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Scarefest 2022
BigShadowtinytree
TS Member
Oh dear. I thought it was bad on Sunday and Monday. I don’t envy anyone visiting for the rest of the week.
It’s still early. It was similar on Monday, didn’t seem too bad in the morning but after lunch it got ridiculous. I think the queues to get into the car park delayed the influx.It’s not actually looking too bad queues-wise given that the park’s at capacity; queues in Thrills top out at 80 minutes and queues in Family top out at 40 minutes at present.
Mattie boy
TS Member
Anyone have pics of the grass car parks in use this SF yet ?
Plastic Person
TS Member
By all accounts, this Scarefest is arguably the weakest iteration of the event in years and it's sold out a week's worth of tickets. Makes you wonder why they don't invest more to build on it/makes you realise why they don't invest more to build on it.
Matt.GC
TS Member
I suppose the reasons for this event being busy this year are sperate discussion points but what is clear is the fact that this park simply cannot cope with crowds like it used to.
I've known the park feel busier than this in years gone by, or at least as busy. I've known parking in every space available and crowded walkways everywhere. The park in general didn't feel as busy as I've known it in the past.
Yet the poor roster of attractions, shocking state of the monorail and way it's operated and woeful food and bev offerings make the whole place feel stressful and Thorpe/Chessingtonish. Since the park has been recovering post 2015 and post covid, 60-140 minute queues for rides, queuing outside of restaurants, and snakes of people backed into the car parks waiting for the monorail seem to be normalised in discussion. This year won't see the attendance heights of anywhere near what the park has achieved in the past yet a lackluster event like this year's Scarefest manages to create "sell out" days and misery.
I've known the park feel busier than this in years gone by, or at least as busy. I've known parking in every space available and crowded walkways everywhere. The park in general didn't feel as busy as I've known it in the past.
Yet the poor roster of attractions, shocking state of the monorail and way it's operated and woeful food and bev offerings make the whole place feel stressful and Thorpe/Chessingtonish. Since the park has been recovering post 2015 and post covid, 60-140 minute queues for rides, queuing outside of restaurants, and snakes of people backed into the car parks waiting for the monorail seem to be normalised in discussion. This year won't see the attendance heights of anywhere near what the park has achieved in the past yet a lackluster event like this year's Scarefest manages to create "sell out" days and misery.
AT86
TS Member
I'm wondering if they've capped numbers for these remaining few days of Screfest which is why they've sold out?
Feedback from the last few days has been overwhelmingly negative. They could well have reduced capacity to try and improve the guest experience.
siralgenon
TS Member
The queues aren't bad at all today so I don't know how it's ended up reaching capacity.
Benjsh
TS Member
If the mazes weren't all older ones that most people had already done....I imagine the coaster queues would have been far more manageable. Also the new experience the Invitation has gone down like a lead balloon and word gets around these days.
I suspect Scarefest will get a big revamp next year.
I suspect Scarefest will get a big revamp next year.
Looks like they've seen complaints and have reduced capacity. Quieter than yesterday yet today is 'sold out'
Steve74
TS Member
Putting the lack of available rides each day, quality of Scarefest this year and guest experience aside for a moment, it is good to see Towers so busy this week considering what the pandemic did to the hospitality industry and the current cost of living crisis. It could so easily have gone the other way and been a ghost town (excuse the pun). Yes, Scarefest is always popular, but it does seem to be more popular this year?
siralgenon
TS Member
In short I don't think so, jumping back about 10 years (when the park did still have all it's rides) it wasn't uncommon to see 1-2 hour queues for each scare maze even when they were still paid for mazes. As well as large queues for the rides.Putting the lack of available rides each day, quality of Scarefest this year and guest experience aside for a moment, it is good to see Towers so busy this week considering what the pandemic did to the hospitality industry and the current cost of living crisis. It could so easily have gone the other way and been a ghost town (excuse the pun). Yes, Scarefest is always popular, but it does seem to be more popular this year?
This year most of the times the mazes have been walk on or a 40 min queue at the max. I think the only reason Scarefest is sold out this week is the fact that the park can no longer cope with larger crowds of people as opposed to it actually being busy.
Trooper Looper
TS Member
Well, from my experience yesterday at the park, it was WAY too Busy! Everything had over a half an hour queue, the RMT had a queue of 50 minutes at one time. It was so busy I only managed to get on 4 rides from 12-7:30, them being;
Hex
Spinball
Nemesis for the last time (R.I.P)
Oblivion in the dark
And the RAP Abuse.... blimey, on some of the queues, the RAP had big queues as well, which definitely slowed operations down tremendously. Thankfully this wasn't the case for Oblivion, which never experienced any RAP when I was queueing. What a throughout monster that is!
Tried to go on the smiler using the single rider, but the ops didn't really seem to care about us singles. Waited for nearly an hour when halfway up the indoor stairs, then the ride broke down! That was nearly for 45 minutes with no look of improvement. I was even just 6 people away from the end of the queue, but I gave up, so I left the queue a bit frustrated XD
Onto a more positive aspect, Nemesis was another throughput monster, only waited 35 minutes when it read 50 minutes. It broke down for a few minutes vut was back up and running again very soon. Was a bit emotional on my last ride on nemmy. Decided to so my last ride on my favourite row, the front! I'll miss it the OG greatly...
