Inferno

Not necessarily. A simple retheme could be hinted at over Fright Nights (to give people a chance to have a final ride), then marketed from early next year. Or even just announced next year.
 
I agree a complete new ride is extremely unlikely, if for no other reason than the fact planning permission would be a nightmare. Plus the fact there is still the Beach development which could happen.
 
One would certainly hope there's thoughts/conversations about the next *big* thing for the park. Though I imagine there's a level of dependence on what the situation with Merlin is there. Arguably though, a major investment shouldn't be the next priority, but rather a couple of medium investments to sort out the support line up (Zodiac and Rumba, I'm looking at you)

A long shot, but here goes...
 
If anyone has any photos related to Face it Alone, that they are willing / allowing to have shared on TPM's website, please pass them my way!
 
And I mean any photo related to it. A photo of a ticket or a poster advertising it. A photo of the selection ceremony from 2015. Or of your wonderful aftermath.
 
I'm in the process of updating TPM's Fright Nights archive, and we don't have many photos of our own.
(If you want to check out said archive, which currently has details from the past 10 years of Fright Nights in gorey detail, it's here: https://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/index.php/fright-nights/)

ParmPap translation service:
 
There might be an Easter Egg in DeadBeat this year which relates to the future of the pyramid.
 
There also might not be. Who knows?
 
---
 
As a fun aside though, which has literally just come to mind off the back of this, if Thorpe wanted to retheme The Walking Dead, it could be fun if they themed it to the DeadBeat universe. Effectively it would be taking it back to its X version, but you could have it as the rave before the demons took over. Keep it upbeat and happy. I'd like that. 

Wouldn't even remotely be surprised if this was the outcome (even as potentially one of Ghost Train's very few genuine fans) - I think its days were numbered when they stopped running the fakeout finale and just chucked ride staff in front of it to guide guests in the other direction instead of bringing it back or at the very least redecorating the fakeout finale room to be something different so that the original exit route is retained even if the fakeout was cut.
 
I said at the start of the season that I reckon Ghost Train had maybe 2 seasons left in it at most. I will genuinely be sad to see it go - but even more so if it goes without a plan for its future. It may be a bad attraction on paper, but I'd rather take something rather than nothing any day of the week. I just hope that whatever comes next isn't a demolishment of the building and another coaster built there.
 
Thorpe are crying out for a good dark ride - I love the Ghost Train building and is definitely sizeable enough to fit something else in there - the only issue would be getting the motion platform out and the new ride system in. There's many more much more appropriate locations for a new coaster when the time comes. For the love of Christ keep it as a dark ride, but do it more traditionally this time.
 
I'd love to have seen how DBGT could've gone if it weren't for the VR gimmick and Derren had been given full creative control...

In an interesting recent development, it appears most (if not, all) Ghost Train merchandise is on sale / reduced.
 
https://x.com/CalVickers33/status/1959594519923442085?t=3dYMeueKswge5Nfu0LzrBQ&s=19
 
Parks do tend to put merchandise on sale for rides which aren't returning the following season. Equally, they can just do if it's not popular and they want to clear space. 
 
I think it's fair to say that Ghost Train isn't the most popular attraction, and none of the merch is must-have stuff, so it's certainly the realm of possibility that they're simply getting rid of the range. However, given the financial issues and potential cost-cutting Merlin are facing, plus the fact that Thorpe are set to be outsourcing Ents next year, it also wouldn't be too much of a surprise if it didn't return next year...

It seems that the logo has been added to somewhat.
 
This has made an appearance on a lot of the social media posts and marketing emails over the past couple of weeks.
 

 
I have to say I’m not sure this is a step in the right direction. I know the logo has been controversial, but this busy new animated park skyline element sat on top of the existing logo doesn’t fit in with the new sleek and minimal branding.  It feels a bit like an addition that’s been made as an afterthought, by someone other than the original designers of the branding.
 
I think it’s a bit of a shame that the brand overall is already becoming muddy after just one year, and it’s being strayed from quite a lot, even with something as important as the logo.
 
Aside from that, I’m not sure what on earth they were thinking by having this as their app icon instead of the “Thorpe” text that was there before
 

 
This really bears no resemblance to the park or the brand at all. Nowhere in the branding is this standalone T referred to at all, and it isn’t an icon that’s used anywhere to symbolise Thorpe Park.
 
imagine a brand like British Airways having this as their app icon… Ridiculous.

