The Alton Towers Dungeons - New for 2019

[Glitch]

11 hours ago, Martin Doyle said:

Having now done all the UK dungeon attractions aswell as Amsterdam and being somebody who is actually quite a big fan of the dungeons, I can quite categorically say that this is easily the worst of the dungeons by a mile. First off I will start with the positives and say the acting quality was strong as was the final scene with the haunting. HOWEVER and without given much away,I find the amount of black walls and blank corridors between the scenes to be absolutely horrendous. Half the joy of the other dungeons in the UK (which gentle reminder, premium pass holders get FOR FREE!!) is the level of detail and immersion that guests get. This dungeon however I can honestly say that when it comes to detail, it makes Charlie and the chocolate factory look like Pirates of the carribean and I am not even close to joking. In terms of the whole “it’s not finished” malarkey I have heard, well if it’s not finished then don’t have the cheek to open it unfinished and then have the nerve to charge extra for what frankly is a very half heartedly executed experience. Again I reiterate that there ARE positives with the acting ability on display as well as the finale. However that does not save an otherwise lacklustre and needless addition to Alton Towers.

 

Honestly I know I could say “it’s better than nothing”, but in this instance I genuinely think I would prefer literally nothing.

9

Very strange. I would expect it to be one of the worst of the Dungeons brand considering that it is not standalone. However, going into an attraction with the mindset of looking for every blackwall possible, rather than where the show lights want you to focus, to slate the attraction is not the mindset of a regular guest rather one just looking to find every negative in an attraction they don't want to like from the outset. All reviews I have seen from day guests have been quite positive so far. 

 

The attraction itself is not needless, it adds to the Alton Towers RESORT portfolio, of things for hotel guests to do whilst enjoying their short break, also have you considered that extra ticketing revenue could be used to develop future projects?

[Martin Doyle]

11 minutes ago, Glitch said:

Very strange. I would expect it to be one of the worst of the Dungeons brand considering that it is not standalone. However, going into an attraction with the mindset of looking for every blackwall possible, rather than where the show lights want you to focus, to slate the attraction is not the mindset of a regular guest rather one just looking to find every negative in an attraction they don't want to like from the outset. All reviews I have seen from day guests have been quite positive so far. 

 

 

Perhaps you missed the part where I said I’m “actually a big fan of the dungeons” (matter of fact, Edinburgh and Amsterdam are my two favourite M£rlin attractions) so yeah I think it’s safe to say I gave this every chance possible and wanted it to succeed.

 

For the record, I DID focus on what the show lights wanted me to see... however when the lack of theming in the walls and roofs stick out like a sore thumb (you don’t really have to be Sherlock Holmes to spot them!!) it is quite difficult to turn a blind eye to it ESPECIALLY for somebody who as he has just said, has done every other UK dungeon plus Amsterdam so I would like to think I have a rough idea of what the dungeons are capable of as thematic experiences. I went into this with an open mind hoping for it to be good however I’m sorry but on this visit, it fell flat. I don’t care if “other opinions are positive”, this is MY opinion which I feel I’m entitled to regardless if it differs from the majority or not  

[Ringo]

What I find more shocking is if it’s not finished then why is it open and why are they charging money for it? 

[SteveJ]

2 hours ago, Glitch said:

have you considered that extra ticketing revenue could be used to develop future projects?

Merlin have enough money to build as is, the profit from Dungeon will be going straight into the bank. It's probably ticketed to  cover costs of the actors. They managed to build big projects for 20 years without replacing free major attractions with ticketed ones.

If the lighting and sets did their job right, you'd be naturally misdirected and wouldnt notice what you're not supposed to anyway. Guests shouldnt' have to actively focus on only where the lighting 'wants' you to, it's a subliminal thing. Not unless you purposefully turn around and look where you wouldnt think to, which I don't think is what the poster was doing.

If the sets are done in such a way that you notice these things, then something's up. It won't be a major complaint from guests obviously but it all adds to the overall experience

[JoshC.]

Just out of interest, do we know what isn't finished (if it is indeed unfinished)?

 

As for the unthemed areas - as has been mentioned, everywhere will have unthemed stuff, but you're simply (and subliminally) drawn away from it. Will be interesting to see how big an issue it is (as most reviews I've seen haven't commented on unthemed walls - how much of that is down to new thing hype and influencers not commenting on negatives, however, remains to be seen)

[Martin Doyle]

51 minutes ago, Wumbamillio said:

Merlin have enough money to build as is, the profit from Dungeon will be going straight into the bank. It's probably ticketed to  cover costs of the actors. They managed to build big projects for 20 years without replacing free major attractions with ticketed ones.
 

