So, inadvertantly I planned to go to Scarefest on the same day as the official meet. Sad to say I didn't manage to meet up with the group but was kept up to date of their antics by a certain Miss Verity 
I'll start with the good. Atmosphere on park was really good when walking around, everyone seemed to be having a good time and really enjoying the place. I really liked the small lights strung up around the park, especially down past RMT and the rapids. I didn't really notice the floodlights so much this year as I felt there was just enough to light the area so that you weren't falling over your own feet. However, I only managed to do the Dark Forest part of the park so I can't vouch for everywhere.
The bad is unfortunately a lot longer! I normally only go to AT on days that I know it will be quiet, i.e. weekdays and August bank holiday which has surprisingly always seemed quiet. Therefore, going on a Saturday was a fairly new thing to do since leaving school!! Of course, weekends bring their problems. The worst being.........queuing!!!!
I've never queued for rides as long as I did yesterday. I understand it was the first weekend of Scarefest and there were a lot of people, however, my grumble is that Fast Track people were given way too much priority over regular riders. As the day went on, it felt like AT has become a place where you pay an entrance fee and then you have to pay for the rides you want to do. We arrived at about 11am and left at around 8pm and only managed to get 5 rides done. That's pretty atrocious for a 9 hour visit!
Tbf, we did end up queuing ridiculously just to get in. Something needs to be done about being able to book online with 2 for 1 vouchers as they give out so many of the blimming things they really should make allowances for people using them!! However, I hear the prebooked ticket queues were just as bad, with some people queuing up to an hour to pick them up!
Going back to Fast Track, I did at one point, become tempted to purchase some just to be able to do more rides in the dark (we only managed to do Rita in the end) however I am loathe to pay half as much of my ticket price again just to skip queues on two rides. Others may disagree with me but I believe there needs to be a limit on how many Fast Track are sold (never going to happen due to the amount of money I can see is made) or the ratio of Fast Track versus normal queue needs a good sort out!!
The good atmosphere on park that I talked of earlier, quickly diminshed in queue lines as everyone who queued the same as us was getting pretty fed up with the situation. A lot of TV monitors in queuelines were broken, the Oblivion queueline had hardly any working and those that were, spent periods of time where the picture and the sound were completely out of sync. Surprisingly, watching TV and being in amongst the ride whilst queuing can make a big difference to moral so this really needs sorting. The games in Spinball really should have been repaired by now; it's been ages since the vast majority have worked and I think only one didn't have it's button jammed yesterday.
Food was not really up to standard yesterday either. In fact, the only good food of the day was the green donuts which I thought were a really nice touch. We ate at Woodcutters and you needed a pickaxe for the chips!! I know it's only supposed to be cheap and cheerful food but chips aren't hard to get right and it put a downer on the experience.
As for the roaming actors that people seem to be talking about, I only saw maybe 3 or 4?? A nurse wandering around looking bored out of her skull and seeming to wish she wasn't there at all. A person on stilts next to a dwarf clown that were, I think, attempting to interact but no one could hear what they were saying unless you went right up to them. There may have been one other but I wasn't very impressed with the roaming aspect - most seemed to just congregate around the CoS entrance.
I am a bit disappointed with the spread of Scarefest through the park. I thought the Zombie Scare Zone moving to Dark Forest would vamp up that side of the park a bit but it was only the exit that could be really noticed and besides the fact that from Rita the whole place looked on fire due to excessive smoke use, there wasn't much atmosphere from ZSZ that bled over into main park. I don't really know how to explain what was missing but it just seemed that Scarefest was something you had to do particularly stuff for, it wasn't an overall experience.
Unfortunately I am a big wuss and do not do mazes so I can't comment on them, and I just didn't pluck up the courage in time to do ZSZ but a lot of people looked quite disappointed coming out of ZSZ anyway - especially during the day - and from viewing a bit through the exit, it didn't look like the actors were making much effort.
Other people may have had a very different experience, and as I say, I have been spoilt with usually going to AT and being able to ride everything more than once in a normal opening hours day but my main disappointment is that I feel unless you spend close to £100 per person, most likely a bit more, you can't enjoy a day at the park when a large majority of the public visit. I am lucky that I have the ability to be able to visit the park on less busy days but those that have Mon-Fri jobs or kids at school are less advantageous and have to put up with the money grabbing.
