• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Fireworks 2018

Because of the wind, on the Saturday, it was raining down over the audience with bits of fireworks :eek:

bluesonichd said:
The show was geat.
The fire. !
:eek:
And all rounded off with the last ride on Nemmy with the staff
What a way to end the year
Feeling quite emotional

That could be the tiredness and hangover tho :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Was you there last night? The Blade was still running around 9.20pm, look like there was staff on it screaming "again, again!" :D
 
Loved the show, operations were also really well handled so a huge congratulations to staff this weekend.
 
I can also say as part of that operations team last year I'm proud of you all and miss you, it can be scary at times managing that amount of people especially when a couple thousand are staring you down wanting to get on the rides behind you.
 
RoyJess said:
Was you there last night? The Blade was still running around 9.20pm, look like there was staff on it screaming "again, again!" :D
Click to expand...
what a silly question :D of course I was, had to stand at the exit with puppy dog eyes and sad face till they took pity on my and let me back on the last train. :p
 
If I'm being honest, operations weren't the best. Congo river rapids had multiple empty boats and the ones that were filled only contained 1 group so you had in some cases only 1 person in a boat. This policy I would understand if there was no queue but it was 40 minutes, which made it quite frustrating. Ride queues elsewhere moved very slowly including rita which was dispatching every 2 minutes, with almost half the train being for fastrack.

Another incredibly annoying thing was how the car park charge was being operated. The barriers were all up so you didn't need to pay to to through (nobody was even checking you paid). However, a staff member sold us the £6 ticket earlier on in the day, knowing how there wasn't a car park charge that day. I feel a bit ripped to be quite honest.
 
TPC said:
If I'm being honest, operations weren't the best.
Click to expand...

I thought they were good this weekend considering this is the fireworks weekend, the busiest weekend of the season, you expect it to be busy. I initially thought I might have just got lucky on the Saturday, but also manage to do the amount of rides the next day. The ride operations have been worse on the quieter days this season.

I agree about the rapids, the boats could have been filled up with more people and they should take those stupid wheel covers off saying that the boat is having a nap, complete BS as they are still being sent around the rapids even though they are empty. Saying that, I didn't have to wait too long to queue for the rapids yesterday (a modest 5 mins). I should imagine the queue would have got longer later on in the day.
 
I didn't take many pics, but here are just a few that I took, I didn't take any of the actual fireworks, should be plenty posted on social media and I'm sure that you can find a video of them on youtube or facebook.

U6Zhu9F.jpg


QbBCNLE.jpg


L22EbX8.jpg


m7bWjpa.jpg


IUcFw1F.jpg




Testing the sound for the fireworks in the morning, they tried to drown out the sound by playing the turnstiles entrance
music as loudly as possible. I could swear that I could hear some colourful language coming from the Ropers house hold o_O

And my very last ride of the season

62psHCz.jpg
 
I'm not surprised there were some idiots who complained that it 'encourages trespassing'... :rolleyes: oh get a life you silly pointless people
As for the show, the story was a little trippy wasn't it? Wondering in to the woods at night, trespassing in to some ruins and bumping in to an old man who provides you with a magical experience... I'll buy in to it I guess.
I think it overall it was a nice display with some great looking shells from Jubilee, far better than the awful voice overs and enthusiast fan service that was given last year. We did still get the usual pop music nonsense with little mix and stormzy tracks somehow representing some of the coasters at Towers, so I get why some people think it's awful in that sense. The finale I thought was really nice though, and the figure standing up on the scaffolding was a nod back to the old Tussauds shows, which were a lot more theatrical. If the whole display had followed the Wickerman and Finale style, I think it would be a lot better received.

It's a step in the right direction from the ents team overall, who I think are now aware of how poorly received shows have been over the years, but it requires a lot of improvement, and needs to focus more on Alton Towers rather than cramming in tracks that everyone already hears either on radio or every time they walk out the door. I don't mean the whole thing has to be classical or have ride music tracks, I just think it's got to be a little more out of the box with music track choices, and I think having melodies or instrumentals is the best way to do it. Even if they played some chillout or DnB, I'd be satisfied, so long as it fits with the story of the show. A whole display themed to Nemesis, with giant flapping tentacles and Phalanx weaponry shooting out fire would be cool. Or even a display that is centered around the Talbot family. The IMAscore track at the end which had a different take on ITHOTMK was a breath of fresh air after 7 years of constantly having the same ending to each display too.
RoyJess said:
Testing the sound for the fireworks in the morning, they tried to drown out the sound by playing the turnstiles entrance
music as loudly as possible. I could swear that I could hear some colourful language coming from the Ropers house hold o_O
Click to expand...
Arghh, not the Ropers, I'd almost forgotten they existed... having to think back in to the 00s when everyone was ranting on about them! ...I guess that by now they've either dropped dead or finally given in to their lawsuit costs. I remember a long time ago, back in the days when we used the other Alton Towers forum, where everyone would find creative ways of making them pay for all the problems they caused. Turning their house in to a walkthrough attraction, building a ride over the top of their cottage. It was a very fun thing to be involved in...
 
