Alton Towers Scarefest or Thorpe Park Fright Nights; which UK Merlin Halloween event do you prefer?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. Scare season has well and truly begun here in the UK; theme parks have embraced the Halloween spirit, scare parks have opened, and YouTube and social media are filled with nothing but scare event vlogs and reports. Two popular UK events, based at two of the UK’s most popular theme parks, are Alton Towers Scarefest and Thorpe Park Fright Nights. These events are similar in some ways and different in others, but they are often compared due to them both being based at Merlin theme parks. So I’d be keen to know; which event do you prefer? Are you an Alton Towers Scarefest person, or are you more of a Thorpe Park Fright Nights fan?

 

I’m not a scare fan at all, therefore I have done neither and can’t really pass judgement, but I’d be really keen to know which you prefer if you’ve done both!

[Inferno]

This is an interesting one this year.

 

I always think that, generally, Thorpe smash it on paper nearly every year - but Towers ultimately deliver the better event in the end, with more consistent mazes, better crowd control and just generally a “nicer time”.

It’s also far less likely to go to s*** at Towers when it gets busy - as I have said many times, Thorpe just can’t seem to handle a crowd for some reason.

 

Every year I go to both events, and for almost a decade now I’ve had said Scarefest wins the battle, but it’s been close over the years.

 

I’d say Fright Nights has been in decline since the era of the walking dead stuff - it just somehow hasn’t been was it once was.

however this year seems to have turned a corner - Survival Games looks like a return to form (a very simple, intense, proper old-school scare maze with no “with a difference” bs).

I hope they can be consistent and reliably keep standards up throughout the event, which they haven’t managed for years.

 

This year I just can’t be bothered with Scarefest though - only 2 mazes on offer, very expensive, and nothing new that’s worth doing. Their event feels like an afterthought.

I haven’t yet been to FN so I think that will win it for me this year.

Having said that, my FN visit last year was the worst theme park visit I’ve ever had…

 

Time will tell - but basically I think my tl;dr answer is Scarefest - but probably not this season.

[RobF]

Tbh I still think Thorpe's top Mazes were the original/earlier years Asylum, hellgate, cabin/ original valentine .  I haven't rated the more recent mazes, I have never had a good run on creek freak

[Inferno]

Completely agree with that @RobF - the newer ones just aren’t the same are they. Some have been good, but I don’t know.. they just aren’t the same! I can’t put it in to words somehow.

 

I also think Thorpe has been very rough and ready and very inconsistent. Some run throughs are better than others, which used to be fine when the mazes were free, but not now they’re £700 a go or whatever they’re charging this season.

[Cal]

Back in the day I would always have said Fright Nights, hands down used to be my favourite UK scare event. But I think Fright Nights is a shadow of its former self. Shorter opening hours, poorer quality mazes, less mazes on offer and upcharge for the mazes. Part of the fun of Fright Nights was being able to have multiple run throughs the mazes which I can't justify doing at the prices they're charging. They also put no effort into parkwide lighting or sound anymore which makes a huge difference to the atmosphere.

 

I think Fright Nights trys to appeal more family friendly than it used to. I used to go to Fright Nights for the intense scares and watching things like the Amity show and Birthday Bash really doesn't interest me. 

 

I would say Scarefest is the better event now. Although they have an upcharge for the mazes, it works better as you rarely have to queue anything and the mazes are more consistent. I would still like to see some investment with scarefest though, the mazes are getting stale now and need a refresh. Would love to see a sub-species type maze return again.

[jessica2]

Having now done both, I personally prefer Thorpe's fright nights over scarefest at Alton.

 

I really enjoyed the attic at Alton, very well done maze and actually possibly one of my favourite mazes/run throughs of any maze I've ever done. However, they do not seem to change their line up very much by all accounts, and the new addition for their 15th(?) anniversary sounds pretty terrible (the lie down in a dark room with headphones thing), whilst thorpe has had some strong new additions like trailers and the crows (but granted also some weaker additions).

 

Another issue I have with scarefest is, because the park is so spread out, in most places there was no halloween theming at all, and no scare zones either (with actors) which I think is a mistake. Sure, near the entrance looked good, but how often are you walking past there? At least with Thorpe, they do have a scare zone or two and by being smaller I think the atmosphere is better on the halloween front as you often will walk past these, whereas with towers I was walking around for ages not seeing anything remotely themed or halloweeny, unless I wanted to go back to the entrance or pay to go in another maze. I did walk through the whispering woods walk thing, but no actors and pretty low effort.

 

I also know Thorpe struggles with queues, however if you look at last saturday at alton, it was insanely busy with many rides hitting 120 minutes, the previous saturday when I was there it wasn't much better either and we certainly queued a lot longer for rides than I ever had done at thorpe on similar days. For example, smiler ended up being 2 hours and all single shot fast tracks sold out on most coasters fairly early on, which is pretty crazy for the opening weekend.