Marhelorpe

Really not happy with this decision. Slammer despite its huge number of reliability problems and mixed opinion from day one always offered an experience that couldn't be matched anywhere else, even if it was painful for riders. Quite saddened to hear it's inevitable departure subtly announced like this.
 
Oh well, it was fun to ride it whilst it lasted and at least the park are being honest about it's removal and not claiming it was down temporarily for TLC/redevelopment or something similar, by then removing it from the park without any notice given the following year.
 
I suppose we better start speculating at what inflatable HB Leisure replacement we might be getting soon!

Really not happy with this decision. Slammer despite its huge number of reliability problems and mixed opinion from day one always offered an experience that couldn't be matched anywhere else, even if it was painful for riders. Quite saddened to hear it's inevitable departure subtly announced like this.
 
Oh well, it was fun to ride it whilst it lasted and at least the park are being honest about it's removal and not claiming it was down temporarily for TLC/redevelopment or something similar, by then removing it from the park without any notice given the following year.
 
I suppose we better start speculating at what inflatable HB Leisure replacement we might be getting soon!

That could look so good similarly lazily plonked elsewhere on park, but that is just a shocker. The embodiment of Merlin's true catchphrase; 'That'll do'

Oh my goodness, just gotten off of it now and I was actually pretty darn impressed by it this time, which is something I never thought I would ever say about it.
 
There have been some subtle changes and differences compared to riding it a few weeks ago, most of which are for the better:
 
• Firstly, it opened at 10:13am first thing and not the typical 11-12pm hour. Much, much better.
 
• Staff were filling both bays to the brink which massively helped the queue moving quicker.
 
• Only issue I had was the pre-show began as soon as the first person entered the room in the group. Since I was near the back, I missed out nearly a minute, but not an issue with the ride itself, just the operation.
 
• There was no stacking anywhere between the pre-show room and the warehouse. Good stuff.
 
• Some may see this as a disadvantage, but the carriage was absolutely sweltering hot inside just like a real underground carriage during summer. Not sure if this was deliberate or not, but I couldn't hear the fans working to cool the units. I didn't mind it.
 
• Pretty much all Vive headsets were working on both halves. Great stuff.
 
• The first VR half had a minor addition made which I've never noticed before. When the infected girls breaks into the carriage, I could see the man sitting opposite me just casually walk out of the carriage to the right as though nothing ever happened. All previous rides show them immediately disappearing as soon as the window breaks without any trace, so this was something new.
 
• Half-way section was working perfectly with all audio and visual effects working, including the moving carriage. Yay.
 
• Now the 2nd VR half was the most surprising bit for me. Despite already haven ridden it earlier this year, new content appeared. My guess is because we were waiting still for nearly 4 minutes, the VR content goes through 3 or 4 different scenes and whenever the train is ready to move again, it cuts that scene.
 
So instead of waiting in green mist like last year or seeing the demon creature wander through the carriage, I was also shown an infected girl standing right in front of me before being pulled out of the carriage and then the night vision goggles turned on and another person was pulled away into the darker corners of the carriage when they stood up and the announcer asked them to keep their contamination goggles on.
 
My previous few rides have all only shown up to the point where the demon wanders through the carriage before being thrown into the pit, so this was a really nice surprise to see how the teams have worked around the holding issue experienced last year. Instead of having the same scene on loop, it progresses through several different scenes until the train is ready to move back into its starting position again.
 
Last year I said it would be impossible to avoid this looped scene as it depends on the timing of all carriages in the circuit. I'm glad that I've been proven wrong!
 
• Finally for the new ending without giving too much away, all I'll say is the eyes and mouth now light up in red with smoke coming out of them. You may also get a little wet too.
 
This has been the most complete, consistent and enjoyable ride I have had on this yet and if Thorpe can keep it's current quality running every day throughout the year and especially during Fright Nights, they have a real winner now. Keep it up!
 
[emoji4]

Oh my goodness, just gotten off of it now and I was actually pretty darn impressed by it this time, which is something I never thought I would ever say about it.
 
There have been some subtle changes and differences compared to riding it a few weeks ago, most of which are for the better:
 
• Firstly, it opened at 10:13am first thing and not the typical 11-12pm hour. Much, much better.
 
• Staff were filling both bays to the brink which massively helped the queue moving quicker.
 
• Only issue I had was the pre-show began as soon as the first person entered the room in the group. Since I was near the back, I missed out nearly a minute, but not an issue with the ride itself, just the operation.
 
• There was no stacking anywhere between the pre-show room and the warehouse. Good stuff.
 
• Some may see this as a disadvantage, but the carriage was absolutely sweltering hot inside just like a real underground carriage during summer. Not sure if this was deliberate or not, but I couldn't hear the fans working to cool the units. I didn't mind it.
 
• Pretty much all Vive headsets were working on both halves. Great stuff.
 
