coasterverse

Aren't most YouTubers generally? Think it's a prerequisite to be dodgy yourself or be involved with dodgy people.

Doesn't sound like massive improvements then if it's less than a week, but very good to know they're actively working on making the experience better. What's everybody's guesses on what 'improvements' these are going to be?

Curtains with lights would be perfect.
Anything which swings….
 
I’ve suggested the lights around the windows on the Facebook post. I know they won’t listen to a random person. However you never know.
 
I’m not sure how possible it would be as it’s not like adding a light strip to your room, it’s setting it up with a ride system too and getting it to work. 
 
On the topic of lighting, I think the lighting when you board is perfect as it sets the mood and the colour of them really sets it as a creepy train carriage. It also hides the lack of detail.

So I’ve just done Ghost Train (Sitting in Last Call as I write this) and have some thoughts.
 
I liked it! As a story led attraction this works far better than DBGT ever did, the experience here is relatively cohesive.
 
Actor led attractions can be difficult, as you really have to hope that the actors are giving it their all at any given time, which can’t always be guaranteed for a number of reasons. My actors today were great, but is the experience going to be consistent for everyone that rides it? Parts of the experience can be a little bit goofy, and if you’re not on board with that I can see why you might come out of this thinking it was a poor experience.
 
Some scenes have relatively scant audio, so parts that are meant to be creepy or scary may not land for some people, I think more carefully directed audio would really improve certain sequences, as without it you can sometimes just have actors awkwardly writhing with nothing giving it any impact. 
 
Nun on the train - good scare in theory and certainly got a few people, but the costume looked a little.. cheap? Some more work could be done on this, I think a better costume would go a long way, at the moment it’s like a man running at you in his Halloween costume.
 
See it, say it, sorted got the biggest reaction from my group. It’s a great joke.
 
Exit shop is another scene that doesn’t have the impact it could, I think some work on the audio could really lift this.
 
I think this is a good attraction with great potential and a little work could go a long. I thought the same things about DBGT, but that would’ve taken a significant investment in order to release that potential, this is so close.

Sorry to double post, just seen this 

I’d say it’s about effect reliability and fine tuning the experience such as acting techniques.

Such as the way actors get people to come in the crypt scene. I thought it was weird the actor was angry before we got off. However when In the crypt he was nice and calm telling people to come in
 
Also that shop sequence better be changed with the actor in some sort of costume. 
 
I’d love to see the screens used again in the carriage and my suggestion about the light effect around the windows used or something similar. 
 
if planned correctly, a lot can be done in 4 days 

Apparently Ghost Train is closing for improvements from Tuesday to Friday next week, according to Thorpe Park on their Facebook group.

Redid the attraction today, a few more thoughts.
 
The windows could light up using a LED strip at the bottom of the window frame to simulate the movement of the train and going past the lights in a tunnel, Similar to Sub Terras lifts. 
 
The Crypt is pretty empty, it’s the size of a dungeons set. However uses about 25% of it!

I’ve seen a few reviews now, it basically pitty. The actors are doing a good job at what they’ve got (which they are) but the experience isn’t there. That’s the general consensus.
 
I’d take Sub Terra over it, having the ride portion makes you feel thrilled. Ghost train gets you scared at most, that’s all. The ride system in ghost train conveys as much story as the “lifts” in subterra.
 
They just need a good dark ride at Thorpe, not like people will be kinder on Ghost train by having a good dark ride. People don’t really want a dungeons styled attraction in the park (see Alton)

Yeah she is getting on a bit now, almost 35 years old. I would love for it to get a bit of love now that Mandrill is open. 

I do agree with that as well. When I was on it I couldn't really hear what was being said from one of the actors in the train, especially as there was a groups of teenagers right opposite me and my mate who wouldn't shut up for the enitre ride and only seemed to know how to shout. Louder speaker would have definitly helped.
 
 

I think headphones would just make the ride feel more restrictive. They are trying to go for a realistic feeling train (I think) and having to put on headphones to hear the announcements that would come through speakers in a train would just kinda break the illusion in my opinion. Also like you said they would open up lots more technical difficulties and slow down operations due to people having problems with finding and putting on headphones.

