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Scarefest 2015
- Thread starter ThemeParkJack
- Start date
Burbs
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Voltron Nevera
Towers have now opened Duel's extension queue line.
That's a bloody huge queue!
ASturge21
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Anything but Thirteen
Well that must be a first I've never seen duel with a queue never mind to katanga.Towers have now opened Duel's extension queue line.
Halloween is always the busiest, but yes, a good sign.
Slightly off topic question: what do the gravestones in duels extended queue line say?
James
TS Founding Member
Been on park today. The atmosphere has been fantastic. The park hasn't felt this good since Scarefest 2010 for me. Great to see some life in the park.
Only downside really is seeing some areas of the park looking a mess. Nemesis being the standout one, given its 21 this year they should have really given it a clean, paint and refresh, and kept the waterfall on... It looks in a very sad state.
Only downside really is seeing some areas of the park looking a mess. Nemesis being the standout one, given its 21 this year they should have really given it a clean, paint and refresh, and kept the waterfall on... It looks in a very sad state.
Burbs
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Voltron Nevera
But instead we got a silly alteration of the logo and a few bits of merch with it on.
But that's something for another thread.
Altonadvocate1
TS Member
Had my first day at the park since July on Tuesday and if I were to describe scarefest 2015 in a single word, that word would be AWESOME.
Great to see the improved theming on towers street. The highlight was the giant Scarefest sign, which captured the event perfectly. The new stacked pumpkins also bulked out the theming.
The Alton Ancestors did not have the variety of sizes and costumes as the year before, but more than made up for it with personality. Whereas in the previous year the AA were somewhat aloof, this year they interacted, made banter with guests, posed for photos never broke character. Congratulations to tge whole troupe, and Lady Emily in particular.
I'm too tight to do the scare mazes, but with regard to the scare zones, the open areas were a huge improvement on the batched queuing of Zombies scare zone the 2 years before. Dark Apocolyose in Dark Forest was basically Zombies scare zone light, but I loved the Wraiths and the bald headed vampire's overacting and enthusiasm for chasing and scaring the women was fun.
Nox infernus was by far the better scare zone. The use of lighting, sound and the Chainsaw guy was great. Brilliant fun and got some great photos.
The Ancestors continued their great rapport with guests in the afternoon.
The might Nemesis, for my money the best rollercoaster in the world was running brilliantly and was even better after dark. 13, a coaster that has always been a slow burner for me, grows on me with each season and was way better in the dark as was Oblivion.
I have a soft spot for Patch and Friends Trick or Treat party and even though it is for the kids I could not help but join in the infectious fun, though I thought the year before had a better choice of music.
Congratulations to Nick for his spooky Halloween remix of ITHOTMK, which added to the atmosphere after dark.
I agree that the vocalists in the ATH were a downgrade from the fantastic Halloween themed bands in previous years.
I think they had pretty good gate figures for a Tuesday as there were loads of people on park, even though queues for the big 5 never exceeded 35 mins.
Alton Towers have raised there game for Scarefest 2015. I hope that word of mouth from this fantastic event turns a corner for them. THANKS TO EVERYONE INVOLVED FOR FANTASTIC DAY.
Can't make fireworks this year having thoroughly enjoyed 2013 and 2014, but if AT put in as much effort as with scarefest, they deserve a tremendous gate.
I had been concerned about the future of AT following the Smiler incident and months of unfair publicity, but feel they have turned a corner and have a good team in place.
I HAVE ALWAYS REGARDED AT AS A WORLD CLASS THEME PARK WITH POSSIBLY THE GREATEST SETTING IN THE WORLD AND WE ARE LUCKY TO HAVE IT. HERE'S HOPING IT RECEIVES THE INVESTMENT IT NEEDS TO CLIMB THE RANKINGS.
Great to see the improved theming on towers street. The highlight was the giant Scarefest sign, which captured the event perfectly. The new stacked pumpkins also bulked out the theming.
The Alton Ancestors did not have the variety of sizes and costumes as the year before, but more than made up for it with personality. Whereas in the previous year the AA were somewhat aloof, this year they interacted, made banter with guests, posed for photos never broke character. Congratulations to tge whole troupe, and Lady Emily in particular.
