ScareMazing North 2014 - Reviews & Feedback

[Rob]

Thank you to all those who attended our ScareMazing North event at Alton Towers Resort, and making it another successful event!

We'd love to know what you thought about the day. So feel free to let us know what the highlights were for you, as well as anything you think could be improved upon or perhaps exclusives you'd like to see at future events.

[Kirsty25]

Although not directly involved in the event, I did catch a couple of rides with TT and had a drink in Ma Garritas afterwards and can only emphasise how lovely and welcoming everyone is, and to finally put some names to faces or vice versa. #TTFamily

[Cam_muir]

I really enjoyed the event and all the team were very friendly and welcoming. Me and 2 other friends really enjoyed the session in the morning with the food and drink which was a really nice gesture. The fast tracks were a great surprise as well and also added to a really exciting day. Then came the scare mazes. Although, the mazes were the best run throughs iv had it wasn't as extreme as I or my other friends expected. Finally extreme scare zones zombies was meh and wasn't really extreme it felt like the zombies didn't even know but scary tales was incrediable extreme and the actors went to great lengths to make the scare zone extra scary.

So overall the only improvements I would say was to make the extreme mazes more extreme but I know that's not really your fault but mainly Alton Towers fault. I would happily pay an extra £5 or £10 to have the option to going through the mazes on my own or have to sign a waiver so that the mazes are more extreme similar to the extreme ones after 9 which Alton Towers do where you get thrown into corners etc. I understand that this may be hard to organise especially if everyone had to sign waivers but it would make the event so much more intense.

Thanks for a great event at a stunning price of £15!
Thanks to all the staff for keeping everything intact and being very kind and sociable. ROLL ON NEXT YEAR!

[Jack]

What an absolutely awesome day! Absolutely shattered, and I feel like I'm about to die :P Thanks everyone who was there for making it so awesome and thanks to the TowersTimes team for helping the day run as smooth as they could Looking forward to the 2015 events!

[girlgooner]

What can I say?
Yet another amazing event organisd by the team!
Was made up with the fast track which managed to use for two days, the Q&A was interesting too, loved having the bugs around (don't think Sez did lol) as for that poor scorpion pleased it was caught and didnt land on the floor(you know who u were 8-[ ) Managed to stay with the main group for most part of the day which added to the atmosphere greatly.

When it came time to do the mazes the team were extremley well organised had us all ready & waiting in plenty of time met up with the member of staff as they had arranged but unfortunetly AT them selves didnt seem at all prepared The Sanctuary wasn't extreme as was promised but this was not at all down to TT, we then had to wait around for almost 30 minutes whilst AT ensured that Terror of the Towers was extreme for us which lts be honest hair pulling and face touching OH yeah it was lol but so pleased I did it as this was the very first time I had done any maze.

We then split into smaller groups but still this was a lot of fun and we all met up again for 'Extreme Scare Zones' Unfortunetly Zombies we had a problem with so off we went to Scary tails what can I say absolutley brilliant from being punched in the face with a doughnut(not me another member) pushed against walls and blocked from leaving again had hair bulled it was brilliant!!!! We then went back to Zombies this was extreme at but again this was not down to TT. That is where the event ended for most but if you havn't heard the socials are very well known and if you decide to go to any of the meets you NEED to go to a social they are stuff that legends are made of!

Every one is so friendly this is my fourth event this year and was sad I couldn't make the Frightnights event but work and family came first, and yet as always had an amazing time I lov all the TT gang they are like a family not just forum people.

Thank you again to every single one of the team who arrenged, organised, spent time & effort organising yet another amazingly successful event.

