Spook-o-meter ????
As well as having the longest ride name ever, this also had the longest queue time, with a wait of almost two hours. Most modern rides at least have some interesting features to keep you entertained while you wait, but this was just a boring slog, with the only highlight being when I finally got under the covered part of the queue and out of the boiling hot sun. Now I might have expected this wait if the ride had only just opened but it originally opened as Derren Brown’s Ghost Train in 2016 and then was re-opened in 2017 as Derren Brown’s Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon. I visited in 2018.
This ride didn’t do anything for me. It relies heavily on VR, and although initially eerie when you put the headest on and you are suddenly alone on the train, the scares are then dampened by a mixture of psychological suggestion and a lecture on the perils of fracking.
I was so dissapointed that I didn’t even get a photo. Far more style over substance, if you’re at Thorpe Park and there isn’t a queue jump on, otherwise give it a miss.
A few years ago the village I lived near held a creepy carnival for Halloween. Posters went up all over town promising scares and thrills and a Halloween night not to be missed. Well if there’s anything I love as much as a ghost train it’s a circus, so I bought my tickets, hitched a ride on the back of the tractor that was taking the punters out to the field in the middle of nowhere and got ready for the scares. Now the circus wasn’t great, an hours wait for a five minute show which was mainly someone dancing to Thriller. But they did have a ghost train. A single deck, pretzel ride, the animatronics and effects worked, and better still there was no queue.
Hex tells us the story of the curse of the towers. The ride is based within part of the old stately home that gives Alton Towers its name. The ride is another Vekoma Mad House attraction, this one opening in 2000. As with Drayton Manor’s The Haunting, Hex utilises the wait time for the ride to give us pre-show’s which use lighting and effects to tell us the story of the curse. If it wasn’t for the fact that this ride utilises the same principles as The Haunting, so the shock value of the ultimate ride didn’t have so much impact on me, it is actually the spookier of the two, with the effects being aimed at a slightly older audience. If you haven’t been on either this or The Haunting, then Hex would be the one I’d suggest to ride first.
Ghost Train at Botton’s Pleasure Beach is a tracked, pretzel, dark ride built by Chapman & PBA in 1978. A good all-rounder and one that goes slow enough for you to enjoy the animatronics.
Duel is Alton Towers second ghost train. It originally opened as The Haunted House in 1992 with the ride being designed by The Sparks Group and John Wardley and its ride system being built by MACK Rides. Over the years the original ride had many alterations with Duel being officially opened in 2003 with its slogan Duel – The Haunted House Strikes Back.
A beautiful sunny day, friends (photo taken by the wonderful Adele Wearing of 
Halloween 2017 saw Nottingham’s Old Market Square undergo a chilling makeover; last month I told you about Psycho Inn, this month it’s all about the ghost train. Advertised as the UK’s biggest ghost train this is a double deck, 75ft roller-ghosta. Though advertised as the biggest, I’m presuming it means in relation to travelling dark-rides, as I’ve certainly been on bigger. A good quality fairground train ride though, all the effects and animatronics worked meaning a good fairground scare.
I went to Psycho Inn on Halloween 2017, when Nottingham turned the Old Market Square into a Halloween attraction for the day. Although this was supposed to be the least scary of the two dark-rides and I towered over all the kids I was queuing up with, I couldn’t turn down the chance to try a Fun House style haunted house. Lots of strobes and UV lighting led to a disorientating wander round the narrow twisting corridors, though the most scary bit was hoping that the teensy balconys would fit a full grown adult.
Spook-o-meter 👻👻👻👻