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Is Alton Towers moving away from themed areas?

Matt N said:
In reality, I think Pearson was no less business-orientated than Merlin, but they just had a very different park to work with. In the 1990s, Alton Towers was less of a player in terms of scale of lineup and theming than it is today, and Pearson had to spend more to get greater returns. We don’t know if things would have been any different to how they are now had Pearson stayed on past 1998; many even argue that Oblivion in 1998 was the start of the current Merlin-style mentality, what with its vertical drop sales hook.
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I agree with Matt here, Pearson was very business orientated they just had a different orientation and it was a different time. Pearson needed to build up both the parks line-up and reputation. It needed it to be the main attraction in the UK and so it had to have the best quality stuff. Alton Towers has already got that reputation and Merlin seem less keen on trying expand it's quality.
 
JAperson said:
I agree with Matt here, Pearson was very business orientated they just had a different orientation and it was a different time. Pearson needed to build up both the parks line-up and reputation. It needed it to be the main attraction in the UK and so it had to have the best quality stuff. Alton Towers has already got that reputation and Merlin seem less keen on trying expand it's quality.
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They don't even seem to be trying to keep the theming consistent.
 
Danscott22 said:
Alton Towers moved away from themed areas as soon as Air was put in.
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Just had a probably bonkers thought, but say The Black Hole was moved to Forbidden Valley in 2000 and themed as an alien lab exploratory coaster which is more in keeping with Forbidden Valley, would Air have fit in more in X Sector as an experimental sensory coaster to fit in with the X Sector vibe? We would of course not have had The Smiler, but at the end of the day its a coaster with 14 loops which could have had a home in what’s now The Dark Forest.

Appreciate this is a very “what if” post but having Air in forbidden valley was always an odd choice in my eyes, even if it had all its planned theming.
 
I don't have much experience of properly themed parks so forgive me. AT have areas with names but they do theme around or inside particular rides quite well. Forbidden valley doesn't really fit Nemisis ,Air or Galactica very well. X Sector is very general so Blivvy and Smiler do Ok . If they tied them together with a decent flat we could call it a proper theme. Dark Forest is the better theme aesthetically, as much as Rita is shoehorned in there as a theme. It's just a bit uninspiring. It's too much scaffold and not enough forest.
Each ride around the park is pretty well themed though. Not the best in the world, but overall pretty damn good. They need to tidy up a lot but if you let go of each ride needing to be tied with the other rides close by they do ok.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Well, that's quite a constructive way of saying "were putting less effort in now."
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Doesn't it take more effort if you have to come up with and implement more themes ?

Smiler could have been another Oblivion-esque half theme, but instead they came up with something pretty compelling and unique, iconic almost - even though I don't really care for the ride.
 
Rick said:
Doesn't it take more effort if you have to come up with and implement more themes ?

Smiler could have been another Oblivion-esque half theme, but instead they came up with something pretty compelling and unique, iconic almost - even though I don't really care for the ride.
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Yeah, I gotta agree with you on there. The Marmaliser really gives the ride scale, but apart from that, there really isn't much else apart from metal fences, concrete floor, and a bleak metallic building, but then again that could've been intentional to give the ride an eerie sense.

Im not focusing on singular attractions though, they do pretty decent to well with their theming, but when it comes to whole areas, the quality plummets.

At least Merlin put some good effort into Mutiny Bay though before it was seemingly slapped with Wicker Man.
 
Jb85 said:
I actually think it’s clear they are going for themed attractions, not areas ….
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I’d have to agree there.

And to be honest, I don’t think it’s a bad thing by any means. I think that going solely for themed attractions doesn’t necessarily show any less creativity or drive, personally, and I do think that not focusing on themed areas as such does present advantages from a creative standpoint that wouldn’t necessarily exist if a ride was being designed to fit perfectly within a themed area.

For instance, I reckon that not requiring themed area cohesion does open up a greater amount of potential themes to explore, and at very least offers a more blank canvas for a particular ride development; having a themed area to fit within does restrict you a lot more in terms of what you can do creatively, particularly if the area is an older area and the creatives working on a new project have different ideas and vision to the creatives who originally designed the area.

Also, some themes are really cool and suit a stand-alone ride well, but are difficult to extend to a full themed area. For instance, Wicker Man is a really original, cool, well executed theme, in my opinion, but I don’t feel like it would have suited a full themed area. Beyond what they actually did (mildly retheming that top band of outlets in MB), I’m seriously struggling to think of ways that they could have extended WM’s theme to a full themed area. In spite of that, however, I think Wicker Man has a great theme, and I’m glad they did it.

I’d also like to point out that I’m not sure that lack of cohesive integration into themed areas was a new trend introduced by Merlin by any stretch; in fact, I’d argue that it was more rampant pre-Merlin. From what I can tell, the likes of Air and Rita were considerably more conflicted with their respective themed areas than anything Merlin has ever built at Alton Towers, and I think I’m correct in saying that Smiler (a Merlin ride) was the only SW to be even slightly integrated within a pre-existing themed area. And perhaps controversially, I actually think that Smiler looked to enhance X-Sector a fair amount. It added a fair bit of additional depth to the area’s story, gave it a more specific theme where it could be argued that Oblivion on its own lacked one, and I also think it gave the area vibrance and presence that it perhaps lacks without it (I remember X-Sector feeling somewhat lifeless when the ride was closed in 2015, for instance).
 
Yeah, Rita's theme originally was just plain dumb, having a 1950s car themed roller coaster right next to Ug Land. I much prefer what it is today, as it makes more sense. An abandoned race track slowly being taken over by the Dark Forest.

For Air though, I think this Documentry here will hopefully help explain why John decided to give it a different tone compared to Nemesis and Ripsaw.
 
I don’t deny John’s original intention (he’s said before that he wanted Air to be a “hero” where Nemesis and Oblivion were “villains”, and I’ve also heard Air referred to as an “oasis of calm” within FV), and had it been able to be fully implemented as John had intended, it may well have felt better integrated into FV, but as things stand, I’d say that it felt quite jarring with the area. In fairness, though, I know they were unable to implement Air’s original theme due to the money and time going on the prototype flying coaster technology, so it’s probably unfair of me to criticise.

I wouldn’t say Galactica really changed things to make it blend better with FV, but I also wouldn’t say it exacerbated the difference further, either; for me, at least, Galactica maintained the status quo originally established by Air in 2002.
 
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