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2023: General Discussion

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Not sure if this is the correct thread for this, mods feel free to move this to a more appropriate thread if needed.

Just had my first visit to towers on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Living 3+ hours away from the park and having spent too much time at thorpe park, I was properly excited about my trip.

First day started off well. As a RAP user, there was a guy walking around the entrance at just after 9 who i could show my RAP card and get the piece of paper to allow me to use the RAP entrance for rides. This was very useful as it saved a lot of time. We were then allowed into the park at 9:15 and made our way to the smiler. After standing in the queue for about an hour, which was probably the upper limit of how long i can stand for, the smiler opened. (I’ll leave separate reviews of rides in relevant threads). Only bad thing so far was the fact that I was offered some snuffs from a group of kind in front of me, but that’s expected anywhere to be honest.

I think the general observation i made of areas of the park is it all seems a lot more run down and less impressive than thorpe park. I didn’t spend much time in the queues due to having a RAP but the time i did there was water everywhere (especially in the smiler queue), rubbish on the floor and run down looking vending machines.

One thing that also seemed a bit disappointing was the RAP entrance for most rides. For everything apart from the smiler and galactica, the RAP queue was just going in the exit, it definitely ruined the exciting feeling of entering the ride as i hardly got to go through the main entrance.

One thing that towers definitely get wrong however is how to manage the RAP. Instead of adding the time of the queue to the card most people added a max of 30 mins to the card, with some not even signing it at all, meaning i didn’t really have to queue virtually somewhere where i could sit down like i am expected to with my RAP. I just felt a bit unjust to me, i should have to queue the same amount as everyone else, even if i can’t stand for as long as them.

Compared to thorpe park, the atmosphere of the park definitely felt a lot less aggressive. People were friendly and the staff were always very patient when i didn’t have my RAP card quite ready in time, which is something that made the experience infinitely better for me as i hate unnecessary aggression and anger.

Food wasn’t great though. We brought packed lunches for both days but ate dinner in the rollercoaster restaurant and had the free breakfast that came with the stargazing pods. The rollercoaster restaurant just isn’t in at all. The food is still fairly expensive even with a MAP discount and the quality wasn’t much better than something that i could get at macdonalds or similar. Only upside was that it came very quickly. I think the sausage bap that i got for breakfast for free as part of the stargazing pod was pretty good, definitely seemed better than the food at the rollercoaster restaurant.

The stargazing pod was a bit messy with a few cobwebs on the ceiling, but there was more than enough space for me and a mate to sleep. Considering we only paid £90 for it, i don’t think it was awful.

Overall, i definitely enjoyed my trip. No much downtime on many of the rides, got on all the major coasters at least 3 times and the atmosphere was great. I think improvements need to be made to the presentation of certain areas of the park and food definitely need to be better.

Feel free to ask me to elaborate on stuff about my trip if you want. I feel like i could have written more but i didn’t want the post to be longer than it already is.
 
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BarryZola said:
I was unaware that snuff had made a comeback. A strange fashion to re-emerge after all of this time. I really think I'm getting old now :sob:
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The message was meant to say kids too. It was a group of 3 boys no older than like 14 with a bunch of them in a vasaline tub, definitely not what i was expecting at 9:20 on a wednesday morning…
 
BarryZola said:
I was unaware that snuff had made a comeback. A strange fashion to re-emerge after all of this time. I really think I'm getting old now :sob:
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I think the opp may have miss heard, the new in thing is "snuss" (it's known as snuss but most of the products on sale today are not traditional snuss, more just a nicotine pouch)

Which is placed against your gum behind your top lip
tactic said:
The message was meant to say kids too. It was a group of 3 boys no older than like 14 with a bunch of them in a vasaline tub, definitely not what i was expecting at 9:20 on a wednesday morning…
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With the "vasaline tub" description I would definitely say it was snuss. .

If they were snorting it then the op was right. . If it was going in mouths its snuss
 
Probably, it was some kinda white strip thing that looked a bit like chewing gum in a vasaline tub. It was quite hard to hear them as i had a headphone in.
 
Was supposed to be going to Alton next weekend but have had to cancel due to illness in the family.

Hats off to towers though because it’s so easy to move your tickets to a later date. Going in Sept now.

However, in the past I’d be absolutely gutted I wouldn’t be going up. This year I’m actually feeling not that bothered. Anyone else having a bit of lack of enthusiasm with the place this year? Maybe it’s cos Nemesis is closed, dunno!
 
