Fright Nights 2023

[New display name]

Happy Halloween & Spooky Nights have both only sold out one night and from memory, Happy Halloween sold out quickly last year.  This might be the first evidence theme park attendance has softened.

Edited October 6, 2023 by New display name

[Rivals]

Dreamworld’s sold out pretty fast with 2 new nights needed to be added as the rest were nearly sold out, i feel like their event is more appealing then the other two .

fright nights has also supposedly sold out for tonight, wether or not that’s true we will have to wait and see.

[Park Addict 93]

Perhaps speaking to the popularity of “The Underground Club” a last min staff offer for $35 for entry/2 drinks has been made for the first 3 nights (also the dates that were available for staff discounted entry).

[themagician]

Happy Halloween started with 3 nights last year, and within 3 weeks they had sold and 2 extra nights were added, which ended up selling. 

So far this year, one night has sold out, one is about to and 2 have been added.

Spooky Nights had 6 nights last year, which I believe did all sell close to their respective dates. And so far only the second night has sold out.

Tickets are still avaiable for tonights FN at the time of posting.

12 minutes ago, Park Addict 93 said:

Perhaps speaking to the popularity of “The Underground Club” a last min staff offer for $35 for entry/2 drinks has been made for the first 3 nights (also the dates that were available for staff discounted entry).

So even with staff discounted entry they haven't sold out!

[New display name]

3 minutes ago, themagician said:

Tickets are still avaiable for tonights FN at the time of posting.

Can confirm MW world have put the sold out sign in the window but you can still purchase tickets for tonight.

[Park Addict 93]

24 minutes ago, themagician said:

So even with staff discounted entry they haven't sold out!

To clarify I was talking about club entry/2 drinks. ($35 staff price vs $75 General).

As others have stated though despite being “sold out” ticket for the night in general are still available (as are staff tickets at $44.50).

 

[themagician]

30 minutes ago, New display name said:

 

Your shout?

[New display name]

19 minutes ago, themagician said:

Your shout?

You wish jellyfish.

You can also still buy tickets for the sold out night at Spooky Nights.

Looks like village is just trying to create hype.  I also checked DW and you can't purchase tickets for Happy Halloweens sold out night. 

Call me old fashion but it's crazy if Village is lying to its customers and it's not a software issue.

Edited October 6, 2023 by New display name

[themagician]

29 minutes ago, New display name said:

Call me old fashion but it's crazy if Village is lying to its customers

Must me part of their new management stratergy. Firstly they blame their customers for a ride's operations being reduced (Doomsday) and now this.

[Gobbledok]

Id argue the increased price is worth it to have an event with less people in the park

Not being so overpacked its gross is not an indication the event is failing

[kujotess]

Judging from their tiktok livestream tonight, they’ve brought back pre-shows to every maze.. Definitely adds to the experience, reminds me of early 2010’s FN. 

Edited October 6, 2023 by kujotess

[Rivals]

I went tonight so here is some overall thoughts on the mazes;

Conjuring: some rooms seem to have been improved upon since last year, it didn’t feel as “homemade” as i remember it feeling and some good scares. (7/10)

Death Row: just as great as it was last year, sad to see it go next year as it is great and new signage with barcodes along the line give deeper backstory into the storyline. (8.5/10)

DCeased: the props and sets looked high budget but no. the money should’ve been spent quite literally anywhere else, no scare factor at all and honestly a waste of time, the queue as well was also extremely unorganised. (3/10)

Hellship: favourite of the night, could be due to being at the front both times but who knows. the scares and sets were great (looked high budget)  i loved the costume designs a lot and it was definetly the most scare focused. (9/10)

Circurse: went on only once due to the line and they were trying to fit as many people as they could per group, so due to being at the back we didn’t get many of the scares. the set design and characters looked good and still jumped sometimes. (6/10)

the new mazes definetly have a budget increase from the look of the sets, however i don’t think DCeased should return for a 2nd year to be honest. it looked cool but it is something they could just have open for day operation, it also only used half of the space of the soundstage so a 6th maze could’ve fit. the atmosphere was pretty good too but more actors are needed to target more guests at once. overall a fun night.

3 hours ago, kujotess said:

Judging from their tiktok livestream tonight, they’ve brought back pre-shows to every maze.. Definitely adds to the experience, reminds me of early 2010’s FN. 

i don’t remember seeing any pre shows besides the conjuring.

