coasterverse

I dunno man, looking at the dire state of the Stealth and Tidal Wave support fades I think this could work better in their favour. You can quite literally see the paint roller marks on Stealth's supports where they could clearly just about reach and were like "okay that's good enough" (see below) Imagine how cheap and tacky Thorpe's brand new coaster would look if this was how it was done. Obviously you'd expect a bit more care and attention to go into it if it's a brand new coaster (and probably significantly easier to get the fade right if the supports are in pieces prior to installation), but I'm glad they didn't risk it - at least not on the opening years. Maybe if it still looks odd in a few years (it won't, we'll all be used to it by then) they can look into fading, but I'd rather it have a stark contrast for now than look like how Stealth does currently in its opening year. That wouldn't be a good look for the park whatsoever.

Alright, visited on Tuesday (for my first proper Fright Nights experience outside of the passholder preview day 2 years ago), here's my maze reviews and some thoughts: Trailers This is a maze that a lot of you will be aware that I have been extremely vocal about since my first runthrough on opening year. I thought it was dreadful the first time I did it - predictable scares across the board and the rooms are too small. I still think this is the case for the most part, however my runthrough this year was significantly better as for some reason or another, me and my friend ended up losing the ENTIRE group that we went in with after just the first dentist scene - so we basically had a SLKSTN EXCLUSIVE runthrough with all the actors' attention in all of the rooms fixated on us. It was our first maze of the evening too (as we both hated it when we did it last and wanted to just get it out of the way), but both came out very, very impressed. I even ended up running out of the maze, which isn't something I often end up doing in scare attractions. There's definitely a few rooms here and there that are pretty weak - Hell Cell and Vulcan Voodoo stand out immediately to me, I'm sure there was others too. Room highlights though were definitely 'Nightmare on Staines Street' and the finale room. In the nightmare scene, I was so fixated by the person coming out of the bed that I totally forgot that there's also somebody behind the window and it made me jump out of my skin - not something I expected to be doing in Trailers after my last experience where I didn't jump at all. The finale was also great because we had the spark machines working for a change, which (again) wasn't something we experienced on our first runthrough in 2021. Trailers was my second favourite maze of the evening. Stitches We then moved on to Stitches, which surprisingly didn't have the ridiculous queue that I expected considering it's the nEw FoR 2023 maze. I quite liked it. I agree with what @JoshC. said that it's definitely more eerie than scary - I didn't get jumpscared very often, but was definitely uncomfortable whilst walking through. Some of the strobe and LED lighting in there really did blind you which totally throws you off and puts you even more on edge for potential jumpscares (which didn't really happen for the most part unfortunately). The finale room was very very creepy and the strobe lighting makes it virtually impossible to distinguish the difference between real actors and the mannequins - unfortunately, however, there didn't appear to be any real actors in there in our runthrough... or at the very least we just got unlucky and wasn't targeted which did put a bit of a dampener on what was for the most part a terrific maze. Overall though, it's a great maze - and I'd be very surprised if it didn't return for '24. I just hope that if it does, they focus more on scares. The atmosphere is there, but there's no real payoff. I somewhat hope that if this maze is expected to be on the horizon for a while that this replaces Trailers and utilises the permanent exterior to model a good looking toy shop from it. I feel like Stitches could really benefit from this, and would make more sense to do this than it does with Trailers. However, the current setup does work - so if the park are looking to replace Trailers, I'd rather they replace it with something new entirely instead. Survival Games My oh my was this intense. Being separated from your group right the start sets the tone for the rest of the attraction and it's great. My favourite element of this attraction is the focus on physical touch. I wish this was something that happened across the board for the Thorpe mazes (you know, being the 'thrill' park of the UK, I think they could get away with only super intense mazes but I understand they probably don't want to open that can of worms and possibly limit their clientele). Being grabbed and dragged by the actors inside of that building really adds a whole other layer to the experience, and like someone mentioned above you do find yourself trying to evade the actors rather than actively seek them out. I found myself purposefully going around in circles just to avoid actors in the hopes that they wouldn't still be there by the time I come back around. The total free-flow element of the maze is great too, because it means you essentially get to decide for yourself just how long you spend in there. Obviously you could get lucky (or unlucky in this instance) and make a beeline straight for the exit, but it's definitely part of the fun to just get yourself lost in there. Me and my friend even got dragged into a room at one point, forced to kneel down and have a moo-off. 10/10 would do again. The Crows of Mawkin Meadow Gonna keep this one short and sweet - it's just as eerie as always. The Crows will forever be one of my favourite Fright Nights characters and concrete proof that loud doesn't always mean scary within scare attractions. They utilised all of that extra space perfectly too and I loved the little tents with concept art and stuff hung up on the walls. Creature Campus Gonna keep this one short too - it's much better than I expected. Dance shows aren't really my 'thing', but considering we had just got off Stealth and was like 3 minutes until the show began, I thought I'd give it a watch and was very pleasantly surprised. Good dancing, good music, but slightly awkward ending that left a lot of people standing around in silence wondering what was happening - nobody applauded as I don't think anybody really thought that's where it ended. I suppose it's a bit difficult to establish an 'ending' for a dance show though, so probably just part and parcel of that type of experience. Lucifer's Lair This was great too. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I really liked it. The guy playing Lucifer hollering out and just ripping into everybody walking past was fun to sit and observe too, with security even having to step in a couple of times due to people actually getting triggered and chatting back 💀 How people can't see that it's just a character, and that 'it aint that deep bro'. Misc Also agree re the themed audio and parkwide audio this year. With the exception of Detonator, it was very weak across the board this year. I love the Stealth default launch audio - don't get me wrong - but it's definitely one of those attractions that absolutely warrants themed audio for every event considering (at current) it is the park's staple, leading attraction. Also, if you choose the 6pm-9pm timeslots for mazes, consider your night ride time extremely limited. I went on a Tuesday before kids have broken up from school, which by all accounts was considered a 'quiet' day, and still only ended up with just about an hour's worth of night rides. I can only imagine this will be even worse, if not impossible, once the kids have broken up from school. Next time I'll probably take the discount and go for the 3pm-6pm slots instead and just allow myself to enjoy the rest of the evening riding the coasters - especially if all of the mazes are indoors again like they are this year. Also, to answer my previous question about whether Ghost Train shuts early on Fright Nights... it doesn't. It was on a 15 minute queuetime at closing time on Tuesday, however it's worth noting that it didn't actually open until 3pm, which I thought was a bit odd. I'd have thought the park would want to have actors in Walking Dead and Ghost Train early before they have to be pulled out and out in mazes, but I guess not!

