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Towers Loving Care

Don't get me wrong at all. I'm genuinely pleased with the work that they're doing RE: Towers Loving Care. Honestly. It's just that I'm a bit stingy and I don't see the need to spend thousands (if they did?) on painting a sign that arguably was already adequate. If they had a budget that they needed to blow then fair enough, no arguments. And my fences comment was obviously tongue in cheek as I'm sure you all appreciate. I'm just looking out for AT's funds, that's all :)

Loving the Nemesis work, recently discovered Conservatories work, loads of benches last year, Hex generally and lots more general stuff. I can't knock the effort of those who are involved with the program. I can be slightly miserable but I can appreciate when genuine people are making a real effort to try to present the place in as good a way as possible.
 
Man hours are different to hours it took to complete. Not sure if the post was meant in the strictest term though or how it was measured, and probably was just one artist doing it probably.

I'm not hugely surprised though, having been an art student once! You tend to live life in days not hours!
Actually let's see, this will include stripping them down completely, redrawing them, spraying and detailing, rendering, then the same again for the other one, then reinstalling. So it works out that it took a month or so if it were just one person doing 8 hour days? Seems quite long but then how accurately did they measure, and it's in the right ball-park.


My main feeling earlier was that whoever pushed through with this I am sure had many conversations where the "is it necessary for that much money" "can't it just be done with a cheapo contractor" "guests wont notice" lines were all put in their way, as seems to happen across the board in the UK. So rather than continue that mood even after something good has been achieved to excelent results, we should encourage for more of this surely!

Let them deal with the budgets to make these things work, and then we (and every guest day in day out) can enjoy the park as was best intended. :)
 
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Well, I suppose, as been as they appear to be sprucing up the Conservatories (which will definitely cost a lot of money), even I can let them off with this frivolous expenditure :)
 
£5,000 does seem like a lot of money. They'll have to fill a room in the C Beebies Hotel for 12 nights to make that money back! (obviously I'm being a bit flippant, I know the economics or running a theme park are more complicated than that). But I do agree that it's money well spent. As Electric Bill says, there do seem to be a lot of theme parks in the UK who are run by people who keep on saying, 'I'm sure we can do that more cheaply'. Sometimes it is nice to push the boat out.
 
That sign was one of the last things that needed doing, it looked fine to me, however I am glad they have gone to the effort.

Has X-Sector received any attention this closed season?
 
Smiler supports had some touch ups. X Sector is ultimately fine, just dated looking. The Oblivion ride area and Smiler queue could do with a clean however.
 
bluesonichd said:
250 hours to complete? ! so even @ £20 an hour ( I dont know anyone that works for 20 an hour tho, but still) thats £5000 , for 2 signs. seems alot to me o_O
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I wouldn't get out of bed for £20 an hour.

Rob said:
To be fair the old, faded/weathered signs did fit in more with Dark Forest/Merlin's usual standards than these lovely shiny new ones. I don't know why they didn't just go for a greyscale logo actually!
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It's a difficult balance I think, it's the same with the Nemesis track. People hated it looking tired, but it looks somewhat ridiculous new. In fact, with the work they managed to do prior to last season, it looked more new than it did when it was new.
 
andeyhart said:
X Sector is ultimately fine, just dated looking.
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It looks nowhere near as good as it did 15/20 years ago.

Far too much orange and yellow paint, overgrown bushes and tired, poorly refurbished theming.

The drop area in particular is awful.

It's totally lost the cool and sinister atmosphere it once had.
 
But that's the point - it looked good 15/20 years ago because it was of its time. It certainly could be kept in better condition, but I do think the original theme is slightly dated and wouldn't be as intimidating today as it was in the 90s, even if it was well maintained.
 
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CoasterCrazyChris said:
It looks nowhere as good as it did 15/20 years ago.
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I think it has changed somewhat with age. The trees down the path side of Smiler have matured and have changed the vibe. The greenery somewhat detracts from the theme, it had an incredibly sterile feeling back in '98 whereas now, it feels much more different and natural.

As much as The Smiler looks incredible - the loss of the Black Hole tent (the ride too, but the tent in this instance) plays a big part in that area feeling different. It was incredibly large and oppressive. Submission departing doesn't make or break the area for me - nor did the swap out of Energizer change things too much, come to think of it.

