'I'm a Celebrity' Maze

[jon81uk]

Was letting about 10 people per 5minutes in last night. Was about 80people in the queue ahead and was advertised as a 40minute wait. I dread to think how long the waits are going to be in easter with fastrack in operation.

I would hate for this to happen, but they may find a way to make it shorter in some way. Most of the time inside the maze was waiting to go into a bushtucker trial with an actor talking to the group. Considering it was taking 15-20mins to get through the whole maze, it may potentially be able to be cut down to a shorter time length to reduce queues. Doubt it was reaching more than 150pph last night as the lady by the entrance said we didn't have to stick to the timeslot as it wasn't running as "smoothly" in terms of operations as they thought it would have.

 

Sounds like what they should have done is build two rooms (or more) for each task so multiple groups can go through at once.

[AJ]

Well according I'm a lover of dark rides & experiences - It pains me to say this:

 

With the low throughput, that didn't bother me as it made me think that we would have plenty of time within the attraction. I don't mind waiting 45 minutes if the attraction will take 20 minutes for example. Better than a 45 second ride in that sense. However with the low throughput the queue line was a killer. We went up for a 60 minute queue and with the number of people in front we could tell it would be slow - but we were prepared. However according their are TV screens on most of the other attractions, some queue line entertainment was in my opinion needed. Just do something simple like show the best bits of bush tucker trials over the series. Also for being an indoor attraction have a sheltered queue line..... just some cheap canopy covers like they do for Angry Birds 4D but that's probably asking too much. The queue line wasn't helped by the fact that the Vamps decided to do a photo shoot outside the attraction for half an hour so the queue stopped during their presence.

 

The outside of the building looked good and the inside looks incredible and whilst watching the pre-show with Ant & Dec, with what happens in that room I originally thought that was a good way to set up what will be ahead. After all why would they do the best effects at the beginning? Surely that's a taster of what is to come? 

 

We get guided around a couple of rooms and the actors get us ready for the bush tucker trials. This point I'm proper excited - I love an experience type of attraction and something that's indoors for a bit of a break and I was all geared up for it. Please bear in mind I do no research on these type of attractions beforehand so I don't build up expectations and just go in and see what happens etc.

 

Then the Bush Tucker Trials started and it all started slipping dramatically. Holey Moley that was OK, was a race to find those buttons to get to the next room and not knowing what would be in the holes. Not much more they could of done with that really so was up to standard in my opinion. Yes it would of been good to try and unscrew a star but realistically if that happened no one would get through the attraction with the time that would take to set up. So yes was an OK start but it's the first trial it's getting you geared up. Shame it ended up being the best.

 

The second trial when you get into the showers, I saw it and was like WOW this is going to be awesome. I get into my cubicle and answer the questions. I however have no idea what shower I'm in so don't know if I won the questions or not. However 2 different showers won their appropriate questions so surely something would happen in the shower at least once? Sadly not at all. I ended up leaving the shower thinking how utterly pointless was that. You press a button and literally nothing happens. When I entered I saw a mechanism above me thinking ooooo something will drop on me. However nothing did. I also thought some air might go off or sounds to make you think your in the shower with something but no that didn't happen either. The most that happened was that the lights dimmed for 5 seconds. So I have no idea what that room is meant to do but I just found myself standing there with nothing happening.

 

We then left the showers and we had a couple of routes we could choose to find the 3rd trial. A bit of a maze in fact (par very small) but with the themeing and interior design looks really good and lifted up the maze & I knew the 3rd and final trial would be the cyclone. The finale of the attraction - The trial that will leave you a lasting impression. The most fun trial on the TV series. Therefore it must be good. However it's fair to say I have no idea what happened on the 3rd Trial. After getting out the squeegees I was told to run up a hill and press some buttons. I clambered under this net, I felt a slight breeze but nothing more than what was outside on Saturday, pressed a few buttons and was told to go down this tunnel. I was so confused and had no idea what I was meant to have done. I might as well have just continued doing the little maze section before the 3rd Trial - at least that was more challenging.

 

So I came out the other end of the attraction feeling very deflated and wondering what the heck it was trying to do. I loved the atmosphere and what they have done with the scenery inside but I get no point to the attraction with trials that don't work! I hope it will end up being like Sub-Terra where it opened not that good and after they sorted out the teething problems its ended up being one of the best attractions there but it pains me to say it again after my love of dark rides & cheesy attractions that with all my very low standards that keep me happy (It doesn't take that much to please me) I came out thinking what a waste & have never thought so poorly of a Merlin Attraction. I usually big them up to all those that knock them down, but this time I find it very hard to defend this attraction other than it looks very nice.....

