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Do they ever want Alton Towers to recover?

T

themeparkfan

TS Member
I know it sounds silly to ask. However the last few times I have visited the place is busy like it should be for the time of year. Yet the staff and offering isn't up to scratch to move forward. RMT is closed with poor kids going up to ride hosts asking what is going on. Duel with hardly any effects working. Galactica down for a period then open with no VR . The staff don't seem to know how to deal with the crowds. Explorer's seemed to be in meltdown as they had hoards of customers this afternoon



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It depends how you define 'recover'.

Merlin want the place to recover finacially but in terms of quality and overall guest experience, I doubt there's much interest at board level.

It's up to the unfortunate employees at the park to do what they can with the budget set out by Merlin. Nobody at Alton Towers wants to see less staff, less attractions and increased ticket prices as it just makes everybody's jobs that much harder.

This all stems from Merlin. It comes from board members, most of whom have probably never even been to Alton Towers, that don't understand how much hard work goes into the day to day running of a park at ground level.
 
Yes but it's not impressed a lot of people RMT down. Galactica down for a lot of the summer. River rapids kept changing rules. Rita was always down when I went. Even the big new addition the zoom zoom ride had a fair bit of down time. The staff seem to get a bit flustered too

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I don't dispute that there have been issues with ride availability this year. River Rapids I don't think particularly affects people in that the rules kept changing - it only affects you in the way it is being run on the day - most people aren't visiting weekly to notice.

RMT seems to be a genuinely exceptional case. Galactica is a joke, of course.
 
Things look up with SW8 I just hope that they have the park spick and span for the new season rush of guests with plenty to do while they visit.

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MaxPower said:
Merlin want the place to recover finacially but in terms of quality and overall guest experience, I doubt there's much interest at board level.
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It kills me when people look at these two things in this way - they're not exclusive of each other. Theme parks sell a feeling - or the opportunity/tools to create one. If you offer people a sucky experience, they won't come back and it hurts you financially. They will spend their cash somewhere else. The industry is almost entirely reliant on discretionary spending.

You can't have one recovery without the other. It doesn't make any sense.
 
I often wonder how different the park would be if the Smiler crash hasn't happened. Wether or not it would be better or worse than it is today. At the end of the day the place has its faults but it's my home park and I still love it. I suppose there are better operators of parks in the world but merlin do have quite a bit of money and do invest in the parks I guess, espacially when compared to other uk parks.
 
To be fair I've been told the park was declining before the smiler crash. In regards to the forbidden valley wooden coaster I cannot see it would have been much bigger than what we are getting because they .would have had to dig down and there's not a lot of room with nemesis and the paths to galactica and rollercoaster restaurant. Also the flume was knackered so that needed replacement

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Somewhat off topic but the budget for the scrapped 2017 FV coaster was significantly more than SW8's budget. If it had happened then I think it would have been awesome, however it was strongly rumoured to have been an IP.

And of course they want Alton Towers to recover. The park seems to have had a good summer which is encouraging. A recovery is essential for the continuation of major CAPEX projects at Alton Towers.

:)
 
In that case we need to wonder what would have been in this coaster heavy area of the park for families? No flats just coaster coaster coaster bit like dark forest 2 coasters. Don't they think we should have other experiences? I suppose N;ST might have been opened but not sure?

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I personally believe what's currently being built is much more suited to the parks needs than what was planned in FV.

Alton Towers is distinctly lacking in family thrill rides like the Runaway Mine Train and that's what SW8 appears to be.

My concern at this point is that they are doing what they did with Thirteen and creating a dark, intimidating theme that won't appeal to families at all.

Hopefully they have learnt from their mistakes and will market this better.
 
Towerslover said:
I often wonder how different the park would be if the Smiler crash hasn't happened. Wether or not it would be better or worse than it is today. At the end of the day the place has its faults but it's my home park and I still love it. I suppose there are better operators of parks in the world but merlin do have quite a bit of money and do invest in the parks I guess, espacially when compared to other uk parks.
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The park had been in terminal decline for over a decade prior to the Smiler crash.

I remember the threads on the forums in 2011 during the first round of Merlins budget cuts.

It has never really recovered since then and has been on a downward slope as far as quality is concerned.
 
CoasterCrazyChris said:
The park had been in terminal decline for over a decade prior to the Smiler crash.

I remember the threads on the forums in 2011 during the first round of Merlins budget cuts.

It has never really recovered since then and has been on a downward slope as far as quality is concerned.
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Yeah. The initial 3 years of Merlin ownership looked seemingly positive, although to me it looked like they were proceeding with extreme caution. For example - investment in new themed areas, Th13teen, entertainment, Scarefest and the return of fireworks. All good on paper but none particularly impressive, its almost like they had great intentions but just wanted to be careful to see how it played out.

Then 2011 hits. Cuts, price hikes, poor investments. You name it, and its all been discussed before.

The biggest question is... Why?
 
The smiler crash has just hastened the decline

On another note were any plans of the fv coaster ever published ?
 
Jb85 said:
The smiler crash has just hastened the decline

On another note were any plans of the fv coaster ever published ?
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Nope. All "insider info" from people who have connections at the park and therefore know abosolutely nothing lol
 
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