So I feel the blog took a massive back seat last year thanks to YouTube and I hope to get back to writing about our exploits more regularly this year! So what better way to start than by having a brief run through of the season ahead.
Starting off, there’s the new additions to the UK, of which there are 4 main attractions to talk about:
Nemesis Reborn at Alton Towers
Hyperia at Thorpe Park
The ‘Intamin Launch and Lift Coaster’ at Drayton Manor
Minifigure Speedway at Legoland
I’ve also listed them in order of preference where Nemsis is my most anticipated addition this year. Hyperia is certainly the more impressive looking machine but I think it’ll be too short to take the top spot from Nemesis this year. I don’t think it’ll even be the best coaster at Thorpe Park as it currently stands!
Then there’s the new coaster at Drayton Manor, the so called ‘lift and launch’ coaster. I do like the idea that this will possible have spinning trains on it and the photos coming out of the new attraction do look good, if a little lacking in height and length so far. I suppose I should also mention Shockwave’s changes too. I don’t think it should be put along side the other 4 as its just a new train, name and some theming, and I really don’t agree with the changes myself but it might be fun!
Finally there’s Minifig Speedway at Legoland. I think this one will be a bit of a sleeper hit to be fair. As it currently stands, I think it’s the one I’m looking forward to least as its competition is just more appealing, but given how Velociraptor manages to be thrilling and quite fun, as well as it being Legoland, it may very well surprise us all!
Then there’s the events we plan to visit this year too. We’ve already booked to go to Oakwood in July as part of the Your Experience Guide event. I couldn’t turn this one down as they hosted the first event we ever went to last year and it’s at Oakwood, a park I’d like to get back to and ride Megafobia and Speed to death.
Love2Explore are also working on events too, as are Attraction Source, so a few more events on the cards with these guys too!
This year, Merlin have decided to scale back their park events, which I think is a bit of a misstep myself. Yeah, sure, Festival of Thrills wasn’t the best last year, but Mardi Gras seemed to do well, same with Carnival at Thorpe Park. I hope this means that the money saved will be invested in making Oktoberfest, Scarefest/Fright Nights and the fireworks the best they can be!
Our European excursions don’t seem to be stopping this year either, with the hopes that we can get to Denmark for Legoland Billund, Lego House, Bakken and Tivoli Gardens. We also have a rough plan in to visit Bellewaerde, Bobbejaanland, Movie Park Germany, Walibi Holland, Hansa Park and Heide Park on a road trip if we can.
We’re also due to visit Efteling and Toverland this month. We’re going for Tracy’s birthday as well as taking a couple of friends along for a sort of honeymoon trip. And yes, Baron 1898 is due to be running this time around so I can’t wait for that! There’s also the fully finished Avalon area at Toverland too.
All of this pales in comparison to the park and attraction that I’m most excited for this year, Europa Park and their newest coaster, Voltron. Europa Park is a park I’ve heard so much about and it’s all good stuff. Voltron looks like they tried to cram as many elements into a coaster and it looks insane because of it!
This is going to be a very quick blog just to outline our first ever European Road Trip!
As I’m writing this I’m sat in Tracy’s front room eager to get on the road, but can’t as I’ll be far too early for our Euro Tunnel connection to Calais tomorrow! This will be our first step of course and something I’ve never done before but I’m looking forward to it!
After a good night sleep (hopefully) we’ll drive from Calais into Belgium for the very first park on our little trip, Plopsaland! I cannot wait to have a go on Ride to Happiness and see what my first foreign park will be like!
On Sunday we’ll be at Bobbejaanland and we’ve accidentally hit a home run here as their new attraction Terra Magna opens for its first day after an extensive retheme. There’s also Typhoon to look forward to which was the very first Euro fighter model and Fury, which is the one I’m after most from this park!
On Monday we’ll be at the majestic Efteling for 2 days, stopping on site in their Loonsche Land Hotel which is very exciting! We have seen that unfortunately Baron 1898 won’t be operating while we’re there which is quite a blow but we’ve still got a plethora of excellent attractions to look forward to, such as Python and Symbolica.
Wednesday is a day off and we’re looking at visiting Eindhoven for the day. We’re not sure exactly what’s planned, though Tracy really wants to do their IKEA!
Thursday will be Toverland, a park I don’t see talked about much but well received when it is! Fenix, Dwervel Wind and Troy stand out for me here but there’s probably even more that I haven’t seen yet!
Friday and Saturday will be at the mighty Phantasia Land with a stop in their Hotel Charles Lindbergh. There’s so much to look forward to here, Chapas, Taron, F.L.Y, and Talocan just to name a few!
Finally we’ll be stopping back at Walibi Belgium on the way back around. Kondaa, Pulsar and Psyke Underground are what I’ve picked out but as with the other parks, there will be so much more that I’ve overlooked!
The fun doesn’t stop there though as we’ll be getting back on the Euro Tunnel and heading to Legoland Windsor to stop on site and do a day in the park and a the final Wednesday we’ll be at Thorpe Park to try their Mardi Gras event this year. 2 days to cool down before the finale at Drayton Manor for an Attraction Source event which I can’t wait for either! If Your Experience Guides event is anything to go on, then this should be great too! Extended ride times on Shockwave and Maelstrom, Loki, Thor and Accelerator!
It’s going to be a long one, it’s going to fill hard rives with videos and photos and it’s going to hopefully make some bloody good memories!
This is quite an exciting blog to write as we’ve somewhat finalised our plans for the coming year
This year, as I put down in my 2023 resolutions blog, we were hoping to get across to Europe and thanks to our latest bookings, we now shall be! I’ll go into a little detail later but to start our season, we’ll be at Blackpool Pleasure Beach! We only had 1 trip there last year so it’ll be nice to get back on Big One, Icon and celebrate Big Dippers centenary. We would have been going to Alton Towers for the opening weekend, however…
Next up will be Alton Towers in April for the Your Experience Guide (Pleasure Beach Experience) event. I’m very much looking forward to meeting like minded enthusiasts as well as getting a few rides on Wickerman before the park opens! I’ve never been to an enthusiast event so this will be my first and something I’m very much looking forward to.
