coasterverse

Trailers has definitely been one of the weakest mazes as of late - I just don’t understand why some people love it so much. I hope it’s either on the way out this year or heavily rethemed inside. Three years of Trailers without any real changes is nothing short of laziness imo.

I've not done it either, but not heard raving reviews about it to be honest. Definitely not on par with Fright Nights mazes as it's (from what I've heard) massively toned down for a younger audience. As someone that has never found Trailers even remotely scary, I reckon I'll definitely be steering clear of Bozo's.

A great idea coming out of the annual passholders group this evening, but I can't help but be a little frustrated that passholders are still required to pay so much money?! I understand that it's so they can pump more money into Fright Nights (apparently), but honestly as the years go by it seems that annual passholders are receiving less and less perks and feels like they're trying to totally phase out the extras other than free entry at this point. Fright Nights/Scarefest maze tickets only being discounted and not free (there's no reason why they couldn't be for passholders), Alton Towers Dungeons at Towers being discounted rather than free for passholders... I'm sure the list goes on, but surely you would want to reward those that are opting to either pay a large sum of money annually for their pass, or paying an ongoing monthly fee to support the company. This is definitely a Merlin-wide issue and not a park specific issue - but bringing it back to Thorpe specifically, I've said it countless times that I honestly don't see that big of a Fright Nights improvement since they introduced paid mazes. Take The Big Top for example - a free entry maze that easily levels (if not surpasses) the experience of Trailers. Survival Games being the big investment for last year, but even that I don't see how that is the biggest Fright Nights investment to date? The building is just big. The quality of scares isn't any greater than it was pre-paid era Fright Nights, so what is the point honestly? Fright Nights is one of the busiest (if not, the busiest) time of year for the park - if they're not able to make free mazes work financially with the amount of income they must be receiving on a daily basis through the doors in admission and merch sales alone, then surely something needs to be looked at internally rather than passing the buck to the guests. The value of Fright Nights compared to any other scare attraction over the halloween season is unprecedented. Their mazes for the most part are weak and are charged each time you want to go through. Most scare attractions from what I see have moved away from this model now and are now allowing their guests to do the scare mazes multiple times for the price of admission - which is how it should be in my opinion. The only leg up that Thorpe Park (and all the other Merlin parks offering a Halloween event) have on them is that they have rollercoasters to compliment the lineup. That's it.

Totally hit the nail on the head there - it's an alright attraction that I'd be much more appreciative of if it was unexpectedly nestled inside of another attraction, but if I was to go out of my way to purposefully experience this at a theme park I would be super disappointed. I suppose the good thing is that it never really attracts very long queues (unless Ghost Train is down and it's a super hot day and people are just looking for shelter for a few minutes), so at the end of the day it's not a massive waste of time... just a small waste of time instead. I've done the attraction twice, maybe three times, in the 2 years it's been open and I must admit that I have never seen an attraction fall into disrepair in such a small timeframe before. Then again, Black Mirror (the TV show)'s glory days are definitely over, and to be honest I think that's been the case since it moved to Netflix. Out of the entire series 6, I think I've only seen praise for one or two episodes. I've seen it and it's bloody awful for the most part - so maybe it does make sense not to pump too much time and effort into it.

Wish they'd do some tidying up if they're using it for advertising - can't help but imagine anybody pulled in by this advert would go away bitterly disappointed in its current state (not that it was ever really anything to rant or rave about anyway)

I'd ruddy love that. Thorpe as a fully fledged thrill park should've leant into this hard and just gone for an all out, super scary attraction. I was saying to my friend just the other day that I think theme parks should be more ballsy and do something like this, and a park like Thorpe would be the perfect location for an all out scare attraction designed from the ground up for thrills. I agree that Facebook seems to be the cesspit of negative reviews for the attraction, which (to be fair actually) probably best represents the general public out of any social media platform. But elsewhere, I'm definitely seeing more of a 50/50 split - which regardless of how you see things is still a massive improvement from Derren Brown, which was universally slated by a much larger portion than 50%. Unfortunately because of the transit system limitations, I don't see this being a fixture for any longer than 4/5 years before making way for another dark ride attraction, totally gutted (possibly even demolished and rebuilt) and literally done from the ground up again. It's a shame that it couldn't be made to work - had the limitations not been so strong such as there not being enough room in the tunnels to allow for adding screens into the windows, I really think this attraction could've worked. Ultimately it all comes down to the fact that it was built from the ground up for virtual reality. The idea of the virtual reality being the thing that held them back clearly didn't come across their minds at all, and now they're stuck with a ride not big enough for any modifications to make it really work without it. What it tries to do I think it does very well, but definitely no longevity.

