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The Magic

Rob said:
Europa Park stole it.

In all seriousness there is very little magic. Decay is not magic. Rot is not magic. Running out of food is not magic. Rude staff is not magic. A park full of dark themes is not magic.

:)
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Never found staff to be particularly rude, you get the odd bad egg but compared to Europa Park they are very polite.

Also again Europa was running out of food in its closing weekend. No park wants to buy in stock as it will go to waste.

Agree on your other points
 
I've just never had a staff member anywhere in any place throw a card back at me! Left a very sour taste in the mouth. I agree most of the staff at Towers are great, so I was a bit harsh there!

Running out of over half a menu is not acceptable, even on the last day of the season. I'm sure some stock could either be frozen or used a 'limited specials' at the hotels. Then when my food came it was pretty shocking anyway. Can't say I experienced the same at EP, enjoyed all my food there!

:)
 
When we did SWR3 cafe at EP by the time some of our group got to order most of the menu had sold out.

It's always going to be an issue and the food you get in the last day is what they can freeze hence who it's a bit naff. It's also why they like those over priced external food outlets on fireworks.
 
F&B on park just gets worse. If you haven't got the items, do the decent thing and at least cook what you have got well.

Also it's the biggest weekend on park. This is the time to go mad on F&B, running out is just daft and poor service. Even taking that to one side though, having your card thrown back at you @Rob is totally unacceptable. Of course you never know the day that person has had, and they're paid crappy wages to tolerate a load of customer abuse, it's not always easy to keep your cool.

On the whole I am usually very happy with Towers front line staff, though this year for me has been the first when it's not totally impressed me. I spotted the F&B problems (they ain't getting better till a change above happens) and I hope this is not a sign of a deterioration of general staff also, something that on the whole has always been exemplary but this year for me, was very good - but with some worrying signs it's starting to follow other aspects of the park.

It's about trends, and those trends aren't good - I'll say it again, something isn't right at Towers behind the scenes management wise. It is the general direction that concerns me most, not where we are.
 
I just want to say that any theme park will eventually lose its magic if you visit very frequently. It will be a more personal thing, as you don't get the feeling of 'wow' if you see something every day. Perhaps this is why people love Europa Park so much. As its not easily visited.

I'm not saying Towers is at the same level of EP, their TripAdvisor pages show that!
 
Not for me, Nemesis front row dark, towers lit up, gardens etc, never loose their magic. I do take your point "familiarity breeds contempt" as they say, but I'd disagree in the case of Towers with us lot because we just adore the place and it's gone through phases.

I enjoy a coffee everyday, I didn't get to Towers hardly at all this year, but it was worse than last year for in your face adverts, food quality etc, if something is the same and it maintains a standard that's not so bad, but Towers has been going down and I think that's the problem.
 
TheMan said:
F&B on park just gets worse. If you haven't got the items, do the decent thing and at least cook what you have got well.

Also it's the biggest weekend on park. This is the time to go mad on F&B, running out is just daft and poor service. Even taking that to one side though, having your card thrown back at you @Rob is totally unacceptable. Of course you never know the day that person has had, and they're paid crappy wages to tolerate a load of customer abuse, it's not always easy to keep your cool.

On the whole I am usually very happy with Towers front line staff, though this year for me has been the first when it's not totally impressed me. I spotted the F&B problems (they ain't getting better till a change above happens) and I hope this is not a sign of a deterioration of general staff also, something that on the whole has always been exemplary but this year for me, was very good - but with some worrying signs it's starting to follow other aspects of the park.

It's about trends, and those trends aren't good - I'll say it again, something isn't right at Towers behind the scenes management wise. It is the general direction that concerns me most, not where we are.
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Pretty much every season park has this F&B issue on the last weekend of the season,including the best. That doesn't detract from the other F&B issues. And rob makes a good case for the lack of magic in other areas.

Anyway slightly off topic
 
F&B has been an issue all season one way or another and for me it was just summed up in one brilliantly awful hour on Sunday.
BenBowser said:
I just want to say that any theme park will eventually lose its magic if you visit very frequently. It will be a more personal thing, as you don't get the feeling of 'wow' if you see something every day. Perhaps this is why people love Europa Park so much. As its not easily visited.

I'm not saying Towers is at the same level of EP, their TripAdvisor pages show that!
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Magic isn't just about that 'wow' feeling you get though, well not for me. For me it is true escapism, the ability to forget reality and just immerse yourself in this alternate world. I get that at places like EP and Disney. Visiting a lot may well cause some magic to ware off, but if you truly love a place the magic will not disappear. I've been to EP 3 times this year, spent over ten days on park, and my love for the place has only grown. That is the magic. I could happily enjoy a whole day at Europa Park not going on a single ride, just wandering around, eating the food, have lovely drinks, taking in the scenery etc.

