...

I was given a free fasttrack for any ride I wanted yesterday; Stealth broke down yet again whilst I was in the queue. I chose to use it on Saw and it had a 90 minute queue. I only waited about 15 minutes though. The people who buy fasttrack obviously get what they pay for as the queues are well, fast. I do think the balance is unfair though. Having said that, I only really feel the full effect fasttrack is having in the E10 queue. Every time I've been on it since last year has meant a 2 hour wait first which I put down to fasttrack users!

Turned up today and despite bringing my debit card and proof of purchase, the park insisted that I hadn't purchased any type of ticket. It wasn't a problem as I bought a second one at the gate and I had to re-purchase my ticket for The Passing. After spending £10 more than necessary (£5 AP entry and £5 for the passing), I could only get a ticket for The Passing 30 minutes later than all of my friends. The lady at the faststrack kiosk insisted that my friends would be able to shift their time slots without any problems and she confirmed that this would not be a problem if we came back later on. Once all of my friends arrived, we spent a while queuing in that awful cattle pen only to find out that the lady at the kiosk was completely wrong. It was all just a big fuss over nothing though because The Passing shut down by the time we were due to enter...

Only done the ones at Merlin Parks and BPP... I have to say though, Logger's is one of the only rides I genuinely enjoy going on at Thorpe now. It never fails to make me laugh and I always come off with a smile on my face. Although hardware wise Logger's may be nothing special, it never fails to add a little something to my day!

I will be putting up my full overview/opinion of each maze at the end of Fright Nights. I want to give each maze another couple of goes before I make my final verdict. I think I despised The Passing so much because I was expecting something so much better. I found the lack of actors, the length and how flimsy the bags were a let down. I must say however, the right tunnel was pitch black and you actually couldn't see a thing. Really effective at building up tension because you have no clue where you are! The scares to begin with were great. Constantly people jumping out at you and the impact scares just kept on coming. After that though the maze went downhill, by the time I got to the 'fake ending' I felt like everything was low budget and rushed. I want to give The Passing another go though and I just hope that the actors have adapted to their surroundings to compensate for the lack of theming and short length.

Stare into one of the eyes on that face for about 20 seconds and blink rapidly at a blank wall... There certainly is some brainwashing going on!

Haven't been to Scarefest since 2010 so I can't judge too far; but the mazes at Thorpe do tend to be more intense which I like! I know I mentioned it in the FN topic yesterday but The Curse was fab this year Halfway through my time queueing, all of the actors just walked out of the mazes and had a group chat/huddle. I think they decided to up their game from then on because the scares were non-stop and constant. Not sure if I got the worst of it all at the back, but it was certainly more intense than The Asylum and E10!

I'd imagine Thorpe will focus a lot of tension onto The Snooze Box. How can they market that and a new ride, as well as The Swarm properly at the same time? I'd personally like to see some much needed refurbishment/touching up around the park, especially on Colossus! Nothing that hasn't been said before, but my personal opinion

Well there was one small, Asian, female member of staff who was checking restraints and walking back into the booth to push buttons. Like a said in a previous post, I couldn't care less about how many staff there are at an S&S Sky Swat in Staines so I didn't bother to check how many members of staff there were at the time yesterday. I also didn't bother to look at the other side of Slammer because as I just said, it wasn't of any interest to me. As I said in my first post earlier this afternoon, Slammer had a dire throughput and I put that down to the fact that there was this one member of staff (who I mentioned earlier in this post) who was checking restraints and operating in the booth on my side of the ride. I can't speak for the other side because, for the second time, I didn't check. I've also never taken it upon myself to learn how Slammer operates, so as far as I was aware there may well have been only one member of staff working on the ride. I just put the fact that throughput was **** and the fact that I could only see one member of staff operating the ride together to reach the conclusion that only one meber of staff was operating the whole ride. The restraints were also failing to lock every other ride which added the queue that should have been no longer than 10 minutes.

