TS Scarefest Meet: 19-20 October 2013

[Jabberwocky]

so... this is the first time i've done a highlight/lowlight thingy-majig. so here goes.

Day one highlights
- seeing everyone again, and realising i've forgotten most of their names.
- the Q&A with Pete.
- giant terrifying wolf costume.
- meeting new people, who turn out to be awesome.
- spotting the animals from riverbank eye-spy in Carvnial

Day one lowlights
- P-P-P-POWERCUT
- costume awkwardness upon arrival
- faffzilla being created.
- breaking my awesome steampunk glove.

Day two highlights
- Pratchett-chat with ben
- much improved Terror of the Towers, including the 'Fail' Vampire lady.
- early morning nemesis.
- scaring Georgia in HEX - the legend of the towers.
- Delicious chips
- The travelers.
- confidence with techies meant that i saw the Jack Nife Knife prop.

Day two lowlights
- the rain. i think someone has pissed off Zeus. it was torrential.
- The travelers. these are on both lists, because they are both hilarious, and horrible. i hate their speech and the way they act, but their dress sense is so ridiculous its funny. am i the only person who thinks that, when they wear those hats and puffy coats, they look lightly like a wierd pokemon?

 

[Rob]

Despite the power cut on Saturday and getting totally drenched yesterday I had a great weekend! The highlight for me was dressing up! There were some great costumes and I rather enjoyed being Willy the Wolf!

Thanks to Dave for sorting the Q&A with Pete, it was really interesting. And thanks to Pete for rearranging for us on what must have been a stressful day for him.

See you all again soon!

 

[WillG]

So, how to begin to explain perhaps the most eventful weekend in my 21 years of visiting Alton Towers? It was the meet I’d been most looking forward to moreorless since the season began, and for better or for worse, as I said to Astro whilst sharing his umbrella late last night in the Smiler queue, it’s a trip that will live on in my memory for a long while to come. Perhaps not all my expectations were met, but certainly, I learned the hard way to expect the unexpected! I think ‘British grit’ is the best way of describing our approach to the weekend – both days were met with unforeseen issues, all of which had the potential to ruin the day, but those who stuck it out through the bad times were rewarded later on both nights.

But let’s start at the beginning, long before my red make up had begin to run, before a single drop had fallen on the Towers, or any inadequately clad teenage female had stepped through the metal detectors.

October 19th dawned a little earlier than any of us would have liked, but pleasant weather greeted us on arrival at the resort, and there was a sense of anticipation in the air – the highlight of every coaster enthusiast’s season was finally upon us, and it was time for some Scarefest. Firstly, there was the obstacle of collecting freedom passes and such, the queue for which was already lengthy, so after saying my good mornings to the group (despite my thick makeup, I was recognised disappointingly quickly – stupid glasses!) and finding out where to meet them, we had to contend with this. It wasn’t as long as it looked, and despite the crowd, staff were friendly and interacted with all guests, even taking a picture of me in costume to put on my pass, which made the wait worthwhile.

With all that sorted, me and Tarin made our way over to meet the rest of the group in the Valley (my costume made a child cry in the queue for the skyride, which amused me in a cruel way, and ensured we got a car to ourselves!), and the distinctive weatherproof clothing of Sam, Dan and Rob meant catching up was easy. It also meant we’d avoided the wait for Air, and could kick off the day with Nemesis. Despite how busy the park had first appeared, the wait was little more than 15 minutes, and needless to say, it was well worth it. Nemesis did not disappoint – it never does. On top of that, there were still 10 hours on park ahead of us during which time it was only going to get better; I wasn’t to know it was going to be my only ride of the day, but we’ll get to that later.

Next up, intending to beat the rush to the main mazes, we made our way over to the Towers, which seemed to turn into a game of ‘How many TSTers can you fit in a skyride car’, so apologies to whoever I basically ended up sitting on! Expecting we’d be eating soon after the mazes, I only grabbed a cookie and a much needed coffee, which turned out to be my first mistake of the day. Fountain square faff ensued whilst we waited to be allowed to join the maze queue, but this was a good chance for a sit down and catch up with people, many of whom I’d not seen since Sandwich meet as well as the few faces I wasn’t sure I’d ever met before. From what I’ve heard, this was the biggest TST meet to date, which is obviously brilliant news, and it was great to be a part of that – though that did mean I’m even worse with names than usual, and probably didn’t have chance to introduce myself to everyone. However, as my first season in this group draws to a close, I think I’m that bit closer to being part of the furniture rather than just another newbie – certainly being in joker getup helped me to stand out from the crowd (and attracted a lot of attention from staff and other guests alike), though I did think it might have put a few people off getting any closer!

