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Scarefest 2019

Some scores on the doors...

  • Towers Street 7/10 - lighting could be better, love the new ghost projections and pumpkins, though!
  • Darkest Depths 10/10 - for a family maze, the theming and set design is second-to-none
  • The Attic 8/10 - solid, a little too classic on the scares, but with some work this could really develop into a staple
  • P42 5/10 - my least favourite, for me it's just too generic and feels lesser budget than the other mazes
  • Mine Tours 7/10 - the ending is dire, as it always has been, but this is a beautiful maze with excellent theming
  • Sub Species 8/10 - I really enjoyed this yesterday. I hadn't done it in 2 years and think it's still great!
  • Ride Lighting 5/10 - While some rides have some lighting, the towers and/or horrendously bright festoon damage things substantially
  • Park theming 2/10 - Basically nothing aside from some bunting in Fountain Square.
  • Parkwide entertainment 3/10 - Very little aside from the Ancestors. The Dungeons plague squad should move to Fountain Square.
  • Park music 6/10 - There seems to have been some effort on this front. Noted!
  • Park operations 9/10 - Throughputs etc. generally good. The only ride that I feel simply can't cope with RAP/FT is Smiler.
Overall, Scarefest was fun. But I have to say, it doesn't ever seem to take any great leaps forward. More stepping back in some areas and forwards in others. The net result is an event that is popular but lacking the risk to really push forward.

Scare Zones need to return.
 
Regards the wickerman, I noticed that the screens where on one side nearest public view at entrance but off the other. Also the flames only come on for the last two train pass throughs. So I imagine that the financial bean counters have worked out; switch off half the screens to save electric and only two bursts of flames for each operation will save a fair amount of gas. So my advice is switch off screens during daytime and summer and resort to one blast of flames on second pass through. That will save the salary of one of the jobsworth bean counters next season ; -)
 
Really enjoyed all the mazes today, started at 4.45pm at Project 42 and had completed the three by about 5.45pm. Minimal queues at this time but groups were usually about 8 people going through the mazes.

Did The Attic at 6.45pm which had a minimal queue but the one for Sub Species was enormous by this point.

All the mazes are indoors so I'd suggest going for earlier times so you can then spend the later evening getting night rides in.

Darkest Depths was very good. Slightly amazed it's deemed suitable for 10 year olds though. Amazing they were able to transform the courtyard that way.

Also re 'travellers day' there was plenty of extra security, and police with signs up in restraunts saying it was a family friendly day so no booze on sale. However there didn't seem to be a much of a turn out for the park to have gone to this effort.
 
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Danny said:
Cite all the H&S bull you want, but the spends on the Wicker Man's great lighting package are ruined by the hideously bright white lighting in the queue line. This isn't in other queue lines, so why does it have to be in Wicker Man's? It's painfully bright, especially when you're stuck in the queue for extended periods due to downtime.
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I noticed that Nemesis had these horrible bright LED lights down by the loop as well. I get that they need lighting in queue lines for H&S reasons, especially when there are steps, but these new strings of LED lights that first materialised last year just ruin any atmosphere.

It all looks even worse when the last couple of parks you did after dark were Disneyland and DCA.

As I said previously, 2019 remains a strong Scarefest in terms of mazes. However park atmosphere is seriously lacking this year and you would be stuggling to know that there is any sort of event on in most areas of the park. The return of scare zones would make a big difference, but I'd imagine we would lose at least one maze for this to happen.
 
The new mazes are incredible and also the performers were brilliant all round this year. This year’s Scarefest has had a huge injection of fun and new ideas, it’s brilliant!

Attic and Darkest Depths are gold I think and Sub Species/ Mine Tours were on full pelt.

Project 42 had some alterations which give the actors a bit more to hide, but seems to have given up on the theme. Scenery and effects that were more part of the scene last year feel chucked around the place instead and the whole thing is just corridors now, no big lab moment. The ending was more intense so perhaps this makes up for it. It’s still a bit of a dud maze compared to the others.

The whole event was loads of fun
 
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Did the event this weekend and was really impressed with a lot of it. Saturday was packed with around 1hr-80min waits for all major rides, but operations were slick and queues moved fast. The Ancestors were out and about a lot, made for some really nice (and popular) street entertainment. Little features like the ghosts outside the Skyride on Towers Street and the skeletons in the great hall windows were lovely, should have more things like this.

Was largely impressed with all the mazes. Darkest Depths was really nicely done for what it was, a solid family attraction. Altonville is very nicely done, though like many thought the ending could use some improvement.

The Attic was really nicely themed and the preshow room before the first scene was beautifully set up. The maze was decent and the space was designed really well, though a couple of the scares were a bit generic in places, for the most part it was fantastic.

Project 42 was definitely the weakest one. It’s hard to describe why, but I just felt it was lacking something. Was still decent, but I think it was missing something to put the fire up you a bit. There was no sense of getting lost for example, felt very much like you just follow the route then you leave.

The same however can’t be said for Sub-Species which without a doubt was the absolute highlight of the event this weekend. I’m honestly shocked that people on here want it to leave next season. It was running on full steam, with our entire group being split up. Really intimidating, and stuffed full of actors. This is the only maze where you get properly lost, a bit long sprawling labyrinth of routes. The cast are brilliant this year as well. I hope this becomes the staple maze for Scarefest, a classic to come back every year. I feel the event would really lack if it weren’t for this stellar attraction. If any of them should be replaced, it should be Project 42.
 
HermanTheGerman said:
The same however can’t be said for Sub-Species which without a doubt was the absolute highlight of the event this weekend. I’m honestly shocked that people on here want it to leave next season. It was running on full steam, with our entire group being split up. Really intimidating, and stuffed full of actors. This is the only maze where you get properly lost, a bit long sprawling labyrinth of routes. The cast are brilliant this year as well. I hope this becomes the staple maze for Scarefest, a classic to come back every year. I feel the event would really lack if it weren’t for this stellar attraction. If any of them should be replaced, it should be Project 42.
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Scarefest stood the test of time and had some of its better years without Sub Species; it certainly wouldn't crumble without it. Of all the mazes, SS needs a huge refresh now; it's lost the spark it had in the beginning, particularly when there were two different finales. The routes have become predictable if you have done it even just once each year.

The whole point is for the entire group to be split up, a concept which they pull off flawlessly on some occasions, yet other times laziness kicks in and it's relatively simple to have an entire re-group just after the rope section.

If they do bring it back next year, it needs a total layout change and more consistency from the actors. This is the maze that can be made or broken depending on your run through more so than the others, and it's been growing increasingly disappointing for the past three years now.
 
Sub-Species .. no actors and a guy in a rubber alien costume waddling around looking lost.. I would give it an F- must try harder but maybe kinder to just put it in the shredder and never speak of it again
 
It’s pretty poor that in a maze which is an additionally ticketed and paid for attraction, that such inconsistency appears to exist. How can you justify charging people for a maze which is running below its intended quality for half the time?
 
SPOILERS BELOW

I know for a fact that this is not permitted at the resort, but someone appears to have posted a full walkthrough of Darkest Depths. I have not yet watched it myself as I am visiting next weekend, but I thought I'd share it.




 
themeparkfan said:
Regards the wickerman, I noticed that the screens where on one side nearest public view at entrance but off the other. Also the flames only come on for the last two train pass throughs. So I imagine that the financial bean counters have worked out; switch off half the screens to save electric and only two bursts of flames for each operation will save a fair amount of gas. So my advice is switch off screens during daytime and summer and resort to one blast of flames on second pass through. That will save the salary of one of the jobsworth bean counters next season ; -)
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Was bursting into flame on all three passes through on Saturday that I saw. Maybe the evil bean counters are not the issue.

bluesonichd said:
Sub-Species .. no actors and a guy in a rubber alien costume waddling around looking lost.. I would give it an F- must try harder but maybe kinder to just put it in the shredder and never speak of it again
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I generally agree that sub species needs a facelift but what you experienced there was what is known as a “bad run”. You get them on all scare mazes as the scares depend on actors (who are known for having free will and the ability to move out of position) so sometimes you get a duff go.

Never been to a scare attraction that doesn’t have them. To be fair the run I had on SubSpecies was reasonable though I preferred Mine Tours.
 
Boozacoaster said:
SPOILERS BELOW

I know for a fact that this is not permitted at the resort, but someone appears to have posted a full walkthrough of Darkest Depths. I have not yet watched it myself as I am visiting next weekend, but I thought I'd share it.

Click to expand...

Might flag that to Towers tomorrow via live chat as that is not allowed. Spoilsports. :mad:
 
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