Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon

[Stuntman707]

I give up on this. Yesterday had a terrible experience. It started taking very long to dispatch the groups. Half the headsets (that were in operation) were broken. The footage on the second train stopped and started then the train got stuck and we were left waiting for a further 10 mins or so to be reset. No one I was with really understood the story or what was going on and didn’t even find it scary. It’s just not worth riding anymore.

[Mattgwise]

I just find it boring now anyway whether it works or not, as you know what to expect. I feel these experience attractions can only be done so many times. I will go on if others in my group want to but I'd be happy just doing it once a year to see if there are any updates or changes. 

[JoshuaA]

If I'm being honest I find the Ghost Train dull by this point, I think its one of the most boring dark rides to grace the industry..

I think with every ride the more I dislike it, the finale is the only really section that doesn't put me to sleep..

 

The unreliability does not help either.. I think some dark rides like Hex you can experience them multiple times a year and still enjoy it, with the Ghost Train I felt bored on my first ride of the year..

[Mer]

I’ve now got to the point where I’d consider not even going on with my group ? It’s not re-rideable anymore. But the worst thing for me is the queueing experience. The queue moves stupidly slowly, and in all my experiences has ended up far longer than the time on the app (which is pretty accurate for the other rides). I’m not just talking about break downs - there have been times where the queue has started off moving fairly regularly, and then it suddenly slows down drastically/stops for ages for no reason. In fact, every time I’ve gone on DBGT I’ve had a negative queueing experience! The queueline itself is just awful, claustrophobic and the most depressing one I’ve ever experienced. 

Glad @Stuntman707 has finally given up on this, means I won’t have to endure it as often now ?

[Hethetheth]

This is something I posted on a FB chat page, but thought I'd share here for your thoughts as well:
 

I have mixed feelings on DBGT. In its favour it is unique and a do mostly enjoy it. However I feel there is lost potential. Its biggest issue though is narrative and immersion. The ride chops and changes what the theme and story of the ride actually is. Here is how the ride pans out.

 

1. Derren introduction makes it explicit you're preparing for a theme park ride.
2. You see the hanging carriage with a Victorian theme, suggesting a time period to be immersed in...
3. ...which is immediately undermined by making carriage modern inside. I know this was deliberate, but it begs the question what's the point? Illusion for illusion's sake. You go from modern (Thorpe) to Victorian (hanging carriage) to modern again!
4. The first VR section is consistent with the carriage and the story continues as a modern 'ghost train'
5. The middle section is also consistent and keeps with the modern story...
6...but suddenly the final VR section is now showing park guests with headsets, making it explicit that you're on a ride again.

 

It's hard to be immersed in a rise which veers between being:

 

A. Victorian
B. Modern
C. A ride invaded by monsters.

 

The twist that the carriage is modern inside and old outside is not terrible, but surely that's the wrong way around for interesting theming?

 

To use a different theoretical example, imagine that you had another dark ride which had a modern themed queue and the station was themed to pirates. The ride then starts and magically transports you back to modern for the rest of the ride. Guests wouldn't be going "wow, what a twist", they'd wonder what happened. Turn that the other way around, and have a modern station but the ride takes you back in time to see Pirates, that is a bit more interesting, right?

I get the logic in the train changing from modern / Victorian. However, theme parks are at their core about transporting you to 'the other' (so a different theme / time / place. What is seemingly backwards about DBGT is that the queue is 'modern' with mentions of fracking, then the carriage is 'Victorian', but then we're magically transported back to the time period we started off in! It's a bit backwards.

This is why I feel that a simple switch from a modern and abandoned tube carriage with a Victorian interior would be more 'magical' and therefore more interesting. It takes guests to a new place, where the current ride takes you super briefly to a Victorian carriage before taking you back to modern immediately.
 

Here is my proposal:

 

1. You start in Thorpe Park in an abandoned warehouse = modern
2. You see the hanging carriage which is now a modern tube train. The story is now that the train has been experimented on for paranormal purposes.
3. You step on board and now it's Victorian. You've been taken back in time by the mysterious carriage, and the ghosts are after you!
4. Events pan out as they did before but all in a consistent Victorian theme and plenty of ghosts. The second VR section omits the headsets on other virtual people.
5. The shop ending remains the same, because it's the best bit of the current ride.

 

I'm obviously not suggesting the is is viable to change the carriages now...but it's how I'd have done it with the same ride system.

 

What are your thoughts?

[Marc]

For me the issues with Ghost Train are not so much it’s theme / Story but it’s the reliability of the entire experience. That said i get what you mean with the Victorian to Modern tube train mix.

 

When you go through and get everything working as it should, IMO it’s an impressive ride, you only need to have one ear poking out of your headset to hear the reaction of people around you, when it works properly the VR can totally immerse you into the experience.

