Marhelorpe

I'll be down as a maybe for the moment please. It all depends on whether I can find a solution to put my bags somewhere for the day due to flights the next morning at 6am from Gatwick. Edit (11/11): I'm in now. All sorted!

Should've worded that a little better because what I meant by feedback-wise wasn't the popularity of the attraction, but the general opinion and impressions from the public, because lets be honest, none of those attractions mentioned have had an overwhelming positive response since they debuted: • Sub-Terra was awful when it opened and after some adjustments still provided mixed opinion. • Saw Alive might look all pretty but has remained unchanged and doesn't deliver the scares or promise of being the "world's most extreme live-action horror maze". • I'm a Celeb is identical to Saw Alive - looks pretty inside but that's as far as it goes. The rest is abysmal. • Derren Brown's Ghost Train is the most overhyped and unreliable white elephant in the park's history, operated appallingly during it's opening year and still has an endless stream of cost and reliability issues today. The fact most, if not all the park's flat rides still draw big queues and positive opinion with guests all these years later should tell the park something. Not only would a newer flat/thrill ride be more sustainable in the long-term, but I'm certain feedback would be a lot higher for it. For instance, I can picture the perfect replacement for Slammer which would undoubtedly make it the best flat ride in the park if built, but it's sadly never going to happen, which is why I find it frustrating the priority for a few years now has been to ensure any new attraction is a world first, have an IP and be very marketable. Forget building a superb killer thrill ride, just as long as whatever comes along is marketable, that's all that matters now.

So just in case Saw Alive, Nemesis Sub-Terra, I'm a Celeb and Derren Brown's Ghost Train weren't big enough indicators that actor-dependant, year-round attractions simply do not work for Merlin cost, staffing & feedback-wise, there's speculation about yet another one being added for 2018 which honestly was mediocre at best and technically can't be classed as new after this year's Fright Nights? Give me a break.

For a park which just these last few months has brought in flat rides to Old Town which appeals to the younger ones to compensate for the loss of Loggers Leap, Canada Creek Railway and the Octopus Garden in the last decade, it would be very strange to reduce the lineup again for this market which is why I find it's speculated removal hard to believe. X might be a bit old and tatty these days, but it still appeals to familes and kids as small as 1m tall which still draws large queues. Further improvements made to it instead of removing it altogether would make more sense at the moment. Until a good family ride comes along to replace either X, Slammer or Loggers Leap, seeing more closures for next year with undoubtedly another entry price rise is the last thing that should be considered.

Just a normal ticket for the evening was all I had which gave me access to all the attractions and evening entertainment minus the rides. Longest queue was for Hayride but only 30 minutes maximum after it just opened after sunset. Was quite surprised actually how fast the queues were moving during the evening, mostly due to minimal number of Fastrack users I presume. Would be interesting to see what their fireworks display is like after this event, although, Alton's one has me occupied for next weekend this year. Will consider it next time though!

It's no secret to those that know me well that I passionately believe Halloween as a whole is just an overblown annual event which leads to disappointment, scare-less attractions, cringy atmosphere and nothing but annoyance with masses of people flooding the events held everywhere across the country. The problem for me is for over 9 years in a row now between 2008 - 2017, I have only ever managed to attend one event during this entire time of year and that's Thorpe Park's Fright Nights and to be brutally honest, I am now getting tired, bored and frankly sick of the event. The event during the 2008/2009 season was excellent with consistent operations, brilliant audio, tons of park-wide decorations, great use of smoke and lighting effects and most of all, every single maze at the time was home-brewed and original, some with inspirations from other IP's such as Se7en for instance. Asylum, Se7en, Curse and Hellgate were awesome! But now however, hardly any of this is prevalent at the event anymore and hasn't been since 2013 when Lionsgate started taking over everything, and now AMC's The Walking Dead. It's gone to the point now that when someone mentions the words 'Fright Nights' to me, all I can picture is long queues, crappy operations, overselling of Fastrack, needless use of IP's, mediocre scare mazes and up-charges everywhere you go. The whole thing now just feels like a giant cash grab and rip off frankly with very little meaning behind it where every year that passes, it's fun-factor is diminishing like a burning flame. Fireworks/bonfire night however does have a meaning and historical relevance behind it in Britain, which is why it's by far my preferred event at the end of each season and I'll never stop requesting Thorpe to bring it back after it's last appearance in 2011. Now, you might ask by this point why am I talking about Fright Nights when this blog is titled 'A Newbie's Trip to Tulleys Shocktober Fest'? Well, it's because this review is going to highlight such a stark contrast I experienced between Thorpe's version of a Halloween event and Tulleys, and I feel it's needed to set the premise of this review, because it's important to note at this point after visiting Tulleys on the 21st October 2017, despite Storm Brian interfering with the weather, that night has restored my faith and excitement in these types of events once again. These are words that I honestly thought I would never say!

 Similar to my other couple of previous blogs, I warn at the start my reviews are detailed, precise and very long, and this is no exception. So if you're someone who wants to have a quick read, focuses on the main highlights or doesn't want to get bored of reading my analysis by the end of the first paragraph, this isn't for you I'm afraid!

 So to begin, I would like to start with my overall first impressions of the event upon walking inside the site and the general atmosphere of the place: 

Initial Impressions and Atmosphere:

 I've know Tulleys Farm for as long as I can remember ever since I was just 4 years old during the summer when on the other side of the field the wheat maze was open with other smaller activities, as well as picking your own fruit during June for the strawberries and raspberries. But despite this, the way Tulleys have set up this event made the place almost unrecognisable to me. It turns out that instead of the event being held in the small area near the front where the huts, cafe and fields are it is instead directly behind all of this on a massive open grass field on a gentle slope which I have never ventured onto before until now. So whilst in some places it felt familiar, the majority of it felt as though it was an entirely different site to what it's like during summer!

 Upon the entrance next to the grass field for parking, the entrance stands amongst the trees with flames on either side and giant pumpkin scarecrows lit up in orange, filled with smoke, creating a very natural, dominating yet familiar atmosphere to how I've know Tulleys before. Once going under the entrance hut into the ticket booth area, the entire roof is covered with white canopy tents which I appreciated very much as it ensured we didn't get wet whilst waiting to have our bags searched and collect our tickets on the muddy green fields. It reminded me a little at first of Fairford's Royal International Air Tattoo event every July with the way it was all handled, which was organised very well by the staff, so kudos for keeping the system easy, quick and simple with the large number of people at the event. 

Once outside the tent and you've got your tickets/wristband, you are instantly surrounded by lots of attractions, food/drink stalls, stages, rides and seating which I guessed immediately was the centre of the whole event as all of the eight attractions were scattered across the field within equal distance of each other. A small detail I really liked was consistently across the fields there were small fires being lit with burning wood to keep guests warm at night and blend into the whole 'festival feel' of the place. The smell of burning wood in these fields felt comforting and familiar, especially as someone who once was part of the Scouts and went on these camping trips all the time! The audio used across the park wasn't blaring or obtrusive anywhere either and instead was subtle, evenly balanced and played quite a lot of Midnight Syndicate's music both old and new across each area which was a nice touch. After their audio was banished at Thorpe Park starting in 2013 with Lionsgate (grrrrrrr), it was nice to hear it once again. Also, there was tons of smoke everywhere across the place with lots of roaming actors interacting very well with guests which was quite amusing to watch!

