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Coco

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About Coco

  • Birthday February 9

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  • Favourite ride
    The Swarm
  • Favourite Theme Park
    Thorpe Park

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  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Buckinghamshire

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  1. I went with my pops this Friday/Saturday just gone, and I didn't have all that much to grumble about besides a few things I miss from previous years. However, we were staying in the hotel since that seems to be the best value option after declining to renew Merlin passes. We both said that it was brilliant we were able to get all the upcharge attractions done within the allotted free entry time for shark cabin guests between 3pm-4pm. We weren't expecting to manage that on a Saturday. Especially not after the problems we faced with mazes last year after buying tickets (2 and a half hours queue for Trailers that resulted in us missing our Platform 15 entry, and since the park was closing, we had to get tickets replaced for the following day. Good job we were planning on being there 2 days on the trot!) I was going to say that the queue problems from last year seemed to be solved, but then Survival Games had an 80 min queue when the park was supposed to be closing according to the app on Saturday. But anyways, we both said we had a brilliant time. We just don't think we would have been too impressed at paying for Creek Freak in particular this year. Trailers We started out with Trailers, and props to the queue hosts for getting everyone ready to enter so fast that the 1st group went in a minute early. They were so smooth with organising the queue line pre-3pm that we were kinda blown away by that. Thought we were gonna have a naff run due to being grouped with quite a large bunch of very loud, very pushy young lads. As we always do in situations like that, we just let them go first and stayed at the back to avoid being shoved. We weren't together for long as one of the early actors chased them out of the room pretty swiftly before preventing my dad and I from proceeding by blocking our path and saying a lot of creepy stuff, haha. The result was us doing the rest of the attraction as a group of 2, so that was a win! We never saw anyone ahead or behind us for the rest of it, and every single actor was full of energy really giving it their all in there. Any time we get to run a maze minus the rest of a group is generally a fantastic run, though I feel for the actors in situations like that >.< But I'd have to put it as my favourite Fright Nights attraction this year. Creek Freak Creek Freak was sadly fairly weak on our run. It seemed a little sparse on actors which was odd for one of the first runs on a Saturday. It just felt really flat after coming out of Trailers. The actors still scared most of the group successfully, but for the most part I just wandered through it unphased, which is generally not how I feel when at the head of a group. It's just there were too many long corridors that I walked down where nothing happened. No one was there. And that persisted throughout most of the start and middle of the maze. It was only towards the strobe section at the end that things got lively. It's not really an attraction that I'll miss. Survival Games My dad and I had differing opinions on Survival Games. I absolutely loved it, but my dad found it sort of meh. The concept and story were cool, and we were both a little disappointed that it sort of vanished after the intro scene, but it's totally understandable given how the attraction works. Not many mazes make me anxious from beginning to end these days, but this one did. I can't even remember the last time I got so sweaty going through a scare attraction xD It was utter chaos of the most delightful variety. Being split up from the beginning was great, and I was expecting for that not to last, but I wound up pleasantly surprised by how persistent the actors were in keeping people separated! I tagged along with 4 different splinter groups of strangers, only to be torn from each of them. I was even reunited with my dad at one point, for all of about 15 seconds before an actor physically pulled him away and sent him off in a different direction xD It reached a point where I began to wonder if I would ever get out of there. Now, my sense of direction isn't great, so that probably played a part in it. I was relieved whenever I came across other people, which is generally the opposite of how I feel in scare attractions considering my social anxiety! Eventually, I made it out with a group of 3 young lads. My dad was waiting. I'd taken 5 minutes longer than him. We reckon I was in there for about 20 minutes xD I know I saw the same rooms a fair few times. It's the most lost I've ever been in a maze though I think. Saw some weird stuff in there too and I still don't know if they were other guests, or actors playing the part of fake guests, haha. I asked my dad if he noticed the monitors cos they were pretty neat with what was playing on em, very much like Black Mirror Labyrinth. He said he didn't see them though >.