Scarefest at Alton Towers......help needed!

[Debs Hill]

hi guys
Thinking of taking my 12 year old to the Scarefest at Alton Towers this year and would love to hear from anyone who has done this, either this year or in the past! How scary is it? Is it worth it? Are all the rides open?
How does it compare to thorpe park? From the website Thorpe Park looks more intense!
Debsx

 

[Vickyrowe]

I have never done Thorpe but I do Scarefest every year, For us it's worth it , All rides are open 10am-9pm, with the exception of some of the kiddie rides , the flume and the skyride which close at dusk for safety reasons,

For us we find that we get longer to ride all of the rides,

The scary stuff is optional and the scare mazes are charged extra, We don't do these A) cause i'm a wimp ( my mates scare me senseless by standing outside lifts round corners etc)
and
B) my hubby is disabled and cannot do the mazes

2 of the mazes are in the towers ruins and one is by the lake in the middle of the grounds,

I love the atmosphere , I came on Sunday from a weekend up there , I only managed a couple of rides as was feeling ill , but me and hubby have annual passes so it's no big deal, I could just soak up the atmosphere.


Check out Towersstreet.com , it's a nice forum , loads of info on the mazes and more details ,

Hope this helps.

Ps, I go to Alton at least 3 times a year from Cornwall, so if you have any questions you can always message me

 

[Vickyrowe]

Thorpe Park for me is purely about the rides, great if thats what your into but thats not what we like, Alton is a lot more family orientated , depending on your 12yo , If it's scares and pure thrill your after Thorpe would suit, but for what I feel is a great all round family friendly atmosphere Alton will always win for me.

 

[xxpeplyxx]

I go to both every year and both are very different, I went to Thorpe park last Saturday 13/10/12 and as always it was Fantastic, the mazes were in top form and the rides were all very good! Espically in the dark, they do have actors wandering around trying to scare people at Thorpe park, so really it depends what your 12yr old likes! If they like the idea of the mazes and want to be scared then Thorpe is the place to go as it is far more scary!! Just be warned the que lines get very long during this time of the year, last weekend no queue for the bigger rides was less than 90 mins and to be honest they looked longer than the signs said! We brought the freaky ultimate fastrack so we didn't have to queue for anything! I was a godsend! Be warned both parks have extra costs for some adders attractions the only mazes you can enter at Alton towers without extra charges is the tower of terrors and the small walk through attraction near the lake! Everything else you have to pay extra for! As with Thorpe you have to pay £3 extra to go in the passing!

Alton towers is good to not half as scary so would reccomend this to younger people! The tower of terrors if very good, jumpy but no to scary the park is bigger and more spread out so the ques are sometimes not so bad, but are still very long Rita often hits the 3 hour mark along with 13 and air so again looking at long ques! We go for 2 days to Alton so normally get everything done in two days! I am going Alton towers this coming Friday and saturday so I'll let you know what it's like this year! I'd say they are both worth a visit to be fair! As long as you don't mind very long queues