 The attractions from this centre are situated down either the south or west sides of the field down slopes. To the left of the square you will find The Colony, The Chop Shop, The Cellar and Twisted Clowns. Directly in front you will see the couple of rides the event has which was a Booster ride similar to the one on Brighton pier, and a bouncer similar to the one which can still be at Hastings years ago, as well as on Brighton pier outside the Haunted House which was nice. And lastly, to the right down the hill, Horrorwood Haunted Hayride, Creepy Cottage, VIXI and Coven of 13, as well as the shop, paintball alley and further food and drink stalls. 

It's also worth mentioning that behind you in this centre there is also a stage where a live band is held and plays several chart music hits which was nice, including many which fit in with the Halloween theme. Further down the hill on the right there is another live band too performing for guests. Inside the tents across a few areas, you could buy pumpkins which I presume the farm has grown for guests to purchase at the event, some of which were enormous and very heavy to handle! It's the smaller things with simple decorations like pumpkins that can make a big difference sometimes to the overall feel of an event. It adds to the Halloween theme, unlike Thorpe who still for some reason think little/no decorations = Halloween atmosphere. 

With all of these points taken into consideration, this has a very different vibe and feel to it all compared to what Fright Nights is, and really, I loved it! The whole place felt just like being at a festival with all the canopies for the queues, muddy fields, live music, great theming, large variety of food and drink stalls, the many small campfires everywhere and the consistent feel the place had where nothing seemed to stick out like a sore thumb anywhere. Compared to Fright Nights, the only fair comparison to be made here is that Tulleys clearly know how to create a better atmosphere at night for their customers which is more relevant to Halloween and better organised than Fright Nights has ever been. Food & Drink: As mentioned above, all of the food and drink available at the farm was available through these temporary food stalls which you typically find at most events similar to this, but the variety and close proximity between them all was quite convenient and was all situated in the centre. Everything from hot drinks, takeaway food, sweet snacks and even a hog roast were available for guests and the variety offered was quite good. Although, the prices were a little too much for what I expected to pay. I went to the noodles bar and ordered pulled pork curry noodles and a large spring roll which came to £10.25 altogether without a drink and a regular cup of coffee was £3. So whilst the variety was great and you get large portions, the prices here did feel too high compared to what I would comfortably pay for typically and was the only area where I felt ripped off slightly by the whole event. £3 for a regular Americano was too much! Not surprising, just thought it’s worth noting to those who have yet to visit to be prepared with enough cash in their wallets. Operations: As a whole, Tulleys demonstrated to me exactly how you should manage events with lots of people going through the attractions. There was only 50 VIP and only 200 Fastrack ticket holders in the entire field that night, which meant the queues for Fastrack were extremely small or non-existent most of the night. Dispatches were fast and frequent for all the mazes, especially for the Haunted Hayride and every bit of effort was made by the staff to keep the queues to a minimal as long as possible throughout the night. When you consider all mazes at Fright Nights in the evening have Fastrack overflowing for all attractions, some of which can actually be longer than the normal queue, this was a really pleasant surprise for me. If there were a slight niggle I had with the handling of letting people through the mazes, it’s that some of the groups put through each time were quite large, some as much as 20 people at once. And if you are leading the group, if you’re a fast walker through these types of attractions, it’s not uncommon for you to at some point through the maze bump into the group ahead. Whilst it wasn’t a major issue considering all of the attractions were excellent, it did hinder the scare factor a little when too many people are in the same room with you. I wish the dispatches were a little slower when the queues were shorter at the start and end of the evening, but I suppose you get that with any scare maze really. Fairground Rides: As mentioned above in my initial impressions section, there were just two rides available at the farm in the evening, so with the time available between 5pm - 11pm, I only did the Booster catapult ride which is identical to the one which can be found on Brighton Pier. One ride costs £6 and you get throttled several times both backwards and forwards and at night, it was really great fun and very intense! Plus, despite the wind speeds reaching 42mph gusts in the evening, the ride still ran flawlessly without any problems and didn’t stall at any point as a result (unlike Thorpe who now fear Flying Fish and Banana Boat will stall with just 20mph gusts). So if you are planning on visiting this year or maybe next year if these two rides remain, I do recommend trying Booster at night and you’ll have the peace of mind that even if it’s raining or winds reach 42mph, you’ll still find it open. Scare Attraction Reviews: Now onto the best part and that’s with small mini reviews of all eight scare attractions available at the farm. As a whole, I must report the quality, length, amount of fun and scariness in these attractions is far superior to any maze I have done at Thorpe Park’s Fright Nights in the 9 years I have attended the event! All of them were excellent and had their own unique qualities behind them, one of which used a really cool effect which reminded me of a scene from one of my favourite films. Another reason is because every single one of them was original and didn't need an IP to market itself and I'm a big fan of original ideas as it sparks innovation in these types of attraction. So to begin, I’d like to start with the ‘least excellent’ one which was Twisted Clowns: Twisted Clowns - 6/10 I should admit at the start clowns as a whole do not scare me one bit and never have done, so before walking through the entrance I wasn’t expecting an enormous scare factor behind it and true enough, it didn’t scare me at all this one sadly. You are given at the start 3D glasses which act as a filter to bring out the colours inside on the walls and props present inside and quite a lot of the artwork present popped out quite well, especially with the luminous colours. Throughout the whole of the maze, you wear them and walk through several dark rooms with lots of these UV paintings to fit in with the theme, to which I must point out they are all hand-painted which I really appreciated and admired when inside. Think of the rooms similar to Hocus Pocus at Chessington only with a different theme. In addition, actors inside were jumping and appearing all over the place, including one which jumped on a bungee swing from the ceiling which really took me by surprise the first time with how close they hovered over me! Whilst the actors at no point touched guests, they interacted with them brilliantly with lots of props from swings, car horns, wigs and clothing to name a few. The makeup they wore was also nicely done and had popping luminous colours on their faces similar to all the dozens of paintings throughout the maze. But as a whole, this just didn’t deliver any real or genuine scares for me sadly, which is a shame because I love 3D mazes like this. However, I will say the quality of the actors jumping all over you with props inside, the amount of work with the paintings which went into this and most of all, the incredibly long length of this maze were the best qualities it offered. Other smaller details like a themed safety announcement at the start, to Midnight Syndicate’s audio used inside, to the huge number of actors present did make this a lot of fun to go through. I suppose the bigger problem is Big Top at Thorpe whilst might be a lot shorter than this one is ultimately better in lots of ways. Elements such as better audio, better disorientating rooms and a great finale make it better than Twisted Clowns and therefore, this is the only maze Tulleys could do with some improvements on next year I feel and was a little disappointing. VIXI - 7/10 When I discovered this involves you placing a bag over your head to obstruct your view the entire time, the first thing that came to my mind was “Oh no, It’s Tulleys version of that damn awful The Passing maze at Thorpe Park back in 2012!” But after going through it, whilst it did feel very similar The Passing for 3/4 of the maze, the quality of the scares delivered and surprise factor was far superior in comparison and I happened to really like it as a result! From the start you must place these black bags over your heads as though you are about to be sent to the gallows for execution and ultimately death, again, very similar to The Passing at the start. But these bags used are with a much thicker material as it is impossible to see through them in any way possible. But once you start the attraction, you must follow the rope on your left side which will guide you through the maze and over all the hurdles for the first 75% of the maze. Whilst you can’t see a thing out of these, the interaction and tricks this maze plays on you inside is brilliant. Various sound effects are used everywhere and effects such as smell, wind, water, fire and very uneven surfaces were used. In addition, actors interacted with you from both sides of your ears, so it became quite unsettling at one point with all the effects and actors in play and really got my heart racing being unable to see anything! But the best section is towards the end of this experience. The last corner you turn with the bag still on your head is into a room which was very hot inside and within seconds it became apparent why that is. There is one giant flame thrower inside the centre of this room which goes off every few seconds and the noise of it is incredibly loud, so much so that the heat, light and shock made myself and several others scream the fist time it went off! It’s a simple but incredibly effective scare used and you are less than 1m away from the flame, so you can really feel the heat from it. Finally, in the last quarter, you are asked to take the bags off your head and give them to a staff member. Now, like The Passing, you are lead to believe this is the end, but oh no, there’s more! You go down this pitch black corridor, turn the corner and you are inside a very dark warehouse with what appears to be burnt bodies of corpses lying on a table and an actor behind it with a giant knife and blowtorch. He instructed us to go down the stairs quickly, only to encounter behind a metal cage even more fire effects, this time less than a metre away which was another excellent jump scare for guests. After that, you zig-zag down the ramps and find yourself outside once again and the experience is over. The concept of this maze might sound simple and remind many who did in at the time of The Passing, but the interaction with guests in this one and the effectiveness really pays off and was tons of fun, and was the first maze in probably about 4 years which really got my heart pounding at certain points due to the unknown which awaits ahead due to the fact you can’t see anything. Then to top it all off, the ending finishes the maze perfectly and the use of fire in this maze was executed perfectly and was a great use of the effect. Plus, this was also a very long maze, lasting at around 11 minutes inside according to the timer. Thumbs up overall! Creepy Cottage - 7.5/10 This was the maze I was most familiar with because it has been at this event for years now and I remember a few times during Autumn when visiting Tulleys years ago seeing preperations being made for it in time for October, so was most intrigued to see what it was like inside. Whilst it did have it’s moments of scariness to it, the selling factor behind this was the attention to detail inside and overall creepiness it delivered, which also explains why it’s available for younger kids too during the day. The best way to describe it is imagine walking through a much smaller, cramped and longer version of the haunted house from the play and film ‘The Woman in Black’. From the start where you are greeted inside the first room, you are immediately surrounded by lots of theming and details everywhere which hint at it being just like an old historian haunted house, with the furniture, fireplace and props inside with all the cobwebs and candle lights present. As you progress through each room, the corridors and roofing is very small and narrow, so you do feel quite claustrophobic inside and it’s incredibly dark too. The atmosphere inside doesn’t feel chaotic like Big Top, Living Nightmare and Saw Alive are. Instead, it has an eerie, cold and creepy feel to it all with very subtle uses of sound effects and music used inside and in every room making it feel very abandoned. It also made me quite tense throughout because you expect something to either appear out of nowhere all of a sudden or an effect scaring you, but as said above, this maze relied purely on feeling unsettled inside than being jump scared. The quality of the props and attention to detail was very noticeable with every corner of every corridor and room looked after, from the wallpapers, to the chandeliers and lighting, to the physical objects laying around everywhere and the surface of the flooring and smells inside. One prop particularly caught me out and that was what appeared to be a child’s doll of Chucky. It too me 2 walk through’s to notice it! Plus, towards the end of the maze, you need to walk through a corridor with loads of corn field plants surrounding you, almost as if you are navigating through the maze Tulleys have during summer which was a nice touch. The only disappointment was the ending as it just involved a small room with an actor inside surrounded by more props. Nothing seemed to stand out in this room which indicated it as the finale, just another room added at the end simply. So whilst it might not be the most scary out