With the state Towers is in I just find it depressing. It needs so much care and attention in so many different places. For me you cannot have a truly magical experience with the park in such a state.

:)
 
^ Yes, but if you find yourself frequently in the same 'worlds' then it loses its feeling of escapism. Say you visit Towers once a month, if you did the same for EP the effect would likely be the same, as it becomes hard to take in the scenery if you know its exact location by heart.

As for the park being in 'such a state', the only things I can think of that are looking worn are the Nemesis Monster and Runaway Mine Train facade.
 
BenBowser said:
^ Yes, but if you find yourself frequently in the same 'worlds' then it loses its feeling of escapism. Say you visit Towers once a month, if you did the same for EP the effect would likely be the same, as it becomes hard to take in the scenery if you know its exact location by heart.

As for the park being in 'such a state', the only things I can think of that are looking worn are the Nemesis Monster and Runaway Mine Train facade.
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As I said initially, magic is very personal and different for everyone.

Have you not visited Dark Forest recently though? Or the Spinball queue? Or areas of Oblivion? Or The Smiler's concrete? I could go on!

:)
 
Whoops! I forgot about the Spinball queue!

It is also worth pointing out that I think Europa is a bit of an anomaly. Like I said, you just have to compare their TripAdvisor page to one of Disney's and EP will still come out on top. Its that rare kind of place that everyone just loves.
 
I found staff in F&B pretty rude on my visit earlier in the year. Came across a few staff that didn't seem to care about their job, or customers, or providing a service. Saw F&B staff having social conversations with each other and ignoring customers, my family being one set of customers, resulting in us at Pizza Pasta having to walk up to the staff talking and tell them they had 3 or 4 tables waiting to be served.

Outside of F&B staff were on top form as always. If it were my first visit to Alton Towers though I certainly wouldn't want to use their F&B services in future, and it would have probably left me in a sour mood. Luckily I know that rude staff at Towers are rare, but sadly when you do come across one they seem to be far worse than you would expect.

Anyway I agree with the above that Europa is a bit of an anomaly. That place can be so good it's crazy. I think Towers has improved in some ways over the years. Although we're still a far cry away from the 90s and early 00s.
 
EP isn't an anomaly. That suggests it's not "normal". What isn't normal anymore, is expectation and delivery of quality service. We should be holding them up as the pinnacle and saying, this is what theme parks should and deserve to be for themselves, and the customers. As parks get smaller, so does the manner in which these things are scaled down. I don't like that word in relation to this discussion, I don't think it's appropriate for service industry standards.

Whilst people accept it as a bit of an exception to the rule, standards will continue to fall, Alton Towers should be our Europa Park, there's neither a shortage of knowledge, creativity, desire, nor resource to make it that way on a slightly scaled level appropriate to the parks obvious restrictions - those same restrictions which by the way, give it a HUGE advantage over other parks also.

Let's take something as simple as the awful scaffolding in DF - why not just build something permanent if it needs it?

Why not landscape a bit around the filthy concrete on The Smiler? Let's be straight here, it's awful!

EP go round year after year, sprucing things up, adding touches everywhere, creating those finer details that make it stand out and the visitor numbers PROVE it's noticed.

I have a feeling if I ever do get to visit EP I will come back and be absolutely outraged at the state of Towers lol!

Time they started to give the place the respect and care it deserves.
 
F&B at Towers is always hit and miss. It's a shame, because the service elsewhere is usually really good and much stronger than the other Merlin parks.
 
James said:
Alton Towers Hotel
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We were staying in Splash on Sunday night (£4.50 cheaper than ATH!) and I took a wander over to ATH at 10pm, walking through the empty waterpark with the coloured "fairy" lights was very nice but then a wander round the lake in the gardens of ATH was awesome, even though I could overhear drunk smokers on the hotel patio, there is still something really magical about the hotel grounds in the dark.
 
Yeah the surrounds are lovely, the gardens stunning, the hotels quirky, but for me, the real magic lies in my memories of the place ever since my first visit in 93.
 
I love the back of Alton Towers Hotel at night. It's nice around there when it's quiet.

It's lovely too when you stay in ATH and get a room overlooking the lake.

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Waking up to that view on a crisp winters morning is the magic for me.
 
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