 

And that is precisely why I did not even bother to think about this abomination “funding future projects”

 

I think it’s safe to say Alton Towers make enough money with

 

1. Food

2. Merchandise

3. Ticket sales

4. Fastrack

5. On ride photos

6. Parking

7. Hotel prices

 

and much more for them to NOT have to start opening damned upcharge attractions... especially upcharged attractions where you can get longer and better versions of them for free!!

 

Assuming M£rlin decide to actually give the money raised by those actually to Alton Towers and not towards building another 1 million Legolands!!

[Ringo]

Are the Dungeons at Towers run as a midway or are they “Alton Towers presents The Dungeons”? 

[SteveJ]

1 hour ago, Ringo said:

Are the Dungeons at Towers run as a midway or are they “Alton Towers presents The Dungeons”? 

I think as far as guests are concerned its just an attraction at Alton Towers that you have to pay extra for. It's like Merlin are franchising their own 'brands' within their own theme parks, like calling the park's aquarium 'Sea Life'.

Merlin are all about brands. Now they're using brands to make people pay extra and as an excuse to not come up with new attractions.

I think that's the worst aspect of it, even if the finished result had been really good, it's just another step in the death of new ideas and taking creative 'risks'. I thought Wicker Man would prove otherwise, but all they did was copy that theme for Heide Park and turn it into another 'formula'!

I heard there might be a backdoor arrangement that Merlin's midway division part-funds the Towers Dungeon to exclude from the park's operational cost. So yes, but how budgets are divided  internal to Merlin doesnt really matter outside the company.

 

[JoshC.]

The project was dealt with by the same people who deal with midway investments, designed by the Dungeons team, etc. In that respect, it was dealt with as a midway.

 

However, midways are usually separate entities - things like the Sea Life Centre at Gardaland for example are completely separate to the park. As the AT Dungeons at within the park and you can't do it by itself, Merlin won't view it as a 'midway'.

 

I imagine Merlin will pick and choose how they view it. If its KPI scores improve the overall Dungeons KPI score, for example, they'll include it within the Dungeons/midway data. If it improves to overall Alton Towers KPI, they'll include it there. Equally for spend per head, ROI, etc. If it doesn't, they'll probably just leave it limbo or exclude it and call it a joint venture so can't be properly placed.

 

In this this, I am under the impression that those who decide the worthwhileness of midway attractions weren't consulted about the AT Dungeons in any way, so I'd be surprised if, officially/publicly, any of the financial stuff came via midways, even if there are backdoor arrangements.

[Marhelorpe]

Alright, I've had a day to think over what these dungeons are like after experiencing it last Sunday and are going to be brutally honest with it now after the experience I had and will present my opinion of it as a paying customer who dedicated nearly an hour of their 10am - 5pm day on this thing; not as a theme park blogger who is in Merlin/Alton's good graces and paid zilch to experience it.

 

Contrary to all the positive reviews that are going around right now for it from all the theme park bloggers/vloggers/YouTube "celebrities", I'm sorry, but this is without a doubt the worst Dungeon I have done and I would go as far to say the worst attraction Alton Towers have ever given us in the 21 years I have been visiting this place year-on-year since 1998, and that's saying something. It goes almost entirely against what makes all the other Dungeons enjoyable attractions and it falls flat on delivering a comprehensive experience for guests with no proper thought or imagination put into the product and here's why.

 

All the other Dungeons I have experienced immerse you properly into each scene with details and theming across every corner, from the flooring, walls, scenery and the actors. Despite many of them having bare roofing such as the London one for example, you tend to forget about it all with every scene and focus your attention on the actor and surroundings, as per you should, so this missing detail never really posed a problem for me with the others. With the Alton Towers one however, the very opposite occurs.

 

For every scene you go through, I kid you not, there are flat black walls literally everywhere you look from the sides, behind you, the ceiling and even amongst the theming where the actor stands. It look horrendous and every room made you feel like you were in a big black box that had been assembled quickly and cheaply with timber wall panels. There was no texture to any of them, no deformation and no disguising of the walls in any room to make you feel as though you are in a dungeon. It just looks incredibly lazy and cheap and no attempt whatsoever was done to immerse guests 360 degrees unlike all the other Dungeons.

