Just back from my visit tonight, and thought the show was absolutely superb. The theatrics, the story telling, the effects, song choice, Easter eggs etc etc
It reminded me a lot of “the first shadow” stranger things stage show for anyone who’s seen that. Ironic given the heavy influence it’s had on TCAAM and NRB
All of it was exactly Alton at its best, that blurry line between reality and fantasy.
The JW appearance, the mentions of horizon, the fireworks “appearing” to come from the nemesis area with it exploding into life, the laser sky defences, flamethrowers, the John dalton entrance and hype video, John daltons mid show explosion tarnished face, the “attack” explosions, the 2025 promo video and the “Alton towers presents ITHOMK”, the consistent broken screens and accompanying effects, the phalanx guards, the one off merch, the story videos throughout the day, the phalanx logo on the stage, the changed towers street theme. All of it pure theatre and really well done.
The best show for me since 2021 that I thought was excellent.
If this is what we can expect moving forward every few years instead of the standard “power of the towers” juke box show I’m all for it to keep things fresh.
There’s lots of other Merlin owned IP they could use, pirate takeover, beornen ritual, ministry of joy tests, algenon adventures, talbot earl experiments, Alton family new years party, Henry hound jukebox etc
The other positives for this as others have said is the permanent lighting around the park and the general organisation and execution. And at least
That was the good part of the day…
As for the latter part of the season. Even with gold fast track today we only managed Nemesis, Galactica, Wickerman, Smiler, TCAAM (still no trommel), Hex and Sharkbait Reef. I shudder to think how that would have felt for a visitor on a one off annual visit.
Hour long plus queues everywhere, queues at food outlets, cars still getting off the meadows, monorail on 2! trains with 4 sat in storage, thirteen down all day, rapids shut and large ride outages all day. This isn’t enjoyable and I shudder to think what long term damage it’s doing to the brand. At this point I’d rather they put prices up to keep numbers down instead of the current model.
The place needs 2 new attractions for a couple of seasons with few removals. When you just don’t want to do coasters all day, you are really struggling as an adult or family thrill range. The place desperately needs flat rides, dark rides, cinemas and general attractions (sea life etc) The rumour of toxicator opening and blade closing is a terrible decision.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if this is why we are seeing increased down time in the coasters, because there is nothing else and they are taking the major strain. They are machines getting used day after day.
Even from the start of the day, to arrive at the monorail to be told “don’t bother it’s an hour wait” just walk, (due to terrible capacity) is a miserable start. And as improved as the “the path” is, there is still a need for lighting throughout. Dare I say a cover? And what’s with all the harris fencing all of a sudden? It’s like arriving at a building site.
On a tangentially related topic, for the past 4 fireworks myself and a few friends have done the fireworks VIP ticket, we enjoy the warmth, food and the bells and whistles as a treat as we don’t visit that often. But much like everything else, we can honestly say the food offering post Aramark has become awful, thinking about what you could get in a real restaurant for £50ph it seems utterly absurd. Even the tea/coffee/hot chocolate have become noticeably worse and the marquee remains full of cobwebs and looks generally tired.
If this is what they are offering corporate clients it feels borderline embarrassing, although given a recent corporate visit to Warwick castle. Merlin’s event delivery appears omnishambolic from my experience.
I should add is was great to see part of towers street family restaurant bar reopen. Dear god please get it open next year, it’s a prime location that could and should be making lots of money. If they had any brains they’d add some bigger windows/balcony to the towers suite for a meal and a show offer. Giving money away. Same goes with the Swiss Cottage.
Luckily for Alton the fireworks were brilliant and covered over a lot of other large noticeable cracks. Hopefully the only way is up next season.
