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Scarefest 2020

Trying to work out how to fit everything thing in the evening when I go in two weeks.

By the time we come out of the mazes It'll be dark, so once we've eaten we'll do Thirteen. Then we could walk over to WM, then Nemmy via RMT, but then how do we fit the GLW in? Plus we've got to be wary of the close times and don't want to leave too late anyway.

Any suggestions?
 
Without fastrack that's basically impossible, the queues will be too long. Expect 1hr+ for both WM and Thirteen all evening.
 
He be using free fast track RAP
Not if the RAP queues are also really long! (I'm going in half term so that is likely)

That's another thing that's odd, there's no RAP access for the mazes. I kind of understand why that is though.
 
That's another thing that's odd, there's no RAP access for the mazes. I kind of understand why that is though.

aren’t the mazes on timed tickets and therefore queues should be minimal anyway?

also (and I know it is a spectrum) but I would expect people who get distressed by being close to people in a queue line, probably are going to get distressed by being closely enclosed in a scare maze anyway?
 
Just wanted to praise towers. I visited on Sunday and booked freakshow for 6:30pm. However due to a medical problem I had to leave the park at 4pm so couldnt get to do it. Im coming again tomorrow so emailed them to see if I could use my maze ticket on this date instead Fully expected a firm ‘no’ but thought ‘dont ask u dont get’. They just emailed me back with a new barcode ticket for the maze tomorrow! Proper chuffed and shows they dont always think about getting as much money as possible. Could of told me to buy again and I would of. Brilliant from them :)
 
Trying to work out how to fit everything thing in the evening when I go in two weeks.

By the time we come out of the mazes It'll be dark, so once we've eaten we'll do Thirteen. Then we could walk over to WM, then Nemmy via RMT, but then how do we fit the GLW in? Plus we've got to be wary of the close times and don't want to leave too late anyway.

Any suggestions?

Visited Sunday, we queued about 80 minutes for Thirteen when it was advertised as 40!!
 
We visited yesterday for Scarefest and I thought I'd share my views of the mazes (no spoilers).

Firstly we did Darkest Depths, I really wasn't very impressed with this maze on my run through, the actors seemed to be few and far between and we couldn't hear what they were saying. I realise it's more of a family maze but there wasn't really any scares throughout and some of the effects weren't working correctly, although the new ending looked good it wasn't scary and didn't pack a punch that it should. I also preferred the original location.
Ry Reviews (1/5)

Secondly we moved onto The Attic, this ended up being my favourite of the four this year, the atmosphere was on point throughout the whole attraction and apart from the distancing between the actors and ourselves appeared to be as full on as last year with plenty of scares and jumps.
Ry Reviews (5/5)

Next up was the new Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard, I had pretty low expectations of this maze with it being promoted to be an all outdoor maze and seeing the clips of it being set up, it did literally look like a load of crap piled on top of each other (not in a themed sense), but I was pleasantly surprised! Baring in mind we did it after dark, the lighting really made the maze and I was glad to see there was quite a bit of theming making up the walkways as opposed to just crates and trollies. The finale also took us all by surprise! My only niggles are that I feel like the maze could have been slightly longer with a few more actors and maybe used the shipping containers just to add a small indoor section. Again I do think the lighting enhanced the maze and it wouldn't be worth it in the daylight. Ry Reviews (3/5)

I'd been looking forward to Altonville Mine Tours all day with it being a firm favourite from previous years (although I do think it's run its course now) and with it now being late there was a great atmosphere throughout the queue line. Covid wise I was disappointed to see people we allowed to queue through the tunnel in pitch darkness which was a distancing nightmare, I'd have liked to have seen this controlled. I was disappointed to see the removal of the second pre show as the other two mazes had one so there wasn't really an excuse to remove it but other than that the actors were on top form with a decent amount of scares. Again though I felt the finale lacked and people were just walking out the end. Ry Reviews (4/5)

Barr Darkest Depths I feel like all the mazes are as strong as previous years and haven't really lost any scare factor due to Covid which I thought would have happened, so that was a pleasant surprise. My only negative on the whole was the batching of groups, Freak Show aside. I don't think it's problem that three groups enter the pre shows together however there was no attempt at separating the groups from then on with each group following the other straight away from the first scene.

Apologies, I only planned on writing a few lines...
 
Very positive experience of the event yesterday.

The Attic is the standout maze this year, a clear improvement on last year.

Mine Tours and Darkest Depths both fine. Sadly they have been great in previous years and arent on the same level this year. In the case of Mine Tours this is clearly due to covid - it isn't as scary without the actors getting in your face as much and it really misses the big set piece at the start. Darkest Depths is less effective in it's new location.

