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Scarefest 2021

Rick said:
It baffles me that for a park where people complain relentlessly about the opening times, a not insignificant number offset the latest possible close with a late arrival or an early dart.
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I am guessing it is more about people having freedom of choice. Something you do not really have with short openings. It is then or nothing.

Going back to Scarefest, I have always thought Spooktacular was a better name, Scarefest sounds too American. Spooktacular was much more original in my oppinion.
 
DistortAMG said:
I am guessing it is more about people having freedom of choice. Something you do not really have with short openings. It is then or nothing.

Going back to Scarefest, I have always thought Spooktacular was a better name, Scarefest sounds too American.
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Scarefest is more original and unique though. I've seen quite a few events that include Spooktacular in the name.
 
If the park didn't close overnight, I wouldn't leave. I'll be at the gate at 9am, lunch as soon as the queues get big on the rides, in the mazes as soon as they open, sink 6 pints on the lawns when the ride queues are at their peak, back on the rides and enter the longest queue possible at 20:59.
 
Matt.GC said:
If the park didn't close overnight, I wouldn't leave. I'll be at the gate at 9am, lunch as soon as the queues get big on the rides, in the mazes as soon as they open, sink 6 pints on the lawns when the ride queues are at their peak, back on the rides and enter the longest queue possible at 20:59.
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Only six? Amateur. ;)
 
Matt.GC said:
If the park didn't close overnight, I wouldn't leave. I'll be at the gate at 9am, lunch as soon as the queues get big on the rides, in the mazes as soon as they open, sink 6 pints on the lawns when the ride queues are at their peak, back on the rides and enter the longest queue possible at 20:59.
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Hide round the back of thirteen on the old top of valley footpath all night, they would never find you round there, but you haven't gone through a locked gate!
 
Matt.GC said:
If the park didn't close overnight, I wouldn't leave. I'll be at the gate at 9am, lunch as soon as the queues get big on the rides, in the mazes as soon as they open, sink 6 pints on the lawns when the ride queues are at their peak, back on the rides and enter the longest queue possible at 20:59.
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I'd happily stay after 9 if I didn't have a 1hr 20ish journey back home! :p
 
GaryH said:
oh no. I hope not
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Yep, it's was back last night (Fri 15th). I personally didn't mind it until I found out the noise bleed into the end of the Whispering Souls walk :(.

If anyone is interested, don't leave doing the Whispering Souls walk too late. Went round at 7:45pm ish and some of the walk seemed to be fenced off even thou pathway lit (Did see security(?) closing closing pathways). Shame since its was really nice in the dark.
 
As far as I could tell tonight, I heard no heavy metal music - will leave thoughts on mazes probably tomorrow as I'm too tired to go in depth. 3/4 are the best they've ever been, 1 in particular was so high standard today acting wise and amount of actors wise, that I've never been more terrified in a maze (usually don't really get scared).

Operations in general, mixed bag, mostly not great, particularly Galactica which was on 2 stations but 2 crafts. First time I've noticed (and heard) RAP abuse as my party was a RAP party today. Not having The Smiler working makes a big difference. Full thoughts coming soon.
 
Few thoughts/observations on today:

Dark Forest is pretty much a write-off unless you do it first. That's pretty much standard for peak season but they do themselves no favours with throughput on both Rita and Thirteen well below what they used to get.

Spinball continues to be the best value for queue time out of the family coasters on account of it actually being well operated in the main.

RMT was randomly running 4 laps even though the queue was LONG.

Having Smiler and Rapids down is a major issue at peak times, the paths didn't really feel all that busy today but several rides had very long queues. Mazes were not busy though, we got through 3 between 1-2pm and Junkyard barely had a queue at 6.30.

The garden lights walkthrough is the best addition to scarefest in years.

Doing last ride on WM really emphasised just how much the guest experience is impacted by FT/RAP at other times. The queue was almost entirely full but we were on in just under an hour. A queue from the same point but earlier in the evening was over 2 hours last week, entirely due to FT/RAP allocations.
 
