The Alton Towers Dungeon

[Spark]

It should be turned in to a historical tour of the history of AT. Old rides and parts along with the towers pictures etc. Would be updated regular too with the attractions being removed etc

 

[coasterverse]

It should be turned in to a historical tour of the history of AT. Old rides and parts along with the towers pictures etc. Would be updated regular too with the attractions being removed etc

Hmmm, I dunno. That sounds like an ideal attraction for us enthusiasts, but would members of the general public really care? I can't think about how it could be kept as interesting and engaging so that people come off thinking "that was good" rather than "well that was a bit boring". Not forgetting that an attraction like that doesn't fit in with any existing attractions or themed areas in the park (not saying that The Dungeons fits in with the area either really, but at least it somewhat fits in with the dark themes elsewhere in the park).

 

[djtruefitt]

Whatever happens, when The Dungeons finally goes, the whole building needs to be utilised for a future ride (or rides?). CATCF ended up having a lot of empty space due to the birthday rooms being scrapped, and The Dungeons doesn't use the entire building either. The Dungeons has always felt like a stopgap for something bigger inside that building.

It would be amazing if we saw a retheme alongside Horizon. However, I feel that is highly unlikely, and The Dungeons needs more than a retheme. It needs an extended boat ride or a new ride system that uses the whole warehouse space available. Or a third option, have multiple rides in there.

As for the location of The Dungeons, I think it's fine in the theme park. It would only really work on the resort side if there was a Disney Village-type area by the hotels. I'm personally not a fan of The Dungeons, it's a one-and-done experience for me, and the one at Towers has always felt temporary to me.

I would love to see it return to a traditional boat ride using the whole rides layout as it was when it was toyland tours.

Then I would put another small ride where the lifts are (possibly some drop towers like the poppy towers at EP, as the building is quite high). That’s two more indoor rides for the parks winter opening and both can be family friendly.

 

[DistortAMG]

I would love that too. It would require re modification of the trough though. They sliced through part of it for the new exit station for Charlie. Easily fixed I guess though.

These pics show it nicely. This straight bit of track is the exit platform for Charlie and I assume the Dungeons now. It cur off the corner which formed part of the 'Toyland' scene. (The one with the train).


Or as seen on the plans here. The arrow is looking in the direction of the camera in the photo above. You can see how the new piece of straight trough, cuts off the corner.


One more, at a slight angle. Showing the gutted Toyland and Party Room scenes. Along with the 'new' and current exit platform.


The train travelled on it's track almost exactly where that yellow pole goes into the ground in the photo immediately above.
Not the hardest to revert back to the original layout I guess, as most of it is still there.

Look at that plan, there would even be room to slightly extend the trough, into the bottom right of the original show building. That bottom corner, (number 11 on the plan) is where Doom & Sons was. I think it may have even slithered up the side of the building to where number 10 is. This is why even the original boat ride did not go anywhere near those areas marked on the plan. That could all be used if they refurbished this.

That leaves a bit of room for a slightly longer boat ride, while not going outside the perimeter on the original building. I can't be too expensive to cast some concrete trough.

Photos thanks to TS, and ATA.

 

[Rocket]

Out of interest where did guests use to offload when the ride was Toyland Tours? As I think if they re routed the ride to the original layout, a separate offload station would be beneficial to increase capacity

 

[AT86]

Out of interest where did guests use to offload when the ride was Toyland Tours? As I think if they re routed the ride to the original layout, a separate offload station would be beneficial to increase capacity

Toyland Tours loaded and off loaded from the same location just on opposite sides of the boat.



Onload was on the far side of the picture, with off load the other side (which is now the location of the airgates to board the boat ride in the Dungeon).

Pic: TowersTimes.

 

[djtruefitt]

Toyland Tours loaded and off loaded from the same location just on opposite sides of the boat.



Onload was on the far side of the picture, with off load the other side (which is now the location of the airgates to board the boat ride in the Dungeon).

Pic: TowersTimes.

And as far as I’m aware the old queue line and boat is still there just boarded up. It was definitely still there when we had a behind the scenes tour when it was Charlie. And I assume nothing had changed since becoming the dungeons.