Our big trip this will be in Europe as I mentioned earlier. We’ll be going in mid May and our route will take us to 6 different parks and will take us through 4 countries, starting in France, then Belgium, The Netherlands and finally Germany! Our intention will be to take the Eurotunnel across to France then stop the night before visiting Plopsaland De Panne for the first time. Next will be Bobbejaanland then onto Efteling for 2 days, stopping in the Holiday Village Efteling Loonsche Land.
Then we’ll have a day off to see the surroundings and then onto Toverland! Next stop will be Phantasia Land for 2 days, stopping in their Hotel Charles Lindbergh. Finally we’ll visit Walibi Belgium on the way back to the Euro Tunnel and the UK.
All in, we should have the chance to ride up to 42 new rollercoasters, as well as plenty of flat rides and other attractions.
Not only will we be visiting 6 new parks, seeing new sites, eating different food, but I’ll be driving the whole way too. I’m don’t know whether I’m more excited about the chance to drive new roads, seeing new things or the fact I’ll be doing it all with Tracy too.
Not only will we be making a grand tour of Europe, but we’ve also got annual passes for Drayton Manor this year. This is the first time I’ve ever held a park specific annual pass and it’ll supplement our Merlin annual passes too. We intend to visit Drayton Manor for their new events so the annual pass makes financial sense!
We’ll also be threading in visits to all the Thorpe Park events, not only to compare and contrast to last year, but as part of the competition being run by Thorpe Park to have a chance to be the first to ride Project Exodus when that opens! I won’t be able to visit every day as we live over 220 miles away, but you have to be in it to win it, so event visits will have to do!
In the autumn, we hope to make a final trip across to France to visit Disneyland Paris and Parc Asterix over Halloween as we’ve been to neither park and want to see both! We will definitely make a concerted effort to get to Fantasy Island for Fear Island again as that was a definite highlight of last year!
Finally, we’ll try to get back to Paultons, Chessington for the new Jumanji area as well as my home park, Flamingo Land, to see how Sik is settling in.
There’s so much to be excited for this year, from trying out Taron and F.L.Y, to Baron 1898, Troy, Fury and The Ride to Happiness! Along the way, I’ll be comparing these to their closest UK offerings, such as Icon being our closest thing to Taron etc. I also can’t wait to see all the themed areas, try out the food, trying to speak German and French again and just having an overall great time this year!
I will, of course, be doing blogs for each visit and possibly trying out video logging (Vlogging) for some, starting with the Alton Towers event in April!
During the course of the 2022 season, we visited Thorpe Park a lot. Coupled with 2021s visits, I believe it makes it our second most visited park after Alton Towers. So, much like the Alton Towers blog, I think it would be fun to break down Thorpe park as though I were in charge!
The Good Things
Thorpe Park has some excellent coasters already, Stealth being my favourite there. Then there’s Saw, Swarm and Nemesis Inferno. All of these need very little doing to them at all.
The Walking Dead is a great little indoor coaster, that has great theming but can sometimes fall a bit short when there isn’t any live actors around the show building.
The park itself is also quite compact so getting from The Swarm to Saw takes no time at all, especially when compared with Alton Towers!
I particularly like the Amity area of the park too, its 1950s Americana theme, coupled with the destruction caused by Tidal Wave makes of r an interesting way to theme an area, and its executed very well. The radio station that play sin the area, WWTP is a laugh but also plays some excellent era defining tunes.
The Not So Good
Colossus
Colossus is the first big issue that needs tackling in my eyes. The coaster has recently celebrated its 20th operating season and has direct competition and comparison with Sik at Flamingo Land. Though I don’t feel that Sik will ever over take Colossus as the fan favourite, Sik outclasses colossus in pretty much every way except for theming and landscaping.
As Colossus is well established, the area surrounding it is quite pretty, well planted and a nice place to be. However, some of the theming elements have grown to look a bit tired. Take the cobra roll out for example. There’s plenty of room for a water feature there, and with the UKs weather, the pit usually has some water in it anyway, so why not make this and actual water feature, with fountains and such?
Then there’s the trains themselves. These need replacing as they are nothing like as good as the ones that Sik has. The lap bar restraints offer so much more freedom of movement, open up the train much more and make it much easier to get in and out of. I have read somewhere that Sik’s trains won’t fit on Colossus’ track as the versions are drastically different which would make it difficult but certainly not impossible to rectify! I hope Intamin can do something here.
Access issues aren’t only an issue that Colossus has, Stealth and Rita have the same issues, where the restraints are so bulky that the make it a bit difficult to get in and out of. The difference between Stealth/Rita and Colossus is that Stealth/Rita don’t need you to pass your bags across the train, where Colossus does. Siks trains make this much easier to deal with! Perhaps this issue could be somewhat alleviated by having baggage drop off before the station in someway.
Demographic
Thorpe Park has been through a lot of changes over the years, changing from a family orientated park, to a primarily thrill seeking park. I think this is a good idea myself as there are plenty of parks out there that cater for family’s, plenty that are focused on kids but fewer have a purely thrill seeking audience, especially in the UK. I think they should really try to add a few more thrilling attractions to the park specifically designed for younger audiences. That way the park can remain the thrill capitol of the UK as well as catering for families too. Legoland and Chessington are close enough that they can cover for the families who don’t want too many thrills, leaving Thorpe Park there to cover thrills!
If it were me, I’d be looking to couple together the few smaller attractions currently at the park into their own area, possibly closer to the Thorpe Shark Cabins. Flying Fish and Depth Charge are already ideally located for this, but High Roller could be moved closer to them, along with Mr Monkeys Banana Ride. Thorpe Park recently built a playground for kids right by Depth Charge so I think this makes even more sense.
