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"Danger of Death"

You have only got to visit places like Efterlin, Disney and park Asterix to realise how great and emersing that theming can be.

As for the new fencing and signs, at the moment they do stick out like a sore thumb as they are new. Give it a few years and we will not even notice that they are there.

The new fencing in the Katanga Canyon is not too bad, the only disappointing is the fact they have blocked the view over the bridge where you used to be able to watch the train came out of the tunnel next to the rapids.

As for the quality of the recent new fencing around the park, well I took a good look around at some of the existing fencing and even though the new fencing is not the best fences in the park, these are also not the worst.

Personally, if they did a proper job in the first place with regards to the theming and the cosmetic site of things , I think Alton can be one of the best theme parks in the word.
 
PeteB said:
Pretty much anything and everything that looks stupid at Towers can only be found at Towers. Moronic management issue, as always.
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While I agree, some of the issues you have raised are certainly specific to Towers. If you look at specific forums you'll see fans of parks hating most on the park that they claim is their favourite.

Thorpe is almost always operations. Chessington is almost always a perceived lack of investment. Legoland is often, but not always capacity.

I still can't get excited about fences. In numerous threads on here people bemoan Merlin selling too much Fastrack, now they're not selling enough?
 
Rick said:
While I agree, some of the issues you have raised are certainly specific to Towers. If you look at specific forums you'll see fans of parks hating most on the park that they claim is their favourite.

Thorpe is almost always operations. Chessington is almost always a perceived lack of investment. Legoland is often, but not always capacity.

I still can't get excited about fences. In numerous threads on here people bemoan Merlin selling too much Fastrack, now they're not selling enough?
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Oh I've got plenty to say about Thorpe and Chessington haha! And yes Thorpe's operations are dire, but so are Alton's these days. All for the benefit of selling more Fastrack.

Actually across all of Merlin's attractions one thing that is griping me at the moment is miserable, rude, ignorant staff. It says something when the stalls and burger vans outside of Madame Tussauds are far more pleasant and friendly than any of the staff working at MT.

They should replace all those signs with "Danger of Fun - Please remain from having fun. Anyone having fun will be ejected from the park".

Even if you happen to have a little fun by accident, it seems there's a miserable unhelpful member of staff lurking around every corner ready to sort you out. Either that or a mildly happy chap shoving a £10 photo opportunity in your face every 10 paces.
 
Ash123uk said:
Who need fast track when the park is as dead as it is anyways.
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At 3pm, nothing in the park had a queue.

PeteB said:
Oh I've got plenty to say about Thorpe and Chessington haha! And yes Thorpe's operations are dire, but so are Alton's these days. All for the benefit of selling more Fastrack.
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I haven't been to Alton over the summer, but reading the queue times, it doesn't sound like there was great deal of effort to sell Fastrack? I appreciate that Thorpe have been notorious in the past for single train operation and the like, but I don't recall witnessing/suffering that first hand. Sometimes there is a genuine operational need to run a single train, but perhaps not always.

PeteB said:
Even if you happen to have a little fun by accident, it seems there's a miserable unhelpful member of staff lurking around every corner ready to sort you out. Either that or a mildly happy chap shoving a £10 photo opportunity in your face every 10 paces.
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I would suggest Merlin staff are not the best, but they are far from the worst. And photos? Just say no.
 
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PeteB said:
Even if you happen to have a little fun by accident, it seems there's a miserable unhelpful member of staff lurking around every corner ready to sort you out. Either that or a mildly happy chap shoving a £10 photo opportunity in your face every 10 paces.
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oh thats a bit harsh :eek: I dont think I've come across any grumpy staff members at Towers :oops:
 
bluesonichd said:
oh thats a bit harsh :eek: I dont think I've come across any grumpy staff members at Towers :oops:
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I think they are the exception rather than the rule. I've had maybe one or two unpleasant staff though all my 5 years of visiting towers.

Unhelpful is probably the wrong word really. You could say that the staff on the smiler gate are unhelpful because they can't tell you when it will reopen (unhelpful as they can't give you the information you want).
 
So I saw no "danger of death" signs or stupidy high fences in any of the Floridian theme parks that I visited. All I saw in a couple of parks was some standard 'danger - ride area' type signs that Towers previously had.

:)
 
@Rob I don't understand why that is at all relevant. Alton Towers management decided at their park, they wanted the signs because they deemed they were necessary to protect their guests. After all, the book stops with them. They chose the wording and put up said signs on their fences and this whole nonsensical debate began.
 
Rick said:
@Rob I don't understand why that is at all relevant. Alton Towers management decided at their park, they wanted the signs because they deemed they were necessary to protect their guests. After all, the book stops with them. They chose the wording and put up said signs on their fences and this whole nonsensical debate began.
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Yes, but doesn't that show that they aren't necessary. No one died before the signs changed.
 
I'm wondering how long it'll be before every pathway in the park in caged in like the smiler's queueline?
 
Leah said:
Yes, but doesn't that show that they aren't necessary. No one died before the signs changed.
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I can't repeat myself again. Oh go on then, one last time for the fun of it. The sign isn't there to STOP anyone dying, nor is it there to create a physical impregnable barrier.

It's there like any sign - take a 'No Entry' sign on a one way street, the sign is there to inform a driver they shouldn't proceed down the road and crash into another driver travelling in the correct direction. Then, when they do - the responsibility is with the individual who ignored the sign because they were adequately warned but proceeded to do so anyway.
 
Rick said:
I can't repeat myself again. Oh go on then, one last time for the fun of it. The sign isn't there to STOP anyone dying, nor is it there to create a physical impregnable barrier.

It's there like any sign - take a 'No Entry' sign on a one way street, the sign is there to inform a driver they shouldn't proceed down the road and crash into another driver travelling in the correct direction. Then, when they do - the responsibility is with the individual who ignored the sign because they were adequately warned but proceeded to do so anyway.
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Well no. A 'No Entry' sign does two things, firstly it notifies drivers that it is a one way street and therefore there is no entry and secondly it is an order of no entry. Without the sign people would not no. With the signs at Towers you have a blooming big fence making it blatantly obvious not to climb over and the perfectly fine 'danger, ride area, do not enter' signs that existed before these.

Anyway this has gone round and round in cirlces so many times and I am going to just agree to disagree with Rick on whether the Danger of Death signs are appropriate or not!

:)
 
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