See you later Nemmy...
Onto Spinball, The queue actually was moving pretty decently, but the RAP had its own queue, it extended down to the rides main entrance sign when i had my ride. One of the outdoor Games ate back working as well with the sound effects and everything!
All in all, my day at scariest was, A Marmite situation. Loved some bits, hated some bits!
AT, please reduce the amount of people that can use RAP... and get some more Flat rides and The HH back in action next year...
7/10 trip
Hex
Spinball
Nemesis for the last time (R.I.P)
Oblivion in the dark
And the RAP Abuse.... blimey, on some of the queues, the RAP had big queues as well, which definitely slowed operations down tremendously. Thankfully this wasn't the case for Oblivion, which never experienced any RAP when I was queueing. What a throughout monster that is!
Tried to go on the smiler using the single rider, but the ops didn't really seem to care about us singles. Waited for nearly an hour when halfway up the indoor stairs, then the ride broke down! That was nearly for 45 minutes with no look of improvement. I was even just 6 people away from the end of the queue, but I gave up, so I left the queue a bit frustrated XD
Onto a more positive aspect, Nemesis was another throughput monster, only waited 35 minutes when it read 50 minutes. It broke down for a few minutes vut was back up and running again very soon. Was a bit emotional on my last ride on nemmy. Decided to so my last ride on my favourite row, the front! I'll miss it the OG greatly...
See you later Nemmy...
Onto Spinball, The queue actually was moving pretty decently, but the RAP had its own queue, it extended down to the rides main entrance sign when i had my ride. One of the outdoor Games ate back working as well with the sound effects and everything!
All in all, my day at scariest was, A Marmite situation. Loved some bits, hated some bits!
AT, please reduce the amount of people that can use RAP... and get some more Flat rides and The HH back in action next year...
7/10 trip
Last edited:
siralgenon
TS Member
Personally I wouldn't say a park having queues of 30-50 minutes was extremely busy. And you've just said Nemesis was 35...Well, from my experience yesterday at the park, it was WAY too Busy! Everything had over a half an hour queue, the RMT had a queue of 50 minutes at one time. It was so busy I only managed to get on 4 rides from 12-7:30, them being;
Hex
Spinball
Nemesis for the last time (R.I.P)
Oblivion in the dark
And the RAP Abuse.... blimey, on some of the queues, the RAP had big queues as well, which definitely slowed operations down tremendously. Thankfully this wasn't the case for Oblivion, which never experienced any RAP when I was queueing. What a throughout monster that is!
Tried to go on the smiler using the single rider, but the ops didn't really seem to care about us singles. Waited for nearly an hour when halfway up the indoor stairs, then the ride broke down! That was nearly for 45 minutes with no look of improvement. I was even just 6 people away from the end of the queue, but I gave up, so I left the queue a bit frustrated XD
Onto a more positive aspect, Nemesis was another throughput monster, only waited 35 minutes when it read 50 minutes. It broke down for a few minutes vut was back up and running again very soon. Was a bit emotional on my last ride on nemmy. Decided to so my last ride on my favourite row, the front! I'll miss it the OG greatly...
See you later Nemmy...
Onto Spinball, The queue actually was moving pretty decently, but the RAP had its own queue, it extended down to the rides main entrance sign when i had my ride. One of the outdoor Games ate back working as well with the sound effects and everything!
All in all, my day at scariest was, A Marmite situation. Loved some bits, hated some bits!
AT, please reduce the amount of people that can use RAP... and get some more Flat rides and The HH back in action next year...
7/10 trip
Trooper Looper
TS Member
No, I just wasn't expecting the RMT to have a queue that big. Th13teen and Rita were mostly 100-120 minutes waiting times throughout the day, it never really dropped outside of that.Personally I wouldn't say a park having queues of 30-50 minutes was extremely busy. And you've just said Nemesis was 35...
Same for Oblivion until 6-ish. Smiler is always a queue drawer and that was ranging from 90-120 minutes.
Nemesis was mostly on for 70 minutes until the evenings. Airs queue was stretching outside of the main entrance... I'll skip that one easily...
The retro squad had mostly a 40 minute wait each, and Spinball had about and hour when I got off it after it reopened.
Hex was only busy in the afternoons, but was walk on after.
Skyscraper
TS Member
RMT does usually get waits of up to 50 minutes on busy days.No, I just wasn't expecting the RMT to have a queue that big. Th13teen and Rita were mostly 100-120 minutes waiting times throughout the day, it never really dropped outside of that.
Same for Oblivion until 6-ish. Smiler is always a queue drawer and that was ranging from 90-120 minutes.
Nemesis was mostly on for 70 minutes until the evenings. Airs queue was stretching outside of the main entrance... I'll skip that one easily...
The retro squad had mostly a 40 minute wait each, and Spinball had about and hour when I got off it after it reopened.
Hex was only busy in the afternoons, but was walk on after.