 

Im not a huge fan of the new middle section, when the train effect worked as it should it was good, and more often than not it would catch people off guard and you’d see people trying to get out of the way, the addition of an actor behind also worked well. The new middle section feels

abit pointless now, I’d love to see them try do something more with this keeping it more consistent.

 

The shop is still great, especially now the floor is working as it should!

[Coaster]

Not sure if I'm remembering incorrectly, but I'm sure it used to go dark in the train carriage when the VR comes on?

 

It was lit with all the boarding lights throughout the entire ride today, and the screens were blank rather than playing the news reports/displaying the Sub Core logo etc.

 

Also I got an error screen on my headset, it kept glitching and we had to look at the Sub Core logo for about 5 minutes on the second half.

 

Finally, the "live" scene is dire now especially considering it was the best part of the entire attraction in 2016!

 

It's incredible how bad standards can fall on something that cost 30 million, but I do remember predicting it before it opened (to be ridiculed by some!)

[Quorn]

Not sure if anyone would agree with this, but I feel that a much simpler and actor-free dark ride like Hex would actually have been a better addition to the park. Sure DBGT could have worked brilliantly, and it did on the media night, but the lack of effort to maintain the experience has let the ride down.

[Ringo]

Is vengeance still knocking about in storage or did it finally get scrapped?

 

You could imagine them trying to add that on

[Marc]

I noticed the lights were always on during my ride too - as for the news report that was removed when it become rise of the demon I think!

[Marhelorpe]

Was at the park on Thursday too and decided to get on DBGT first thing when it opened just after 12pm (because I'm insane). Ride broke down twice on us before even the first set of people for the day went through I was in, so technically, it didn't open until 12:40pm. Not surprising though, but when inside, it was obvious why this was. Oh boy, this was a ride I won't be forgetting on it anytime soon... here's a quick rundown of my walkthrough:
 

Good Points:
• Pre-show worked nicely with the presentation, audio volume, working bulbs above and most of all, the staff members finally turn the fan off during the speech so you can hear Derren properly again.

• Being the first group on, there was no batching thankfully at any point before loading the carriage.

• Staff in the queue dealt with some queue-jumpers very well near the batching area. Well done to the team for being vigilant about this, greatly appreciate it.

 

Bad Points:
• As others have mentioned, when loading the carriage, the screens inside were all on a blank white screen with no audio or video playing "Welcome on-board" etc.
• When seeing the VR in the first half, the carriage lights remained on throughout the entire duration and light was leaking through my headset as a result.
• When offloading the carriage, the lights were still fully turned on, killing the whole evacuation atmosphere entirely.
• In the mid-section, this was diabolical. When doing through the doors into the little walkthrough section, there was NO AUDIO at all. Not one bit. No rumbling ambience, no sound effects, nothing. So we walked through a zig-zag with a random flashing strobe light and some smoke near the crashed train. It felt extremely weird being in there without that rumbling background noise constantly there like it usually is.
• The section where you wait and see a projection on the wall of the demon creature was turned off entirely and was about 2 minutes delayed before a voice appeared, so we stood there waiting for something to happen far longer than usual... with no background audio.
• When boarding again for the 2nd half, the carriage lights were all still on. No lights flickering or a voice saying the doors are closing.
• 2nd half was once again entirely with lights on during the VR sequence.

• No appearance from Derren on the screens once your ride has finished. Still blank.
• When waiting in the fake shop, we all stood there for about 3 minutes waiting for something to happen. Far, far longer than usual, no idea why but it killed the suspension.
• One of the screens in the fake TV shop kept on flickering on/off randomly, indicating it was broken. Plus, Derren's "keep it a secret" appearance didn't appear on it too.
• About 5 of the bulbs in the real shop above the enclosed hovering train carriages for sale are broken and need replacing. I mean, is it really that difficult now to replace a simple light bulb in this attraction?!

So yeah, this was one heck of a shoddy experience I had on Thursday and once more just to remind everyone, this is a ride branded as the 'future for theme parks that re-writes the rules of what they can do'.

 

Now, I understand stuff breaks, things go wrong and nothing is ever perfect on any ride, but come on now. For something technically just 2 years old now which is in a condition this bad? Inexcusable for a ride worth £30M and owned my a multi-billion quid company. Probably the worst run I've had on it since Fright Nights 2016.

Sort it out please Thorpe, it's a shambles currently.

[Marc]

I too had problems with my ride with lights on - although the TVs worked and displayed what they should they didn’t stop playing throughout the experience.

 

It’s not a new thing, I’ve seen that happen before so hopefully they can get fixed!

[Edwin]

I went to Thorpe Park yesterday for the first time in a few years, so it was my first time on Ghost Train.

