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No difference.

The park run both events on the same day, but it doesn't matter whether you buy a Spooky Days or Fright Nights ticket. You still get access to park from 10am-11pm.
Officially Spooky Days runs till 5-6pm, with HFN starting at 6pm. In practice all that means is the scare zones are friendlier until 5pm, and then scarier after 6pm.

Just as an update, I've just purchased my Halloween attraction tickets for Walibi Holland. The absolute cheapest way of buying tickets for all the Halloween attractions (which consists of 4 mazes, 3 experiences and 2 outdoor walkthrough) costs 116.50euros (just shy over £100). That includes a "before dark" ticket where you have to do 3 mazes and 1 walkthrough before 7pm, which is very tight to do since most open at 5pm.

It is experience, but genuinely I think is worth it.

Since I don’t do mazes I rely on the resident expert at home for those.

Liseberg's was good.

Walibi Holland mazes were a bit meh.

Toverland was ok.

Best part of Walibi Belgium was the Zombie Bar on the lake but no idea if they do that anymore.

General atmospheres are good though. Probably would need a fastpass equivalent though if available since you know, QUEUES.

Walibi Holland (when I last went in 2019) was by far the best Halloween event outright I've done. Their standard mazes are good quality. They excel with their 'experiences' (of which they have 3), which are more intense, smaller groups / alone. Their scare zones, which they have several of, are brilliant, along with whole park atmosphere. It gets CRAZY busy though.

I'm returning there this year for the event. I've had to budget to include ride and maze Fastrack - whilst it's possible to do all the Halloween stuff without extras, you will be rushed off your feet, and will almost definitely not get a chance to do any rides in the dark without it.

I did Traumatica at Europa Park last year. Given it's Europa, the operations leave a lot to be desired (their Fastpass is necessary), and the quality of the mazes is very mixed. Atmosphere is very good though. You need to book in early September to have a chance of getting Fastpass / doing the alone experience.

Linnanmaki have a fun event, but nothing to write home about.


I haven't done any more, but some notable ones...
-Walibi Belgium rebranded their event last year into Ibilaw. The best years of their Halloween event are arguably behind them, but they still do well (the Zombie Bar hasn't been around for a while)
-Spanish parks tend to do great Halloween events, if you can deal with the queues / atmosphere. There's also a very well received scream park, Horrorland
-Liseberg is pretty consistent

Six Flags Great Adventure was the first major park I visited recently, as part of a larger north-east/mid-western park trip with a friend.
  At the time of planning this trip (late 2024), there were strange and concerning reports that Kingda Ka and other attractions would be closed at the park for the next season. These reports were unfortunately true. In-light of being spited at least two former major attractions, expectations for this place were noticeably diminished. However thankfully a mostly enjoyable visit was had.   It’s an interesting park in how it’s not too far from New York, yet in the middle of nowhere, amongst a safari attraction too. Upkeep was mostly decent and operations mixed, though some of the clientele made for a more hairy queuing experience.   El toro is certainly the show stopper here, incredible woodie with some rough and intense moments. The B&M collection is mostly excellent, Dare Devil thankfully opened and was better than Wonder Woman and the Flash was overall fun. The park also had a random DC show, Skull Mountain wasn’t anything special.   Still worth visiting if you’re in that area.

Just had a quick check on queue times. 2014 is the earliest year its recorded.
 
Rumba was open till 10pm Fright Nights, Loggers closed at dusk. 
 
Thought I had memories of loggers in the dark but maybe I'm imagining things there. 
 

 
2015 was the first year Rumba started closing at dusk by the looks of things. 

Merlin entertainments credit rating has been downgraded by S&P due to its growing debts and cash outflow with declining revenues. 
 
"Persistent high cash burn could lead to insufficient liquidity after 12 months, without further cash injection"
 
All in all thats a pretty poor outlook and it does make me wonder what it means for future investments at the parks. 
 
 

Yes the costs are horrific.
 
£14-16 for one go in a maze is gobsmacking. And certainly, neither Compound or Mine Tours are worth anywhere near that price. All that does for me is make Thorpe's maze seem good value in comparison (though, I stress, I believe £10 is also too much).
 
But then again, I guess people pay those prices. The whole cost vs demand thing probably plays a part in their logic, so there we go.
 
Personally, I still feel £5-8 is what these mazes are 'worth', in the sense that of that's the quality they provide in comparison to what's out there (both in terms of other theme parks, and scream parks). But maybe that's just unrealistic of me.
 
I wonder if the increase in prices is directly linked to using RWS and needing to generate more money so all parties get money. Again, thinking in terms of Fright Nights, we might need to brace ourselves...

