I’ll start with explaining how I did not expect much from this event. I was quite concerned for the whole scare zone aspect given the current COVID situation & regulations. But I’ll cover all that below there’s also no point me discussing the rides as I’ve spoken about them so much before now. This post will be based around our thoughts on all the Halloween offerings we experienced. I hope you all enjoy.
Something I’ve always loved about this event is the audio. I just love the switch over from the basic day audio to fright nights. We were queuing in the Rumba Rapids queue line when it turned to 3pm which is the start time of the event. The music change was fab and the little countdown to 3 as well. Oh I just love it a lot. It adds to the atmosphere & sets the mood perfectly.
Returning for what it’s 3rd year now? I might be wrong but it’s not a new theme or zone for Thorpe Park. With any theme & scare zone, it’s down to preference and what you find scary. For us both we don’t really find this scare zone scary as such. However we caught the back end of their flash mob which was fab. We could see what they were aiming for in regards to social distancing etc. However it did not work all that well. We felt more for the actors then anything. There were crowds pretty much everywhere. Therefore we did not want to add to that issue and left the area fairly fast just for our safety, as well as those around us. But from what we saw it looked really good & we hold it up to the actors for doing such a fab job.
RATING: 2.5/5
Again it’s all down to preferences & neither of the school scare zones quite done it for us. I’ll be the first to admit how much I adore the set up for this area. I love the vibe so much. Plus I thought the actors looked amazing their make up was fab. Audio as well was something I loved. We also caught the actors giving others around us some real good scares. This area did seem a lot less crowded and much better for social distancing. Also there wasn’t all that many actors neither.
RATING: 2.5/5
I did not expect all that much from this scare zone prior to visiting. However I come away pleasantly surprised. The area is basically perfect for a scare zone. There’s so many hideaway points which the actors used to their advantage & made it a lot more of a intense scare zone. I thoroughly enjoyed this area. Although again it seemed to be an issue in regards to social distancing. Mainly due to crowds gathering but staff again tried their best. I can’t fault anything in regards to the staffs efforts.
RATING: 3/5
Okay, I think there was a missed opportunity and a gate way to disappointment with this latest edition to the line up. We walked back & forth through this “scare” zone and found it did not scare us in the slightest. Nor did I see anyone else in the area looking scared or wanting to get away due to fear. We both feel as this should have been advertised in a manner of extra theming / story telling. Which is exactly what it was. We loved & admire the extra bit of story to The Swarm. The actors can’t be faulted they done the job beautifully. But it felt almost more theatrical rather than scaring. Social distancing & COVID rules worked really well within this area. We did not find any issues with any of it & felt extremely safe.
RATING: 2.9/5
I think I’ll have to write an entire blog post dedicated to this scare zone as I have so much to say. When this got announced theres no denying my pure excitement as I just had a feeling this would work incredibly well. I wasn’t wrong. In fact somehow it managed to exceed my expectations & hype. The actors all the way throughout I can’t even begin to put into words how insane they are. Genuinely they were outstanding. The entire layout of this scare zone felt more or less like a maze. The set route & one way system worked so well & the actors used all of the area for their benefits & scares. Genuinely I am in love with this scare zone. Admittedly not too long after it first opened social distancing was an issue. But as the evening went on it became more & more quieter and we had some insane encounters & interactions. A full blog post is to come soon.
RATING: 5/5
Not quite a scare zone as such but The Crows are roaming actors which can be found basically anywhere. Again I had no idea how much better these were going to be in person. Wow. I can’t quite put into words how terrifying these guys are. They are genuinely one of the highlights of our day. We encountered them twice. We caught them by Storm Surge by their crosses which they have their own routine which will freak the hell out of you. But also encountered upon exiting Creek Freak Unchained so got chased by a chainsaw into The Crows. It was a lot to handle. As much as I hate these guys as they are something from my nightmares I really hope to see them return again but also maybe have their own maze next year. In regards to COVID they had a couple members of staff following them around & they kept very much on top of the restrictions.
RATING: 5/5
Unfortunately we decided to not do Roots of Evil. However we did experience Platform 15 so continue reading for our thoughts.
If you are a regular to our blogs you’ll know we did not enjoy Platform at all last year. However it was completely opposite, in fact worlds apart this year. The change of route really shook this maze up but also something I adored was how the actors incorporated it into the storyline. We had an insane amount of scares all throughout this maze and some of them were big as well. The main issue we faced was batching issues where we caught up the couple of groups in front. But as with anything like this everyone walks at different speeds so this is bound to happen in some mazes. Luckily for us it did not impact the scare experience all that much. Those times where we lingered a little bit too loose the group ahead the actors were on top form in keeping us on edge & scared. This maze was completely different to last year for our experience anyway. In regards to COVID we felt very safe all the way through the maze & really admire the actors for making it feel so normal all the way through. Something we loved about the location of this maze was the way you exit into a scare zone one of which is terrifying too. All together though this maze was beautiful the smells were grim but fitting, audio insane, noise scares & physical were intense and overall it was perfect & one of our favourite mazes this season.
RATING: 4/5
Admittedly we did encounter some social distancing based issues throughout our day. However the number of staff we also saw attempting to manage this was really good. Where there’s a scare zone you almost expect a crowd as everyone is experiencing different levels of scares. Barely anyone has the same fears therefore you sometimes saw people running into others or really close to them. But the actors maintained their distance as best as they could. We are always mindful of those around us so we constantly attempted routes and ways to ensure we did not get too close to staff, actors or others. However as a whole event we were blown away. We did not expect much but ended up coming away really impressed. For us this years event was 100x better then last year. It would be incredible to see some of this years line up return for next year. A massive well done & shout out to everyone who made the event possible & to the incredible actors.
Thank you for reading & we’d love to know if you’ve experienced this event yet.