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Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon


Marc

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I know this is heading off topic but I'm pretty sure the only reason Saw's queue had actors was because when Saw Alive had its fire they had no other place to put the actors.

The queueline was designed with actors in mind however they didn't last past 2009, apart from the situation you mentioned with Saw Alive - I seem to remember them advertising Saw as "more terrifying than ever" because it had Saw Alive's actors in the queue.  :rolleyes:

 

Regarding actors in Derren Brown's Ghost Train, I really hope there aren't any (an investment as large as this shouldn't rely on actors IMO), and given the track record of actor based attractions in Merlin parks (Saw Alive, Sub Terra etc.) I hope they've learnt by now that the cost involved in hiring actors permanently just doesn't seem viable in the long term (going by the previous examples listed above).

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I think the problem is not necessarily that having Actors always ends badly, but more that  the attractions which the actors are part of are always a flop. IAC, Saw Alive, Sub-terra and Non-Scarefest Sanctuary are all seen as failures regardless of whether they have actors inside or not. 

 

One would hope a High year investment won't crash and burn as badly as Sub-terra did, for example.

 

Plus its easy to look at all these negatives, however Fright Nights, The Dungeons, Shrek and Scarefest are all successful attractions, and plod along nicely without having their actors cut. There will always be the odd story of walking through a maze empty, because that's an unfortunate downfall to the logistics of actor led experiences. Hiring 2 teams of people to staff one maze to cover breaks just isn't economical. 

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One would hope a High year investment won't crash and burn as badly as Sub-terra did, for example.

 

correct me if I'm wrong.. but I'm pretty sure sub terra wasn't a high year investment... it opened in 2012 didn't it alongside ice age 4d? I think that was the medium investment, then the smiler being the large in 2013.

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correct me if I'm wrong.. but I'm pretty sure sub terra wasn't a high year investment... it opened in 2012 didn't it alongside ice age 4d? I think that was the medium investment, then the smiler being the large in 2013.

Yeah I believe that was the case.

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correct me if I'm wrong.. but I'm pretty sure sub terra wasn't a high year investment... it opened in 2012 didn't it alongside ice age 4d? I think that was the medium investment, then the smiler being the large in 2013.

He just meant that as an example of what can happen to a heavy actor or ride host attraction, and that seeing a large investment go that way would be a huge disappointment

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Regardless what investment it is, in 4-5 years when they have opened a few more 'World's First/fastest/longest/heighest/most terrorfing' attractions and its popularity fades in favour of those (assuming it doesn't fade straight away), the budgets will be cut and the first place the cuts come from will be entertainments. That's how it has always been at Merlin.

Whilst we're discussing something we don't really understand yet in regards to its 'live action', I'm surprised so many of you think it would ever continue to operate in the same way as it will operate this season. It just won't, no matter what hype marketing come up with. Remember the Project Stealth construction blog? 'Stealth will never operate on one train.' It was all the hype. Everyone was hyped for it and ran to it every day in 2006.

Whilst I get so many of you are hyped up for this, my point is that you will be hyped again over the next big thing and suddenly this will just be another attraction. For anyone who has ever worked on a new ride for opening will know, the excitement and expectation of the new attraction it's very exciting and all the park will be focusing on. That will fade.

So sorry to be sceptical, but IF this is actor heavy enjoy it this year as it will change over time and there is no question about it.

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Regardless what investment it is, in 4-5 years when they have opened a few more 'World's First/fastest/longest/heighest/most terrorfing' attractions and its popularity fades in favour of those (assuming it doesn't fade straight away), the budgets will be cut and the first place the cuts come from will be entertainments. That's how it has always been at Merlin.

Whilst we're discussing something we don't really understand yet in regards to its 'live action', I'm surprised so many of you think it would ever continue to operate in the same way as it will operate this season. It just won't, no matter what hype marketing come up with. Remember the Project Stealth construction blog? 'Stealth will never operate on one train.' It was all the hype. Everyone was hyped for it and ran to it every day in 2006.

