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Scarefest - General Discussion

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MakoMania
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Re: Scarefest

Mon Oct 10, 2016 7:25 pm

Can anybody confirm if Altonville Mine Tours has any crawling sections?
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archie.mm
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Re: Scarefest

Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:18 pm

MakoMania wrote:
Can anybody confirm if Altonville Mine Tours has any crawling sections?

It's not crawling as such but there is a small section in which you do have to duck and mind your head.
Last edited by archie.mm on Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Count-Vonduel
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Re: Scarefest

Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:53 pm

Because this Trip Report is Pic-Tastic I have put it in a spoiler tag for ease of page loading if you have already read it!
Spoiler: show
Alton Towers Scarefest
8th of oct Trip Report
:p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p)
So after missing the train in Derby, I got to Stoke at around 2-ish and after a taxi ride I got to the resort at around 3-ish...so that was fun!
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Stoke Station
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I went to the hotel to look at the theming and to use a clean, working toliet, but while creating the 1st real scare of the day, I noticed that they were playing non-stop 80's music...I mean it was spookily themed music but still an odd choice non-the-less.
The hotel decorations were the same as the past few years with just some slightly touched up hanging pumpkins in Splashes lobby!
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Here's the same old sign
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Some theming on the check-in desk
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The hanging pumpkins with some new faces
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I have always disliked the witch overlay, the generic halloween theming from 2009 just felt more halloweenish
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Repainted fountain
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While out there, I saw a single scarecrow and it mildly made me jump so :clap: GOOD SHOW!
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Also while there, I saw patch hanging out at ATH
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One thing to note is that Patch, in the above pictures, is using the old 2008 costumes and seeing it for myself, I do hope they go back to the old costumes for next year as they are so much nicer and, to be honest, (by comparrison) the new ones look kinda ugly.

On the monorail to the park I saw Gloomy Wood Live going on...but more on...THAT! later!

On Tower Street the Theming was (While VERY good)...just a bit underwhelming, after years of the same pumpkin, hay and scarecrow theming it's lost its impact and looks a bit mundane! Hopfully we will get some different Tower Street theming in the next few years!
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Same old theming
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For some reason, they painted one of the scarecrows faces orange...and did a GOD AWFUL job at that!
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They still have the renamed shops (yay)
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At the bottom of Tower Street was the Scarefest sign and some old Tractors from the Pre Cbeebies Land days
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One of the photo-op pumpkins has got a new brighter paint job while the other has not
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^^^
Above, is the old paint, and below is the new paint!
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They were also doing the "Trick or Treat Trail" again
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The doors were randomly placed around the park with no prizes attached to them so I assume it's where you have to write down where the doors are then go back to Towers Traiding
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And here is a poster for "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" (which, in protest of the stupidly long name, I will refer to it as "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" for the rest of this trip report...and I expect you to read it in full EVERY time!
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Here is the trick or treat Stage, due to time constraints I couldn't watch any of the shows but they looked quite good from what I saw passing it!
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One Skyride Later, I went to look at "Chainsaw Zombie Scarezone" before it opened, but as I left the skyride station, I had a nerd-gasm when I saw...no not "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" I saw
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A WELL PLACED WARDLY LIGHT
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Cars and barrels YAY!
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While I did come back later to do the zone, I forgot to take pictures so here's a...
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BONUS CAT
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When I got to Gloomy Wood, Dispite it not being 5-PM yet, There were no actors in either Gloomy Wood or Duel, so there was nothing to take pictures of untill nightfall
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Gloomy Wood at Night
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The lighting was good but the green light on the house was a bit too bright
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The graveyard queue for Duel was open and lit VERY well by the Wardly Lights
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After a few rides on Mine Train and a Nitro Genie, I want to try out Chainsaw Zombie Scarezone

