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2019: General Discussion

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MattyH said:
Park's been open for over an hour and we've not had a ride times screenshot posted?! Let downs. Anyway, Park isn't looking too bad today queue wise, although Enterprise and rapids are showing as down.

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And that's why you shouldn't trust RideTimes. I queued 2.5 hours for an advertised 75 minute queue on Wicker Man...
 
When I went for the services days and I did ask at the spinball photo booth if there was SRQ and was told there wasn't.

Also pretty sure I saw there were still some of the VR pouches on Galacticas trains but not in all so couldn't see inside for myself if they had anything inside them still.
 
Today was actually a great opening day, far better than any day I had at the park in 2018. There were more positives than negatives, but I'll summarise:

POSITIVES:
-The single rider queue on The Smiler is absolutely fantastic, it just needs to be signed properly. A complete walk on when the main queue was 90 minutes.
-Ride reliability was generally good, leaps and bounds better than the start of last season.
-Most coasters were running a decent number of trains/stations.
-Little refurb projects around the park like Donut Factory and the Towers Trading refurb are welcome.
-The Dungeon and new entrance to Cloud Cuckoo Land looks better in person than on images.
-All staff I talked to today were very polite.

NEGATIVES:
-Early Ride Time really needs to go back to 9am instead of 9:30am. By 9am the queue at the entrance was huge.
-Rapids supposedly not opening until April. What have they been doing over the 130+ day closed season?
-The Towers are still closed, not acceptable.
-Duel still needs a lot of work.
-Spinball single rider queue farce.
-Oblivion on half capacity with a 50 minute wait is not ideal.
 
MakoMania said:
Today was actually a great opening day, far better than any day I had at the park in 2018. There were more positives than negatives, but I'll summarise:

POSITIVES:
-The single rider queue on The Smiler is absolutely fantastic, it just needs to be signed properly. A complete walk on when the main queue was 90 minutes.
-Ride reliability was generally good, leaps and bounds better than the start of last season.
-Most coasters were running a decent number of trains/stations.
-Little refurb projects around the park like Donut Factory and the Towers Trading refurb are welcome.
-The Dungeon and new entrance to Cloud Cuckoo Land looks better in person than on images.
-All staff I talked to today were very polite.

NEGATIVES:
-Early Ride Time really needs to go back to 9am instead of 9:30am. By 9am the queue at the entrance was huge.
-Rapids supposedly not opening until April. What have they been doing over the 130+ day closed season?
-The Towers are still closed, not acceptable.
-Duel still needs a lot of work.
-Spinball single rider queue farce.
-Oblivion on half capacity with a 50 minute wait is not ideal.
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Installing the new boats I think, they had them circling round.

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MakoMania said:
POSITIVES:
-The single rider queue on The Smiler is absolutely fantastic, it just needs to be signed properly. A complete walk on when the main queue was 90 minutes.
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I think not having it clearly signposted might actually be better. Before, you'd have times when the SRQ was as long as the main queue, whereas now it'll probably be much more manageable for the staff and guests with only those who go out of their way to find out about it using it.

Maybe it could be signposted but much smaller and less obvious than previously?
 
I haven't been round these parts lately, opting not to have the same conversations over and over, but I did leap into the Dungeons thread earlier.

Nice day on park today with a good friend of mine. I just wanted to share one little story. We were riding Nemesis and had two kids plonked next to us, around six or seven, taking their first ever trip on the ride. The nervousness and excitement prior to the ride and the sheer joy on hitting the brakes helped remind me just how cool Alton is, despite some of the criticisms levelled at it these days.

I think it's easy to forget how amazing some of those rides are and how much pleasure they bring to first timers who haven't been dragged down by years or indeed decades of taking it all for granted, nitpicking and slagging it all off along the way.
 
Great post @Rick! I certainly still hold a lot of love for Alton, even though I've visited quite a bit over the years! There are still moments that really get me buzzing in the park; Nemesis, the atmosphere on Towers Street as you see the ruins in front of you, walking towards Katanga Canyon with that really bright, bubbly music and all the other great things that make Alton Towers unique!
 
Coaster said:
I think not having it clearly signposted might actually be better. Before, you'd have times when the SRQ was as long as the main queue, whereas now it'll probably be much more manageable for the staff and guests with only those who go out of their way to find out about it using it.

Maybe it could be signposted but much smaller and less obvious than previously?
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I just fear that if the SRQ is not used frequently enough, Merlin will not pay for the extra staff member required to operate it.
 
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