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Scarefest 2013: Discussion

It was a bit of a mixed bag really, the event is feeling rather tired now. Sanctuary for me was boring (it was great last year and in March, but I think I have just been on it way too much), TOTT is even more tired and Carnival was by far the best maze, but even that is old now.

Its certainly been an unlucky Scarefest with the powercut on the opening day and then the Smiler being closed for the end of the event.

I think next year it needs money pumping into it and having a complete refresh. TOTT needs to go and I would also say so does the Sanctuary. Also another scare zone could do with being added. The family stuff was much better located this year, but once again its the same as before, same shows, etc. Its all a bit boring.
 
Scarefest, in my view, may as well be Alton-in-the-dark-fest. I'll try to do each maze once each year, but apart from that the main attraction for me is the place at night. I so wish they could do a 'summer nights' evening like TP, ( how realistic that wish is i don't know. )

Although the mazes are good, I much prefer the rest of the park and I visit enough that I don't like queuing, for PAID mazes especially. As ridiculous as that sounds. Especially as they are virtually the same mazes year on year.

I would much rather (and do) visit somewhere that is totally 'Scare' oriented for Halloween. There are only perhaps two areas of the park that you would even know it was Halloween.

Love the opening hours, love the rides in the dark, love the place in general, but Scarefest to me, is ride-in-the-dark time primarily.
 
For me as an event it was the best yet, but it's holding on to a tired format that needs major changes.

All 3 mazes out performed previous years but they are essentially the same, family stuff was better this year and zombies massively improved.

So was it a better event than every year previous.... Yes! Was it as big an improvement as it should have been... No! But if ents are not given a budget to do it then we are stuck. They need yo completely rethink Scarefest or watch it fail.

As for check ins I don't think people check-in as much as they used too on FB. It seemed a busier event than previous.
 
For me the event was better this year than in 2012 and 2011. However I do not think the mazes were as good as in 2010. And obviously the lighting wasn't a patch on 2010. If budget permits I do feel that Scarefest can go from strength to strength over the next few years.

:)
 
How was the final weekend for maze run through was it any better than the previous days
 
josht said:
How was the final weekend for maze run through was it any better than the previous days
Click to expand...

I found batching on the final day was awful, being sent out in groups of 12 -14 which ruined a lot of the mazes as groups that big just don't work well. Also, in Carnival we caught up with the group in front of us, causing the group behind us to catch up too. Sanctuary was really good in the final hour as it looked like they had all the actors in with every room bar surgery having multiple actors.
A mixed bag really.
 
I've been meaning to write something about Scarefest mazes, so here goes.

The Santuary:

Was really looking forward to doing this, after hearing so much positive news about it during Scarefest 2012. I really do like the theme and the storyline, the actors were quite good. However the big downside I had with it was the 2nd scene of marmilisation. The scent of the mist was so strong then I felt I was going to throw up. But apart from that, I found the maze to be good, but it didn't really meet my expectations. It's hard to explain since I hardly remember my run, but I do remember when I came out I felt a bit disappointed. Overall good, but not great

6/10

Tower of the Terrors.

The first run of this was utter rubbish. I like the storyline for this maze, but everything else left a very bad impression for me when I exited the attraction. The first problem was that the actors were pretty poor, with the bleak first part just being abandoned (although I understand this is due to safety reasons. But the biggest problem was that the layout was terrible. I seriously hate that bit where you have to crouch down, and as I'm quite tall and had two bags, it was very uncomfortable for me. The 2nd run I had was much better due to the actors being more involved with the group, but I found it the be the worst of the 3 mazes. Overall, very mixed in the 2 runs.

First run: 3/10
Second run: 6/10

Carnival of Screams

I'll admit, I was actually pretty nervous going into this maze because I'm not really fond of clowns. However I actually really enjoyed this maze. The whole theme and the themeing itself is really, really good and the actors were top notch. There were times that I felt really nervy because when and were the actors were gonna pop out from (This was my first time going through the maze I might add) The finale was good as well. Overall, this was my personal favourite of the 3! (Oh, and special thanks to AstroDan for persauding me to go into the maze)

8/10

Sorry if this seems poor, I just put down all of what I remembered from the Scarefest meet.
 
Ironic that, as someone mentioned in the comments, the production value of that is much higher than that of The Smiler's viral videos! ;)

Great stuff though, must bring back great memories for the actors.
 
It's a great fun video. Hopefully there will be more random things like this in 2014. :p

Just something that occurred to me. When I visited on 30th/31st October there was a guy with Alton Towers uniform filming the Trick or Treat show during the day (I think that's Pete Cliff there too). Must have been for the above video!

DSC02561_zps434016e5.jpg


My parents were taking pictures of them filming the show while I was on Hex... and my parents call me the geek! :p
 
maybe your parents thought you would like to see it, so took photos of it for you. parents can be thoughtful like that ;D
 
Just an update to this previous post: http://www.towersstreet.com/talk/general-discussion/scarefest-2013/msg89328/#msg89328

We have been in contact with the Product Excellence Manager at Merlin who has apologised for my father's treatment. They said that it was not Merlin's policy to restrict access to those who rely on walking sticks and that the staff operating the maze were wrong to just eject us from the attraction. He went on to say that what should have been done was to send our party through separately with the actors and being pre-informed of what was happening. They say they have launched an investigation and hopefully this will never happen again to anyone at a Merlin attraction.

As an act of goodwill because of the hurt caused we have been offered free entry to Alton Towers and the Scaremazes at the next year's Scarefest.

It doesn't of course completely heal the bitterness I feel, but I am content with end outcome.
 
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