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Scarefest 2013: Discussion

Actually I think Carnival will return for another year as towards the end of Scarefest it became quite popular well from when I visited anyway. I understand in its early days this year it had mixed reviews but towards the end and me also experiencing it I thought it was quite good!

The Sanctuary HAS to return! This was simply amazing! Very well thought up and a story line!

Zombies as much as I enjoyed it when I visited they had alot of problems with ''Chavs'' on my second run one of the actors got hit and we had to be evacuated. Im hoping it returns but this may be a case of Haunted Hollow again.

In all I hope they stretch the budget of Scarefest I'd REALLY like to see them play with Duel again and add actors and turn off the guns, I know there was people trying to use them and people thought it was crap but yeah, personally id like to see it return as I never got to experience it.
 
Carnival was the strongest it has ever been. I think they can squeeze another year out of it. Although they don't wanna kill them concept.

Sanctuary would be nice however it was meant as a prelude to SW7 so I think it's a bit pointless.

A Dark Forest related maze would be amazing. A maze that brough a cohesive story to the entire area.
 
Like i said theres nothing much they could do with Carnival. Yes they added the spinning tunnel. Nothing really has changed. They need too scrap it and create something with more scares. Maybe bring back Field Of A 1000 Screams.

Zombies! Scarezone is a big hit. Maybe bringing back or creating a new zombie maze would be ideal.

As for Terror Of The Towers, i really think it will stay. Second best maze for me. Would be very good if they changed a few of the scenes with major tweaks would be very awesome.

2012's Zombies! Scarezone was terrible. They should really think about removing it from the Scarefest lineup.
 
ThemeParkJack said:
They need too scrap it and create something with more scares. Maybe bring back Field Of A 1000 Screams.
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I'd love them to bring back field, but with the lodges being constructed on the old field site, it would be a matter of finding a new location for field on park?


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CoasterDan said:
ThemeParkJack said:
They need too scrap it and create something with more scares. Maybe bring back Field Of A 1000 Screams.
Click to expand...

I'd love them to bring back field, but with the lodges being constructed on the old field site, it would be a matter of finding a new location for field on park?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I agree. There could be some place too put it. Obviously a field haha :D
 
The lodges are going on a different field to the field of a 1000 screams.

If the mazes have sold more tickets and made more money since being on park, I imagine they will stay there rather than go back to the hotels.
 
I doubt we'll see the mazes move back to the hotels now. It makes much more sense to have them on park and I actually think it works a lot better. It was nice having something to do after park close when the mazes were at the hotels but Scarefest is a much better park wide event now that they are on park and it gives more people an opportunity to experience the mazes. I'd imagine they make more money with them being on park also.

:)
 
There may be a chance of one maze being introduced to the hotels in future. Although on the whole mazes will continue to stay on park, logistically it works out better and Alton Towers have concentrate marketing more within the theme park/drive more sales.
 
I'd like to see Towers give Scarefest a realistic budget now it has become an established annual event. The team behind Scarefest are honestly miracle workers squeezing such an event out of a minuscule budget but honestly, it's an embarrassment of an event from such a major park. Perhaps with more money they wouldn't need to use the same old props, scares and characters for 5 years running.
 
The Scarefest budget seems to depend on how well the park do in the first 3 months of the season, 2010 Scarefest had a huge budget but the park did fantastic that year. Merlin have a very short sighted view when it come to budgets.

Of benefit though the new mid management team in Ents did great things with not much time to plan In 2012, for 2013 they will have had a full 12 months lead-up time (rather than the 3 months they had last year) so hopefully things will be on the up.
 
Out of interest what ever happened to all the lighting that the park bought? I think it was 2010? correct me if im wrong but they went all out with lighting and such.. was this only on hire as we haven't really saw anything of its kind since?
 
I had my reservations about '12 Scarefest, I didn't think it was great at all actually.

I have only been into the mazes for a couple of years, before it was the atmosphere, so I am surprised to find out the mazes were held at the hotels before. That seems rather ridiculous and I hope that doesn't make a return! They should be on park for all visitors to easily access, it's the proverbial "no-brainer" that one.

One thing I have changed my mind on though, is my lack of enjoyment of The Sanctuary. They had 3 months lead in time for this? In fact for the lot, with a very publicly known Merlin skinflint bah-humbug stupid budget?

Though that makes me more annoyed with Merlin, I must applaud the team now I have more intimate knowledge of what they were up against.

That still doesn't change the public perception of course, of which my view was initially, rather than an enthusiast more detailed appraisal.

Merlin need to get a grip and start acting properly - some people who work in that company are beyond clueless and have no place in the Theme Park or Hospitality industries.

Seriously, get another job and let someone with passion who knows what they are doing run it! They'd actually make more money for the company that way too!

