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2016: General Discussion

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TowerTigger said:
The kids are banned from Battle Galleons... I went on it not realising you look like you literally went for a swim in the lake once you get off :D

Ice Age is alright once and then pointless. Heave Ho is a nice ride but its a bit boring. And if I wanted to go to a sea life centre we would :)
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Fair enough. I was just pointing out there were slightly more options than the ones you originally mentioned.
 
The fact still remains that you used to be able to fill an entire day (proper day, not stingy 10-4 days of the modern era) with attractions the whole family from 6 year olds up to nan and grandad could enjoy and now you can't.
 
Again, not denying that. With my list and TowersTigger's list combined, there's currently 9 or 10 attractions for kids too big for CBeebies, yet not big enough for the thrill rides. That's pretty limited.

Although, come to think of it, only three rides out of the seven that were missing from this year's line up were beneficial for that market - Hex, Charlie & The Flume. So I'd argue, even before 2016, the family line up was fairly lacking.
 
And don't forget nan & grandad, they could spend all afternoon having a mighty whinge about how beautiful the gardens used to be, but now they just hide the weeds behind fences.
The gardens are a clear sign that Merlin really don't care about the heritage of the Towers landscape.
Capability Who?
 
rob666 said:
And don't forget nan & grandad, they could spend all afternoon having a mighty whinge about how beautiful the gardens used to be, but now they just hide the weeds behind fences.
The gardens are a clear sign that Merlin really don't care about the heritage of the Towers landscape.
Capability Who?
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My god! Consecutive sentences with no excessive use of the return key‽
.... WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH ROB666‽‽!!!
 
rob666 said:
And don't forget nan & grandad, they could spend all afternoon having a mighty whinge about how beautiful the gardens used to be, but now they just hide the weeds behind fences.
The gardens are a clear sign that Merlin really don't care about the heritage of the Towers landscape.
Capability Who?
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As I think someone interestingly alluded to in a post last week, the gardens are probably a bit of a burden for Towers in a financial sense as they have to spend a lot of money on up-keep but they don't necessarily bring in revenue on their own to pay for it. Also, they seem to have this deal that when they get planning permission for new attractions it sometimes comes with an agreement that they will refurbish a feature in the gardens or something similar. Those things aren't cheap either, so I'm guessing Merlin aren't great fans of that in all honesty. They need to find a way of getting more National Trust/English Heritage type members to pay for admission to re-coup some of that cash, but I will admit that it's tricky to do that with the Theme Park admission prices etc.

Edit - I'd also like to add, that I consider the gardens at Alton Towers to be some of the most under-rated in the UK in a commercial/popular sense. They've gone a bit by the wayside. Don't just believe me though, writers in the1800s and into the 1900s rated them amongst the best in the the UK, especially for their variety as the 15th Earl was a bit of a maverick with his eclectic choices and how he just threw different themes together down in the valley. I would consider the gardens kind of 'hidden in plain sight'.
 
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Now come on Diogo, all my recent posts have had commas, full stops and a lack of the return key.
Hard effort, like learning how to do handwriting "correctly" during teacher training in my 40's, after thirty odd years of spider scribble.
Blame the lack of a word editor (line edit only) on the "intranet" in my last local government job, strict instructions back then, one statement to a line so others could merge several different messages into one report.
Only just one step up from semaphore, and semaphore was probably quicker.
Some habits are hard to break, like Lego, Risk, masturbation and jenkem.

...and back on topic, the gardens started going downhill in the eighties (no valley jokes please), and have never improved since, only getting worse and worse. Brambles growing over some of the minor paths are a real H&S risk, big thorns at eye level all over the place.
Anyone else risk death by doing the stepping stones at the top of the valley this year? By the end of the year you couldn't even see the stones for weeds.
A no cost option for improvement would be to offer volunteers off peak afternoons on the rides if you do garden weeding under the supervision of the "real" gardeners in the morning.
I'd be up for that once a month, and I'm sure I could find another dozen similar old gits who would do likewise.
Strange to think that the gardeners at BPB won a major award this year!
 
I think it would be wonderful if Towers and Merlin gave some TLC to the gardens and restore it to the full magical landscape it probably used to be.

Unfortunately, their solution will mostly involve fencing off the gardens altogether and replacing it with a beautiful massive wooden fence.
 
I used to be in contact with one of the gardens team and he was made redundant about a year ago in one of the money saving strategies. It doesn't fill me with confidence really as just keeping those gardens in some sort of order is a big job in itself, let alone trying to improve them or bring them back to the fine state that they were once in years before any of us were born. The best I currently hope for is that they don't fall into too much dis-repair. I'm genuinely interested in what is going on with the Pagoda myself. It was quite a few years back when I last saw the fountain working (I understand the issue with fungus or whatever and spreading disease) and I worry as to if it is still actually operational. Do they occasionally fire it up to simply keep the pipes from clogging up etc? And then, it's had scaffolding around it for about a year or so but I never see anyone doing any work on it. Anyone know anything about that? I should probably write to somebody at the Towers but it's not very often I've done that in the past and whoever I previously have contacted seems to leave or have been moved around the company.
 