Before I get onto the mazes in any details, the first major change I noticed from last year was how much better crowds were dealt with – each maze last year came with at least an hour’s wait, which was frustrating as hell after paying out extra for them, and just one of many reasons why I hated Scarefest 2012 quite so much. With the obvious exception, I never waited more than an hour for any over the weekend, and the early afternoon wait for the Sanctuary was considerably under this. It was every bit as good as I remembered from earlier in the year, as essentially nothing had changed – Dr Kelman as unsettling as ever, the atmosphere every bit as intimidating, theming and soundtrack used to fantastic effect, and a couple of actors still managing to catch me unawares despite me thinking I knew exactly what to expect. I may have taken a bit of a liking to the nurses at the entrance as well, but that’s another story.
In fact, to my surprise, Sanctuary may have ended up as Merlin’s best attraction this Halloween – I loved it in March/April, and still did at the weekend – from what I’ve heard, it’s unlikely to be returning next year, as I’m sure new ideas are already being storyboarded, but it’s great to see it go out quite so sensationally.

Then we did Terror of the Towers. Hmm. Since first braving this experience 2 years ago, it’s fair to say I’d become a bit of a fanboy, but first time around, it was disappointing – next to no actors for the first 2 minutes or so of the maze, a rather half-baked preshow and unnecessarily rushed pre-maze briefing, and although it did pick up in the middle sections (a couple of the sets created are genuinely stunning, and of course, I’m the last person to complain about a close encounter with a vampire), the whole thing felt rushed and half finished. Based on my reactions, which I think a number of the group shared, I wished we’d done the mazes the other way around, and perhaps after over a decade of service, it’s time for ToTT to have a rethink – or at least a LOT of cash splashed on it – take note, Merlin.

Unperturbed, we wandered back towards Towers Street, in search of Carnival of the Screams – after another of 2012’s bigger disappointments, I wasn’t expecting much. Alas, as we all know, we didn’t get to find out. A long wait, broken up only by Nat’s much appreciated culinary skills, another chance to scare the general public by being a joker and more TS based banter, ended in immense frustration, when 10 minutes from the end of the queue, an eerie silence fell over the park. The rides stopped. The soundtrack stopped. The lights went out. And chaos and confusion ensued. Communication within staff was sadly lamentable, as they seemed as clueless as their guests, and consequently had no information to pass onto us. All we could do as watch and wait – the closest we got to an explanation came from Shawn Sanbrooke and a slightly more informative John Drake who I knew could be relied upon. Yet not even he knew when things would resume, the full extent of the problem or even if the park could remain open – all we did know is that with no apology, explanation or compensation for the wasted 90 minutes we’d spent in a queue, we were removed from it soon afterwards.

To say there was malcontent within our ranks would be an understatement – I’d half expected the group to disband there and then, and everyone to head their separate ways via guest services – and certainly for a long time, uncertainty ruled whilst a frustrated group of enthusiasts tried to work out a contingency plan to salvage the remains of their day. I found Bigdave, Hayden and a couple of others, and we began a reconnaissance mission to see what life was left within the park, with backup plans of McDonalds or hotel. Essentially everyone in the park (and there were tens of thousands of them) wore an expression of identical confusion – nobody knew where to go, or what to do, the advantage of which was that a great many went home. Those that didn’t had flocked to the still functioning Forbidden Valley or Katanga Canyon, making them rather busier than we’d have liked – on arriving there, my little contingent abruptly turned around, wondering why we hadn’t hit upon the failsafe plan of ‘Tavern’ before; even Duel had a queue OUT OF THE DOOR as we passed.

Thankfully, Courtyard Tavern had power, and whilst they didn’t have any information or help for us, they DID have a cheese and bacon burger, which was my top concern by this point. With a rather fuller stomach, a less fuzzy head and the instruction to meet at Splash Landings at 6, I felt a lot happier at 4PM than I had done in the ludicrous previous hour. Annoyingly, the heavens picked this moment to open, putting paid to our plan to ride Oblivion, which had amassed a substantial queue. Queue time boards confirmed the situation was similar throughout the rest of the park – I was tired and irritable and declared it time to relax at the hotel. Although there were still a good few hours of the day remaining, the monorail was full of dissatisfied looking families making their exit – I explained the situation as best I could to one of them (whilst their small child hit from my clownish features), and could gauge the general feelings of the public. Between that and the queue at guest services (though I’m pleased to note how many people were receiving hassle free refunds on maze tickets, fastracks etc – alas freedom pass holders weren’t so fortunate!), it wasn’t hard to gauge the general mood on park. However, with a powercut clearly being beyond anyone’s control, it was hard to be too cross with anyone – although as I’ve mentioned, better communication from staff to guests would have not gone amiss.