Absolutely clueless.

It's not on that people like me, who didn't realise, end up with a less than favourable impression and blame the park, whilst those cowards at HQ whom hide behind their Excel spreadsheets don't have to deal with it!

I hope you read this Merlin, but I doubt you can be bothered!
 
The Public liked Scarefest and The Sanctuary got great reviews from most theme park geeks, scare maze geeks and the public. I have never seen a Scaremaze get 100% ratings as different people want different things and obviously Scaremazes are subject to actor variety.

Some people liked Carnival yet I thought it was pants, so obviously there is great variety in perception. From a Scaremaze quality point of view though 2012 was as good as 2010 which was an amazing year. It's the rest of the event that was pants.
 
The Sanctuary was amazing, the actors, the story was unique and the overall execution was just amazing (first scarefest though!), Carnival on the other hand was weird! It had no story and left you feeling a bit like "What was that about?" when you got out!
 
I have to say my post wasn't entirely Merlin bashing. Realistically the competition between these events isn't particularly fierce in this country so to your average theme park-goer the event appears at least on-par with anything else out there. I just feel that once the UK market is dominated (as Merlin clearly seem to believe they have done) surely it makes sense to start competing on a more global scale and bring in visitors from outside the UK, but Scarefest as an event doesn't even touch it's European or US competitors and this is where I feel a healthy budget, the great team they have already pulled together could really shine.
 
This year's Scarefest was my first, and my overall impression of the event was that it was largely good. However, bar Towers Street and the mazes, the park just didn't feel very Halloweeny - dunno if that's the usual or not.

I found Sanctuary to be incredible, my favourite maze I've ever been in. It had almost everything - a great story, brilliant story telling, great characters and scenes and the perfect length. The only downside I found to it was the ending, which felt a bit sudden and disappointing. I also found Carnival to be great as well - some parts were predictable, and the ending was weak, but I enjoyed it. I really felt it combined humour and scares very well. ToTT was the poorest maze for me - it felt like it was being dragged on, a seeming lack of actors and just in general a bit boring. The ending was good, very disorientating, but the whole strobe light thing just doesn't scare me really.

I'd like to hope that Carnival has another year left, but it will soon need to face the chop before it does become to stale, especially for those who visit every year. I like the idea that strecthy posted on the previous page about having a Carnival of Screams scare zone when Carnival leaves though, especially if it were to replace the Zombies one. Sanctuary can easily remain (and rightly so!) with a couple of tweaks to the story. ToTT needs some serious work done to it in my opinion - I don't know if I was unlucky when I went in it, but I was just unimpressed by the maze as a whole really.

So, for 2013 Scarefest, I'd like to see a major rework of ToTT, and the keeping of Carnival and Sanctuary. Zombies and stay or go, I'm not really fussed, but they key thing in my mind is to put more into the overall park's presentation - make it feel more like a Halloween event; roaming actors weren't enough to cover this for me.
 
In defence of the mazes being at the hotels I preferred the fact they were open until midnight, so you had something to do after the park - which kept the scarefest activities going long after the park closed.
I used to love coming off park at 9pm, having a warm up and a drink in the bar heading back out at 10:30 for the mazes and rolling in at midnight to a packed bar and people enjoying themselves, regularly followed by the maze actors.

Also for Field of 1000 Screams it worked at the hotels because it needed the isolation and space you simply wouldnt be able to recreate in the park. It is still my top maze of all time, the story, the fact you were outside in the dark, the huge props - it had a barn and a bus! lol - and was just superb.

Sanctuary was superb, only just behind Fo1kS for me. I found Carnival dire this year, if I had only paid for that one maze I would have asked for a refund, simple as that.

I would love for one late night maze to return to the hotels (really just bring Fo1kS back), that keeps activities on that bit longer than the park - also it might catch guests on their way out of the park, as the old ones used to.

But for 2013, Id like:
Sanctuary 2.0 - to tie in with SW7
ToTT - with a few changes, its getting stale
New Maze - or even carnival if its not going to be rubbish
Field of 1000 Screams - back at the hotels
Lighting back to how it was in 2010
Entertainment staff roaming again like this season
Park wide decorations beyond just Towers Street

I dont think im asking alot for an annual event that has been going for several years now, also with the end of the season being the busiest and most profitable for the park they need to realise that investment on Scarefest and Fireworks will being a bigger return if more is pumped into them.
 
How much do you want a bet that 2013 is going to be the most ''spooktacular'' yet? ;)
 
CoasterDan said:
who's excited for it being a longer scarefest the usual (19th October --> 03rd November) :D
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It's actual only longer than the 2012 event (if you exclude the preview weekend). The 2007 event was 3 whole weeks, for example!

I hope the preview returns, seemed like a good way to break the event in.
 
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