nadroJ
CF Legend
I LOVE Fright Nights (and any Halloween related theme park crap) and so it was with much anticipation that I looked forward to this trip.
We decided on the 11th as I went this time last year and not only was the weather a gorgeous Autumn day but the park was also dead (insert Fright Nights pun here) so I was hoping for a similar turn out this year.
Well, we turned up to the park at 10am on the dot to be met with a quarter full car park. Lovely. Went straight to the ticket booth to collect friends and family tickets and joined the MASS of people waiting to surge into the gates. Usually with MAPs you can use any of the turnstiles. NOT ON FRIGHT NIGHTS LOL. Had to go and join the gross MAP queue which Thorpe had allocated ONE MAN to dealing with. Needless to say it was chaos, and it was already giving me a headache. AND ANOTHER THING. The week before one of the staff had been like 'Oooh yeah they're doing up the entrance to look like an abandoned cinema!' Now, not being one to go on rumours spread by staff I was a bit sceptical, but part of me did think this could be quite cool. What Thorpe have ACTUALLY invested in is a big piece of wood with a computer graphic screened upon it. And some lights. That's it. No fire, so creepy music, no actors around the entrance. Nothing. It was properly crap and I was really disheartened =[
Anyway, we minced into the park and being as I was with two Thorpe virgins (one THEME PARK VIRGIN can you BELIEVE) so we made our way towards Stealth. Down. Right, that's annoying. Detonator had no queue so we jumped upon it. This was where we were met with the first ANNOYING DIRECTOR MAN SOUNDTRACK. It's so naff! Not scary at all. They've replaced all the cool eerie Fright Nights music with these crap soundovers full of awful puns about making the next CUT of the film and stuff. This Fright Nights is loosely based around Thorpe being a film set or some ****? Anyway, it's poo. And Detonator thinks it's Tower of Terror this year as upon its ascent it starts blaring echoey ballroom music. Meh, at least the ride is still fab (even though it scares me).
Seeing as Inferno is RIGHT THERE we decided to go on that next. EH EH! Down. Slightly MORE irritating. We could tell from a top-of-detonator-park-scan that Swarm was fairly dead, and WORKING of all things! So we made our way over to Swarm Island. I was bitterly disappointed that the Live actors from previous years were nowhere to be seen. Such a shame really as they definitely brought the area to life. At least the fire effect was in full swing. I think 3 out of the four times we rode that day we got FIRE! (you must shout FIRE when the FIRE happens), which was cool. Bit poo to see a lot of the LEDs are broken though.
I get confused with the order next, but I think we somehow went to the rapids, where this was happening:
LOL! Oh well. Loggers also died (and remained dead for the rest of the day) when we joined the queue for it, so we resorted to Saw. Again I was disappointed to see that there were no actors locked into the traps a la previous years. And they've decided to get rid of the police car and replace it with lots of new-looking wooden boxes? I don't understand, does anybody know where the car has gone? Anyway, Saw was walk on (despite the sign saying 15 minutes, we learned very quickly to ignore the signs on this visit as they LIE) so we had a quick go. My group enjoyed it so I designated myself to the fact that we would be re-riding this a few times today.
After this I'd had enough of rides being broken, so we went to guest services the ride! They were very accommodating, presenting us with 16 fast tracks for rides and 4 fast tracks for mazes (none of which we used because the park was so dead, so be nice to me at Ghosterforce =p).
After this my memory is a bit blurry, and I want to cut to the chase of analysing the mazes, but I know it rained a fair bit, which annoyed me. We had Pizza Hut, it was sweaty. And some more Stealth, Inferno, Colossus and Swarm happened.
