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Christmas 2022

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Alton Towers can be so frustrating at times. You’d think they would want to build on these events year on year.

But this year they have reduced the size of the market, cut way back on entertainment and Lightopia is in a state.

Hardly encourages people to visit year after year. Christmas is a time when people like to have ‘traditions’, do it well and you can build repeat visitation. Keep cutting away and people won’t bother next year, they will just think ‘well what will be worse next time? Let’s just not bother’.
 
Was going to pop up this year for lightopia but seeing the state of those and the reviews I will save myself the journey.
 
Already spent £110 to visit here - family of 4 with two MAPs - I wish they gave the option to cancel and refund. Having been to Winter Wonderland at Energylandia two weekends ago, feel like this is going to be a massive letdown. Energylandia really tried and the lights were great, the majority of rides were open. What rides are AT offering - just Hex if that's actually operating and I'll have to have my annual ride on Spinball Whizzer just to waste some time and not feel totally ripped off. Seeing the footage at Europa as well - why are UK parks so bad at Christmas events?
 
Meister71 said:
Already spent £110 to visit here - family of 4 with two MAPs - I wish they gave the option to cancel and refund. Having been to Winter Wonderland at Energylandia two weekends ago, feel like this is going to be a massive letdown. Energylandia really tried and the lights were great, the majority of rides were open. What rides are AT offering - just Hex if that's actually operating and I'll have to have my annual ride on Spinball Whizzer just to waste some time and not feel totally ripped off. Seeing the footage at Europa as well - why are UK parks so bad at Christmas events?
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It’s very clear that not all the rides are open at AT, if you’ve booked you should know what you are paying for. They’ve never opened all the rides at Christmas.
The main draw is Lightopia, not the rides.
 
I will be going on Sunday just to experience how good or bad it actually is. I am not encouraged by what I have seen on YouTube and read on here and Twitter, but this has happened to me before with Towers events - fairly negative coverage but the actual experience turned out to be not as bad as it was made out to be. Ultimately, the your experience at an event is what you make of it - but having said that if there isn't much there to begin with then it's hard to make a good experience!

I cannot believe that there is zero entertainment at the event. I mean, if you don't have entertainment and roaming actors during a Christmas event, when do you?

I fully understand recruitment issues, but on the face of it this seems to have been a conscious decision to not have entertainment full stop, and not just have a few actors/shows based on the actors they could hire - at least that would've been something! Over the last year or so, they've made a big thing of Sir Algenon and the dodo and other characters (Sir A even made an appearance in this years fireworks) which has in my mind created the beginnings of a sort of brand mascot - even if they were roaming around it would be something and would be in-keeping with all their other appearances in this year's events!
 
jon81uk said:
It’s very clear that not all the rides are open at AT, if you’ve booked you should know what you are paying for. They’ve never opened all the rides at Christmas.
The main draw is Lightopia, not the rides.
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Yes I know what is open (or purported to be open) but my point was not about ride availability but the quality of the offering compared to European parks. Energylandia probably has the same amount of lights as Lightopia - but they also have theming in every corner of the park. Alton Towers from the picture posted are not presenting a quality option and this is despite not offering a full park opening of rides so their event should have options re staffing and budget to be better but it would appear it is of lesser value and presentation.
 
I visited on Saturday and I have to say I was slightly disappointed with the event compared to last year which was so good.

The market and food choice is a lot smaller this year, last year the markets were all up towers street with the food all on the temp flooring at the bottom, this year it’s all in that one area, which does make it a little cramp.

The layout is also odd this year, partly because of the new Lightopia layout. If you walk from Hex towards mutiny bay you have to walk all the way towards the Skyride out the entrance and then back in showing your wristband agsin to get to the rides in mutiny bay.

The exit of Lightopia is also bizzare, which sees you watching the fountain show near the hole in one golf, and then walking through the backstage path behind the goal striker (which hardly looks magical) and then all the way across the front of the lake to come out near battle galleons. But that’s because you don’t get rides with Lightopia, however if you wanted it wouldn’t be hard to do it.

However the worse thing is the removal of the ents stage, last year it was always really busy with those watching the shows, this year fountain square is a ghost town, they’re put benches there and fire pits, but it’s just a waste of time as no one is gonna sit in the cold for nothing. It’s just a shame that we can have amazing ents for Oktoberfest and then nothing for Xmas. It definitely feels like the ents budget has just been stretched across the season with no extra cash.

The infrastructure isn’t great either. As a day guess you park in the main car park, but there is no monorail and the buses are only for the hotels, so you’ve got to walk to the park entrance and back, which isn’t ideal in the cold winter nights and then pay £6 for it.

Lightopia is definitely a downgrade on last year, it felt more sparse and some of the decorations should be in the bin and not on display, if I was Alton Towers I wouldn’t be impressed with the state of some of it.
 
Meister71 said:
Yes I know what is open (or purported to be open) but my point was not about ride availability but the quality of the offering compared to European parks. Energylandia probably has the same amount of lights as Lightopia - but they also have theming in every corner of the park. Alton Towers from the picture posted are not presenting a quality option and this is despite not offering a full park opening of rides so their event should have options re staffing and budget to be better but it would appear it is of lesser value and presentation.
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My view on UK vs Euro parks is that European parks have a head start on ours. By that I mean that traditionally, there has always been Christmas markets in european towns for as long as I can remember (I don't know the history but I suspect they go back hundreds of years in some cases) and obviously that has fed into the theme parks opening up and putting on events over the recent decades (I'm assuming here that the likes of Europa Park have been doing Christmas for years and years). Here in the UK, in comparison Christmas markets etc in towns and cities (as we know them now) are a relatively new thing and therefore theme parks are beginning to cotton on and are playing catch-up. Traditionally, UK theme parks have never opened properly over Winter and Christmas. There could also be a societal element at play too - I always view europeans as more keen to put on and attend events like this compared to us relatively conservative UK public. You can see that in the Oktoberfest events and how they celebrate compared to us!