[STRAWS]

1 hour ago, Rivals said:

I went tonight so here is some overall thoughts on the mazes;

Conjuring: some rooms seem to have been improved upon since last year, it didn’t feel as “homemade” as i remember it feeling and some good scares. (7/10)

Death Row: just as great as it was last year, sad to see it go next year as it is great and new signage with barcodes along the line give deeper backstory into the storyline. (8.5/10)

DCeased: the props and sets looked high budget but no. the money should’ve been spent quite literally anywhere else, no scare factor at all and honestly a waste of time, the queue as well was also extremely unorganised. (3/10)

Hellship: favourite of the night, could be due to being at the front both times but who knows. the scares and sets were great (looked high budget)  i loved the costume designs a lot and it was definetly the most scare focused. (9/10)

Circurse: went on only once due to the line and they were trying to fit as many people as they could per group, so due to being at the back we didn’t get many of the scares. the set design and characters looked good and still jumped sometimes. (6/10)

the new mazes definetly have a budget increase from the look of the sets, however i don’t think DCeased should return for a 2nd year to be honest. it looked cool but it is something they could just have open for day operation, it also only used half of the space of the soundstage so a 6th maze could’ve fit. the atmosphere was pretty good too but more actors are needed to target more guests at once. overall a fun night.

i don’t remember seeing any pre shows besides the conjuring.

How long were the ques for the mazes and rides?. 

[Rivals]

6 hours ago, STRAWS said:

How long were the ques for the mazes and rides?. 

Rides:

Superman was around 45mins, DC & WWF were around 45-60mins, Doomsday not much of a wait (shocking), GL and Batwing were around 30mins most of the night.

Mazes:

DCeased filled up the entire stunt show arena and came out of the entrance at one point with a 90min wait (would’ve been longer for sure), Circurse had a huge wait the whole night around 75-90mins, Hellship was 20-30mins wait but was a walk on by the end, Conjuring was 30-45mins but ended up walk on at the end of the night and Death Row was around 45-60mins most of the night.

(from what i remember)

 

sidenote: WWF is real good fun at night but they were hyping it up like it was going to be a different experience, i was expecting actors in the ghost town but it was just lights.

Edited October 6, 2023 by Rivals

[themagician]

I read that the queue for Deceased was 2 hours at one point, and instead of the queue taking over the fair games areas, they use the HSD arena 

[Park Addict 93]

7 hours ago, Rivals said:

11 hours ago, kujotess said:

 

i don’t remember seeing any pre shows besides the conjuring

So the “bonus rooms” for Fast Track/VIP in each of the 3 new mazes are essentially pre-show/backstory.

Saving my review of the event as a whole til after my second visit tonight.

DCseased que at the start of the night. 1hr according to the app.

[Rivals]

4 minutes ago, themagician said:

I read that the queue for Deceased was 2 hours at one point, and instead of the queue taking over the fair games areas, they use the HSD arena 

even when it’s not busy the line is in the HSD arena, as the entrance to the maze is to the side of the set instead of at the front of the stage building. i drew it up since it’s confusing to explain properly;

 

[kujotess]

Referring to pre-shows, they are for fast-track guests only.

 

Hellship was incredibly short, do not think it was a quality or memorable maze whatsoever. The same scares throughout. 

 

DCeased was amazing in terms of sets, really appreciated this walkthrough! It was not scary at all, but you can tell they spent a pretty penny on this one.

 

Circursed was forgettable, Death Row was good, Conjuring was the best of the 3 and probably the “scariest” of the night.

 

I think they need to work on having better endings to the mazes, every maze kinda ends in a lacklustre way, needs more of a punch! Kinda like the It maze ending a few years back did. 

 

Also noticed there’s no longer any IP scareactors in main street anymore. I think this is the first Fright Night ever without Leatherface (RIP), replaced by a baby mask with a chainsaw, does not give the same effect. 

[New display name]

On 07/10/2023 at 10:56 PM, kujotess said:

DCeased was amazing in terms of sets, really appreciated this walkthrough! It was not scary at all, but you can tell they spent a pretty penny on this one.

DCeased sucked.  All the actors did was scream in your face.  Worst maze from memory in a long time.   Rooms way to open to create an scary atmosphere.

Conjuring was the best maze of the night.

