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Stealth is back open today 😃

Rode Tomb Blaster today. It remains bloody dreadful. -Every train had at least one car not in use. One train had two cars not in use. -The 'story' is beyond dull, with the voiceover being one of the worst-sounding, boring and grating things I've ever heard on a theme park -The guns are rubbish -Pacing of the ride feels so off. Partially because of the story they shoehorned in, but also just because the ride system feels like it's on its last legs -Audio is either too quiet or too loud. -Most of the screens in the on ride photo viewpoint were broken (not necessarily turned off, but physically broken). Honestly, of everything that the park are doing, adding and changing, sorting out Tomb Blaster should really have been number 1 priority.

The Easter Egg culture for Merlin has become a lot. Realistically, sticking in an Easter Egg takes very little effort. Taking Toxicator as an example, it wouldn't have taken any real energy and time away from the creative team to throw in references to 1997, seeing that "Ripsaw" spelt backwards was "Waspir", and that could be used to spell something that sounded vaguely acidic in "Waspirium", a poster with "Can you cut it?", etc. It's a fun little nod. Designers putting their name on an attraction is also a trend which has been around a long time too. But there's now an innate expectation for Easter Eggs which has come from influencers and enthusiasts seeking them out and really pushing them. It erred too far. My favourite example of how far it went was how Survival Games at Thorpe Park features a prop of a severed penis (behind a fence, in a box, not in an obvious place, I believe), with a tag labelled "JS" on it, which stood for Jack Silkstone, an 'Easter Egg' to how Jack was involved in the marketing for it. Again, not something that takes up time, money or energy to create really, but extremely convoluted, and by bringing it to people's attention and encouraging them to look out for it, actively takes away from the experience. And that's the issue now. People fixate more on Easter Eggs and finding these nods and feeling clever than actually taking in the bigger picture. Going back to Toxicator, whilst all the references make sense and that, does Toxicator really fit and work with Forbidden Valley? Well, it's certainly changed the area more and continued to turn of it into X Sector 2.0.

Its cool to have an Easter Egg or two within a new or reimagined attraction (say for example, Piraten in Batavia having a survivor boat from the fire and a Roland Mack animatronic), but when the majority of the attraction becomes "DO YOU GET IT?" it misses the point somewhat as you feel like they're trying too hard to bash you over the head with references. The other issue is that the park has been so run down that a number of rides have needed a full refurbishment. Sub Terra came back out of necessity more than anything, Duel was in a sorry state since it opened, Nemesis was also refurbished out of necessity or be closed. Don't really think it's anything to do with nostalgia. Just those are the rides they could either redo over a closed season or needed to be done for reasons.

The full Old Town soundtrack has just been uploaded on my youtube, go check it out

*blows cobwebs off* I don't know if it's been explicitly discussed on the forums, but Towers' Entertainment function is now in the hands of an external team, outsourced in a similar way to how food is now outsourced to Aramark. The team responsible for that is RWS: https://www.rwsglobal.com/ I don't know exactly how it now works, and how responsible RWS are for the design of new attractions. However, the 2 new scare attractions for this year are a scare zone and scare maze, both themed and located in the Dark Forest: https://www.facebook.com/reel/24142435788755074/?s=single_unit It's worth noting that Thorpe's Entertainment function is going to be in the hands of RWS from 2026. So how Scarefest goes down this year might give an indication to how Fright Nights will go next year (which will be marketed heavily due to it being the 25th year)

We did run it with 5 trains a few times back in 2014. Our rides manager at the time was really pushing for it, but the ride kept going down daily with various issues. Because of that, he decided to scale it back to 4 trains permanently, or 3 on off-peak days. After that, it never operated with 5 trains again during the time I worked there.

Could hit 1k pph if it had 5 trains on. Which I've no idea when last happened.

To be honest, there won't be any real differences in how busy it is. Weather might play a factor, but the Saturdays in September will all be equally busy really. Saturdays will be the busiest day of the week, but it still won't be that busy.

Just replace Rumba with a water ride the little grots can be pinned down into so they can't get out. As always, the UK should get a Chiapas-esque ride.

Couple of potential theories: -It was found that whoever went into the ride area damaged the ride area fencing. This wouldn't have been immediately obvious, but after dealing with the people in the ride and then surveying the fencing, this would be discovered. That could take 30 minutes. I'd say that's most likely. -Further issues with people trying to enter the park / entering the ride area, which were causing further delays. -An unrelated technical issue occurred after the guest action, meaning the ride wouldn't be able to reopen.