Observing the white supports going in yesterday was pretty surreal to be honest. The size already makes the coaster look so foreboding, I was seriously struggling to work out just how much higher it could go before realising that I was looking at the supports for the turnaround inversion, and not even the main drop - so it’s going to be SIGNIFICANTLY taller! She is going to be an absolute monster and I cannot bloody wait.

Long, LONG overdue in my opinion. Although the infinity symbol and colourscheme is iconic at this point, it's undeniable that a new, refreshed logo is well overdue at this point. The infinity style logo has been around since 2001, and the 'newest' iteration of said infinity logo has been around since 2008, so the industry (and certainly graphic design) has evolved since then. If the new Hyperia logo is anything to go by, I think we're in safe hands for the rebrand.

I'm pretty sure the park have said that the floating carriage illusion had to go because the illusion was Derren's intellectual property and therefore they couldn't use it for the rebrand, which makes sense but is a bit of a bummer because it was by far the best illusion on DBGT. It's a shame they couldn't have replicated something similar for the new version, although I must admit the new 'station' theming works pretty well (just not as well as the floating carriage did). That's pretty disappointing for you about the nuns to be honest - the first time I rode on opening day we had two nuns come out on the train (albeit wearing horrendously cheap halloween costumes) and the most recent times I rode we only had one. I guess with it being Fright Nights now, the park are pretty limited on their actor numbers and I'm already aware of one person from Ghost Train that is also working in a Fright Nights maze, so I'd imagine it's the same for the majority of the Ghost Train actors too. This is a shame though, because imo the park shouldn't be taking actors away from a staple attraction for an event, as that then gives a crap experience for those looking to ride Ghost Train with reduced actors. Did you ride Ghost Train after 3pm by chance? If so I guess that makes sense as to why there wasn't any on there as they were likely working the scaremazes instead. Hopefully you get a better runthrough next time! It's a common thing I'm hearing even with the Fright Nights mazes this year - some runthroughs are great and others are totally mediocre - and this is definitely the case with Ghost Train too. My run on opening day was fantastic, but my runs a few weeks ago were absolutely abysmal - but at least with Ghost Train you're not paying for the potential of it being bad, and it's only the time queueing that you waste if it is!