Remember this is only Towers' second proper public Christmas event of recent times and while this year there is clearly budgetary constraints in place and as you say there's an apparent value for money issue, in the bigger picture they really are just dipping their toe in the water. If they continue opening a Christmas event and in 10 or 15 years time it's still like this and not on par with the likes of Europa Park, then I think there is reason to be concerned!
 
Wonder why there are less market stalls this year. Did towers reduce the number of plots available or did traders not want to go there perhaps
 
GaryH said:
Wonder why there are less market stalls this year. Did towers reduce the number of plots available or did traders not want to go there perhaps
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My guess would be that many of last year’s market traders were put off as at times they were getting very little trade. A confusing ticketing system probably put off a lot of people from visiting.

It’s a shame, as you only really get one chance to attract traders with a new event. Now many probably just won’t want to take the chance and go elsewhere.
 
I think charging £6 to park will put a lot of the locals and older people who may have just visited for the markets as well, and have no interest in the rides or Lightopia. Especially when you are sent to park in the main car park and then walk to and from the park.

Also knowing towers they are probably charging a fortune to have a stall there, some unless you are selling something people want or you have good profit margins then you’ll probably struggle to make any money.
 
Did they not use the express parking area last year for all guests?

Backwards thinking with the parking charge, should be free for this type of event. Given there's a Christmas market around every corner of the UK, can't blame traders for going elsewhere.

Bets on the 2023 event being mothballed/back to hotel guests only!
 
James said:
Did they not use the express parking area last year for all guests?

Backwards thinking with the parking charge, should be free for this type of event. Given there's a Christmas market around every corner of the UK, can't blame traders for going elsewhere.

Bets on the 2023 event being mothballed/back to hotel guests only!
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No but we managed to sneak in last year - we pulled into the express parking entrance genuinely thinking we were parking there (assuming the main car park wasn't being used) and the attendant said we couldn't. She said to exit (and turn around) down at the entrance monorail station and my other half said "F**k that, I'm not walking all that way in this weather, carry on into Express Parking!" (it was the weekend after the snow storm of last December and was cold, wet and windy). The EP carpark was about 3/4 full. We found a space and never got questioned on leaving or returning to the car at various times during the afternoon.

Parking should be free - it's the season of goodwill after all - there is no need to charge at all other than to make a quick £.

My cynical mind is saying this downgrade of this years event is intentional so when decisions are made for events next year, there is justification not to do Christmas 2023 because 2022's attendance was low(er than 2021). I hope I'm proved wrong!

If it did get scrapped, it would be such a shame as there is potential for the Christmas event at Towers to be huge! Imagine the size of the market if it covered the entire lawns, or even if stalls were placed around the paths circling the lawns and lake. Get a raised platform put in over the lake and turn it into an ice rink - imagine that - skating "on" the lake in front of the Towers! It really could be the [Hyde Park] Winter Wonderland of the midlands - they're over halfway there already: they have all the rides ready to run and a permanent magical landscape that would take very little to turn it Christmassy!
 
Steve74 said:
If it did get scrapped, it would be such a shame as there is potential for the Christmas event at Towers to be huge! Imagine the size of the market if it covered the entire lawns, or even if stalls were placed around the paths circling the lawns and lake
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I really don't think there is that much of an appetite for a market in such a remote location. Even if parking is free its still a few hours drive for most people when there are established markets in Birmingham and Manchester.

I think thats why AT got together with Lightopia, to offer something that is a bit different but as Dan pointed out the poor storage of the lights hasn't helped them.

The parks that have big Christmas events still offer a majority of their ride line-up and several shows.

The show is probably the biggest missing element at AT, used to be quite a strong part of Santa's Sleepover I thought that there was a panto included.
 
Its an shame the event does not seem as good as last years from the reviews. I was planning a visit but its a long way for me and from what i have seen it does not look worth it this time. Personally I think using lightopia lets them down, they seem to reuse the same lanterns each time and are often quite tacky. Seeing the state of them in those lantern images above is lazy. Alton Towers is a great location for a light show and illuminated lanterns.

I have visited and filmed every Longleat Festival of Light and those lanterns are different each time with most built on site, they are on a different level to lightopia and really are outstanding. Longleat are not without their problems as they have been letting in way too many people this year causing mass overcrowding and many complaints.

The placement of some of the lanterns at Alton this year look just awful from the videos. I still really hope Alton keep with a Christmas event and expand and make improvements.
 
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Visited yesterday and agree with previous posts with it not being as good as last year. Lightopia felt like there was less than last year and as mentioned a lot of props dirty or not lit up. All outdoor rides were closed due to the cold when we got there at 2 and didn't reopen, making the lineup even more limited. Glad we have annual passes. The rides were so quiet towards the end of the day that we had Hex completely to ourselves and pretty sure there was no one else on Gangsta Granny either as it seemed the whole ride system had stopped waiting for riders. Think we were the only guests in the whole of TWODW by the looks of it. At least felt that way. Overall still an enjoyable day but so much more potential wasted I think.
 
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