I wanted to be at the front of a maze queue at 3pm because I stupidly thought the actors being 'fresh' would make a difference. As it turns out we were second in line for the Asylum at 2.50pm, where Serena and boyfriend joined us (boyfriend didn't actually, he stood and sulked in the rained whilst tweeting about how much he doesn't like horror mazes ;]). There was ANXIETY as we held our breath over what end of the queue would open first! Luckily we made the correct decision and we were soon queued up with our hands on each others shoulders stumbling down the old familiar hallway with the siren sounding. I love the beginning of this maze. It just feels like something is going to come running at you down the hallway and really builds up the tension. Then it kind of goes downhill. I just don't think the actors are scary anymore? Maybe it's because I've done it so many times but nothing is different about the main maze and the strobe lighting is obnoxious. The ending was good though, chainsaw man happened and everybody panicked, so that was a redeeming factor. I'd probably be kind giving it a 5/10, but I really do think the ending of this maze is hilarious and fab, with everybody running and stumbling over each other to escape haha <3
Cabin in the Woods was next, and this was the one I was looking most forwards to. No queue, hooray! I love that they've spent money on theming the entrance, and the smaller groups really heighten the effect of the maze. The actual cabin room was so well themed, I was very impressed with their efforts. I liked the style of this maze too, where you were left to choose which way to go. The actors were very hands on, I had one of them with their hands around my neck at one point! I loved the references to the movie throughout, but felt that some of the rooms had cheated by just literally being a scary black room. I was also a tad disappointed that more of the actual monsters from the film had been left out. Oh well, it really did do its job, very very enjoyable maze, not too scary but jumpy enough and the actors went far enough but not too far. Good effort. 7/10.
I believe Saw was next up and for this we had to queue. We amused ourselves by mocking the man in front of us's man bag. It was truly truly awful. I felt like Saw wasn't as good as when I first did it. Here's the thing: the people in the traps are VICTIMS. Why don't they act like it? They stare at you all sinisterly and like, looking evil? They're NOT the evil ones, they should be writhing in pain or screaming for help, etc. And the man in the pendulum room wasn't laying down on the table and this irritated me. The pigs were still good though. The gun scene at the end was indeterminable because there was way way way too much fog. I thought it was a bit crap, everyone else seemed to enjoy it though. 6/10
After this we split from Serena and Neal (who had appeared) to use some of our fast tracks unit it got dark enough for more scary stuff. Turns out everything was pretty much walk on, so we had some whoring, especially on Stealth <3 I love Stealth at night, so pretty. Look:
It had gotten properly dark now so we went on the rapids OBVIOUSLY. It's slightly better in the dark to be honest, but still nothing more than a glorified sit down. We decided it was time for more mazes so we joined the queue for My Bloody Valentine. There were a couple of scare actors in the queue who were brilliant entertainment, coming up behind people and staring at them without them noticing etc. The maze was fun. Not as scary as it could have been? The man telling the story at the beginning was very fab, but the miner dude wasn't really scary at all. I liked that they still separated the group a la Experiment 10 but they didn't utilise the solitary confinement rooms, which was a bit poo. I felt it was too light in there too? On our turn there were plenty of actors though, meaning you didn't know what/who was going to be around the corner, meanings lots of jumps were to be had. We got chased out too which was fun. So yeah, not as good as Experiment 10 by a LONG shot, but still a good effort. I've heard a few people have very different opinions on it so would be interesting to give it another go and see what happens.
We were going to round off the mazes and do Blair Witch but the queue was gross so we got hotdogs and nachos instead. Unlike Serena, ours were actually really tasty, surprising! We were told to come back at 9pm because the queues would be shorter, so we had some more Stealth, Swarm and Nemesis Inferno, all of which are superior in the dark <3
We returned to Burkitsville to find the queue for Blair Witch had been closed due to technical issues (some drunken fool had attacked an actor </3) but it was the only thing we had left to do so we joined the queue and waited it out. I loved the use of fog machines with the red lighting, really created a good ambience. The redneck actor in the queue (why was she a redneck? Didn't really get that one). She was quite good at ad-libbing so was fun having a chat with her whilst we waited. I felt like this maze would have been far more effective had the groups been smaller. I loved the atmosphere created by a pitch black walk through the woods. It was silent apart from rustling trees and faint giggling in the background. I felt like there were too many tents XD I loved all the blair witch stick symbols hanging in the trees, but again there were too many. Most of the actors were quite good, just kind of wandering around looking lost (which is essentially what the Blair Witch IS) but towards the end some got a bit shouty which was stupid. And the shed. THE SHED. What the actual ****? I'd been told the shed was recreating the ending of the film, so was quite looking forwards to it. All we got was B&Q's finest filled with too-much-fog and some bodyless bint shouting at us to get out. What? We were farted out into Thorpe's ride scrapyard and left with a heavy feeling of what the hell was that? The ending really ruined what was otherwise a rather atmospheric walk through the woods. 6/10.
After this tiredness hit home, we were knackered so made our way out.
Final notes: I liked the new take on the mazes, it's great to have some fresh concepts in the park, but I really felt like they could have co-existed with the previous 'hits' of Fright Nights such as the Saw queue actors, Swarm Island actors and the old sound track. A collaboration of the two would be perfect.