Could not think of anything worse on that ride tbh.

tether your ghost train ride, I will never make it spooky, one day our ride will be, spooky enough to scare you, I might not be there for five more seasons but we'll make it bang average for now, I pray that we get told it's fine as it is, so one day we can remove, I love my ride, it is scary time, it is spooky time, it is woo woo time, there's a ghost
 
 
this ride was a mistake, and god knows we've made a few, I started to question my role here, and they answer they gave was Mack
 
 
I cannot promise there won't be delays, I wish I could sort it all out, but you'll enjoy the ride when it comes next year, and see it when it gets built
 
 
I love my ride, there is scary time, there's a spooky train, it is cheap, I love my ride, there is spooky time, there's a scary train, that was ride

I definitely think that Thorpe have been told by Merlin that they have to make it work for the next 3-5 years. 
 
I can’t see this building getting any major attention now and other rides and attractions will be replaced before Ghost Train does go. Luckily they have creative freedom to do whatever, so next month it will slightly different and so on.
 
This spot is definitely cursed, it’s going to become like the arena and stand empty for years.

I think the issue that this project always faced is that once you removed the VR and got rid of Derren Brown, there was only so much you could have done to improve the ride without spending huge amounts of money completely gutting the building.
 
Unlike most dark ride systems, the ride system was very bespokely tailored to DBGT and the very specific sequence of events that happened within it. With something like Duel, for instance, the ride system itself had no particular quirks that were tailored to The Haunted House as it was per se, so Merlin were able to make The Curse at Alton Manor into a pretty different ride without performing any overly radical work.
 
With DBGT, on the other hand, the very design of the ride system meant that the same basic structure of the original attraction would always need to be followed. Riders would need to sit on a train, be rushed out of the train for a live action sequence of some sort and then sit on another train to return to the offload station. And with the design of the ride vehicle not really providing much scope for added physical theming due to the VR being the originally intended vehicle for storytelling, that made the park's options very limited in terms of what they could actually do with the train portions in particular.
 
With this in mind, I think it was complicated for Thorpe Park to make a new ride out of it because in the absence of a huge budget to demolish the whole thing and start again, the basic building blocks of the ride experience would always have needed to remain exactly the same, which would have limited the park's options massively.

Alright, here we go. My written review of Ghost Train, as it was opening day 2023.
 
Spoiler-free review:
Wow, okay. I'm going to throw it out there and say: it's incredible. Honestly, it's incredible. From the outset I was extremely dubious (as you can see from my earlier posts) that enough would have been changed inside the attraction to warrant this rebrand. To be perfectly honest, I thought it was going to just be a reskinned version of Derren Brown's Ghost Train - but that's exactly what it isn't.
 
Ghost Train manages to fuse eeriness, a little bit of comedy to get you to let your guard down, and then slaps you with more eeriness. What it does, it does very bloody well - especially given the fact that this attraction was not designed to be what it is now.
 
Ghost Train now has a cohesive story from start to finish (something that DBGT was always heavily lacking, and the park trying to shoehorn plothole solutions always just make the storyline even more confusing), and the set design is immense.
 
It's a shame that I live so far away from the park these days as I definitely already want to go back to give it another few more rides before I give a final review, but after already queuing for about 2-2 and a half hours for Ghost Train today... I think I'm alright until the hype dies down a little 😂
 
Alright, here comes the spoilers. DO NOT READ PAST THIS SECTION IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE STORYLINE. I have also included my criticisms in this section as I didn't want to spoil the story:
 
 
Overall, it's an incredible attraction and they've finally nailed what they were trying to do all along. Hopefully it sees some longevity, but it really is even more actor-heavy than Derren Brown ever was which is worrying. It seems we were fully staffed today, but will it have the same impact on an off-peak Tuesday? Only time will tell.
 
As I said the other day, do not compare it with The Curse. They are two very different attractions - but as far as this attraction is concerned as it's own standalone thing... it's fantastic.

