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2021: General Discussion

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I would definitely agree that towers are aware of how excited enthusiasts get over even the most minor changes at the park. Also I'm not exactly sure what classes as the "bay" of a waterfall, but I don't think they'd draw attention to the waterfalls if they were not switched back on, but who knows
 
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Always thought, every piece of this theming from this stage, could have gone into the tunnel or around the Congo river rapids. Is it used anywhere in the scare mazes anymore?


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OilyWater said:
Maybe, but if not then it should have, cos this sort of thing should be Routine Maintenance TM (let's say every 5 years or so)

On YouTube and social media fans are already way overhyping basic maintenance and a few added extras. Every time the council repairs some street lamps or repaints a fence do people take it to mean the town is undergoing an exciting redevelopment.

The frog lights are a sweet little update though.

Im sure Alton Towers know it's nothing special but they just don't realise the effect it has in fan circles. They probably think they're just making a simple post about the work that's gone on to remind people they exist.
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A lot of theme parks do these sort of social media posts though (often having more to show but that’s another matter). They know enthusiasts like to see it, if there was such a thing as local council enthusiast I’m sure they would do the same.

Some of what they have shown is the sort of maintenance you would expect but a lot of it hasn’t happened in a long time (frog fountains have been ageing badly for years) so it’s still nice to see.
 
Dave said:
Some of what they have shown is the sort of maintenance you would expect but a lot of it hasn’t happened in a long time (frog fountains have been ageing badly for years) so it’s still nice to see.
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It's always nice to see, but it happens more often than anyone realises.

I suppose my bug bear with "TLC" at Alton and other parks is a mix of things.

Most of it is just maintenance. If people notice maintenance, they'd doing something wrong (in theory) because it means something wasn't maintained well enough to begin with. If something been bad for a long time and finally gets fixed then it's much appreciated, but it should just be an expecatation. It will usually need doing again in a few years and isn't job done, this is just normal.

Sometimes it's a minor in-house revamp, overhyped as something bigger. This can sometimes be "ok", but it's usually in lieu of a proper refurbishment or maintaining the original properly.

Towers Street looked dated in the 90s so it got a redesign. Same situation today, but these days it just gets a repaint.

If something needs it, parks should always try for a professional project with a real budget. (Im sure they do try) All sorts of reasons why in-house /small jobs are risky and often cause more problems in the long term than solve them (see Duel or Tomb Blaster's constant revamps).
 
We must bear in mind where we've been at. It's welcome to see some of this stuff when you look round the park and see the state some of it is in. The Towers Street stuff and finally adding some theming to the Rapids is a little more than just routine maintenance like repainting the Oblivion arrow.

But at the same time I wouldn't call it "a huge amount of work" either.

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I think a lot of people on here act ungrateful if I'm being honest. It's not towers of the 90s so stop expecting those standards. The park has changed and you should move on from the magic days
 
As much as some of this work should be maintenance and yet it isn't, I don't think it's wrong to be happy that it's been done. We don't have to be critical of the park all of the time, and it's nice to appreciate the little things. We often complain about how small things go overlooked and left to decay, and now that some effort has been made to fix some of them, people are complaining again! Can't win it would seem
 
Heidi said:
As much as some of this work should be maintenance and yet it isn't, I don't think it's wrong to be happy that it's been done. We don't have to be critical of the park all of the time, and it's nice to appreciate the little things. We often complain about how small things go overlooked and left to decay, and now that some effort has been made to fix some of them, people are complaining again! Can't win it would seem
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Totally agree. There's a lot of complaining and lack of appreciation given that towers is by far the best park in the country. Look how far this park has come in terms of their unique coaster investments. This same park used to have corkscrew and black hole, it now has the likes of the smiler and nemesis. I mean I can hardly believe it myself just how good some of these coasters we now have are
 
Ethan said:
I think a lot of people on here act ungrateful if I'm being honest. It's not towers of the 90s so stop expecting those standards. The park has changed and you should move on from the magic days
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I disagree with you on that, I expect the park to be as high a standard as I do any theme park. I also have no problem with them posting pictures and being happy that more effort is going into maintenance than 5 years ago.

I think we can hope the aim for the distant past, but also remember the worst and be happy and positive when things seem to be improving for the better, even if that better is really minimum expected standard.
 
I also think we shouldn't be acting as if a lot of this maintenance (which lets not forget just should be general every year) is to be overly credited.
It's like crediting them for what they should just be doing every year. I'm all for improvements, but let's not act as if it's not what should have already been being done every year instead of letting things get in a state.