The way SFA is running I don't think half the rides will make it till then even... Stealth's repeated downtime is very different. It had its issue at the start of the season, which was a big unexpected hiccup from winter maintenance. Since then, it's had two, pre-planned, periods of downtime. One of them was for a launch cable replacement, which happens yearly. The other I do not know, but since it was short, pre-planned and stayed on schedule, I don't think is a major concern. Rita has suffered longer, not-planned closures, with no known opening date advertised during those closures. That indicates that those issues are actual problems with the ride which needed fixing / parts replacing. I don't think the two are linked, and it's more coincidence that there's two rides of the same time that have experienced downtime in the same year.

Upon Kingda Ka's passing, it cursed all the accelerator models.

Thanks for that, they were awaiting test and inspection on Wednesday. Yesterday it was running.pretty well though at least three hiccups due to sensor issues. All rides suspended in anticipation of a thunderstorm, which materialized mid afternoon.

Thorpe top this for me for reasons similar to the above. Rides are often operated well, especially the likes of Stealth & Hyperia and reliability has been better than from previous years. Towers contrary though has seen a noticeable decline in operations and reliability lately. Some rides like Thirteen still smash it but it’s not like how it was. Chessington is hit and miss, but I’ve seen some poor operations lately, with rides like Rattlesnake operating so badly now and too many rides on low or reduced capacity now. LEGOLAND is ok, but I still find it exaggerated where staff have to say “you’re secure” after checking a simple door or restraint once or even twice. It’s the most safety exaggerated park out there I’ve done!

Easy winner is Thorpe. Best operated rides, best opening hours and better reliability.

The last few years, I'd say Thorpe park by a long way. Best ride availability, best throughputs and best opening hours. Crazy because going back 5+ years or so I would've always said Towers. 1 train ops on off peak days was standard at Thorpe, resulting in long queues even on quiet days.

Got to be Thorpe for me these days - they have had quite the turnaround over the last few years.

Thorpe comes out on top for me. Speaking across the board, availability is decent and throughputs are good. Towers do well with throughputs, but their availability feels a lot worse. Legoland comes next for me. They cope well with what they have. Chessington isn't awful, but they have a lot of low throughput rides and they struggle to operate them well.

The actual operations at Towers are broadly always excellent. It's whether the rides are actually open that is Altons problem.