Unless the experience that I had on Friday was worlds apart from what everybody else has been experiencing since (which I can't see being a thing), I genuinely don't understand the level of hate that the attraction seems to be garnering?
 
Obviously it was never going to be a Ghost Train on the same level of The Curse (hell, not even Ghost Train at BPB!) - we all went into this knowing that the ride system must remain in place because of the way the building was constructed. We all went into this knowing that the virtual reality had been removed. It seems that those that are leaving such negative reviews are forgetting all of these points?
 
The current transit system in place for Ghost Train is built into the building, and is bloody massive. There is no way that they could've removed the old transit system and implemented something else without massive construction - be it taking the roof off and removing everything with a crane, or cutting all of the ride hardware up into small pieces and taking them out that way... both of which would have been time consuming and would have been witnessed first hand.
 
One thing that I can imagine being a pretty large variable is the acting. As the attration is massively actor led, the quality of acting needs to remain consistent throughout - which I can imagine being pretty bloody tiresome when you consider just how emotional the actors need to be for the story to be believable. I'd probably say if you want the best experience, it's best to go on Ghost Train pretty much as soon as it opens.
 
I've said it since Friday and I'll echo my point again, this attraction is absolutely the best that its ever been. Now that's definitely not singing its praises by any means when you consider the dire state that the attraction used to be in before the refurbishment, but they have definitely made the best out of a bad situation. When all of the effects work, this attraction has the potential to be fantastic. Sure, not much reridability, but that's the same with any theatrical performance - once you know the storyline, it won't be anywhere near as impactful. However, if you have good quality actors inside the attraction, that is what will make it reridable.
 
I know for a fact that the actors on my runthrough were absolutely incredible - I had two gentlemen and one of them (I think he had long-ish blonde hair) was brilliant, he managed to be eerie and believable at all times. The risk you take with these attractions most of the time is the cringy GCSE drama level acting, but that's certainly not what I experienced on Friday.

First of all, if an attraction is (as you put it) dire, reviews from a media / VIP preview event aren't going to call it that. Ultimately, those events are there for those people to positively talk about and hype up whatever they've been invited there for. Saying that thing is awful publicly is just a shot in the foot and ultimately leads to them not getting invited back. So it's totally worth taking any VIP review with a pinch of salt (especially with actor led experiences).
 
For me personally, I keep a fine line. Any negative or construction feedback I pass onto management. I have said multiple times when I don't like something, when I don't think something will work, etc. But then when it comes to posting on TPM's social pages, I focus on the positives, whilst also sandwiching in a constructive improvement. I always joke about 2018 Fright Nights, and my review of Vulcan Peak, which was little more than "Something different".
 
As for Ghost Train more specifically, I'm genuinely curious as to which VIP reviews you feel "lied to by". I ask this because, everyone I spoke to at the event had a pretty level-headed thought process about it. Thoughts were along the lines of 'Better than DBGT', 'The best incarnation of the ride', 'It's not a must-do, but it's something I'm happy to do if the queue is right'. And the reviews and thoughts I saw posted on social media from the preview reflect that. 
 
Obviously everyone will have different thoughts and reactions. And something like this, especially in a theme park setting, will receive very Marmite reactions. But I genuinely don't know of anyone who's over-stated the attraction to be more than what it is.
 
 
For what it's worth too: the experience during the media event was an accurate reflection of how the ride would run normally. No extra actors in the building. The same number of roaming actors outside the attraction (which are currently there as the ride is new, but will disappear is the coming weeks/months). There was no 'special runthrough'. The experience is, if anything, still growing, as they take on board people's reviews and make tweaks. Opening of Ghost Train was delayed on the night slightly too. 

Alright, here we go. My written review of Ghost Train, as it was opening day 2023.
 
Spoiler-free review:
Wow, okay. I'm going to throw it out there and say: it's incredible. Honestly, it's incredible. From the outset I was extremely dubious (as you can see from my earlier posts) that enough would have been changed inside the attraction to warrant this rebrand. To be perfectly honest, I thought it was going to just be a reskinned version of Derren Brown's Ghost Train - but that's exactly what it isn't.
 
