Jump to content

Quorn

Members
  • Posts

    46
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Quorn

  1. 4 minutes ago, Coaster said:

    Nice detailed review.  I have to say I was a little disappointed with Tulleys this year, as you have mentioned above there were batching issues in nearly every maze for us meaning we caught up with the group in front; really ruins the experience as the idea is surely that you shouldn't be aware of other groups at any point during the maze?  Made little sense either as it was a quiet(ish) evening with short queues, so they could have spaced the groups out a lot more.

     

    It felt like there were less actors than previous years, and some key effects were missing (car horn in Colony, spider dropdown on the Hayride etc).

     

    I didn't really understand the need for the strobe section in The Cellar, but the strobe rate wasn't very effective either way.

     

    Circus of Horrors is fab.

     

    Still a brilliant event, but definitely lower standards than the last 2 years IMO.

    Yeah, considering the Colony was walk-on for us, I was very surprised we both caught another group and got caught by one.

  2. Don’t know if anyone will bother to read this but here are my experiences from yesterday. Spoilers (a little bit).

     

    1. Creepy Cottage - Pretty much unchanged as far as I noticed, a few good jumps where I failed to spot some of the curtains, good way to start.

     

    2. VIXI - Having had quite a good experience with it last year, I was let down when I went through the first two or three rooms with nobody interacting with me or anybody else in my group. After that there were very few actors at best and they didn’t do a great job of surprising any of us. The ending still manages to slightly redeem the maze.

     

    3. Coven - I still love the effects in this maze, but my run through was let down by a slow group ahead of us. I’d gone first to leave myself a bit more exposed, but could already see the group ahead of us as soon as I came out of the briefing area. The swamp still gave me some good scares so I’ll let it slide.

     

    4. Hayride - The same layout as years gone, but the actors seemed a bit scarce this time. Only a few hopped onto the trailer and they didn’t interact much with us as we were at the tractor end. Still enjoyable.

     

    5. Chop Shop - Still one of the most intense mazes I’ve experienced. Going last, I was stopped by actors and cut off from the group on multiple occasions, making it the best run through I’ve had.

     

    6. Colony - Again, batching let this maze down for me as we were stopped about two thirds of the way through by a group trying to get through the inflatables but hesitating. I went last again and was joined by the group behind us around halfway through. The final actor also failed to interact with us, meaning we just walked past and she terrorised those behind us, disappointed. The unique parts of this maze do make it memorable though, and I still enjoyed it for the most part.

     

    7. Cellar - Going last again, I had the best maze experience I’ve ever had. There was no instruction to form a conga line this time (not sure if that’s an intentional change for this year) so I was free to create a gap between myself and the group which the actors abused, blocking me off and jumping out in front of me at every corner. The variety in this maze still contributes to it’s greatness in my opinion, combining Big Top’s strobe maze, Cabin in the Woods’ corridors and it’s own theming elements to create a great experience.

     

    8. Twisted Clowns - The 3D element to the maze still makes the clowns stand out from anything else I’ve seen, and the interaction was great from them too. I was stopped for a while by a clown asking for a password before I could pass, separating me from the group and making it really enjoyable.

     

    Overall:

    Cottage - 6/10

    VIXI - 5/10

    Coven - 7/10

    Hayride - 7/10

    Chop Shop - 9/10

    Colony - 8/10

    Cellar - 10/10

    Clowns - 9/10

     

    We didn’t make any of the Circus of Horrors time slots, so can’t comment on that.

  3. In case anyone wants to analyse the project-zero.info page, this is the full background image.

    "Big top" to the right and "P15" (which I assume is Platform 15) to the bottom left lead me to believe this is Fright Nights related. 

    Not sure what to make of the 27 top left.

    eeefc1_154d3f8fb5764a91bcc74451b5aee1fd~mv2.png

  4. 1 minute ago, ChessingtonSam said:

    I searched it up and it was indeed Detonator that replaced it, and it happened in 2000. But Vortex? Isn't that the opposite side of the park to Detty? Was the Haunt building bigger than I thought?

    It was installed on the opposite side of the park, but it was more of an attempt to replace haunt's place in the lineup as opposed to fill the area where it stood.

  5. Just now, ChessingtonSam said:

    There was a fire in the early 2000s, might have been 2003 I think? Anyway, it destroyed an entire dark ride (Wicked Witches' Haunt) and a dark section of a ride next door. Ironically, I think it was replaced by Nemesis Inferno. Could be wrong on that though.

