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General Hotel Discussion

A nighttime entertainment option has been discussed for years and in many forms. From a Citywalk type area between the hotels and park to less ambitious adults only bars.

None of it has ever come to fruition and if you track back over the history of how the hotel entertainment offerings have evolved I think there’s actually a trend to move more and more away from catering to adult tastes. From getting rid of Dickie, to the continued dumbing down of F&B offerings and the perpetual decline of service quality and even availability of drinks (I’m thinking of the stupid queues for the bar).

It’s pretty clear to me the Merlun are not overly interested in catering for the market which would appreciate an adults only bar, decent entertainment and good service. It’s something we all want but judging from past trends it ain’t going to happen any time soon.
 
With regards the ball room/function room in ATH being away from guest rooms..... Yes and no..... I've been there when a function has been on and you can not only hear the music clearly from your room facing the lake but also the noise of people stood outside having a smoke.

Plus they kinda messed up putting the more expensive artic explorer rooms in the link corridor , the noisiest part of the hotel with guests walking through it.
 
I stayed in one of the Arctic Explorer rooms during Scarefest (our room was right next to the door for the link corridor), there was a function going on in the Conference Centre and we didn't hear a peep all night (did walk past going to Splash though and it was very loud in there). All we could hear was the Hex theme music being blasted from the back of the hotel where the Witches cauldron sits for Scarefest.

Not sure if they've added some sound insulation to the newer rooms? Or maybe I'm just deaf.

Having stayed in ATH for many years noise has always been an issue, when there's ents on the ship you can hear it all round and in various corridors/rooms, so that's perhaps why Dragon Bar isn't the best bar to keep open till late.

Saying that, are rowdy guests much of an issue at Towers? The clientele is usually quite a mixture at Towers and those who do stay for drinks are often quite civilised (apart from the odd group or two). It isn't an 18-30s holiday resort after all.

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Do some of you lot go to bed at 6pm or live in the middle of nowhere or something? Because I've always found all the accommodation at Towers to be very quiet.

Once I remember staying in the Arabian Nights room and getting a bit of noise from the ship, but all this was off by 11. In fact after 11pm, the place is pretty much silent just about everywhere. Even if the bars where open late, the odd person walking up a corridor and a tipsy person talking a little load outside whilst having a fag is about all you'd get.

Perhaps I'm being a bit of a towny here, but the odd kid running up the corridor in a family hotel whilst the ITV evening news is still on is hardly a brass band walking through your bedroom at 3am is it?

At Towers you hear no traffic noise, no boy racers revving up and doing wheel spins in 1.1ltr clios, no trains, no sirens, no refrigeration units of passing supermarket lorries, no sports fans chanting on the way back from the local boozer, no... anything really. It's actually a really quiet place, especially after the entertainment stops.
 
Unless you stay in the Moon Voyager or higher rooms expect no sleep in ATH, the exception I have found are the few rooms near the spar end, so if I dont get my free upgrade to moon voyager I stamp my feet to get one of those.
EV I rarely get a good nights sleep, Fireworks weekend the house next door were partying outside till 3:30am..
time before kids running around like insane lunatics outside at 7am !
Do they not realise old people need their beauty sleep
 
bluesonichd said:
EV I rarely get a good nights sleep, Fireworks weekend the house next door were partying outside till 3:30am..
time before kids running around like insane lunatics outside at 7am !
Do they not realise old people need their beauty sleep
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Don't say that...i've just booked EV for next years fireworks thinking it would be the quietest place

Wherever i book in the world i tend to get the cast of riverdance staying in the room above so a nice woodland lodge looked perfect:eek:
 
yoursilentface said:
Don't say that...i've just booked EV for next years fireworks thinking it would be the quietest place

Wherever i book in the world i tend to get the cast of riverdance staying in the room above so a nice woodland lodge looked perfect:eek:
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:eek: it was a nightmare, just as sleep took over out they would come again singing dancing being loud smoking their fags then silence.. just enough time to doze off ... then ! out they would come again :(
and the wooden deck outside ! much worse than kids in the corridors.. so noisy

take ear plugs, it will be fine :D
 
We had the very end room by the Spa last visit and the children in the next door room woke me up early in the morning. Think there was a tickle fight going on.
 