Ghost Train manages to fuse eeriness, a little bit of comedy to get you to let your guard down, and then slaps you with more eeriness. What it does, it does very bloody well - especially given the fact that this attraction was not designed to be what it is now.
 
Ghost Train now has a cohesive story from start to finish (something that DBGT was always heavily lacking, and the park trying to shoehorn plothole solutions always just make the storyline even more confusing), and the set design is immense.
 
It's a shame that I live so far away from the park these days as I definitely already want to go back to give it another few more rides before I give a final review, but after already queuing for about 2-2 and a half hours for Ghost Train today... I think I'm alright until the hype dies down a little 😂
 
Alright, here comes the spoilers. DO NOT READ PAST THIS SECTION IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE STORYLINE. I have also included my criticisms in this section as I didn't want to spoil the story:
 
 
Overall, it's an incredible attraction and they've finally nailed what they were trying to do all along. Hopefully it sees some longevity, but it really is even more actor-heavy than Derren Brown ever was which is worrying. It seems we were fully staffed today, but will it have the same impact on an off-peak Tuesday? Only time will tell.
 
As I said the other day, do not compare it with The Curse. They are two very different attractions - but as far as this attraction is concerned as it's own standalone thing... it's fantastic.

It could definitely allow them to advertise it as a FN attraction. Especially as they lost creak freak.
 
I know there are some very minor story based things on the outside on posters and timetables. However, the outside isn’t really themed to the specific story. Could change the stop in the middle once in a while and therefore the story 
 
 

It won't be a straight out doubling for the number of actors, as not all are linked to the trains.
 
Though, in saying that, the attraction can probably run with about 14-15 actors ( ) (including actors to cover breaks, to ensure the same number are in the attraction at any given time) as a bare minimum at the moment. On top of that, they would require 6-7 ride hosts too (again, as a minimum, but also including people to cover breaks). There's currently also a couple of roaming actors outside the entrance, but I imagine these are more 'new ride hype' actors, which usually disappear, as is the case for many attractions.
 
Last year, DBGT was running with 6-7 actors and 10-11 ride hosts. So the number of total staff isn't significantly greater than how it was last year. And it's currently less than when DBGT originally opened. 
 
Equally, the park is a lot more Entertainments-focused now, with a much larger Ents department and budget. With events most of the year, the Thrillmakers show outside of events, the park clearly have a greater scope to ensure actor levels remain high. The issue will come, somewhat ironically, around Fright Nights time, when (as with most large horror events in the country), they'll struggle to suitably staff the FN attractions, and start to pull actors from the permanent rides.
 
TWD:TR hasn't had actors in any of my goes this year...whether that's bad luck or because the focus is away from that now, I'm not sure.

Apparently, people have been on the ride today and apparently it’s been a really bad experience with multiple effects already not working 😂

Spoiler thoughts from me:
 
 
Some non-spoiler bits, found out during the Press Night:
-Kieron Smith, Global Artistic Director for The Dungeons, was described as the "writer and director" of Ghost Train. What they means exactly I'm not sure, but in any case, it means that this has had significant input from someone who is in charge The Dungeons, which are very successful, and what this attraction should aim to be like.
 
-The park acknowledge this will take some time to perfect. As with things like this, there will be a need to be responsive to guest and actor feedback, and things like timings, scripts, etc may need to be tweaked. The park will do this.
 
-Not having the restriction of an IP means it is easier to change / update the story too.
 
-A general consensus from everyone I spoke to who rode it was that it was perhaps the best they could have done given the constraints they had. There's a "ride system" in place, but it is minimal and restrictive, and was designed for a very specific purpose. The building was designed for that ride system. Replacing the ride system is pipe dream worthy at this stage. But what they've with it, and what they've turned Ghost Train into, is (as I've already said), on the higher end of what they could have done. They could have done more, but they've done a good job.