Whichever way, from hereon, the day would get back on its feet again – despite misery of the previous 3 hours, everyone seemed to be in higher spirits when we were reunited at the hotel – helped by the remainder of the group joining me in ludicrous costume joy – I still say I was better than ‘the other joker’, but felt suitably outdone by Rob and Ste to name just two; the less said about Mr. Hotdog, the better! Clearly there are some minds on TS far more creative than my own, and again it was great having so many of us together dressed up in the spirit of the event despite the powercut misery. I also managed a catch up with Dan, John and a few others as we settled our nerves over a drink (which they were eventually served with) in the Splash bar – John amused himself pointing out just HOW backdate the rolling resort advert video was, while I think Rowe, who I hadn’t seen since Smiler’s opening weekend and who’d been elusive all day, was thrilled that some people were ‘cultured’ enough to understand her costume (I was quite jealous of the wellies the following day!).

Just after 6PM, it was time to find out what our ‘unmissable’ surprise was (maybe other people knew, but I really was in the dark), but being led to one of the hotel’s conference rooms for a talk from Pete… Someoneorother, the events co-ordinator, was probably the day’s highlight, and for me anyway, it made up for everything that had gone before. I'd had 'perks' before with my previous coaster group (Paulton’s Peppa Pig world, the dreadful Milky Way, Vampire behind the scenes and the infamous boring man of Bakken to name just a few), but this was the first that to actually interest me. Not only did he pick up on our massive enthusiasm for the event, but he genuinely appeared to share in it, and answered all our questions, no matter how daft, even if a lot of our complaints seemed to come down to budget, health and safety or various other factors far beyond his own control – it was good to know the lighting in what I like to call ‘the Bright Forest’ should be fixed in the next few weeks however. Rowe also deserves another thank you for voicing the question I was too shy to ask, as I also miss the brilliant Duel Live and Th13teen after dark, whilst I'd love to see what they could turn Hex into at Scarefest if they put their minds to it!

As you’ve probably gathered, Alton’s Scarefest is far and away my favourite event on the UK calendar, so I was very happy to get this insight on how it works from behind the scenes, while I’m hopeful that at least some of our feedback will be useful to the ents team – we may be Alton’s biggest fans, but we’re also among their harshest critics, so if they produce something than impresses us, they know they’re doing something right! Anyway, I learned a lot from that, and as I said, found him a much better speaker than others – massive thank you from me to him for giving up that time and reorganising on what I’m sure was a far more stressful day for management than it was for guests; a nightmare start to a very busy season on resort – and also to whoever organised that from our end, yet again, I was proud to call myself TST.

Anyway, enough gushing – the upshot of Pete’s generosity and insistence that we MUST have the chance to experience his creations for ourselves when they were running better was a free fasttrack into Carnival and ToTT, which he promised had improved since its lacklustre showing earlier in the afternoon. By the time our heavily costumed group returned to the park to faff epically outside Carnival, I was happy again – night had fallen over the Towers, the power had obviously been restored, normality had resumed (much to the ire of the joker!) and we were finally going to get into the maze.

My experience in Carnival (I’ll ignore the queue part, which was still lengthy!) was eventful, to say the least. Firstly, the introductory host seemed to take a disliking to me, perhaps suspecting that anyone dressed like a clown sought to create havoc within (OK, so I HAD spent the last half hour jumping out at people as they emerged from the photo tent in the queue, and was nearly as frightening as the rest of the queue entertainers), followed by the first scare clown greeting me like an old friend, much to my amusement. The girls behind me were obviously terrified, which amused me, aside from the amount I was being clung to – and then… I managed to lose them going through that horrible big squeeze thing, where my main concern was trying not to lose my wig. To my horror, I realised I was alone on exiting this – I waited a while for the others to catch me up, and when they didn’t had the unpleasant feeling I’d be doing the remainder on my own. The actors however seemed keen to prevent this from happening and had stopped the rest of the group two rooms on so I could rejoin them at the back – disappointingly, the two rooms I DID do alone involved actors basically encouraging me to catch up, rather than jumping out at me. By this point, I’d already seen the massive improvements Carnival had made since the 2012 failure (although random plastic farm animals? Really?) but the last few rooms were where it really came alive. The giant clowns with scary teeth were particularly upsetting, Mr. Dotty’s dance through the crowd to keep re-appearing where he was least suspected was very impressive and as for the final scene? I won’t spoil it for anyone who’s not been in yet, but it’s possibly the most frightening thing Alton have put into an attraction in recent years – this year, I’ve realised I’m becoming the same way with mazes as I am with rollercoasters, and consequently having to look a lot harder to find anything that actually scares me, but the Jack Knife sequence worked perfectly – big well done to the minds behind that. Needless to say, I left laughing hysterically, but probably shaking more than I’d have liked to admit – and as for the girls behind me…

It’s worth mentioning at this point that this was Tarin’s first time at an Alton scarefest (she insisted on coming with me this year, and I figured this was the easiest weekend for me), and was... as close to speechless as I’ve ever seen her when trying to explain just how much better the night had been than last Saturday night which we’d spent trying out Thorpe’s Halloween offerings. Good news and bad news; I think she’ll probably be back – she was uncharacteristically shy on the Saturday, but I think we mingled much better on Sunday. Anyway, with the misery of powercut-gate now well and truly behind us, but time sadly rapidly vanishing, we said goodbye to the group who were heading for the Smiler, and opted instead to give ToTT another try.

