pognoi

Sort of defeats the point of a maze: Trying to find the answer/exit.

He has a hood instead of hair now though

I've accidentally made a name request thread. Bum.

^ Clearly you and I were at a different park yesterday. Ride operations were fab overall, I don't remember waiting more then 15 minutes for any ride (and this was X, I'm fairly sure all others besides inferno were near enough walk on). Swarm had slow dispatch times because there were less then 50 people in the station. Understandably there wasn't any need to really rush. This was similar with Stealth and Colossus, Colossus was walk on from about 6 (maybe even beforehand!) Whilst I did enter the park at around 1, I had no problems at all throughout my day with ride operations or maze ops. The only thing I'd say is we didn't do saw because the queue was a half hour, where as everything else was half that. Did big top twice, both times I didn't wait for more then 20 minutes. Cabins queue was similarly short, advertised as 60 but ended up being about 20 as well, same with blair witch and MBV. Saw alive also proved popular much like the ride, and had a longer queue, so I skipped it. Our run throughs were amazing. Those who were there at the meet yesterday I'm sure would agree. Blair witch properly scared me, we found a nice route through cabin where the actors were very interactive, and the final run through of big top (WHICH WAS WITH YOU) was so good I find it unbelievable you haven't mentioned it. The actors stroked our faces, and sort of.... caressed them, they didn't just go up to us with 2 fingers and poked our eyes like you make out. I was literally right behind you so I saw what happened. I thought big top was truly amazing, and is now probably my favourite maze due to how good it was last night. A good amount of actors, good scares, and a fantastic use of props and scenes. The use of touching was also creepily good. I'm glad I have finally done something the same as you because I now know what you say can be exaggerated into a negative light of unfairness. If you refer to the final run of big top then Boo you. Ride count: 1 x Colossus 1 x Flying Fish 2 x Nemesis Inferno 1 x Stealth 2 x The Swarm 3 x X 1 x Mr Monkeys Banana Ride 1 x Vortex 1 x Cabin in the Woods 1 x My Bloody Valnetine 1 x The Blair Witch Project 1 x Big Top PS. We too had a high volume of queue jumpers and smokers, however I believe nearly all of the occasions an operator or attendant addressed the incident.

I don't know, I thought the one at Thomas Land was great fun. Much better then a splash battles, and if you're put in a good group on a hot day they're pretty fun. I think it's opinions though.

Standing out watching the FIA's yesterday I saw a very large amount of security. Their staffing for security really isn't an issue at all. Just because you don't see many roaming doesn't mean there isn't many, if you're highlighting these problems, other people may well be too, and security personnel will be attending there.

could've sworn it was going into the new dungeons in London?

Big top last night was so fab. Our first run through was so much better then last Saturday's however the second one was glorious. A great amount of actors, great use of props and the ability to touch people, and actually being chased out by the chain saw at the end was great. I'd still love to see some people behind the funhouse windows but other then that all the props that I'm aware of were used! MBV wasn't nearly as good as last week but had a good finale with an actor swinging a pick axe right in front of me and proper getting close, and it was nice to find the Cabin control room, although the run through was a lot longer and probably a better route it wasn't quite as enjoyable as last week. Blair witch shook me. One actor properly frightened me by banging a large oil drum with something and jumping out at me, never have I been so terrified, pretty much ever to be honest. It was great! Had a pretty killer day in the end, not bad queues at all really, and everything seemed to be doing good!

I will be there from midday probably. I will try and find someone as I'm currently without a phone so won't really be able to contact any of you once I'm in the park XD

The theming in Saw, Cabin and Bloody valentine looks on par, if not of a much higher quality then those pictures.

Rumours say possible lap bar, but also that the new trains will likely have an on board sound system and nice new lighting.

I feel like the seats look a little too much like garden fences with the un necessary mesh like panels. Bloody H&S.

'teacups' That's mighty impressive.

You're all trying to hard. *badum tss*

Mad.

haha, I meant like the meat you smell in the London Dungeons pie house. Quite a pleasant smell, like slow cooked pork, or beef or something. It does smell good tho XD

Smoking in the queuelines can block key points of sight in cameras, and can annoy other guests and trigger thing such as asthma if other guests in the queue line have it which the park would be held responsible for. Also sometimes ops can't tell if it's a vape or a cigarette so the same rules apply. Furthermore cigarettes have proven to be quite dangerous in areas where the fences are made of wood, and in some places they can mess up sensors.

The music is very similar for sure, I just thought the tune was a little more bouncy when it was played around the park. Maybe the music technician did something with it or it was reorchestrated. Anywho great find!

That was another thing I noticed, on our second ride a large group of queue jumpers just went straight through the saw fast track and even when mentioned the attendants didn't really do much. It was quite obvious aswell as the chain rattled and they were a pretty boystrous group.

Good to hear its back up. On saturday we saw it trying to swing but it looked a bit pathetic, the seats were spinning but the pendulum couldnt get more then 2 feet in either direction. Good news, good job thorpe!

^ Ah good. I seem to have got my facts mixed up with this one and someone else who was there has just told me that I must've misunderstood the situation from my account. Must be weird being comforted by someone dressed up to terrify you though!