[Matt 236]

Hmmm, that doesn't sound to promising then, especially since you enjoyed Cbeebeies & Angry Birds Land (both of which have had their fair share of criticisms).

I'm yet to experience this attraction (will hopefully get it done in the coming weeks) and in the process, am trying avoid POV's & pictures of the inside of the attraction in the meantime.

[JoshC.]

The second trial when you get into the showers, I saw it and was like WOW this is going to be awesome. I get into my cubicle and answer the questions. I however have no idea what shower I'm in so don't know if I won the questions or not. However 2 different showers won their appropriate questions so surely something would happen in the shower at least once? Sadly not at all. I ended up leaving the shower thinking how utterly pointless was that. You press a button and literally nothing happens. When I entered I saw a mechanism above me thinking ooooo something will drop on me. However nothing did. I also thought some air might go off or sounds to make you think your in the shower with something but no that didn't happen either. The most that happened was that the lights dimmed for 5 seconds. So I have no idea what that room is meant to do but I just found myself standing there with nothing happening.

 

The chambers are a weird one.  On both my goes, I purposefully got the questions wrong to see what would happen if I 'lost', and I did have things happen to me.  The first go I had stuff dumped on me (as seen in the advert), and the second go I had some air blown around, and I think there were leg ticklers too(?).  So things definitely do happen!  I think the idea is that it's designed to have different things happen in different chambers (the chamber where stuff was dumped on me had a grating to allow the stuff to fall through, whereas the other chamber didn't, though both had holes at the top).  I think Thorpe have shot themselves in the foot with the advert and the pre-show intro though, showing how the Chamber of Horrors will dump stuff on you :/

 

How exactly it works, I don't know.  The thing that is meant to happen happens after both questions, but it seems to only happen to select people.  Perhaps if you get at least one question right, you're safe?  Or maybe it's just the 'worst' contestant that gets bombarded with stuff?  Personally, the way I think it should work is that the fastest person who gets the question correct (whose cubicle number is displayed on screen, and who the actor should congratulate) is safe, and all other cubicles have things happen.  It really is a weird one!

 

 

(For anyone interested, I was in the second cubicle on the left hand side when I had sawdust and junk dumped on me, and the most right-hand cubicle when I had air blown on me )

[MachoMachine]

I feel as if this maze is more of a shower than a grower so to say, by the pictures it seems the theming is incredible, but hearing about people's expiriences just prove you need more than a nice set to keep the experience. Seems a lot of people had a good time on the Thursday then after that it's gone down hill?

[Benin]

What IS weird is that we have yet another attraction that requires millions of staff to run it...

 

Why are the parks/Merlin into this concept? Especially given the general reaction to the likes of Saw Alive and Sub Terra...

 

Wish one of the parks would just build a FunHouse attraction (as in the attraction type, not the 90s kids TV show)... That would probably suit the IP of I'm a Celeb if they were so desperate to get that one...

 

I look at the video and think that as an attraction, Chessie would ADORE something like this...

[lewumbrajumbos]

(For anyone interested, I was in the second cubicle on the left hand side when I had sawdust and junk dumped on me, and the most right-hand cubicle when I had air blown on me )

My friend was in that cubicle and I was in the one on the far left hand side, nothing happened to either of us and we both came out the other side very dissapointed and confused. A very cool concept but it is a shame really that it's obviously not working very well!

 

Has anyone noticed numbers on the cubicles? Because I have no clue how you work out which one you are in unless you count them round.

[FrightNights04]

My vlog if anyone wants too watch (its my first one so its not the best)

[pognoi]

Here's my video from the new maze. 

[J.S217]

From my experience it was just good old fashioned fun

[AJ]

From my experience it was just good old fashioned fun

 

and as you know I'm a bigger fan than you when it comes to that type of fun - however it appears anything after he preview day has been a completely different attraction

[TPJames]

Laughing with disappointment and disgust at the moment.

I'm a celebrity experienced the most technical faults out of all the rides open today and suffered an imense amount of downtime. Not good considering it was claiming a "60minute" wait but in reality was 90-120 all day!

---

Anyway, we arrived at the queue at 5:45pm expecting the queue to be significantly less. Well it turned out it was, but for all the wrong reasons.

After entering, the maze "broke down" straight away. We had a 15minute wait extra but then they were back on track. The queue speed picked up immensely and appeared to be going three times as fast as on preview night. Little bit odd, isn't it?

