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Rollercoaster Restaurant: General Discussion

Also picture on Twitter showing the interior. I love the th13teen marketing posters and nemesis comic covers on the walls.
 
Yeah the concept artwork looks good @Leah - the Europa Park Foodloop has similar posters on the walls :)
 
I have just been looking through AT facebook and found out that the restaurant will have "comfy leather seats" rather than the plastic ones in the artists impression.

Another thing said on there though:
  • Someone: why was ripsaw removed?
  • AT: we are redeveloping forbidden valley over the next few years
Will this affect nemesis as it almost certainly will mean blade will be going at some time and a generic space theme throughout the area. I'm probably thinking too deeply into this, but still, I hope not.
 
Leah said:
I have just been looking through AT facebook and found out that the restaurant will have "comfy leather seats" rather than the plastic ones in the artists impression.

Another thing said on there though:
  • Someone: why was ripsaw removed?
  • AT: we are redeveloping forbidden valley over the next few years
Will this affect nemesis as it almost certainly will mean blade will be going at some time and a generic space theme throughout the area. I'm probably thinking too deeply into this, but still, I hope not.
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It was knackered.

Why not just say, it was knackered lol.

"Redevelopment" makes no sense to anyone with a brain, removing a ride to leave... nothing there.

Redeveloping it with what? Concrete?

Are we returning to "Brutalism"?
 
TheMan said:
It was knackered.

Why not just say, it was knackered lol.

"Redevelopment" makes no sense to anyone with a brain, removing a ride to leave... nothing there.

Redeveloping it with what? Concrete?

Are we returning to "Brutalism"?
Click to expand...

It was generally rumoured that they were looking at a cross-valley coaster for 2017, with the station in the blade / ripsaw area. So I do think they are telling the truth, they are going to redevelop the area. But rumours now seem to be the Smiler issue has pushed the new costed back to 2018, with Heide getting the 2017 cash.
 
jon81uk said:
It was generally rumoured that they were looking at a cross-valley coaster for 2017, with the station in the blade / ripsaw area. So I do think they are telling the truth, they are going to redevelop the area. But rumours now seem to be the Smiler issue has pushed the new costed back to 2018, with Heide getting the 2017 cash.
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Makes sense that...

Park hits a downturn.

Stop investing in it...

I still say this novelty eatery is a good idea though.
 
TheMan said:
Makes sense that...

Park hits a downturn.

Stop investing in it...

I still say this novelty eatery is a good idea though.
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It makes sense to push pack an SW in that the media will be less likely to jump all over the smiler accident and convince people it is unsafe as they probably will have stopped caring and much as it still will be mentioned it will probably be a lot more in passing from the more reputable media. But it does not makes sence to cut the ride lineup especially when the majority of what is cut is family rides and were the least affected by the smiler crash.
 
I think the media will mention The Smiler when the next roller coaster comes, even if it is pushed back one year. 'Alton Towers have today announced their first new roller coaster being built at the theme park, following three years since the horror crash'. It doesn't matter how far back the next SW is pushed, The Smiler will get a mention either way. I guess it's more to do with the financial loss and recovery period they need before a big coaster will be worth the investment and bring in the crowds.
 
It was generally rumoured that they were looking at a cross-valley coaster for 2017, with the station in the blade / ripsaw area. So I do think they are telling the truth, they are going to redevelop the area. But rumours now seem to be the Smiler issue has pushed the new costed back to 2018, with Heide getting the 2017 cash.
Click to expand...

Silly that Heide are getting the cash. Heide and Gardaland are the last parks in my eyes that need the cash right now. The park that needs the cash is Chessington. Chessington have lacked any major development for a while, whereas Thorpe have DBGT, Lego with its proposed Ghost attraction, Garda having Oblivion last year, and Heide having the coaster the previous year. Chessington is crying out for investment right now.

The Restaurant however looks very good, and its great to see a decent investment put into F&B for once.
 
James said:
I think the media will mention The Smiler when the next roller coaster comes, even if it is pushed back one year. 'Alton Towers have today announced their first new roller coaster being built at the theme park, following three years since the horror crash'. It doesn't matter how far back the next SW is pushed, The Smiler will get a mention either way. I guess it's more to do with the financial loss and recovery period they need before a big coaster will be worth the investment and bring in the crowds.
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You're best to tackle negative press with positive investment, as you say, time wont matter, and building something new would distract attention - plus we're talking 2017 anyway, that would be nearly 2 years since the nasty accident.

If you want to reinvigorate your park, get some new stuff in.

The Galactica re-theme in this guise does make sense, as do things like this F&B investment, but leaving other stuff SBNO or not replacing, without letting people know BEFORE they invest in MAPs etc is just really, really poor form.
 
I think if the park was without more cuts (and big ones at that), rides being removed and rides becoming SBNO... this year might have been a pretty good year. Not to say this season will be awful before it happens, although based on past seasons I don't see how a restaurant and VR are going to make the public forget that they're paying the same price for less rides, and nothing new on offer (no actual new rides).

This is where they need to perhaps invest in some smaller attractions, such as flat rides (even though Merlin avoid them like the plague). I remember someone saying on here (can't remember who sorry) that they could have a year where they install 2 or 3 flat rides, and market the heck out of them. Three new rides?! I like that idea. New attractions that don't cost the world.

Alton Towers confuse me at times. They handled the crash and the whole PR after that brilliantly, Scarefest was great with new mazes, Fireworks was the best they've done (since Fireworks was resurrected in 2010)... this year, sure there will be a nice restaurant (I'm pretty excited for it), the VR thing isn't too bad (depends how it's executed), but outside of that it seems to be bad decisions on top of bad decisions. I know the park itself is in a terrible state financially, although surely the whole point of being owned by a large company like Merlin means you're protected?

It's not that I haven't expected cuts. Cuts were a given, but it seems all extreme to say the least. Staff made redundant, some operations now managed by third parties, park and hotels closed on several dates, events cut down, rides removed, rides SBNO, financial cuts in guest areas and behind the scenes. Seems a bit over the top for my liking.
 
It's the total opposite of what you do when you have big backing, OK if you're a small park it's harder to absorb but I just don't see the logic in further reducing the line ups.

I can't see Galactica being some great draw or this restaurant making everyone forget what happened, these are great quiet year investments to bring something fresh. In normal times, I think we'd all be going - yes, that's decent quiet year investments. And is nothing less than a park of Towers stature should be getting.

If the RCR was being added to an existing rather than decimated line up, & AT just continued with positive marketing (not OTT, but humble, etc) and extra investments to say "look, something bad happened, but we care about our customers & your experience, and we'll do everything we can to win back your trust".

That doesn't start by NOT telling people what's not coming back when advertising a sale on MAPs!

I can't imagine for a moment though as I have said previous that people at Towers wont be aware of this, or will like it anymore than we do.

What's being said here is sensible for this industry, it's not OTT enthusiast wish list stuff.

The PROBLEM with this industry, is as soon as you start lagging behind, first in reputation, then in hardware, it can get very very difficult to make up ground without a real burst of investment.

And, well, Merlin...
 
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