Scarefest

[stretchy]

I am told that a rule of thumb is, you have the length of the first queue + the time taken to wlk through the maze + 15 mins to get to the second maze.

[TPJames]

How much are the mazes on the day, as they are £7-8 each online and was wondering if they would be more expensive if I buy a ticket on the day as unsure whether I am going to do them yet?

[FrightNights04]

dose anyone know when the map will be released?

[Benin]

dose anyone know when the map will be released?

 

Tis on the Facebooks now...

 

 

The only area that people will probably (s)care about...

[Fred]

So, the park generators seemingly are all blue and green this year.

 

Atmosphere much!

[Liam T]

Scarefest is dire this year, it's a shame. 

It's actually shocking one of the top leading Halloween attractions is now just an outdated embarrassment to the UK, I shall be taking a miss this year.

 

(But on other hands... Fireworks sound even more incredible this year!)

[TPGG]

Do you still get ERT at Scarefest? Also are Annual Passes still valid?

[OldFarmerDean]

Do you still get ERT at Scarefest? Also are Annual Passes still valid?

There isn't ERT, and unlike thorpe, you just turn up with your annual pass with no booking or fee needed

[Kerfuffle]

There isn't ERT, and unlike thorpe, you just turn up with your annual pass with no booking or fee needed

Same with Chessington as well

[MarkC]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=362114517290351 -  Scary Tales Scare Zone Soundtrack (Full)

[Worthy9992]

There doing a dinning experiance explained here http://www.altontowers.com/scarefest/halloween-days-out/#TheatricalDiningExperience

This consist on a two hour experiance it look very Intreating but with park 9pm closes its a good 2 hours of night riding/mazes time if anyone going to do this on here it would be nice to know if it's worth it at all?

[stretchy]

A couple of scarefest pics for those wondering what riding in the dark is like. All taken last night.

 

[OldFarmerDean]

Amazing... Literally cannot wait to go tomorrow now they've spent time sorting out the lights, in particular the plain coloured generator ones which ruined it last year! How is 13, is the main section of the ride still in pitch black as it is one of the best night ride experiences I've had... and has nemesis got lots of red lights?

[Cal]

Lighting is looking great this year

Sent from my iPhone 5S using Tapatalk

[Fred]

Nemesis has no red lights. Ents are trying to source some red bulbs for the generators, Rides might gel up some lights at some point.

 

The valley has almost been left alone unfortunately. Air and Sonic Spinball permanent lighting towers need coloured bulbs, and they need a few more bulbs/variety of colours for the generators. Then everything will look pretty good. At the moment Valley is the worst looking area (as always).

[Matt 236]

Looks amazing at night, the colours around the ride areas blend so well, Merlin have definitely put a lot of effort and improvement to park lighting at their parks this year for Halloween. Even Rita looks good.

[Fred]

'Merlin'. The parks. It's all the parks choice what they do.

[OldFarmerDean]

Very disappointed by both mazes... I'm terrified of them, and just hardly scared me at all!

[OldFarmerDean]

So yeah... The park was literally dead today with queues being less than 5 minutes all day, it did peak to 60 on sonic spin ball and 30 mins on smiler a couple of hours after opening but everything was literally walk on all evening - I think everyone gave up due to the heavy rain showers and strong winds. Both the paid mazes weren't worth it, I thought they were good last year but just felt boring and not scary this year... Zombie scare zone seemed good this year, and scary tales was a good idea but just not really scary and definitely not a sufficient replacement for the best maze ever, carnival of screams! Lighting was better than last year, but sonic and forbidden valley still a disappointment.

[TPJames]

Alton Towers Monday 20th October 2014:

As I hadn't visited the park since I was little, I was pretty excited. I went in with high expectations from what I had heard and recently visiting Portaventura and being amazed. To say I was impressed is an understatement. The park was amazingly themed, with added extra scarefest theming and lighting all over the park. Every land was done to perfect detail and the park overall was to a very high standard. I wouldn't say it was as good as Portaventura but it did have a very high standard and was far superior to thorpe park.

We got to the park early at 9:30am however was greeted with a trip on the monorail! This was unexpected as I thought only hotel guests got to ride the monorail but it was great fun. Passing by all the lands built up the tension and the excitement. Once we got to the entrance, we literally went straight into the park as the gates had opened early. We had been given some free priority passes along with our free tickets so we decided to collect these early as we knew the park was very big and would take a while to walk around.

