AstroDan
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
Just a quick summary of my visits to both parks for their respective Halloween events. My first visit to either park's halloween events since 2018 (when Fright Nights was dreadful) and my first (and only) visit to either park in 2022.
Chessington
Overall, a mixed bag at Chessington. My main gripe with this park over recent years has been the slow decline in operational standards, with rides like Vampire, Rattlesnake and Dragon's Fury all being run at less than an optimum pace resulting in queues that are far longer than they ought to be. Sadly, this trend has continued. Rattlesnake persists in only holding an average of 2.5 guests per car due to the rule of two adults only, and with the fairly slow dispatch intervals achieves a capacity per hour in the region of 250. Add in the need for disabled access at the exit, and the queue moves painfully slowly - around 170 per hour from the main queue line. Dragon's Fury is also operated disastrously. With fastrack, disabled access and a main queue to contend with - loading an average of 2 guests per car is inadequate. Indeed, there were some dispatches with only 1 per car (including my own) due to our group of 7 being adults and the scales saying no. Dragon's Fury was achieving around 350 per hour based on 3 per car, but we saw a period of 15 minutes when not a single guest was batched from the main queue line at merge point. Vampire, whilst not as disastrous, now only operates 2 trains and the volume of RAP means that 3 or 4 rows of every train are allocated to this, with a further quantity of fastrack merging in, too. I would hasten a guess that the main queue on Vampire accounts for only half the seats. These sorts of operations are surely untenable. If the capacity of these rides was addressed, all could easily add at least 50% to their current throughputs, and that would surely allow the park overall to handle more guests. I do not understand why these issues are allowed to persist at Chessington - it is the poor relation of all the Merlin parks when it comes to throughput. For context: Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers regularly achieves an hourly capacity of 700 guests per hour, loads full cars and has less fastrack.
I was fairly impressed with the new rides/theming around Blue Barnacle. I forget their names, but it looked good - especially when I assume the budget was probably quite low. Food and Beverage at the park is not its greatest asset, though - with not a single table service offer anywhere. I also do not like the fact that you no longer have a choice but to purchase a meal deal, which includes a soft drink. Food prices were also high - I noted that the fish, chips and drink meal was over £11 (take away) and a pint of beer was nearly £7 from the bar in the Smoke House, Ouch.
Howloween remains a cute event, with lots of theming dotted about the park. The main attraction for us was Creepy Caves, which was fine - if a little budget. It does make you appreciate the theming level at Alton Towers! Vile Villagers was fun, too - if a little short. That said, it was included for all guests. There was also a nice little fire show in Wild Asia and some other sporadic entertainment in Adventure Point.
Overall, a fun day at Chessington - although it was a shame the park closed at 7pm given it only got dark at 6.30pm. Operations however remain this park's nemesis and Merlin urgently need to address these issues - but I fear it would take financial investment in order to resolve them by working with Maurer Sohne.
Thorpe Park
As with every visit to Thorpe Park, there is always a slight air of anxiety as to whether the day will be any good. I am pleased to say that after a bad start (Saw and Colossus didn't open for 30 minutes after the park, which scuppered our plans of getting them done straight away) - it wasn't half bad. Operations at the park seem to have improved overall, although Colossus' trains remain a real issue. Guests struggle to climb through the trains, many cannot fit in them - resulting in delays to dispatches and lengthy waits for this ride. Otherwise, it was impressive to see Nemesis Inferno consistently not stacking, and dispatches on rides like Swarm, Saw and the Walking Dead all seemed perfectly adequate. However, much like Chessington, issues with the Walking Dead mean it's a pain the backside to load - with single riders not permitted. Finance would be needed to resolve this... DBGT is also in a sorry state - small groups due to broken headsets, no rocking on the train, all sorts of things not right.
There is a wide variety of counter service food at Thorpe Park. Much more variety than either Chessington or Alton Towers. It has always baffled me how Thorpe can offer such a wide range when Alton Towers is a much greater sized park... I don't get it. Either way, we were fairly happy with the quality of food we ate and it felt slightly better value than Chessington, too.
