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2013: General Discussion

The 'Quarantine Zone' in Sub-Terra really is dire this season. :/ On all 6 of my visits this year, twice have I encountered no actors at all in the maze, with only seeing one during the other 4.
 
They generally only have two in on a day - with one continuously being on a break.

Makes for a brilliant scare maze experience, I agree.
 
I thought I would run through a couple of things I noticed on my last visit to Alton Towersby you guys, I wondered whether I was just being picky, or if they were honest complaints? Feel free to add yours and ask others if you're not being picky but...

I'm not being picky but, I expect to have hot water from all toilet blocks that I use? I mean it's a basic requirement for food preparation and consumption as well as a basic need for every human?

I'm not being picky but, is there a way to stop people queue jumping you when you hand your bag to a baggage hold? By this I mean people at 13 and The Smiler without luggage get to jump in front of you because you have to pause for a second to get a wrist band?

I'm not being picky but, I don't want a photo of me outside of the ATM on Towers Street nor will me or my girlfriend want to pay for one.

I'm not being picky but, I understand the need to share boats when the queue is huge, but when there's just two of you and you've seen other riders get a boat to themselves why can't we do the same? I'd of brought an on ride photo were it not for the random people in the same boat?

I'm not being picky but when I buy a bag of donuts I expect some sugar on top of them? not justa giant sugar cube at the bottom of the bag and naked doughnuts because you've not made them fresh.

I'm not being picky but, surely someone could organise the car parks at the end of the day? An hour's wait could be cut down considerably if there was some direction from staff?

So am I just being picky or are these genuine complaints? Have you ever thought of something and thought it was just you?
 
I think it's in your own interest not to take bags to theme parks, I never do. I think with a little thought and/or planning it isn't necessary to take a bag.

Not sure why the Chinese nationality of the fellow riders - even if hypothetical - is relevant either?
 
Moved the "not being picky" topic into AT general

In reply to your points Thomas

1) hot water in toilets has been an issue for years, it's really annoying I completely agree, tends to depend on how busy the park is though.

2) it's only a few people who skip you in the queue, not a huge issue in my opinion unless baggage are very slow.

3) I hate the photo people but they are not as pushy as they used to be and some guests want them I guess

4) they tend to start filling boats when the queue gets to a certain point, the queue probably built up after you joined and it reached the point they fill when you reached the front. Also if they get a 2 that is followed by 6 families of 4 they can't fill that boat so the 2 gets a boat to themselves.

5) yeah donuts need sugar

6) I have never queued to get out of the car parks even on fireworks or concerts so no idea here. Probably been lucky.
 
The variation in supply of hot water in the toilets matches the theming of them. There was always trouble with hot water supplies in 80's motorway loos.
To be honest, it make me feel at home. As current road side loos are hit and miss with hot water too.

Car Parks, another nemesis enjoyment of mine. I been stuck in a few in my job. I can't see what changes can be done, with the limited road space from the car parks to the main road.

They could take a bit of the overflow minibus park (area between car parks and coach park) to create another lane to make 4 lanes.
Then have 1 going down to the left (as it is now) and the other two heading toward the car park exit. this would speed up parking up in the morning.
then switch the flow at the end of the day. But this would move the pinch point to the junction at the main road. as they is a fixed amount of traffic the local road can take.

When they are big queue to exit the car park, I usually end up having a picnic and a rest sitting on the floor of my cars boot. It great fun chatting about the day and watching everyone fighting to get out of the car park.
By doing this I did help someone out whos battery was flat on Monday 12 Aug 13, as i keep a jump start box in my boot.
 
Cheers for your responses guys, first an apology if my comment about riders of a different background in the same boat as me being an issue to me, nationality makes no difference to me. What irks me is people having to share when at first glance we saw others not having to.

When I visited the way it was batched was that riders from the normal queue and fast track were released at once so that people with bags had to wait whilst the poor staff dealt with the quick turn over of bags. I've seen it handled better but I'd imagine without over staffing the luggage holds there's no way around it.

Yeah so not a bad trip in any way, just a few things I picked up on. One final thing is people talking over the Hex video or shouting BOO! It kinda ruins it for everyone when you do that!
 
Thomas said:
Cheers for your responses guys, first an apology if my comment about riders of a different background in the same boat as me being an issue to me, nationality makes no difference to me. What irks me is people having to share when at first glance we saw others not having to.

When I visited the way it was batched was that riders from the normal queue and fast track were released at once so that people with bags had to wait whilst the poor staff dealt with the quick turn over of bags. I've seen it handled better but I'd imagine without over staffing the luggage holds there's no way around it.

Yeah so not a bad trip in any way, just a few things I picked up on. One final thing is people talking over the Hex video or shouting BOO! It kinda ruins it for everyone when you do that!
Click to expand...

It wa sonly a tongue-in-cheek pull up of your comment about them being Chinese, I knew the point you were making. :)

I do stand by the baggage issue though. It's just so much hassle to take a bag to a park for me, plus I hate carrying things anyway. If I did take one I wouldn't expect people to wait behind me until I put my bag in though, just as I wouldn't for a queue-line shop stop.
 
I went to the towers on Monday, and Little delta was looking for Rita bear. As we looked around we could not see a Rita, Nemesis or Thirteen Bears. There were only Smiler, Oblivion, Air and general AT Bears to be found.

Does anyone know where the other bears have gone to?
 
delta79 said:
I went to the towers on Monday, and Little delta was looking for Rita bear. As we looked around we could not see a Rita, Nemesis or Thirteen Bears. There were only Smiler, Oblivion, Air and general AT Bears to be found.

Does anyone know where the other bears have gone to?
Click to expand...

If they where not in the rides own shop or Towers Trading then they will have sold-out.
 
There's a new queue time board on Towers Street:

vuvuse3e.jpg


Sexy!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
To me this screen looks temporary, like the ones used when they had that All Time Greats coaster poll a couple of years ago. However, the bit on the left showing the times looks the same sort of size and shape of Thorpe's new vertical LED displays. Maybe over the closed season we'll see Towers adding these screens around the park. They could still show adverts like the one on the right on the new displays, like Thorpe do.

Fingers crossed this happens! The current system is archaic, and far from attractive. Some new displays like Thorpe have would be a massive step forwards for the park :D
 
There seemed to be more queue boards not working than those that were on Saturday, so hopefully this is the start of new ones being rolled out across the park.

:)
 
Is that real? At first I thought that was a photoshop job! :p

Mind you, it does look rather nice, too bad to kinda of ruins the view of the towers, unless we're seeing it from a different angle the way the photo was taken
 
It looks much better then the old board that was there. The queue times look very much like ridetimes.co.uk without the time colour code.

Anyone had the mental image of a fanta advert on the right hand side :D

Umm, forget the last line, dont want to give merlin ideas
 
Loving the retro Forbidden Valley font. The temporary crowd fences, even in draped form, are annoying though.
 
Hopefully the fences are only there as it's just gone in and the ground around the supporting posts is not yet finished as it were. I'm sure they will be gone in due course.

:)
 
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