Things evolve. Stuff changes. Move on.

andeyhart said:
But that's the point - it looked good 15/20 years ago because it was of its time. It certainly could be kept in better condition, but I do think the original theme is slightly dated and wouldn't be as intimidating today as it was in the 90s, even if it was well maintained.
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Agreed Andey. Despite being dated, I think people generally are far less excited about such things, we have a general apathy towards a lot of things like that. As you stood in a three hour Oblivion line in the early days, there was tension, excitement, trepidation and bouts of frustration as you waited for them to fix it again. People were utterly glued to the queue line videos.

If there was a three hour Oblivion line today, we'd barely look up from our phones to witness what was going on around us. It's a different time. God I'm old.
 
andeyhart said:
But that's the point - it looked good 15/20 years ago because it was of its time. It certainly could be kept in better condition, but I do think the original theme is slightly dated.
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No it looked better because it was in brand new condition and had not been subjected to neglect and numerous poor quality refurbishments.

Dated is far more preferable to downright shoddy theming like The Smiler.

If X-Sector still looked like it does in this video it would be one of the best areas on park.

 
Rick said:
You're chasing rainbows. Let's all wear Kappa, play with YoYos and bring our Tamagotchis too.
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I only asked in the first place because people had been saying the area was due a refurbishment this closed season.

X-Sector is as bad as most of the other areas on park particularly Dark Forest and Forbidden Valley - basically two coasters shoehorned together in the laziest way possible with no attempt to make the whole thing cohesive.

You might as well be at a fairground for the attempts at immersion are pitiful for a leading theme park - what does it all amount to on an aesthetic level?
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Well if you think about it, it's in the park's interest to let the trees grow as tall as possible. Makes you wonder why they haven't planted a few giant redwoods round the edge of the park...?
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You were supposed to keep this quiet until we did that land grab thingy coup that we promised not to talk about. I've probably said a bit too much anyway. Yeah, isn't David Beckham a wonderful human being anyway, great stuff, I like ITV on a Saturday night and stuff...... ;)
 
CoasterCrazyChris said:
You might as well be at a fairground for the attempts at immersion are pitiful for a leading theme park - what does it all amount to on an aesthetic level?
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Put down the manual... this is something that enthusiasts babble on about because somewhere along the line someone said this is what was supposed to happen and it does in certain parks - but Alton has never really been of that ilk.

When you're in DisneySea you feel like you could be in Mount Vesuvius, but Alton has never really attempted to go that far. It's tried to provide experiences whereby there is a degree of immersion, but it has never really tried to convince you that you're not in the Staffordshire countryside, not now - not ever. Individual attractions immerse you - but areas, not so much.

You can't talk about cohesion in X Sector and then tell me it was at its peak 15 years ago. You had Oblivion in the midst of what was a sinister futuristic government facility and across the path you had a Jules Verne themed Black Hole. Give me a break... there's more cohesion now than there was then.
 
Rick said:
Put down the manual... this is something that enthusiasts babble on about because somewhere along the line someone said this is what was supposed to happen and it does in certain parks - but Alton has never really been of that ilk.

When you're in DisneySea you feel like you could be in Mount Vesuvius, but Alton has never really attempted to go that far. It's tried to provide experiences whereby there is a degree of immersion, but it has never really tried to convince you that you're not in the Staffordshire countryside, not now - not ever. Individual attractions immerse you - but areas, not so much.
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Yes but a fully themed and cohesive park was achieved by the year 2000 with the exception of a couple of small areas.

All the areas (Katanga aside) were designed so that they would not be out of place in the English countryside, that was the beauty of it.

Since then everything has been based on sticking anything anywhere in the pursuit of short term ROI.

Rick said:
You can't talk about cohesion in X Sector and then tell me it was at its peak 15 years ago. You had Oblivion in the midst of what was a sinister futuristic government facility and across the path you had a Jules Verne themed Black Hole. Give me a break... there's more cohesion now than there was then.
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The exterior aesthetic of the Black Hole fitted perfectly with the whole area, the inside was a complete mystery until you rode it.

It's hardly a big ask to have a theme park with a set of themed areas that are faithful to particular theme. I know most of the plebs that frequent these parks could not give two monkeys but as far as I am concerned it is this attention to detail that separates second rate leisure parks with world class attractions.
 
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