John said:
The garden lights walkthrough is the best addition to scarefest in years.
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It was one of the "must do" on my visit along with Thirteen in the dark.

What time did you do the walk & did they cut the walk short after the bandstand (force you back up the steep tarmac path)?
 
John said:
Dark Forest is pretty much a write-off unless you do it first. That's pretty much standard for peak season but they do themselves no favours with throughput on both Rita and Thirteen well below what they used to get.
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With regard to Dark Forest; I thought Thirteen was back up to a pretty high capacity now it’s able to fully load trains again? I know that Rita doesn’t tend to have the highest capacity (around 700pph the one time I timed it), but on the one dispatch I was able to time on my last visit, Thirteen was getting around 1,200pph, which I’d argue is pretty phenomenal myself!

I wonder why RMT was randomly running 4 laps? I’ve only ever seen it running 3 during ERT, when it was typically deserted…
 
Matt N said:
With regard to Dark Forest; I thought Thirteen was back up to a pretty high capacity now it’s able to fully load trains again? I know that Rita doesn’t tend to have the highest capacity (around 700pph the one time I timed it), but on the one dispatch I was able to time on my last visit, Thirteen was getting around 1,200pph, which I’d argue is pretty phenomenal myself!

I wonder why RMT was randomly running 4 laps? I’ve only ever seen it running 3 during ERT, when it was typically deserted…
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Maybe the op kept forgetting to press the stop button when the train entered the station? :p
 
Thoughts on this year's mazes (based on a 1pm run through off all four)
The Attic - started with this one, walked straight in. The pre-show for The Attic sets the tone well. This one was packed with actors, and was non-stop scare after scare, one of the dolls gave me a good scare as I genuinely thought it was just a prop until she moved. The group I was with in The Attic was absolutely terrified and it made the experience even better. Probably the best this maze has ever been. The only downside is there was no devil at the end (despite the "he's gonna get you"/"he's coming for you") - if you hadn't listened properly to the pre-show or been in it before you wouldn't know he was supposed to be there - 9/10

Darkest Depths - this was the second maze I did, and there was just me and a group of four in this one. The pre-show to to this lost it's effect a little with me because you could see the actor in the Smugglers Inn moving in front of people even when it was dark, so you knew he was going to be in front of you. Again though, packed full of actors (quite intense at one point there were about 4 actors ganging up on us!) Smells are great in here and the kraken at the end is fantastic, his tentacles actually whack you with some force, at least yesterday they did - 9/10

Altonville Mine Tours - the third maze of the day. The oldest, but the best by far. The mine/lift shaft scene at the start had me genuinely terrified like I never have been before in there. Again, there was probably an actor around nearly every corner of the maze, the guy two people in front of me ended up on the floor because one of the actors forced him against the wall. The actors were really going for it with the touching, and the blocking of people so it split them up from the people in front. So claustrophobic in here but honestly in my opinion this maze is the strongest it's ever been. The strobing towards the end is so intense and it really brings out the horrific look in the actors costumes during that section. I'm gonna give it 9/10 also because I didn't see the shotgun ending. However, I don't think I've ever been as scared in a maze as I was in here yesterday (including all the previous years of this maze itself! DO NOT go in here if you don't like intensity, because they're really going for it in here this year).

Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard - a lot better than last year, but by far and away the weakest maze. I had two good jump scares, but the fact I did it in the day meant I could see the actors and where they were coming from. The fact most of it is enclosed is great this year and I like the section with the foam machine and the things that you have to move out of the way to get through them (not sure what they're called). The chainsaw finale had 4 chainsaws but is so lacklustre because they're behind the fence and then you know they're going to come through so it loses the effect. The beginning of the maze was also a major dead spot on actors, but apart from that, it was alright. Would probably be better in the dark - 6/10

Didn't wait any longer than 5 minutes for any maze, so try and do them as soon as they open, or at least the first three anyway.
 
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