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Goodbye Blade…

Alphe86 said:
The thing is, it’s perfectly normal for theme parks to invest heavily to stand still. If you don’t.. you fall backwards.
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Totally agree. Some really odd business decisions have been happening over the last few years.
Blackstone are known to be ruthless demanding significant ROI.

Maybe they aren’t getting this from Merlin.

And maybe it’s a case that Alton is the park Merlin can skim down operations and costs (let’s face it - theyve already done it at Thorpe and Chess)

Could it be significant investment is only made going forward once things are, well, dead. Like Chessington?

Just seems to be there is more to this behind the scenes. They are making strategic choices to penalise Alton.

You don’t damage your own product unless you’ve got no choice….
 
Funny thing is that if you don't include Blade in the close list and if was just the Dungeons and Flavio going, no one would batter an eyelid and in some ways it's understandable why they are gone.

Flavio was, IIRC, never Towers' ride in the first place and Dungeons was just a waste of space that was a poor investment all round albeit it was born out of desperate times following the Smiler incident and it's ironic many are bemoaning about capacity but Dungeons had literally no footfall and was more of a hindrance than anything never once helping the park's struggling capacity and will make no difference when it's gone so honestly no harm them other than an empty building that is ripe for a proper investment but I'm going off topic from Blade here.

I always felt that, if you weren't to include Galactica, Forbidden Valley with one coaster, two flat rides and a dark ride would be what I'd considered a 'complete' area for the park but Blade going does ruin that plan.

The only hope that knowing what's happened here that they'll bring out those two or one flat rides for half way during the season to at least address capacity issues. After all, Towers did open Sub Terra half way during the previous season and I'm certain Hex would have been the same during the summer not literally the last few days of the season were it not for whatever issues it was having. After all, it isn't hard to install a flat ride on something like the Enterprise or Submission sites so in theory it's possible we might see something new for later next summer.

Just trying to have a cool head here which honestly with emotions running high we're all guilty of that one way or the other.
 
QTXAdsy said:
Funny thing is that if you don't include Blade in the close list and if was just the Dungeons and Flavio going, no one would batter an eyelid and in some ways it's understandable why they are gone.

Flavio was, IIRC, never Towers' ride in the first place and Dungeons was just a waste of space that was a poor investment all round albeit it was born out of desperate times following the Smiler incident and it's ironic many are bemoaning about capacity but Dungeons had literally no footfall and was more of a hindrance than anything never once helping the park's struggling capacity and will make no difference when it's gone so honestly no harm them other than an empty building that is ripe for a proper investment but I'm going off topic from Blade here.

I always felt that, if you weren't to include Galactica, Forbidden Valley with one coaster, two flat rides and a dark ride would be what I'd considered a 'complete' area for the park but Blade going does ruin that plan.

The only hope that knowing what's happened here that they'll bring out those two or one flat rides for half way during the season to at least address capacity issues. After all, Towers did open Sub Terra half way during the previous season and I'm certain Hex would have been the same during the summer not literally the last few days of the season were it not for whatever issues it was having. After all, it isn't hard to install a flat ride on something like the Enterprise or Submission sites so in theory it's possible we might see something new for later next summer.

Just trying to have a cool head here which honestly with emotions running high we're all guilty of that one way or the other.
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It makes two parts of the park now exclusively for the >1.4m crowd which just seems a little unbalanced. Only incentive for “smaller” people now in X Sector and X Sector But Red is the shops.
 
Skyscraper said:
Or, even slimmer, the theatre/4D cinema could return.
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I’m sure I read somewhere it’s being used for storage. It will be no surprise if it’s in a bad state. But it needs seats.

Given the AV team have finished hex. Getting a 3D projector, audio system and maybe some effects seems a doddle.

Go and buy an off the shelf 3D film and away you go. Perfect June opening attraction.
 
This is sad news. I agree with all that’s been said, also…

It’s not just that there’s nothing for the sub-1.4 crowd in those areas, but there’s nothing that bridges the gap between tame rides and extreme. It was rides like blade, enterprise and energizer that I very much used as stepping stones towards building the courage to ride something bigger.

My daughter, now 5, will have a hard time transitioning to something like Thi3teen or Spinball from octonaughts and RMT. Blade is an excellent example of a ride that makes your tummy tickle a little, it’s got a good height to it and it’s exciting…

Big shame. Not sure what to take her on next.
 
Now, hear me out for a moment...

but...

I do wonder if we could see the park sell The Blade on.

Whilst I appreciate the narrative of 'the end of its technical life' - the context of a ride reaching the 'end of technical life' in the UK's busiest theme park is very different to reaching 'end of technical life', full stop. It would certainly not be the first time that a ride labelled as at the end of it's working life at Alton Towers, has subsequently re-emerged elsewhere and still operates to this day - see Blackhole, Dynamo, Boneshaker, The Beastie, etc.

Given the ride is actually still operational (i.e. it was running 2 weeks ago), you could see a scenario where Merlin flog it on to a smaller park (or to a showman, given it is still technically a travelling model) for a knockdown price to run until it reaches its real end of life. As discussed earlier in the year, The Blade is nowhere near the oldest - it might not even have been in the top ten oldest - operating Huss Pirats.

So it would definitely be worth them exploring the possibility of getting something for it, rather than just absorbing a scrappage cost.
 
I don’t see any of it as good news at all. Yes go ahead and install a new ride but you’re taking 2 out and closing the dungeons (which are cr*p but still has a ride in it). The park has even less rides yet they’ll promote the new ride and how amazing the park is. When they now only have one thrill flat. Again.

One step forward, three steps back, quite literally.
 
Danscott22 said:
we’ll get a new pirate ship in 9 years time called Blades Revenge in exactly the same space but rotated 90 degrees and everyone will be so incredibly thrilled about it
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At the same time they will demolish everything else in the Valley.
 
Mi-Nigle said:
My daughter, now 5, will have a hard time transitioning to something like Thi3teen or Spinball from octonaughts and RMT. Blade is an excellent example of a ride that makes your tummy tickle a little, it’s got a good height to it and it’s exciting…

Big shame. Not sure what to take her on next.
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Yep, this sis exact the same with me. My 6 year old is bored by Cebeebies but has almost nothing to step up to. There is no way I'd take her to Towers now, it'd be a wasteof time. It's not really a family park with the chasm in the middle.
 
Blade's been knackered for a while sadly so it's no surprise that it has gone. Having said that, unless they have plans for a smaller swinging ship for next season, I don't think removing it now was the best call to make. Perhaps if they waited another year or two until they had plans in place for an immediate replacement, for capacity's sake.
 
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