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Hope y'all are not too sick of these reviews, because here come my personal opinions on the event. Mazes: I will agree with most of the reviews and say House of Kain is definitely the winning maze of this year. Whoever designed this one certainly had way too much fun doing it. The scares were about average, but the uniqueness and impressiveness of the sets and makeup were what made this maze. It's definitely one you have to go through slowly if you want to take everything in. This maze was definitely a step in the right direction, and the park should definitely try to make more unique mazes like this. I reckon a non-IP maze every year or two would be a great idea. Even with that said, I'm sure it would be possible to make a maze as unique as HoK and still follow an IP - there are plenty of horror movies out there which aren't your typical "serial killer on the loose" movie. 8/10. Leatherface was not a highlight for me. The thing that this maze has going for it is its reasonably long layout... but if you're going to have a long layout you need to make sure you have the right number of actors to fill the entire maze. I just felt there were too many "dead" areas, with no scare actors. I actually found that most of the scares came from loud bangs instead of the actors, which really shouldn't be the case. As other people said, it's similar to Halloween, but I actually prefer Halloween, as its sets are a little more diverse. Leatherface's set was mostly just unthemed hallways and "outdoor" areas. The campervan scene was pretty cool though. 5/10. Halloween I enjoyed just as much as last year, possibly more. It was by far the scariest maze of the night for me. This one was in fact a walk-on when I did it, which was great. 7/10 Jigsaw I wasn't a big fan of last year, although this year I found it to be a little better. Still not a big fan of the sets for this one though, being mostly empty hallways with strobe lights. One or two great jump-scares though. 6/10. Precincts and atmosphere: The Sci-Fear precinct was very impressive, although the actors in this area certainly weren't that scary. On the other hand, the actors in the Bloodwood precinct were really trying their hardest to scare people, although they didn't have a lot of space to work with. The Possessed precinct could hardly be described as one. Limited actors, with the focus being on the live music. I agree with there being too many safe zones, although they didn't stop some of the actors ending up in them trying to scare people (and I have no complaints about that - if you're going to fright nights you shouldn't be expecting to be "safe" anywhere in the park). One thing that I noticed about this year was that the in-park music had changed a bit. Last year the music was much more eerie and set the tone of the event very well, but this year the music was mainly rock and heavy metal, which definitely didn't set the right atmosphere. Apart from that though the overall atmosphere of the park was great. Overall, I would say this event is a very slight step up from last year's. Some improvements, but also plenty of things that still need improving to make this a perfect event. I think to get Fright Nights on the right track they need: A more diverse maze lineup (but HoK is a step in the right direction for this) - going to 5 or 6 mazes has been talked about, but I don't think there's much point doing so if the mazes aren't diverse enough More creative scares - especially in the case of Leatherface, the scares felt very repetitive. Again, HoK improved on this, one of my favourite scares of the night was the one where the person jumped out of the body. Better sets - Jigsaw and Leatherface had pretty dull sets. We know the maze designers know how to make a great set, so why do they keep making unthemed corridors a part of their mazes? Longer mazes and more actors - Jigsaw especially is not a long maze. Leatherface is the opposite, but just doesn't have enough actors to fill it. Larger precincts - there are plenty of large areas in the park that could be used as a precinct, such as the Wild West area or the Arkham courtyard. They don't have to try to shove a precinct into a small area such as the lawn out the front of Superman.

A FORMER senior Dreamworld manager is expected to make an application to give evidence under special provisions when the inquest into what caused the Thunder River Rapids Ride tragedy starts again on Monday. The special provisions will mean the employee will not be able to prosecuted for any information revealed about the tragedy during the inquest. The disaster occurred after a pump stopped working on the Thunder River Rapids Ride, causing water levels to drop and a raft to become stuck on the conveyor belt on October 25, 2016. That raft was hit by another carrying Luke Dorsett, his sister Kate Goodchild, her daughter Ebony, 12, Roozbeh Araghi, Cindy Low and her son, Kieran, 10. The four adults were killed. The children were uninjured. The second round of evidence follows two harrowing weeks in June when a number of revelations were revealed including a confusing control panel, a lack of training and cost cutting measure were in place at the time of the disaster. The inquest will spend the next two weeks hearing evidence from 22 witnesses — a majority Dreamworld employees including middle and upper management. Counsel assisting the coroner Ken Fleming said the next two weeks would shift focus away from the event itself and more onto Dreamworld’s safety policies. “We will be moving away from the actual event … it will be looking at that and seeing why they did this,” he said. The first two witnesses on Monday are Stephen Murphy and Grant Naumann, maintenance staff who were involved in ride breakdown procedures. On Tuesday the inquest is expected hear evidence from Dreamworld engineer Gen Cruz, safety officer John Clark and former Dreamworld ride operator Stephen Buss. Mr Buss was sacked by Dreamworld after a “safety incident” in November 2014 in which two rafts collided on the conveyor belt. Barrister for Ms Goodchild’s partner David Turner and Mr Dorsett father Shayne Goodchild, Steven Whybrow at the inquest in June read from Mr Buss’s termination letter that “a raft containing guests has bottomed out at the top of the conveyor due to water supply”. “An additional raft containing guests has then collided with it that continued to be pushed by the conveyor until it was shut down.” The inquiry was told Mr Buss shut down the ride and started it up again. The final witness on the list of the next two weeks is Dreamworld park operations manager Troy Margettes. Two days has been set aside for his evidence. In June ride operator Courtney Williams, who was at the controls when the tragedy occurred, told the inquest a manager named Troy had told her not to talk to police. Ardent Leisure Chairman Gary Weiss yesterday released a statement ahead of the next round of hearings. “Firstly, this will be a difficult time for many and our hearts and thoughts firmly remain with the families and all those affected by this tragedy,” Dr Weiss said. “Following the comprehensive three-tier engineering and safety review of rides and attractions that was commenced at the end of 2016, Dreamworld continues to implement parkwide safety initiatives covering rides, attractions, training and safety systems and procedures.” He said last month Workplace Health and Safety Queensland conducted a week-long inspection of all rides and no improvement notices were issued. After the conclusion of the two weeks of sittings, the inquest will return again in November. The November sittings are expected to focus on the role of the state safety regulators.