Roll on the new season I need dates ASAP so I can make all the arrangements :lol :lol :lol :lol

P.S Where were the key rings hursty? Gutted not to of added to my collection lol xxxx

[ruthisobella]

Finally home!
Many many thanks to all the team for an amazing event.
First meet I have made it to after lurking on the forum occasionally! I had a really great time and entirely enjoyed the mazes and scare zones. Really enjoyed the Terror of the Towers extreme...made a monk friend...and love the Scary Tales walk through.
Was great to spend the day with lots of different and new people and I felt at home!
I really hope to make more meets and catch up with the people I have met over the weekend
Thanks again to all who organised Saturday! Hope to see you soon!
Ruth

[Dan]

Well where do I begin?

To say that this was my best trip ever to a theme park would be a MASSIVE understatement.

The talk in the morning from Tim & Will was a good little insight into some of the parks operations and a good way to start the day and the fastrack between 10-11am was very helpful to allow the group to get a big chunk of rides done on one of the busiest weekends of the year.

Now onto the mazes.

After quite a long wait in Fountain Square we went through to do Extreme Sanctuary then Extreme Terror of the Towers. Having never done Sanctuary and only ToTT back in 2009 I was a little apprehensive of what was to come but as it turns out there was nothing to be apprehensive about as we had a normal runthrough of Sanctuary (through no fault of TT) After a short while we went and did Terror of the Towers which was definitely extreme and at that point ToTT was my favourite of the two mazes.

After lunch in Woodcutters we split off into smaller groups and did the park at our own leisure before rejoining for our Extreme ScareZones. However when we got to Zombies the staff member at the entrance was adamant that "there was no such thing as Extreme Zones" and was beyond rude to numerous members of our group. So we headed to ScaryTales and they had got the memo so we did our Extreme runthrough. Pretty much as soon as I entered the zone one of the actors ran up to me and shoved a donut in my mouth. Towards the end of the zone Big Pig trapped me against the fence by holding his arm across my throat and holding me there for a few seconds. By far my favourite scare attraction of the event! We headed back to Zombies which we thought would actually be extreme but it was far from and was a massive disappointment.

That signalled the end of the event, and after one more night ride of The Smiler we headed back to the hotel for the social. After a few drinks we headed back to the room and 6 of us suddenly found ourselves staging our own version of the Ultimate Sleepover until about 3am. It was a whole lot of fun and I would recommend it to anyone :lol

Sunday was a more chilled out day on park and both mazes were done again. We had a FANTASTIC run of The Sanctuary which wiped the floor with the run we had as part of the event on Saturday, and we then did ToTT as a group of 6 and I have to say it was really disappointing. It felt like they had sent us too early as we kept catching up to the group in front which wasnt giving the actors time to reset, and as a result of that I rank The Sanctuary as my favourite maze of the two.

As i've already said the day itself was brilliant and that's mainly down to the awesome team and members that we have on TT. I only attended my first event 7 months ago yet I feel like i've known everyone for years. I never imagined that I would make so many great friends and I urge anyone who hasn't yet attended an event or is nervous about it to just bite the bullet and come along, I guarantee it will be one of the best things you ever do.

The only negative I have about the day was the lack of organisation on AT Managements part. It seems that The Sanctuary staff were unaware we were supposed to be getting an Extreme version, which then resulted in a lengthly delay between mazes (we met for mazes at 11:30 and by 12:45 we still hadn't done ToTT) This happened again with Zombies and the whole situation could have been avoided with a bit more organisation by AT Management. But in terms of how good a job the TT team did on organising and staging the event I have no complaints. Keep doing what you're doing and 2015 will be immense!

[George B]

Wow. What an amazing Saturday it was. Firstly, we got a great talk from the managment team then we got to fastrack certain rides . After this, we got to the mazes. As certain people will say, I was terrified for my first mazes. But i had a great time in Sanctuary (exept for one of the screens not working in marmalisation) and ToTT, which was terrifying. Then we went off and came back for the scare zones. I was a bit concerned at the rudeness of the ride controller at Zombies, but Scary tales was great and zombies was OK. Overall, another great Saturday spent with TT, and i'll see you all on opening day 2015!

