Thorpe Park - Derren Brown's Ghost Train

[timmy1372]

I'm sure of you contact Guest Services then they can sort something out for you. You would have been a pass holder at the original event and this event is a form of appology to make up for DBGT which we didn't have access to on the night, but it is worth checking.

I was a bit gutted that we didn't queue up earlier in the day for it on Friday when it was open, but it seems like not many people managed to ride it on the day, even after long queues from when it opened.

[Dannyski]

I do wonder what the problem could be. It's annoying, we visited Friday evening, Saturday and this morning to try and get on the damn thing with no success, it's really sucked up our weekend and left quite a bitter taste.

[ThemeCrafter264]

Part of the issue is the ride suffers from heat on sunny days

[owenrita121]

Part of the issue is the ride suffers from heat on sunny days

How... It's indoors!

[ThemeCrafter264]

I was told this. I presume the issue lies with the headsets overheating as there were a lot of headsets down

[jonny9403]

And towers no longer have the most unreliable new investment

[Dannyski]

Well if they can air condition my local Tesco (which is the size of a small town) then they can air condition that ride building!

[ThemeCrafter264]

All senior management for Thorpe were there I think. Interesting to note, that dbgt could have opened but they didn't want downtime and only the very first part of the queue (not even under shelter) was used.

[Benjisstephens]

I was at Thorpe yesterday and all day there was staff and signs outside saying that the ride would be unavailable today. I, of course, was disappointed but continued a good day on the park. It was at about 5 when I said that if I couldn't go on it, I would at least have a look at the shop. We turned the corner to see people in the queue and a line reaching to the back of the plaza. We quickly joined it and found out that Thorpe was going to open it up. The queue started to fill up and we managed to get on it in about 40 minutes. Of course, this was very good news since we were expecting a 90 minute one.

Finally being able to ride it when I was expecting to go home without riding it, made it even more exciting, but this just further emphasises that Thorpe has got a lot of work to do on this ride to make sure it has as little downtime as possible. I think Dannyski's line sums up the ride very well. "Disney attraction with Merlin prices." Personally I really liked the attraction and of course, I would be biased, but it is still a great addition to Thorpe Park. The VR is debatable, but I won't go into any spoilers. I don't think the use of VR has been oversaturated yet. I think HTC Vive worked well in the attraction; it suited the Derren Brown idea of twisting reality.

Overall, the ride is exactly what it was designed to be, a reinvention of the Ghost Train. Hoping for more will only leave you disappointed. There is so much we don't see in the ride because of how technically advanced it is, so thinking about it in that mindset you can see where the money was spent. So although it maybe was on a merlin budget, it truly was a Disneyesque attraction.

[NeoXIII]

I've now been messed about with by Thorpe Park and Ghosttrain three times: delayed opening, massive screwup with the ticket promotion and now the attraction not being open for Summer Nights last Friday. Luckily I've managed to get on it once while it was working, so yay. But massively disappointed in TP and DBGT so far, despite how much I liked the ride the first time...

[Altontowersbarlow]

I think people need to use a bit of common sense and calm down a bit. People are always asking for ground-breaking attractions and begging for bigger and more advanced attractions in the UK but are then complaining and slating the park it opens at for not being "reliable" enough. People also said that they supported the delayed opening of DBGT because they recognised that it wasn't ready and wanted to enhance guest experience, but now people are turning that against the park too. Think about how many times roller-coasters breakdown during a day and they're not even half as technical as something like DBGT, so of course its going to have issues. If you discount the fact it was delayed (because people would have complained if it was un-finished) and consider that despite the huge amount of possibility for issues to occur the ride has only been closed for a few odd days that's pretty good going. The heat issue is a shame but I bet you any money if Thorpe Park closed the ride to install air conditioning people would complain then too. We've finally got a ground-breaking major dark-ride in the UK, and therefore we need to accept that, its going to have issues (like every other-ride but slightly more because of the nature of the attraction), Thorpe Park are doing the best they can and Derren Brown has done a better job than most theme park creative teams in the UK ever have. You cant demand more and more and expect everything to work perfectly and serve you seamlessly, because that's not reality (No pun intended).

Also, have a bit of patience and common sense. Okay the ride is advertised as "open" but do you really think a brand-new attraction isn't going to have downtime? Maybe wait a few months until everything's calmed down and plan your trip then, instead of rushing ahead impatiently and being left disappointed.