< It absolutely reminded me of Sub Species! For me though, it felt superior. That's likely because I only ever did Sub Species once though, and it was a disappointingly uneventful run. I'm really surprised to read here about the cost of Survival Games though, as both my dad and I were saying it must have been quite cheap to make in comparison to other attractions at Fright Nights! >.< His main reason to dislike it was the lack of set design and stuff. He much prefers attractions with elaborate designs. He said Survival Games felt somewhat cheap and a bit tacky. I loved it though! Sure, I too adore gorgeous attractions with beautiful sets and great storylines, but I equally enjoy ones like that which just get your heart racing from the pure chaos of it all. So yeah, personally, I enjoyed it equally to Trailers, but my dad would put Trailers 1st and Survival Games 2nd. Terminal As for Terminal, I have mixed feelings. As a big fan of Darkfield, I was expecting it to be brilliant. As much as I wanted to love it, I just can't say that I did. I first encountered Darkfield's work when we attended Seance at Warwick Castle a few years back. That was so good that we decided to book tickets for Darkfield's containers in London and did both Flight and Coma. We also paid to do all the shows on Darkfield Radio through lockdown and beyond. I think what they do is absolutely amazing, and while some shows are better than others, they're generally all entertaining and thought provoking. Terminal seemed like the weakest one of all. I wouldn't necessarily say I thought it was bad, but I certainly didn't think it was particularly good either. It pains me to say that, but it just wasn't up there with their usual storytelling standards. Which sucks for me as a fan, but I feel it sucks even more for anyone encountering their work for the first time because it doesn't leave a great impression! Had Terminal been my first Darkfield experience as opposed to Seance, I probably wouldn't have bothered looking then up or attending any of their other events. I think the reason it fell so flat for me was it's overuse of sound effects. To me, what makes the other Darkfield experiences great is the interesting dialogue and compelling scenarios. Terminal lacked both of these for the most part. It started out well enough, but as soon as the main actor's piece was over, it all went downhill from there. Also, I'm not sure why the containers were so plain. I know the story didn't call for all that much, but with the Flight, Seance, and Coma containers, you really feel as though you've stepped into another world. Like you're there in the story. I didn't get that feeling from Terminal. I guess it's harder to do with a sci-fi sorta scenario, but still. Even if we hadn't managed to experience it without paying extra during our hotel free entry hours, I would've purchased a ticket based purely on the fact that it's a Darkfield thing. However, I don't think I would've been particularly happy about it! The Crows The Crows were just as fun as last year, though weirdly there seemed to be less of them on Saturday compared to Friday, and waaaay too many people with their phones out trying to get selfies. I do love them a lot though. I find them to be some of my favourite newer Fright Nights characters even though they can't speak! Death's Doors Death's Doors was a lot of fun. We did it 5 times over the 2 days. A couple during daylight hours + some in the dark. There were a few different characters between the two days, so that made it even more interesting! Even with large groups in there, it still seemed to function just fine, if a little chaotic. Some of the actors were spouting out some pretty funny lines reminiscent of the sort of stuff you hear at The Dungeons attractions, which we thought was hilarious. I wouldn't really say it was remotely scary, but then that's personal. I saw one or two older kids crying in there, so I imagine they'd beg to differ! What it was though was good, spooky fun I'd like to see more like it. The crazy alarm only went off once in the multiple times we went through, so that would be a shame to miss if you only did it once because it was quite amusing to see all the actors leave their doors and run around as though all hell has broken loose. I heard one person near us say "What the **** is going on?" in a voice filled with awe. And that's exactly what I was thinking as a beekeeper being chased by a swarm of invisible bees ran by followed by several other characters charging about to the siren and flashing lights like a psycho flash mob. Kinda reminded me of that scene in Cabin in the Woods where all the creatures are released from where they're being held and everything goes to **** xD Birthday Bash + Amity Stuff I can't comment on Birthday Bash, as we only saw bits of it. Same with the Amity stuff with the werewolves and vampires. Legacy We did watch Legacy while waiting for coffee to cool down, and it was okay if you don't have anything better to do. I have no