James39 Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Managed to do Saw alive, MBV and Blair as walk on last night. Queued an hour for studio 13 at 6.00 and 40 mins for cabin around 7.45. Great night and very atmospheric around park. Best mazes for me were MBV and studio 13. Worst was cabin due to bumping into too many other groups ruining atmosphere. Guess each experience is different and ran out of time to try cabin again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Managed to do Saw alive, MBV and Blair as walk on last night. Queued an hour for studio 13 at 6.00 and 40 mins for cabin around 7.45. Great night and very atmospheric around park. Best mazes for me were MBV and studio 13. Worst was cabin due to bumping into too many other groups ruining atmosphere. Guess each experience is different and ran out of time to try cabin again. When was the Blair witch open last night!? Every single time I walked past it, it was closed and then the queue time boards stated it was unavailable for the whole night? I kept checking haha. At what point did you walk on MBV? I went on it first but I waited outside the arena for half an hour before? I queued an hour for it later on at 9, and that was from the shop! Was meant to be a 25 min queue, and I thought it was going to be less than that. It had 2 breakdowns and 1 was when we were the next ones on. We only queued 20 mins for Cabin but the same thing happened, we found the secret control room with about 12 people squeezed in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatever Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 May sound like a noob, but how can a Maze break down? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James39 Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Throughput awful for cabin and studio 13. Must be horrible when really busy in half term, scarier than the mazes! Was glad the other 3 were walk on as had enough of queuing in the rain by then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flipper Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 So I visited on Friday, and experienced my first ever Fright Night mazes *whoop whoop* For me I think I'd have to say Studio 13 was my favourite by far. I mean, I never did the Asylum, but I loved the touch of all the past 'Director's creations' (mazes) in posters at the start; and the whole set up of the maze was just incredibly clever in my opinion in comparison to the others. Having spoke to people who've been other nights though, it sounds like everyone's experience has greatly differed? Because to me, some of the features used (like the reception, WOW!) were incredible! After that I'd have to side with Blair Witch just for the grabbing and the general attitude of the actors; it really felt immersive. Sadly I don't hold any strong opinion on the rest: I didn't understand My Bloody Valentine as our batched group got split so I was one of two who went ahead at the tunnel, and the second half actors just didn't seem interested in us; but then I don't know the IP either which doesn't help. CITW I don't know either, and my friend led our group and seemed to have no issue navigating it. We too had 'group cling on' syndrome, where a group of young girls bumped into us and stuck with us, so the actors were more interested in them than us, with us walking past many many actors with no interaction. Like, I'm a wimp with mazes; but CITW didn't make me flinch. SAW was my first of the night and having heard so much about it and being a big SAW fan it left me disappointed as it seemed rooms were not functioning, such as the electricity room being just a grunting actor in a cage (no floor effect?) the pendulum room having no pendulum, and the final room being a stationary carousel of guns that did nothing. The actors were delivering the scares, no question asked, to the rest of the group; and there was some incredible actors playing to the SAW concept of screaming for help and the such, and great interaction between the Pig and a victim in the freezer; but thats unfortunately all I can praise. I'd love to go again and have another round on the mazes, to see how they develop as actors adjust their tactics and characters. Park was very quiet though with maze queues roughly 30 mins max on the night. And what secret control room in Cabin? I feel like I've missed out now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James39 Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Went to MBV around 9 and was told it was closed due to break down, so went to saw alive. Did that quick as walk on then was going to leave but tried MBV and it had reopened with no queue around 9.15 ish so gor straight in. Blair was walk on after I did cabin around 8.30 ish I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flipper Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 May sound like a noob, but how can a Maze break down? Break down is the wrong term, a temporary stop (E-Stop) is more exact. Basically a happy-handed guest, or someone having a medical issue within can cause an E-Stop to be hit by the talented folk inside, thus causing a temporary delay and evacuation of the maze to ensure everyone involved both guests and acting crew are safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerfuffle Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 ^ It can also be due to lighting failure, meaning guests AND actors have to evacuate. I remember 'Vampire: The Haunting in the Hollows' had to be evacuated last year due to a lighting failure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 May sound like a noob, but how can a Maze break down? The reason for that 'break down' was because one of the scenes flooded, causing someone slipped over. The main reason for them though are guest actions, like Flipper explained. They say it's closed due to technical difficulties though haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubyRed95 Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Potentially the only other time I'm gonna be able to make it down is this Saturday but by the sounds of it, it's gonna be heaving so should I even bother? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatever Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 What scene flooded in which maze? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 What scene flooded in which maze? I have no idea, but at the split up point they seemed to be only letting us through the left side, not right so I'm guessing it was somewhere down there. There was also a load of actors at the end and one of the staff never came back out so they were probably still cleaning it/ fixing a leak there. Annoying as I wanted to go right, I went left earlier Sent from my iPhone 5S using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge2002 Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 The rain actually caused a fair bit of drama last night. Someone broke their back running out of Saw Alive, they slipped just on the exit bridge I think. We saw them being taken away in a stretcher and everything, it was terrible. We overheard a maze host saying to another member of staff that MBV was leaking in 3 different places apparently. They were sending everyone down the right hand route when we went in so I'd guess one of the leaks was in there. Finally right at the end of the night we heard a group of staff talking about *something* being wrong with Studio 13, although we couldn't quite make out what. The Blair witch was open most of the night, but I think because it was deserted it just looked closed. We actually managed to go through with just the two of us and it was amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 The Blair witch was open most of the night, but I think because it was deserted it just looked closed. We actually managed to go through with just the two of us and it was amazing! Well that's annoying! It said unavailable all night on the queue time boards! Didn't go anywhere near it after 7 as loggers and rocky was closed! That would of been great, oh well Sent from my iPhone 5S using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Well that's annoying! It said unavailable all night on the queue time boards! Didn't go anywhere near it after 7 as loggers and rocky was closed! That would of been great, oh well Sent from my iPhone 5S using Tapatalk I believe that Loggers closes when BWP opens due to lighting or something (JoshC can say more on this, I'm merely paraphrasing poorly). