jessica2

Interesting- I'll wait until the reviews come in and then book one of trailers or creek freak - when is press night this year? I'm hoping to go on the first sunday. Also, for anyone interested, I got in touch with Thorpe to ask about their covid rules around the mazes. It sounds like masks will be optional, for both guests and for actors, so I assume the majority won't wear them. They said actors will get close but not 'very very' close (whatever that means) so I assume they might try and not get closer than say a meter. They also said actors are testing regularly. Its more than e.g. tulleys are doing (no limits/restrictions, not even asking actors to test regularly), not that this is the place to discuss this but with actors coming into close contact with hundreds of people each day, indoors in many settings, I feel its a recipe for disaster, but there we are!

On Friday, they'd actually sold out of all advanced fast passes already 1-2 days beforehand, and on the day all one shots had sold out also (except for rumba rapids...) As a result some of the queues felt like they moved at an absolute snails pace - especially Saw where the fast track queue was out the gate and nemesis where it was back to rumba rapids. Went with low expectations, managed swarm, stealth, nemesis, Colossus, black mirror, depth charge and the tea cups and felt that wasn't too bad considering. Of course saw didn't open on time (I don't think it opened until 11ish) so that threw us out a bit at the start plus that queue seems to really struggle at the moment due to a combination of things. I'm hoping the trial at Alton towers of filling in all the rows is a success, so that perhaps they can do the same with some of the rides at Thorpe.

I would say that even if you got there and inside say by 9.30, having been keeping an eye on the queues for e.g. saw, Colossus and nemesis this/last week (if they managed to open on time) were easily getting to around 45 min+ by 10.30. Yesterday Saw had already managed to hit "90+" minutes by the time it got to 10.25. I'm going on Friday and slightly dreading how mad it'll be to be honest (when I booked I had hoped it wouldn' t be too bad), although its not sold out under 'reduced capacity' as people say I doubt its much different to a typical summer weekday in non-covid times. Setting expectations is important but I'm sure by now people should know its just going to be mad busy for the rest of the summer due to that pent up demand. Not saying thorpe should just shrug their shoulders at that though- definitely should be doing all they can to improve throughput and distancing people on rides is a little silly when they don't enforce distancing in queues and people stand shoulder to shoulder almost.

I guess with the weather being a bit rubbish, more people may have preferred to do an indoor ride/attraction. thank you!

Does anyone happen to have a pic of the QR code to book a timeslot for this please? Can't say I'm really keen to go on it but some people in my group haven't done it before so want to 'experience' (if that's the right word) it lol. Also sad news that @MattyMoo reported the demon scene is out of action again- its a cheap trick but honestly one of the better parts of the whole thing hah. Thanks

Does anyone know what's wrong with Tidal Wave? Saw some pictures yesterday with it not having any water and I think its been out for a few days now. On a side note I believe tickets for Thorpe are sold out now up until Saturday.

Yeah she was on love island but going back a few years now. I mean I guess the video doesn’t give much away but just looks like a hall of mirrors with a few flashing lights and some other effects hah 😂 let’s see.

Bit late to the party on this one but I'm a bit annoyed they've got rid of the bag rooms and replaced them with shelves, as I know people who have had belongings stolen from these and certainly in summer its hard to wear something that can store your phone etc. securely. I guess as people are saying its probably all about budget and cutting down staff costs, shame. Can't say there's a huge amount to get excited by from the photos but I'll reserve judgement hah.

I think an announcement on opening day is imminent- Alton Towers have just announced the reopening of the theme park and 'selected self-contained accomodation' on the 12th April. So I assume thorpe will follow suit!

Couldn’t find a suitable place to put this so I thought I’d make a new thread. If you have any recommendations or links to shows/documentaries on theme parks, post them here! I wanted to recommend the documentary series ‘The Imagineering Story’ on Disney+. It’s a really incredible series covering all sorts like the history and design of the parks, how they created Disneyland in California and the park in China, developing rides and animatronics, behind the scenes for several rides and all sorts really.

