Steve74
TS Member
I've booked a twilight ticket for next Saturday so I'll see what it's like. Will be interesting to see if they will let you in at 4pm on the dot or if they'll let people in a little earlier.
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Scarefest 2020
- Thread starter Skyscraper
- Start date
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Map!
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Connor98
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Hyperion
I wonder, does “Mutiny Bay Area” include wicker man, or does anyone know if it is due to close at 8:30 with the rest of the thrill rides?
Skyscraper
TS Member
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- Nemesis
8:30 according to the app.
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Can someone confirm the start points of the GLW when they go? I'm hoping it'll be DF and FV, and hopefully not one way. If it is one way hopefully it'll be DF to FV, or I'll have to rethink my evening plan. 
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Danscott22
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
I know Duel and Hex are both indoors, but at least some rides are still open until 9, we will likely utilise the Runaway Mine Train tomorrow evening between 8:30-9.
Has anyone done the mazes yet? If so, how are they? My anticipation is building for them tomorrow, mainly between I've only done half of them before! (AMT & The Attic) DD will be completely new for me and I'm really looking forward to Toxic Junkyard - believe I'm gonna start with this one and work clockwise round them.
Has anyone done the mazes yet? If so, how are they? My anticipation is building for them tomorrow, mainly between I've only done half of them before! (AMT & The Attic) DD will be completely new for me and I'm really looking forward to Toxic Junkyard - believe I'm gonna start with this one and work clockwise round them.
Danscott22
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
I think most people will just leave at 8:30 to be honest. I have a feeling they are assuming the demographic the RMT is aimed at will have long left before 8:30.
EDIT: The only reviews I have seen so far are for Darkest Depths - which is apparently even better than last year!
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Danscott22
TS Member
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- The Smiler
Don't mean to double post but - all thrill ride apart from Thirteen, The Smiler & Wicker Man are closing at 9 this evening.
Danscott22
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- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
Very strong reviews coming in from all 4 mazes + Garden Lights Walk! I think they might be onto a winner this year! I'm not sure if my family will want to go through Gardens Lights Walk but I am doing the 4 mazes so will share my thoughts probably on Sunday as I may be too tired tomorrow evening. I'm doing Toxic Junkyard in the daylight so will factor that in my review of fairness - I won't score it down because its light outside, as long as its got the scares and plenty of actors I'm sure I'll like it!
Swarm Chris
TS Member
I see YouTube is flooded with videos this morning from Thorpe Park'sVloggersVIP night last night. I haven't watched any but I see from the descriptions that many contain footage from inside the mazes (with Thorpe's blessing of course). Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this? Personally, I think it completely ruins the scare and surprise effect of the mazes. If I was spending money to go into them, I'd want to be surprised, scared, impressed at everything not thinking "oh there's a jump scare coming up - I saw vlogger x get jumped on here".
Thorpe did it last year but Towers never have and I really hope it stays like that too.
Yes I know no-one is forcing you to watch them but many followers of the vloggers will watch them and for them and people they show it to it'll ruin the whole surprise element of the attractions.
Mods - please move this if you feel this is better placed in another thread
The fully open coverage has become crazy, and this year was increased by some sites putting spoilers within their posted social media updates. Possibly as an arm's race against the vloggers to get an exclusive out first? It did however let me see that the Thorpe event appeared to me to be terribly managed and thought out safety wise, so it saved me any disappointment of not going this year.
Towers have previously allowed content to be taken from within the mazes, but that it was to be carefully used so as not to overly spoil things until after, or very late, into the event. Thankfully external filming has never been allowed via a media night.
I do however wonder why marketing haven't filmed inside, much like Universal do, and have the camera fixed on the guest to show a brief few seconds clip of them coming through the maze screaming.
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
TPWW's Scarefest vlog;
(contains spoilers)
In regards to groups, a few groups are batched into the pre-shows then sent one group at a time into the mazes.
(contains spoilers)
In regards to groups, a few groups are batched into the pre-shows then sent one group at a time into the mazes.
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Barnaby Simpson
TS Member
Are the mazes actually open until 9p.m?
djtruefitt
TS Team
I did post in the other thread, however TH13TEEN did stay open til 9pm, even though the app and queue board did say it was closed earlier. Most other rides were walk on so also closed at 9, but smiler and wicker were both showing as closed earlier.
