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The magic has disappeared!

AstroDan said:
Of course its bad that there are rides closed. That is not in question.

But perhaps if you took a moment to wade into the park and look closely at what is being offered right now, and how the park feels in terms of atmosphere, you might be able to balance out your argument more.

If you think there's no magic now. Did you visit in 2006? Bad times. Just remember people, remember those days.

:)
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That's all I'm saying Dan, that those things are going to affect how people experience the day. We're enthusiasts, I've even said myself I can understand why some of these rides are closed (after being initially, as everyone pretty much was, peeved at it) - the public wont know that because they're not as absurdly obsessed by it as we all are.

These places are our passion.

On one hand there's great direction, but it needs other parts of the company to back that up. If they can achieve that, the long term signs are very good.

And yes, I remember those days. I take that point :tearsofjoy:

The rare times I left the park actually angry and refused to return for a couple of seasons.
 
It is very difficult to try and come across as balanced when you fully agree that the rides closed is bad, but at the same time can see an effort going to the park presentation/music etc. more than at any time since you started visiting as an enthusiast. I communicate with the park a fair bit about stuff and certainly make my voice quite known.

Things don't have to be all or nothing, but I disagree with people writing the season off as devoid of magic.
 
It's my first trip to Towers of 2016 tomorrow and magic or no magic I'm as excited as ever.

I'll post my thoughts on TLC and Galactica I a couple of days.

Nemesis, here I come!
 
If we look at the improvements, all are good pretty much, Hex is closed for a few bits of genuine TLC, from what I've heard they are trying to sort out the parking, and add new projectors. Charlie will most likely be home to a new ride next year since SW8 is for 2018, and its sponsorships most likely run out. Driving School I'm not sure about, Wobble World from what I've seen and heard has been gutted, Sub Terra has been playing up for ages and that was expected. Ripsaw is likely to be a site for future development in the future, especially if The Blade goes soon.

The thing that annoys me is some people are moaning about The Flume leaving, and these people are the same people that said it was a poor example of a flume and needed replacing, and when what is very likely to be a top ride is announced, people start saying the flume shouldn't be removed! :rolleyes: happened with The Blade as well. They said it was to close, and everybody wanted it to stay. While the plans for that site were cancelled due to excessive cost of rock removal,(It is a shame, but it would have been a massive price) people were wanting a poor example of a pirate ship to stay, even though if plans had gone ahead, the blades site would be home to the station of a wooden coaster!

veered off topic a bit there, but some people complain about the ride when it is there, and complain when it is set to be removed...
 
Alton is a mixed bag his year. There are parts that are getting the attention they need, some parts are failing to meet expectation. Merlin/AT have a budget to keep to, we may argue that the budget is too small for what we want.
I hope TLC turns the structure of the park around and the budget for ents returns.

This is a crossroads time for the park. We have to put our faith in Alton's management to get the best deal from the financial department of merlin, and use it they best way they can to get AT to a postion it deserves.

Sent from my SM-T210 using Tapatalk
 
personally for me, I guess the magic is measured by how you feel by the end of a day on park.
Mid day I was feeling quite content on park and enjoying myself.
By end of day (2:30pm) I left feeling meh !
Just small things started to niggle me, food outlets and what's on offer, ride queues inflated because low operations,
Yes all these can be attributed to how park is currently operated.
The TLC wouldn't have made my day any better, although I'm pleased it's happening
I think 3 1/2 hours on park is my shortest visit. The magic has certainly gone for me at present.
 
The magic means different things to different people. I would say it went along time ago, having tatty buildings and broken effects are for some where as me it's about escapism. When you paid your entry fee and everyone was equal. Now it's pay this to jump this q, now pay to squirt water, yes they are optional.but the magic was shared between all. Now it's how quick merlin can magic your money away with a fairly average experience.
 
I agree with quite a few posts for and against about if the magic exists. However, magic is a very personal thing - so what one person views the resort magic to be could be very different to another.

To the people moaning about it and viewing it as one of the worst moves? Ok, I understand why you may be moaning but take a walk down Haunted Hollow and give thanks that we're not back in 2007....
 
Not only is the 'Magic' different things to different people, it's also different things to the same given person at different points in their lives.