idea how it compares to last year since when we visited in 2021, Legacy wasn't operating that weekend and nobody we asked seemed to know why. I assume it's different this year though just based on the fact that it's telling the story of the locksmith and showing trailer-type scenes for this year's attractions before moving on to a series of throwbacks for attractions of the past. It was fairly funky, but seemed more like one big piece of advertising more than anything to me. Also, I don't know if it was the speaker setup or some of the tracks themselves, but the audio quality was quite crackly and just bad in places. I don't know much about audio tech, but I have ears, and decent enough hearing to know that something can't have been right with how the sound was setup. Other Definitely noticed more roaming actors on Saturday compared to Friday. The Creek Freak wagon was amusing! The main thing I wish would come back is more of the atmospheric lighting + soundtrack + alternate station sounds on rides. I know they're only small things, but added altogether, they make a big difference to the atmosphere. I really miss the soundtrack changing once Fright Nights attractions kick off. It used to make me so excited because it was like a signal to say **** was about to get spooky! As far as I could hear while we were there, it was the same soundtrack all day. Just similar style music to what's used in Trailers, including a twisted sort of happy birthday theme. It kinda did my head in listening to that all day >.< And yeah, no change to ride station lines and stuff, which was disappointing. I also don't understand why the party island sorta vibes were still present in some of the decorations like the big green walls with neon signs on. They're ugly as heck and could be replaced with some sorta Halloweeny decoration for Fright Nights. Same as I don't understand why they can't just put 1 zombie actor in TWD ride during Fright Nights in that section when you leave the ride. Pretty much everyone we rode with sighed in that room when they realised it was empty. Also, DBGT was awful. I wasn't expecting the demon actor to be back since that's been gone for ages now, but I don't know. I just thought they'd maybe do something to spice it up a bit for Fright Nights this time. But nope. It seemed like the shortest version ever. And the headsets could've done with better cleaning or ideally replacing, as the ones I got were falling apart on the headphones and scratched or extremely dirty on the lenses >.< Other than those little niggles though, we had a fantastic time! I do feel like it was much better than last year. But also that it was nowhere near as good as other years gone by.
  2. When my dad and I were there last weekend, Legacy still wasn't operating. We asked various members of staff if they knew when the show would be happening, but no one seemed to have any idea. We were pretty much just told that it wouldn't be going ahead the weekend we were there + that they hadn't been told what was going on with it aside from technical problems. I checked back on the website just now and it still says it's not currently available, so I guess they're still having issues of some sort >.<
  3. I mean, we fully expected Saturday to be somewhat horrific in terms of queues, we just didn't imagine that they'd sell us tickets for mazes with time slots that were impossible to make with the sheer crowd levels, and then point blank refuse to do anything about it at guest services at the end of the night. Our experiences with guest services in the past has always been pretty good. Problems have often been resolved with relative ease. But it's like staff had been told under no circumstances offer a refund for maze tickets. It's not like we arrived super late at Platform 15's entrance either. Yes, our slot was 8:30, but we were in the queue for our previous ticket too long to make that. I think my dad said his watch read 9:04 when we got to Platform 15, but the staff were adamant it was now closed and just told us to go to guest services. The person we spoke to there just said that the maze tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. Even when we said that we're in the hotel and will be in the park the following day. They just said it's impossible to do anything about it aside from exchanging it for an equal value £10 one shot fast track. It's not like we gave in immediately either, we stood there explaining why that wasn't acceptable, and the person just kept repeating that it was take it or leave it. The group behind us argued also, but got nowhere. At one point, my dad made a joke about staying there all night unless something was done about it, and the person threatened to call security and have him removed o.O At no point was my dad rude, he didn't even raise his voice or take an aggressive tone! I just couldn't believe this person's attitude. I get that it's a ****ty job being stuck at guest services at the end of the day when you're likely dealing with 99% complaints, but there was no need for them to be so standoffish with us. And yet when we spoke to the hotel reception staff about it, they