     

    Just a piece of advice for the future, it might have been a better idea to post this in the Quick Questions section of the forum.

     

    It was replaced by Detonator and one other ride which I believe was Vortex.

  6. Oh yeah and the other descriptions have been updated too, Twisted Clowns will still have the gimmicky 3D. The Cellar also hints towards another creature being featured in the maze, not sure if it's the same description as last year. Also believe this to be a new image for VIXI that I don't remember seeing in the Hellements gallery last year:image.thumb.png.3680ff3b58dccc7bab9221659ead3793.png

  7. 2 hours ago, Benin said:

    Thorpe's (or any park engineering team) I believe are on standard contracts so get a proper wage rather than an hourly one (I too looked into it a few years ago now)...

     

    Average you're looking at for a mech eng is around £25-30k... I'd assume most of Thorpe's are at the lower end (or less depending on experience)...

     

    Might be an idea to keep an eye on Blooloop for any theme park (or leisure industry) jobs going...

    Will do, thanks for the response!

  8. Might sound like an odd question but I was wondering if anybody knows how much Thorpe Park engineers get paid. I am looking to do a career with mechanical engineering in the future and was wondering if Thorpe was a good idea or not. I know I'll enjoy it because working with machines and rides is what I enjoy doing, but I don't want to set my goal as an engineer there just to find out I'll be payed a fraction of minimum wage, which I expect Merlin get away with :lol:.

     

    Any info as to other wages there might help as well so I can get an idea of how much they pay generally for work.

     

    Thanks.

  9. 9 hours ago, Jack said:

    Into tulleys is way more fun and much more of a laugh, but thorpes mazes are more intense as they allow touch scares.

    I feel Tulleys is more intense as well, and I didn't experience a touch scare once last year at Thorpe. The lack of actors at Thorpe means mazes are often long and drawn out without any real scares, whereas Tulleys is full of actors hiding around every corner, creating an onslaught of scares.

  10. 1 hour ago, streetmagix said:

    I'm of the opinion that having large groups of people waiting in a unprotected plaza is far worse than bag checks. When I was last at Thorpe (pre summer holidays) the bag check was over in 5 seconds flat, the quickest glance at the inside of my bag. Are they spending longer per person or it is just the sheer number of people causing the holdups?

    I believe the delay is caused by disorder on the part of the employees. The last time I went through the bag check I spent most of the time waiting for the employees to finish their conversation before poking my bag with a stick and waving me through.

  11. 57 minutes ago, Stuntman707 said:

    It's a pain but totally justified after recent events to have a very semi-permanent looking bag search in place. It is much better than the system last year located after the gates. As I've said before, Thorpe need a new entrance plaza that would be much more fit for purpose with a permanent building for tickets, security and turnstiles. 

    Am I hearing a new entrance being developed which interacts with a brand new B&M Hyper? No probably not.

  12. Today was my first visit since the update to the lost city soundtrack, and despite my initial feelings of 'nothing can improve that music' and 'I'm never visiting any Merlin park ever again', the new music seems to breathe new life into the area and makes it feel much more alive. It seemed refreshed and lively compared to past experiences. Colossus on the other hand...

  13. 1 hour ago, BaronC. said:

    And a lovely tent-like structure was being built today as well! 

    Saw that at the park today. Looked as if the floor was either complete or almost complete and the frames of the tents seemed to be going up pretty fast.

  14. 7 minutes ago, Stuntman707 said:

    All tickets and discounts are sold through the Annual Pass building. Advance collections are the windows to the right of the entrance turnstiles. The kiosks are only used for security.

    If all tickets are through the AP building I assume it will be quicker at Advance Collections?

  15. Just wondering if the ticket kiosks at the park are still operating normally, as I saw a post a few weeks back which said something about the security checks taking up the kiosks and that tickets were being sold elsewhere.

     

    Also, to get the discounted tickets with a regular Thorpe Annual Pass, they are purchased as if buying normal tickets, correct?

     

    Thanks

  16. Just now, Marc said:

     

    You could also look at it on the flip side, a more successful US business could bring more capital for the rest of the group. (I'm not saying that will happen but we certainly should just assume this will mean less money here!) 

    That is true. If I'm correct the Busch parks bring in a lot of profit due to Tampa being all year round.

×
×
  • Create New...