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Fright Nights 2015


Jack F

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Saw someone earlier that was vaping so much I thought they were on fire. I like your idea and think we should email Thorpe this idea.

Any sort of 'mist' is better than none as we have been getting all my recent visits... A nice designated smoking zone in a while under the tunnel with ventilation systems up into it...

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Right, let's call a halt on the vaping discussion..... anyone been on park today, anyone going before the weekend, or anyone going on the weekend?

I'm going this friday..

 

Saw someone earlier that was vaping so much I thought they were on fire. I like your idea and think we should email Thorpe this idea.

Why just put them next to Storm Surge. if were lucky it will catch fire..

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Merlin have had so much bad press this year due to the Smiler. They NEED to show the public not only are the parks SAFE, but they are FUN and GOOD VALUE and worth coming back to. They totally failed at Fright Nights.

 

I was also there on Saturday, and would echo what everyone else who was there has said: the crowds came, and the Park fell apart. Rarely have I had such a frustrating day at Thorpe.

Lowlights included:

  • Queueing 1 hour to pick up pre booked tickets at the Advance Ticket Collection at the entrance. Only 4 out of 6 booths were open. The pre-book queue was far longer than the on-the-day one.
  • Queueing a further 30 minutes at the Depth Charge fastrack booth to collect the pre-booked Containment tickets (having already been given a token at the entrance; collecting these is a needless 2-stage process)
  • Rampant overselling of maze fastrack, meaning the fastrack queues were often longer than the standby queues (and ~30 mins in duration): £25 Directors Cut nonetheless a de facto requirement to get everything done
  • Waiting over 30 minutes to get into Containment, despite turning up at the time allotted on our pre-booked tickets
  • As many rides broken down / closed as open, by the end of the night
  • Being overcharged for both of the FN merch items I was trying to buy in Sweets and Souvenirs
  • The Big Top

On the positive side, I loved Containment - it's expensive but good fun - and if anything Cabin and Blair Witch both upped their game from previous years.

 

Full review, from my 12th year at the event(!), online at Total Thorpe Park.

 

fright2015entrance.jpg

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You see I completely disagree with all this negativity regarding queues on Saturday.

While operations were dreadful on Saturday I can't see how maze queues were really all that bad.

We did Cabin 3 times, and the others once each and queued a maximum of an hour for any one go...

Queued for cabin at 2:30 and got in within 5 mins of opening. An hour for MBV, an hour for SAW, 45 mins for big top (though after a break down). Max of 30 mins for both extra goes through Cabin.

Granted we didn't do Blair witch because of the queue looking unbearable but we did all we wanted within the day without problems.

We're we somehow at a different park? :')! Not being rude of anything but I'm genuinely stunned by reading of other people's experiences! I think it all went quite well but I guess we were lucky and times things well by chance!

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Lowlights included:

  • Queueing 1 hour to pick up pre booked tickets at the Advance Ticket Collection at the entrance. Only 4 out of 6 booths were open. The pre-book queue was far longer than the on-the-day one.

 

Just a little tip I've found over the years, you can collect anything from the annual pass building, including friends and family tickets and AP fright nights tickets. On Sunday the Advanced ticket collection queue was full, but I just walked in the annual pass building and collected it all there.

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Just a little tip I've found over the years, you can collect anything from the annual pass building, including friends and family tickets and AP fright nights tickets. On Sunday the Advanced ticket collection queue was full, but I just walked in the annual pass building and collected it all there.

Sounds dumb as you said "anything" but think I could collect brave it alone tickets from the ap building?? I just literally hate that advanced ticket queue with all my heart

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Lowlights included:

  • The Big Top

The Big Top looks gorgeous from the outside, but delivers very little on the inside. I don't say this lightly, but from our visit, it's a strong contender for most disappointing Fright Nights attraction in the 14 year history of the event.

 

I was actually glancing over all your previous FN reviews before seeing you'd added a review of this season, and that really is one of the most damning comments , and review in general, you've made against a Thorpe maze! :o

 

It's clear that Big Top wasn't ready this past weekend, and that Saturday in particular was an awful, awful day for the attraction.  It's a real shame too, as it does have a fair amount of potential.  What worries me the most is the lack of actors in it on Saturday though - surely they can't have planned things that poorly to only have a handful of actors in the maze at any one time?

