JackR

Me being the silly goose I am have only just realised that my Merlin Pass runs out on Thursday. I'm going to Fright Nights on Saturday and have a pre-booked ticket but I need to bring a valid Merlin Pass along with me for entry. Does anybody know if the AP office opens 10:00 at Thorpe just like the gates because I was planning to arrive there for about half 9 and it would be great if I could pick up my renewed pass at about that time. I know it's not the appropriated place, but to save me making a new topic does anybody also know if the office at The London Eye is open on Sundays because I could actually renew it online now and pick it up there tomorrow instead if that is avliable. Thanks in advance.

The article on the homepage is interesting. Much like the SW7 face on the Alton Website, it has only appeared once for me but it said something alone the lines of 'People are vanishing in Thorpe's new maze. Be sure to check it out!' It was only a couple of lines but when you clicked 'see more' it directed you to the Fright Nights page where you could book tickets. All 5 mazes are also advertised on the front page. I'm hoping to see some more park wide themeing this year. Even some metal fencing or other stuff to hint towards a penitentiary would be good.

It's called 'The Passing'. (Credit to Thrill Nation of course.)

That's like saying there is only one group at a time in Asylum or E10. If going in alone is the case then there will be more than person at once, you just won't be all together. I personally think you will be going in alone, or there will be parts of it where you spend time with just the actors. The time slots probably just make throughput more manageable. A certain number of people at each time is easier than flocks of people turning up at once. I'm sure Thorpe have a theoretical throughput for the maze and they referred to it when deciding the number of tickets to allocate online. It wouldn't be much use being with your group if you have a bag over your head and you can't see either... For most of the dates you can only advance book normal tickets anyway. The Passing is advertised pretty heavily on the website so I'm sure people will realise that they have to buy tickets for it there and then if they want access.

It certainly beats these two IMO: It just looks a bit more permanent and a lot less tacky than those god awful plastic sheets... I just hope the sign lights up at night There will more than likely also be a sign by the entrance of the queue as well so people don't get lost. It's also interesting to see that Thorpe have opted to keep Hellgate's old entrance. I wonder if the interior to The Passing will be all stone and cold passageways etc. a bit like this: Although I wouldn't be surprised if it was a load of blank corridors that will be unthemed because you will have a bag over your head the whole time...

Looks like we have a location! The sign is pretty fab actually, it beats the plastic sheets with logos printed on them *cough* Se7en *cough*. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing how this maze turns out, hopefully most of the maze won't consist of people screaming at you and running away. I wonder if you go in alone too..?

The only restrictions on the rides are: 1)That you must be between 1.4m and 1.95m 2)You cannot have a chest larger than 54 inches. 3) You cannot have any health conditions like heart problems or be pregnant etc. As you said above, you fit all the of the requirements just fine (I can't speak for the health related ones) so you should be okay. Have great time! I just thought though, why do Thorpe have some measurements in Metric units and others in Imperial? :S

How busy is it likely to be on the 13th? It's the second day of the event and it's a Saturday. I'm going a couple more times after that so I'm not bothered about what I get done, it's the people I'm going with that I'm more fussed about. Also, I'm interested to see what this twist on E10 turns out to be... It seems to have received very little attention what with all the fuss about The Passing.

I was on park today, not much going on except for some electrical work on The Curse. The E10 containers are all in place and the two pillars on either side of Hellgate's entrance were outside where The Passing is going to go (without the gargoyles!) .I'll put a picture of them up tomorrow. I doubt the park are going to do much to the area you walk into The Passing now. I guess only time will tell how well those grey bricks fit into a prison theme... Also, I think entering The Passing alone would actually work pretty well. I reckon the 'punishment' is a lot more intimate and effective if there is only you and some actors in the room!

Last year me and my mate skeptically edged around the whole X queue thinging there would be somebody around the corner of each corridor. We got past the bag section and as we walked through that small dark bit before the loading bay, two members of staff jumped out from the shadows and screamed at us! 'Twas the scariest moment of the trip it was. I will be on park tomorrow and I'll try to get some photos aswell.

It will pretty much be packed all day every day. People will stay into the early hours of the evening and later from the very start of the day!

Your post just reminded me, I wonder what that big themed spider thingy actually is? I wonder if it has anything to do with The Sanctuary as well?

This was posted a couple of days back in the Scarefest thread It's been established that 'The Sanctuary' will be a sort of side project/preparation for whatever SW7 is. As you said however, hopefully we will be able to piece some more bits of the puzzle together come October!

I'd imagine that it is probably improved effects and refurbished/added theming if needed. I'd also imagine that there will be some better quality scares. Now this may be too much to ask from Thorpe but seeing there is a new entertainments team, and they have promised an improvement I'm only adding two and two together.

I guess somebody has supposedly sprayed graffiti on it? Although in the middle of an alien invasion where planes are falling out of the sky and church roofs are being ripped off, the last thing I would think about doing is swimming across a pond to scribble something silly all over a potentially explosive crashed helicopter...

Despite the extortionate price, I don't blame Thorpe for not including The Passing. It's a payed for maze and the aggro of people claiming they should be allowed into without paying the price for the Passing because they have a fasttrack would be too much fuss. Hopefully, if the Scarefest payed mazes are anything to go by, the queues will be pretty minimal so a fasttrack would be pointless anyway.

The second half of the maze relied on jump scares. It didn't quite live up to the first half, especially if there was a lack of actors!

There was some lights on in Hellgate's old area Wednesday last week; surely we would have seen some sort of tent/building set up if it was going anywhere else. How big is that X:\NWO extension queue though? I'm also really impressed by this; it seems like a step up from E10. Being locked in a cupboard seems pretty dull now! I just hope if the gimmicks are out of the way by the first part, the second half of the maze will actually have some decent scares. Also about the E10 'sinister twist thing', I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same as last year, THORPE are probably just saying that to imply that things are going wrong this year.

Ohhhhhh. Anyway, this sounds really intense. It might be pretty long by the sounds of it and hopefully, it's not just the beginning that delivers the proper scares!

They don't seem that similar IMO. I thought there was some dirt on my screen until I realised those splodges towards the bottom are part of the picture.

Dafuq is that? :S A good clue which should generate some speculation. I could see this being something to do with a crypt or a church, although I wouldn't like to see a Swarm themed maze... I just can't seem to work what the blue parts mean!

So you're basically given something you can cut out of a newspaper for no more than 50p?

Looks like it is to do with dead people. I hope it's not something cheesy like a zombie takeover though...

I wonder what those doors with locks on are there for? The one to the left was the gap I was talking about in my last update that was boarded up (the way it is in this picture now). There was also some lights on in Hellgate last Wednesday. Does anybody know when this new attraction is set to be announced? Credit to Stokesyboy of course!

Added upon request. Credit to Me!