10/18/2026
The truth about Journey to Hell...long post alert ⚠️
This is the first year the park have done everything themselves, and in that respect we didn't see any massive differences in quality from previous years.
⏳️ TIME - The actual JTH event is a 3 hour event from 6-9pm, meaning you need to fit 3 mazes, multiple scare zones, Icon blindfolded and 2 rides-with-actors...and if there is time, ride some of the other open rides in the dark, eat and drink. The first show on the stage - whilst good - didn't start until 10 mins late and Deadline (which we joined the queue for at about 5:30pm) opened 20 mins late. We did also hear that this maze closed the queueline 20 mins early. This meant that last night we actually had closer to 2 hours and 20 mins to do the mazes alone.
🎃 SCARE ZONES - Around Impossible/Deadline/Main stage area the atmosphere felt good! The roaming actors were working hard and the loud music was great, kinda reminiscent of HHN! We love the main character too. However Moonshine Massacre was very dark to the point we couldnt tell actors from guests and struggled navigating the stairs! Some actors had chainsaws, but they didn't seem to be turned on...The roaming actors we did see around in front of Avalanche were brilliant, but away from FY4 the atmosphere definitely dropped off - there was no special effects, audio or lighting really, and Avalanche still had the normal music playing outside!!
There was a clown themed area in the dodgems with a live DJ, and he was intermitently attempting to do interactive games (musical statues?). But we had a lot to fit in and didnt want to waste the night playing musical statues when there were still main attractions to do! So we don't know what happens in here as we left 😅
👻 MAZES - these are still not rat-run mazes as most of us know them. They are passageways with intermittent staged theatrical performances/scenes. The actors were working hard, even remembering full dialogues which was impressive as some of them we recognised as ride ops - kudos! I actually liked the performances in each, but the problem is they are calling them scare mazes, when in previous years they didnt. So we were expecting a new scare house setup with jump scares, but what we got was more of the previous years' dungeons style actor/story led attractions. The bright lighting and lack of sound in them, followed by the scenes where you are made to stop and watch dialogue, do take any tension out and give people time to look around (at things we perhaps shouldnt be looking at) rather than ramping up the fear.
☎️ The use of Impossible as-is for Deadline (whilst makes sense from a logistics point of view) wasn't well executed in the sense that for the most part, it just felt like you were walking around Impossible - the usual theming like funhouse mirrors and the infinite well were still visible and brightly illuminated....I know this has been done on a budget but putting some coverings over these things and dimming the lighting would help here. The story actually had MASSIVE potential too! It was interesting and a bit off-the-wall creepy which we really liked...we just wish BPB would basically just shut Impossible forever and turn this building into a purpose built maze, completely gutting the whole building out doing the light and sound and making it a floor to ceiling rat-run enclosed maze. They have the very capable Stageworks and on site teams to build sets and there's plenty of professional maze designers out there, so it could be done...
🐍 The Aviktas themed maze Eternal Abyss had a great preshow and a neat concept linking it to the new ride on park, but the tunnels are so well lit (presumably for health and safety reasons as they're emergency exits for a number of rides) that there were no scares at all for us in here - to be honest the only people getting scares in any of the mazes were the people at the very front of each group due to the batching format and that is no fault of the actors, they were all working really hard. If they turned off the lights in the tunnels and sent you down them with torches with creepy music, it would probably be more scary!
Also, MIND THE STEP on the way out the exit door here as Robyn almost broke her ankle!!
👰 The Veil was probably the most maze-like-maze in the old Space Invader building - having a lot of potential for a better permanent set up in there - but again it was so bright in parts, no loud sounds or music or sense of pace, and no sense of enclosed spacd that our group were just sauntering slowly around the black fencing. The large scenes and the actors in here we thought were particularly good! Also the final 'showpiece' in here was positioned in a way that lots of people actually missed it as they were stood too close to where it was and it was high above a black fence, even despite all the actors literally pointing to it...yes really?! There was no theming in this end scene space at all so it ended on a flat note....a ceiling when going around this one would have helped LOADS as the sight lines (especially for tall people) weren't good.
🎢 RIDES - Icon was on 60 min queue all night, so cant tell you what the blindfold experience was like because we just didnt have time...we had no toilet breaks or food stops for the full 3 hours, we just went from one attraction to another! We have since found out we could have used Speedy Pass lane but this wasnt advertised or signposted anywhere.
The Ghost Train and Alice both had 3 actors each - with obvious roped off/lit up places with sound effects where there should presumably have been more. Alice had no audio at all apart from where the actors were, which was also strange!! We waited about 30 mins for Ghost Train and almost 60 mins for Alice. We got off the latter after park close at 9:15pm, after joining the queue at 8:15pm so that was the end of the night for us.
We were surprised to see RAP and Speedy Pass being accepted for JTH (on the rides) as the mazes didnt have this available from what we could see. The park therefore needed Grand National and other rides open to take some queue capacity, and we noticed Aviktas was only opening half the gondola all night.
💰Each maze costs £15 individually and if we had paid that this evening for each of us, I can't say we would have got value for money. Slightly better value if you're a season pass holder, buying a bundle of mazes, adding it in with your day ticket or just seeing it as a way of extending your day. But poor value individually.
We arrived at 5pm, and the main car park still charged us £20 for 4 hours which was a rip off as it is usually £18-20 for a full day....
The park was noticeably busier than any JTH we have been to before. We noticed people buying maze tickets in the app at maze entrances after not realising it was a seperately paid event, but had queued the full length already - and the food outlets seemed busy. We are sure the park was benefitting from this new set up overall!
📝 OUR VERDICT - Whilst we noticed the throughput of the mazes was a LOT faster this year, it is obvious the park needs to start the maze entry earlier, and allow people to take their time around the rest of the event too. Also close maybe an hour later, and have a greater ride offering. But we do appreciate this all costs money.
We wanted this to be the best year for JTH - we love this park with all our hearts, but we have to say as we see it. We had a great time with friends as we always do at PB - we do appreciate the time and effort the park have put in, particularly with the actors, costume and make up. But this format will not be popular with Halloween and Scare event fans. Younger teenagers/older children in particular seemed to be having a lot of fun here, so maybe this is an avenue for the park to explore in terms of advertising it as a more family-friendly offering instead of pure horror as they currently are?
We are still considering if we are going to release a vlog, as we filmed so little of the park due to us arriving for 6pm and the time constraints. We were not allowed to show the full mazes or film on ride for our vlog, so we are not sure if there is anything of value to show!
We also hardly took any photos, because we were so rushed getting from one place to another - we didnt get chace to slow down to take in any atmosphere or try any of the special foods on offer 🥲
Thank you again to the park for inviting us down to check it out again this year - we do hope they take on board the feedback, and that everyone visiting the park for the upcoming JTH dates has a fab time!
