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2024: General Discussion

While guest numbers rising year on year is a nice to have, it's not the be all and end all that it once was.

With the issues such as ride availability and recruitment issues, the better option is increasing guest spend but maintaining or seeing slight increases in guest numbers. We've seen that already with events and hotels returning to being more sensibly priced. It encourages guests, particularly families to spend more and stay longer.

I agree they're walking a tightrope on this thanks to no new additions, but I don't think it's comparable to Thorpe's mess. That was a park not knowing it's identity that tried to quickly switch solely to the thrill market. Those are guests who turn up, pay their entry and spend minimal amounts on park. They went for a "pile em in sell it cheap" approach which resulted in longer queues and low guest satisfaction - hence why people didn't bother to return.

Alton is still a park that hits the headlines for new additions, a couple of quietish years providing they fix the basics and maintain guest numbers is unlikely to hurt them in the long run.
 
I’m happy with 2024 being a year of improved upkeep, reliability and operations, if they can achieve this. The offering is still good for the vast majority, but last year there was far too many instances of coasters going down multiple times a day, opening late and occasions where three or four coasters were all down at the same time.

As a paying customer you’re far more pissed off if you’ve had a bad experience because of things going wrong than things simply not being there that were never promised. There’s still potential for a great day out if you can get on all the coasters, rapids, curse, Hex, Sub-Terra etc plus good food.

Obviously the park needs to crack on with Horizon and get some new flat rides to cater to a wide variety of ages and thrills in the not too distant future, and just because we’re not seeing any progress doesn’t mean these plans and conversations aren’t happening (I hope!)
 
Yea remember last year there was daily drone coverage of them pressure washing the subterra queue and constant coverage of the curse at Alton manor but yet they didn't spot a single piece of any of the props that were going in.
 
Remember that if there is a new flat coming for this year (more likely than not if you ask me), it doesn't have to be for the start of the season (so construction would start inside the main season). Summer is more likely in my opinion, but time will tell.
 
The park desperately lacks flat rides and the number they currently have is frankly embarrassing for a main themepark to be offering punters.

Anyway, I'm back off to the Epic Universe thread to talk about how excited I am about a park that contains two of them, with one being a carousel.
 
It would probably be beneficial to improve overall resort quality, maintain and improve existing assets (like Alton Manor) improve events, and make little and often additions (like Sub-Terra) to keep things fresh and on a sustainable trajectory of improvement.

Increasing quality and bolstering the attraction line-up may be a slow burner that doesn't reap immediate rewards or be massive headline grabbers, but it would be beneficial in the long-term. And I'm still not sure that's what they have in mind.

Returning to the Varney ways of investing heavily in a single big project that can be plastered all over cereal boxes, spray painted onto sheep and light up the London eye is all well and good as a hook, but no good if your base product is suffering because attention and investment was diverted holistically to the hook itself.

Horizon now would divert attention and investment away from other required investments, some of them like the monorail and lack of attractions in X Sector are quite urgent. This focus on heavily investing in not only Wicker man itself, but the heavy discounting of park entry that came with it is likely to be a major contributor as to why we are facing 2024 with a net loss of attractions to enjoy.

Something had to be done about Nemesis, Sub-Terra, Duel, and the lack of supporting attractions with the fun fair flat strategy having run it's course. Unfortunately, it looks like it's come too late for the spa and the food offering.
 
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Unless it turns out you hadn't reached the lowest point yet.

The loss of Retrosquad coupled with increased height restrictions on other rides does leave a significant hole in the line up for those between cbeebies ages and the 1.4m rides so the sooner something good arrives in that area the better.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if we do see flat rides in 2025. If Horizon has been delayed, that would be a logical reason for it, and given that Bianca has allegedly said that three flat rides have been purchased, it seems like a fairly safe bet that the park might receive some flats. There are a lot of rumours that the park have spoken to Huss.