[Owen]

After going on the hottest day of 2016 I personally found absolutely no issue with the building being too hot, especially with all the large industrial fans dotted around the building. Although it's not so much an issue on this particular forum, boy don't people want to pick at this ride!

In regards to the posts about how TP haven't tried and other nonsense, I just have to say that you are the one who goes into the park knowing full well that an attraction may not being open - the park don't do it on purpose and if they had opened it and the ride was terrible or someone was injured then you'd be doing one of two things. 1 - seeking more compensation after presuring the attraction to open or 2 - telling tgem to reopen it asap and accusing them of lacking effort.

Sorry for the rant, however I for one can gladly say I feel Thorpe put the most time and effort into their attraction than any other UK Merlin park and so comments like this really get under my skin!

One last thing...

And towers no longer have the most unreliable new investment

Galactica, anybody?

[timmy1372]

I think both Galactica and DBGT VR headsets suffer from heat problems, the headsets overheat in warm weather, Galactica had holes cut into the front of the headsets recently for extra ventilation.

[Dannyski]

It's true that enthusiasts do get a bit carried away in their criticisms, which is no surprise considering they (we) are the most who are the most emotionally invested, but on the other side of the coin there is the general public and on Friday night whilst in the queue for the Ghost Train (not the actual queue, but a queue for the queue), one of the ride hosts was trying his best to work his way down the line and explain to guests why the ride was not open. There was a family from Hull in front of us and I listened as he explained to them that it was a technical fault, the woman asked what the fault was and he said that he could not say because he did not know. She asked how long it would take to fix and he said he did not know, he explained that as the ride was new, it was expected that you might get some teething problems, to which the woman asked why it was open if it was still experiencing problems? The ride host replied in a roundabout way that with such a new and high tech ride the only way to flush out all the bugs was to put people on it and get proper feedback, to which the woman asked why she had been invited to drive 4 hours, at her cost, to help them iron out the bugs for the new ride. This exchange didn't get any friendlier as the woman and her family, just normal people who had invested in some Merlin Passes, who got an email about a ride that before then they had probably never heard of (or at the very best briefly on a TV spot or the like), do not understand the situation and have very little sympathy. They ended up marching off to guest services. Angry.

[lewis97]

I must admit that I was surprised we didn't see a longer technical rehearsal phase, although there will always be things that only become apparent once an attraction is fully operational. I can only imagine there was a fair bit of pressure to get the ride open in time for the peak summer season, with it being deemed in an acceptable state to do so. However, after its first month (exactly in fact) of official operation I can't really say I've noticed a significant reduction in the number of issues it's having.

Given that a notable number of the journeys and one of the two endings are still inactive it is clear that ultimately commercial factors overrode those of creative once a full experience was available. Don't get me wrong, what's there makes for an enjoyable attraction but it is somewhat tainted knowing it is effectively incomplete and that there is the real possibility of your experience being ruined by technical issues. I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if it broke down or there were problems with the VR on my first run through especially.

[Benjisstephens]

I think i might have sparked a 'long-post chain'. Sorry about that guys

[Ryan.B]

I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if it broke down or there were problems with the VR on my first run through especially.

This. On my ride, it broke down while we were in the pre show for 15 minutes, very claustrophobic as well as what I guess was some panic/anger somewhere of a lot of banging and what sound like ghost train out. I guess it was let us out or something similar, then we were alllowed to go through to the next part, and there was a delay due to guests trying to get off at the wrong point, this was 20 odd minutes. The short delay message was replaying repeatedly as well, then. The next train arrived and it looked likes the faults were over, but as I got the wow of seeing the

Spoiler

underground carriage, guess what, about 10 headsets were out of use so we were sent back, losing the wow factor and half of our group.