We went straight to the smiler and was greeted with a 50minute queue. Bear in mind today was an off peak day however everyone appeared to go straight to the smiler. We had a pleasant suprise as the queue was more like 20-30mins and 30mins appeared to be the max queue time on park throughout the whole day which was great. I think my expectations were a little high for the smiler, although it was a great ride and it was insane how many times we looped, it was not my favourite and I think the actual ride experience could have been a little more interesting. Still a good, fun and long ride experience though!

The smiler: 7/10.

Next up, we decided to tackle the rest of X-Sector and went to oblivion. The queue was stated at 15mins but we actually only waited around 5 mins to get on. I don't think it got busier than this all day which was great. Visually, the ride was higher than I expected and was pretty stunning. The fact that you just drop into darkness is pretty insane. The actual ride experience was just as intense, I loved the feeling of the drop it felt so fast and intense. Despite the ride being so short, it was great and is a B&M rollercoaster which made it so much better

Oblivion: 9/10.

Next up we made our way over to dark forest, however we tackled HEX on the way. Hex was an interesting one, we had to wait a long time for the ride to start as we had to wait for the first room to fill up before the experience could begin. I did love the theming inside the attraction, it was done to a great standard and the pre-show was great fun. The actual ride was pretty cool in itself, we all got very confused as to whether the ride was going upside down or if the walls were moving around us! It did feel like we were going upside down though! The attraction was great and was done to very high standards. When we reached the dark forest, the first ride in sight was Rita. As it was known as queen of speed I was excited to get on and see how it compared to stealth. There was about a 5minute wait and it was on 2trains which was brilliant(I'll take this oppertunity to say that smiler was on 5trains I believe however may have been 4 and oblivion was on 4 shuttles with a longer wait to get off than on!). Just as we got on it started to pour which made it so painful and I had to cover my face the whole way round. However, later on we did go on again and it was much better as I could actually see where we were going. The ride was good fun and pretty fast and longer than stealth. Unsure which I prefer however I think stealth had the slight edge as it's faster than Rita.

Rita: 7/10.

We headed over to th13teen however as it was having technical problems, we decided to take the skyride over to the forbidden valley. I was looking forward to the forbidden valley most as it had the ride I was most looking forward to, Air. The first ride we saw was the blade which was fun however I believe black buccaneer swings higher. Next up, was ripsaw. Ripsaw was on a decent cycle and was walk on all day. The first time I went on it we stayed dry however I did go on twice more in the dark and got the spinniest cycle with a MASSIVE drenching!!

So the next ride we did was air. The queue time was stated as a 'bubbly 20mins' and I think it was around that if not a bit less. When we rode only the left station was open however was on two trains. They opened the right station just as we were getting on however continued to operate two trains which was very strange. Air never peaked over 20minutes all day which was good so was unsure why they decided to do the alternate station operation. I was suprised that my legs got strapped in aswell as my body and when we raised it was pretty amazing. The ride has such a great concept and the execution of the actual ride was amazing and pretty intense. I wouldn't say I felt like I was flying as at points it was very intense however I did feel like I was gliding through the air. I did love this ride, probably my favourite of the day as it had such an interesting concept and ride design to it. B&M as well so I knew it would be great!

Air: 9/10.

Next up was nemesis before lunch. Nemesis was stated at 15mins but was actually around 5. Once again, two train operation which was brilliant so the queue moved up pretty smoothly. I will review it now, despite my second ride being better than my first. This ride is far superior to nemesis inferno, the layout and intensity is much better. However, on the first ride it was good, but not great. On the 2nd ride though, I rode it in the dark and it felt much faster and more intense. After the first corkscrew, it just got pretty crazy. The fact that it was in the dark as well meant that I couldn't see a thing.

Nemesis: 8/10.

Next we took a walk to the gloomy wood and decided to do duel. This time it was DUEL LIVE. There were actors inside the queueline and exit which scared us a lot! These actors made the ride so much better however, as otherwise it was practically tomb blaster. The actors were meant to be alton towers ancestors and they were pretty great! I even had a photo with then earlier on in the morning at the entrance aswell!

We then entered Kantaga Canyon and MutinyBay. We wanted to do the mine train however it was experiencing technical difficulties which was upsetting so we decided to go into the sea life centre. Pretty much the standard sea life centre with a bit of theming which was nice. Then we did heave ho which was also great fun as it had a much longer cycle than griffins galleon and actually had theming and a soundtrack as well! We had basically done all we wanted to do in that area so went over to spinball to try and use our dedicated priority pass to it. However, the queue was only 5mins so we decided to use the normal queue and fastrack later. We didn't spin that much, but it was a pretty fun and intense ride and I think I prefered it to dragons fury as the S-bend makes the ride a lot better. Did enjoy it but ovbiously doesn't compare to the other coasters. Good for what it is though.

