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Alton Towers General Discussion


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1 hour ago, Glitch said:

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I don't understand Alton towers offer a discounted price to ride some world leading roller-coasters and they still get mocked. Remind me how much a Blackpool season pass I for comparison.

The cheapest price for a 2020 Blackpool season pass was £89.  They are £99 currently.

 

The full price of £189.60 (1896??) is ludicrous but since the passes are valid for the season (and not a year from the date of purchase), I doubt anyone pays full price.

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6 hours ago, JoshC. said:

Towers was on the One Show on Friday, where they show some of the things they;ve done during Lockdown to keep the park ticking over and ready for operation...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jz8p/the-one-show-12062020

 

(from around the 6 minute mark)

Love how the engineers were looking as sad as possible whilst testing the ride.

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The park have said that Hex, Duel and the Dungeons will not be open when the park reopens.

 

The closures of Hex and Duel are massive hits in my opinion. It really dents the number of rides available to the older audience. Perhaps a slightly 'spoilt' viewpoint to say "I can only go on these 9 coasters and some smaller rides", but it really does highlight the need for a couple more filler rides at the park imo

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Very surprised about Duel being unavailable. Surely they could just fill every other car with groups or something, plus distancing in the queue shouldn’t be too tricky.

 

Hex is perhaps more understandable given the positions of guests and the number of riders it is required to operate on. 
 

Still a major blow considering Congo is the only major non coaster/Beeb attraction pretty much. Least the park is open though.

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No they're on. 

 

It's also the ride most affected by social distancing with the lowest capacity and longest queues on park. Definitely recommended to get it done early. Sometimes a maximum of six people were being loaded onto each train from the main queue. 

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33 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

I could be wrong, but I thought Th13teen's trims (at least the one on the first drop) aren't retractable or controllable, and is always on and the same regardless of train weight, etc.

 

Certainly looking at them that's how I imagine they'd work.

They're not adjustable, but they can be on or off. 

 

On test runs with empty trains they're off to prevent stalling, with riders they're on to prevent fun overspeeding.

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A small quote about what to expect during the Oktoberfest event:

 

Quote

From Friday September 11th to Sunday October 4th, entertainment-led festival ‘Oktoberfest’ will take place each afternoon and include live acts, delicious food and drink with a German twist, as well as the chance to enjoy a selection of the park’s world-class rollercoasters and family attractions into the evening.

 

From 3pm each day, an area of the 500-acre Theme Park will be transformed into a Bavarian-themed venue, complete with Lederhosen-clad hosts and oompah band! It will offer the perfect setting for families and friends looking to explore new delicious dishes and live outdoor entertainment in a fun, family friendly atmosphere.

 

Guests will be able to enjoy Oktoberfest’s atmosphere and entertainment within the price of a theme park ticket. (Pre-booking tickets for the theme park will be essential.)

(From European Coaster Club's Facebook)

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On a different note, not a good day at Towers...

 

 

 

The park currently has no water supply, meaning the only toilets available are actually back at the hotel (though they did add some port-a-loos to the front lawn a short while ago). There's been some mixed messaging going round whether the park is 'closed' or just advising people to not turn up, but the park recently sent a message out to people on park via the app saying they are closing the park in phases.

 

Strange that the park didn't know about the water supply issue before opening.

 

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I visited yesterday and today, and I have to admit I feel unlucky. The power-cut at Thorpe, then this today. Not the luckiest guy alive that is for sure lol.

So like the Power-Cut, I felt communication was lacking a little. The park practically seemed normal until 12 hit and out of nowhere the park was closing? Seemed to odd to open in the first place, I guess cheers to them for opening at all. And the portable loos were a decent last minute way of trying to fix things. 

 

Besides the water issues, the park had very strong operations. Wickerman on three trains with dispatches that were consistently fast. Smiler also seemed to load pretty fast too, it duelled pretty much always as well which is great. The B&M's were also very solid, and Thirteen had great dispatches, but honestly even with that the ride still has a obnoxiously slow queue (no fault of the parks here, just wasn't really designed to run in covid measures).

Staff were very cheerful, even today when they were probably getting hounded by the armies of Karen's.

Overall very impressed. Even if today was a little rocky with the early closure. Can't wait to come back.

 

The park just has such a nicer vibe than Thorpe, from the staff, to the clientele, to the natural beauty. The coaster lineup is really the cherry on the cake.

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3 hours ago, JoshuaA said:

I visited yesterday and today, and I have to admit I feel unlucky. The power-cut at Thorpe, then this today. Not the luckiest guy alive that is for sure lol.

So like the Power-Cut, I felt communication was lacking a little. The park practically seemed normal until 12 hit and out of nowhere the park was closing? Seemed to odd to open in the first place, I guess cheers to them for opening at all. And the portable loos were a decent last minute way of trying to fix things. 

 

Besides the water issues, the park had very strong operations. Wickerman on three trains with dispatches that were consistently fast. Smiler also seemed to load pretty fast too, it duelled pretty much always as well which is great. The B&M's were also very solid, and Thirteen had great dispatches, but honestly even with that the ride still has a obnoxiously slow queue (no fault of the parks here, just wasn't really designed to run in covid measures).

Staff were very cheerful, even today when they were probably getting hounded by the armies of Karen's.

Overall very impressed. Even if today was a little rocky with the early closure. Can't wait to come back.

 

The park just has such a nicer vibe than Thorpe, from the staff, to the clientele, to the natural beauty. The coaster lineup is really the cherry on the cake.

 

When I next plan to go to a park, I'll be messaging you to make sure you aren't going on the same day... just to... you know... make sure...

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Visited Towers yesterday. Overall, was pretty impressed. The park have adapted themselves well to Covid measures, and having all the park's pathways open from 9am is great. And getting rides open before 10am when possible is nice to see to.

 

Operationally, Wicker Man seemed to have some issues and didn't open till mid-afternoon I believe. Hex was rather painful to go through; not sure if it was having technical issues / shutdowns whilst I was waiting, but batching was very erratic, and it there were long waits after each preshow had finished too. Because of social distancing, the physical queues are very long too: Nemesis' queue was outside Sub Terra. Th13teen was looping round the Dark Forest. But generally, operations seemed quick, and the length of queues are deceiving at the moment.

 

Out of the 4 UK Merlin parks, Towers is probably dealing with Covid the best now. This was the park where social distancing was followed the most too...hard to say whether that's because the people who visit at the most sensible, or because of how they've explained and handled it. But yeah, it was nice to see.

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22 hours ago, JoshC. said:

 

 

Out of the 4 UK Merlin parks, Towers is probably dealing with Covid the best now. This was the park where social distancing was followed the most too...hard to say whether that's because the people who visit at the most sensible, or because of how they've explained and handled it. But yeah, it was nice to see.

 

I'd say its the only one where the park is large enough and the rides have high enough capacity to deal with the covid measures. Chessington getting mullered right now.

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