Cal

Bring back the original Detonator soundtrack. 

That's all I ask. 

I went tonight and was just as good as last year, if anything there seemed to be more actors tonight than I’ve ever seen at Tulleys. All mazes were the same, the only thing that’s seen changes this year is the hayride. 
 
The hayride was playing a mix in the queue which included the old Asylum soundtrack 😄
 
@MattyMoo Pretty sure I shared a run through with you on Coven if that was you who went on it first thing tonight 😂

They did try it last year too (okay, the very last day of September, but still, a week earlier than this year). Again, doesn't seem to have been as viable as later dates.
 
But it isn't to do with the amount the park are taking in, it's to do with the fact there's not enough people wanting to work for the park. It's something pretty much every park struggles with. 
 
Yes, Merlin could consider paying staff more than minimum wage and that may help. But how much more they'd have to pay to convince more people to work seasonal jobs with unsocial hours to make staffing issues less an issue is a real big question. Even if Thorpe paid more than supermarkets, for example, how many people who are working in supermarkets (which have clear, set hours) would change to working a job with not-set hours where they then have to find a job every winter? 
 
Halloween is a specifically tricky time for staffing in the UK parks as their younger workforce go off to uni just before, meaning they lose a fair old chunk of people.
 
It's a good point.
 
But then say they reduce maximum capacity by 5000 people. That's up to 5000 people who would be visiting who won't, and may potentially visit a competitor. Thus, potentially, they lose a customer, a competitor gains a customer, and they may not get that customer ever in the first place.
 
Say they just chuck tons of attractions in the park, and the quality of those attractions is not-great. People then won't want to visit because the quality is bad and it's busy.
 
There's so many potential things the park could do, but they all come with setbacks. 
 
If the park wanted to go for more HHN style mazes (continuous congo line) to increase throughput, they would have to completely change the style of their mazes, and include significantly more effects (both automatic and actor-triggered). But that would probably change the experience for the worse.
 
 
Again, this is an issue which loads of large, popular parks face.
Some aren't faced with the staffing issues so much thanks to being year-round parks, so people don't worry about being in seasonal employment.
Other parks introduce significantly more shows, roaming entertainment and just non-ride attractions to help soak up the crowds.
There's no quick or easy fix to this issue, and it happens every year. 
 
As I say, I think the best thing Thorpe can do moving forward is design mazes which have actually good, consistent throughputs. That, along with scare zones and shows, will help allow people feel like they can get their money's worth with Fright Nights.

Was just saying on Twitter, I think part of the problem is a lack in number of mazes too vs previous years. Yes, quantity doesn't always mean quantity (See Vulcan Peak), but as someone who has been going to Thorpe for donkeys, paying out £30 to do 3 mazes (on Friday 13th) and then nearly not getting all 3 done (with 5 mins to spare) shouldn't be a thing... Ok, so we got to Stitches queue at about 6.15, and we stopped for 10 mins to grab food and walk, but honestly, I was not expecting it to be a stress. I don't think that makes me stupid, and I genuinely did not expect queue levels to be the size they were on that Friday. That said, our queues on 13/10 pale in comparison to those over the weekend. Reading online of people getting just 2 or 3 rides completed in a day - that's nuts to me, sorry. Something is wrong somewhere - I genuinely can't recall queues like those seen over the weekend on previous Fright Nights, unless I'm mistaken? 120+ minutes on anything significant - 100 mins on some flats. Bonkers.

It might aesthetically look the best it has in over a decade, but Chessington is fundamentally broken.
 
Most of the new rides built and supplied by cheap manufacturers, with low throughputs and regular break downs. Mandrill might be the best investment in years, but it’s still a weird choice given other options. Not helped either by Merlin’s extreme & unnecessary safety reactions, making what’s already a questionable throughput dire.
 
The rest of the park is still the same story. Old/ageing rides struggling to operate on lower throughputs and increasing breakdowns. Tiger Rock & Dragons Fury were down frequently during the day. Tomb is an absolute mess. 
 
Howl’oween was generally fun (albeit no Creepy Caves) with some excellent shows and entertainment, but seriously needs to go back to 8pm as you basically get half an hour of atmospheric park lighting and everything. 
 
Management, car parks, queue distribution, infastructure, F&B and so much more is keeping this park from being something great. Like I’m sure it was a long long time ago. However most of the above is unlikely to be improved soon, if ever.

Sadly I think this is the likely outcome. 
 
Just build filler rides, there's literally nothing wrong with it and certainly helped Thorpe's initial growth.

