Inferno

On the subject of Project Horizon - could this perhaps have been scrapped for AT and instead put forward for Chessington? The design seems quite similar? To me this feels like another one of those nicely-thought-out plans that have unfortunately fallen through, because really I think everyone knew that Dungeons and all the David Walliams stuff was going to only be short-term, and would be at the end of life by the time Horizon opened. It would have all been quite well timed for a nice refresh of the whole area. Unfortunately it's now looking like everything in that area of the park has either reached or will soon reach the end of life, and their replacement is nowhere to be seen.

Oh dear. I do feel for the marketing people who have been tasked with making all this seem like “good news”. The Dungeons going I can understand to be fair as it must have been a money pit. The lack of any mention of the Skyride is very concerning. I think it’s now essential really that is makes a return at the beginning of the season, or at the VERY least before summer.

Looking back at Slammer - my god it was bloody terrifying wasn't it? For a long time it was one of the only remaining rides (apart from drop towers) that made me feel genuinely scared! I don't think I will go as far as saying I miss it, because to be honest it was never really open long enough to be a major part of the park in my eyes at least, but it was definitely an iconic and very unique ride. You could be stood basically anywhere at Thorpe Park, and you'd occasionally see the huge paddles soaring through the air (when it was open at least) - it certainly made itself known when it was running! It was absolutely enormous when it was spinning. The ride experience was so different to anything else - I remember the very genuine screams of fear from fellow riders when the ride would first start turning, especially on that first forward swat. The restraints also really amped up the fear factor, as they were so open and free. You were very much hanging out of your seat, against those wobbly shoulder restraints! Comfort levels were not a priority for Slammer were they? The rush of blood to your head throughout the entire ride, and the weird restraints were certainly interesting, and riding it in the rain was an ordeal to say the least. The long delays between dispatches towards the end were very tedious when queueing, and I remember being stuck at the top unable to lower back down to the ground many times, either in the freezing cold or in the baking sun (the awful smell of those sun-baked shoulder harnesses is still hot on the back of my nostrils after all these years). But none of that really mattered, because it was one of those rides that was just there to be as thrilling as possible - and it bloody was. It was good having a ride like Slammer at Thorpe. Hopefully something equally as unique will replace it one day!

I agree this is a bizarre turn of events. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good that it’s going - even if it is just a bit of a tidy up, but with all the cuts and money scrounging across Merlin this seems a bit weird. If that rumour about Colossus’ repaint being scrapped is true then that’s a real shame. What a waste of money even doing the first half in this case, as having it half done still looks sloppy, and possibly even worse than before…

Oh interesting. I guess it would make sense for any spares to be used rather than scrapped since they aren’t making parts anymore All this has got my thinking - could Stealth’s days be numbered? These hydraulic launch coasters are dropping like flies

It all feels very bizarre that it just closed out of the blue like it did. I remember watching those “worlds wildest rides” shows (or whatever they were) on TV years and years ago and being in awe of it back then! What a shame. I wonder what the reason was for closure? I assume cost to run and maintain? Makes me wonder realistically how much longer Stealth has - these hydraulic launch coasters are dropping like flies aren’t they.