EDIT: just for example, Th13teen is 11 years old now and that building has looked a state for so long, the fact its taken this long to do ANYTHING about it speaks for itself.
 
Danscott22 said:
I also think we shouldn't be acting as if a lot of this maintenance (which lets not forget just should be general every year) is to be overly credited.
It's like crediting them for what they should just be doing every year. I'm all for improvements, but let's not act as if it's not what should have already been being done every year instead of letting things get in a state.

EDIT: just for example, Th13teen is 11 years old now and that building has looked a state for so long, the fact its taken this long to do ANYTHING about it speaks for itself.
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Yes but usually the decay is caused by accountants cutting budgets and these TLC projects are people who have passion putting a lot of effort in. I think it’s ok to acknowledge that even if it’s wrong that we got to that situation in the first place.
 
The furore and reaction to these ‘TLC’ updates is an interesting one.

Ultimately this is simply the park going about their usual winter maintenance and improvement works and then putting up a brief summary and a small number of photos to fans and saying ‘here are a few things that we have been up to, we thought you might be interested’.

Us oldies can remember nearly 20 years back when these kind of closed season updates were given by the likes of Towers Times and Towers Almanac (that reference dates me!). Now things have moved on and the park do some of this themselves, albeit with a slightly added marketing sheen since it’s official and not fan made.

To me at least, there doesn’t seem the need to either whoop and holler that this work is amazing, nor complain that this isn’t worth any credit. Just take it for what it is, a little insight into behind the scenes activity in the off season.

And if it isn’t something that interests you, then fair enough, crack on doing whatever you are interested in as a fan. Rank the coasters, count creds, whatever. But for some this kind of thing is of interest. We are all different.
 
Heidi said:
people are complaining again! Can't win it would seem
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Ethan said:
There's a lot of complaining and lack of appreciation
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I'm not complaining and I do appreciate:
OilyWater said:
But that's alright, Im not complaining
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OilyWater said:
If something been bad for a long time and finally gets fixed then it's much appreciated
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Ive also done theme park winter work and plenty maintenance before. I think some are missing the point.

Yes why shouldnt parks be held up to normal standards? It's not even 'high' standards to expect normal maintenance to get done or low budget improvements like this.
 
OilyWater said:
I'm not complaining and I do appreciate:
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Apologies, my post wasn't addressing you directly, but more so the overall feeling I've got from the response to AT's latest tweet. It seems as though people are disregarding the work they have done, meaning more specifically things such as the frog fountains and the rapids themeing, because they think they should have been done before. This seems a little over critical to me, since its at this point in time that's a catch 22 for Towers. Either not update, and people are annoyed things haven't been updated, or update, and people are annoyed things weren't updated sooner. We can't stay mad for the mistakes of the past forever.

My point: things are fixed. This is good
 
Heidi said:
Either not update, and people are annoyed things haven't been updated, or update, and people are annoyed things weren't updated sooner. We can't stay mad for the mistakes of the past forever.
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Ah yeah it's better than nothing where additions are being made but the rapids really needs a real revamp eventually.

I remember when it got added props in 2010 ish too, thing is social media wasnt as big then so fans didnt make a big deal out of it. So minor improvements I still wouldnt call it too out of the ordinary
 
It's great to see that work is being done on Oblivion, but I really wish they could bring back the "Don't. Look. Down." Audio. I never got to experience the drop with it. :(
 
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I suppose part of the issue is that Alton Towers are a little coy about tooting their own horn when its deserved. It seems to be a perennial issue that they water down these 'small improvement' posts by throwing in maintenance at the same time and end up with these mixed messages.

Had they just put a post up talking about the frogs, rapids and guest services, (i.e. focussing on the new additions) the response would have been more or less universally positive. Plus they would have been able to have a second post at some other time where they gave a glimpse into the winter maintenance.

Now let's be fair, any winter maintenance post is likely to get some "it's just maintenance" type responses but at least if it was split there's a chance for the small improvements to be celebrated without the annual debate about whether or not it's all just maintenance.
 
Im still confused why people think this is more than normal, is it just because it's now being highlighted by the park

Battle Galleons redone 5 years ago, Duel work in 2018, better in 2012-13, also in 2009-10, Towers Street repainted 2016/17 and regularly before then. Rapids has had extra scenery added before, Oblivion had building repairs in 2012 ish, Im sad enough to remember

The only big difference to me was the quality of Nemesis repaint in 2016

Don't forget there is an enormous amount of work that people dont notice too and that doesnt get posted, doesnt mean it's not happened. Thats just the nature of theme park closed season really
 
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