After the break down, we were at the front of what was earlier, a 90minute queue however we only waited 45mins after the breakdown. Time to go in! I was extremely excited for my second run, hoping that the comments had been taken on board.

(It may be worth noting it was 45mins after closing time at this point)

The first movie was the same as always and we were greeted by an extremely enthusiastic campmate. Great start, but it only went downhill from there.

We were rushed straight in, were told we had to escape as quick as possible by unenthusiastic actors who would say "Go, hurry up, you're too slow to escape". We sprinted over the bridge and straight to the first trial.

Once again another unenthusiastic actor, she sent us straight in and said we had only 15 seconds to grab the star or "else". My hole was completely empty and before I could take my hand out, she shoved me along straight into the next trial.

No introduction to the chambers, straight in. We only answered one of three questions before being dragged out and pushed along the corridoors. On the plus side, I got covered in oats, although no one else in my group had anything dropped on them.

We skipped the maze area and rushed straight past the medical checks. We didn't watch the second video and only had twenty seconds to "escape" the cyclone. I wasn't even allowed to touch the buttons, I was forced by the actor straight down the exit slide.

---

Worst ever maze experience. We were only in there for about two minutes full of unenthusiastic actors trying to get us out so they could go home. I appreciate it was closing time, but why should experience be diminished just because we entered the queue later than others. I was also lied to by a group of staff chatting half way through the maze that this was the normal speed it was run at! However, all our group disagreed and clearly noticed it was being rushed!

Honestly, I can't be bothered to go in again. They wasted my time and it was absolutely disgraceful, if I hadn't been in before, I would have had no clue whatsoever what the hell was going on and what I was trying to "escape" from.

Thorpe need to buck up, this clearly was an awful addition with low throughput and in no way a simulation of the program. I can garuntee it will not be long before it gets shut down due to high running costs and unpopularity as it was 90mins with only 200people in the queue today.

[Ian-S]

45 mins after closing? Haha I bet you were the only ones left in the park, we were on the M25 by 6.20 and had the last run, or last but one run on Stealth and even we thought we were late out.

We ran past celeb at about five to six and there were tons of people in the queue, Jr took one look and said screw that.

[Coaster]

I've had that experience in E10, My Bloody Valentine and various other mazes at Thorpe before when it gets to closing time. Its not on, after waiting for that long you should get the experience you have waited for. Send them a complaint I think.

[JoshC.]

Thorpe need to buck up, this clearly was an awful addition with low throughput and in no way a simulation of the program. I can garuntee it will not be long before it gets shut down due to high running costs and unpopularity as it was 90mins with only 200people in the queue today.

 

Would you rather they chucked you in a tank full of tarantulas, cockroaches and goodness knows what else and let you eat kangaroo testicles?

 

 

It sounds like they're having trouble balancing between experience and getting the throughputs to be acceptable.  A shame really, as when they focus on the experience over the throughputs, it's a nice fun attraction.  At the same time though, this is something that should have been accounted for when designing it.

 

I do think that when Reserve and Ride trials return, they'll have to try this on the system.  It could help control the flow of people a bit more and allow for the experience to be less rushed.

[MachoMachine]

Cheeky promotion on Saturday Night Takeaway earlier!

[James Allgood]

It made me laugh how ant or dec didn't answer the question them selfs! Can't remember what one of them got the question on there team

[Coaster]

Got into the queue today, advertised as 50 minutes.  We waited for fifteen, it had only moved once and they announced down the tannoy that the waiting time was two hours!  Needless to say we didn't bother.

You would think that after all these years, Thorpe would learn to focus more on throughputs!  Absolutely hopeless.

[JoshC.]

Got into the queue today, advertised as 50 minutes.  We waited for fifteen, it had only moved once and they announced down the tannoy that the waiting time was two hours!  Needless to say we didn't bother.

You would think that after all these years, Thorpe would learn to focus more on throughputs!  Absolutely hopeless.

 

Not trying to be rude here, but what point are you trying to make here?  

 

It's the Easter holidays and it's their new attraction; it going to be busy.  Are you suggesting they should focus on the the throughputs over the maze's experience?  Or that they should have designed it so that the throughput of the maze was higher?  Or something else?

 

I genuinely can't understand the point you're trying to make here - all I can see it 'THORPE PARK ARE HOPELESS, BUT I'M VISITING THEM ANYWAY'...

[Matt 236]

I'm still yet to try this new attraction, so have no understanding so far how this attraction will work as a whole, but hope it's as good as the pictures make it.

