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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

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Re: Thorpe Park

Different people always seek different strengths in their mazes. Asylum is good for what it does and if the actors are good then you get a great maze but if they are not on form there is nothing else to carry it. Experiment 10 however for me does have more than the actors to carry the maze and is Thorpes strongest maze.

The Sanctuary however works for me more though as it does make me jump and freaks me out a bit.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Controversial post here, but I've always felt the Asylum is a very poor maze, the finale in particular. Once you know what the ending it there's no reason to be scared of it as you know you can't actually be harmed.

The strobe maze in TotT seems much more intense to me - last time I did Asylum (either last year or the year before), the strobe frequency was too fast so you could see the actors coming so there were very few jump scares, and with only minimal theming and storyline to fall back on there wasn't much left.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

The Strobe was ToTT?

That says it all really, I thought that was the Sanctuary - just remembered what happens in The Sanctuary now ;D

The strobe maze was clever actually, but by that time, I was bored! At that point, after a step aerobics class around the rest of the maze, and having already done much walking/queuing elsewhere it lost it's mark.

Now, put that at the start, in earlier in and maybe you get a different opinion from me.

Agree on Asylum though - there IS very little to carry it.

Again though, I must give kudos to the actors in all the mazes, some of the best/certainly most directly interactive was Carnival. Especially George Doors at the start, he was fabulous ;D - and the chap in the next section.

Imagine keeping that up all day? And I bet they get some itchy beef too! So whilst the mazes aren't quite what they could be, that's never a reflection in my opinion on the brilliant people who work in them all that time.

It's like anything, cooking, music, etc - sometimes it is what you leave out, that makes the difference. They, in my opinion, should make each maze a third/quarter shorter with less faff (ToTT), to keep a higher level of intensity!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

If you've been going on Asylum since it first launched in 1986, sorry, 2003?4? it really has become a little stale. Intense it might be but compared to The Sanctuary it's just cheap. I'd rather have the storytelling mixed with scares than just a room with fencing and strobes!

Alton aren't setting out to 'just' scare you.

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Re: Thorpe Park

I agree with some of those points actually Dan.

Like I said earlier, it's like comparing Thespians to a good old fashioned horror flick.

I have however done Asylum more times than any AT mazes but both I'm new to, so can give an opinion based on having none of them growing a bit stale yet. Comparing them all on an even playing field so to speak.

The actors last year though were amazing in Asylum - the girl with the doll was class! They may not have the surroundings Alton is gifted with, but they do a fine job of creating an atmosphere!

The fact it isn't complex, is it's charm for me.

Like I say though, I'm not (on the whole) deriding ATs mazes, as it is so subjective. It's like saying in a way, apples are better than oranges because I prefer green to orange ;D

The intensity for me though gives Thorpe the edge. ToTT there were just too many rooms, with no one in them! That's a walk, not a scaremaze.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

There has never been a room in TotT that hasn't had an actor in it when I have ridden so I worry you head a rare very bad run through, but I don't want to seem like an AT fanboy who doesn't want a bad review of TotT
 
Re: Thorpe Park

It was quite early afternoon on Friday Dave, it's possible. I felt like many rooms were quite sparse on the actor side.

I felt the Dr was brilliant in the Sanctuary, until he started to talk about experimenting... it's almost like, until that point, he could believe what he was saying to some degree, but then once it gets into B-Movie territory, I felt his momentum drop a little.

Shame that was. Better acting than at the start of Experiment 10 last year that's for certain! That felt like some park staff dressed up, the Dr seemed a bit like a mad Dr - and looked like one too lol!

I don't want to come across as too down on ATs mazes, in the same way you don't want to come across fanboy like Dave. I think we can agree we aren't either, and we're sharing our subjective experiences of them :)

I'm kool with that, there are actually not that many "fan boy" like answers - a few yes, but mostly reasonable discussions in my opinion.

Experiment10 last year was more like raves/clubs I used to go to :D - I stopped in the tapered room, in front of a dude in a gas mask, with thunderous bass and strobes, and busted a few moves!! ;D

He reminded me of people I saw out clubbing! I turned round, and most people ran off screaming. What's up with that? It was just a dude in a gas mask man and some strobes? ;D

Still enjoyed it though! Heard they've improved it more this year and added stuff - that is a short maze though!!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I loved the videos at the start of the sanctuary. When u get taken to meet the doctor I thought the choice of making him part of the maze was ace, its nice to have some older, weird folk included as it makes the whole theme work better for me.

