This year has been the easiest winner to declare. We bring you our Alton Towers Vs Thorpe Park Halloween edition comparison.
Rollback the clocks to last year and this very article would be a much tighter affair.
The introduction of Creek Freak Massacre finally stepped up the bar for Thorpe and delivered a truly wonderful addition to Thorpe Park Fright Nights.
A strong enough maze to compete with the offerings that Alton Towers had in their line-up for 2019.
Fast forward to 2020 however and the gap between the two has never been wider.
What’s At Alton Towers Scarefest in 2020?
Brand new for 2020 we have Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard, an outdoor scare experience that has winks and nods to mazes of old at Alton Towers.
In addition Garden Lights: Whispering Souls takes families on a journey through the gardens lit up like never before for an eerie and unique experience.
The Alton Ancestors along with various other stage and street entertainment were doing the rounds and proving a great atmosphere throughout the park.
Familiar favorites such as Altonville Mine Tours, The Attic, and Darkest Depths are back for 2020, all indoor scare mazes which were thought to be out of the question ahead of the scare season.
Just how on earth would socially distanced mazes work many asked.
Well, the answer to that question is, very well indeed!
What’s At Thorpe Park Fright Nights in 2020?
Thorpe Park has ditched all of their indoor mazes and has opted for outdoor scare zones and mazes instead.
The Roots is a brand new 2020 addition to Fright Nights in addition to Platform 15 returning with a new outdoor layout.
Outdoor scare zones include Creek Freak Unchained, Fearstival Arena, The Howling of Lycanthorpe High, The Swarm Invasion, Terror of Amity High, Screamplexx Cinema and The Crows.
On paper, the sheer number of attractions would indicate Thorpe absolutely running away with this year’s Halloween event.
But looks can be deceiving.
Maze Comparisons
All of the mazes at Alton Towers this year have been detailed, jam-packed full of scares with superb acting and immersion into each attraction.
Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard is an experience that must be done at nighttime as the maze comes alive with psychotic clown brilliance.
But how were Thorpe’s mazes?
Well… awful.
With folks being allowed to film in the Thorpe mazes though it didn’t take long to see just how bare and poor these mazes were.
The roots looked like it had been constructed in around 60 minutes and contained little to no actors and Platform 15 looked absolutely horrendous.
There were many influencers who had been given tickets to the event for free saying just how good the mazes were.
I mean, the tickets were free, you almost feel bad giving a terrible review if you’ve received something for free.
I know this from experience, but I still rate it as honestly as I can (even brutally at times) despite free tickets.
The reviewers in question were all far too kind to voice a genuine opinion when it comes to free events at risk of not being invited for further events.
Just search Thorpe Park Fright Nights 2020 mazes on YouTube and anyone with good eyesight will see just how shockingly poor the mazes were.
It seemed half-assed and that’s just the mazes.
Scare Zones
With Thorpe Park being the only park to have scare zones this year they were heavily reliant on making these a good immersive experience.
After speaking to numerous bloggers, vloggers and influencers it seems only Creek Freak Unchained was worthy of being labeled on the website.
With Thorpe labeling every scare zone as an individual attraction it seems as though it was only added to make the event look ‘busier’ as a result.
The Crows were guys dressed as scarecrows roaming the park, two scare zones were just people dancing (how scary), The Swarm scare zone was literally two people dressed as soldiers and the others aren’t even worthy of discussion.
It’s very strange to me why Thorpe passed on the indoor mazes when Alton Towers (another Merlin attraction) were able to go ahead with indoor mazes with no dip in quality or scares.
A very peculiar decision indeed.
But by adding more attractions to look the busier of the two parks there wasn’t a saving grace within any of the activities to even compare it to Alton Towers.
The bigger doesn’t mean better mantra was in fine form here with Thorpe falling way short of their northern opponents.
Overall
With Thorpe ditching the one maze (Creek Freak Massacre) that folks were excited about this year in favor of outdoor zones and subpar outdoor mazes they sadly fell way short of the mark.
With numerous fans and visitors all in agreement, it’s safe to say my opinion is one of the general consensuses which is rare in itself.
I’m usually against the grain with many of my thoughts and opinions so it’s safe to say they really didn’t come out tops this time around.
No other park is worth including in this Halloween comparison as other parks have gone for an even more toned down family-friendly Halloween event which is similar to previous years.
If you’re spoilt for choice on which park to visit this Halloween season there’s only one winner.
Alton Towers.
Get those tickets booked at https://www.altontowers.com
