OldFarmerDean

after my initial criticism... on my visit almost 2 weeks ago, and my visit yesterday vortex has been running really well, and getting over 90degrees without the juddering which is nice to see... I have noticed that you spend a while spinning around while not swinging (which is what I remember it doing on my first visit this year, and others in past years), not sure if this has anything to do with it?

Nice to see every effect working on my trip to thorpe yesterday... we were lucky enough to have the flame go off (even though I was braving it backwards, still seen it), the water skim by the helicopter, the mist by the fire truck, and the new water spray by the fire truck which I've never seen! a shame the fire wasn't working in the evening for some reason.

well at least some of the indoor section is working properly... the door doesn't close behind, and a lot of the sprays aren't working... but the main water cascading on the left works (which was really disappointing when I went last month, and all the tension with the noise, then it lights up... and nothing!)

Once again, Halloween Hocus Pocus beats Fright Nights & Scarefest - best lighting, best atmosphere, best halloween attractions! need I say more... Barely seen any normal colour (or generator) floodlights, and once again Black Buccaneer looked amazing. I think it's absolutely brilliant what they have done with Hocus Pocus Hall, and how they managed to change/disguise the inside so well considering I remember what it was like from doing it a few months back), excellent actors - the same could be said about the Haunting In The Hollows walkthrough (didn't have a good of an experience as last year), but definitely could see a few improvements, and effort put in to it! Although the park wide themeing wasn't as good as Scarefest, it just seemed to have the overal best atmosphere in my opinion. Before anyone says anything, in no way is it the best park, it is third to Thorpe, and then Alton... but just really love their halloween events, and hope they keep up the good work - won't bother going in to the things that annoy me about the park in general, as everyone else does that easily enough!

at least I didn't get my hopes up too much...

I'd like to think that news is true, considering it's been closed on my last 2 visits, and really want it to be open on tuesday!

I was scared of it last year... definitely had better scares than thorpes mazes!

so glad I went on the quiet friday nights the 2 weeks before... and going again on tuesday with someone who has a disabled pass so should be okay - does anyone know how many helpers are disabled guests allowed on rides with them?

considering the clocks go back tonight... it gets dark at half 6ish now anyway, so there will be at least an hour or so of pitch black - which still isn't enough, but gotta make the most of it - really do hope they put the same level of effort in again this year. chessington was my favourite halloween last year after going to thorpe, chessington and alton... mainly because of the lighting, seriously!

fingers crossed I've been waiting for drayton manor to get something substantially new for the last 5 or so years since my first visit, so I begin to give up hope lol.

to be fair for a small park like oakwood £4m was a very large investment for them this year (which seems like an awful lot for what we got)... so don't see how hopeful you can be for next year? :/

the floodlights/lights looked like they were just intended to light up the water fountain bit, but lit up everything as well and sorta ruined the experience... and the waterfall out the front wasn't working :/

it was just pitch black on the first lift hill... the rest of the ride seemed fine, although the water fountain tunnel section was lit up with floodlights so you could see it was a warehouse, and meant you could see it a bit further around the ride at the last section with the fire explosions.

what about planning permissions, are oakwood required to file for permission, or are they exempt from this and allowed to do it behind the scenes - because I really doubt it would be a coaster for next year? :/

I'm off to chessington on monday, and thorpe park tuesday - hope nothing is affected lol! but definitely is good of them giving warning, and saying about free return tickets if rides are affected - you should see some of the comments on the status though with people complaining!

a bit random.... but on valhalla, once you go into the building, on the first lift hill, is anything supposed to happen, as I could smell gas, and somewhat remember something happened there? and liked the big drops, but never realised how pointless the backwards drop is...

