TPJames

Better be sarcasm. It's basically a conga line but you don't have to have hands on shoulders. You get stopped at various points in the maze where you get talked to as a whole group. Think there was exactly 10 of us in our group. I would recommend going near the front if you want the best scares though as that's where I went and it was brilliant

Went to the fright night preview tonight to see a few familiar faces and celebrities! I don't think there could have been more than a couple of thousand on park, as the mazes peaked at 45mins max; and when one was 45mins the others were 5(with the exception of studio 13 not going under 45 all night). Ride count: Slammer-1 Samurai- 1 Saw- 1 Swarm- 1 Detonator- 1 Stealth- 2 Rush- 1 Maze count: Blair witch project- 1 Studio 13- 1 My bloody valentine- 1 Cabin in the woods- 1 -The rides were pretty much walk on all night, except for when we got jumped by a whole group of celebrities who decided to take up a whole train, however the queues were non-existent all night. -Rides on FULL CAPACITY, 2 trains on coasters!!! I'm sure the park expected it to be busier, as all rides were walk on and going half empty. -Did not get in Saw alive due to it breaking down and re-opening with a 45minute queue later. -Amazing effects on tonight, flamethrowers on saw, mist on nemesis and stealth and effects in mazes were amazing. -Cabin in the woods was much improved to last year, felt longer and the scares were brilliant. Well themed too and saw the character which was chosen on facebook by the public! - Blair Witch was interesting... I thought it was an amazing use of space however the actual experience itself wasn't great. I liked how it was a walk through the woods and there were a few good scares. The final hut was good aswell. - My Bloody Valentine was better than I remember, got the tunnel route which was quite scary and people infront got split from the rest of their group . Very fast paced and much better lighting this year meaning theming was visible. Also audio in maze queue -STUDIO 13. What can I say? This was brilliant! 1000000/10(if that's even possible). I commend thorpe for making such an amazing maze, the theming was brilliant and the fact that it felt like a conga maze but was actually free flow made it great aswell! The scares were amazing and the maze was absolutely fantastic. Can't wait to do it again, the finale was brilliant aswell. The only downside was the long wait, but it was worth it! The maze was very popular and I can see why! Total Rides and Mazes: 12. Can't wait to go again, amazing event and if you are considering going to it, go! The roaming actors were great aswell(when there were some) as they made a photo frame and would suddenly scare everyone! Get down to this event, thorpe you have created something amazing I loved it!

Went to the fright night preview tonight to see a few familiar faces and celebrities! I don't think there could have been more than a couple of thousand on park, as the mazes peaked at 45mins max; and when one was 45mins the others were 5(with the exception of studio 13 not going under 45 all night). Ride count: Slammer-1 Samurai- 1 Saw- 1 Swarm- 1 Detonator- 1 Stealth- 2 Rush- 1 Maze count: Blair witch project- 1 Studio 13- 1 My bloody valentine- 1 Cabin in the woods- 1 -The rides were pretty much walk on all night, except for when we got jumped by a whole group of celebrities who decided to take up a whole train, however the queues were non-existent all night. -Rides on FULL CAPACITY, 2 trains on coasters!!! I'm sure the park expected it to be busier, as all rides were walk on and going half empty. -Did not get in Saw alive due to it breaking down and re-opening with a 45minute queue later. -Amazing effects on tonight, flamethrowers on saw, mist on nemesis and stealth and effects in mazes were amazing. -Cabin in the woods was much improved to last year, felt longer and the scares were brilliant. Well themed too and saw the character which was chosen on facebook by the public! - Blair Witch was interesting... I thought it was an amazing use of space however the actual experience itself wasn't great. I liked how it was a walk through the woods and there were a few good scares. The final hut was good aswell. - My Bloody Valentine was better than I remember, got the tunnel route which was quite scary and people infront got split from the rest of their group . Very fast paced and much better lighting this year meaning theming was visible. Also audio in maze queue -STUDIO 13. What can I say? This was brilliant! 1000000/10(if that's even possible). I commend thorpe for making such an amazing maze, the theming was brilliant and the fact that it felt like a conga maze but was actually free flow made it great aswell! The scares were amazing and the maze was absolutely fantastic. Can't wait to do it again, the finale was brilliant aswell. The only downside was the long wait, but it was worth it! The maze was very popular and I can see why! Total Rides and Mazes: 12. Can't wait to go again, amazing event and if you are considering going to it, go! The roaming actors were great aswell(when there were some) as they made a photo frame and would suddenly scare everyone! Get down to this event, thorpe you have created something amazing I loved it!