Spinball: 6/10.

So then we decided to tackle th13teen as it had reopened with a 30minute queue! We went straight there and used our dedicated priority passes. I knew what was coming in th13teen and won't ruin it directly here incase people haven't done it. It was fun, but again not amazing however was much better when I did it in the dark in the evening. The ending is the best bit if course, the rest is just a bit like the runaway mine train!

Th13teen: 6/10.

We then went into the wobble world and took on Charlie and the chocolate factory. Once again, hopes were a bit high for this and there was no sign of chocolate anywhere!!! The glass elevator at the end was fun though. Would have liked a bit more attention out into it. We then did ice age 4D which was good and the effects were much better than angry birds 4D! I did prefer it overall was a fun and interesting show with a genuine storyline unlike angry birds 4D. Then we decided to do twirling toadstool! This was great fun as the operators were doing a lot of guest interaction which just made it great fun! Prefered it to monkey swings as well which was a suprise.

After a long stay in wobble world cafe, we went and watched the trick or treat party show. This was fun and the songs were great and I just thought it was great for the kids who wanted to do it. Once again, we got the sky ride over to the forbidden valley and decided to do nemesis sub terra. Nemesis sub terra was actually better than expected. The whole experience was pretty fast paced and intense except for the slow and boring extremely long wait inside the preschool before it started. The ending was pretty good too , nice to see they are putting some scare actors into their attractions as well as wasn't expecting any. Then we went over to the mine train which was far superior to the one at chessington, great fun and loved the smoke being pumped inside the tunnel. Great fun overall and once again a lot of interaction from the ride team who were very friendly! #choochoo!

We then went over to spinball as it was advertised as 20mins but was actually broken down so we headed to oblivion. Once again a 5minute wait for oblivion so we did that and was as brilliant as before. Afterwards, we headed back to spinball which was reopen however on a 3per car rule. As there were no single riders it was practically 2 per car so it was lucky we had our fastracks to hand! It was also much spinnier with only 3 in our car which was also great fun!

Afterwards, we went for dinner in the cafe before doing some night rides. As the sky ride was now closed, there was a lot of walking involved. For a start we walked all the way over to the dark forest just to do th13teen in the dark(which was walk on luckily) before having to walk all the way back to the towers to get to the forbidden valley. On the way to the forbidden valley we did the mine train again which was once again great and even better in the dark!

Once inside the forbidden valley, we decided to tackle nemesis, air and ripsaw. Both nemesis and air were walk on however running one train full followed by one train empty. Strange system as I understand they don't want to waste time by removing the trains however why not just fill both trains? Nemesis and air were also superior in the dark and then we decided to do ripsaw twice. Ripsaw at the end of the day was great, we got a particularly good cycle and he gave us a soaking. Unsure if that was a good thing or not though aha! We then took a walk back through kantaga canyon to the entrance and got the monorail back to the car park.

I had a great day and think kantaga canyon is my favourite area, it had great lighting in the dark and the area is well themed and the music is amazing. Despite only having family attractions, I loved the area and both attractions in it were of high quality. We did not do the mazes or scarezones as £7 per maze was pretty hefty. I understand the scare zoneswere free however they had long queues and I didn't particularly fancy getting scared like at fright nights. I wouldn't like to see the queues for zombies and scary tales next week as they were out of the railings(two lengths long) last night. Scary tales looked particularly good though, looked very well themed from the outside with nice music.

All the rides on park were great and the weather held off for most of the day, the atmosphere and theming was brilliant and the park was very big and there was a lot to do. A great day out and is highly reccomend visiting the park. The longest queue on park was 30mins all day for the smiler but most rides stayed at 5-10mins for most of the day.

Ride count:

Smiler x1

Oblivion x2

Rita x2

Hex x1

Blade x1

Air x2

Ripsaw x3

Spinball x2

Duel x1

Heave HO x1

Th13teen x2

Charlie and the chocolate factory x1

Ice age 4D x1

Twirling toadstool x1

Sub-terra x1

Mine train x2

Nemesis x2

Sea life centre x1

Total: 27.

[Fred]

Duel Live lol. There's no Duel Live, hasn't been for years (they were around the ride when it was Duel live) however the Alton Ancestors might appear in the Queue line if it's raining in the early afternoon only.

 

So Alton Towers, due to the forecast weather, was completely and utterly dead today. Oblivion was on two shuttle operation by the late afternoon - the least I've EVER seen it on. Rita barely ran with more than a couple of rows loaded. It was awesome!

