OK, so I have tried all the horror mazes (just the mazes alone) from this weekend and seen what the first weekend of Fright Nights 2019 had to offer as a regular guest, not as a celeb VIP vlogger who gets offered social media trinkets alongside an upgraded/unrealistic experience of the mazes by the Merlin bobs.
As a whole, I gotta start saying there is no doubt that compared to last year, there is an overall improvement in the event in terms of how it was delivered, but be under no illusion that the improvements are very, very minimal. I still walked around the park at night getting very similar vibes to the disaster of 2018, from the over-use of too many bright white floodlights, to the inconsistent audio management, lack of proper park-wide theming and still some questionable mazes. It's better than last year, but still riddled with faults and here's what I observed and think of each area of the event.
I stress this is my experience of the night and acknowledge runs through each maze are different for every guest:
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Park & Ride Theming:
I would say the level of theming is pretty much the same as 2018 park-wide, though there were some odd exceptions in place which I liked.
For example, Colossus's station looked fantastic, especially at night where the ceiling lights had all their bulbs changed to a glowing red and the spotlights underneath the train a vidid green, which meant not a single white light was present anywhere inside. To top that, there were plenty of hanging skulls, cobwebs, hand-painted signs everywhere too and there was a really effective smoke machine pumping smoke everywhere in the station underneath the centre of the train. I thought this set a really, really nice atmosphere at night and reminded me of when Colossus' station used to look during Fright Nights pre-2010 and I loved it.
But then, if you look at any other ride or coaster in the park? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not a single other ride was decorated for the event which confused me, as it seemed as though the park went all-in with Colossus but then couldn't be bothered with the rest of their rides after that point and so gave up. It's a real shame because the difference that made to Colossus was substantial and really added to the atmosphere inside. Hopefully the park will do more changes like this as I thought it was really nice and effective.
As for park theming, it's almost non-existent. There's the usual Walking Dead props near the entrance bridge, Swarm's pathway and Old Town, but nothing which stood out. There were also white body bags splattered in blood hanging up in the trees and supports around Saw and Depth Charge, though the illusion was ruined when 20mph gusts of wind were blowing them around everywhere. Also, the Dome at night was filled with smoke and a spotlight moving around the ceiling too. Not quite sure what the purpose of this was, but hey, I liked it.
Overall, whilst there still wasn't that much, I do hope the park in the future will start theming their coasters and rides like Colossus because that was a great move.
Audio Mangement:
It's pretty much identical to last year - inconsistent, inconsistent, inconsistent.
All the coasters were playing themed audio to Fright Nights in their stations such as Nick Hutson's audio on Colossus, Stealth and Inferno, to Charlie Clouser playing on Stealth's loading, or the FN WWTP playlist again after 3pm (ugh), but amongst all that, once again, the majority of rides were playing their usual themes with Detonator being by far the worst example with it's obnoxious "chirp" noise playing across the park every few minutes, depending on whether the staff member remembers to stop it before it plays as the carriage drops. That eliminated any potential dark or spooky atmosphere across the park, and this mix of FN audio mixed with regular audio sounded really sloppy.
It's a real shame because some of the audio playing in areas works well and when this is overshadowed by the regular stuff, it kills the atmosphere. Really hope the park can finally get to grips with this system because audio for Fright Nights has been a mess for years now. So overall, it's still a mess with inconsistencies present everywhere left, right and centre still. Still hoping Midnight Syndicate will make a return to the park eventually just like in the good ol' days of this event, but realise it's likely not gonna happen because of licensing costs, or something (apparently).
Lighting and Atmosphere: There have been some improvements to the lighting used across the park in places where gone are those disgusting rainbow-changing LED light rigs from 2018 and the randomly placed lights from X on the entrance bridge, so the lighting was overall less jarring, but again, there are so many areas of the park vividly lit in blinding white lights that it feels more like walking on a driving range than an actual theme park. Where are the colour filters? Really hope at one point someone at the park can eliminate all if not most of these white lights, especially the one at Platform 15's entrance where it's too friggin' bright to read the sign at night still, similar to Dead Creek Woods last year with the same lighting problem.
Mazes
Walking Dead: Do or Die:
It still baffles me as to why this maze still actually exists given how poor it was last year in my view, because this was by far the weakest maze at the event. It's had a slight re-work on the route whereby you go through more of those shipping containers, and the route winds back and forth more, but it's still the same thing in almost every area.
Some differences noted are the outside walls are both black and white this time with some blood-spattered cloth for decoration, the audio in the maze was consistently louder with rock music playing throughout, and the ending had a new scene with shrines and names written on the flooring and walls (will refer to this scene again in a bit).