If it’s iconic enough, like Virgin’s red V or easyJet’s lowercase orange e for example, that’s great - but BA’s B, and certainly Thorpe’s T, aren’t.
 
Again, I think the idea behind the new TP brand design has been lost a little. 
I know it was controversial, but this can’t be what the designers had in mind at all. We now seem to have quite a messy crossover between the sleek and colourful branding, and efforts made by others since it was designed.
 
I think the logo text was deliberately simple, and was always supposed to be either intertwined with the squiggly bits as shown in the reveal videos, or overlayed directly on to bold images as shown on the sample posters.
 

 

 

 

 
 

The situation is entirely caused by management loosing sight of how theme parks make money. 
 
The gate fee covers the running costs, the spend in the park makes the money. Management decided to start contracting things out and cutting on maintenance so short term spend looked good. Unfortunately this meant Merlin earns less per head as another company is skimming off the top and guests spend less when unhappy. They lost sight of the absolute basics and now there is very little room for course correction. 

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. 
 
 

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

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)

Rode Tomb Blaster today.
 
It remains bloody dreadful.
 
-Every train had at least one car not in use. One train had two cars not in use.
-The 'story' is beyond dull, with the voiceover being one of the worst-sounding, boring and grating things I've ever heard on a theme park
-The guns are rubbish
-Pacing of the ride feels so off. Partially because of the story they shoehorned in, but also just because the ride system feels like it's on its last legs
-Audio is either too quiet or too loud.
-Most of the screens in the on ride photo viewpoint were broken (not necessarily turned off, but physically broken).
 
Honestly, of everything that the park are doing, adding and changing, sorting out Tomb Blaster should really have been number 1 priority.

Those posters - my guess, now that the new stuff doesn’t seem to fit, is that there’s a new room in Trailers based on X:\NWO   - one poster clearly says X, and the other resembles one of those manakins there used to be on the old X:\NWO brake runs.

Got to be Thorpe for me these days - they have had quite the turnaround over the last few years.

The Easter Egg culture for Merlin has become a lot. 
 
Realistically, sticking in an Easter Egg takes very little effort. Taking Toxicator as an example, it wouldn't have taken any real energy and time away from the creative team to throw in references to 1997, seeing that "Ripsaw" spelt backwards was "Waspir", and that could be used to spell something that sounded vaguely acidic in "Waspirium", a poster with "Can you cut it?", etc. It's a fun little nod. Designers putting their name on an attraction is also a trend which has been around a long time too.
 
But there's now an innate expectation for Easter Eggs which has come from influencers and enthusiasts seeking them out and really pushing them. It erred too far. My favourite example of how far it went was how Survival Games at Thorpe Park features a prop of a severed penis (behind a fence, in a box, not in an obvious place, I believe), with a tag labelled "JS" on it, which stood for Jack Silkstone, an 'Easter Egg' to how Jack was involved in the marketing for it. Again, not something that takes up time, money or energy to create really, but extremely convoluted, and by bringing it to people's attention and encouraging them to look out for it, actively takes away from the experience.
 
And that's the issue now. People fixate more on Easter Eggs and finding these nods and feeling clever than actually taking in the bigger picture. Going back to Toxicator, whilst all the references make sense and that, does Toxicator really fit and work with Forbidden Valley? Well, it's certainly changed the area more and continued to turn of it into X Sector 2.0.

It's a very interesting one that's been touched on before in other topics.
 
Apart from the excellent Wickerman, they've spent vast amounts of money over the last several years replacing the Haunted House, Hex, Sub Terra, Nemesis, Skyride and Ripsaw with... The Haunted House, Hex, Sub Terra, Nemesis, Skyride and Ripsaw...
Yes they're all updated and in a couple of cases very different, but they're all essentially the same thing at the end of the day, and it's difficult to argue with that.
 
Someone who last visited Alton Towers in 2014, over a decade ago, would realistically not see a lot of difference in terms of ride offering if they visited again tomorrow. In fact, there are fewer rides on offer.
 