:p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p)
Review of Dark Apocolypse
Dark Apocolypse was dreadful just like last year...the issue is that it is slightly more dreadful than last year!
Last year it was unscary, overcrowded, boring and was just generally in the way! the only saving grace last year was the banter you could have with the actors!
this year it's unscary, overcrowded, boring, just generally in the way AND the actors dont talk! There was more theming than last year but until the theming stops being naff, it's just more barrels to clog up the pathway.
While there, I managed to walk thru it TWICE without even being aknowledged by the actors (try do that in Zombie Scarezone or Scary Tales)
The stand out zombie was a bald guy drenched in blood that was charging around the zone screaming at people and he was (from what I saw) the only half decent Zombie there! (they were all good actors, the issue was with the roles they were given)
This CAN be good, if they make it the entirety (minus the food area on the far side of Blade) of FV, fully theme it with lots of set peices and man-made hiding places (like zombie Scarezone 2013) and populate it with A LOT more actors then it can be good, great even...but this is "Lets close everything and see what happens Merlin"...
All in all it was little more than a slightly shinyer downgrade from last year and ultimately just serves to highlight the gaping void where the enclosed Scarezones use to be!
:p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p)

After scaring people in Haunted Hollow I went to "Freak Show"
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This was by far the better looking of the 2 zones
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Let's meet the freaks
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The alternate route was half of Scary Tales
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:p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p)
Review of Freak Show
Freak Show was by far the Best Scarezone out of the 2.
It has very good lighting and...okay theming but where it falls short is in its execution, all the freaks are things like "Bearded Lady" and "Knife Thrower" and each one had their own set piece...The issue is that I never saw them using their set peice and even if they did, it was too crowded and cramped to do much with it. Another issue was that it was kinda hard to tell the charactors apart as they all look pretty much the same and even then it's hard to tell which of the brightly dressed acrobats is which charactor!
While it was very funny and genuinly joyful to walk thru, it could (without changing anything) be listed as 3 pumpkin and would be more acurately listed!
It was also WAY too small and cramped in the short pathway surrounded by fences the height of walls and just generally too short!
But the main issue, the elephant in the room if you will, is (for me at least) that, If they are using Scary Tales as the escape route, then that begs the question..."why couldn't they have put it in Scary tales and put the altenate route on the main path?"
All in all, while this was the best scare zone, it's still no where near as good as an enclosed clown themed zone would be and again only serves to highlight how much better the scarezones would have been as the old style enclosed scarezones!
hopfully next year they will make it a CLOWN THEMED old style scarezone, put it in Scary Tales, use the old CoS entrance set it in Altoneville and call it Histeria
:p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p)

ONWARDS TO "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers"
"Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" had some cool audio and looked quite good but sadly due to time constraints I didn't get to experience "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers"...I mean it would have been nice to do "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" but tough, that's the way the "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" flavoured cookie crumbles I guess!
I did however get some pics of the entrance to "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" this time so here you go, ENJOY THE PICS OF
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"ALTONVILLE MINE TOURS UNCOVER THE LEGEND OF THE SKIN SNATCHERS"
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Here is the info board for "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers"
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Here is the entrance to "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers", I would have liked to see a propper wood sign like on the pictures but we just got a Leek Signs lazy uncaring verson of the "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" sign
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Now! on to Sub Speices..which is just up the hill from "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover the Legend of the Skin Snatchers"
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the vertical ambience around this maze was exceptionally good
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The Towers looked very good at night
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THEN
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But then I saw the lighting in TotT Garden
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Then I went to Hex
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So I went to Nerf Zombie Strike
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Which was also closed!
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Now I come to think of it, maybe Zombie Strike is only open until 4-30 so it can use the Dark Appocolypse actors!

At this point, I decided to go look at House of Monsters on the way to Not Burger King
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The entrance is on the main path past CatCF!
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They moved some CCL theming to use as House of Monsters Theming...as apposed to the abundance of pop up plastic gravestones...for some reason
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Here's some very dark and blurry images of the entrance
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To make up for the blurry images, I GIVE TO YOU
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BLURRY
BONUS
BUNNYS
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I didn't get to experience House of Monsters due to time constraints but when I was there it seemed closed anyway,
The entrance to the queue was gated off with a staff member standing at the gate and I saw a staff waltze into a side door of HoM which suggests that either there was no one in the maze at the time, it was closed or said staff member probably just got told off! it looked closed but the map claims it closes at 9-PM, since Gloomy Wood Live ended early I just simply don't know.

