Morgan, The VR does seem brighter in Part 3. I had the same opinion and felt I could see more when riding it the other weekend.

I'm going to give it another go a week on Sunday. Hopefully, it will be better and improvements are made in the meantime!

Hope you noticed more improvements. Rode it weekly since opening weekend, and there were noticeable improvements to how they operated it. First week was bad, left in the dark on the stairs between pre-show and the train. Then my VR headset positioned itself under the train, I only told staff after the first section as it was interesting seeing how they set up the animation, which is better than most Vive VR content. Completely missed the mid section, then we stopped half way through the final section, making the ending really anticlimactic.

Later weeks we now had staff at the hold between pre-show and the train, who all now make a point about the really good visual effect you're about to see but probably won't notice. There were a few more physical effects in the mid section. On my last run through they had changed how they operated the lights, with a more sudden light to dark which made the initial part of the show work much better.

I even saw it one Sunday with a walk on queue! But sadly I also saw it have to evacuate people out the back a couple of times too.

I'm still not a fan of the middle section, purely because of it spoiling the flow of the ride - It is also so anti-climatic! 
I rode it again on both days at the weekend and it does vary. On Saturday, they were using the siren on the megaphone to add to the atmosphere. You also got to see the monster on the wall before you board again. On Sunday, nothing! It was a disappointment and it has certainly become the weaker section of the attraction. It still needs work, and I believe this is the attractions weakest year!

Have to agree, the second section is pointless now. I missed the final room part the first time, thought something great must happen, no just a shadow. The additional effects I've had are more smoke in the walkway and some lights at the end come on. If you aren't the first person walking through in the group, this section will seem more like an additional queue and the effects more of an annoyance.

I was at least happy they were trying to point out the floating train effect. I still think that's the best bit and it's completely under utilised.

It is so hit and miss. Sometimes you'll get staff explain about the carriage before boarding, some will just stand there and wait with the crowd. 
I did get the smoke, but I am not keen on it at all. I think so much more could be done, even with just sound effects, sirens or 'Platform / Service Tunnel' announcements. 

Oh I'm not saying it's great. I just found it an improvement over no smoke and just chain link fence!

Even some randomly triggered jump scares would be an improvement, like a vent blowing or siren going off when random guests walk past. But I did notice staff were trying to play down the scariness of the attraction. Where they used to mess with you at the photo booth, I've frequently been promised that nothing will jump out at me and there will be no loud bangs, just lean against the window and smile.

Probably a long shot but was anyone on Park last weekend and able to get a DBGT pop badge? They’d run out by the time we got to the gift shop

Swarm Chris wrote:

But I did notice staff were trying to play down the scariness of the attraction.

I really don't understand why the staff members are trying to do this when the attraction itself was designed to be played out as a full on horror experience.

I had an awful experience in regards to the evacuation and mid-section scene...
We were told to remove our headsets, however... the staff were not in character at all as they remained with a glazed smile other their faces as they told us to get off the train as they were clearly heard converting with each other about their social lives, without a care in the world. Due to this then there did not seem to have any urgency or adrenaline that invested us into the world derren brown and Merlin Entertainments tried to present to their guests. We were slowly huddled along and into the "Scare Maze" which had pre-maturely started the audio which completely destroyed any remaining immersion and due to this then we were quickly pushed through the maze "Which didn't have any scare actors at all" and were relocated into a secondary room with a red pipe and a train.                 
 
This is when I witnessed the part which really killed my experience...
We were then told by the same staff member who had been following us from the first train that we had to locate a set of numbers in order to open the doors that leads to the next train... without any scenes which would make it seem like we need to urgently escape from an incoming threat. All they did was stand there and ask the younger members of the group "Can you see the numbers anywhere?". Like this was an attraction for young children... A guy then shouted out a number which was obviously supposed to be a joke as he said "1234"...
Well, you wouldn't believe what happened next... the staff member (who still had that unprofessionally glazed smile) spurted out "Oh My God! That was the correct number! Well done".
She then opened the doors and we then proceeded to the second train (2nd VR scene)...

