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2024: General Discussion

Craig

Craig

TS Administrator
Well, 2023 is but a distant memory - a year which saw the absence of a major dark ride in Hex, the acclaimed return of another and the park's signature coaster being rebuilt. This year sees a few changes around the resort, so it's time for the 2024 General Discussion Topic. As with last year, we're summarising the changes we're seeing this year, and linking to dedicated topics where available:

🎟️ Opening times​

Provisional opening times are available on the Alton Towers website. They will be subject to change according to prebooking and weather, but the main season kicks off on Saturday March 16th. Fireworks dates marking the end of season are yet to be confirmed.

⚠️ Height Restriction Changes​

There's been some changes to height requirements for the 2024 season affecting rides with shared lap bars. This mainly affects Runaway Mine Train, with the minimum height now raised to 1.3m if riding alone, or 1.1m if accompanied by an adult. Check the Alton Towers website's rides and attractions page for the latest information.

👁️ Nemesis Reborn - Dedicated topic available​

It was a long 2023 season without many guest's favourite ride, however there was plenty to look at over the Nemesis site as construction continued throughout the year. With the track finally complete, we're looking forward to testing and a spring opening for this Alton Towers classic.

👷 Project Horizon (SW9) - Dedicated topic available​

It's been pretty quiet on the Project Horizon front since planning permission was granted for the park's new major attraction. Believed to now be a 2026 opening, there's still hope of seeing some marketing and site work kick off at some point over the 2024 season.

⛔️ Attraction Closures​

We said goodbye to a number of attractions across the resort before the 2024 season. Over in the hotels, The Spa closed its doors unexpectedly in December (see The Hotels topic). At the park, we said goodbye to the Retrosquad flat rides, which have now been removed and will not return this year. We're hoping for some news of replacements to crop up at some point during the season, but in the meantime we have a dedicated topic featuring speculation.

🙏 Welcome Returns?​

We're hoping to see a return of Skyride this year - a ride which remained closed across last season due to work needed to bring it back into operation. We've seen scaffolding on parts of the ride in recent weeks, so hopefully we'll see it back for 2024.

Hex has also struggled across 2023, remaining closed for the vast majority for the season. Fingers crossed for a return this year!

🍔 Food and Beverage Changes - Dedicated topic available​

It's fair to say Aramark's first full year on park was a mixed one. There was extremely good feedback about Coach House Confectionary, a new addition accompanying The Curse At Alton Manor, but feedback on other outlets was not as positive. Further use of self service kiosks made an appearance across many outlets, it remains to be seen what changes we'll see for the 2024 season.

🎃 🍻 🎆 Events​

We're still waiting for confirmation of the events calendar for this season. It's expected Oktoberfest, Fireworks and Scarefest will return at a minimum, but when they're announced we'll link to the dedicated topics here.
 
Hope they get Nemmy open on time. Open day would be a disaster if everyone turns up thinking it’ll be open but it isn’t
 
I think the plan is for Nemesis, Skyride and Hex to open at start of season but these are machines and supply chains for parts since Brexit are naff so we will never be certain until closer to the time.
 
I'm feel quite uncertain about the coming season. I'm hoping by February we'll have information about at least one new flat ride and we have confirmation of ride availability before the season starts (new management seem to be more open about ride closures). As for food, I don't know the terms of the contract with Aramark but I bleeding well hope they can sort out food quality and general value for money (not that theme park food is usually good value for money in the first place).
 
Thameslink Rail said:
I'm feel quite uncertain about the coming season. I'm hoping by February we'll have information about at least one new flat ride and we have confirmation of ride availability before the season starts (new management seem to be more open about ride closures). As for food, I don't know the terms of the contract with Aramark but I bleeding well hope they can sort out food quality and general value for money (not that theme park food is usually good value for money in the first place).
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Don't be expecting any confirmation of new flat rides for this year, as it is not happening.

2024 is a big year for Alton Towers. I feel like the new management had 2023 to get their feet under the table and complete a full assessment of where the park is at. They could be forgiven for some mishaps last year, even though it was far from ideal. 2024 has to be better in terms of ride availability, F&B, opening times and quality of events. If it is not, then I will have serious concerns.

Nemesis is obviously going to be a hit this year, they don't even need to try all that hard to guarantee that. Which is why I hope effort is put in to improving aspects of the park that are not otherwise marketable.

I'm not expecting a zero to hero jump, but would like a good stride in the right direction. Time will tell.
 
What make you think flat rides are not coming do you work there? Anything can happen just have to wait on the news.
 
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Rob said:
Don't be expecting any confirmation of new flat rides for this year, as it is not happening.
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Still don’t understand why they got rid of the retro if they had no rides prepared to replace them. An empty spot is not better than a ride
 
Dunno how long it takes to do foundations/install/test/ finish a big permanent flat ride... But they're running out of time if the thought was to get it in before opening.
 
I wonder what's caused Mine Train's height restriction to jump up to 1.1m?

Currently the Flying Fish at Thorpe maintains it's 0.9m restriction (although it is notably smaller), but that does have a different type of restraint, so I do wonder if it's something the manufacturer has changed, a la Dragon Falls at Chessington jumping from 0.9m to 1.2m. Regardless, it does seem a little strange, unless there's been an incident somewhere that we're (hopefully) unaware of.

If it is something that they have no control of, then fair enough; but I do find it unusual that there has been an increase, seeing as it's maintained the 0.9m limit for over 30yrs now, and potentially frustrating as that's another option off the table for younger guests, thus tightening the lineup of available rides just a smidge.
 
It's the 9th January. If new rides flat rides were planned for 2024 I am pretty sure there would have been some sort of indication by now one way or another and there has not been. Nemesis is the big new attraction for 2024; 2025 is far more likely for flat rides.

But let's not turn this thread in to a discussion about flat rides please when we already have a thread for that.

In terms of 2024's ride line-up, the return of Nemesis and hopefully Hex more than makes up for the loss of capacity by the Retrosquad rides going. I suspect this is why they felt comfortable not renting them in for an additional year.
 
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