Fright Night v's Scarefest Pricing

[FrightNights04]

I prefer £5 enters fee, otherwise I only go in the maze once

[noseyelephant]

Can you use merlin pass friend and family tickets during frightnights? Thorpe Parks tickets are only £10 at the moment :-D

[Inferno]

I tried asking that here as well, but I think they got the wrong idea...

They were available last year, so I think we'll just have to wait and see.

[Morgan]

Being a premium MAP holder, I obviously prefer Thorpe's pricing model (although the cost of extra petrol to get to Thorpe completely negates the saving ). Having said this, if we ever want to see an event of the calibre of HHN at our parks, the only way to go is the separately ticketed model they use. It costs a hell of a lot more, and would make the event a one visit yearly event, instead of visiting multiple times in the event, but the difference would be amazing.

I can't see it ever happening like that though, I don't think it would work in the UK, paying an £40ish for a 6-7 hour event. Plus if it would be anything like HHN, the only way you would be able to do everything in one night would be to buy fastrack tickets on top of that, so even more expense.

[Fred]

Whilst I never liked paying extra, I think £5 for standard pass holders is very good for the addition of 5 horror attractions as well as 12 hours of rides.

Alton on the other hand, you may still get in free, providing of course they haven't hit capacity, however £5/£6 (can't remember think it was £6) is FAR too steep for a maze which where never particularly good... I never went in sanctuary so can't really comment. But The Boiler House & Carnival of Screams where terrible! And most of of all not worth a penny let alone over a tenner for two.

I take it you went in 2011? Both mazes were awful, completely agree.

Last year, complete change. Both of them hugely better than what was there previously. They felt worth the money (sanctuary definitely - that maze was utterly fantastic).

They seemingly got the length of the maze correct with the atmosphere being worth the money finally last year. Can only build on it being TOTT & Sanct this year (unless they cock up sanct somehow).

[Dodge2002]

It's hard to justify paying when both mazes have previously been free and you can guarantee the changes, if any, will be minimal.

If anything, I like to believe the Annual pass charge at Thorpe is justified by the later opening, and the obvious fact they actually give half a damn about Fright Nights, unlike the Towers.

[Morgan]

It's hard to justify paying when both mazes have previously been free and you can guarantee the changes, if any, will be minimal.

If anything, I like to believe the Annual pass charge at Thorpe is justified by the later opening, and the obvious fact they actually give half a damn about Fright Nights, unlike the Towers.

I'm hoping that Fright Nights this year (if successful) may spur Towers into putting in some significant investment into Scarefest, as this year isn't sounding very promising, with nothing new announced.

[BigBobJones]

For me the event fee puts me off and my other reasons for not wanting to do Fright Nights:

• You have paid for unlimited access, you shouldn't have to pay for more
• The queues are simply just way too long
• I didn't do any Thorpe maze last year as each maze had around a 2 hour queue
• I am more than happy to ride the coasters in the dark than do the mazes
• I went to Summer Nights, yes had to pay £5 but I got loads and loads of rides in just 2 hours and didn't have to queue
• It is free on a standard MAP to get into Chessington and Alton
• You can do the London Dungeons for free
• There is a scare maze for free in Madame Tussards
• At Alton you choose if you want to go into a maze and pay or do a free one, at Thorpe even if you do no mazes you still have to pay
• Alton dress up the park where as Thorpe do next to nothing, last year a few stick in the ground and a grave stone
• Last year you had that stupid Governor audio all over the park which was annoying and took away any atmosphere rather than creating atmosphere

I personally would rather drive 168 miles, stay over night in a hotel and go to Alton and do Scarefest rather than pay £5 to do Fright nights, have the queuing to get a ticket for your pre booked ticket which you did online. At Alton I just turn up, scan my card and I'm in, simple. Then if I want to do a paid maze I have the choice, or I can do one of the free mazes.

[Ryan]

For me the event fee puts me off and my other reasons for not wanting to do Fright Nights:

• You have paid for unlimited access, you shouldn't have to pay for more
• The queues are simply just way too long
• I didn't do any Thorpe maze last year as each maze had around a 2 hour queue
• I am more than happy to ride the coasters in the dark than do the mazes
• I went to Summer Nights, yes had to pay £5 but I got loads and loads of rides in just 2 hours and didn't have to queue
• It is free on a standard MAP to get into Chessington and Alton
• You can do the London Dungeons for free
• There is a scare maze for free in Madame Tussards
• At Alton you choose if you want to go into a maze and pay or do a free one, at Thorpe even if you do no mazes you still have to pay
• Alton dress up the park where as Thorpe do next to nothing, last year a few stick in the ground and a grave stone
• Last year you had that stupid Governor audio all over the park which was annoying and took away any atmosphere rather than creating atmosphere

I personally would rather drive 168 miles, stay over night in a hotel and go to Alton and do Scarefest rather than pay £5 to do Fright nights, have the queuing to get a ticket for your pre booked ticket which you did online. At Alton I just turn up, scan my card and I'm in, simple. Then if I want to do a paid maze I have the choice, or I can do one of the free mazes.

