Thorpe Park - Derren Brown's Ghost Train

[Danny]

That's really awful if that's the case, those effects are vital for the overall immersive experience. Let's hope they get them sorted soon.

[Jack]

As stated at the TTSP Summer Sizzler behind the scenes at the Thrills Workshop, it's apparently just a nightmare scene to make work. I think they would have much better investment removing it and having actors in the tunnel as seen on press night earlier this year. Not only is it unexpected but it means that with the other changes for this year it would feel much more like you're trying to get away from something other than a projected demon

Info in spoilers for those that have ridden Rise of the Demon:

Spoiler

The floor in the shop scene now fully shakes like it was meant to. I'm not sure how long this has been fixed but this was totally new to me and that's just over a month between my last visit and last week

[hookyman]

Went on DBGT for the first time this weekend. Can't help thinking that the experience would have been better using more physical effects/actors rather than VR on the train parts. I don't think VR is immersive enough yet, maybe in a few years time. Great ending though.

[The Nemesis Fox]

I have just had a quick thought...
At fright nights I waited 2 hours for this attraction although it was advertised and was disappointed with the throughput. With there being 60 people every 5 minuted going through that creates a 720 throughput per hour. Half of these were being fastracks halving this to 360. The queue gets even longer when you add in technical difficulties. If this attraction was working without issues, then there could be some thought to amend the throughput. For example the average maximum fastrack will be 2000 between these times on a normal day. Surely between 10:30 and 12:00 DBGT could open for fastrack which would get through 1000 people. Other slots at 2:00-3:00 and 4:00-5:00 could be for fastrack at half capacity meaning 720 people. An alternative to this could be 1 in every 3 trains between 2:00 and 5:00 which would equal the alternative. This would increase standard throughput and would leave around 1750 slots for fastrack.

Other measures could be put in place also to keep throughput moving. These include slots being inclusive meaning there are only so many to keep good throughput to DBGT. For an accurate max queue time people could count guest numbers entering for accurate times. I say all this because I think that it is important for Merlin to understand how good dark rides are if pit through well. No matter how good rides are - if operations are poor, peoples perspectives will change. Personally I feel it would be a lot better if queues were less and of queues move faster. P.S. sorry for the rant but it gets to a stage where the whole queue applauded when it finally moves or in my case boos at queue time announcements and shouts ‘load of crap’.

[hookyman]

I agree with you there Nemesis fox, the queue was awful on Sunday. it was 2 and half hours long. We were lucky to have fastrack but we still waited for 45 mins to get in. It desperately needs improvements in that regard. They also managed to forgot to dispatch our pen (pen 2) twice, so pen 1 entered before us on three occasions adding 15 to 20 mins onto our wait time. Once inside, went through the whole DB bit and ready to board the train. We got on board and they realised that the group was too big by four people, so we had to wait for the next train. When we boarded the next train, they were six people over. How can they get that number wrong. I wonder how many people throughout the day ended up waiting to board the train twice. What a massive faff.

[Nickolai]

Does anyone know the throughput of this ride? If there isn't an official figure, what would be the estimated throughput?

[Dungeon-X-Smile]

That's weird. I just checked the website, and I remember that they used to post it on the DBGT page, but it's not there anymore.

According to the stats I got off of Wikipedia, assuming all three trains were running at full capacity, it would put somewhere between 696 and 804 people through every hour.

[Ladyofthelake]

When SouthParks had the talk at our Summer Sizzler event the throughput of DBGT was mentioned. According to the notes I took, the ride should have a throughput of between 8-900 people an hour, however, realistically has only been hitting 700 people per hour. I will admit I was surprised at how low that figure was for such a large attraction.

[Dom]

According to various people who were on park today, DBGT has undergone some work over closed season. Its mixed reviews on the changes with some people loving it and some hating it. 

Spoiler

It looks as though the middle scene, in the tunnel, has become a mini scare maze with strobe lighting

[Justin]

Spoiler

I'm all for the tunnel section on GT turning into a strobe maze as I felt that was one of the weaker parts of the attraction. At least with the maze, it will feel more like you are wondering through service tunnels which have been wrecked by the demons.

[Justin]

As reported above, SouthParks experienced the improvements today...

Spoiler

Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon is back for its third season and has received some additional changes.

The middle train scene between the VR has now been turned in to more of a scare maze type experience. Guests proceed into the tunnel, encounter the train at the end, and double back through to the next section.