 

Right from the start, the queueing experience is terrible. There's nothing to keep you entertained and you're not aware of how many people are entering the ride at what kind of interval, and then you round the corner and see how the Fastrack queue is building up and wonder Will I ever get on this ride? At this point, if you didn't already know what the ride was, you would be wishing you had queued for something else instead, which is a negative point to start on.

 

We entered into the building and shouted into rows, and then the people behind me shouted amongst themselves while Derren was doing his fear speech. It ended, the arrows lit up on the wall, and people hesitated to move. In the holding zone, a patient ride staff explained about the Victorian carriage and then popped through the door to check if it was ready. She came back a couple of minutes later and we hurried onto the train, with no real time to take in the warehouse, which might work in favour of the illusion although it's probably too dark in there to notice anything.

 

I had a woman with a dog talking to me in the first VR segment. She seemed to flesh out the story quite well and the VR headsets did a good job of blocking out the surroundings. I don't believe any of the actors touched us at any point and it seemed generally understaffed (as did most of the park, to be honest). The evacuation sequence was confusing(?) We just walked into a room, being told to move down and gather around, and then there was some red light and drilling noises and we were told to get back on the train.

 

In the gift shop, the woman behind the counter told us we had to stand around. I had been walking straight through gift shops all day at this point, and I imagine they'd seen a lot of people walk straight to the exit door. Surely there must be a way of getting people to engage with the gift shop without being so obvious about it? We just saw a message from Derren Brown, some things "broke", something happened to the floor, and then we left. 

 

 

My friend was pretty damning about it all. For the most part, I just thought the pacing was odd, somehow not something they've managed to perfect since it first opened. Oh, also, the theme of the ride confuses even itself.

[homer22422]

I had an awful experience in regards to the evacuation and mid-section scene...

 

We were told to remove our headsets, however... the staff were not in character at all as they remained with a glazed smile other their faces as they told us to get off the train as they were clearly heard converting with each other about their social lives, without a care in the world. Due to this then there did not seem to have any urgency or adrenaline that invested us into the world derren brown and Merlin Entertainments tried to present to their guests. We were slowly huddled along and into the "Scare Maze" which had pre-maturely started the audio which completely destroyed any remaining immersion and due to this then we were quickly pushed through the maze "Which didn't have any scare actors at all" and were relocated into a secondary room with a red pipe and a train.                 

 

This is when I witnessed the part which really killed my experience...

We were then told by the same staff member who had been following us from the first train that we had to locate a set of numbers in order to open the doors that leads to the next train... without any scenes which would make it seem like we need to urgently escape from an incoming threat. All they did was stand there and ask the younger members of the group "Can you see the numbers anywhere?". Like this was an attraction for young children... A guy then shouted out a number which was obviously supposed to be a joke as he said "1234"...

Well, you wouldn't believe what happened next... the staff member (who still had that unprofessionally glazed smile) spurted out "Oh My God! That was the correct number! Well done".

She then opened the doors and we then proceeded to the second train (2nd VR scene)...

 

Another problem that I encountered was with the first VR scene due to the fact that the audio was so broken that it was very difficult to understand what was being said.

 

I queued for this "experience" for about an hour and a half and ended up being very disappointed with the staff and Merlin for their lack of commitment on keeping the customers satisfied with their attractions

 

 

 

[Stuntman707]

Don't queue for this attraction. Avoid it at all costs. It is complete garbage now. The staff don't care, the VR is broken and it still breaks down. The group I went with still complain to me how bad it was when I persuaded them to go on it. Last time I ever step foot on that ride!

[homer22422]

23 minutes ago, Stuntman707 said:

Don't queue for this attraction. Avoid it at all costs. It is complete garbage now. The staff don't care, the VR is broken and it still breaks down. The group I went with still complain to me how bad it was when I persuaded them to go on it. Last time I ever step foot on that ride!

I sadly have to agree with this due to my horrific experience...

Wish Merlin would try to amend these faults as it is getting quite ridiculous now 

[Project LC]

Merlins corporate structure means all investments need to pretty much have an instant return. They need to have a strong brand which is easy to market and can be used to draw people in so that the marketing within the park can sell you a ticket to return to another Merlin attraction. Updating a ride for a third time 3 years after its launch isn't going to get a good return on the investment so Merlin have no financial incentive to update the attraction. Worryingly Merlin have also identified that staff costs are the largest overhead to the company and are trying to reduce them. Seeing as every "experience" they build now seems to have actors I only see the attraction getting worse over time.

[jack holmes 12]

I think Thorpe park definitely new management. To set the priorities in a different direction ?

[Project LC]

20 minutes ago, jack holmes 12 said:

I think Thorpe park definitely new management. To set the priorities in a different direction ?

Thorpe did recently get a new director from the midway attractions. He seems to have completely changed the direction of the park but it's hard to tell how much of that was him and not someone else pulling the strings.

