One thing that's worth mentioning is how bad Silverlake Saloon has got in terms of service in the last year or so. They seem to be struggling massively to get orders taken, and to get drinks and food out. I assumed they were just having a bad day back in August when we visited, but on Sunday evening it took forever just to get menus, yet alone order the actual food. It's certainly something that needs to be looked at, as the place wasn't even full when we visited, yet the wait time was ridiculous.
I completely agree with you Craig, me and Sam went on the Monday night of our trip, we pre-booked our table, but still had to wait at the door for a good 10 minutes, no end of staff walked past, but none seemed interested in us. It was fairly busy, but not packed. We got given a table upstairs in the extension so couldn't see the stage at all, however as far as we could hear there was no entertainment on at all.
The first complaint came with our table, they just put us on the end of a long table sharing with another group of randomers. Not great when we had even pre-booked. They then took forever to bring us menus, and even longer to take our orders. We must have waited at least an hour for our food, and it wasn't just us, the people on the end of our table got their food one person at a time, and one person had finished their meal before the others had even arrived. From what I could tell, they complained as a manager came over to them.
We then finished and chatted for ages, and not one member of staff came to see if we needed more drinks, if anything was OK or if we wanted to pay. In the end we went downstairs to the bar and paid (the staff didn't seem that happy that we had bothered them at the bar). On our way out we then realised they hadn't even given us the free bread they normally give you!
Overall the food was lovely, but the service was utter rubbish.
Anyway bit late to the party but here are some thoughts from me from my latest trip to EP two weeks ago.
I agree pretty much with what Craig has said about Horror nights, it was my first trip and I was impressed with it all. All the mazes looked amazing in side and you wouldn't know they were in tents. Dead Inside was my favorite, and that provided some very good scares, I also really liked Labor, the sets looked really good. The ice show was also really good, and one of the best shows I have seen before, it was just so so crazy! Health & safety is certainly different in the UK.
As for the rest of the park, it was great as always, fairly quiet and no issues what so ever. I really liked Arthur, great ride for what it is and the ride system is so clever. They need to sort the conveyor our in the station though, it was so loud, you could hear it in the queue line, I thought it was a waterfall or some loud sound effect.My favorite scene has to be the Alley scene, it felt so big, loud and colorful with so much going on, the mirrors on the floor also help in that section. I have to say i'm not a big fan of the queue line, I think its just a bit dark and confined, with just background audio. I would prefer some music or more going on.