September 1, 20169 yr comment_240826 I must say the concept of a roller coaster using rubber tyres like that you find on a car is rather amusing.
September 1, 20169 yr comment_240828 The wording in that article has agrivated me greatly: "Try and let them free" It's ridiculous, they aren't hostages, Towers isn't the villain here. Why do articles always pervay Towers so negatively? The ride stopped for safety reasons. Stopping isn't crashing. Stopping isn't news worthy.
September 1, 20169 yr comment_240834 1 hour ago, Project LC said: I must say the concept of a roller coaster using rubber tyres like that you find on a car is rather amusing. Drive wheels
September 1, 20169 yr comment_240837 You all do realise that viewing and discussing the article will only lead to more articles like this in the future?
September 2, 20169 yr comment_240841 I doubt the hits from our little community make much difference, we're not their target audience. Having said that, someone does need to explain to them the definition of 'hanging upside down'.
September 3, 20169 yr comment_240902 Sorry to change the subject, but it's an idea I just had and I thought I'd share...but apologies if it's been mentioned before. Anyway, obviously we've had the confirmation of a "UK theme park" revamping a "water-based" ride to be themed around The Gruffalo...and as we've seen in recent weeks, everyone's been pointing fingers at Bubbleworks. You seem to have forgotten that another ride has also closed, possibly on the brink of a revamp...and that ride is none other than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The reason I think this is the culprit is that CatCF is everything you could wish for from a ride themed around a children's book; a slow-moving water based ride with both onboard and offboard audio to go with the themed sets seen by the riders. Bubbleworks however transports riders through the scenes at speed and has ride vehicles not capable of onboard audio. Thus I'd assume Bubbleworks is just not fit for a ride that tells a story at a considerable pace. From this understanding I can only have the feeling that Alton Towers is the park with a Gruffalo attraction incoming...
September 6, 20169 yr comment_241018 How would the Gruffalo fit the lift simulators at the end though? Given the cost of them, I would imagine any changes made to Charlie (whatever they are) would incorporate those lifts, unless they're truly buggered (which would be of no surprise)... Thing is we don't even know if anything will happen to Charlie, and if it were being rebranded we'd know about it now rather than it kept as a secret, as we know Merlin are awful at those...
September 7, 20169 yr comment_241038 12 hours ago, Benin said: How would the Gruffalo fit the lift simulators at the end though? Given the cost of them, I would imagine any changes made to Charlie (whatever they are) would incorporate those lifts, unless they're truly buggered (which would be of no surprise)... Thing is we don't even know if anything will happen to Charlie, and if it were being rebranded we'd know about it now rather than it kept as a secret, as we know Merlin are awful at those... The lift simulators could be turned into a small 360 degree film at the end. That tech can move how it wants so doesn't have to represent a lift. Being at the size of the mouse, the introduction of the Gruffalo could happen as the Gruffalo is moving to the mouse, footsteps shaking the ground we stand on.
October 17, 20168 yr comment_243188 I enjoyed my visit to Alton Towers yesterday, but the park really has lost its 'spark", the atmosphere was nonexistent and the park really suffers for the amount of rides (and restaurants!) closed IMO. The Flume looks dire just left there, especially when on the Skyride, it's crazy that nothing has happened in that area yet!
October 17, 20168 yr comment_243192 Well SW8 is for 2018. It won't take that long to remove a flume. The amount of closed rides is excessive and really puts me off from visiting. They already had a great lack of flat rides and closing more was never going to help. Merlin went about the wrong way to fix it after the smiler issue. They chose the money saving solution rather than convince the people back solution resulting in a loss of "magic".
October 17, 20168 yr comment_243195 2 minutes ago, Project LC said: Well SW8 is for 2018. It won't take that long to remove a flume. The amount of closed rides is excessive and really puts me off from visiting. They already had a great lack of flat rides and closing more was never going to help. Merlin went about the wrong way to fix it after the smiler issue. They chose the money saving solution rather than convince the people back solution resulting in a loss of "magic". True, but my point is that it looks awful just sat there rotting away. Completely agree regarding the closed rides, it has damaged the park hugely IMO.
