• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

2017: General Discussion

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
electricBill said:
Yeah it was built for a smaller capacity than the park now deals with, so the queues don't justify its use anymore to me.
Click to expand...

The monorail could cope fine with the number of guests currently if:
1) they didn't mess about with unnecessary loading procedures,
2) could afford enough staff/have enough operational trains to run it at decent capacity

The theoretical capacity is astronomical and guests numbers are far below what they were, yet queues now as longer than ever thanks to the park's inability to run it effectively. The majority of people are pretty much forced to walk now, as the capacity is only about 1/2 of what it should be. It's not too much of an issue if you're parked at the top end of the main car park, but hardly ideal for those in Splash overflow or, worse still, J or K. You can at least exit by Rollercoaster Restaurant now, but I've always felt that's rather a flat way to end the day compared with using the main entrance and monorail.
 
kris3012 said:
My friend was at Towers today and a member of staff told her that due to galactica being an epic fail that is gonna be removed soon and replaced by a new coaster (I can't guarantee how true any of this is)
He also apparently said that the new entrance had been approved and that the monorail was also gonna be removed
So if this turns out to be true
A. What would you like to see replace galactica
B. If the entrance is moved do you think Towers street will be redesigned into another area??
C. If the above area happens how would you like it to be
(Whether any of this is true or not I don't know)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

No ride host has any insight into the future of the park.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pj
If they made the monorail service better, they would lose money on express parking from people like me.
I hope it stays, and another vote for remove the window stickers.
 
Air wont go anytime soon. No way.

There has always been talk of the park entrance being next to Air but personally I cant ever see that happening unless they remove the bottom car park and develop it into a grand entrance. The area around Air and Nemesis is too narrow and small for it to be a main entrance as it is.

Also, Towers Street is the perfect place for an entrance and exit due to the room for people to gather, and the Towers Trading shop and guest services.

Keeping the monorail running is essential for them really. There is no way guests would walk from the car parks to the entrance otherwise.
 
Ugh! that damn vinyl, I agree in wanting that taken off. Other than external advertisement and "show" I can't see the point in it.
To shield our eyes to the atrocity below maybe.
 
The point of it is to mask how old and shabby the monorail trains are. All you have to do is check out the joins between the carriages to see what I mean - However - I guess we shouldnt complain because after all it does make them look better and they are making an effort to spruce things up.
 
Let's be honest, the monorail trains looked horrendously awful and dated before their makeover. I agree that it would be nice to be able to see out of the windows though.

:)
 
I'm glad the makeover happened, but It would have been nice if the windows were worked into the design. Also it would have been nice to see trains themed to a mix of attractions rather than just the new additions at the time (Mutiny Bay & Sharkbait) and the random generic ones.
 
Burn.e said:
No ride host has any insight into the future of the park.
Click to expand...
This is what I said to my friend as I was skeptical but apparently he had documents that he was telling her about it. I did query as to why he would have any documents regarding such developments though
I said to her he probably made them himself to just spread a rumour


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: pj
I hate the vinyls on the monorail windows as seeing the rides and attractions on the way to the park builds the excitement and at the minute you just can't see a thing - come on TLC sort it out.
 
The queue times look fairly healthy today with The Smiler currently at 55 mins.

Anyone on park? Are the queues actually decent or just rubbish operations?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
jmc said:
The queue times look fairly healthy today with The Smiler currently at 55 mins.

Anyone on park? Are the queues actually decent or just rubbish operations?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Smiler is only ruining 2 trains. Oblivion is 1 station and ride ops not bothered about fast batching anyone.
 
bluesonichd said:
Rumba Rapids at Thorpe anyone under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
Click to expand...
It's the same rule now applied on The Lazy River Boat Ride at Chester Zoo which makes me think Intamin have put this rule in place, but yesterday I saw a couple of groups of Children go round on their own on Congo.

Shame the water guns and waterfalls have been removed as plants have overgrown where the waterfalls were and it's now just a Lazy River, I went on four times yesterday, didn't get wet once... :(

Please restore the rapids for 2018 Towers!
 
jmc said:
The queue times look fairly healthy today with The Smiler currently at 55 mins.

Anyone on park? Are the queues actually decent or just rubbish operations?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Little bit of both. It was reasonably busy when we were there this morning and when rides were open queues were moving but ride reliability seems to be a big problem at the minute. Galatica never opened, Hex opened over an hour late. Smiler went down for a while everyone was forced out of the queue and immediately went over to Oblivion which was only on one station and struggled with the sudden influx of people. Thirteen went down later in the day. It's really noticeable how few filler attractions the park has at the minute when the big coasters suffer with downtime.

By luck we ended up in the right place at the right time so didn't really queue more than 5-10mins for anything. Walked straight onto hex and but by the time we came out the queue was back to the main doors.
 
Been out the loop for a while here, so bare with me.

But what's with the flat ride situation recently?

It seems Merlin are removing flats without investing in anything to replace them, why is this?

Without flats queues for main attractions are larger, there's less variety in attraction, and yet the park ticket price is not being lowered to reflect the loss of attractions. Oh wait, no we have some trampolines /s

Merlins attempt at flat rides to rival European parks such as Phantasilands Talocan was Nemesis Sub-Terra, and that flopped to put nicely.

Could anyone shed some light on the situation, why are the removing them without investing in replacements. Was it purely because of maintenance costs or is it a money saving measure?
 
Not sure probably a money saving issue but then again how much money did they waste on N:ST and DBGT and how many flats would that buy? which us enthusiasts would ride and ride again.They would be far more fun than a one off over hyped experience which leaves you disappointed. Can someone please tell merlin to try this direction rather than over expensive technical complex unreliable ideas they currently have.

Sent from my SM-J320FN using Tapatalk
 
Honestly I feel Sub-Terra is the biggest waste of money Alton Towers has ever spent.
Worse than Rita.

I feel with most flats its more than just a ride to fill the gaps, how many people did you see stop to watch Ripsaw. On busy days it was impossible to get past that section of path.

A well themed topscan for example would have been a much better investment: high capacity, thrilling and visual.

Far better than trying to make some attempt at a dark ride experience.
 
Regarding the above post about ripsaw. It was so much more than just the experience of riding it. Watching it was fun too I really miss ripsaw as does my daughter and cousin. If fact he thought it was better than some of the coasters. I wish they would bring a new themed version back. I'm sure that it would get a lot of interest and be quite a popular move especially as it wouldn't need to be too expensive. Should we all feed this back on the iPad screens? surely merlin would listen if a significant number of people fed this back

Sent from my SM-J320FN using Tapatalk
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top