The actors themselves? 6 in total were what I encountered from start to end, not the 10+ all the vloggers were capturing in their YouTube videos, so be aware of this false presentation they are giving that there are loads inside. Apart from that, it was very similar to last year - dull, boring, plenty of black walls again and lacking any scares. Weakest maze of the night.
3/10
Walking Dead: Living Nightmare: Nothing much to say on this as it's the same as ever. The only real change has been in two areas. The first is when waiting in the tunnel, there is a pre-recorded voice of Negan telling the guests the safety announcements which was a nice touch and the other was the ending, where you walk through some foliage with a few actors hiding behind them jumping out at you. I've not watched the show to know who these characters are, but I've heard they are the 'Whisperers'. Either way, the ending was pretty decent, despite everything else being the same.
4/10
Platform 15: I gotta say, despite some reviewers saying this year was so much better than before because of the new ending, I thought this was the weakest run-through I have ever had on Platform 15. The first reason is because when confronted with the Canada Creek Railway train, the fire which shoots from the chimney usually fires up similar to a flame gun for a couple of seconds and looks really effective.
However, the effect only emitted a single, pathetic small puff of fire into the air and that was it, thus not startling guests as much as it used to. There was only one actor in this area too which irritated me, as there's usually at least 3 typically (again, do not think VIP press night videos are accurate to the real thing a guest will experience, as they showed loads in this bit online!)
Anyway, as we approached and walked through the house, one thing stood out to me - where's the audio? The house was dead silent with the speakers turned off, and the unsettling creepy audio used in there in previous years was now gone, along with the incredibly potent smell pods, which really took away the unsettling atmosphere inside. There was only one actor in here also.
Finally, the tunnel at the end. Pretty much identical right until the end, although there was a very serious problem with the light leakage this year, as there were more tears in the roof of the fabric than I have ever seen before, and this was a real tension-killer as the group could see ages ahead any actors hiding. But before long, we approached the exit and new ending, which appeared to look like an old station office I think? We were told a mini backstory and as we walked through, an actor jumped out from the wall with the timing of the sound effects and strobe light starting before walking outside and that was it.
I would say the ending is definitely an improvement on last year's embarrassing version, but the rest of the maze before it fell short in many areas sadly, so the overall package I would say is less compared to 2018, even if it has a new story and better ending.
4/10
Blair Witch:
I have never been the biggest fan of this maze every time it's been at the park, but holy heck, this year I really thought it was brilliant! The new route it takes through the woods was really effective and nicely routed and is far, far longer compared to 2018 with more confined spaces through the foliage. But the best part for me by far was the use of lighting or lack thereof, because there were only half a dozen of very dim lights in the whole attraction, all of which were coloured blue. In-between these areas, it was pitch black in so many areas when walking through that I had to shield my eyes many times in the fear something was going to grab me out of nowhere, whether it was an actor or more foliage. Seriously, it was very well done at making the guest feel unsettled and on edge whilst walking through.
As for the ending, the same tunnel you had to crawl through was there, followed by the shed at the end, which had been narrowed down with wall either side with hand prints all over them with writing, followed my a much dimmer strobe light hidden with actors in the smoke. This was so much better than last year's embarrassing excuse of a overly-bright techno-rave RGB LED light used.
Overall, it's the same kind of experience as last year, but a lot, lot longer with more confined spaces, a far improved route, much better use of lighting and SFX and an improved finale. Definitely the best outdoor maze experience I have had at any Fright Nights yet.
7/10
Creak Freak Masacre:
And now, the newest maze everyone is bound to be speaking about this year and after trying it, it is clear this is going to be the standout attraction of 2019 and I thought it was the strongest maze by far at the event, really liked it!
The maze itself is quite noisy inside with rock music playing again similar to Do or Die and once you step foot inside the first room where the pre-show, you know this is going to be such a level-up from all the other mazes at Fright Nights. There was smoke bellowing everywhere inside immediately, you are separated down different routes after being introduced by an actor. In my instance, I had the tunnel which was quite confined and had a slight elevation at the start before lowering back down again, similar to the tunnel Experiment 10 used to have.
