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Alton Towers General Discussion


themeparkmad

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safe to say 2016 isn't a great year to visit towers with a family around the 7-12 age group.

With three staple attractions closed (one permanently) and another supporting, the lineup is pretty limited. The only attractions left for families too old CBEebies but too young for the thrill rides, the line up will only consist of:

Runaway Mine Train

Congo River Rapids

Duel

Spinball

Toadstall

Battle Galleons

Sky Ride

Marauders

Blade

Ice Age, Enterprise & Thirteen (at a push)

That makes a total of 12 rides (of a previous offering of 16), so the line up there is comparatively weak at least for 2016. Even Thorpe now has a better selection of older family rides now, unless Galsctica's HR drops to 1.3 or something.

Merlin do need to get out of this 'reduce park offerings if we have an unsuccessful year' thing though. 2016 will be a bizarre year to say the least.

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They still made a profit which is better than a lot of companies, their biggest problem isn't their management, it's the need to please shareholders first, customers second.  If they were not a public company then they wouldn't need to pay shareholders and could plough some of the profits back into the attractions.

 

I have some sympathy, it's not nice to want to do things that are then countermanded by bean counters, but on the flip side this is the bed they made for themselves, so they only have themselves to blame.

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There is no excuse for closed rides in reality when you're paying over £50 PER A PERSON to visit, unless they're planning to do something to 'improve' these attractions (which I doubt).

 

It's interesting to note that Sonic Spinball has been renamed Spinball Whizzer on the ride times website, did Sega decided not to renew the sponsorship?

It's certainly going to feel different on opening day, I'm nervous to see the outcome of this season.

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Hex and the flume is a bit of a bummer, had hoped to see the wife puke, sorry enjoy Hex later in the year, I guess I'll just have to trick her into going on The Smiler now.

 

That made me laugh probably more than it should have done!

 

There are some angry people over on Alton Towers FB page and to be honest I can understand why.  Merlin and Alton Towers knew about these ride closures but only announced The Flume and Ripsaw initially - they should have just been honest from the get go about the other SBNO rides - I expect there are people who have gone out and bought an AP only to be royally p***ed off.  If it were my local park I would be more annoyed especially if I had kids.

 

Not sure if it has been mentioned but (and this is from Wiki so not sure how reliable)

It is rumoured that the Roald Dahl Intellectual Property licence for the ride ends at the close of the 2015 season. This does fit with the 10 year anniversary of the ride. However there has been no confirmation of the licence length.

 

Maybe that is the reason behind CATCF closure this year?  Who knows - I think personally that yes, Alton Towers need to make back money but with all the SNBO rides its going to turn a lot of people away - their mistake was not admitting these closures sooner

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There is no excuse for closed rides in reality when you're paying over £50 PER A PERSON to visit, unless they're planning to do something to 'improve' these attractions (which I doubt).

 

This yes. The price should have come down to reflect the loss of six rides. 

 

 

The park had two choices with this season, the route they have taken, which is focus on saving money first and foremost, or the alternative was to go all out with this season in order to gain that trust back...

 

 

 

That was never going to happen. We were never going to see an all guns blazing theme park in 2016. Hell, even without the Smiler incident we were going to see the loss of Ripsaw and possibly Log Flume. 

 

I'm not surprised we're seeing more ride closures, but I am amazed at how many we've got. From four dark rides to one in less then five months and I've no doubt that if Duel required more staff to run it, that would be closed too.

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It's disgusting that they took so long to announce the closures. They must've known they were coming, otherwise the entirely accurate rumour would not have started back in November.

 

It goes to show what I have said for many years, Merlin do not really give a toss about their customers or guest experience. They are a brand that have let customers down time after time. Whether it's annual pass "sales" or closing rides for a season without any real notice.

 

Merlin/Alton....whoever, need to create a brand that guests think "yeah that's the mark of quality" a brand that people are happy to shout (positive) things about, a brand they can feel associated with....they've failed at every opportunity.

 

Yes, I will visit Thorpe this year before my pass expires, Yes I will visit Alton once before my pass expires (only because I have a free nights stay). Beyond that....I will take my £1500+ that I spend on Hotel stays within the merlin group and food etc etc and take it elsewhere.

 

I view Merlin as a very unethical company....pulling a fast one on their customers where possible!

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If you'd read this thread, you would have come to the conclusion that Flume and Ripsaw are the only permanent closures (photos of Ripsaw in pieces and the Flume being confirmed by the park) and the others are SBNO

The way the post was worded I got confused

Sent from my SM-G361F using Tapatalk

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It's disgusting that they took so long to announce the closures. They must've known they were coming, otherwise the entirely accurate rumour would not have started back in November.

 

It goes to show what I have said for many years, Merlin do not really give a toss about their customers or guest experience. They are a brand that have let customers down time after time. Whether it's annual pass "sales" or closing rides for a season without any real notice

This.  The closures are bad in their own right but the lateness of the announcement is completely unacceptable.

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Well to be fair, look what they've done to Nemesis under TLC in just a few months, it looks fantastic. So in an entire season and with another closed season ahead, imagine how great Hex and Charlie will look (and who knows NST might not continue to injure people). Alton Towers have just demonstrated what they can do in a closed season, and TLC have even longer to work on all these closed rides, they're going to look like new. Assuming they're not using TLC as an excuse to close rides (which is exactly what they are). LOL

The positive spin about painted mushrooms and shutters on closed shops is shocking and all done to prepare for this news. Very calculated as we knew these rides would be closing LAST year, the gate map has been altered, yet Towers delay the bad news train.

I can't wait to see what bin or door frame they paint next. How lucky are we in the UK that the park is being maintained.

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I went yesterday for the Services day. Very disappointing. 

 

The park looks extremely rough, lots of rubbish visible from the fright nights mazes, gates left open all over the place. Most of the food stalls were shut, leaving only 1 of the Burger Kitchens and Chicken in X Sector. Plenty of breakdowns, but unfortunately none of the old reliables to get you through. Hex was sorely missed, as is Ripsaw and Flume -  they just soak up some queues.

 

Appreciate most of the staff were new and effectively it was a paid training session for the park,but most were very slow and really struggling- maybe  10,000 on the park but queues were very very heavy. 

 

Generally just very disappointing, and a sad indictment of whats to come I suspect. Felt extremely money grabbing too; note most of the food stalls were shut but pretty much every paid side show was open. 

 

 

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I went yesterday for the Services day. Very disappointing. 

 

The park looks extremely rough, lots of rubbish visible from the fright nights mazes, gates left open all over the place. Most of the food stalls were shut, leaving only 1 of the Burger Kitchens and Chicken in X Sector. Plenty of breakdowns, but unfortunately none of the old reliables to get you through. Hex was sorely missed, as is Ripsaw and Flume -  they just soak up some queues.

 

Appreciate most of the staff were new and effectively it was a paid training session for the park,but most were very slow and really struggling- maybe  10,000 on the park but queues were very very heavy. 

 

Generally just very disappointing, and a sad indictment of whats to come I suspect. Felt extremely money grabbing too; note most of the food stalls were shut but pretty much every paid side show was open. 

 

I very nearly went, glad I didn't bother now!

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No park can prevent the paint on track being rubbed off be the wheels...

 

Like, let's bash things that are under their control, not things that happen all the time... Even brand new rides have this issue, look at the Paultons creds once they've opened for a week...

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