Ahhh yes, that's our tactic too - either be at the front, or hang back and wait for everyone to get through. It amazes me how slowly some people go through the haunts (another reason not to do Hellements!)
 
 
Definitely the most actors, agreed! Some great moments of hands jumping out from walls, actors appearing from seemingly nowhere in some of the rooms when just looking into the darkness - was so impressed and they are to be commended. Top notch.  As I say - Cottage, Coven at Cellar were highlights for us. 
 
 
We literally said the same! People genuinely don't realise that Cottage is there - similarly, Wastelands had some very very short queues too, and again, I think people would oddly not realise it's there and just think that area was for the fire and dance show.
 
 
Agreed. We always give The Island (or whatever it's called that year) a go and just generally find it long and not up to par with the rest. Hellements as I say does not scare me in the slightest, though I guess it may for some - I just find it tedious and frustrating, and whilst on it all I can think is, when can I get out so I can go and see the Coven again haha.
 
Wonder what 2024 will bring - the rumoured second maze in Wastelands?
 
Oh - forgot to mention - loved the changes to Hayride, especially Bad Santa!

Oh really? Haha! It was one of our very early mazes. Was wearing a Tulleys hoodie and a black Vault City t shirt last night.
After cutting short our visit on Saturday 7th October due to it being "a certain day" ahem, and complaining to guest services, we got our VIP bands reissued (and vouchers!) and came back last night - was so so different. Fantastic atmosphere and some incredibly intense runs on mazes with lots of actors. Was followed each run through by a blonde actress in the Cellar in the strobe maze section, getting proper close... similarly, was split off in Doom Town by two actresses in the kitchen scene, and Coven was top notch, never seen the witches getting so close and climbing onto the walls so much in the laser swamp, as I call it. If you were on the same first run through of Coven with us, the house scene in particular was very intense, the witches went absolutely bonkers, shouting and ganging up from nowhere, was absolutely superb.
 
I would genuinely go as far as saying our visit last night was one of the best we've ever had in all the years we've been going, and so glad that was the case. Top notch street theatre too, Fanny & Fanny, Brian the Accountant, Romeo & Juliet and also the vampire and vampiress couple all chatted to us, and they are all so so good. Fanny was showing us her pussy which she said now needed two fingers instead of one, and Juliet was proud of her gash which she - and I jest not - said that Romeo had unfortunately double fisted by accident. Lost for words/nearly spat my drink out everywhere 😂🥵
 
Particular highlights also included the zombie with "Choose Life" on his tshirt in Doom Town saying "NO - choose Death!", one of the roaming zombies pointing out to us this was our 3rd run through in disbelief... also, some absolute stonking scares in Creepy Cottage & Cellar (as mentioned previously) - I must reiterate again, actors last night were on absolute top form.
 
We didn't do The Island last night as we'd done it in our aborted visit on the 7th, and it's looooong, and we didn't do Hellements again as - no offence - it doesn't scare me in the slightest to be honest! Only minor comment/suggestion is that Chop Shop is a little dated now perhaps, though again the actors were good last night! Would love that to be changed up a bit next year. I always feel Cottage & Cellar are under-rated by the masses, as we often have the best scares of the night in them, personally!
 
Maze tallies last night (we have VIP, just an FYI!)
Creepy Cottage: 3
Coven of 13: 3
Island: 0
Chop Shop: 1
Clowns: 1
Wastelands: 2
Cellar: 4
Haunted Hayride: 2
Hellements: 0
Doom Town: 4
 
...and from our aborted visit on the 7th, leaving the park about 8pmish for fear of the atmosphere turning more sour considering they'd shut all the bars...:
 
Creepy Cottage: 3
Coven of 13: 1
Island: 1
Chop Shop: 1
Clowns: 1
Wastelands: 2
Cellar: 3
Haunted Hayride: 0
Hellements: 1
Doom Town: 2
 

I went tonight and was just as good as last year, if anything there seemed to be more actors tonight than I’ve ever seen at Tulleys. All mazes were the same, the only thing that’s seen changes this year is the hayride. 
 
The hayride was playing a mix in the queue which included the old Asylum soundtrack 😄
 
@MattyMoo Pretty sure I shared a run through with you on Coven if that was you who went on it first thing tonight 😂

Nice little lighting package syncing up to the FN soundtrack.
 
VID20231017195009.mp4
 
On a side note It does appear that Detonator is the only ride to have it's own FN audio this year that I've noticed, apart from a couple that play the repetitive park wide audio.

I hope so. Its a dead IP now (always was really) and there did seem to be some talk about changes coming to angry bird land in the passholders group earlier this year. Would make sense to do it at the same time as a rebrand.
 
