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TST Scarefest: 18-19 October 2014

IanB said:
My last thought, and it is why I fell back in love with Towers was the Towers. Lit up in the evening, it is just a magical experience. Something that Disney (even with the castle, that feels a little fake compared to Towers) or Europa can not create.

Ian
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This is always one of my major points.

Those surroundings are absolutely without peer. It's easy for those sat behind desks to forget this.
 
First time back at Towers since July and once again a pleasant and enjoyable meet.

A big thanks to Dan and ents for organising the cosy Q&A/ talk today at the Altonville Motel. The price seems justifiable simply from the view you have of the Gardens whilst dining. It was also interesting to hear a little more about the Sleepover, particularly the huge show room in the basement.

A big thanks to @Cheese, Russ and Astro for the lifts and everyone else for the usual TST atmosphere. Shame about our encounter with the travellers right at the end of today, but that aside it's been a wonderful meet.

See you at Fireworks :)
 
I had a great weekend, thanks all. Didn't get many rides done but was lovely to see everyone again! Although not as many of us did it this time the dressing up was still good fun, always the highlight of the meet for me. Sorry for having to leave early yesterday, after not getting to bed until 3.30am on Saturday night/Sunday morning we were shattered!

See everyone at Fireworks!

:)
 
I had a lovely weekend - thanks all!
As it was my first visit in the main 2014 season to Towers, it was interesting to see all the small details that have changed around the park since my last visit in February half term - mostly for the better it had to be said.

But I'll expand on that elsewhere - this topic is about the meet itself :p I'll sum it up with some highlights and lowlights:

Highlights:

  • Seeing all you lovely people again :D (a LONG time since I was last on an official meet...)
  • Meeting the 'newbies' (special mention to Tom.B!)
  • The park atmosphere being fantastic overall
  • The lighting around the park being the best I've seen it (The Towers lit up.... <3)
  • The Smiler running well and being relatively smooth
  • The resort side of the park running better operationally than I've seen for a while
  • The great time had on Saturday night in Marg's!
  • ....and more I can't think of right now I'm sure!

Lowlights:

  • My voice being variable through the weekend then dying completely by Sunday morning, causing me to leave the park earlier than planned.
  • The attitude of some of the people on park on the Sunday (even in the limited time I was there)
  • Not getting on Nemesis all weekend
Thanks to:

  • IanB for the lifts to/from the resort and for booking our hotel room
  • IanB and Dave for being good roommates!
  • Everyone for being there - this weekend really cheered me up! :D
 
Due to work and other constraints, I was only able to be on park yesterday from about 2pm onwards. However, I did enjoy the time I spent on park. The lighting was superb, with particular mention to the Dark Forest being bathed in a green glow. Also, one thing I've never noticed before happened when I was on Rita last night. I looked over to my right when on the top of the first airtime hill, and the view over the rest of the park lit up was fantastic - probably one of the best views I've had at Towers for a long time (the best goes to Fireworks last year). The hanging lights on the pathways between Gloomy Wood and Katanga Canyon, then Katanga Canyon and Mutiny Bay, were what has been used in the past, but I really like them. Just small coloured lights can really add to the atmosphere. The Towers were well-lit, although I felt they could have improved things a bit by having the lights slowly change colour just to add a bit more. X-Sector was OK, but could have done with a bit more colour. Another negative about the lighting was, unsurprisingly, the total lack of red lights on Nemesis. However, the overall improvement in lighting across the park was good.

The scare zones were a bit hit-and-miss for me. Zombies was OK, but suffered from a lack of actors, particularly in the indoor sections. Scary Tales was a good concept, and I think it worked quite well, especially at night. The actors didn't get as close to the guests as I'd thought they might in both scare zones, but given that it was the first Sunday of Scarefest, and that this date traditionally has problems on park caused by certain guests, I understood why they didn't.

I ended up getting talked into doing the extreme run-through of The Sanctuary last night, and I'll be honest - I was a bit apprehensive about it, having not done many scare mazes before. I was, however, impressed with the extreme version of The Sanctuary. Before going in, the doctors in the waiting area were great. @Rocket and I were asking them a lot of questions, and we were both impressed with how well they stayed in character when they answered. The actors started climbing on top of guests, wheeling them around in wheelchairs, and all sorts. I somehow ended up with a slipper in my mouth at one point! :p The kitchen scene could have been utilised to greater effect. I can't remember when this bit happened, but one of the actors did bite my ear at one point. Yes, I did sign the disclaimer saying that the actors could touch me, but I thought that this was going a bit too far. Just before the strobe maze finale, I ended up on the floor as a couple of the actors grabbed hold of me and I had no other option as to what to do. One of them then proceeded to try and take one of my shoes off, but as I'd tied them tightly (and possibly due to the shape of them), they had no luck in doing so, which then ended up with my laces being tied together, forcing me to shuffle along a bit. The strobe maze finale was lacking in actors when I went through, although I do suspect that as my laces had been tied together, if actors had tried to perform jump scares on me, then there was a greater likelihood that I could have fallen over and injured myself. Other people who went through did end up losing their shoes for the strobe maze finale, but they eventually got them back.

Due to not getting on park until about 2pm, I didn't meet up with others for a while, but bumped into Tom and Stu around The Smiler, and stuck with them for a bit, which was good. After doing The Smiler later in the evening, we then met Will and Tarin by the ride's exit while waiting for others who were on the ride. It's a shame that not more time was spent with the rest of TST on park, but it was good to have a short catch-up with them.

