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2023: General Discussion

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You'd expect with Nemesis reopening next year, you'd expect they would be giving Forbidding Valley some TLC including Galactica to get it all ready to look its best much like how GW got some work done to it to look good for Alton Manor's opening though TBH there was very little needed to be done on the outside compared to what is needing for Forbidding Valley.

If they were to give Galactica TLC, I just have this feeling that they go and not only retheme it but rename it too to try and pull of a shameless attempt to promote a 'new' ride but giving it another boring black or grey colour like everything else yet on the positive side, they might actually finally theme it in with the rest of Forbidding Valley after over twenty years. Maybe they might attempt and resurrect one of themed ideas of having it be a military bomber idea of Air in which IIRC the theme was you would be flying over Nemesis to drop bombs on the beast, maybe the idea could be brought back as Phalanx trying to get rid of the beast once and for all? I'd honestly wouldn't be bothered by that if I'll be honest given how much of a state Galactica is in right now.
 
I do expect that FV including Galactica will see a tidy up before the start of the 2024 season, they will most likely have some budget to do so, as they have done in the past with areas that are getting investment in new attractions.

The bigger issue is that it shouldn’t take a big investment happening to a ride next door to unlock cash for what is basic maintenance and cleaning. They should be doing this year in year out across the park regardless.
 
QTXAdsy said:
You'd expect with Nemesis reopening next year, you'd expect they would be giving Forbidding Valley some TLC including Galactica to get it all ready to look its best much like how GW got some work done to it to look good for Alton Manor's opening though TBH there was very little needed to be done on the outside compared to what is needing for Forbidding Valley.

If they were to give Galactica TLC, I just have this feeling that they go and not only retheme it but rename it too to try and pull of a shameless attempt to promote a 'new' ride but giving it another boring black or grey colour like everything else yet on the positive side, they might actually finally theme it in with the rest of Forbidding Valley after over twenty years. Maybe they might attempt and resurrect one of themed ideas of having it be a military bomber idea of Air in which IIRC the theme was you would be flying over Nemesis to drop bombs on the beast, maybe the idea could be brought back as Phalanx trying to get rid of the beast once and for all? I'd honestly wouldn't be bothered by that if I'll be honest given how much of a state Galactica is in right now.
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I would love to see that, I have always felt the Galactica was out of place in forbidden valley with Nemesis and Nemesis Sub terra which has been on SBNO since recently which to fair is exciting but Galactica needs to either, 1, be rethemed to match the rest of Forbidden Valley or, 2, fix up Galactica to be nice and shiny ready for Nemesis's reopening!
 
Something has to be done for sure. Nemesis, Nemesis Sub-Terra and The Blade all fit the Nemesis theme, so something needs to be done with Galactica, and Funk'n'Fly should be replaced with another permanent flat ride that acts like a weapon such as The Blade does towards taking on Nemesis.

Just to try and keep this tied into 2023 though, Forbidden Valley really is incredibly quiet I've noticed. Galactica was barely forming a queue on Sunday but I do wonder if that's because you've got to go the long way round. Most people are coming into the area from The Curse, realising the path is shut and having to go the long way round. The path you have to take would be the natural path you end up on when exiting the Skyride, but obviously that's closed as well.
 
I completely agree, it is also interesting that less people are going on Galactica this could make for some good ride times when people go. Funk'N'Fly does need to go like the rest of the Retrosquad I also think some of the pathing near Blade the red one needs to be re-done as last time I went it was very dark like going grey.
 
Mhoowee said:
I completely agree, it is also interesting that less people are going on Galactica this could make for some good ride times when people go. Funk'N'Fly does need to go like the rest of the Retrosquad I also think some of the pathing near Blade the red one needs to be re-done as last time I went it was very dark like going grey.
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I thought it was just black tarmac now is it not? Perhaps I've not been paying attention
 
It was a red tarmac like blood which matched the theme of the area which you can see on google maps but they have just let it get darker and darker.

1684838964774.png
This is from google maps 2009 even then it was not looking the best
 
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Before we go off topic, this is probably best to be spoken on Galacticas Thread, but please no FV retheme. At this point, to be brutally honest, I'm sick and tired of these dark and grey themes, no matter how well done they are. FV with Nemesis and air was a great contrast while still being true to FVs original concept of unknown powers.
 
Mhoowee said:
It was a red tarmac like blood which matched the theme of the area which you can see on google maps but they have just let it get darker and darker.

1684838964774.png
This is from google maps 2009 even then it was not looking the best
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This was completely re-done a couple of years ago as new black tarmac.

They did also re-do the red a number of years ago, but this resulted in it becoming somewhat slippy when wet, which was far from ideal.
 
I think the evidence is clear from the last several years that they're willing to spend on projects when they get them signed off but the general maintenance budget is very very tight. They just don't have the budget to keep such a large site in tip-top shape. That includes the gardens, rides and general upkeep.
 
Does anyone know whats going on with the gift shops? I heard some rumours they are placing in digital screens for the prices, for flexi-price gifts (like they are doing to the tickets for low season/high season). Seems a bit odd?
 
Ben Anderson said:
Does anyone know whats going on with the gift shops? I heard some rumours they are placing in digital screens for the prices, for flexi-price gifts (like they are doing to the tickets for low season/high season). Seems a bit odd?
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You can see the digital screens in place on my post I made on this thread yesterday about the ridiculously over priced crisps. It does seem an interesting choice if that is what they are going for.
 
Moving to digital screens for prices is pretty standard these days in many shops and supermarkets.

There is no evidence so far that Towers are doing it to be able to introduce surge pricing.
 
They are taking the Roller Coaster Tycoon approach now:

It's raining? - increase the price of umbrellas
It's sunny? - increase the price of ice cream

:tearsofjoy:

If I remember correctly although this was good for making money quickly this often made your park rating drop significantly...
 
AT86 said:
The bigger issue is that it shouldn’t take a big investment happening to a ride next door to unlock cash for what is basic maintenance and cleaning. They should be doing this year in year out across the park regardless
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Probably don't have the resources to maintain rides and areas like other parks do. Towers don't have enough man power for such a big park. They have less staff than Thorpe and yet Towers is 4 times bigger. They don't even have enough staff to run Galactica properly let alone clean it regularly. The lack of staff has been noticeable for a number of years now
 
rob666 said:
There is the option to recruit more staff.
There is the option to improve staff facilities, like transport, and increase wages, to improve staff retention.
Merlin choose to avoid these options.
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But this is a towers problem not a Merlin one. I was impressed with the amount of staff around Thorpe. It may therefore be about people being reluctant to work in such a remote location, which towers can't do anything to rectify that issue. They could increase wages to help with recruitment, however that would take budget away from maintainence of rides where seemingly the budget already is very small. Towers have also benefited from less staff by having more reserves for investment. Nemesis, horizon, alton manor, sub terra things all happening at the same time. The investment into new attractions at Thorpe however has been pretty minimal since Swarm, over 10 years ago.
 
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