Farm Potential

[GAGrathea]

So the other day, for the first time in over a season, I took a ride on Squirrel nutty - which is still mostly looking great!

But it got me thinking about how much potential the Farm now has for future developments. Obviously it's been considered before with the failed Shrek 4D plans, but with the significant amount of space provided by the ice tent and the Beastie's old ride area behind it (which we know is being kept in place to use as a bartering chip in future planning).

You could get a really decent-sized family attraction in that area, possibly involving a retheme of the farm (though I wouldn't want to see the animals go ).

Should the farm be developed, and what would you want to see there?

 

[PeteA]

It does have great potential. The farm area, when you take the Dung Heap, River Bank Eye Spy, Berry Bish Bash and all the way down to the tractors is a large area. Couple that with the old Beastie site and even Spinball and you have a huge area.

However, as other Merlin re-theming projects have shown us, they seem to take the existing structres and just retheme rather than demolish and rebuild (Dark Forest, Mutiny Bay and to a point Wild Asia at Chessington). Therefore

On a side note, I was always a little surprised that audio has never been added into the Squirrel Nutty cars. Would have made the ride quite magical.

 

[Olly]

We have a potential site that is larger than Forbidden Valley. It will be interesting to see how it will develop, if Alton's target market is families, then it won't be too long until changes occur.

 

[BigAl]

I thought the same after walking around the area on Sunday. There are many things that Alton Towers could do with those two areas. Personally, I'd like to see them added to rather than being changed as they're both great areas and it would cost more to add new attractions as well as to retheme the existing ones.

A new kiddie coaster as a replacement of the Beastie is an absolute must. They could either build one where the tent is, where the Beastie is or over the two sites and make the ride bigger (although that means that shows couldn't return in that area in the future).

I even tried my hand at designing a coaster (themed to a bunny rampaging around a garden as a nod to the Peter Rabbit ice show that I loved as a child) to fit where the tent is:

More photos here.


If a new coaster went either there then a new flat ride could be purchased for the Beastie location. Personally, I love some of Gerstlauer's theming proposals for their Sky Roller:

The Sky Roller's height limit is 1.25 meters as well, so it I think it would fit with with Sonic Spinball quite well, plus there's nothing like it at Alton Towers or anywhere else in the UK either. Dr Robotnic, Dr Eggman or Tales theming, anyone?


I also strolled around the farm and wondered why there couldn't be more real animals too. A new petting area would help to draw families with younger children in, although there was the issue of how Alton dealt with the old farm during the foot and mouth outbreak over a decade ago. I also wouldn't mind seeing River Bank Eye Spy cleaned up and adding to / improving the Dung Heap playground to make it more impressive might be a good idea as well.


Either way, the two areas need fixing up, even if neither get rethemed or combined, etc...

 

[Olly]

That would be perfect. The Sky Roller seems very Phantasialandesque

 

[BigAl]

Thanks!


I also think that the farm might benefit from a new ride. I know that Zamperla make a spinning barn themed ride that might fit in at Alton Towers if it was modified to look less like a fairground ride and was a bit bigger:

Perhaps something like this?

 

[Rob]

I was also thinking about this whilst at Towers last week. It's clear that Towers are looking at the farm as an area of development after 2011's failings with Shrek so I would not be surprised to see changes to the farm in the coming years.

When walking past the Dung Heap site it made me realise that it is of a considerable size. Now we all know that the Dungheap is pretty useless (although I have have fun in there at times ), so losing it would be no great loss. In my opinion it would be the perfect site for a new kids coaster. You would have enough room for a decent layout, some nice theming, a decent queueline etc. I think they'd be much better off putting a new kids coaster here than where the Beastie currently sleeps as there seems to be much more space. The only downside to this is that Towers may feel that the site is a bit out of the way and that people may not find it so easily. Still, I think the site has great potential.

 

[Ben]

the farm and adventureland combined are a MASSIVE space, which could really have some impressive rides added.

But the farm is a guilty little secret of mine, its so well themed, the attractions are excellent for kids and I love that it has live animals.
The dung heap is a wasted space as is the beastie area - a few small kiddie flats (such as the barn big al posted) would be a great addition, a nice linked walk way could be set up. Perhaps a big circus tent, have it as if the circus is visiting the farm. It could be very lovely.

 

[Danny]

I'd love to see Adventure Land, Storybook Land and the farm combined to form a great family area. Or at least something similar to Big Al's coaster becoming a reality. That looks like it has the potential to be a little family coaster gem right there

 

[Scott]

the farm is a guilty little secret of mine

I think that is the entire problem!

It's a little secret gem in Towers that most people forget about. Yes, it always has families and kids running around it, but how many people really know much about it? The whole area is usually bypassed by lots of people as it is not exactly widely advertised and shouted about by the park...

I wouldn't want it to become something major, but I also think the fact it is hidden away keeps Towers from investing too much into it. I'd love to see some big changes to breathe in some new life, but maybe the whole area is just too hidden for it to seem worth it?

 

[Rob]

I wouldn't want it to become something major, but I also think the fact it is hidden away keeps Towers from investing too much into it. I'd love to see some big changes to breathe in some new life, but maybe the whole area is just too hidden for it to seem worth it?