On a lighter note, the best £1 I spent was on shooting people with water on the rapids - I could have spent hours there for the fun we had!!
I'll start with the good. Atmosphere on park was really good when walking around, everyone seemed to be having a good time and really enjoying the place. I really liked the small lights strung up around the park, especially down past RMT and the rapids. I didn't really notice the floodlights so much this year as I felt there was just enough to light the area so that you weren't falling over your own feet. However, I only managed to do the Dark Forest part of the park so I can't vouch for everywhere.
The bad is unfortunately a lot longer! I normally only go to AT on days that I know it will be quiet, i.e. weekdays and August bank holiday which has surprisingly always seemed quiet. Therefore, going on a Saturday was a fairly new thing to do since leaving school!! Of course, weekends bring their problems. The worst being.........queuing!!!!
I've never queued for rides as long as I did yesterday. I understand it was the first weekend of Scarefest and there were a lot of people, however, my grumble is that Fast Track people were given way too much priority over regular riders. As the day went on, it felt like AT has become a place where you pay an entrance fee and then you have to pay for the rides you want to do. We arrived at about 11am and left at around 8pm and only managed to get 5 rides done. That's pretty atrocious for a 9 hour visit!
Tbf, we did end up queuing ridiculously just to get in. Something needs to be done about being able to book online with 2 for 1 vouchers as they give out so many of the blimming things they really should make allowances for people using them!! However, I hear the prebooked ticket queues were just as bad, with some people queuing up to an hour to pick them up!
Going back to Fast Track, I did at one point, become tempted to purchase some just to be able to do more rides in the dark (we only managed to do Rita in the end) however I am loathe to pay half as much of my ticket price again just to skip queues on two rides. Others may disagree with me but I believe there needs to be a limit on how many Fast Track are sold (never going to happen due to the amount of money I can see is made) or the ratio of Fast Track versus normal queue needs a good sort out!!
The good atmosphere on park that I talked of earlier, quickly diminshed in queue lines as everyone who queued the same as us was getting pretty fed up with the situation. A lot of TV monitors in queuelines were broken, the Oblivion queueline had hardly any working and those that were, spent periods of time where the picture and the sound were completely out of sync. Surprisingly, watching TV and being in amongst the ride whilst queuing can make a big difference to moral so this really needs sorting. The games in Spinball really should have been repaired by now; it's been ages since the vast majority have worked and I think only one didn't have it's button jammed yesterday.
Food was not really up to standard yesterday either. In fact, the only good food of the day was the green donuts which I thought were a really nice touch. We ate at Woodcutters and you needed a pickaxe for the chips!! I know it's only supposed to be cheap and cheerful food but chips aren't hard to get right and it put a downer on the experience.
As for the roaming actors that people seem to be talking about, I only saw maybe 3 or 4?? A nurse wandering around looking bored out of her skull and seeming to wish she wasn't there at all. A person on stilts next to a dwarf clown that were, I think, attempting to interact but no one could hear what they were saying unless you went right up to them. There may have been one other but I wasn't very impressed with the roaming aspect - most seemed to just congregate around the CoS entrance.
I am a bit disappointed with the spread of Scarefest through the park. I thought the Zombie Scare Zone moving to Dark Forest would vamp up that side of the park a bit but it was only the exit that could be really noticed and besides the fact that from Rita the whole place looked on fire due to excessive smoke use, there wasn't much atmosphere from ZSZ that bled over into main park. I don't really know how to explain what was missing but it just seemed that Scarefest was something you had to do particularly stuff for, it wasn't an overall experience.
Unfortunately I am a big wuss and do not do mazes so I can't comment on them, and I just didn't pluck up the courage in time to do ZSZ but a lot of people looked quite disappointed coming out of ZSZ anyway - especially during the day - and from viewing a bit through the exit, it didn't look like the actors were making much effort.
Other people may have had a very different experience, and as I say, I have been spoilt with usually going to AT and being able to ride everything more than once in a normal opening hours day but my main disappointment is that I feel unless you spend close to £100 per person, most likely a bit more, you can't enjoy a day at the park when a large majority of the public visit. I am lucky that I have the ability to be able to visit the park on less busy days but those that have Mon-Fri jobs or kids at school are less advantageous and have to put up with the money grabbing.
On a lighter note, the best £1 I spent was on shooting people with water on the rapids - I could have spent hours there for the fun we had!!