of all the mazes, it was certainly the most unsettling and eerie feeling maze with all the actors inside each room dressed to fit the theme of an abandoned cottage from the last century, so it’s good for me! The Colony - 7.5/10 This was quite an interesting concept for a maze as it incorporated elements which were both used outside and inside and the overall vibe from this maze is one set back in time to the medieval ages and honestly, a novel which is going to be implemented into a ride next year at Alton Towers. It certainly delivered on scare quality and the length of this thing was mad! On average, it takes between 15-20 minutes to pass through all of it! The first corridor you pass through is almost like an abandoned underground mine with the lighting and planks of wood holding the ceiling and walls together and then you instantly go outside onto the field which is guided by very high wooden planks similar to that which you can find in Alton’s new maze ‘The Welcoming’. Whilst I haven’t done it yet, the overall look and feel for the outdoor sections looked similar to this from the pictures looking down at it on the Sky Ride. Once navigating your way through outside, you go back inside through these huts and buildings with lots of lighting, audio and smoke effects present, as well as actors hiding in the shadows. From here onwards, you are constantly going inside/outside and it’s an equal balance between the two overall. Some outdoor scenes were really interactive and involved you having to crawl under and through narrow gaps, which was a nice touch you don’t often get with other scare mazes as they tend to be wide and open to pass through many people at once. The actors in this maze were excellent. When each approached you, they all spoke in what I can assume is Latin as I couldn’t understand any of what they were saying, but their body language gave hints to what they were trying to communicate with you. By this point, it isn’t necessarily super scary, but unsettling similar to Creepy Cottage. When navigating your way up and down the field with indoor and outdoor sections, towards the end, you pass through a corridor which has two pathways and in the centre of these two paths you can take, a chainsaw guy in strobe lights interacts with you, very closely I might add too! After that, you are outside again and the experience is over. The best quality of this maze was the length and variety delivered by several different scenes and actors, and it provided a consistent and very enjoyable experience from start to end, especially with the finale. Although, the scares weren’t quite up there to get me really nervous with this one. I mention this gave me an impression of Alton’s new coaster for 2018 and considering we now know it’s going to be themed on Wicker Man, this maze kept making me think of that from start to finish. Heck, there’s even a bleedin’ scene with honey bees’ nests hanging from the ceiling you must pass through! Just a fun thought I had with this maze which kept making me think of it, but overall, I really enjoyed this one as it feels to me what Sanctum should have been. The Cellar - 8/10 Probably the best way to describe this is imagine Creepy Cottage mixed with The Colony. This was excellent! Already the start is nicely done with the safety announcement in the greeting room which was funnily themed and spoken as though it was a witch, and you were passing through their home. After that, you hold each others shoulders and it’s worth noting this is the only maze at the event where you are required to do this. All the others are free-flowing. From the start of your journey, the rooms and corridors are incredibly cramped inside with low ceilings and narrow walls and the number of actors present in this maze is the highest out of any of them, which really made the experience quite intense inside. Probably the most frightening section for me was at the first walkway which involved the inflatable cushions you must pass through similar to I’m a Celeb near the end just before you climb the hill to go down the slide. Because you are limited by how fast you can move due to it pushing against your legs, it was obvious something was going to jump out of nowhere, and long behold, there was. To the right of this walkway, an enormous and very heavy serpent’s head jumped out of the wall and was big enough to cause me to nearly fall over to the side as a result. It was very heavy and nicely detailed, but my, I personally can’t stand snakes myself and seeing a giant head of it grab my shoulder like that really got to me by that point as it was very unexpected! This is a great element to the maze and took me by complete surprise the first time. After that, you navigate your way through various further rooms which had some very narrow walkways and overall, this was extremely dark inside with hardly any lighting visible, just tons of actors hiding in the shadows waiting for the perfect moment to scare you. Some of which had some excellent detail to them all and used several effects which made guest jump, including some very powerful air canons. The ending however was a little weak and didn’t stand out from the rest of the maze, but the number of actors used in this maze coupled with the length of the attraction made up for that. The best moment was the giant serpent’s head near the start as it genuinely terrified me the first time! Coven of 13 - 8.5/10 Coven of 13 overall was a combination of The Cellar, Creepy Cottage and The Colony as elements from each of these attractions were used throughout, but the best part by far was the start where you need to pass through what I can assume is a deep swamp in the middle of a forest. This starting scene where you navigate through the marsh was a great use of smoke, lasers and sound effects as when you passed through the walkways with the inflatable pillows again, there was a layer of mist which helped with the theme of treading through a swamp up to waist level. Probably the best way I can describe this effect is similar to that scene in the first Alien film where John Hurt ventures through a cave with all the eggs and describes a layer of mist above a blue laser effect. When watching it back after trying this maze, it looks identical to that effect used! After navigating your way through the swamp scene with actors jumping out and scaring you, you head through more corridors with plants and trees obscuring your path and they are set up in a way which it hides the ceiling and wall panels very effectively, so much so that it definitely felt more like being in a forest that a plain, ordinary corridor. You go immediately outside after that and cross into another building which has been themed on a small mini haunted house with some very effective lighting, atmosphere and props used. It did honestly feel just like being inside a mini haunted house as the rooms were a little larger in comparison to Creepy Cottage, bud sadly, the scares in this bit weren’t as effective as a result. However, the attention to detail and quality of the actors made up for this scene, so all is balanced. After that, you go outside again and this next section felt the weakest section of the maze. All you do is navigate around a central campfire through different areas around the perimeter of what was the shape of a semi-circle. Each section had it’s own actor in to scare guests, but it felt too open and predictable to deliver any proper good scares sadly, especially when you can see what awaits ahead. Finally, you go through inside one last room and that’s what looks like an actor being burnt to the stake in a giant wooden fire and the use of smoke, lighting, heat and audio added to this scene, but like before, just not enough scares here. Also, it’s reminiscent of Wicker Man again and SW8. Sorry! After that, you go outside again and it’s all over. Whilst the scares were certainly prevalent throughout the first half of the maze, the 2nd half felt a little tame in comparison unfortunately and fell apart a little. However, the use of effects in that swamp scene at the start were delivered brilliantly and that’s why this is my 3rd favourite attraction as a result. The Chop Shop - 9/10 Before trying this I knew it was going to be an intense maze as many have told me it’s the best maze at the event and goodness me, it was certainly the scariest one! The whole theme of rotten meat, blood and flesh makes me feel physically sick, which is why the gluttony scene from Se7en years ago at Thorpe really made me want to vomit when passing through it and I wasn’t expecting anything different here. But what I didn’t expect was the intensity behind this maze which is hidden quite well behind those walls, with the exception of the noises from several chainsaws present. The start of the maze isn’t too bad as it’s an exploration through a garage with lots of machinery, equipment, vehicles and tools on shelves everywhere and the lighting is dim, quite reminiscent of scenes from Saw The Ride and the workshops in the Saw films and the actors did a great job at introducing you to their chopping shop. But after this, it gets worse and scarier as a result. Once out of the garage, you instantly go through what I can presume is a freezer with lots of frozen meat, including hanging pigs and cows amongst blood everywhere over the floor and walls. Then, an actor breaks through the door in front with a chainsaw and scares the group and this is only just the half-way point! From here onwards, it gets even worse because it’s an endless array of zig-zag corridors, rooms and flaps to pass through, all under a constant strobe light. Around several corners, actors are hiding, all with their own chainsaws waiting for you to walk past them. Then, to make it even worse, some rooms have the lights turn off temporarily for about 3 seconds, so you are in complete blackness for a short period of time and all you can hear is the sound of a chainsaw either in front or directly behind you, some of which got as close as 6 inches away from my face! It was truly and honestly terrifying and this lasted for 2/3 of the entire maze, so it became extremely intense at certain parts and got my heart racing the fastest out of any other attraction that night as a result! The only advice I can give is do this maze once it is dark outside because the 2nd half has an open roof and if light leaks inside, it can ruin the effect slightly of those dark moments. So if you want a moderate experience, try it before sunset. If you want an extreme one, do it once the sky is completely black. Best maze by far and also the scariest! Horrorwood Haunted Hayride - 9.5/10 This was without a doubt the most fun during the entire night and is the best attraction out of everything you will find at this event. It’s very unique, incredibly interactive, long, innovative and ultimately fun. Nothing else out there can be compared to this! Whilst it might not have been necessarily scary, the whole idea you are transported through the fields on a tractor ride with various scenes themed to different genres in the movie industry was an excellent idea and was reminiscent of Studio 13 slightly in some areas. Every scene has unique visual and audible effects, the entire ride changes it’s audio depending on what scene you are in and probably the best part was the actors in each scene climb onto the tractor with you and interact with guests using their character. Characters such as clowns, cowboys, hotel butlers, witches, pole-dancing nuns and zombies clambered onto the vehicle through each scene and played their characters perfectly in sync with the audio and movement of the truck. It’s a very consistent and funny experience which I greatly appreciated. In addition, each scene had great props and sets used such as falling billboards on guests, flame effects which were incredibly loud and powerful, deaf-defying loud bangs, great uses of audio SFX and lighting used and best of all, the chainsaw people themed on I believe the story of the three little pigs getting extremely close to the guests and even revved the machines against the benches you are sitting on, creating the impression they are cutting through the wood you are sitting on! I don’t want to give too much away of what each scene involves for those who have yet to try it, but I very strongly recommend you try this as the must-do attraction of the evening. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed by it one bit! Conclusion: So there we are, all my reviews for each attraction, the atmosphere and overall impressions of the event. After going to this and leaving the evening, I didn’t in any way feel angry, tired or disappointed like I usually tend to with Fright Nights in recent years. Instead, I felt lively, thrilled and greatly surprised by the whole night because it’s as if I have finally found after 7 years of searching something better and worth it’s value for money compared to what I was typically used to during Halloween and it feels great! Tulleys Shocktober Fest has surprised me hugely with what they offered as I never imagined they were able to pull off such a quality event like this before, especially knowing it for years as a farm with pick-your-own fields and a maze during summer. Tulleys has proven if special events are executed very well, it has the ability to change minds of sceptics like me who for years have detested Halloween for all the wrong reasons. In return, I have started to get excited for Halloween once again after this amazing evening I had! The only problem with this however is because Tulleys have set a new bar far higher than any Fright Nights delivered these last 7 years, I am likely going to detest Fright Nights even more now as a result unless there are some radical improvements and changes made to the event which aren’t focused on compromising customer experience for bigger numbers on Merlin’s many dozens of net-profit Excel spreadsheets at their head office. Tulleys, like my blog on Liseberg back in May has proved to me again there are places out there which value customer experience above profits, and it's these types of places I appreciate the most. I can happily say I'm absolutely going to attend Shocktober Fest again next year, and likely many years to come now. Well done Tulleys for creating a quality Halloween event for guests. It might have taken me several years to finally try it, but my word, the wait was absolutely worth it! Tulleys Shocktober Fest - 8.5/10 (Some pictures from the event below I took):