Cliched as it may sound, there’s no word but magical to describe the courtyard area in which the queue lines are set at night time, under a finally clear sky lit only by a full moon – and as I mentioned earlier, the wait time had nothing on last year, perhaps as so many were distracted by the Smiler – I needn’t have been as worried as I was upon hearing that freedom passes for the day had sold out.

Aside from the staff member’s total lack of sense of humour upon being handed a joker card instead of my freedom pass, this time through the maze went better – as Pete had promised, the actors were working their behinds off, and whilst we were rushed through, it was in a more satisfying way, and there didn’t seem to be half so much dead space as before – being shoved at the back of the group where actors were more inclined to single me out perhaps helped with this. Still not matching the quality of the Sanctuary in terms of scares and satisfaction, but beating it in setting and set design, I was definitely happier than I’d been in the afternoon, but would have to do it at least once more before I could be certain.

However, it was 9:00 now, and about the only thing I was interested in was BED – it was time to go home, knowing that the various attractions we’d missed out on for one reason or another could be made up for the next day. I’d have left unhappy had it been a one day meet, but as I’ve said, the Q & A session and the improved runthroughs of two mazes, as well as the overall feel and magic of the Towers at night had more than made up for the earlier misery, and TS had made the very best out of an unfortunate situation. So, just in case I don’t get around to writing up Sunday because I’ve got MASSIVELY carried away here, because I didn’t just want to do a ‘highlights’/’lowlights’ list, thanks again to everyone for that. And indeed, to the very vast majority of those who attended, ‘twas a pleasure spending my Scarefest with you

Also, hope to see the pictures soon, and as infuriating as it was having his camera shoved in my face constantly, I'm intrigued to see Hayden's 'live blog'

 

[Amy]

Will, I really enjoyed reading that! And thanks for singling out Ste's costume for praise, he did a great job! You've inspired me to review the weekend too.

So, Ste and I arrived characteristically late on Saturday, and then spent ages queuing for our maze tickets at the Box Office. I don't mind queuing for rides, but I really hate queuing for things like the monorail and for tickets. So I wasn't very happy at this point.

We finally caught up with the group in Fountain Square, where they were waiting around for others to collect maze tickets before heading off to The Sanctuary. We chatted with a few people before everyone arrived.

We then went to The Sanctuary. I've heard amazing things about this from my good friend TheMan, however I should point out that I have a love/hate relationship with all things scary! They scare the crap out of me, but I love them in a weird way. I knew though, that I only wanted to do each maze once, as I'm even worse after I know what to anticipate. So, bearing this in mind, I hated The Sanctuary! It was just too scary for me! I loved Dr Kelman though, how he stays so in character and full-on when repeating the same thing all day, is beyond me! But the maze itself was scary and I hated the strange smells! Our group also got divided towards the end, with me ending up at the back of our group without Ste! That scared me even more! I'm sure other people loved it though!

Next, we went straight into ToTT. I preferred this to The Sanctuary. Partly because it wasn't quite as scary, but partly because it was sort of straight forward dark horror. It still scared me!

After that, we headed off to Carnival of Screams. I love how much of a community this forum is, and even though most people had fasttracks to Carnival, they chose to join the main queue with those of us who didn't. Amazing! Anyway, as other people have said, we never did get into the maze. Half of our group had gone through the photo booth, and half hadn't when the power cut hit. The park went silent, Sonic Spinball went down and the Battle Beam deflated. We stood for ages, and then the clowns came out! Whether they came out due to boredom or because they were ordered to entertain the guests, I don't really care, I thought they were hilarious! The main highlight for me, was when John turned up and TST members were shouting "John" to get his attention, which turned into a rendition of "John, Alan, Alan, Steve!!!" with the clown standing near us... see this clip for anyone who isn't aware!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHk4B1MtQF8#ws

It made me laugh anyway!

When we were all evacuated from the queueline, some of us headed to the Weathervane to change into our costumes. I wouldn't do this again tbh, it took too long and wasn't worth it, and as a result we missed the Q & A and the costume group photo gutted! I'd still dress up, just wouldn't go off park to do it.

We arrived back later and met up with the group again, although we squeezed in a quick go on The Smiler in the dark first. I loved it. I'm a huge fan of the ride anyway, and the dark just made it better. After this, we did Carnival of Screams, finally! Will, you nearly got kicked out because you wouldn't shut up! Not because the host took a dislike to you haha! I really enjoyed this maze, it was scary but fun! Especially the finale. After that we all went and joined The Smiler queue. The queue was fun, especially with Sam telling the guy in the queue shop he had beautiful eyes and then sending Ste back to clarify that he said 'eyes' not 'arse' ;D Loved The Smiler again!

