Martin Doyle

People might as well believe in the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus if they genuinely think Thorpe are getting an RMC either next year or ANY year for that matter in the current state of affairs with the park.

Well I can say what it WON’T be spent on.... An RMC *cries uncontrollably into his glass of wine!!

VR brave it backwards Bouncezilla:extreme aside, it would actually be nice to see some action on the loggers leap site and some actual development towards a overdue new coaster assuming Thorpe Park will be getting one some time before I find myself in my 40’s!!

Bouncezilla brave it backwards with VR!! The worlds first VR bouncy castle!!

Two visits to Tulleys under my belt so far this halloween season and two incredible evenings out!! This event goes from strength to strength every year and this year’s new addition of Wastelands has really only served to hammer home Tulleys position as the best overall event in the country. Acting quality across the event is terrific (shout out to the pirate inside Wreckoning who seemingly knows me from this forum!! That was pretty darn hilarious I must say having a name drop in a Tulleys maze!!) and once again the quality of attraction is immense this year and Wastelands penitentiary is right up there with the very best horror mazes in the country. I do however now think that VIXI needs to move on next season as that’s now got quite stale to repeat visitors and I also hate to say it given how great it was in its opening year but I also believe Chop Shops time is up now. However that aside, an all around solid year for Tulleys!! *shout out to @JoshuaA clowning around in Twisted Clowns about my damn hairline!! 😮

A very strong performance from Scarefest this past Sunday!! All five of the mazes performed absolutely brilliantly on my goes through them. They all excel in their own ways, all have some brilliant set designs and all had magnificent actors in all of them. I couldn’t call a single one of them weak. No wonder M£rlin have since told the team to help Thorpe with mazes in the form of Creek Freak Massacre. Altonville mine tour was very physical this year, Sub Species had its intensity back, Project 42 was much improved from last year, Darkest Depths had some of the best looking sets I have ever seen in a maze and The Attic was absolutely incredible and in my opinion the best incarnation of the legendary Terror of the Towers. Queue management for all of these was on top form and not one maze had a longer wait than 5 minutes from having the tickets scanned to entering the maze. Sometimes Alton Towers can still find mazes having long queues despite the paid for timed slots but this was not the case Sunday. Massive thumbs up to the mazes all around. On a more negative note, there has been a decrease in park wide decoration in comparison to recent years. However, Towers Street still looks brilliant and the little features such as the ghosts near mutiny bay and the skeleton projections in the banqueting hall window of the towers add to a very solid atmosphere. This was also helped by the children’s mascots and indeed the brilliant Alton ancestors who really added to the feel of the event. Another solid year for Scarefest and once again it absolutely blows Fright Nights out of the water in every single department. As far as the “Oh Thorpe Park you get mazes for free!!” argument goes, I personally would much rather pay for something that has quality in it than I would queue for an excessively long time to do the likes of Do or Die or Platform 15 for free. Alton Towers and every one involved with Scarefest this year can take massive pride in this year’s event!!

Many media outlets are now reporting that Cedar Fair have turned down a 4 billion dollar cash and stock offer from Six Flags.

The main problem I have with this if it does happen is I find Six Flags parks to be utterly soulless, commercialised to high hell and corporate. Half the reason Cedar Point is so far ahead of every park I’ve visited is because it has charm to it. It has a rich history and even though it belongs to a chain, does not have an overly corperate feel to it whatsoever. Six Flags get their hands on it and that charm will possibly disappear in a flash. The other factor as to why Cedar Point is ran as well as it has been is down to the fact it is Cedar Fairs cashcow and the flagship park. Under a Six Flags ownership, it will only be playing second fiddle to Magic Mountain. The other issue is that a takeover or even a merge would kill one of the greatest amusement park rivalries in the world right now and with that, Six Flags will have monopolised the thrill park industry in America and the states will be left in a relatively similar state to what the U.K is going through with M£rlin right now and that’s a lack of competition. Yes Disney and Universal are also a thing in America obviously, but Six Flags and Cedar Fair cater to an entirely different audience to those two chains. So any sort of deal between Cedar Fair and Six Flags could be a complete disaster for the industry especially in the states.

Six Flags Sandusky here we come!!

First thing that went through my mind last year when I got out of that abomination was “whoever designed and signed off on this should be fired on the spot” that’s how bad I found it!! In regards to park wide theming and audio, yes that was a massive part of why I enjoyed the event in its early years. However, the event has loads to do on its road to improvement and the most important aspect of these events IS the mazes. Once they get the mazes right then they should move onto parkwide atmosphere.

