Fright Nights 2013

[darkadder312]

Oh well, on a very busy day it will shut at around 11ish anyways because as long as you're in the queue for set ride before they close the entrance to the queue you're entitled to go on it.

Edited June 3, 2013 by pluk
Text speak, grammar

[JoshC.]

I doubt we'll see the charge for Passing lifted; I always thought the reason for it was to keep the number of people going in the attraction down due to low throughput and stuff. Personally, I thought Passing was good, and with some tweaks this year, should fit in great with the FN line up (and if the queue time slot melarky is sorted out so it's stricter...).

As I said on the previous page, I'm all for revamps of the mazes (especially Asylum and Curse), but I'd really want Thorpe to stick with the traditional conga line maze as much as possible. As much as E10 and Passing will pull in the crowds, you do how to wonder for the long-term stability of the idea. Sometimes sticking to basics means you can perfect the method - take The Sanctuary at AT. Traditional conga line maze, and yet each scare was thought out brilliantly and made for the best scare maze I've been in.

[Coaster]

Why not have traditional mazes but not in a conga line? Much like Pasaje Del Terror at Blackpool. It doesn't affect throughput too much and it maximises the fear factor of the maze a lot!

[Linkin Park]

Crash Pad will probably be full during the peak days of Fright Night, right?

[Dodge2002]

That press release doesn't sound like good news to me if I'm honest.

It seems like a roundabout way of saying "There isn't anything new this year, but we'll be going back and 'improving' our old mazes"

It feels like they've spent far too much time choosing their words.

[JoshC.]

That press release doesn't sound like good news to me if I'm honest.

It seems like a roundabout way of saying "There isn't anything new this year, but we'll be going back and 'improving' our old mazes"

It feels like they've spent far too much time choosing their words.

Why does there have to be something new though?

There were 5 mazes last year, as well as roaming actors and a small show in the Dome (which wasn't well advertised..). As much as I'd love for Curse and/or Asylum to be completely changed, I'd be almost as happy for the park to focus on improving the overall experience of Fright Nights, inject more cash into the mazes, roaming actors and maybe a little extra (another attempt at a scare zone, small show, etc.).

[pluk]

I don't understand why people seem to want rid of Asylum at all. It is probably consistently the best of the conga line mazes at Thorpe. I get that it has been there a long time, but most people don't go every year, certainly not multiple times like a fair few people do here. It is only stale because of our own overfamiliarity, for most people (including me) it doesn't need to go anywhere.

[Inferno]

^ Totally agree, Asylum is such a great maze, there is really no need to mess about with it. It would be a shame to loose all of the conga line mazes. I actually think they're better in a way.

This year I'd like to see some effort put in to theming the rest of the park. They have pretty much nailed the mazes, but the rest of the park (especially before it gets dark) doesn't have any reference to Halloween at all! Last year they had the graveyard, and that was it! I thought the "on lockdown" idea was cool last year, but it was a massive opportunity missed for theming the entire park.

I've been a bit disappointed with Fright Nights recently because of the lack of any Halloween atmosphere. The event should be about more than just the mazes and change in music imo.

Here's some pics from TotalThorpePark... Why can't they do this any more?

^ inferno's "Hell frozen over" theme was so basic, but it made all the difference.

^ Again Colossus just had a few fake cobwebs and some cheapo bits and bobs from Wilkinsons.

^ Even just some orange lights around the place would be great! These looked fantastic on the bridge! I would love to see these lights across the entire park.

^ Even CCR was in on the action!

There were more, but I could go on for ages.

Yeah ok some of it was a bit tacky, but surely that extra theming is FAR better than having nothing at all?

All images from Total Thorpe Park - http://www.totalthorpepark.co.uk/features/events.shtml

[jom222]

Hope they do put the effort in on theming because last years wasn't very good IMO.

[Coaster]

Seeing those pictures reminds me how good the park used to look.

A real, real shame that they haven't bothered in recent years.

Let's hope they do this year.

[pluk]

The cobwebs in the Colossus station are there for real now (has anyone looked up in there recently?!), so the overall look should be easier to achieve!

These little changes were superb and should certainly return. The most important thing to atmosphere at these events to me is the lighting, love the look of that bridge. There shouldn't be a white light in the park come fright nights.

[Marc]

the biggest problem now is that fright nights dont run solidly (the first few are over the weekends) so during the normal week its not fright nights,

I would love them to go back to a solid few weeks of Fright Nights, even if week day open hours are reduced to meet demand.

[pluk]

Definitely, needs to be consistent to be run properly. If that involves shorter hours midweek then so be it, but open later - don't close earlier. It's all about the dark times.

[JoshC.]

I don't understand why people seem to want rid of Asylum at all. It is probably consistently the best of the conga line mazes at Thorpe. I get that it has been there a long time, but most people don't go every year, certainly not multiple times like a fair few people do here. It is only stale because of our own overfamiliarity, for most people (including me) it doesn't need to go anywhere.

For me personally, I just don't rate Asylum. I've only been in it 2 or 3 times (and once in The Freezer in 2003 or 2004 - forget which - which was sorta similar if memory serves me correctly), and it failed to wow me in any way. I just found it very boring and samey, and just left me with a bit of a headache really. I can see why people find it scary, but to me, it just feels very bland. On the other hand, I've found the likes of Se7en and Experiment 10 (well, in 2011 at least), to be very good and provide scares all the time - overfamiliarity didn't affect my experience at all.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong anyone, but when the rides had the additional theming and such, wasn't that down to the staff of certain ride areas, who were putting in the extra time and effort to just add something a little extra? Bar the mazes, there's been very little put into park for FN by the park/Merlin, which is indeed a shame..

