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Fright Nights 2023 - Spoilers


JoshC.

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Cool, okay, spoiler review, let's go.

 

I'll prefix by saying these are primarily based on the Press Night runs I had. So, yknow, that means things are slightly different, slightly more actors, less people in groups, etc. As ever, I'll give my honest thoughts and what I think this means for how the mazes will operate in more usual conditions.

 

Stitches

Was able to get 2 goes on this. And this maze isn't the most me maze. I'll get there with that explanation.

 

The good stuff though. This is a long maze. I'm pleasantly surprised with how much they've put in the maze; genuinely did not think they'd be able to get that many scenes in there. It's also well themed. Like really well themed. And there's quite a few effects in there, which isn't something that Thorpe have done much of in their mazes.

 

I really liked the mirror misdirection at the start, the teddy bear tunnel and the spider scene, all of which happen fairly early on.

 

The maze isn't in-your-face scary. There are jump scares in there, but it's more about creating a creepy atmosphere and making you worried about what could happen, then being a jump-scare maze about what is happening. That's by no means a bad thing, it's good to have that variety. At the same time, there is a certain level of passive engagement when you walk through - you're not always involved in the story, sometimes you're just watching things happen. 

 

The main issue I had was that for the last 1/3 of the maze, there's some very intense strobes. By far the most intense strobes at Thorpe. It helps create a disorientating atmosphere, especially with the ending which is a bit like a mirror maze. But this just does nothing for me beyond give me a headache. It's the same reason I didn't enjoy Asylum. And with this intense strobe being the lasting impression of the maze, it's a proper downer on the maze for me.

 

The maze will get people and will freak them out. I saw that on Press Night. But equally, for some, it will do nothing.

 

This maze, I believe, is the park's biggest investment in a Fright Nights maze. They took a conscious choice to not advertise that though, given they've used that line a couple of times now. But with the level of theming and costume design, I think that really shows.

 

So yeah, not for me. I'm curious to try it out again. And it's not a bad maze or bad investment, but just not what I want.

 

Survival Games

This carries on the intensity from last year. My run this Press Night was more intense than last Press Night, and about on level with my last run last year. The inside of the maze basically hasn't changed, bar a chainsaw finale now (which suits the maze and works well!). And it is something where the actors make or break it. It's clearly a strong cast this year who can make it work.

 

Obviously the thing with this is now making sure it will be operated suitably, to ensure the arena section doesn't overcrowd, and people can spend a decent amount of time in there. It was hit and miss last year, so hopefully they've learnt lessons from that.

 

Trailers

Basically the same, couple of new bits of theming in the finale, and different posters hinting towards Hyperia. But yeah, nothing new.

With this being the oldest maze, it will be interesting to see whether the park plan to replace this next year, update it, or what. In any case, I think it could benefit from a refresh now.

 

Crows

This was my favourite attraction at Press Night, and remained strong yesterday in my run. I love it. The extra space has meant they've expanded it and created a longer route, featuring some enclosed sections. There's tons of smokes, a good level of actors and the theming is simple yet effective. It just ticks all the boxes.

 

It is less a scare zone and more an outdoor walkthough / maze, but that's no bad thing. In any case, THIS IS HOW YOU DO AN OUTDOOR ATTRACTION

 

Death's Doors

Again, I remain unconvinced by the operational suitability of this for Fright Nights, but it's cheesy fun.

 

Creature Campus

Great show with a good dance routine. The addition of the Bleachers is really cool visually. At the end, the Witches point to Stealth and make it flash different colours, which is an awesome touch.

 

Lucifer's Lair

This really adds variety to the event. The scare zone side of it is fun, and a true scare zone. There's dance acts, singers (who I believe are external) and a fire show throughout the evening. It's a bit darker in tone, with heavier music playing, quite in your face lighting and really a lot of fire. It feels very Fright Nights, in the best way possible.

 

The area looks nice and it all combines really well. This is a great way of creating a scare zone and show which doesn't pander towards a tamer/younger market for the park. Great job.