Thorpe Park, I hope you read these words if it's what I suspect it to be: LEAVE. SWARM. ALONE.

I don't know the full details behind this move, but this sentance in the statement sums up exactly the problem I have with M£rlin as a whole right now: "Over the period of 2018-21, we will reduce Existing Estate capex by approximately £100 million, reallocating this into accelerating our highly successful accommodation roll out programme, as well as increasing our investment in our Productivity Agenda." That's right. Forget about your current parks. Forget the state they are all in. Forget the numerous cuts being done everywhere. Forget the ridiculous opening hours. Forget leaving your rides to rot into oblivion. Forget the lack of long-term shelf life in your investments. Forget the potentially hundreds more staff that will be made redundant as a result. As long as people get another hotel to shell out £200 a night in, which must be a world first and have an IP plastered over it and be marketable, that's all that matters now. At this stage, I have no faith things at our UK parks are going to get any better anytime soon with this announcment. Potentially, more rides will close or have limited opening times, further opening hours and days will be cut, further cuts to staff and special event budgets will be made and prices are going to soar even further for everything in return. I want to be proven wrong on this so much right now. Who cares about a theme park when we can have hotels?

See, I disagree with that. Playing the same tune or segment multiple times on several attractions and areas does not excuse for a longer track. If anything, a longer track should provide an opportunity for the composer to create lots of new, original, innovative and unique audio, which we have thankfully for the most part been seeing over the last few months across the park. But at the same time, that does not mean the same 30-40 seconds should be used at least 4 times for Lost City, 5 times for The Jungle, endless repeating for X, constantly for Shark Hotel and several times for the others. It doesn't matter whether a guest has visited the park once or 10 times in a year, there should be a strong sense of variety and originality across all areas for them to appreciate and enjoy, but this move is straying away from that objective slightly. It seems to me that whilst this new audio is finally giving the park an identity, it is in return causing each attraction to begin losing their individual one at the same time. By the way, if this is all coming across as though I hate all the new audio, it isn't. In fact, I think the majority of it sounds excellent in comparison to what it was before, especially for the entrance, dome and Jungle areas of the park! But I believe it's important to point out and hope the park do not lose sight and forget the importance of each ride/area standing out from the rest with it's own character and identity. Seeing Lost City and Colossus merge together back in August with the same audio was when it started to become a problem and I fear The Jungle's track at some point will replace Inferno next given they share similar themes and proximity to each other.

By all means, establishing an identity for the park with this new tune is great and it's good to see it finally get one just like Alton and Chessington do and I fully support the idea. But the problem is at the present stage, it is being used too much across their attractions and is in some ways detracting originality and character from each area/ride whilst simultaneously making it more repetitive to listen to, especially compared to what was played previously for each of them. The way Alton and Chessington do it is the right approach. Most of the time they place their themes amongst the rest of the track in a subtle way that is not too noticeable for listeners but it's still there regardless. That way, each area still retains it's character and originality without another melody dominating or overshadowing the rest of the music. This is why the entrance is the perfect place to use it several times since most people only pass through the gates once at the start/end of the day and don't queue potentially hours listening to the same track over and over again. For Thorpe however, not only is their version played countless times at the entrance, but X now uses it as it's main theme, Colossus now shares the same audio with all of Lost City, Shark Hotel I swear is nothing but this tune and The Jungle's audio features it at least 5 times on the same loop I'm sure over and over again. When you are standing or queuing in these areas for a while hearing this everywhere you go across the park in the same day, it can get quite repetitive. Sure, all the new audio tracks might be statistically longer in length and sound better, but does that mean they are all less repetitive as a result? In the case for Lost City and Colossus, it clearly isn't. If each attraction/area which has undergone changes this year only plays the tune on loop at very most just once or maybe twice very similarly to how Galactica, Spinball and Smiler do it and fill the rest of the loop with new and original audio, that would've worked much better. Make it's use subtle, not obvious.

It was on an endless loop with no stops in-between. In the middle of the announcement groups were being shown through the flaps.

That judgement was based upon the fact as soon as my group turned the corner into the strobes, the next one was right on our tail behind us. And then after circling through the strobe section once in 30 seconds, looking back at that archway, another group of around 12 goes through. This all happened in the space of less than a minute and caused a lot of congestion inside with lots of stoppages despite the actors guiding everyone through. Around 3 groups went into that maze in less than a minute. How did I see all this? Because that first corridor has a massive white light shining inside and leaking into the strobe area around the corner, so I could see these figures of people passing through constantly. Then to top it all off, after getting off and going back round to see the queue, they were sending groups of 10 through on average every 20-30 seconds after that which would explain why the queues suddenly shrunk afterwards. I know what I saw and it was overcrowded inside last night with too frequent dispatches of groups, especially compared to previous nights this year.

Yesterday reminded me why you should never attend this event on a Saturday in the middle of October. It was a joke. Swarm was by far the worst out of all problems last night. What could have easily been just a 40 minute queue turned out to be over 2 hours long in the early hours of the evening for the following reasons: 1. Pretty much every train going round the track had at least between 6-8 empty seats due to single riders or odd numbered groups. No organising or grouping from the staff was being used here. 2. The staff in the station as Ringo above mentioned were more interested in having chats with their colleagues during the loading stages of each dispatch than getting those trains going round the circuit at a relentless rate. 3. The ratio of the main queue:Fastrack was 50:50 and the number of people using it just for Swarm alone was absurd. On top of that, nobody next to the baggage hold was monitoring the number of people going through the fastrack queue at one point which explained why the main queue went to a near standstill for nearly 20 minutes. Other problems from the night were prevalent too. Big Top was overcrowded inside, especially during the first half of the maze with the strobes as groups kept going through at a constant rate, so much so that I estimate about 40 people were in that section at the same time on the second run. Why you might ask? Because staff were guiding guests completely through the first fortune teller scene, meaning it was an endless stream of people going through with no holding zones, as well as a missed scene from the attraction. And as for Fastrack, last night just goes to show you even a price hike still isn't enough to stop it being sold in large quantities. The queue pen outside Depth Charge to buy the stuff was overflowing by the time the sun was starting to set for the remainder of the evening. As result, the entire Fastrack queue for Big Top was full all night, an endless number of people were pouring through Swarm's Fastrack queue, Colossus was the same all day and night and Platform 15's Fastrack queue I swear was longer at one point compared to the normal queue. People's feedback online social media is just as valid as anybody else's out there regardless of what platform or rank they have, so I wouldn't write them all off as being OTT or exaggerated. If people fork out over £35 minimum for entry to discover they must queue over 2 hours for a 40 minute queue on Swarm, find lousy operations on all main rides, broken or missed scenes from the scare mazes and to be persuaded the only way to enjoy the night is to shell out more money on Fastrack which ironically had a massive queue all night to get, they have every right to complain and call the park out on it.

Pretty certain in that video it's a combination of three different area tracks mixed together, as part of it is played from both the Dome and Donut Factory. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

OK, I'm down for the meet but not Containment thanks! May need to leave a little earlier too depending on the scheduling of Sunday train services. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Wouldn't say tonight has been awful in terms of the quality of the mazes due to lack of actors, more like dissapointing compared to earlier in the week when in Big Top they were at the top of the game. Hopefully every day of the event can be performed the best it can from here onwards. I would say however ride operarions were worse than Friday with everything bar Saw and X on one-train operation all day and night, 12pm openings for several attractions including "future for theme parks" DBGT, and audio slop still present all over the rides and park.

As a note for those attending, they are NOT giving out wristbands in the evening and there is no need to leave the park at 4pm or just after to dish out the non-passholders in the park. Staff at the entrance said in order to access a maze or what rides are open, you need to show either your ticket on Eventbrite through your phone or with a paper print of your ticket at the entrance for each attraction at 4pm. Considering it's about to rain this evening at Thorpe and everything's on one train operation at present, this could get interesting.