immediately fetched a manager, and she agreed it was unacceptable and went to try and sort it right away. There wasn't anything she could do with it being so late, but she told us what to do the next day. So we did as she said and went to the fast track booth by Nemesis Inferno on Sunday afternoon, explain everything again, and the person there just took our Saturday Platform tickets and printed us new ones for Sunday! I know that's not gonna be standard proceedure, but both the hotel manager and fast track booth staff were happy to help. The person we spoke to on guest services on Saturday night just made us so angry. It made my anxiety shoot through the roof. But yeah, Sunday was a much better day. We barely had to queue at all for mazes or rides. Even the general crowd was nicer, quieter, and seemed more mature overall compared to Saturday's rowdy masses. Having gotten to experience much more on Sunday, my opinion has also changed on The Crows. They were so fantastic in there that we wandered through 4-5 times. And the actors around The Swarm were also doing a brilliant job of interacting with and chasing people. I was also pleasantly surprised with Platform 15. It's been pretty hit or miss over time, but we did enjoy the various changes made to it. And it was so quiet that both times we went there (light during hotel hour + dark with our exchanged ticket) we were on our own. I'm still not sure it's worth a tenner, but it was better than it's been in the past. I actually preferred the finale scene during the day because the actors there were performing more up close scares compared to the more theatrical version at night. I had my favourite ever run of Creek Freak (I realise I spelt it both Creek and Creak in my previous posts, which is because I thought Creek was correct, but our purchased maze tickets had 'Creak' printed on them, so that made me second guess!) since it was quiet, the actors had more time to play with everyone, which lead to me being isolated for a while to the point that it actually got my heart racing, something which hasn't happened to me at a scare attraction in a long time, haha. Again though, I'm still not sure it's a maze that's worth £10. I would say that Trailers probably is worth a tenner though because there is a lot in there. The theming is nice, the story and nostalgia are fun. It's just got a lot more to it overall. I wasn't bored of it after 3 runs anyhow. But yeah, I feel like if you go on a quieter day, it'll be a fantastic time because we did have a blast on Sunday despite lots of stops on rides again (Colossus and TWD were especially bad, but they did bring management up to Colossus to give everyone priority passes since it was well and truly buggered after a long wait.) Just avoid the really busy days at all costs I guess because Saturday was just a lot of stress and standing around going nowhere. Even fast track wouldn't help that much because of the sheer volume of people there + fast track seemed to have been oversold. The fast track queue for Nemesis Inferno at one point was trailing all the way back to the electronic notice board. And as I mentioned, we still queued 25-30 mins in the Saw fast track queue with our priority passes that we got from guest services when Stealth and Nemesis died.
  4. Just to update on the maze queue situation, queues are pretty nonexistent today (Sunday 10th.) Hotel guests got free unlimited maze entry on 2nd day between 3pm and 4pm, and in that time, we managed to do Trailers x2, Creak Freak x2, Platform 15 x1. We only queued 5 mins for Trailers, the other two were walk on pretty much. So it's just a Saturday issue I guess! Even now, we just passed Trailers, and the queue is only like 15-20 mins long. I guess the queues could possibly be an issue during half-term also, but today has been fine. Less actors in Trailers today though compared to yesterday, maybe about half. And Legacy still not operating.
  5. Sorry for the double post, but this one does contain spoilers. I figured I should separate them! Trailers: Enjoyed this despite the long wait and gigantic group size (17 people) Pre-show was super rushed and didn't catch much of what was said. Loved all the tribute rooms, especially the part for Big Top because that was a favourite of mine so just hearing the soundtrack made me giddy. The group behind us swiftly caught up and formed a rather large blob of a group trying to squeeze through with a lot of swearing about being squished going on. By the time we reached the second room with a long speech, we were crammed in wall to wall like sardines. It certainly didn't feel covid safe in the slightest. Then we were ushered out. I'm not sure what the finale was supposed to be because there wasn't really one. Creek Freak: Seemed largely the same as previous runs in the past only with less actors. Not a lot really happened. Platform 15: Didn't get to use our ticket for it as stated above. Crows: Pretty cool idea but most of the actors seemed half-asleep aside from the last guy, who was pretty awesome. We didn't manage to see any of the shows or spot any roaming actors. Legacy show not in operation.