 

A factor to consider is Merlin seem to pay staff quite poorly, the graduate scheme salary is about £5000 less than the average equivalent for example. I suspect it's resulting high staff turnover and young inexperienced teams. It is no mystery that the parks are falling into the state they are with the way Varney is currently leading the group. He is so focused with diversification of the business and international expansion that he seems to be loosing track of the core business. 

[homer22422]

34 minutes ago, Project LC said:

Thorpe did recently get a new director from the midway attractions. He seems to have completely changed the direction of the park but it's hard to tell how much of that was him and not someone else pulling the strings.

 

A factor to consider is Merlin seem to pay staff quite poorly, the graduate scheme salary is about £5000 less than the average equivalent for example. I suspect it's resulting high staff turnover and young inexperienced teams. It is no mystery that the parks are falling into the state they are with the way Varney is currently leading the group. He is so focused with diversification of the business and international expansion that he seems to be loosing track of the core business. 

I have to admit that some of the members of staff were absolutely fantastic in the park including a member of staff who played the train conductor (who is placed in the holding room before you enter the main train warehouse) in DBGT who was seriously invested into his role (this occurred during my last visit)  and made the atmosphere a lot more entertaining, however, some of the staff members (not the majority) over the last couple of years then the staff have seriously just seemed to get worse and worse... I even had one experience where a member of staff working in the coca cola freestyle stall seemed more interested in talking to their friends than working and serving a customer in front of me. When she finally got around to serving the poor gentleman then see spoke in a disinterested and harsh tone to the man who just wanted a bit of service... He then asked if there was an ice machine and she completely ignored him (you can guess what she was doing) leaving him to leave the stall unsatisfied. I didn't want to deal with that so I didn't bother purchasing anything...

I know they don't get paid well but what on earth is this all about...

 

Alton towers on the other hand seems to have much friendlier staff (from what I have seen of them) who actually commit themselves in making sure everybody has a great day (not saying thorpe park has not got its fair share of fantastic members of staff)

[homer22422]

I have just come back from thorpe park once again and...

Wow, just wow...

 

I know how much I rambled about my disappointing experience the last time I rode Derren Browns Ghost Train... 

 

HOWEVER, This time was even worse than the last:

1)     

Both headsets were faulty for me during this ride.

The first VR scene kept freezing and resetting During the frequent resets then a weird grid would appear and was quite disorienting and breaks the illusion of the section.           

The second sequence was a bit better but it still had a weird audio buzz and a high pitch tone in the background. The VR scene also froze a bit but not has bad as the first.

 

2)     

The midsection live-action scene somehow managed to be much worse and insulting compared to my last visit due to the fact that there was not any audio at all and the worst part is that they tried to pull the same number combination skit the last time I went:

Quote

We were then told by the same staff member who had been following us from the first train that we had to locate a set of numbers in order to open the doors that leads to the next train... without any scenes which would make it seem like we need to urgently escape from an incoming threat. All they did was stand there and ask the younger members of the group "Can you see the numbers anywhere?". Like this was an attraction for young children... A guy then shouted out a number which was obviously supposed to be a joke as he said "1234"...

Well, you wouldn't believe what happened next... the staff member (who still had that unprofessionally glazed smile) spurted out "Oh My God! That was the correct number! Well done".

She then opened the doors and we then proceeded to the second train (2nd VR scene)...

However, this was further ruined by the fact that when she opened the doors then the train wasn't even ready for us... or that is what she claimed.

 

3)     

The last gripe that I have is:

Spoiler

The Fake Shop Jumpscare's Audio was way too quite for anybody to get a real shock. I don't know if they lowered the volume? But it was seriously WAY too quite

       

I didn't have to wait in the queue so long this trip (I queued for over an hour and a half the last time) but I still had to wait 30 minutes for an even worse experience...

 

I will not be riding again until they sort this out!

 

[Marhelorpe]

Rather than repeating all the problems I and others have with this attraction, I'll just leave here one extremely major flaw I had with this yesterday on the preview event for Fright Nights (29th September 2018).

The fake shop at the end of the attraction wasn't working and so the entire group walked through it without the demon jumping out in front of guests because......... *drum roll*

 

 

The. Park. Could. Not. Find. An. Actor.

 

They ran out of them for the mazes that evening...... xD

 

Yes, REALLY.

[MattyMoo]

New theming spotted today lads.

[Stuntman707]

8 minutes ago, MattyMoo said:

New theming spotted today lads.

Is that where the VR headsets are stored?

[MattyMoo]

Cracking queue on this as always despite everything else is walk on. Queue advertised as 20. Been here 40 and stuck at the door after batching for a good 15 mins. During our queue time they've announced the queue as 20, 30, 40, 60 and 70 minutes. Standard.