Scarefest 2012: General Discussion (Spoiler Warning)

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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Nerdsticks
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Meh, since Scarefest 2011 has kicked off, there seems to be alot of people debating there was so much potential wasted this year. Personally I don't think that, but since people are starting to post what they think should be done for next year in the General discussion I thought it would be time to create this topic to save space, and for future use when scarefest 2012 actually does come. So what could be done for next year? Another maze? Better lighting? More events? More security?

Fire away your thoughts everyone...
Last edited by Nerdsticks on Wed Oct 17, 2012 1:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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oldgitBEN

The Park:
Franklyns Freaky Farm etc to remain in the Farmyard - great for youngsters.
ToTT - updated maze, perhaps give it a really big storyline to follow through.
BH - keep it the BH tent, but extend it and make it free
Duel: Live - bring back please! for the love of jebus.
Lighting - revert to 2010 style, not this years farce.
Z!AZ - keep

Resort:
Fo1SK - bring it back, nothing has ever been as good as field
CoS - back to the hotels

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So 4 mazes, 2 free on park that people wont feel robbed of, 2 at the hotels bringing back the resort feel and then can be charged and people wont be as annoyed.

I swear this is just common sense stuff.
.Will

I'd love to see more Scare Zones dotted around the park.

Zombies is good but more (with varying intensity) would be better.

:)
Dormiens-Dave

I would keep both the CoS and Boiler on park and have a 4th maze that is pay to play up near hotels, I like having 3 mazes on park, makes it one big event rather than a rather disjointed one. Maybe bring the mazes on park free though and increase ticket price instead.
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Liam B
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Yeah add it to the admission price but not buy £12. Bump up admission by £5 or so cause its £12 atm cause not everyone will be paying for it where as if everyone paid for it, it would be less expensive :)
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RobStandley
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Ok guys,
I've yet to visit scarefest this year so I couldn't comment exactly on how this year has turned out, however, towers could seriously turn up the heat with the alteration of the current mazes and the introduction of a new maze, i've had a little play on photoshop with an idea for a maze I had, which could either take over the 'Zombie Scare Zone' or fit in with the Scare Zone & provide a prequel style maze explaining/giving some theory to the scare zone. With some awesome theming and the first section of the maze as a sinister & blood covered 'decontamination' and 'isolation' unit which could easily be pulled off on a reasonably low budget with some polyethene/ warning signage/fake blood etc... the maze would then evolve into more of a full scale zombie apocalypse, possibly in more of a real life setting such as a derelict hospital or school where the decontamination unit is based. This would allow for Nurse & Doctor Zombies which could be a really cool feature and also the use of the curtains that typically surround hospital beds to give some awesome scares & jumps. The progression into a hospital morg would also be a smart feature with some dry ice or similar effect to give a cold feeling to the room along with the odd zombie lurking under tables etc. In terms of a narrative, the use of a surviving army recruit to act as a host could work really well in the scenario. Guiding the guests and popping up in various places in the maze to aid them. It would also be cool to see him turn into a zombie at the end of the maze with the use of a couple of similar actors which could have a great effect and really frighten the group.

Anyway, heres my image:

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More scarezones for 2012 deffinitly as they are a nice addition across the park. Heard people moaning about how short Zombies Scarezone was but its a great addition using the area space nicely would you rather not have it.
Skelvins Haunted Adventure must return for next year, (also the queue line (Duel) must be used with maybe some actors roaming the area)
I would like to see Zombies return next year (or maybe a different scarezone theme or storyline)
But still have a scarezone with Skelvins which gives two three pumpkin rating attractions.
As above has stated two paid attractions on fields and two free on park.
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I've already put what I think they should do for the future Scarefests in the other topic but here it is again in case you missed it.
[quote=""coasterollie""]Here's what I think Alton need to do.

