2013 was our first time ever going to scarefest at Alton towers and I don't think we could of picked a better year. We started our day in the park followed by the scare mazes where we would then go back to the hotel for another scarring in our scare room with scares happening until 3am. Upon driving to the hotel we drove into our fetid cared scare rooms parking area and noticed that both golf the hotels had been done up to reflect the event with ivy draped around most of the Alton Towers Hotel and Splash Landings having lots of fake pumpkins everywhere. Comparing the effort Alton towers had gone through in theming the hotels we knew we were in for a treat when we entered the park.
The park entrance for scarefest received a small makeover like it does every other year with a pumpkin being added on the entrance tower and pumpkins and hay being added inside the corkscrew memorial area. The whole of towers street had a makeover for the event sporting pumpkins, banners everywhere and dummies dotted around the place for guests to take photographs with.
2013's scarefest line up was Carnival of screams and zombies scare zone for free and paid mazes where Terror of the towers and The Sanctuary. The paid mazes could be brought together for £12 or separately however for those of us lucky enough to have freedom passes you could fasttrack the carnival of screams queue and have unlimited entry to the mazes terror of the towers and the Sanctuary.
Whilst exploring the park we popped into duel to see if anything had been added for Halloween and we were presently surprised to see that some old theming had made a return. A light up skull on a metal bar was added in the straight section from where we see electric bill and nothing but darkness ahead of us. However now when going up the straight section all you can see is lots of light and this skull. Due to the farm yard being closed down ready for it's retheme outside hex was changed into patches freaky farmyard. With the space the park had they did a really good job, this space also played host to the trick or treat doors which prove to be very famous with the little ones.
At 1pm the mazes opened and we started queuing for terror of the towers 10 minuets prior to the maze opening. The queues for the mazes weren't to bad when we had got off so we went around to The Sanctuary to see if it was up to all the hype!
Unlike Thorpe Park's mazes it seems that Alton Towers refine their mazes a lot more and make sure that every little detail is thought about. For example when Dr Kelman goes on his break his cover actor will say he's his apprentice. Along with refining the story line Alton Towers have two times the amount of actors in the mazes.
We tried all of the mazes at Alton towers and we have to say our favourite maze has got to be terror of the towers due to the fact that there is so much going on. If we had to pick between Thorpe park or Alton towers we would pick Alton towers's mazes any day. However all of the mazes are all really well done and well worth a trip if you get the chance!