I've skirted around this issue a bit, but I'm going to have to say it. It's hard to be diplomatic about this, but I'm going to try my best. The first Sunday of Scarefest traditionally has a large volume of travellers attending, and I'm aware that in the past, there have been several issues with them. The staff have a very tough job on this day, and they did well to try and stop any misbehaviour. The heightened security presence helped, and having a few police officers dotted around worked as a deterrent. I did find the large crowds gathered around the Towers to be a bit intimidating, and they were gathered in such a way that made it difficult to get through the archway. The worst incident was in the queue for Scary Tales in the evening. I'm not sure where this group of travellers came from, but they ended up splitting our group up. When they were challenged about this, they got rather aggressive and rude towards a few members, as they felt they'd done nothing wrong. After Astro went to speak to the staff member at the entrance, they were swiftly dealt with, but I don't know whether they were kicked out of the queue or not. The main point was that we got on before the queue jumpers did (if they did).

There's just one more thing I'd like to mention. Myself, Sam, Stu and Tom were in the SRQ for Thirteen, and went to the baggage hold area to leave our bags there. Whilst we were doing this, quite a few younger boys (I'd estimate them to have been between 10 and 13 years old, and there were about a dozen of them) just ran on behind us. A staff member tried to get them back down and out of the queue, but she didn't succeed - more to the point, we all felt that she didn't try hard enough. Eventually, we made our way into the station, and watched as the group in front of us tried to cheat the SRQ and go on together, disregarding what they were asked to do by Jon, the member of staff who was batching. They kept on moving around from bay to bay as well, which was frustrating for Jon, but the four of us were in agreement that he did very well to try and enforce the SRQ policy.

In all, it was a good day, and I managed a decent ride count as well. Just a shame that we didn't meet the main group any earlier (although it was physically impossible for me to get to Towers any earlier than I did), and also that the behaviour of some guests put a bit of a dampener on the day.

I guess I'll see you all at Fireworks in a couple of weeks! :)
 
Never understand why the issue requires skirting around. Trouble was caused, speak out, it is intimidating and impacts on others experience and enjoyment of the day. It isn't isolated, happens regularly, and Towers do a pretty good job in managing it, but it remains unashamedly the sole reason I do not attend this first weekend meet, and I feel no less a human being for saying so!!
 
TheMan said:
Never understand why the issue requires skirting around. Trouble was caused, speak out, it is intimidating and impacts on others experience and enjoyment of the day. It isn't isolated, happens regularly, and Towers do a pretty good job in managing it, but it remains unashamedly the sole reason I do not attend this first weekend meet, and I feel no less a human being for saying so!!
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You should've come on the Saturday! No problems whatsoever.
 
Tom.B said:
You should've come on the Saturday! No problems whatsoever.
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I'd gathered, I thought you had managed a trouble free weekend, I was very happy for everyone but a bit annoyed I didn't risk the Saturday!
 
TheMan said:
I'd gathered, I thought you had managed a trouble free weekend, I was very happy for everyone but a bit annoyed I didn't risk the Saturday!
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Well from what I've heard, Sunday wasn't so trouble free. Anyway, there's always next year!
 
If I recall correctly the Saturday has always been fine for us with none of the gypsies being on park (there may have been one year when there were a few, not sure). Certainly never been any issues on a Saturday of the meet. It is the Sunday where they all descend on the park and create a very intimidating atmosphere. The day they all come in April around Easter is usually even worse.

On Sunday we left at the time that most of them were arriving. One thing we did notice was that the airport style scanners were beeping for pretty much every one of them that walked through, yet no action was ever taken. What is the point in having the scanners if you're not going to do a search when they go off? Seemed very strange. To be fair to Towers though, they always handle the day very well and I have a lot of sympathy for the staff who have to deal with things that they do not deserve to be dealing with.

:)
 
Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for a fantastic weekend; this was my first Scarefest and it was fab, despite my reservations. Loved the scare mazes, laughed all the way through and would have quite happily done them again if I had the money :p The scare zones were much better than anticipated for me, Scary Tales in particular. Also have to mention how beautiful the Towers looked lit up, in addition to improved lighting in other areas around the park, this really added to the atmosphere :D

So yes, thank you to everyone for being great company - I tend to be quite shy in big groups, but definitely feel like my confidence is improving :blush:. Special thanks also to @Cheese, @Russ and @AstroDan for helping out @Danny and I with transport - this was greatly appreciated seeing as I was unable to drive us this time!

Roll on fireworks :grin:
 
Kimberley said:
Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for a fantastic weekend; this was my first Scarefest and it was fab, despite my reservations. Loved the scare mazes, laughed all the way through and would have quite happily done them again if I had the money :p The scare zones were much better than anticipated for me, Scary Tales in particular. Also have to mention how beautiful the Towers looked lit up, in addition to improved lighting in other areas around the park, this really added to the atmosphere :D

So yes, thank you to everyone for being great company - I tend to be quite shy in big groups, but definitely feel like my confidence is improving :blush:. Special thanks also to @Cheese, @Russ and @AstroDan for helping out @Danny and I with transport - this was greatly appreciated seeing as I was unable to drive us this time!

Roll on fireworks :grin:
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Was great to see you again Kim!
 
From what I can see there are a number of people missing! There were around 45 people when everyone was together :)!
 
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