PARK:

Two surcharge mazes need to stay on Park. There's so little to do when TOTT was the only maze. Just scrap the additional charge to them.
TOTT: Main maze that Scarefest is known for. Keep it but alter scenes and the story each year.
BOILER HOUSE: Scrap completely. Been too long and needs a complete change. Industrial/space themed. Aliens anyone? Also make the maze much larger and longer to fill the tent more.
Carnival of Screams: Keep the clown theme as it adds variety to the mazes. Just change some scenes each year and improve or change scenes that don't work as well as others. Put maze inside the old Ice skating tent.
Nemesis Maze: With the new attraction next year and the fact Forbidden Valley doesn't get any attention during Scarefest they should do a small new maze themed to Nemesis here. Maybe use the small arcade building. Theme it to being stuck in the catacombs and you come across people who worship Nemesis and want sacrifices etc.
ScareZones: The one this year works well and adds nicely to the line up. Just needs one or two more. Maybe a Th13teen themed one on the path between the Q info Board by Hex and Th13teen and another on Haunted Hollow path.
Duel Live: This NEEDS to be used. It's the horror themed area of the park yet it's being forgotten about. I know people complained about the guns but if you cover them up and turn off the lights and advertise it's a different ride then it should be fine.
Lighting: Lighting is essential to create atmosphere. Last year looked amazing so revert it back to that then work on the lighting in the Dark Forest.
Themeing: Yes, I know it's only a two week event but why only theme Towers Street? Make Scarefest loner and add more park themeing. Look at Port Aventura and other parks for inspiration.
Shows: This is a MUST. Whatever happened to all the shows at the Merlin Parks? Remember the Halloween Ice Skating shows? People do watch the shows and the seats fill quite quickly. Maybe add a Halloween parade or something.

HOTEL:
Needs a couple of mazes here. They can have an additional charge but they need to be free for Hotel Guests.
-Use the field again. Maybe not for another Field of 1000 Screams. But an outdoor corn maze would be good.
-Another maze. Either outside next to the field of inside the conference room where Room 13 was.
-Scare Rooms need to be cheaper. £350 (minimum) for ONE night is daylight robbery. Nothing like that can be worth that amount of money.

Other quick notes:
-More actors. There's nothing worse in a maze than a long period where nothing happens. More actors means more changes to get scares and makes mazes more intense.
-Street Theatre. Or roaming characters. Things like Musical Ruth and people dressed up interacting with guests as they walk round the park.

I know none of this stuff will ever happen and would cost a lot but the park need to work on improving the event each year. Adding new things to make people come back and not removing attractions and doing a half arsed attempt at themeing and lighting.
I just wish I could be in charge with what happens to Scarefest and had a large budget. :P

Let me know what you all think. Will be interested to hear what you think of my ideas. :)[/quote]
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Tom G
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longy0151

I think we need a TTF maze. People would be scared of that, all because of D4n. :P
Only joking D4n, the Towers need to put more actors in the BH as it seems empty in places and is not scary enough.
Also, with Nemesis WLB coming in 2012, they could make that live and add people who are worshiping the Nemesis monster and are attempting to grab you whilst going through the queue line to feed the alien itself.
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Why do people want Duel: Live back apart from it would be good to market? There were 3 actors on Duel: Live last time when I went on the 30th in 2010, other than that I totally agree in what Ben said.
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corkscru74
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I say more ScareZones! I really enjoyed the Zombies! one. I think AT did a great job of themeing it but it was quite short (but then so was the queue!). I'd love them to turn some of the paths into big, long scarezones. I noticed that there are two paths that run almost parallel from Dark Forest to X-Sector - maybe they could have one as the family route and the other as a themed up, Sh*t-your-pants route!

