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General Hotel Discussion
- Thread starter Dave
- Start date
siralgenon
TS Member
The blue carpet is staying, I had a look yesterday and its been bolted onto the floor all the way across.
djtruefitt
TS Team
The blue carpet has been removed! In other news the outdoor pools are now open again after the repaint, and look very bright and blue. The only one left is the bubbly wubbly pool, but hopefully that is next to be done.
Also the rather empty and someone pointless wall outside Splash Landings entrance is getting a new coffee shop!
Not quite sure how well it will do there as its a bit out the way, but I imagine they will add load of chairs and tables, it's a shame they can't extend the outdoor beer garden a bit to include this new coffee shop.
Also the rather empty and someone pointless wall outside Splash Landings entrance is getting a new coffee shop!
Not quite sure how well it will do there as its a bit out the way, but I imagine they will add load of chairs and tables, it's a shame they can't extend the outdoor beer garden a bit to include this new coffee shop.
Ahem, allow me to write this correctly...
Merlin need to sack their hotel photographer. This is the only hotel I know of where the pictures are worse than the room. On this note, the Moon rooms are excellent and I recommend them as well as the Pirate rooms in Splash. They are not nearly as childish as you think.
(Sorry Chris, not to dig, but that was really difficult to read!
Merlin need to sack their hotel photographer. This is the only hotel I know of where the pictures are worse than the room. On this note, the Moon rooms are excellent and I recommend them as well as the Pirate rooms in Splash. They are not nearly as childish as you think.
(Sorry Chris, not to dig, but that was really difficult to read!
James
TS Founding Member
Just got back from a 3 day stay at the resort. Overall the hotels are looking as great as usual. Just a few things below that I can recall and some opinions.
There were workers at the new coffee shack today installing insulation for the interior walls. Other than that there seems to be little change since djtruefitt's post above. The area around I cannot see there being seating as guests, resort and emergency vehicles use that area to get to the front of the hotel. If they do intend for seating to be near I can see guests being directed to the smoking/outdoor seating area of Splash Landings, which is only a few feet away from the shack. Personally it seems like a random idea but I guess there must be guests out there that will use this otherwise Alton Towers wouldn't bother building it.
The ATH ship looks great this year, the recent paint job on the ship is done nicely and it's looking fresh on the whole. Now the problems at night...
On both nights there were kids messing around on the ship, climbing up the ropes and jumping off it. There were "no climbing on board" signs on the ship a few years back although were removed the one year. Since then I haven't seen the area too bad although the past two nights looked like a bunch of zoo animals were let loose on it. It's only a matter of time before a kid breaks their neck on that ship... get the signs back up hotel managers! One of the easiest jobs possible to do.
Staying with the issues with kids... kids running around gets very, very irritating. We had a child crawling under our table (told him to go away and stop). I actually have had more enjoyable experiences at a Haven camp in the middle of summer. Towers really need to look into more stuff for the kids. One cheap(er) suggestion I think would be to have a kids area near the lobby in ATH with staff to assist. While parents should know how to control their kids Towers could do with offering something that gets them away from putting a damper on other guests' time.
Hotel ents on the whole is back to it's usual 'meh' self. Last night Stacey sang on the ship and she was great (I think she's the best singer they have there). The previous night (Saturday) there were two singers, one male and one female. They were good, not great, but better than an X Factor episode. While the singing is good, it feels so.. boring. I hung around to listen to Stacey singing as she had some stage presence although the previous night I was pretty bored so just went off to the arcade.
When you get to something more like just the band over the last few years it adds so much more to the night. I think a good start for ents would be to get the singers to do a little more than singing.. get up, dance, mess about, make the adults laugh and the children smile. You only have to look at the days of characters like Dickie to see that a backing track and a microphone can be SO much more than sitting on a chair and singing. Scarefest last year was a great sign of hotel ents improving to all new levels although it seems to have gone back to it's usual bore-fest this year.
Just to clarify the above of doing more than singing is aimed more at the busier nights in the hotel. On quiet off-peak nights just the singer on the stage is perfectly fine since the majority of guests on off-peak nights just want a quiet drink.
I had a peek at the Moon Voyager corridors last night. They look great on the whole and of very high quality. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the hotel being complete with the new theme. The new bathrooms in the current Explorer rooms are great too. It's so much nicer to go in a bathroom without cracked tiles or toilets that look like they should have been binned ages ago. Only nitpick would be the shower head is cheap. But you can't expect miracles at Towers, a modern bathroom is better than nothing!
That's all I can think of for now but if I remember anything else I'll edit this.
There were workers at the new coffee shack today installing insulation for the interior walls. Other than that there seems to be little change since djtruefitt's post above. The area around I cannot see there being seating as guests, resort and emergency vehicles use that area to get to the front of the hotel. If they do intend for seating to be near I can see guests being directed to the smoking/outdoor seating area of Splash Landings, which is only a few feet away from the shack. Personally it seems like a random idea but I guess there must be guests out there that will use this otherwise Alton Towers wouldn't bother building it.