Had no idea that was the case and that's the first time I've heard that before. Obviously not attending the BTS tours is why. Sanctum might be a bit of fun for most, but is it worth queueing more than 10 minutes for considering you are likely going to ruin your shoes as a result on a wet evening? No way. At least Dead End Terror Zone from 2010 had a dry floor and never seemed to have a queue, despite it's poor execution. I implore you to go through it again and listen to the difference in quality next time from the first half to the second half. Some are smaller than others I agree, but they sound worse as a result and it did sound as though they were being overdriven. I went through four times in one night on this and noticed it every time, especially when you approach the 3 different rooms towards the end. Yes, I am thinking of the right one. I said the second third of the maze was completely black with nothing at all. No actors. No smoke. No audio. No lighting. The first section DOES have all of this which I am not denying, all I'm pointing out is this dead area about half-way through where you cross the bridge over the lake. Neither is Samurai. Neither is Stealth. Neither is Lost City. Neither is Amity Cove. Neither is Inferno. Neither is Old Town. Neither is Colossus, but they all played in their stations/area either the park-wide playlist or the Director's announcements to fit with the Fright Nights theme. Swarm falls victim to this too. Would've expected at the very minimum something like the audio inside the pyramid to change to fit the event, just like it used to years ago.

Care to elaborate on why that might be please? Not everyone has inside knowledge. The point I was making was besides from the quality control of re-using these containers being low, which would explain the fact Experiment 10's logos were still visible on them, same as when it was MBV as well, was that Sanctum would have been far more entertaining if it was an experience making use of these containers instead of being an open-zoned walk-through attraction on a muddy surface with lacklustre scenes. Simply placing them there for use as nothing else but for walls and signage to me seems a wasted oppurtunity.

