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Thorpe Park | Derren Brown's Ghost Train | VR Attraction

The issue however, is Merlin controls everything in that region. So compare something like DBGT to literally any other dark ride merlin has ever produced. That is why people think that ride is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
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EDIT: I'd also like to add that America is a very lawsuit happy place, so something where you get off the ride and run around before getting back on makes it seem so much cooler. Disney was supposedly going to shoot for something like DBGT, where in the middle of the trackless ride, you get out of the car, run with a stormtrooper through some battle scenes, and then get back in the car a couple hundred yards down. This shows that a level of interactivity can not only increase capacity, but can also increase rider positivity, as they feel like they're truly doing something in the experience, which is what every park tries to do (as seen with a massive increase in shooter dark rides, interactive queues, and stuff like this)
 
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I've ridden it twice, the first was in it's original format with the god awful 2nd VR section. It included the train crash though.
2nd time was last year, no train crash and was replaced by an infected actor coming into the room and us all being ushered out, 2nd VR was significantly better (although I can't remember it haha!!) and had the new ending.
So this must be the 3rd version by removing the infected actor and putting in the new bit.

Whatever, It's crap, isn't worth the stupidly long queue it always gets and was a gargantuan waste of money that should have gone on something actually good, like a hyper, or RMC, or a woodie, or anything, give it a few more years and it will go the same way as Saw Alive or Sub Terra.
 
Anyone know how long the IP is for?
2 years time it might become the "The Walking Dead Ghost Train" perhaps?

Such a shame ; that train room was very cool.
(Never ridden it so I know nothing BTW)
 
The train room didn't work. At all. The space as far too big for the scare that happened in it. It was a massive cavernous space and a couple of people telling you to look at a tiny tunnel at one end of the space.

In honesty, the fact they need to keep updating it says how well it does as an experience...
 
^ I meant the first room / suspended train thing not the mid-ride scare-scene?

To an extent, changing it every season is not a bad idea, as long as what they change it to is of sufficient quality then it can keep it "fresh".
But everything I read about it seems to lack that key "quality" bit :(
 
Fair enough, the initial train room is really fab. If it had a 'reveal' it would work sooooooo much better, though. But the middle train scene was the ultimate worst.
 
Pear said:

I wish I could have experienced the first version. It looked very well done.

Thanks to @COASTERGUY246 for the video.
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Whaaaaat, an improvement that involves less staff to be present at the attraction? Unheard of!
As cheesy as the original was, at least there was some effort put into it (I personally was quite into it when I first rode it lol).
Sad to see they're already doing cuts to the actors already after two years of operating.
 
If anything happens, don't expect changes to the ride system. The standard winter maintenance on the ride has already commenced, which means that the ride system will return.

I am under the impression that the Derren IP was originally 6 years long, which would mean it would expire this year. There were some unknowns there, with the ride having opened late in 2016, and not opening at all in 2020. But I imagine its in both parties interests to just wrap things up with it and move on.

The thing with Ghost Train is it would be very easy to remove Derren from it. Replace the pre show and edit his voice out of the start / end of the VR. Stick a different video in the finale, if they even keep that, and boom, done. Just drop the 'Derren Brown's' part of the name. Very easy, very cheap.

Given the state of the VR headsets and the general mess they are though, it would make sense for them to attempt to do more. New VR. The long-suggested have screens in the windows instead. Have it as a completely actor led experience, turning it into a more Dungeons-esque experience. There's lots of more costly options there if they choose to do anything substantial to it.
 
JoshC. said:
Given the state of the VR headsets and the general mess they are though, it would make sense for them to attempt to do more. New VR. The long-suggested have screens in the windows instead. Have it as a completely actor led experience, turning it into a more Dungeons-esque experience. There's lots of more costly options there if they choose to do anything substantial to it.
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It simply cannot remain in the state it is currently in - it's an absolute disgrace.
 
Its funny because its true.

Sure its easy to remove the IP and may even help by removing any expectation. Makes me feel a little better already. But short of putting a classic dark ride station inside the floating train and having a good ride attached it'll forever be a joke.
 
I think really it was always a doomed idea. If a pirate breaks down on Pirates of the Caribbean, then there are numerous other pirates still working and luscious sets to see. Even rides like Spiderman and Transformers have many screens so if one breaks then the rest of the ride is largely functioning.

If a headset on DBGT breaks the ride is f***ed. Also, the whole structure of the experience always bothered me. Its very awkward with getting on and off trains, which means that when there is any delay it means a load of people waiting around with the excitement gradually disappearing. I once had a ride that lasted 30 mins. There was a guest with mobility issues, and with each train change we had to wait longer for the guest. That is not their fault, but it highlighted the hideous design flaw in the whole ride. Everyone on the ride was getting tetchy and agitated because the buzz of the ride parts was killed dead by loitering around outside the trains several times. If it was a continuous 'ride' with more going on than just temperamental VR headsets it'd be fine.

In short, it was always an awkward and poorly designed ride. It is mystifying that a ride opened in 2016 can be less fun than rides opened in the 1990s which cost less and are less technically advanced.
 
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It needs to stick around at least a couple more years because I NEED to see if it's as s**t as everyone says it is, and I won't be going back to Thorpe until that new coaster's open.
 
JoshC. said:
Have it as a completely actor led experience, turning it into a more Dungeons-esque experience. There's lots of more costly options there if they choose to do anything substantial to it.
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This has to be the only way forward for it, Thorpe Park Dungeons and have it as an up charge like at Alton.

Don’t see how else it can work other than demolishing it and starting again.
 
I still cant get my head around why they built it at all. Derren Brown was in his peak a long long time ago. Merlin know they like to have minimal staffing. Why did they build a ride that requires so many staff working on it, relies on VR headsets which obviously will break, and that is all so specific it'd be difficult to re-theme?
I assume someone else was paying for the majority of it for them to do it.
 
I didn’t like the addition of actors and the whole ‘remember the code’ section in recent years - but I still like the iteration I’ve been on (v2 with the demon scene), even if the headsets were very low quality and disappointing.

I love it conceptually (as a low burn, confusing chiller - particularly think it’s clever that people get different videos) but ultimately, it’s just not the ride people were hoping for and for most I can see how it lacks re-ridability because of its fiendishly slow queues.

The solutions from my perspective are:

- better headsets
- better ops, however achieved
- less ‘am-dram’ (actors)
 
I mean the answer is obvious to me given Thorpe's love of celebs and IP.

Turn it in to Francis Bourgeois' super fun train time. He already has a show on channel 4 and is all over tiktok and the other socials. Seems like the perfect celeb endorsement
 
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