Overall I felt the event was fairly decent yesterday. I certainly enjoy the reuse of the Oktoberfest area, there’s less seating and the stage has moved further up the lawns. But it’s nice to have the food and drink options all there (and actually rethemed to fit in to scarefest), the food is actually cheaper as well compared to Oktoberfest). It gave thet bit of the park a bit more atmosphere as there was music playing on the stage all day and with the seating there were plenty of people just chilling there, unlike the old stage which didn’t have much. Also the seating for the bar is right next to the bar so much quicker to be served than Oktoberfest, courtyard is being ran the same as Oktoberfest as well.
Im not gonna go through the mazes step by step, but Attic and Minetours felt pretty similar to last year, darkest depths is also similar, but slightly different route and a totally different ending than last year. Also I still can’t believe how well themed that maze is, you really wouldn’t know at any point you are just walking through some shipping containers.
I felt a little disappointed with Junkyard, we didn’t have a great run through and it really felt like it was lacking in actors or any scares. However from other peoples reviews they said it was great, so maybe it was just a bad run though. However you can play a good game of “spot old scaremze and ride stuff” whilst going though it, as it is literally a junk yard. I would say the budget must have been fairly low, as it’s all reused stuff.
So overall Minetours was my favourite, with some really good scares and so many actors. Darkest depths is also good, but as it’s aimed at younger people it’s just not that scary.
However the real highlight and surprise was the garden lights walk. It’s very simple but very effective, basically just covering the gardens in fairy lights, spot lights and audio. It was also nice to explore parts of the garden on the dark, something that’s never been possible before. It’s got a set route so you can’t just wonder all over the place. There’s a little video I’ve put on TS socials, and a few photos of it last night.
Overall I felt the event was fairly decent yesterday. I certainly enjoy the reuse of the Oktoberfest area, there’s less seating and the stage has moved further up the lawns. But it’s nice to have the food and drink options all there (and actually rethemed to fit in to scarefest), the food is actually cheaper as well compared to Oktoberfest). It gave thet bit of the park a bit more atmosphere as there was music playing on the stage all day and with the seating there were plenty of people just chilling there, unlike the old stage which didn’t have much. Also the seating for the bar is right next to the bar so much quicker to be served than Oktoberfest, courtyard is being ran the same as Oktoberfest as well.
Im not gonna go through the mazes step by step, but Attic and Minetours felt pretty similar to last year, darkest depths is also similar, but slightly different route and a totally different ending than last year. Also I still can’t believe how well themed that maze is, you really wouldn’t know at any point you are just walking through some shipping containers.
I felt a little disappointed with Junkyard, we didn’t have a great run through and it really felt like it was lacking in actors or any scares. However from other peoples reviews they said it was great, so maybe it was just a bad run though. However you can play a good game of “spot old scaremze and ride stuff” whilst going though it, as it is literally a junk yard. I would say the budget must have been fairly low, as it’s all reused stuff.
So overall Minetours was my favourite, with some really good scares and so many actors. Darkest depths is also good, but as it’s aimed at younger people it’s just not that scary.
However the real highlight and surprise was the garden lights walk. It’s very simple but very effective, basically just covering the gardens in fairy lights, spot lights and audio. It was also nice to explore parts of the garden on the dark, something that’s never been possible before. It’s got a set route so you can’t just wonder all over the place. There’s a little video I’ve put on TS socials, and a few photos of it last night.
I did Toxic Junkyard in daylight yesterday and it was quite frankly dreadful!
It wasn't scary, you can't hear the jokes through the face masks and there were multiple sections completely devoid of actors.
While it was in daylight, im not sure that darkness would really fix that much as the main problem seemed to be a lack of scripting/direction.
Its like the actors were just told to "act like a clown" if that makes sense. For example, a lot of them had weapons, but didn't seem to know how to utilise them and just sort of stood there, in the open, waving it in my direction before running away.
(I should add that they utilised the chainsaws well...Im not scared of chainsaws so it completely fell flat but thats my fault and not the maze's).