The others were ok, but did I tell you, how much DCeased sucked?  

[Rivals]

47 minutes ago, New display name said:

DCeased sucked.  All the actors did was scream in your face.  Worst maze from memory in a long time.   Rooms way to open to create a scary atmosphere.

100% agreed. there was no fear factor at all, and minimal effort was done to make the hero’s look “scary”, you know it’s bad when Green Lantern is standing on a rock in the middle of a very highly lit forest screaming in your face. it’s sad that the maze quite clearly had the biggest budget, when it could’ve been used for something like Scream or quite literally anything else. 

[New display name]

 

[Vidgamer]

We went to Fright Nights on Saturday and I thought I would offer some thoughts, we also went in 2022. 

We paid for Fast Track Maze and Rides and I purchased my tickets as soon as I possibly could on the day they launched. I am very aware of Village's cost cutting measures and was a little worried about this leading into the event considering for 2 people it is $600.

Firstly some positives;

I feel the entry process is incredibly smooth, even with the security checks (which I think are a necessary inclusion considering I saw security with masks, fake knives and swords) and my fast track worked incredibly well. I was hesitant in using the app because we've used it before for VQ and it tends to play up, but it was seamless.

The atmosphere is fantastic, the lighting brilliant and I feel the sound was louder this time, and better. Alcohol choices were great, I loved the themed drinks, the food was almost a duplicate from last year (Graveyard Frappe, Gore beef burgers)

The improvement in the Conjuring Maze is impressive. Last year I found it to be a little lacking but I genuinely feel they made it much better this year, easily the best maze by far. Death Row a close second, some signage was added to theme it better, loved it a second time around.

Some negatives
The rides shut at about 9:45pm and stopped operating, our Fast track was placed on hold, i knew rides were shutting earlier than 11 but they were shut directly at 9:45pm, this seemed very odd.

DCeased is a trash maze, it's essentially a glorified walkthrough, given the maze is actually so small my wife was 'punched' by Robin at one point because they stick their hands out and there isn't many places to go. It's really poor.

Circurse and Hellship were 'okay', Hellship seemed very short and Circurse didn't do a lot for me, I feel the 'characters' in Hellship were good though.

There were clearly less actors in the precincts and no character interaction at the main point of the mazes. Last year it was okay waiting for mazes and seeing people getting scared, this was not the case this year.

The operations at Village continue to be average. We had an influencer push in front of us (physically push in front of us) for a ride on Hypercoaster, which then stalled and had no comms from staff. DCeased shut for 30 minutes at one point as well with no communication from staff.

Some 'interestings'

You cannot see the queue time for your maze unless you have used your fast track entitlement, a little annoying because I like to monitor the mazes and then go to the speediest one before using VQ.

The entertainment is the same as last year, no change there.

They didn't start accepting people in the mazes until 6:15pm.

Fast Track is clearly oversold, we still waited 20/30 minutes at times, the staff really didn't want people to do the bonus rooms (DCeased bonus room was rubbish, the Circurse and Hellship ones were better)

The "wrap up" music was playing in the street at 9:45pm, it's really an event that finishes at 9:45pm/10:00pm, not 11:00pm. 

I really like the atmosphere for Fright Nights and the event itself but even though Saturday wasn't a sold out night the operations for even the mazes were incredibly slow, staff were still getting in the groove and there just felt like 'less' than last year, it certainly wasn't 'bigger or better'. If DCeased comes back next year they need to expand it to the full show building and redo it considerably, I have faith they can do it because they improved The Conjuring so much, but it does feel like the event has been 'cheapened' a little more than previously. It feels like cost cutting.

Edited October 9, 2023 by Vidgamer

[STRAWS]

Does anyone know if Wild West Falls single rider que was open I'm just curious as i know fast pass didact include it 

[Park Addict 93]

28 minutes ago, STRAWS said:

Does anyone know if Wild West Falls single rider que was open I'm just curious as i know fast pass didact include it 

Didnt notice the single rider line but on night 1 despite not being listed as included I can confirm those with Fast Track Ride did have an entitlement in the app for it.

[downunder]

2 hours ago, Park Addict 93 said:

Didnt notice the single rider line but on night 1 despite not being listed as included I can confirm those with Fast Track Ride did have an entitlement in the app for it.

Lol I wish I'd known that before I bought the maze only Fast Track, WWE being included would have been the tipping point.