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Alton Towers: Where more effects are broken than work?

Austin Towers said:
Off the ride effects subject but who needs a stroll through the gardens when you can meander through The Smiler's manky concrete queue line.
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Even a stroll through the Gardens is leaning towards the miserable side. Yes the recent TLC is fantastic, but that is somewhat overshadowed by the sheer amount of overgrown plantings. All the water bodies across the Gardens are becoming hidden and it's truly a shame. Not to mention the fencing is atrocious as well.
 
I can't help but think that many of these 'broken effects' are simply not switched on at the start of the day. Like you say many are just screens or lights, which are fairly simple and shouldn't really break as often as they're off.

It's so much more disappointing if this is the case because there's simply no excuse. Such a shame that guests miss out on a regular basis just because John Doe didn't flick all the marmaliser switches that morning.

If I'm wrong, fair enough. I find it hard to believe they're all broken though.
 
I would hope there are check lists for the start up and shut down procedures for all rides, which should include switching on everything, not just the ride hardware itself.

And that brings up the worrying thought: if staff are not doing things by the book when it comes to simple light switches.... what else is being skipped out?
 
WickerManiac said:
Perhaps I am being naive, but basic water/mister effects are just that - basic! It is just water, hardly state of the art special effects.
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It is yes, depending on what type of mister is used. There are generally two types, dry ice (which is dry ice + fan) and then there is the big ass e-cigarette type which is a tank (with oil or glyco in) a pump and a heating element. There is also the third which is just water and a very small nozzle.

I don't know which ones Merlin use but if I had to guess I'd say it was the glyco type since dry ice needs continuously topping up and the pressurised water ones don't produce large amounts of mist, the mist their machines do produce tends to pool on the ground too, which is a classic symptom of heated glycol. Either way whatever they use is likely to be on a technical operations level that only a handful of engineers will be allowed to operate and well, as we know, they're so short on engineers topping up half a dozen mister tanks and turning them on probably isn't the priority.
 
Funny you call them "big ass e-cigarettes", for years I've been calling vapes etc "mini smoke machines". :p (EDIT to add: which is why everyone I know who works with smoke effects smokes real fags, rather than vapes).

So far as I know, the "misters" around Towers are the water-spray type. Certainly the ones on Oblivion, Smiler and Wickerman are. There's a smoke machine in the Nemesis bus, and by the Nemesis gun. Did there used to be one in the RMT structure or am I imagining that?
Dark rides such as Hex and Duel use hazers, which work on the same principal as the "big ass e-cigarette" type smoke machines, but produce a much finer haze rather than big clouds of smoke.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I would hope there are check lists for the start up and shut down procedures for all rides, which should include switching on everything, not just the ride hardware itself.
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Yep, it was called the Perfect Presentations Checklist. I would hope it still exists. It involved things like checking the PA, breakdown announcements, fire extinguishers etc.

I don't know if it included any effects though. Presumably that would depend if there were any controls for operators or if it was a technical services function.
 
I'm alright with the mist being off given the water shortages that we are (were?) about to endure. If folks are being told to not wash their cars and have showers instead of baths, Alton using it for this purpose does seem a bit off - I doubt that's the reason, though.

On my last visit, I have never seen so many kids so captivated by the parrot in Mutiny Bay. It's such a great effect - but my heart sank when I heard it telling people to get on the Flume! I often defend Merlin, but having it still spouting about a ride that's not only closed, but in this case gone and replaced, is lazy.
 
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Rick said:
I'm alright with the mist being off given the water shortages that we are (were?) about to endure. If folks are being told to not wash their cars and have showers instead of baths, Alton using it for this purpose does seem a bit off - I doubt that's the reason, though.

On my last visit, I have never seen so many kids so captivated by the parrot in Mutiny Bay. It's such a great effect - but my heart sank when I heard it telling people to get on the Flume! I often defend Merlin, but having it still spouting about a ride that's not only closed, but in this case gone and replaced, is lazy.
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worried about water shortages, they should close battle galleons for the summer then, the amount of water that ride uses :eek:
 
bluesonichd said:
worried about water shortages, they should close battle galleons for the summer then, the amount of water that ride uses :eek:
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That was pretty much my point, there are places where you can save water without demolishing the visitor experience altogether - you start with the nice to haves.