probably none, considering Black Mirror is Netflix's intellectual property 💀

Exciting! I wonder how much will be up by the end of the season...

Does Ghost Train run all evening until park close, or does it shut early to allow actors to head into mazes? I know the park have said that The Walking Dead won't be running with actors this Fright Nights as they're needed elsewhere in mazes, so wondered if the same happens with Ghost Train. I also really do think the park have missed a trick this year by not offering something like 'Ghost Train: EXTREME' for Fright Nights (especially considering this is its opening year, so would make sense to maximise the advertising for the attraction by essentially piggybacking off its 'NEW for 2023' motif). I'd have preferred something like this for Fright Nights this year rather than the return of Trailers... again. They could've really amped up the scares everywhere in the attraction. I understand that it would then limit the people that can ride it, but perhaps if they made the switch from say 6pm - that way it essentially gets its full day of operations, and gets 'amped up' after the sun goes down (which is when the attraction would normally close outside of events anyway). I've said it every year - even with Derren Brown's Ghost Train - that the park are seriously missing a trick by not doing something extra with it for Fright Nights. The same goes for Towers with The Curse this year - if they did something like Duel: Live! again but for The Curse, it would go down an absolute treat (imagine the Emily Alton figure just before (what used to be) the Hide and Seek scene, instead being a live actor providing a jumpscare!)

My issue isn't so much it sounding similar to Hyperion (although I still do think it's a fairly valid point, but nowhere near as big of an issue as people are making it out to be), but that it is just a bit... corny? It's a hypercoaster and just feels like a cheap attempt to cram 'hyper' into the name - yes, members of the GP probably won't know what a 'hypercoaster' is, and yes, I know that 'Hyperia' is a Greek goddess so is fairly clever having those play together - but something about it just makes me cringe a little. All in all though, the bottom line is that Thorpe are getting a new rollercoaster next year, and it's going to be one that rivals big boys from overseas. The name and 'interesting' colourscheme mean nothing whilst you're riding it - I can't wait for next season. Crazy how 2024 is such an insane year for rollercoasters in this country - 30 years on from the notorious year of the rollercoaster, 1994! Let's just hope it doesn't take another 30 years for the next batch of big investment across the country 😂

Yeah the soundtrack definitely screams 'Imascore' to me, but equally wouldn't be surprised if Archie did it instead. Depends on how much budget was left I suppose 😂

It's a shame it wasn't like that again though because Exodus is an indefinitely better name than Hyperia 😂

I take it back, I think we could be looking at something big tonight actually. John Burton has posted a countdown on his Instagram story, and now it looks as if there's banners waiting to be unveiled on the bridge. They're rolled up at the minute, but looking at the side you can definitely tell it's in the Exodus black & gold branding. This is a lot of teasing and effort for a simple "hey we've gone vertical!" announcement. I'm now set on us either having a name reveal or at the very least the beginning of the marketing rollout happening tonight. Perhaps if there's no name reveal (as I said, although it's looking unlikely the trademark application will be rejected, it is still sat waiting for any objections so doesn't really make sense to go all out in the case of a last-minute objection) we'll at least get an idea for the theming. Project Exodus is about to get very, very real ladies and gentlemen!

Cheers, kids crying now. I still bloody hate that name. But in all seriousness, it's not been approved *just* yet - its current status is Application Published (which is further than the Icarus application got), but it still means it's sat there waiting for any objections - I don't think it'll be a name reveal just yet, but there's been a lot of movement on site today regarding supports, so if it starts to go vertical at any point today - that'll likely be what the 'announcement' is.