 

Other Bits

I think it's worth pointing out that the lighting and audio for the shows was really top notch. Feels like they've invested new stuff there and it shows. Parkwide audio feels the same across a lot of the park, but is Fright Nights based. Would be nice to have seen more area-specific stuff.

 

Bottom Line

Another great event this year. People will complain about the upcharges, and I think they are still a little too high. BUT, there is clear evidence that they are putting some of that money back into the event and really increasing the budget put into it, which is increasing the quality as a result. If Thorpe continue that, I could see them creating mazes which really do justify the premium price tag.

 

Fright Nights is back to consistent high standards and quality. If we put any one of these attraction into the 2018 line up (you know, the one where they had a billion mazes which were all largely rubbish), they would be the stand out attraction. Even going back 10+ years, to the time when some say Fright Nights was in its hey-day, these attractions would steal the show I reckon.

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I agree with your review totally,

I am not going to type out a whole review but add some observations.

 

The new batching areas added to the queues are brilliant as they force you to listen to a pre recorded safety announcement. Ultimately, with it being a paid attraction plus the reinforcement of the safety message, I don’t think they will have many incidents as before.

 

There is something fundamentally wrong with trailers. I was at the back of the group. I couldn’t physically leave the last scene into the corridor as people were not moving quick enough. So I was akwardly being hurried out by the actor with no where to go. I got into the next room and the scare had already happened and the actor was out and about trying to get close to people, basically missing out on a jumpscare and effectively the same as I walk through the crows (which works for the crows). Also the “run out” corridor was fully lit and not like the first year where it was pitch black and strobing every so often so vision was limited.

 

Lucifers lair adds a much needed area to be able to sit in during fright nights and watch something and grab a drink. The roaming actors do a good job at being scary in an open space.

 

Amity High show (I am still calling it that) doesn’t have a roaming actors anymore and it’s purely the shows and that’s it. I’m not sure operationally what happens to those actors as they go back to the dome after the show 😂

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I LOVED the strobe section in Stitches. They’re always by far my favourite part when they use these in mazes. Which is why The Freezer/Asylum will always be the most terrifying and intense maze for me. Absolutely loved Stitches, my favourite of the 3 by a mile. Brilliant atmosphere and theming with so many jump scares. The room with the dolls (I think they were?) not knowing which of them were real was a highlight, I know they sort of did that in Trailers but it’s executed so much better here. 
 

Really comes down to what you look for in a maze as I really didn’t find Survival Games that intense. The shouting and being shoved takes away the sense of the unknown for me and you can see the actors coming from a mile off. But it’s great we have 2 very strong and complimentary mazes with Stitches and Survival Games. I do think now Trailers is easily the weakest of the three and wouldn’t be surprised to see this one gone next year

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Last year was the first Fright Nights I hadn't done since 2012, meaning both Survival Games and Death doors were completely new to me. 

 

Survival games was my favorite of the mazes. Me and a friend got split up and didn't see eachother the whole time. It was quite funny talking about it after having completely different experiences. This one definitely seemed to get the best reactions of people coming out of the maze too.

 

Trailers was basically the same as when I went on it a couple of years ago. Great sets and a good amount of actors. 

 

Stiches was my least favorite of the 3 mazes, which was a shame as I was looking forward to this one. The length of the maze and sets were amazing, but just felt it lacked any sort of scares and lacked actors in places there probably should've been actors. I do think I may have had a particularly bad run through on this so if I get myself to Fright Nights again I'd like to give it another go. I was also at the back of the group which didn't help, as most effects etc happened before I got there.

 

I didn't watch the Creature Campus show as thats not something that really interests me. I thought the Lucifers Lair area was great though. Absolutely packed with actors and just in general a great atmosphere in the middle of the park. Everyone really seemed to enjoy this area, was constantly busy. 

 

The Crows scarzone was great, felt more like an outdoor maze than a scarezone. The lighting, audio and smoke was great. I liked that they were sending you in batches as it meant it wasn't too crowded in there but I'm unsure how this will cope on the busier nights. It created big crowds at the entrance with no real queueline. It was impossible to hear what they were saying on the megaphone with Saws area music in the background 😄

 

I also really enjoyed Death Doors, which was a pleasant surprise. Something completely different and it was a good laugh. 