• The first VR half had a minor addition made which I've never noticed before. When the infected girls breaks into the carriage, I could see the man sitting opposite me just casually walk out of the carriage to the right as though nothing ever happened. All previous rides show them immediately disappearing as soon as the window breaks without any trace, so this was something new.
 
• Half-way section was working perfectly with all audio and visual effects working, including the moving carriage. Yay.
 
• Now the 2nd VR half was the most surprising bit for me. Despite already haven ridden it earlier this year, new content appeared. My guess is because we were waiting still for nearly 4 minutes, the VR content goes through 3 or 4 different scenes and whenever the train is ready to move again, it cuts that scene.
 
So instead of waiting in green mist like last year or seeing the demon creature wander through the carriage, I was also shown an infected girl standing right in front of me before being pulled out of the carriage and then the night vision goggles turned on and another person was pulled away into the darker corners of the carriage when they stood up and the announcer asked them to keep their contamination goggles on.
 
My previous few rides have all only shown up to the point where the demon wanders through the carriage before being thrown into the pit, so this was a really nice surprise to see how the teams have worked around the holding issue experienced last year. Instead of having the same scene on loop, it progresses through several different scenes until the train is ready to move back into its starting position again.
 
Last year I said it would be impossible to avoid this looped scene as it depends on the timing of all carriages in the circuit. I'm glad that I've been proven wrong!
 
• Finally for the new ending without giving too much away, all I'll say is the eyes and mouth now light up in red with smoke coming out of them. You may also get a little wet too.
 
This has been the most complete, consistent and enjoyable ride I have had on this yet and if Thorpe can keep it's current quality running every day throughout the year and especially during Fright Nights, they have a real winner now. Keep it up!
 
[emoji4]

Oh my goodness, just gotten off of it now and I was actually pretty darn impressed by it this time, which is something I never thought I would ever say about it.
 
There have been some subtle changes and differences compared to riding it a few weeks ago, most of which are for the better:
 
• Firstly, it opened at 10:13am first thing and not the typical 11-12pm hour. Much, much better.
 
• Staff were filling both bays to the brink which massively helped the queue moving quicker.
 
• Only issue I had was the pre-show began as soon as the first person entered the room in the group. Since I was near the back, I missed out nearly a minute, but not an issue with the ride itself, just the operation.
 
• There was no stacking anywhere between the pre-show room and the warehouse. Good stuff.
 
• Some may see this as a disadvantage, but the carriage was absolutely sweltering hot inside just like a real underground carriage during summer. Not sure if this was deliberate or not, but I couldn't hear the fans working to cool the units. I didn't mind it.
 
• Pretty much all Vive headsets were working on both halves. Great stuff.
 
• The first VR half had a minor addition made which I've never noticed before. When the infected girls breaks into the carriage, I could see the man sitting opposite me just casually walk out of the carriage to the right as though nothing ever happened. All previous rides show them immediately disappearing as soon as the window breaks without any trace, so this was something new.
 
• Half-way section was working perfectly with all audio and visual effects working, including the moving carriage. Yay.
 
• Now the 2nd VR half was the most surprising bit for me. Despite already haven ridden it earlier this year, new content appeared. My guess is because we were waiting still for nearly 4 minutes, the VR content goes through 3 or 4 different scenes and whenever the train is ready to move again, it cuts that scene.
 
So instead of waiting in green mist like last year or seeing the demon creature wander through the carriage, I was also shown an infected girl standing right in front of me before being pulled out of the carriage and then the night vision goggles turned on and another person was pulled away into the darker corners of the carriage when they stood up and the announcer asked them to keep their contamination goggles on.
 
My previous few rides have all only shown up to the point where the demon wanders through the carriage before being thrown into the pit, so this was a really nice surprise to see how the teams have worked around the holding issue experienced last year. Instead of having the same scene on loop, it progresses through several different scenes until the train is ready to move back into its starting position again.
 
Last year I said it would be impossible to avoid this looped scene as it depends on the timing of all carriages in the circuit. I'm glad that I've been proven wrong!
 
• Finally for the new ending without giving too much away, all I'll say is the eyes and mouth now light up in red with smoke coming out of them. You may also get a little wet too.
 
This has been the most complete, consistent and enjoyable ride I have had on this yet and if Thorpe can keep it's current quality running every day throughout the year and especially during Fright Nights, they have a real winner now. Keep it up!
 
[emoji4]

Oh my goodness, just gotten off of it now and I was actually pretty darn impressed by it this time, which is something I never thought I would ever say about it.
 
There have been some subtle changes and differences compared to riding it a few weeks ago, most of which are for the better:
 
• Firstly, it opened at 10:13am first thing and not the typical 11-12pm hour. Much, much better.
 
• Staff were filling both bays to the brink which massively helped the queue moving quicker.
 
• Only issue I had was the pre-show began as soon as the first person entered the room in the group. Since I was near the back, I missed out nearly a minute, but not an issue with the ride itself, just the operation.
 