Don't forget the VIP pass holders who will be using their complimentary fastracks

My guess is everyone will be let in when all checks are done for the mazes and all staff are in position etc. If we don't get let past until 6:30, at least we can head straight to a maze and hopefully the queue won't have built up yet. Plans are for two train operations on coasters so I doubt they will get more than a 5-10minute queue. However, I would expect mazes to be busier however the weather forecast isn't great and it's on a Thursday so hopefully won't be too bad! I would reccomened getting there 5:30-5:45 if you are just going for the evening. That way, if the mazes do actually open at 6, you can just go straight to one of them. If you are going for the day, you will have to exit the park and there will be a longer wait outside the park but I beleive they start letting people in about 5:45 to clear the crowds so nothing more than 30mins! Bear in mind if you are there earlier, you will be at the front of the crowds and if you feel like running you will be one of the first people in the mazes! We are going to be some of the first people ever to experience studio 13 though which is great

Sorry didnt go last year was just saying how I heard it ran. Am I right in thinking that it started at 6:30 aswell last year or was it just extremely delayed?

Basically:1) at 5pm the Park closes and everyone leaves. 2) make sure you have the eventbrite ticket printed off3) once the Park is clear of day guests (5:45 ish) they'll start letting Pass holders in4) this happens by you joining the cattle pen queue set up by the ticket boothes, the staff then manage the front taking the paper ticket you have printed off at home from you5) walk up to the turnstiles as usual and scan your pass6) go in and enjoyDon't worry, there are lots of staff ensuring no one jumps that queue or tries to sneak up to the turnstiles just to scan their pass. It's a tried and tested system that works well. Thats SCBs post just bumping it for you. As jack said a lot of tpm members will be there going around the park however it's not necessary to get to the park about 5:45 as thats when people start getting let in. Its on a thursday this year so should not be as busy as it was last year and weather might put some people off. They then hold everyone at the dome until 6 from what ive heard and everyone is let past at the same time. Getting there before 5:30 is not necessary unless you want to go in park but bear in mind the park will close at 5pm.

Okay thanks, will wait till the night. Have to collect them from guest services though and unsure if that will even be open let alone if I will be allowed to use these priority passes on the mazes.

Do you know if priority passes will be in operation on preview night?(the ones you collect from guest services).

Forgot about that, also the fact that anyone could book a ticket means that there could have been a lot of people who booked who don't actually have passes. Hoping not to have to wait over 30mins for anything as want to do all 5 mazes and samurai, slammer and swarm in the dark!

I wonder if the VIP guests get to use their unlimited fastrack on the night.. I hope not. I have a feeling the night will be quite busy, if the VIP guests get to experience the event we are potential seeing around 8000 guests on park, including all annual pass holders and press members. This will probably lead to around 60min queues for the mazes. I heard last year that things stayed around 15-30mind most of the time going up to 45-60max on occasions so hope it is similar this year.

Personally I would rather not, would like some originality to the maze as don't want it just to be virtually a copy of the asylum. Would be nice to see him at a different point in the maze jumping out at you though!

I wonder if the chainsaw man will be used again...

SCBs post explains how the system works^^

Hi, just a quick question here. I will be visiting the AP preview on thursday and have a booked place and ticket. I was wondering if they look at both your ticket and your pass or just your ticket. My reason being that I dont want loads of non ap holders turning up on the night who have tickets(as you didn't need your pass number to book), therefore increasing wait times. If anyone went last year and could tell me roughly how the event ran as a whole it would be really appreciated.

Despite thorpe having worse operations than other merlin parks, the best thing about their rides is that they encourage you to re-ride. Especially on the likes of samurai they encourage you to stay on and go round again. Summer nights would have been am absolute pain if I couldn't have stayed on the likes of Colossus, nemesis and swarm. Re-riding the rides is what is great about when a park is empty and if you have to walk through the queue again it completely defeats the point of that!

At thorpe, the bag searching is optional. If the guest chooses to have his/her bag searched, then it happens. If they just walk straight past, the security guards don't care and won't do anything about it. Thorpe's security is very poor. The amount of times I've seen smokers and queuejumpers for the park to do nothing about it. I'm just lucky I haven't witnessed a fight or anything like that and I'm hoping not to anytime soon.

Is the Monday a gypsy day as well?

Is it true that if you are annual pass holder you can have unlimited digital downloads for a year for £20? Or is it just till the end of the season as I might invest in it!

Studio 13 will have a lower throughput than asylum and has a theoretical throughput of 750pph.

I'm going on the 20th could you possibly tell me how busy that's going to be aswell(it's a Monday scarefest of the off peak week, I'm presuming not too busy although it's a monday?)

Not necessarily, it's impossible to tell from this photo. This could well be the first corridor in the asylum where there were the three windows with actors sticking their hands through and the door at the end. Looks like the same layout at the beginning, just different theming. Hoping the layout as a whole is different though!

^^^This should be happening anyway on any day of the year. Thorpe has no excuse for not running full capacity on their rides from the start of the day whether it's a peak or off peak day. They need to sort it out, the only excuse which should ever be excepted is if there is a problem with the train, which is an acceptable reason for it to be out of action.

Would be nice if it was being used for a secret scare zone like zombies scare zone at alton towers! It may not happen, but we can always hope

This happens anyway. My friend met Bailey'O'Connor and got a photo with him for free. It's just an idea for thorpe to suck money out of guests when the stars happily meet the fans for free anyway