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Scarefest vs Covid-19

Actors are scaring from afar and at a height (in Toxic Junkyard) I believe this year. The mazes will probably be more COVID secure than a standard queueline, as you know there is going to be reasonable dispatch between groups. You can't account for the people behind you in queuelines keeping their distance however.
 
The only issue I can see (which always happens in mazes) is groups catching up with each other, if you are going quite slow but the group behind are scared and they rush through it they’ll end up with your group, or the other way round. And you’ll be pretty much stuck with them throughout the rest of the maze, with the actors probably thinking you are the same group.
 
The only issue I can see (which always happens in mazes) is groups catching up with each other, if you are going quite slow but the group behind are scared and they rush through it they’ll end up with your group, or the other way round. And you’ll be pretty much stuck with them throughout the rest of the maze, with the actors probably thinking you are the same group.
Yeah I was thinking about that. How far apart do we think they'll send groups in?
 
Usually the gaps are not that big between groups, just think how long the pre show video was for TOTT, or DR Kerman’s talk, bar scene in darkest depths, etc, that’s generally the gap between groups. Imagine it will be similar this year, but I guess depends how many tickets they are selling per hour slot, as they won’t really know until the day how many of these tickets are for the same groups of people.

It does mean if you end up going through mazes as a 2 or 3 you should get some pretty good scares as the actors will be focusing on you and not 10-15 people.
 
It does mean if you end up going through mazes as a 2 or 3 you should get some pretty good scares as the actors will be focusing on you and not 10-15 people.
That's a good point, should make up for the actors being further away.

A few people have said "oh the pre-shows won't return this year due to Covid", not realising that the pre-shows actually help with group spacing.
 
I'm going in as a 1 so all the focus will be on me, genuinely think it will probably be my scariest year to date because of that reason!
 
Towers have done a video on the measures in place;


It does look like Towers have really considered how they are going to pull of the scare mazes this year and hopefully this a step forward for the whole immersive theatre/ horror experience industry in actually showing work in these difficult times. As someone who is in the performance industry, it is so exciting to have something live actually happening, not just on Zoom.

My real concern is though how the public will respond to these measures. I've seen it many a time in towers mazes where all have stood very nicely and listened to the Pete Cliff pre-recorded audio (other voiceover artists are available;)) telling them not to touch the actors, but yet when they get into the maze and someone jumps out on them people hit or flick out, most of the time unintentionally, just as a response to a shock. I worry that these actors are in the front line of getting the virus. Hopefully a solution to this would to have more costumed ents hosts inside the mazes, like they have done in recent years in sub species (where they had someone telling you to wait to go in the tunnel), reminding people of the rules if they do step out of line.
Hopefully for the ents team's sake towers do get to the majority of the run of scarefest. As someone who had many shows cancelled as of the pandemic I can only imagine how awful it will be if they do have to cancel the mazes.
 
It is my understanding that the ents team at Towers have a very good set of protocols in place. Ensuring group separation appears to be Towers' COVID safety weakness.
 
It is my understanding that the ents team at Towers have a very good set of protocols in place. Ensuring group separation appears to be Towers' COVID safety weakness.

It's the same in many places - there are a large number of people out there who seem to think they are immune from Covid and ignore social distancing. There are plenty of reports on Tripadvisor regarding the lack of social distancing compliance in the ride queues at Towers. Maintaining group separation in the mazes will be difficult and the throughputs will be low - probably why all the mazes are up-charge now to help reduce the demand level.
 
It's the same in many places - there are a large number of people out there who seem to think they are immune from Covid and ignore social distancing. There are plenty of reports on Tripadvisor regarding the lack of social distancing compliance in the ride queues at Towers. Maintaining group separation in the mazes will be difficult and the throughputs will be low - probably why all the mazes are up-charge now to help reduce the demand level.
Yep. It seems that they may need to increase separation, or perhaps lighting levels in Mine Tours. Other mazes seemed to have a good to very good management, from what I've been told.
 
It's the same in many places - there are a large number of people out there who seem to think they are immune from Covid and ignore social distancing. There are plenty of reports on Tripadvisor regarding the lack of social distancing compliance in the ride queues at Towers. Maintaining group separation in the mazes will be difficult and the throughputs will be low - probably why all the mazes are up-charge now to help reduce the demand level.

On our last few visits, we've been mostly successful with having people behind us in queue lines stay on their floor markers. Only had to ask a few times for people to step back, most people then followed it for the rest of the line.
Unfortunately, I did get one idiot who tried arguing the point of them with me, so I just asked him to tell me in the midst of a pandemic in which I may be infected with a virus, why would he specifically WANT to be near me? His brain then short-circuited as he couldn't give me an answer, which ended our lovely time together :p
As long as you're pleasant, you should feel empowered to ask anyone rushing behind you in the mazes to give you some space, even if they may be delirious with fear!! :eek:
 
So a few updates from yesterday in regards to scarefest and COVID. I would say overall not that much is different, the route and layouts for Attic and Minetours remain pretty much the same. Of course the actors don’t touch you at all in any of the mazes, but they still come quite close to you, but often they will jump out and be gone quickly, or they’ll jump out at you and then turn away or move away. They certainly don’t get in your face or stay in your face as previously.

But overall both of the old mazes felt not too much different to previous years. I would say I couldn’t spot any of these techniques they say they are using, certainly no plastic screens or anything like that.

In terms of groups, you are batched in to the briefing and pre show of the mazes with a couple of households (probably about 10 people total) but are spread out in the pre show, you are then batched in to the maze after the pre show as your household. The actor then carries on more pre show before sending the next group in.

Overall it worked well, and we didn’t have any issues bumping in to other groups in any of the mazes.
 
My trip isn't looking good now! :( Apparently the restrictions to be announced today will be in place for a month then reviewed, but could be in place for SIX MONTHS! :eek:
Staffordshire Moorlands are also on the Tier 3 list, let's hope Towers aren't forced to close! :oops:
 
My trip isn't looking good now! :( Apparently the restrictions to be announced today will be in place for a month then reviewed, but could be in place for SIX MONTHS! :eek:
Staffordshire Moorlands are also on the Tier 3 list, let's hope Towers aren't forced to close! :oops:

Where is this info from?
 
There is no announcement as yet as to which region will be on which tier list initially. Merseyside is the only region expected to be given tier three status immediately.

Considering the delays in even getting this system sorted, and the nature of the system, I think it more or less guarantees that Alton Towers will remain open for the remainder of the season. It's in an extremely rural area.

However, visitors from certain parts of the country will not (legally) be allowed to travel to the resort.
 
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Apparently there's a court case next week which could potentially end the lockdown, so we'll wait and see
 
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