 

Few other points:

- The park in general is looking great at night. Would be nice to have a couple smoke machines around though, like Samurai and Colossus has done on previous years.

- None of the rides had Fright Nights audio this year which is a shame. Not sure if they just haven't had the time to do it yet or they aren't bothering this year? This really adds to the event normally so I hope they get that sorted. 

- There really isn't enough time in the dark. The park looks great at night and its a completely different atmosphere. I know the park aren't keen on bringing 10pm closes back due to a number of reasons like staff welfare etc, but it seriously makes such a big difference. I'd much rather them do an 11am-10pm if its the extra hour which is an issue. Bring 10pm closes back!!!

- Wasn't a fan of the parkwide Fright Nights audio this year.

 

Overall though, the best Fright Nights I've been too in a long time. They have a great mix of attractions which are all high quality. Its clear they're putting a lot of effort into the event again and the budget it there.

 

Next year id like to see them add a 4th maze to the current lineup. I'm sure they'd like to as well as it will help with queues and its an extra income for them. Not sure if they'll be able to do that though space wise until they get rid of black mirror. If a 4th isn't an option next year then I'd like to see a new maze to replace Trailers.

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1 hour ago, Cal said:

- None of the rides had Fright Nights audio this year which is a shame. Not sure if they just haven't had the time to do it yet or they aren't bothering this year? This really adds to the event normally so I hope they get that sorted. 

Yeah, this is a bit disappointing. In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor thing, and with the efforts gone elsewhere, it almost seems like a nitpick point. But the park have done some pretty awesome Fright Nights overlays on rides in previous years, and having them along with the high quality areas the park would be fab.

 

1 hour ago, Cal said:

- There really isn't enough time in the dark. The park looks great at night and its a completely different atmosphere. I know the park aren't keen on bringing 10pm closes back due to a number of reasons like staff welfare etc, but it seriously makes such a big difference. I'd much rather them do an 11am-10pm if its the extra hour which is an issue. Bring 10pm closes back!!!

Big agree here. 

 

I'd imagine another reason for 10pm closes being something they don't want to bring back is because staff aged under 18 can't work that late, which puts pressure on staff (and then links into staff welfare and all the other reasons).

 

However, I think the park really need to explore ways to bring back 10pm closes. It would help bring Fright Nights in line with scare-specific events across the country, and just give more night time experience. Even if they just kept Fright Nights attractions and coasters open till 10pm, or considered 11am-10pm, that would be a big helpful step.

 

1 hour ago, Cal said:

- Wasn't a fan of the parkwide Fright Nights audio this year.

Another agree here. It wasn't bad, but seemed a bit...meh at the same time.

 

1 hour ago, Cal said:

Next year id like to see them add a 4th maze to the current lineup. I'm sure they'd like to as well as it will help with queues and its an extra income for them. Not sure if they'll be able to do that though space wise until they get rid of black mirror. If a 4th isn't an option next year then I'd like to see a new maze to replace Trailers.

This is something which has been in my mind too. Obviously not to jump the gun, but where do Thorpe go from here?

 

Do the park expand their line up with a 4th maze, and if so, how? Do they just go for 4 mazes which you can buy separately, and then have a "Terrifying Quad" package? Do they go for a "Terrifying Trio" package plus a 4th maze which is entirely separate? Or do they go for 3 upcharge mazes and then 1 free maze? Or some other weird combo?

 

Or if they keep with 3, do they replace Trailers? Or just update it? Or, do what seems almost unthinkable now, and stick with the 3 mazes they currently have, have no new mazes, and instead focus on new scare zones/shows instead?

 

There's lots of options there. I wonder what the reaction would be to a 4th upcharge maze from the masses - would people be happy to pay for everything, or does it leave people picking and choosing what they're doing? It certainly is something they'd need to look at a lot with market research.

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45 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

Yeah, this is a bit disappointing. In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor thing, and with the efforts gone elsewhere, it almost seems like a nitpick point. But the park have done some pretty awesome Fright Nights overlays on rides in previous years, and having them along with the high quality areas the park would be fab.