Then I went to Not Burger King and saw a Scarefest Special
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It looked quite good but I only had enough time for a single Burger which I quite enjoyed
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Then I went to go on CatCF but CCL was closed so I went for one last ride on TH13TEEN, which was running the best I have ever seen it run, There was ALWAYS a train in the station and it left as soon as it was loaded!
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After this we had to rush for a Taxi-->Train from Uttox-->Derby-->Replacement Bus to Nottingham-->Taxi Home-->Find a slightly altered logo on the Scarefest Resort Map!
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They added Bats to TotT Logo
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And So ends my Trip Report!
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I would of liked to experience...House of Monsters...or GW Live...But probably not "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" Because I would not have enough time for "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" as I only had one day...as much as I would like to do "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" there just wouldn't have been enough time for "Altonville Mine Tours Uncover The Legend of The Skin Snatchers" soo...Yea...
GOODBYE!!!
:p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p)
AND...
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
:p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p) :p)
CAT ATTACK!!!
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Legoluce
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Re: Scarefest

Wed Oct 12, 2016 11:37 am

Hi everyone,

I've never been to Scarefest before, but I have tickets from The Sun for 26/27th which I believe falls on Scarefest dates. I'm gradually working my way back through this topic to see all the reviews and photos.

I am a terrible wimp, I've never done a live action maze as I don't think I could cope, but now seeing these Scarezones to walk through I would be grateful if someone could give me a quick run down of what to expect from an Alton Towers Scarefest?

I've done fright nights at Thorpe Park, but last year didn't see any actors at all while wandering around and I didn't do any mazes.

Also, I'm going with a friend who doesn't go on the rollercoasters, what can I expect in terms of queue times once it gets dark, and how possible is it to get on the big rides without fastrack as a single rider? I'm expecting seriously long queues as I believe that week is half term...

Any tips for a first time single rider Scarefest experience would be greatly appreciated. We will most likely be there for the entire day on both days :)

Thanks in advance for any replies!
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MakoMania
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Re: Scarefest

Wed Oct 12, 2016 11:55 am

Legoluce wrote:
I would be grateful if someone could give me a quick run down of what to expect from an Alton Towers Scarefest?


There are 3 mazes which carry a combined extra cost of £20 (£16 with annual pass discount). They are Terror of the Towers, Altonville Mine Tours and Sub Species.

Terror of the Towers isn't very intense, you stay with the group and cannot be touched by the actors. However on the other side of the spectrum Sub Species is very intense as you can be seperated from the main group and the actors are allowed to touch you. Whilst I haven't experienced Altonville Mine Tours yet it is supposed to be in between these two intensity levels.

The scare zones are fairly tame, and open from 5:30pm till park close. These are included in regular park admission.

As for queueing, Scarefest is a very popular time of year for Alton Towers. As ever, queue times will depend upon things such as the weather. For a mid week Scarefest date in half term I'd expect fairly large, but not awful queues. The Smiler, Rita and Galactica are likely to experience queues of over 60 minutes however I have not seen Nemesis or Oblivion top 35 minutes on any of my Scarefest visits. As the night draws in the park will generally get quieter, with rides like Th13teen sometimes having walk on queues after 8:30pm. Maze queue times can vary a lot, but are normally busier after dark which is why I do them as soon as they open. All thrill rides stay open until 9pm.

Two days should be plenty to do everything, especially if you use single rider lines.

Hope this helps :)
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Legoluce
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Re: Scarefest

Wed Oct 12, 2016 12:02 pm

Thank you MakoMania, that really helps! Much appreciated :)
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undeadarmy
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Re: Scarefest

Thu Oct 13, 2016 12:50 pm

ok..so now it isn't really a spoiler as it isn't in the maze this year. does anyone know what the alternate ending of Sub Species actually involved? i heard something about an 'alien puppet' or something but i haven't ever seen anyone say that they've experienced it. so yeah just out of interest - what did the second ending of Sub Species from last year actually involve?
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james45567
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Re: Scarefest

Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:53 pm

Is the altonville maze claustrophobic? And if so in what way? I'm not keen on really tight spaces but don't mind if it's not too bad. I've just seen a tweet from them but I think they like to make it sound worse than it is. Would appreciate any comments.
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Owen
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Re: Scarefest

Thu Oct 13, 2016 8:12 pm

It seems that people have had trouble with the Altonville Mine Tours actors becoming overly violent over the past few days, with some saying they were pushed up against walls and thrown around to the point they felt they may get hurt. To me this sounds very wrong and I hope this isn't actually happening, however when multiple people are saying similar things you have to wonder what's going on.