Hi guys. In recent years, I think it’s fair to say that Alton Towers have had a bit of a nostalgia push, for lack of a better term. In 2023, the park revamped Duel into The Curse at Alton Manor, which harked back to the ride’s roots and brought back something more akin to the Haunted House from 1992 (while Curse is not the Haunted House, it’s a haunted house with enough shared DNA that I think the two could be conflated with one another by a casual visitor). In 2024, the park retracked Nemesis. And in 2025, the park have opened Toxicator, which brings back a ride akin to the late Ripsaw from 1997 (while Toxicator is not the Ripsaw, it’s a Top Spin with enough shared DNA that I think the two could be conflated with one another by a casual visitor). Argaubly more so than ever before, Alton Towers’ recent investments seem to be leaning heavily into nostalgia for the park’s past. This is an interesting change of pace for the park compared to years gone by, so I’d be interested to know; what are your thoughts on the recent nostalgia push at Alton Towers? Do you love that the park is harking back to the glory days of the past? Or do you think that the park is fixating overly on past glories and not bringing enough new things to the table? Personally, I’m in two minds. I think there’s a balance to be struck between nostalgia and new ideas. On the one hand, I don’t think any of the projects that have been done have been unnecessary projects or excessively fixated on nostalgia to their detriment. Curse did not attempt to synthetically “revive” the 1992 Haunted House as some were advocating for and as I feared might happen; it did attempt to put its own spin on the haunted house concept and I think it works really well. Nemesis Reborn was a revival of a ride that was by all accounts revered and a core part of the park’s DNA, and I think the changes were excellent and breathed new life into the concept to bring it into the 21st century. Toxicator, perhaps ironically with it being the only new piece of ride hardware, is perhaps the one that feels like it was most done for nostalgia’s sake; there are a lot of other types of flat ride to pick from, and they still went for the one that the park had in 1997. But even still, Alton Towers lacks flat rides and the Top Spin as a ride type does objectively offer a lot of positive attributes. These projects have good ideas at their core, and one could argue; why should a good idea go unused just because it has been used before? Newness for newness’s sake is not necessarily a good thing; sometimes the old ones are the best, as they say! On the other hand, however, I have a key concern about the park relying on nostalgia for multiple recent investments. That concern is that an excessive focus on nostalgia for multiple investments in a row might contribute to a public perception that the park is stood still, and isn’t moving forward. I’m not saying that projects like the revamps weren’t good, but I think more so than any decade prior, Alton Towers has felt like it’s stood still during the 2020s so far. We as enthusiasts might be interested in projects like Curse and Nemesis Reborn, and the park are undeniably splashing the cash, but for the casual visitor, I have my concerns that it looks like the park is simply living off past glories and rehashing the past. To the casual observer, I can see why Curse is “just the Haunted House in a new colour”, Nemesis Reborn is “just Nemesis in a new colour”, and Toxicator is “just Ripsaw in a new colour”. In isolation, I think all of these projects were fundamentally good and beneficial, and nostalgia in moderate doses is not necessarily a bad thing… but when put together and being the only things done for multiple years in a row, they give off an impression that the park has run out of ideas and hasn’t done anything meaningfully new in years. People might rhapsodise about “the experience” in years gone by, but I feel this sentiment ignores the key thing that gave Alton Towers its popularity and status in the first place. During the 1980s and 1990s, the park was forward-thinking and brought several new and innovative ride installations to the table, and it attracted the public’s attention in a big way. Heck, even during the 2010s, the park was still forward-thinking and bringing new and innovative ride installations to the table in the form of rides like Thirteen, Smiler and Wicker Man. But when Alton Towers has spent the last few years in a row doing nothing but refurbishing and/or “reviving” things from the park’s past, I fear that that forward-thinking and innovating mentality that gave the park its name will be perceived to have gone. Multiple nostalgia-driven projects in a row could feel like the park is rehashing the old hits and living in the past rather than bringing anything new to the table. So personally, my view is that there is a place for nostalgia, and good ideas should not necessarily be abandoned for newness’s sake, but that the park’s reliance on it in recent years could perhaps be excessive, particularly if continued into 2026 and beyond. If we, for instance, see a new enterprise to “revive” Enterprise in 2027 and a new pirate ship to “revive” Blade in 2028, I fear it will just fuel a perception that the park is stood still and living in the past. We need some legitimately new blood interspersed in with nostalgia to make it feel like the park is moving forwards, and I’d argue we’ve reached a juncture where Alton Towers could perhaps do with some new blood rides-wise. But I’d be keen to know; what are your thoughts on Alton Towers’ recent nostalgia push? Do you think it’s a good idea to hark back to the glory days? Or do you think the park could do with bringing some new ideas to the table?

It's a very interesting one that's been touched on before in other topics. Apart from the excellent Wickerman, they've spent vast amounts of money over the last several years replacing the Haunted House, Hex, Sub Terra, Nemesis, Skyride and Ripsaw with... The Haunted House, Hex, Sub Terra, Nemesis, Skyride and Ripsaw... Yes they're all updated and in a couple of cases very different, but they're all essentially the same thing at the end of the day, and it's difficult to argue with that. Someone who last visited Alton Towers in 2014, over a decade ago, would realistically not see a lot of difference in terms of ride offering if they visited again tomorrow. In fact, there are fewer rides on offer. Don't get me wrong - I think its a very good thing that Skyride was saved, I think Curse is a vast improvement on Duel, and Nemesis' renewal and tart-up was a good thing to secure its future, but I agree with what you've said above. Realistically, to most people at least, none of it is truly new. It's neatly all been (granted, expensive) maintenance to existing attractions to keep them running... And the trouble is, they're not finished yet either. Galactica is crying out for a refurbishment and retime... so could that be yet another (all be it badly needed) large investment that needs doing instead of something truly new? It wouldn't surprise me, as it will probably be deemed worth investing in rather than scrapping. I think the truth is that Merlin has run nearly everything in to the ground, with little thought for the future. Although we all rode the wave of Merlin's success a decade ago, with new things coming in fairly regularly, their short-term thinking and obsession with only ever investing in a 'sure moneymaker' to satisfy the shareholders one year at a time has landed Towers here. The money that should have been spent on refurbishments and maintenance over the years was instead given to the top execs and the shareholders, and now everything's timed out at the same time, and is hoovering up all the money that would otherwise be available to invest in to new attractions etc. I'm very sad about the situation Alton Towers has been put in to by such poor leadership in the past. Clearly there is a lot of money being spent at Towers on getting things back on track. The recent renovations have mostly been excellent. But with more expensive fix-ups surely to come, and ongoing problems with reliability and aging rides elsewhere (Rita, Galactica, etc), they're not out of the woods yet. I hope there will be news soon on something truly new and exciting coming to Towers. They just can't keep replacing or re-theming everything for ever - even Disney have accepted that!

