November 20, 201212 yr comment_144178 Sanctuary maybe? Or a similar idea to enhance the brand of SW7. Like Krake:Leibe and indeed Saw:Alive as EC152012 pointed out. Edit: Yes, good good. Edited November 20, 201212 yr by Tommy Beat to the post
November 20, 201212 yr comment_144189 I have heard that The Sanctuary may well be open in February Half Term. However, main season I very much doubt due to Alton Towers' obligations to keep the Towers open as fully as possible as part of their remit with English Heritage.
November 20, 201212 yr comment_144191 February makes sense, main season I see being much less likely. It would be a nice trade-off for a reduced line up as well.
November 20, 201212 yr comment_144194 February makes sense, main season I see being much less likely. It would be a nice trade-off for a reduced line up as well. This basically... Replaces Oblivion and advertises SW7... Good call...
November 20, 201212 yr comment_144195 And I agree they should leave the towers as lovely towers for the majority of the year if possible. Towers you've made my day.
November 20, 201212 yr comment_144198 Still paid for I should imagine? Would be understandable with the cost of running it. Considering the half term target market I wonder if they'll do a couple of intensity levels at different times of day, so the older kiddies can have a go before it is ramped up for the adults?
November 20, 201212 yr comment_144200 I like the idea of running it over half term. As others have said, keeps attention on SW7 and will possibly bring in more guests (if this ends up being true, I'd more consider a trip up there!) However, no more than half term please. I'd much rather more money went into SW7 / X-Sector than staffing a maze to open all year route.
November 20, 201212 yr comment_144201 It wouldn't suprise me if it were free. The capacity of The Sanctuary is pretty good - and they'd probably rather lots of people experienced it to get the marketing for SW7 out of it.
November 20, 201212 yr comment_144210 I imagine it'd be free too - the 1st November had pretty much free mazes, and the park was busier then than most Feb half term days still. Towers did a poll end of year, and apparently the fair majority responded saying they'd like a permenant scare maze. Ha, they did the same at thorpe and look what happens. Ask guests in march, not during scarefest!
November 21, 201212 yr comment_144216 Excellent news if this turns out to be true, will hopefully help the park to exploit the marketing opportunity that February will bring. Hope that it's not for the season though as although I love mazes I fear that a permanent maze quickly becomes stale, saw alive being a perfect example imo.
November 21, 201212 yr comment_144218 I think Saw Alive should have been a more permanent feature, having it open all day every day was not doing to work IMO, but if they opened it on the busy days and during the school holidays + any other events when the park is going to be busy, then there is no reason why it could not have worked. I can understand for half of the season it would not be economical to open it, but Thorpe has had some very busy days and the additional attraction would have come in handy. If the Towers are going to have an all year round scare maze, maybe they will not open it on the quiet days, rather than run it through, March, April and May when the park isn't as busy then cut it out. For example Every Saturday and Sunday and bank holiday = open Easter and Summer holidays = open Any special events where the park will be very busy + Scarefest/Fireworks = Open Closed Monday - Friday unless event or busy period so if the season is 225 days, using this method, the maze will only need to be open 160 days out of the 225 which if you add up the running and staffing costs, this possibly could make it more viable. No matter how good the maze is, they will need to make changes regularly otherwise guests who are re-doing the maze will get bored of it.
November 21, 201212 yr comment_144246 As said previously, it is highly unlikely that AT would ever be able to open a Towers based scare attraction year round, due to their obligations to keep the ruins open to visit. I know that personally, visiting the ruins is something I love doing in the main season, and if they were not fully accessible, it would be to the detriment of a day out at AT - the ruins really do add in to the magic of the theme park.
November 21, 201212 yr comment_144248 Which, if they do want a year round maze, leaves the goal striker shed with Carnival in it. Don't know how well that would work as a permanent feature, but it would be better than goal striker, that's for sure!
November 21, 201212 yr comment_144249 Does SW7 have a pre show and after show so why can't they include a maze in that?