• There was no stacking anywhere between the pre-show room and the warehouse. Good stuff.
 
• Some may see this as a disadvantage, but the carriage was absolutely sweltering hot inside just like a real underground carriage during summer. Not sure if this was deliberate or not, but I couldn't hear the fans working to cool the units. I didn't mind it.
 
• Pretty much all Vive headsets were working on both halves. Great stuff.
 
• The first VR half had a minor addition made which I've never noticed before. When the infected girls breaks into the carriage, I could see the man sitting opposite me just casually walk out of the carriage to the right as though nothing ever happened. All previous rides show them immediately disappearing as soon as the window breaks without any trace, so this was something new.
 
• Half-way section was working perfectly with all audio and visual effects working, including the moving carriage. Yay.
 
• Now the 2nd VR half was the most surprising bit for me. Despite already haven ridden it earlier this year, new content appeared. My guess is because we were waiting still for nearly 4 minutes, the VR content goes through 3 or 4 different scenes and whenever the train is ready to move again, it cuts that scene.
 
So instead of waiting in green mist like last year or seeing the demon creature wander through the carriage, I was also shown an infected girl standing right in front of me before being pulled out of the carriage and then the night vision goggles turned on and another person was pulled away into the darker corners of the carriage when they stood up and the announcer asked them to keep their contamination goggles on.
 
My previous few rides have all only shown up to the point where the demon wanders through the carriage before being thrown into the pit, so this was a really nice surprise to see how the teams have worked around the holding issue experienced last year. Instead of having the same scene on loop, it progresses through several different scenes until the train is ready to move back into its starting position again.
 
Last year I said it would be impossible to avoid this looped scene as it depends on the timing of all carriages in the circuit. I'm glad that I've been proven wrong!
 
• Finally for the new ending without giving too much away, all I'll say is the eyes and mouth now light up in red with smoke coming out of them. You may also get a little wet too.
 
This has been the most complete, consistent and enjoyable ride I have had on this yet and if Thorpe can keep it's current quality running every day throughout the year and especially during Fright Nights, they have a real winner now. Keep it up!
 
[emoji4]

Oh my goodness, just gotten off of it now and I was actually pretty darn impressed by it this time, which is something I never thought I would ever say about it.
 
There have been some subtle changes and differences compared to riding it a few weeks ago, most of which are for the better:
 
• Firstly, it opened at 10:13am first thing and not the typical 11-12pm hour. Much, much better.
 
• Staff were filling both bays to the brink which massively helped the queue moving quicker.
 
• Only issue I had was the pre-show began as soon as the first person entered the room in the group. Since I was near the back, I missed out nearly a minute, but not an issue with the ride itself, just the operation.
 
• There was no stacking anywhere between the pre-show room and the warehouse. Good stuff.
 
• Some may see this as a disadvantage, but the carriage was absolutely sweltering hot inside just like a real underground carriage during summer. Not sure if this was deliberate or not, but I couldn't hear the fans working to cool the units. I didn't mind it.
 
• Pretty much all Vive headsets were working on both halves. Great stuff.
 
• The first VR half had a minor addition made which I've never noticed before. When the infected girls breaks into the carriage, I could see the man sitting opposite me just casually walk out of the carriage to the right as though nothing ever happened. All previous rides show them immediately disappearing as soon as the window breaks without any trace, so this was something new.
 
• Half-way section was working perfectly with all audio and visual effects working, including the moving carriage. Yay.
 
• Now the 2nd VR half was the most surprising bit for me. Despite already haven ridden it earlier this year, new content appeared. My guess is because we were waiting still for nearly 4 minutes, the VR content goes through 3 or 4 different scenes and whenever the train is ready to move again, it cuts that scene.
 
So instead of waiting in green mist like last year or seeing the demon creature wander through the carriage, I was also shown an infected girl standing right in front of me before being pulled out of the carriage and then the night vision goggles turned on and another person was pulled away into the darker corners of the carriage when they stood up and the announcer asked them to keep their contamination goggles on.
 
My previous few rides have all only shown up to the point where the demon wanders through the carriage before being thrown into the pit, so this was a really nice surprise to see how the teams have worked around the holding issue experienced last year. Instead of having the same scene on loop, it progresses through several different scenes until the train is ready to move back into its starting position again.
 
Last year I said it would be impossible to avoid this looped scene as it depends on the timing of all carriages in the circuit. I'm glad that I've been proven wrong!
 
• Finally for the new ending without giving too much away, all I'll say is the eyes and mouth now light up in red with smoke coming out of them. You may also get a little wet too.
 
This has been the most complete, consistent and enjoyable ride I have had on this yet and if Thorpe can keep it's current quality running every day throughout the year and especially during Fright Nights, they have a real winner now. Keep it up!
 
[emoji4]

Gimme an F, gimme an A, gimme an S etc etc.
What do queues make? SALES!