 

The entrance to the attraction I still hold the view looks disgustingly ugly and cheap. Whilst in-person it looks a little better than through a screen, you can tell it was built on a budget with the randomly placed barrels and crates outside the entrance, along with the temporary fire torches fenced off. Most unforgiving of all is there is still an entire section of the entrance to the left in front of the lift towers with nothing but a giant 30ft black wall. Clearly the park ran out of wooden supports to cover this up properly during construction, so their solution to this problem was to pop down to the local B&Q and buy 50L of Dulux EasyCare Rich Black paint to cover up the shadows of the deceased Oompa Loompas peeking through the 2D windows. I'm guessing with the amount of black walls inside the attraction they had plenty to spare to cover this up too...

 

Take a look here at what I mean. Taken on Sunday 24th March. It's so revolting to look at:

 

As for the Black River boat ride, it's the same story - paint every wall black and leave it. The ride follows through the same route as Charlie, but believe it or not, it's now even barer than before with very little decoration or theming present in any portion. There are a few projectors on flat walls as you go round showing the shadows of victims being tortured, a couple of water jets to get you wet, a single animatronic which just bobs up and down ever so slightly in a cauldron, a single projector on a mannequin head and a single oddly-placed smoke machine. That is quite literally it for 4 minutes straight. There are no proper special effects anywhere inside, many zones had no audio playing, there are just black walls and tunnels for 80% of it and most unforgivable is the park were too lazy to remove the old theming from Charlie such as the water wheel in the station and the mirrored section towards the end where Sonic used to be on Toyland Tours. There is so much empty space and wasted area on this ride now that it makes Charlie look like a masterpiece compared to "Black Walls - The Ride". It's so, so bad.

 

From here, it's pretty much your bog standard Dungeon attraction where there are various scenes stolen copied from other existing ones. Each scene did have its little twist added to the script referencing Alton Towers instead, but 95% of it was exactly the same as all the others. The Plague Doctor was 100% the same as the London one (though with very few effects) and so was The Torturer. The Judge scene was a little different but followed the same procedure - 3 people chosen, 1 found guilty after just saying where they were from. The Highwayman was identical to Ms. Lovett's pie shop mixed with Sweeney Todd at London where it used identical sound effects and audio and had the moving chairs with prodders. Lastly, the Haunting for the last scene was pretty good overall I will admit with some nice use of lighting and sound effects, similar to Witches of Warwick. Was a decent finale.

 

As for the acting though, I've gotta hand it to those in there, they did a fantastic job in every scene. The actors performed brilliantly with plenty of adult humour which I liked and were interacting with guests very well. In fact, I would go as far to say the actors Alton have for this Dungeon are better than any other I have done before, so well done for hiring the right people!

But that all aside, even though the acting was brilliant, the rest of it was a total mess. The biggest problem I have is the fact so many areas of the attraction consist of nothing but black walls everywhere in every scene and it's the dominating and most noticeable feature of every room. Each scene I would say is 70:30 in favour of black walls to theming and it looks really rushed in many areas, especially the transitions between each scene which once again are just black walls with no theming or detail put into them either. It is quite literally one giant yet claustrophobic rectangular black box one after the other for the majority of the experience. With the other dungeons, you at least have stuff to see, hear and feel which the London one is especially good at. But for the Alton Towers one? The only thing you can smell is the fumes of freshly coated black Dulux paint mixed with touching the sloppily finished un-sanded walls, and flooring which still has outlines of Charlie's theming and fencing present. It really is genuinely like this inside.

 

The thing to bear in mind is that this is an attraction every guest unless you are an AT Premium Pass Holder will need to pay £5 for in order to experience, and I am telling you right now, I was really cheesed off my money went on this experience after finishing. There is no way in hell this is worth the upcharge the park is enforcing, because you can get a much better Dungeon experience across any other corner of the country for free compared to this if you are a MAP. It's completely unjustifiable in my view given there is a serious lack of quality and finish present in this version and you are frankly better off getting two medium Costa cappuccinos in Forbidden Valley for your fiver.

 

Now, you might say "it's not finished yet hence the black walls", but I would then question why the heck are the park charging customers for a half-baked product if it's evidently not ready? Either open it when it's 100% right (yeah, just like DBGT remember...), or have some decency and not charge guests at all for it until it is fully completed.

 

Lastly, I want to emphasise on a point @Martin Doyle made above a few posts ago. You might be reading and hearing many great reviews out there for the Alton Towers Dungeon right now from all the big and famous theme park fans out there with a massive following, but please take what you hear from them with a massive grain of salt. These are the same groups of people that praised Thorpe Park's Fright Nights last year with some going as far to say it was the "best Fright Nights yet", so it's obviously evident some of them are in Merlin's good graces when writing their reviews and are restricted on what they really think about it.