After we left the park, we went to grab our bags from The Weathervane and then headed to our Travelodge (sorry to Dave and Ian for wussing out of sharing a room with them and others. Social anxiety definitely got the better of me this weekend )

So, onto Sunday. We were late again, surprise surprise! I was a bit...I can't really find the right word! A bit nervous of the travellers I guess. I hate prejudice against a whole group of people, but I've had some bad experiences. Anyway I won't go on, as I've mentioned it in another thread. But the security presence reassured me and it was fine.

We caught up with the others by the TH13TEEN exit, just in time for the lunch break...sigh. We were about to get on the skyride to the Valley when we received a text telling us we were meeting to do ToTT again at 2.30...so we decided to do Oblivion instead while we waited. After that we saw Sazzle running to us to tell us about ToTT in case we didn't know, which was nice!

We joined the group for ToTT which I enjoyed more second time round, with a very funny group! Then the apocalypse happened! The heavens opened and we got drenched. We ran for cover and ended up in a crush under the archway by Hex which was quite frankly, scary! So me, Ste, Will, Dave and Ted legged it to the Dark Forest the back way and discovered a lake by TH13TEEN. We eventually found some of the group, but Ste and I decided to head to the car for dry clothes and get changed in the hotel. Annoyingly, we weren't allowed in the hotel as we were none-residents so ended up getting changed in the car and having an argument about whether to go home or not!

We got back on park about 5.30 and had dinner in Pizza & Pasta before meeting the rest of the group in Forbidden Valley. Sunday evening was by far the highlight of the weekend for me. First we did Nemesis: Sub Terra, which was made hilarious by Sam and Dan's re-enactment of the Oslo Court Room! I'm normally scared in there but just laughed from start to finish. Following this we did Air and Nemesis x2. I absolutely loved Nemmy in the dark, for me this was the ride most changed by riding in the dark. We then went to Katanga Canyon where most of the group rode the rapids while Ste and I refused to get wet again and did RMT (really good fun!) Following this we went on TH13TEEN with Hayden and somebody whose name I never did find out! (Sorry!) I like TH13TEEN anyway but loved it in the dark! Then followed the Zombie Scare Zone which was sort of scary but mostly just a really good laugh. Finally, we all headed over to X Sector. Ste and I joined The Smiler queue with the others, but then had a change of plan. We went on Oblivion in the dark and then used an old priority pass to ride The Smiler. It broke down when we were in the station but didn't take too long to get going again. I have to say, riding The Smiler in the dark and the pouring rain was one of the craziest things I've ever done! It hurt, I could barely keep my eyes open, but it was so disorientating. I loved it!

Despite everything that went wrong, it was another fantastic weekend! I've never met a group of people who are so funny yet so bloody supportive! So many people in this group are struggling with various things, and everyone helps in any way they can. I am very socially awkward and struggle with anxiety, but I'm starting to be able to talk to people, which is a big thing for me.

So a huge thank you to everyone! Can't wait to see all you beautiful people again ;D

 

[Lottie.]

Despite the major setbacks of the powercut on Saturday and the torrential rain on Sunday, I had a lovely time seeing everyone again since my last TST meet was back in March... shame on me Sorry if I didn't get a chance to speak to everyone, 60+ people was a lot for me to go around the whole group and say hi, but great to see such a big turn out. My highlights and lowlights have already been expressed by various people's reviews!

Look forward to seeing most of you for Fireworks meet. Can't believe this season is almost over!

 

[Tarin Maria]

It’s worth mentioning at this point that this was Tarin’s first time at an Alton scarefest (she insisted on coming with me this year, and I figured this was the easiest weekend for me), and was... as close to speechless as I’ve ever seen her when trying to explain just how much better the night had been than last Saturday night which we’d spent trying out Thorpe’s Halloween offerings. Good news and bad news; I think she’ll probably be back – she was uncharacteristically shy on the Saturday, but I think we mingled much better on Sunday. Anyway, with the misery of powercut-gate now well and truly behind us, but time sadly rapidly vanishing, we said goodbye to the group who were heading for the Smiler, and opted instead to give ToTT another try.

'Uncharacteristically shy' - Well, there were lots of people and I only knew you

Anyway, I would like to thank Will for putting up with me all weekend, again. I would also like to thank whoever arranged the Q&A with Pete, and Pete for making time to talk to us, it was a new experience for me and I found it really interesting. And lastly, I'd like to thank everyone on the meet for being friendly and welcoming and not ostracizing the newbie of weird.

Now for a mini report.

My first Scarefest was a little (hell, a lot) messy, Saturday started off fairly well with Nemmie and mazes. However, even I thought TotT was missing something, and I loved The Sanctuary. Then we all got stuck in the queue of Carnival of Screams, and power cut. That slightly ruined the day, as staff were slightly useless at giving us information, but the actors tried to keep us entertained as best they could. Eventually after much faff we went to Tavern and chilled there for a bit. Then we headed to Splash for the surprise, I had something alcoholic because STRESS, and then we had the Q&A, as I have already said, I really did enjoy this. After that we finally did Carnival, which I thought was pretty good, and the ending of spoiler was really quite frightening...

