Like Jack, I was a Scarefest n00b on my visit yesterday! The day was brilliant fun overall, despite some potentially disastrous events which I shall detail herein...Thinking we probably didn't need 11 hours on park, we planned to leave home at the slightly more civilised than usual time of 8, to arrive at Towers about 11:15. In this we found our first hurdle, the inevitable 30 minute late departure, however we were soon on the road and in good spirits. A smooth and uneventful drive followed (apart from the damn 16 mile stretch of 50mph limit on the M1), until we got to the JCB place about 20 mins from Alton. We queued, I kid you not, the entire distance from here to the park. It later became apparent that this was caused by fairly big crowds for the park, a diversion which filtered onto the same route through Alton village, and an accident up there to! Negotiating this took about an hour, and we finally stopped all the way over by the hotels just before 1. Undeterred, we walked over to the entrance so as to take in the sights and sounds of the top of Air and Nemesis' lifts, which soon made us feel good again! However, we got lumbered with the worst service I have ever experienced when getting tickets for my mum and sister; it took us half an hour to get through the queue and finally get to the turnstiles. Upon arrival there my AP decided not to work which is always nice, add 5 mins for faffing at different gates and then finding staff. Finally into Towers Street, time check stated 2pm. Awesome.However, our moods lifted greatly as we walked in and saw Towers Street all done up for the occasion and looking brilliant! Even my no-longer-very-geeky sister commented that in the 15 metres from the entrance there was already more halloween stuff than in the whole of Thorpe Taking in the beautiful view by the lake, we headed off towards Hex and Charlie which were duly completed in a far greater amount of time than it took to tell of our doing them Copious amounts of fun had by all we returned at ~4:20 to Mutiny Bay in search of food. Given all that had sustained our day so far was a pack of M&S croissants and some Percy Pigs, we'd done well to last this long. Mexican Cantina again served as the chosen location for food, and we decided to use the time honoured half-lunch half-dinner technique so as to minimise time spent eating. At about 5 we rejoined the masses and went over to Forbidden Valley, where yet again, I find myself needing to commend Merlin actors! One of the hazmat-clad guys outside the Nemesis:WLB site came over to me and started talking about radiation melting his ice cream, the impractical nature of hazmat suits, and many other things besides. We talked for a good 5 minutes about various things, and he told me about the weird things going on at the site, then gave me a little card with the 2012 site address and some other stuff. Actually, I wonder where I put it...After that little interlude my sister and I joined the Nemesis SRQ. As some of you will have seen from my Facebook, this queue was rather brilliant. It had already started to get dark, then suddenly black clouds enveloped the area and it started raining a bit. It wasn't hammering, but was creating the perfect amount to really create a brilliant atmosphere. Let's call it thematic weather So queueing down in the bottom of the pit with black sky, rain, and the ride roaring it's way around us was wonderfully intense and atmospheric. We got on fairly quickly and enjoyed a brilliant night ride.Air being Air had gone down, up and down again several times during the previously described period, but as luck would have it, it reopened just before we left Nemesis. We did single rider for this as well though, because the main queue had already built up massively again. The two girls batching were doing a great job, and seemed really happy and enthusiastic. They were talking to everyone and not just standing looking grumpy. We were boarding in no time, and off into the darkness. You guys have probably noticed my love of Air before, but I can honestly say this ride was just something else. The lift hill looked amazing bathed in blue lights as we ascended, and then the ride itself just absolutely came alive. Flying over the dim and warm lighting of the Air plaza was a great experience, but then coming out of the inline and heading towards the turn over the car park was insane. Being so far out there were no lights at all, so we found ourselves flying into literally pitch darkness as we rounded the final turn. It's kinda hard to describe without being there, but I can honestly say it was one of the most exciting rides I've ever had on any coaster. I fell victim to an Air hoody on the way out, trying to convince myself that it was because the night was cold Following Air we headed back over to the middle of the park for Terror of the Towers. I'd managed to stay away from all spoilers and reviews on the internet, so I went in not knowing what to expect. Firstly it must be said that the Towers are just an undeniably perfect site for a maze; the lighting on the walls and in the garden area of the queue was excellent, and the music just completed the spine-tingling atmosphere. I won't state the eye-watering time we queued, but suffice to say we had plenty of time to take in the aforementioned atmosphere. Finally inside, the maze blew me away. The props and sets in the first areas of the maze were excellent and provided the actors with a great base to work off; for example in the large rectangular room one actor flew from behind a sheet and jumped on the table before thrusting himself right in my face while I was still reeling from the crash his jump had created! Smoke billowed out from under the table and he disappeared again. I thought the scenes and corridors were wonderfully put together, with excellent lighting and sound too. The final room downstairs made for a great contrast with the rest of the maze, and I found it even more disorientating than The Asylum. All in all, the maze was a great length (made it feel worth queueing for) and I counted 16 actors, some of whom made a couple of appearances. We came out into the black of the night and looked up at the towers bathed in a green glow, listening to the music and the screams echoing through the building and out of the windows, and I couldn't help feeling Thorpe's efforts are a little bit pathetic :PThe time was 21:40, but as we passed X Sector on the way back anyway we decided to check in at The Boiler House just in case. I'm glad we did, the guy outside very kindly let us in despite the time. The queue just filled the tunnel coming out towards the open, but we were immediately called forward to join a smaller group so even skipped that small wait. We chatted to another lovely member of staff who was presiding over the maze inside, who was still smiling despite the hour. We went downstairs and were briefed before entering our second maze of the night. The first scene with the disappearing mask was just brilliant, the actor was really energetic and the trick was amazing to watch. I felt pretty apprehensive as we left and entered the maze proper, I was again at the back of the group. Like TotT, the number of actors and the scares they managed to elicit were very impressive. One particularly memorable one was someone crashing about behind a fence begging to be let free, before lunging out from behind a curtain enclosing the area which I had somehow failed to notice. A scream directly in my face followed! Although this maze seems to get a bit of a bad press, I was again impressed by set pieces such as the exploded barrels, pipes running everywhere ect. I came out still feeling it beat Thorpe's.Thus concluded our Scarefest experience, which I must say could have been a disaster given the start to the day but was actually hugely enjoyable. The park looks great and is done up brilliantly, the extra halloween themeing and attractions complimenting the existing line-up wonderfully and making for a brilliant event. Leaving at the slightly later than planned time of 22:30, the rest of the night is lost in my memory to a swirl of coffee, energy drinks and loud music in efforts to stay awake. I can't wait for next year!