Considering I haven’t really gone out of my way to research it, I’ve read & watched a few things this week that has made me realise how much trouble Merlin seem to actually be in. With a large restructure going on across the business in the coming months, redundancies in Merlin Magic Making which is confirmed to be shutting down soon, the closure of Bear Grills, new projects shelved, 2 brand new Legoland parks having devastating low attendances, the operational cuts we have seen in the UK this season, and multiple midway attractions closing their doors around the world, Merlin seems to have found itself in some trouble. Clearly I am absolutely not a business expert of any sort - but honestly I have to say I am not surprised in the slightest that it’s come to this. Many years of short term decisions, lack of sensible large scale preventative maintenance, and mad decisions to benefit the figures in the immediate short term seem to have left the company in quite a mess. For me one of the biggest and most obvious cock ups has been outsourcing the food to Aramark. Merlin themselves, for years, have boasted that their profit doesn’t come from admission, but instead comes from additional customer spend - things like fastrack, merch and food… But it seems they have made a bit of a mess of the food part. It’s just become far too expensive, and frankly far too disgusting, to buy food from Merlin parks. It’s at the point where it’s actually cheaper to buy food at Disney in many cases than it is to buy it at a local Merlin park. I think one of the other big problems really was that it was on the stock market, meaning everything they did for years had to be done purely to make money for the share holder, no matter what. This (in my humble and inexperienced opinion at least) has really set the company up poorly for the future, as the money that needed to be invested on the future of the company was instead funnelled off, and decisions were made to improve results in the immediate short term - for example, Aramark 🙄 The other thing for me is the bizarre decisions to build Legoland parks around the world in places that there is no audience for them…. I just can’t, and never have been able to, see the sense behind that at all. This is such a shame. I feel terrible for the staff who have been or will be affected by the poor decisions of the execs who have brought the company to this state - many of whom have since retired of course.. I do hope that there aren’t too many redundancies, and that anyone who is going to be out of work will be snapped up very quickly by another large operator who will hopefully be needing experienced and talented people in the UK very soon. Speaking of which - Universal are very much a company on the climb, while Merlin appear to be in a well established decline… these are interesting times for the industry, especially in the UK. I’d be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on what you think went wrong, and what you think the future might hold for Merlin?

Agreed, this looks like a great use of the space! The Beach has always been a very odd area, and only used for part of the year anyway - this new area will be used every day and solve the event space problem.

It feels a bit like Merlin isn’t awash with money at the moment judging by all the cuts recently, but Thorpe seem to be doing well and appears to have avoided a lot of it… fingers crossed. I’d at least expect to see Hyperia’s area and queue finished - it was never finished before it opened, I assume because they just ran out of time. I think really it would be very surprising if this wasn’t done given the amount of money spent on the ride - they just need to finish up! I’d also like to think Colossus will be finished as it’s sort of mid way through isn’t it. They also said they weren’t happy with its yellow entrance sign so perhaps that’s still on the cards? I really want poor Inferno to get some love. But realistically I doubt very much there will be much of a sparkle project at all this year - I do hope I am wrong though because it was a really positive thing this year. I can’t see Slammer going any time soon either…… as much as it sucks to see it SBNO, if the company is struggling financially I can’t see why they would spend money removing it for no gain other than a tidy up. Could be very wrong though of course! my money is on - Beach thing - Hyperia being finished off - Colossus repaint being finished - Maybe some small bits here and there like some more shade in queues etc. - Fin’s Infinite Vibe & Grill Kitchen getting a new name

Dear oh dear that’s not good at all. Although it seems that the last couple of days have been a lot better at AT thankfully. I can’t help but wonder if Alton suffer a little bit from over-cautious checks and more elaborate restart procedures after the Smiler crash. I’d be willing to bet that other parks sometimes take little liberties here and there to cut the time it takes to get a ride up and running again, but of course Alton simply can’t do that - and nor should they. I don’t know anything about these procedures of course - but I seem to remember, for example, a phone and advance button was added to the Smiler’s boundary fence for an engineer to be posted at during a restart so they can check for stalled trains or whatever. All of this stuff takes time and extra staff - preventing them from being able to go and deal with another ride should it be down. Things like that must really slow down the tech team’s ability to multitask. (For good reason, but still) I have to say I do feel for the maintenance staff. It can’t be an easy job, and when there’s a list of rides down, each one being almost literally a mile away from each other, it’s a no-win situation.

I’m useless with this sort of stuff so unfortunately I’m no help - all looks very exciting though! I’ll tell you the truth Tactic, I’ve always been a bit like this - cramming loads in! And my wife is the one to remind me to take it easy! She’s usually right to be honest; we’ve traveled places before where I’ve been very glad of a break that she’s forced in to the plans 😂 As much as I absolutely love this plan - what a trip - I agree with the above. Less can often be more with this sort of thing in my opinion. Allow yourselves to rest if you can. Traveling gets tedious after a while doesn’t it! Ryanair is still cheap, so if you do end up removing some of these parks this time around, you can fly to them cheaply in the near future and make a few weekend breaks to a couple of places in turn! Even better! However, when I was your age, this sort of agenda would be very similar to what I’d be up for doing! Good for you getting out there and doing some traveling Wherever you end up going I’m sure you’ll have a blast! Good luck with the planning and please do keep us up to date!

