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Stargazing Pods

AstroDan said:
Frankly I would love to see them bulldozed and turned into landscaped car parking.

OR A MASSIVE ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND*

*open to adults after 4pm!
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Or take Splash Landings waterpark away from the hotel, and build a huge water park capable of the amount of guests wanting to use it with bigger slides on the site.
 
GaryH said:
Or take Splash Landings waterpark away from the hotel, and build a huge water park capable of the amount of guests wanting to use it with bigger slides on the site.
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Why bother? Center Parcs (which the waterpark was supposed to copy in sort) get away with woefully inadequate swimming facilities compared to the number of guests. Sherwood Forest opened in 1987 with 650 accommodation units. There are now over 950 (& most of the additions have been 3 or 4 bedroom units). The pools are the same size they were in 1987. Yes, they've added a couple of slides & kids play area, but no pool capacity.

Who remembers the mess Towers had when Cariba Creek opened with the wristband system for a 2hr timeslot? They got slated in the press for this and dropped it pretty fast.
 
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Kraken27 said:
Why bother? Center Parcs (which the waterpark was supposed to copy in sort) get away with woefully inadequate swimming facilities compares to the number of guests. Sherwood Forest opened in 1997 with 650 accommodation units. There are now over 950 (& most of the additions have been 3 or 4 bedroom units). The pools are the same size they were in 1997. Yes, they've added a couple of slides & kids play area, but no pool capacity.

Who remembers the mess Towers had when Cariba Creek opened with the wristband system for a 2hr timeslot? They got slated in the press for this and dropped it pretty fast.
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and if they really wanted to expand the current water park it is not impossible to add more slides or cover over some of the outdoor area and expand out towards the Splash Landings rooms.
I think though they waterpark has remained popular enough and they've never seen a reason to invest properly into it.
 
jon81uk said:
and if they really wanted to expand the current water park it is not impossible to add more slides or cover over some of the outdoor area and expand out towards the Splash Landings rooms.
I think though they waterpark has remained popular enough and they've never seen a reason to invest properly into it.
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The reason visitor numbers would be dropping off would be the lack of new additions, poor maintenance of the water cannons and other water features, price, and for me its the lack of dedicated adult pool/jacuzzi. I rarely use the place now, the water is cold, the queues for the rings is usually huge and I always leave with a horrible headache!
 
GaryH said:
The reason visitor numbers would be dropping off would be the lack of new additions, poor maintenance of the water cannons and other water features, price, and for me its the lack of dedicated adult pool/jacuzzi. I rarely use the place now, the water is cold, the queues for the rings is usually huge and I always leave with a horrible headache!
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If you want adults only jacuzzi, just go to the Spa instead?
 
The thing is, despite no new attractions in the waterpark since 2003, it is still popular. It regularly hits capacity and generally gets good reviews from guests.

So from a business point of view, if people keep buying tickets, why spend money on new slides? If the place is fully booked anyway you aren’t going to be able to sell more tickets to recoup that investment.

If they want to expand the water park to increase capacity (so you can sell more tickets and get your investment money back) then that’s a different matter. But the original design doesn’t seem to be very well thought out, they didn’t leave many options for ‘expansion pads’.

More guests means bigger changing rooms/toilets/catering - which they don’t really have room for. They have already had to convert the staff rest room into a food outlet due to lack of space.

Out back you could cover over the outdoor pools but that would arguably ruin the outlook from the rooms, and the access road for both hotels for deliveries etc runs right behind the outdoor section, and beyond that you’ve got a massive drop into a protected valley.

Essentially the original design means adding anything new isn’t easy and isn’t cheap. It’s not the best position to be in.
 
GaryH said:
The reason visitor numbers would be dropping off would be the lack of new additions, poor maintenance of the water cannons and other water features, price, and for me its the lack of dedicated adult pool/jacuzzi. I rarely use the place now, the water is cold, the queues for the rings is usually huge and I always leave with a horrible headache!
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I can certainly say that on all my visits to the waterpark, the level of chlorination in the water has seemed to be sky-high. I have no doubt it is within all safe limits, but I have never emerged from the pool at my local Virgin Active gym smelling of chlorine / feeling sticky the way you do from the Towers Waterpark.