whilst we're at it, bring back the hanging carriage, the virtual reality, fake train in tunnel, staff brushing your legs on the train, generic coughing man in white tshirt, and put derren brown back in the preshow please

Oh yeah don't get me wrong I'm totally not expecting them to invest tonnes into it now, I think for the most part this is as it shall stay until the next attraction comes along - however I do think that minor thing such as additional scenery and better costumes would help improve the overall experience tenfold. I think it's so close to actually being a decent dark ride attraction at this point, it just needs a couple of bits finetuned to get it finalised. Something to give a stronger illusion of movement inside the train - curtains and LEDs is the cheapest option if screens in the windows is out of the question Low-laying fog on the ground in the crypt to give it the eerie atmosphere that it needs. Perhaps some gravestones scattered around too Paint the runner for the overhead ghost in the crypt Get higher quality nun costumes for the final train scare Move the TVs back to behind the counter as they were on Derren Brown so the hidden door in the fake shop is less obvious Those are my only remaining niggles with the attraction as it currently stands. They are all inexpensive to do for the most part (on a Merlin budget), but none of it would change the experience in any way, just enhance what's already there - which is what I feel the attraction needs. This is all stuff that could easily be done over closed season and I really hope it does.

This is what I find so interesting about the new Ghost Train - the opinion is very much divided down the middle by the looks of things. I'm very much on the opposite side, but also totally agree with a lot of what you've mentioned. I think, personally, it's leaps and bounds better than its predecessor. Agreed, it is absolutely still a massive problem child for the park, but the fact that the attraction is no longer tied to an IP will hopefully give them the wiggle room to turn it around. Whether they'll actually do that, though, or just decide that Ghost Train's annual budget is best spent elsewhere and just let the attraction run into the ground is yet to be seen. If the park continues to reinvest in the attraction and keep it fresh and new (a new storyline every year or two would be awesome, or at the very least a revised version for Fright Nights!) it'll be fantastic. The preshow doesn't hit the same as Derren Brown for me, personally. Derren Brown's pepper's ghost effect was incredibly well done, Ghost Train v2 isn't. It's very much apparant (not sure if it's just because corners were cut budget-wise) that the ghost is very flat and 2D - there was something about Derren's 'ghost' that made him feel much more third dimensional. Maybe it was because it started with him sat in a physical chair and picking up an object that looked to be real just sat on the table, but the new ghost just doesn't have the same oompf. They could've just achieved the same effect by just projecting the video onto a screen. Although the attraction has been in the works for over a year, I really do think this iteration of the Ghost Train is a stopgap until there's more budget to tie up the loose ends either next year or at some point in the not too distant future. The attraction is clearly a massive improvement (in my opinion) over Derren Brown, but there's definitely still missing pieces to the puzzle. The crypt definitely needs some sort of low-laying fog on the ground when you enter it to give it that sense of being a graveyard. A couple of scattered tombstones inside of it could really help sell the effect too - and for not much money either as the fog would do most of the heavy lifting. I mean, the floor has still got the fake train tracks running along it! Doesn't make sense for a crypt whatsoever. The costumes for the finale need improvement too - it's so horrendously generic. The storyline is definitely there, it just needs streamlining to make it more linear. It gets set up pretty perfectly in the preshow, but gets lost in translation after that point I found. I have massive high hopes for the attraction, and I hope there's some budget left over for 2024 to give it the final bit of TLC that it deserves - providing it doesn't all get eaten up by Exodus.