Looks like a great place! I was a little sad driving past this on the way to Disneyland, should have done a day here on that trip! Maybe next time. Glad you had a good time!

Love this. So glad ride to happiness redeemed itself in the end, as it would have been a long trip for it if it hadn’t!

It is an interesting one - because all the investment amounts to nothing genuinely “new”. It’s all just maintenance of what’s been there for years - or decades. Nemesis isn’t new. Skyride isn’t new (if it ever gets here) Hex isn’t new Alton Manor isn’t really new And Ripsaw-on-a-plinth isn’t new. Really despite all the money being spent, nothing is really happening in terms of driving it forward is it? And yet even so, it’s on its knees.

Does anyone have any thoughts on why this constant poor availability might be happening at Towers? To an extent I feel sorry for them as they have had a run of bad luck with Rita’s downtime, and the brand new Nemesis being on one train must be purely rotten luck as they’ve spent millions on trying to bring that up to date - however the relentless downtime of everything else all at once just seems too consistent to be down to “some really bad luck”. Could it be that the rides themselves have just had it, similar to what happened to Hex and Skyride - they became so bad that there was no choice but to completely overhaul them. This seems like a likely reason because cutbacks and money saving have been rife for years. Or could this perhaps be an issue with the engineering department somehow? Short staffed, or overwhelmed with too high a workload? Again down to cuts and short term thinking I would assume. I’d be really interested to know what the wider issue actually is, because this situation is unprecedented really, even internationally, especially as it’s seemingly peaking at the most critical time of the season.

I find this all quite sad to be honest. I know it’s only a theme park, but Alton Towers genuinely is such a special place to so many people, and even for those who aren’t so sentimental, there’s no denying that it’s a wonderful and truly unique place. … But it’s been utterly run in to the ground thanks to corporate greed. I don’t even take issue with the current management - there has been a lot of money spent to overhaul clapped-out attractions lately - but it feels like too little too late. It feels like EVERYTHING needs replacing at this point. I know I’m like a broken record saying this, but I am so hopeful that Universal’s announcement about the Bedford Park finally happens in the coming weeks. The UK so badly needs a shake up. I don’t want Alton Towers to die, but I also don’t want it to keep going on like this either. I really do think Merlin might be in some serious trouble if Universal opens, and actually I’ve come to be ok with that. Things need to change if they want to compete. That can only be a good thing for customers.

Yes it’s not looking good at towers is it… Between all the staffing issues, reliability, cuts to hours, price increases and rides closed all season, it’s been another tough year. To be honest I don’t think Towers has ever quite been the same since the Smiler crash. I know cutbacks were rife before then, but since the low attendance following that it’s been worse than ever. I wonder if it’s all down to the absolute absence of any form of long to medium term planning when it comes to maintenance and longevity of everything. It feels like for over a decade the place has run on quick fixes to get them through the foreseeable future… now it’s all coming to a head, with loads of money needing to me spent, and low attendance meaning that isn’t easily achieved at the moment. Towers has had quite the fall from grace over the last decade or so.

I know it sucks, but really is it that bad? It’s just a bit of the facade over the door that’s been bent and come off. 🤷‍♂️ Hopefully it’s a quick fix to that wire that been broken and that’ll be it done.

Oh that’s great news! It’s always been weird that the spinning always lined up so that the same seats got the top of the swing throughout the entire cycle. Glad that’s been changed!

Oh dear…… The website now says it will re-open on Tuesday, so hopefully it’s all ok. Looks to just be a bit of facade to hide the door rail?