I think it's going to come tbf, the park map says something like "listen out for The Toymaker's announcements as she orchestrates a night of fear". I think last year a couple rides didn't have them on the first weekend, but did later on in the event.

 

1 hour ago, JoshC. said:

Another agree here. It wasn't bad, but seemed a bit...meh at the same time.

I think, from listening to it in queues and things, it's got different sections for each maze. A lot of it was Trailers themed, some for Stitches and some that sounded like it was themed to Survival Games. So that's kinda cool.

 

Loved Stitches. Partially because it plays on some childhood fears but I was horrified the whole way through and was holding onto my friend the whole way through. Survival Games was MUCH improved from last year, I was pretty let down last year. The run-through I had on Friday was one of the most intense I've ever had in any maze, some great jumpscares and it felt like I was trying to avoid the actors rather than having to look for them like I was last year. I'd put Trailers as the weakest maze this year, which is a shame as it's one of my favourites ever.

 

Death's Doors doesn't really work, nice concept but the group I was in was so big and we were near the back, I literally knocked on one door that didn't have an actor behind because I got beaten to every other one. Lucifer's Lair seems fun although we didn't catch any of the shows this time, Crows is great as always. Don't see the point in Lamity not sticking around between shows.

 

All in all, another really good event. They're getting good at these.

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13 hours ago, JoshC. said:

Yeah, this is a bit disappointing. In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor thing, and with the efforts gone elsewhere, it almost seems like a nitpick point. But the park have done some pretty awesome Fright Nights overlays on rides in previous years, and having them along with the high quality areas the park would be fab.

 

Yeah I agree, its not a priority for them and thats fine, I'm just someone that has always enjoyed Fright Nights audio so its something I picked up on.

 

Even if they're not creating new audio, loads of the previous Fright Night overlays would work fine. It makes a huge difference to the atmosphere in my opinion.

 

13 hours ago, JoshC. said:

Big agree here. 

 

I'd imagine another reason for 10pm closes being something they don't want to bring back is because staff aged under 18 can't work that late, which puts pressure on staff (and then links into staff welfare and all the other reasons).

 

However, I think the park really need to explore ways to bring back 10pm closes. It would help bring Fright Nights in line with scare-specific events across the country, and just give more night time experience. Even if they just kept Fright Nights attractions and coasters open till 10pm, or considered 11am-10pm, that would be a big helpful step.

 

Good idea about keeping the coasters and Fright Nights attractions open till 10, would mean they could still send a good amount of staff home earlier. Fright Nights and Coasters are what the majority of people will want to be doing in the dark anyway really. Its just such a shame they make a good effort of making everything look good in the dark and then not even having the time to see it all anyway, even on a quieter night.

 

I did notice a lot of people feeding this back in the passholders group as well, so I'm hoping they pick up on this and can look at bringing it back for next year as they seem to be quite good at listening to feedback recently. If they've done it before, they can do it again.

 

14 hours ago, JoshC. said:

This is something which has been in my mind too. Obviously not to jump the gun, but where do Thorpe go from here?

 

Do the park expand their line up with a 4th maze, and if so, how? Do they just go for 4 mazes which you can buy separately, and then have a "Terrifying Quad" package? Do they go for a "Terrifying Trio" package plus a 4th maze which is entirely separate? Or do they go for 3 upcharge mazes and then 1 free maze? Or some other weird combo?

 

Or if they keep with 3, do they replace Trailers? Or just update it? Or, do what seems almost unthinkable now, and stick with the 3 mazes they currently have, have no new mazes, and instead focus on new scare zones/shows instead?

 

There's lots of options there. I wonder what the reaction would be to a 4th upcharge maze from the masses - would people be happy to pay for everything, or does it leave people picking and choosing what they're doing? It certainly is something they'd need to look at a lot with market research.

 

I think as long as they keep the same number of free attractions/shows, people wouldn't mind paying for another maze. If they start to takeaway some of the free zones and replace these with paid mazes, I can see people not being too happy, understandably. 

 

I would be happy if they keep the current number with 3 mazes, as I think they have a great variety of attractions now. But if they do I would definitely like to see Trailers replaced, its nice to have a fresh maze every year.

