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It's the Little Things...

Kieron

Kieron

TS Member
It's no surprise that recently we've all been pretty down about the Park. The lack of events, atmosphere, the ridiculous changes to the park's landscaping, scenery and signage of fear of health and safety. That aside I'm finding increasingly these days that the 'little' sparks of 'magic' when it comes to themeing and attention to detail has long gone. The one thing that has set Alton Towers aside from all the other theme parks in the UK is the sheer attention to detail in every aspect of operation, presentation and innovation within the park.

Anyone who has seen 'the Magic Factory' documentary can see that in the late 90s every single thing was engineered to create a place to escape for the norm, to the point that even the themeing behind the scenes for staff were well thought out to create an all round happy atmosphere.

Fast forward to 2015, and I am heartbroken. I'm seeing my childhood park decline [Not in the way of Rides/Attractions or Service] but in the attention to detail. Let me show you what I mean...

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This sign pretty much sums up about how the quality of the resort is looking. It's not just this sign, there are examples all over the resort of this kind of thing... The Priority Car Park access road is pot hole city and deadly to anyone who values their suspension on their car. Dark Forest in its entirety is full of scaffolding, overgrown vegetation in the queue lines, and discarded oil barrels under the stairs into Th13teen. Nemesis' waterfall pumps are broken and have been for some time, the new vending machine opposite blade in Forbidden Valley has an old Ripsaw sign underneath its foot to make it level.

I dare anyone to take the Sky Ride over Dark Forest and look opposite Rita, the back of the food outlets are rotting pieces of Ug Land in dire need of attention and has Spinball Noodles EVER opened?

This sort of thing is really shoddy and to me when you start seeing a consistent theme of poor, careless presentation it's a sign that Alton Towers really has lost touch and opens up the playing field for competitors to come and take the top spot for the UK's #1 Theme Park.


Have you got any photos of the Park's poor presentation/maintenance? How do you think this could be improved.
 
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So its ok for a woman to clean the mens lavs, in fact shes has been in when i needed to spend my pennies... But would be an uproar if a male cleaner was in the laddies :/
 
bluesonichd said:
So its ok for a woman to clean the mens lavs, in fact shes has been in when i needed to spend my pennies... But would be an uproar if a male cleaner was in the laddies :/
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Much as I'd love to agree with you, Hils says ladies have that too.
 
Oh, I agree. I just gave up giving a crap about Merlin's farces ages ago.
 
I don't actually think it's a merlin wide Park problem, more of a priority thing. For the last decade they've used AT as a cash cow as it was far ahead of all the other parks. Investment has gone elsewhere for a very long time, Thorpe and Chessington are looking in much better shape. Legoland is also looking ropey though.
 
AliceHL91 said:
It could be worse, it could be as grotty as Drayton manor :eek:
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I'm not so sure, some bits of DMP are fairly grim but they clearly spend quite a bit on upkeep as Shockwave, G Force, Maelstrom and Shockwave have all been cleaned up/repainted in the past few years.

Parts of Towers are now sinking to Oakwood levels of presentation, which is shocking for a park that's supposed to be Merlin's star attraction.
 
John said:
I'm not so sure, some bits of DMP are fairly grim but they clearly spend quite a bit on upkeep as Shockwave, G Force, Maelstrom and Shockwave have all been cleaned up/repainted in the past few years.

Parts of Towers are now sinking to Oakwood levels of presentation, which is shocking for a park that's supposed to be Merlin's star attraction.
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I dunno. Had my first visit to Drayton manor this year and the amount of graffiti in the queue line for storm force alone is shocking!
 
Alastair said:
Three different varieties of taps in the DF toilets (I think). Made me laugh at least :p

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For Merlin's flagship UK park that is an absolute disgrace. Along with the danger of death signs and increased fence height the park is losing a bit of it's magic touch and certainly won't be helping guest numbers.
 
It looks like a tap salesroom all Alton need now is a sign DF tap shop and a few more varieties.
 
The toilets near the entrance with lacklustre themed doors are horrific. You find better toilets in a McDonalds. They have such a temporary, run down feel to them.

I think all over the park it stinks of a 'that'll do' attitude. Cosmetically there could be so much more thought that goes into the design of areas such as the coffee shop on Towers street. It's a shell of a coffee shop with some quirky teapot lights, but the general construction is cheap and and finished product uninspiring.

On my most recently trip I had a really big issue with the staff too. Staff on 80% of the rides talking to each other as they make their way down a train checking the restrains. Two members of staff on Nemesis hugging and generally messing around whilst waiting for the one train in operation to come back into the station. Staff are disinterested and it shows.

The only area where this wasn't the case was in Sealife.

Customers really do appreciate the smaller things, and this is something I feel Towers consistently overlooks.
 
I have found a mix of staff this year. The ones that get a bit bored so interact with guest in humorous ways. And the others get bored, dont bother about guest and mess around with other staff.

Come on AT staff, if you are going to try and stop the boredom. Interact with the guests.
 
delta79 said:
and I thought my work mixing the two types of taps we have, as not giving a damn.
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My work does exactly the samet hing as well!

All of the park toilets have remained largely unchanged since they were built. The odd lick of paint every few years and new hand dryers and that's about it.

Anyone been to the toilets the towers Street restaurant recently? I thought I was walking back into the 70's!
 
matthewgcole said:
Anyone been to the toilets the towers Street restaurant recently? I thought I was walking back into the 70's!
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It's part of the new attraction for next year. 'Heritage Toilets Trail 2016' - "JOIN US as we take a tour down toilet lane starting with a viewing area for different taps throughout the glory years and culminating in a pleasant walk into the gardens where you can view the now unused Swiss Cottage with nearby authentic portacabin toilets - featuring genuine stains and tree growth from the 1980s! We are sure you'll agree that it is FANTABULOUS!". ;)
 
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