Agreed - it definitely shouldn’t need that. Thing is, I can’t imagine much can be done now. In planet coaster you’d take a couple of ft off the high point, either that or speed up the lift hill! ….. Speaking of which I’ve seen a couple of reels on instagram this week showing the lift motor speed up when the testing train reaches the top of the hill - perhaps this is a workaround? Fling it it over the top and hope for the best! In other news - as of today, Hyperia is now back to running 2 trains 🚂

I was wondering what people’s thoughts of the new branding were, now that it’s had nearly a year to settle in, and now that we have all seen it actually in use at the park? Personally I think for me it’s definitely an improvement, especially when you’re actually inside the park and you can see it on all the signage, banners, advertising, uniforms, flags etc. it all works quite well when it’s large and used on physical things. The big signage at the front of the park looks great - and going in to the dome with the large logo to the right and nice branded video playing on the big screen before heading outside again really does work. the music also goes very nicely with it, and does work well I think for the park. It really does work well in person and has honestly made a positive impact on the park in my opinion at least. The staff uniforms look much more professional as well, not to mention more practical. I think where it falls down slightly is when the logo is used in isolation online - for example the logo on its own on social media avatars doesn’t look great, and even the logo when used on things like bags of chocolate in the supermarket just fades away and is so missable compared to the bold orange and blue infinity that everyone instantly recognised. I’m no graphic designer, but I think these need to be changed somehow to liven it up a bit - I mean come on, look at this screenshot from instagram. I also think the website is a missed opportunity. They seem to have kept the existing website and just replaced the old logo with the new one (actually even on some of the tickets actually the old logo still shows!) this is a shame, because such effort has gone in to rebranding the physical park, and no effort in to the website it seems, where the new colours, patterns and lovely squiggly animation things could have really come to life. Overall though, I think it’s actually quite nice, and although I miss the infinity logo, there’s no denying it was old fashioned and a little scruffy. The new and striking Bold, bright, colourful, but not ott branding is a good look for Thorpe I think.

That would sort of line up though to be fair wouldn’t it? I can’t imagine another major coaster until then realistically. Hopefully there will be a flat ride of some sort in the meantime - that would go well I think. The beach is interesting. It would be really nice to make the most of the front of the park there, because Thorpe really does have a lovely skyline from there. alongside whatever’s happening there, I wonder if there are plans to finally sort out the entrance plaza and security area pretty soon too. It’s so dated now, and the temp queues for security are just terrible. Thorpe have really levelled up pretty much all of the “non-ride-related stuff” in recent years. All the toilets, shops, branding, planting, restaurants etc are actually really very good now. The entrance is one of the last “non ride” things that is still crap. As much as I love new rides of course, and would love to see another one asap, a new well designed entrance with a modern and much faster security check point honestly would make SO much difference to the whole experience, especially if that new swish experience continued over the bridge and out to “the beach”.

I wonder what’s going on with inferno? On my last visit it was similar - there seemed to be a long pause between everyone sitting down and the restraints being checked. The staff didn’t seem to be doing anything as such, just sort of waiting 🤷‍♂️ Felt a bit like the long awkward waits there used to be for Slammer to sort itself out before anyone was let out of the air gates 🙄 It’s a shame this is happening with Inferno, because it’s normally quite a good one for capacity.

Is it even worth the “savings” to open those rides 30 - 60 mins later, given all the disappointment and confusion it will cause? Also why on earth is Hex of all things opening at 11? I thought that would be quite popular given it’s been closed for all this time. I wonder if this is all down to working time for engineers? I can only assume there simply aren’t enough of them to properly spread across the whole day - so some would be on early to open the rides up, and others on later in the day/evening, leaving not enough to get everything open without having them start ridiculously early?? Cebeebies land closing so early is also surprising. I wonder if this is again out of desperation for staff? They have been advertising for staff surprisingly recently, so perhaps they’re having to re-assign staff from here to elsewhere to run the event? 🤷‍♂️ All very odd, and disappointing given how much money they charge for Scarefest now. I do wonder if an event like this is just requiring more staff than they can recruit these days? All guesswork - but I’m just trying to think why this could all be (other than corporate greed)