2025: General Discussion

[jon81uk]

When you look and the festooned Victorian setting we used to have the shitification of towers street is a sight to behold

I don't think the old ticket booths and queues were that much better really, other than being permanent, they were also falling apart I think.

 

[AT86]

Seems the stunt show is returning to Legoland for August, and Chessington is getting two shows for the school holiday period.

Presumably there is no sign of anything for Towers over the summer?

 

[Hid]

Seems the stunt show is returning to Legoland for August, and Chessington is getting two shows for the school holiday period.

Presumably there is no sign of anything for Towers over the summer?

Will be interesting what RWS Global do provide given they do work with Europa Park and Disney

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Seems the stunt show is returning to Legoland for August, and Chessington is getting two shows for the school holiday period.

Presumably there is no sign of anything for Towers over the summer?

The only remote sign of something maybe happening, which I saw whilst visiting today, was the erection of lighting rig on the lawns. I didn't properly pay attention to it, so can't tell if it's event related or just practical light, and I have no idea how long it's been there for.

Straws at best.

 

[Secret Weapon]

Bianca Sammut to step down in September 2025

Sorry to bump a topic from a few days ago, but just a few quick points about Bianca:-

1) I'm not sure if it was Bianca's decision to bring back the single-rider queues (or whether this would have happened anyway), but if so then I will always be grateful to her for that! (my only minor disappointment is that Nemesis, Rita, and Wicker Man still do not have them)

2) To her credit, she always seemed to be quite prominent, whereas I don't think that I have ever heard from her equivalent at Thorpe Park? (whoever he/she is)

3) I always felt a bit sorry for Bianca, because I'm not sure how much she can actually do (besides making minor improvements)? I assume that her hands were somewhat tied by Merlin's purse strings and local planning restrictions, so I'm not sure what her daily role would have entailed? Also: unlike new theme parks (e.g. Six Flags Qiddiya), Alton Towers is already full of great rides, and so much of the hard work had already been done before she'd even joined.

Either way, she always seemed like a nice enough person and so I wish her the best for the future.

 

[tayspru]

I don’t know if it’s appropriate to share names, but Single Rider queue was down to a different manager in the park (possibly under Bianca’s direction, but it wasn’t her project per se)

 

[AT86]

Didn’t Scott O’Neil leave Merlin for LIV Golf? Perhaps explains this rather random promotion?

https://www.altontowers.com/explore/events/liv-golf-by-jcb/

 

[Bert2theSpark]

There’s a LIV Golf event at JCB Uttoxeter that’s happening next week, it’s a new event so maybe O’Neil wanted to do something with Towers since it’s close by. Maybe he even found the location from his time at Merlin, who knows.

It could also just be co-incidence too, but it’s corporate synergy nevertheless.

 

[BarryZola]

Remember the dates. If you're going to Towers on those days, make sure you're nice and early. You don't want to be trying to get through the villages any later than 9 in the morning at the very latest. Personally, I would be getting there an hour earlier than that anyway, just to make sure.

 

[RIPCorky]

Worth noting she was the one who got the budget for the majority of the Nemesis reimagining, it was only going to be a repaint before she joined. I think it was also her first meeting and had to convince the then CEO Scott O’Neil. I appreciate the efforts for bringing the helix waterfall back but that only lasted about a month, and the first drop one was effectively a trickle.

Yeah that's not necessarily a good thing. Whilst it probably pleased enthusiasts, from a business point of view I feel the Nemesis reimagining was a colossal waste of money. It could have been better spent elsewhere to make the park a better experience for the guests. Not only have they used a sizeable chuck of cash on this they've also made the whole area much more maintenance intensive. They should have re-tracked the ride, painted the station and that was that. To sacrifice the front row queue in favour of theming is just ridiculous too, how can you favour theming over something that improves the practicality of the ride for guests? How can you drop two helicopters into an area and let your other rides rot and crumble?

Has a total area re-theme brought any more guests to the park?. Same applies to the Duel re-theme.

Years of bad management have dug the park in to a hole. It seems they are incapable of making basic decisions. They probably need to employ someone who is level headed, possibly even a little bit "boring" Someone who won't get caught up thinking they're playing rollercoaster tycoon (with real money) and sprinkling fairy dust over rusting metal and mouldy walls. At the end of the day it is a business.

 

[flyingguitar]

Yeah that's not necessarily a good thing. Whilst it probably pleased enthusiasts, from a business point of view I feel the Nemesis reimagining was a colossal waste of money. It could have been better spent elsewhere to make the park a better experience for the guests. Not only have they used a sizeable chuck of cash on this they've also made the whole area much more maintenance intensive. They should have re-tracked the ride, painted the station and that was that. To sacrifice the front row queue in favour of theming is just ridiculous too, how can you favour theming over something that improves the practicality of the ride for guests? How can you drop two helicopters into an area and let your other rides rot and crumble?