Colossus (2) Depth Charge (3) Detonator: Bomb's Away (3) Flying Fish (3) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (3) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (3) Quantum (3) Rocky Express (3) Rumba Rapids (3) Rush (4) Samurai (3) Saw - The Ride (3) Stealth (4) Storm in a Teacup (3) Tidal Wave (3) Timber Tug Boat (3) Vortex (3) Zodiac (2) Stealth +1 Colossus -1

Amity Beach (5) Angry Birds 4D Experience (3) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (6) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (5) Vortex (5) Zodiac (5) AB4D -1 Saw +1

Amity Beach (5) Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (2) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (4) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (7) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (7) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (5) Vortex (5) Zodiac (5) lumber jump -1 stealth +1

and don't forget to go to mount fuji to see the mountain go to fuji-q highland and get on do-dodonpa. Know you love a launch coaster as much as I! Now that disneyland tokyo has a new beauty and the beast area I'd love to go back lol, and disneysea is stunning for sure. Florida was next on my list for a big trip, although 2021 looking less likely right now 😐 2 trips to thorpe park will have to do for 2020, more than I expected tbh so can't complain!

Disneyland Paris is closing from the end of tomorrow due to government advice, hoping to reopen during the Christmas period (when they’re at their busiest) but then closing again for January and February. Sad for the staff and cast members working there.

