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2015: General Discussion

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So your walking around Alton towers today, and you start randomly jumping out at people, shouting insults at people and ordering them around. Most likely you will be kicked out the park, possibility of being fined as well as probably getting punched very hard in the face.

Yet if you put on a gas mask and do all this in a giant shipping container, it is perfectly ok.
 
One jumped out at me just as I was getting out of the exit "lift" once. Actually shocked me so much I stumbled backwards and trod on the guy behind mes foot :oops:
 
6 rides down all day today. Smiler (obviously). Sub-Terra. Ripsaw. Charlie and the chocolate Factory. Enterprise & Duel. Not great at all. Queues massive for most of the day until about 3. Ripsaw has scaffolding and is completely covered away from the public. Could see a few green jackets working away. Couldn't hear anything at Sub-Terra.
 
morgano said:
6 rides down all day today. Smiler (obviously). Sub-Terra. Ripsaw. Charlie and the chocolate Factory. Enterprise & Duel. Not great at all. Queues massive for most of the day until about 3. Ripsaw has scaffolding and is completely covered away from the public. Could see a few green jackets working away. Couldn't hear anything at Sub-Terra.
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Was it busy cos of teenage school trips?
 
Oh o this has defended into another "all that's wrong with nst" conversation. Personally I liked it, I liked the whole thing, the shouting etc, I even fit on it without any issues! Sorry to hear so many people don't agree with me about it. Anyone any idea what it cost? Maybe it is the end already
 
bluesonichd said:
Was it busy cos of teenage school trips?
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Yes loads of little queue skipping brats at the resort. Having read the past weeks reports they didn't give any indication that the resort was busy, so it was surprising to see oblivion with a 45 minute queue as early as 10.50.

Combine a mass of kids with 6 ride closures and you have trouble :(

I haven't been for 2 years and understand there have been budget cuts. However most rides don't have queue dispatchers (if that's what you call them, the people guiding people to correct numbered row). For example the air single rider queue was flowing willy nilly in to the main queue whilst older kids were pushing through the younger ones and filling up the front row queue directly from the single rider. The only guidance being the person in charge of securing the guests (therefore tied up in a task and therefore unable to see or stop this happening).

Kids trying to push through queues to reach there mates, to which I singled out and shouted a staff member over, who reluctantly removed them from the queue.

Tens of brats joining single rider and straight up refusing to board as single riders with staff showing no authority to stop them.

With smiler closed I would have expected more staff dispatching on other rides, but this doesn't seem to be the case. On the other hand some rides seem to have far too many operators (blade, twirling toadstools, ice age etc...) where there just isn't the requirement. Too many staff just used to stand around, 1 or 2 for each closed ride, 2 at the entrance to Cbeebies for example. Would be much better to have a dedicated screen per ride (like the dot matrix) where they could inform guests of closures with tying up staff.

The amount of mums and dads, gramps and grans with little ones is insane, clearly Cbeebies is a major success and is accounting for some serious revenue (most of the enchanted area was swarming with them, the room service clearly caters for families with young ones). Cbeebies seems to be a focus point, lots of entertainers and staff, unfortunately rest of park is suffering especially the condition of the ride trains. Each ride could do with a small investment to improve the quality.

Hopefully more rides open tomorrow.
 
Most rides don't have staff batching you on quiet days. I imagine week days are still classed as a quiet day, even if they are busy. Especially with the budget cuts that have happened across the park this season.

School trip season is now well and truly here, so I wouldn't bother during the week for the next month!

Also has ripsaw been out of action since it went down about 2 weeks ago, or has it opened up and then broke again? The same with sub terra, that seemed to be closed for about a month, re open but then it's down again?
 
I would expect Ripsaw to leave after this season, given its annual overhaul and its issues atm. :(
 
I hope not. It's still pretty popular so maybe they'll relocate it when sw8 comes into play. I'm not holding my breath though
 
Ripsaw has been earmarked for removal by Towers for some time now so it would not surprise me to see it leave at the end of the season along with Blade.

:)
 
I'm really worried Forbidden Valley will feel like Dark Forest 2.0 next year and in 2017 when the area will just have three coasters (inc. the Woodie) and nothing else (could include Sub-Terra although it's at the edge of the area).

Towers really need to invest in new flat rides or filler attractions between the Secret Weapon years.
 
Ripsaw is still wrapped up. Mechanics working at 9.30am on the point where the carriage meets the arm. Obviously trying to get it open ASAP. Park is busy again.
 
My family will be visiting AT for the first and only time in July. We will be visiting from the USA. We plan to use Fastrack tickets to ensure that we don't waste time waiting in line since we only have a limited time to visit the park. However some rides at theme parks have highly decorated queue areas that are entertaining and we don't want to miss them just to save 15 min. in line.
Does AT have any queue areas like this...like those found at Universal Studios and Disney?
Thanks!
 
Welcome!
Nothing at AT is even close to the scale of a Universal or Disney queue. The only one I would say is worth a good wander through is Nemesis, as there are some great views of the ride. The Haunted House Duel is good too, but that never gets more than a ten minute queue, and I don't believe it has Fastrack anyway. Hex builds a nice atmosphere, but if it's more than 20 minutes it can get boring.

Pretty much everything else is skippable in my opinion. Especially Rita. That's one of the worst queue lines ever built.
 
LauraGeorgiaUSA said:
My family will be visiting AT for the first and only time in July. We will be visiting from the USA. We plan to use Fastrack tickets to ensure that we don't waste time waiting in line since we only have a limited time to visit the park. However some rides at theme parks have highly decorated queue areas that are entertaining and we don't want to miss them just to save 15 min. in line.
Does AT have any queue areas like this...like those found at Universal Studios and Disney?
Thanks!
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First of all, welcome to the forums! And also it's great to see people from across the pond visiting Towers :)

To answer your question, Oblivion has an interesting queueline which features videos done to create the build up of suspension for the coaster, however these videos have been edited for the time being due to what happened on the Smiler (it mentioned stuff about ride cars going missing).

Unfortuantely, for every other major ride in the park, the queues are uninteresting or have a horrible cattlepen (or even both), Rita is the worst for it (of all the coasters currently open).

For fast tracks, I wouldn't buy them until the day you get to the park to see how busy it is, because you might not even need them, although with it being July there's a chance that they would be handy for you. But if you're on park for 2 days, then I think you will be able to ride at least Nemesis, Air, Oblivion, Rita and Th13teen.

Hope this helps! :)
 
How long has enterprise been shut?

When I whent a couple of weeks ago, it was shut. Personally, would call it the best flat in the park. Never been on ripsaw or sub-terra.
 
Have been on Ramses revenge so I can still make that decision. Problem is I usually wear contact lenses at theme parks so can't have a jet of water hitting me in the face. Unless there are dry seats. That and the fact it has been closed every time I have been this year. Really, Ramses revenge just makes me feel a little sick. Doesn't stop me saying that it's the best thrill ride in chessington and also has the best throughput as I have never waited longer than the ride cycle to finish.
 
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