Edwin

I went to Thorpe Park yesterday for the first time in a few years, so it was my first time on Ghost Train. Right from the start, the queueing experience is terrible. There's nothing to keep you entertained and you're not aware of how many people are entering the ride at what kind of interval, and then you round the corner and see how the Fastrack queue is building up and wonder Will I ever get on this ride? At this point, if you didn't already know what the ride was, you would be wishing you had queued for something else instead, which is a negative point to start on. We entered into the building and shouted into rows, and then the people behind me shouted amongst themselves while Derren was doing his fear speech. It ended, the arrows lit up on the wall, and people hesitated to move. In the holding zone, a patient ride staff explained about the Victorian carriage and then popped through the door to check if it was ready. She came back a couple of minutes later and we hurried onto the train, with no real time to take in the warehouse, which might work in favour of the illusion although it's probably too dark in there to notice anything. I had a woman with a dog talking to me in the first VR segment. She seemed to flesh out the story quite well and the VR headsets did a good job of blocking out the surroundings. I don't believe any of the actors touched us at any point and it seemed generally understaffed (as did most of the park, to be honest). The evacuation sequence was confusing(?) We just walked into a room, being told to move down and gather around, and then there was some red light and drilling noises and we were told to get back on the train. In the gift shop, the woman behind the counter told us we had to stand around. I had been walking straight through gift shops all day at this point, and I imagine they'd seen a lot of people walk straight to the exit door. Surely there must be a way of getting people to engage with the gift shop without being so obvious about it? We just saw a message from Derren Brown, some things "broke", something happened to the floor, and then we left. My friend was pretty damning about it all. For the most part, I just thought the pacing was odd, somehow not something they've managed to perfect since it first opened. Oh, also, the theme of the ride confuses even itself.