We decided on the 11th as I went this time last year and not only was the weather a gorgeous Autumn day but the park was also dead (insert Fright Nights pun here) so I was hoping for a similar turn out this year.
Well, we turned up to the park at 10am on the dot to be met with a quarter full car park. Lovely. Went straight to the ticket booth to collect friends and family tickets and joined the MASS of people waiting to surge into the gates. Usually with MAPs you can use any of the turnstiles. NOT ON FRIGHT NIGHTS LOL. Had to go and join the gross MAP queue which Thorpe had allocated ONE MAN to dealing with. Needless to say it was chaos, and it was already giving me a headache. AND ANOTHER THING. The week before one of the staff had been like 'Oooh yeah they're doing up the entrance to look like an abandoned cinema!' Now, not being one to go on rumours spread by staff I was a bit sceptical, but part of me did think this could be quite cool. What Thorpe have ACTUALLY invested in is a big piece of wood with a computer graphic screened upon it. And some lights. That's it. No fire, so creepy music, no actors around the entrance. Nothing. It was properly crap and I was really disheartened =[
Anyway, we minced into the park and being as I was with two Thorpe virgins (one THEME PARK VIRGIN can you BELIEVE) so we made our way towards Stealth. Down. Right, that's annoying. Detonator had no queue so we jumped upon it. This was where we were met with the first ANNOYING DIRECTOR MAN SOUNDTRACK. It's so naff! Not scary at all. They've replaced all the cool eerie Fright Nights music with these crap soundovers full of awful puns about making the next CUT of the film and stuff. This Fright Nights is loosely based around Thorpe being a film set or some ****? Anyway, it's poo. And Detonator thinks it's Tower of Terror this year as upon its ascent it starts blaring echoey ballroom music. Meh, at least the ride is still fab (even though it scares me).
Seeing as Inferno is RIGHT THERE we decided to go on that next. EH EH! Down. Slightly MORE irritating. We could tell from a top-of-detonator-park-scan that Swarm was fairly dead, and WORKING of all things! So we made our way over to Swarm Island. I was bitterly disappointed that the Live actors from previous years were nowhere to be seen. Such a shame really as they definitely brought the area to life. At least the fire effect was in full swing. I think 3 out of the four times we rode that day we got FIRE! (you must shout FIRE when the FIRE happens), which was cool. Bit poo to see a lot of the LEDs are broken though.
I get confused with the order next, but I think we somehow went to the rapids, where this was happening:
LOL! Oh well. Loggers also died (and remained dead for the rest of the day) when we joined the queue for it, so we resorted to Saw. Again I was disappointed to see that there were no actors locked into the traps a la previous years. And they've decided to get rid of the police car and replace it with lots of new-looking wooden boxes? I don't understand, does anybody know where the car has gone? Anyway, Saw was walk on (despite the sign saying 15 minutes, we learned very quickly to ignore the signs on this visit as they LIE) so we had a quick go. My group enjoyed it so I designated myself to the fact that we would be re-riding this a few times today.
After this I'd had enough of rides being broken, so we went to guest services the ride! They were very accommodating, presenting us with 16 fast tracks for rides and 4 fast tracks for mazes (none of which we used because the park was so dead, so be nice to me at Ghosterforce =p).
After this my memory is a bit blurry, and I want to cut to the chase of analysing the mazes, but I know it rained a fair bit, which annoyed me. We had Pizza Hut, it was sweaty. And some more Stealth, Inferno, Colossus and Swarm happened.
I wanted to be at the front of a maze queue at 3pm because I stupidly thought the actors being 'fresh' would make a difference. As it turns out we were second in line for the Asylum at 2.50pm, where Serena and boyfriend joined us (boyfriend didn't actually, he stood and sulked in the rained whilst tweeting about how much he doesn't like horror mazes ;]). There was ANXIETY as we held our breath over what end of the queue would open first! Luckily we made the correct decision and we were soon queued up with our hands on each others shoulders stumbling down the old familiar hallway with the siren sounding. I love the beginning of this maze. It just feels like something is going to come running at you down the hallway and really builds up the tension. Then it kind of goes downhill. I just don't think the actors are scary anymore? Maybe it's because I've done it so many times but nothing is different about the main maze and the strobe lighting is obnoxious. The ending was good though, chainsaw man happened and everybody panicked, so that was a redeeming factor. I'd probably be kind giving it a 5/10, but I really do think the ending of this maze is hilarious and fab, with everybody running and stumbling over each other to escape haha <3
Cabin in the Woods was next, and this was the one I was looking most forwards to. No queue, hooray! I love that they've spent money on theming the entrance, and the smaller groups really heighten the effect of the maze. The actual cabin room was so well themed, I was very impressed with their efforts. I liked the style of this maze too, where you were left to choose which way to go. The actors were very hands on, I had one of them with their hands around my neck at one point! I loved the references to the movie throughout, but felt that some of the rooms had cheated by just literally being a scary black room. I was also a tad disappointed that more of the actual monsters from the film had been left out. Oh well, it really did do its job, very very enjoyable maze, not too scary but jumpy enough and the actors went far enough but not too far. Good effort. 7/10.
