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Scarefest 2013: Discussion
- Thread starter PG Ricey
- Start date
delta79
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis, Air
I have been thinking about meats post.
There are a couple of things that worry me, one is the changes in floor levels in low light conditions.
second is the chance of another member of the public grabbing his dads stick in fear to hit a actor, causing injury to both the actor and his dad.
Third is the reported rudeness of staff. If they explained it in a different way, like "there has been problems with sticks in this attraction and some stick users have had other members of the batch group kick or try to grab them. so we been order not to allow sticks in, for the safety of both our staff and yourself. and personally I would feel awful if you got batch with someone that does that and you get hurt"
There are a couple of things that worry me, one is the changes in floor levels in low light conditions.
second is the chance of another member of the public grabbing his dads stick in fear to hit a actor, causing injury to both the actor and his dad.
Third is the reported rudeness of staff. If they explained it in a different way, like "there has been problems with sticks in this attraction and some stick users have had other members of the batch group kick or try to grab them. so we been order not to allow sticks in, for the safety of both our staff and yourself. and personally I would feel awful if you got batch with someone that does that and you get hurt"
James
TS Founding Member
My thoughts of the event having now been to the park. I'll try and no go on too much as many of you know how Scarefest is. 
General Atmosphere
The park had a good atmosphere as always. Different to any other normal day in the season? I would say no. It felt pretty much the same as any other time of the year. When you're in Towers Street and Fountain Square you really feel like it's Halloween and the atmosphere feels very different. Beyond those areas though the park feels more or less the same.
I understand a park the size of Alton will never be able to get fully decorated although a few pumpkins, photo points or haystacks in areas would work well.
Park Lighting
Not much to say here. Lighting is good in some areas. The lights with filters on really changes some areas of the park. Going back a few pages I understand that the 2010 quoted £25,000 would not be possible these days (maybe Merlin should just, I don't know, give their leading theme park bigger budgets!) although £8,000 to change all the bulbs to coloured ones is very viable in my eyes. When you compare that to £26k it's a very minimal cost. It would add so much to the park too.
Terror of the Towers
Walk on all day on both days of my visit (although I only did it the one day). I did go on it in the daytime though so maybe people are going to the mazes at night? Either way it was nice to be able to get straight in there.
Now I'm used to being in dark environments although I found it very difficult to walk up the stairs to the briefing area, it was pretty much pitch black and was a nightmare to work out where I was going. Some dim lights pointing at the stairs would have helped. Just a small niggle of mine.
Onto the maze itself. The pre-show is really quick and I don't actually see the point of it, blink and you will miss it. The narrative is very loose and pretty pointless. I really hope they re-do this next year as it's quite disappointing.
The actors were brilliant in the maze and made great use of the area and props around them. I was at the very back but all the actors made sure I got a few good scares too so I'm pretty impressed that they made sure every single person in our group got something out of it. One of the actresses followed me through most of the maze whispering in my ear which was quite funny!
Now the finale. The strobes are as great as ever and it's still the most intense finale in a maze I've experienced. The main problem... lack of actors. I only counted one actor in there which just didn't work at all. Most of the group didn't get any scares at that point and the actor just seemed to be running up and down past us.
A very disappointing end to what was an all round, good, solid maze.
8.5/10
The Sanctuary
Advertised queue time of 10-30 minutes on both days. On the day I went we were in less than 5 minutes.
I was very disappointed to see no Gerry at the start! He was on his break at the time so I sadly missed him. Although the actor in his place was equally as good and stayed very in character with a hint of creepy.
The maze itself... in the kitchen I know there's meant to be fire although on my visit there was no fire in there! We were a small group and I was in the middle so I'm pretty sure I didn't miss it. The actors in this room were good, their scares were a bit too easy to foretell though, like the male actor in there screamed in my ear, which I expected as they do that thing when they don't make much noise then slow down next to you and yeah.. you know what's coming. But both may good used of the what is quite a grand room!
The rest of the maze. Good scares all round although there seemed to be a lack of actors? Not everyone in the group got a scare and some actors seemed to be struggling to cover the whole group. There were quite a few empty spots too when we seemed to just be walking in empty areas. I admire the theming in this maze though, there's some nice detail around and I love the concept of it as a whole (when you detach it from The Smiler).
I love the Marmalisation room! It's really well done although the leg ticklers felts more like smooth brushes cleaning my shoes.
The finale was a bit pants if I'm honest. They did the usual group split although I got not a single scare at this point and saw no actor whatsoever around. The last actor I saw was the one who split the group up in two. It was a very disappointing finale and I must say The Sanctuary's hype did not live up to my expectations. It is a great maze but the lack of actors left the experience feeling a bit empty.
6/10
Overall TOTT beat it and still is my favourite. The actors seemed to be working harder in there and I got a lot more out of it than I did The Sanctuary.
