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Nemesis: 21st Anniversary

It was a very good evening, nothing of note was really mentioned, of course they didn't talk about new rides or anything and Wardley did just speak about Nemesis. It was interesting to hear from Wardley just talk about Nemesis and all its history.

The highlight was certainly when someone asked about turning Nemesis backwards, Wardley said you would have to be a desperate park with no ideas to do that to a ride. Everyone laughed and then Nick said "well we did do that with The Swarm, but that didn't really work for us"

Towers did film it and take photos so no doubt that will appear online soon.

The cake was also very nice!
 
At least Nick was honest about turning a couple of the Swarm's rows backwards, though! And agreed - the cake was very good. :p

It was a good event, and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to hear from Andy Hine, too. Having not met him before, I was a bit apprehensive as to what he was like (having heard a few things about him), but he came across as a really nice guy, and I think all of us there learned a few things about what he knew of Nemesis while it was being developed and constructed.

Nick Varney. What's to say about him? Well, I got the impression that he does have a lot of passion for the parks, having worked at Alton Towers in the 1990s and then building up the Merlin empire since the mid-2000s. There were several things he said that I didn't necessarily agree with, but you're bound to get that with anyone. While we were having a chat with him in Dragon Bar after the extra rides on Nemesis, he did make comments about the later openings of some areas of the park - namely that he thought it better to have some areas opening late and the park closing early as a whole rather than having the whole park open for longer hours and then having some days when it was shut (like Legoland). Despite my misgivings about it, I do think what Nick said makes sense, though. Legoland's target market is families with children in a much younger age bracket than those in Towers' target market. As a lot of people who would go to Legoland are in school during the week, the park is very quiet, and it's not economically viable to open it on all those days, which is why there are midweek closures at the park. The target market for Towers, however, is those of an older demographic who may have days off from work/education during the week, and can afford the time to go to Towers when they have these days off. The total visitor count for these midweek days is obviously going to be lower than at weekends. Nick said that even if opening hours were 10am-5:30pm (for example) across the whole park for a whole quiet day as opposed to opening some rides an hour later or closing the park a bit earlier, then the park would be worse off financially than if they did have later ride openings or earlier park closures. Note that I am not necessarily saying that I agree with what Nick was saying about all this - just that I can understand what he's saying and explain why I think it makes sense.

One more thing. Nick did say to us in the bar that Thorpe will be getting a dark ride next year (no surprise), and that it'll be a game-changer for the UK, but gave no more information than that. I did jokingly offer to bribe him with a bottle of Southern Comfort in exchange for more information, but he politely declined. :p
 
Jonathan said:
One more thing. Nick did say to us in the bar that Thorpe will be getting a dark ride next year (no surprise), and that it'll be a game-changer for the UK, but gave no more information than that. I did jokingly offer to bribe him with a bottle of Southern Comfort in exchange for more information, but he politely declined. :p
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To be fair, it won't be hard for it to be a game changer in the UK in terms of dark rides! :p
 
Sounds like Nick is starting to believe his own bulls**.

Financially better off? How much 'better off' does the park need to be? Someone should ask him to explain how the park managed to be so hugely profitable for all those years running on the hours it did, with a fraction of the upsells we see now and free parking.

He's full of it! It's greed, pure and simple.
 
Scott said:
Anyone got proof? Would seem a little foolish of the park to do that! :(
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Both images credit to Paul Jones.
 
Shame, could have at least kept them up all year - made it a decent celebration.
 
I can confirm the signs have been removed. Apparently the Birthday is over now so they were taken down. I dont know why they werent left up for the rest of the season like any other Park would do but thats Towers for you...
 
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siralgenon said:
I can confirm the signs have been removed. Apparently the Birthday is over now so they were all taken down. I dont know why they werent left up for the rest of the season like any other Park would do but thats Towers for you...
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What's the point of doing that though? It's like leaving your birthday decorations up months after your birthday's happened.

I'm for one glad that it's gone as it looked really tacky.
 
TedTheHuman said:
I'm for one glad that it's gone as it looked really tacky.
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That's because it was a shoddy velcro stick on job. Had it be done properly and a little bit of money had been spent (Leek Signs could have done this for them surely?) then it would have looked fantastic and could have lasted until the end of the season.

But of course, the key words there are 'a little bit of money', something that will never be spent.
 
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I see 3 possibilities here:

1. They took them down because they think people will be put off by it being 21 years old (yes they really do think people are that stupid)

2. They took them down because they had ordered a set of real signs that are going to be fitted this week (hahaha we can dream right)

3. Most likely they only ever planned a few weeks of "celebrations" for the fans and thats it all over now :(
 
The obvious possibility is 3. There's more chance of Drayton being bought out by Disney than the second possibility.
 
I don't like the signs or the logo, it's all very tacky. I'd rather them have given Nemesis some TLC instead which is much needed. There must be a risk of the station theming reaching the same state as the theming at Chessy and we all know what happened to that.

:)
 
I agree with Rob and Astrodan. The whole 21st birthday is a bit of a joke, and the money wasted should of been spent on restoring the ride.

I do fear they will just remove theming rather than fix or repair it.

Ian
 
Before the event we were all hoping for a refurb and some tlc seems we got neither. I can't see them getting rid of the theming as its fundamental and i do think it would significantly drop in the rankings if they removed the theming.
 
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