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Martin Doyle

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Posts posted by Martin Doyle

  1. Blackpool Pleasure Beach

    in UK Attractions

    Posted

    Absolutely gutted by that news!! In my opinion it was not only the best coaster at the pleasure beach but by far the best wild mouse coaster on the planet!! Shame that they never gave it a fairwell like they did the log flume a few years back as it would of absolutely deserved that sort of send off. 

     

    Them dealing with the angry fans of the ride on opening day in a nutshell......

     

     

  5. Fright Nights 2018 - General Discussion

    in The Past

    Posted

    Big Top to return with more of its “crazed debauchery!!”

     

    Platform 15 to return and hopefully have a decent ending put into place because the improvements made to it this year really made it a fantastic attraction up until the final tunnel. Sort that out and they are on to a winner in my opinion. This and Big Top in my honest opinion were the only two positives about fright nights this year so they should absolutely return next year.

     

    I would say make some changes to Saw Alive but we are kind of flogging a dead horse with that one.

     

    Bring back roaming actors as they can add to the atmosphere in general around the park (half of why I love shocktoberfest as much as I do is the roaming characters!!)

     

    Oh and one last one...STOP OVERSELLING FASTRACK!!

  8. TPM Meets 2018 Planning

    in TPM 2018 Meets

    Posted

    Liseberg wouldn’t be a bad shout!! Has one of the best coasters on the planet in Helix, a great flat ride collection and with Valkyria opening, its definitely an interesting trip idea.

     

    UK wise, a Towers trip for either scarefest or fireworks would be good!! :D

  11. Scarefest

    in Alton Towers

    Posted

    The mazes this year definitely feel weaker and more toned down this year compared to last (Sub Species and Altonville mine certainly feel less hands on) maybe this is due to stupid guest complaints but nonetheless it is a shame that that’s the case. The quality of the mazes still outshine Fright Nights in my opinion (Sub Species may be toned down but it’s still more intense than any fright night maze) and the park wide theming and roaming actors is still something I’d love to see Thorpe pay attention to. Not scarefests finest year but certainly still the strongest merlin Halloween event. Next year however I would like to see Terror of the towers finally get some work done to it as for as fun a maze as it is, it does seem to get weaker and weaker as the years go on. I’d also quite like to see Sub Species maybe get a retheme or something to freshen it up and most importantly I’d like to see the actors go back to the intensity they had for the previous two years as it was that intensity that made Scarefest really lead the way in terms of Halloween events.

  14. Merlin Entertainments

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    18 minutes ago, JoshuaA said:

    Ughh, does anyone even visit the hotels?

    Like when I plan a trip to Alton staying in their hotel is the last thing on my mind..  You can stay in a nice little B&B for like 1/100 of the price..

     

     

    Well I got two nights at the hotel Matamba at Phantasialand in July for LESS than what Alton Towers tried to charge me for one night if I went there instead!!

     

    Because I drive, it’s so much easier for me to just avoid the Alton Towers resort hotels like the plague anyway. Those who rely on public transport though its a bit more difficult as the B&BS near the towers can book out quite quick when they are putting on their major events so for them it would then be a case of HAVING to stay on site whereas for us who drive it’s a simple case of driving slightly further afield for a travel lodge or premier inn

  15. Fright Nights 2017

    in The Past

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Martin.C said:


    And as for Fastrack, last night just goes to show you even a price hike still isn't enough to stop it being sold in large quantities. The queue pen outside Depth Charge to buy the stuff was overflowing by the time the sun was starting to set for the remainder of the evening. As result, the entire Fastrack queue for Big Top was full all night, an endless number of people were pouring through Swarm's Fastrack queue, Colossus was the same all day and night and Platform 15's Fastrack queue I swear was longer at one point compared to the normal queue.

     

     

    I knew the price hike would not lead to them capping the amount of fastrack sold!! Saw it coming a mile off. I’m sorry but to charge near enough tulleys prices for the one go on each package and then £125 for ultimate and STILL oversell is unacceptable in my eyes. For those prices I really would expect it to take 15 minutes tops before I’m entering the maze. Tulleys handle their fastrack option brilliantly (only 200 fastrack and 50 VIP sold per night) so I just find Fright nights having stupidly long fastrack lines to be ridiculous ESPECIALLY for those prices 

  16. Fright Nights 2017 - Spoilers!

    in The Past

    Posted

    Ok had a few goes on each maze now so I’ll just give my brief thoughts.

     

    Platform 15 - Kudos to Thorpe Park here!! I utterly hated this maze last year but this year I found it to be terrific. The new village scene with the house was creepy and slightly unnerving with the dolls, the fact it has more of an enclosed feel to it the whole way round means I couldnt see scares coming a mile off like last year and just all round it’s a much better maze. The ending tunnel still lets it down a little though so hopefully if it returns next year then it will have that rectified. 7/10

     

    Saw Alive - same as previous years so won’t say too much, still a solid enough maze but can do with updating next year (if not replacing) as it has got old as far as myself and many others go. Nonetheless still a good maze. 6/10

     

    Sanctum - Not a fan what so ever. Just felt like an improved version of the old scare zone they used to have over near zodiac way back when. I will give it marks for the actors in there as they did seem lively enough but the attraction just felt a little cheap and very short for my liking. Also not too fond of having to get my shoes muddy because of the choice of location. Weakest of the attractions this year by far. 3/10

     

