Posted April 10, 201312 yr comment_156344 hi guys - how are the fright nights at thorpe? thinking of attending the one later this year. I guess there busy - but how are the ride queues?really want to do a halloween event at either alton or thorpe - thorpe is generally easier for me to travel to
April 10, 201312 yr comment_156347 hi guys - how are the fright nights at thorpe? thinking of attending the one later this year. I guess there busy - but how are the ride queues? really want to do a halloween event at either alton or thorpe - thorpe is generally easier for me to travel to You have to do a Halloween event- they are just fantastic The mazes are very scary and can reach up to about 2 hour queues. The rides can reach up to about 3 hour queues- depending on what day you visit. In the morning, it is generally empty but as the day goes on, it gets busier and busier, and by night time, the queues are absolutely massive. Even if you get fastrack, it doesn't seem to help as you still have to wait an hour to get on the ride with a fastrack. Overall I highly reccomend it, because the rides in the dark and the mazes are amazing, however if you want to go to thorpe/alton with no queues, Halloween events are not the ideal time to go. Overall, fright nights(thorpe park) is generally better than scarefest(alton towers) as it provides more of an 'experience' so if you are choosing between the two, I would reccomend fright nights.
April 10, 201312 yr comment_156352 The queues James is speaking of are an extreme and not the norm. Towards the start of the FN season away from the weekends are often dead, literally a few minute queues for rides and mazes, which is great but the atmosphere suffers as a result. I'd rather a quiet park and get on everything comfortably but some rather the crowds and buzz, depends what you are looking for really. I'd recommend Alton over Thorpe. It's only opinion of course but Terror of the Towers and The Sanctuary are the best two mazes in the country, there's more to chose from at Thorpe but none of them are quite as good. Towers also has an amazing atmosphere for Scarefest, the park lends itself well to darkness and lighting, Thorpe sometimes feels a bit funfair to me which in some ways can't be helped because of the size and in some ways is because they don't put the park wide effort in and rely solely on the mazes. Either way I'd strongly recommend the halloween events in general, you should give them a try.
April 10, 201312 yr comment_156363 The first weekend of Fright nights is usually the best (queue wise) although the second weekend isn't much worse. Generally I find that once the mazes open queues for the rides go down substantially for a few hours, or sometimes for the rest of the day.
April 10, 201312 yr comment_156378 As always Sundays are a good and quiet time to go!!!! Thorpe's mazes are worth a try and the atmosphere at night is good if a little flat in recent years. All the mazes offer pretty different scares so all worth a go.
April 10, 201312 yr comment_156381 I prefer Alton to Thorpe, they don't sting you an extra £5 to get in and the queues are not as bad. I took one look at the queues for the mazes and didn't either bother doing any of them, I only wanted to do the coasters in the dark. If anything I found Fright Nights lacking in theme, busy busy busy, fast track fast track fast track selling and just reading complaints online lots of unhappy customers. I'm sure if they didn't let so many people in the park it would have been a better atmosphere. Thorpe do the night time lighting a lot better than the towers
April 10, 201312 yr comment_156385 I prefer Alton to Thorpe, they don't sting you an extra £5 to get in and the queues are not as bad. That £5 gets you access to all the mazes (bar The Passing which was only £3), Towers makes you pay for each go in a maze, so you'd end up spending more at Towers on the mazes than you would Thorpe's £5.
April 10, 201312 yr comment_156386 The fact is that if you don't want to do the mazes, why should you pay extra? I saw the prices for the mazes at Alton and only did Terror of the Towers, I refused to pay for the Sanctuary, which is great as its currently free. Why would I want to pay £5 for there to be a 2 hour queue for a maze? I won't buy fast track and I really don't believe any attraction is good enough to queue for 2 hours in the cold. Last year I paid £0 to do Terror of the Towers at Alton, but I paid £5 to walk through the door at Thorpe just to do no mazes at all... that isn't really value for money IMO. Hence I will be doing Scarefest for 2 days this year and be avoiding Thorpe.
April 11, 201312 yr comment_156389 In contrast, I paid the £5 entrance fee last year, got on a handful of rides in the dark, and every single maze (obviously The Passing I paid extra for).
April 13, 201312 yr Author comment_156657 cool - thanks for your input guys. seems a hard decision to make.I know the dates haven't been released yet this year - but could anyone have a educated guess as to the week they begin? (not sure if they're the same every year).
April 13, 201312 yr comment_156659 The dates have been released in terms of opening times but may be subject to change. Thorpe Park Fright Nights: Fri 11th Oct - Sun 13th Oct, Fri 18th Oct - Sun 20th Oct, Friday 25th Oct - Sat 2nd Nov Alton Towers Scarefest: Fri 18th Oct - Sun 3rd Nov
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