You see, I just hate that argument personally.  If you're "pleasantly surprised" that an attraction is enjoyable, when they're meant to be enjoyable, then quite frankly, there's something up.

That is very true, but it shows that the new ride has done its job well if the people already condemning it are pleasantly surprised!

Whilst I disagree with those already stating that it will be a bad ride, I can understand where they are coming from given some of Thorpe's most recent investments.

 

With any ride / attraction / experience, you should go into it expecting that you will enjoy it and have fun.  Or, failing that,at least appreciate it for what it is.  You shouldn't have to hype it up as a best ride ever, or expect it to be bad.  Then, if a ride fails to meet that expectation, it's a bad ride.  If it meets it, you have a good ride.  

That is sort of the point I was trying to make - Merlin are hyping it up to be "the future of theme parks" and "a game changer" - I'm a bit cynical about those claims (and rightly so IMO - remember Thirteen's advertising?) but that doesn't mean it will be a bad ride at all.

• A team of 1,000 specialists and experts working to bring the new experience to life in 2016

 

This part still gets me... That's alot of people. With the rumoured budget, most of it must go to this?

You see, I just hate that argument personally.  If you're "pleasantly surprised" that an attraction is enjoyable, when they're meant to be enjoyable, then quite frankly, there's something up.

 

With any ride / attraction / experience, you should go into it expecting that you will enjoy it and have fun.  Or, failing that,at least appreciate it for what it is.  You shouldn't have to hype it up as a best ride ever, or expect it to be bad.  Then, if a ride fails to meet that expectation, it's a bad ride.  If it meets it, you have a good ride.  

 

It's just managing expectations. I think its slightly absurd that people have already decided that this Derren brown attraction is going to be a let down though. Especially when there are no details about it beyond the theme. Maybe these people know more then they are letting on.

I don't know what everyone is on about, I'm hoping for a clone of Impossible at BPB [emoji23]

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^ The Smiler's exit path is better than Impossible!

Impossible makes Storm Surd look like Chiapas in comparison ().

Anyway a back to the this dark ride. Whilst some of the things I have heard have brought a mixture of excitement and concerns for me I'm still excited for this project.

Not just is it a (major) new ride at my local theme park (just down the M25) but a dark ride. However not only is it the first proper dark ride at Thorpe (discarding X as in indoor ride) but it's the first full scale dark ride outside of Legoland parks, Dungeons etc. In all fairness we haven't seen many dark rides in Europe at all recently except Maus Au Chocolate and Ratatouille so as long as it isn't terrible it's a welcome addition IMO.

Having low expectations, and assuming something will be bad, are not the same thing.

Having low expectations, and assuming something will be bad, are not the same thing.

 

For me personally, the standard expectation for any ride should be that it will be enjoyable and "good".  So having low expectations is essentially the same as assuming something will be bad.

 

I do get what you're saying though, what with the 'future of theme parks' and all that.  But whether that claim is worthwhile or not should have no leanings towards the quality of the attraction itself.

We'll just have to agree to disagree, I don't see that having low expectations is the same as expecting something to be crap, to me having a low expectation is just not mentally building the excitement up about something to a level where you're going to be disappointed no matter what it is, because you were expecting more.

*by you I mean generally, not you personally, like when you see someone at the cinema all excited before going in, saying things like 'this is going to be so awesome' and 'I can't wait to see the stunts', while everybody else is standing around talking about the weather, then when they come out they're like, 'well that was a load of crap', and everybody else is saying what a great film it was because they didn't go in with any preconceived ideas of how it was going to be, and Mr Grumpy did.

^Sounds like Thirteen's opening day to me...

Who knows, maybe this will have the same situation where after a few years it'll be a midcard attraction... Hopefully that rather than end up being closed due to cuts...

 

Something seemingly to keep the attention on this ticking along.  Be interesting to see if this of any relevance in the grand scheme of things.

Ghosts.

Or the poeple are just in glow-in-the-dark tye dye shirts.

Ohhh, and a heat source underground.

 

During routine excavations...

Your worst nightmare, underground

Ohhh, and a heat source underground.

 

During routine excavations...

Your worst nightmare, underground

Nemesis Inferno Sub-Terra it is then.

Paranormal?  Sounds good to me!

'Most Haunted Live'

'Most Haunted Live'

Cables on sale for £5 in the shop

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I haven't experienced the Shrek attraction but I hope this is more than a simulator.

just you wait 10/10 attraction.

just you wait 10/10 attraction.

