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The Hotels: A Journey
- Thread starter AstroDan
- Start date
siralgenon
TS Member
IanB
TS Member
New Coffee Shop looks great, but still some issues to sort out.
Ordered two bacon roles and a hot chocolate.
The oven went in to pre-heat mode and they left the bacon roles in and then put it through its normal cycle. Ended up with overcooked buns so sent one back for Annabelle, her replacement is what I was expecting.
Hot chocolate was very watery, so a disappointing experience but these are issues that can be easily fixed with more time and training.
Ordered two bacon roles and a hot chocolate.
The oven went in to pre-heat mode and they left the bacon roles in and then put it through its normal cycle. Ended up with overcooked buns so sent one back for Annabelle, her replacement is what I was expecting.
Hot chocolate was very watery, so a disappointing experience but these are issues that can be easily fixed with more time and training.
So this morning despite pre booking secret garden for breakfast still queued a not insignificant time to get a seat, there were people walking about in pyjamas and no shoes on.
It didn’t seem as though there were enough staff with dirty tables knocking about. The offering was worse than a premier inn. They had no plates. And the lights were dirty…
I’ve not visited in years, but needless to say the “faux” blinds didn’t impress. Dave on ATH reception though was brilliant
The journey continues
It didn’t seem as though there were enough staff with dirty tables knocking about. The offering was worse than a premier inn. They had no plates. And the lights were dirty…
I’ve not visited in years, but needless to say the “faux” blinds didn’t impress. Dave on ATH reception though was brilliant
The journey continues
I am sorry Ian, but I simply couldn't resist with all the species discussions this evening.
Your two bacon roles, would that be Peppa Pig and Percy pig?
...Miss Piggy and Pinky perhaps.
Couldn't resist, being a homophonaphile.
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
The new coffee shop in ATH is lovely. Service was a bit slow on Saturday morning but I am going to put that down to new staff and hope that it will improve.
We stayed in the Enchanted Village over the weekend, my first stay on Resort in over a year. I do like staying in the lodges, yes they're a bit further away but the rooms are bigger and it's nice and peaceful outside. The room we had was fine, but still plenty of places where years worth of dust is gathering.
The less said about breakfast at Crooked Spoon the better. That restaurant is complete and utter chaos as you battle your way between tightly crammed in tables to get back to your own with a bang average breakfast. We said this to a staff member, and his response was along the lines of "yes I know, imagine what it is like doing evening service and bringing out the food"! As for the food, the hash browns were nice and the bacon was fine, but other than that it really wasn't great. I almost had to spit out my scrambled egg, it was vile.
As for the bars, they're just a general nightmare if you are not a fan of kids discos. Maybe it's me in my ever aging state, but I like a nice chilled out space where you can actually hear each other when having a conversation. And the bars in both hotels closing at 11pm on Friday night was a bit of a joke, they ended up kicking out a load of people. Why would you not want to make money?
We stayed in the Enchanted Village over the weekend, my first stay on Resort in over a year. I do like staying in the lodges, yes they're a bit further away but the rooms are bigger and it's nice and peaceful outside. The room we had was fine, but still plenty of places where years worth of dust is gathering.
The less said about breakfast at Crooked Spoon the better. That restaurant is complete and utter chaos as you battle your way between tightly crammed in tables to get back to your own with a bang average breakfast. We said this to a staff member, and his response was along the lines of "yes I know, imagine what it is like doing evening service and bringing out the food"! As for the food, the hash browns were nice and the bacon was fine, but other than that it really wasn't great. I almost had to spit out my scrambled egg, it was vile.
As for the bars, they're just a general nightmare if you are not a fan of kids discos. Maybe it's me in my ever aging state, but I like a nice chilled out space where you can actually hear each other when having a conversation. And the bars in both hotels closing at 11pm on Friday night was a bit of a joke, they ended up kicking out a load of people. Why would you not want to make money?