So I attended the first 'proper' day of Fright Nights on Friday the 29th September and was there from opening until closure to get the full package, especially with a £10 charge for standard pass holders. But unfortunately, in a nutshell, if it wasn't for Big Top, I would have to state this has got to be one of the WORST Fright Nights I have been to for a few years now. Not the worst, but it certainly stoops down into the bottom 4 since 2008. What I'm about to share was what I experienced myself, so I understand opinions may be different to others who were also there the same day. My rating of the event is a combination of the quality of the mazes, the management of the event and the park operations since I don't think of Fright Nights as just simply mazes and nothing else. To me, it means more than that. So I'll start with the main focus and get onto the scare attractions: Big Top - 9/10 It's great to see this back after last year and the changes made are absolutely welcome. The intro with the fortune teller involves the use of a projector through a crystal ball onto the screen and the speech is definitely loud enough to hear it properly this time, so it's a good start. Once down the corridor, you enter the first half of the maze which has a different layout this year, but is a lot more disorientating this time with smoke so thick you can't see more than 1m in front of you! First run I was in there for a solid 6 minutes before fining the right route out as a result. Once you're out of the proper maze section, this is where it's all new. You immediately go through a small mirror maze in a zig-zag pattern with flashing lights similar to earlier. Once out, there are all these confined spaces and corridors you need to pass such as the clown's room, caged inhabitants, props from last year and a section where you choose one of three rooms, all lead through different rooms similar to Cabin in the Woods beginning before rejoining near the end again for the finale of the chainsaw corridor. What made this easily the best maze was the quality of the actors inside as there were so many in the 2nd half all over the place interacting with guests it was great! And on my second run, the chainsaw corridor had two of them in there which really got me nervous with how close they were being revved to my face. You can tell the actors in this maze were having lots of fun over the evening and some played alongside the soundtrack's beats which was really good too. The only issue I had with it was to do with the quality of the speakers used during the 2nd half of the maze because at the start, you get some very powerful, bassy and loud ones whilst in the maze section, but once you leave that, they all gradually get smaller and naturally start to sound worse. In the last section, the speakers were crackling as a result as they were being overdriven. Wouldn't surprise me at one point if one of them goes. Also, I was irritated by the open roof again, so some light was still leaking inside during the day and in other areas of the maze. But apart from that, best maze of the event and had loads of fun inside! This just goes to show you don't need an IP to make the best attraction. Learn from it, Thorpe. Living Nightmare - 6/10 When hearing Cabin in the Woods was leaving, it was pretty damning for me as I happened to really like it, even during it's final year. So when it was announced this would be replaced with a maze themed on the Walking Dead, I was very skeptical because as someone who has never even touched a single episode of the show, I was worried I wouldn't understand a single reference inside, but I did get the gist of what was happening though. First disappointment however was the batching corridor where you wait your turn to go through the maze. When it was Cabin, it was pitch black inside with these patterns on the walls with a soft floor representing soil and leaves. Now though? It's back to standard concrete flooring and brightly lit with no audio inside like Hellgate used to years ago. Oddly however, some of those patterns were still present from Cabin? Bizarre decision to make and the build-up was non-existent this time. Bad start. Now onto the first room itself and this just felt as though it was forcefully put in as it's nothing other than a photo opportunity with the character telling you what's going on and what awaits ahead (again, I have no knowledge of the franchise so forgive me for sounding so vague here). He even as some have pointed out swore a couple of times which surprised me, not that I didn't mind. Now from here, you enter through what I presume is a hospital wing and the level of detail in here is brilliant. From all the rooms with the beds, equipment, roofing, lighting and theming to make it feel derelict really was done well here. There was only one actor in this entire section however, so it did feel a bit scare-less. Once leaving the hospital, you go through a bricked tunnel which was very wide and high to another room with a staircase for use by the actors. There were a few strobes inside with a single actor on the stairs and that was it really. Also, why was this bit open-roofed? Besides from venting possibly the smoke inside, that cheapened the effect slightly, similar to the entirety of I'm a Celeb. And lastly, there was the strobe maze section which wasn't a maze, just a walkthrough with actors against the wired fences with flashing strobes and you pass through a bus with all these dummy props of people, including the driver. Didn't have much of an effect on me as it was blatantly obvious they were all inanimate objects and none were actors. Felt like a wasted opportunity here. And once leaving the bus, a quick reminder from the guy at the start you must pass through these doors which is the end of the maze. My overall impression of this in a nutshell which I though once it finished was 'Is that it?' because it was far, far too short to deliver anything scary, jumpy or build tension and some of the rooms were so wide and open it lost some of it's effect. Partly why I liked Cabin so much was because of these claustrophobic sections as you couldn't see what was ahead most of the time. But theming wise, it is very well done inside (minus the open roofed areas) but simply didn't deliver on scares anywhere. If there's a comparison to be made to another attraction, think of this as the Sherlock Experience at Madame Tussauds, only loads shorter and with a few flashing strobes. Platform 15 - 6/10 I never did this last year because whenever I visited, the queues were monstrously long for what seemed upon initial impressions a walk behind Loggers Leap. Buy thankfully, after finally trying it, it was better than what I was lead to believe it was like. The start from where you leave the station down the first pathway was done well despite the beautiful steel walls to hide Loggers Leap. The amount of water mist used down this pathway was really thick and provided a good effect when walking down in the dark and looking behind to not see anything but lighting. The actor led us step-by-step down this pathway until reaching the first flaps (or Logger's lift hill) and from here, we were left as a group to find our own way through. From here onwards, there were some good uses of sound effects and lighting when heading up to the dilapidated Canada Creek train which was nice to see again after all these years and the synchronisation of the audio with the fire effect coming from the funnel was well done here as it certainly made me jump the first time! There were a couple of actors too staring at our group the whole time which became unsettling at one point which was good. However, from here until reaching the house, it falls apart. The next third of the walk was just empty pathways with almost no lighting, actors, smoke or audio present and it just felt too much like a walk in the woods, so points are lost here. Once reaching the house's front however, this is where the best parts occur. You walk through a tiny house which was nicely detailed inside with a couple of actors and a very gory scene of innards all over the worktop and sink. Upon leaving the house, there are a few zig-zag walls to pass before entering the tunnel and this was where it got good. The tunnel inside was pitch black with not a sight of a light anywhere for about 3/4 of the run. This coupled with some really effective sound effects worked well as it certainly got me nervous in case something wasn't ahead I couldn't see. A couple of actors as a result were hiding in the tunnel and out of nowhere shocked the bleedin' life out of me and the rest of the group, as it was timed with one of the sound effects perfectly. Finally, when reaching the end of the tunnel, the room turns a bright red colour full of smoke and the sounds of a train from behind you before leaving to go outside again. Not the best finale for a maze it must be said. Overall, Platform 15 is a nice idea and has it's good moments, but was far too long, open and empty to really deliver anything special, though I will say the use of lighting, audio and visual effects worked well throughout. SAW Alive - 4/10 I'll keep this short: It's exactly the same as last year. And the year before that, and that, and that, and that...... Moving on! Sanctum - 2/10 Oh man, where do I begin here other than saying it's Dead End Terror Zone V2.0? I wonder how many remember that from 2010 as I certainly still do! This was laughably bad. The first insult was they reused some perfectly good shipping containers which were once for Experiment 10 and My Bloody Valentine. Heck, the logos were still present on one of them and both were superior in almost every measure to what this atrocity is. Secondly, who's genius idea was it to put an outdoor walkthrough attraction on a sandy gravel pathway... in AUTUMN?! I would've at least expected something like wooden floorboards to at least be used on this somewhere to avoid getting your shoes and jeans ruined for the rest of the day. Thirdly, it felt cheap. Really cheap. Though, not as cheap as Dead End Terror Zone I'll give it that. The walls were ineffective between each section, the props used I'm certain the majority are recycled from previous attractions and the scares were non-existent from start to finish. Fourth and lastly, why? I got the impression from this considering there was so little substance to it all that it was a last-minute decision for the park to boast "We have TWO NEW MAZES for 2017, not one!". If there's an attraction which should not make it to next year, this should be it. If it returns, regardless of what hype might surround it, I'm not interested next time. Now I know this is not a Fright Nights exclusive attraction and is open year-round, but I'm going to count it on the scare attraction list anyway since it's still relevant to the event: Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon - 4/10 My biggest fear with this after how it performed back in early October last year during Fright Nights was the same thing was going to happen again this time despite