Spoiler

IF YOU HADN'T BEEN TO THE LONDON DUNGEONS CAUSE THEY'VE ALREADY DONE IT WITH JACK THE RIPPER

And then we went off to TotT again, which was better, and even as we walked through I thought that the actors were working their butts off. Then it was home time.

The next day we arrived in the park late, because we were being lazy. But we managed to slot Oblivion in before running off to the mazes. We got our free entry into TotT and it was better than the previous day, however I still think there is a lot of nothing. When our group emerged, the rain began. Yes, it was our group, WE caused the apocalypse, I'm sorry. Either that, or the travelers upset the weather by wearing no clothing and far too much fake tan. This meant that the group was dispersed into lots of tiny groups and everyone got lost. We ran into lots of people under a big umbrella outside of Oblivion, and there we waited for the rain to subside somewhat. We went and did Carnival again before heading inside. I came out of my shell a little more on Sunday simply because everyone ended up being split into mini groups, and when you're only facing six or seven people compared to sixty, its much easier to chat. We went off to Duel, then headed to Nemesis, which was walk on, so we did that a couple of times, then Zombies, which was much better than I had been told it was. Then The Sanctuary again, before heading to Smiler. So, we queued for an hour, it broke down, and then we got on it. The first half was pretty good, but unfortunately, after the vertical lift hill, it got shaky and a bit evil/vile/hateful/spiteful. As Will said 'we played the Smiler game. We won. Unfortunately the prize was a ride on Smiler'.

Anyway, after an eventful weekend, and not the best Towers have ever had, I had a really nice time, met lots of new people, got on the mazes and Smiler.

 

[WillG]

Stealing these from Facebook in case anyone's not seen them - and because I think they should be on here too

 

[Sazzle]

Group photos
Higher quality versions (because you didn't think we wouldn't post them, did you, WillG?? ) :

Group Photo 1

Group Photo 2

Costume Photo

Photos above have been added to the TowersStreet Facebook page

 

[WillG]

^
Marvellous And wow, that group seems to get bigger every time I look at it, even now I’m impressed by just how many of us braved the powercuts and the rain, and once again, it’s great news for TowersStreet if this is the shape of things to come!

So, since I’m bored and the forum seems a bit dead, onto my thoughts on Sunday; the day when it rained and as far as Alton’s concerned, the lunatics made their annual attempt at taking over the asylum.
After an exhausting Saturday and a late night, me and Tarin had a lie-in and a bacon sandwich and turned up late on Sunday, and, much to my surprise, Dan was answering his phone, which has to be a first As a result, once inside the park, we made our way towards Thirteen to meet the others. Getting inside the park proved to be our first challenge, as there was additional security and metal detectors to contend with, which I’d forgotten about ‘Ah, have I messed up and come on that day again?’ I asked the security man. He didn’t answer, but nodded subtly, and certainly, we didn’t have to be on park long to realise this was the case.

But enough about that for now – en route to Thirteen, we met Georgia, Ollie and a couple of others (Dave Cheese also ran past us, muttering something about Legoland Discovery Centres), who were headed for Oblivion, so we joined them for our first ride of the day. As Tarin’s said, the section of the day that was spent in more fragmented groups was perhaps easier from a social point of view, as it simplified conversation AND ride planning. Anyway, the queue was shorter than the previous day, meaning I already had high hopes of exceeding Saturday’s ride count (1!) and Oblivion was its usual self. Then we had fake-KFC in the X-Sector, which, it must be said, wasn’t especially joyful aside from the surprisingly addictive random number generator game.

After that, it was time to catch up with the rest of the group who were waiting to go into Terror of the Towers (a handful of people went to ride Hex, but I’m a bad person so sat it out to have a cigarette and a toilet break!), and faff ensued. This quickly deteriorated into a fun game of ‘We are NOT the queue’ as we inadvertently obstructed the maze entrance, confused a lot of people, and tried our best not to look like the sort of big organised group that needed to be moved on by security! At great length, and an excuse for me to put my excessively loud voice to use, the full group had arrived, and we went into ToTT. Alas, since then, I’ve been through the maze that many times that my experiences are beginning to blend into one – my memories mostly consist of the brilliance that is the monastery scene, demanding to play the piano, Alex using me as a handrail and ending up at the front of the group, which was fine until I spent a LOT of time walking into mesh fences during the finale. Conclusively, it was a lot better than the previous afternoon’s showing, and we were all quick to acknowledge this. Unfortunately, as we exited the maze, it began to rain and I sought shelter in the tunnel of many odours, until the instruction was given to head towards Hex, which seemed a sensible idea.