This would not only make an area of the park that younger audiences could stick to, but would also help to alleviate another issue concerning Thorpe Shark Cabins that I’ll touch on later.
Project Exodus
This will be Thorpe Parks newest coaster, being the tallest in the UK, and possibly also the fastest too. However if I were in charge and I could do what I wanted, I wouldn’t be building exodus in its current form.
The old town section would still be used as the station area, but I’d have gone with a traditional style giga coaster that would really put Thorpe park on the map. Not only to UK guests but to international guests too.
I’d make it at least 300ft tall and have a drop that is slightly longer than that, going under ground for added thrill factor, coupled with a truly monstrous Inversion or two would see this version of exodus dwarf the current offering. I think the current plans look good, but I share a similar feeling with the rest of the theme park enthusiast community in that the proposed ride did initially look a bit underwhelming. I’m sure it’ll be fine of course, but I think a huge out and back would have looked much better myself.
Plus Merlin could get very excited in marketing the UKs first and only Giga coaster. nothing else even comes close to the 300ft height I’d be intending to build, let alone the drop I would have added. Once again though, I think the current Exodus plans will still be thrilling and a good addition, just somewhat lacking as to what they could add. Thorpe Park is, at current, the only park that could realistically add something of this height, assuming planning permission was granted of course!
Angry Birds Land
Angry Birds land sits on a substantial plot of land, has 3 attractions and splits Amity in two, separating Stealth from the rest of the area.
I’d leave the Dodgems where they are, but theme them to Amity instead of Angry Birds, move Detonator away, possibly towards Saw and bulldoze the rest!
The 4d cinema takes up so much space, along with the surrounding buildings that I think this could be better used as free space for permanent stages and show areas. Thorpe park has added a few more events over the past few years, and they lack proper areas to stage their shows, relying on any remaining free space to erect temporary installations.
If Angry Birds land was moved, not only will it bring back continuity between Tidal Wave and Stealth, but it would also allow for a large covered area for their new shows and entertainment to take place. I think the Angry Birds property has somewhat fallen off in recent years and it feels a bit dated too. Though Thorpe Park, and Merlin in general seems to really like IP based areas and attractions as of late.
Storm Surge and Rumba Rapids
Storm Surge is a bit of an eyesore, sticking out in the skyline and not really offering much in return. Rumba Rapids on the other hand was a fun little attraction that has had a lot of the life drained from it with recent incidents on UK rapids rides.
I’d look to remove then completely, and have them replaced with a water coaster. I’d put the coaster over where Rumba Rapids is as that occupies a lot of land so would make for a much more impressive layout, and it keeps it away from Tidal Wave which should be the main focus of the area it’s in.
As for the site where Storm Surge sits, I’d probably put in a flat ride of some description, something that would fit in with the Amity theme, not take up too much space, but have a good capacity for the crowds. As for what I’d put there, I’m not so sure. The first thing that comes to mind is a Waikiki Wave, a variant of the Top Spin model made by Vekoma. I know I’ve already suggested that Flamingo Land bring theirs back, but having a ride that repeatedly rolls over and over, situated directly across from Tidal Waves splash zone makes perfect sense to me!
Thorpe Shark Cabins
The onsite accommodation is decent but not perfect. The cabins are quite small but have enough in them for a basic stay. I’d look to make a permanent hotel with cabins as a budget option, and compliment this with more well equipped rooms for a bit more luxury.
One of the biggest glaring issues is the sheer lack of anything to do after the park has closed. To combat this, I’d leave open the arcade in the centre of the park, as well as having access to the smaller rides I mention earlier, Flying Fish, Depth Charge, High Roller and Mr Monkeys Banana Ride. With these being smaller attractions, they wouldn’t need as much man power to run but would still give guests something to do besides the very lack lustre offerings in the Dome.
Live entertainment could be put on in the new staged area I proposed earlier too, or the Dome could be used for this too as that is under used currently.
Derren Browns Ghost Train
Finally there’s Derren Browns Ghost Train. This attraction needs a lot of work I think. I get the idea behind using VR to isolate you from the outside world but the headsets are very clunky to get on, and I don’t feel offer all that much. The idea is quite good but the execution is terrible and even with a refresh it still doesn’t quite hold up to expectations.
I would look to remove the ride completely and replace it with a really good quality interactive dark ride. I bet no one saw that coming!
To help it stand out from the others in the UK, I’d lean it heavily on the horror theme, like Dual, but dialed up to 11. I’d have it run slower in most places so you can take in the scenes properly, speed the cars up in certain parts to give it a sense or urgency where needed and employ actors as well.
Not only would having live actors make it so they could chose where and when to scare you, but it would also be utilised as a scare attraction during Fright Nights too. If I had to, I’d attach and IP to it, but it would be reluctantly as I don’t think IPs are needed on well themed attractions myself. However if forced to, then possibly Stranger Things would work or go down the route of Dead By Daylight and turn the game into a ride?
Since writing this, Thorpe Park has removed all mention of Derren Brown from the ride and rethemed it to Ghost Train. It remains to be seen what the attraction will run like, but I doubt that it’ll be a huge change from what it was before, but we’ll see. For now, I’ll stand by removing it and putting in something new.
The Little Changes
I’d start by cleaning up Saw as the queue line has gotten very over grown and makes it look a bit of a mess. I don’t think it keeps in with the Saw theme myself as there are plenty of show scenes in the queue line that are slowly getting lost to the wilds!
A full renovation of Zodiac should be done to keep the ride going for as long as possible as Enterprise rides are starting to become quite rare and it would be great to see this ride go completely vertical and look it’s best too. Same for Vortex, Rush and any of the other rides that need it, just a good clean up of their areas and signage.