[Puggie88]

Thanks to all the towers times crew for a great day on saturday, great mazes and fantastic extreme scare zones (excluding zombies, but we don't talk about that lol) We did come up to splash landings at around 9.30-10 but no one was around at that point so missed out on the social . What we get for the money we pay is amazing and cannot wait to see what next year has to offer. Compared to screaming south the only thing missing was the behind the scenes tour as in my opinion over the 2 events that has been the best exclusive.

Again thank you for the best halloween season I have had so far at the parks.

See you all soon

x

[SuperWill]

All I can say is that the day was great, the talk was great, and Extreme TOTT and Scary Tales was brilliant! Shame that we never got to experience Sanctuary and Zombies extreme but hey ho, not TT's fault! :) My hair got stroked in Extreme TOTT! Once again, thank you TowersTimes for putting on a great event! The Fastrack was an unexpected surprise so thank you for that as well! See you all again next year! Maybe there will be a 2015 Alton Towers opening day event? :)

[Alex Tyler]

Just got back from Towers my review of the event will come tomorrow.

[Adz]

Whilst I am obviously slightly biased I'd have to say it was a fantastic event overall, I particularly enjoyed the morning talks and creepy crawlies.

Whilst we did run into some issues beyond our control with staff having not been briefed properly by Alton Towers, The 'Extreme' on Terror of The Towers and Scary Tales was absolutely fantastic and whilst not as scary as the after hours upcharge experience it was a noticeably scarier experience with lots more actors than usual.

Sadly I didn't get to make it to the social afterwards but by all accounts it was the usual mayhem and hilarity you'd expect.

We don't have any events left in 2014 but soon we'll be confirming details of one final opportunity for a get together before the end of the year. Details for 2015 will be announced as soon as we're able - but you can expect our events to be bigger and better with more locations and more exclusives than ever before.

[Capt.Barnacles]

I see this event as the best for me in every way this year, and It's good to be able to say that people I barely knew at Nemesis@20, I can call very good friends by the end of ScareMazing. So happy I've made it to all the events this year, can't wait to see everyone again next March! Friday was fun, got on park, first ever runs on the scaremazes and I felt right at home in The Sanctuary! Scary tales was a brilliant addition for this year. Finished Friday off with a rather spooky trip down to the Chained Oak in the dark, remind me never to do that again :P

Saturday came and to be back with the Hex Crew (you know who you are) was the best part of the day, just being there with some of my closest friends on the forum. The exclusives were brilliant despite a little blip from staff, and I enjoyed the extreme scary tales even if I got a mouthful of donut :lol

Then came sunday, which was much less manic, just calmly milling around with a couple of friends, though later on got rather fun running round and round on Nemesis in the dark.

Overall a brilliant experience and I shall definitely be trying to make it to next year's events! Massive thanks go out to the TowersTimes/SouthParks team for making this year an amazing first year for me!

[Ben-TT]

I love you Danny C

[Capt.Barnacles]

I don't know whether to be flattered or disturbed :lol

[HB489]

Super long post ahead - sorry, I rambled!

Sorry for the lateness in posting, was at AT again Sunday after SMN, and have had a busy week with work/a wedding/preparing for holiday this coming week.

This was my first TT event, and myself and my partner both had a fantastic time! Whilst we didn't have chance to meet/speak to everyone, those that we did speak to were very friendly and welcoming (I'm so sorry, I can't remember the names of anyone we met - forum or real, but you were all great!). I'm not even sure that forum names were mentioned, so, I'm Ben, the one dressed (cheaply) as Uncle Fester.

Upon arriving, we had a little trouble working out where we needed to go. Not living anywhere near AT (4 hour drive), we're not as familiar with the park as others, we only visit maybe once a year, and so in the time between visits it is quite easy for us to forget the layout of things like the car parks and walking route. I think I've only ever walked to/from the car park once before a few years ago, so I had no idea which way to go to get to the park entrance. I parked by the monorail (after driving into the complete wrong car park due to there being barriers and no staff or signage to direct us), and popped over to use the toilet, where fortunately some other attendees were passing by from the hotel so we were able to follow them. Whilst I'm sure I'm in a majority here, it may be worth considering adding some directions for future events for those that aren't so familiar with the park.