Nothing however, could prepare any of us for what came next – before we’d even reached the Towers, the rain increased to such an extent that I broke into a run (a rarity in itself), yelling ‘Stay alive, I will find you!’. It quickly became clear that this was no ordinary October shower, and my priority changed from ‘don’t lose the group’ to ‘find shelter’. Annoyingly, a lot of people had the same idea, and upon getting beneath the archway of the Towers, I find myself amidst an almighty crush of panicking guests. Nobody could go forwards and nobody could go backwards – the staff member caught in the crowd next to me could do nothing but shout increasingly panicked orders into his walkie-talkie. We’d reached some kind of Scarefest stalemate, and the rest of the group were nowhere to be seen, and to make matters worse, the rain had reached such extremes that I was having to shout to make myself heard, and temporarily became convinced that Alton’s security were actually using water cannons in an attempt at dispersing us. At great length, I finally freed myself from the crowd, and found Dave Pritchard, Amy D, Ste and Ted, vainly trying to shelter beneath a queue time sign. “We can’t stay here!” we quickly decided, frantically trying to work out where the nearest indoors was, and deciding on the Thirteen shop. Going into all out ‘Day after Tomorrow’ mode as the rain turned to hailstones that resembled frozen bullets (seriously, this weather had to be seen to be believed – I hadn’t seen anything like it in England for over 5 years, and the extreme weather geek in me was enjoying it in a weird kind of way), I barked orders at everyone else and checked we were all still together – the mass of pacamacs, Smiler umbrellas and ponchos made it very difficult to tell friend from stranger in the crowd. To cut a long story a bit shorter, lots of getting wet followed, and I came to the conclusion that this chaos was possibly worse than that of the previous day – but again, Alton couldn’t possibly be blamed (upon asking a staff member, I find to my surprise that they don’t have a weather station on site, and they should probably invest in one!) but nevertheless, it was an unfortunate turn of events.

By the time we reached Thirteen, the rain had eased considerably, yet the ride had closed, and the queue line, under a good few inches of water, was emptying. Rita had presumably long since died, and an impressive river was winding its way through the Dark Forest. More aimless wandering ensued, until I eventually managed to make contact with Tarin (who I was secretly glad to hear alive!), who informed me that the others were just inside the X-Sector and bound for Oblivion, so we headed back that way. The sky still looked threatening, so I opted to skip Oblivion; and sure enough, the heavens opened for a second time. At this point, I spotted some friendly faces – two friends from ‘my old site’, one of whom I’d not seen since an ‘eventful’ weekend in June, and who I was quite glad to catch up with – not least because they’d found some semi-dry space under an umbrella! Over time, more people found us, and the group beneath the umbrella grew, particularly after I rescued Rowe, who was wandering around with an umbrella and wellies, looking a little lost – to be honest, as TST members go, she’s as good an antidote to the antisocial British weather as anyone, in fact, as I commented this may have been the first time I’d seen her without her signature sunglasses! Next to turn up was John – as with the previous day, I was hoping he’d be able to tell me what the hell was going on, but aside from a list of closed rides (most of them, it seemed!), he was as confused as anyone! To make matters worse, 2 more substantial showers passed over, much to the frustration and misery of those trapped in the Oblivion queue!

Anyway, enough of the rain – happily, it finally desisted, and I hoped it would have thinned the crowds a little, and was still optimistic about a good evening ahead. Dan made the sensible executive decision that we were going to warm up and dry off in Corner Coffee, but ended up getting sidetracked when Carnival had a joyfully short queue as we passed, which few of us could resist. Not much had changed from the previous evening, although Jack Knife pointing squarely at ME when asked where the third knife was heading scared the sh!t out of me, I don’t mind admitting, and as I mentioned on Saturday, the Mr. Dotty character is a great idea as well.

An hour in the family restaurant with Dan, Rowe, Ted, Dave, other_Dan, Lewis and… whoever else was there at that point followed, and this mainly consisted of me queuing for coffee, drinking coffee, shivering, comparing notes on the great Alton flood of 2013, being mocked for having a ten year old Nokia, nearly breaking my neck on a treacherous slippy toilet floor. It was more fun than that overly long sentence made it sound, honest!!

At length, we regrouped at Sonic Spinball in order to see what could be salvaged from the rest of the day. Tarin had vanished to buy tickets at this point, and Sam and a couple of others were stuck in a queue for an intamin accelerator whose downtime appeared to exceed her downtime. Consequently, a few people opted to ride Spinball as we waited for TST to regroup. This again involved a bit of sheltering, attempting to warm Nat up before she finally gave up on life and headed for home, and playing ‘spot the single rider’ with John, who was much better at it than me!

Finally, the remnants of our full group were reunited, and we headed for Katanga Canyon – I didn’t much fancy Runaway Mine Train and having just dried off, Rapids was out of the question, so I followed Kaycee and a few others I didn’t recognise (they didn’t recognise me either!) to Duel. I like Duel, and it was warm and dry in there – and whilst I didn’t recognise him without his mane, James recognised me at the exit recognised and asked how the day was going (wet!) which was nice.