Can't refuse a weekend at Alton, so I'm a definite yes for this.

The accommodation at Newcastle Under Lyme would be fine by me since it's near Stoke-on-Trent rail station and I'll be using it to get to and from Portsmouth. Getting from the hotel to the park is another matter though.

If that's the case and it is only just those 3 rides that are scheduled to open later, where can the average guest know about this before trekking half the park to find it closed at the ride entrance? Whilst opening Storm Surge later is not something to fuss about, it would be helpful if guests knew this as they entered the park after the gates open between 10-11am so they know what's open and closed for the first hour. I didn't even know this until now, so how the heck the normal guest would I have no idea.

The only reason I am questioning which rides are scheduled to open at 11am is because a few days ago, Saw and Colossus's entrance boards stated the ride opens at 11am, not 10am. In addition, the park advertised it was opening the gates at 10am. It's inconsistent and unpredictable right now.

As I said in my previous post, I accept and acknowledge that in some instances there are exceptions to opening rides at half capacity or later in the day due to work still taking place on them. But the problem I'm saying is that on quiet days, the park operate virtually all of their coasters except for Saw and X on just 1 train all day, creating unnecessary long and slow queues for guests potentially paying up to £58.50 for admission. So how am I supposed to know now when I see a ride running at half capacity if it is deliberate or not?

An example of this is when the last meet was at Thorpe on the 25th March a couple of weeks ago, I distinctly remember seeing and hearing an announcement through Inferno's 60 minute queue announcing that the ride temporarily ceased operation whilst they were adding the 2nd train onto the track... on a Saturday.... at midday...... Well done lads.

What logic is there in this approach and why is this the normal way of operating rides at the park now? It's absolutely inexcusable that a park this large and popular can get away with such shoddy operations like this.

Nope nemesis is on one!

If that's the case and it is only just those 3 rides that are scheduled to open later, where can the average guest know about this before trekking half the park to find it closed at the ride entrance? Whilst opening Storm Surge later is not something to fuss about, it would be helpful if guests knew this as they entered the park after the gates open between 10-11am so they know what's open and closed for the first hour. I didn't even know this until now, so how the heck the normal guest would I have no idea.

The only reason I am questioning which rides are scheduled to open at 11am is because a few days ago, Saw and Colossus's entrance boards stated the ride opens at 11am, not 10am. In addition, the park advertised it was opening the gates at 10am. It's inconsistent and unpredictable right now.

As I said in my previous post, I accept and acknowledge that in some instances there are exceptions to opening rides at half capacity or later in the day due to work still taking place on them. But the problem I'm saying is that on quiet days, the park operate virtually all of their coasters except for Saw and X on just 1 train all day, creating unnecessary long and slow queues for guests potentially paying up to £58.50 for admission. So how am I supposed to know now when I see a ride running at half capacity if it is deliberate or not?

An example of this is when the last meet was at Thorpe on the 25th March a couple of weeks ago, I distinctly remember seeing and hearing an announcement through Inferno's 60 minute queue announcing that the ride temporarily ceased operation whilst they were adding the 2nd train onto the track... on a Saturday.... at midday...... Well done lads.

What logic is there in this approach and why is this the normal way of operating rides at the park now? It's absolutely inexcusable that a park this large and popular can get away with such shoddy operations like this.

Regardless of whether certain rides open later in the day at 11am as opposed to 10am, shouldn't the park at the very least give their visitors some advance notice on their website or on social media what will and won't be available upon opening when the gates open? Granted, the display at the entrance does list which rides are available when waiting, but from all the visits I have done so far this year and last year, this is only shown before the gates open. What about visitors that enter the park between 10-11am? How are they supposed to know what's available or not when they enter and cross the bridge?

The problem is that this has become the norm for a few years now. Never before the year 2015 did you ever have to think or consider which area is open or closed if you arrive before 10am. Years ago, everything (or nearly everything) was open at the hour, as advertised and at full capacity, ready for the day ahead. Now however, we have gradually seen more and more rides over time open at 11am instead of 10am. First it was just Slammer, then it was Samurai, then it was Colossus and now it's even Saw a couple of times I have visited (the entrance board said it opened at 11am). And to make matters worse, if you visit on a day the park consider to be a 'non-peak day', which is usually a weekday, you are subjected to reduced capacity on almost all coasters and the occasional flat ride, such as one swing on Rush at opening weekend or one train on Stealth and Colossus.
 
Now I understand that every morning, each and every ride requires checks, testing and confirmation from the ride teams before the entrances open. But given the fact we are now seeing the park deliberately open a fair chunk of their lineup later than everything else, this is absolutely inexcusable unless it's a moderately less-busy ride. Alton Towers and Chessington minus their water rides have pretty much all of their attractions at the ready for a 10am opening unless their is a fault, most of the time at full capacity with all of the trains running in the circuit, so why the heck can't Thorpe follow their lead anymore? Do they have a shortage of engineers or something similar?