November 21, 201212 yr comment_144250 What is with the obsession with putting scare mazes on EVERYTHING? Bugger off with this stupid fad... Why put it on SW7? Why does it need it? It's a roller coaster, SURELY that's enough? Plonk some good theming around it and done, it doesn't need any stupid extras to be 'scarier', it's not the same situation with Sub Terra lacking (in the opinion of most) when it originally opened, and that exit corridor actually improved the attraction... What would a scare maze do to accent SW7? Just... No...
November 21, 201212 yr comment_144252 I may opt to stay away from all Alton forums in the coming months in an attempt to stay relatively spoiler free. I agree a scare maze is not the answer; it's been done before and would just be rehashed bull. I'd like to see them experiment more with lighting, environmental and practical effects though. Something which hasn't quite been done before in a Merlin theme park.
November 21, 201212 yr comment_144253 What COULD be an interesting exit is doing something like Fluch, and having a mini-maze as it were... No actors, just, a maze... Maybe even a mirror maze to make it seem that the place cannot be escaped, and that you'll be a patient forever... Put in some lighting and other effects and boom, weird yet an exit which would stick in the mind...
November 21, 201212 yr comment_144260 I'd like to see them experiment more with lighting, environmental and practical effects though. Something which hasn't quite been done before in a Merlin theme park. So much agreeing with the lights, Verbolten style What COULD be an interesting exit is doing something like Fluch, and having a mini-maze as it were... No actors, just, a maze... Maybe even a mirror maze to make it seem that the place cannot be escaped, and that you'll be a patient forever... Put in some lighting and other effects and boom, weird yet an exit which would stick in the mind... An issue with this would be disabled guest access. They could easily do a different system to going up the exit but if the exit guests need to be at the exit and then can't do the maze it would all get complex. I agree Merlin need to experiment with different exits for rides though; despite how stupid it was I was still impressed by the Sub-Terra exit just simply because it wasn't 'thanks for riding, everything is fine now, go on another ride'.
January 11, 201312 yr comment_147684 So just been watching ITV2 and an advert for The rlReal Housewives Of Beverly Hills and the theme they had in the background was the upbeat version of the Alton Towers theme. random.
January 11, 201312 yr comment_147686 That song isnt owned souly owned by Alton Towers. The song is called Hall of the Mountain King (or something like that). They just have to buy the rights to use the piece of music, they just cant use it in the same way Alton Towers have. Another place you can see it used is the Inspector Gadget theme. Its all the same notes, just played slower/quicker.
January 11, 201312 yr comment_147735 It is In The Hall Of The Mountain King (often written ITHOTMK) by Grieg. As it is well over a hundred years old there is no copyright on it and it is in the public domain, so Alton and anyone else are free to use it without any payment. The only payment might be to the recording artist but that is minuscule, often a one off payment for performance rather than a royalty when it is played. So it could turn up anywhere, and often does. Always feels wrong though, it is the Alton Towers music!
January 26, 201312 yr comment_149005 The toilets at Alton Towers are pretty appauling in my opinion. They need to be updated to look nice and new, and they should be cleaned, de-spidered and generally looked after more often than they are at the moment.
January 26, 201312 yr comment_149009 The toilets are fine as they are. OK, yes, they might need modernising in one or two places, but they serve a purpose, and they serve it well. I'm suddenly reminded of a 10+ page toilet topic on one of the Towers fan forums
January 26, 201312 yr comment_149014 The toilets are fine as they are. OK, yes, they might need modernising in one or two places, but they serve a purpose, and they serve it well. I'm suddenly reminded of a 10+ page toilet topic on one of the Towers fan forums Just because they serve a purpose doesn't really mean they can't be modernised a tad. The ones at the entrance for example are rubbish and a lot of the time the water and dryers in toilets around the park don't work properly. Took me ages to find a working hot water tap in Gloomy Wood and the X Sector ones.
January 26, 201312 yr comment_149015 The portaloos in Wodan's queue They're actually significantly better than most of the Alton Towers toilets.
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