October 18, 20168 yr comment_243201 5 hours ago, Ian-S said: How were the queue lengths for the coasters? Not too bad, it was surprisingly quiet and by the evening they were nearly walk-on (with the exception of Smiler). The bad weather in the morning probably put people off.
November 4, 20168 yr comment_243918 ??? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3882704/Alton-Towers-thrillseekers-trapped-rollercoaster-nearly-hour-Spinball-Wizard-ride-breaks-down.html from a few days ago but a friend sent it to me
November 4, 20168 yr comment_243922 Oh good, the Whaley Fail and their accurate park incident stories strike again. Least Towers did the right thing and stopped the ride, as a guest getting struck by a ride car is certainly much worse than a standard evac.
January 5, 20178 yr comment_246429 Anyone know how much parking is and when the opening dates are announced?
January 9, 20178 yr comment_246555 Opening times have been released for 2017, which show that the park will now open at 10:30am, and will close at 5pm on weekends, 4:30pm/5pm on weekdays (depending on time of year) and 6pm in the summer holidays. https://www.altontowers.com/useful-info/opening-times A cutback of half an hour to opening hours that were already very short is not ideal, it's also very unhelpful in a park such as Alton Towers where so much time is spent walking between rides. I think it represents extremely poor value in terms of the ticket price (even discounted) compared with time in the park.
January 9, 20178 yr comment_246558 Is the waterpark having some kind of refurbishment towards the end of the season? Or are the hours just not on the website yet?
January 9, 20178 yr comment_246566 1 hour ago, Mark9 said: Is the waterpark having some kind of refurbishment towards the end of the season? Or are the hours just not on the website yet? Surely the latter one in that Mark as I've not heard of anything happening and it's approaching peak season. Then again, seems very bizarre and the rumour of an extension/refurbishment seems to float around often. In regards to the pushed open times, very strange and not overly acceptable for the UK's flagship park, especially given weekdays only offer 6 hours of In park time. I wonder if this will ever u-turn, especially if vast numbers still arrive for 10?
January 9, 20178 yr comment_246567 10:30 is nothing short of laughable, especially with 5pm closes...
January 9, 20178 yr comment_246568 Its like they've just given up hope of it recovering. Oh wait, they have.
January 10, 20178 yr comment_246584 When I usually visit Alton Towers in early June, 10.30am-4.30pm is more than enough time - with the queues in those off-peak days usually being non-existent, I can usually get round the park having done everything by 2pm. Having said that, for any days where queues are more than 15 minutes, the reduced opening times are ridiculous. Plus, as someone already rightly said it takes ages to walk between rides, not like Thorpe where you can pretty much see every ride from wherever you are in the park. I've got to say though, days where I can get round the park having done all the rides by 2pm are not exactly leisurely! The new opening times for this season mean that guests will really have to rush around the park with any chance of getting on all the rides they want to.
January 10, 20178 yr comment_246585 I genuinely don't think Alton Towers will recover under Merlin, I mean we've had rides closed, removed without replacement, catering outlets and restaurants closed, shops closed, the entertainments budget cut and now opening hours (which were already ridiculously short) cut further. It feels as if they're trying to shrink the park, and it's damaging it so much in the long term IMO. It's also awful that they haven't released the 2017 ride lineup yet, but I don't expect it will be announced until the MAP sale ends in line with tactics Merlin have used so many times before. Very, very sad to see Alton in this state.
January 10, 20178 yr comment_246586 Terrible state of most their UK parks behind the scenes, but these parks have all been cut down to skeleton teams and corner cutting before. The parks need to be granted more money from Merlin, they need to slow down their expansions and stop screwing their teams over, and completely rebuild the management attitudes of their parks. So much poor practice and ignorance has filtered down through managements and the company's park culture now. And then design rides properly too. Alton Towers used to have a really colourful, diverse line up of attractions that were all very charming and special. Now its all half-there, flash in the pan rides, CBeebies, and the corpses of older once brilliant attractions looking pathetic now in poor condition. It really doesn't have to be this way!
January 13, 20178 yr comment_246647 Those opening hours are pathetic. Another year I won't be back then.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.