Fright Nights is definitely the best value of the theme park halloween events in the UK. Whilst mazes require a payment (similar to Alton Towers price), there is vastly more 'on park' and inclusive entertainment than can be found at Alton. Several free quasi maze/scare zone hybrids can be found dotted about, a light show, dancing, roaming actors. This takes Fright Nights to a level that Scarefest simply fails to provide. The area around Stealth really gave it a halloween/party vibe. Sure, Alton has the lawns and the entertainment there - but there's very little else and Scarefest just feels so stale. As for the mazes at Thorpe Park ,they were all new since my last visit in 2018 - again better than Scarefest's failure to update things. Trailers was OK - a standard scare maze format, although an interesting theme based around a visit to a cinema. The whole thing did feel quite 'cheap' though. Creak Freak was an absolute hoot - it reminded me of Mine Tours on steroids. It was much more full on, with some tunnels and chainsaws to add to the scares. I really enjoyed this one. Survival Games is probably the most professional of the mazes, but it lacked a certain something. Taking almost every part of its inspiration from Sub Species at Alton Towers, it starts with the group being placed in cages and then individually taken into the maze through clever lighting. You'll be on your own for much of the experience, but it's not really that scary - mainly just lots of corridors and walking about bumping into actors. It's a little too light, aswell. That said, I did enjoy it - but it's nowhere near the level of Sub Species. Still - not a bad effort at all, and the actors were certainly making it very interactive! We didn't bother with the Terminal (the audio experience) - as much like the one at Alton, it is of little interest given the price. I would maintain the view that the mazes at Alton are better themed, but at least Thorpe is throwing up new experiences on a regular basis! This looks set to continue next year, as I believe it's Creek Freak's last year due to Project Exodus.
Lighting at the park was disappointingly poor. I would say the worst out of the three main Merlin parks (sorry Legoland, not visiting you this year). Even Death's Doors (scare zone), which had a cool entrance structure, had absolutely no lighting on it. Strange.
Overall, I enjoyed Fright Nights. It is way better than it was in 2018 and it's good to see an event develop and be inclusive. This is not the case for Scarefest, and for that reason I would say Fright Nights, on current form, is the best Merlin theme park event in the UK.
A good few days!
Chessington
Overall, a mixed bag at Chessington. My main gripe with this park over recent years has been the slow decline in operational standards, with rides like Vampire, Rattlesnake and Dragon's Fury all being run at less than an optimum pace resulting in queues that are far longer than they ought to be. Sadly, this trend has continued. Rattlesnake persists in only holding an average of 2.5 guests per car due to the rule of two adults only, and with the fairly slow dispatch intervals achieves a capacity per hour in the region of 250. Add in the need for disabled access at the exit, and the queue moves painfully slowly - around 170 per hour from the main queue line. Dragon's Fury is also operated disastrously. With fastrack, disabled access and a main queue to contend with - loading an average of 2 guests per car is inadequate. Indeed, there were some dispatches with only 1 per car (including my own) due to our group of 7 being adults and the scales saying no. Dragon's Fury was achieving around 350 per hour based on 3 per car, but we saw a period of 15 minutes when not a single guest was batched from the main queue line at merge point. Vampire, whilst not as disastrous, now only operates 2 trains and the volume of RAP means that 3 or 4 rows of every train are allocated to this, with a further quantity of fastrack merging in, too. I would hasten a guess that the main queue on Vampire accounts for only half the seats. These sorts of operations are surely untenable. If the capacity of these rides was addressed, all could easily add at least 50% to their current throughputs, and that would surely allow the park overall to handle more guests. I do not understand why these issues are allowed to persist at Chessington - it is the poor relation of all the Merlin parks when it comes to throughput. For context: Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers regularly achieves an hourly capacity of 700 guests per hour, loads full cars and has less fastrack.
I was fairly impressed with the new rides/theming around Blue Barnacle. I forget their names, but it looked good - especially when I assume the budget was probably quite low. Food and Beverage at the park is not its greatest asset, though - with not a single table service offer anywhere. I also do not like the fact that you no longer have a choice but to purchase a meal deal, which includes a soft drink. Food prices were also high - I noted that the fish, chips and drink meal was over £11 (take away) and a pint of beer was nearly £7 from the bar in the Smoke House, Ouch.
