Kerfuffle

I have a simpler solution.
 
...DEMOLITION.

I first rode Derren Brown's Ghost Train in 2017. I've made my feelings clear about the very muddled story in this thread before, but I ultimately did find it a flawed but generally enjoyable ride. Not worth a long queue or the money spent on it, but it was fine.
 
Fast forward to Fright Nights 2019, and oh boy have my feelings changed.
 
The queue for the ride was advertised as a 50 minute wait. Ok, that's fairly long but it was Fright Nights and everything was busy. 60 minutes later we were still not in the batching area. In the 30 minutes that followed, we saw only 3 batch groups enter. One every 10 minutes! Really?! I know this ride isn't great with capacity, but I cannot understand operations being this bad.
 
The pre show was as boring and disconnected from the experience as usual, but at least it all worked. Once it ended we moved onto the next waiting area and waited. And waited. And waited. We were there for 5 minutes. Worsening the wait was that the room is lightly themed with no music (I thought IMA score made 90 mins of music, and yet it plays only in the queue, why?) and we were waiting with the worst actor / staff member they could find. This preemptively killed any momentum the pre show gave the experience.
 
Despite the lengthy wait, when we did move into the hanging carriage room we were hurried through to board. This room is probably the only decent bit of the ride and yet we barely got to experience it. Genius move Thorpe. Genius.
 
Once onboard we had VR segment one. It was fine, but very little happens really on reflection (it occurs to me that the whole VR segments contain 2 'ghosts' in total, which is ridiculously low).
 
After the VR segment we were asked to wait on the train for a bit. At this point we all sat in the awkward and silent carriage. No music, nothing. People around us muttered "is that it?" and "that was s***". 
 
We eventually moved into the abysmal middle section. There were no sound effects or music. We all wandered around an empty set of cages and then (would you believe it) we reached the end and waited for ages. In silence....again. 
 
Eventually we went into the 2nd VR segment and saw the final of the two 'ghosts' of the experience. The segment was fine.
 
Once over we went into the shop for the fake-out finally. We waited there for ages before anything (what a shocker). When it did begin we merely got a man in a t-shirt rather than a demon. Really?!
 
This ride was ok at first but now it is utterly abysmal. There is NO sense of theatrics at all anymore. In 2017 there was a serious effort to keep the pace going and maintain some story. There was an energy from the actors and the middle section was seemingly the glue that held it all together. Now there were awkward silences, confusion and waiting it was an embarrassment and I struggle to see how anyone enjoys it in it's current state (if anyone does I'd love to know why). Judging from the people in my train the public seem to hate it.

I have a simpler solution.
 
...DEMOLITION.

M8 not being funny but SOME OF US don't get invited to the PRESS NIGHT so have to wait and ROUGH IT WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITH A TWO FOR ONE ENTRY VOUCHER.

*world's smallest violin plays in background*
 

I have a simpler solution.
 
...DEMOLITION.

I have a simpler solution.
 
...DEMOLITION.

I have a simpler solution.
 
...DEMOLITION.

Can I just applaud myself for Jack Sickstone being used by another member on here, plus I've seen Lord Sanbrooke used too. I feel I have acheived something in my life, it's only taken 36 years.

Bear in mind this is someone who prefers FN over Tulleys...so that would be a no brainer.

...followed by Mr Sickstone over here squealing into his camera that Creek Freak Massacre is the "sickest maze he's ever done"...
 
(I'm calling it)

...followed by Mr Sickstone over here squealing into his camera that Creek Freak Massacre is the "sickest maze he's ever done"...
 
(I'm calling it)

Gotta raise those funds for an all new bouncy castle for 2020!! 😮

...followed by Mr Sickstone over here squealing into his camera that Creek Freak Massacre is the "sickest maze he's ever done"...
 
(I'm calling it)

...followed by Mr Sickstone over here squealing into his camera that Creek Freak Massacre is the "sickest maze he's ever done"...
 
(I'm calling it)

Don't. Filming in the mazes without permission ruins the experience for yourself, the actor, and the rest of your group!
Go in the mazes and have a laugh, leave your ego in the queue-line, just enjoy the experience like everyone does!

That's a sure fire way to get you banned from all Merlin attractions...
 
Seriously, don't be stupid when it comes to filming... 

Please do not try and film in any mazes. 
 
During normal maze operation, at any time, if an actor sees you they'll try and stop you and, if necessary, break character, ruining the experience for everyone.
 
Please just don't try it.

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

...followed by Mr Sickstone over here squealing into his camera that Creek Freak Massacre is the "sickest maze he's ever done"...
 
(I'm calling it)

...followed by Mr Sickstone over here squealing into his camera that Creek Freak Massacre is the "sickest maze he's ever done"...
 
(I'm calling it)

...followed by Mr Sickstone over here squealing into his camera that Creek Freak Massacre is the "sickest maze he's ever done"...
 
(I'm calling it)

Went on DBGTROTDWTF on Monday purely because my friend hadn’t ridden it since 2016.  
The batching was so slow it was painful - I still wish they used the 2 holding areas differently - one for people who want to see the pre show and one for people who don’t - the pre show for me is tedious and too long though it was amusing because I couldn’t see Derren Browns feet so he was sort of floating.
 
The bit before you enter the train room - we were right at the back and there was an actor telling us that there is a train suspended and swinging by chains and that we are all going to hell.  No offence to the guy but his acting was terrible - I also suspect he was slightly drunk as he was WAY too happy.  Typically my sodding phone went off - had the volume up to the maximum as I had been expecting a phone call earlier and forgot to turn the volume down - cue everyone turning round and me frantically trying to find my phone in my abyss of a bag - the actor the yells “turn off your phone - this is Victorian London, there are no cell phones” - that was the highlight of the entire experience to be honest.
 
First VR was fine but agree with others about the awkwardness of the headsets - I really struggle to get it to sit on my head properly and inevitably end up just holding it in place.
 
The middle section - awful - no actors just a guy in the London Underground get up frantically pressing buttons on the door to get us out - didn’t even say anything.
 
2nd VR - had a dodgy headset - sound kept cutting off every few seconds and they’ve cut out a part of it (where the passenger says she want to get off) - VR just went dark then into the pit of fire.
 
Left the train thinking I could have spent my time better sat drinking a coffee in the Inferno smoking area but at least the best part of the ride - the exit was to come.
 
What a crock - no projection on the floor - the other effects were working - stood right next to the mini stage thing as I like to get nice and close to Mr Demon - well Mr Demon was clearly on vacation or decided himself that this attraction is a pile of poop and got the first bus out of the resort.
We had a guy come out, dressed normally but walking around like he had soiled himself and had drunk one too many bottles of wine, coughing like he’d been chain smoking since the last group had gone through.  Very odd and nowhere near as good as the demon who I swear once spat at me.
 
So yeah - honestly I loved the ghost train the first time I rode it, with the exception of the initial strange 2nd VR which made little sense to the story.
The new ending and 2nd VR they added in 2017 was a big improvement but the middle section where you get off the train is now naff and I much preferred the lights on a stick thing!
 
 

Definitely an unpopular opinion! It's a bloody dreadful name!