Would love to see the return of the black hole music on Detonator

Yes! Even just the original countdown would be amazing 
 
5… DUN DUN

I hope so. Its a dead IP now (always was really) and there did seem to be some talk about changes coming to angry bird land in the passholders group earlier this year. Would make sense to do it at the same time as a rebrand.
 
Would love to see the return of the black hole music on Detonator

Nailed it 😎

Yeah I agree, its not a priority for them and thats fine, I'm just someone that has always enjoyed Fright Nights audio so its something I picked up on.
 
Even if they're not creating new audio, loads of the previous Fright Night overlays would work fine. It makes a huge difference to the atmosphere in my opinion.
 
 
Good idea about keeping the coasters and Fright Nights attractions open till 10, would mean they could still send a good amount of staff home earlier. Fright Nights and Coasters are what the majority of people will want to be doing in the dark anyway really. Its just such a shame they make a good effort of making everything look good in the dark and then not even having the time to see it all anyway, even on a quieter night.
 
I did notice a lot of people feeding this back in the passholders group as well, so I'm hoping they pick up on this and can look at bringing it back for next year as they seem to be quite good at listening to feedback recently. If they've done it before, they can do it again.
 
 
I think as long as they keep the same number of free attractions/shows, people wouldn't mind paying for another maze. If they start to takeaway some of the free zones and replace these with paid mazes, I can see people not being too happy, understandably. 
 
I would be happy if they keep the current number with 3 mazes, as I think they have a great variety of attractions now. But if they do I would definitely like to see Trailers replaced, its nice to have a fresh maze every year.
 
If I was to see anything replaced it would be Creature Campus. I'd much rather see a new scare zone or maze instead of a dance show. But I can see why they've kept this as theres clearly a demand for it, people seem to love it.

Yeah, this is a bit disappointing. In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor thing, and with the efforts gone elsewhere, it almost seems like a nitpick point. But the park have done some pretty awesome Fright Nights overlays on rides in previous years, and having them along with the high quality areas the park would be fab.
 
Big agree here. 
 
I'd imagine another reason for 10pm closes being something they don't want to bring back is because staff aged under 18 can't work that late, which puts pressure on staff (and then links into staff welfare and all the other reasons).
 
However, I think the park really need to explore ways to bring back 10pm closes. It would help bring Fright Nights in line with scare-specific events across the country, and just give more night time experience. Even if they just kept Fright Nights attractions and coasters open till 10pm, or considered 11am-10pm, that would be a big helpful step.
 
Another agree here. It wasn't bad, but seemed a bit...meh at the same time.
 
This is something which has been in my mind too. Obviously not to jump the gun, but where do Thorpe go from here?
 
Do the park expand their line up with a 4th maze, and if so, how? Do they just go for 4 mazes which you can buy separately, and then have a "Terrifying Quad" package? Do they go for a "Terrifying Trio" package plus a 4th maze which is entirely separate? Or do they go for 3 upcharge mazes and then 1 free maze? Or some other weird combo?
 
Or if they keep with 3, do they replace Trailers? Or just update it? Or, do what seems almost unthinkable now, and stick with the 3 mazes they currently have, have no new mazes, and instead focus on new scare zones/shows instead?
 
There's lots of options there. I wonder what the reaction would be to a 4th upcharge maze from the masses - would people be happy to pay for everything, or does it leave people picking and choosing what they're doing? It certainly is something they'd need to look at a lot with market research.

Last year was the first Fright Nights I hadn't done since 2012, meaning both Survival Games and Death doors were completely new to me. 
 
Survival games was my favorite of the mazes. Me and a friend got split up and didn't see eachother the whole time. It was quite funny talking about it after having completely different experiences. This one definitely seemed to get the best reactions of people coming out of the maze too.
 
Trailers was basically the same as when I went on it a couple of years ago. Great sets and a good amount of actors. 
 
Stiches was my least favorite of the 3 mazes, which was a shame as I was looking forward to this one. The length of the maze and sets were amazing, but just felt it lacked any sort of scares and lacked actors in places there probably should've been actors. I do think I may have had a particularly bad run through on this so if I get myself to Fright Nights again I'd like to give it another go. I was also at the back of the group which didn't help, as most effects etc happened before I got there.
 
I didn't watch the Creature Campus show as thats not something that really interests me. I thought the Lucifers Lair area was great though. Absolutely packed with actors and just in general a great atmosphere in the middle of the park. Everyone really seemed to enjoy this area, was constantly busy. 
 
