2026: General Discussion

[Ash]

Hopefully this tidying up continues!

 

[jon81uk]

Letting people know that new things are coming leads to more goodwill towards a park imo

Although it can also lead to people putting off visiting until the new thing opens up. It dodn't look worth bothering going to Chessington in 2025 with so much closed. Paw Patrol will help, but I can see people not wanting to visit until 2027 when Minecraft opens.
Universal also saw attendance decline slightly in 2024 as people waited for Epic to open in 2025 before visiting.

 

[Hid]

Hopefully this tidying up continues!

Nice to see iconic structure been around for now 46 years this year hope they keep the Blue and Gold Colour scheme. Although would not be against its old Yellow and Black colour scheme.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

hope they keep the Blue and Gold Colour

It's purple and gold.

 

[Hid]

It's purple and gold.

Always looked more Blue and Gold to me

 

[Bowser]

Although it can also lead to people putting off visiting until the new thing opens up. It dodn't look worth bothering going to Chessington in 2025 with so much closed. Paw Patrol will help, but I can see people not wanting to visit until 2027 when Minecraft opens.
Universal also saw attendance decline slightly in 2024 as people waited for Epic to open in 2025 before visiting.

True. Perhaps Chessington know the majority of their visitors are now MAP holders and so that's less of a concern?

Also they haven't publicly announced much so i doubt many people who were attending in 2025 knew Minecraft is coming in 2027. The current map simply says "something coming in 2027" and even the "new for 2026" was only recently updated to show Paw Patrol. They advertised it on the surrounding fencing but obviously you're already in the park at that point so that's shrewd advertising.

I think there would be infinitely more goodwill to Alton if they had something promoting Horizon with a date... unless it's "New for 2031"

 

[Steve74]

It's purple and gold.

Always looked more Blue and Gold to me

Its the blue-black/white-gold dress all over again!

 

[DiogoJ42]

Its the blue-black/white-gold dress all over again!

Oh Wardley, not this again. Why does no one understand the concept of white balance‽

 

[Squiggs]

Oh Wardley, not this again. Why does no one understand the concept of white balance‽

You mean blue balance, right?

 

[spotweld]

It's blue mate.

 

[DiogoJ42]

But is it blue and blue ON DE TING?

 

[BarryZola]

Looks purple to me.

 

[Steve74]

According to TS Facebook, here are all the events for this year with dates.

Still think they are missing a trick with no Oktoberfest, or anything in the summer for that matter.


From: http://www.facebook.com/TowersStreet/posts/pfbid037cVMw8UVVQkiWewSA68sjHsFva8ghqzC7BxqjKKfXufnyLm3EkFJHkiNSbvyPMYBl

 

[Alfredo]

Is pirate takeover just last year's event then no new rides
That sucks a bit

 

[s_g_k]

Is pirate takeover just last year's event then no new rides
That sucks a bit

Not sure I understand fully, but yes, the Pirate event is returning in the same format. It’s only ever been a small selection of rides so the park can focus on completing the maintenance on their main attractions before the main season starts.

 

[Bowser]

TPWW have done a follow up video to the "decline of AT"vlog that was discussed this week based on what he would realistically do to improve the park before Universal opens:

2027 - Brand overhaul. New slogan and adverts. Mascots. Monorail refurbishment. New entrance. Towers Street reimagined. Return of permanent entertainment. Reopen Towers. Extend opening hours (including Water Park). Close World of Walliams.

2028 - Steampunk family area to replace Walliams including reopened theatre, retheme Gangster Granny and several flats. Repaint Galactica.

2029 - Add 2 thrill flat rides to X Sector. Repaint and add theming to Smiler. Retheme Dungeons as part of Steampunk area.

2030 - Project Horizon. Close Dark Forest...

2031 -Rethemed Dark Forest as Fantasy. remove Rita, add 1 thrill and 1 family flat, add new Intamin LSM.

I think it's a solid and patient timeline though i'm sure people wouldn't be happy about waiting another 5 years for a major ride. Cannot see them investing anything like as much that would be needed to get even half of that done.

 

[AltonLover123]

It is always interesting to me to see Creators put out videos like this. Why don’t they ever do videos about what they would do with the actual budget Merlin have…oh yeah. They don’t have that information. Oh, and I guess it would be a pretty boring video when they recite exactly what Merlin have done so far with the budget they have.

Sarcasm aside…..

Enthusiast wishlist improvements are great. It stirs our loins at the potential and possibilities with an endless budget.

Evidently, Merlin do not have the kind of budget to rapidly expand Alton on this level. If they did, we would have seen planning permission for some of it by now. We can all argue about how bad Merlin are, there is no denying they are not great at a lot of things, but they’re a business. They want to make money. They don't have the capital to do frequent and major investments, which is why they’ve been going down the refurbishment route first.

It’s nice to dream isn’t it?

 

[Craig]

Just to ensure we’re not duplicating discussion, TPWW’s video is being discussed in a topic on future already. Please continue discussion there, thanks