Gotta raise those funds for an all new bouncy castle for 2020!! 😮

But let’s face it, what coaster out there is actually a Steel Vengeance beater!!?? 😜 I don’t see even RMC hitting those heights again anytime soon so I personally will just enjoy Zadra and Untamed for what they are on their own merits. If I try comparing them to big Steve then I am just setting myself up for disappointment.

3 major coasters opening in less than 2 years is absolutely incredible from this park. Can not wait to visit next year!!

Guess I’ll just leave this here then!!

Couldn’t agree more!! iCON - I’ve had faster drives on the m25 during rush hour than this ride. It honestly is just dull to me. Seaworld - 100 percent the best coaster line up in Orlando (Busch still has it in Florida overall though. Especially now with the RMC coming) 3 pretty darn good B&Ms right there!!

On the topic of rides that everybody seems to love but I personally don’t like....Icon. I can understand why people enjoy the smooth nature of it, but personally I find the ride boring as all heck and easily the country’s most overrated ride. The ride feels incredibly slow (especially in the front row), has a dull layout to it aside from the odd element (heck this wouldn’t be as much an issue if it actually had some speed about it. Taron also doesn’t have that great a layout in terms of variation but it makes up for that by absolutely whizzing around it and really throwing you around as you go through each turn) and as far as it having “great airtime” goes, I personally have had more airtime in the car on my way to Blackpool on the motorway than I have had on Icon. I genuinely prefer Blue Fire to Icon.

I actually don’t mind the fact Scarefest at Alton Towers charge extra for mazes (albeit I do find the prices this year steep) In theory, I would prefer to pay for a timed ticket and then not have to wait long to do the mazes than I would queue up in excess of 2 hours. I say “in theory” because there’s been times where I still found myself waiting up to 30 minutes for some of the mazes at Scarefest. That being said, it also helps the mazes at Scarefest are top draw (Sub Species mainly) so you feel justified in spending the money.

Not the best quality photo I know, but my own favourite photo I’ve taken is from the waters of lake eerie of the magnificent Cedar Point!!

I can see Terror of the Towers having one heck of a duration this year given it looks set to be spread across 3 floors of the ruins. Quite happy with that given I found its final route to be very short and underwhelming compared to its previous location. Really is good to then bring back a much loved maze for Halloween after it had a year away!!

Doesn’t it all depend on what elevator you board?? Plus I do believe in the past you got to choose your own elevator anyway but that being said, it’s been years since I’ve done Paris I am also pretty excited to see this version of the tower utilise the randomised drop sequences. One of the main reasons I never took as much a liking to this compared to the masterpiece that is the Florida original is the lack of the random drops. So that and the three stories are very welcome changes.

Over 18s horror maze themed to the nurses anyone!!??

This has got to be the greatest thing I have ever seen on this forum!! 😂 So accurate it’s unreal!!

I think having one or two “signature” or “headline” mazes can help an event if they are given slight tweaks here and there. Asylum,Cellar and Terror Of The Towers being the 3 prime examples I can think of. The Cellar still holds up well even against the Tulleys newer mazes as did Asylum against thorpes newer mazes when that was around. This was helped with each event tweaking and making slight changes to each maze. It can also depend on how stale said mazes get. Terror of the Towers for the first few years with the “what lies within” story arc generally was the best maze at the event. However as the years went by and Alton bought in the much more extreme Sub Species and Altonville Mine Tour, Terror of the Towers all of a sudden looked very dated in comparison. Keeping a whole bunch of the same mazes with no changes however can make an event grow stale quite quickly.

My thoughts are with you all if that is the case!!

In other words “we can’t be asked” Just goes to show how this once great event has been handled in recent times. Honestly don’t get why people are so shocked at how last year turned out. The writing was on the wall the very second it was announced Big Top was gone. Big Top in its final year was the ONE thing that held that event together so to lose it and not improve anything else was always going to be a disaster. I really do hope the event turns the corner one day. It’s going to take more than a new maze to do that however In my book. One of the many reasons the event was great back in its early days was the park wide atmosphere,unique themes to each ride when it got dark, park ride decoration and in general the organisation of the event aswell as the quality of the mazes. The park has really strayed from that in recent years as far as I go or certainly compared to the first few years and now just feels like a massive cash grab. I know it comes across at times that I borderline hate the event and frankly in it’s current state as of last year, I do. However, I was a massive fan of fright nights from 2004 right up until 2013 and the event would always be the very first thing I looked out for when the season calendar was released as well as being the first event I would aim to schedule when October came round. Heck if it wasn’t for fright nights of the past, I don’t think I would have come to enjoy scare mazes and Halloween events half of what I currently do. I just now feel the event has strayed so far from what made it great to the point I now have zero interest in going especially when I stop to consider the other Halloween events out there.