That said, Wicker Man must be the biggest culprit, really.
 
The boats have a tank which is filled with fresh water in the station. It wouldn't be appropriate to use water from the pond etc due to risk of water pathogens which you'd be spraying in someone's face.
 
If the water effects are switched off because of water shortage then this would be the best time for At to communicate as we would all understand.
 
Gumbo_B said:
If the water effects are switched off because of water shortage then this would be the best time for At to communicate as we would all understand.
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How about all the other broken effects, were they switched off due to electricity and gas shortage? ;)

At the end of the day, it's all the little details that make the big difference. Imaging that you went to watch your favourite movie, only to find out that all the sound effects have been removed (sound of swords clashing, sound of the punches, sound of the explosions, sound of the car screeching etc..), it just wouldn't be the same movie.
 
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RoyJess said:
How about all the other effects, were they switched off due to electricity and gas shortage? ;)

At the end of the day, it's all the little details that make the big difference. Imaging that you went to watch your favourite movie, only to find out that all the sound effects have been removed (sound of swords clashing, sound of the punches, sound of the explosions, sound of the car screeching etc..), it just wouldn't be the same movie.
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I agree, without the mist Oblivion just feels like plummeting into the Mersey tunnel.

What I'm saying is I'd be a lot less critical of I knew that it was due to outside issues the park can't control. Saying that I'd fully expect it to be used as an excuse.

I just think that for a change, instead of saying nothing this is an opportunity for At to explain why they are offering us less, and if it is the case they should take that opportunity.
 
Rick said:
On my last visit, I have never seen so many kids so captivated by the parrot in Mutiny Bay. It's such a great effect -
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UK parks used to be full of great passing features like this and the only reason we still have the Mutiny parrot is because it was recycled from Pirates 4D at the right moment that attraction closed. Merlin would never ever build them new like this now.

The moment they need servicing (like any effect ever, digital or mechanical), Merlin parks will 8 times out of 10 not notice until the fault has got too bad to be fixed easily, or when it comes to needing to spend on big repairs (since regular maintenance never happens) simply say 'No, it's a small nice-to-have, nobody cares anyway', meaning the effect disappears completely.

Rarely do any of the people making those budget decisions actually visit from the guests' point of view and see what a difference effects make, or see it from a hands on point of view.

Includng fine details like lighting, audio, smoke, smells, which public won't individually notice but are the basic bread and butter of creating a good themed experience. Let those decline and your ride will decline, and the public will leave with a much lesser impression. Bear in mind theme parks rely on repeat visitors, who will notice more in a ride the more times they visit.

Parkwide maintenance of this kind of thing in Merlin parks usually falls to tech services and not a dedicated team. Tech services, it has been proven in many parks many times, are far too busy with the daily engineering duties and H&S side of things to have any time, effort or budget left for the frilly bits on the side that make up the guest experience.

Tech services in theory have the knowledge and capability to maintain these things, and often take ownership over them, but don't (it has to be said) have the specialist attention and experience to keep things as best as they should be. They are often very pressured in other responsibilities too.

But this is a problem that goes back a long time before Merlin – Tussauds parks never had professional/ dedicated teams for FX maintenance either.

The big difference between then and now, however, was that effects were usually far better value-engineered (money invested in backstage quality & reliability) than today. Surprisingly often, newer rides have poor quality effects or systems that havn't been designed for easy servicing. This is usually due to the dysfunctional scale of Merlin and the disconnect between Merlin Studios and the parks (and their separated budgets).

And even then, does the problem lie with Merlin for investing too little in the value of their rides, or the manufacturers for poor build, or both? It all depends case by case but I agree it is currently a problem in UK parks much to the detriment of the guest experience.

Worth considering also that effects/ backstage systems tend to be a lot more complicated now than they used to be, but at the same time they have changed to become more self-reliant and automated. So it's a few steps forwards and a few back.

I agree with @Rick that there's the odd case where a completely external factor (like hosepipe ban, or the environmental order) means an effect has to be made redundant. Still, it shouldn't be used as an excuse for the park to say 'well we've done alright without it this year, let's not bother spending any money to bring it back next season'. It all adds up for the guest. :)
 
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I’m fairly certain water effects and misters have to be switched off when the water or air temperature reaches a certain level due to an increased legionella risk.


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