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2023: General Discussion

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Going to be visiting towers on sunday 16th of this month. It’s open until 6pm which is good. Last year we got there at 9am for gate opening and headed straight to nemesis and galactica. We were on the front row of the first train of the day for nemesis so was quite proud! This year with nemesis being closed i’m thinking about heading to dark forest first. Is this a good idea? Also, last year I got on all of the big 7, spinball, rmt and the rapids. Was quite happy with what i managed to get on. Any new top tips about things i should do to make the most of my time at the park as i only visit once a year, every april?
 
Willemgorman1 said:
Going to be visiting towers on sunday 16th of this month. It’s open until 6pm which is good. Last year we got there at 9am for gate opening and headed straight to nemesis and galactica. We were on the front row of the first train of the day for nemesis so was quite proud! This year with nemesis being closed i’m thinking about heading to dark forest first. Is this a good idea? Also, last year I got on all of the big 7, spinball, rmt and the rapids. Was quite happy with what i managed to get on. Any new top tips about things i should do to make the most of my time at the park as i only visit once a year, every april?
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Dark Forest is a good starting point to get 2 of the most popular rides out the way early. After dark forest I'd definitely recommend doing Galactica as the operations aren't great and the queue builds up quickly. Definitely find some time in your day to get a couple goes on Alton manor. There's so many things to see in the ride you'll need more than 1 go to take everything in and appreciate it. In the time they had I think the ride is solid and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
 
You also got to remember the clocks didn’t go back to the 26th march and with a 6pm ride close most guests would have got off rides in the dark as they would have to use more generators.
Now it been 6pm close it don’t get dark to currently 8pm and in 11 weeks time it be after 10 so the 8pm closures will be back.
 
Willemgorman1 said:
Going to be visiting towers on sunday 16th of this month. It’s open until 6pm which is good. Last year we got there at 9am for gate opening and headed straight to nemesis and galactica. We were on the front row of the first train of the day for nemesis so was quite proud! This year with nemesis being closed i’m thinking about heading to dark forest first. Is this a good idea? Also, last year I got on all of the big 7, spinball, rmt and the rapids. Was quite happy with what i managed to get on. Any new top tips about things i should do to make the most of my time at the park as i only visit once a year, every april?
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Yes Dark Forest is a very good starting point as it takes a while to get busy due to being at the back of the park. Also, if you're wanting to do The Curse At Alton Manor I'd recommend doing it as soon as you see that it's open, as it is prone to a fair bit of downtime.
 
Skyscraper said:
Yes Dark Forest is a very good starting point as it takes a while to get busy due to being at the back of the park. Also, if you're wanting to do The Curse At Alton Manor I'd recommend doing it as soon as you see that it's open, as it is prone to a fair bit of downtime.
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Yeah absolutely, when i’ve seen the queue times on the app, i don’t think there has been a day where The Curse At Alton Manor hasn’t had a period of downtime.
 
Visited the park yesterday and thought I'd briefly summarise my thoughts (I'll expand later in individual topics - combination of wanting to go into more detail, having to go to work this evening and just being plain ol' tired). All in all - the park hasn't felt this bland in all the years I've been visiting, and the cracks aren't just showing - they're blatantly obvious.

The park wasn't hugely busy, but the queue times didn't reflect that in the slightest. Numbers that would've maybe once garnered queue-times of 15-40mins was hugely inflated, oft upwards of an hour.

A friend of mine had his RAP, and has a genuine reason to use one - but we had to abandon several rides because the accessible queue wasn't at an accessible time - again, hugely inflated from what it would've been about a decade back.

Curse at Alton Manor, non-spoiler verdict - it's fine, I guess. Just fine. I didn't really have any expectations and I'm happy about that, at least. Again, I'll post a full, critical review at some point.

As if possible, even more of The Ruins are closed off. Can't even go down the Conservatory now, or fully explore Her Ladyship's.

I didn't eat at the park after hearing stories of the quality dropping even more, however the rest of my group decided to try Woodcutter's. Apparently it was a mixture of alright to inedible, with extortionate pricing, waits and service.

So yeah, probably the weakest visit I've had to the park in a very long time. Don't get me wrong, I adore the park and I genuinely do want to enjoy visiting and want to have a reason to return frequently - but it's become such a flawed day out that justifying the travel, time and energy is becoming harder and harder.
 
Merlin really need to start archiving and preserving pieces of their older and former attractions now. How they treat stuff like this is getting ridiculous at this point. If they have to make new warehouses for storage, so be it. It's better having them stored in the dark than having them torn in skips.
 
Interesting enough I received a feedback from following my last visit (which I can’t recall receiving before). Just a standard 1-10 markings. For rides, they elected to include just:

Spinball - wasn’t even open
Smiler
Oblivion
The Curse

I wonder if they are trying to gauge popularity or perhaps they have had specific complaints regarding the state of Smiler’s queue etc?
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
Interesting enough I received a feedback from following my last visit (which I can’t recall receiving before). Just a standard 1-10 markings. For rides, they elected to include just:

Spinball - wasn’t even open
Smiler
Oblivion
The Curse

I wonder if they are trying to gauge popularity or perhaps they have had specific complaints regarding the state of Smiler’s queue etc?
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I imagine they know full well that Spinball, Oblivion and Smiler need money spending on them to bring them up to scratch and need to include guest feedback/ratings in any business case to get some cash to sort them out.
 
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