Stealth’s station could do to be covered over a little; as with Rita, both stations are open to the elements and having a bit of rain protection would be great! The queue line could do with a bit of a tidy up too, but nothing major.
Some of the retail outlets could do with being used or closed down entirely. During our visits this year, we really wanted Mexican food from Sombreros, but it’s never open. Same with Colossus hot dogs over in Lost City, that’s never open too.
I think this might be an overall issue with the Merlin Parks in general and it does mean that expansion is much easier but they seem to build new food outlets into the areas anyway leaving the old ones even less use!
I’d definitely want a better size range for their clothing too. I’m a 2xl and I have never seen any 2xl clothes at Thorpe Park, or Chessington for that matter too. Though they do stock this size at Legoland and Alton Towers, so I’m not sure why Thorpe Park doesn’t have larger sizes.
This is one of my bigger issues as I’d love to buy their t-shirts and hoodies but they just don’t fit so I end up not spending as much in the gift shops. Since I started writing this, Thorpe Park have confirmed that for the 2023 season, they will have larger sizes which is great news!
Conclusion
This has been a substantial break down of Thorpe Park and the way it operates and looks. The park is great as it is but could be so much better in my opinion if some of the above things were changed!
Overall I do enjoy Thorpe Park as it offers some of the top rides in the UK, and though I’ve written substantially more about how the bad things are compared with the good, I’ll still be visiting regularly!
Though we haven’t had quite as many brand new attractions to ride this year, we’ve visited more parks and done more events than last year. As with last year, I thought it would be fun to look back at the 2022 season, rank the events and new attractions we rode this year and reflect on the season passed.
The Events
Over the last year we went to the following events:
Alton Towers Opening Weekend
Alton Towers Festival of Thrills
Thorpe Park Mardi Gras
Thorpe Park Carnival
Alton Towers Octoberfest
Chessington Howl’o’ween
Thorpe Park Fright Nights
Legoland Brick or Treat
Alton Towers Scarefest
Fantasy Island Fear Island
Legoland Fireworks Spectacular
Alton Towers Fireworks Spectacular
That list is just in the order we did them, not the order I enjoyed them most. The best event we did this year, at least in my opinion was probably the Alton Towers opening weekend as we saw plenty of other enthusiasts as well as sharing it with a couple of good friends too.
It wasn’t truly an event in the same vein as the others but I included opening weekend as it’s celebrated as such and I enjoyed it!
The most surprising event and probably the second best we did was Fantasy Island’s Fear Island. For such a relatively small park to put on such a good event was staggering and though not everything was a massive hit, the scare mazes definitely were!
The most disappointing event unfortunately goes to Scarefest at Alton Towers. As highlighted in my blog, the event felt a little lacking and missing something special to mark the occasion.
All the other events and visits we had were great, though I did feel that Carnival was just Mardi Gras but with a yellow overlay, but it was still enjoyable none the less!
The Attractions
There wasn’t many new attractions to try this year but we did get around all the ones we could! We managed:
Sik at Flamingo Land
Enso at Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure at Fantasy Island
The Guardian at Fantasy Island
Wild River Rapids at Fantasy Island
Farm Yard Flyer at Paultons Park
Vikings at Drayton Manor
Barrel Bailout at Chessington World of Adventures
Trawler Trouble at Chessington World of Adventures
Not a very long list but still plenty to go at!
The best this year, at least in my opinion, was the long overdue Sik at Flamingo Land. Daft name but great ride! Despite it being my home park, we only managed it once and I’ve heard it’s having a few issues as the years gone on but I’ll get back to it next year to see!
The weakest of the new additions is a tie between Enso and The Guardian, a bit of a cop out, however both had issues.
The upcharge and lack of value for money on Enso is what took it away for me. Even then, once you’d paid the fee, I wasn’t blown away by the feeling of free spinning. I followed all the advice people have me such as sitting in the right hand seat and going alone but even still I didn’t get the same levels of enjoyment out of it as other seem to!
Dragons Fury, when sat facing backwards, spins more going into the first break run than Enso did through its whole layout. That ride is probably built with spinning in mind, but it is included in park entry at least.
The Guardian was a good idea that was executed badly. Bad CGI and screen quality hampered an otherwise good idea, especially when you first enter the queue line and see all the theming and effort that’s gone into this attraction.
I’m not sure if it was budget constraints or purposeful decisions that caused the issues but they are somewhat easily rectifiable and should make this attraction live up to the expectation that the queue line builds up!
As for the other new attractions this year, there was Vikings which is a good themed area with a good new ride in Loki. I wasn’t really that blown away by it though. Thor is just another Disk’o Coaster and Jormungandr is still Buffalo Coaster with a new theme. Sleipnir is decent though, especially for younger kids.
The whole area is pleasant to walk through and features a lot of wood and some Viking theming but it could do with a bit of an expansion on the theme in my opinion! It was put together very quickly, especially when compared with some of the other new additions and in the nicest possible way, it shows! Just a bit of fine tuning, a few props here and there and it’ll be spot on.
Another surprise entry was from Fantasy Island with Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure. This was much better than expected. I’m a sucker for interactive dark rides, I think every park should have one and this one stands out from Tomb Blaster, Rootin’ Tootin’ Target Trail, Sheriff’s Showdown, Laser Raiders and Dual because of its use of both screens and physical props. The cars were comfortable and the shooting was fun. It just lacks on ride photos and the physical props adding to your score!
The New Parks
This year we visited a lot of new parks, this includes:
Funland Hayling Island
Crealy
Barry Island
Southport Pleasureland
Joyland
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
Pleasurewood Hills
I think the biggest surprise out of all the new parks we visited, for me at least, was Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. The ride selection was great, there were very few queues throughout the day and we had a great time.