That is why I think we will see the area re-themed with an IP of some sorts. Merlin/Towers will have seen the success of Thomas Land at Drayton and Peppa Pig World at Paultons amongst other projects and probably see this as the way forward when it comes to kids areas. If kids see that a new area at Alton Towers is themed around one of their favourite TV shows or something like that they won't stop trying to get their parents to take them.

 

[Scott]

I agree, though I would hope they would pick an IP with the potential to last for a long time and also which does not cost too much... The last thing that anyone would want to happen is a repeat of Charlie across a whole area of the park. It's one reason why I am glad Shrek never happened... The license for it cannot be cheap and how much life does the franchise itself truly have left?

 

[Ben]

Regarding people not knowing it, I think its perhaps the location of the farm.

You come down towers street and its almost like going back on yourself to get to the farm its at a funny angle. And its quite a long thin area too.

Im not an IP fan - I like parks to be about leaving the every day stuff at home, but I realise they have been incredibly successful for other parks and ice age had been a great hit. But lets not forget alton got burnt with Charlie.

 

[Rob]

Im not an IP fan - I like parks to be about leaving the every day stuff at home, but I realise they have been incredibly successful for other parks and ice age had been a great hit. But lets not forget alton got burnt with Charlie.

Same here, I really dislike IPs as they take something away from a theme park and lack some originality. However for family/kids areas like the farm I do unfortunately feel that IPs are the way forward purely because they will attract more people. I just hope Towers or Merlin don't think that big coasters need to have IPs as well. As I said in another topic, Towers has a great reputation of adding top class coasters and this in itself is enough to attract guests; Thirteen proved this. So IPs for family areas I can just about cope with now, it's if everything starts becoming an IP where I will object.

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

Let's not forget that, to a certain extent, they did use IP's in that area of the park back in the 90's.

Obviously there was Brer Rabbit on Ice, but the whole of Stoybook Land was also loosely based on several of Beatrix Potter's storybooks; "Ginger and Pickles" for the shop and "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin" clearly the inspiration for Squirrel Nutty's Ride.

Clearly what is needed is something which is uniquely British just like Alton Towers, as oppose to the more generic American IP animations like Shrek.

 

[EuroSatch]

the farm and adventureland combined are a MASSIVE space, which could really have some impressive rides added.

But the farm is a guilty little secret of mine, its so well themed, the attractions are excellent for kids and I love that it has live animals.
The dung heap is a wasted space as is the beastie area - a few small kiddie flats (such as the barn big al posted) would be a great addition, a nice linked walk way could be set up. Perhaps a big circus tent, have it as if the circus is visiting the farm. It could be very lovely.

Agreed, the farm is a gem of an area, and so well themed. It is quintessentially English but with a touch of kookiness to create a feel of escapism for the children. However, this is ruined by Dung Heap and the huge dirty and abandoned ice-tent.

It has huge potential, and a massive footprint could be overhauled bordered by Spinball, Squirell Nutty and the Farm main. A new, fresh kiddies coaster would be ideal - considering Towers have not built a customer kiddies coaster since RMT, and even that is too intense for this audience - which would really help to bring an identity to the area. Adventureland - if it is even called that still - is so incongruous with the rest of that side of the park, but it could easily be incorporated with a continuation of Storybook Land into the Farm

 

[djtruefitt]

The farm is really nice but it does feel a bit hiden and doesnt have a major attraction to draw kids or families there. The dung heap is a waste of space and my local park has better things than it. You could put a nice decent farm themed ride in there. Apart from that I think the rest of the farm works well and I wouldnt really want to see anything go, maybe a few more animals around would be nice however!

 

[Dave]

I personally think the farm should stay, i really think it is the best themed area of the park and has a definite spark of magic. Personally i would like to see the Dung Heap go and be replaced by something more fitting for the area.

A well done re-theme of Adventure land and Storybook land could see more obvious signage that the farm exists beyond these two areas.

 

[Aly]

I love the concept of the Farm, and think it should be expanded upon as it's a great area for families. One thing that does sadden me is the standard of the area these days. If you take a look the next time you visit the area is actually failling to bits! There's massives bits of thatch roofing missing from some of the buldings, on the wooden clag buildings next Riverbank, there is chunks of wood either missing or falling off buildings, paint is flaking, and the whole area just screams 'maintain me!'.

With a lot of TLC, and a few new rides and concepts injected into the area you could have a really well theme 'mini park' which could form part of a closed season line-up which could tap into the market Drayton have captured so well with Thomas Land!

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

The farm is a great corner of the park, but when you look at Thomas Land it really does pale in comparison and actually looks a bit embarrassing.

Something like Troublesome Trucks would be perfect (but with a farm theme) on the site of Dung Heap and a few more well themed flats (if there's space) to the standard of Doodle Doo Derby would complete the area.

The Ice Age and Beastie sites should remain a part of Adventureland/Storybook and if they arn't going to give us a new show they really need to look at building a dark ride here (a transit system like Duel) with some kind of enchanted theme. Probably aimed at children, but it could be broaddened for the whole family. They got complaints from locals due to the the noise of the Ice Show so let's face it anything here would realistically need to be enclosed anyway.

This side of the park massively lacks in indoor attractions nowadays, with both Black Hole and the Ice Show gone. If you size the land up here it could fit Charlie or even Duel on it with space to spare! It's a much larger site than you think!