Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon

[Matt 236]

The ride yesterday was generally in an unacceptable state for a new ride.

 

queue line already chipped and worn paint in places already, closed bag hold and already looking dirty. This is before mentioning the queue was moving extremely slowly at a pace comparable to Rattlesnake. Especially considering a nearly full queue line warranted a three hour wait which as a result was only using one ride vehicle.

 

Amongst this, a noticeable number of VR head sets were broken, pacing felt more stretched out and the train animatronic is already broken. Acting was acceptable but the way they were presumably covering up from the broken train in the third section was laughable. The final VR still retains its usual problems and I am debating on whether my headset was iffy as silver shapes appeared on the screen at times which had no correlation to the goings on.

 

Derren Brown's ghost train could be a work of art if done right, but judging from yesterday it was anything but that. The ride really requires an excessive restructure from what  it is and has become otherwise all efforts into the ride are just a waste and embarrassment. Especially as this is supposed to be a modern styling of a dark ride (besides the Merlin PR fluff). 

 

Derren Brown in it's current state doesn't really do that and feels disjointointed and I hope 2017 for the sake of this ride and Thorpe, I hope they can give this a worthwhile repair job. Sadly I don't feel too optimistic for this, given recent situations and previous comparisons in Merlin.

 

 

. 

[Marc]

16 minutes ago, Matt Creek said:

Especially considering a nearly full queue line warranted a three hour wait which as a result was only using one ride vehicle

 

Err not sure where you got that from but can assure you there was more than 1 ride vehicle in use - i went on twice and know I was on different trains - that and if it was using 1 vehicle then a full queue would be significantly longer than 3 hours!

[Cian]

The walkthrough segments in the teaser are nothing but videos from previous Fright Nights.

[Coaster]

Are they actually deleting people's reviews?! That's shocking!

[Marc]

1 hour ago, Coaster Jamie said:

Are they actually deleting people's reviews?! That's shocking!

 

Of course there not - all there for everyone to read  

[Mark9]

8 hours ago, Matt Creek said:

Maus Au chocolate is a perfect example of a modern dark ride. It uses a reasonable distribution between screens and scenery, features a simple but effective plot and at the same time feels immersive and enjoyable. Even it's queueline is appropriately themed with scent and scenery making a long wait an already more pleasant experience. 

 

 

I haven't even been on DBGT and could still say this 'comparison' is meaningless. They are two rides attempting very different things and aren't really comparable. The only thing they have in common is that they are two rides in a shed. And the way DBGT is being described, it doesn't really qualify as a ride, more an attraction. 

[AJ]

So many people here know for over a year I've attempted a huge amount to avoid anything to do with this ride. Not read the forums, unliked anything on Facebook that was theme park related - asked people to love if they were talking about it around me. All this because I am a humongous fan of dark ride/ attractions and didn't want any marketing or reviews/ perceptions to put judgement in me before I went on.

 

So after 4 previous attempts to ride it on previous trips where it ended up being shut and then after 2 goes on it Saturday to where I was evacuated off it both times so after over a year of avoiding all this and still not riding it 100% and I will admit after everything I feel genrally upset/ let down - which is a shame as this is my type of thing. I have 3 words to say on my experience/ opinion/ review.

 

A Total Embarassment

 

Thank you everyone for putting up with me in the last year and being respectful at being careful what was said around me nevertheless

[Ryan]

That is a very weird sight! 

[Rach666]

After riding DBGT several time this year, our experience on Saturday was an absolute and utter joke, no, incredulous. Pre show was "broken" so simply walked though. VR1, out of focus in parts but finally had a different character. Evacuated by staff before the VR had even finished which I thought was rather hilarious considering this is the best sequence of the ride. As we all know, 2nd segment is still broken, completely and utterly pointless/boring. VR2 the usual atrocious PS2 graphics and the majority of it was green smoke, the most I have ever experienced. It was as if we had a minute or so of footage, smoke, minute or so of footage, smoke. 

 

3 members of our party had never ridden it before, and only 1 of the 4 segments worked correctly. Why even have the ride open, it's a disgrace. Needles to say all of my party though it was a joke and can't even be bothered to try it next year with new scenes.

 

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however if I were you I would not get my hopes up for next year. They can say what they want, all they will do is attempt to fix broken headsets/lights on a stick, and provide a second ending which should have been in play already. After Saturday all hope is now gone, I'm out DBGT.... gutted, as I would love to love this ride. 

[Marhelorpe]

Not even something as basic as the pre-show was working and you just walked straight through?.........

No comment. 

[Project LC]

Is anyone really surprised it's in this state. Nearly every issue it has is standard Merlin problems. Failing to maintain and overlooking details in planning. Their obsession for it being easy to advertise always hinders them. The need for new technology and worlds firsts never seems to pay off. It always plagues their attractions with problems and the only people to blame are themselves. If the marketing team stopped spurting out utter nonsense and understood what they are trying to sell then maybe Merlin would consider a decent ride rather than a stupid gimmick. Sw8 will have some stupid gimmick strapline and so will thorpes next project. 

The fact people are surprised and have hope that the ride will become perfect next year need to wake up. The problems are with the initial design and ones that can't be fixed easily.

