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Christmas 2012

Zak said:
Time for towers to start investing in more indoor attractions in he next few years?
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That has already been a main aim over the past few years! Several permanent, indoor attractions have been added in recent years. However, what baffles me is that not all of them will open for February Half Term!

:eek:
 
At least one of the lifts has majorly died from what I've heard. But even so, replacing one lift can't take that long to do? Surely they could easily have it done between November and February?
 
Ian said:
At least one of the lifts has majorly died from what I've heard. But even so, replacing one lift can't take that long to do? Surely they could easily have it done between November and February?
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One of the elevators pistons have completely failed and the one next to it was on its way, I'm not 100% sure but I think once fixed they we're being re-programmed to be turbulent like on opening, yet tame enough for them to cope with the pressure. I'm not sure how long it takes to fix them and it would be nice to see it open at February with it being an extra indoor attraction, but it doesn't look like it.
 
Believe it or not, but the lifts the ride opened with had already been toned down quite a lot apparently! The original plan was to have the lifts shaking in all directions, and trying to throw guests off balance! Why they toned this down, aside from safety worries, I'll never know.

But regardless of how much work is being done I can't believe it will take them essentially 3-4 months just to repair that one part! Considering in the same time frame Hex is having a major part of the vault changed, which without it makes the ride inoperable :p

I wonder if it's simply to:

1) Cut back on FHT staff
2) Save getting actors in for the ride
 
Does this mean next season then we are going to be having toned down lifts? I also think your right about it not opening in feb because of actors. But isnt the actor's part classed as ents? and 4D is open at feb half term too isnt it? :/
 
I visit at between Christmas and New Year, and have done for the past 4 years. I will probably annoy a lot of people by saying this but I would absolutely hate it if they opened the park up to the public. At the moment the atmosphere is perfect and there is something special about being on the park when it is so quiet, it's one of the reasons I go. I stay for three nights, which I would never be able to do if more of the park was open, as they would hike up the prices. Christmas should be different to the rest of the year, I don't miss the big rides or the crowds...in fact, there seems to be more magic without them! (Sorry everybody!)
 
Here are a couple of new photos we posted to the Towers Street Facebook page this weekend:

Ice Age looking all Christmasy:
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And each weekend till Christmas these carol singers will be at the Alton Towers Hotel:
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Sub Terra should be fine to run, apparently it's winter work is all but complete (Doesn't take more than a few weeks to sort stuff out).

I imagine it's the cost of staff, by my reckoning they'd need 5 or 6 to run excluding actors. That's more than Air has!
 
I think it's around 8 staff they need for Sub-Terra. 2 for bags, 3 for batching, 2 for main chamber, 1 operator. Then when you add 2-3 actors on top of that you're at 10 (or over) members of staff!
 
I was thinking more along lines of Feb half term minimalistic - One Bags, One Batcher, Two for main chamber, One op.. Maybe a merge point unless they slow down the loading.

But either way, it'd probably be the best staffed ride in feb half term if it did actually open?
 
It's really nice wondering round park during Christmas they should make it a bigger event :)
 
thefatone said:
I was thinking more along lines of Feb half term minimalistic - One Bags, One Batcher, Two for main chamber, One op.. Maybe a merge point unless they slow down the loading.

But either way, it'd probably be the best staffed ride in feb half term if it did actually open?
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Question is could they run half the ride, eg only 2 drop towers and 1 elevator each way.
You wouldn't need actors in the ending during feb really.
 
They could do that. But it wouldn't affect staffing levels whatsoever.

The way they can reduce is by slowing down the loading - go Drayton Manor style and take one group through ride at a time. Even then they'd still need a minimum of about 4-5 staff I can imagine (Op, two hosts, baggage and maybe a batcher).

Why wouldn't you need actors at the end? Cos it's feb half term so noone cares about satisfaction? Wrong attitude there!
 
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