[Coaster]

I would like to see more props and gruesome sights in Asylum, but apart from that it should stay the same.
(Although the sirens should be turned up again, they were very quiet last year!)

As for the real cobwebs in Colossus, they should be removed!

[Inferno]

the biggest problem now is that fright nights don't run solidly (the first few are over the weekends) so during the normal week its not fright nights,

So they don't bother theming the park for the biggest event of the year to work around a 'problem' that they have manufactured themselves... Right.

I would much rather it if they opened a couple of hours later on the quiet days, meaning Fright Nights ran solidly for 3 weeks or so without 'gaps' in the middle of the event. Although to be honest what's the problem with leaving lighting / extra theming in place during the non-fright-night weekdays?

[Mark9]

Wasn't a lot of those pictures actually the staff doing it themselves and nothing to do with budget from Merlin?

[Tom]

Yes; I suppose it says a lot about staff morale these past few seasons.

[Inferno]

^ oh dear

Was it really them who did this in previous years? it's shouldn't be the ride staff's responsibility to theme the rides really. (!) Things like this should be happening as part of the event tbh.

But I expect Merlin's attitude now would be "why would we give you a Halloween theming budget when you have managed to do it for free in the past?"

[BigBobJones]

They are happy to charge MAP holders £5 to get in and charge for some mazes, but don't want to pay out for some theming.... really, this would never happen at Thorpe would it?

[jom222]

I think if you have a TP annual pass you should have no restrictions for THORPE PARK and not have to pay any extra money for events happening there.

[Coaster]

I think if you have a TP annual pass you should have no restrictions for THORPE PARK and not have to pay any extra money for events happening there.

I completely agree with this - they offer no alternative such as a premium pass so they should not restrict the annual pass!

To be honest I disagree with charging extra for any passholder - either standard of premium because if you don't like halloween events and would not change your visiting regime regardless of the event then you are basically blocked out of the park for a month! (Bear in mind not everyone can visit on weekdays).

They could still make people prebook so that the park doesn't reach capacity but without charging.

It's just another greedy scheme to make money (which they have plenty of!)

Another option could be making people pay if they want to use the mazes - maybe they could issue a wristband which costs £5 which admits people into the mazes.

(Don't get me wrong I love the mazes, but there are a lot of people who don't go in them but still want to visit the park).

[stretchy]

As some of you know, I am a big fan of scare attractions. Last year Alton Towers made waves with The Sanctuary winning at least one award that I am aware of, yet Thorpe are the nations thrill capital but last year it felt like Thorpe had lost the motivation with Thorpes scare mazes and the whole atmosphere around the park. The mazes felt very samey, Experiment 10 felt to me to be the only reasonable maze yet in its 2nd year, it felt lacking somewhere, The Passing didnt seem to work at all for our group lefing us more confused than hapily scared. Asylum is basically just the last section of Altons Terror of The Towers and felt way too short. The other mazes just felt.. dull. It felt to me, an outsider, like Fright Nights was a much smaller and half baked affair.

What I would like to see is:

• Theming throughout the park, if the park is clever this could be a gradual process over a few seasons, reusing last years props and continuing to add new ones, but giving each of the ride areas £1000 and having an internal staff competition for the best area within that budget would produce some good ideas.
• The whole park turned into one big scare zone after 7pm with occasional 'SAFE AREAS' for you to escape to if your a wuss. (I.e. restaurants and pubs that way you have to spend money if your too scared)
• The mazes made more than just someone going Boo at you or screaming.
• The park open till much later, maybe even midnight with it advertised as something to come for just for the evening with special after 6 tickets.
• 1 pay maze that really really scares you.
• The Dome being a sefe zone and turned into a Halloween Market selling themed food and drinks and so on.

[Deleted Users]

I don't really find any of the current mazes scary but at least Asylum and Curse are fun. E10 in 2011 was good but last year it seemed to crumble. Honestly I'd rather have Hellgate and Se7en back rather than the newer mazes. Unless this becomes a premium separate ticket event I don't see the whole scare zone thing happening. You would have to employ a huge amount of actors to make it worthwhile. Some props, smoke machines and changing of light gels really should be added though. The music was pretty forgettable on the whole last year as well.

[stretchy]

You dont need high staff levels to have an area as a scare zone. This can also be done with sound effects, lighting and triggered effects and even free roaming effects. What I think is needed is for them to think outside the box rather than just have some people going arghhhh at you as you walk near them.

Imagine an area.

Dimply lit, as you walk near you hear a noise of metalic spider feet. The sound follows you as you walk along and then rushes ahead. you see shadows of millions of spiders running in front of a light. you turn the corner and see a few metalic spiders projected onto barrels, skuttling down them. Then you hear a much louder skuttling behind you, you turn around and see the lights going out one by one behind you.

Total cost of this would be some lighting, some timed audio through a surround sound system. a projection system to project the spiders.

or Imagine another area

Tomb stones line the path as mist drifts slowly from behind them. The area is dimly lit. 12hz is played through a base speaker. Whispering slowly becomes audible. A chanting that gradually get's louder, the area starts to pulstae in light and the chanting louder, seeming to spin around you till you have a all mighty scream then 10 minutes of silence before repeating.

Both of those aren't expensive things to do. None of them involve live actors. Both are things that could be re-used year after year with minor tweeks and more iportantly in daylight both can be turned off or replced with just happy halloween music for the kiddywinks.