The Ghost Train seems to be very broken today. As of 8pm it is yet to open for the day. Staff were saying in the afternoon that engineering had been on site for most of the day and were hoping to get it open. Seems like they were not successful.

They didn't miss much then

I'm really beginning to think that the attraction is not even worth queuing for anymore. I hate to moan, but I really don't like the brightly lit fridges in the shop with all the neon coloured plastic sweet pots being offered for sale!

Hopefully they'll rework it, yet again, but it already feels like it is coming to the end of its time!

I'm surprised it still gets the longest line in the park and is typically 60 minutes on a quiet day and 100+ on a busy day. Though I wonder how much the occasionally non-existent throughput and frequent delays has to do with this.

From reading people's comments on the ride, I get the feeling it is one of the larger complaint generators in the park. Even fast track customers are creating a large number of complaints recently, as staff appear to have been told to slow their throughput such that they queue half the stated queue time. The responses to those complaints seem to point out the terms and conditions and that queuing for 40 minutes in fast track sounds like it working as intended! There's a schadenfreude humorous side to that for the observer, but certainly not for those who have paid £10 a ticket. It makes me think they should just scrap the fast track for this whilst its throughput is so bad.

A real shame, as the ride had everything on paper going for it as being re-rideable. But the queues, expected breakdowns and whatever they call the intermission section, means I've given up on it now. Can always hope it gets another winter of maintenance and tidying up.

This ride is such a weird paradox. Last year, we had to write an essay about a new experience so I wrote about riding the Ghost Train and what I learnt. I went into writing it thinking, this is probably going to just be a roast, but the more I thought and wrote about it, the more positive the essay became. On paper, this ride is incredible, if you add up all the elements, ingenious moments and creative ideas, this should be easily one of the top rides at the park, but when I was rode the ride (at least before I wrote the essay) I thought it was easily the worst rides. I can't even really put into words why it's so disappointing, besides the ridiculous queues. I hope they can iron out the mistakes and save the ride.

So it'll be the fourth season for Ghost Train. Will there be any more adjustments this year? Or has the funding pot finally been cut for this attraction? Will reliability finally be figured out?



It would be great to see the reliability worked out. It amazes me how the transport system has as bad, if not worse, reliability as the VR. I suspect the huge queues are not helped by it seemingly breaking every second or third group. I don't think I had a seemless run at all this year.

Then there's the mid-section. Updated for 2018, to me it seemed to serve no purpose than to buy time for the train reset to occur. Could this be updated, again, in 2019?

The attraction needs major work, I'm my opinion.

Although it opened in 2016, it already feels dated and in need of TLC. The storyline needs to be addressed and serious work needs to be done on Part 2. It just feels like a bodged up attraction. It is a ride that I am not bothered about as I feel seriously let down by it each time. On my last couple of visits, I've given it a miss!

I don't expect any major changes to come to the ride any more, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were further cuts, especially to the remaining actors in there.
It's a shame that the ride just doesn't work, from a hardware or narrative perspective.

Adding on to what Morgan says I have a feeling nothing will change - I feel as if they have given up so they will just leave it as it is.

What a waste of money. I can’t think of a ride that has ever dissapointed me more. I honestly wouldn’t care at all if they closed it now.

Apart from the fact it regulary ‘stores’ people in it’s queue for well over an hour meaning I get to ride the coasters more!!!

The restraints on Collossus really do hurt my shoulders, I just don’t fit, but I would still rather marathon that than ride this again just once.

As reported on TowersTimes Twitter, actors have returned to Derren Brown's Ghost Train. A nice new addition is that in the event that the ride becomes unavailable, they may be let loose on guests in the area outside the attraction.

Swarm Chris wrote:

As reported on the Towers Times Twitter account, actors have returned to Derren Brown's Ghost Train. A nice new addition is that in the event that the ride becomes unavailable, they may be let loose on guests in the area outside the attraction.

Oh I'm happy about that. The actors made such a difference to the atmosphere in there. I'm looking forward to getting back on DBGT now. I'd like to think we'll get permanent actors in The Walking Dead as well but I know that's too much to ask

So there were actors in Walking Dead too yesterday. But in all cases, it may well be that actors are only there on peak days and weekends. We will understand more as the season progresses.