Lets hope so!

Still extremely impressed with the level of secrecy, and the drip feeding of what is essentially, no information at all.

 

But this does not mean that it is going to be a good attraction, maybe the reason for this approach is simply that they can't work out a tangeble way to directly market the thing.

 

Obviously we see statements lie "Game Changer" and "the best thing ever" and we think "yeah, yeah Merlin, and Thi3teen gave us all Heart Attacks.

 

I am still unfortunately banking on this being not much more than an actor led experience and some form of immersive Tunnel Attraction, I am still hoping to be pleasantly surprised and proved wrong.

 

Go into this thing with the approach, "Expect the worst, Hope for the best" That way when you experience it you will either have your expectations met, or be very pleasantly surprised, either way the only way is up.

 

Some people will nay say that opinion and say "oh you are damming this ride before you have even been on it". In fact quite the opposite, I want nothing more than for this to be a good ride.

 

I have to be realistic though, this is Merlin, they gave us a repurposed Cyprus Gardens slide and just stuck it in the middle of a theme park, They gave us the rubber duck version of Bubble Works.

 

I have no confidence in their ability to produce a decent dark ride, especially when the standard that I have personally ridden is the where the bar is set.

 

Here in the UK, the best dark ride in my opinion is undoubtedly Valhalla, and even in September, Blackpool Pleasure beach, an independently owned park I might add, try to keep as many of the effects running as is possible.

 

Hopefully Merlin have done their research, the design team have been out and studied the best dark rides created by competitors in Universal and Disney and know where to be aiming for.

 

What I am worrying about is this, The only competition in the UK for a REALLY good Dark Ride is the aforementioned Valhalla, international competition is rarely taken into any kind of consideration because Merlin have international parks.

 

Somebody else on here mentioned, if over a Thousand people are working on this thing, then that plus Derren's name is where a good chunk of the budget has gone, leaving not a lot of money for anything else, let's say each one of those people get's £20,000 for their work on the ride because it has been longer than a year.

 

Put that into perspective a minute - £20,000 times 1000 = £20million!!!

 

I am not saying this money has definitely been spent on people alone, but if a thousand people have really put a lot of work into this thing then that figure, or maybe even more is very possible.

 

That is before any ride tech, theming etc.

 

Food for Thought.

Merlin weren't involved in the Bubbles retheme...

We can blame them for a lot, but nothing prior to 2007 please...

I think some people are taking the 1000 people thing a bit too literal.

Naturally, any large scale project will have a large number of people behind it, including designers, builders, consultants, musicians, etc, etc. When you think about it, they can easily say someone was "involved" with the project, even if they're involvement was very minimal.

Of course, the 1000 people thing is just there to make people go "Ooohhh, that's a lot of people, must be special".

https://vimeo.com/148881339.

Excuse the background noise, but this is a snippet of the new clue on MindsWanted. If you go onto their homepage and scroll down a bit you will see 3 grey dote (excuse my bad explanation) but once you see them, click on the dots and drag them up to the top of the page and then the video should play.

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You click anywhere on the page to see the dots then drag them up.

To avoid double posting I'm gonna post my theory here. A lot of the clues and videos are pointing towards clues and fears that many people experience.

Clue one showed the time of 7:30. On winter nights it is pitch black outside. People are scared of the dark. Clue two was Kenny The Clown, who the f**k isn't scared of clowns. Clue 3 was the Derren Brown reveal, but in his eye it said "I see you". People have a fear of being watched. Clue 4 had the word "bellow". Bellow as in underground? Trains?

The doll video points again to the the underground and of course the supernatural with the dolls and the pram. The picture of the thermal people holding hands on the construction site also point out something paranormal

I don't even know what clue 5 was but it appeared to be two young people and an elderly person, all looking very distorted and zombie like. Could these people be zombies? People are scared of zombies and apocalypse

All of the above prove that this ride will most definitely be about fear in some shape or form, and will try and scare us with all these different things that people get scared of.

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You click anywhere on the page to see the dots then drag them up.

To avoid double posting I'm gonna post my theory here. A lot of the clues and videos are pointing towards clues and fears that many people experience.

Clue 4 had the word "bellow". Bellow as in underground? Trains?

If it meant 'below' as in 'below the ground' it would have had one L. To 'bellow' is to yell at someone really loudly.

Not meaning to discredit your theory, I actually find it quite interesting