[Graw]

Not trying to be rude here, but what point are you trying to make here?  

 

It's the Easter holidays and it's their new attraction; it going to be busy.  Are you suggesting they should focus on the the throughputs over the maze's experience?  Or that they should have designed it so that the throughput of the maze was higher?  Or something else?

 

I genuinely can't understand the point you're trying to make here - all I can see it 'THORPE PARK ARE HOPELESS, BUT I'M VISITING THEM ANYWAY'...

 

I don't know, I can kind of agree with him. Knowing full well that it'll be busy when I visit this Saturday (as it's the easter holidays), I also probably won't bother trying it out if the queue is 2 hours. It's just not worth it for such a short experience. I'll probably end up trying it later in the year when the queue's die down, however.

[JoshC.]

I don't know, I can kind of agree with him. Knowing full well that it'll be busy when I visit this Saturday (as it's the easter holidays), I also probably won't bother trying it out if the queue is 2 hours. It's just not worth it for such a short experience. I'll probably end up trying it later in the year when the queue's die down, however.

 

I'm more getting at the "You would think that after all these years, Thorpe would learn to focus more on throughputs!  Absolutely hopeless." 

 

I enjoy the maze, but I'm not going to queue 2 hours for it either!  

[Cal]

Theme park guide posted on Facebook today that the Cargo net section in the celebrity cyclone has been removed. I'm yet to have been in the attraction as well, but the people that have, why would this of been removed?

[Coaster]

Not trying to be rude here, but what point are you trying to make here?  

 

It's the Easter holidays and it's their new attraction; it going to be busy.  Are you suggesting they should focus on the the throughputs over the maze's experience?  Or that they should have designed it so that the throughput of the maze was higher?  Or something else?

 

I genuinely can't understand the point you're trying to make here - all I can see it 'THORPE PARK ARE HOPELESS, BUT I'M VISITING THEM ANYWAY'...

The point I'm making is that they should ensure that the attraction has a high throughput when it's going through the planning stages.  For example, with the trials, have two identical rooms set up so they can get double the amount of guests through the maze on peak days - then they can run just one of them when it isn't peak.

 

They were building this maze from scratch, so they should have considered throughputs.  It's the same with the FN mazes, the only one that ever shifted a queue was Asylum, when S13 was put in the capacity was half that of Asylum, and the queue moved at a snail's pace!

 

Of course I expected the queue to be long, but if it's fast moving I don't mind.  This queue was static most of the time, I was in it for fifteen minutes and it moved once, and even then it was only a few steps.

[JoshC.]

Theme park guide posted on Facebook today that the Cargo net section in the celebrity cyclone has been removed. I'm yet to have been in the attraction as well, but the people that have, why would this of been removed?

 

Odd - the net was just something you crawled under up an incline.  Maybe they've had feedback from it and people didn't like that part or something?  Or some people were climbing over it possibly?  Hopefully it's not a permanent thing; I wasn't a fan of the cyclone, but I can imagine it'd be worse without the net.

 

The point I'm making is that they should ensure that the attraction has a high throughput when it's going through the planning stages.  For example, with the trials, have two identical rooms set up so they can get double the amount of guests through the maze on peak days - then they can run just one of them when it isn't peak.

 

They were building this maze from scratch, so they should have considered throughputs.  It's the same with the FN mazes, the only one that ever shifted a queue was Asylum, when S13 was put in the capacity was half that of Asylum, and the queue moved at a snail's pace!

 

Of course I expected the queue to be long, but if it's fast moving I don't mind.  This queue was static most of the time, I was in it for fifteen minutes and it moved once, and even then it was only a few steps.

 

Okay, I get what you're saying now.

 

I see where you're coming from with the blank slate, but to duplicate the trials just isn't possible.  They've likely used most of the space they have available to them; I can't imagine there's enough room for them to be able to put in another Chamber of Horrors room for example.  If they had more space for more scenes / to accommodate for more people per scene, you'd hope/expect they'd be using it.  

 

Throughput has always been a concern for this, and it seems at the moment, they've got it wrong.  Let's just hope that, after more time, they can play about with it and reach a happy medium between throughput and experience!

 

 

[Also, with my experience of Studio 13, the queue ran fine - it didn't feel significantly slower to Asylum's really.  I'd be very surprised if the throughput was literally half of Asylum's though; Asylum averaged somewhere between 600-700 I think, and Studio was definitely getting through more than 300 people an hour!]