And the queues for the rings are stupid too. Wait 20mins to get a ring at peak times, then another 20mins to use it. Makes the ride queues on the theme park look low. The Waterpark design is deceptive - it looks big, but isn't. As above, the options for expansion are very minimal.
 
There's always the option of refurbishing the current complex. Existing slides and pools could be removed and a 'new' waterpark built within the existing building.

Obviously there's no incentive for this at the moment as the waterpark is popular.

Sent from my Huawei P30 Pro using Tapatalk
 
Kraken27 said:
Why bother? Center Parcs (which the waterpark was supposed to copy in sort) get away with woefully inadequate swimming facilities compared to the number of guests. Sherwood Forest opened in 1987 with 650 accommodation units. There are now over 950 (& most of the additions have been 3 or 4 bedroom units). The pools are the same size they were in 1987. Yes, they've added a couple of slides & kids play area, but no pool capacity.
.
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The comparison is no good for a number of reason, not least that Centre Parcs pools cope just fine, there is no capacity issue. Outside of covid time if you want to go in the pool you can just walk up and do it, and I've never found it uncomfortably busy.

Splash Landings you often can't go even if you want to, and being in there at capacity is not a lot of fun, especially when the outdoor area is closed and they don't sufficiently compensate for the reduced capacity.

Towers 'resort' (God i hate calling it that) doesn't operate in the same way. When the parks is open everyone wants to be there, when it's not open everyone wants to be in the pool but it cant cope and closes too early. Centre Parcs have increased their capacity across a huge number of activities, as well as the water parks to a lesser extent, to cope with the higher numbers. Towers, err, opened a high ropes course for a couple of seasons? All the time the theme park has shrunk and the waterpark stagnated while the hotels have somewhere around quadrupled.

If it sits there making money, which it undoubtedly does, I completely understand them leaving it be. But if they could increase the capacity and opening hours I think they could make killing, the current site cant really handle any meaningful increase in capacity though, so it'll remain contributing financially but not really contributing to most guests enjoyment of a seriously lacking resort.
 
The main issue, is there just isn’t any easy way to extend the place. You e got ATH and the conference centre on one side, Margs and Flambos on the other, the splash landings bed rooms on the other and then the valley and woods at the back. You could probably add some more slides outside and have a slight change around there, but the cost of that is not going to add much capacity, as you’ll struggle to add more pools. So that’s probably why they have never bothered really doing much to the place, as it’s so hard to do.

It’s a shame that the original design of the hotel and pool was done in such a way that future expansion is pretty much impossible.
 
djtruefitt said:
The main issue, is there just isn’t any easy way to extend the place. You e got ATH and the conference centre on one side, Margs and Flambos on the other, the splash landings bed rooms on the other and then the valley and woods at the back. You could probably add some more slides outside and have a slight change around there, but the cost of that is not going to add much capacity, as you’ll struggle to add more pools. So that’s probably why they have never bothered really doing much to the place, as it’s so hard to do.

It’s a shame that the original design of the hotel and pool was done in such a way that future expansion is pretty much impossible.
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Whilst I agree the design isn't great for expansion I think people underestimate how much space is wasted in the outdoor area, by demolishing the existing outdoor area and starting again with a new indoor area there is more than enough space to build a hall as big if not bigger than the existing one including at least 1 if not 2 large slide towers. It's just money they will never spend.
 
evilcod said:
Whilst I agree the design isn't great for expansion I think people underestimate how much space is wasted in the outdoor area, by demolishing the existing outdoor area and starting again with a new indoor area there is more than enough space to build a hall as big if not bigger than the existing one including at least 1 if not 2 large slide towers. It's just money they will never spend.
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I agree. The existing outdoor slide launch area could be used for new indoor slides or more stairs added up to higher platforms. There is plenty of space to go out in that direction for new slide launches if they really wanted to spend the money.
 
I have been thinking about the pods recently, for my sins, and have asked a question:

Will the Stargazing Pods still be at Alton Towers, in their current form, in 5 years? What about in 10 years?

The pods were cheap to install and literally thrown in to get ATR up nearer the magic 1,000 keys figure that Mr. V so proudly talked of. But, with a cheap build... so too they would be cheap to remove. There is hardly any theming (which as we know costs a lot in projects!) - The Tipi 'bar' well... the less said the better. The pods are hardly of a level with what Alton should be all about. And all the talk of a "budget" option... well, a lot of the time they come within £50 of a Splash room. Mad.

