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2023: General Discussion

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Danscott22 said:
I knew people would bash for theming being out of place in different areas, but I agree with actually it’s LITERALLY an event called The Smiler Takeover so why are we all surprised that that’s happened?
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There is a massive difference between planning/advertising and execution.

This has been poorly executed. Like the vast majority of the events held by the park.

It’s like a school child’s art project. Thrown together as an attempt to pass their exams last minute. People will not give two bobs that that crap is there and it won’t enhance the experience of the park for customers.
 
I don’t mind the idea of Smiler literally taking over the park and having a presence around other rides but I think the way they’ve done it is very poorly executed. There are loads of things you could do that don’t look like high way maintenance have just been to put some bollards out and disappeared for an early lunch. This just looks like they didn’t actually have a solid idea of what they wanted to do and just went with what ever left over smiler tat they could find in the storage shed.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
There is a massive difference between planning/advertising and execution.

This has been poorly executed. Like the vast majority of the events held by the park.

It’s like a school child’s art project. Thrown together as an attempt to pass their exams last minute. People will not give two bobs that that crap is there and it won’t enhance the experience of the park for customers.
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it is very unfair to say the vast majority of the parks events are poorly executed. I don’t mind calling them out when necessary but I do not agree with that one little bit.
 
What an absolute shambles of an 'event' this is. I use the term event very loosely too.

Instead of all this nonsense why not spend the money painting the station building, cleaning the queue line and actually making the ride look half decent.

If they want to celebrate the Smiler then that's fine. Do it near the Smiler or at the very worst Towers Street as you enter. What the hell has Wickerman got to do with anything. The Smiler hasn't taken over anything because you put a few barriers up.

This idea should have never seen the light of day.

Shambles.
 
Ultimately the event was a bit of a mess last year and it looks to be a bit of a mess this year also. Is it really adding much to a guest's day in the same way as all the other events at the park do? I am not so sure.

I quite like the idea of a festival style event, but I would once again utilise the stage on the lawns. Have different bands on there, and you can have them doing sets that are themed to each of the park's coasters. Food and drink available like there is for Mardi Gras and Oktoberfest. The best events at Alton Towers are those where there is an event space, and you can spend a part of your day enjoying that space.

I know the counter to this is that many of the events would be similar in nature, but I just feel it would work a lot better.
 
At the very least I hope this is some sort of litmus test for the publics reaction to the ride with it being so heavily advertised. So far I haven’t seen any negative response in that respect. Hopefully the response (or lack of) means they’ll get a bit of budget to clean up the mess. Who knows.


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I popped in for a short wander around today and honestly, I thought the Smiler Takeover was fine. It's clearly not a major event, but it injected a little fun and a change of atmosphere here and there.
I think it feels far worse than it is given the shambles of a season so far and the general state of the park, especially the area being celebrated.
 
Benjsh said:
Instead of all this nonsense why not spend the money painting the station building, cleaning the queue line and actually making the ride look half decent.
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Because that doesn't increase the number of shows a guest can watch. They should be cleaning infrastructure anyway. But the idea of an event is to give some shows or something to do that is just for a short period to attract people to visit now instead of August.

Whereas the idea of cleaning and painting is to attract people to come back again so should happen anyway.
 
Benjsh said:
What an absolute shambles of an 'event' this is. I use the term event very loosely too.

Instead of all this nonsense why not spend the money painting the station building, cleaning the queue line and actually making the ride look half decent.

If they want to celebrate the Smiler then that's fine. Do it near the Smiler or at the very worst Towers Street as you enter. What the hell has Wickerman got to do with anything. The Smiler hasn't taken over anything because you put a few barriers up.

This idea should have never seen the light of day.

Shambles.
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Nail hit on the head! And as @Rob has just said, the park should be using the stage on the lawns, X Sector and Towers Street. Maybe it’s not really possible to use the lawns yet after they have been relayed but I’m sure @rob666 could help with any gardening queries. They could even use the Mutiny Bay Couryard or The Towers area like they did at Christmas 2021.
 
Aside from the theme, I agree with Rob on there needing to be a central focus point. The stages just weren't busy enough last year, so not sure why they've chosen to spread it out again this year, especially with such a really specific theme.

Fountain Square is a prime site to be used for something now that the HB stuff has gone from there, should they want to avoid using the lawns for a while.
 
jon81uk said:
Because that doesn't increase the number of shows a guest can watch. They should be cleaning infrastructure anyway. But the idea of an event is to give some shows or something to do that is just for a short period to attract people to visit now instead of August.

Whereas the idea of cleaning and painting is to attract people to come back again so should happen anyway.
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I'd rather put pins in my eyes than watch this nonsense anyway. Who is entertained by this stuff? It's so cheesy and weird.

Spend the money on cleaning it up and then maybe have a few interactive stalls dotted around the ride area. Boom! All sorted.

It's by far the weakest event as it is. "Come ride our Iconic coasters" Well yeah duh!!! That's why most people visit anyway. Hahahaha

Get rid of the whole event and come up with something better.
 
Ethan said:
Not got a problem what you said I'm more annoyed by Shaun using his platform to slander towers for an event doing what the event says in the name.
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Slander:

Verb, making false or damaging statements about someone.

Saying that you think Towers have ruined a themed area by plonking some tacky looking signs around a highly themed ride isn’t really slander is it. It’s an honest opinion, just as he is free to say that something looks fantastic he’s also free to say the opposite and looking at the picture he posted people are free to make up their own minds. Personally I agree with him, I think it looks awful. Shaun made no false statements and he isn’t saying what he said to damage the park, he’s just giving his opinion on something he feels has been poorly executed.

The idea of a Smiler takeover event in itself isn’t a bad idea, but it’s all about how you execute an idea and whether you creative something interesting, visually appealing and innovate or whether you just do something that looks lazy, cheap, and with the bare minimum of effort.
 
God if we had a pound for everything that needs to be said about how the park turned out this year, we could have another to buy the damn place...feed the hate and make the money for a good cause! 😏
 
New turf needs to bed in for a month before walking on and cutting.
I have had little experience of these events, but the one time I walked past poor performers going "at it" with vigour to an empty field, that was cringeworthy, and not fun extra entertainment.
Just fix the paint and leaky gutters, weed the gardens, get hot water in the bogs, and spray Algon in the festering pit that is the Smiler.
No need for a smiley takeover festival then.
 
They could have used the stage on the lawns, the stage in the courtyard, and a stage in Fountain Square and had three areas of the Smiler taking over with stages and some acts, hopefully better than the atrocious acts last year had that were unwatchibly terrible.

If they are so insistent on using other rides for this event, they could have had for example, a wicker statue being worshipped by some actors, but the face on the statue is the Smiler logo rather than the normal heads
 
How is this event a Festival of Thrills? From what's been described it sounds like they've scrapped the actual event that was supposed to be occurring.
 
Why are all the events at Towers executed so cheap and tacky? They have literally stuck stickers on stuff all over the park and some banners attached to some cheap stands. The stages again look tacky and they are branding this as a big event lol.

Why are UK Theme parks (Merlin) so lazy when it comes to events compared to other countries
 
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