Overall I thought the Sanctuary was good, and a lot better than the boiler house it replaced.
 
Thorpe Park

This years mazes at Thorpe Park were okay. I personally find Asylum quite dull and have done for the past couple of years. The actors are fairly quiet and just roam around a little.
For me, The Curse is my favourite maze at Thorpe, as it doesn't try too hard but always manages to make me jump.
The Passing was dreadful, frustrating more than scary. Experiment 10 is a great concept but the second half is dull.

Having just visited Scarefest, the mazes are of much higher quality this year apart from Carnival which was ok. I found The Sanctuary wonderfully terrifying. I've been thinking about it all day today. Maze of the year for me.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

AstroDan said:
If you've been going on Asylum since it first launched in 1986, sorry, 2003?4? it really has become a little stale. Intense it might be but compared to The Sanctuary it's just cheap. I'd rather have the storytelling mixed with scares than just a room with fencing and strobes!
Click to expand...

I do agree with this, Asylum is for sure a bit stale now, the thing is its the parks most popular and headline attraction, what still draws huge queues now, i think making a big change to it could be quite dangerous in some respects.

Alton aren't setting out to 'just' scare you.
Click to expand...

Thats true, during our tour of Experiment 10 the ents manager went into a fair bit of detail on this, how thorpe want to be pushing the boundrys, they dont want you to just stroll out the maze but want people to be running out as fast as they can, and that seems to be the case certainly with the Asylum / Exp 10 this year, the roaming actors also do a good job of chasing people out the park this year!

I think fright nights are quite decent this year, the parks clearly put in a lot of effort with park wide music which is pretty much all new. Swarms great in the dark too, on Saturday they had changed the flame effect to go off every train which was pretty awesome, the heat and sound from that thing is pretty amazing, even more so when on the ride!

I find the 2 parks events kind of make up for each others shortcomings, whilst altons mazes are more in depth / story telling themed, there is very little atall on park to suggest its Scarefest, and thorpe on the other hand have made sure the atmosphere is set right with the park wide music / lighting being much better. Put the 2 together and it would be perfect!
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I do agree with this, Asylum is for sure a bit stale now, the thing is its the parks most popular and headline attraction, what still draws huge queues now, i think making a big change to it could be quite dangerous in some respects.
Click to expand...

SAW: Alive and Experiment 10 are both by far more popular in terms of the scare attractions, based on my experience. The Asylum was, indeed, the shortest scare maze queue for the entirety of Friday, and I could see why.

As far as I was concerned, Fright Nights was very good. However, the [not so] festive atmosphere on park was less than impressive. Loud pop music seems to have replaced spooky Halloween soundtracks, and seasonal theming was literally non-existent. The roaming actors were a good idea, but sadly not enough.

Also, fastracks. Massively oversold; the main queues for the mazes barely moved. I waited 45-50 minutes for Curse, Asylum & SAW... this on one of the quiet days of Fright Nights (being a Friday).

As for the mazes:
Experiment 10 - Completely and utterly insane. It seems to be receiving a bit of negativity from those who went in it last year but, as a newcomer, it was perhaps the scariest thing that I've ever experienced. It's utterly bizarre, but being split up totally from the group automatically makes the entire attraction far more scary. Being trapped in a dark, confined space is absolutely guaranteed to worry people, especially when it's such a long time. Even being completely used to scare mazes and very difficult to intimidate, I couldn't help but worry "this has gone on for a while now... has everybody else been moved on and me forgotten about?" and the number of people who ran out of the briefing crying is unparalleled to anything I've ever seen. The remainder of the maze is very well themed, and I enjoyed how there were multiple routes, though the finale is poor.

8/10


The Asylum - Bland. Very, very bland indeed. The first corridor is effective and very aesthetically pleasing, but the neverending strobes and wire which follow quickly become tiresome and headache inducing. Though this owes itself to a couple of decent scares, and the finale is as good as it gets in terms of scares, I can't help but feel that this should be replaced in time for Fright Nights 2013.