I believe Saw was next up and for this we had to queue. We amused ourselves by mocking the man in front of us's man bag. It was truly truly awful. I felt like Saw wasn't as good as when I first did it. Here's the thing: the people in the traps are VICTIMS. Why don't they act like it? They stare at you all sinisterly and like, looking evil? They're NOT the evil ones, they should be writhing in pain or screaming for help, etc. And the man in the pendulum room wasn't laying down on the table and this irritated me. The pigs were still good though. The gun scene at the end was indeterminable because there was way way way too much fog. I thought it was a bit crap, everyone else seemed to enjoy it though. 6/10
After this we split from Serena and Neal (who had appeared) to use some of our fast tracks unit it got dark enough for more scary stuff. Turns out everything was pretty much walk on, so we had some whoring, especially on Stealth <3 I love Stealth at night, so pretty. Look:
It had gotten properly dark now so we went on the rapids OBVIOUSLY. It's slightly better in the dark to be honest, but still nothing more than a glorified sit down. We decided it was time for more mazes so we joined the queue for My Bloody Valentine. There were a couple of scare actors in the queue who were brilliant entertainment, coming up behind people and staring at them without them noticing etc. The maze was fun. Not as scary as it could have been? The man telling the story at the beginning was very fab, but the miner dude wasn't really scary at all. I liked that they still separated the group a la Experiment 10 but they didn't utilise the solitary confinement rooms, which was a bit poo. I felt it was too light in there too? On our turn there were plenty of actors though, meaning you didn't know what/who was going to be around the corner, meanings lots of jumps were to be had. We got chased out too which was fun. So yeah, not as good as Experiment 10 by a LONG shot, but still a good effort. I've heard a few people have very different opinions on it so would be interesting to give it another go and see what happens.
We were going to round off the mazes and do Blair Witch but the queue was gross so we got hotdogs and nachos instead. Unlike Serena, ours were actually really tasty, surprising! We were told to come back at 9pm because the queues would be shorter, so we had some more Stealth, Swarm and Nemesis Inferno, all of which are superior in the dark <3
We returned to Burkitsville to find the queue for Blair Witch had been closed due to technical issues (some drunken fool had attacked an actor </3) but it was the only thing we had left to do so we joined the queue and waited it out. I loved the use of fog machines with the red lighting, really created a good ambience. The redneck actor in the queue (why was she a redneck? Didn't really get that one). She was quite good at ad-libbing so was fun having a chat with her whilst we waited. I felt like this maze would have been far more effective had the groups been smaller. I loved the atmosphere created by a pitch black walk through the woods. It was silent apart from rustling trees and faint giggling in the background. I felt like there were too many tents XD I loved all the blair witch stick symbols hanging in the trees, but again there were too many. Most of the actors were quite good, just kind of wandering around looking lost (which is essentially what the Blair Witch IS) but towards the end some got a bit shouty which was stupid. And the shed. THE SHED. What the actual ****? I'd been told the shed was recreating the ending of the film, so was quite looking forwards to it. All we got was B&Q's finest filled with too-much-fog and some bodyless bint shouting at us to get out. What? We were farted out into Thorpe's ride scrapyard and left with a heavy feeling of what the hell was that? The ending really ruined what was otherwise a rather atmospheric walk through the woods. 6/10.
After this tiredness hit home, we were knackered so made our way out.
Final notes: I liked the new take on the mazes, it's great to have some fresh concepts in the park, but I really felt like they could have co-existed with the previous 'hits' of Fright Nights such as the Saw queue actors, Swarm Island actors and the old sound track. A collaboration of the two would be perfect.