 

If I was to see anything replaced it would be Creature Campus. I'd much rather see a new scare zone or maze instead of a dance show. But I can see why they've kept this as theres clearly a demand for it, people seem to love it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Loved Stitches on Friday 13th, didn't love the 70+ minute queue meaning we were unsure if we'd get all 3 mazes - THAT WE HAD PAID FOR - done.

We did, just about, but only because Josh was oN PaRk and told us Trailers had no queue so ended up going on at 8.55pm as a group of 4, and was an incredible run.

 

Will probably sit out Fright Nights next year unless I can get a ticket for Blue Light day as I begrudge pay-per-maze anyway, and would imagine just the 1 new maze next year.

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24 minutes ago, MattyMoo said:

Loved Stitches on Friday 13th, didn't love the 70+ minute queue meaning we were unsure if we'd get all 3 mazes - THAT WE HAD PAID FOR - done.

We did, just about, but only because Josh was oN PaRk and told us Trailers had no queue so ended up going on at 8.55pm as a group of 4, and was an incredible run.

 

Will probably sit out Fright Nights next year unless I can get a ticket for Blue Light day as I begrudge pay-per-maze anyway, and would imagine just the 1 new maze next year.

I somehow missed out on the blue light day tickets this year :( will have to do next year

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To add as well - would have loved to have done Stitches again, as detail and the maze in general was awesome (shout out to the monkey with cymbals, horrific haha) - but that wasn't even an option in the evening! Luckily our run through wasn't with any particular numpties so got to enjoy it, but if I'd queued for 70+ mins and had it ruined, I would have been severely miffed.

 

Noticed a separate queue line with the odd person using - was this RAP & Unlimited maze runthrough ticket holders?

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As far as I’m aware the unlimited maze ticket holders would have to queue it’s just RAP who would get to skip the queue. 
 

I would love to do Stiches again as well. I could see it has big potential but I just had a pretty poor run through on it. I was going to head down yesterday afternoon for another run through and some rides but the heavy rain put me off. Will have to wait till next year now. 
 

I just really hope they can sort out the queueing for next year. Anything over 30 minutes is unacceptable in my opinion.

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Alright, visited on Tuesday (for my first proper Fright Nights experience outside of the passholder preview day 2 years ago), here's my maze reviews and some thoughts:

 

Trailers

This is a maze that a lot of you will be aware that I have been extremely vocal about since my first runthrough on opening year. I thought it was dreadful the first time I did it - predictable scares across the board and the rooms are too small. I still think this is the case for the most part, however my runthrough this year was significantly better as for some reason or another, me and my friend ended up losing the ENTIRE group that we went in with after just the first dentist scene - so we basically had a SLKSTN EXCLUSIVE runthrough with all the actors' attention in all of the rooms fixated on us. It was our first maze of the evening too (as we both hated it when we did it last and wanted to just get it out of the way), but both came out very, very impressed. I even ended up running out of the maze, which isn't something I often end up doing in scare attractions.

 

There's definitely a few rooms here and there that are pretty weak - Hell Cell and Vulcan Voodoo stand out immediately to me, I'm sure there was others too. Room highlights though were definitely 'Nightmare on Staines Street' and the finale room. In the nightmare scene, I was so fixated by the person coming out of the bed that I totally forgot that there's also somebody behind the window and it made me jump out of my skin - not something I expected to be doing in Trailers after my last experience where I didn't jump at all. The finale was also great because we had the spark machines working for a change, which (again) wasn't something we experienced on our first runthrough in 2021.

 

Trailers was my second favourite maze of the evening.

 

Stitches

We then moved on to Stitches, which surprisingly didn't have the ridiculous queue that I expected considering it's the nEw FoR 2023 maze. I quite liked it. I agree with what @JoshC. said that it's definitely more eerie than scary - I didn't get jumpscared very often, but was definitely uncomfortable whilst walking through. Some of the strobe and LED lighting in there really did blind you which totally throws you off and puts you even more on edge for potential jumpscares (which didn't really happen for the most part unfortunately).

