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2013 General Improvements

Haunted one have posted a pic of improvements to the grand hall on Facebook.
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It now looks closer to JW's orginal concept.
Photo credit to Hanted one
 
The floor has looked like that for many years. Only now they have given it a new fluorescent coat of paint so you may actually see it while on the ride. :twirly:

Mr Wardley's original concept was much plainer and simpler than how that scene looks today. It was redecorated within its opening year as part of a big scheme to improve the ride after a lacklustre response, exactly like Hex, Sub-Terra, etc...
 
Smiler logo on Rehydrator improves over the previous roof.

There really is that many mistakes in my posts?! Damn this Tapatalk milarky! :)
 
Here are some of the resort improvements/changes from opening day:

- The box office now has a queue line (just rope fences)
- New ERT Signs at bottom of Towers Street
- Mutiny Bay Shop signs have been replaced and new signs placed on the gates next to the shop
- The roof of the rapids station has been repainted
- Mutiny Bay stage has been repainted
- New paving in the majority of X-Sector
- Various updates to Oblivion station and track
- New (well reused from else where) TV screens in the monorail stations.
 
The screens in the Monorail stations (A combined total of 3 in both station :p ) are the silver Sony LCD displays which used to occupy the car park station. Two used to hang over the entrance, with a third on the wall at the end of the walkway before the ramps.

There are now two in the Towers Street station (One mounted on a pillar in main extension, and another on the ramp to the platform), and one in the car park station mounted on a pillar just before boarding.

While I think that both stations could do with another few screens it's nice to finally see the back of the old CRTs and the broken LCD in the car park station. It does look more presentable. Just feels a little bare. It is still an improvement though in my eyes :)

The rapids turntable looks brilliant. Not a trace of grime or cobwebs in the roof. It's really clean and fresh :)

Also, where they've painted the access gates in Mutiny Bay looks a lot better, and less plain. However, I'm not a fan of the new Shoppe signage. From what I gather the old ones tore in the wind, but the new ones are far too clean. They're like crystal white! Not very in keeping with the theme. Hopefully as they weather they'll blend in a bit better, but they could do with aging in my opinion.

All in all though the park is looking great, aside from Forbidden Valley which is in a worse state than ever from what I can tell (Here's looking at you Nemmy station). I hope that the park will continue to keep up the great appearance this season. It makes it a much nicer place to be when it's not all dirty and damaged :)
 
I struggle to see where the rest of the TVs from the Box Office have gone?

I'm not sure they've added hardly any from the Box Office to the Monorail stations; there was lots of TVs in there and I'd like to know where they've gone really! ::)

When the original YourDay shop opened, the little windows at the front of the shop which currently have posters in them used to have about three TVs in each, I'm sure they took them out and put some in the monorail stations and oblivion queue, but i cant see where the rest have gone! Surely if they can afford a whole bunch of TVs for the Burger Kitchen menus, they could buy a few more for else where across the resort.

Other than that, 2013 is looking great for the park in terms of improvements, the new decals on the Mutiny Bay gate look great! Let's hope they give the gate along the Katanga Canyon walkway the same treatment!
 
At least 2 screens from the Box Office went to Sub-Terra V.2 I believe (And supposedly 1 was broken on the way to the ride too, so there could be a 3rd which vanished!). I wouldn't be surprised if some of the YourDay screens have gone over to Forbidden Valley for the Air DVD. I like what they've done in the Box Office to make up for the missing screens though. The new display looks much better :)

But I'm 99% sure that the all screens in the Monorail stations are all from the car park station, and not the Box Office. Towers Street station never had a flat screen before this year as long as I can remember, and 3 of the 4 from the car park one are still in use across both (All car park station has lost was one broken CRT, and one broken flat panel) :)

It is a shame they don't just sort out what's left of the old CRTs in one swoop, but inevitably budgets get in the way. The ones in Burger Kitchen will have come out of the restaurants budget, which is preserved solely for that restaurant.
 
Monorail have 4 screens (2 in each station), so one of the tellys must've come from somewhere as they've seemingly binned the broken one from the carpark. Sub terras had the broken screen in replaced in the batching area also.

As for remaining CRTs.. don't think there are any left to replace? Hex suits its CRTs and wouldn't really want flatscreens in there if at all possible.. Oblivion will be difficult to replace. That's about it, if we ignore Airs queueline cadbury sponsorship CRTs?
 
There's another in the car park station?! :p Where's that one hiding?! I only remember spotting the one on the onload ramp on Saturday :p

As for replacing the CRTs Oblivion's shouldn't be that hard to sort. There's only the ones in the bunker left to do isn't there? If they get the right ceiling mounts for them it shouldn't be an issue. It's not like they need to do any re-wiring or anything :)
 
Car park station has one where there originally was one - at bottom of ramp next to the food sign, then there's one on the pillar towards the top of the ramp.
 
It was mentioned that some of the box office TVs were going to the sales & info places around the park, to advertise queue times, etc. However I dont think this has happened yet (not that I pay much attention to the sales & info units)
 
There has been a couple of updates this week, in Mutiny Bay next to Sharkbait Reef a new sign has been placed in the staff gate. The other signs on the bigger gates were added at the start of the season.
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The X-Sector toiletS has new signs!
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Original fastrack and Single Riders entrances have reappeared as well there.

That suggests that the queue can now queue as normal without being held away, hopefully bringing throughputs back to their original levels. Even if it's hideously ugly.
 
When you think it couldn't get any worse, it does!

What are they doing!? Dark Forest is by far now one of the worst areas on park. It looks horrendous. Are Health and Safety drug happy this season?
 
Alton need to properly theme it for 2014.

Tree trunk encased launch?

It looks dire at the moments.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
Or how about a beautiful yet sinister Gothic bridge to walk under?


Would not be too hard, and it would give Dark Forest some more substance to the theme.

What the area really needs is for Rita to not exist, then it would function so easily and possibly be atmospheric. While Rita is fun, it was planned so utterly poorly.
 
As long as Rita is there, I can't see how the 'Dark Forest' could ever be turned into a coherent themed area.

I've given up thinking about potential solutions, the only thing they could do would be to enclose the station platform.
 
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