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2021: General Discussion

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Ethan said:
The queues are very inaccurate anyway so I wouldn't take too much from what they say on the app. How can Nemesis go from 60 mins to 10. Oblivion and Enterprise have been on 30 since 2pm. They're not updating the queues it's bloody annoying. They should be doing it every 15 mins
Edit: There's another example Rita has gone from 60 to 0, it's so silly
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I fail to see how you can speculate on queue time accuracy when you aren't physically at the park. There are plenty of reasons why queue times could quickly change. Making random gestures of annoyance on the internet without any context or verification is completely unnecessary.

And to add to that, we have a dedicated thread for queue time discussion now, so if you could please keep posts of that nature to there then that would be great!
 
I've heard that Nemmy and Galactica went down yesterday due to a fire in an electrics cupboard. Can anyone confirm if that's true?
 
Has anyone with a full 2021 season pass had any success pre-booking a visit from July? I've got a barcode for my season pass now but any dates after June are greyed out. I suspect they haven't loaded any dates because most season passes expire in June. I've been speaking to them over the last week and they have responded today and said it means all dates in July are fully booked.
 
Skyscraper said:
I've heard that Nemmy and Galactica went down yesterday due to a fire in an electrics cupboard. Can anyone confirm if that's true?
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Hmm, I suspect it's not true. The substation that powers all of Forbidden Valley is under the monorail track between the wooden "Air Gates" by Galactica's first drop & the park perimeter gates on the path hotel guests use for RCR access in the evening. If this caught fire it would have taken all of the Valley out & would have required fire brigade attendance. You don't mess with a substation fire with a CO2 extinguisher, you get the professionals in.

If this substation had gone up, there would have been full evacuations of Nemesis & Galactica. Skyride would have gone onto diesel power at main-drive (unmissable due to the noise & smoke from the generator). Security, medical & management would have been all over the place. You'd not have been able to miss the increased personnel presence.

Suspect someone is having an April fool joke 13 days late.
 
Ethan said:
Yes but as I just said they're not accurate
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Queue times are never Uber accurate at the start of the season but certainly on Monday the park was still well attended right up until 8pm, we joined Wickerman about 7.45 and it had a 35 minute queue (bear in mind the last 20min of that had no RAP slowing things down). If I’m honest a 7pm close would have been satisfactory for the guest numbers but it didn’t feel dead at 8pm.

My thoughts on the opening day:

The Good

+ Good to see monorail back open, though it’s looking very tired.
+ Entrance was quick and easy compared to last year
+ Towers Street looks good though it’s clearly plastering over the cracks as it stands.
+ Frog fountains look fantastic at night
+ Wicker man is looking much better, and rides better.
+ Food was good in Woodcutters
+ Park in general felt like it had some love (the statues in haunted hollow where being painted as we walked past).
+ New flats (see below for more on that).
+ Lots of ents around the lawns and TS
+ Nice buzz around the park particularly later on, late openings really bring the park to life.
+ For an opening day ride availability was ok Considering they had not had their usual John Lewis and services practice days.

The Bad

- Dark Forest looks dire
- Galactica queue is filthy
- Rapids is still boring and the new theming isn’t hiding the fact.
- Beer selection is dire
- RAP is getting ridiculous, for the sake of the folk who genuinely need that service they need to find a better solution, on some rides the RAP queue was longer than the main queue.

As for the temporary flats, the waltzers look horribly out of place, they are not a ride type suited to a theme park. The other two new flats where good fun and popular, now if Towers purchased the same models and themed them then I would have been very satisfied, the retro theme for this season actually works as a temporary solution but mix-tape in particular looks a bit obviously out of place. It wouldn’t be completely out of the question to get a similar ride with an appropriate x-sector theme and it would look fine, and they seemed very popular. Hopefully it proves to Merlin that they can get some simple, relatively cheap flats, spend a little on theming (not a giant crocodile head, just good quality light theming) and it would solve a lot of problems the park have with capacity.