Here, my day became a little disorganised, as Tarin had acquired a Sanctuary ticket for 7:15, meaning we had to be at the other side of the park to everyone else quite soon. However, optimistically, I thought we’d be able to meet everyone else at Smiler before 9 AND get Nemesis in first. I was in for a treat. Walking towards Alton’s finest, I found the area EMPTY. Literally NOBODY in the queue line. There’s a very real possibility I may have squealed girlishly with excitement – not many things can reduce me to that, but an empty Nemesis in the dark after torrential rain is certainly one of them. The first ride at the back exceeded my expectations, meaning we had to do a second (sod Air!) having met the two non-TS enthusiasts I mentioned earlier, and killed the mood by reminding them of Nemesis based priorities when they were trying to have some couple time!

Consequently (and having far exceeded Saturday’s ride count), it was in a MUCH better mood, and well and truly glad that I’d stuck it out at the park after the rain, that we headed to the Sanctuary, via Courtyard hot dogs. And the evening just kept on getting better – Sanctuary’s queue was only around 10-15 minutes, nothing on what I was expecting, and after another brilliant run through, that meant we had time for the final scare attraction, the Zombie Scarezone before meeting the others. Again, as I’ve probably mentioned, this was a huge, huge improvement on the 2011 offering, with the relocation probably working in its favour. 2011’s was a bit of a non-event, but this year featured a good few moments of nervous uncertainty, and the actors were perhaps better as well (although, Mr. Stephenson, I could have done without being shoved into a fence!! ) – only point was that SOMETHING should have happened in the scary medical tent. Anyway, ‘better than Blair Witch’, was my immediate thought.
I guess I can’t go much further without making further reference to the travellers – as I’ve said in other topics, I really DON’T think they were that bad this year, especially compared with that fateful night in 2011. The atmosphere around the Towers area was perhaps noticeably different from an ordinary night, but Alton had prepared themselves so well, and half of the Staffs Moorlands police service seemed to be on park, meaning ‘being walked into’ was probably the worst offence I witnessed. Much as I’d like to, I can’t fault either travellers or Alton on this one.

And then I had a coffee, and met the last 10 or so hardy members of our group who’d been dedicated enough to stick out the event to the VERY death, and it was time for some Smiler in the dark. Typically, the rain decided to make an appearance once again, so I spent a fair amount of the 45 minute queue (made longer by an ill-timed breakdown) sandwiched awkwardly between the umbrellas of Kaycee and Dan (Dan’s was big enough to share, Kaycee’s… less so!) whilst listening to an assortment of people wax lyrical about Europa Park and beyond! There was also Dan’s ‘This is the kind of night you’ll remember… standing in the rain, in the dark… in a queue… etc.’ speech – and I had to agree – this isn’t a Scarefest I’ll forget, and I can’t stress how much more I enjoyed it than the same event in 2012 (give yourselves a pat on the back!) Anyway, even my memory goes fuzzy here, so I’ll fast forward to the ride. I know I’m in a minority here, but I’m really not a huge fan of the Smiler – it’s almost certainly the best Gerst coaster on our side of the channel, but… in terms of impressing me, there’s something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. That said, the first half was extremely good – but after the second lift hill, it all got a bit ugly, and I was in a hurry to get off by the time we reached the station. It was Tarin’s first ever experience of Smiler as well, and it must be said, she didn’t seem impressed. Nevertheless, it really was the only fitting way to end the weekend, and since the group had greatly shrunk in numbers, the ‘long goodbye’ sequence didn’t seem quite as long as usual, perhaps because we all knew that Scarefest being Scarefest, we’d probably be reunited sooner rather than later (Tuesday evening, in my case!

And that about covers it – if it hadn’t been for the rain, it could have been a REALLY good day, but as it was, it was still a good day, and for a second day in a row, the evening definitely worth sticking out an awkward afternoon for. And after all, if we had to spend a wet, soggy Sunday on park, who better to spend it with? It wasn’t what I expected at all from the weekend, but I still really enjoyed it, and I’m sure I’m not the only one crazy enough to say that. I’m also sure I’m not the only one looking ahead to 2013’s final meet already, hoping for a fitting end to what’s been a very mixed up season…

 

[Rowe]

I rescued Rowe, who was wandering around with an umbrella and wellies, looking a little lost

Eeer, EXCUSE ME.

I take offence to the suggestion that you 'rescued' me! I could clearly see the FCC congregation from the Rehydrator bar, as I got a tea refuel, and was walking up to the area regardless as Astro.co™ decided to risk Oblivion.

Just sayin', 'hero'.

 

[WillG]

^
Just to set the record straight - no actual 'rescuing' occured, and clearly, Rowe knew exactly where she was going (even if I didn't realise it at the time)
In a report that long, there's always going to be some innacuracy, and on whichever forum there's always someone who has to point it out Hope the next few sentences made up for it