Another couple of very well structured reports along with interesting guidance, especially the single rider queues. I do like Thirteen but still maintain I don't know where I've been when I get off it. Well done and thanks. Fred (planenut)

Not a baker, but I did notice similar when I (rather unusually) had some at Towers a couple of months ago. I also noticed they weren't the same size, with us being given many more than 5 actual doughnuts to compensate for the fact many were small. I'd hazard a guess that they've changed the recipe to include less flour, using a different kind of flour or substituting flour with something else (and still using some flour). Flour would be where the gluten comes from that binds the dough together, and in turn gives the doughnut its structural integrity to not fall apart. The falling apart - and irregular sizing - would suggest less gluten at the very least.

Those posters - my guess, now that the new stuff doesn’t seem to fit, is that there’s a new room in Trailers based on X:\NWO - one poster clearly says X, and the other resembles one of those manakins there used to be on the old X:\NWO brake runs.

I think it's worth pointing out that Survival Games ended up costing more than Trailers. And Creek Freak Massacre was, at the time, the park's single highest investment for a maze and lasted 3 seasons. So high cost doesn't mean it has to be around for a long time, although I understand the point and broadly don't disagree. I've seen people on social media talking about how Trailers in particular is "old". It's a very interesting discussion point. It's had 4 seasons now, and last year was the first year we saw substantial changes to it (though arguably, those changes weren't really substantial, just a redress), and is the oldest in the line up. But in the past, the park had mazes last for several seasons... Asylum - 9 seasons Saw Alive - 9 seasons Se7en - 6 seasons Hellgate - 6 seasons And there's even more recent examples of mazes lasting a few years... Platform 15 - 6 seasons Blair Witch - 6 seasons (with a brief gap) The Curse - 5 seasons Containment - 5 seasons Obviously the glaring difference right now is the fact the mazes are upcharge. But then, plenty of places keep mazes for a long time. Towers is a fine example. Lots of international parks (some of which have better Halloween events than Thorpe) do. And scream parks, some of which have mazes set up in situ all year round, have kept mazes for a long time (Tulleys has 5 mazes which are at least a decade old, have just retired one which was 15 years old, and have a couple which have been rethemed but are otherwise the same). My point is, keeping attractions the same for a long time isn't uncommon at other places either. Thorpe certainly gets held to a high expectation with Fright Nights. And recently that's at least partially their own doing thanks to the high maze costs, and their own marketing hype. But at the same time, I don't think a maze potentially having a run of 5 seasons is that long or necessarily a bad thing. It will be interesting to see what happens this year. The park have introduced a new maze every year since 2010 (if you include Saw Alive). Okay, there's a couple of loose definitions of new in that list but still. It's the expectation that there will be a new maze every year. In the same way in the past there was an expectation of a new ride every year. But with changing budgets and a complete behind the scenes overhaul, plus this being the last year that Thorpe run Ents themselves, who knows what this means. But if they don't introduce a new maze, I'll be very interested to see how they market the event and where they place their focuses.

I think there’s a discussion to be had around permanent maze spaces. Theres a higher cost to create the mazes in permanent spaces. For stitches and survival games this is even more apparent. The quality of mazes has gone up and it saves them setting mazes up every year. However because of the high cost and its that it’s a permanent feature. It has to operate for quite a few years and you start getting bored of mazes. Trailers for example, I see everyone complaining that it’s still here and it’s defintely one of the weaker mazes too. However it has to come back to make it worth it

Thanks, both! I doubt I'll end up doing it anyway. If there are probably actors in it, I'm not sure I'd want to take the chance, and besides, there's too much at Thorpe that I actually like for me to be overly worried about not having done The Walking Dead! I'll probably be far too tempted by the bigger coasters on my next visit, particularly seeing as I definitely need more goes on Hyperia...

It is a weird one and I don't think we really know the answer to the question of "Why now?" Obviously having an SBNO ride doesn't look nice. But it had been SBNO for ages, and stood right by a year-round attraction for a while. So it's not like now was the hot time to do it. One point which people might not be aware of is that the park made use of the ride for staff training (work at height in particular) after it closed, which was in many ways more convenient than using another ride. They didn't need planning permission to remove it (even if they did submit an application). I reckon there is some legs to the school of thought of a ride going there at some point. I wonder how much it actually cost to remove? I wonder if that extra cost proved to be a hurdle to adding a ride there in the past, so they ultimately decided to remove it now so when they choose again to add a new ride, it's slightly less expensive. A new ride could still go there next year in theory, but I'd be surprised.