If this is true and people are almost getting hurt at the moment I personally think this is very wrong as the actors should never do anything to physically hurt you, and I must admit it's slightly put me off going into the attraction as to me that isn't scary, it's dangerous. It seems that they are being way too rough for what is supposed to be the mid-entry maze...
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MakoMania
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Re: Scarefest

Thu Oct 13, 2016 9:21 pm

Well, it isn't called a scare maze for nothing but people shouldn't be getting hurt.

I have read lots of reviews myself (TowersTimes, Towersstreet, Coasterforce etc) and haven't seen anything like this .
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Ladyofthelake
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Re: Scarefest

Thu Oct 13, 2016 10:09 pm

Owen wrote:
It seems that people have had trouble with the Altonville Mine Tours actors becoming overly violent over the past few days, with some saying they were pushed up against walls and thrown around to the point they felt they may get hurt. To me this sounds very wrong and I hope this isn't actually happening, however when multiple people are saying similar things you have to wonder what's going on.

If this is true and people are almost getting hurt at the moment I personally think this is very wrong as the actors should never do anything to physically hurt you, and I must admit it's slightly put me off going into the attraction as to me that isn't scary, it's dangerous. It seems that they are being way too rough for what is supposed to be the mid-entry maze...


The actors in AMT are very hands on, however this is the first I've heard of people saying that they felt they may get hurt. On the run through I did last Sunday the actors had the right balance of still being hands on but not being threatening. I think what we do have to remember is that everyone has very different tolerance levels for scare attractions therefore many judgements will be very subjective - e.g. what may be fine for one person may be too much for another.

james45567 wrote:
Is the altonville maze claustrophobic? And if so in what way? I'm not keen on really tight spaces but don't mind if it's not too bad. I've just seen a tweet from them but I think they like to make it sound worse than it is. Would appreciate any comments.


There are a couple of very tight corridors in AMT which to some may feel a little claustrophobic. These are interspersed with rooms with a bit more space so that does alleviate things a little.
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james45567
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Re: Scarefest

Thu Oct 13, 2016 10:28 pm

Thank you for the info. I can deal with a tight corridor. I'm assuming they're big enough for larger people to get through lol. I'm 6'3" and a bit overweight so I don't want to get wedged :lol
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Re: Scarefest

Thu Oct 13, 2016 10:36 pm

james45567 wrote:
Thank you for the info. I can deal with a tight corridor. I'm assuming they're big enough for larger people to get through lol. I'm 6'3" and a bit overweight so I don't want to get wedged :lol


You should be fine going through as there were a few people of a similar size to how you have described yourself going through on Sunday :)
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Owen
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Re: Scarefest

Thu Oct 13, 2016 10:41 pm

I dis think this Lakey, however a few mentioned it so I must admit it slightly concerned me. :)

Glad it seems like a one off, as I don't want to be pushed up against walls or anything in something I'm supposed to enjoy! :)
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S.J_O'Grady
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Re: Scarefest

Thu Oct 13, 2016 11:10 pm

Not sure if anyone's checked the website lately but it's gone very fancy indeed for the Scarefest season! Loving the little video there :D

https://www.altontowers.com
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Re: Scarefest

Sat Oct 15, 2016 12:26 am

going on sunday 16th should i expect it to be traveller day?
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Justin
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Re: Scarefest

Sat Oct 15, 2016 11:10 am

A nice video has been posted on Facebook and YouTube of this year's Scarefest.

https://youtu.be/z6mbcz-GKWI

* Please be aware it contains some small spoilers!
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toxicgirl
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Re: Scarefest

Sun Oct 16, 2016 11:37 am

Question for those who have stayed over at the hotel this year during Scarefest - do you get any free fast tracks?

Last year they gave us them when we returned to the accommodation after our day on the park so they were useless as we were only doing the one day!
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archie.mm
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Re: Scarefest

Sun Oct 16, 2016 1:14 pm

toxicgirl wrote:
Question for those who have stayed over at the hotel this year during Scarefest - do you get any free fast tracks?

Last year they gave us them when we returned to the accommodation after our day on the park so they were useless as we were only doing the one day!

Yes, you get a free fast track until 12 on selected rides. It includes the flume and air so it was pretty old but still worked.
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Re: Scarefest

Sun Oct 16, 2016 5:46 pm

Thanks archie - any of the other big rides that you can remember? We were gonna got a bit later this year but might turn up as soon as it opens if there it's fast tracks til 12 :)
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