Don’t quote me on this, but I actually heard suggestions that the park had originally looked into a flat ride package for 2023, but it was vetoed in favour of allocating the money for The Curse at Alton Manor. If this is true, it would imply that a flat ride package is definitely something that the park has looked into.
 
Dobba said:
The park desperately lacks flat rides and the number they currently have is frankly embarrassing for a main themepark to be offering punters.

Anyway, I'm back off to the Epic Universe thread to talk about how excited I am about a park that contains two of them, with one being a carousel.
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Well it wouldn't be bad if AT was adding similar dark rides, simulators and family boat rides which the Florida theme parks are generally known for.
 
Anyone know if the pre season buy out days are going ahead this year?

They are always poor from a ride availability perspective, and the feeling I got (rightly or wrongly) is they put even more pressure on the tech services team which led to further availability issues spilling into the main season.

I wondered if as part of this apparent drive to improve ride availability they had stopped or reduced these days to focus resources on getting ready for the main season.
 
AT86 said:
Anyone know if the pre season buy out days are going ahead this year?

They are always poor from a ride availability perspective, and the feeling I got (rightly or wrongly) is they put even more pressure on the tech services team which led to further availability issues spilling into the main season.

I wondered if as part of this apparent drive to improve ride availability they had stopped or reduced these days to focus resources on getting ready for the main season.
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I assume they probably are they’re on every year normally
 
George W said:
A coaster everyone on this forum would have likely ridden countless of times, having said that I'll be the first to book a hotel when the opening date gets announced.
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I rode the haunted house, and Duel, loads of times. I still wanted another go when they spruced it up. It's at least 5 times more compelling to ride Nemises now it's had the spruce.
 
AT86 said:
Anyone know if the pre season buy out days are going ahead this year?

They are always poor from a ride availability perspective, and the feeling I got (rightly or wrongly) is they put even more pressure on the tech services team which led to further availability issues spilling into the main season.

I wondered if as part of this apparent drive to improve ride availability they had stopped or reduced these days to focus resources on getting ready for the main season.
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Towers like the pre-season buyouts as it’s good for staff training before main season so I suspect they will happen.
 
Ethan said:
I assume they probably are they’re on every year normally
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Just because something has been happening every year doesn't mean it will continue. The park management is very different these days and their priorities may have shifted.

2024 really needs to be a year of refreshing and rebuilding. Yes new attractions every year is great and all but that can only be kept up for so long when the rest of the park is slowly rotting away. They need to pump investment back into their existing attractions to get them back up to scratch and increase ride availability and in turn ridership.

I'd be much happier and more likely to come back (and recommend to friends) if I got on say 10+ classic rides in a day with little to no downtime than if I got on only one brand new ride but nothing else as it's all broken :tearsofjoy:
 
The stage on the lawns only has planning consent until August 2024.

The park have submitted an application to remove or amend some of the conditions of that planning. The full docs aren't available yet, but it appears the conditions they want to amend/remove are related to the length of time the stage can stay on the lawns and the hours in which they use the stage.

It is likely at its most basic to be an extension of the planning permission so they can keep it for longer, and potentially enable them to use the stage for longer hours.

New application:

Planning Applications - Staffordshire Moorlands District Council

How to make an application and what it will cost
publicaccess.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk publicaccess.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk

Original planning permission:

Planning Applications - Staffordshire Moorlands District Council

How to make an application and what it will cost
publicaccess.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk publicaccess.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk
 
Josh said:
Just because something has been happening every year doesn't mean it will continue. The park management is very different these days and their priorities may have shifted.
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Why would they stop doing the buy out days after all these years? These days are perfect for staff to get back into it and prepare for the main season
 
If anyone's ever wondered what goes on in the off-season and how theme parks do winter maintenance and refurbishment, I've found a deep dive which might be of some interest to people here. Whilst its not directly related to Towers hopefully, it can give people a perspective on why Towers has had issues with rides recently such as Hex and Skyride, and why they've decided to replace some parts of Nemesis and refurbish other parts.


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGl5Xy-fiNU
 
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