1. You have agreed to the terms and conditions which state that you have to pay for additional events
2. They aren't always that long, towards the end of the night it quietens down and if you plan your day properly you can get on a lot of rides.
3. I went to Fright Nights last year and the longest I queued was 90 mins for Experiment 10 due to it's poor throughput, other mazes had smaller queues.
4. Then ride the coasters in the dark.... You are paying £5 which is a small fee to do this.
5. £5 for a few rides in the dark is very good value
6. Chessington's halloween events are usually poor, Towers you have to pay for the mazes.
7. London Dungeons... you can't even compare that to Fright Nights at all.
8. The Tussauds scare maze is piss-poor
9. The mazes at Towers are expensive. At thorpe you can get unlimited mazes and rides in dark for £5, to do the same amount of mazes at Towers you have to pay a lot more than £5
10. Let's judge Thorpe this year when they actually start their Fright Nights event.
11. Again, let's wait and see what they have. Already they've got Lionsgate backing them so the event should be a lot better than before.

[Benin]

Paying a £5 fee for riding in the dark is good value compared to being free at other parks?

[Mark9]

For me the event fee puts me off and my other reasons for not wanting to do Fright Nights:

• You have paid for unlimited access, you shouldn't have to pay for more
• The queues are simply just way too long
• I didn't do any Thorpe maze last year as each maze had around a 2 hour queue
• I am more than happy to ride the coasters in the dark than do the mazes
• I went to Summer Nights, yes had to pay £5 but I got loads and loads of rides in just 2 hours and didn't have to queue
• It is free on a standard MAP to get into Chessington and Alton
• You can do the London Dungeons for free
• There is a scare maze for free in Madame Tussards
• At Alton you choose if you want to go into a maze and pay or do a free one, at Thorpe even if you do no mazes you still have to pay
• Alton dress up the park where as Thorpe do next to nothing, last year a few stick in the ground and a grave stone
• Last year you had that stupid Governor audio all over the park which was annoying and took away any atmosphere rather than creating atmosphere

I personally would rather drive 168 miles, stay over night in a hotel and go to Alton and do Scarefest rather than pay £5 to do Fright nights, have the queuing to get a ticket for your pre booked ticket which you did online. At Alton I just turn up, scan my card and I'm in, simple. Then if I want to do a paid maze I have the choice, or I can do one of the free mazes.

Send that message to Thorpe Park if I were you. Although I'm amused that you'd rather spend a whole lot more money on petrol and a hotel rather then an extra fiver to get into Thorpe.

[Marc]

It's clear the majority seem to like the £5 entry method more.

To be fair for your fiver your getting another totally revamped event which it's clear is going to cost a significant amount of money or you can go to towers for a largly unchanged event.

[BigBobJones]

You can all have your own views, but I am sticking to my guns.

The fact is I really don't enjoy Fright Nights, they are completely not enjoyable where as I really enjoy Scarefest.

As for

• "The Tussauds scare maze is piss-poor" - That is your opinion, but I enjoyed it
• "Chessington's halloween events are usually poor, Towers you have to pay for the mazes." - Didn't pay to get in Terror of the Towers last year, Sancturary earlier this year and was more than happy with only doing those. Never done Chessington and neither have the two kids I will be taking with me as Thorpe would be too adult for them
• "The mazes at Towers are expensive" - I won't be going in those mazes, happy to do the free one or not at all
• "£5 for a few rides in the dark is very good value" - Agree and Summer Nights proves this, but on Fright nights the queues are way too long, happy to pay is it is minimal/no queues
• "To be fair for your fiver your getting another totally revamped event which it's clear is going to cost a significant amount of money or you can go to towers for a largly unchanged event." - I'm happy with what the towers have to offer. But with the mass volume of annual passes they have been giving away and the fact that everyone will be drawn to this re-vamped event just screams that the park will be mega packed and queues queues queues. After doing Madame Tussards today my threshold for getting packed in like sardines and queuing is very low.

At the end of the day I hope you all enjoy yourself and I will be reading the reviews on here. If I hear that the park is very well themed out, the queues are not bad and the mazes have less than a 45 min queue and are brilliant, then I may consider going. Lets see what it is like, it could be really really good.

[Marc]

At the end of the day I hope you all enjoy yourself and I will be reading the reviews on here. If I hear that the park is very well themed out, the queues are not bad and the mazes have less than a 45 min queue and are brilliant, then I may consider going. Lets see what it is like, it could be really really good.

To be fair I guess this is part of the problem, thorpe park are clearly putting alot of effort into this years event and I think it will be the biggest haloween event we will have seen this side of the pond, with that brings interest and in turn the crowds will flock to it.

I guess if you your self are not too fussed about doing the Halloween attractions then there may not be a massive appeal to you to stand in long queues to do them