Those prices are outrageous.  But then I suppose prices for everything are outrageous now, so 🤷‍♂️

Rumba was open till around mid September last year so hours are certainly getting less and less for it. Don't forget there was also a period of it opening at 1pm this year too. 
 
Seems hardly worth all the effort getting it open and staff trained if they can no longer keep it operational during the summer holidays. 
 
Who remembers the days of Rumba and Loggers till 10pm in October? 😢
 
I do also understand it from a cost cutting perspective though. If they're being asked to cut costs, would much rather they do this than make staggered openings elsewhere or cut park hours completely. 
 
 
Its reliability has noticeably been a lot worse the last couple of seasons. Its been years of it not reaching full height too. 
 
Its a very old ride, wasn't it 2nd hand from Drayton? No clue how long it operated there. 
 
Zodiac has never been one of my favorites so I wouldn't miss it, but it would be a shame to see it go and not have anything replace it (which would be the most likely option unfortunately) 

Will be interesting to see reviews from Scarefest this year and if theres any difference in quality. Its a good lineup this year, new maze and a new scarezone which is exactly what they needed in my opinion. 
 
I wonder if RWS have any input in design or its purely just from an operational perspective (employing actors.) If I was to guess, RWS are purely operational. 
 
One thing I've noticed though is the prices for the mazes at Towers. 
 
Thorpe this year
4 mazes £34 or £28 with AP discount 
1 shots £8 or £7 with AP discount 
 
Towers this year
3 mazes £38 or £30.40 with AP discount 
Edge of the forest 1 shot (new maze) £16 or £12.80 with AP discount 
Compound or Mine Tours 1 shot £14 or £11.20 with AP discount
 
£16 and £14 for a 1 shot through a maze is absolutely absurd, especially considering cost of entry etc.. 

Will be interesting to see reviews from Scarefest this year and if theres any difference in quality. Its a good lineup this year, new maze and a new scarezone which is exactly what they needed in my opinion. 
 
I wonder if RWS have any input in design or its purely just from an operational perspective (employing actors.) If I was to guess, RWS are purely operational. 
 
One thing I've noticed though is the prices for the mazes at Towers. 
 
Thorpe this year
4 mazes £34 or £28 with AP discount 
1 shots £8 or £7 with AP discount 
 
Towers this year
3 mazes £38 or £30.40 with AP discount 
Edge of the forest 1 shot (new maze) £16 or £12.80 with AP discount 
Compound or Mine Tours 1 shot £14 or £11.20 with AP discount
 
£16 and £14 for a 1 shot through a maze is absolutely absurd, especially considering cost of entry etc.. 

*blows cobwebs off*
 
I don't know if it's been explicitly discussed on the forums, but Towers' Entertainment function is now in the hands of an external team, outsourced in a similar way to how food is now outsourced to Aramark. The team responsible for that is RWS: https://www.rwsglobal.com/
 
I don't know exactly how it now works, and how responsible RWS are for the design of new attractions. However, the 2 new scare attractions for this year are a scare zone and scare maze, both themed and located in the Dark Forest:
 
 
https://www.facebook.com/reel/24142435788755074/?s=single_unit
 
 
It's worth noting that Thorpe's Entertainment function is going to be in the hands of RWS from 2026. So how Scarefest goes down this year might give an indication to how Fright Nights will go next year (which will be marketed heavily due to it being the 25th year)

The last few years, I'd say Thorpe park by a long way. Best ride availability, best throughputs and best opening hours.
 
Crazy because going back 5+ years or so I would've always said Towers. 1 train ops on off peak days was standard at Thorpe, resulting in long queues even on quiet days.

Certainly a shame that Russ left. 
 
We'll never know exactly what he was responsible for, but he obviously served as a face for the park for a long period of time via Jack's videos, having a reasonable open Instagram page and being quite visible on park.
 
He joined as a director at the park at a time when there were several directors coming and going at the park, before the current long-running stability we've seen. Regardless of what's happened at the high Merlin level, and the issues this is causing Thorpe and the other parks, I do think Thorpe's current success was built on stability at their leadership level.
 
 
I'd expect that the role description is sort of all-encapsulating. In other words, it's not saying "Rethemes and lands are coming", but rather "If a retheme or a land was to come to light, it would be in the remit of the Creative Manager".
 
I imagine that part of the reason the role was created is because the Entertainments Department is set to be outsourced, like Towers and Legoland. So the person's previous role, which was related to Ents, would change significantly, so it makes sense for that role to develop and make use of the creative skills they have.
 
The big thing here is that there's now someone looking after the "creative maintenance" of the park. Hopefully that means ride effects. So hopefully there's some positive changes there (looking at Swarm and Inferno), and also moving forward, there's someone at Thorpe who can liaise with MMM to say "This is not a worthwhile effect we can realistically maintain, do not include this" (looking at the Hyperia splashdown)

Stealth is scheduled to be closed 23rd - 25th July. 
 