As for the enormous queues we have seen these past couple of days, it's good to know that the park's management thankfully refused to sell Fastrack for their coasters and tried to deal with it the best they could. But considering the place has had arguably decades of previous experience and practice to deal with situations like this, who's clever idea was it to under staff the park during the flippin' middle of the Easter holidays without having a backup plan?

Sub Terra will never use its audio again, and since Derren Brown is literally Sub Terra On A Train it fits it fine really!

The headsets are still as glitchy as they were last season, only difference is this time there are more working at once with much better audio.
 
As for the VR for the 1st half, as far as I can gather, it's all the same with the following possible scenarios for the characters that appear. This was present last year in addition to this year:
 
(1) Old man sitting - old woman infected.
(2) Old man sitting - young kid infected.
(3) Middle-aged man sitting - old woman infected - my one on Monday.
(4) Middle-aged man sitting - young kid infected.
(5) Old woman sitting - old woman infected.
(6) Old woman sitting - young kid infected.
 
 

Right, after finally getting the chance to travel to the park again today, I have ridden it after reluctantly forcing myself to queue 1 hour for it.

Here is a list of the good and bad parts I observed from beginning to end without spoiling parts of the new experience.

Good parts:

- Queue speakers were nice and loud and didn't cut out at random intervals this time.
- The batching process of arranging two groups of people before entering was more efficient.
- The pre-show room worked fine and was the same as last year, which is good.
- The walk between the pre-show and the warehouse was very dark and some background audio could be heard instead of the banging and protest shouting present in that section before, presumably against the fracking storyline.
- Inside the carriage, almost all headsets were operating and available to use this time (yay).
- The straps used are much easier and comfortable to adjust and fit on your head this time.
- The headphones used for the audio on the headsets really surprised me. They were much clearer, sharper and louder than last year and weren't in those horrible pouches this time, which made it difficult to place over my ears properly and uncomfortable to wear.
- The headphones also blocked out a lot of noise in the carriage this time which helped mute the talking and screaming from other guests.
- First half of the VR is same as last year. Fine with this.
- Nice audio additions made to the mid-way section such as an alarm and emergency evacuation message playing over it. This wasn't here last year.
- Upon boarding the 2nd train, the lights flickering coupled with the train announcements saying you need to put on your goggles made it feel more genuine and made the boarding much more interesting.
- I love how they even got the same alarm noise used on the real tube trains when the doors close!
- The 2nd half is much, much better this time with a far more interesting and acted scene with people this time inside the real carriage (hence the use of a 360 degree camera in the BTS videos).
- When taking your headset off, I like how Derren Brown appears in the screens in the carriage's ceiling explaining to you what happened and to make you think it's all over. Nice little touch.
- The new ending situated where the baggage drop area used to be was most surprising as I wasn't expecting it one little bit and the use of smoke, lighting, audio, floor movement and props used really startled me.
- One last appearance from Derren in the same scene after the scene finished was a good reminder to keep everything inside a secret.

Bad parts:

- Still cannot get the ride open in time at exactly 10 or 11am.
- The queue's batching system whilst makes it more efficient, the staff used it where one bay was for Fastrack only (hotel guests I presume?) and the other for the normal queue, making it a 1:1 ratio between the two. Easily fixable by limiting the number of Fastrack guests at a time, but I didn't appreciate this after waiting 1 hour.
- The photo booth previously used for capturing your face in a jar is no longer used. Wasted opportunity for something else to add to the queue to make the wait more interesting.
- In the pre-show room, a quarter of the stand at the back of the room has now been taken up by a "Workshop" cupboard, making it a bit of a squeeze to get all 56 of us into that room to see the stage properly.
- Before boarding the train, there is still congestion between the groups ahead and your one.
- The carriage I went in had 3 broken headsets already after just 4 days of usage...
- The first VR content still glitches where the video lost position of my head and readjusted itself several times in the space of 5 minutes.
- VR Content was a few seconds out of sync with the carriage moving during the first half.
- The mid-way section was the most disappointing bit. Firstly, it appears the park have given up on the moving tube train effect as it's no longer there anymore and therefore nothing comes towards you like it used to. Secondly, this makes the scene almost pointless and boring without it.
- No actors present in that tunnel unlike some videos I've seen online from the media event on the 30th March - misleading and false expectation.
- When all the lights went out at the half-way point, a single blue one shining on the pipe didn't go out, which ruined the darkness effect.
- The 2nd VR content glitches again too, though not as severely this time.
- The jump scare at the very end of the 2nd VR half where the creature pops out as you when Derren talks isn't loud enough to be effective at making you jump.
- Finally, the end scene to me was over a little too quickly and I wished it lasted a few seconds longer!

I've gotta admit whilst queueing for it, I was expecting some very minor updates made and that was it. I was expecting it to be the same old system as last year with lots of broken headsets, broken VR content, unreliable operations, more green smoke and the same CGI rendered creatures from last year. Thankfully, this was not the case.