I think the main issue is that Thorpe Park always fill these mazes to the absolute brim with actors for these press nights, so doesn't necessarily truly represent the quality of the mazes for your average consumer. All these press outlets and 'VIPs' (I wouldn't class Z-list celebrities as VIPs perse, but whatever floats Thorpe's boat) will be ranting and raving about the quality of mazes that they receive tonight, but it's very unlikely for that level of maze quality to be consistent throughout the rest of the event. Of course, that's through absolutely no fault of your own though, and definitely do think you keep your reviews as levelheaded on this basis as possible compared to a lot of other outlets - but I understand it's quite hard to judge a maze on scares if you're not sure the level of scare quality after press night.

Supports on site! Vertical construction soon™️

Rode Ghost Train twice a couple of weeks ago and even though I still don't think it's nearly as bad as people make it out to be, I still do have a fair few gripes with it. Firstly, I'll list some of the changes that I noticed since my first runthrough on opening day: The actor doing the batching into the preshow gives more of a talk at the start now - you know, your usual health and safety stuff really. Don't touch the actors, turn your phones off, etc. Not a huge fan of it and prefer the more simplistic approach that they had on opening day of the batching person just telling people to "keep moving, keep standing", but understand that this is needed because of morons unable to grasp the fact that you should never touch an actor. Got held in the second preshow space in both runthroughs, and although not a new feature, this is something I didn't get to experience in my first go as we were just all ushered straight through onto the train. I like it, I wish more time was made so that everybody can experience is regardless if there's a delay or not, but again I understand the reasons for this not being the case. The runner in the crypt that reveals the spirit has finally been painted black! Makes the reveal a lot less obvious now... however on my second runthrough of the day, the curtain hiding said spirit was open - so if you knew what to look for, you could literally see it sat there ready to come flying out. But on the other hand, the lighting for this still really is atrocious. It's a total blink-and-you-miss-it moment. I took my friend on it for his first ever runthroughs of it, and I still don't think he noticed it after even our second go to be honest. The lighting either needs a rework, or the effect needs to be totally stripped out and re-looked at over closed season to be more effective. I personally think if they removed the rails that make it fly overhead and perhaps make an even bigger model (think the size of Emily Alton in the final jumpscare in The Curse, maybe even bigger) come out from the wall? Could probably be done via some retractable arm - that way it can be a big jumpscare moment that stays in place for long enough for guests to actually notice it, rather than having it whiz over the top of guests heads and risk them not even seeing it. The audio on the train seemed better, but still needs more work to be genuinely scary in my opinion. It's still far too quiet for any of the jumpscare sound effects to be genuinely impactful - I think the main issue is a real lack of bass. The nun costumes are significantly better now - actual robes and face makeup rather than the god awful Tesco halloween costume junk they were using beforehand. Not sure if it was a quiet day for actors then or if the park have reduced the actors in the attraction (already), but we only had one nun on the train in both our runthroughs that day which does significantly dampen the scare if you're on the wrong side of the train... which we were. Twice. The fake shop ending is still pretty decent and the new costume they're using for it is miles better than the Thorpe Park blue fleece they were using on opening day - although is nowhere near as impactful as the demon from Derren's heyday. Yes, I'm still salty about that. On our first runthrough we also experienced a breakdown on the train after the crypt scene - the actors were doing their best to keep up the breakdown monologue as to not disrupt the experience, but the breakdown lasted long enough that you could notice the audio loop which got a bit awkward after a while. Really got to feel for those actors as they need to be on their A game 110% of the time - if you've got lacklustre actors, the attraction falls completely flat on its face (which, to be honest, is not something we had trouble with. All of the actors did an incredible job - especially the lady called Becca, who's the current face for Fright Nights. She puts all her energy into this attraction and it really pays off). We also had the fake shop finale actor come out about 30 seconds too early on our first runthrough which totally spoiled the scare - they came through the fake door before the lights and projector even turned off, so you could see everything. They then just stood there looking around waiting for the lights to go off so they could do the usual scare thing of just lurching at people from behind the fence. A real shame as it totally ruined the experience for a lot of us when the very last thing of the attraction (which usually provides an amazing scare tbh) falls flat on its face. I really hope they put a little bit more time and energy into Ghost Train over closed season, things I'm longing for are: Something over the windows to simulate movement - perhaps curtains or LED strip lights like on Sub-Terra's elevator section Fogger in the crypt to absolutely cover the floor in a thick fog to sell the illusion that you're in a crypt Everything else works for what the attraction is to be honest, it just needs tidying up and some effects need enhancing to really sell the complete package.