FOR AMARGHH WHO ASKED LIKE 5 PAGES AGO IF ACTORS BROKE OUT OF CHARACTER YESTERDAY Yes they did brake out of character if people tried to open doors in Cabin. One was standing right infront of the control room door and when one of our group tried to open the door they were told that it was out of bounds and the actor broke character. This was similar to the forest scene inside the maze too. Roaming actors broke out of character after a youth threatened to punch the 'sh*t' out of him if he didn't back away in 5 seconds. I expect this will be a regular occurance baring in mind the sort of nasty youth this event attracts. Having said that for the most part the actors stayed well in character and that was the only serious scene I saw where a visitor caused a scene for an actor to brake character where he said 'if you talk like that to me or any other actor again I will call security and get you removed from the park'. The group ran off. I do wonder where the line for breaking out of character is drawn.

[spoilerS AHEAD] Now you may embark on reading this thinking it's going to be a crushing article on how disappointed I was with my first ever attempt at fright night mazes, however, it really isn't. Today, for the first time I braved up enough to actually try the mazes at Thorpe Park. I've been to Fright Nights several times before but have only done 2 mazes once, and that shook my soul, so I wasn't expecting to do any mazes, simply because I was too pussy frightened to do so. The day was spent as any other day would normally be spent at Thorpe. Paige and I doodled about in the morning, took a look at the new maze and a ceremonial wheel spin for the brave it alone goers of the day, and then we met up with some friends. I had no intention at the start of the day to do any of the mazes let alone all of them, but rather play around with my new flashy camera. One of our friends, Alex, was kind and passionate enough to persuade me, and Paige, to try at least one maze. After redoing saw for the first time in what, 4 years (?) I finally saw past the silly little scaredness I had inside and was up for trying the whole lot. We started with Saw alive, apparently a great maze to start off with. The theming was very nice, and as iconic as I remember, I just wish it was slightly better lit. The maze wasn't particularly scary but the costumes in here were probably the best of the evening for me, and the scenes were well executed, however there were no seriously scary bits. The actors are split from you by cages and mesh and none of them attempted to touch me or jump scare me, but rather hiss and bob up to my face then back away. Overall it was a cool experience and reminded me of the dungeons. We then moved on to the big top. I've already heard a lot of mixed reviews about this, and personally, I thought the experience was very odd. The first tent was rather pointless to be honest, I really can't add anything on to that. The second tent I remember being a little more exciting but besides a clown jumping out at you I don't really remember much of that tent at all, simply because again, nothing interesting happened. The out door bit we encountered the ring master, something apparently only a few groups got in the evening (and also a sad lacking of the fortune teller in the beautiful box). The final tent was fun, I loved the finale and I felt it was well executed with the chainsaw echoing throughout the whole tent. The fact the fortune teller in the first tent tells you about it though helped build up the tension but also ruined the surprise. I was disappointed again by the lack of actors in the final tent, there were so many missed opportunities here, but the actors that were there did a fab job... If only there were more! My Bloody Valentine was next, my personal favourite of the night. I have heard again mixed reviews about this one, however overall I thought the actors were all terrific, there was a perfect amount of them too and the fact the group got split up like it did and how well the maze unravlled was great. I just wish there was someone wearing a gas mask in there. Besides that the interaction in this maze was the best and whilst there weren't very many open scenes, the walls had been covered up in immense detail that was highly appreciated! (Finally a maze where they weren't afraid to touch me!) Cabin in the Woods followed, a favourite for the group we were going round with. Overall I thought the actors were good, with the groom being the stand out one. Really creepy to walk into a room and just see his head slowly look up and he maintained eye contact for looooonngg. And then BOOM he jumped at me and he was pretty much the first guy that evening to properly scare me. It was great fun, a shame the control room was out of service along with the forest scene, all the spare actors were stuffed into the final zigzag. I thought the rooms theming was weird but it probably relates to the movie well, I was just very impressed with the impression the groom actor made on me (also the roaming actors in this area were jokes). Finally it was the blair witch. Didn't think much of it, a couple of the actors made me jump a little but nothing overly creepy like in Cabin, and the discreet injections of theming are nice. The cabin bit could have been executed better however overall it was fun. In conclusion I truly can now appreciate Fright Nights. Whilst I may have critiqued a couple things the day couldn't have gone much better; I thoroughly enjoyed all the mazes, especailly My Bloody Valentine and Saw Alive. The theming level in these mazes are great and the character roles the actors play are also really nice, and, to me the whole thing was a very new and different experience. So why does fright nights smell toof? One thing I noticed throughout the evening is that if one thing merlin does 110% every time, it's the immersive smells they have in their attractions. Cabin smelt like freshly cut timber, My bloody valentine smelt like rot and mud, Big Top smelt like circus and Saw smelt like piss, meat, and that irony smell you get when things go static. It's the same with the dungeons, the smells in there are also great. I think this is a nice little touch as although I have only really visited merlin attractions of this type one thing I have always noticed is how the smells really compliment the experience. I truly think it's a great stand point of merlin and it helps you notice the attention they put into projects. If I could take anything away for next time. I'd love to see the big top once more as I've heard 'it can only get better from here' from a number of sources, but also I'd like to try Cabin and find the control room! Sorry for long post, heres a potato

looks absolutely mad! I really wish I could jump on some of these RMCs, they finally seem to be doing some good layouts again.

Sure the ride has some greenery but its very controlled and feels more like scenery then foliage. The set is Fishermans E-Stop