Joyland was also a wonderful little park. Though not even a half day park, it was worth our money and time, and I’ll certainly visit here every time I’m back in Great Yarmouth in future!
Crealy was a nice and tidy park, as was Pleasurewood Hills. Both have good ride line ups but in both cases we weren’t the intended audience of the parks, so it wasn’t quite as fun for us as some of the other parks, such as Barry Island or Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach.
Finally I’d like to mention both the owners of Southport Pleasureland and Barry Island for all their help with regards to filming around their parks and on the attractions!
The New to us Attractions
In this section I’d like to highlight some of the existing attractions that we only experienced for the first time this year. We tried all sorts, ranging from our first scenic railway, a 70 year old virginia reel, weird and wonderful flat rides, all the way up to two different snail attractions!
The biggest standout of the year is most certainly Roller Coaster at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. This is our first scenic railway (of the 2 in the UK and 7 worldwide) and is the second fastest wooden rollercoaster in the country only behind Megafobia. Though not as thrilling as Megafobia, or as well themed as Wicker Man, its definitely the smoothest woodie we’ve ridden and was a joy from start to finish.
Other standout attractions of the year include Lightning 360 at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, Roller Coaster, The Rocket and Ghost Train all from Southport Pleasureland and just because of the sheer amount of spinning we got, I’ll include (what I believe to be Crow’s) Spinning Coaster from Hull Fair too.
There’s one final attraction that was notable this year too, that being Kite Flyer at Pleasurewood Hills. This was the only ride all year that made me feel genuinely ill afterwards! I’m not sure if I was having an off day, the ride cycle was too long or I moved my head too fast while the ride was spinning but it really knocked me for 6.
Summary
We’ve ridden some great attractions this year. Tried some terrible ones too. Had some ups and downs, rainy days and absolute scorchers along the way. Throughout all the visits we’ve had, we’ve always had fun. Yeah Enso was a bit pricy, Sik took far too long to open and Kite Flyer went a step too far (for me at least), but each day was still fun.
We’ve shared at least 3 visits with friends and family this year, I’ve found that one of my best friends, Pedro, is a secret adrenaline junkie and both he and Tami are welcome to join us anytime they like!
I’m not sure there is too much to be excited for in terms of the UKs new offerings next year, but as this year comes to a close, we’ve started drawing up rough plans for our visit next year, with a blog to follow once we know more.
Hopefully next year will be as fun as this year has been but only time will tell!
The Awards
Best New Attraction
Awarded to the best single attraction opened during this year.
Sik
Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure
Loki
Best Event
Awarded to the events that I felt were the best from this year.
Alton Towers Opening Weekend
Fantasy Island – Fear Island
Thorpe Park Fright Nights
Best New Park
Awarded to the park we visited for the very first time this year.
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
Joyland
Crealy
Best New To Us Attraction
Awarded to the attraction that we experienced for the first time this year.
Roller Coaster – Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
Ghost Train – Southport Pleasureland
Lightning 360 – Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
Best Rollercoaster Overall
Awarded to the top 3 rollercoasters from my ranking page.
The Smiler
Stealth
Nemesis
Best Flat Ride Overall
Awarded to the attraction that I felt was the most fun and enjoyable flat ride from the last year.
Haunted House Monster Party
Detonator: Bombs Away
Zodiac
Best Onsite Stay
There were only two to pick from, but its awarded to the park with the best onsite stay we had through the year.
Thorpe Shark Cabins
Alton Towers Star Gazing Pods
Best Customer Services
Awarded to the park who’s customer services were needed and how well they handled our issues.
Alton Towers
Pleasurewood Hills
Southport Pleasureland
Best Food
Awarded to the park that I think had the best tasting food from the year.
Chessington World of Adventures (Drop n’ Chicken Nuggets)
Alton Towers (Front Lawns Catering)
Thorpe Park (Pizza Pasta Buffet)
Most Disappointing Visit
These are my least memorable visits from the year. Non were bad, just didn’t fully hit the mark!
Alton Towers – Scarefest (Lacked Ceremony for the 15th anniversary)
Oakwood (Rained off with no rainy day return)
Legoland – Firework Spectacular (Too short!)
Worst Ride of the Year
Grand Canyon – Southport Pleasureland
Kite Flyer
Rootin’ Tootin’ Target Trail
Park of the Year
Awarded to the park that, overall, had the most enjoyable visits.
Now that all the individual blogs have been written, I’d like to summarise our holiday and get any last bits out that I may have forgotten!
Though each park did a great job of their own respective Halloween events, the standout one for me was Fantasy Island’s Fear Island event. This is followed closely by Thorpe Parks Fright Nights, Chessington’s Howl’o’ween, Legoland’s Brick or Treat and then Scarefest coming in last.
Scarefest was the weaker offering purely because it just didn’t feel like it had the weight that 15 years should carry. I think if it had just been any other year then it would have probably beaten Howl’o’ween and Brick or Treat, as Darkest Depths is now my favourite scare maze of all the ones I’ve done.
It’s not to say Scarefest was bad as it most certainly wasn’t, it was just lacking something is all!
Though Paultons Park didn’t put any scare mazes or any scare zones or such, they decorated their park beautifully and it’s well worth a visit on a lovely autumnal day to see it all.
If I had to rank all the scare mazes/zones we did this holiday, I’d say it goes as follows:
Darkest Depths
Villa Voodoo
Blood Bunker
Scream Asylum
The Crows of Mawkin Meadow
The Invitation
Vile Villagers
Deaths Door
Terminal
None of the scare mazes or zones we did were bad by any stretch but some were executed much better than others were. The audio only experiences were good but have a lot of scope for improvement, as did Deaths Door. I like to see them changed and adapted for next year and build in the foundations put in place this year.
There wasn’t much I could say needed changing at Fantasy Island, except perhaps that they stay open a bit later for dark rides. I’ll touch on this topic in my Alton Towers Fireworks blog!