I meant that there was only one person who was doing restraint checks and operating the ride as far as I could see. I was on the side closest to The Passing and I didn't really check the other side because quite frankly, I really didn't care. But the fact that there was only one member of staff made the process extremely slow.

Yesterday a staff member was advertising the price as £3. So much for this 'early bird' price...

I had a go on Slammer for the first time in ages today. There was only one person operating the whole ride which made throughput a complete nightmare. There was a big leaf sticking out on the way up so I just pulled it off and let go of it as we flew over one of the forward cycles. Watching it glide all the way over to Colossus was probably the highlight of my ride...

Urgh, well what a piece of shi*t The Passing was... It was short, the scares were poor, the bags were awful and you even went outside at one point?! I fail to see how daylight shining through the walls and words written in luminous paint make a good scare maze. I feel ripped off that I'm actually paying another £6 for more goes... E10 was much better than last year. The closets are still pretty scary even though I knew what to expect. There was somebody grabbing you through a hole in the roof in the tunnel and the ending was fab, if not a bit predictable. The girl I was with was crying by the time we got out of the closets, but it was good none the less. I was disappointed by The Asylum. It was up to its usual old self but it seemed to lack some intensity. The grand finale was good as always and it was nice to see some new scenes. Dare I say it, The Curse was easily the best maze of the night! The structure/theming seemed pretty solid, there was a decent use of effects and the acting was fab A great team of actors that worked together really well to get scares out of each group three or four times. Really good job on The Curse this year I like to give each maze a few goes before I make a final judgement so I will report back at the end of Fright Nights with a proper review for them all.

This has just been posted on the Thorpe Park Facebook Page. Looks like some lunatics will be running riot this evening! I'm on park tomorrow so I will get plenty of photos and put up a cheeky little review of E10 and The Passing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR HICKEY! And 'wonder boobies'! That's almost as funny as the prefect video...

This is a short extract from the Wikipedia Page for 'sensory deprivation'. I don't think this is just something that Thorpe have made up for the sake of publicity you know. Dr Lewis on the other hand... I wonder if the safety word will also come into play? I'm really starting to think that this maze may just be pretty extreme now.

Hmmm sounds pretty interesting... I swear the idea of The Passing was that you was being executed because you were a criminal? Nothing sinister about somewhere they have capital punishment, unless there is something they are doing with the dead bodies?

Somebody said it a few pages back. But they were paraphrasing a conversation with a member of staff from the help line thingy. I wouldn't take it too literally.

They mention being 'Bagged an tagged' in their description. This is a slang term for when they tie the hands of somebody behind their back and put a bag over their head to restrict sight and movement. Unless they tie your hands together, it doesn't look like there is a worlds first element that we currently know about. Whatever goes on in The Passing, it must cause a low throughput because of this fastrack/timeslot system so I guess it must be pretty impressive; be it a worlds first element or not.

Hopefully there will be some actors walking down that corridor, just so they can take your mind off of the 2D images on the wall that look a bit too large to be realistic... But honestly, if there is some decent scenery in there and the scares/gimmicks are good enough, I think this will be an impressive attraction. I will be let down if they stick a bag over your head for about 30 seconds whilst you walk down a corridor and the rest of it is with a group just like the usual scare maze format though. If the maze is actually based around 'passing to the afterlife' however, then I don't suppose the whole thing will be based around walking past dead bodies like in the teaser picture. I would imagine that you will wander down that corridor as if you have just died, then the rest of the maze is about 'passing on' with some actual 3D scenery... I wonder how Thorpe will execute (no pun intended) your 'death' though?

The limbless man with hooks in his eyes on Colossus is one of my fondest memories of Fright Nights. I also loved it when 'Hello froze over' in Inferno. Does anybody have any pictures actually?

Thanks BBJ, I'm going up to the Eye tomorrow to renew it now; It saves me going to get it done on Saturday and I suppose I can hang around the gates for half an hour and be first in that way.