Yes, I will be attending an live posting from the courtroom again.

Renovation updates: Went down to the park again today to check out some of the progress they've made on the Wild Mouse Structure. As you can see, it's a MASSIVE improvement to what it looked like before. The awning near the cafe has also been redecorated in order to fit with the circus tent theming. \ In addition, after months of repair, the Tango Train is once again up and running. But something bugged me about it; they never took the opportunity to finish off painting the office! I was told a year ago that painting would be finished once the TT went into maintenance: Come a year later and jack shit has happened. How come? Anyway, that's all that's been happening so far, can't really do much more atm but it's better than nothing.

Never done Airbnb in Singapore, but the ones in Japan were super organised. I think a lot of countries have cracked down on Airbnb recently. Elizabeth and York Hotels are fairly reasonably priced hotels near the Orchard Road MRT area. The York even has family rooms where there is a large double bed and two singles. They're pretty exclusive as they're in the tower part of the hotel. We do know people who have rented an Airbnb around the Orchard Road area and it was good, since they could put their kid to bed early.

themagician covers a chunk of it plus its not exactly legal and singapore authorities arent exactly "friendly" so you are risking your money for no real reason. there are tonnes of hotels in singapore. the singapore MRT is excellent, just find a decent cheap hotel near a MRT station and you are set absolutely no need to stuff about or take any risk with airbnb

I definitely wouldn't bother trying to do Airbnb when you haven't done it before, especially when in another country. And the process to register and then organise to get access to the home/apartment can be annoying. I would recommend to just book with a main stream hotel. There are some quite cheap ones which aren't too out of the way. But obviously staying within the city is expensive, so explore further out a little.

Tonight’s review (May be some spoilers) Now this year hasn’t definitely improved in some areas, but then dissatpointed in others. Beginning: Unlike previous years, there is no beggining show. Actors are let out, and they run around and then escape to their positions. This was a real disappointment because I’ve found previous characters like the gate keeper really add to the opening of the event. And unlike previous years, where they’ve just dropped the rope and you run, this time, they slowly move the rope until you get to the maze area. Which made things actually more difficult. This may be because the actors need to get into position, but there is a delay there because they drop the rope, just as the characters run out onto Main Street. So really it’s just bad timing. Precincts: I really thought they did a good job with having all new precincts. Main Streets was definitely the best, with the awesome lighting effects really adding to it all, and some great and unique characters. The live entertainment at the fountain was also good, and they did actually play songs that most people would know. There were also some characters around here. The Bloodwood precinct just wasn’t big enough and a bad position. It should’ve been towards the back of the park, and should’ve been spread out. Around DD there were also clowns, which had some of the best and most entertaining scare actors. But for the Safe Zones, there was too many of them. Around the rides I think is fine to have them, but in areas which would’ve been perfect for scares (AA courtyard and walkways to mazes), they really should have some there. Back when the the mazes were in the Sound Studios, and they had the Zombie alley alongside AA, it always had the best scares. Mazes: House of Kain: This is the first maze we did, so was one of the first to go through. And within 20 minutes the queue area was overflowing. This was definitely a really good maze, and I hope MW do more non IP in the future. Really interesting sets, characters and effects, especially the room that began to close in on you. But I felt like it was too dark. They had a lot of lightning effects, but you couldn’t appreciate the sets or actually see some of the scare actors, you could hear them, but it wasn’t as scary as it could’ve been in some parts. 7/10 Leatherface: We had an hour wait for this one, and the queue was overflowing. As said, it is similar to the way Halloween is, being based around the one character with multiple scenes from the franchise. There were some really good scenes, such as when entering the caravan and how tight it was walking through it. But definitely some missed opportunities with the scares. There were a number of Forrest scenes, but no scares, and moments when you though there was going to be a scare, there wasn’t. But the water and air effects were great. 6/10 Jigsaw: This was only a 20 minute wait and was the maze I got the most jump scares out of. It might have been because of my positioning in the group, but there were some really good ones I didn’t see coming, despite doing the maze last hear. It’s a shame that some hallways were just splatted pain empty corridors, as I find those to have some of the best scares when done right. 7/10 Halloween: This queue was basically empty all night, because of its entrance being at the back of the park. Only had a 5 minute wait here, and the groups being sent through were half the size than all the other mazes, so there were definitely some good scares. Especially when scare actors work together and jump out at once. But it still felt undercooked and had missed opportunities, much like Leatherface did. 6/10 Overall the event was good, but still didn’t fully reach my expectations. They are on the right track with the mazes and precincts, but the event as a whole wasn’t as good unfortunately. I definitly thought it had improved on the last couple years, but still isn’t right there to what it was not too long ago. It just feels like they are investing money right for the event, to take it even further. Maybe it needs more mazes, scare actors, shows. I don’t know, but just needs more I feel. But not more in the way they did in 2016. Overall I definitely had an enjoyable night was some great scares, just didn’t quite reach the mark. FN 2018: 7/10

Seems like wipeout is down again, so 5 out of 9 of the thrill rides are operating.