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.