 

[DistortAMG]

And as far as I’m aware the old queue line and boat is still there just boarded up. It was definitely still there when we had a behind the scenes tour when it was Charlie. And I assume nothing had changed since becoming the dungeons.

Indeed they were. I still think they are still there.

What was left of the station boat after the refurbishment can be seen on Towers Streets excellent CATCF behind the scenes gallery here. You can even see some doom and sons remnants left behind in some of the photos! Really cool stuff.

Also, a big shout out to the "Please Remain Seated" sign in one of the linked photos, which is also left over from TLT's days, right before the Hippo who was sporting a lovely pair of "coconuts". My younger self remembers that very well.

Moving on, I really do hope this building is utilised for a new family attraction. The building is actually quite large. A lot of potential. What about the fake Jazz Land plans? I think there are absolutely some ques and ideas that could be draw from these designs when trying to decide what to do with the Dungeons ride system and building.


Credit to TT's for the photos.

I love how the boat ride system is modified in these plans to go outside with what I assume is a drop and into a splash pool.
THIS could be a great addition if they were to turn the ride back into a family attraction, especially considering that we do have a lack of water rides on park now. They could kill two birds with one stone so to speak and it could be done at a much reduced cost than when building new, half of it is there already! While also revitalising an existing ride as part of the general area overhaul that will inevitably come with Project Horizon.

 

[AT86]

Dungeon merchandise via the online shop is on sale. Do they still sell merch at the park for this attraction? Anyone noticed if that is also on sale by any chance?

The Dungeons

Your favourite merchandise from the Alton Towers Resort can now be delivered direct to your door, including Wickerman, Nemesis, Oblivion and Galactica items as well as exclusive online products!

shop.altontowers.com

Probably very much wishful thinking on my part but a merch sale and no tickets being sold beyond 31st Oct, maybe this thing is finally on its way out?

 

[Tom]

It’s generic Dungeons tat, notice they don’t brand by individual attraction. They are probably trying to clear whatever stock they have on site.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

It's also worth noting that the attraction is in a prime spot for development with Project Horizon.

It's on its fifth season now, and it's always looked only ever semi-permanent. It's never been as elaborate as other Dungeons and has never had any expansion since opening. It's never been seen with much of a queue either so I can't imagine attendance is high.

I mean from the park's perspective they're going to need more capacity down that end of the park, and with a ride system that can pretty much do the same throughput of the major coasters. It would serve as another indoor headline/support attraction.

I think it's time for Project Neverland to finally depart.

 

[AT86]

Dungeon actor auditions next week means this thing lives for another season!

Surprised they have never added/changed/altered scenes to give them the chance to market it as ‘updated’ or ‘new’ etc since attendance has always been low and they must be reaching the point where any guests interested have already done it and so they might be encouraged back in should they think the experience has changed.

 

[AT86]

Looks like the end is nigh for the Dungeons.

 

[PhalanaxOperativeA1127]

Wording is ambiguous; is that a permanent closure, or just a scarefest attraction that'll default back to Dungeons?

 

[Imagination]

About time, dark rides are a priority for the resort which has been mentioned time and time before and this has been earmarked for transformation. Whenever it does actually happen, it’s the right decision to get fully rid of the dungeons franchise.

 

[havaska]

What about if the Dungeon is going, it becomes a new spooky dark ride for Scarefest and then it stays that way permanently !

 

[Imagination]

I didn’t necessarily say it’s indefinitely closed from summer 2024. But it’s not been a massive success for the resort - guest feedback is lackluster, operational costs are extremely high and ticket sales are poor.

It’s been an earmarked space for their focus on indoor experiences.

 

[James]

Have a new in-house theme for Scarefest, see how it fairs with feedback and sales. If it proves popular have it run as a full-time attraction in 2025, if not, have it as a Scarefest-only attraction until the time and money comes to gut out the building and start again.

I have no clue how well ticket sales have been for The Dungeons although I suspect it has come to the end of its life this year.

 

[Dobba]

Get a couple of extra years out of the building, add an extra attraction to the Scarefest line-up and pencil it as Phase 2 of whatever the new area for Horizon ends up being.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Thank God Dungeons is going...Good riddance to bad rubbish!