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Paultons Park: General Discussion

Ash said:
Maintain the gardens
Maintain the buildings
Repaint things
Replace things
Clean things
Repair things

I appreciate, particularly at Alton their grounds are 5 times the size, but they get double the visitors.
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Don't forget modernise the toilets and build a new staff canteen!

I'm not bashing Alton/Merlin but they let it get so grotty in the first place I think seeing a proactive park is a positive thing. How often do we comment how grubby oblivion or smiler looks?
 
Merlin don't keep their parks in anywhere near as good condition as Paultons. Sure, Thorpe have been running the sparkle project, but after a few months the newly freshened up areas were once again covered in cobwebs, dirt and muck. Paultons keep the park looking fresh all season, not just on the first day.
 
Coaster said:
Merlin don't keep their parks in anywhere near as good condition as Paultons. Sure, Thorpe have been running the sparkle project, but after a few months the newly freshened up areas were once again covered in cobwebs, dirt and muck. Paultons keep the park looking fresh all season, not just on the first day.
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Not to mention they only painted half of Colossus 😄
 
TBH, as a previous theme park worker for an unnamed park…. There was and i believe still is no emphasis on presentation of attractions ride vehicles no cleaning schedules or even supplies to clean over than the likes of chewing gum scrapers …

It would take a team 1h a week or even month on a ride to keep it looking clean aka the fibre glass etc
 
You need a team of dedicated workers. Paulton’s reminds of Walt Disney World before the COVID shutdown. I noticed how bad the queens coach and grandpa pigs boat ride looked in July last year and now it looks like it’s brand new again.
The only thing that looks awful and out of place is the new solar area.
 
pluk said:
Eh? It just looks like shade for car parking. How could that possibly look awful or out of place... in a car park? Not like it is a ride area called solar land.

Will also mean your car is a nice temperature after a hot day if you are lucky enough to park under one of them. Win win win.
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They are also very similar to Disneys parking lot solar panels, I really don’t see the issue with it, it provides cover for cars, green energy for the park which is sustainable….. it’s not like it’s an eyesore in the middle of the park… I hear the phone mast is so much worse….
 
Coaster said:
Merlin don't keep their parks in anywhere near as good condition as Paultons. Sure, Thorpe have been running the sparkle project, but after a few months the newly freshened up areas were once again covered in cobwebs, dirt and muck. Paultons keep the park looking fresh all season, not just on the first day.
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Robbing Peter to pay Paul, plus the pitfalls of being a public limited company, having a virtual monopoly back in the early 2010s (got arrogant), & being partly owned by Blackstone (the real villains behind Merlin). hence why their massive parks ended up being a problem to keep consistently clean and pristine in the past decade year round (to be fair Legoland Windsor looked very clean and renovated in places, while on the other hand you had other areas falling into rack and ruin).

Paultons hasn't got the very best rides (quite yet), but they're more consistent across the board than Merlin, and dramatically upgrading.

And critics keep forgetting Paultons Park is a single site, with fewer distractions, when its operators don't have dozens of other major attractions nationwide or worldwide to spread resources way too thin....
 
TedShatner10 said:
And critics keep forgetting Paultons Park is a single site, with fewer distractions, when its operators don't have dozens of other major attractions nationwide or worldwide to spread resources way too thin....
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Critics don't 'forget about' that, as the customers we don't care about that. It's not my concern why Merlins product is poor and declining, I only care that it is poor and declining. With the resources available across the estate as a whole there is no good reason for Merlin parks to be in the state they are in.

Paultons have chosen to plough their revenues back into the business rather than cash grab (although I'm aware they still taken healthy dividends!) or spend on distractions. I really don't care about that is a customer, I just love what it has made the park.
 
pluk said:
Critics don't 'forget about' that, as the customers we don't care about that. It's not my concern why Merlins product is poor and declining, I only care that it is poor and declining. With the resources available across the estate as a whole there is no good reason for Merlin parks to be in the state they are in.
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Merlin Entertainments still got a reason for their parks relatively stagnating since the mid 2010s and their drastic cuts this year, but it's just not a good one - they vaguely remind me of the UK's privatised water where they maximise profit, while just barely reinvesting back into the actual infrastructure to stop it all from completely collapsing immediately (though Hyperia and Nemesis Reborn, etc, are meaningful investments, just a shame they didn't reinvest more logically elsewhere and pay more attention to small details like Paultons).

EDIT - Merlin has the potential resources, but only now are they visibly in a huge panic in the past couple of years how they employ it and paying more attention to their parks (but it's more scattershot than Paultons' more systematic and disciplined upkeep).
 
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I'm old and fortunate enough to experience PPW with my 5yo son when it was open for <2 years. The bright paintwork, the "just as on the TV" experience was what made it. Exactly like Walt would have done!

When you lose the sparkle, you lose the illusion/magic. I'd rather pay 2x and visit half as often to keep that experience.
 
Paultons Park has gone into overdrive as a family theme park since the establishment of Lost Kingdom and it got a unique "magic formula" in its corporate governance that Merlin lacked in recent decades (as it shuffles CEOs and mass fires employees) and is also lacking numerous other family parks of Paultons' size during the early 2000s (that have remained the same since then or even closed down).

However, not to defend a multi-billion firm, Merlin offering "poor product" and "in decline" still feels too sweeping and premature (when Paultons hasn't got a true flagship thrill ride like Nemesis Reborn or Hyperia yet, and having been to Legoland in the same year, Paultons still seems many years away from establishing onsite accomodation as interesting and immersive as Legoland's Woodland Village, even if Paultons goes the extra mile in keeping old attractions looking new).

Though there is a good chance Paultons will overtake Alton Towers by the early to mid 2030s.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Paulton's Park have confirmed that they have no mid or long-term plans to build onsite accomodation, full stop.
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Considering how Drayton's original owners eventually got forced out after establishing a hotel and seeing the gruesome overheads with Merlin's park operations getting overstretched by onsite accommodation and catering since '08 Great Recession (impacting the quality of their actual parks), they likely think a Paultons themed hotel would be a similar curse.
 
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TedShatner10 said:
Considering how Drayton's original owners eventually got forced out after establishing a hotel and seeing the gruesome overheads with Merlin's park operations getting overstretched by onsite accomodation and catering since '08 Great Recession (impacting the quality of their actual parks), they likely think a Paultons themed hotel would be a similar curse.
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I don't think we'll see a Paultons Hotel in the short to medium term as the focus on them is on the park.

They're likely debating whether it is worth the gamble or not. I'm thinking it's not something they should consider until they get the signature coaster in (as early as 2026).

P.S. I don't see an on site hotel before 2030-35.
 
owenstreet7 said:
I don't think we'll see a Paultons Hotel in the short to medium term as the focus on them is on the park.
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You won't see a hotel because they've literally stated that they're not interested in building one.
owenstreet7 said:
They're likely debating whether it is worth the gamble or not
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They're not. On the record; no plans, no discussions.
owenstreet7 said:
P.S. I don't see an on site hotel before 2030-35.
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Because they have absolutely no plans to build one.
 
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