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Towers Loving Care

The problem is 95% of the visitors don't care about such improvements, however I like nothing better than a walk through the gardens on a nice day. It really is a stunning setting.

The TLC scheme/project is brilliant. I only wish they had ten times the budget they currently get. Then the park would return to it's former glory.
 
BarryZola said:
They could open a little refreshments cart there while there at it too. Probably couldn't justify the staff costs in the current climate though unfortunately. Even one of those old Wall's ice cream carts would do with ice creams and chilled drinks. Probably doesn't justify the outlay on staff though. Also, maybe they wouldn't want to attract too many undesirables to one of their latest investments....
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Yeah, refreshments, wether that be a small cart for snacks, tea, coffee, whatever would be a nice addition, I just don't think the costs of staffing would allow them any profit on any such additions.

I'll admit, even I don't venture into the gardens at all that much, but that's mainly because the people who I go with aren't interested in going in them. If there was some sort of cafe etc., then maybe, but at the moment, the gardens just don't seem to have any appeal to the majority of Towers visitors to justify any investment other than resortation which incidently was only done so the Resort could build Wicker Man.
 
Benjsh said:
The problem is 95% of the visitors don't care about such improvements, however I like nothing better than a walk through the gardens on a nice day. It really is a stunning setting.

The TLC scheme/project is brilliant. I only wish they had ten times the budget they currently get. Then the park would return to it's former glory.
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One of my favourite things in life is the REAL start of summer at Towers. I take a little picnic in my bag along with a roll-up blanket and an old school pocket radio. I've got a special little place overlooking the Pagoda slightly away from the paths and I just have a nice relax having a lie down and stuff for a couple of hours. Sweet.
 
BarryZola said:
One of my favourite things in life is the REAL start of summer at Towers. I take a little picnic in my bag along with a roll-up blanket and an old school pocket radio. I've got a special little place overlooking the Pagoda slightly away from the paths and I just have a nice relax having a lie down and stuff for a couple of hours. Sweet.
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The important thing to remember is the ONLY reason Merlin have spent money on the Pagoda Fountain & the Conservatories is because they have had it forced on them as part of Section 108 agreements. These are agreements they have to enter into to spend money on heritage restoration in return for planning consent for new developments / rides. Had these agreements not been forced upon Merlin it would be bare-minimum health & safety work to keep the structures standing (much like with the Towers ruins).

That said, the job they have done on the Prospect Tower, Pagoda Fountain & Conservatories is excellent. (It has to be as they can only hire certain heavily vetted contractors to do the heritage restoration work).
 
I rode Duel today and appreciated the new soundtrack and a few of the improvements to the ride itself. I agree that the new portrait TVs are a little too bright and don’t fit in well with the old portraits that remain. Overall I definitely enjoyed the ride more and it is nice that some work has been done.

What seems to have been missed however is very basic ‘TLC’ such as removing chewing gum from the walls and carpets, paintwork around the queue and exits etc that make the ride look generally shabby, which is disappointing.
 
I love Duel but wishful hey would have restored it more to haunted house than it’s current state. Something to get people in that immersive queue. The original atmosphere and smells were amazing

With regard to the conservatories they look amazing well worth a look when I pop along this week. First visit in two season prepared to be disappointed there needs to be some glimmer of hope
 
Olivus Prime said:
Nothing, but I see this as what they should have done in the first place with Duel's soundtrack (a la Tomb Blaster's full score), rather than using the same two tracks all over the ride.
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I love the original Haunted House music but the Haunted House is gone, in the sense that it's not really hitting the same mark any more or has the same payoff. Even if they renamed it Haunted House and took the guns out, it would need a lot of work and updating, to make it do what the Haunted House did in its best years. To be honest I don't trust Merlin to come up with a ride like that at all.

So I think it's right they create a new score, plus it's a creative challenge for the composer rather than always reusing old tracks, and was pulled off really well I think. It's not your cliched haunted house spoopy music at all and progresses around the ride really nicely

However I visited recently and a few of the scenes sounded off. The tunnel and spiders, which from when I visited a few weeks back had some of the best music moments. It didn't sound nearly as good this time and there are still many dead spots

You can hear the whole sound system needs a big sorting out, much more than Hex did. Hex needed repairs, but not a completely new sound system. So a strange decision really

I hope that any future money spent on Duel goes not on more DIY additions like the queueline screens, but on finally restoring the proper UV illusions (no LED), fixing the timing of effects & lighting throughout the ride and overhauling the sound effects
 
So, something I'd like to know. What is happening with Towers Loving Care now? That is, once the lighting is sorted out on Duel at least...
 
Presumably the people in charge of TLC will create a list of all the problems across the resort, prioritise them and aim to fix the ones at the top (subject to time and budget). I guess there won't be much done now until the next closed season though

I think they should put the Smiler queue line on the list, and also that road leading down to the hotels... that's a shocking welcome to the hotels when you're paying hundreds of pounds a night!
 
You may as well write the bible if we're going there... but on the subject...remember it was a 3 year scheme from 2015. That's what I'm concerned about. They've done their "we care about the resort and have done a long term scheme to bring it to a world class standard" charade. Maybe that's it after Duel and we will watch everything rot/continue to rot all over again.
 
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