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365 Day Opening

Would be great tbh if Alton towers was open all year round like the likes of Busch gardens tampa. The weather is a real issue though for the winter months. Towers would have to invest in more indoor rides
 
Good to hear that there is going to be a new masterplan developed with the Council. The existing one is becoming a tad out of date now. It will give us a good indication of the areas that the park might be looking to/able to expand in future years.

As for 365 day opening, I guess it depends what exactly they mean by that. Do they want the whole park open year round a la DLP and Efteling? Or a longer but more limited winter event?
 
If they move towards a year round offering presumably they will be able to offer significantly more permanent employment contracts which in turn will make working at the park far more attractive for many people than it is now.
 
I'd argue a proper transport connection for the park would be key for being a year round resort which with the current roads leading to the park are far from suitable in which easier access compared to now means more will be tempted to go and likewise more times in the year to go. Creates a good snowball effect there IMO.
 
I was really impressed by the indoor part at Toverland. Something like that would be a no brainer if you wish to open during the winter months.
 
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IDB said:
I was really impressed by the indoor part at Toverland. Something like that would be a no brainier if you wish to open during the winter months.
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Yeah I kind of wish that Project Horizon was going to be an indoor themed area with multiple rides.
 
Ethan said:
You're not wrong there! Imagine riding Nemesis and Smiler on christmas day
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It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I wouldn’t imagine the likes of Smiler and Nemesis to be part of the ‘365 opening’, due to the operational challenges (and also possible lack of demand) for such rides over winter. It would make sense for them to focus on improving the indoor and undercover offering, and I would suspect that will be a big focus of the 10yr plan.

Gangsta Granny, TCAAM and Horizon are a good start with this, but there are lots of other options for them to explore.

To my mind they need an undercover permanent show venue and some more indoor experiences. CBeebies is very outdoor focussed for example, could they move the lunchbox cafe and extend that building backwards to create an indoor dark ride for the younger ones?

Perhaps they could design some sort of retractable cover for the driving school so that it can be used over the winter?

Interesting times :)
 
They've been talking about having ambitions of being a year-round resort for 20+ years. If anything in recent years we've seen moves to the opposite - Splash Landings closing in Jan/Feb; binning of weekend, Feb Half term and the post-fireworks limited openings; creation of additional overnight capacity which is completely inappropriate for winter months.

I'll believe it when I see it, is basically what I'm saying.
 
Always felt they could manage it. Close off Dark Forest, Forbidden Valley, and X sector for winter maintenance. You've got Curse, Hex, Project Horizon, put a proper ride back in the dungeons, wickerman, RMT, cbeebies land.

As mentioned above the biggest issue is snow making the resort unreachable (or unleavable).

The likes of Dlp, efteling, europa Park and Phantasialand all have seasons that extend into the colder months and the continent usually has harsher winters than we get.
 
I have thought of something if there is more days open throughout the year that since this is St Patrick's Day, it got me thinking of certain days of the year to celebrate St Patrick, St David, St George and Andrews Day on the park which could help create of a more British wide image for the park to promote to tempt visitors from further afield to attend (didn't DLP already do this for St David's Day?), say that with St Andrews day (a day that falls in winter and one that could be part of a 365 day opening) guests with evidence with a Scottish postcode could get a 20% discount for getting into the park and the same could be done of the other days too.

St Patrick's Day could see the park given an Irish feel with much Guinness on sale or St Andrews Day could see something like Towers Street deck out in Saltires or Tartan and you could do stuff for the others too. Maybe even try out Burns night on the park as another event in which there are many to chose from that could help make a year round opening more possible and worthwhile for the park if done well.
 
Mr Pessimist calling.
Alton is designed around outdoor attractions, and has few indoor attractions for adults.
Investment for full year opening would have to be substantial, more indoor stuff, increased infrastructure costs, but for what purpose?
The vast majority of the public do not do theme parks in winter, not in this country, so there is no real market.
Economics means there is no real money in year round opening, winter is a long, quiet, cold, wet, season...not Towers weather for the vast majority of punters.
Lack of demand, not a real chance of anything like full year, full park running.
 
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