When I think back to my time visiting Towers as a child I strongly recall the areas Hid refers to (Storybook Land, Old McDonalds, Cloud Cuckoo), but I also have fond memories of visiting Ug Land, seeing Oblivion in X Sector and thinking there’s no way in hell I’d ever go on that, doing the Mine Train and Rapids in Katanga Canyon… However the one area that I don’t have a single childhood memory of is Forbidden Valley. If you’re a small child the park basically stops at Katanga Canyon (yes they can ride Curse but it’s a scary theme for the smaller).
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2025: General Discussion
Bowser
TS Member
I've never been in Forbidden Valley or X Sector with my family. We once went on The Blade on our last visit so i suppose we technically entered FV briefly but we came round through the gardens as i didn't want my son to see the coasters and be upset at not being able to ride them. I suppose it saved us some extra unnecessary walking by isolating most of the major 1.4m coasters!
In fairness could say the same about other parks. At Disneyland Paris we barely set foot in Adventureland or Frontierland as couldn't go on Indiana Jones and Big Thunder Mountain was closed (appreciate the latter isn't quite the same). And Phantasialand we didn't go in Africa for the same reasons as AT so i don't think it's a situation unique to AT. Although Africa does technically have the Adventure Trail and both DLP lands mentioned also have other attractions so perhaps that's a terrible pair of examples and i've debunked my own point
Benzin
TS Member
Don't care if my kid isn't tall enough I'm not visiting Towers and not going on Nemesis.
Very different circumstances to Bowser mind.
The lack of anything in that DV for those under 1.4m this year is one of my bug bears. Similar can be said of X-Sector and to a lesser degree Dark Forest (but that's at least close to Walliams Deserted World).
Very different circumstances to Bowser mind.
The lack of anything in that DV for those under 1.4m this year is one of my bug bears. Similar can be said of X-Sector and to a lesser degree Dark Forest (but that's at least close to Walliams Deserted World).
Bert2theSpark
TS Member
I hate to say it but Hid has actually raised a good point (for once) with the Adventure Land playground, it was somewhere to blow off steam and the park has lost a lot of the in-between stuff from attraction to attraction.
I know Merlin has an adversity to something like high-rise play equipment because of the H&S risk and insurance (Towers has way more visitors than a lot public parks, and would take a lot more liability if anything happened). Combined with the fact that Merlin Magic Making only look at things from a top-down cost management approach. It’s critically a flaw of only looking at statistical data and not thinking about qualitative data on how things like immersion can be improved on a more holistic level.
As a Social Science graduate, I’m shocked at how little visitor attractions integrate concepts and theories from Developmental and Educational fields, despite visitor attractions being major parts of every childhood. Theme Parks are literally the some of the best environments to nurture development, children actively engage with their environments at a theme park yet attractions are thought of as if they were passive mediums like Films or TV.
(Just as a side note, I really hope the Bluey coaster is more than just a kiddie coaster with the IP attached, as the TV show is so emotionally intelligent and accessible for children and adults alike!)
Imagine something like a pirate trail above the midways in Mutiny Bay, having a few towers and rope bridges where children can explore, run and adventure from different angles, it would make it so much more immersive and magical, without having to splash out millions on new attractions. Not every area needs something like that as they could bring back the actors/costume characters in Gloomy Woods and Forbidden Valley to compliment this.
rctneil
TS Member
I've been saying for ages that Alton, (and UK theme parks in general) need to implement more of this sort of stuff.
Playgrounds throughout the park, not just that, but rides for ALL members of the family in ALL areas of the park. Playgrounds, small kiddie rides, larger flat rides, and then coasters. There should be something in every area of a park for each member of a family. That also includes things to do/look at/interact with for those not wanting to ride rides.
Climbing and interactive trails/areas would be fantastic. You see this such a lot at mainland European parks eg, the Deep in Africa trail at Phantasialand, the Tiki Trail at Walibi Belgium.
Stuff that do not need any staff members, but entertains and can act as a way to keep the queues down for the major attractions.
I've discussed stuff like this before in friend groups but always get the comment like "Yes, but Neil, you can't have that over here incase people injure or hurt themselves". All that sort of stuff makes sense but needs to stop getting in the way of building new and exciting things. Everything these days is so surrounded in covering themselves for safety and stopping being sued.
I'm not saying that safety needs to be ignored, obviously not, but isn't that the whole point of the design and concept stages of developing an attraction, to account for all that so that it doesn't become a problem? Design effectively and you're covered.
If Alton had trails like i mentioned above then I would hope they would be unstaffed (like a normal playground would). I can just imagine them now having a staff member at the start - which with common sense they just don't need. A rule board at the start is all that should be required.
Overall I'm just getting frustrated that experiences are being missed out on because of all the stuff surrounding them.
Sorry if i've explained this badly! I hope you know what I mean.
Squiggs
TS Team
Actually, The Blade's pit would almost be ideal for this sort of attraction as an interim addition, as you could have the entrances at ground level, directly onto rope bridges and then slides down into the pit, etc.Chessington have these types of play areas and have for many years. Merlin clearly don’t have an issue with them.