Howloween remains a cute event, with lots of theming dotted about the park. The main attraction for us was Creepy Caves, which was fine - if a little budget. It does make you appreciate the theming level at Alton Towers! Vile Villagers was fun, too - if a little short. That said, it was included for all guests. There was also a nice little fire show in Wild Asia and some other sporadic entertainment in Adventure Point.
Overall, a fun day at Chessington - although it was a shame the park closed at 7pm given it only got dark at 6.30pm. Operations however remain this park's nemesis and Merlin urgently need to address these issues - but I fear it would take financial investment in order to resolve them by working with Maurer Sohne.
Thorpe Park
As with every visit to Thorpe Park, there is always a slight air of anxiety as to whether the day will be any good. I am pleased to say that after a bad start (Saw and Colossus didn't open for 30 minutes after the park, which scuppered our plans of getting them done straight away) - it wasn't half bad. Operations at the park seem to have improved overall, although Colossus' trains remain a real issue. Guests struggle to climb through the trains, many cannot fit in them - resulting in delays to dispatches and lengthy waits for this ride. Otherwise, it was impressive to see Nemesis Inferno consistently not stacking, and dispatches on rides like Swarm, Saw and the Walking Dead all seemed perfectly adequate. However, much like Chessington, issues with the Walking Dead mean it's a pain the backside to load - with single riders not permitted. Finance would be needed to resolve this... DBGT is also in a sorry state - small groups due to broken headsets, no rocking on the train, all sorts of things not right.
There is a wide variety of counter service food at Thorpe Park. Much more variety than either Chessington or Alton Towers. It has always baffled me how Thorpe can offer such a wide range when Alton Towers is a much greater sized park... I don't get it. Either way, we were fairly happy with the quality of food we ate and it felt slightly better value than Chessington, too.
Fright Nights is definitely the best value of the theme park halloween events in the UK. Whilst mazes require a payment (similar to Alton Towers price), there is vastly more 'on park' and inclusive entertainment than can be found at Alton. Several free quasi maze/scare zone hybrids can be found dotted about, a light show, dancing, roaming actors. This takes Fright Nights to a level that Scarefest simply fails to provide. The area around Stealth really gave it a halloween/party vibe. Sure, Alton has the lawns and the entertainment there - but there's very little else and Scarefest just feels so stale. As for the mazes at Thorpe Park ,they were all new since my last visit in 2018 - again better than Scarefest's failure to update things. Trailers was OK - a standard scare maze format, although an interesting theme based around a visit to a cinema. The whole thing did feel quite 'cheap' though. Creak Freak was an absolute hoot - it reminded me of Mine Tours on steroids. It was much more full on, with some tunnels and chainsaws to add to the scares. I really enjoyed this one. Survival Games is probably the most professional of the mazes, but it lacked a certain something. Taking almost every part of its inspiration from Sub Species at Alton Towers, it starts with the group being placed in cages and then individually taken into the maze through clever lighting. You'll be on your own for much of the experience, but it's not really that scary - mainly just lots of corridors and walking about bumping into actors. It's a little too light, aswell. That said, I did enjoy it - but it's nowhere near the level of Sub Species. Still - not a bad effort at all, and the actors were certainly making it very interactive! We didn't bother with the Terminal (the audio experience) - as much like the one at Alton, it is of little interest given the price. I would maintain the view that the mazes at Alton are better themed, but at least Thorpe is throwing up new experiences on a regular basis! This looks set to continue next year, as I believe it's Creek Freak's last year due to Project Exodus.
Lighting at the park was disappointingly poor. I would say the worst out of the three main Merlin parks (sorry Legoland, not visiting you this year). Even Death's Doors (scare zone), which had a cool entrance structure, had absolutely no lighting on it. Strange.
Overall, I enjoyed Fright Nights. It is way better than it was in 2018 and it's good to see an event develop and be inclusive. This is not the case for Scarefest, and for that reason I would say Fright Nights, on current form, is the best Merlin theme park event in the UK.
A good few days!
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