The York Dungeon August 2020
Merlin’s Dungeon attractions were one of the first to reopen post lockdown with additional COVID precautions in place. A short trip meant I had to give York Dungeon a try. Not only to see the new procedures in place but also because it would be my first visit to this particular venue. Ash visited York Dungeons last year and his review can be found further down the page.
If you’ve been to any Dungeon attraction you’ll be familiar with many if not all of the scenes at York. You have the usual rooms such as the plague doctor, torturer, judge, etc. as well as some that have more local colour. For York, this is found with Vikings, Shambles and local boy Guy Fawkes.
Pre-booking was essential for this visit, which ensured a nicely socially distant group of eight. Each couple kept distant throughout and everyone wearing face masks for the entire time. The similarly masked actors do a great job in ensuring that everyone stands in their designated spot. This also allows them to move about their room without getting too close to anyone else.
Obviously these new safety measures led to some changes to the various scenes, though to be honest at York nothing much needed to be missed or changed. The biggest difference was that the Shambles, mirror maze section became a very quick walkthrough rather than the usual fumbling and bumping around. Other changes were that there was no audience participation for the always fun ‘bit pulling’ of the plague doctor and actors obviously don’t get as close as they would normally do. The scenes with the torturer and the judge remained unchanged with audience participation, however, I did find the torturers chair a bit wet, hopefully from disinfectant from the previous group rather than something more grim.
As you’d expect with a Dungeon attraction the actors and theming were all great and personally I thought York Dungeon was a fun, charming and with the additional precautions safe experience. Well worth a visit if you’re in the area and perhaps haven’t done a Dungeon experience for a while or if it’s your first time.
The York Dungeon February 2019
I had some free time so made a trip to York Dungeons. I have visited many other dungeons on numerous occasions but this was the first time to the ones in York.
This was an excellent well-priced dungeon with a number of really strong scenes. The acting was very enjoyable with great humorous bits.
The stand out scenes for me included vengeance of the Vikings with really clever special effects that caught the group off guard. The plague doctor who loves ‘pulling out the bits’ used the lighting effects well and the leeches effect was the strongest I’d felt in a dungeon.
It seems appropriate to highlight the comic timing of the executioners assistant in the execution scene. This character really got the audience laughing with some clever jokes that worked on a number of levels.
I thought this was a very enjoyable dungeon with strong scenes throughout. Lots of good effects and acting. I will definitely pay the attraction a visit again.
