Major Ride Closures 2016

[Leah]

Carter's Decor have uploaded a photo to Facebook of the Driving School building having been repainted, suggesting that it may well be open at some point in the near future!

Looking like it's going to reopen soon then. At least it's something to add to the kids ride lineup. Let's hope they're making as much progress with hex

 

[Brad97]

I hope Hex opens for scarefest, as that's when I visit every year. I really like it and I will miss it if it's closed.

 

[danni87]

that's strange, i don't even remember that building even being there, i thought the queue was outside?

The queue goes inside and back out again to pass the photo point for the driving license.
This is a good sign though, wasn't expecting to see anything done to driving school this season so maybe we'll see something done with hex soon, fingers crossed!

 

[djtruefitt]

That photo must have been taken before the start of the season though, as all the driving schools signs are no longer on that building.

 

[TowerTigger]

Lots of disappointed parents complaining around the park on Saturday about the number of rides that had gone. Most audible around cloud cuckoo land. Felt sorry for them. At least I knew before turning up.

 

[GaryH]

Yeah the comments on Facebook and Twitter echo that - people are not happy!

 

[Matt.GC]

I've got a daughter who is nearly 2, so perfectly happy with Ceebebies yesterday. I have 6 year old son who's just gone over 1.2 this year, so perfectly happy with his new experiences on Thirteen, spinball and Twirling toadstool to replace the closed rides.

But I felt sorry for my 4 and half year old who is 1.1. He loves thrills ever since Vampire at Chessington last year and obviously has a way outgrown Ceebebies now. Spent the whole day apologising to him as he went to get on rides "sorry darling, they've closed it now".

He could go on heave Ho, battle Galleons, marauders, enterprise, Blade, duel, RMT and rapids and frog hopper. Last year he would have also had hex, driving school, wobble world, Charlie and flume. So that's a third of true family orientated attractions closed.

 

[huzzellio]

Wobble World is one that's annoyed me. Last year my daughter (was 4 years old then) came bouncing out of Wobble World just to shout to me "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!" Surely as attractions go this one is relatively inexpensive to run? Why close it??

 

[Matt.GC]

I thought wobble world was a strange one. The cafe was always busy as people would sit and rest whilst the children played. I would imagine it's also one of the cheaper attractions to run, maintain and refit/retheme. Just by having it open probably more than paid dividends in the all the coffee, snacks and ice cream sales the cafe used to make.

 

[delta79]

I hope it is just getting a refit or being moved into the larger ex nic building. You could have a really good soft play area, with a great coffee shop styled cafe area.

 

[Matt.GC]

I hope it is just getting a refit or being moved into the larger ex nic building. You could have a really good soft play area, with a great coffee shop styled cafe area.

I'm actually quite exited by that idea! I loved wobble world, its where we used to chuck the kids while we took it in turns to go on Rita.

 

[themeparkfan]

Complete joke!!! Can I first note a lot of kids (including my 9 year old) don't like Duel as queue line is a little freaky and scary so that's one family ride of my visit list. Second no flume, third no Charlie and chocolate factory, fourth no Hex, then no driving school for my 7 year old. A lady was really annoyed yesterday that there was very little for her son in the park besides CBEEBES land, which he was bored of after a few hours as no queues. If Towers are wondering why the visitor numbers are not good, there's the answer TOO MANY CLOSED RIDES!!!!!!! It doesn't take a business/ marketing degree to know if you close rides less people will turn up, so the park will make less money, resulting in less profit. Therefore no money to invest. If SW8 doesn't appear till 2018 then 2017 is going to be another bad year too!!! What is Towers going to do?????

 

[GaryH]

Never mind, always a new hotel to look forward to!

 

[MaxPower]

It surprises me that despite all the ride closures and cuts to park entertainment people still post 5* reviews on sites like TripAdvisor.

It's a real shame that people's expectations of the park are so low that they're happy with the way things are.

 

[rob666]

As a coaster fan with no interest in the other rides,
I love visiting the Towers at the moment,
short queues and just enough visitors to stop it feeling like a ghost town.
And the skyride has been open most days to save my old mans knees.
I would give the park a five star review.
Purely selfish I know but there you go.

Praise the lord and god bless.

 

[DiogoJ42]

It's almost like you want to be on my "kill slowly" list, @rob666

 

[Lizkatewells]

Guilty of a 5 star review myself I'm afraid

Exact same reasons as Rob - I'm there for the coasters absolutely. I did miss hex though. I would be hesitant to post a bad review because I don't want someone to read it and then not go. I'm a bit of a review junkie and they strongly influence my decisions on going places. So I focussed on the positives while pointing out that yes, a few rides are closed, but if you like coasters it's still heaven.

 

[Altonadvocate1]

We have a collection of world class coasters, one of which is possibly the best in the world.

The quality of the ride hardware is superb, certainly the B and M''s. The smiler hardware quality isn't up to the same standard, but I love it.

As far as I'm concerned, the setting is without equal.

AT have invested in great music, that really makes me feel I have left the real world and entered the fantasy world .

Hour for hour, compared with just about any other leisure pursuing, cinema, theatre, music gig, concert, comedy show, football match, indoor ski slopes, etc, I still think it represents great value with a 2 for 1 ticket.

Towers still gets 5 stars from me, and If were reviewing my trip to scarefest 2015, it would deserve a 6.

My score may be Lower if I were taking a young family though.

Much as I miss the flume like crazy, I recognise that short term sacrifice is necessary for long term investment.

Would feel more optimistic about the future if JW was at the helm, though.

 

[delta79]

Alton is a mixed bag his year. There are parts that are getting the attention they need, some parts are failing to meet expectation. Merlin/AT have a budget to keep to, we may argue that the budget is too small for what we want.

Sent from my SM-T210 using Tapatalk

 

[Sm1lingAdvocate]

This year is evidentally, and always was going to be a poor year after last year, but all these closures aren't just cost cutting things are happening behind the scenes, the majority of these rides are going to open next year, and possibly even this year improved, with the exception of Charlie being replaced, The Flume home to SW8, and the only ones to really complain about are Ripsaw and Wobble World, and yet again, Ripsaw will most likely be replaced as well in the near future. Yes this is a bad year, but Disneyland Paris have more rides out of the line up, for more time including the main attractions, and I don't see as many people complaining about that, its for the same reasons, they rides that are closed do need TLC.

Lack of queues has a big affect as well. surely one "bad" year is worth it for preparations for the best years since 2002/2003 by 2018. There are evident reasons why we are seeing cost cutting, the reasons are massive. If we look at the 3 or so years before Merlin came along the park was worse than it is this year. We all bash merlin, but seriously they have done wonders for all the UK parks. Look at 2004-2007. Merlin have produced some great great theming, top rides and lots of other stuff. We had Rita, Spinball, Driving School, Haunted Hollow..
Merlin - Mutiny Bay, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Thirteen, Sub Terra, Ice Age, what is in quite a few peoples opinion the coaster which is up there with nemesis in The Smiler, a much needed decent childrens area in Cbeebies land, Octonauts, and Galactica. All of these are things not effected by the 2015 season.

Thorpe has had Saw, The Swarm, X rethemed and a rumoured 30-40 million pound dark ride as well as more, they have had bad investments, but they are still additions and not much has been removed.

Chessington got a massive clean up, kobra, and that whole area, zufari and zoo improvements. basically if merlin didn't come in it would be a lot worse than it is. all in all there is bad points and good points, and the ride closures will be worth it in the long term.