[Rach666]

Oh, and for those who have been wondering, I can confirm one of the two freaky dolls heads from original advertising is now living in Derren Brown's bedroom. I am  a huge fan of Derren, and went to one of his talks a week or so ago promoting his new book; "Happy". The evening, entitled "No Tricks: An Evening with Derren Brown" consisted of two parts, the later a simple "Q&A" segment when you can ask the master mind anything you desire. I was racking my brains to try and ascertain a polite way of asking what his opinion was of DBGT, however did not wish to offend in front of a few 100 people. A younger girl however stuck her hand up and asked about the location of said dolls, he looked a bit taken aback and said one of them was in his bedroom; and then quickly proceeded to change the subject adding the dummy used from "Pushed to the Edge" was also in his humble abode, and then talked about the TV episode with no further mention to DBGT  My partner was with me at the time, but had not ridden DBGT. After Saturday when he finally got on it - he said , quite literally; "No wonder you didn't want to ask him about the ride the other week, he must be totally ashamed his name has anything to do with this shambles".

 

[Marc]

Strange you didnt get the Pre-Show - it worked for both rides on Saturday (Even if both did end up in an Evac!) and was working Sunday - Can only assume there was more of a reason than it was "broken" :S

[Rach666]

10 minutes ago, Marc said:

Strange you didnt get the Pre-Show - it worked for both rides on Saturday (Even if both did end up in an Evac!) and was working Sunday - Can only assume there was more of a reason than it was "broken" :S

Hi Marc, no, it was "broken". The ride went down just before we entered with Fast Track, we waited around 10mins, the ride host pocked her head back round from the side of the curtain and said ... "the Pre-show is broken, we will have to walk you straight through."

 

So yeah, "broken" ...  

[Marc]

Odd - must of been fixed during the course of the day then as the pre show was certainly working at around 9PM! 

 

Have noticed actually there are 2 versions of the pre-show, one with quite alot more talking before Derren appears seems to be used much less often.

[adam_sparks1]

Yesterday was a nightmare for me... queued for a hour at 11 being told it was opening for them to turn us away as it was far from opening... Come back when it opened at 3 ish, queued for a hour before it broke down again. Stayed in the queue for another half hour before it started up again; just for half hour later to break down AGAIN! We left the queue and got on with the day and got some free return to Derren Later. At 8 we finally got on the ride just to get evacuated on the first train... and not to get on it again. And all we got was 2 fast tracks which we couldn't even use on the mazes. Fun!

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[Project LC]

2 minutes ago, adam_sparks1 said:

Yesterday was a nightmare for me... queued for a hour at 11 being told it was opening for them to turn us away as it was far from opening... Come back when it opened at 3 ish, queued for a hour before it broke down again. Stayed in the queue for another half hour before it started up again; just for half hour later to break down AGAIN! We left the queue and got on with the day and got some free return to Derren Later. At 8 we finally got on the ride just to get evacuated on the first train... and not to get on it again. And all we got was 2 fast tracks which we couldn't even use on the mazes. Fun!

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I would send an email to guest services. If Merlin want to "push the boundaries" with new technology then when it goes wrong they need to pick up the pieces. To queue up 3 times and waste a huge amount of time to not even get on it once is a joke. 2 fastracks that can't even be used on the mazes is a bit insulting in my eyes.

[adam_sparks1]

I would send an email to guest services. If Merlin want to "push the boundaries" with new technology then when it goes wrong they need to pick up the pieces. To queue up 3 times and waste a huge amount of time to not even get on it once is a joke. 2 fastracks that can't even be used on the mazes is a bit insulting in my eyes.

We sort of got around it by blagging the priority passes to seemed to be new employees to use them on the big top and platform 15...

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[Marc]

I was on it on Saturday - first ride on 2nd train a fire alarm went off needing an evac, 2nd ride it broke down (2nd train again) needing an evac-  we were given a Priority pass valid on any coaster/  maze whilst we were in the batching area for our re-ride. After we were evacuated for the 2nd time again got another priority pass for any ride/ maze. 

[Project LC]

Probably ran out of coaster/maze passes and started giving out the standard coaster ones. 

[Marc]

^To be fair it was just a coaster one - asked if we can use on maze and they wrote on it that we could and signed it.

[Project LC]

Oh that's fair enough. No point getting a load of passes printed when they might not even need them.

[Matt A]

I really hope they do a lot with this ride over the closed season, so much potential, the first section just needs a few tweeks towards the end to let it flow into the evacuation. And having air blow at you from under the seats (like a 4D movie) would be better than actors touching people's legs).

Live action section just needs a PA system for the person speaking, I'd much rather that than trying to make it realistic but not being able to hear what's going on.

Second VR section just needs completely redoing in my mind, why on earth they thought the green smoke was a good idea is anyone's guess, they could have put anything in there to make it more intresting. And why on earth are there no sound effects when something explodes or similar things happen, the train's effects don't sound like explosions!

 

Also, more Derren, it is his ghost train after all!

[Coaster]

It's awful that a NEW attraction is already running with entire elements not working, as well as the main element (VR) not working properly, but in all honesty it doesn't surprise me.

For those who wondered why I was sceptical about this attraction and, more relevantly, whether the standard would be maintained, THIS is why.

 

Out of interest is the live action scene working again yet?

[Marc]

16 minutes ago, Coaster Jamie said:

It's awful that a NEW attraction is already running with entire elements not working, as well as the main element (VR) not working properly, but in all honesty it doesn't surprise me.

For those who wondered why I was sceptical about this attraction and, more relevantly, whether the standard would be maintained, THIS is why.

 

Out of interest is the live action scene working again yet?

 

You say that but the rides I had at the weekend (minus the fire alarm) are at the exact same standards as they were when it opened - the vr glitches need to be worked on I agree but I suspect it's working as well as it will without some major work over closed season.

 

As for the live scene the train crash bit still isn't happening - wondering if there's more of a reason behind it as the last time it had an issue was fixed the very next day.