Alton Towers once again opened its gates to guests with a selection of rides and attractions for February Half Term on Saturday. Here’s a bumper round up of the latest news from the resort including the first look at many of the improvements on park!
The Smiler
Alton Towers’ new roller coaster for 2013 – The Smiler – which has been significantly delayed with its opening being pushed back to May. Construction has recently focused on getting groundwork complete, with very little in the way of track and support erection taking place since the cobra roll/batwing element was completed. However, on Saturday we reported on our Facebook page that supports were being craned into position on the site and a complex support structure was lowered into place over the X-Sector toilets.
Marketing for the ride also continued, with new posters asking for advocates, as well as some more foreboding messages such as “join us” and “smile always”. All of the in-park marketing confirmed the new May opening date, although on some posters this was clearly stuck over top of the old date of March.
Moshi Monsters
This year’s February Half Term event has seen the park taken over by the children’s craze Moshi Monsters. For the first time, six of the Monsters were together for a meet and greet on park, alongside a Moshi Quest which is entertaining for visitors both young and old. The quest is an exclusive chance for fans to get their hands on some ultra-rare Moshlings and has certainly contributed to the busy opening weekend that the event had experienced.
The hotels also got in on the action, with both Splash Landings and the Alton Towers Hotel featuring some Moshi Monsters decoration and also getting visits from the Monsters themselves! The Conference Centre also plays host to some of the fun, hosting the Moshi Monsters workshop and underground disco. There’s also a selection of Moshi Monster drinks available in the bars!
Hex
Over on our Talk forums, Hex has long been a hot topic of discussion for some time, with many calling for some much needed maintenance to be carried out. The ride re-opened at the weekend with a number of improvements. Amongst them, the attraction’s projector in the second batching area has been replaced and broken lighting fixed throughout. The main ride itself, know as a Madhouse, has seen extensive work to it’s mechanical parts carried out with the ride’s manufacturer, Vekoma. Finally, a brand new sound system has been restored, meaning the iconic musical score can once again be heard at it’s best.
The Burger Kitchen
We reported earlier in the closed season that Burger King had finally left Alton Towers for good. We also reported that the in-house brand ‘The Burger Kitchen’ would be replacing all three locations this season. It was clear at the half term event that work is nearly finished on the three sites in Forbidden Valley, Mutiny Bay and Cloud Cuckoo Land and the photos below show the new theming work that has been added to the restaurant site in Cloud Cuckoo Land:
The interior of the restaurant looks stylish and modern, and will breathe some life into a building that had remained fairly stagnant for a few seasons now. The menu screens inside were also left switched on which gave us an indication to the outlet’s pricing structure:
The pricing appears to be much in line with the recent in-house addition ‘The Fried Chicken Co.‘ in X Sector, with most adult meals being around £5.95. As Burger Kitchen is a Merlin owned outlet, annual pass holders will also get 20% off. With many previously critical of Burger King’s high prices, The Burger Kitchen should become a solid and welcome addition to the park’s F&B offerings.
Box Office
The Resort Box Office on Towers Street is currently undergoing a bit of a makeover before the full season starts in March. Under its previous guise, it was largely unchanged from its old use as the YourDay building. The new refurbishment brightens up the Box Office, and gives it more focus and purpose. The walls of television screens all showing the same information are now gone and replaced by screens relating to specific aspects of the Resort, such as the Merlin Annual Pass, food and drink, events, hotels and the theme park. Also implemented are screens showing the queue times around the park, alongside a special ‘Box Office shout out’ feature for Twitter users, where tweets including a specific hashtag are shown as a live feed on screen.
Apparently a few more developments are due to take place between now and March so it’ll be interesting to see what else is added!
Towers Trading
Towers Trading received the first phase of it’s refurbishment last season, with the implementation of a new themed bank of tills at the top end of the store. Over the closed season this has spread out across the rest of the shop, with new graphics and shelving being placed around the edge of the inside as well as new lighting which has made the space airier and brighter. As seen in the images below, there’s also a specific area with The Smiler branding, possibly indicating a home for what is set to be the Resort’s biggest range of ride specific merchandise ever.
The Smiler merchandise is expected to include t-shirts, bears with twirling eyes or removable heads, hats and even a clock with its numbers in the wrong order!
Moon Voyager Rooms
Finally, the Moon Voyager rooms in the Alton Towers Hotel are beginning to take shape. The corridor now features the new carpet which is themed to fit the rooms’ style and the doors have been replaced with new ones featuring a graphic that’s themed to look like an airlock. You can see more about what these rooms are going to look like in our news article showing the concept art.
The February Half Term event runs until 24th February with a selected number of rides and attractions open, and entry for adults starts from £18. More information can be found at AltonTowers.com.
We’ll be bringing you the latest updates from the Resort here on TowersStreet so keep an eye on our news articles, our Facebook and Twitter pages and our Talk forums for more information as it happens!