 

Instead, I implore you to focus your attention and effort on those who have actually paid the £5 admission for this attraction and dedicated an hour of their time in the park for it. These reviews are far more credible and realistic through my eyes as they tend to speak their mind properly with no filters in place and aren't towing the company's line of being overly-positive about everything Merlin creates.

 

To summarise my experience of the attraction, it would be this - a lacklustre, short-sighted and rushed mess that made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory look phenomenal in comparison.

 

Still, it is better than nothing right?............Oh wait, black walls are nothing............

 

Alton Towers Dungeon - 3/10

[JoshC.]

I did the Dungeon this week. It is what you'd expect - a mini version of any other Dungeon. And I enjoyed it. ?‍♂️

 

There biggest issue is black walls between scenes. You literally leave one scene, go through a black corridor, and into the next scene. Didn't even hear any audio. There's no atmosphere there and, for me, it just didn't work. The scenes themselves are great though.

 

As mentioned above, a couple of scenes do have black walls behind you (ie away from where you should be looking), but that only detracts from your experience if you're looking for things to detract from your experience imo. 

 

All scenes were well acted and the boat ride as good fun. 

 

So yeah, this is literally as you'd expect: a lite version of the Dungeons which is nicely themed and well acted. In itself, it's a solid, fun experience.

 

Of course, this isn't what Towers needed right now, and I question how successful it'll be. I know there's been plans to add a Dungeon to the resort for ages now, and this is in some ways a test of the water. But it's still the wrong time and arguably not necessary anyways.

 

 

As a side note, the Dungeon opening hours have been shifted back, meaning it opens later (noon) and closes later (I believe it still operates for the same amount of time). As a result, the actors roam outside the Towers in the morning, interacting with guests, encouraging them to visit, etc. And as they're in character, they work perfectly for roaming characters - the right amount of dark humour that the park should be aiming for!

[Hethetheth]

Short review:

 

I went in the dungeons last weekend and I enjoyed it. It felt worth the £5 I spent and I had fun.

 

Long review:

 

I'm conflicted to an extent with this attraction. It is a shame to have lost a 'free' ride for this paid experience, and it feel a bit poor to pay to do an attraction in a park I've already paid to go into. I'm not sure I was completely pleased to pay to take 45 minutes out of riding rides I'd paid for with the entrance fee. However, the £5 entry did feel about right for the length of time and quality of the experience.

 

In terms of the actual experience (ignoring cost and the circumstances), it was actually very good. The black walls were noticeable, which is day was the only downside. I hope Merlin do improve this in time. However, in most scenes the black walls are behind you and unless you are looking for issues they are not that noticeable. It was really on the station for the boat ride and in corridors that I noticed it being an actual issue. The rest of the theming was pretty good really. Not the best of all the Dungeons though (that goes to York) but still well decorated.

 

The biggest praise for me goes to the fantastic staff and actors. I mean it with the utmost sincerity that these actors really were the best I've had in a dungeons attraction. They were funny, scary and really putting a lot of effort into it. I wonder if it's because they're still fresh and new, but whatever the reason they really made the attraction exceed my expectations.

 

I've done a fair few Dungeons, and I'd rank them best to least good as follows:

 

York

Alton Towers

London

Hamburg

Amsterdam

 

Alton really shot up on the strength of the acting and price-wise it felt more reasonable compared to the near £20 cost of the others. I think the big shame is that it's not an attraction outside the park (something to do after closing) and that the black walls feel bare in places. Other than that it was a good laugh really.

[JoshC.]

School kids get £2.50 entry to the Dungeons at the moment.

 

Equally I believe that there is (or at least, was) an offer through the app which meant AP holders could get a Dungeons ticket for £2.50.

 

The sign of a popular attraction no doubt...

[pluk]

Is there any way they're turning a profit on it even if it runs at capacity at £2.50 a ticket?

[JoshC.]

2 minutes ago, pluk said:

Is there any way they're turning a profit on it even if it runs at capacity at £2.50 a ticket?

Group sizes are about 20.

20 groups in a day.

=£1000 a day

 

Say actors get paid £9ph. Probably 8 actors a day for Dungeons working 7 hours a day, £504 a day.

 

Plus ride staff to operate the boat ride (they won't be actors, just ride staff in a character), engineers/technicians getting the ride ready, plus the actual running of the attraction probably adds another £100-150 in simple terms.

 

So yeah, it'd make a couple of hundred quid if it ran at full capacity.

[MattyMoo]

You haven't allowed for the cost of the fire on the outside m8.