 

From what I understand, the maze has been having some more work done to it the past couple of days, with some tweaks to some sections, and possibly even more theming on the inside (and it does need it).  The first tent altogether needs a bit of a rethink too.  With those two things sorted, it would be a fab attraction in my opinion.  But then, with such a tried and tested theme, why didn't they get things right in the first place?

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I was also there on Saturday, and would echo what everyone else who was there has said: the crowds came, and the Park fell apart. Rarely have I had such a frustrating day at Thorpe.

 

I'm going this Saturday and I'm seriously hoping they've sorted themselves out by then  :blink: this will be my first trip in years, I have high hopes but low expectations  :unsure:

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I was also there on Saturday, and would echo what everyone else who was there has said: the crowds came, and the Park fell apart. Rarely have I had such a frustrating day at Thorpe.

Lowlights included:

  • Queueing 1 hour to pick up pre booked tickets at the Advance Ticket Collection at the entrance. Only 4 out of 6 booths were open. The pre-book queue was far longer than the on-the-day one.
  • Queueing a further 30 minutes at the Depth Charge fastrack booth to collect the pre-booked Containment tickets (having already been given a token at the entrance; collecting these is a needless 2-stage process)
  • Rampant overselling of maze fastrack, meaning the fastrack queues were often longer than the standby queues (and ~30 mins in duration): £25 Directors Cut nonetheless a de facto requirement to get everything done
  • Waiting over 30 minutes to get into Containment, despite turning up at the time allotted on our pre-booked tickets
  • As many rides broken down / closed as open, by the end of the night
  • Being overcharged for both of the FN merch items I was trying to buy in Sweets and Souvenirs
  • The Big Top
On the positive side, I loved Containment - it's expensive but good fun - and if anything Cabin and Blair Witch both upped their game from previous years.

 

Full review, from my 12th year at the event(!), online at Total Thorpe Park.

 

fright2015entrance.jpg

Holy cow batman, was that 'before the gates opened' to coin a phrase, or was that the actual queue to get through the turn styles?

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Sounds dumb as you said "anything" but think I could collect brave it alone tickets from the ap building?? I just literally hate that advanced ticket queue with all my heart

 

Sorry I shouldn't of said 'Anything' :P If you can collect brave it alone tickets from the advanced ticket collection I'm pretty sure you can collect it from the AP building. It's worth a try anyway? 

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Sorry I shouldn't of said 'Anything' :P If you can collect brave it alone tickets from the advanced ticket collection I'm pretty sure you can collect it from the AP building. It's worth a try anyway?

I'll try get there nice and early and give it a go! It's a Friday anyway not a Saturday so shouldn't be too bad! Thanks :)

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To be fair though I don't get why everyone's moaning about queueing the first Saturday has always been a peak night whilst the Sunday is quiet. Shame that Thorpe just can't scrap fast track all together though as those queues and batchings were incredibly fast without spoiling the maze experience. Hopefully this Sunday will be the same!

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I was actually glancing over all your previous FN reviews before seeing you'd added a review of this season, and that really is one of the most damning comments , and review in general, you've made against a Thorpe maze! :o

 

Afraid so Josh - I said "strong contender for most disappointing Fright Nights attraction", mostly because the stakes were that much higher for Big Top.

It promises so much from the outside, and the Park uses it so heavily in its promotion of the event, that there is quite a bit riding on it carrying the event... and it turned out to be unfinished / uninspired / understaffed. Alton's Carnival of Screams betters it in almost every way. Certainly a disappointment for me!

 

I agree about its potential, and there's nothing that can't be fixed - so I hope Thorpe does  :).

 

Other contenders? 2012's The Passing was pretty bare ("a nice idea, mediocrely executed"), and Se7en lost its shine over time ("few scares here... very formulaic and predictable").

 

I think Thorpe's crowning moments came in the form of Asylum and Experiment 10 - both consistently excellent through their years of operation. I also had a soft spot for the Circus of Horrors' contributions to the event (in particular their Carnival of the Bizarre). Shame these attractions aren't with us any longer!

 

Holy cow batman, was that 'before the gates opened' to coin a phrase, or was that the actual queue to get through the turn styles?

 

This was taken around 9:45am! The Advance Ticket queue was snaking all the way back to the Car Park  :blink:.

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