Don't get me wrong - I think its a very good thing that Skyride was saved, I think Curse is a vast improvement on Duel, and Nemesis' renewal and tart-up was a good thing to secure its future, but I agree with what you've said above.  Realistically, to most people at least, none of it is truly new. It's neatly all been (granted, expensive) maintenance to existing attractions to keep them running...
And the trouble is, they're not finished yet either.  Galactica is crying out for a refurbishment and retime... so could that be yet another (all be it badly needed) large investment that needs doing instead of something truly new? It wouldn't surprise me, as it will probably be deemed worth investing in rather than scrapping.
 
I think the truth is that Merlin has run nearly everything in to the ground, with little thought for the future. Although we all rode the wave of Merlin's success a decade ago, with new things coming in fairly regularly, their short-term thinking and obsession with only ever investing in a 'sure moneymaker' to satisfy the shareholders one year at a time has landed Towers here.
The money that should have been spent on refurbishments and maintenance over the years was instead given to the top execs and the shareholders, and now everything's timed out at the same time, and is hoovering up all the money that would otherwise be available to invest in to new attractions etc.
 
I'm very sad about the situation Alton Towers has been put in to by such poor leadership in the past.
Clearly there is a lot of money being spent at Towers on getting things back on track.  The recent renovations have mostly been excellent.  But with more expensive fix-ups surely to come, and ongoing problems with reliability and aging rides elsewhere (Rita, Galactica, etc), they're not out of the woods yet.
 
I hope there will be news soon on something truly new and exciting coming to Towers. They just can't keep replacing or re-theming everything for ever - even Disney have accepted that!

Hi guys. In recent years, I think it’s fair to say that Alton Towers have had a bit of a nostalgia push, for lack of a better term. In 2023, the park revamped Duel into The Curse at Alton Manor, which harked back to the ride’s roots and brought back something more akin to the Haunted House from 1992 (while Curse is not the Haunted House, it’s a haunted house with enough shared DNA that I think the two could be conflated with one another by a casual visitor). In 2024, the park retracked Nemesis. And in 2025, the park have opened Toxicator, which brings back a ride akin to the late Ripsaw from 1997 (while Toxicator is not the Ripsaw, it’s a Top Spin with enough shared DNA that I think the two could be conflated with one another by a casual visitor). Argaubly more so than ever before, Alton Towers’ recent investments seem to be leaning heavily into nostalgia for the park’s past. This is an interesting change of pace for the park compared to years gone by, so I’d be interested to know; what are your thoughts on the recent nostalgia push at Alton Towers? Do you love that the park is harking back to the glory days of the past? Or do you think that the park is fixating overly on past glories and not bringing enough new things to the table?
 
Personally, I’m in two minds. I think there’s a balance to be struck between nostalgia and new ideas.
 
On the one hand, I don’t think any of the projects that have been done have been unnecessary projects or excessively fixated on nostalgia to their detriment. Curse did not attempt to synthetically “revive” the 1992 Haunted House as some were advocating for and as I feared might happen; it did attempt to put its own spin on the haunted house concept and I think it works really well. Nemesis Reborn was a revival of a ride that was by all accounts revered and a core part of the park’s DNA, and I think the changes were excellent and breathed new life into the concept to bring it into the 21st century. Toxicator, perhaps ironically with it being the only new piece of ride hardware, is perhaps the one that feels like it was most done for nostalgia’s sake; there are a lot of other types of flat ride to pick from, and they still went for the one that the park had in 1997. But even still, Alton Towers lacks flat rides and the Top Spin as a ride type does objectively offer a lot of positive attributes. These projects have good ideas at their core, and one could argue; why should a good idea go unused just because it has been used before? Newness for newness’s sake is not necessarily a good thing; sometimes the old ones are the best, as they say!
 
On the other hand, however, I have a key concern about the park relying on nostalgia for multiple recent investments. That concern is that an excessive focus on nostalgia for multiple investments in a row might contribute to a public perception that the park is stood still, and isn’t moving forward. I’m not saying that projects like the revamps weren’t good, but I think more so than any decade prior, Alton Towers has felt like it’s stood still during the 2020s so far. We as enthusiasts might be interested in projects like Curse and Nemesis Reborn, and the park are undeniably splashing the cash, but for the casual visitor, I have my concerns that it looks like the park is simply living off past glories and rehashing the past. To the casual observer, I can see why Curse is “just the Haunted House in a new colour”, Nemesis Reborn is “just Nemesis in a new colour”, and Toxicator is “just Ripsaw in a new colour”. In isolation, I think all of these projects were fundamentally good and beneficial, and nostalgia in moderate doses is not necessarily a bad thing… but when put together and being the only things done for multiple years in a row, they give off an impression that the park has run out of ideas and hasn’t done anything meaningfully new in years.
 
