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2015: Alton Towers Enchanted Village

jon81uk said:
Isn't it continental breakfast only anyway? The booking site showed lodge rooms as coming with continental breakfast?
But if the restuarant is busy at 9am and you can't get a table it might be better eating on Towers St anyway as then you can be into the park quicker, compared to those having a 9am Crooked Spoon breakfast.

I think at peak times they are still encouraging booking for breakfast at the two hotels anyway as both Flambo's and Secret Garden don't have enough seats for every guest to dine at once too.
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I've never had to book for breakfast in any hotel, I've been given a time to go for breakfast but I've never had to actually book a table in advance.
 
siralgenon said:
I've never had to book for breakfast in any hotel, I've been given a time to go for breakfast but I've never had to actually book a table in advance.
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Isn't being given a time the same as booking? Just one you choose and the other they choose for you? At SLH and ATH you just book on check-in so its pretty much like just being given a time anyway.
 
jon81uk said:
Isn't being given a time the same as booking? Just one you choose and the other they choose for you? At SLH and ATH you just book on check-in so its pretty much like just being given a time anyway.
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You don't have to book a table from breakfast at either of the Resort hotels, you just turn up with your room key and get shown to a table. At the Enchanted Village you will literally have to go to Reception and book a table to be able to have breakfast in the Crooked Spoon.
 
I'd imagine you will be able to do this when you check in. It's not too much of a problem in my eyes, both DLP and EP (Europe's two biggest theme parks) allocate breakfast time slots at peak times (you get to choose at check in from what times are available for each morning of your stay). It is in effect the same as booking a table for breakfast.

:)
 
The fact you need to book for breakfast too though surely shows that CS is not fit for the capacity of the village? Both hotels operate on a turn up when you fancy basis, they should have continued this with the village too. It's obviously not much of a problem to book, as long as this is prompted by staff at reception, but it's still one of those 'oh' moments, far from the convenience of being in the hotels and turning up when you fancy/wake up.
 
GaryH said:
eh? 9am? Thats ERT out the window then
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I think it means that it's Towers Street Bar and Grill that opens at 9am for breakfast for Enchanted Village guests only, not the whole park. ERT will still be available, not that I'm making the effort for it this year given the lack of rides to choose from.
 
siralgenon said:
You don't have to book a table from breakfast at either of the Resort hotels, you just turn up with your room key and get shown to a table. At the Enchanted Village you will literally have to go to Reception and book a table to be able to have breakfast in the Crooked Spoon.
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They have in the past encouraged guests to book breakfast at the two hotels, particularly at peak times :) and I have heard of people going for breakfast at 8:30-9am and having huge wait times before.
Personally I've never been at peak times so its not been an issue. :)
 
Tom.B said:
I think it means that it's Towers Street Bar and Grill that opens at 9am for breakfast for Enchanted Village guests only, not the whole park. ERT will still be available, not that I'm making the effort for it this year given the lack of rides to choose from.
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He means you can't take advantage of ERT if you're having to wait till 9am to eat breakfast, on park...
 
Well knowing the speed of the service in Towers Street Bar & Grill, your breakfast would probably be served by lunch time if you're lucky, nevermind during ERT.
 
I had a quick look at the village a few days ago, it looks alright overall and no doubt it will look nice once trees have grown, etc.

The restaurant is very small and so is the reception, I just don't understand why they didn't build it twice as big, add a separate bar, a nice reception area, etc. currently it's a square room with tables in, a very tiny hot food counter for breakfast, no stage or entertainment (that seems to have been ditched) and the reception area is no more than a cattlepen.

The shop is okay but just sells a few bits that towers have thought are foresty, like owl teddies and bags with trees on, but none of them are towers related at all. One thing to note though the shop does sell alcohol!! So they are clearly wanting you to drink in your lodge.

As for checking in at ATH if you are in the treehouses, it just seems odd to me and looks random in ATH. Why they didn't just add a parking spaces next to each treehouse? There is plenty of room there and a road goes past it anyway.
 
Give it a couple of seasons and prices will likely drop. Guests will become unhappy having to traipse back to the chalet after going to the hotel bars at the price they're paying
 
I love how all the responses to the extortionate prices by the teams at Alton and Merlin on facebook are like

"Oh no, those are for the 'Premium' Rooms. Why not check out the bog standard sheds?"

Who exactly are these lodges catering for? They should re-name them the Jonathon Ross and Olly Murs suites. And how insulting is it to your core customers to have to explain that although you're advertising these nice apartments they would be better off slumming it down the road.

This development seems to be turning into a total disaster. The lodges look like cleaning huts apart from the front and even the poor attempt at covering up that fence makes it look more like a tarted up building site. There seems to be no additional features and the 'park' areas are a joke. A few logs plonked down and a slide? They should have been looking at places like Bluestone that offer amazing accommodation making total use of the lovely locations they have but instead it seems they plonked a load of portacabins on a field.

This for me is a new low.
 
Maybe that's why it's so expensive? So they can afford it for next year. But that would mean they'd have to improve something after they've built it.
 
Croftybaby said:
I love how all the responses to the extortionate prices by the teams at Alton and Merlin on facebook are like

"Oh no, those are for the 'Premium' Rooms. Why not check out the bog standard sheds?"

Who exactly are these lodges catering for? They should re-name them the Jonathon Ross and Olly Murs suites. And how insulting is it to your core customers to have to explain that although you're advertising these nice apartments they would be better off slumming it down the road.

This development seems to be turning into a total disaster. The lodges look like cleaning huts apart from the front and even the poor attempt at covering up that fence makes it look more like a tarted up building site. There seems to be no additional features and the 'park' areas are a joke. A few logs plonked down and a slide? They should have been looking at places like Bluestone that offer amazing accommodation making total use of the lovely locations they have but instead it seems they plonked a load of portacabins on a field.

This for me is a new low.
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Again calling the accommodation porta-cabins to me seems extreme and the rooms themselves are not terrible. In fact they are fine if the lodges costed a bit less. The external of all the accommodation looks fine (if a bit samey)

But as said the rooms are way overpriced and there is no support facilities and the theming around the lodges are poor and the crooked spoon terrible. On top of that you have perfectly pleasant but hardly themed treehouses, tarmac roads and prison fencing and you get.... This!

A new low would be Thorpes Shark hotel, this is typical towers in that it promised much but failed with knobs on.
 
In defence of the Thorpe Park Hotel it never really claimed to be a proper Hotel.

This is supposed to be themed accommodation up to the same standards as the previous two. Not to mention the other hotels Merlin have built that at least try to be interesting.

As a side note the projection mapping is lovely and it makes a change to see an opening ceremony. However its no more permanent than the lights they set up around The Smiler when it opened. I can't imagine you'd be happy if you were trying to sleep only for your bedroom to be blasted with light, projection mapped or not :p
 
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