The Walking Dead - The Ride: SPOILERS

[Stuntman707]

 

[ProudToServe]

6 hours ago, Stuntman707 said:

 

"I absolutely love the ride and I genuinely mean that"

We'll wouldnt expect Jordan to say it's 'okay', if she works at the park... 

[MattyMoo]

"You'd never even recognize that it used to be X"

I'd beg to differ m8.

 

EDIT: Sir Sanbrooke Esq. speaks the truth lads. He rates it a 5/10 (not a 15/10) and says "You could still tell it was X basically"

 

 

[yeah]

"The best part of the experience was the exit corridor"

[Ringo]

14 hours ago, ProudToServe said:

"I absolutely love the ride and I genuinely mean that"

We'll wouldnt expect Jordan to say it's 'okay', if she works at the park... 

And in her job role as the parks official ride tester she also announced it was the worlds scariest ride. 

[Marc]

24 minutes ago, ChessingtonSam said:

"The best part of the experience was the exit corridor"

Tbf the exit scene is pretty well done and effective - especially with the actors in there.

[TPC]

Having actors there now goes against the map, which clearly does not have the live actor logo. Not going to cause any issues...

[yeah]

2 minutes ago, Marc said:

Tbf the exit scene is pretty well done and effective - especially with the actors in there.

I'm not doubting that, it just sounds funny 

[Mark9]

2 hours ago, Ringo said:

And in her job role as the parks official ride tester she also announced it was the worlds scariest ride. 

 

Err, thats because it is. 15/10 doesn't do it justice.

[Stuntman707]

Arguably, The Gravity Max is the world’s scariest ride  Good to know the lord and saviour / full time guest Sanbrooke is actually giving an honest review, it also could be down to the fact he didn’t go to the press night. 

[Graw]

17 hours ago, Marc said:

Tbf the exit scene is pretty well done and effective - especially with the actors in there.

 

just out of interest, what's the exit scene like / what happens when there's no actors there? cheers 

[Marc]

I guess this is the spoilers thread - so the story is you need to use the transit system

to escape in the cafeteria which is the exit area, this whole area has been opened up and themed to what would be Thorpes cafeteria, when you get off the train and enter the area it triggers sound effects / lights simulating some sort of car crash into the building there. 

[MattyMoo]

Apparently XNWOTWD was down all day yesterday?
The website ticker says Opens Saturday, but that could be an old message...

[Marc]

Think that is an old message - it was closed yesterday. 

[StevenVig]

On 03/04/2018 at 12:34 PM, TPC said:

Having actors there now goes against the map, which clearly does not have the live actor logo. Not going to cause any issues...

General public really won't give a hoot about that, lets be real

[Marc]

https://blooloop.com/news/scruffy-dog-turnkey-theming-thorpe-park-walking-dead-coaster/

 

Some pictures from inside the queue / ride area from Scruffy Dog here

[Cian]

I’ve gotta say - despite the seemingly average nature of the ride itself - the theming looks brilliant. A step up from past works, such as the theming found inside GT. They’ve clearly paid a great amount of attention to the tiny details throughout in order to improve it on a grand scale. I look forward to riding this at the weekend. 

[JoshuaA]

Despite my bashing of this re-theme I have to say I agree that the theming in the interior actually looks nice.

The exterior though..

 

[Cian]

If the rest of the park didn’t look like a desolate dump I’d have little to no problem with the exterior. The watchtower’s pretty cool.   

[JoshuaA]

So I gave this a ride today and overall here is some pros and cons:

 

Pros:

• Decent theming throughout the ride
• A few cool special effects during the ride, the exit corridor also had a few neat smell pods

Cons:

• The corridors between the pre-show and the ride were kinda atmosphere-killing and a fire exit door being open didn't help..
• The finale felt really poorly executed, one actor in a corridor? really? The lighting and audio also very understated so it lacked any urgency whatsoever.
• It was down for quite a few hours. I got at the park about 12 and I didn't see the ride open until around 3PM.

Overall:

Meh. I think that explains my opinion on the experience.

The ride now has a few neat special effects and some theming, but overall the experience is let down by its finale and the corridors between parts of the ride kinda ruin the atmosphere.