People might rhapsodise about “the experience” in years gone by, but I feel this sentiment ignores the key thing that gave Alton Towers its popularity and status in the first place. During the 1980s and 1990s, the park was forward-thinking and brought several new and innovative ride installations to the table, and it attracted the public’s attention in a big way. Heck, even during the 2010s, the park was still forward-thinking and bringing new and innovative ride installations to the table in the form of rides like Thirteen, Smiler and Wicker Man. But when Alton Towers has spent the last few years in a row doing nothing but refurbishing and/or “reviving” things from the park’s past, I fear that that forward-thinking and innovating mentality that gave the park its name will be perceived to have gone. Multiple nostalgia-driven projects in a row could feel like the park is rehashing the old hits and living in the past rather than bringing anything new to the table.
 
So personally, my view is that there is a place for nostalgia, and good ideas should not necessarily be abandoned for newness’s sake, but that the park’s reliance on it in recent years could perhaps be excessive, particularly if continued into 2026 and beyond. If we, for instance, see a new enterprise to “revive” Enterprise in 2027 and a new pirate ship to “revive” Blade in 2028, I fear it will just fuel a perception that the park is stood still and living in the past. We need some legitimately new blood interspersed in with nostalgia to make it feel like the park is moving forwards, and I’d argue we’ve reached a juncture where Alton Towers could perhaps do with some new blood rides-wise.
 
But I’d be keen to know; what are your thoughts on Alton Towers’ recent nostalgia push? Do you think it’s a good idea to hark back to the glory days? Or do you think the park could do with bringing some new ideas to the table?

The full Old Town soundtrack has just been uploaded on my youtube, go check it out

I think it's worth pointing out that Survival Games ended up costing more than Trailers. And Creek Freak Massacre was, at the time, the park's single highest investment for a maze and lasted 3 seasons. So high cost doesn't mean it has to be around for a long time, although I understand the point and broadly don't disagree. 
 
I've seen people on social media talking about how Trailers in particular is "old". It's a very interesting discussion point. It's had 4 seasons now, and last year was the first year we saw substantial changes to it (though arguably, those changes weren't really substantial, just a redress), and is the oldest in the line up. 
 
But in the past, the park had mazes last for several seasons...
Asylum - 9 seasons
Saw Alive - 9 seasons
Se7en - 6 seasons
Hellgate - 6 seasons
 
And there's even more recent examples of mazes lasting a few years...
Platform 15 - 6 seasons
Blair Witch - 6 seasons (with a brief gap)
The Curse - 5 seasons 
Containment - 5 seasons
 
Obviously the glaring difference right now is the fact the mazes are upcharge. But then, plenty of places keep mazes for a long time. Towers is a fine example. Lots of international parks (some of which have better Halloween events than Thorpe) do. And scream parks, some of which have mazes set up in situ all year round, have kept mazes for a long time (Tulleys has 5 mazes which are at least a decade old, have just retired one which was 15 years old, and have a couple which have been rethemed but are otherwise the same). My point is, keeping attractions the same for a long time isn't uncommon at other places either.
 
Thorpe certainly gets held to a high expectation with Fright Nights. And recently that's at least partially their own doing thanks to the high maze costs, and their own marketing hype. But at the same time, I don't think a maze potentially having a run of 5 seasons is that long or necessarily a bad thing.
 
 
It will be interesting to see what happens this year. The park have introduced a new maze every year since 2010 (if you include Saw Alive). Okay, there's a couple of loose definitions of new in that list  but still. It's the expectation that there will be a new maze every year. In the same way in the past there was an expectation of a new ride every year. 
 
But with changing budgets and a complete behind the scenes overhaul, plus this being the last year that Thorpe run Ents themselves, who knows what this means. But if they don't introduce a new maze, I'll be very interested to see how they market the event and where they place their focuses.