Overall this holiday went a whole lot smoother than our summer excursion did! We had great service from The Annex, Ramada at Cobham and Stargazing Pods at Alton Towers and all in all it didn’t cost a fortune to do it all. I’m more than happy to share an itemised breakdown for anyone who’s interested!
I can’t wait for next year’s Halloween events to roll around as I hope to be doing something similar to this next year too!
Fright Nights is another event that we’ve done before, as we did Fright Nights 20 last year. We really enjoyed last year’s offering so we’re expecting good things from this year!
Changes from last year were a lot more noticeable than there were with Chessington. Firstly, Platform 15 has gone now, replaced with Survival Games and The Terminal this year.
Secondly, Deaths Door also joins the Crows of Mawkin Meadow as a free walkthrough scare zone and a bigger feature of Fright Nights 21st celebrations and its Locksmith character.
Finally there’s the return of Legacy: A Fire and Light show. This is bigger and better than last years and I’ll go into detail about it a bit later on.
We’d stayed in the nearby Ramada once again for two nights with our first day being Fright Nights. We were expecting it to be quieter than last year as it was a Monday outside the school holidays and for the most part it was. Most of the rides stayed under 60 minute queues all day which was great!
We started our day on Stealth and we got our first front row ride on this beast. Front row really does give it something else as you have all the wind and force straight at you, as well as uninterrupted views as you climb and crest the 205ft top hat. Such a great ride!
Next we headed round to Swarm as this seems to be a ride that Tracy shows a little affection for. Despite it featuring a bit of hangtime on the first inversion, as well as 4 other inversions, Tracy seems to really enjoy it.
The more I ride the Swarm, the more I enjoy it. It never gives a bad ride at all, and though some rides are more intense than others, it’s a truly excellent coaster with some great scenary and set pieces.
After Swarm we had a go on Flying Fish before making our way to Nemesis Inferno, another one of Tracy’s favourite rides. Though I definitely prefer Nemesis at Alton Towers, Inferno is still a great ride in its own right and probably the more intense of the two as I usually need a bit of a break after Inferno, something I don’t need after Nemesis.
Throughout the day we got a couple of rides on Saw, Depth Charge, Walking Dead, The Dodgems, Rumba Rapids, and a few more rerides on The Swarm, Nemesis Inferno and Stealth. We managed night rides on Saw, Stealth and The Swarm too.
In between the rides we also tried out Deaths Door, the new scarezone walkthrough attraction. This sees you knocking on doors to see what’s on the other side. Usually it’s an actor that will do their best to scare you or a blast of air but sometimes you’ll get nothing at all and move onto the next door.
I had in my head that it would be a progression type of attraction in that you had to go through the doors and into the next room and so on until you’d gotten through the whole attraction. However it’s more of a collection of doors built into few wooden buildings which to me made it feel like you were trick or treating. I don’t know if that was what they were going for but I sort of like the idea of it being an adult trick or treating thing, where there are no treats, just tricks!
I didn’t really get much out of Deaths Door though as the scares weren’t that great and there was no atmosphere about the place at all. The Crows of Mawkin Meadow was full of atmosphere however. Much like last year, the walk through was covered in smoke which gave it a very eerie and sinister feel, which is excellent. There was also a branching path that takes you through the old Saw Alive queue line that’s been converted into a farmhouse scene.
So Deaths Door wasn’t as good but The Crows certainly made up for it. Another great thing to see was the roaming actors this year were primarily The Buckwheat’s of Creak Freak Massacre. These were very entertaining and really did come across as deeply unhinged and savage.
To accompany them was their returning scare maze, Creak Freak Massacre, the final cut which as the name implies is its final outing this year. We didn’t do this scare maze as we did it last year and by the sound of the surrounding area of the maze, they haven’t changed too much in there!
We did however give Terminal a go. This is brand new audio based scare experience and has you put on headphones and listen to a set story whilst in a pitch black room.
The experience starts when you’re bundled into a lift room built into shipping containers. Though the room is stationary, the audio does make it feel like the room is moving ever so slightly then another door opens and you move down a corridor into a wooden cubicle, sit yourself down and put the headphones on.
The premise is that you’ve been selected to go to an alien planet and it’s so far away from earth that you’ll need to enter cryosleep to be able to get there. Complications arise when the ship is boarded by aliens who feed on you and your group, sucking your brain out through a hole made in your head. It does sound quite gruesome and the audio definitely did it’s best to portray this but it was lacking something to make it truly great.
I think for me it would have felt more real if when the aliens are supposedly feeding on you that you’d feel a sensation on your forehead or something that lines up with the audio. There were air jets that made you feel like you were being gassed with cryogenic substances but that was it for physical effects. I’ll touch on this a lot more when I talk about Alton Towers’ Invitation but for now, it was ok. Nothing spectacular but not bad by an stretch!
The other two scare mazes were Trailers and Survival Games. We did Trailers during Carnival and though it was quite good we felt that having done it this year, there wouldn’t be too much different so skipped it. As for Survival Games, I haven’t heard great things from this one which put me off a little, but ultimately we didn’t try it because we’d already done plenty at the resort.
Birthday Bash made a return this year and was as comical as last year’s offering. Though some of the actors were a bit off with their singing, the rest of the show was alright. It could do with some splatterings of fake blood to really up the gore value though in my eyes!
It would be remiss of me if I didn’t also mention the great work put in by the vampires and werewolves of Amity High and Lycan Thorpe by Stealth. I could spend all of Fright Nights here listening to the stellar 80s rock tracks while the flash mobs chase people around the area, all the while Stealth launching in the back ground. This is utter bliss for me and one of my favourite parts of this holiday in general!
Finally there’s Legacy to talk about. Much like last year, this is a free show that has audio playing to a light and fire show but this year they’ve added a screen for extra visuals. This is a good improvement over last year’s and though it told the same sort of story of Fright Nights, it was enjoyable and I hope they elaborate on it further next year too.
