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Scarefest 25/10/14 Trip Review

samaugust323

TS Member
Scarefest is personally my favourite event of the Alton Towers season, and this year definitely met the standards that I expected. Overall, the halloween theming was the same as every year at scarefest, however the lighting has improved (especially the dark forest area). Nemesis had no real lighting around it, which was disappointing as it is normally lit up red during the night. I never got to go into The Sanctuary and Terror of the Towers.

9:05 - Monorail
Queue Time - 15 Minutes

Considering it was the first day of scarefest where it was half term, I was shocked that there was a lack of trains on the monorail. Between each train there was about a 4-5 minute gap. The staff were wearing witches hats. When we got to towers street (9:20) the queues of people waiting to get in was already near the corkscrew. There was a lot of guests that kept getting confused where annual passes have to stand as there is no signage, and the queue for MAP twere hardly moving because annual passes in the wrong queue were moving over. When we got in at 9:30, the queue for getting the maze tickets was too long, so I decided to wait until later in the day (which I never got to do as the queue was too large every time I tried). So, I walked over to forbidden valley to ride nemmy and air!

9:45 - Nemesis
Queue Time
- 20 Minutes (10 Minutes once gates opened)

The staff did not open the gates to the main queue until 10:05 because there was so many fastracks (hotel guests got free fastrack from 10-11). Once the fastracks got into the station, they opened the main queue. This is still my favourite ride on the park. Shame the red water didnt make a return for halloween. Overall, a great ride! It was great to see the smoke effects working on the nemesis bus as I havent seen this working for a long time!

10:20 - Air
Queue Time - 15 Minutes

Only one station was avaliable at this time, however they were preparing the second station to open as the queue was starting to build. A good ride.

At 10:40 I headed for the skyride to go to the dark forest! Disappointed with the member of staff on there as he was more interested in talking to another member of staff, so 6 carriages went empty until he realised that he had a queue waiting for him.

10:50 - Rita
Queue Time - 25 Minutes

We was stuck under the launch track for about 20 minutes because the fastrack queue was blocking the path, so the staff had no choice but to let all of the fastrack through. In reality, if the hotel fastrack wasnt in the queue, the wait time should of been a minimum of 5 minutes. Thankfully, it was now 11:00 so there was no more hotel fastracks, but the main queues were now building!

11:10 - TH13TEEN
Queue Time - 20 Minutes (Queue board advertised as 5 Minutes)

Firstly, it was great to see the scaffold tunnel underneath rita launch track has finally been decorated! It looked really good in my opinion, however it was full of scarefest advertisments which ruined the theme. Queue moved pretty slow, but was inside the building within 10 minutes! There was a small break down, but the staff informed us that they have to send a few trains around empty. A really fun ride

11:40 - Hex
Queue Time - 20 Minutes

Fountain Square was where all the childrens halloween entertainment was held. I managed to see some of Phil and Franklyns Ghoul School which looked like some good fun for the kids!

This was the longest that ive seen the Hex queue, and the extended queue was also in use. The queue still moved quick. All the effects appeared to be working except the smoke effect that I saw when I visited in August in the octagon.

12:10 - The Flume
Queue Time - 15 Minutes

Pretty much got straight on this ride because of the coldness. The boats kept stopping on the lift hill and 4 boats were out of action. Every time the boats stopped on the lift hill they had to wait about 5 minutes of sending empty boats around! Once on the ride, we stopped at the second lift hill, and there was a build up of boats! After about 10 minutes, the ride started working again! The ride shut at about 5 because of low lighting levels

12:40 - Oblivion
Queue Time - 50 Minutes (advertised as 25 minutes)

X Sector was the most busiest area of the park all day. Again, I rarely see oblivion have a queue this long. The queue moved really slow. From what I could see, the single rider queue was full, and they was directing anyone who wanted to single ride to the main queue as the queues were "at equal length". I doubt this was true. The staff looked very tired already, and were batching too many people behind the gates regularly, which caused confusion to the staff and guests.

13:40 - The Smiler
Queue Time -
130 Minutes (Advertised as 100 Minutes)

Was I prepared for this queue? No... but i knew i wanted to do this ride once in the day and once in the night and the waiting time didnt seem to be going down at all! Staff seemed very unproffessional on this ride, as they were shouting at us to enter/exit the car as quick as we can, and they were almost forgetting to give wristbands at the baggage point. I had to remind them to give me a wristband. I can understand that theyre attempting to get the queue time as low as possible, but it doesnt help to rush us at all? A fun ride though :D

16:10 - Lunch/ Dinner at Explorers Pizza and Pasta Buffet
Was complete chaos in here... Took about 30 minutes to be seated and then 20 minutes for the staff to take the payment and give the plates and cups! Then, there was a large queue to get the pizza/pasta/salad... Was too busy, and wasnt enjoyable at all!

18:00 - Duel
Queue Time - 15 Minutes

The extended queue was open for this, but was on the ride quick... Seemed like all the effects were working, and was quite jumpy at point too... Really good fun!

Now I was gonna give the rides a break and head over to the scare zones. Queues were pretty big when i checked after im Forbidden Valley Queue Board, they were approximately:

X Sector
The Smiler - 120 Minutes
Oblivion- 45 Minutes

Forbidden Valley
Nemesis - 60 Minutes
Air- 70 Minutes (but did have a break down, and people started leaving queue)
Sub Terra - 50 Minutes

Dark Forest
Rita - 80 Minutes
TH13TEEN - 70 Minutes

Adventure Land
Sonic Spinball- 80 Minutes

Katanga Canyon
Mine Train- 50 Minutes

18:30 - Scary Tales
Queue Time - 15 Minutes
Rating 4/5

The new scare zone for this year, so I was excited to see what it was like. To me, it seemed to have more elements of a scare maze to a scare zone. There was quite a few scares throughout and a small mirror maze!

18:50 - Zombies! Scare Zone
Queue Time - 10 Minutes
Rating - 4/5

Really enjoyed this scare zone, the actors were really close and made it quite scary at times! I was the first group to go through on the more scary version (7pm-9pm). Although I cannot compare to the less intense version, I cant see how they could have changed it anymore?

19:10 - Oblivion
Queue Time - 35 Minutes (advertised main queue) 30 minutes (Single Rider)

I decided to go into the single rider queue, as it looked pretty short and I only had about 15 people in front of me.... However, the queue was still 30 minutes. There was no smoke in the hole at all, but overall a good ride in the dark.

19:50 - The Smiler
Queue Time - 120 Minutes (advertided main queue) 50 Minutes (single rider)

Decided to go in single rider queue, because I wanted to try and fit in as many rides as I could for the night. The queue was at the single rider queue sign. The ride broke down about 25 minutes into the queue for about 15 minutes. Was on the ride 10 minutes after, and it is a great ride in the dark.. Some of the marmaliser wasnt working, but overall it was fantastic in the dark!

After this I got on 2 quick rides on nemesis before going back to the hotels! The valley was pretty much empty

What was the scare mazes like this year? Its a shame I didnt end up going in them :(!

Thank You




 
This was a nice read and I'm glad you got to ride the majority of the things you wanted to :)

Did you manage to see any of the roaming actors throughout your day? They're meant to be really good this year!
 
Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your reply, I'm glad you enjoyed reading this trip review!

I only saw one roaming actor in Towers Street (statue)... Good to see they were making the teenagers and Young adult groups jump and run :')! I really think Alton Towers should have the wraiths in the Dark Forest area for Halloween again, but I doubt we'll ever see that again :(
 
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