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The Alton Towers Dungeon

RoyJess said:
I knew that your post was a joke, I just didn't wan't other members who might of taken your post seriously, to panic! ;)
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Spoil sport! :rolleyes:;)

Anyway, I'll point out the £4 / £5 extra it costs to do the Dungeons at Warwick. Would anyone welcoming this additional really justify that upcharge? That before a 2-4-1 or booking a few days in advance pushes your adult Towers ticket up to £60... *holds back vomit*
 
Is that not a similar upcharge to the mazes? Which seem to continue to be popular.

It would only work for me if I felt like I could do everything that is included in the price in the time on park, which right now I struggle to get on all the coasters I want to (including rerides), let alone have an hour free to run around a dungeon. Scarefest works because the park is open until late.

In my opinion a dungeon would be best as part of the resort offering. Include the usual 'tavern' and maybe expand it for some light food offering and you'd have a good evening attraction, with drinks and food after. It would be essential it opened after park hours too.
 
Lurker said:
Is that not a similar upcharge to the mazes? Which seem to continue to be popular.

It would only work for me if I felt like I could do everything that is included in the price in the time on park, which right now I struggle to get on all the coasters I want to (including rerides), let alone have an hour free to run around a dungeon. Scarefest works because the park is open until late.

In my opinion a dungeon would be best as part of the resort offering. Include the usual 'tavern' and maybe expand it for some light food offering and you'd have a good evening attraction, with drinks and food after. It would be essential it opened after park hours too.
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Of course, but then mazes are seasonal, not permanent attractions listed on the park map. Once the maze has run it's course of a few weeks it's removed. People will pay to visit a Dungeon perhaps once but after that there's no insensitive to return, rendering a big permanent attraction with next to no guests. Operating costs of a permanent ride are far higher than a maze which is temporary.

Sense says spend money on a permanent attraction people will want to re-ride. Look at the trouble Sub Terra had maintaining riders. That had no upcharge but was a staff-heavy story-driven experience and it's history after only a few seasons...

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Keeping it fresh and repeatable is a seperate issue to whether it's worth the upcharge, which I believe dungeons are.

I'd manage it as so, usual cost £10-15 (end price, assuming you've used a 241 or whatever)
If you have a park ticket it's an upcharge of £5 (or whatever is normal at Warwick ect.)
Open the dungeon to all, with an emphasis on outside of park hours. (Not just park guests)
Offer discounts on food/beverage in the tavern to those who actually went through the dungeon (to encourage people to go in).

In order to reduce operational costs reduce the number of slots available, giving you the option to shift staff around. (Actors, in park during park hours that the dungeon isn't busy, madness!)

Somehow Merlin seem to keep the dungeons busy, and while I appreciate that passing traffic is very valuable, they've got a bunch of people sat in hotel rooms with basically nothing to do... People might say why not.

Advertise it as something to do to avoid rush hour traffic too.
 
Lurker said:
Keeping it fresh and repeatable is a seperate issue to whether it's worth the upcharge, which I believe dungeons are.

I'd manage it as so, usual cost £10-15 (end price, assuming you've used a 241 or whatever)
If you have a park ticket it's an upcharge of £5 (or whatever is normal at Warwick ect.)
Open the dungeon to all, with an emphasis on outside of park hours. (Not just park guests)
Offer discounts on food/beverage in the tavern to those who actually went through the dungeon (to encourage people to go in).

In order to reduce operational costs reduce the number of slots available, giving you the option to shift staff around. (Actors, in park during park hours that the dungeon isn't busy, madness!)

Somehow Merlin seem to keep the dungeons busy, and while I appreciate that passing traffic is very valuable, they've got a bunch of people sat in hotel rooms with basically nothing to do... People might say why not.

Advertise it as something to do to avoid rush hour traffic too.
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It's all relevant because ultimately this is what justifies its installation in the first place.

The park only offers coasters and kids rides currently, yet charges one of the highest gate prices in Europe. Combine this with some of the shortest hours in Europe of any major park and you have a problem.

Who's going to sacrifice riding some of the rides they've already paid a lot of money for to experience a substandard Merlin midway? Yes, a few. But simply getting them to experience it once is not enough. Reducing available slots would be a premature death sentence for it. The cost of running this type of attraction will be substantial, assuming it's possible to build to an appropriate standard with a budget of only £3m? I fear it will only stay popular for a season and a half before becoming old hat and going the same way as 'Saw: Alive' which was dire for Thorpe Park. That’s open for select dates of the year; hardly a roaring success.

Standalone Dungeons are busy because they're in prime city centre locations and are the destination in themselves due to their scale. Warwick gets away with theirs because it's both tiny and also not being bolted onto a park ticket anywhere near as expensive as Towers' (gate price £24 - £27, from £18 online).

You cannot have it open inside the park after park hours due to the location of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory building being nowhere near the park entrance, nevermind the resort itself. The monorail isn't open long enough due to operational costs and park health and safety doesn't permit the Skyride to take guests after a certain point of the day (where darkness hampers visibility for the potential need to evacuate from it).

Honestly this idea couldn't be more preposterous if they tried. -_-

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If it will be an upcharge attraction, I could only see it being popular for one season, and become dead beyond that. Which is enough for Merlin I guess, hail it a success, Towers make it SBNO, and it joins the rest of the short lived, ill thought out Merlin attractions.

There's no way it would be operated outside of park hours. If it's in the CATCF warehouse, there is no easy access from the hotels, pointless having guests traipse though the whole theme park for one attraction.

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It would also be joint with the Space Boat as Alton's shortest lived attraction ever if it only lasted for 1 year; the Space Boat only operated during 1983 (I think?).
 
Apologies in advance
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Benzin said:
Sea-Life isn't, so why would a mini-Dungeons?
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The staffing costs for a Dungeons attraction, even on a small scale like at Warwick Castle, are substantially higher than something like Sharkbait Reef.

I'm sure they would also want to allocate time slots for each tour which would be made easier if you need to purchase a separate ticket.
 
If this uses the existing ride infrastructure in the Charlie building I don’t see the need to run this as time slot tours as they do at other dungeons. It could just be free flow like CATCF was.
 
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