All of that said, it would be possible to totally overhaul the pods. Keeping the accommodation but massively enhancing the environment. There's a lot that could be done.

I like to think Alton have moved past this pile the rooms high mentality. Unless I am deeply deluded. The resort really deserves better than what the pods actually are.

Anyone got any views?
 
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To be fair, I think the Stargazing Pods work really well as a budget option, even if they’re not what I would personally have chosen for the park. I would personally have preferred for them to do the originally hypothesised phased expansion of the Enchanted Village onto that land, but I do think that the Stargazing Pods look quite nice for the type of experience they aim to provide.

What they provide is a gateway into the Resort’s on-site accommodation for those who perhaps might not be able to afford a stay in one of the hotels or the Enchanted Village, and I do think that is a solid niche for them to fill. They also offer a very different experience to the park’s other accommodation; if you’re into camping/glamping, I can imagine they’re great, and I can also imagine they’re the sort of thing that could be quite appealing if you’re a childless group of adults staying at Towers. And as I said, the price point does raise the appeal for those who might not be able to justify a stay at the Resort hotels.

Admittedly, I haven’t stayed in them, but I think they look perfectly pleasant for what they are, personally, and definitely fill a valuable niche within the Resort’s accommodation options. If you think about it, it’s not too much different to something like the Camp Resort at Europa Park in terms of a budget accommodation option.
 
Matt N said:
To be fair, I think the Stargazing Pods work really well as a budget option, even if they’re not what I would personally have chosen for the park. I would personally have preferred for them to do the originally hypothesised phased expansion of the Enchanted Village onto that land, but I do think that the Stargazing Pods look quite nice for the type of experience they aim to provide.

What they provide is a gateway into the Resort’s on-site accommodation for those who perhaps might not be able to afford a stay in one of the hotels or the Enchanted Village, and I do think that is a solid niche for them to fill. They also offer a very different experience to the park’s other accommodation; if you’re into camping/glamping, I can imagine they’re great, and I can also imagine they’re the sort of thing that could be quite appealing if you’re a childless group of adults staying at Towers. And as I said, the price point does raise the appeal for those who might not be able to justify a stay at the Resort hotels.

Admittedly, I haven’t stayed in them, but I think they look perfectly pleasant for what they are, personally, and definitely fill a valuable niche within the Resort’s accommodation options. If you think about it, it’s not too much different to something like the Camp Resort at Europa Park in terms of a budget accommodation option.
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Do you think the thematics, quality of design and food/beverage facilities are up to the standard you seek of Alton Towers?

It is very different to the Camp Resort at Europa-Park.

The Camp Resort is €21 (£19) pppn and HEAVILY themed. The Pods are not heavily themed at all. The Stargazing Pods are nowhere near that price either (often more like £35-40pppn). In addition, the Camp Resort has 2 food/beverage options (3 in peak periods when they do BBQs), a live show and other entertainment.
 
You could do all manner of things with the Stargazing Pods, but I have always thought and still do think that there is a market for them. I think there were two vacant last time we were there - not sure if that's by design, given the nature of the accommodation.

The camping market is huge, but an offering that allows guests to bring their own tents is complicated and higher risk, not least the quality of the experience is out of your hands, safety things - particularly fire and also in the harshest of weather, things can go south pretty quickly.

However, if you want to offer someone a camping-esque experience, this is the ideal way to do that and the TripAdvisor rating demonstrates that. A lot of B&Bs in Blackpool would kill for 4 out of 5.

Also, you've got to demystify the 1,000 keys thing. It was always a stated ambition for Merlin to have 1,000 rooms at Alton Towers, but that's not a "We must have 1,000 rooms whatever ..." - it is/was a suggestion that they think their property can support 1,000 rooms, given its capacity and the investment that they are putting into it.

I'm not sure what problem you're trying to solve, other than make them into something that they're not so they meet the standards of people they're not aimed at and are more at home in a hotel or lodge.
 
Couple of promo videos of the Camp Resort:





It is leagues beyond what the Pods are truly.

I think people mistook my post. I don't think there's necessarily no market for them, I just don't think they are delivered as well as they ought to be.
 
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