coasterverse

I'm really afraid to get too optimistic about this project, but it is really difficult not to. The recent Merlin investments have been absolutely top notch, and if The Curse at Alton Manor is anything to go by this project could be incredible. I still have my reservations about if it's even possible to overhaul this attraction in such a way that it turns an abysmal attraction like Derren Brown (I still really enjoyed the concept though, but just horrendous execution unforunately) into something incredible. The transit system will obviously be exactly the same, so it's all down to how they execute the story on the train itself and designing a good plot and visually appealing sets when you're not on the train. All the signs right now are absolutely pointing in the right direction - but who knows what to expect inside of the building itself. The exterior has always been very visually impressive, but was just let down by the poor storyline and execution inside the attraction. Let's hope this isn't the case this time around too!

It really just doesn't make sense to have the screen there anymore - they don't have the pre-opening countdown ritual anymore, so what is the actual point of it? Sure it's just a ballache to maintain AND costs them electricity all the while. Most people just go straight under it and through the turnstiles without as much as even a glance. Totally agree, either replace or just get rid. In an ideal world the entire entrance to the park needs a total overhaul as it really does look like you're queuing to get into a prison at the minute, but in the meantime PLEASE fix or replace the screen.

This is the issue that the park have - they tend to buy things in bulk at once, and therefore once one thing starts to age... so does everything else. Obviously it's cost effective for them to buy flat rides etc in bulk when new for discounts etc, but when they start needing major refurbishment all at once, that's a hell of a lot of money for rides that can't really be justified having that much money spent on them.

Chapel Station is almost certainly the place where the train is stopped in the most recent promotional picture

Big fan of the Thorpe Rail branding too, not sure I'm so much of a fan of the way 'Ghost Train' has been shoehorned into the signage. As always though I'll reserve my full judgement until its in place, but I do really like how deep they're going with the whole Thorpe Rail stuff - hopefully will lull you into a false sense of security.

Sign is ready for installation! Still not sure what to make of it though…

Yeah exactly, I wouldn't expect anything too big and glamourous (other than the coaster itself! 😍) as it simply just doesn't need it. The coaster is a statement in itself, it really doesn't need much else. Not saying that I think it would be a bad thing to have a massively themed hyper, quite the opposite in fact, but having the UK's tallest coaster will be enough of a crowd pleaser. The layout still leaves quite a lot to be desired (mostly because of its length), but what we do have on the layout is going to make for an immense coaster experience regardless.

I think you're pretty spot on there to be honest - most of the expense is going towards building the UK's tallest rollercoaster, which will be enough of a selling point to most of the general public anyway, so not expecting masses of theming to be honest... but never say never! I'd like a fairly basic station, with some misc. theming structures scattered on the ground (like The Swarm, but obviously not a massive destroyed aircraft or anything like that)... and if it is an Egyptian theme, I wouldn't be opposed to some destroyed sphynx-like structures and things like that!

Whilst I do agree that that piece of theming specifically isn't directly related to Exodus, I really do feel like once the project is revealed and the theme is discovered, we'll look back on it and say "ahhh, so that's why they left it there for so long!". Thorpe love to put things right in your face from the start so you can look back and realise that all the information you needed was right there from the start. I personally don't think it's any coincidence that the theming piece on the station building is pretty similar to the old Logger's Leap theming piece. Whilst I believe that it's technically nothing to do with Exodus (as it quite literally is just a piece of theming from the previous attraction), I also believe that it's intentionally been left there as a nod to what's to come.

I definitely feel like that theming piece is definitely still standing for a reason... if you take a look at the planning documents, you can see that there is a piece of theming on the station building that actually (now that you mention it!) very closely resembles that piece of theming... so I definitely think it's intentional:

Me again, back for another flip-flop! Two posters in Trailers that originally had no meaning, both for X:\ODUS and Tutu's Revenge. X:\ODUS obviously we now know is the project name for this coaster, but Tutu's Revenge seemingly is still totally random, right..? Here's the Project Exodus colour palette, now take a look at a better picture of the Tutu's Revenge poster: Hmm... very interesting. The exact same colour scheme. Contradicting my above post about Egypt being a desert and therefore the lake being a strange idea... take a look at the tagline for Tutu's Revenge... 'The Nile has a thousand eyes'. And what is the Nile? A river. So now I'm back on trend for this being an egyptian themed coaster, and I'm even going as far as speculating that the name of the coaster will be Tutu's Revenge.

Good point - I was just about to hop on to say that I'm starting to doubt my prediction of an egyptian theme now (although don't get me wrong, I still think there's unlimited amounts of potential with such a concept and could be SO good if done right), mainly because the ride is obviously predominantly over the lake... doesn't quite fit the narrative of going for a desert theme does it. Out of a mountain theme or an ancient Egyptian theme, I would choose the Egyptian theme any day of the week - but the more I sit and think about it, I'm leaning more towards it being the former rather than the latter. Don't get me wrong, a mountain theme could also be pretty immense, but can't help but feel like you're fairly limited by what you can do theming wise with such a theme versus ancient Egypt... you've got hieroglyphics, mummies, etc which would all make for incredible theming. Whereas mountains? You've got the height and that's pretty much it. I know the station doesn't look like it'll host a preshow, but I'd really like there to be one. I'd love for Exodus to be a complete encapsulating experience from the queue, ride duration all the way back into the station. At the very least, on board audio would be amazing (and something Thorpe haven't done yet!)