A few minutes later it started, they let us put on the VR, and I thought the problems were over again, but there was a blur (finger print?) on the goggles. I could deal with it but the headsets aren't cleaned after every ride, which is quite dirty considering they are so heavy on it due to bacteria etc on galactica. Feel lucky that my glasses fitted in :lol and we were off. Next bit involves some major spoilers

Spoiler

If someone can inform me what happens here that would be great.. I saw night vision mode begin, but it was in night vision and I couldn't move around or hear anything, but something must have been happening because the was movements on the actual train (could see the train moving like an underground train and that's it) was moving and people were screaming, a few seconds later I saw what I think was the thing scaring people's outline and shadow darker stood opposite walking around towards me through the window, more people were screaming, again anyone able to tell me what was happening? Next was a mainly working part, the teenager with the lighter coming to talk, and I couldn't hear much but I remember something to do with saving yourself from the bad stuff or something or other and a barking dog, I couldn't see that either as my screen wasn't moving anywhere. Next I saw something on the floor for two seconds, went out of view but it did look scary, a few seconds later an actor stroked my leg, and because I couldn't look on the screen I had no idea if it was the person near me tapping me or an actor. A few seconds later we left the train to see the first working effect. The monster shadow in the smoke onto my third favourite part of the ride which was good, the evac and train crash, we were told why we were evacced but i feel it would have been better if it was an evacuation notice like on a train for delays, saying something similar to 'welcome to the Underground, follow the evacuation procedures, cover your mouths and move forward quickly. Harmful gases are coming up but we are unaware of the cause. Leaves enough time for the train in front to stop stacking and move forward and is more immersive (obviously more professionally worded) the train crash was good, and made me jump a bit, but not much due to me being stood at the back and slowing Down straight away, maybe some 'Sparks' coming off the wheels? It was very good though, and there was an actor crawling shouting for help in a croaky voice and stroking people's legs which was my favourite little touch. We ran over to get back on, which looked great, but finding a seat was tricky as well as the ride started and we had our headsets on, until it stopped, and we took our headsets off again for a few minutes odd due to stacking, and unbeknown to me the video on the screens above was the VR, ruining some of the surprise. After that mishap the ride ran fine, and I loved it. It was one of my favourite rides (at least that part) there was parts which made you move back into your seat, jumpy parts, very convincing motion and it all came together beautifully, despite it being the part I've seen lots of negative reviews for. I loved it and it was 9/10. Same for the pre show, and I'd say 8/10 for the Middle scene. Sadly all the delays and broken parts on the first part left a bit of a sour taste, but I imagine if the first part when working is even near as good as the second part was good the whole ride would average out at a 8.5, but with the poor run I had I'd give the first VR scene a overall of 3 and the ride itself a 6. I was left wanting to ride again, and I know if I get a better run through I will rank it higher.

[Jammydodger]

The headsets themselves shouldn't be overheating in the same way as Galactica. Galactica has a phone in each headset doing all the processing whereas for DBGT all of the processing is done on a computer behind closed doors, the headsets are merely little monitors.

The frequent headset outages sounds a lot like it could be down to software bugs. In essence the VR segment is just a PC game that plays out on a computer hidden somewhere. Perhaps the most tricky part is that while the park may have plenty of engineers, I doubt they have many qualified IT experts to hand. So when turning it off and on again doesn't work they could well be having to use a long trial and error method of troubleshooting.

[Owen]

The headsets are most certainly not overheating - at least not enough to close the ride. The headsets would have been tested to their limits along with various other suppliers in the development stage of the attraction - not to mention you can physically feel that the headsets are kept at a suitable temperature. Remember that Galactica uses phones - Ghost Train uses headsets specifically designed for prolonged use.

[Tryst]

I've now been messed about with by Thorpe Park and Ghosttrain three times: delayed opening, massive screwup with the ticket promotion and now the attraction not being open for Summer Nights last Friday. Luckily I've managed to get on it once while it was working, so yay. But massively disappointed in TP and DBGT so far, despite how much I liked the ride the first time...

Twice here that I've been all the way down to Thorpe Park and missed out on the Ghost Train, but the Summer Night was fun nonetheless. I'm still patient enough to wait until next season if necessary.

The headsets are most certainly not overheating - at least not enough to close the ride. The headsets would have been tested to their limits along with various other suppliers in the development stage of the attraction - not to mention you can physically feel that the headsets are kept at a suitable temperature. Remember that Galactica uses phones - Ghost Train uses headsets specifically designed for prolonged use.

What I've heard (this is 100% rumour) is that the synchronisation between the transport system and the VR is sufficiently off to be vom-inducing. It's probably best that they fix that before opening the ride again, unless they want it to be the next X:\>NoWayOut :sick: