• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Scarefest 2022

WickerWonder18 said:
There's a skip outside Darkest Depths...
Click to expand...
Given it's not been featured in the recent promo material, it's almost certainly not coming back this year.
Glad I got to do it last year then as I missed it the year before. I might only do the new maze this year, depending on what it is, although with my park entry being free this year I do feel that I should go all out and do all the mazes as I only did DD last year. But then there's the issue of the rest of my group not wanting to do any of the mazes due to the expense.
 
Skyscraper said:
Given it's not been featured in the recent promo material, it's almost certainly not coming back this year.
Glad I got to do it last year then as I missed it the year before. I might only do the new maze this year, depending on what it is, although with my park entry being free this year I do feel that I should go all out and do all the mazes as I only did DD last year. But then there's the issue of the rest of my group not wanting to do any of the mazes due to the expense.
Click to expand...
Indeed, I agree with you there, some say it was the weakest maze last year so kind of lines up with that. Think they may be going for a more 'extreme' line up this year with the anniversary, so clearly darkest depths may get taken out.
That's the only problem with scarefest, the maze prices are terrible. £32 for 4 mazes? £8 a maze, nearly as bad as FastTrack. Depends how you look at it really, I guess it is a once a year thing.
 
As a lifelong despiser of all things fastrack, I am absolutely fine with paid time slots for the mazes, as long as queuing is absolutely minimal. It is a hugely expensive extra for the park to run, the restricted hours when people want to do them means the demand outstrips supply if not managed this way causing excessive queue and a lesser experience for everyone as they start rushing people through.

I can't see this pricing as a rip off at all.
 
Last edited:
pluk said:
As a lifelong despiser of all things fastrack, I am absolutely fine with paid time slots for the mazes, as long as queuing is absolutely minimal. It is a hugely expensive extra for the park to run, the restricted hours when people want to do them means the demand outstrips supply if not managed this way causing excessive queue and a lesser experience for everyone as they start rushing people through.

I can't see this procing as a rip off at all.
Click to expand...
I see what you mean, but the public generally don't want to have to pay for an entry ticket at around £40 now, and then £32 extra to do 4 scare mazes. Hence the Dungeon hasn't been massively popular. I mean clearly scarefest works because it comes back every year so they must make some profit from it. When the park is open till 9PM you can obviously fit the mazes in which may attract more people to do them.
To expand on what @Skyscraper said, some don't fancy spending more money, it ends up being an expensive day out if you buy food and drink, maze tickets, Dungeon etc. Especially with the crisis at the moment. Like I said before it is a once a year thing so I see where your coming from.
 
WickerWonder18 said:
I see what you mean, but the public generally don't want to have to pay for an entry ticket at around £40 now, and then £32 extra to do 4 scare mazes. Hence the Dungeon hasn't been massively popular. I mean clearly scarefest works because it comes back every year so they must make some profit from it. When the park is open till 9PM you can obviously fit the mazes in which may attract more people to do them.
To expand on what @Skyscraper said, some don't fancy spending more money, it ends up being an expensive day out if you buy food and drink, maze tickets, Dungeon etc. Especially with the crisis at the moment. Like I said before it is a once a year thing so I see where your coming from.
Click to expand...

The pubic largely seem fine with it considering how successful and profitable the event is all round! Unfortunately, if people don't want to pay for nice things they don't get nice things. No one is making them go if it's not for them.

I'd say Dungeons is a completely separate issue in that it's not unique, it takes too much time on an already very time restricted day, and it's no in keeping with the rest of the day in the wat scare are on a Halloween event.
 
Pluk just beat me too it...
The Dungeons are nothing to do with it!
I don't do scare mazes anymore, after your first couple of hundred they tend to fade.
However, even though I have never attended the modern version, is Scarefest successful?
Yes.
Very.
So they are getting things generally right, or people wouldn't go.
 
I went to the 1st scarefest in 2007and every year to 2011 and then went again in 2020 and last year.
The biggest difference from the 2007 to 11 (can’t comment on 12 to 19 events) is back in them early years it was mixture of free scare zones and paid but now it’s all paid if u want to get scared.
I feel you really just paying for night time rides and the young family entertainment on towers street and on the main stage with everything else paid for. I know the gardens are now nicely lit up at night but seeing it twice now do I really need to see it for a 3rd year.
It be good if they did a projector show on the towers celebrating 15 years of Scarefest.
 
Given that both park and maze tickets are already on sale, do we think either of those could sell out quicker than if they were released later in the year?
 
Skyscraper said:
Given that both park and maze tickets are already on sale, do we think either of those could sell out quicker than if they were released later in the year?
Click to expand...
Wouldn’t have thought so with maze tickets - wouldn’t have thought many people would book without knowing what they are
 
Danscott22 said:
Wouldn’t have thought so with maze tickets - wouldn’t have thought many people would book without knowing what they are
Click to expand...
Yeah that's a good point. Park tickets are more likely to sell out early, but hopefully not too early lol. I don't usually book Scarefest til a few weeks before.
 
We've booked our slots as pass holders yet not the mazes yet. We obviously do it once they are on sale which is never normally this early....
 
There’s nothing I hate more than being scared - the thought of a scare maze makes me so anxious! Weird really because I love riding thrill rides. Perhaps it’s because you can see what you’re going to be putting yourself through with rollercoasters. Scare mazes you’re entering the unknown.

It’s a bit of a shame really as it’s such a major event and whilst I’ve been on park during scarefest, I’ve never done a maze.

Am I just being a bit of a wet wipe?
 
s_g_k said:
There’s nothing I hate more than being scared - the thought of a scare maze makes me so anxious! Weird really because I love riding thrill rides. Perhaps it’s because you can see what you’re going to be putting yourself through with rollercoasters. Scare mazes you’re entering the unknown.

It’s a bit of a shame really as it’s such a major event and whilst I’ve been on park during scarefest, I’ve never done a maze.

Am I just being a bit of a wet wipe?
Click to expand...

Same here, scare mazes just don’t appeal to me as I’m not in to the horror theming that a lot of them have (I don’t even watch horror movies) and I don’t think they are for people that can feel a little anxious about jump scares particularly in enclosed spaces.

Thrill rides where you can see what’s going on, no problem, but like you say scare mazes have that unknown fear element and that’s definitely not for me.
 
s_g_k said:
There’s nothing I hate more than being scared - the thought of a scare maze makes me so anxious! Weird really because I love riding thrill rides. Perhaps it’s because you can see what you’re going to be putting yourself through with rollercoasters. Scare mazes you’re entering the unknown.

It’s a bit of a shame really as it’s such a major event and whilst I’ve been on park during scarefest, I’ve never done a maze.

Am I just being a bit of a wet wipe?
Click to expand...

Shaggy_Dog_ said:
Same here, scare mazes just don’t appeal to me as I’m not in to the horror theming that a lot of them have (I don’t even watch horror movies) and I don’t think they are for people that can feel a little anxious about jump scares particularly in enclosed spaces.

Thrill rides where you can see what’s going on, no problem, but like you say scare mazes have that unknown fear element and that’s definitely not for me.
Click to expand...
This is a good video on how to overcome the fear of scare mazes if you're interested;

 
I must admit that I too can join the club of those who aren’t fond of scare attractions/Halloween events.

It’s weird, because there’s very little that fazes me in terms of thrill ride hardware these days. Drop towers? Love them! 200ft hyper coaster? Get me on! Hydraulic launch coaster? Bring it!

But I am a complete scaredy-cat when it comes to anything psychological. Ghost trains, even the really low budget ones, still unnerve me somewhat, and the jumpscares in those are quite obviously fake and a good few feet away from you, so god knows how I’d react to an actual person doing the same thing at a much closer distance, possibly even touching me dependant on the maze!

Another element to consider… I don’t know if I’ve ever confessed to this before, and I apologise if this makes me sound like a complete wuss, but I have a slight phobia of costumed characters. Or at very least, they make me pretty anxious. Even the “happy” ones scare me; as an example, we were eating in Restaurant Castillo on our recent trip to Europa Park, and Ed Euromaus suddenly appears out of nowhere and starts greeting children. I should point out that the character was nowhere near us at this point in time (they were at the other side of the restaurant), but I’ll confess I was pretty scared until he was out of my sight. Ditto with when Winnie the Pooh suddenly appeared in Fantasyland on my visit to Magic Kingdom; we were stood some distance away, but I was pretty anxious until the character disappeared. My thought there is; if a completely non-intimidating costumed character stood a considerable distance away scares me, then I’m sensing I wouldn’t like a costumed character intended to scare interacting very intimately with me!

And even putting aside my various fears, that style of forced participation-based attraction isn’t something I personally enjoy. As shallow as it sounds, I prefer attractions that you can play a more passive role in, where you simply sit down and they whisk you along on whatever adventure they choose. Roller coasters, flat rides, water rides, dark rides etc are great at that, which is why I enjoy them, whereas things like scare mazes, walkthroughs, midway attractions etc aren’t something I especially enjoy. One exception to that is interactive dark rides (e.g. Duel), which can be quite good fun, but in terms of the forced participation attractions with an element of human interaction (e.g. “can I have a volunteer?”); being an introvert, that kind of thing isn’t for me at all.

With all that in mind, I’ve never really been sold on the hype around Halloween season, and perhaps controversially, I tend to avoid parks during the month of October for this exact reason.
 
Last edited:
Matt N said:
I must admit that I too can join the club of those who aren’t fond of scare attractions/Halloween events.

It’s weird, because there’s very little that fazes me in terms of thrill ride hardware these days. Drop towers? Love them! 200ft hyper coaster? Get me on! Hydraulic launch coaster? Bring it!

But I am a complete scaredy-cat when it comes to anything psychological. Ghost trains, even the really low budget ones, still unnerve me somewhat, and the jumpscares in those are quite obviously fake and a good few feet away from you, so god knows how I’d react to an actual person doing the same thing at a much closer distance, possibly even touching me dependant on the maze!

Another element to consider… I don’t know if I’ve ever confessed to this before, and I apologise if this makes me sound like a complete wuss, but I have a slight phobia of costumed characters. Or at very least, they make me pretty anxious. Even the “happy” ones scare me; as an example, we were eating in Restaurant Castillo on our recent trip to Europa Park, and Ed Euromaus suddenly appears out of nowhere and starts greeting children. I should point out that the character was nowhere near us at this point in time (they were at the other side of the restaurant), but I’ll confess I was pretty scared until he was out of my sight. Ditto with when Winnie the Pooh suddenly appeared in Fantasyland on my visit to Magic Kingdom; we were stood some distance away, but I was pretty anxious until the character disappeared. My thought there is; if a completely non-intimidating costumed character stood a considerable distance away scares me, then I’m sensing I wouldn’t like a costumed character intended to scare interacting very intimately with me!

And even putting aside my various fears, that style of forced participation-based attraction isn’t something I personally enjoy. As shallow as it sounds, I prefer attractions that you can play a more passive role in, where you simply sit down and they whisk you along on whatever adventure they choose. Roller coasters, flat rides, water rides, dark rides etc are great at that, which is why I enjoy them, whereas things like scare mazes, walkthroughs, midway attractions etc aren’t something I especially enjoy. One exception to that is interactive dark rides (e.g. Duel), which can be quite good fun, but in terms of the forced participation attractions with an element of human interaction (e.g. “can I have a volunteer?”); being an introvert, that kind of thing isn’t for me at all.

With all that in mind, I’ve never really been sold on the hype around Halloween season, and perhaps controversially, I tend to avoid parks during the month of October for this exact reason.
Click to expand...
That's completely understandable Matt, everyone has different tolerances to things like that. When I planned to go to Scarefest for the first time in 2019, I was exclusively going for the night rides, but when Darkest Depths was announced I decided to try it as my first ever scare maze. I enjoyed it more than expected, which led to me trying the more intense mazes in 2020 (although because of a certain pandemic all the mazes were less intense due to no touching).

I'd recommend checking out the video I posted above, it has some good tips about how to overcome the fear of scare mazes, and ways to ease yourself into doing one for the first time.
 
Are we thinking that Darkest Depths may be the one to get the chop then?

I'd still rather see TJ go, cos at least DD had some funny scenes and improvisation from actors taking the mick out of people, but neither were on par with AVMT nor some of the previous mazes (DD was originally for a different market too, so, in spite of adaptations, it's going to struggle in the main line-up).

Still hoping for either a 20-yr anniversary maze with a mix of scenes and spooks from the past, The Master Returns, OR something incredibly intense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top