There was another slight issue we had, regarding tickets, which again we were a minority, but it may happen to others in the future if these events grow. We had booked our tickets through the Short Breaks on AT's website, before we knew about SMN. This is something I had mentioned a couple of times in posts on the forum, but no-one foresaw the problem I would have regarding exchanging the ticket vouchers for park tickets. It took some explaining in the shout box, and to people on the day, for them to understand the tickets were pre-booked through AT, not TT, as everyone kept saying we'll get our tickets at the registration, which of course wasn't the case. We were advised at registration that in future we should book the corporate tickets through TT, which of course makes sense had we not already booked our tickets prior to knowing about the event. But, due to the distance we have to travel to attend, staying in a hotel and doing two days in the park is really the most sensible option for us to make the trip worthwhile, and if booking through Short Breaks is the cheapest option, I, and I'm sure anyone else in my position, would do it that way. Fortunately, when I explained the situation to a member of AT staff, they had a member of staff open up the ticket collection for us, but some advance guidance would have helped us greatly. Please don't take this at a dig at the organisation of the event, I understand this was most likely a one off that hadn't happened before so no-one was quite sure what to do, I just want to make TT aware that this is an option some people may use, so that guidance may be offered if necessary in the future.

Besides that, I can't fault the organisation of the event on TT's part. Registration was simple, instructions on when and where to meet throughout the day were clear (though the time for meeting for the extreme mazes seemed a little early as we were kept waiting outside for some time, but there may well be a good reason for that that I'm unaware of). The morning exclusives were great, the creepy crawly bit seemed a little short, but it gave people a reason to go and find the hut if they want to see/find out more. The morning fast track was a brilliant addition, and especially the first rides for The Smiler. Having not been able to ride it on my previous visit last year, getting it done first thing was fantastic (and we even queued two hours again the following day to ride it in the dark - definitely worth it!). My partner was having back problems later in the day, so the fast track for the first hour really helped us out, it meant she could relax the rest of the day and then we took it slow on the Sunday (although, it could be argued the fast track was the reason her back was causing her grief...but she enjoyed it nonetheless!).

On to the mazes. I've already mentioned the meeting time, though to us it wasn't a big deal. It gave us chance to chat to and get to know some of the other members. Having never attended Scarefest, we had no idea what to expect from the mazes, but I did expect better than the experience we had in The Sanctuary, and from what I've heard, I'm not alone. TP's non-extreme mazes give me a fright more than this did. Actors seemed few and far in some areas, and didn't seem to make much of an effort to get close to scare - at least from where I was. Also one of the screens in one room was not working; fair enough technical hitches happen, but it felt as though either no checks had been made to ensure everything was working (they could have switched it off if it wasn't, instead of the no signal/input message we saw), or that they just weren't bothered. Of course, not TT's fault at all.

Terror of the Towers on the other hand - best scare maze I have experienced in recent years. I don't know if my partner dropping out of this one, leaving me surrounded by people I had only met a couple of hours before, had some sort of psychological effect on me, but I was nervous about what might jump out from where throughout the whole thing. The actors really seemed to make more of an effort with this one. I particularly enjoyed the chapel scene, especially as one member of our group was pulled to the front for some one-on-one cleansing with one of the actors. I'm not entirely sure what was said, but I heard something about adultery...

As others have mentioned, there was a long delay between the two mazes, a lot of non-TT people being sent through for TotT, whilst we stood, receiving very little information as to what was going on. Perhaps this was partly down to ensuring the actors were briefed properly as to what the extreme experience should entail. If that's the case, then no problem, if it's adding to our experience. Although, AT could have perhaps done some better organisation, knowing what time we would be there (and, as far as I, and others I spoke to, was aware, should have been the first group of the day through the mazes), the briefings could have been done prior to our arrival at the mazes. But we got an extreme experience, and that is the main thing.