When I was a child the Magic was coming face to face with these gigantic machines that I could be ushered into, that made strange noises, that made other people make strange noises, that I would never see in normal daily life. Then these strange machines would carry me and throw me around in unusual ways and I would then make strange noises just like the other people had before me. It was a completely different world from anything I was used to. The Magic was being close to my parents and my brother on these rides, seeing each others expressions on our faces as we experienced these strange machines together, feeling none of life's worries that slowly become more apparent as age catches up with us all (inevitably, and impossible to avoid), my parents seeming old and very mature, when I now realise that they were themselves still relatively young by today's standards, and still finding their way in the world and learning about life.

The Magic was the same old cassette that memory instructs me to believe was always played on the journey there once or twice a year, whilst we eventually passed Ronny The Robot (the strange structure next to the JCB Headquarters, the name coined by my Dad most probably). The magic was finally overcoming my fear of the Thunder Looper that I had been too scared to go on, on a couple of previous visits, when I was finally dragged so far down the queue for it that I may as well carry on and go on it than head backwards down the queue, then enjoying every second of it and re-riding it relentlessly. The Magic was seeing fine views of this magnificent countryside from the top of 1001 Nights through the lashing rain when it had stopped, as it seemed to when I was young, for a minute at a time. The Magic continued, as it had always done, year after year. The absolute Magic was enjoying these new, strange, and ongoing experiences with the people I love. Seemingly always a new experience to encounter together year after year.

Then the Magic stopped. Or so it seemed. Or was it still there all along? Life happened to me, and to thousands of others who had experienced the same thrills and experiences that I had. In my late teens, Alton Towers and its haze of 'something' became completely distant, it disappeared into a chasm of nothingness, with not a single thought thrown in its direction. Life's trials and tribulations and serious worries about outside influences allowed no thought for this distant place, even if I had wanted to. The Magic was dead to me.

Then, in the early 2000s, some friends had arranged a trip to the Towers 'off the cuff' and naturally I was encouraged to go along. I would go along and I was 'the one who knew all about the Alton Towers rides and the way around as I used to go there all the time'. But it was a very strange visit this time. It was the same place, but somehow it wasn't, all at the same time. I would walk towards what now is the Dark Forest but instead of looking forward to the contraptions in that area that could throw me around in all sorts of ways, I was looking up at this stack of bricks to my right thinking: "What is this building, why is it even here, and why does it look like it does"? What on earth is it doing in the middle of all these modern rides? Just what has happened here? I saw the same sights when travelling on the skyride over the gardens, but no longer was I holding onto the seat tightly, I was craning my neck to look over at these structures dotted around the greenery below me. What is all this stuff doing here and who bloody put it here? I had always had a bit of an interest in history, but now it had reared its head in what should have been the most obvious of places for me, where I had previously somehow been oblivious to all of it. The Magic that this large plot of land in Staffordshire had provided when I was younger was forcing itself upon me in a different way, when I least expected it, in its beautiful natural and built environment. The years after this 'enlightenment' of the place's history, where I would make efforts to discover, study and explore more and more about it (and still do) were honestly some of the most Magical times I've had with regards to the Towers, almost as good as enjoying those scream machines of years gone by with my family. Years came and went and I did a degree in History as a mature student and got a 1st class honours, and my dissertation was on the Gardens at Alton Towers.

The Magic is still there if you know where to look for it, and it is different for everyone. Where is yours? I know where mine is.

When I pass Ronnie the Robot I feel the Magic, when I turn that song up when driving through Denstone (any one of the ones that used to be on the old cassette) I feel the Magic. I definitely feel the Magic when I pass over the bridge, past the Station Lodge and up the winding roads in Alton/Farley. I feel the Magic when I'm lying down on a stretch of grass in the Gardens looking at the Pagoda in the middle of summer. I feel the Magic when I touch the bricks of that big old house and wonder what was going on there almost 200 years ago. I feel the Magic when I smell the fresh air whilst watching the rain pour down outside from a hollow window frame whilst standing in there. And I definitely feel the magic when there is a brand new ride there the following year for me to experience from scratch :)
 
I’m not one for fuzzy feelings and ‘magic’. I think DisneySea is the only park that has really managed to provide that ‘escape’ and ‘magic’ that some people find in the Staffordshire countryside.

My first visit of the season will be later this week, so obviously I shall not be ridiculous and guess how things are, let's see!
 
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