Once the sun had started to set, the park got busier which helped with the atmosphere of the place. There was plenty going on, plenty of shows to see and rides to ride. The only real negative of the day was that there was a dire lack of food options at around 8:30pm. Most of the food places had closed, and those that were open had a lack of options. It wasn’t enough to spoil the day but it was worth mentioning!
I don’t think it was nessecarily better than last year but also not worse either. I think there were things that didn’t hit as well as they could have this year such as Deaths Door and Terminal, but Legacy and The Crows were improved upon as well as the actors and the scale of the event feeling bigger. Another great Fright Nights!
This year, we thought it would be a good idea to have a week away visiting various parks for their Halloween events. We were impressed with Alton Towers Scarefest in 2020 and last year’s Fright Nights at Thorpe Park, so it makes sense to have a tour of the big parks!
The parks we’ve decided on are Paultons Park, Chessington, Thorpe Park, Legoland, Alton Towers and Fantasy Island. The Merlin parks are a given as we’re annual pass holders, but Paultons Park at Halloween, as well as Fantasy Island’s Fear Island event will be new to us.
That’s before we try out both parks new attractions, with Farmyard Flier at Paultons and The Guardian and Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure at Fantasy Island!
We’ll be stopping at The Annex In Totton for our first two nights, Ramada at Cobham services for the next two and finally we’re stopping on site at Alton Towers in their Stargazing Pods for the last two.
I’m not sure we’ll get around all the scare mazes on offer this year, especially with there being a few repeats, but there are a couple of other things to look forward to! The Scare Zones are returning and look to be good this year, as well as Farm Yard Flier at Paultons and the two new rides at Fantasy Island.
One of the other things I’m really looking forward to is Millennium Darkness at Fantasy Island. This will be a ride on Millennium, but blindfolded! I’m quite looking forward to this unique experience of what was my very first inverting coaster!
I’ll be writing up blogs for each of the parks and comparing it to other visits we’ve had, and tips I notice, as well as a good sprinkling of my opinion on things!
Recently we stopped at Thorpe Park in their on site accommodation as mentioned in my Carnival blog post. Here’s my thoughts on the Thorpe Shark Cabins!
The cabins themselves are quite small, some might say cosy and comprise a double bed, 2 bunk beds, a wet room and a little storage for your belongings.
The beds were very comfortable and there was only just enough space to fit 3 adults and a child in there but we managed. I can imagine a less organised family, or one with younger children might struggle as there isn’t much storage for larger items like prams and the like.
The wet room was also quite small but offers the basics to get you by. It has a shower, a very small sink and a toilet, as well as a couple of rails above the toilet for towels. It’s also worth noting that you can’t drink the water from the taps and bottled water is provided. I’m not entirely sure why as not reason was given, but I also didn’t ask any members of staff!
Air conditioning is provided and pretty much required as the cabins retain heat as they’re built using metal shipping containers. You can’t see much evidence to suggest as such besides the walls, but their size does emulate this fact.
Included in our price was 2 nights stay, breakfast and 1 hour fastpass in the park. This was advertised as the second day but it seems to work on any day you go, and its done on a wristband, that also gets you into the hotel from the car park too. These wristbands were great and I’d like to be able to purchase hourly fastpass tickets moving forward as I think they are a good idea!
It’s worth mentioning that we booked the cabins as part of the Merlin Holiday Club as we’re pass holders. We then added another two to our booking at no additional cost for the stay, but they did have to pay for breakfast at a cost of £15 per person. I didn’t think this was unreasonable and we were told multiple times about the additional cost so it wasn’t a surprise or anything.
Improvements
Though we enjoyed our time in the cabins, there are certainly a few improvements that could be made. Firstly, having somewhere to put your things in the shower would be great as there is only one shelf in there and the toilet. Just a few hanging hooks or another shelf or two would be great!
Though the space was only just enough, I wouldn’t mind seeing a two person cabin being built taking up a third of the space the 4 person ones do. Then alterations made to the current 4 person cabins so they are about a third bigger.
I would also like to see the entrance to Thorpe Shark changed a little. Currently you enter the park, go through security and then you’re able to access the hotel. I’d much prefer it if you could come and go a little easier and be able to enter the park only after you’ve been through the hotel, like how the other Merlin parks operate. The cabins do feel like a hasty way of adding on site accommodation.
I wasn’t as though you couldn’t leave once you were in, but there was a gate that you had to exit through and then had to have permission to re-enter, showing you wrist bands and having your bags checked again if a member of the security team was present.
Finally, and probably the biggest issue with the Thorpe Shark cabins is the lack of things to do after the park has closed. I’d have happily wandered around the park after hours for photo opportunities, or even a few hotel exclusive later rides. The only thing we could find to do, outside of bringing games to play, was the pub, and the provided games on the TV in the room.
Compare this to Chessington where you have access to parts of the zoo, a swimming pool and live entertainment, and Alton Towers, where you have live entertainment in 2 different hotels, the rollercoaster restaurant and mini golf.
I’d like to see some of the rides left open a bit later for hotel guests, maybe only a couple of hours or so, and possibly rotate what rides are offered each month. Failing that, a mini golf course, or access to the main arcade in the park wouldn’t hurt either, or convert the 4D cinema into an actual cinema showing a good range of great films.
Overall the cabins were good, but certainly weaker than what Alton Towers, Chessington, or even Blackpool Pleasure beach offer. I’d certainly recommend them at least once, and more so for a couple of thrill seekers like us, rather than a family!
For a little weekend getaway we decided on a visit to Thorpe Park, and that we’d stay on site in the Thorpe Shark Cabins. I’ll have a full dedicated blog talking about our experience with them but needless to say it’s the weakest offering of the Merlin Parks on site accommodation. That’s not to say it was bad, far from it! Just a little room for improvement!