After 2 trips to Thorpe park for Fright Nights 2020 (the past 2 Fridays), thought I’d write up a review. Starting off with some general comments, I certainly was pleased at the variety of things going on in the park. It’s nice that in most areas, there was something happening, when in the past there would be several dead areas in the park without shows, actors, zones or anything to tell you you’re at fright nights. I’m assuming this is also to help spread people out covid wise. It is hard to rate things given how different things are compared to any other year due to the pandemic, but overall I think they’ve done a good job considering and I don’t think there was much more they could do bar some tweaks here or there. Sure there were some issues with individual attractions but overall the concepts were good, I like that there was a range of themes (not just walking dead everywhere) and honestly the actors wearing masks didn’t impact their scare ability, you didn’t really notice it. The actors really did a brilliant job. I did notice that the first week of fright nights, there were more announcements about distancing (keeping to your marker etc) than on the previous Friday. It might have just been luck, but I did wish they made more announcements as some people did not seem to get it at all. Other than that I don’t think the park could have done much more, although some parks e.g. Disneyland in paris are much more militant when it comes to telling people off who aren’t distancing (they even describe what people are wearing on the tannoy by all accounts) I guess it’s a balance and the staff can only do so much. Anyway, on to the individual attactions! Mazes Platform 15 So this for me was the better of the two mazes. To start with, the tunnel queueing system is an awful idea and not sure why they went with it, and I think they should have been announcing the 2 meter distancing more as my second experience in the tunnel was pretty rubbish with some people trying to get closer and closer. Anyway.. I also was unlucky enough to get the ‘we are experiencing an unexpected delay’ message on a loop for around 20 minutes. On to the actual maze, I think although they had some of the story played over the tannoy in the tunnel they should have probably explained it a bit more at the start, rather than saying something about the village holding clues to the conductors story. I got it, but my group had no clue what they were talking about. The acting was really brilliant, great jump scares and some really freaky zombie acting. The train scene with the smoke effects was good too. The finale could do with a bit of polishing however I enjoyed that too. Roots of Evil Easily the weaker of the two mazes. For a start, this maze had a huge queue and had a 20 minute delay, so our slot was at 8 but we didn’t get in to the maze until 9.10. I have no idea how they were going to get through all of the groups in the queue before 10 or what went wrong, but the previous week it also was having lots of issues. The pre-show at least made slightly more sense than platform, though still a bit weak. I think the first 2/3 scenes aren’t brilliant and the bits before you get to the woods didn’t feel scary at all and seemed a tad pointless. To sum up the second part of the maze, I would say its jump scare heavy. Not a lot of room for much else. They do really manage to hide well in the trees though! Finale was ok but again with only 2 actors felt a bit meh. Think there could have been something else here to give it a better finish. Scare Zones/Shows Terror at Amity High I really enjoyed the dance show, thought it was very effective and fun. Hope they continue these! Actors were fun and managed to get some good scares out of people. The Howling of LycanThorpe High As a zone this was easily one of the weakest. Location didn’t get a lot of thoroughfare either, but the first Friday I went there were hardly any actors here. I like the concept though and was better with more actors the second week. Room for improvement for sure. The Swarm: Invasion I liked that they finally did something with the swarm theme/area for fright nights. The army people were effective, the alien hands were unusual too. The conspiracy theorists were a stranger choice. I did have a hope that we might have been lucky enough to see an elaborate alien costume or something but I think that’s asking too much from Thorpe lol. The interactions could have been a bit better but certainly has potential. The Fearstival Arena So the first Friday I went, it wasn’t one way, then the second Friday it became one way which was quite a pain given it’s such a key area of the park. I understand why scare zones operate better as one way through but interesting that they changed their minds quite quickly on that. Nice little zone, I think it could have done with more clowns, and some of the costumes were creepy but I have no idea what they were meant to be lol. Had one clown on the second Friday, always good. Interaction here was decent but preferred amity high/creek freak unchained. Creek Freaks Unchained By far the best scare zone, more of a walk through attraction. Lots of nice theming (helped by the buildings around old town too but also the machinery etc) and the actors were great. Of course I would have preferred the indoors creek freak maze but actually you could see all the effort that went into the sets clearer and had some fun chats with actors too. Shame the exit was at the start of the platform queue lol certainly created a bit of a crowd there but other than that can’t really fault it! I must have gone through it at least 5 times as there’s no queue so its rude not to! The Crows I loved these guys! Super creepy, masks worked really well, I hope they keep the crows in future years. They were even on the bridge as we left the first Friday. Sadly I don’t think they were out the second Friday, looked all over the place but no joy (unless we got super unlucky). General comments - Didn’t do the screamplex cinema but the director was hanging around outside and a few other actors interacting with people, which was good. - I liked some of the theming e.g. pumpkins around, but sadly some people had knocked all of them off at some point in the evening and even threw and smashed them on the floor. This is why we can’t have nice things!! Poor park staff were having to pick them up. - Saw some people not wearing masks in scare zones shouting at staff saying ‘its only recommended’, and a group old enough to know better not wearing masks shouting in an actors face to give them his axe so they could have a photo holding it, that got quite heated. Distancing was certainly a mixed bag but I think by and large the park did all they could really. - Given the long queue for Roots, I didn't really manage any rides in the dark when I did both mazes, which is a shame. So if that's important for you I'd probably just do one maze (platform seems more reliable).

If it helps, in that tunnel people are supposed to stand one group to where the hazard tape is on the wall and leave two of the crosses empty. We did only find that out at the end of the tunnel (where the staff were trying to get people to distance and explaining the hazard tape rule) but the staff at the start should have made it clear where the markers were. We did also have to put our masks on before entering the tunnel (I'm sure some removed them once in though). We were distanced anyway but most groups weren't.

Super jel ha. Bet you can't wait for the coveted #sociallydistanced selfie with Gemma Collins and Katie Price, probably the most scary attractions there! Here’s some progress photos (not mine) from thrills and attractions uk’s Facebook page showing the fearstival arena, creek freak unchained, and the roots of evil board for anyone interested.

Will certainly be interesting to see how they'll ensure everyone is off site by 10pm, I guess these early queue closing times will help but I can envisage it will cause some confusion/frustration with some queues closing quite so early I'm sure. Looking forward to my first 2020 visit to Thorpe, and the first day of fright nights/fearstival, on Friday! Does anyone know when press night is this year? Was hoping to see a review of which one is stronger of the two mazes, as I've got to pick one (friends aren't keen enough to do both given the overall price!) but I may just end up picking one at random.

