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Monorail Refurbishment

Tibble said:
I'm not opposed to the monorail. But when queuing before you go on its so plain and boring. This is meant to be getting you hyped for the day. I think using TVs and having something like ads for the rides like a fake news report for the nemesis and generally getting people excited is needed.

Obviously a overhaul of the monorail is needed with the screens going and a clean up. But it just feels like the experience is dampened by the current monorail experience
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I have not visited the park in a while, so I'm unsure of what the queue lines are like now. But if they did something like the birds from the 2003 monorail video, I think that would be a nice addition, obviously less dated and corny ;). Unless they already have something like this in place? I think queue videos like these are great at building anticipation for new guests and even returning ones, scrap those horrible window covers on the monorail so guests can see the park as they are on their way to TS and already the experience is better in my opinion.
 
Have some ambition....
  • New entrance village covering the area between Splash Landings and Air.
  • Join up all the hotels properly into cohesive resort (like Disneyland Paris's hotels)
  • A new flagship hotel over the gates
  • A couple of filler attractions by the new entrance to suck up crowds.
  • Restaurants, upcharge bits like the Dungeons, Golf, shops, toilets etc. that can be inside or outside the park, depending on whether the park is open or not (inc. RNRCR... move Galactia queue entrance behind that building).
  • Sort out the entrance to the Water Park to seperate it from the hotel (e.g. an external ramp straight down to the basement level).
  • Swap the monorail around so it takes people from the road end of the park to the resort end during park hours (at least get those vehicles refurbished).
  • Review path layouts to make slopes graduated, wider, benches, lighting etc.
AT has amazing potential. Hopefully Kirkbi will have the ambition to fulfill this.
 
Nerdsticks said:
I have not visited the park in a while, so I'm unsure of what the queue lines are like now. But if they did something like the birds from the 2003 monorail video, I think that would be a nice addition, obviously less dated and corny ;). Unless they already have something like this in place? I think queue videos like these are great at building anticipation for new guests and even returning ones, scrap those horrible window covers on the monorail so guests can see the park as they are on their way to TS and already the experience is better in my opinion.
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Last few times I have been (if memory serves me correct) I haven't seen anything on the tvs or they may have even been removed.


I think something a little bit corny is better than nothing at all. By the time i get to the monorail I want to be hyped and ready for the day, rather than feel like its the first of many queues
 
A bit of good old British corny humour to start the day at towers is a must.

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I have so many reservations about a main park entrance at the Forbidden Valley, I've had them for years.
  • Firstly, thematically, it just seems odd to be dumped out from the turnstiles into a calm oasis/space desert (I don't even know anymore) which transitions to an apocalyptic battleground, home to a million year old enslaved alien...then a zombie infested old mansion....welcome to the park Cbeebies fans!
  • Continuing this, the park becomes a corridor, on foot you don't actually get into the 'free roaming' part of the park until you're almost in the centre of it. Then to leave you'll find yourself in the same funnel as everyone else. The majority of people will just spend the first and last 30 mins of their visit trekking...
  • The skyride suddenly becomes the first point of focus for most people entering the park, can it handle it, and will it provide an experience any better than the current monorail?
I still would want to see Towers Street as the entry point into the park, and I think without a MASSIVE rethink of how the FV side of the park works, it's the most likely option for the next couple of decades.

But I think, with a really heavy heart, that the monorail needs to go. I don't see it being totally renewed (new stations, modified layout to take into account how the resort has grown, brand new rolling stock), and without that it brings everything down in such a terrible way. I know there is a lot of negative views on many things at Towers these days, but nothing feels as out of place or run down as visitor's first experience of the park on this rattling mess.

So the alternatives? I think a road train/parking 'tram' or even just shuttle bus could work, it's flexible, I can imagine the costs won't be extortionate. But it certainly won't build excitement like the monorail used to. A few screens and some kind of intro to the park would go some way to solve that, but you can't escape that the back stage areas of the park are ugly, and your view is going to be mostly of queuing cars and a coach park.

In a dream world, I'd love to see something really daring - think the shuttle buses to the hotel at Galaxy's Edge at Disney, or the Hogwarts Express at Universal.

Screen-Shot-2019-08-16-at-11.47.03-AMa.png


It wouldn't need to be on that scale, and I'm not sure what theme or story you could use...but a short journey down some rubbish roads could become something REALLY spectacular.
 