6/10


The Passing
Whoever came up with the 'bags on heads' thing wants shooting. They're just inconvenient; not tight fitting enough and so constantly falling off, unhygienic and not adding to the scare factor whatsoever. Other than that, this is a fairly decent maze. Again, Thorpe were trying something different and it has partially paid off. In here the actors are very, very aggressive. They were pretty much attacking the group, grabbing people by the collar and shoving them into walls et cetera. Not to the point of injury, but severe intimidation certainly, causing a heck of a panic. The finale scene is also a highlight, though I have no desire to spoil that.

6/10


The Curse
Very well themed and there are some decent scares in there too. Mist / smoke effects and strobes are used very cleverly here and the set pieces are effective. Just a bit of a shame about the narrative here, or lack thereof, give this maze a proper storyline and you're onto a winner.

7/10


SAW: Alive
I was more interesting in the mock sets here than in the 'scare' side of things. Which is a damn good thing because, despite actors aplenty, this maze failed to provoke a single jump scare or have our group even mildly intimidated. The theming, however, is absolutely fantastic, and as a fan of the SAW franchise, this pleased me.

5/10


Overall, I thought Fright Nights was a better event than Scarefest. Though perhaps due to sheer quantity of maze experiences, rather than quality. The park is also utterly gorgeous in the dark, and The Swarm is definitely one for nighttime riding. :)


(For the sake of comparison:
Terror of the Towers - 8/10
The Sanctuary - 8/10
Carnival of Screams - 5/10)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

My mum spotted the Swarm on Strictly Come Dancing the other night. There was one couple there pretending to be chased by someone in a very poor Frankenstein's monster costume. :p
 
Re: Thorpe Park

I really wasn't impressed with The Swarm at night on Sunday. The area is floodlit in bright white, and the fire was not working. Add to that a 1 hour 50 minute queue, and some rain, and it was a rather unpleasant ride :(

I'm hoping it will be better tomorrow.
 
Thorpe Park

Thorpe Park are dire in every respect. Strong thoughts? Maybe so, but they're truly diabolical.

I sent an email over two weeks ago, to Guest Services, and it's taken twelve days for them to find my details from a previous issue. Twelve. Days.
It's difficult to have a conversation that flows, and results in a resolution, as they take three and four days to respond each time. At this rate, the park will be closed before they've even sorted my problems!

I am well and truly fuming.


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Re: Thorpe Park

I was at thorpe on Tuesday and I have to say, it was acctually rather good, my first ride on slammer( or the vomitatior as my friend calls it) and The Swarm's area was still up to scratch, but the fire engine didn't let off its fire ball, apart from colossus only on 1 train as the other one was in Switizerland getting fixed, Stealth was broken untill about 1:00 and The Swarm getting 2 delays. 1. one of the cameras was getting fixed and 2 someone vomited after riding it.
Saw also was extremley rough, I have a lump on the back of my head now! :(
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Colossus was certainly on one train on Sunday, but whether Thorpe would ship the other train back to its birthplace for repairs is perhaps debatable.

It's odd how Saw can vary so much in comfort from visit to visit. I had my smoothest ever ride on it in the back row early in the day on Sunday! The car tracked beautifully and didn't take the last inversion headache-inducingly quickly for once. If SW7 rides like that I'll be very pleased.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

When I visited a couple of weeks ago I noticed the garage had been left open so I tried to see if the other train was in there, but I couldn't see it. I don't know anything about it being sent to Intamin, but it's not on the track.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

We asked around the park, first a ride attendant then at guest servecies, they both told us it was off in switzerland to be fixed, why, I don't know.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Thorpe was horribly busy yesterday, with queues of 60+ for all major coasters barring Stealth (at least when I got on it about 2PM), but we still waited longer than that because of a breakdown as we were waiting in the station. Slammer and The Swarm also broke down while we were in the queue for them. We came into the park at 1:30 and left at 8:30 and only got 6 done, which included the walk on X:NWO and Vortex. On the bright side, they were playing the Fright Nights music rather than the chart music and Slammer, Stealth and Samurai were all up and running for at least some of the day.
 
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