Once you leave the tunnel, the route mostly consisted of going up and down where Loggers Leap's old cattlepen queueline used to go, all lit up in red with lots of themed walls and actors hiding behind corners and walls, all with pretty good makeup I thought. Before long, you encounter a few rooms, the first from memory being a scene where someone with a giant electric blade is slicing another person in half who is screaming for help. Quite a nice effect I thought, especially with the interaction of the actors and use of lighting effects. Soon after, you encounter a room with bodies hanging from the ceiling and there was a podium in the middle, presumably for the actors to stand. The yellow lighting in here was nicely with an actor with the first chainsaw and was the first moment where my heart really began to race as I couldn't see them through the hanging body bags.
After this point, there were a couple more corners before you approach a strobe maze section which had very loud rock music in there again, only this time, an actor pointed me a route through either 'Goodwood' or 'Badwood'. I got Badwood and what I was faced with was what I can only describe as a miniature version of The Asylum's chickenwire fencing strobe maze, rammed with shed loads of smoke. To add to this, there are in fact dead ends in places, just like what The Freezer used to have in it's first couple of years I believe, so this made it quite unnerving for me knowing I had to find my way out through some incredibly disorientating strobes with the familiar sound of a revving chainsaw teasing me in the corners of the room!
And as predicted, whilst still in the strobe maze lost, a guy with another chainsaw appeared out of nowhere and honestly made me leap from my skin because I was so disorientated by the strobe lights that I couldn't see him properly. This was undoubtedly the biggest scare in the entire maze for me and I haven't been on edge that much in a maze since first doing the Chop Shop at Tulleys Farm. Very, very well done!
After you finally make yourself out the strobe section, there is one final scene where another actor with a chainsaw jumps out and chases you from the exit through the flaps and the maze is over.
Overall, this is a really, really nice maze and I don't know if this is true or not, but I've heard the team who designed this were the same ones who work on ScareFest at Alton Towers. But regardless, commendments to the team who created this maze as it was really refreshing to see once again another original idea executed very well, similar to Big Top, Experiment 10 and The Asylum. In terms of ranking, I still prefer Big Top and Asylum to Creak Freak Masacre, but I would put it above Experiment 10, but it isn't their most extreme maze yet to me as the park claim.
So yeah, job well done!
8/10
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As an event, I will give credit to the teams who pulled off a great new maze and I really hope this one actually lasts a few years and doesn't suffer the same fate as the Big Top. But overall, Fright Nights 2019 as a package still is not there at the moment as being a great event. It's an OK event still in my books. To me, to be a great year, the park needs far more than just a single great maze to save its skin. Besides the Terror at Amity High lot, there were no other roaming actors this night and things such as park-wide theming, atmosphere, lighting and audio matter hugely in my view as there's more to a Halloween event than just horror mazes. If the park can finally get to grips in these areas in addition to giving us more mazes like CFM (indoor ones), they are back in business.
For now though, 2019 is better than 2018, but still not great just yet. We are seeing small improvements in places to bring it back to the golden years of 2007-2009 once more, which fills me with some hope at last. Let's just hope the park can continue on this trajectory.
One last thing I want to add quickly to those thinking of going - if you have been watching videos on YouTube from all these vloggers lately with POVs through all the mazes and them saying how "sick" this year Is when they were at the VIP press night, I warn you now, as a regular guest, a lot of what they experienced that night you will not experience yourself as I had. Whether it's getting shoved into a cubicle on Do or Die or having 10+ actors in every maze. I can't stress enough to be very wary of what you see from that night online and not to be mislead thinking x, y and z will happen in the mazes. These people are clearly in Merlin's good graces (especially when the park put a picture of Sickstone inside Do or Die on one of the shrines in the final scene as a really poor version of an Easter egg...... yes, really) so please treat what you see with some caution.
Went tonight, better than last year still a lot of improvement required.
Creek Freak, intro was rushed not giving a background to the story. The maze was fun however I didn't find it very intense despite making contact with one of the chainsaws. Themeing was cool though.
Platform 15, good new ending however I think it could be executed better.
Do or die, good fun however the groups are too big resulting in less scares.
Amity high was excellent, the actors were having great interactions with guests and the flash mob was something different and what the park needs as a filler.
Didn't do the others as was enjoying the rides.
Here's my issue, what is sold to the public through online POV's from press night, being batched in small groups of under is very different to what you get with a group size of 15, where the experience seems rushed and more about getting people through the attraction, so yes the event may be 10 times better than last year however would last nights reviewers have the same opinion on the attractions on a peak Saturday night? Probably not but we shall see how the park handles the crowds in the coming weeks.
Overall its good and I would still recommend a visit, however I think its time for an over-hall and bring back at least 1 hands on shoulders maze for old times sake.
Can I just applaud myself for Jack Sickstone being used by another member on here, plus I've seen Lord Sanbrooke used too. I feel I have acheived something in my life, it's only taken 36 years.