 
Bud Light gives you a headache as it's like drinking beer provided by the local water company, i.e. fizzy water. Not really a fan of Corona [the beer] either, although it does have a bit more of a kick to it.
 
Stella isn't the same since they changed the alcohol % anyway so I'm not so bothered, Heineken, San Miguel or Estrella would have been good though.
 
Estrella everywhere is the best thing about PortAventura.

Would love to see it at Towers.

Corona is alright though, I'm optimistically hoping that they're offering a lime slice with it (even if it's extra charge).
 
Dave said:
Queue times are never Uber accurate at the start of the season but certainly on Monday the park was still well attended right up until 8pm, we joined Wickerman about 7.45 and it had a 35 minute queue (bear in mind the last 20min of that had no RAP slowing things down). If I’m honest a 7pm close would have been satisfactory for the guest numbers but it didn’t feel dead at 8pm.

My thoughts on the opening day:

The Good

+ Good to see monorail back open, though it’s looking very tired.
+ Entrance was quick and easy compared to last year
+ Towers Street looks good though it’s clearly plastering over the cracks as it stands.
+ Frog fountains look fantastic at night
+ Wicker man is looking much better, and rides better.
+ Food was good in Woodcutters
+ Park in general felt like it had some love (the statues in haunted hollow where being painted as we walked past).
+ New flats (see below for more on that).
+ Lots of ents around the lawns and TS
+ Nice buzz around the park particularly later on, late openings really bring the park to life.
+ For an opening day ride availability was ok Considering they had not had their usual John Lewis and services practice days.

The Bad

- Dark Forest looks dire
- Galactica queue is filthy
- Rapids is still boring and the new theming isn’t hiding the fact.
- Beer selection is dire
- RAP is getting ridiculous, for the sake of the folk who genuinely need that service they need to find a better solution, on some rides the RAP queue was longer than the main queue.

As for the temporary flats, the waltzers look horribly out of place, they are not a ride type suited to a theme park. The other two new flats where good fun and popular, now if Towers purchased the same models and themed them then I would have been very satisfied, the retro theme for this season actually works as a temporary solution but mix-tape in particular looks a bit obviously out of place. It wouldn’t be completely out of the question to get a similar ride with an appropriate x-sector theme and it would look fine, and they seemed very popular. Hopefully it proves to Merlin that they can get some simple, relatively cheap flats, spend a little on theming (not a giant crocodile head, just good quality light theming) and it would solve a lot of problems the park have with capacity.
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Perhaps you had to deal with the awful drunk queue jumpers if you were in the Wicker Man queue at that time as well.

I also noticed that there was a lot of continued painting work going on across the park. Can’t complain that it was being done but a little odd that its happening while open :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
jmc said:
Perhaps you had to deal with the awful drunk queue jumpers if you were in the Wicker Man queue at that time as well.

I also noticed that there was a lot of continued painting work going on across the park. Can’t complain that it was being done but a little odd that its happening while open :)


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

it’s just a guess but maybe they kept a lot of staff on furlough until last minute in case the park couldn’t open.
 
D4n said:
Estrella everywhere is the best thing about PortAventura.

Would love to see it at Towers.

Corona is alright though, I'm optimistically hoping that they're offering a lime slice with it (even if it's extra charge).
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure about that. After a few days of Estrella, it soon starts tasting of EGGstrella!

You'd like to think that Towers would actually get a decent beer option on park. Gone are the days where you would go down to the pub and only find a couple of lagers on tap, yet at Alton Towers they are stuck in this world. Seems strange when they have Goose on tap at ATH, surely they could get Goose on park as well.
 
Steve74 said:
Don't think anyone has posted this but on their Facebook page, Leek Signs have posted pictures of a lot of the things they've done at Towers this closed season

https://www.facebook.com/leek.signs/photos
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Alton Towers might use them a lot, but al most all of the photos they put up look good. Some of the before and after are a big difference, even if it is just a commitment to the branding and font style.
Could some things be done better like the Shoppe banner being less plasticky looking. But overall it’s fine. In some ways it seems Leek Signs are more invested in making sure the park looks good than AT.
 
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