Trailers needs to do one in my opinion - I never understood the hype. I experienced it in its first year and thought it was absolutely dire - the scenes are ridiculously small, so much so that you can see and anticipate all of the scares well ahead of time. I think it's trying to do too much in too small of a space, it would be so much better if they just reduced the amount of scenes, therefore giving the remaining ones much more space to play with. I never experienced Survival Games as I didn't go to Fright Nights last year, but yeah I agree with the general consensus that it's 99.9% guaranteed to stay for the foreseeable. But from what I saw online, the space is fairly generic so could fairly easily be spruced up every/every other year to fit a different narrative. I like that it's a multi-route free flow maze in a decently sized building - a maze of this scale warrants the upcharge imo, some of the smaller ones not so much. I feel like Creek Freak is definitely going to return in some form, probably just as a scarezone around the old Old Town area and will probably fairly strongly reference Exodus. Maybe we'll even get something completely different in the area that will drop hints about Exodus' name and theme (in hindsight this sounds more likely). The Crows were probably the strongest thing to come out of Fright Nights '21. The park are seriously missing a trick if there's not a Crows maze of some sort this year - they are a perfect example to prove that jumpscares don't always need to be loud and involve sound effects and flashing lights. They do the job of being perfectly eerie just stood around watching you and then stomping towards you as a jumpscare.

Pretty sure someone in the passholder group mentioned this and the park didn't confirm nor deny, just that they couldn't confirm the specifics - not that they would if this was the case anyway, I'm sure they'll want to avoid the mass hysteria from the general public.

Preshow still the same length etc? I remember them saying the downtime was mainly to try to help with throughput, so wonder what they actually did to do that...

Great use of 4 whole days then... 😂 I presume the runner in the crypt is still white and the lighting's not been fixed so you can see the ghoul better? Are the TV's in the fake shop still bleeding light even when they're only displaying black so you can see the hidden door open still?

Excited to hear it!

Not been down yet, but I think it's a very small likelihood - something like this I reckon will need a fair bit longer to achieve, so will probably get done over closed season. I've seen lots of good reviews on Twitter, but haven't seen anybody go into detail as to what's actually been changed yet though!

This was my initial thought too, but I wonder why 🤔 Unless it's for some sort of television show, I can't really imagine why Thorpe themselves would need to film anything on those coasters! Even so though, the question remains as to why they can't just film outside of park hours instead 😂

It really is strange... what on earth could they be doing to warrant only a 45 minute delay on opening? If whatever they're doing only takes 45 minutes, why can't they just do it when the park is closed?!

Fantastic! Cutting down the preshow and some of the scenes on the train (I personally don't feel like this is needed, but others apparently do!) Making the walk from Chapel Station to the crypt more engaging rather than just a long black corridor Repainting the colour of the runner in the crypt scene Fixing lighting on the ghoul in the crypt scene Adding something to the windows to make it feel more realistic - I don't think it'll be screens (annoyingly) because of what they've already mentioned, but curtains at the very least would solve the problem indefinitely better Audio improvements everywhere on the attraction to make jumpscares more impactful and less predictable Moving the TV screens back to where they used to be in DBGT in the fake shop scenario to fix the light bleed revealing the hidden door for the jumpscare Adding a new actor to the fake shop scene in a costume rather than the Thorpe Park uniform Adding a noticeboard outside of the attraction mentioning that it's an actor-led experience rather than a ride That's one down! I've already seen a post on the passholders group praising the adjustments, so that's awesome to hear! Anybody there today/this weekend to verify what those adjustments are? I opted not to be there this weekend as I didn't think the changes would be substantial enough to warrant another solo trip right now... beginning to regret that decision now! Thorpe replied to the comment saying that there's still more tweaks to come as well - I cannot begin to express how nice it is that after all these years, Thorpe are finally listening to the general public and giving them what they want. The future is definitely bright for Thorpe Park - it makes me so, so excited.