Alix
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Swarm or Oblivion
What’s more fun is at the moment in splash is on one floor the button on the right is broken, and the lift on the left is broken. So press the button on the left for the lift on the right to arrive. Sobriety test for those who’ve been in the bar perhapsYou've got to give it to them, those lifts are going strong. They've been there 28 years and they hardly ever break. Look across to Splash and they've just replaced them both and one is still always broken
I would LOVE to stay on site in the hotels again - but I just bring myself to spend the money when for a stay when :
The entertainment is poor
The bars all close early and everyone is sent to bed like naughty kids
The food in the restaurants is over priced and dire
Service and cleanliness in the restaurants is poor
Rooms can be hit or miss and minimal personal service from the reception desk
Why would I want to have this when I can pay £100 for a premier inn down the road? I’m sure there are others who would love to spend their money on a good stay on the resort hotels again but just can’t bring themselves to do it. For me the biggest put off are the food prices, the service you receive and the food quality. That is probably the biggest reason I will no longer stay on site anymore.
The entertainment is poor
The bars all close early and everyone is sent to bed like naughty kids
The food in the restaurants is over priced and dire
Service and cleanliness in the restaurants is poor
Rooms can be hit or miss and minimal personal service from the reception desk
Why would I want to have this when I can pay £100 for a premier inn down the road? I’m sure there are others who would love to spend their money on a good stay on the resort hotels again but just can’t bring themselves to do it. For me the biggest put off are the food prices, the service you receive and the food quality. That is probably the biggest reason I will no longer stay on site anymore.
AT86
TS Member
Have they started the entertainment this early before? Seems like a step up if there is something happening from 3.30pm each day. Especially if this is some low key ‘back ground’ live music in the atrium for when most people are arriving to check in etc.
Also good to see more options for the evening in the form of a disco in the conference room.
Also good to see more options for the evening in the form of a disco in the conference room.
jon81uk
TS Member
Might only be a half hour set anyway, so nothing 16.00-16.30 and 17.30-18.00.
I stayed at Splash for the last two nights and thought it was worth adding some of my thoughts as it’s the first time I’ve stayed onsite in about 8 years.
Firstly, as an overarching sentiment, I don’t think that the reviews I’ve read in here are a fair reflection of my experience, that’s not to say that they’re not a fair reflection of those people’s experiences though as I’m sure that they are.
I’d add that my background is largely in customer service and hospitality, I’m a lawyer now but I was a chef for a long time across varying levels right up to Michelin, that doesn’t make my opinion on whether I like the food or service any more valid than anyone else’s of course but I think it’s relevant in evaluating customer service and food.
Firstly the staff, the absolute vast majority were friendly, welcoming and helpful. The issue is that the vast majority are the south side of 30, probably 25 years old, and have clearly had little training. They should be getting training from Alton Towers anyway but at least if you employ older people there’s a reasonable chance that they’ve gained the experience and have a reasonable idea of how to be with customer service, and moving on from that, the older staff members that I did meet were mostly a bit more polished. The key important thing is the attitude, if that’s not there (and thankfully it was) then you can give people all the training in the world and it won’t make a jot of difference, which is the frustrating point as with a bit of training i genuinely think you’d see a vast improvement with just a couple of days although of course it should be more comprehensive than that.
To give a brief example of what I’m talking about, my wife is vegan; they have one vegan option at the Secret Garden Restaurant and we are there on the first night, she understandably didn’t want to pay decent money for exactly the same thing on the second night so we set about checking the other options, Crooked Spoon was closed both nights, we asked 3 different sets of people and couldn’t get a menu for Flambos and were eventually told to just ‘walk in and see if you like it’, so I thought I’d go to Secret Garden to ask whether they’d be able to knock up a basic pasta dish for a vegan. I appreciate that the answer was always likely to be no (which it was), but I spoke with the hostess who didn’t know the answer (which again is fair enough,) and was greeted with a blank expression, she eventually realised that she’d need to check with the chef, which she did and was told it wasn’t possible. Literally the first hour of any kind of training for service staff would say ‘if you don’t know the answer, go and ask someone who does’ yes, we got to that point eventually, but only after a really awkward 2 minutes where she was smiling at me after telling me she didn’t know and presumably hoping I’d just accept that response: again, it’s no slight on her, she was friendly and nice, but the training clearly wasn’t there.
