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The Alton Towers Dungeon

Rick said:
I still don't really subscribe to the view that the Dungeon building is an intrinsic part of that area of the park. I think it can be if you want it to be, but also, it can be something standalone and a cohesive theme can begin as you walk into the area 'proper' (with the former Toadstool site on your left and the new ride on your right).
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I think that the Dungeons is distanced far enough away from TWODW that it works as a standalone attraction, especially since they rethemed the Burger Kitchen.
 
That's my point, I'd work to expand the area slightly to make it included.

I'd bring the entrance sign right out and theme the lot to David Walliams or whatever. You've got the Nick building, Theatre, Toadstool site and the option of removing some of the raised grass areas to add several new attractions as well.
 
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Mr Pearse said:
The midways are in my opinion in a worst situation to reopen then the theme parks. If they used the argument to say the parks have wide open spaces and can manage social distancing that’s fine, but the midways like dungeons, discovery centres even sealifes to a extent would struggle to keep social distancing in place. Obviously I have no idea on the situation but that’s my personal opinion
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Sea Life are probably in a better position to re-open than most attractions. You move at your own pace and can distance from others naturally, also they generally run one way anyway. Similar to current situation in the supermarkets they would need to limit admissions and add some guidance to help with distancing. Maybe also add some extra handwashing provision.
Dungeons are probably the opposite, you move as a group in tightly confined spaces so very hard to re-open.
 
Same issues for parks and Midway's really, you are in a confined space on a dark ride, coaster or midway.
Things like Lego Discovery are tricky if you can't play with the bricks, limits the point a lot. Blackpool Tower lifts would never scale to 1 family per trip.

I suggest they issue everybody with a 1m radius Zorb Ball to wear at Sea Life and Dungeons to enforce social distancing and lock in any virus.
 
Could the London eye work with social distancing? In theory with social distancing I doubt many of the midways could reopen before the parks I think the midways could be done for this year unless something changes.
 
TheBolt said:
Same issues for parks and Midway's really, you are in a confined space on a dark ride, coaster or midway.
Things like Lego Discovery are tricky if you can't play with the bricks, limits the point a lot. Blackpool Tower lifts would never scale to 1 family per trip.

I suggest they issue everybody with a 1m radius Zorb Ball to wear at Sea Life and Dungeons to enforce social distancing and lock in any virus.
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although Sea Life is more like a museum compared to the other attractions, you are responsible for making your own way through, similar to going to the supermarket too.
They could open same time as other museums
 
TheBolt said:
Same issues for parks and Midway's really, you are in a confined space on a dark ride, coaster or midway.
Things like Lego Discovery are tricky if you can't play with the bricks, limits the point a lot. Blackpool Tower lifts would never scale to 1 family per trip.

I suggest they issue everybody with a 1m radius Zorb Ball to wear at Sea Life and Dungeons to enforce social distancing and lock in any virus.
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Or you could just wear one of these. Bit extreme but no-one would invade your personal space! (watch from 7:57 to see it in action)

 
Operationally and financially it would of made much more sense for The Dungeons to be located either by the hotels or as close to the park entrance/Towers Street as possible, and then have it open either until an hour or so after park close if it’s closer to the park gates, or until 9pm or so at the hotels so there’s something more to do. It probably would be harder to put it close to the park entrance because of space, and financially it would of cost more to put it in a new building, but I suspect they might of reaped more of the rewards perhaps, especially if it could open year round to supplement the hotel activities over winter like Sea Life does to an extent. I guess another issue would be the boat ride and having to either move it to a new building or fork out for a new one and all the operational challenges that encompasses, as well as the budget creeping up.
 
@kydog1299 I think you're right in that you would do that if starting from scratch, but the project was likely only made viable when fitting out an existing building, utilising an existing ride system.

The problem with putting anything out by the hotels is that it ends up being a trek from the park. I think they're working on the basis that the water park is doing what it needs to do in terms of winter occupancy.
 
Yeah that’s probably the biggest issue, getting footfall over to that side of the Resort. You’d have to perform some serious market research to ascertain whether there’s a big market/demand for additional activities after the park closes. I’m sure there’s probably demand there, but perhaps that demand could just be fixed easily by opening the park later rather than investing in new attractions around the hotel complex. I guess they’ve already explored the option of upgrading the offering over at the hotels through the zip-wire course and mini golf, but I’m not sure how successful either has been to be honest because the cut backs didn’t exactly end up just targeting the weaker elements of the line-up.

I put most of it down to weak marketing techniques. If I told most people that the park had a zip wire course or anything other than the theme park and main hotels they’d probably be surprised.

The Dungeons had real potential, it’s a shame that perhaps it wasn’t executed to reflect that. Perhaps though if they’d of properly invested and built it in a stand alone building closer to the hotels/park entrance they may not of reaped a big enough additional benefit to warrant spending additional CAPEX compared to just putting it where it currently is.
 
kydog1299 said:
Yeah that’s probably the biggest issue, getting footfall over to that side of the Resort. You’d have to perform some serious market research to ascertain whether there’s a big market/demand for additional activities after the park closes. I’m sure there’s probably demand there, but perhaps that demand could just be fixed easily by opening the park later rather than investing in new attractions around the hotel complex. I guess they’ve already explored the option of upgrading the offering over at the hotels through the zip-wire course and mini golf, but I’m not sure how successful either has been to be honest because the cut backs didn’t exactly end up just targeting the weaker elements of the line-up.
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There was a mention in an article from a Merlin executive a while ago explaining Extraordinary Golf paid for itself in a pretty impressive timeframe, I forget how long it took but it seemed pretty quick to me. It's very accessible, kills an hour or so, it's a pretty good course as far as I am concerned. Tree Top Quest is a little harder to make work, but I think it's ok if you have the volume of visitors in the hotels.

kydog1299 said:
I put most of it down to weak marketing techniques. If I told most people that the park had a zip wire course or anything other than the theme park and main hotels they’d probably be surprised.
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Tree Top Quest has been closed for not insignificant periods, but I think if it does reopen this year there will be additional prominence - they were getting better at presenting it as an upsell.

kydog1299 said:
The Dungeons had real potential, it’s a shame that perhaps it wasn’t executed to reflect that. Perhaps though if they’d of properly invested and built it in a stand alone building closer to the hotels/park entrance they may not of reaped a big enough additional benefit to warrant spending additional CAPEX compared to just putting it where it currently is.
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I think The Dungeons are enough for what they are - I think there was only so much potential and spending three times as much wouldn't have tripled the opportunity or potential financial outcomes. Plus, larger capital expenditure on something like a Dungeon means you almost always increase revenue spend through additional actors, etc.

You can limit the number of slots available to meet the capacity of an attraction - that's relatively easy, what is difficult is where you create such high fixed costs (whether it be staff, utilities, etc) and can't generate enough revenue to meet them - like Geauga Lake, or even something like Valhalla, closer to home.
 
Rick said:
There was a mention in an article from a Merlin executive a while ago explaining Extraordinary Golf paid for itself in a pretty impressive timeframe, I forget how long it took but it seemed pretty quick to me. It's very accessible, kills an hour or so, it's a pretty good course as far as I am concerned.
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I do think Extraordinary Golf is one of the best mini golf courses I've played. Its a shame the little stream through the site never really worked and some of the landscaping/gardening maintenance standards could be better but the actual course always seemed to be in fairly good condition. But its very well themed, very fun and just the right amount of challenge (except for The Flume hole that is impossibly difficult).
 
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