the 'upgrades' it has received over winter where almost nothing worked properly inside. Thankfully, this wasn't the case, but over half of everything still wasn't working the way it should and problems arouse all three times it was ridden. The pre-show was decent enough with the audio noticeably turned up a bit finally, but they were still playing the shorter version of the show despite it being a 0 minute queue by the evening. Also, a few of the bulbs above are still broken and have not been replaced yet, something you would think should take a few minutes to do with a ladder and the correct light bulb... Also, that obtrusive industrial fan was still on all day, destroying any build-up in this room all three goes. Up the stairs and thankfully on all three occasions there was only a 1-2 minute wait here before being lead into the warehouse even though the ride experienced it's normal routine and broke down twice before boarding. Once inside, the train on all three goes had a fair number of the headsets broken, including one where the foam pad for the right speaker was missing. I mentioned it to a member of staff who moved me to another seat, but he left it for use and didn't bag it up. Not sure why... But the content itself for the first half worked fine, despite the headset on one go thinking I was standing up in the carriage the whole time. Once in the middle live-action section, just like the condition it was in last year, the moving train was not working again! *slowly claps* I have visited a few times in the last few weeks and I reckon that hasn't worked for nearly 2 months now, so that's really bad performance for a 'groundbreaking' investment. Nevertheless, can't say I was too surprised it was broken either. The second half worked great all three times with the exception of the audio quality on two goes being either too quiet or corrupted with all this static noise present on the left speaker. Mentioned it to staff again, moved seats but still left it for use for another guest and wasn't bagged up. I began to wonder how many of the other 50+ headsets in the carriage were broken but weren't bagged up in order to increase the number of guests able to ride at the same time. The ending as ever was the same and as entertaining to watch, though the floor has stopped moving again after briefly doing so back in early September. Lastly, something in the shop made me laugh. Those jarred heads where the photo screens are were all off because an error occurred. It even had the error message in each jar at the bottom. Also, the fortune teller Derren was still down. Overall, I would say it has performed much better compared to what it was like in October 2016, but there are still tons of errors and inconsistencies across the attraction which should not be there for a ride only 14 months old since it's opening day. Sadly, I don't think it will ever 100% work in it's lifetime, but thing like the broken tunnel effect, broken light bulbs and glitchy headsets still being used are inexcusable at this point. As for the positives across the park, these are the highlights: • The park lighting was better with more colours and the use of stencils for some of the areas was welcome. • Park-wide audio was nice as it incorporated parts of the Walking Dead's theme with the island soundtrack. Hearing the 30 minute track back, I am certain the entire thing is 100% composed by IMAscore. • Plenty of smoke machines were used across the park such as next to Tidal Wave and Inferno which was nice to see and created a good-looking atmosphere at night. • The use of Fastrack was thankfully very little which helped all the queues move fast, especially for the mazes, so that price increase seems to have made an effect already. However, I must report that overall, this was a very badly managed event day for several reasons. Here are a few key ones that aggravated me hugely: • Little to no effort in park-wide decorations visible in the park past the entrance bridge. Sure, there are a few scattered in places like next to the Dodgems, Swarm, Stealth and Big Top but that was it. Really disappointing the park is still not taking decorations as seriously as it used to back in the late 2000's where the park and it's rides looked fantastic during the event. Heck, adding coloured lighting on the bridge's mesh above your head would be an improvement! • The management of what I consider to be a key element of Fright Nights is the park's audio from every corner, as it was incredibly sloppy this day. I'll discuss it as a separate topic later. • All coasters minus Saw, X and Inferno were all on one train for the entire day and night, despite me thinking this was a routine I was told was stopped earlier this year. It became incredibly frustrating with Swarm especially because not only were the staff dispatching the trains at incredibly slow speeds, but the entire station was ram packed with people everywhere from the stairs, to the loading gates and other walkways. What would easily have been just 10 minutes if both trains are running became a 25 minute queue in the end and it drove me mad nearly, especially with the awful new dispatch announcement used. Thorpe Park, if you are reading this, for goodness sake, stop this ridiculous operation of your coasters. It shouldn't matter what day of the week, time of year or circumstance it is in. If your rides can run two trains (minus Colossus), do it! • Lots of the little closed rides across the park like Storm in a Teacup and Lumber Jump were closed all day, along with about 50% of all food and drink stalls too throughout the entire day and evening. Whilst it was a quiet day for the most part, I didn't appreciate having to trek all the way from Old Town after Platform 15 to Amity Cove to get a hot drink in the cold weather. • Why does X still play disco music during a Halloween event? I would've expected something spooky to at least be playing inside, as nothing screams Halloween more than Darude - Sandstorm. Now, I mention audio will have it's own topic because it was an utter mess throughout the day and night. Bear in mind these do not point to the broken speakers still present in the park, but more on what they were playing more than anything: 1) Upon entering the park at 10am, I was confused as to why the IMAscore Fright Nights audio track was playing everywhere, because every previous year is done where the regular park/ride themes are played until the event begins at 3pm, so it really confused me at first, but didn't necessarily mind it. However, what did irritate me was about 2 hours later around midday, it all changed back again to regular park audio in Lost City, Old Town, The Jungle, Stealth, Tidal Wave and the entrance and dome. Huh? I get the impression someone must have forgotten to change it back from media event last night to the regular audio and took them about 2 hours after park opening to realise this. 2) The levels of inconsistency I noticed on every ride with what audio should play for it's loading, dispatch and ending themes was very noticeable. E.G. 1: Samurai before 3pm was using it's regular loading and dispatch themes, but it's ending theme was the Fright Nights one? E.G. 2: Colossus' queue and plaza was playing it's newish Lost City theme, but the station was playing the Fright Nights dispatch theme and it's regular loading ambience? E.G. 3: Stealth's queue and plaza was playing WWTP radio and the station was playing the regular sound effects, but the launch was the Fright Nights one? E.G. 4: Detonator was playing in the queue and platform all day it's regular Angry Birds theme, even at night? E.G. 5: Zodiac was playing it's regular music during dispatch, but Fright Nights in the queue? I understand some rides play Fright Nights music even during the day which is understandable, but to see some half-regular, half-Fright Nights like Samurai for instance? That's really sloppy work and was never an issue historically for the event over the years. Sort it out Thorpe as it was bad. 3) Those rides which did have Fright Nights announcements like Colossus and Stealth were all using the Director's one from 2013, 2014 and 2016 which was confusing as I thought the whole Movie Studios theme and Lionsgate IP finished last year? Was it cheaper for the park to recycle old audio and not invest in newer, more relevant dispatch announcements on the Walking Dead, or even better, bringing back Midnight Syndicate music once again? I know audio might not seem that much of an importance for many who visit a theme park or a Halloween event, but to me, it does. And when it is screwed up this badly like it was in my experience of the event, I notice it easily and get irritated by it all. I don't care how complex an audio system might be, the park should have been prepared properly for audio changes and it is completely inexcusable. So there we are. That's my experience of the event. Going back to what I said at the very start, if Big Top wasn't available this year in the superb state it was in, I wouldn't even bother with Fright Nights this year for those considering going. The Walking Dead theme was hardly prevalent at the park besides from Living Nightmare and Sanctum was a pile of rubbish. The other mazes like Platform 15 and SAW Alive were all average but nothing special. The management of the audio was clumsily managed and inconsistencies were present everywhere with it. Operations for the coasters were awful with queues reaching nearly an hour for Swarm on one train all day and night, and Derren Brown's Ghost Train is in a bad state once again. I will give credit where it is due though. The park lighting was fab at night with all the colours and silhouettes used over them. The use of park-wide smoke across several areas made the park look really good at night. One of their mazes I would argue is the best ever historically for a Fright Nights event, and lastly, all of the staff were nice and friendly throughout the day and evening. But sadly, this doesn't make up for the awful experience I had and as a pass holder who paid a £10 premium instead of the regular £5, I cannot say this was a value for my money and I feel incredibly sorry for the poor folk who might be shelling over £20 for entry as a pass holder later in October. Now, some would argue you get all the mazes included in that price compared to Alton Towers who charge per maze, but I would put back to you if Big Top wasn't available this year, I would be more than happy to pay extra for a quality scare maze at Scarefest or Tulley's Farm than experience four mediocre ones at Thorpe Park, each with 2 hour queues. It will take a fair bit of persuasion to visit this event again later in October. Unless the park are prepared properly next time, I would find it difficult to justify another £10 premium again. Fright Nights 2008 - 7/10. Fright Nights 2009 - 8/10. Fright Nights 2010 - 4/10. Fright Nights 2011 - 7/10. Fright Nights 2012 - 6/10. Fright Nights 2013 - 7/10. Fright Nights 2014 - 8/10. Fright Nights 2015 - 5/10. Fright Nights 2016 - 7/10. Fright Nights 2017 - 6/10.