The Crows scarzone was great, felt more like an outdoor maze than a scarezone. The lighting, audio and smoke was great. I liked that they were sending you in batches as it meant it wasn't too crowded in there but I'm unsure how this will cope on the busier nights. It created big crowds at the entrance with no real queueline. It was impossible to hear what they were saying on the megaphone with Saws area music in the background 😄
 
I also really enjoyed Death Doors, which was a pleasant surprise. Something completely different and it was a good laugh. 
 
Few other points:
- The park in general is looking great at night. Would be nice to have a couple smoke machines around though, like Samurai and Colossus has done on previous years.
- None of the rides had Fright Nights audio this year which is a shame. Not sure if they just haven't had the time to do it yet or they aren't bothering this year? This really adds to the event normally so I hope they get that sorted. 
- There really isn't enough time in the dark. The park looks great at night and its a completely different atmosphere. I know the park aren't keen on bringing 10pm closes back due to a number of reasons like staff welfare etc, but it seriously makes such a big difference. I'd much rather them do an 11am-10pm if its the extra hour which is an issue. Bring 10pm closes back!!!
- Wasn't a fan of the parkwide Fright Nights audio this year.
 
Overall though, the best Fright Nights I've been too in a long time. They have a great mix of attractions which are all high quality. Its clear they're putting a lot of effort into the event again and the budget it there.
 
Next year id like to see them add a 4th maze to the current lineup. I'm sure they'd like to as well as it will help with queues and its an extra income for them. Not sure if they'll be able to do that though space wise until they get rid of black mirror. If a 4th isn't an option next year then I'd like to see a new maze to replace Trailers.

I predict that construction for Project Exodus will go vertical on Monday 9th October. I reckon the first supports will go in sometime between 11am and 1pm that day. 

Bringing this back  
 
 

Rode Mandrill for my first time today, and I really enjoyed it. It still isn't the coaster of choice I would've gone for Chessington, but it rides really well and fits in perfectly. 
 
It now has a single rider queue and you don't need to use the virtual queue for this. 
 
Wonder how long they'll keep the virtual queue for? I'm amazed they bother with it on off peak days. It was walk on all day and they were allowing rerides in the station, yet they're paying 3 members of staff to stand at the entrance all day to scan people into the queue? Unnecessary faff

Why oh why oh why would you post this - scheduled or otherwise - when the ride is still closed?

And here's an issue I have with the park at the moment.
 
They have been great at sharing updates geared towards geeks and those who are interested. The collaborations with Jack Silkstone over the years (pre-season videos, for example) have given a great insight into what to expect, some of the park's thinking, etc.
 
But they're almost being too open.
 
We go back to Tidal Wave's fire effect returning. That was announced for, what, 2021? And yet here we are, no fire effect in sight.
 
Their communication about SRQ has been good. They trialled it on Saw last year (after a push to trial it from a Rides Team Leader), and expanded it to a couple of flat rides. They've said they intend to put it on Stealth too. But that was many months ago, and the official line has just been 'it's coming soon'. How long does it take to set up? I genuinely cannot understand why it is taking so long, especially since Stealth was designed to have a Single Rider Queue, which still exists.
 
If they hadn't have said anything until it was confirmed and all but in place, it wouldn't have caused any issues. Even if they said "We're looking at putting it on more rides if possible - watch this space", that would be fine. But by announcing it, with no clear idea of when it could happen, it's created this situation which frankly could have been avoided.
 
Hopefully they've learnt from that, and choose to be more selective with what they talk about. And they get SRQ up and running.
 
 
I don't see Stealth's life as limited.
 
Hydraulic launches are fine. Yes, Top Thrill Dragster had issues, and that's why they've changed that. Hydraulic launches are still not the most reliable and parks do still have issues with them. And yes, hydraulic launches are old hat now, with LSMs the launch of choice now (and rightfully so). 
 
But at the same time, Thorpe have got Stealth down to a tee. Yes, it's had a bit of downtime recently (a few days I believe). But aside from that, it's been reliable, rarely has a rollback, and is incredibly popular still.
 
Okay, it's not going to be the tallest ride on park. But that's not big issue, when the tallest ride is only a bit taller and faster, and on the other side of the park. It still has a huge selling point and draw. People still lap it up.
 
Thorpe aren't short on space, so don't have a need to remove it yet. And frankly put, there's other coasters which would be higher up on the list to be removed in my opinion.
 
Doing a Top Thrill feels a bit unnecessary at the moment. It would have to be turned into a swing launch in all likelihood, which would require a significant rejig of the station. The whole process would be incredibly costly at a point when, again, that money could be better spent elsewhere.
 
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.