The experience offered now to me has addressed for the most part the biggest problems I had with the ride - consistency and reliability.

The fact the headsets were almost working flawlessly with better audio, straps and VR content has pleased me greatly and has made me wondered why the heck wasn't the ride like this to begin with? And the new ending enhanced the experience further and actually gave guests a meaningful finale this time and a greater connection with Derren himself.

However, I am still really annoyed that the half-way section is no better than it was during Fright Nights last year where the train didn't move and the scene became pointless as a result. Just from observation, it looks as though the effect has been removed entirely now and I cannot work out why it has. It worked very well with a lot of guests and was far better than nothing happening like it did today. Hopefully this is only temporary, but when you consider the park have had over 4 months to get it ready, you have to wonder if this change was intentional or not.

The biggest concern I still have with this ride is the fact even just 4 days in we are seeing broken HTC Vive headsets already displaying glitchy content. If they are not fixed as soon as possible, over time like last year, more and more and more will go down, which will affect the queues hugely over time, as well as leave bad impressions of a £40M investment that frankly should not be having these issues still after running through 2 seasons currently.

But overall, this update made for the most part has genuinely surprised me more than I was expecting. It's not a massive improvement like everyone on Thursday/Friday were making it out to be, which was probably the hype and anticipation talking which I fell for last year during the rehearsal period.

Regardless, it is better than what it was before by a significant amount to be noticed. If the park can run this with all the headsets working, the half-way section back to what it was last year and open it on time at either 10am or 11am every morning it's available, I will be very happy with it. For now, it's less of a white elephant project than it was last year!

DBGT (2016) - 4/10
DBGT: ROTD (2017) - 7/10

Why not just fix the effect if it is still present and not have to rely on more staff to make the scene relevant?
 
The actors used the other night I'm certain were there just for media night/opening day and that was it, similar to that photo being posted around by Thorpe's media team of the warehouse having smoke in the same room with the suspended carriage. Anyone who has ridden it knows that doesn't happen.
 
If you have to rely on more staff to get a ride working properly than you did last year, that's a bad decision which results in higher running costs (*hint hint Sub Terra*).

Right, after finally getting the chance to travel to the park again today, I have ridden it after reluctantly forcing myself to queue 1 hour for it.

Here is a list of the good and bad parts I observed from beginning to end without spoiling parts of the new experience.

Good parts:

- Queue speakers were nice and loud and didn't cut out at random intervals this time.
- The batching process of arranging two groups of people before entering was more efficient.
- The pre-show room worked fine and was the same as last year, which is good.
- The walk between the pre-show and the warehouse was very dark and some background audio could be heard instead of the banging and protest shouting present in that section before, presumably against the fracking storyline.
- Inside the carriage, almost all headsets were operating and available to use this time (yay).
- The straps used are much easier and comfortable to adjust and fit on your head this time.
- The headphones used for the audio on the headsets really surprised me. They were much clearer, sharper and louder than last year and weren't in those horrible pouches this time, which made it difficult to place over my ears properly and uncomfortable to wear.
- The headphones also blocked out a lot of noise in the carriage this time which helped mute the talking and screaming from other guests.
- First half of the VR is same as last year. Fine with this.
- Nice audio additions made to the mid-way section such as an alarm and emergency evacuation message playing over it. This wasn't here last year.
- Upon boarding the 2nd train, the lights flickering coupled with the train announcements saying you need to put on your goggles made it feel more genuine and made the boarding much more interesting.
- I love how they even got the same alarm noise used on the real tube trains when the doors close!
- The 2nd half is much, much better this time with a far more interesting and acted scene with people this time inside the real carriage (hence the use of a 360 degree camera in the BTS videos).
- When taking your headset off, I like how Derren Brown appears in the screens in the carriage's ceiling explaining to you what happened and to make you think it's all over. Nice little touch.
- The new ending situated where the baggage drop area used to be was most surprising as I wasn't expecting it one little bit and the use of smoke, lighting, audio, floor movement and props used really startled me.
- One last appearance from Derren in the same scene after the scene finished was a good reminder to keep everything inside a secret.

