Scare Attractions Oct 2021
Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 2:09 pm
It's that time of year when the Ghouls and Ghost come out to scare.
I've already done one scare attraction this season and have a few more to go to.
My first scare attraction this season was a long awaited Scarefest at Alton Towers. Due to covid, it's been 2 years since I last visit.
Upon making the effort to get up early, travelling 4+ hours to get to the park and making sure that I was the first through the turn style to get a good few rides in before the queues build up. Unfortunately, most of the big rides did not get signed off until around 10.30 which left people waiting in the queue lines waiting for them to open. My first ride on the Friday was Wicker Man and I decided to queue up for the Smiler on the Saturday morning.
Like many other attractions that I've been to since covid, I didn't expect things to be the same, and I did expected the park to be busier than usual due to the staycation. So I purchased a gold fast track for the Friday, which I must say that I really didn't need and I purchased the platinum fast track for the Saturday which was a must due to how busy it was. On the Friday, I notice despite the queue lines being long, they did move fairly quickly and I can only assume that was due to the social distancing in the queue lines.
The park felt understaffed with some of the photo kiosk being self service and on Rita, the ride ops where doing two jobs of also managing the loading off the bays as well as checking the restraints. This meant that the through put was slower than usual.
It appears that Thirteen can no longer run when it's wet due to a recent rollback incident. I hear that no body was on the ride when it happened.
I also go to see Duel rerouted queue line in person for the first time. As much as I understand that it was done to make it wheelchair friendly, the pepper ghost effect in the doll house was missing and the entrance didn't feel as good as it was previously. No one appeared to be manning the disable/fast track ramp, so I did feel a bit awkward using it, pushing in front of other people in the queue line despite having fast track.
The rapids were also closed. My first thought was typical Merlin cost saving. But I have been told that this is not the case.
The new flats rides were much a needed welcome, but I hope that moving on forward into the next season, these will get replaced with some appropriate themed ones to fit in with each area.
The scare mazes were really good this year. The attic was probably my favourite. But they all were good. I won't give any away any spoilers here.
The lighting around the park was good this year. However the scarefest atmosphere was ruined by the heavy metal rock music blasting out after dark. I have heard that this has now been reverted back to the old traditional music that they play at scarefest.
It's been two years since I been, I don't know if my body wasn't used to it after a two year break, but I didn't feel great on the first day. I did ended up suffering from motion sickness and I found the rides uncomfortable. I know that I'm not getting any younger. But this is very un like me. However by Saturday evening (my second day) I was beginning to enjoy the rides better. I'm back again for the Fireworks event and hopefully my body will take the rides better like I used to do before covid.
Scarefest is usually my favourite time of the year. I must say that this year fell below my expectations and it wasn't the best. I feel this may be partly due to covid and the fact that I've not been to a theme park for two years (I know that I visited Blackpool last month, but I usually expect the rides there to be uncomfortable as they are old and rough) as well as the heavy metal rock music blasting out. Also having the rides open late as well as the Rapids being closed and Thirteen not operating when wet didn't help make the day enjoyable either. Hopefully next year will be better.
I will be giving a report on my next scare event soon. If you have attended a scare event this year, please feel free to report and post on this thread.
I've already done one scare attraction this season and have a few more to go to.
My first scare attraction this season was a long awaited Scarefest at Alton Towers. Due to covid, it's been 2 years since I last visit.
Upon making the effort to get up early, travelling 4+ hours to get to the park and making sure that I was the first through the turn style to get a good few rides in before the queues build up. Unfortunately, most of the big rides did not get signed off until around 10.30 which left people waiting in the queue lines waiting for them to open. My first ride on the Friday was Wicker Man and I decided to queue up for the Smiler on the Saturday morning.
Like many other attractions that I've been to since covid, I didn't expect things to be the same, and I did expected the park to be busier than usual due to the staycation. So I purchased a gold fast track for the Friday, which I must say that I really didn't need and I purchased the platinum fast track for the Saturday which was a must due to how busy it was. On the Friday, I notice despite the queue lines being long, they did move fairly quickly and I can only assume that was due to the social distancing in the queue lines.
The park felt understaffed with some of the photo kiosk being self service and on Rita, the ride ops where doing two jobs of also managing the loading off the bays as well as checking the restraints. This meant that the through put was slower than usual.
It appears that Thirteen can no longer run when it's wet due to a recent rollback incident. I hear that no body was on the ride when it happened.
I also go to see Duel rerouted queue line in person for the first time. As much as I understand that it was done to make it wheelchair friendly, the pepper ghost effect in the doll house was missing and the entrance didn't feel as good as it was previously. No one appeared to be manning the disable/fast track ramp, so I did feel a bit awkward using it, pushing in front of other people in the queue line despite having fast track.
The rapids were also closed. My first thought was typical Merlin cost saving. But I have been told that this is not the case.
The new flats rides were much a needed welcome, but I hope that moving on forward into the next season, these will get replaced with some appropriate themed ones to fit in with each area.
The scare mazes were really good this year. The attic was probably my favourite. But they all were good. I won't give any away any spoilers here.
The lighting around the park was good this year. However the scarefest atmosphere was ruined by the heavy metal rock music blasting out after dark. I have heard that this has now been reverted back to the old traditional music that they play at scarefest.
It's been two years since I been, I don't know if my body wasn't used to it after a two year break, but I didn't feel great on the first day. I did ended up suffering from motion sickness and I found the rides uncomfortable. I know that I'm not getting any younger. But this is very un like me. However by Saturday evening (my second day) I was beginning to enjoy the rides better. I'm back again for the Fireworks event and hopefully my body will take the rides better like I used to do before covid.
Scarefest is usually my favourite time of the year. I must say that this year fell below my expectations and it wasn't the best. I feel this may be partly due to covid and the fact that I've not been to a theme park for two years (I know that I visited Blackpool last month, but I usually expect the rides there to be uncomfortable as they are old and rough) as well as the heavy metal rock music blasting out. Also having the rides open late as well as the Rapids being closed and Thirteen not operating when wet didn't help make the day enjoyable either. Hopefully next year will be better.
I will be giving a report on my next scare event soon. If you have attended a scare event this year, please feel free to report and post on this thread.