Yeah that’s pretty accurate but most of the white supports were in higher number piles - from what I assume (I forgot to ask a Thorpe employee 🙃), the supports that are by their retrospective signposts determine the order in which they’re going to be installed - the supports by the number 1 signpost were primarily gold from what I remember, so at the very least I think we’ll see some gold supports installed to clear some space, and as they’re being installed there’ll be more deliveries that come in and it’ll probably keep going like that until all deliveries have been made.

Me! 🙋🏻‍♂️ Surprising to see the island pretty much completely full of supports now! Definitely can’t be many (if any) more deliveries until installation starts at this point - I’m not sure where else they could put them! 😂

Probably best just to observe how it goes for a few days and then make a decision, I reckon it’ll be pretty 50/50 tbh! A decent portion won’t care about the darkness and will be chuffed to pay less, and another decent portion will want the full creepy experience and will exclusively do the mazes in the dark. I could be very wrong though (which is why I’d advise holding back for a few days to see what the general consensus is) but I really do reckon it’ll be close to a 50/50 split - families will def prefer to do the cheaper daytime mazes, I guarantee it.

Ah yes, that would make more sense 😂 I knew it was something along those lines...

There's a sign for each coaster that follows this exact style - Exodus' sign isn't unique so I wouldn't look too deep into that. It's just supposed to look like signposts that describe how difficult a hike would be... how that fits in to absolutely anything going on at the park at the minute is anybody's guess 😂 100% going to be Greek themed, 100% going to be called Hyperia. (Obviously not officially confirmed, but may as well be at this point) I agree that Exodus doesn't fit in with the Greek theme, however I would definitely take a theme change in exchange for it... although the only theme that I could imagine it correlating to would be aliens and that'd definitely be stepping on SWARM's toes.

It's been pointed out to me since that Hyperia is the daughter of the river god Inachus in ancient Greek mythology, so whilst I still think it's a bit of a cop out (loosely connecting ancient Greek mythology with the fact that Exodus is a hypercoaster) this does certainly make it at least a little better in my book. This ticks a lot of boxes... Exodus either being themed around Ancient Egyptian or Ancient Greek mythology Exodus being built on a lake therefore naming it after the daughter of a Greek god that was 'the river god' That weird angel thing that was left over from Loggers Leap looks like it could fit in with Greek mythology As far as I'm concerned, the name is 100% going to be Hyperia at this point - all signs point towards it. To be honest, I'd have preferred 'Inachus' if I was making the decision - but I suppose that doesn't give them the double-meaning that Hyperia does. It'll grow on me, I'm sure... but at the minute I still think Exodus is an infinitely better name.

Interesting that they’re still running with this, even after updating the signage and whatnot outside of the attraction indicating that it’s more of a theatrical experience than a ride - maybe the website slipped through the net somehow 😂

Literally my favourite part of the whole attraction (aside from see it, say it, sorted of course) 😂 Nice to see them still working on it - I really hope we get some more drastic changes made over closed season though, like fixing audio balancing issues, some sort of effect to simulate movement outside of the windows (I don't care what it is, anything is better than black paint), better costumes for the nuns in the train finale, painting that god damn runner black in the crypt!!! All relatively simple changes to be made, but can totally understand why none of them could really be made whilst the park were operational. I'll always have a soft spot for Ghost Train, and it always makes me happy when I see people praising it for what it is - a goofy, fun theatrical experience. People should be treating it like a Dungeons attraction, because that's exactly what it is. The balance of scares and comedy is identical to that inside of a Dungeons attraction, and when you take a step back and evaluate it on that level - it's a bloody good attraction. But if you analyse it on a terrifying ghost train ride level though - of course it'll fall flat - because that's not what the ride is, nor is it what it's trying to be.

I think it'll just end up being an auction of old Duel props to be honest