Mi-Nigle
TS Member
I went on Saturday with my parents and a Brazilian guy called Jonas who had come over to England to work with my dad for a few months, before going back to Brazil. We took him to AT because we thought he would enjoy something different like that.
While I still like AT and still keep going back, I feel almost numb to everything now. There's no sense of awe these days when seeing structures such as Nemesis or the scale of the gardens or the park itself. I've gotten into the habit (like most of us here I imagine) of looking past all that, and instead noticing rotting themeing, dirty track, broken/missing effects, untimely dispatches, unkempt gardens, ridiculous queue layouts... the list goes on!
Saturday was different however. I was with someone who, A) Had never been to Alton Towers before and, B) Had never even been to a proper theme park before. He knows of Hopi Hari, but it is too far from his home. It was so nice to watch how he reacted to the park and it brought back how I used to feel in the early days. It made me appreciate the huge variety of rides they actually have and how each one has one or several unique quirks which add a lot to the experience. Now I know, that amongst the enthusiast community, there are issues (Air's boring layout, Rita’s lack of theme, the concrete gardens of the Ministry of Joy... again the list goes on), but they are all things that seem to go completely unnoticed to someone like Jonas and I really enjoyed a day in the park seeing it through his eyes.
Part of me wishes that I knew nothing about anti-rollback systems or hydraulic launches or trim brakes or topspin sequences or B&M box spines or the effects of different wheel compounds on speed. Now I think about it while typing this, it is similar to what John Wardley says in his book,
The loss of AT magic is often discussed on these forums (I’m not trying to spark up that debate again, this is merely observation) and I often wonder if it’s partly because we know how everything works, from ride mechanics to park management. I think for Jonas, “How did they do that?” was a frequent question in his mind. I think this is what made the experience much more mind-blowing, an experience I don’t think I’ll find again, which is a shame. I did however get enjoyment from seeing someone else feel that way and it was nice to get a glimpse of what it was like.
I think this could be an interesting debate because the negative opinion is a popular one on this forum when it comes to Alton Towers and I myself tend to favour them the majority of the time. After Saturday though, I can see the park in a more positive light. I’m not saying that I am totally disregarding the faults and seeing the park as perfect and shiny, not at all. I think it’s more of a case of viewing it as a layman, so to speak, and getting more enjoyment out of the good aspects.
I could well be alone on this but I think as an 'all-knowing' enthusiast it's difficult to enjoy theme parks in general in the same way that the GP do, and I think in the case of Alton Towers that effect is exaggerated because of how intimately we know the place.
While I still like AT and still keep going back, I feel almost numb to everything now. There's no sense of awe these days when seeing structures such as Nemesis or the scale of the gardens or the park itself. I've gotten into the habit (like most of us here I imagine) of looking past all that, and instead noticing rotting themeing, dirty track, broken/missing effects, untimely dispatches, unkempt gardens, ridiculous queue layouts... the list goes on!
Saturday was different however. I was with someone who, A) Had never been to Alton Towers before and, B) Had never even been to a proper theme park before. He knows of Hopi Hari, but it is too far from his home. It was so nice to watch how he reacted to the park and it brought back how I used to feel in the early days. It made me appreciate the huge variety of rides they actually have and how each one has one or several unique quirks which add a lot to the experience. Now I know, that amongst the enthusiast community, there are issues (Air's boring layout, Rita’s lack of theme, the concrete gardens of the Ministry of Joy... again the list goes on), but they are all things that seem to go completely unnoticed to someone like Jonas and I really enjoyed a day in the park seeing it through his eyes.
Part of me wishes that I knew nothing about anti-rollback systems or hydraulic launches or trim brakes or topspin sequences or B&M box spines or the effects of different wheel compounds on speed. Now I think about it while typing this, it is similar to what John Wardley says in his book,
where he talks about how boring and underwhelming a magic trick becomes when you know the secret.
I think this could be an interesting debate because the negative opinion is a popular one on this forum when it comes to Alton Towers and I myself tend to favour them the majority of the time. After Saturday though, I can see the park in a more positive light. I’m not saying that I am totally disregarding the faults and seeing the park as perfect and shiny, not at all. I think it’s more of a case of viewing it as a layman, so to speak, and getting more enjoyment out of the good aspects.
I could well be alone on this but I think as an 'all-knowing' enthusiast it's difficult to enjoy theme parks in general in the same way that the GP do, and I think in the case of Alton Towers that effect is exaggerated because of how intimately we know the place.