Seeing a price increase is no shock really and if theoretically this reduces the number of fastrack sold for guests as a whole, I can’t see an issue with it. However, people are going to buy it at any price regardless, so it’s just a question of how many and if a limit per day will be imposed this time. The bigger concern I have is the fact most major coasters now have three main queues - normal, fastrack and priority, as well as a considerably reduced ride lineup compared to 2016. Just as long as the queues aren’t managed like the mazes were in 2014 with the old Reserve ‘n’ Ride system and operations are the best they can be with everything on full capacity, it should be OK.

Really, really glad I made this meet as it was fantastic! Minus the weather upon arrival and the return flight, everything worked out very well and I'd like to thank everyone for the experience and special thanks to Ryan and Marc for helping to keep everything run smoothly! Here are some of my pictures from the meet, Red Force being the highlight of the trip, alongside Shambhala once again: (Perfect weather, which was lovely and hot too!) (A familiar sight once again. ) (Furius Baco's final turn.) (Yep. You get soaked on Tutuki Splash!) (The perfect coaster twins. ) (Two of my favourite things - Shambhala and the Spanish climate.) (Best photo opportunity for Shambhala.) (Such a nice skyline!) (Rumba Rapids on steroids essentially.) (Polynesia.) (Stampida's entrance). (The Bird Show with a talking yellow-crested cockatoo!) (Hurakan Condor dominating the area of Mexico.) (The entrance to a moderately quiet Ferrari Land.) (Red Force standing proudly over everything.) (This thing's absolutely huuuuuuuge!) (Oh, look! Projection mapping that works really well inside the queues for the simulators!) (Overview of Red Force and the Thrill Towers at sunset.) (Couldn't resist a photo with caballero Woody!) (And, of course, the complimentary on-ride photo from the visit - Red Force front row for the first time! ) Had a wonderful weekend. Here's to the next one!

For what is clearly going to be a family coaster, that is a very bizarre decision to theme it on yet again another dark and gloomy IP, just in case we haven't seen it enough with Merlin as a whole these last 7 years with almost all new investments made at their parks. All I can hope for now is that this isn't over-hyped and underdelivered like Thirteen was at the time with it's ludicrous marketing campaign. As for what is hopefully plenty of fire effects, it might sound nice and promising, but given the track record of many other effects across Merlin breaking within a year and some of which are never fixed again, I ain't building any expectations for a flawless and consistent pyrotechnic show. Really was hoping more than anything they were going to theme this with the rest of Mutiny Bay.

Pretty certain that if DBGT and Swarm are now discounting their items, it must mean they are making way for new stock next year more than anything. Or, another theory could be that maybe sales in both those stores haven't been as good as hoped? As a result, they are scheduled to be closed and any excess stock moved to the dome's store perhaps? They could easily turn the container outside Swarm into something else or just simply a storage crate, and with DBGT, use the space in the shop for another room to add to the experience for next year perhaps? If Colossus or Inferno's shops start discounting, that theory can then be thrown out!

It does seem weird though that previous visits made this year have had the wind gust speeds much higher than this without any issues, so if this is something introduced within the last week or so, that may make sense. Clearly I don't know what happens during a power failure as I have never witnessed one before, so thanks for explaining that! But to see Banana Boat closed which is sheltered by surrounding vegetation and rides, whereas Saw, which is literally sticking straight into the air on the lake running fine in this weather is bizare. All rides are back open again but the wind feels no weaker compared to an hour ago.