went on tuesday, and besides lighting which I had low expectations for anyway (due to my disappointment on my first scarefest last year), had a really great day! most of the rides seemed to be behaving pretty much all day, besides 13 which had some considerable downtime in the afternoon. having only done terror of the towers and zombie scarezone last year - was nice to try all of them out this year... Carnival Of Screams was a good fun, and while queueing a bunch of clowns and actors came along outside the queue area talking to people, and scaring passers by, was absolutely hilarious and genuinely made my day - the maze itself wasn't too scary to be deemed 5 pumpkins, but definitely had a few good jump scares, and a great theme to it - the finale had everyone running out the exit which was opened by a member of staff from outside which definitely helped clear our group of 10 out! The Sanctuary was disappointing in my opinion, going in with high expectations after reading peoples comments, and was great themeing (apart from the marmalisation chamber which was just awful), and was nice to see dr kelman, as well as some interesting actors, but I just couldn't seem to enjoy it that much, as well as what only felt like one actor in the final maze area (which wasn't even disorientating as there was barely any strobe lights), just a bit of a let down for me. Terror of the towers was a solid scare maze again (and genuinely feels creepy as it uses the towers), and had quite a few jump scares, but love the effects of blowing curtains and air which can be scary without actors, the final strobe maze was also decent, plenty of actors, and noticed this year, there's no longer members of alton towers dressed staff at points around the maze stood by some stairs and fire exits, did see one dressed up by some steps but didn't do anything (guessing it was a staff member that would come into action if anything happened). Zombie Scarezone didn't feel any longer than last year (as I thought I read somewhere that it was - but only was reversed), but without touching you, there was definitely some great interaction between the zombies and guests, especially some kid in the group in front of me who got cornered and got made to come out the entrance pretty much before coming back in and running past them - the length is a disappointment, but if I had the time would definitely have gone round a few more times as with the zombies roaming around it's different every time. another highlight of my day, was when on ripsaw after a disappointing run (as ever) some people on the ride (who I'm guessing were speaking to the ride staff before I got on), we're shouting is that it, and without asking anyone sent it back off on another run, and got 4 inversions (even better than rameses!), and he controlled the water to get the people on the front row soaked, and left the back row as we didn't want to get wet! there's just so much more potential to scarefest which could be improved significantly with minimal additions/changes and all comes down to pretty much one thing, the lighting! I understand it's a massive park to keep lit, and generators are almost inevitable, but why not put coloured lenses in front of the lights, seriously! the haunted hollow pathway has so much potential for scarefest, even if it doesn't include actors etc. at least the lighting could be coloured as it just consists of permanent floor lamposts throughout which doesn't add to the mood at all! the marmaliser lighting up the smiler was more than sufficient and looked cool as it's constantly changing colours, (why on earth wasn't the flasher working though as well as the innoculator and giggler!), but in general was ruined by a big stack of floodlights in the middle of xsector lighting it all up in a plain white, same with sonic spinball, and dark forest (although there was an odd green floodlight, and 13 in pitch black is great), and most of forbidden valley - got excited when I seen a red lense over a floodlight on nemesis in the day, to find out in night, it was pretty much the only coloured floodlight in the whole of forbidden valley, and you could barely even see the red shining on to the loop as there was so much other light from plain floodlights lighting the ride up! urghh need to stop getting annoyed with lighting, even thorpe was a bit of a disappointment this year, really hope chessington deliver again!

