Recently back from a visit today. Didn’t get on park until about half 12 and managed:
- TCAAM
- Gangsta Granny
- Amigos
- TOT
- Woodcutters
- Daz Games
- Watched Sin show and Alton Ancestors
- Altonville Mine Tours
- The Attic
- Burial Grounds
- Compound
- Wickerman
Overall:
The lawn setup remains a welcome change, but I can’t help but feel like most other things it needs some permanency now. A park the size of Alton Towers needs a suitably sized, large indoor stage venue. A suitable place though in a decent location may be hard to find (replace Spinball? Replace the conference suite? Replace big fun show time? The express disabled car park?) They have proven they can get it to work, it now needs suitable investment.
As good as the re-skinned f&b trucks are, again something permanent is now needed, either the lawns needs to be converted into something more hard standing, the food trucks should be converted to permanent “huts” for all seasons. The central “event space” at Efteling is a good example. Or on another level the permanent festival booths at Epcot
The park at night as always looks stunning, the increased lighting around the park is a welcome change, but it appears a little more work is still needed to be rid of the generators and hopefully this continues but it’s noticeably better.
TCAAM:
Given this is the parks premier scary attraction it’s a shame it’s not involved more. More live actors, its own maze.
GG:
Who knows what the future holds for the area, but a solid child’s dark ride given the constraints. The photo op needs removing from the queue and a bit of queue line damage removing. Otherwise reliable still!
Amigos:
Great for the kids. Despite some less than convincing accents , you felt the staff were having great fun. If nothing else I feel either dungeons isn’t completely gone yet or the boat ride at least will stay as it hasn’t been touched, but as others have said it will take some work to put back. Obviously the “surgery” scene has been reused. Shows just how much space/potential is in there.
TOT:
Again great for what it was. And similar to the last point, there is clearly oodles of space in there that should really be used with ride hardware.
Woodcutters:
Fine, bland food. No toilet inside a restaurant. The building in general was cold. And you order from a QR code. One of only two places on park you sit down and use a knife and fork…the “teachers lounge” on towers street and Swiss Cottage need converting into restaurants again sharpish.
Daz Games:
Pleasantly surprised, but it’s at the wrong park. It belongs at Thorpe, it should have always been to Thorpe. Take it out and do VIP Scarefest package like fireworks out the conference suite. We’ll have trailers from Thorpe.
Sin show and Ancestors:
I’m sorry, the male singer just isn’t very good, female was good though. Song selection felt a little obscure. Ancestors were great as always.
Altonville:
First time doing it, and we enjoyed it. Female deputy at the start was excellent. Ending could have been executed better and the queue being so close gave the game away. Felt the end lacked the confrontation element, would have preferred to see to chainsaw indoors. Given its age it seems clear this is maze has run its race, and the towers needs some more opportunity to repair. We noticed that side of the building just how un water tight it is.
Attic:
Our run through wasn’t as good as last year. The initial actor doing the pre show was poor. And the fire effect in the pre show was naff. Maze itself felt like it lacked actors. But again still good.
Burial grounds
Fine for free. The theme suits the outdoor nature.
Compound:
Real highlight. Needed stronger explanation around touching. Definitely think it needs a 16+ age limit as saw a few upset kids.
Improvements:
- Not my cup of tea but character meet and greets with “The freaky friends”, Emily Alton, The Phalanx, The Ministry of Joy, the Wraiths, the beornen, the Alton Ancestors. Seems a real missed opportunity considering Merlin own all the IP, it wouldn’t take much to set these up in each area.
- Light show on/around the towers every 30 mins after 6/dark.
- Maze queue times added too the app
- A family walkthrough down Haunted Hollow seems like something that should happen
- The gardens are still a state, and the council should be disproving all planning applications until it’s sorted. It’s doing what appears to be irreversible damage now for generations to come. It’s a jungle.
- Wraith, Ministry of Joy, Pirate, Emily Alton, Beornen, mazes are all missed opportunities.
), I've bought FP's. But there's 4 of us so it's not cheap. After seeing the queue times last Friday (we're going this Friday), I planned to not bother*. Now I'm not sure.