I then went to the rollercoaster restaurant who were fully booked and tried to get us in, we’d already asked when on the park and were told ‘no I’ve got nothing’. That’s obviously fair enough if it was actually true but we eventually did get in as they accommodated us; which is obviously great but honestly, half the restaurant was empty. No shows? Possibly but surely not that many, I appreciate that there’s probably a live booking system which says either yes or no but it comes back to the point which is training, if you train people how to run restaurants they can usually find solutions which obviously is in the business’ interests anyway as it makes them more money. This will sound like I’m moaning, which I kind of am, I’m obviously grateful they got us in, but my point is how many more people could they be sorting out with reservations when the restaurant was dead? Similar issue at Woodcutters for lunch with a massive queue outside in the cold rain and loads of empty tables inside - it’s 90% a training issue and you cannot blame staff for not doing things which they haven’t been taught to do, especially under stressful circumstances.
Onto the food itself and it’s hit and miss, I don’t think the breakfast is that bad personally, it’s sort of travel lodge esque I guess; probably a bit better in fairness. I can live with that personally, my expectations for an all inclusive breakfast buffet isn’t great. Now don’t get me wrong; it should be better than this, I’d like nothing more than for this stuff to be taken seriously and to get it on a parr with places like Phantasialand, there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be the case but ultimately it isn’t, I’ve been going to the park for about 30 years and it never has been either. What it is, I think, is alright, it’s not offensive, it does the job and ultimately there are places which charge similar money doing similar stuff.
The dinner in Secret Garden was great, I had the smoked salmon tartar and the pork chop, if I’m being picky the chop was a bit overcooked but to be fair they’re probably told to cook pork to w certain temperature which will always make it taste that way - one of the drawbacks of working for a big company.
The rollercoaster restaurant food wise was fine; the drinks service was great, I had a 40 minute delay for my burger as I assume they’d forgotten it, I asked a member of staff where it was, she went to the kitchen and wasn’t seen again, the burger then showed up eventually - again, it comes down to training, the right way of handling that would be to say ‘let me go and check and I’ll let you know’ and then telling me, rather than vanishing and the burger just showing up.
The rooms were clean and nice, no issues at all with that and the access via the Galactica gate makes a really big difference.
I would add that it is absolute madness that they charge £7.75 for a pint of Stella, I’m currently in a really nice hotel which costs substantially more than Splash Landings and it’s a good quid cheaper than that.
The fact that the waterpark has similar operating hours to the theme park has been covered here ad infinitum and it will always annoy me, if you’re going to have a waterpark as part of a hotel package within a theme park then keep it open a couple hours longer than the park shuts so people have the opportunity to use it. Needless to say we didn’t take up the option of paying £50 for 2 days there.
I’d personally stay again, my overarching feeling is I really enjoyed it and I’m a bit gutted to have left; that’s how a hotel stay should make you feel and I’m glad to say it’s the case this time.
Firstly, as an overarching sentiment, I don’t think that the reviews I’ve read in here are a fair reflection of my experience, that’s not to say that they’re not a fair reflection of those people’s experiences though as I’m sure that they are.
I’d add that my background is largely in customer service and hospitality, I’m a lawyer now but I was a chef for a long time across varying levels right up to Michelin, that doesn’t make my opinion on whether I like the food or service any more valid than anyone else’s of course but I think it’s relevant in evaluating customer service and food.
Firstly the staff, the absolute vast majority were friendly, welcoming and helpful. The issue is that the vast majority are the south side of 30, probably 25 years old, and have clearly had little training. They should be getting training from Alton Towers anyway but at least if you employ older people there’s a reasonable chance that they’ve gained the experience and have a reasonable idea of how to be with customer service, and moving on from that, the older staff members that I did meet were mostly a bit more polished. The key important thing is the attitude, if that’s not there (and thankfully it was) then you can give people all the training in the world and it won’t make a jot of difference, which is the frustrating point as with a bit of training i genuinely think you’d see a vast improvement with just a couple of days although of course it should be more comprehensive than that.