Toxic Junkyard is not great, clearly the weak link, but still exceeds expectations and probably better than Project 42. It becomes a bit repetitive with the same type of scare just using different weapons, but good fun.
 
Very positive experience of the event yesterday.

The Attic is the standout maze this year, a clear improvement on last year.

Mine Tours and Darkest Depths both fine. Sadly they have been great in previous years and arent on the same level this year. In the case of Mine Tours this is clearly due to covid - it isn't as scary without the actors getting in your face as much and it really misses the big set piece at the start. Darkest Depths is less effective in it's new location.

Toxic Junkyard is not great, clearly the weak link, but still exceeds expectations and probably better than Project 42. It becomes a bit repetitive with the same type of scare just using different weapons, but good fun.
What big set piece at the start?
 
The Attic is the standout maze this year, a clear improvement on last year.
Interestingly Attic is totally unchanged from last year so this just shows how sometimes run-throughs can really vary, just on little things like actors and pacing, depending how lucky you get.

To me Darkest Depths felt like it was similarly good as last year, now with a much bigger and better ending, but the preshow and the story running through it kind of suffered. It felt more rushed in the preshow and I missed the cozier original where you sat in the pub and the actor got close to you (nothing you could do about that now really) and the much better position under the arch. For some reason having the maze lost round the back of Dark Forest felt a bit dead?
 
What big set piece at the start?

The actual mine "lift". You just walk past it now.

I think a lot of the improvement in The Attic was a consequence of being in a smaller group, to be fair, and determining our own pace throughout the maze. It was nice, for example, to be able to stop in the room with the projection rather than hurrying through it. But, yes, that could still vary between run-throughs.
 
Oh, it's still in there and it still does what it did before, it's only a few cogs on the wall.

I felt like having a show scene in that room added quite a lot to the experience and immersion, rather than being rushed through it, maybe just me though.
 
Really enjoyed my evening tonight. Only did Smiler in terms of rides (15 min wait at 8.15pm).

Darkest Depths: Still beautiful but less effective than last year due to distancing.

Freak Show: Great as a stop gap maze! Really colourful and dynamic.

Whispering Souls: This really feels like the start of something. The possibilities are endless. Beautiful.

Had a pint of Spaten sat outside Oozy Boozy. Worth sacrificing AP discount as the atmosphere is worth the extra quid. I love what they've done with the lawns during Oktoberfest and Scarefest!

Really good job, Towers. I think you're learning what atmosphere is again.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
 
My experiences seem to differ wildly from others!

Darkest Depths was great for the first 5 or so minutes, but the ending was dreadful! I genuinely left feeling as if I’d missed something. The sets and theming is great however, and I thought the pre-show was far stronger this year.

The Attic was just OK. I love the story, the theme and the general atmosphere this maze creates. It’s definitely too short in my opinion though, and I felt that the ending was weaker than last year. I’m not sure if the layout of the ending was changed as I remember there being a long corridor last year with the ‘devil’ waiting at the end (you could only see the outline of his horns as the corridor was full of smoke and low level lighting) which worked much better. The maze has wonderful sets and theming again though and it’s always an immersive theatrical experience which I love.

Mine Tours was great but again, it suffers as a result of no touching but that isn’t something that is their fault so no marks lost! I do feel this was the strongest maze this year but I do think it’s perhaps time for it to retire. Having said that, it’s the strongest maze theme & story the park have ran with probably since The Sanctuary.

Freak Show was fairly awful to be honest. I wasn’t wowed and I left underwhelmed. Nothing really made much sense and I left confused. The theme has potential though, and I’d like to see this brought indoors next year. Perhaps I didn’t rate this one as much because I’m just not impressed by outdoor mazes. It’s obvious this maze was given a minimal budget because the set pieces weren’t great and this maze is nowhere near the level of set/theming quality we got in 2019 with The Attic & Darkest Depths. Kudos to Ents though for trying to pull something out the bag with limited resources.

I’m thankful we got a Halloween event this year though. And the masks took nothing away from the experience for me. Also great to see a better atmosphere across the park!
 
Fantastic atmosphere tonight again, after my seconds visit this week I have to say it’s a great scarefest. Yes, you could find niggles and bits here and there but with the park being so vast I think it’s near impossible (or more realistically, unviable) to light every tree, and pathway like planet coaster. I have noticed more lighting around the park this year, but at expense of a couple rides that seem to have lost their lighting packages (wickerman prime example). There are still the odd generators around, however they are quieter... but, it’s just the positioning of them (one right infront of Nemesis’s helix ruins that view) and the fact most are just plain white lights too.

I also noticed volume around the park ,specifically X Sector and Wickerman, area had been turned down by night. is this something else to do with local residents does anyone know? As I’m sure I hadn’t noticed it in previous years
 
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