Precisely, as we were told last year by almost certainly the same people that 2018 was “the best Fright Nights yet”. Look at how that ended...
I just hope this year the park don’t just focus purely on the scare mazes and instead look at all other areas which contribute to the event. Things such as park lightning, decorations and audio are just as important I’d say, especially for those not wishing to go in the mazes.
Last thing I want to see are X’s lights flashing all over the entrance bridge again... it looked ruddy awful last year.
First thing that went through my mind last year when I got out of that abomination was “whoever designed and signed off on this should be fired on the spot” that’s how bad I found it!!
In regards to park wide theming and audio, yes that was a massive part of why I enjoyed the event in its early years. However, the event has loads to do on its road to improvement and the most important aspect of these events IS the mazes. Once they get the mazes right then they should move onto parkwide atmosphere.
Ye I agree, but what can I say. Thorpe park has become lazy over the past 6 years. The park is going to **** tbh, 2012 was the last new rollercoaster. They need to pull their finger out and work harder, they have been batheing in the IP money and forgotten about us.
I was implying the fact last year the park were too obsessive over delivering the highest number of mazes and scare attractions more than anything, all of which were admittedly poor quality, so I take on-board what you say that maze quality can make or break the event, especially when looking at previous years.
To me though, there is far more to this event than just the mazes which is why I highlighted other areas such as the lighting, theming and audio and why they matter. For example of where it goes wrong, the WWTP playlist used last year did not work in my opinion one bit, Dead Creek Woods had a blinding white floodlight above it’s entrance sign so you couldn’t read the bloomin’ thing from the ground, and the placement of those stupid random RGB rainbow LED light rigs was ridiculous and so out-of-place.
And as for theming? This event has had close to zilch park and ride-wise since 2009. Before 2010, every ride was decorated properly from Hell freezing over for Inferno, a Children’s play swing for Rush or Humpty Dumpty for Detonator. The park had character back then, unlike the last 6 years of Fright Nights honestly with IPs galore shoved down your throat everywhere.
2007-2009 were incredible years not only for the mazes, but audio from Midnight Syndicate and Charlie Clouser coupled with proper lighting and brilliant park theming were what made those the best years of the event in my view.
It’s such a stark contrast to what we have today I think.
Precisely, as we were told last year by almost certainly the same people that 2018 was “the best Fright Nights yet”. Look at how that ended...
I just hope this year the park don’t just focus purely on the scare mazes and instead look at all other areas which contribute to the event. Things such as park lightning, decorations and audio are just as important I’d say, especially for those not wishing to go in the mazes.
Last thing I want to see are X’s lights flashing all over the entrance bridge again... it looked ruddy awful last year.
Precisely, as we were told last year by almost certainly the same people that 2018 was “the best Fright Nights yet”. Look at how that ended...
I just hope this year the park don’t just focus purely on the scare mazes and instead look at all other areas which contribute to the event. Things such as park lightning, decorations and audio are just as important I’d say, especially for those not wishing to go in the mazes.
Last thing I want to see are X’s lights flashing all over the entrance bridge again... it looked ruddy awful last year.
Precisely, as we were told last year by almost certainly the same people that 2018 was “the best Fright Nights yet”. Look at how that ended...
I just hope this year the park don’t just focus purely on the scare mazes and instead look at all other areas which contribute to the event. Things such as park lightning, decorations and audio are just as important I’d say, especially for those not wishing to go in the mazes.
Last thing I want to see are X’s lights flashing all over the entrance bridge again... it looked ruddy awful last year.
Precisely, as we were told last year by almost certainly the same people that 2018 was “the best Fright Nights yet”. Look at how that ended...
I just hope this year the park don’t just focus purely on the scare mazes and instead look at all other areas which contribute to the event. Things such as park lightning, decorations and audio are just as important I’d say, especially for those not wishing to go in the mazes.
Last thing I want to see are X’s lights flashing all over the entrance bridge again... it looked ruddy awful last year.
Lets just hope that our favourite influencers all got an invite, so that the mazes can all be spoiled with POV's before the GP get a chance to experience them.
Nope, take off the Merlin-tinted spectacles for a minute.
1) This event is taking place on a Friday afternoon; most people will not be available.
2) When the park have done stuff like this in the past, staff eventually just get tired of non-AP people asking to go in and just let everyone in. It basically just ends up as another test run.
3) This represents a further devaluation of the MAP. Full events have been reduced to a couple of hours of 'you can go on these attractions at a set time'.