Now, the scare zones. Well, we all know what happened with Zombies. We didn't have to wait long to [attempt to] enter, which was a plus. But of course there was some misunderstanding/miscommunication on AT's side, somewhere along the line. The TT staff handled it great, trying to explain the situation to the 'area co-ordinator' who just had no interest in listening. Convenient how his tone of voice completely changed when there was a camera pointed at him. But that doesn't take away the fact that there were 60+ witnesses (excluding the non-TT bystanders that may have overheard) to him shouting, rather aggressively, that there is not, and never has been, an extreme Zombies (something that was a complete lie as other members were telling me about how they were thrown in fridges last year), and that Tower's Times will not be entering. Due to my busy week, it had slipped my mind to write a complaint to Alton Towers regarding this member of staff's attitude towards park guests, but I will do after this post. A simple apology that he hadn't received any information regarding the extreme event, and politely asking us to step aside until someone can verify the situation with him would have sufficed. But the way he spoke - sorry, shouted - at us, is not a way to treat any guest, regardless of whether they are a part of some event or just a regular visitor to the park.

Scary Tales, however, was a much different experience. We of course had to wait whilst they emptied the area and briefed the actors. As with the mazes, AT could have perhaps done this in advance (which would have also helped to prevent the Zombies situation) as they knew what time we would be arriving for the zones. They would probably have to give us a more specific time for each zone, but being able to tell other visitors in advance that the zone would be closed for x period of time whilst this is done, instead of us joining the queue and then having others join the queue behind us and being help up whilst we go through, and then the actors being re-briefed for the regular guests again. Or perhaps have a member of AT staff meet us prior to going to the maze, so they can make sure things are communicated properly. Another option would be to do the exclusives out of hours, but as I don't work for AT, I understand this may be something that was considered, along with any other possibilities, and they went with the way that was logistically easiest, having the least impact on the running of the areas for other guests.

The Scary Tales experience itself, I didn't find particularly scary, but I did really enjoy it. It did feel a little rushed, sending too many through at once (probably for the impact reason stated above), but the actors tried to get personal as much as possible. I had an actor crawling behind me trying to chew my leg, and another shove me away when I nervously told him I think I saw Snow White back there. I was almost certain one was about to kiss me at one point when she was staring me down right in my face too. Although not the scariest of the attractions for me, I feel the actors here put the most effort in (with TotT a close second).

Our second attempt at Zombies, whilst we did manage to gain access this time, was more disappointing than The Sanctuary, and more rushed than Scary Tales. There seemed to be very few actors I get the feeling we were just sent through to get us over and done with (I'm not accusing AT of having this intention, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was what happened). I don't recall seeing the guy that had turned us away previously there when we returned, may have just been a coincidence. He also wasn't there when we went through again on Sunday, whether that's related to his attitude the previous day or not I won't make any assumptions about.

As I didn't attend the social afterwards I can't make any comments on that (sorry, we were absolutely knackered, so much so that we slept in at the hotel and didn't make it back to the park until gone midday Sunday). But we really enjoyed the rest of the day with everyone, thank you so much to the TT and AT staff involved in making the event happen. We'll certainly be back for SMS next year as that's much closer to home, and maybe another event or two in the year if we can make it. Sorry this post went on for far longer than I expected, hope I haven't bored anyone!

[Master_feedback]

Well every one here knows me so they know im very pro tt meets but I have to agree with HB489 I could see the the instructions for the morning were going to courses problems lack of communication and that was the theme of the day... good event never the less but thorpe park wiped the floor with alton towrs for scarefest massive tumbs up to Thorpe and big tumbs down for AT bring on next year bigger and better im sure