Bad parts:

- Still cannot get the ride open in time at exactly 10 or 11am.
- The queue's batching system whilst makes it more efficient, the staff used it where one bay was for Fastrack only (hotel guests I presume?) and the other for the normal queue, making it a 1:1 ratio between the two. Easily fixable by limiting the number of Fastrack guests at a time, but I didn't appreciate this after waiting 1 hour.
- The photo booth previously used for capturing your face in a jar is no longer used. Wasted opportunity for something else to add to the queue to make the wait more interesting.
- In the pre-show room, a quarter of the stand at the back of the room has now been taken up by a "Workshop" cupboard, making it a bit of a squeeze to get all 56 of us into that room to see the stage properly.
- Before boarding the train, there is still congestion between the groups ahead and your one.
- The carriage I went in had 3 broken headsets already after just 4 days of usage...
- The first VR content still glitches where the video lost position of my head and readjusted itself several times in the space of 5 minutes.
- VR Content was a few seconds out of sync with the carriage moving during the first half.
- The mid-way section was the most disappointing bit. Firstly, it appears the park have given up on the moving tube train effect as it's no longer there anymore and therefore nothing comes towards you like it used to. Secondly, this makes the scene almost pointless and boring without it.
- No actors present in that tunnel unlike some videos I've seen online from the media event on the 30th March - misleading and false expectation.
- When all the lights went out at the half-way point, a single blue one shining on the pipe didn't go out, which ruined the darkness effect.
- The 2nd VR content glitches again too, though not as severely this time.
- The jump scare at the very end of the 2nd VR half where the creature pops out as you when Derren talks isn't loud enough to be effective at making you jump.
- Finally, the end scene to me was over a little too quickly and I wished it lasted a few seconds longer!

I've gotta admit whilst queueing for it, I was expecting some very minor updates made and that was it. I was expecting it to be the same old system as last year with lots of broken headsets, broken VR content, unreliable operations, more green smoke and the same CGI rendered creatures from last year. Thankfully, this was not the case.

The experience offered now to me has addressed for the most part the biggest problems I had with the ride - consistency and reliability.

The fact the headsets were almost working flawlessly with better audio, straps and VR content has pleased me greatly and has made me wondered why the heck wasn't the ride like this to begin with? And the new ending enhanced the experience further and actually gave guests a meaningful finale this time and a greater connection with Derren himself.

However, I am still really annoyed that the half-way section is no better than it was during Fright Nights last year where the train didn't move and the scene became pointless as a result. Just from observation, it looks as though the effect has been removed entirely now and I cannot work out why it has. It worked very well with a lot of guests and was far better than nothing happening like it did today. Hopefully this is only temporary, but when you consider the park have had over 4 months to get it ready, you have to wonder if this change was intentional or not.

The biggest concern I still have with this ride is the fact even just 4 days in we are seeing broken HTC Vive headsets already displaying glitchy content. If they are not fixed as soon as possible, over time like last year, more and more and more will go down, which will affect the queues hugely over time, as well as leave bad impressions of a £40M investment that frankly should not be having these issues still after running through 2 seasons currently.

But overall, this update made for the most part has genuinely surprised me more than I was expecting. It's not a massive improvement like everyone on Thursday/Friday were making it out to be, which was probably the hype and anticipation talking which I fell for last year during the rehearsal period.

Regardless, it is better than what it was before by a significant amount to be noticed. If the park can run this with all the headsets working, the half-way section back to what it was last year and open it on time at either 10am or 11am every morning it's available, I will be very happy with it. For now, it's less of a white elephant project than it was last year!

DBGT (2016) - 4/10
DBGT: ROTD (2017) - 7/10

Shouldn't have an attraction where quality is based upon staff availability... It pretty much means that not everyone will get the same experience and that's never good...
 
We all know that anyone at the media night would get it at it's 'best', but it's 'best' should continue into day to day basis...

5/10 is better than 4.5/10 I suppose.

https://www.thorpepark.com/blog/what-is-the-sound-of-the-island
 
Thorpe have confirmed that IMA Score made the new entrance / dome soundtrack, and have hinted that there is more to come!
 
Exciting times for our ears!

Whilst it's great to see all this new audio the park and Merlin as a whole have recently been installing over the last few years with their new attractions, it's just such a shame that the company is unwilling to provide the full versions for people. [emoji20]
 
Heck, if Phantasialand, Liseberg, Disney, PortAventura, Heide Park, Hansa Park and Toverland to name a few are willing to to sell their audio, why not Merlin who have the biggest collection of any park?
 
What I'd do to listen to Galactica properly...

Having only managed to try it just once today thanks to some monstrous queues in the whole park, I have some mixed opinions on the whole attraction, but overall really enjoyed it. There are some parts which I really enjoyed and liked which worked very effectively, but at the same time, it felt like parts of the attraction were left unfinished and empty.
 
First impressions of the outdoor queue were average with a new coloured buildings and new music (which did turn out to be the music posted the other day from the 2009 animated film) and thankfully no more of that ghastly exterior music used before. Whilst there were no issues with this or with the moved entrance, once again like every single new attractions that is built now, there MUST be a green screen photo opportunity to upsell you on which has now been placed just before you go inside. Hardly surprised, but didn't appreciate this after waiting in line for 70 minutes and with Fastrack in full operation congesting the main queue.
 