[JoshC.]

Interesting that you didn't like the corridors between pre show and the station.  I felt that it built things up quite well (especially with the triggered audio effects).  It is simple, but it works in my opinion.  Wonder how much the open fire door made a difference for you?

 

The post-ride thing needs more clarity and work.  I don't think it needs an actor, and I think it's totally fine to have just a themed area with effects that finish off the story.  I guess the main trouble for me is the story disappears at the ride end - you make it out alive, but you're still in danger, then what?  

[Mega-Lite]

11 hours ago, JoshuaA said:

It was down for quite a few hours. I got at the park about 12 and I didn't see the ride open until around 3PM.

You're not the first person I've seen comment on the up time of Walking Dead, I wonder what they have done to it to change it from an insanely reliable Vekoma, to having random bursts of down time? Yeah I know the product is new, but the coaster isn't, so I really can't wrap my head around it, I want to believe that pissing around with the ride system to bring back the dumb brake stuff might have caused it, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's something silly like a new effect playing up or actor issues.

[Marc]

X had its fair share of down time to be fair - towards the start of last year before it closed for a few weeks I seem to remember it had a fair few shutdowns throughout the day.

[Flipper]

On 07/04/2018 at 10:56 AM, Mega-Lite said:

I want to believe that pissing around with the ride system to bring back the dumb brake stuff might have caused it, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's something silly like a new effect playing up or actor issues.

Murmurs I’ve heard is new effects having issues, and thus the ride closing down as every effect counts on it from what I’ve heard (yet to ride) whereas SAW gets away with sod all at times. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s issues within the braking system now it’s been reinstated.

[Matt 236]

This week I had my first ride on The Walking Dead Ride (or X version 3 (or 5/6)if you prefer).

 

Queue line is pretty much completely outdoors and seems to be your standard ‘rundown’ cattlepen. At first this may sound somewhat of a bad thing. However given this potentially cleans up the queue distribution (Main,Fastrack,RAP etc.) and the theming/setting, this may be one of the better uses for a cattlepen. The bagroom is now just before the indoor part, which is around where the ole bagroom many years ago once was.

 

There is a pre-show, which neither great or terrible, but does it’s job to setup the purpose of the safe zone. The former queue/walkways have been rethemed to like emergency corridors, with flashing lights and bits. There didn’t seem much noticeable from when it was X , at least as lighting is concerned. 

 

We arrive at the station, which is noticeably darker and gloomier. The new setup means there is almost no queue which is nice. The trains remain the same (the two person rule unfortunately remains, but they probably have little control over that). 

 

For the ride itself, gone is the upbeat vibe and replaced a dark apocalyptic one. There are numerous parts of theming representing zombies and other items. There are a few screens, but no noticeable animatronics, which is a shame really. The third stop has returned, which features new effects such. Whilst this makes the ride’s pacing a little strange, it somehow works as the last part of the ride feels like zombies chasing you. 

 

The action doesn’t  finish on the exit corridor, which now features a few effects and darkened areas making it gloomy and misleading. It’s almost like a scaremaze in one sense. After passing the bagroom, we take a strange detour on a path leading us into the megastore. Whilst this is a good upselling tactic, the route feels long winded and deliberately out of the way. The back pathway appears to have been removed, although it would’ve been a dead-end anyway.

 

In Summary, there are some things I really like about this retheme and some things not so much. I like that the park are trying to turn it more into an experience, there are some decent effects and this is one of the better ‘low investment’ year addictions. Most of which in the last 5-10 years have felt rather far-fetched. 

 

However, the attraction has resulted in ‘yet’ another dark apocalyptic theme, bringing that number now upto five, six if you include Tidal Wave (which is arguably a more upbeat theme). The park desperately more than ever needs more upbeat/mysterious themes and seems to have somewhat lost one through this retheme. I also think the ride doesn’t need to be a 1.4 and more like a 1.2 or 1.3. 

 

After all that, I haven’t decided whether I prefer X or TWD, but there are things I like about both attractions. The park have done quite well here, but now need to focus on more upbeat themes.