Alton Towers 2017 - Wishlist

[Spike]

I think the main problem with that is that all the mazes are in the firing zone, so they would all have to close early and not open again until around 8pm.

Oh yeah, forgot about that.

I would happily queue for a maze whilst the mortars and shells were launching, it would be scarier than ToTT and Altonville at least.

 

[PeteB]

I would happily queue for a maze whilst the mortars and shells were launching, it would be scarier than ToTT and Altonville at least.

Nah you get used to it. I often take a nap next to the shell racks on some firing sites.

 

[tp]

It'll be interesting to see what they do for Scarefest/Fireworks in 2017 as the 3rd/4th/5th of November is the last weekend of half term, at least in my part of the world!

 

[Spike]

Nah you get used to it. I often take a nap next to the shell racks on some firing sites.

Until one misfires

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

Even the remote possibility that the park might improve under Merlin has long, long since sunk. And that was before the Smiler incident.

As far as 2017 is concerned although the fall in the pound will deter foreign holidays and increase the popularity of domestic short breaks and days out this is likely to be offset by the inevitable reduction in consumer spending power due to inflation next year. Thus continued lower attendance, more cuts, redundancies, continued ride closures etc.

The point above however pales compared to the implication of the park's safety reputation being in tatters. Do they honestly ever expect attendance to come even nearly close to 2010 levels after a crash on one of the park's rides resulted in the amputation of two women's legs? What will be on consumer's minds when they see an advert for SW8 in 2018? If the crash isn't the first thing it will definitely be second. If this isn't a major concern for Merlin then they are naive as EVERYONE in Britain knows what happened at Alton Towers in 2015.

They will likely regain a lot of previous guests over the coming years who have been off put since the incident but they will have a hard time convincing anybody new to come and visit the park especially people from further afield in the UK. This is an inevitability when your reputation as been so badly tarnished by the media. They can kiss goodbye to the hope of averaging 3 million visitors year on year by the start of the next decade which means more price rises and upselling to maintain profitability.

Expect more of the same in 2017 or be even more bitterly disappointed that this mere shadow-of-its-former-self 'theme' park is barely scraping mediocrity in this day and age after achieving so much in the 1980's and 90's.