Whilst I get so many of you are hyped up for this, my point is that you will be hyped again over the next big thing and suddenly this will just be another attraction. For anyone who has ever worked on a new ride for opening will know, the excitement and expectation of the new attraction it's very exciting and all the park will be focusing on. That will fade.

So sorry to be sceptical, but IF this is actor heavy enjoy it this year as it will change over time and there is no question about it.

 

Literally couldn't have put it better myself.

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The big question for me will be, what state will the ride at in three years time?

Seeing broken shutters, waterfalls, rusting track, rotting theming and removal of actors within previous investments doesn't leave me with much optimism however. I would liked to be proved wrong that this attraction will still be in great working order by 2019.

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The big question for me will be, what state will the ride at in three years time?

Seeing broken shutters, waterfalls, rusting track, rotting theming and removal of actors within previous investments doesn't leave me with much optimism however. I would liked to be proved wrong that this attraction will still be in great working order by 2019.

By broken waterfalls I assume your comparing to Colossus - a ride closer to 15 years old and went through many years of neglect during the end of the Tussauds era.

Now let's compare to more recent rides - stealth had its bunny hop repainted last year to clean up rust from tidal dropping on it, all Saw theming is in full working order as far as I know? Swarm effects are a bit more tempremental but on the last day of season the only missing effect on that was the air plane mist?

I Know it's easy to slate Merlin but I think they do a pretty alright job at keeping things in order and have no reason to believe they would just let their biggest ever investment rot.

And if actors are part of the attraction - then I don't have any doubt they will remain part of it - comparisons to Saws queue actors don't do much for me - can't even queue in there anymore anyhow!

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By broken waterfalls I assume your comparing to Colossus - a ride closer to 15 years old and went through many years of neglect during the end of the Tussauds era.

Now let's compare to more recent rides - stealth had its bunny hop repainted last year to clean up rust from tidal dropping on it, all Saw theming is in full working order as far as I know? Swarm effects are a bit more tempremental but on the last day of season the only missing effect on that was the air plane mist?

I Know it's easy to slate Merlin but I think they do a pretty alright job at keeping things in order and have no reason to believe they would just let their biggest ever investment rot.

And if actors are part of the attraction - then I don't have any doubt they will remain part of it - comparisons to Saws queue actors don't do much for me - can't even queue in there anymore anyhow!

I was referring the waterfall more so to Zufari, as it's cave barely works now.

My post was mostly aimed at Merlin than Thorpe, when I see how Sub-Terra became with its actors, Smiler getting stale quickly and the trap doors of Thirteen & Zufari not working at all now.

As a fan of Thorpe & Derren Brown, I really want this ride to be a success. Both as as an experience and to the park's gate figures. This is especially when the attraction will hopefully offer the park not just a much needed dark ride/undercover attraction but an immersive experience.

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At a risk of going off topic- one of the main problems in the UK theme park industry is that there is no department or team responsible for the upkeep of effects or maintaining any form of show quality. It gets handed over from the creative and project teams to the operations team and on the whole is kind of left afterwards.

When things start to go downhill, management look to their engineering teams, however, they have so much pressure to get rides running running to a functional level that there is so little time to concentrate on any of the effects. When they do attempt to fix things, it's never to the standard that it should be (and I say this with the utmost respect for what they do as their specialism will most definitely not be creative and have little knowledge of theatricality or showmanship).

 

I have to say, Chessington have a couple of individuals who specialise only in scenic effects (painting, props ects) and they do an absolutely fantastic job!

 

So to bring this back to topic; I'm sure DBGT will open with the best of intentions and I sincerely hope it'll be an attraction for the UK to be proud of. However, I remain sceptical as to the future upkeep of the attraction. 

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I had a dream you were enclosed in a ride vehicle that, somehow, was able to have projections on it to give the illusion that things were outside when they weren't.  Then the ride vehicle made its way on to the bridge to take you to the actual vehicle and, as I know the ride's illusion, I will stop there... :) 

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