I reckon another bit of a retheme was always on the cards over the winter season anyway, a bit like they did with Derren Brown. It'd be a logistical nightmare to massively upgrade components during the season as it would require much more than just 4 days of downtime and therefore would definitely not look good in the eyes of the general public having a brand new (lol) attraction closed for a long period of time in the same season it opened in. Those vocal with the changes all seem to be echoing the same things, so I'd be very surprised if the following changes weren't made for next season, or at the very least this weekend once it reopens (SPOILER WARNING): Cutting down the preshow and some of the scenes on the train (I personally don't feel like this is needed, but others apparently do!) Making the walk from Chapel Station to the crypt more engaging rather than just a long black corridor Repainting the colour of the runner in the crypt scene Fixing lighting on the ghoul in the crypt scene Adding something to the windows to make it feel more realistic - I don't think it'll be screens (annoyingly) because of what they've already mentioned, but curtains at the very least would solve the problem indefinitely better Audio improvements everywhere on the attraction to make jumpscares more impactful and less predictable Moving the TV screens back to where they used to be in DBGT in the fake shop scenario to fix the light bleed revealing the hidden door for the jumpscare Adding a new actor to the fake shop scene in a costume rather than the Thorpe Park uniform Adding a noticeboard outside of the attraction mentioning that it's an actor-led experience rather than a ride It's a real shame there's not more room to achieve a good quality pepper's ghost effect in the fake shop ending - having a full apperition of the station master appearing on the stage where the jumpscare happened to do his cringy "this is SOUL REDEMPTION" spiel would look much better than it just happening on a TV screen.

Definitely was there for my runthrough on the Friday, so perhaps it’s just inconsistent… *shock horror* 😂

Perhaps it's only played as a transition once the weather report has finished then maybe? Saying that... I'm almost certain the weather report was playing when I heard it, so who knows! Maybe it's on some sort of timer to prevent it from running constantly? Side note... genuinely surprised there's not been any sneaky Ghost Train POV's uploaded yet! I give it until the end of the 6 weeks holidays 😂

(Sorry for the double post!) It’s played in the second pre show batching area just after the stairs. It’s designed to be a passing feature though as you’ll only ever be held here if there’s a delay with the train, so not unusual that you didn’t hear it! If it wasn’t for my secret voice note recording for my first (and so far only!) run through I probably would’ve forgotten about it too 😂

Couldn’t agree more - the places where humour are used on Ghost Train, is done perfectly. There’s a good amount of time between them in a way that ‘gets you’ every time it happens - if it was too frequent it would be predictable and cringeworthy. The ‘Thorpe Rail’ announcement at the end is a perfect example of good comedic timing too, totally unexpected and I’ve only seen positive reviews of that bit. Also totally understand about the shop ending now - it’s well and truly lost its impact. It was great on DBGT because the audio was balanced perfectly and there was no light leak so you couldn’t see the secret door opening… that’s no longer the case. However, I’m almost certain this is near the top of their agenda to fix over the next 4 days.

Just seems that every few months there's yet another drama with either Taylor or Sarah. The very earliest one I can remember was just them being rude at IAAPA - pretty sure it was something about how B&M didn't want to engage in conversation with them (which is justified considering IAAPA is an industry conference and are therefore there to gain business, not to ponder to the needs of enthusiasts), as well as them pushing to the front of crowds to get footage for their YouTube channel. Here are some tweets from the director of comms taking about it: Another one is that after the tragic incident at Icon Park, they updated the tags on their Icon Park videos to include tags such as 'Icon Park Accident' and 'Icon Park Accident Video' etc to drive more traffic to their content... obviously a very disgusting thing to profit off of such a tragedy. The third thing I can think of right now is that they did a paid promotion for a payday loan company with ridiculous APR levels (I think it was like 1000% or 10,000%?), something which is actually illegal in the UK, but granted not illegal in the states - just pretty immoral to accept money from a company whos profit comes from the less fortunate. Incidents like the above tend to happen every couple of months, so just keep an eye out - I'm sure they're due another one pretty soon.

I can see what you mean about the upbeat bits, but I personally love that element of the new attraction. For me, it's evidently been used to lull you into a false sense of security which I feel works really well. Granted, the weather channel bits are rather odd as I can't imagine them ever being used in a 70s/80s train station and doesn't actually add anything to the narrative I don't think (but then again, in my runthrough we were ushered straight onto the train so I didn't really have a chance to watch it - plus the version in the Ghost Train shop didn't have any audio so couldn't even watch it there). I really like the upbeat music though, and I really think it works. It definitely breaks up the ride experience - you have the eerie preshow which sets the mood, then you immediately get taken out of that mood when in the batching second pre-show area, just to be thrown straight back into the eerie atmosphere again as soon as you board the train. This then happens again at the very end of the ride with the upbeat music just as you get off the train for the last time, which yet again lulls you into a false sense of security for the shop finale. I think it's deliberately been done for that very effect and, granted, it definitely won't be to everybody's taste and I can totally understand why - I just love it.