The worst problem however was that it just felt way too short.
I also went in Darkest Depths, my ticket was for the Attic but after being stuck in the queue for almost an hour and having to leave so I didn't miss my train, they let me use it in Darkest Depths instead.
It seemed like it was toned down from last year but I suspect that was just the natural loss of intensity due to social distancing.
Anyway, the theming was much better than last year and each major scene felt much more elaborate!
Another plus was that the entire pirate crew now seem to have a much more consistent characterisation between themselves and the Kraken has more of a presence in the maze.
Unfortunately, there ware still some downsides...
For one, the maze felt ever so slightly too short (or more accurately, felt like it ended prematurely) and seemed to lose intensity as it went on, especially for the...
Apart from the disappointing ending, Darkest Depths was really good and a huge improvement on last year!
It wasn't scary, you can't hear the jokes through the face masks and there were multiple sections completely devoid of actors.
While it was in daylight, im not sure that darkness would really fix that much as the main problem seemed to be a lack of scripting/direction.
Its like the actors were just told to "act like a clown" if that makes sense. For example, a lot of them had weapons, but didn't seem to know how to utilise them and just sort of stood there, in the open, waving it in my direction before running away.
(I should add that they utilised the chainsaws well...Im not scared of chainsaws so it completely fell flat but thats my fault and not the maze's).
The worst problem however was that it just felt way too short.
I also went in Darkest Depths, my ticket was for the Attic but after being stuck in the queue for almost an hour and having to leave so I didn't miss my train, they let me use it in Darkest Depths instead.
It seemed like it was toned down from last year but I suspect that was just the natural loss of intensity due to social distancing.
Anyway, the theming was much better than last year and each major scene felt much more elaborate!
Another plus was that the entire pirate crew now seem to have a much more consistent characterisation between themselves and the Kraken has more of a presence in the maze.
Unfortunately, there ware still some downsides...
For one, the maze felt ever so slightly too short (or more accurately, felt like it ended prematurely) and seemed to lose intensity as it went on, especially for the...
Those being,
The Kraken Attack where I was told to run through a sinking ship while tentacles bust through the floor and walls, and Underwater...what can I say, this scene was amazingly themed and felt like something from Disney or Universal, I walked through until I encounterd what I think was supposed to be the kraken?
The problems with these two scenes were mainly a complete lack of scares.
In, The Kraken Attack...
A pirate randomly told me to start running as the ship is under attack...this was the only untense part of the maze as every actor was a friendly pirate trying to help me and the tentacles were all static props.
While it was still amazingly themed, it ultimately fell flat due to a complete lack of urgency.
And, Underwater...
where I walked across and earily calm and uninhabited seabed surrounded by skeletons impaild on swords (for some reason) and then encountered the scene's only actor...a guy in a Pirates of The Caribbean, Davy Jones costume...who just sat there pretending to be an animatronic before lazily sticking an arm out at me...and then the maze just ends...
Clearly, this emptiness was the intended effect, and it is done very well...but the maze's final just isn't the time or place for that, it made the whole ending feel very unsatisfying.
The Kraken Attack where I was told to run through a sinking ship while tentacles bust through the floor and walls, and Underwater...what can I say, this scene was amazingly themed and felt like something from Disney or Universal, I walked through until I encounterd what I think was supposed to be the kraken?
The problems with these two scenes were mainly a complete lack of scares.
In, The Kraken Attack...
A pirate randomly told me to start running as the ship is under attack...this was the only untense part of the maze as every actor was a friendly pirate trying to help me and the tentacles were all static props.
While it was still amazingly themed, it ultimately fell flat due to a complete lack of urgency.
And, Underwater...
where I walked across and earily calm and uninhabited seabed surrounded by skeletons impaild on swords (for some reason) and then encountered the scene's only actor...a guy in a Pirates of The Caribbean, Davy Jones costume...who just sat there pretending to be an animatronic before lazily sticking an arm out at me...and then the maze just ends...
Clearly, this emptiness was the intended effect, and it is done very well...but the maze's final just isn't the time or place for that, it made the whole ending feel very unsatisfying.
Apart from the disappointing ending, Darkest Depths was really good and a huge improvement on last year!