That's why I like camping up at the farm down the road, any noise after about 10.30 and the site owner has no issue coming down and saying "shut up or pack up and go home - now, not in the morning".

Although I always ask for a room down by the spa whenever I stay at ATH, not had many issues down that end of the hotel.
 
What theme do you think they will go with for the next ATH room retheme?
I hope they make it less dingy than the last 2!
 
Britford said:
What theme do you think they will go with for the next ATH room retheme?
I hope they make it less dingy than the last 2!
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In Merlin's defence, I wouldn't exactly class a moon voyage and the Arctic as dark themes.
 
I said dingy, as in, the actual rooms and hallways are very dark and gloomy.

I hope the 3rd set has some more colour!

I actually wouldn't mind a dark theme (maybe Transylvania or something)
 
We stopped over at the Cbeebies hotel this past weekend, and it is really good.

They are really strict on entry, no Lanyard, no entry, but I understand why this is now. The entertainment area is not as big as I was expecting, I am guessing it is big enough just for the guests in the hotel. The entertainment was good after 5pmish, the shows were 10-15 minutes long every hour, with meet and greets afterwards. Annabelle really enjoyed the shows, even getting picked to take part. You could tell the staff doing it were enjoying it as well. During the day, some of the entertainment was just the Cbeebies channel. But the little ones did not seem to mind that and I did not expect their to be 14 hours of continuous entertainment anyway.

The food at the CBeebies Hotel is really good as well, breakfast reminded me a bit of Alton Towers Hotel Breakfast in the past. One of the highlights was lunch, where we had afternoon tea, which came on a picnic bench, and was easily enough for 4 people. At £19 (£15 with AP discount) this is really good value.

The windmill restaurant is okay, you could call it a glorified Harvester, but I feel that is a little harsh as the food is better. The salad bar was good, as were the main meals. The only issue was the slow service. Not really sure what was the cause of this, and it sounded like others were having the same issue.

We stopped in the CBeebies room, and I really liked it. It was bright and colourful. Had sockets on either side of the bed, USB ports in the main sockets. Every room had a Cot, Baby Bath, Nappy Bin and bottle warmer. The bathroom is in the middle of the room, with the bunk beds nearest the door and double bed nearest the window. I liked this layout, and it felt like a good step forward from what they tried to do with the Moon Voyager rooms. The bathroom door also has the latest child friendly safety features to prevent fingers getting trapped. The hotel was really warm when we stopped as well.

The negatives/niggles with the hotel are little things, you have to go outside and walk all around to get in to ATH or Splash. From what we could tell, their is no shortcut through the Spa.

Their is the entertainment area, but no other area for the little ones to play. Yes, their is a tunnel, and a few buttons to press in reception, but I was expecting a small soft play area.

The only thing I can fault on the rooms is the lack of a demisting bathroom mirror, but maybe I just need to learn some patience :)

Overall, I really enjoyed stopping at the CBeebies hotel, and if anyone has any children under 6 I would recommend it.

The following night we stopped in the Moon Voyager room, and these are my favourite rooms to stop in (Well you could consider them dark and gloomy but I enjoy the space theme, and adventure and that is what makes me smile and remember happy memories of the room), but coming from CBeebies, the room did feel like it had seen a lot better days. The poor teddy bear in the room had lost his costume, and some of the nice to have items listed above were missing in this room.

The hotel porters deserve a big shout out here, we asked if we could stay in the CBeebies room the 2nd night to avoid moving rooms, but unfortunately it was fully booked so we had to move, but the porters did an excellent job of taking our bags from CBeebies to ATH, so thank you for that great service.

It was very strange walking past Splash Landings on the way to the RollerCoaster Restuarant for dinner, and seeing it in complete darkness, had a very eerie scarefest feel to it.

One of the good things to come from Splash being closed, and Margaritas being closed, was that in the evening, after the Pantos had finished, they turned the down stage conference area in to a giant disco area. They need to use this area all year round as it is so much better for families and worked really well.
 
Is there a way to attach pictures to a post? I want to share the disgusting state of our room for Santa’s sleep over last night
 
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