20 minutes ago, Wumbamillio said:

A behind the scenes video making the point about how impressive this ride supposedly is and how the illusion actualy works would therefore defeat the point I think. But since the end result doesnt work anyway, I guess the park dont care that much anymore sadly.

I totally agree. Which is why I'd be very surprised if the park ever did do something like that to the masses (I'm surprised they even showed the inside of the building in any way when they did their winter update thing).

 

Equally though, it would still be something really awesome to do and see, moreso after the ride is no longer a thing. People love a behind the scenes perspective of a dark ride, and seeing initial concepts are thoughts behind the design, would really demonstrate what they were trying to do at the very least!

Another thing, I find it really naff that you see guests getting off the train carriage before/whilst you board, ideally the offload should have been on the other side surely?

 

It'd be really nice if Thorpe arranged a behind the scenes tour for TPM, the same way that PBE members (myself included) have had tours round the interior of Valhalla.

Stop wasting money on it and knock down the whole ride. Then put a real ghost train in the building.

If I remember correctly you where never supposed to see people coming off the ride (which is why you have the "talk" about the coach hanging by chains in another room, issue is the ride already took too long to load and unload and this made it worse. So it rarely if at all happened. Issue with unloading the other side is thats where the maintenance shed is.

 

And in response to what the other ending was, it was revealed at one point unintentionally

 

Yes, the original way the ride operated was that you entered the hanging carriage room after the previous group had left. Due to throughputs being an issue though, that idea was abandoned. A part of that is down to the quoted theoretical throughput from the manufacturer being literally impossible to achieve. As the timings were largely based around that, it was pretty screwed from the word go.

 

18 minutes ago, 1729 said:

And in response to what the other ending was, it was revealed at one point unintentionally

 

Yes and no. 

 

That does show an alternative to the 2016 version, that wasn't 'the' other ending. The other ending was totally different to what was shown. The above is more just a 'let's make multiple scenarios of this version and see which works better'. I don't know if the above was ever used after the ride had opened (maybe soft previews?), but that wasn't the intended other ending.

I wonder if something changed during construction and we were gonna see the train from the other side as a lot of the publicity had Derren standing underneath the train from the other way or was that used to imply that was what it looked like had we entered that way around?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

The Victorian carriage room is more or less exactly as planned. It's a large scale illusion which required a lot of planning and design to get right - and like a lot of illusions, is designed to work from certain angles. The illusion wouldn't work from different perspectives, amounts of light, etc. 

 

So basically, having people enter/leave on different sides of the train, or from different heights, wouldn't work due to the design. And it was designed with those parameters in mind.

On 2/1/2019 at 6:35 PM, Coaster said:

Another thing, I find it really naff that you see guests getting off the train carriage before/whilst you board, ideally the offload should have been on the other side surely?

 

It'd be really nice if Thorpe arranged a behind the scenes tour for TPM, the same way that PBE members (myself included) have had tours round the interior of Valhalla.

I wonder if that would make Coaster finally come to a TPM meet lol.

On 2/2/2019 at 12:36 PM, Stuntman707 said:

Stop wasting money on it and knock down the whole ride. Then put a real ghost train in the building.

Totally agree on wasting money on it. Merlin / Thorpe are so keen on cutbacks and saving money just get rid of it.

The Victorian carriage room is more or less exactly as planned. It's a large scale illusion which required a lot of planning and design to get right - and like a lot of illusions, is designed to work from certain angles. The illusion wouldn't work from different perspectives, amounts of light, etc. 
 
So basically, having people enter/leave on different sides of the train, or from different heights, wouldn't work due to the design. And it was designed with those parameters in mind.

Is it that grand though from the tight angle you see it from?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

9 minutes ago, PJ. said:

 

 

Is it that grand though from the tight angle you see it from?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

I'd say yes, the physical illusion is very impressive. The trouble is more the reveal of it - there's little build up aside from a small speech (which you may not even hear or notice at the back of the group). And there's also the fact you're rushed in and out of the room. Without the set up, you get no return.

 

If you look at reviews of when it first opened, and people's first ride, you'll see how everyone raves about the hanging carriage. It's something which was hugely pushed in marketing and teasers, so it was at the forefront of everyone's minds. Now, it's either taken for granted by re-riders (because their attention isn't drawn to it) or not recognised by new riders (because they don't really know about it).

 

It's a shame, because it is a good illusion in my opinion.