BarryZola said:
I used to be in contact with one of the gardens team and he was made redundant about a year ago in one of the money saving strategies. It doesn't fill me with confidence really as just keeping those gardens in some sort of order is a big job in itself, let alone trying to improve them or bring them back to the fine state that they were once in years before any of us were born. The best I currently hope for is that they don't fall into too much dis-repair. I'm genuinely interested in what is going on with the Pagoda myself. It was quite a few years back when I last saw the fountain working (I understand the issue with fungus or whatever and spreading disease) and I worry as to if it is still actually operational. Do they occasionally fire it up to simply keep the pipes from clogging up etc? And then, it's had scaffolding around it for about a year or so but I never see anyone doing any work on it. Anyone know anything about that? I should probably write to somebody at the Towers but it's not very often I've done that in the past and whoever I previously have contacted seems to leave or have been moved around the company.
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Christ, maybe you are on everyone's block list!

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I took frequent glances under the scaffolding throughout the season, but at no point had any noticeable progress been made, nor were there any telltale signs of that happening any time soon. Hopefully it was the bargaining chip used for SW8 so they'll have to get cracking on it over the coming year.
 
Danny said:
I took frequent glances under the scaffolding throughout the season, but at no point had any noticeable progress been made, nor were there any telltale signs of that happening any time soon. Hopefully it was the bargaining chip used for SW8 so they'll have to get cracking on it over the coming year.
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The point is, I don't even know what they're trying to do with it? It's been there for well over a century and has been fine apart from a couple of paint jobs over the decades. Is it decaying as it's not getting the water splash down on it as it always has to clean it in its natural way? It seems bizarre without knowing what exactly they're doing. My worry is that it's getting irreversibly damaged by not being allowed to work, so as to not allow a spread of plant disease. Would it not be an option to remove the vegetation all around the Pagoda and allow it to function and keep itself in order, rather than worry too much about those trees etc in touching distance? Yeah, obviously water droplets will travel quite far and could carry disease, I'm no expert on environmental affairs, but what's happening doesn't seem the best course of action at the moment. I do worry about the long term damage to what is probably the most iconic structure in the gardens.
 
delta79 said:
I wondered why they did not use some of the closed days to open towers and garden to retired people groups. The money they got from groups like the oddfellows could be put into upkeep of the gardens.
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Good shout. On the closed midweek days they surely could do some deals for people when the rides are not open who want to just enjoy the gardens and the general environment (obviously they can't go in the Towers as the Scarefest Crew Representing BO! have all their trash stored in there all year round). I suppose that would require staff to accommodate their visit though in some capacity. This may be a problem. If I wasn't working full-time at the moment I would probably accompany people for free and I would enjoy it, but Towers wouldn't do it on a regular basis anyway as it's too much trouble for them (Challenge!) ;)
 
I agree that the gardens and towers should be opened when possible for an admission fee of around £5 on current 'closed' days. I suspect the park would make their money back on food and beverages and additional hotel stays (some groups might consider one day at the theme park proper one day exploring the gardens, or one day in the gardens one at the spa for older visitors perhaps?), there are easily enough profits to justify opening.

It would also help to satisfy the disgruntlement of annual pass holders who're disappointed that their passes are getting them increasingly reduced access to the park recently. Granted, the rides wouldn't be open, but the park would be. Again, food and beverage sales would be boosted.

Then again, I can't imagine it's something that they've never considered. Clearly management, for whatever reason, don't see it as viable.
 
andeyhart said:
Again, not denying that. With my list and TowersTigger's list combined, there's currently 9 or 10 attractions for kids too big for CBeebies, yet not big enough for the thrill rides. That's pretty limited.

Although, come to think of it, only three rides out of the seven that were missing from this year's line up were beneficial for that market - Hex, Charlie & The Flume. So I'd argue, even before 2016, the family line up was fairly lacking.
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Add to that Wobble world (everyone has a coffee and a sit down whilst the kids play), Twirling toadstools outrageous height restriction and all the entertainment that's been stripped out with Marauders needing over 1.3 to ride with the child. Meanwhile thrill has lost Submission, sub terra and Ripsaw in comparison, Pre school has increased.

When I went in spring, my 1.1m tall son found himself spamming Heave Ho over and over again. I felt desperately sad for him as he can't wait to get on the likes of Thirteen and he had so much fun on the Flume and Charlie last year. My amazing little thrill-seeker had most fun at Paultons and I feel almost embarrassed that I took him to AT for a good day.
 
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