    Living Nightmare - Ok as a fan of walking dead and the character of Negan, I absolutely loved the fact they allow the actors portraying him to swear (“which of you P...ks is the leader” and “I just slid my d..k down your throat and you thanked me for it”) as that is being very true to Negans character. I will say it’s got some ok theming in there (best themed maze at the park) with the sets like the hospital and the bus being quite well done. However what let’s this maze done is that it’s quite weak in the scare department. Not once in this attraction did anything make me jump or even come close to unnerving me which is a bit of a concern for a “SCARE maze”. Again I don’t expect the actors to be frantic and throwing themselves all over the place as they are after all portraying zombies but stuff like air canons or effects along those lines would not go amiss. So overall I’d say it’s a good maze with some alright theming but poor scares. As it’s the mazes first year I won’t be too harsh as let’s face it over the last few years Thorpe Park have had some shockers with new mazes but as we have seen with Big Top and Platform, they do try their best to rectify the issues the following year and this maze clearly has some potential. 5/10

     

    The Big Top - Ok I’ve been going to fright nights for every year since 2004 and as a result I have done every attraction that has ever been at the event and this year, Big Top has taken the crown for my all time favourite fright night attraction (yes that includes the Asylum/Freezer) it was really that good when I went through. First off, the fortune teller scene let it down last year as you could barely hear the actor in there so this year the use of a projector and loud speaker means that issue is long gone. Secondly, the strobe maze is as disorientating as Asylum ever was and that is saying a lot as those who did Asylum will no doubt remember. It is so easy to get lost in there this year!!. Thirdly, last year the latter scenes after the Strobe maze fell flat compared to it so this year it was just great to see a lot of new additions like a mirror maze and multi doors to choose from before the chainsaw. These new scenes seemed to of done a good job in ramping up Big Tops running time (I had a good 10 minutes in there in one run through) as one complaint I had about last year was that it was too short for my liking so it’s just good that there’s now more of a substantial running time rather than feeling like you are out of there no sooner than you enter. Then ofcourse there’s the fact that the actors clearly seemed to have fun working in there!! They really did a great job using the scenery and new hiding places to generate scares and I just hope they can keep this up throughout the event. I really need to applaud Thorpe Park for The Big Top. If you told me in 2015 when this maze was a cheap abomination on the beach that within two years it would become my all time favourite fright night attraction over Freezer/Asylum, I would honestly think you yourself should be working at the circus but that is what has happened!!. Thorpe Park have taken an absolute disaster and turned it into a masterpiece that should remain the crown jewel of the line up for years to come (honestly I’d happily skip fright nights next year without batting an eye over it if Big Top doesn’t return) what a maze!! 9/10

     

  17. Scarefest

    in Alton Towers

    Posted

    As someone who quite enjoyed Haunting of Molly Crowe, I would not be too much against Welcoming using hoods for a portion of it. I agree that hooded mazes can be quite hit (Molly Crowe and The Hunted at xtreme scream park) and miss (Hellements and the passing) but when they are well done then they can be quite unnerving experiences especially the ones where the actors are allowed to actually touch you (Hunted last year I had actors literally trying to pull me off the rope). Alton Towers have smashed it out of the park with recent scare mazes and I have every faith this will be yet another to add to that list. On another note, I am really excited to see what changes have been made to the existing mazes as so far I’ve heard that Terror of the towers will have its “scares upped” so I anticipate they will allow actors to touch like in the other two and The Altonville Mine Tour will have it’s ending sorted out which was what let it down last year. Looks like it will be another

    strong scarefest!!

  18. Fright Nights 2017

    in The Past

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, MilesK said:

     

    That is just hideous. You can go to Shocktoberfest on a peak night and get 8 quality mazes for less than this... you'll probably wait half the time to get in the mazes at Shocktober too, as they will no doubt oversell them as per usual.

    The thing is, people are going to pay it...

     

     

    If they still oversell it like previous years than there is something MASSIVELY wrong!!. For those prices I expect to not be waiting nearly 30 minutes for the fastrack line.

  20. Fright Nights 2017

    in The Past

    Posted

    6 hours ago, JoshuaA said:

    I do to have admit, and this gonna be a little controversial, but I actually think Thorpe's mazes actually work a lot better in Conga Lines than free flow.

     

     

    I agree with this 100 percent. With the old school Congo line mazes, it felt like if the actors targeted the middle of the line then the whole group would always jump (asylum and hellgate being the best two for this) whereas with the free flow mazes, I have gone through without actors interacting with me one time so that's why I myself think Congo line mazes suit thorpe better than what free flow does.

  21. Tulley's Shocktober Fest Scream Park

    in UK Attractions

    Posted

    If I was a betting man, I would say Hellements will be the one to depart. It's become very stale in recent years and reviews for it seem to get more negative as the years go on. Colony extension would be CRAZY as it's already long as hell with plenty of dead spots so they would be better served in sorting that out before thinking of an extension. Either chop shop or coven getting the extension would be my guess.

  23. Tulleys Shocktober Fest Scream Park 2015

    in UK Attractions

    Posted

    On 23/05/2017 at 10:53 PM, JoshuaA said:

    ScareTour have teased a little on some changes happening this year- and oh god, even if it is May, I'm hyped for Tulleys 2017!

    And longer mazes? I gotta say the majority of mazes at the event are already long as hell, so, just, wow

    Very interesting. (Sorry for bumping this topic like 5 months too early..:lol:)

    tulleys.png.a2c549e2f762c8a6dab6cf4c548be000.png

     

     

    If Colony gets an extension then I need to hit the gym before I go!! That maze is already an endurance as it is!! :o 

     

    I predict Hellements will leave (its widespread regarded as stale now), Coven and Chop shop will get the extensions and Haunted hayride will get a makeover. I obviously could be hopelessly wrong about ALL of that but I see hellements going as being odds on.

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