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted October 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Yeah, pretty sure Loggers simply closes early because of lighting issues. Last year, it was closing at around 5pm I think, especially when the clocks went forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 I think loggers has closed at 5pm at Fright Nights at least during the last few years, may have been open in 2011 but then there was the railway there. As for Cabin, the reason why the tunnel doesn't work is because there was a power fault caused on the maze days before opening which is why it's broken (source thorpe park staff on behind the scenes tour). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 The rain actually caused a fair bit of drama last night. Someone broke their back running out of Saw Alive, they slipped just on the exit bridge I think. We saw them being taken away in a stretcher and everything, it was terrible. God I hope they haven't got permanent damage, how horrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFarmerDean Posted October 14, 2014 Report Share Posted October 14, 2014 I think loggers has closed at 5pm at Fright Nights at least during the last few years, may have been open in 2011 but then there was the railway there.As for Cabin, the reason why the tunnel doesn't work is because there was a power fault caused on the maze days before opening which is why it's broken (source thorpe park staff on behind the scenes tour). So the tunnel is going to be broken for the rest of fright nights D: That was my favourite bit... I remember the first time I done the maze last year and walked through the black plastic strips so you couldn't see and the tunnel made it so disorientating and at the other end was a very creepy/scary clown who then walked towards you and wouldn't let you past - I felt so drunk in that tunnel I could hardly stand haha, was so amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted October 14, 2014 Report Share Posted October 14, 2014 Fright Nights is turning into a bit of a farce this year. Broken effects in most mazes - in CITW the tunnel isn't spinning, but also the wolf head uses to breathe air at you last year. Saw Alive the carousel trap isn't working... Then there's the queues... We waited 110 minutes for My Bloody Valentine when it was advertised as "up to 60 mins..." Needless to say we complained and went on again with a priority pass. The most infuriating thing was that the queue actually moved at an acceptable speed until the Fastrack queue started to build. Then they were doing the worst batchig I have ever seen - I'm sure at I've point they didn't batch any of our queue for about 20 minutes as they were running off the whole Faatrack queue first (which was full due to overselling!). They have been running the park and event for long enough not to know how many fastracks should be sold. Sheer greed. Most mazes closed several times throughout the night as well which is just poor. Mazes should not be leaking! Surely the designers know that in October it's likely to rain a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted October 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2014 I'm pretty sure the designers knew about the weather conditions... I dunno what the weather conditions have been like around the park recently, but I guess if there's been a fair amount of rain, it's always possible to end up with a leak / flooding. Given how many shipping containers Merlin have and how long they've been using them, it would suggest that this is just an unfortunate accident that's occurred, as opposed to a design flaw. If they can only use one side of MBV, that will reduce throughput a bit, and staff will still be new to the mazes. I'm not saying Thorpe should be wholly excused for the overly long queue, but cut them some slack. Seemingly they had one problem after another with MBV in particular... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted October 14, 2014 Report Share Posted October 14, 2014 Fright Nights is turning into a bit of a farce this year. Broken effects in most mazes - in CITW the tunnel isn't spinning, but also the wolf head uses to breathe air at you last year. Saw Alive the carousel trap isn't working... Then there's the queues... We wait 110 minutes for My Bloody Valentine when it was advertised as "up to 60 mins..." Needless to say we complained and went on again with a priority pass. Most mazes closed several times throughout the night as well which is just poor. Mazes should not be leaking! Surely the designers know that in October it's likely to rain a lot! Nice to see Thorpe solving the problem of long queues by throwing out priority passes to all complaints... JoshC., Fred, Glitch and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted October 14, 2014 Report Share Posted October 14, 2014 Nice to see Thorpe solving the problem of long queues by throwing out priority passes to all complaints...No it's not its completely unacceptable (as they don't actually do anything about the problem) but we had wasted 110 minutes stood out in the pouring rain so we accepted it. I will however be emailing the park to suggest a way of preventing this (put the prices of fastrack up and don't sell as many). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraX Posted October 14, 2014 Report Share Posted October 14, 2014 Well it's early days on running these things and unfortunately, the weather causing water to run everywhere is always a nightmare. I'm sure H&S are pretty much all over this in regards to throughputs. Merlin are prob still in very hot water after allowing the Creaky Cafe (at Chessington) to have an enormous amount of guests in their Christmas walk through, when the building was only ever passed by H&S for a very small number (years before as the original cafe). At least risk assessment wise, these mazes will have newly assessed, updated H&S regulations, as we saw with the X:/ building restrictions last year, and if you want a vortex tunnel, Hocus Pocus Hall is it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted October 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2014 No it's not its completely unacceptable (as they don't actually do anything about the problem) but we had wasted 110 minutes stood out in the pouring rain so we accepted it. I will however be emailing the park to suggest a way of preventing this (put the prices of fastrack up and don't sell as many). Looks like someone needs to chill out and fix their sarcasm detector! Benin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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