TPC said:
Another incredibly annoying thing was how the car park charge was being operated. The barriers were all up so you didn't need to pay to to through (nobody was even checking you paid). However, a staff member sold us the £6 ticket earlier on in the day, knowing how there wasn't a car park charge that day. I feel a bit ripped to be quite honest
Click to expand...

There were “complaints” in Facebook comments about this form last year and people asking if the need to pay for parking this year. The office line is that random checks are done. Therefore you still need to pay for parking, but at the busy time after fireworks the barriers will be up and you might be able to risk not paying.
 
Just because they didn’t check your ticket doesn’t mean the charge isn’t valid.

They don’t always check tickets on trains but you are still supposed to have one.

Having said that you now know for future years that you don’t need a ticket for fireworks night because they don’t check them (because they want to keep the traffic moving), so you will save some cash next year.
 
AT86 said:
Just because they didn’t check your ticket doesn’t mean the charge isn’t valid.

They don’t always check tickets on trains but you are still supposed to have one.

Having said that you now know for future years that you don’t need a ticket for fireworks night because they don’t check them (because they want to keep the traffic moving), so you will save some cash next year.
Click to expand...
Unless you get unlucky and get picked as one of the random checks they do
I guess even then I guess you will only get charged the £6 you would have paid :rolleyes:
 
I only saw the show on Sunday this year but I was impressed. The story was not the strongest but it did work however the fireworks and lighting were fantastic; the far better than the last two or three years!

There was a good mix of music with a nice remix of the Wicker Man soundtrack and a different version of ITHOTMK for the finale. There also seemed to be more fireworks than in previous years which made a change. The ground will shake effect made a return and the amount of fire effects was a sight to behold!

It certainly made up for what I would consider as a poor Scarefest!

I also thought that the park coped pretty well on Sunday. We got in to Woodcutters at peak lunch time with only a wait of a minuite or two for a table to be cleared. Queues were not overly horrendous and the park was not hellish to be in.

:)
 
Thoroughly enjoyed the display - the lighting and fire effects were fantastic and was a fan of the ground cannons being used too.

Loved the mix of music, particularly the ITHOTMK stuff at the start and finale - both sounded really really good. Definutely need to continue using actors as well even if the story was weak and a bit woolly.

Operations were pretty good considering the lack of baggage holds and single rider on most rides now. Could still be improved but things seemed to be running as smoothly as possible and I managed all 7 of the major coasters on Sunday with the only long wait being Wicker Man at 90 mins. Also thumbs up to Th13teen who gave the whole train an extra ride in the dark before they closed for the fireworks show!
 
TPC said:
Another incredibly annoying thing was how the car park charge was being operated. The barriers were all up so you didn't need to pay to to through (nobody was even checking you paid). However, a staff member sold us the £6 ticket earlier on in the day, knowing how there wasn't a car park charge that day. I feel a bit ripped to be quite honest.
Click to expand...

Same thing happened to me on WM opening (Diabolic day) Got off ride around 8pm, paid for parking only to find the barriers up with no one around. I thought "You robbing little *****."
 
  • Like
Reactions: TPC
TPC said:
Another incredibly annoying thing was how the car park charge was being operated. The barriers were all up so you didn't need to pay to to through (nobody was even checking you paid). However, a staff member sold us the £6 ticket earlier on in the day, knowing how there wasn't a car park charge that day. I feel a bit ripped to be quite honest.
Click to expand...

Why do you feel a bit ripped off? :confused:

You enter the car park expecting to pay £6 to exit anyway, whether the barrier was up or down, or parking tickets collected or not.

The people that should be feeling rip off are the Hotel guest, Premium MAP and VIP MAP holders that get free parking as part of their package which has already cost a premium, only to find out that people are leaving the car park unchecked whether they have paid for parking or not o_O
 
It’s always the same during fireworks.

They used to have signs up saying random checks would take place for parking. I don’t think they ever do, as they want to get as many people out of the resort as quick as possible. Having barriers down would just slow it down so much.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top