I'm too tight to do the scare mazes, but with regard to the scare zones, the open areas were a huge improvement on the batched queuing of Zombies scare zone the 2 years before. Dark Apocolyose in Dark Forest was basically Zombies scare zone light, but I loved the Wraiths and the bald headed vampire's overacting and enthusiasm for chasing and scaring the women was fun.
Nox infernus was by far the better scare zone. The use of lighting, sound and the Chainsaw guy was great. Brilliant fun and got some great photos.
The Ancestors continued their great rapport with guests in the afternoon.
The might Nemesis, for my money the best rollercoaster in the world was running brilliantly and was even better after dark. 13, a coaster that has always been a slow burner for me, grows on me with each season and was way better in the dark as was Oblivion.
I have a soft spot for Patch and Friends Trick or Treat party and even though it is for the kids I could not help but join in the infectious fun, though I thought the year before had a better choice of music.
Congratulations to Nick for his spooky Halloween remix of ITHOTMK, which added to the atmosphere after dark.
I agree that the vocalists in the ATH were a downgrade from the fantastic Halloween themed bands in previous years.
I think they had pretty good gate figures for a Tuesday as there were loads of people on park, even though queues for the big 5 never exceeded 35 mins.
Alton Towers have raised there game for Scarefest 2015. I hope that word of mouth from this fantastic event turns a corner for them. THANKS TO EVERYONE INVOLVED FOR FANTASTIC DAY.
Can't make fireworks this year having thoroughly enjoyed 2013 and 2014, but if AT put in as much effort as with scarefest, they deserve a tremendous gate.
I had been concerned about the future of AT following the Smiler incident and months of unfair publicity, but feel they have turned a corner and have a good team in place.
I HAVE ALWAYS REGARDED AT AS A WORLD CLASS THEME PARK WITH POSSIBLY THE GREATEST SETTING IN THE WORLD AND WE ARE LUCKY TO HAVE IT. HERE'S HOPING IT RECEIVES THE INVESTMENT IT NEEDS TO CLIMB THE RANKINGS.
Wait, which one was the "Zombies" in?
Altonadvocate1
TS Member
DA just reminded me of ZSZ. Probably more to to do with the similarity of location than the costumes and make up.
Still enjoyed it, but NI was better
Altonadvocate1
TS Member
Probably because the Great British Public, or elements of it, cannot be trusted to behave responsibly.
Looked even sillier when 2 minutes before the scarezone "opened", they attach the Orange AT covers to the standard metal fences. Looked alright until then, at least you could see the cars before.
Went yesterday with a friend - first Scarefest in years for both of us. Now, we're basically giant wimps so went for the family fun side of things, and it was great. I only have 2 issues.
1. Ride reliability seemed a bit hit and miss yesterday, but that's sort of to be expected near the end of season, I suppose.
2. More lights please, AT. I'm visually impaired and struggled in places, even my friend with good vision had issues. That needs sorting, really.
I loved the atmosphere, loved the Ancestors, and loved all the theming, and we had a great day, we stayed from 10.30 till 8, when the cold evening got the better of us, and the queues were too long for our liking.
1. Ride reliability seemed a bit hit and miss yesterday, but that's sort of to be expected near the end of season, I suppose.
2. More lights please, AT. I'm visually impaired and struggled in places, even my friend with good vision had issues. That needs sorting, really.
I loved the atmosphere, loved the Ancestors, and loved all the theming, and we had a great day, we stayed from 10.30 till 8, when the cold evening got the better of us, and the queues were too long for our liking.
Tom
TS Member
I found ToTT as good as ever, but the strobe room was too short.
Sub Species was incredibly overhyped by enthusiasts. It was new, dynamic and exciting - but as for being the scariest maze of all time anywhere on earth, that's a gross exaggeration. A true maze at times in terms of getting lost etc.
Molly Crowe is good but the finale was poorly executed and only about half of our line of people got lunged at in their faces, the rest sort of just watched from a distance. Has to be room for improvement there if it's going to return. The priest should also be more central as some might not notice him on the side. This theme has great potential but needs a lot of ideas going into next year. The suspense of following the rope trail blindfolded was great but the slight touches and scratches aren't scary enough. Needs to have more 'sensory' experience - maybe wrap rope around a leg or play synthesised voiced in people's ears etc.