I assume this will be launch cable replacement.

Stealth is scheduled to be closed 23rd - 25th July. 
 
I assume this will be launch cable replacement.

Thorpe have certainly done a lot right the last couple years and its great to see. 
 
It was great to see an American enthusiast group so enthusiastic about Thorpe are Hyperia in particular on twitter. Believe Hyperia got its record throughput of 54 trains in an hour on their ERT too. 
 
 
I used to love Nemesis but have never liked reborn as much as the original. Inferno seems to get better and better every year, can't beat an old school B&M.

I'm really impressed by the ride teams at Thorpe. We really take for granted how hard they work to keep the rides moving so efficiently. It's really telling how good we have it, The Swarm probably had the worst ops but they were still only stacking trains for about 10 seconds per cycle (and that is an exaggeration). 
 
The Hyperia team must have been chosen by the goddess themselves, because they run that ride so well, never stacking, always dispatching as soon as they can. Also shout out to Inferno's team who were doing a great job. They need a batcher though as lots of trains going out with two empty seats next to each other.
 
And finally, the older I get the more I see myself preferring Thorpe's coaster line up to Altons. As much as I like Nemesis Reborn, I think the rest of the line up is either gimmicky nonsense, run awfully or just dull. Whereas Inferno is running the best Ive seen it (honestly, it's so good right now), Stealth and the Swarm are just so much fun, Hyperia manages to be open (  ) and I still love hanging out around Colossus and hearing that music.
 
In general Thorpe is just a better experience all round. Better hours, better rides, better food, better operations. I would have never said that 20 years ago, but now, to me, Thorpe is in a different league. 

In a nice, but admittedly very random, addition, Colossus now has a smoke effect!
 
https://x.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1936799436602065404?t=uY0MNotqAIdP5sGeIsb4tA&s=19

Noticed on a few visits this season after the cycle has finished on Rush there is a wait of nearly 2 minutes until the restraints are released, which is really awkward and leaves a lot of people very confused and questioning whats going on.
 
I know it has to wait for air pressure to build up after the cycle before restraints are released, but the time it takes to do this has significantly increased. Its also running particularity poor, hardly reaching full height.
 
I believe Rush goes through a more extensive winter maintenance program once every 3 years which includes having the top come off which I believe is this closed season. Hopefully it gets the work it needs to get running well again as its running pretty poor at the moment. 

It's strange because the rest of the park received new TVs which are basically always on and working. So is Swarm just cursed with other issues, or is there another reason why it doesn't work. 
 
The effects situation is a crying shame. It's easy to forget that when the train goes through the tower before the station fly over, it used to (/ is still meant to?) trigger the Swarm 'noise'. I can't remember when I last heard that.
 
There's definitely a disparity between creative and operations. I find it hard to believe that Thorpe would actively have wanted the water effect on Hyperia given the way Swarm's has gone down, and how quickly it stopped working. Hopefully they can stabilise and streamline that process in the future. 

It’s such a shame isn’t it. Thorpe does have a lot of cool features around, but they’re mostly abandoned.
 
Hyperia’s one minute wonder water effect being one of the worst offenders ever.
 
The screens feel to me like another casualty of the cutbacks. I suppose they’re running on the bare minimum staff now, meaning maintenance will be prioritised to essential stuff first. 🤷‍♂️ 

Has anyone seen any of the queueline TVs on this year? 
 
Very strange decision to invest time and money getting them working again last year for them to be switched off a month later? 
 
I have a lot to praise about Thorpe in recent years, but their upkeep of any kind of effects has always been shocking. Not a single effect working on Swarm Island. The water by the fire engine is currently green and they haven't even bothered to fill up the area by the helicopter with water this year.
 
No Inferno mist effects or Stealth smoke effects on Sunday too. How hard is it to keep a smoke machine going 🤣

There was a post on LinkedIn from an BALPA event hosted at Thorpe Park.
 
This graph shows the direction they want Thorpe Park to take. It’s quite simple and fairly obvious but also I’m glad they are taking that direction in becoming the thrill park, nothing else.
 
The graph also shows the way they want to improve revenue and the way they’ve done it. A few things: 2021-2023 it says “event led strategy” and in 2025+ it says “event development” to me it suggest Thorpe management want to and the plan is to bring back events. It was never the plan to drop them from Thorpe’s side.
 
Also they state multiple times how they are keen to remove IP. I hope the management outlasts the cuts as when funding does come back, we need them to push forward with these goals as ultimately this is the correct way forward.