The ATH ship looks great this year, the recent paint job on the ship is done nicely and it's looking fresh on the whole. Now the problems at night...
On both nights there were kids messing around on the ship, climbing up the ropes and jumping off it. There were "no climbing on board" signs on the ship a few years back although were removed the one year. Since then I haven't seen the area too bad although the past two nights looked like a bunch of zoo animals were let loose on it. It's only a matter of time before a kid breaks their neck on that ship... get the signs back up hotel managers! One of the easiest jobs possible to do.
Staying with the issues with kids... kids running around gets very, very irritating. We had a child crawling under our table (told him to go away and stop). I actually have had more enjoyable experiences at a Haven camp in the middle of summer. Towers really need to look into more stuff for the kids. One cheap(er) suggestion I think would be to have a kids area near the lobby in ATH with staff to assist. While parents should know how to control their kids Towers could do with offering something that gets them away from putting a damper on other guests' time.
Hotel ents on the whole is back to it's usual 'meh' self. Last night Stacey sang on the ship and she was great (I think she's the best singer they have there). The previous night (Saturday) there were two singers, one male and one female. They were good, not great, but better than an X Factor episode. While the singing is good, it feels so.. boring. I hung around to listen to Stacey singing as she had some stage presence although the previous night I was pretty bored so just went off to the arcade.
When you get to something more like just the band over the last few years it adds so much more to the night. I think a good start for ents would be to get the singers to do a little more than singing.. get up, dance, mess about, make the adults laugh and the children smile. You only have to look at the days of characters like Dickie to see that a backing track and a microphone can be SO much more than sitting on a chair and singing. Scarefest last year was a great sign of hotel ents improving to all new levels although it seems to have gone back to it's usual bore-fest this year.
Just to clarify the above of doing more than singing is aimed more at the busier nights in the hotel. On quiet off-peak nights just the singer on the stage is perfectly fine since the majority of guests on off-peak nights just want a quiet drink.
I had a peek at the Moon Voyager corridors last night. They look great on the whole and of very high quality. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the hotel being complete with the new theme. The new bathrooms in the current Explorer rooms are great too. It's so much nicer to go in a bathroom without cracked tiles or toilets that look like they should have been binned ages ago. Only nitpick would be the shower head is cheap. But you can't expect miracles at Towers, a modern bathroom is better than nothing!
That's all I can think of for now but if I remember anything else I'll edit this.
Laura
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- blue fire Megacoaster
I was there the same time, James! I must have literally walked straight past you as I was in Dragon Bar watching the singer as well on Sunday.
My one big complaint was a F&B issue - in Secret Garden. The place was practically empty on Sunday night. Yet there was a queue to get in. Everyone in the queue was as baffled as I was.
There must have been half a dozen staff just standing around chatting. Two staff were on the computer terminal thing beside the door. When I asked what the delay was, I was told there was no problem... Took us 10 minutes to be seated in an empty restaurant, and they then seated our group of three adults next to two families with kids running amok.
The food was OK though!
My one big complaint was a F&B issue - in Secret Garden. The place was practically empty on Sunday night. Yet there was a queue to get in. Everyone in the queue was as baffled as I was.
There must have been half a dozen staff just standing around chatting. Two staff were on the computer terminal thing beside the door. When I asked what the delay was, I was told there was no problem... Took us 10 minutes to be seated in an empty restaurant, and they then seated our group of three adults next to two families with kids running amok.
The food was OK though!
Johno
TS Member
From our super cool Ice Age Rooms featuring your favourite characters to our Moon Voyage bedrooms, where you can accompany Sir Algenon on his voyage to the stars, we have a variety of rooms to suit every taste!
New for May 2014, explore our Postman Pat, Tree Fu Tom and Mike the Knight themed bedrooms! Each bedroom features a unique challenge which will reveal a special reward once complete.
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Nice to see the return of the 'challenges'.
New for May 2014, explore our Postman Pat, Tree Fu Tom and Mike the Knight themed bedrooms! Each bedroom features a unique challenge which will reveal a special reward once complete.
--
Nice to see the return of the 'challenges'.
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Trace said:
Yeah that postcode will take you to Alton Towers. Then once you enter stay in the left lane, when you reach the traffic lights make sure you take the left fork in the road and just keep going straight up there, follow the road around to the right and you will see the Alton Towers Hotel straight infront of you. It is all signposted as well!
danni87
TS Member
I'm staying at the hotel in september and have the sun free tickets to get into the park. I'm going to buy the come back tomorrow tickets for the day after. Will I get ERT with these as I'm also staying in the hotel? Me and my other half are taking my nephew and we booked his ticket with the actual hotel package...