During our visit, Thorpe Park were hosting their new Carnival event. I had a small feeling that it would be an almost identical event to Mardi Gras but aside from reusing a few assets, it felt like a completely new event from the ground up.
As the carnival events started around 12, and we had 1 hour fastpass bands due to our hotel stay, we went on a few rides first.
First stop of the day was The Swarm, and it gave a good ride and a few of the water effects were working today which was a nice bonus!
Next was Flying Fish and besides it being a very tame ride with not much to mention, there does seem to be a lot of noise coming from the front of the train as it pulls away from the station. Whether this is normal, a sign that maintenance is needed or something bigger is going on I’m not sure. I wouldn’t be too upset if Flying Fish ended up having to be removed as it is quite jerky for a powered coaster.
After Flying Fish we had a go on Stealth and got a fantastic back row ride. Even Tracy, who has been a stern hater of the top hat, had fun this time around, which was pleasing to hear!
Our next stop was supposed to be Rumba Rapids, but for whatever reason, the ride wasn’t operational, and stayed closed throughout the day. This is a shame as the weather was perfect for the light spraying this rapids ride gives you!
Onto Nemesis Inferno and yet another good ride here. Nearer the back of the train this time, and we got very little headbanging at all and a lot of force in the final helix. The more I ride Inferno, the closer it gets to the original at Alton Towers, but I’m fairly adamant that it’ll never take the top spot!
As our fastpass hour was coming to a close, we managed to get onto The Walking Dead. Though lacking any live actors again, the ride was just as enjoyable as it always has been. A really nice solid ride.
Trailers: Breakout at Bozo’s
The biggest thing to talk about with regards to Carnival, has to be their reintroduction of the Trailers scare maze that first opened at Fright Nights 2021. I didn’t experience this the first time around so I can’t compare this iteration to the original but as a standalone event, it was good fun!
Breakout at Bozos follows the story of the SuperSpark cinema that regularly suffers from power surges and these surges open portals into the film’s on-show, only this time the portals work both ways so Bozo and his crew have broken free and are wreaking havoc.
Though the maze was advertised as a scare maze with a twist, it just felt like a standard scare maze to me! There were some funny elements such as being asked to kiss a shark and the Brainsburys shop but because of the rushed nature of the attraction, you don’t get time to pick up on all the scenes.
In terms of fear level, I’d say it was on par with the others I’ve done, probably not as scary as Creak freak massacre but definitely up there with Platform 15. A decent entry level Scare maze!
Carnival
The main carnival event was held behind Colossus’s turnaround, right next to Zodiac and Rush. It featured a stage, a couple of food shops, a stall selling carnival merchandise and a few paid for sideshows.
The stage played host to a few different acts through the day such as fire performances, mime troupes and a plenty of dancing and music!
The performances we managed to see were good, and the actors were very entertaining. I think the highlight for me was the Ringleader show, where he introduced his Circus troupe and faced competition from another group of his ex-colleagues, now working in the Junkyard as a rival group.
There wasn’t many roaming actors outside of the area setup for Carnival like there was with Fright Nights, or the Mardi Gras parade, but they were all in character and fun to watch, even if the mimes were a bit creepy…!
Aside from the main area behind Zodiac, there was also a smaller area called the Junkyard. This was between Nemesis Inferno’s shop and the central arcade, and had a selection of food vendors and a little space for more acts to perform, primarily the rival group to the Ringleader I mentioned earlier.
There were also a few audio tracks added to the bigger coasters. Stealth for example, featured audio about being a human cannonball, Colossus had an acrobat talking about its 10 ‘acrobatic loops’ and Nemesis Inferno played more into is fiery theme by suggesting you walk on fire and brave the heat.
Overall Carnival was good, probably on par with Mardi Gras, definitely not better but certainly not worse either!
The rest of the day
After we’d finished with Carnival, we got on more rides starting with Black Mirror Labyrinth and then Derren Browns Ghost Train. Both were as you’d expect, though Ghost Train was noticeably worse than usual. Black Mirror Labyrinth didn’t have much more to show us than the first time we tried it and really does feel like a one and done attraction already.
I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little excited to talk about Zodiac. Though the ride is nothing special, and doesn’t quite function how it once did, it was my 100th unique flat ride. It wasn’t planned at all until I looked on Logride (an app I use to track what I’ve ridden) and it showed I was up to 99 individual flat rides.
Zodiac and High Roller were showing as the last two attractions I’d yet to ride at Thorpe Park, so I had a go on High Roller before finishing off the list, and achieving my 100th flat with Zodiac! (As a side note, High Roller is classed as a children’s ride)
After we’d had some dinner at the Pizza and Pasta Buffet, we had another ride on Nemesis Inferno which was once again really intense. After Nemesis, I managed a walk-on over at Colossus to see how it rides after it’s been running all day. It wasn’t quite as rough as it has been, but still had an element of roughness to it and with Sik being as good as it is, Colossus needs looking at in my opinion!
Our next rides were a back-to-back on The Swarm, and though the earlier ride was good, these were insane! The ride runs so much better after it’s properly warmed up. It feels so much faster and yet still as smooth as it always has been. Highly recommend a late ride on The Swarm.
After that we had another go on Flying Fish before our final ride of the day on Tidal Wave. Once again we got thoroughly soaked, and even got a second dousing upon leaving the station as the next boat came down the drop! Great ride in hot weather and a perfect end to a packed day.
Conclusion
Thorpe Park Carnival was a great day out, not only for the Carnival event but the park was very quiet for the time of year. Stealth didn’t seem to get longer than 10 minute queues, and even Saw: The Ride managed to stay under 45 for the most part.
Carnival was certainly a good, enjoyable event and hopefully it’ll blossom out into an even better event next year too.
loopsandlapbars.com 