To give a brief example of what I’m talking about, my wife is vegan; they have one vegan option at the Secret Garden Restaurant and we are there on the first night, she understandably didn’t want to pay decent money for exactly the same thing on the second night so we set about checking the other options, Crooked Spoon was closed both nights, we asked 3 different sets of people and couldn’t get a menu for Flambos and were eventually told to just ‘walk in and see if you like it’, so I thought I’d go to Secret Garden to ask whether they’d be able to knock up a basic pasta dish for a vegan. I appreciate that the answer was always likely to be no (which it was), but I spoke with the hostess who didn’t know the answer (which again is fair enough,) and was greeted with a blank expression, she eventually realised that she’d need to check with the chef, which she did and was told it wasn’t possible. Literally the first hour of any kind of training for service staff would say ‘if you don’t know the answer, go and ask someone who does’ yes, we got to that point eventually, but only after a really awkward 2 minutes where she was smiling at me after telling me she didn’t know and presumably hoping I’d just accept that response: again, it’s no slight on her, she was friendly and nice, but the training clearly wasn’t there.
I then went to the rollercoaster restaurant who were fully booked and tried to get us in, we’d already asked when on the park and were told ‘no I’ve got nothing’. That’s obviously fair enough if it was actually true but we eventually did get in as they accommodated us; which is obviously great but honestly, half the restaurant was empty. No shows? Possibly but surely not that many, I appreciate that there’s probably a live booking system which says either yes or no but it comes back to the point which is training, if you train people how to run restaurants they can usually find solutions which obviously is in the business’ interests anyway as it makes them more money. This will sound like I’m moaning, which I kind of am, I’m obviously grateful they got us in, but my point is how many more people could they be sorting out with reservations when the restaurant was dead? Similar issue at Woodcutters for lunch with a massive queue outside in the cold rain and loads of empty tables inside - it’s 90% a training issue and you cannot blame staff for not doing things which they haven’t been taught to do, especially under stressful circumstances.
Onto the food itself and it’s hit and miss, I don’t think the breakfast is that bad personally, it’s sort of travel lodge esque I guess; probably a bit better in fairness. I can live with that personally, my expectations for an all inclusive breakfast buffet isn’t great. Now don’t get me wrong; it should be better than this, I’d like nothing more than for this stuff to be taken seriously and to get it on a parr with places like Phantasialand, there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be the case but ultimately it isn’t, I’ve been going to the park for about 30 years and it never has been either. What it is, I think, is alright, it’s not offensive, it does the job and ultimately there are places which charge similar money doing similar stuff.
The dinner in Secret Garden was great, I had the smoked salmon tartar and the pork chop, if I’m being picky the chop was a bit overcooked but to be fair they’re probably told to cook pork to w certain temperature which will always make it taste that way - one of the drawbacks of working for a big company.
The rollercoaster restaurant food wise was fine; the drinks service was great, I had a 40 minute delay for my burger as I assume they’d forgotten it, I asked a member of staff where it was, she went to the kitchen and wasn’t seen again, the burger then showed up eventually - again, it comes down to training, the right way of handling that would be to say ‘let me go and check and I’ll let you know’ and then telling me, rather than vanishing and the burger just showing up.
The rooms were clean and nice, no issues at all with that and the access via the Galactica gate makes a really big difference.
I would add that it is absolute madness that they charge £7.75 for a pint of Stella, I’m currently in a really nice hotel which costs substantially more than Splash Landings and it’s a good quid cheaper than that.
The fact that the waterpark has similar operating hours to the theme park has been covered here ad infinitum and it will always annoy me, if you’re going to have a waterpark as part of a hotel package within a theme park then keep it open a couple hours longer than the park shuts so people have the opportunity to use it. Needless to say we didn’t take up the option of paying £50 for 2 days there.
I’d personally stay again, my overarching feeling is I really enjoyed it and I’m a bit gutted to have left; that’s how a hotel stay should make you feel and I’m glad to say it’s the case this time.
AT86
TS Member
Perhaps they don't have enough staff to operate RCR at full capacity?
Possibly although that didn’t seem to be the case judging by the staff numbers there, and even if that were true it shouldn’t be the case anyway especially as one of the other restaurants (Crooked Spoon) was closed.