Ryan said:
I have so many reservations about a main park entrance at the Forbidden Valley, I've had them for years.
  • Firstly, thematically, it just seems odd to be dumped out from the turnstiles into a calm oasis/space desert (I don't even know anymore) which transitions to an apocalyptic battleground, home to a million year old enslaved alien...then a zombie infested old mansion....welcome to the park Cbeebies fans!
  • Continuing this, the park becomes a corridor, on foot you don't actually get into the 'free roaming' part of the park until you're almost in the centre of it. Then to leave you'll find yourself in the same funnel as everyone else. The majority of people will just spend the first and last 30 mins of their visit trekking...
  • The skyride suddenly becomes the first point of focus for most people entering the park, can it handle it, and will it provide an experience any better than the current monorail?
I still would want to see Towers Street as the entry point into the park, and I think without a MASSIVE rethink of how the FV side of the park works, it's the most likely option for the next couple of decades.

But I think, with a really heavy heart, that the monorail needs to go. I don't see it being totally renewed (new stations, modified layout to take into account how the resort has grown, brand new rolling stock), and without that it brings everything down in such a terrible way. I know there is a lot of negative views on many things at Towers these days, but nothing feels as out of place or run down as visitor's first experience of the park on this rattling mess.

So the alternatives? I think a road train/parking 'tram' or even just shuttle bus could work, it's flexible, I can imagine the costs won't be extortionate. But it certainly won't build excitement like the monorail used to. A few screens and some kind of intro to the park would go some way to solve that, but you can't escape that the back stage areas of the park are ugly, and your view is going to be mostly of queuing cars and a coach park.

In a dream world, I'd love to see something really daring - think the shuttle buses to the hotel at Galaxy's Edge at Disney, or the Hogwarts Express at Universal.

Screen-Shot-2019-08-16-at-11.47.03-AMa.png


It wouldn't need to be on that scale, and I'm not sure what theme or story you could use...but a short journey down some rubbish roads could become something REALLY spectacular.
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FV in its current state is totally inappropriate as an entrance area. If they did chose to use that end of the park I would think they would need to gobble up some of the carpark to make a new "towers street" area. Ideally this would contain a new RCR and other entertainment offerings like, if they insisted, the dungeons. As I have said before Hersheypark and Ceader point have done this very effectively
 
Doublethink said:
FV in its current state is totally inappropriate as an entrance area. If they did chose to use that end of the park I would think they would need to gobble up some of the carpark to make a new "towers street" area. Ideally this would contain a new RCR and other entertainment offerings like, if they insisted, the dungeons. As I have said before Hersheypark and Ceader point have done this very effectively
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I'd never had imagined they would just use FV as the actual entrance 'plaza' as it were, but it's still the first actual theme park 'zone' guests will experience. I suppose when I say "dumped out of the turnstiles" I mean past the practical, general entrance area of the park. Make the entrance to the park as fluffy as you like, but every guests experience being the same until the lawns means EVERYTHING up until that point is your 'Towers Street' - it just feels so unsuitable.

An entrance area before FV also elongates that 'corridor' even further - before guests actually get to choose a direction they'll have had to walk over a kilometre...or for reference, the entire length of Europa Park, twice the length of DLP, three times the length of Thorpe Park. The skyride isn't a reliable transport method, and working through the rides you pass instead of trying to get to the hub of the park isn't going to be a fun experience re: queues.
 
Road trains are an awful idea, Lower capacity and less energy effifient. Also a lower quality experience in my opinion. I would much rather a refurb of the monorail. From a first time guests point of view, riding the monorail really helps set up the experiecne before walking across the plaza through the turnstiles and down tower street. This is what should happen as standard.
 
Land trains work where the car park is structured around the entrance travelling over a comparatively shorter/straighter distance, such as the Disney car parks. Running them at towers I could never see working effectively.

delta79 said:
https://procterscoachandbussales.com/listings/dotto-munson-river-highway-legal-road-train/

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They run those dotto land trains in Newquay - and as someone who lived there for many years I can attest that their capacity is dire.
 
Would an omnimover work?
That has the required capacity (though not the same charm).
Edit: or possibly the ride system used on Duel?
 
Might get a jet wash but with all the holes in it then they may decide against that idea! Pity they dont install a "mono wash" as you pull in or out of the stations, just 3 spinning car wash thingies spraying some water so the trains get a bit of wash as they enter/exit the station.
 
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