 

The finale room was very very creepy and the strobe lighting makes it virtually impossible to distinguish the difference between real actors and the mannequins - unfortunately, however, there didn't appear to be any real actors in there in our runthrough... or at the very least we just got unlucky and wasn't targeted which did put a bit of a dampener on what was for the most part a terrific maze.

 

Overall though, it's a great maze - and I'd be very surprised if it didn't return for '24. I just hope that if it does, they focus more on scares. The atmosphere is there, but there's no real payoff. I somewhat hope that if this maze is expected to be on the horizon for a while that this replaces Trailers and utilises the permanent exterior to model a good looking toy shop from it. I feel like Stitches could really benefit from this, and would make more sense to do this than it does with Trailers. However, the current setup does work - so if the park are looking to replace Trailers, I'd rather they replace it with something new entirely instead.

 

Survival Games

My oh my was this intense. Being separated from your group right the start sets the tone for the rest of the attraction and it's great. My favourite element of this attraction is the focus on physical touch. I wish this was something that happened across the board for the Thorpe mazes (you know, being the 'thrill' park of the UK, I think they could get away with only super intense mazes but I understand they probably don't want to open that can of worms and possibly limit their clientele). Being grabbed and dragged by the actors inside of that building really adds a whole other layer to the experience, and like someone mentioned above you do find yourself trying to evade the actors rather than actively seek them out.

 

I found myself purposefully going around in circles just to avoid actors in the hopes that they wouldn't still be there by the time I come back around. The total free-flow element of the maze is great too, because it means you essentially get to decide for yourself just how long you spend in there. Obviously you could get lucky (or unlucky in this instance) and make a beeline straight for the exit, but it's definitely part of the fun to just get yourself lost in there.

 

Me and my friend even got dragged into a room at one point, forced to kneel down and have a moo-off. 10/10 would do again.

 

The Crows of Mawkin Meadow

Gonna keep this one short and sweet - it's just as eerie as always. The Crows will forever be one of my favourite Fright Nights characters and concrete proof that loud doesn't always mean scary within scare attractions. They utilised all of that extra space perfectly too and I loved the little tents with concept art and stuff hung up on the walls.

 

Creature Campus

Gonna keep this one short too - it's much better than I expected. Dance shows aren't really my 'thing', but considering we had just got off Stealth and was like 3 minutes until the show began, I thought I'd give it a watch and was very pleasantly surprised. Good dancing, good music, but slightly awkward ending that left a lot of people standing around in silence wondering what was happening - nobody applauded as I don't think anybody really thought that's where it ended. I suppose it's a bit difficult to establish an 'ending' for a dance show though, so probably just part and parcel of that type of experience.

 

Lucifer's Lair

This was great too. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I really liked it. The guy playing Lucifer hollering out and just ripping into everybody walking past was fun to sit and observe too, with security even having to step in a couple of times due to people actually getting triggered and chatting back 💀 How people can't see that it's just a character, and that 'it aint that deep bro'.

 

Misc

Also agree re the themed audio and parkwide audio this year. With the exception of Detonator, it was very weak across the board this year. I love the Stealth default launch audio - don't get me wrong - but it's definitely one of those attractions that absolutely warrants themed audio for every event considering (at current) it is the park's staple, leading attraction.

 

Also, if you choose the 6pm-9pm timeslots for mazes, consider your night ride time extremely limited. I went on a Tuesday before kids have broken up from school, which by all accounts was considered a 'quiet' day, and still only ended up with just about an hour's worth of night rides. I can only imagine this will be even worse, if not impossible, once the kids have broken up from school. Next time I'll probably take the discount and go for the 3pm-6pm slots instead and just allow myself to enjoy the rest of the evening riding the coasters - especially if all of the mazes are indoors again like they are this year.

 

Also, to answer my previous question about whether Ghost Train shuts early on Fright Nights... it doesn't. It was on a 15 minute queuetime at closing time on Tuesday, however it's worth noting that it didn't actually open until 3pm, which I thought was a bit odd. I'd have thought the park would want to have actors in Walking Dead and Ghost Train early before they have to be pulled out and out in mazes, but I guess not!

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