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The Hotels: A Journey
- Thread starter AstroDan
- Start date
Craig
TS Administrator
I highly doubt they'd be able to without some major changes, as even on relatively quiet nights when I've been in pre Covid they've struggled to get everyone served and out in a decent amount of time. Flambos is also seen as a much better option when you have kids, thanks to having a choice of what to have for picky eaters (i.e. kids). You also have to consider guests in Enchanted Village, Stargazing Pods, treehouses and potentially CBeebies guests who perhaps might not want to eat in Windmill. Crooked Spoon is only open on weekends at present too, and is way too small to cope as well and should have expanded along with the resort as originally planned when phase two of EV wasn't going down the lazy camping pod route.
Basically, whilst the number of beds over the years has increased at a massive rate, the food and drink options on resort have expanded has completely stagnated and failed to keep pace. What was always a problem before, is now a complete and utter mess.
Poisson
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Giant Squid
We made a face when they started playing Baby Shark at full blast when we checked in and the staff immediately apologised. Got a feeling complaints are now sadly second nature to them.
The base of the double bed was stained in our room, plus the room cleaning staff looked defeated already this morning when we were checking out. With the staffing issues you get the impression they don't get enough time per room.
The base of the double bed was stained in our room, plus the room cleaning staff looked defeated already this morning when we were checking out. With the staffing issues you get the impression they don't get enough time per room.
Craig
TS Administrator
The customary "how was your stay" wasn't asked this morning. Can't imagine why
Cleaning the rooms has always been a ridiculous situation at the hotels. Check out at 10am, yet they serve breakfast right up until that point? Check out should match other hotels and be a minimum of 11am, especially when the vast majority will be heading off to the park anyway. They do have a really low amount of time to clean the rooms, but again it's something other hotels like Premier Inn and Travelodge are more than capable of doing, so why not Towers?
I will say our room was in a pretty decent state though, no issues to report aside from a missing phone. Other than that everything was clean and in decent working order.
Are you sure that’s not a couple of drunk guests getting up onto the stage at 2am and having a laugh?
I wish it was…
AstroDan
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
Indeed, you are right. We only stayed last night so we could all have a drink together at the meet in the daytime, and because the hotel was reasonably low-cost per person (for ATR anyway) it was more convenient to do that than anything else.
We do stay less than we used to, by some distance - but I agree that it would be nice to just not bother.
But equally, this is TowersStreet.
Bit of a Catch 22.
What I would say is that we did purposefully avoid any hotel restaurant last night.
Craig
TS Administrator
The problem is that as you know we all reside in different parts of the country, and we actually enjoy getting together and having a drink on park without worrying about driving. And from a park perspective, the days have been pretty enjoyable. It's especially the case when there's an event on, or like this weekend when the weather (was!) forecast to be nice. Yes, there's B+Bs and the like, but this was a last minute decision to book on Monday at a decent rate, and there was zero chance of getting anything else locally.
On the subject though, we'd normally be paying peak prices and staying on resort on Fireworks. This year though, that's not the case and we're off resort. So whilst we may not be boycotting the place outright, there are many occasions where we've decided against staying and in November we're refusing to "pay the big bucks".
MattyH
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- GIIBBB
Ate in Secret Garden last night. Although it took about 20-25 minutes for a member of staff to take our order, although once we did order our food was fantastic, @Poisson had pork belly which looked fantastic. Myself and @Jonathan also enjoyed our meals.
It's strange how they can offer wild boar sausages at dinner time but inedible things that they call sausages at breakfast.
It's strange how they can offer wild boar sausages at dinner time but inedible things that they call sausages at breakfast.
AstroDan
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
Food at SGR, for all the price being a little inflated, is generally good! A high point, I guess.
Shame by the time you have eaten, the bars are almost shutting.
What I can’t understand is last November, the park put on a fireworks display that made me well up. It was an awesome, immersive and truly memorable experience and has got to be put down as one of the UKs most impressive events of 2021.
Yet a 10 minute walk away we’ve got the Fawlty Towers of the north.
Yet a 10 minute walk away we’ve got the Fawlty Towers of the north.
Squiggs
TS Team
This is the central problem with the park outsourcing so many services in one form or another, it means that quality varies drastically from one moment to the next depending entirely on who is operating each individual service.
And at the end of the day the park have very little control over the quality of anything any more.
jon81uk
TS Member
Definitely the issue is that they just didn’t think to build restaurant capacity and evening things to do at the same rate as rooms. I guess they thought of Rollercoaster Restaurant filling the capacity for the Stargazing pods, but due to the location I would guess many don’t think of it as an option.
Also why they didn’t build Crooked Spoon to be able to handle all the Enchanted Lodges guests makes no sense. Each hotel restaurant should be able to cope for its own respective guests but it just hasn’t been built out that way.
