I did opening day yesterday with the wife and kids and had a brilliant day. The last few scarefests have been a bit meh but at least this year there is signs of progress. Burial grounds is brilliant as a free scare zone would love them to do more in the future and the entertainment on the lawn was great fun to relax for a while from the rides. Bianca is obviously helping to push stronger events with the money available to her and to me it shows with the progression this year. Rome wasn't built in a day as they say hats off to towers this year
I was also there in Saturday (only day we could do as a whole family) and thought it was one of our worst Scarefests out of the 9 on the bounce we've been to.
The weather didn't help. T-shirted doesn't help create the vibe.
That weather also likely contributed to the park being ridiculously full - every decent ride had a queue time of mostly 60mins+. We only got on 6 rides in 10 hours - and one of those was our customary Fastracked Wicker when it's dark - although we still waikted in the FP line for almost 25 mins despite shelling out for Fastpasses*. Didn't even bother doing a Maze this year, either. Think our best year at SF was 11 rides plus a Maze.
I knew Skyride was out beforehand, but that really was a PITA in terms of being able to move quickly around the park
Twice we queued for a ride for some time, only for the ride to breakdown when we were about 75% toward the front. One time we waited and it was up and running again in 10 mins; the other (Rita) we waited 10 mins then jibbed it because we were running out of time and still had 13, Wicker and a last-of-the-day on Galactica before slipping out the back exit to the carpark, only for Rita to start up shortly after once we were in the 13 queue. Another year of not riding Rita.
And the delays, culminating with that FP queue on WM, meant that we missed last ride on Galactica.
We didn't see/notice the Burial Grounds scare zone at all (but did only go to that area for WM late in the day)
Had food in the Roller Coaster Restaurant. We've always enjoyed having this break around 4pm - decent food for an AT place and OK service. This year, the menu was changed and nowhere near as good (IMO). Our two daughters got theirs but we waited... and waited... ten minutes passed whilst the girls were waiting for us to get ours so we could all eat together. We had to call someone over, who did nothing. Then called another guy, who spoke with the kitchen. Ours came a minute later but it was 15 mins gap between the girls' food and ours. We complained that our girls' had gone cold and they should consider a gesture. Nothing doing. Very poor customer service.
I found The Curse At Alton Manor disappointing. I was so hoping for much more, but it just wasn't even vaguely unsettling.
The entire park was lacking in atmosphere and Halloweeny things. Our daughters (now 19 and 15) did remark that it's seemed to get more and more young children-orientated, with less and less stuff geared towards other teens and adults.
On a plus note, I enjoyed Sub ~Terra! Hadn't been on since Scarefest 2015 and so I'd forgotten the detail. Our elder daughter had been on before but could remember barely anything; was totally new for our youngest. It's a bit of a one-time-only thing, though. If we went on next year, we'd know what was coming. WM and 13 seemed nice and fast. Smiler was as great as always (but it it getting more rickety these days? or is it just us?)
In conclusion, we all agreed on the way home that we'll probably give AT and Scarefest a miss in 2024 - despite [my favourite] Nemmy returning. SF is just nowhere near as good as it was. Problem is, where for an alternative?
* I got them at home on the Saturday morning before we left, which was when they first became available. Selected the latest 20.00 timeslot, and it's a massive beef of mine that people just get any timeslot through the day then turn up when it's got dark, and AT don't bother enforcing a time limit of say half an hour past your allocated time.