I think you may be looking too short term, yes it hasn't increased the number of guests however it has dramatically improved the quality of the theming of the land, in addition with toxication it only need Galactica to get an increase in theming to have a complete and a really well themed land.

currently that may not be doing too much, however as the rest of the park gets updates, (e.g skyride) you can improve theming there as well, eventually you would be left with a really well themed park, increasing the attraction of the park.

the thing is that a lot of the park needs the nemesis treatment, nemesis had the requirement to retrack it, giving a perfect opportunity to increase and refresh its theming.

it may not have increased the guest count initially, however if continues it can increase it by making it a nicer place to be in (from theming and guest niceties such as water fountains)

This is of course assuming that the idea of refreshing all the lands actually happen, however with Bianca leaving it is more uncertain.

 

[Hid]

Alton Towers needs a new star coaster always though that cross valley coaster might be just what they need and what I would do is have it start behind World of David Walliams and have the ride weave all the way to the cross valley and have the valley jump as the grand finale. Thats the type of ride Alton needs right now.

Similar style to Falcons Flight but of course on a much smaller scale.

 

[RIPCorky]

I think you may be looking too short term, yes it hasn't increased the number of guests however it has dramatically improved the quality of the theming of the land, in addition with toxication it only need Galactica to get an increase in theming to have a complete and a really well themed land.

currently that may not be doing too much, however as the rest of the park gets updates, (e.g skyride) you can improve theming there as well, eventually you would be left with a really well themed park, increasing the attraction of the park.

the thing is that a lot of the park needs the nemesis treatment, nemesis had the requirement to retrack it, giving a perfect opportunity to increase and refresh its theming.

it may not have increased the guest count initially, however if continues it can increase it by making it a nicer place to be in (from theming and guest niceties such as water fountains)

This is of course assuming that the idea of refreshing all the lands actually happen, however with Bianca leaving it is more uncertain.

Yes but my point still remains. Short term thinking might be a good idea right now. Pumping thousands into one area will only make the other ones look worse. There does not seem to be any long term plan in place either to re theme or refresh the other areas of the park.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Problem is that even if they did have a long term plan for the park over the next decade, so many changes at the top of Merlin and for Towers management means that these plans are either watered down or scrapped entirely.

Come to think of it, Towers is very much the theme park version of the failed DCEU film series in which a rough start, bad decision making, revolving door of leaders and such and led to a poorly led film series which had led to DC films to be rebooted again. It's not hard to see a striking resemblance to that what's happening with Towers in which I don't think even current management know what they are doing.

 

[BarryZola]

Alton Towers needs a new star coaster always though that cross valley coaster might be just what they need and what I would do is have it start behind World of David Walliams and have the ride weave all the way to the cross valley and have the valley jump as the grand finale. Thats the type of ride Alton needs right now.

Similar style to Falcons Flight but of course on a much smaller scale.

People may laugh, and it may be that this particular idea wouldn't run exactly as proposed above. But, if there was ever a time that the local council may be pressured one way or another to be a bit more lax with regards to the cross valley dream, it'll be now, when the government are seen to be doing planning favours for other companies. The technology must be there nowadays to get a decent cross valley ride on the go with a bit more length to the ride on at least one side of the valley. The original plan may need to be tweaked a bit now due to Toxicator being in place, however. Even before this, I believed that it could happen one day, and I still think it will, eventually. Before anyone pipes up, it wouldn't have to be visible from the village and noise could also be largely subdued by the natural tree coverage in the valley (plus whatever they could do regarding noise dampening on the track etc).

 

[Hid]

People may laugh, and it may be that this particular idea wouldn't run exactly as proposed above. But, if there was ever a time that the local council may be pressured one way or another to be a bit more lax with regards to the cross valley dream, it'll be now, when the government are seen to be doing planning favours for other companies. The technology must be there nowadays to get a decent cross valley ride on the go with a bit more length to the ride on at least one side of the valley. The original plan may need to be tweaked a bit now due to Toxicator being in place, however. Even before this, I believed that it could happen one day, and I still think it will, eventually. Before anyone pipes up, it wouldn't have to be visible from the village and noise could also be largely subdued by the natural tree coverage in the valley (plus whatever they could do regarding noise dampening on the track etc).

Like imagine a Taron/Taiga combined Style layout through the forest with a finale of the cross valley section