Ignoring that, the station area was quite nice and simple with what looks to be 2D drawings of the characters against the walls. Now I understand some have criticised this and have said it's cheaply done, to which I wholeheartedly agree with. But I got the impression that the build-up to the ride was supposed to be referring to the book instead of the animated film and once inside, it all comes to life with 3D characters. So I'm not that fussed about the station - It's simple, has better roofing and feels fresh again, plus it is a lot darker than when it was Bubbleworks which is a big noticeable difference for the whole attraction.
 
Now onto the ride, this is where things begin to get mixed. Unlike Bubbleworks where everything was on a loop with no synchronised scenes to reflect the positioning of your boat, almost the entire ride up until the drop was timed so that when you enter each room, a voice read out passages from the book where some of them were shined onto the wall such as "A little brown mouse walked through the woods" as soon as you enter the first darkened room. This helped make the experience feel more complete and enjoyable and the mix of storytelling with the scenes was very well done.
 
One of the biggest and most noticeable differences with it is how much darker and dimly lit all of the scenes are this time. Bubbleworks during its final years was almost entirely lit up which made everything easily visible. But this time, only the scenery and characters are lit with filtered lighting which draws your attention to them and not the surrounding enclosed walls. The lighting was very effective and is far better than what we had before.
 
However, there were some scenes where there were blank walls with absolutely no theming or details whatsoever and this really aggravated me. At least with Bubbleworks you got a printed pattern or painting to look at, but this time, they are plain, white and ordinary. For instance when leaving the station down the ramp, that small room where the professor previously sat at his desk is now completely blank with white walls everywhere and no theming was added to the flooring either. All that happened was a projector shined on the wall with an animation of the mouse walking, with the words from the author read out. Not the best first impression of the ride, but after that, it gets a lot better.
 
One thing that did surprise me greatly was the sheer size of the characters through various scenes. The 2nd room where Mouse encounters Fox for instance was simply enormous and was very close to you when you passed by! Same for Owl and definitely the Gruffalo.
 
There were some thematic elements which involved the use of projectors and TV screens of the characters through these small windows, primarily from the animated film. Whilst I didn't necessarily have an issue with this, my worry is will they be maintained on a frequent basis to stop them from breaking or going wrong? If the park can do this then that's great, but if it ends up like Smiler's queue line where the projectors over time became dimmer, unaligned and frankly broken, the effect will become useless. The fact some scenes are almost entirely dependant on this has me concerned slightly.
 
Something else that I couldn't help but notice is with the entire attraction being much darker inside than previously, it became quite hard to distinguish the walls and the whole thing felt smaller inside. So much so that I'd go as far to say slightly claustrophobic due to the close proximity of the characters with the boats. It didn't bother me at all, but thought it's something interesting to note.
 
As for the drop and finale, this is now where your on-ride photo is now taken. Just before you reach the bottom, the Gruffalo appears above you with moving orange eyes and a flash, blinding you, takes your photo.
 
Inside the finale, there are still SOME of the overhead fountains present, but only the ones where you are either entering or leaving the room, not in the centre where there is now a massive tree overshadowing you as you pass under with Owl looking down at you. The centre piece where the bathtub used to be confused me. From what I gathered, it looked like Fox's tail trying to run scared because of the Gruffalo, but maybe I'm wrong. In full, the finale still has plenty of lighting effects used in different colours with some of the fountains working and it is a much better room than what was there before. The best way I can explain is try not to think of this room as a finale anymore; just as the penultimate scene to the ride instead following what the book says.
 
Lastly, the corner where after you just leave the fountain room is where the story finishes and Mouse is sitting on a log with his acorn, and you pass through a mist of air with a projection on it of what I believe is an animation of 'Gruffalo Crumble', as well as a vertical screen of the Gruffalo running away from the mouse, just like in the book and film before coming back into the station again. Nothing too dramatic, but a nice way to end the ride.
 
So whilst there were some really good elements such as the lighting, atmosphere, story telling and effects, the big issue I have is with the longevity and lack of substance in some areas I've seen. The fact they have ripped out some areas and simply replaced it with white walls which are used only to project sentences from the book, along with some drawings really annoys me greatly because they could have used a lot of that space to add theming elements such as trees and bushes to fit in with the theme a bit better. You know, like the promo art suggests? That coupled with characters that hardly move at all in this attraction and are static, non-animatronics irritated me slightly too.
 
But besides from that, this overall I would say is a far needed and I believe welcomed addition to the park. It's not perfect in anyway and there are some potential flaws with the design I can see with broken effects and lacklustre scenes, but all in all, I enjoyed this far more than what Bubbleworks was in it's final last years from 2010 onwards and I conclude this is a worthwhile investment made. Despite it appealing to the younger audience, it clearly still has a place for families and older members.
 
All I can advise is get on it as soon as you can whilst everything is currently working to experience it properly!
 
Bubbleworks (1990-2005): 8/10
Imperial Leather Bubbleworks (2006-2016): 4/10
Gruffalo River Ride Adventure : 7/10
 

(On-ride photo for those interested. I apologise. I can never seem to get a normal on-ride photo with my family for some reason... )