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General Hotel Discussion

Still don't see why AT insist so much for the sheds. I would have thought having them full the entire time they're open would work better? Basic accom, make it basic (As far as basic goes with a captive audience) prices or am I off on that?
 
Maybe they are hoping people will pay more for the "novelty" of it rather than seeing it for what it actually is - i.e. a shed.

Staying in Splash Landings isnt much more pricing them up today!
 
after a good decade broken.

This makes me very happy. I hope one day we reach a point where they are able to get all of their nice quirks like that back to their original functioning self. It sounds rather strange to get excited over a functional spinning wheel, but nice little things like these is what made the Resort so special to me when I was younger.
 


Looking fresh! It's been a very long time since I've seen the arcade, It looks like that ticket redemption area takes up a lot of space (Look at that space between the front and the penny pusher, unless the camera makes it look a lot more cramped than it is). Correct me if I wrong but I believe they got rid of the tickets for a certain period, right? If that's the case then I'm more than happy with this change.

Not sure how long they’ve had tokens, but certainly last few years they have pushed them a lot more.

The prize counter used to be a bit hidden away in the far corner.

It’s now a brand new counter which is much bigger and more open, and to be fair does look better then before.

Also the new door makes sense, and you kind of wonder why there never was a door. As going to flambos you wouldn’t even know there was an arcade there. Even going down to the pool you wouldn’t notice it.

Glad they’ve made the door themed and it fits to the other side:
 
To be fair, TS seemed very positive about the food in both the Secret Garden and the Rollercoaster Restaurant over the weekend!
 
Always good to hear of positive developments at the hotels.





Good to read this. The enhanced breakfast offering is good news - as long as the quality is there, i.e. no sausages provided from a local sawmill / decent bacon that is not so thin you can see daylight through it / decent baked beans (preferably Heinz) etc. I do note that the cereals in the picture appear to be Kelloggs, so that is a good omen.

The gin bar is an interesting choice - clearly Towers are jumping onto the current gin bandwagon. The only reservation I would have is the cost that Towers will more than likely charge for some of them. You'd probably need a stiff drink from just reading the price list.
 
Yep from what can be seen in those photos it is the bare minimum that should be offered for a £100+ a night room. When we ate at ATH for breakfast in November it was still a bit disappointing, only one type of jam and it was cheap stuff, only watermelon not really other fruit, only basic bread for toast and nothing more interesting like crumpet, nothing like marmite, peanut butter or Nutella.

I also expect they have gone for the individual serving boxes of Kellogg’s as they will keep if unopened, having large bowls of cereal put just leaves more to go soft while the hotel is closed for the next few weeks before the main season.
 
Yep from what can be seen in those photos it is the bare minimum that should be offered for a £100+ a night room. When we ate at ATH for breakfast in November it was still a bit disappointing, only one type of jam and it was cheap stuff, only watermelon not really other fruit, only basic bread for toast and nothing more interesting like crumpet, nothing like marmite, peanut butter or Nutella.

I also expect they have gone for the individual serving boxes of Kellogg’s as they will keep if unopened, having large bowls of cereal put just leaves more to go soft while the hotel is closed for the next few weeks before the main season.

I have no problems with them using individual boxes of cereal, as it will reduce wastage.

For comparison, here is the link to the Premier Inn breakfast;
https://www.premierinn.com/content/dam/global/restaurants/Global/Global Breakfast.pdf

The full breakfast is usually £9.50. Continental only is normally £7.50. (Both are outside city centre & airport location prices - Towers is outside a city centre & not near an airport).

Stay at the Premier Inn in Uttoxeter and you can get rooms from £31.50, add on the full breakfast for 2 and it's £50.50 total. And Premier Inn will be making a profit on this too. Rooms at this Premier Inn also have individual air conditioning. You'll also no doubt get served fairly quickly in the bar at the adjacent pub in the evening too - at normal prices.
 
My point, was that we shouldn't be thanking them for the bare minimum, especially when THEY made it worse in the first place!

As for the gin bar...I don't drink so I have no opinion, but It seems like it can only be a good thing...maybe a bit foolish, but not bad.
 
There is a difference between “thanking” someone and acknowledging an improvement in the offering.

As much as we critique the place we must want it to improve otherwise what’s the point of being here. That’s not to say we don’t go “great you have done this but you should be x much better”
 
There is clearly no pleasing certain individuals :eek:

Regarding the gin bar, gins seemed to be priced between £3.50 and £4.50 per measure; with premium tonic on top (£2.00); however, it is not uncommon these days to pay such prices for top end gins - and they certainly have a few. They need to do double up for £2.00 at the hotels like they do at RCR.

Breakfasts are something that could yet do with some further enhancement. Although the number of hot items has increased again at Splash Landings, quite frankly the selection of other food is dire. They need a range of breads, perhaps meats and cheeses - and a nice range of fruits, compotes and the like.

RCR was better than a year ago. It's difficult trying to get photos of the food as you decant it yourself, so getting good photos of SGR food is much easier.
 
There is a difference between “thanking” someone and acknowledging an improvement in the offering.

As much as we critique the place we must want it to improve otherwise what’s the point of being here. That’s not to say we don’t go “great you have done this but you should be x much better”

But making things worse (or saying you will) then backing down when lots of people complain is the modus operandi of Merlin / Towers. Just look back at previous seasons. Announcements of cuts to opening hours / Rapids becoming "seasonal" etc. There were lots of social media complaints, so they back down & give a little back of what they had said they would cutback on.

Towers would be 10x better if they took a long & hard look at Europa Park and the standards / quality of product they achieve both in their park & hotels. The Europa Park breakfast buffet in Hotel Colosseo makes the "expanded" Flambos offering look like a plain bacon roll.
 
But making things worse (or saying you will) then backing down when lots of people complain is the modus operandi of Merlin / Towers. Just look back at previous seasons. Announcements of cuts to opening hours / Rapids becoming "seasonal" etc. There were lots of social media complaints, so they back down & give a little back of what they had said they would cutback on.

Towers would be 10x better if they took a long & hard look at Europa Park and the standards / quality of product they achieve both in their park & hotels. The Europa Park breakfast buffet in Hotel Colosseo makes the "expanded" Flambos offering look like a plain bacon roll.

Not disagreeing but the cuts to hotel offerings came because of the Smiler incident. It’s not completely odd to want to look for the potential change in fortunes.

And I’m saying this whilst not exactly being a fanboy
 
We all know that the standards are still significantly below where we would like them to be, but that is no reason to dump upon clear improvements to the offering. It is possible to give positive feedback about the changes but still be clear that more is needed.

Good to hear about improvements to the breakfast offering, though as has been said I think more needs to be offered besides the traditional english breakfast options.

A gin bar is a very exciting / interesting choice. Not a fan of gin myself but I do love the concept. It is exactly the kind of thing that Europa would do ( / have done? Wouldn't be surprised if I missed it amongst all the other developments) and I hope it works for them.
 
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