went blackpool pretty much 5 years ago, and went again on wednesday, a very windy and somewhat rainy day... gutted that the big one was closed all day because of the wind! from last time (what I remember) and from what you'd expect it to be like, I was shocked how nice the place looked and how much effort is kept into maintaining the park in comparison to merlin ones! thought the nickelodeon land was a great and looked impressive (as well as me now getting to ride the nickelodeon streak which I guess was called 'rollercoaster'? and was closed when I went in 2008), loved the airbender ride which is so much better than kobra at chessington even though it's so much smaller and only a half pipe, it spins way faster! was nice to do a lot of the rides I never got round to doing last time - so pretty much did most attractions, and loved the haunted house haha. infusion was just about acceptable on the front... but first time we went on it 4th row and felt like you were stalling on the inversions and was just juddering back and forth, definitely not a comfortable ride, no wonder why people have so much hate for it (I just remember it being good when I went on it back in 2008, as well as an identical one in terra mitica in spain which I enjoy!) I forgot how rough/maybe not so enjoyable the wooden rollercaosters were (bar nickelodeon streak which was actually fun), grand national on back row hurt so much (but was better on the front)! I went into the new wallace and gromit ride with low expectations after what I have read on this forum, as well as others, and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it, picked up some speed at times down the slopes as well! quite a lot of the ride did seem rather pointless with so many dark/black sections, although I loved the surprise at the end (or at least what I thought was a surprise considering you thought it was ending and then the scene which happens next). I presumed or thought it went round in one slipper at a time, but two were joined together which looked a bit odd, not sure whether this has been done more recently to improve throughput or if it's always been like it? it was well worth the ride, but doubt it was worth how much they spent on it (considering it's just a reused ride), and a lot more could have been done with that money (cough something for thrill seekers since bling was removed cough). I still hate the wristband idea as mine never worked half the time, and my friends ripped off... they're uncomfortable to wear - if they're going to be a theme park which they are, think they're better of just having entry like theme parks, as the rides throughputs are slown down by wristbands not scanning etc. and would make everything easier. I do love pleasure beach's opening hours, even though it was only til 6 when I went which isn't bad still, looking at their weekend and half term opening times were great overall a decent day, just shame about the weather which stopped the big one from opening - doubt I would be in any hurry to return to pleasure beach considering it's a good 3 and a half / 4 hours to get to, and nothing that stands out for me that I'm dying to go back for, but may return to ride the big one as all I remember from last time is going on it, and my dad telling me it wasn't very good (which I can't remember much about the ride), so would love to ride it again now I realise how good airtime is, and judge for myself.

yes I seen this... and couldn't exactly make out what was going on - definitely freaked me out!

it's hard to tell... as both times I've been, as it opens at 7pm, blair witch seemed to have the longest queue for that hour or so after opening! saw alive, and cabin in the woods seem to get the lengthier queues as well... unless someone else can say otherwise?

that is the problem with mazes - they can be so inconsistent... I did prefer Cabin In The Woods last friday, as they had a different selection of actors which were better in my opinion, where there were 2 actors in the woods instead of 1 this time... although the first time the doors didn't lock properly so were just following groups through and missed the actual jump scenes which I seen this time round - this time I had a scary girl who forced us, and trapped a group of us in the dead end doll room, which I was left to find myself last time. so it really is worth doing mazes several times over to get the overall experience, but one amazing experience, and you could be left disappointed going in again... I'm going back for a third time in half term, so will have to see what they are like then EDIT: it's also worth mentioning I seen the You're Next actors on one occasion the whole time yesterday - when I went last friday (when it was raining) I seen them countless times wandering around the park with woman actors as hostages and scaring guests - that was probably the only disappointing thing about yesterday!

I had a completely different day yesterday to people thinking it was disappointing... went last friday, and yesterday (only doing Saw & Cabin in the woods the first time, and all of them this time), and well I thought all the mazes were great, and couldn't fault the actors on both times! I don't do horror movies, or anything remotely scary, but actually look forward to the mazes for some strange reason - and because of my fear of the dark, and being in the woods quite possibly found blair witch the scariest! yes it was a considerable amount busier yesterday compared to last friday, but nowhere near as busy as I've seen it in half term in past years! Stealth was down for the last couple of hours (so never got the chance to ride it in darkness with the coloured lights) Saw was down for a good part of the evening/night Samurai is still down from last Friday which I'm absolutely gutted about Having said I hated detonator, decided to give it another go, and really enjoyed it, was floating out of my seat the whole time - went on it again later, and it went no more than a foot off the ground and stopped, stuck there for about 5 minutes, I get claustrophobic, and no way was a risking going on it again after they got us off, and did one test go!

people are so negative lol... I've been chessington twice this year (albeit out of peak times) and still absolutely love it - can't wait to go back in half term - all theme parks have their issues, some more than others... but nothing major is going to happen unless people stop visiting to make a big impact, which I doubt will happen, so you'll have to make your own choice whether to go or not.

do you mean blair witch... or is this genuinely true, if so where does it say?

I was blown away by it when I went last year (can't remember it being too special when I went in 2009, and 2010)... and especially the swinging ship (is it called black buccaneer?), it looked fantastic - puts thorpe park and alton towers to shame! don't know how many times I've said it on this forum but I loved the new vampire walkthrough for last year, and can't wait for it again!