The only problem with TOTT is a loose narrative which may as well be scrapped! The Sanctuary is a great concept and very creepy in ways, although a lack of actors didn't make the experience feel as intense as TOTT did.
I sadly didn't get to do Carnival. It had a consistent 60 minute plus queue time, which personally I didn't feel would be worth the wait. It does show though that when there's a free maze, people lose interest in the paid ones! With where the mazes are placed too, people are going to see the free one before they reach the paid ones so I'm guessing most people go for what they can see first!
General Atmosphere
The park had a good atmosphere as always. Different to any other normal day in the season? I would say no. It felt pretty much the same as any other time of the year. When you're in Towers Street and Fountain Square you really feel like it's Halloween and the atmosphere feels very different. Beyond those areas though the park feels more or less the same.
I understand a park the size of Alton will never be able to get fully decorated although a few pumpkins, photo points or haystacks in areas would work well.
Park Lighting
Not much to say here. Lighting is good in some areas. The lights with filters on really changes some areas of the park. Going back a few pages I understand that the 2010 quoted £25,000 would not be possible these days (maybe Merlin should just, I don't know, give their leading theme park bigger budgets!) although £8,000 to change all the bulbs to coloured ones is very viable in my eyes. When you compare that to £26k it's a very minimal cost. It would add so much to the park too.
Terror of the Towers
Walk on all day on both days of my visit (although I only did it the one day). I did go on it in the daytime though so maybe people are going to the mazes at night? Either way it was nice to be able to get straight in there.
Now I'm used to being in dark environments although I found it very difficult to walk up the stairs to the briefing area, it was pretty much pitch black and was a nightmare to work out where I was going. Some dim lights pointing at the stairs would have helped. Just a small niggle of mine.
Onto the maze itself. The pre-show is really quick and I don't actually see the point of it, blink and you will miss it. The narrative is very loose and pretty pointless. I really hope they re-do this next year as it's quite disappointing.
The actors were brilliant in the maze and made great use of the area and props around them. I was at the very back but all the actors made sure I got a few good scares too so I'm pretty impressed that they made sure every single person in our group got something out of it. One of the actresses followed me through most of the maze whispering in my ear which was quite funny!
Now the finale. The strobes are as great as ever and it's still the most intense finale in a maze I've experienced. The main problem... lack of actors. I only counted one actor in there which just didn't work at all. Most of the group didn't get any scares at that point and the actor just seemed to be running up and down past us.
A very disappointing end to what was an all round, good, solid maze.
8.5/10
The Sanctuary
Advertised queue time of 10-30 minutes on both days. On the day I went we were in less than 5 minutes.
I was very disappointed to see no Gerry at the start! He was on his break at the time so I sadly missed him. Although the actor in his place was equally as good and stayed very in character with a hint of creepy.
The maze itself... in the kitchen I know there's meant to be fire although on my visit there was no fire in there! We were a small group and I was in the middle so I'm pretty sure I didn't miss it. The actors in this room were good, their scares were a bit too easy to foretell though, like the male actor in there screamed in my ear, which I expected as they do that thing when they don't make much noise then slow down next to you and yeah.. you know what's coming.
But both may good used of the what is quite a grand room!The rest of the maze. Good scares all round although there seemed to be a lack of actors? Not everyone in the group got a scare and some actors seemed to be struggling to cover the whole group. There were quite a few empty spots too when we seemed to just be walking in empty areas. I admire the theming in this maze though, there's some nice detail around and I love the concept of it as a whole (when you detach it from The Smiler).
I love the Marmalisation room! It's really well done although the leg ticklers felts more like smooth brushes cleaning my shoes.
The finale was a bit pants if I'm honest. They did the usual group split although I got not a single scare at this point and saw no actor whatsoever around. The last actor I saw was the one who split the group up in two. It was a very disappointing finale and I must say The Sanctuary's hype did not live up to my expectations. It is a great maze but the lack of actors left the experience feeling a bit empty.
6/10
Overall TOTT beat it and still is my favourite. The actors seemed to be working harder in there and I got a lot more out of it than I did The Sanctuary.
The only problem with TOTT is a loose narrative which may as well be scrapped! The Sanctuary is a great concept and very creepy in ways, although a lack of actors didn't make the experience feel as intense as TOTT did.
I sadly didn't get to do Carnival. It had a consistent 60 minute plus queue time, which personally I didn't feel would be worth the wait. It does show though that when there's a free maze, people lose interest in the paid ones! With where the mazes are placed too, people are going to see the free one before they reach the paid ones so I'm guessing most people go for what they can see first!
TheMan
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- NemiLerVion
James said:
Have to disagree with this, by mid morning all maze slots had been sold after 3:15! What they did was manage the queues exceptionally well and not oversell them. When you paid a premium for the maze, they didn't make you queue an age to actually get in! This is a HUGE improvement on last years experience. From what I was told, it was a very deliberate managing of ticket sales. I was skeptical of what I was told until I experienced it myself.
