Scarefest this weekend....

[nikfonso]

Hey guys, long time no speak!

I'm heading to AT this weekend with my daughter and was wondering on how busy do you guys expect it to be? I know it's Scarefest but it's not really that close to Halloween so i'm not sure whether to purchase some Fastracks or not. Did anyone go last weekend? Was it busy at all then? I know some guys on here despise fastracks but if you queues are anything over 40 mins then i'll happily purchase fastrack tickets if it means i get to go on all rides!

So any info would be great. We are staying over on Sat eve so we'll have the evening on Saturday and all day Sunday. Also, the weather doesn't look great so will that put people off?

Cheers in advance!

Nik

 

[Craig]

It's difficult to say really considering the park is busier than it has been in recent years. If you look at last week, the park was certainly busy with some rides being over 40 minutes for at least a time. That said, queues do tail off as the evening goes on so I'd say it's certainly possible to get everything done.

However, as you said with storm Brian heading in the next couple of days, there is a risk that it'll close rides due to wind speeds being too high. On the upside, that may also mean the park is generally quieter as people avoid the poor weather. I'd say you'll manage to get on everything without fastrack providing there's not too many wind speed closures though!

 

[themeparkfan]

How wrong I was thinking the park would be quiet with storm Brian. Nemesis over 60 mins queue galactica 75mins nowhere for guests to sit in manic coffee shop while they waited for us. Surely there should be some covered seating outside? Queue for RMT big but was really annoyed that smiler closed for a while and when it opened it was 90 mins and what I could see it was chaos with fast track queue. One major issue is more attractions are needed when the park is so busy so they are going to have to sort NST Charlie and some flats because if even more crowds flock for SW8 and there is some downtime (as I'm sure teething trouble will occur ) there will be nothing to keep them appeased. In addition the food and beverage offering was abysmal with massive queues at all kiosks which were poorly staffed. Lord help them if even more cuts are on the horizon!

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[nikfonso]

Boy, looking back I am so glad that I purchased the 'Silver' Fastrack passes.

Yesterday eve at what must have been around 7ish, the queue time for Smiler was 120 mins!!! Next door, Oblivion was 70 mins queue time! Thankfully because we stayed at Splash Landings and to make up for no ERT, we were given fastrack passes from them also and thankfully because the Oblivion ride team didn't even bother checking our single ride Fastrack pass, we went on Oblivion about 4 times! Now i love theme parks and rollercoasters but I would NEVER queue up for 2 hours for a ride.

Anyway, we arrived at about 4pm Saturday and had dinner in Flambo's shortly after arriving.....WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO FLAMBO'S!!!!!???? Honestly, I've eaten in Flambo's for the past 10 years and it used to be AMAZING. I remember bainmaries full of different types of tasty food from all around the world and amazing desserts etc.
Flambo's was somewhat different this weekend, almost a poor version (a very poor version) of Pizza Pasta which you get in the park. The pizza was dry, the people making the pizza's obviously didn't know how to make pizza's because the sauce base wasn't spread to the edges of the pizza and the desserts looked like they bought the cakes from a supermarket. So so, disappointed as was my daughter which is very rare as she's a pizza fanatic but also preferred the old flambo's.

Also, is it me or does Splash Landings, Cariba Creek and the actual park need some TLC? Don't get me wrong, I love Towers and always will but it does look really tired in places. With some new sticker kits on some rides, a splash of paint in places like the signs above where you get the Pirate Pancakes, Pasty's and Hotdogs etc or in the Monorail Station where you see some old looking dirt and cobwebs in the corners and on the ceilings, some newly laid paths, a refurb in the dated Splash Landing rooms and some work done on the nasty rust marks around the water park would go a very very long way.

I don't get why this stuff never gets spotted by management etc. In the close season, i would love to walk around park pointing this stuff out to staff as it could easily be sorted for next season.

 

[GaryH]

Agree about Flambos over Scarefest - its dire to say the least

 

[Matt N]

I remember that when we were staying at ATH in either 2013 or 2014 (can't remember which.), my parents decided to book an evening meal in Flambo's as they really liked it when we had dined there in earlier years when staying in Splash (we're talking 2009 and 2010 early here.) Alas, they were very disappointed with it. I don't remember being that disappointed, but my parents were, definitely. Thinking back, that may or may not have been the same stay where my Mum was so angry that ATH did not offer us ERT with our hotel stay that she declared that we were never staying in Alton accommodation ever again. (Of course, that wasn't true, as we went for my 12th and 14th birthdays in August 2015 and July 2017. But I think it's only birthdays where my Mum even considers it now.)