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Christmas 2021: Christmas Markets

I can't see them going to a whole park opening. But maybe half the big coasters plus most family attractions.
For example they could have Oblivion, Smiler, Rita and Thirteen closed for maintenance, leaving Nemesis, Air, Spinball, Wickerman and Mine Train plus the family stuff and indoor attractions.

Also given the issues they had with weather for Feb half term it does feel better to concentrate on November/December openings and leave Jan & Feb as closed season.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
It has many weather problems at all times of the year. It's in Blackpool.
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Thameslink Rail said:
Out of interest, does Blackpool have many weather problems during Feb half term and Wow weekends?
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The Pleasure Beach has issues with the wind, but low temperatures, not so much. I've ridden the Big One when it was nought degrees or close to.

I think the core issue for Alton is maintenance. To run a full park over the Christmas period you need to completely change your approach to maintenance, which is certainly doable but is quite the culture shift. In almost all cases, year round operation means rides are taken out of a service for a month or sometimes more at a time during the season or, alternatively you do more of your maintenance on an ongoing basis, with teams working during the night to incrementally deliver what is typically done over the winter. In some cases, parks plump for a hybrid of the two.
 
Not sure if this has been covered else where but noticed this map in the promotional video, seems to confirm the route of Lightopia along with afew other things.
lightopiamap.png
 
Rick said:
I think the core issue for Alton is maintenance. To run a full park over the Christmas period you need to completely change your approach to maintenance, which is certainly doable but is quite the culture shift. In almost all cases, year round operation means rides are taken out of a service for a month or sometimes more at a time during the season or, alternatively you do more of your maintenance on an ongoing basis, with teams working during the night to incrementally deliver what is typically done over the winter. In some cases, parks plump for a hybrid of the two.
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Wouldn't they have issues with noise/lights if doing it through the night? I would love to see the park open all year round, even if it was just weekends between Nov & Mar and have a park wide Christmas theme.
 
evilcod said:
Not sure if this has been covered else where but noticed this map in the promotional video, seems to confirm the route of Lightopia along with afew other things.
lightopiamap.png
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They have been laying some of the themeing for the event out all over, mostly in Haunted Hallow - I saw them on Friday. And dotted all around the path from Wickerman to Duel via RMT, there are sprayed numbers on the ground, presumably where the objects will be placed. It's allegedly 2.5km long, so I think most of the pathway will be open from Mutiny Bay up to Forbidden valley and back again (via Haunted Hollow).
 
Much of the lightopia stuff along the HH portion of the route has now been fully installed - it's been unpacked and set up since Friday when it was just lying on the ground. Some of it has clearly been custom built for Towers, let's just say there's a few familiar faces amongst the more generic pieces.
 
I'm really looking forward to this Lightopia. The fact that there are (at least) these Scarefest models shows that Towers have had a creative input in this trail to make it theirs. They could've just so easily said to Lightopia "give us a light trail with your standard models" and left it like a standard light trail. And I believe the finale of the trail is on the lake with a lights, water and/or fountain display so hopefully that'll be Towers themed too.
 
Steve74 said:
I'm really looking forward to this Lightopia. The fact that there are (at least) these Scarefest models shows that Towers have had a creative input in this trail to make it theirs. They could've just so easily said to Lightopia "give us a light trail with your standard models" and left it like a standard light trail. And I believe the finale of the trail is on the lake with a lights, water and/or fountain display so hopefully that'll be Towers themed too.
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Yes it really does look great. I wasn't going to go to the event before but I am considering it now. Mainly because of how good this lightopia looks. I'm still weighing it up as there isn't as many rides open as I would like and I don't own a MAP so I'd be paying full entry prices.
 
JAperson said:
Yes it really does look great. I wasn't going to go to the event before but I am considering it now. Mainly because of how good this lightopia looks. I'm still weighing it up as there isn't as many rides open as I would like and I don't own a MAP so I'd be paying full entry prices.
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Don't forget though if you don't go for the rides and just the market and Lightopia, it'll only cost you £20 per person plus £6 per car. The only MAP discount is free parking; so for me being a MAP holder, it'll only cost £20
 
Steve74 said:
Don't forget though if you don't go for the rides and just the market and Lightopia, it'll only cost you £20 per person plus £6 per car. The only MAP discount is free parking; so for me being a MAP holder, it'll only cost £20
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Yeah that's a good point actually thanks @Steve74 .

It has given me a thought though. How are they going to manage how's doing what? Wristbands? Scanning tickets at each area? It seems like it's going to be a bit of a complex operation.
 
Lightopia Manchester is also £20 so the pricing is in line with their other experiences.
London Lightopia is £19.50/£22.50 off-peak/peak.

I expect Alton Towers don't get much of the ticket cost so they can't offer passholder discount as its Lightopia who will get the majority of the ticket value.
 
I just had a look at the website to see if we could work a stop here on the way back from Scotland next month and maybe stay in a hotell nearby - definitely seems to be more of a young family event though with mainly only smaller rides being open.

Looks like Duel isn't included on that map either interestingly.

It would be £60 for us to go to a Christmas market + lights trail so it's a no from us this time, but a lovely idea to hopefully expand on in the future, especially if they can add a couple more indoor attractions at some point.
 
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