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Your magic place

G

GaryH

TS Member
Just had this idea from reading the general topic.... I believe everyone has a little place in AT which is their magic place. It may be for various reasons, fond memories, something that happened etc. anything, but where is yours.

Mine is located at the top of the gardens, tucked away behind the monument to the Earl, there is a little path which looks out over the "canal" and all the gardens with 2 benches at the top and just below this are some stepping stone over the start of the "canal". This spot for me really is stunning and I have many happy memories here. In fact, I always said that when I depart this earth, i'd love to have a bench here so I can continue to sit there and look out over the gardens year by year by year...
 
X-sector... Second park area visited after towers street. the queueline near the top of the hill.
 
The Alton Towers Hotel.

My family have been visiting the Alton Towers Hotel since 1996 - and we have visited there yearly since then. That hotel has been the core of 'the magic' for me. I've grown up with the hotel, seen it go through it's many re-decorations and refurbishments, it's somewhat strange phases and even now, after 17 years of visiting I still feel the magic in the hotel. It's the only part of Alton Towers I feel has kept it's 'magic' since it was built.

Although I have grown up and as growing up to become an enthusiast who can easily notice the smallest of details, it just seems like such a perfect hotel, with very little that has gone wrong over the years. Of course there's some things I've disagreed with, but the magic has never and I hope never will escape me there.
 
3 Places for me:

1) Outside nemesis's helix, as a kid I used to stand there and be terrified from the roar... now I worship it.

2) Oblivions drop, as a kid I used to hang round there waiting to see my parents faces as they plummeted into the ground.

3) The Hotel, MAGIC
 
TheMan said:
I'm no the only one thinking...?

Never mind.
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Why doesn't this surprise me?? But no, you're not the only one! But that may just be because I've spent too much time around you recently!

For me, the garden at the Alton Towers Hotel. I love the hotels anyway, but only went in the garden for the first time on Thursday evening. It took my breath away.
 
I agree about ATH, so many good memories there, and yes the gardens are lovely, on a summers evening.

TheMan.... I had almost predicted you would have come out with that one ha ha ha ha
 
I've never seen these stepping stones in person before. In fact I only found out they exist today. :p

Where exactly are they? Down from the monument?
 
The Towers and Gardens as a whole are mine...

A place where hundreds of years ago a family built a house and landscape to wow and entertain people (Towers has been a place of wonder since before it was a tourist attraction).

When the park has been at its best it's soul was always in that building. Domineering the landscape and providing more soul than many parks who have better theming (Phantasia Land has great theming but no soul what-so-ever).

24 years of visiting and those have been the constant, i genuinely think that's why now it's events like fireworks that still give you that tingle of magic as they are centered over that amazing building. Just wish the park could allow that magic to spread again.
 
Blaze said:
I've never seen these stepping stones in person before. In fact I only found out they exist today. :p

Where exactly are they? Down from the monument?
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Yes.... umm, trying to think of how to describe..... if you go to the "he made the desert smile" monument, follow the path that sort of goes behind it, and youll see a bit of a dirt path, not tarmacked. Walk on this and it takes you to a very low stone wall and two benches. This gives a stunning view of the gardens and the top of the canal.

If you look down and follow the canal you will see some stepping stones.

To get to them you need to get back on the main path and follow it downwards and you'll see a small narrow path as shown below which will take you to them.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=alton+ ... 2,,0,16.53
 
Walking down the woodland walk and into Alton towers hotel :)
 
For me it has to be the Towers and the gardens surrounding it - it's unique within a theme park context to have such a genuinely beautiful place you can just relax and explore, whilst also being able to climb to the top and get such a wonderful view of The Smiler and over the lake back towards Towers Street :)
 
My magic place in the park itself is probably the tree-covered bridge in Storybook Land. It proves that a theme park isn't just rides when it comes to building attractions. You can hear the faint screams coming from Spinball, the whirring from Squirrel Nutty, the water flowing beneath you and the wind whistling through the trees above you. Shame it'll probably be ripped apart for 2014! :/

For the Towers and Gardens, probably the path that you aren't supposed to be on which leads from the hotels, down alongside the Woodland Walk and into the Gardens. We didn't know at the time what it was as we only came across it by spotting some stunning rock formations from the Woodland Walk path and only discovered the warning tape and barriers signalling to people the path wasn't to be used when we walked back up and then back along to the hotels (where the steps are). It made us feel like explorers, walking paths that hadn't been used for hundreds and hundreds of years (they're all overgrown and there are branches and boulders all along it).
 