An improvement? Definitely!



Watch the video here!

[Nickolai]

That looks very interesting! I am all for the change! 

Spoiler

It does add a bit more sense to why you come off the train, alongside the fracking it suggests you come off as the tunnel has been wrecked? Is there a scare at the end? It seems a bit unclear what happens before you exit.

[Dan]

Having been on DBGT today, I’m far from impressed with the state of the attraction.

For the first VR section, my headset had no sound whatsoever. Having ridden it before and knowing what happens, I sat and watched in silence until we reached the “live scene” when I told a ride host about the issue with my headset and she didn’t really do much.

Now onto the live scene:

Spoiler

What a waste of time. All that happened on my run was some strobe lighting and a droning, humming sound in the background. At the very least I thought there would be some music or announcements over the tannoy system but it just felt very rushed and a last minute hack-job to try and save money on staff in that section. Our group was stood waiting for a good few minutes before being ushered through the door and back onto the train. Maybe we got a bad run through and missed some effects but that scene has now ruined any flow the attraction once had.

On a positive note, the second VR section and shop-ending were running well, but the beginning of the ride really ruined my run through.

Quite a few of the group who we rode with had some less than favourable things to say about it, and I really worry for the future of DBGT, especially considering the amount of money that has been poured into it, yet they still can’t seem to get it right.

[Justin]

A short review, but I am really not a fan of this ride anymore. It feels tired just 3 years on from its opening, especially now Scene 2 has been changed. I was quite excited when seeing the changes in the video above, but we just walked through a rat run with no action or sound effects... at best we just had a flashing lightbulb with a ride attendant telling us to wait (obviously for the train to shift). It felt awkward with lots of dead time. The ops were not enthusiastic at all, and I'd honestly say riding a real tube is more exciting!

The gift shop still remains the best part!

[theparklifekid]

A video has appeared online of DBGT:RotD in its testing phase, it shows how the transfer track works and where the trains go.

Pretty interesting I think!

Team Edit: Since the video has been removed from YouTube, we have also removed the link to it.

[streetmagix]

Aaaaaand the video has disappeared. Guessing someone from Merlin didn't like it. Any other copies floating around?

[Jack]

I would advise anybody who has the video not share it. Not only will it spoil DBGT for many, Merlin may well take action against yourself and the person who filmed the video

[Robert.W]

To be honest, I've never ridden it and I'm sitting here like "what's it doing???", but yeah, probably not a good idea if anyone has a copy to share it any further. 

[Morgan]

Changing the subject a little, but here's my thoughts and experience with my ride on it this year. Spoiler free verdict: The same, but with a big downgrade.

Spoiler

Firstly, the preshow was being run weirdly. By the time we entered the room (we were in the middle of our group) Derren had just begun talking. We were asked to leave the room with about 30 seconds before it ended, which added some confusion. Whilst it is nice to see them focusing on getting as many groups through the preshow, it just feels rushed and a bit messy.
Whilst on the train, I had a small bug with audio. When I looked at the character they were almost silent, yet when they were out of the frame they were as noisy as usual. Just a little weird is all.
Now, the middle scene. This felt pointless and empty with no audio for the walk through the tunnel. You then get to a holding area, where some drilling audio plays, and the projection of the demon (which used to play on the tunnel) plays on a wall. Then you slowly plonk back onto the train.
Nothing new for the final VR, although I did experience a brief glitch and a delay.
Is it me or is the finale a little brighter? I could quite clearly see the demons door open.

[DeadJack5]

I've been able to experience DBGT a couple of times this season and yes whilst there has been changes, the attraction does require some more work.

Spoiler

The middle section action season is extremely hit and miss, the first time I did it, we completely missed out on any of the audio and and effects which was disappointing. The second run I managed to get ahead and see the effects and audio, it works and does a decent job but does feel very flustered with trying to get everyone in at the same time, it just doesn't feel natural.

The fake shop a few weeks back was working perfectly and all effects working, even the floor effect worked for the first time ever for me. Although yesterday, my run didn't have the floor effect but everything else working like normal

Besides this, everything seems to be the same and I'm OK with this, I did experience the audio glitch in the first half like others have had which is horrible. I still adore this attraction when it works, when you have a run with a new group it's even better. I would at this point, I would just like them to iron out the faults and just make the attraction as faultless as possible. I know this is a big ask but it would really give the attraction less of a bad name.