  6. This doesn't contain spoilers, I just wanted to warn folks about what happened today (Saturday 9th) at the park because it's been pretty atrocious with the maze situation. My dad and I are staying at the hotel so we're really hoping tomorrow will better. We were told online we could purchase the trio maze package at a discount as hotel guests at the park, got here, were told they're sold out and there's nothing they can do other than sell us each maze ticket individually for £10 each. So we already lost out on the discount because the staff member we spoke to online said there would be availability to purchase at the park, but the worst part is, we didn't get to choose our time slots for our individual tickets. So we paid £60 for both of us to do all 3 mazes, and they gave us time slots 1 hour apart. Tickets say they are only valid 30 mins from the time slot. Our first ticket was 6:30pm for Trailers. The queue was so huge that we didn't technically get into the proper queue line until about 6:45. We didn't get to leave the maze until 7:55. We then dashed to Creek Freak (our entry was supposed to be 7:30pm) We just made it there around 8pm, but the queue was also over an hour long... Our Platform 15 ticket was 8:30pm, but we didn't get out of Creek Freak until 9:02pm The park queues close at 9pm... So despite then dashing to the Platform 15 entrance, we were greeted by a barrier and staff who told us it was closed. They told us to speak to island help and information on the way out. We did as instructed, and were told that maze tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. We told them we will be here tomorrow because we're staying at the hotel, but that didn't make any difference. They said all they can do is exchange it for a ride fastrack voucher valid any time within the next 12 months for a one shot fast track valued at £10, trying to tell us that it's equal value... If you've come specifically for Fright Nights and scare attractions, a one shot ride fast track is not equal value to a maze entry ticket! We wouldn't ever pay £10 for a ride fast track. We paid £10 because we wanted to do the maze, despite being very on the edge about that with knowing how crap Platform 15 can be! The group in the queue behind us piped up, they had the same problem. They had spent over £50 between them on maze tickets and were issued tickets with only a 30 minute gap in between each maze. They didn't stand a chance. They were told the same. You can get one shot fast tracks. That's it. They said take it or leave it pretty much. We said well there's no choice then, we'll have to take it. But we then went to make the same complaint at the hotel reception and the manager happened to be there. To her credit, she instantly got on the phone and tried to aid us. The result was that she said if we take our unused Platform 15 tickets to the fast track/ticket kiosk near Nemesis Inferno tomorrow, they will exchange them for new maze tickets, and if we have any issues, to tell them that hotel management told us to. But not everyone is gonna have that option. The group behind us were forced to give in with no compensation because they explained this was a rare trip for them, and that they weren't planning to visit next year, so the fast tracks for rides were useless. They basically lost £50 one of em said. And then there were others behind them with the same problem. A queue had formed outside and it wouldn't surprise me if they were all there for that reason. We would never normally visit on a Saturday because we know queues are crazy, but we figured since we had the hotel booked to go Sat/Sun, we'd get to do everything. We didn't expect to have to queue for just under 2 hours for mazes that we paid £10 for and had time slots for. I can only assume they massively oversold tickets. It just doesn't make sense because the maze queues were as busy as they've been in previous years on weekends when free to enter and you could repeat them as much as you like. They were rammed from opening until closing, and when I checked ride queues on the app around 7pm ish, they were still 90 mins for stuff like Saw and Stealth, so basically everything was rammed. Presumably at or over capacity. So our day went: Arrive just before opening at 10am. Queue 35 mins for The Swarm. Queue 20 mins for Stealth, breaks, queue empties. Queue 45 mins for Nemesis Inferno, stops for essential cleaning, wait an additional 25 mins. Go to guest services to get priority passes for Stealth breaking. Passes given but took around 20 mins to be seen. Go to Costa in the dome, zero queue time but took 20 mins to get 1 large mocha, staff seemed very confused and stressed out. Queue 30 mins for Rush. Queue 30 mins for Vortex, breaks, wait an additional 25 mins. All queues say 90+ mins aside from Walking Dead ride which states 25,got there, sign says 25, app says 60. Head to Samurai since it says 35 on the app and is lowest queue time in the park. Queue 45 mins for Samurai, breaks, wait an additional 25 mins. Use priority pass on Saw the ride, still have to queue for 30 mins. Go to check in at the hotel, took around 30 mins due to more queuing. Go to Amity kebabs for dinner, 40 mins queuing. Poor person in front had a screen shot of meal deal purchase for 4. Was told by staff he must show with an internet connection. The dude explained that he can't connect, he tried, it wasn't loading. Staff said they couldn't help him then. Scoffed food, dashed to Trailers to try and make our time slot. And you know what happened from there. We only got Trailers and Creek Freak done before park close because the queues were so huge. Didn't see any roaming actors aside from when we walked through the Crows area. Legacy show still not operational. Staff told us they don't know when it will be. Not exactly a great start to our break here >.<
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