Both zones are good. Possibly not as good as Zombies but their location makes for more people enjoying them, possibly unaware they're entering them which makes them an improvement to be fair.
Sub Species was incredibly overhyped by enthusiasts. It was new, dynamic and exciting - but as for being the scariest maze of all time anywhere on earth, that's a gross exaggeration. A true maze at times in terms of getting lost etc.
Molly Crowe is good but the finale was poorly executed and only about half of our line of people got lunged at in their faces, the rest sort of just watched from a distance. Has to be room for improvement there if it's going to return. The priest should also be more central as some might not notice him on the side. This theme has great potential but needs a lot of ideas going into next year. The suspense of following the rope trail blindfolded was great but the slight touches and scratches aren't scary enough. Needs to have more 'sensory' experience - maybe wrap rope around a leg or play synthesised voiced in people's ears etc.
Both zones are good. Possibly not as good as Zombies but their location makes for more people enjoying them, possibly unaware they're entering them which makes them an improvement to be fair.
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
I'm not sure too many have said it is the "scariest maze of all time anywhere on earth" though. For me it is by far the best and scariest scare maze that I have ever personally experienced. Of course there may have been others worldwide that are better but I couldn't possibly know that. We can only compare to what we have experienced!
Sub Species was brilliant again yesterday and it seems to be even more intense. I enjoyed Scarefest this year far more than in previous years and they now have a very solid foundation to build on in future years.
Sku
TS Member
Here is the final queue time data for Alton Towers across Scarefest. The attendance pattern shouldn't be too surprising to anyone.
As we can see, Halloween Saturday was the busiest day as expected. The middle weekend shows a rare situation where Sunday is busier than Saturday, which can be attributed to the weather, but also the fact it is adjacent to half term week. The midweek pattern is also predictable, with Friday usually being the busiest.
Queue Time by Day
Based on average queue time (y axis) across 6 main attractions, and 3 Scarefest Mazes.
I can also map out an average day at Scarefest, showing how the queue time changes throughout the day below.
Queue Time by Hour
Based on the average queue at each time of day (x axis) for each attraction, stacked on top of each other to show overall queue time (y axis) for all attractions when added together.
Also, some last additional data I collected for you. The Scarefest ride downtime league! Downtime was pretty bad during several days of Scarefest, but which ride spent the most time out of operation during the 16 days of the event? (According to data Alton Towers post to ridetimes.co.uk. Only shows prolonged downtime, brief 5-10m shutdowns are unlikely to be posted to ridetimes)
Downtime League
Rita: 7hr 30m (4 instance)
Hex: 6hr 30m (2 instance)
Th13teen: 6hr (4 instance)
Sonic Spinball: 4hr (4 instance)
Duel: 3hr 30m (1 instance)
Air: 3hr (4 instance)
River Rapids: 2hr (2 instance)
All other rides and attractions 1 hour or less.
As we can see, Halloween Saturday was the busiest day as expected. The middle weekend shows a rare situation where Sunday is busier than Saturday, which can be attributed to the weather, but also the fact it is adjacent to half term week. The midweek pattern is also predictable, with Friday usually being the busiest.
Queue Time by Day
Based on average queue time (y axis) across 6 main attractions, and 3 Scarefest Mazes.
I can also map out an average day at Scarefest, showing how the queue time changes throughout the day below.
Queue Time by Hour
Based on the average queue at each time of day (x axis) for each attraction, stacked on top of each other to show overall queue time (y axis) for all attractions when added together.
Also, some last additional data I collected for you. The Scarefest ride downtime league! Downtime was pretty bad during several days of Scarefest, but which ride spent the most time out of operation during the 16 days of the event? (According to data Alton Towers post to ridetimes.co.uk. Only shows prolonged downtime, brief 5-10m shutdowns are unlikely to be posted to ridetimes)
Downtime League
Rita: 7hr 30m (4 instance)
Hex: 6hr 30m (2 instance)
Th13teen: 6hr (4 instance)
Sonic Spinball: 4hr (4 instance)
Duel: 3hr 30m (1 instance)
Air: 3hr (4 instance)
River Rapids: 2hr (2 instance)
All other rides and attractions 1 hour or less.
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