1 hour ago, JoshC. said:

If you look at reviews of when it first opened, and people's first ride, you'll see how everyone raves about the hanging carriage. It's something which was hugely pushed in marketing

Exactly, because all the enthusiasts knew to expect it because they saw a CGI image of it, on a made-up background, from an exaggerated angle that didn't exist in the ride. Merlin continue to prove they care a lot more about advertising than the actual rides they build.

There was also a lot of nonsense said about it by some enthusiasts wanting the attention. I remember being told it would change theme parks forever and was going to make Disney and Universal quake in their boots (haha). Although I'm not trying to tar everyone with the same brush or blame people for being excited, I was excited too.

The scene as-built is not impressive or even noticeable, there is zero showmanship. When you set a big centrepiece like that it's all about the architectural approach which was just not thought about, very sad because like you say if you bother to look closely, it's actually a very good illusion and effort went into it. Whatta waste!

I kind of find DBGT fascinating though about how not to do an ambitious ride concept. All the mistakes they made were the same mistakes that plague most of Merlin's projects but this time on a bigger than ever scale. I'm glad it was made rather than not made but it's a kind of tragic tale of a great idea struggling to make it.

On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 3:26 PM, Stuntman707 said:

Is that where the VR headsets are stored?

Heheh. No! (Not in the dustbins.)

Edited March 6, 20196 yr by 08newmanb

Did this the other day with a group of people who had no idea what to expect from it. General consensus was it was 'good', but felt like it missed the mark in a few places.

 

Weirdly as well, the final scene played (all audio and effects), but the demon didn't appear. Certainly felt flat and even those who had no clue what was happening realised that something was missing.

 

Hopefully a one off mistake and not a regular issue..

On 6/16/2019 at 8:26 AM, JoshC. said:

Hopefully not a regular issue..

The whole ride and it's being is a regular issue ?

haters and losers continue to dump on this ride but refuse to acknowledge the cold hard fact that it’s done more for the anti fracking movement than any green party politician living or dead

I wonder if they are waiting for tech to improve before the next reimagining as in when it changed to ROTD or just given up


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I had a run through of DBGT the other day and honestly I wasn't a fan.

The VR reliant aspect of the attraction just doesn't do it for me and I found both VR sequences to be kinda boring, and the middle section was just kinda eh with 1 actor and a bunch of kinda oddly placed strobes.

The finale as always is brilliant but, eh. This thing also seemed to get a low throughput, the queue moved slower than TWD.. I honestly don't know why the park just built a madhouse, would of been better as a ride, better throughput, cheaper, and they could of made it heavily themed and scary if they wanted.

I've been on DBGT at least 3 or 4 times now at various points in its life. Of course there is some novelty the first time. 

 

One time, we all got on the first train, to find only one headset on the whole carriage was working. They then led us out some random exit through what looked like a store room with random stuff piled up, to then have to join the fastpass queue (?). Honestly the organisation was tragic. Oh and of course we had to watch the pre show again... yay.

 

Another time we had the shop scare which was fun and unexpected for me, and when I went again with different friends I was looking forward to them jumping. Unfortunately, no actor! This was early on in halloween season but it was a weekend in fright nights... so its pretty poor.

 

Honestly I don't know what the future holds for this 'ride'. maybe changing the middle section and the VRs, or an entirely new story line, but its one of those that nobody who's done it before will be excited to come back to the park for it. 

I like the bit where he says "My Ghost Train" and hope Thorpe release merch with this on next year.

12 minutes ago, MattyMoo said:

I like the bit where he says "My Ghost Train" and hope Thorpe release merch with this on next year.

Campaign for this to be the new marketing hook for said merch...

 

 

So... I went on this for the first time on Friday and was simply astonished by it. Astonished that somebody, somewhere, signed off a huge sum of money to build this. I went into this with an open mind and not knowing what to expect, but it was quite simply, terrible. I believe that the ride has already been here for a couple of years, I can't see any way that this thing lasts longer than maybe another couple, even with enhancements and changes, the concept is just poor. They'd be better off ripping down whats inside and making this into a scare-maze. 

DBGTROTD has a lot to answer for. The lack of any brand new, not recycled investments since, for one thing

 

I reckon Bouncezilla will be back for 2020, bigger and bouncier than before.

 

 

 

DBGTROTD has a lot to answer for. The lack of any brand new, not recycled investments since, for one thing [emoji3]
 
I reckon Bouncezilla will be back for 2020, bigger and bouncier than before.
 
 
 

Least ROTD brought us the great ending and better 2nd part VR


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

1 hour ago, PJ. said:

Least ROTD brought us the great ending and better 2nd part VR

Good on you for being positive! Far more generous than I'd have been! 😂