This stinks of budget cuts and a lack of care for Annual Passholders.
Hi,
Long time lurker, 1st time poster.
Excuse the long post, there is an on-topic observation at the bottom
TP has been a big part of my life, from visiting the park in the late 80's to throughout the 90's. I then worked there for 15 years (2000 - 2014), in a variety of departments.
Retail - some of the best times of my life (I've made life long friends from working in this department)
Park Development and Planning - one of the most rewarding jobs I have had to date (see below)
Facilities Management/Engineering - this is where my journey ended
Park Development and Planning - I was the project lead for the land expansion project, and was involved in some of the early design/planning activities on SAW The Ride, SAW Alive, Kobra (CWoA), The Swarm, and an early Ghost Train concept. Whilst working in this department I learnt some fascinating history about the park. For example, did you know when the park was being constructed in the 1970's, RMC flew in an Imagineer from the States to help design the entrance and car park?
Anyways, back on topic...
I visited the RTP's for the 1st time (since leaving TP) last year and noticed that the overall quality has dropped across all 3 parks (CWoA probably was my favourite park out of the visits last year TBH). I noticed that at AT, unless you like roller coasters or kids rides, there actually isn't that much there. Duel should have been removed and replaced, or even reverted back to its former scary self years ago, and Hex is a shadow of its former self. I have never liked the Rapids since they removed the old boats.
TP - DBGT - Ok this was not what I had originally envisioned for this plot of land. I found it to be an interesting concept, however it was not delivered well. The queue lines design (or lack of) makes it one of the worst (if not the worst) queues I have ever been in. I strangely found IACGMOH to be quite an enjoyable experience. I think TP are now in a weird position where they have got to develop two large areas of the park - the island next to Swarm (Island A) or Loggers. Which one do you do first? Island A needs that development to remove the dead end at Swarm (Parks should never have dead ends, they need to be free flowing), or do you develop Loggers which is a dead corner of the park? Is the investment there?
CWoA seems to have flown under the radar a bit, and appears to have missed a lot of the Merlin clusterf**ks that have happened over the years. However, the drop tower replacing Rameses is again lacklustre and screams of "cant be bothered to develop this park properly"...
Which leads me onto why I think these parks are suffering:
The Smiler accident - I should imagine the insurance premiums across the UK parks are now extremely high, effecting large scale investments
As far as I am aware, Merlin did not operate any theme parks until acquiring Legoland and the Tussuad's Group. I've noticed that all of the Merlin investments to date have either been lacklustre or poorly delivered (Ok Wickerman was good, however not too sure a pre-show was required - even though the show is good). I think there is a lack of interest within the company (I found this out when I was working at TP, and was shocked to find so many senior people not interested in the industry - a lot of them had never been to a Disney park... Its just a job to them)
If you look at what parks around the world are announcing as new attractions, Merlin's UK offering is waaayyy behind everyone else.
One of the most heated discussions I had whilst working at TP was surrounding the lack of a decent family zone/area. My argument was that parks such as Six Flags and Cedar Point (parks TP tries to emulate) all have decent (ish) kid friendly/family friendly areas. The answer from management was a return on the investment would not be possible as "how would they sell it"?
Hopefully when (if) Paramount Park gets built, it will give Merlin a kick up the backside in getting there act together.
Just my two cents...
M
DARK RIDES:
1. Symbolica (Efteling)
2. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Islands of Adventure)
3. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Islands of Adventure)
4. Villa Volta (Efteling)
5. Droomvlucht (Efteling)
6. Revenge of The Mummy (Universal Studios Orlando)
7. Hex - The Legend of the Towers (Alton Towers)
8. Fata Morgana (Efteling)
9. Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts (Universal Studios Orlando)
10. Skull Island: Reign of Kong (Islands of Adventure)
WATER RIDES:
1. Chiapas - DIE Wasserbahn (Phantasialand)
2. Flying Dutchman (Efteling)
3. Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls (Islands of Adventure)
4. Popeye and Bluto's Bildge-Rat Barges (Islands of Adventure)
5. Kallerado (Liseberg)
6. Jurassic Park River Adventure (Islands of Adventure)
7. Djengu River (Toverland)
8. Congo River Rapids (Busch Gardens Tampa)
9. Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom)
10. Flumeride (Liseberg)
Honourable Mentions:
1. Baron 1898 (Efteling): Incredible level of detail and storytelling
2. The Smiler (Alton Towers): All-round great coaster experience
3. Fenix (Toverland): Brilliant coaster with lovely level of theming
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