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
It all looks fairly clean; the mattress was a fresh blue one, the surfaces had very little, if any, dust when I ran my fingers over them, and at a general surface level look, the room does generally look very clean!
Health and safety would never have it, and even if they did it would be probably the least interesting playground as everything would be seen as a potential hazard.
pluk
TS Member
It could have an amazing perimeter fence though.
jon81uk
TS Member
They have standard playground stuff in Enchanted Village including lots of balance beam and rope walk stuff.
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Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Dan, Craig and Ian have said pretty much everything that there is to be said about our experience on Saturday night. However just going to add a few of my thoughts on the matter.
It was something else, and I actually felt quite angry about the state of Ma Garritas bar, it was vile and disgusting. Pure filth is the best way to describe it, I have never seen a more filthy bar/restaurant area in my entire life. The amount of litter, plates, glasses (some full, some empty) left all over the floor and tables was astonishing. The clientele that Alton Towers often attracts these days clearly does not help (sorry if that makes me sound like a bit of a snob, but it is true). Many of the people in the bar that night simply have no standards and do not care. It's 10/11pm and they're sitting in piles of sh*t, whilst their very young and no doubt tired kids are sitting in high chairs on mobile phones, or running around kicking a football about the bar. Urgh.
Staffing is a huge issue. Not only are there not enough staff, all of the staff look to be in their early to mid 20s. The was no senior management on site, at least not making themselves seen. There was no security. The staff were out of their depth and they were intimidated. I feel for them actually, and don't blame them too much. It is the systems above them that is the problem, and a complete lack of accountability by senior management. The hotels director was actually in SGR on Sunday morning clearing tables, maybe she got the memo of how bad the night before was?
Another major issue for my now with the hotels is how both bars have become kids clubs. I know families with young children is a large target market for the hotels at Alton Towers but management seem to forget that there are other groups of people who stay over and want to have a more relaxed evening with some drinks and a chat. There absolutely should be kids entertainment, and I am sure that the kids love it. But it is forced upon every single person sitting in either bar, and it is so damn loud. When walked in to Margs at 10pm the place was still a kids disco.
I would personally like to see them introduce an adults only cocktail bar where you can go for a nice quiet evening with a few drinks like you would in pretty much any other hotel bar in the world. This would also help with the more general bar capacity issue; they've added so much accommodation across the resort in recent years but no new bars. More people, same space, it does not work.
Breakfast was as poor as ever, but I knew it would be. It did feel very chaotic in SGR yesterday morning, I am unsure how Alton Towers can make breakfast such a challenge.
It has got to the point where I think the hotels would benefit from an external operator. There would at least be some brand standards to adhere to, and there is no way things could get any worse.
It was something else, and I actually felt quite angry about the state of Ma Garritas bar, it was vile and disgusting. Pure filth is the best way to describe it, I have never seen a more filthy bar/restaurant area in my entire life. The amount of litter, plates, glasses (some full, some empty) left all over the floor and tables was astonishing. The clientele that Alton Towers often attracts these days clearly does not help (sorry if that makes me sound like a bit of a snob, but it is true). Many of the people in the bar that night simply have no standards and do not care. It's 10/11pm and they're sitting in piles of sh*t, whilst their very young and no doubt tired kids are sitting in high chairs on mobile phones, or running around kicking a football about the bar. Urgh.
Staffing is a huge issue. Not only are there not enough staff, all of the staff look to be in their early to mid 20s. The was no senior management on site, at least not making themselves seen. There was no security. The staff were out of their depth and they were intimidated. I feel for them actually, and don't blame them too much. It is the systems above them that is the problem, and a complete lack of accountability by senior management. The hotels director was actually in SGR on Sunday morning clearing tables, maybe she got the memo of how bad the night before was?
Another major issue for my now with the hotels is how both bars have become kids clubs. I know families with young children is a large target market for the hotels at Alton Towers but management seem to forget that there are other groups of people who stay over and want to have a more relaxed evening with some drinks and a chat. There absolutely should be kids entertainment, and I am sure that the kids love it. But it is forced upon every single person sitting in either bar, and it is so damn loud. When walked in to Margs at 10pm the place was still a kids disco.
I would personally like to see them introduce an adults only cocktail bar where you can go for a nice quiet evening with a few drinks like you would in pretty much any other hotel bar in the world. This would also help with the more general bar capacity issue; they've added so much accommodation across the resort in recent years but no new bars. More people, same space, it does not work.
Breakfast was as poor as ever, but I knew it would be. It did feel very chaotic in SGR yesterday morning, I am unsure how Alton Towers can make breakfast such a challenge.
It has got to the point where I think the hotels would benefit from an external operator. There would at least be some brand standards to adhere to, and there is no way things could get any worse.