My enthusiasm has gradually been waning over the years following the general upkeep, ride availability, lack of good investment, operations etc., but I don't actually know if - for the first time in a decade - I'll visit more than once. In part due to Nemesis being closed, granted - but there's barely any incentive to return.
 
mo237 said:
My enthusiasm has gradually been waning over the years following the general upkeep, ride availability, lack of good investment, operations etc., but I don't actually know if - for the first time in a decade - I'll visit more than once. In part due to Nemesis being closed, granted - but there's barely any incentive to return.
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I've been 23 times this year. Been every week I love the place. Don't intend on going for a while now though because of summer crowds. Will likely next visit in September now, which is a huge gap for me when I go all the time. I could go in the summer but my pass doesn't cover holidays and not paying when I've already been plenty. Will have to decide what pass to buy when mine runs out in September. Either the same one I currently have, Merlin discovery pass which is just off peak dates, or get the gold Alton towers pass. The latter is £30 more but I think includes some dates in scarefest so might be better off getting that.
 
Wet Sunday mornings in the summer are ideal for the desperate, just to get a quick fix in.
Me and the Beach for about thirty years...quick and dirty, beer rides and gossip.
 
I guess it depends how close people live to the park. When I lived in Cardiff it took about 2.5 hours to get there which wasn’t too bad.

Now living in Devon it’s closer to 4 hours. I’d love to stay in the hotels again but the poor cleaning and most of all the food prices and quality are stopping me from booking a stay.

Which reminds me - chained oak is full for the rest of the year so I need to find alternative accommodation - any recommendations? Don’t want hotel, more b&b or cottage sort of place.
 
GaryH said:
I guess it depends how close people live to the park. When I lived in Cardiff it took about 2.5 hours to get there which wasn’t too bad.

Now living in Devon it’s closer to 4 hours. I’d love to stay in the hotels again but the poor cleaning and most of all the food prices and quality are stopping me from booking a stay.

Which reminds me - chained oak is full for the rest of the year so I need to find alternative accommodation - any recommendations? Don’t want hotel, more b&b or cottage sort of place.
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Have a look at Quarry Walk, it's only a 15 minute drive from the park.

Log Cabin Peak District, Derbyshire Lodges Quarry Walk

Quarry Walk Park near Alton Towers Resort and the Peak District our log cabins and lodges with their own Hot Tubs are the ideal base to take a
quarrywalkpark.co.uk quarrywalkpark.co.uk
 
 
Shawn says in his latest vlog that he knows a couple of people being trained on the Skyride at the moment so let’s hope it’ll return soon, the 2023 season really needs it
 
havaska said:
It looks like Alton Towers (along with other Merlin properties) are FINALLY getting EV chargers. Makes so much sense to put destination chargers into the resort.

https://transportandenergy.com/2023/07/11/ev-charging-to-be-installed-at-top-uk-attractions/
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Really pleased to read this.

I live 113 miles from Towers and my car's range is 214 miles so I can't do the return trip in one go. The first time I took my EV I stayed at the Premier Inn in Uttoxeter specifically as it has a rapid public charger (there were cheaper hotels), but the charger was offline and the support line couldn't get a signal to remotely start it (which is the usual get around).

Popped round the corner to Lidl and theirs constantly had people queuing to use it (people dump their cars there for ages sometimes), and the Trinity Square charger was blocked by a non-electric van so I ended up wasting hours of my evening trying to charge. In the end I went back to Lidl late at night.

Absolutely first world problems I know but if Towers are finally installing chargers you can trickle charge all day from while you're in the park then bingo.
 
Looking into the various posts about the EV Charging, they are initially adding 90 of them across the 5 Merlin parks, in the theme park car parks and also the hotel car parks. And these will be installed this summer.

It’s being funded, installed and managed by Raw Charging. I’m guessing with merlin taking a cut of the takings.

They have said they hope to install more but infrastructure needs works before that can happen.
 
James564 said:
Really pleased to read this.

I live 113 miles from Towers and my car's range is 214 miles so I can't do the return trip in one go. The first time I took my EV I stayed at the Premier Inn in Uttoxeter specifically as it has a rapid public charger (there were cheaper hotels), but the charger was offline and the support line couldn't get a signal to remotely start it (which is the usual get around).

Popped round the corner to Lidl and theirs constantly had people queuing to use it (people dump their cars there for ages sometimes), and the Trinity Square charger was blocked by a non-electric van so I ended up wasting hours of my evening trying to charge. In the end I went back to Lidl late at night.

Absolutely first world problems I know but if Towers are finally installing chargers you can trickle charge all day from while you're in the park then bingo.
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And this is a prime example of why we are nowhere near ready for electric vehicles, and why I won't be even considering one any time soon! But that is for another topic.

Good to see that Towers and other Merlin parks are going to be getting some, they are long overdue. Will be interesting to see how it works in the main car parks at Towers; I'm guessing they will be close to the Monorail station.
 
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