Also would be great to see more actors roaming the grounds, possibly getting more gruesome later at night so as not to scare the kids in the daytime.
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Theme Park:
They Need to Do something with Duel Next year! When All acotrs were on Duty in 2010, Skevlins Haunted Adventure was Quite Fun and a little Jumpy, Also They Should Keep Franklyns Freaky Farm so there are 2 Family Areas for Scarefest! I havent been this Year to Scarefest but reading some Reviews, Terror Of Towers need a Update in some parts, Carnival of Screams needs move to another area of the Park go back to The hotels! But it would be if they added the extra £12 Charge on to the tickets, So theres more do on the park! Keep ZOMBIES Scarezone , Another one or Two added Nemesis or THI3TEEN, They also Need to put the Lighting from 2010 into 2012 as the Park did Truely look amazing in the Dark, But maybe add Green Lights to The Dark Forest! Add Actors into Nemesis: WLB Que or Area of Forbidden Valley
Hotels:
Plus some Mazes at The Hotels with Scare Rooms, I was thinking A Zombie maze and A maze Similar to Thorpe's Experiment 10, Also in the Ques of Mazes have some Actors asking Questions to Guests what is Related to the maze also having Family Entertainment in Both Hotels but after 9pm maybe bring in more Scare Actors?
DiogoJ42

The scare zone needs to be a proper two way path, not a half-arsed open air maze.
djtruefitt

Zombie Zone
Personally I would like to see the zombie zone made a bit longer and maybe more under cover to make it darker and more filled with smoke.

Payed mazes
Firstly I think they worked great on park, but next year they should be free to everyone. Just do what Thorpe do and put the prices up slightly, you are getting more for your money at scarefest anyway with late opening and more attractions. They can get rid of Boiler house completly as I found it to be complete rubbish every time I have been on it. And replace that with something new. The carnival was OK, but it needs to be made longer, have at least 5 or 6 more actors and have a proper ending!

TOTT
I found this to be the best maze, so they should just continue to build on it, but maybe change it around. From what I hear it will be having a major change around next year anyway.

Farm
This was a great addition this year so I hope it stays around next year and gets bigger and better!

And finally sort out the lighting! Get rid of the many power generators around the park and just install some proper permanant lighting around the park, there really is no need to flood light whole areas such as the dark forest, nemesis, battle galleons, etc.
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I know everyone's saying have the mazes free and up the gate price, but seriously do you want to have to queue hours for every one of them? Do you want to have to go through the mazes with bunches of chav's? I think they should go back to both mazes for £10, if they were free you'd be wasting most of your day queueing for the mazes, it would be awful. They worked great on the park, it didn't mean you had to rush to the hotels to get their on time, especially if you weren't parked in that direction. Personally I think it was great to see the Black Hole tent being used and to see X-Sector lively!
djtruefitt

Well it seems Alton seem interested in adding an year round maze to the park, on the questionnaires there are a few questions such as "would you like to see a maze on park all year" and "would you pay for a maze if it was on park all year".

So maybe we could see a perm maze added to the blackhole tent next year or the year after.
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Stelios7
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Well it would be nice to bring back Field of 1000 Screams first.
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cmpunk771
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Personally I think it's time for the Boiler House to go and for ToTT to have a complete overhaul. It's getting very stale
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Jammydodger
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I think experiment 10 will raise the bar on the limitations of a scare maze next year. I really hope 2012 is the year we see start to see the end of snakes of people awkwardly shuffling through mazes as actors try to decide who they're going to pick on next.
I think with the outside thinking of E10 combined with the top notch theming Alton have produced, they could make the super maze in 2012.

Either way, I feel Alton need to either double the amount of mazes they have, or have one REAL standout maze that's different from anything in the world. Because the average member of the GP is going to start wondering why Thorpe have almost double the amount of mazes and no extra charge. (Yes we all know they hike their entrance fee, but the average joe probably doesn't know that).

Parkwise, I also strongly think they could benefit from opening an extra hour. When I went, it was only really dark at about 7:30pm, and we only had time to ride TH13TEEN in the dark, because we didn't realise the mazes would take around an hour with queuing time etc. Although I suppose this has something to do with the locals...

Also they seriously need to hookup some more permanent lighting solutions. Those diesel generators everywhere look ridiculous. With the amount of money they've spent renting all these over the years, they could have easily hooked up their own lighting rigs and they would have paid for themselves by now.
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