On March 26th 2015 Thorpe Park Resort opened their next big attraction, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here the Maze! Based upon the ITV Series the maze brings to life the jungle with a few selected trails, such as Chambers of Horror, Holey Moley and Celebrity Cyclone. Located in the old showcase building the attraction has 14 sections, from the briefing video with Ant and Dec to the bridge to safety at the end. The maze contains live actors, flashing lights and special effects.
You enter the maze in groups of 10 to the briefing room where Ant and Dec welcome you to the Worlds First I’m A Celebrity Maze. The pre recorded video shows footage from the TV show of celebrities doing the trails you will be doing. The scene of the briefing room is Croc Creek the main base camp with camp mates T-Shirts hanging up above you. During the video the benches you sit on move slightly to enhance the experience. Make sure you sit on a golden star! Once briefed you have the opportunity to have your photo taken on a green screen with cuddle toys, where at the end of the experience you can collect the photo with Ant and Dec photoshopped in standing beside you.
With formality’s over its time to go into the jungle, greeted by an actor playing Tina Turner we where guided over a wobbly bridge and told if you ever get lost stand still and shout “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!!!” Going through the jungle can be dangerous so you have to stick together as a group. Projectors above projected images of moving snakes and spiders on the ground to simulate a real life jungle floor. Holey Moley is the first interactive bush tucker trail you have where you put your hand in holes in the wall. Some holes have objects in them and some will make noises, all holes are different but all have buttons in them somewhere.
If you hadn't been challenged enough with putting your hands in holes in the wall next up is the Chambers of Horror. Confined to a cubicle on your own your be tested on your knowledge of the TV show by answering two questions with a A, B or C answer. Get it right and your safe but get it wrong and something could be joining you inside! With the use of air and special effects the cabin simulates objects dropping on you. No animals are used within the attraction. Different questions are used overtime so the chances of you getting the same ones the second time through are very slim. Exiting the opposite way you entered the cubicle you proceed through the jungle through a spiders web and through a tunnel with bark for the floor and a mist effect.
Even medic Bob has made it into the maze, checking that you haven't got any bugs on you he makes you bounce up and down to shake off anything you might have picked up along the way. Once you've all been checked over by Bob, you go into a TV room. Yours played a video and you then have 60 seconds to get to your final bush tucker trial Celebrity Cyclone! The tv comes up with code red and the pictures on the wall start to move. This is where everything changes and the background music starts to get a little faster. Making your way through inflatable bags on the wall you find yourself at the bottom of a hill with high winds blowing at you. Crawling under a net you must get to the top and press all of the yellow stars. Easier said than done when objects are flying at you from all angles and strobe lights are going off. Its a quick slide down to the bridge back to safety where you then get crowned the new King or Queen of the jungle! Holding the I’m A Celebrity staff your photographed in a chair. Lasting for around 12 minutes in total the maze takes quite some time to get through.
During the night we chatted to various members of staff that had worked on the attraction over the past few months and everyone said that a lot of work has gone into transforming the space into the maze. When asked, will what happened to Saw Alive where it shut mid season and now only opens at Fright Nights happen to this in the future? The response was no. This is a walk through attraction not a horror maze. Aimed at families and younger children the attraction isn't designed to scare people!
Bush BBQ was privately rented out for the press for the evening with people walking around with strange food from whale crab eggs in bird cages to edible gold stars. With a large variety of food on offer we were certainly spoilt for choice. Camp Mate Styles blankets where also available to borrow for the night for when it got a little chilly. Along with custom made burgers and lattice fries you could add a pot of insects, meal worm mayo and critter coleslaw.With all of the parks rollercoasters open for the event and a few flat rides open, it was a great opportunity too ride some coasters at night!
What Did We Think?
With Thorpe Park’s record of high standards of theming with Fright Night Horror Maze’s we weren't disappointed with the theming in the attraction. The park teamed up with the Group Scruffy Dog Ltd who brought the attraction to life. Its hard to believe that just a few months ago the attraction was in operation as Studio 13 and now a few months later it has been completely transformed.
When the park announced the new attraction was going to be an I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here themed maze, we weren't too sure if it would work. However Thorpe Park have proven us wrong yet again! The actors in the attraction are very talented and after a few times of going through we keep on picking up on new effects and even a geek reference in the pre show room. T-Shirts hang from the ceiling with celebrities names on them however there is one saying “Coogan” the character from The Swarms marketing.
From high quality theming to highly talented actors, the attraction looks set to be a big hit with the public. With queue times exceeding an hour on the first weekend of the Easter Holliday's the attraction is definitely drawing in people. Our favourite part of the attraction has to be the Celebrity Cyclone section where you have to battle against high winds, objects being thrown at you and water. Starting at the bottom you have to crawl under a cargo net to get to the top. Definitely a great addition to the park’s line up. The only thing we can fault in this attraction is the queue line, due to the maximum of 10 people per group the queue line can move very slowly sometimes.