My first thought with that style of colour scheme is perhaps ancient egypt? Could be very very wrong, but could be a sick theming concept imo

I think it's just going to be the exact old ride experience, probably with the same motion platform configuration, minus the virtual reality. I'm super interested to see how the live actors are going to work - will the train be able to stop to pick up actors and let them off before you board/deboard the train? Surely if there's live actors trying to scare you on a tube train that nobody can enter or exit whilst in motion is going to make for a super awkward experience? It's not like there's lots of room inside of the train for there to be jumpscares that aren't ridiculously predictable. Maybe they'll focus on screen-based, motion platform scares and the occasional ride host scare whilst on the train, and actor-led scares in the scenes outside of the train? Unless they're planning on severely toning down the amount of time you spend on the train itself, I can't see this being the option.

Yeah, exactly that. Way too modern, doesn't even fit with the 'modern-ish' aesthetic they're going with the white and blue facade. That font style is like 2020 era, so way too modern even for that.

Hot take (possibly), but if the logo for Ghost Train is the one used on the initial teaser campaign, I'm not a fan. I actually really liked the Derren Brown logo and think it really works for a ghost train. The one used on the teaser video is too generic and does not, even in the slightest, represent a 'Ghost Train' to me.

I have way too much of an interest in this ride for what it was... noticed that there's never been any high resolution copies of the DBGT logo (especially none without that horrendous drop shadow thing!), so I did my best to recreate it. Managed to get a low resolution version of the logo, painstakingly removed the drop shadow, used Illustrator to trace it, turned it into a vector, imported to Photoshop and tried my best to replicate the blue glow thing 😪 Nobody will probably use it for anything ever and is probably just an annoyance me and only me has ever had, but I can finally rest at last! Hey, at least if I ever need the logo for any content I've finally got something to use 😂

I just had a feeling it would’ve been. Props to him though, it is VERY good! Makes you wonder how much creative input he’s had in this entire attraction… 🤔 because he must’ve sat in MMM meetings etc to gauge what to use for creative advertising, so wonder if he’s had any creative input

Does my eye look okay to you?

Especially because we had a teaser video to announce the rebrand but nothing else since. Unless they're planning on running a TV ad (which I think is highly unlikely), I think this is going to end up as a pretty lowkey thing. I bet they're not wanting to pump loads of money into advertising as they'll have to do exactly the same thing probably towards the end of this year/start of next year to advertise Exodus.

Could just be wishful thinking, but looks like you can see through the first window on the left, no? Obviously you can see the reflection of the carriage in the window, but to the veeeeeery right of the window you can see some light peeking through? I really hope we don't just have black windows. At the very least I'd take mostly black screens with an occasional bit of fog rolling through. I just really can't see having no windows being immersive. Loving the weathering effects in the carriage though! Almost looks like a real tube ripped from the central line 😂 but in all seriousness, it's looking ominous as all hell - loving the grim reaper figure! I'd give anything for a behind the scenes video right about now - I'm dying to know what it looks like inside that building!!

Hot take, but I didn't actually mind The Smiler Takeover. Sure, it was horrendously cringe in X-Sector with these blatant 'we need to have some event specific entertainment so lets see what we can come up with' shoe-horned stages but some of the props that they used in the various queuelines were actually pretty cool - the one that comes to mind most significantly is the mannequin in the Th13teen queueline. Granted, it doesn't really fit with the attractions - but I don't think it was ever meant to. I don't like the idea of the theme, nor do I like the idea of the event, but as far as actually executing the event is concerned... it kind of does what it says on the tin, right? It's the Smiler takeover and... well... it took over. I just hope the random bits of theming chucked in the various queuelines are repurposed in the Smiler in some form once the event is finally done with, and I also hope that this year is the end of Festival of Thrills. It didn't work last year, it didn't work this year (although it worked slightly better this year than it did last imo), so I hope they just call it quits. I think this year they just used any old excuse to have ANY event running at ANY point in the season, just to try to entice more return customers. Whether that ends up working for them or not is yet to be seen...

Will be very interesting to see how they execute this if this is actually the case. How will they explain that there's no windows? If this is the case, feels like it's going to break immersion straight away.

I know concept art isn't really anything to go by, but my oh my does that look incredible. Struggling to see how they would recreate such a scene inside that building though - perhaps the second station platform has had all of the walls demolished to open it up as one big room rather than the station, scare maze tunnel and where the infected used to appear on DBGT - but not sure how structually sound that would be 😂 I suppose the building is massive, but I'm not sure how much of the room is taken up by the ride system itself...

Some may also argue that they've plunged their usual advertising budget into the attraction itself... which in hindsight doesn't sound like a good decision if nobody knows the refurbishment is taking place other than those on social media and/or have visited the park 😂 To be fair, the park are fairly limited on what they can do with the attraction itself. Fundamentally, the transit system will remain exactly as it was and is the crux of the attraction - so regardless of what they do with the rest of the scenes, that's all just filler until you get onto the train. Those expecting Duel to Alty Mans level of refurbishment I feel are going to be bitterly disappointed. As a rather generic style ghost train as opposed to Ghost Train at Thorpe Park, the options that Towers had for a refurbishment could've been endless - whereas Thorpe must maintain a transit system that's effectively just a stationary train (for the most part) on a motion platform. I'd love for some more physical effects though. The fake train crash scene in the original iteration of DBGT was brilliant - but horrendously unrealiable for whatever reason. More of that please, but make it reliable.