Thanks, both!
 
I doubt I'll end up doing it anyway. If there are probably actors in it, I'm not sure I'd want to take the chance, and besides, there's too much at Thorpe that I actually like for me to be overly worried about not having done The Walking Dead! I'll probably be far too tempted by the bigger coasters on my next visit, particularly seeing as I definitely need more goes on Hyperia...

I’m sorry I can’t answer your question, but in my experience it’s extremely rare, and on the few occasions when they have had actors in there during my visits over the years, it’s simply one in the pre-show room, but the “scares” are minimal and it’s more of an “opening and closing the doors” sort of role.  Another actor or 2 is then in the corridor just after the station exit, although realistically the scares here are minimal too and it’s more for show as you file past.

My advice would be, if you’re really wanting to ride TWD, depending on your phobia of course, it isn’t comparable to a scare maze and is a very brief interaction. You’ll be walking past them for a few seconds at most, and the environment doesn’t lend itself to being scary or really give the staff any opportunity to hide.
you’ll also be one of a trainload of people so it’s safety in numbers!
 
If you just come through the doors, keep your head down and walk, once you’re in to the narrow corridor you’re past where the actors usually are (if there are any!)
 
I think there will always be someone in the preshow room, who often has a mask of some sort on, but as I’ve mentioned it’s far from a scary experience and really no different than any member of staff dealing with a preshow 🤷‍♂️ 
 
Do they even have actors in there anymore actually?
 

Actors are in there in the afternoons most days this year in my experience.
 
They always place a sign outside the entrance when there are actors, and there almost always won't be actors in there if that sign isn't out.
 
If you want to experience it without actors, I'd try to ride it before noon.

It is a weird one and I don't think we really know the answer to the question of "Why now?"
 
Obviously having an SBNO ride doesn't look nice. But it had been SBNO for ages, and stood right by a year-round attraction for a while. So it's not like now was the hot time to do it.
 
One point which people might not be aware of is that the park made use of the ride for staff training (work at height in particular) after it closed, which was in many ways more convenient than using another ride.
 
They didn't need planning permission to remove it (even if they did submit an application). 
 
I reckon there is some legs to the school of thought of a ride going there at some point. I wonder how much it actually cost to remove? I wonder if that extra cost proved to be a hurdle to adding a ride there in the past, so they ultimately decided to remove it now so when they choose again to add a new ride, it's slightly less expensive.
 
A new ride could still go there next year in theory, but I'd be surprised.

Out of curiosity, how often do actors appear in The Walking Dead? And do they ever appear when not advertised outside?
 
I only ask because I haven’t actually done it since the retheme due to a bit of a phobia of/aversion to costumed actors, particularly scare actors. I rode the coaster hardware itself in 2014, prior to the retheme, but I haven’t ridden it since.
 
I’m wondering if I should rip the plaster off and try it next time I’m at Thorpe, but I’d really prefer not to risk it if there’s a strong chance of actors being in there.

I totally agree that paying to park at theme park sucks, but trying to get out of it by “outsmarting” the system or whatever is poor behaviour.
 
It’s like these idiots you see with cameras in Police officers’ faces, not breaking any laws, but trying for hours to catch them out or get a rise out of them. Not breaking any rules, but it’s scumbag behaviour.
 
The reality is, if you get out of the car park somehow without paying, weather that be by tailgating someone at the barrier, driving the wrong side of the road out of the entrance, holding up the queue while arguing with staff to open the barrier, or whatever, I doubt very much that anyone would do anything about it, but if someone does something stupid or aggressive in order to get out without paying, they’re are an absolute piece of sh!t. 🤷‍♂️ The rules apply to everyone. Nobody should do stupid things to get out of paying, and certainly nobody should be trying to lean on the staff to let them out etc - they aren’t there for that and it isn’t fair.
 
There will always be people who try to flout the rules, but I suppose it comes down to the sort of person you want to be.  Some in our society simply don’t care. But if we all behaved like that, 1, we’d be in a mess, and 2, the parks would simply make whatever changes are needed to close the loophole.
 
on the other hand however - if you choose not to buy a parking ticket in advance, and take a chance that the exit barriers might be open at the end of the day etc, I think that’s fair enough if you’re let out without paying but were willing to pay at the exit 🤷‍♂️