Not sure if this should go here or the covid thread but if the news is right and there is the potential for a 2 week lockdown in October (which could be during the half term weeks to minimise school distruption, and naturally be over halloween) that would really wipe out the majority of the fright night dates. Would they even hold it at all if it was just for 2 weekends? Hoping it doesn't come to that of course and its just a rumour/speculation, as it would be disastrous for the leisure and hospitality industry in general. Also hoping they can still do the house part of the village scene in platform 15, highlight of the maze was often someone popping out of the fridge if you didn't expect it lol!

Yeah I did wonder how the mazes would work, and I guess charging £10 a maze and requiring people to book a time in advance is one way to reduce the demand a bit! I know there are 2-4-1s about but combining the website price of £42, plus the two mazes puts you at £62 which is pretty punchy. Having said that, not a lot of choice for other halloween events so I'm sure it'll be as popular as ever. Sad that creek freak can't return this year in its full form but it did feel very unlikely that a maze indoor could be done safely. It says this about roots of evil: Unearth the horrors that lurk within a forsaken forest and prepare to meet the terrifying abominations that dwell within. Move discreetly through the dark undergrowth and pray your presence goes unnoticed, or risk becoming one of the forgotten forever. Located in The Jungle, opposite Wilderness Waffles. It says on the website that 'the crows' are at 'various mystery locations' so I'm assuming they'll be roaming masked actors of sorts, perhaps with a plague doctor like mask. Overall I'm liking that there's a variety of themes on offer with the scare zones, and that thorpe are doing something with the swarm theme finally.

So as mentioned in posts above they're continuing with the drive in cinema in October, which they are hoping to make more 'halloweeny'. An excerpt from their facebook: 'the challenge of celebrating Halloween with Covid has created new opportunities, many of you know that we have been running a Drive In Cinema experience at Tulleys over the Summer months. What you didn’t know, was that the Summer season has been a test, to learn and fully understand how to operate the cinema, giving us the potential to run a larger Drive In cinema experience this Halloween. The Haunted cinema experience includes a pre film fire and light show, and a resident cast of very mischievous ghosts who will add a fun layer to the incredible spooky atmosphere! Don’t expect chainsaw wielding maniacs at Texas chainsaw massacre or a set of clowns at a showing of IT, the “ghosts” will leave you alone to enjoy the film but they might “help” to deliver your food and snacks, and you’ll definitely catch a fleeting glimpse from the corner of your eye.' Shame that the actors aren't going to get super involved but still, its something!

After watching the video (and I think the first time someone said "sick" wasn't until the end so that's something) it feels like we could have platform, some other outdoor maze in the Blair Witch space and terror at amity high or something similar based on the job postings. Then some other walk through scare zone or similar (could have actors in cages or something) might work too if thorpe go down that route. Just speculating here though. As much as I'd hope we can have an indoor maze like creek freak I just can't quite see how that would work given the Covid guidelines without majorly long waiting times, you couldn't risk groups bunching up in a not overly spacious area and some household bubbles may only be 2 or 3 people. Perhaps conga lines in household groups will return so that its easier for actors to keep a one meter distance from groups I'm also assuming all actors will be wearing masks or behind screens, so how exactly that will work and the actors kept safe is hard to see at this stage, but at least some kind of fright night event is better than nothing!

This is a makeover that has to be described as ‘only at thorpe’ effort lol. Hopefully some theming is going to be put in its place. Of course the rides are the main draw but theming is a big part of theme park escapism for me so it’s a little sad to see sights like this, even though of course it’s not going to make or break anyones day by itself lol.

Disneyland paris is reopening on the 15th July, both parks, disney village and one hotel (Newport Bay) will be reopening. Guests aged 11 and over are required to wear a mask. They seem to be going for the 1 metre distancing rule.