[Project LC]

I didnt know oblivion could work with 2 shuttles. I always assumed 4 was its minimum to make sure the computer was happy with trains being in blocks.

[TPJames]

I didnt know oblivion could work with 2 shuttles. I always assumed 4 was its minimum to make sure the computer was happy with trains being in blocks.

To be honest on Monday I would have rather it had been on 2-3 trains instead of 4. There was no queue all day so it didn't matter(it got up to 5mins max) however we had to wait longer to get off than to get on!! I didn't really mind as the ride was amazing anyway but I don't think that having 4 instead of 2-3 shuttles made the throughput any higher as there was continuously 2 shuttles stacked in the break run after each ride.

[Deleted Users]

The event is in a weird place.

 

General stuff:

• Traveler day was fine. They just stand in silly places but apart from that there were no problems. 
• It didn't really feel as if it was a Halloween event. The generators are telling that lighting is where required for safety reasons rather than atmosphere. No music changes on rides was disappointing as well.
• I feel as if the park is missing a trick not having scare zones based around rides. Put some actors dressed as Smiler staff in X Sector, wraiths in Dark Forest. Duel characters could be all along Haunted Hollow.
• It's weird actually noticing the marmaliser during Smiler night rides.

Mazes/Zones:

• Having no free maze is weird from a business perspective. Most guests won't be sure what a scare maze is. Having a free maze meant that they could decide whether they wanted to pay for the others.
• I thought The Sanctuary was better than Terror of the Towers. More variation between scenes and rooms that I thought were kind of a wasted opportunity last year have had their lighting improved. The ending of Terror is really good however.
• Awkward "Dr. Kelman's on holiday" speech by his replacement.
• Where has skateboard guy gone.
• In general it didn't seem as if there were many actors but the room setups meant that a group of 2-4 of them would follow us through multiple rooms. Most people were convinced that there were far more actors.
• The zones aren't really zones. I feel bad for the actors because all they can really do is walk around a bit and attempt to block people off, especially when it is even vaguely busy.
• For what there is of it, the Scary Tales themeing is cool but it's short like Zombies and it's a shame it wasn't a proper scare maze.

[MattyMoo]

I went to Alton yesterday (21st) - unfortunately, being that we'd booked accommodation there was no flexibility with the date, as the weather today was far far better than yesterday! Me and my mate were utterly drenched by the end of the day, because of the wind the weather changed so quickly from sunshine to chucking it down! We left about 4:30 as we were shattered, cold and wet - still had a good day though!

 

A few points from the day:

• Highest queue I saw was Sonic Spinball at 65 minutes, think I saw Smiler peak at 50 at one point. Smiler opened late due to technical difficulties (I was concerned we weren't going to get a ride at all for my only trip to AT for the year when it didn't open on time!) We rode Blivvy instead which was good.
• Next we ventured to Dark Forest... Both Thirteen and Rita weren't open, probably due to the weather... so we endured some pain on Sonic instead!
• No "Choo choo" by the ride op on Mine Train, bad times
• Didn't bother with the mazes in the end, I noted it was £14 for two, and was only bothered about the Sanctuary... so guessed that would probably be £9 by itself, combined with the aforementioned drenchedness, we gave it a miss!
• Nemesis certainly felt more intense in the wet. And I prefer it muchly over Inferno...
• Staff were nice and friendly considering the weather! (Especially staff in CBeebies land - we had to go and have a look as it was new, and have to say we were quite impressed with In The Night Garden )
• As it was so dead, Air was on one station operation and as said previously, queues were mostly non existent all day
• Saw the Ancestors as soon as we arrived, which was a nice touch and added to the magic!
• We ended up riding the Smiler at about 3:30pm. The weather was nice when we started queuing in the 15 minute queue. By the time we got on - it really wasn't. It wasn't just raining, it was hailing - and as I said on Facebook, we weren't smiling by the time we got off Ouch ouch ouch! Still, one off the bucket list I guess! (Before anyone says, yes I KNOW there are announcements saying you don't have to ride due to weather, yada yada...). Was so cold and wet (and must've been holding on for dear life!) as I had pins and needles in my hands for a good few hours on and off afterwards! Still, I'm pleased with my Smiler TV remote cushion for £14 in the sale - the £9 umbrella isn't the best mind you
• Get Set Go Treetop Adventure will always be Squirrel Nutty to me
• Was funny eating doughnuts and then lunch surrounded by pairs of beady eyes of the Alton ducks eyeing up your food!
• Does anyone REALLY pay £16 for premium parking?
• I witnessed people that had bought Fasttrack yesterday - maybe those are the same people that buy premium parking..!