Maybe it is because I did them earlier and there was less time to build a back log, but on a very, very busy day I really was very pleasantly surprised by this.
Also, Carnival in the afternoon just after opening was decent, waiting about 20/30 mins which was fine.
A shame I didn't get to meet up with you at some point during the day mate
djtruefitt
TS Team
The thing I have noticed about the paid mazes on my visits this Scarefest is that they are often walk on all afternoon, but very busy in the evening. However the Sanctuary also has much larger queues than TOTT, im guessing TOTT has better throughputs as it used to be the free mazes. But at times last weekend Sanctuary had a good 30-40 minute queue, TOTT was walk on!
djtruefitt
TS Team
Its always been the same, which is clearly why its cheaper in the day, so towers want to make people visit them in the day time. I guess queueing for them at night is a bit more scary, rather than in the light.
TOTT and Sanctuary make no difference in the day as they are all in side and sealed up of any natural light. However I do thing that Carnival is better at night, the outside bit at the start is better, and so is the living dummy and some of the transitions from goal striker building to the shipping containers.
TOTT and Sanctuary make no difference in the day as they are all in side and sealed up of any natural light. However I do thing that Carnival is better at night, the outside bit at the start is better, and so is the living dummy and some of the transitions from goal striker building to the shipping containers.
James
TS Founding Member
I think it's more of a psychological thing that the dark leads it to being scarier. When in reality it makes no difference.
Works in Alton's favour anyway as most nights have sold out!
That's the main reason why I went for an afternoon slot. TOTT walk on and TS with a very short queue - I get through both mazes quickly and still get a just as good experience out of it. You also get batched in smaller groups too!
Works in Alton's favour anyway as most nights have sold out!
That's the main reason why I went for an afternoon slot. TOTT walk on and TS with a very short queue - I get through both mazes quickly and still get a just as good experience out of it. You also get batched in smaller groups too!
James
TS Founding Member
delta79 said:
Not sure if you found it but here it is if you haven't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfx99vF4gXQ#
cybermen39
TS Member
Not really to important but the van that the clowns were driving around was used by the park keepers and years ago it was the Ug land Van. Some one posted it was new to the park keepers but it isn't.
James said:
I used to always do the mazes at night, loved queuing in the dark - just made it more atmospheric for me, especially when it was out at the hotels. I'd book a 21:30 and 22:00 slot and well just being out there made you feel more vulnerable. Plus leaving the park at 23:45 is a unique experience when yours is one of three cars left on the car park!
Then I got a job, started paying my own way and they bumped the prices up for the dark slots. Suddenly I was happy to visit in cheaper daylight hours!
James said:I loved the mazes when they were by the hotels. 11pm ticket slot ftw!
Amen to that - totally amazing and unique experience were the mazes and the atmosphere by the hotels. Will never forget going in to FOTS armed only with a tony torch and the moonlight close to midnight hearing all the rustling in the corn around you unsure if it was the breeze..... or someone in the corn!!
IanB
TS Member
Was Scarefest 2013 a failure compared to previous years?
According to people Checking In at Alton Towers, Yes.
https://www.facebook.com/altontowersresort/likes
Yes, my first comment was attention grabbing, but it does suggest that less people visited Scarefest this year, compared to the previous event. There could be a hundred reasons why this stat is misleading, such as people checking in at other locations instead, but I think it still gives a potential insight, that would otherwise be hard to come by about the number of visitors to Alton Towers during Scarefest this year.
On Another note, I am sure we can get more than 22 people to checking in at one time at Alton Towers?
Ian
According to people Checking In at Alton Towers, Yes.
https://www.facebook.com/altontowersresort/likes
Yes, my first comment was attention grabbing, but it does suggest that less people visited Scarefest this year, compared to the previous event. There could be a hundred reasons why this stat is misleading, such as people checking in at other locations instead, but I think it still gives a potential insight, that would otherwise be hard to come by about the number of visitors to Alton Towers during Scarefest this year.
On Another note, I am sure we can get more than 22 people to checking in at one time at Alton Towers?
Ian
For me, yes it was, I went for the opening day and quite frankly it was a disaster. I heard that people had better days during the next week and the second weekend, but thats one the of the problems with Alton lately, the experience isnt consistent. I dont think the power cut helped on the 19th but I really didnt enjoy my weekend up there unfortunately. Not sure if I would class it as a failure though - I appreciate that more effort was put into the park this halloween with more lighting and the area up by Hex etc. Unforutnately for me, all of my night was spent queueing for the mazes
cybermen39
TS Member
We were there on the 30th and 31st and we had a great time just wondering around but it was the quietest year by far. that includes the hotel on the 30th the night was very quiet they said it was full . If it was I don't know where they all were but other years the night was heaving .