That path is great and only got closed off recently, we used to have a jaunt regular down it. There are a few lost features in the deeper valley we have explored. Shame they are so hard to get to.
 
Mine is a really odd one, which to be honest isn't really magical to me anymore but its the only thing that stands out...

The first time I visited AT back in 2003 we stayed in the then brand new Splash Landings Hotel. Upon arrival whilst my parents were checking in I went and looked in the shop and whilst eyeing up the merch saw an Air train burst round the final turnaround from the windows at the back. From that moment I was transfixed, it had sunk in that I had arrived and would soon be riding on the metal beasts that lay beyond the trees.

In every subsequent visit I would on arrival always watch Air from the SL shop, but sadly over time as the trees have grown in the view of Air has become more and more obscured, and say now you can't see anything at all from there. To this day I always still go for a quick look in the shop, just in case this old view has returned :)
 
The Gardens.

On exceptionally busy days when we don't feel like queuing for rides we've already ridden many times already. A nice stroll through or sit down in the gardens with the sounds of all the rides and English wildlife in the background is always welcome. And Alton Towers' greenery and architecture is really what separates it from any other Theme Park in the world in my opinion.

On warm sunny days with great friends, this really does become my magic place. :*
 
Outside ATH at the patio tables with a pint overlooking the lake and fountain - for a theme park hotel it has a weird quiet theme but with a magic atmosphere underlying in it too.
 
BigAl said:
My magic place in the park itself is probably the tree-covered bridge in Storybook Land. It proves that a theme park isn't just rides when it comes to building attractions. You can hear the faint screams coming from Spinball, the whirring from Squirrel Nutty, the water flowing beneath you and the wind whistling through the trees above you. Shame it'll probably be ripped apart for 2014! :/

For the Towers and Gardens, probably the path that you aren't supposed to be on which leads from the hotels, down alongside the Woodland Walk and into the Gardens. We didn't know at the time what it was as we only came across it by spotting some stunning rock formations from the Woodland Walk path and only discovered the warning tape and barriers signalling to people the path wasn't to be used when we walked back up and then back along to the hotels (where the steps are). It made us feel like explorers, walking paths that hadn't been used for hundreds and hundreds of years (they're all overgrown and there are branches and boulders all along it).
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That's funny, we did exactly the same thing the other day. We planned to cross the valley from the Temple to get to the Dark Forest but I decided we should go left and follow that mysterious path instead. I didn't expect to walk so far, it just keeps going! It's amazing that those incredible rock formations exist within the park and yet so few people know about them. The long walk involved didn't make me too popular with my sister and friend who wanted to get on rides but it was more than worth it for me to discover that area.

I remember thinking it would be an amazing site for a wooden terrain coaster like Boulder Dash, the type of coaster that just disappears off into the unknown of the forest and doesn't return for ages. It wouldn't have to be anything massive like the cross-valley woodie. The terrain in that area, particularly the prominent sandstone ridge and the beauty of the forest hold potential for a classic wooden coaster.

If that happened, it would have to be done sympathetically though with minimal tree felling. I wouldn't want that area to be ruined.
 
CGM said:
I remember thinking it would be an amazing site for a wooden terrain coaster like Boulder Dash, the type of coaster that just disappears off into the unknown of the forest and doesn't return for ages. It wouldn't have to be anything massive like the cross-valley woodie. The terrain in that area, particularly the prominent sandstone ridge and the beauty of the forest hold potential for a classic wooden coaster.

If that happened, it would have to be done sympathetically though with minimal tree felling. I wouldn't want that area to be ruined.
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Yes! A terrain coaster would be amazing, and to be honest I think the drop off into the valley at that part is even more severe than further up towards Forbidden Valley. Let John Wardley loose on Nolimits with that terrain modelling and Intamin prefab/GG track and you couldn't possibly go wrong.
 
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