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What could be done to make Christmas at Towers better?

This year once again Christmas at Towers is a hotel guest only event. I really feel that Alton is missing out on a gold mine when it comes to Christmas. Firstly I think they should open the event to all guests and pass holders. They might want to add an additional fee to attend the event.
Then I think they should scale up the event by adding maybe a small Christmas market in towers street and an Ice skating rink in the lawns. They could add Christmas decorations around the park (most of which they already own) and open up more rides. In theory they could open up a selection of the bigger rides and build it into the maintanence schedule. When at some point they decide to re-theme cloud cuckoo land it would be perfect to have that open as a it will be a family area.
I do realise that this would cost some money to put together but we are only talking maybe weekend openings and then an extended period before Christmas Day. It would require minimal staffing levels because it would only include a small amount of the park. The Ice skating rink could be hired and they could bring in the market stalls from elsewhere. As an event it could be very profitable and expenses could be minimised.
 
For me it would be letting in map holders. The events look good for young children but I would never pay for a night just for the park. However I doubt this would be good for merlin as a business.
 
If Towers wants to be a 365 day park I could see them having a fairly normal operating season for what is currently open season and the current closed season offering a FHT style opening whee some rides are open in Novemember/December and switch ride openings during January/Febuary whereas some rides would remain close throughout the whole of the winter period.

As for specifically a Christmas event, I could see them having a temporary christmas market outside the hotels and theme Park, (Car Park or Overflow Car Park) it could make the theme park more of a 'Resort' the the generic accomedation + theme park/waterpark seen at most places. The Christmas market could become the focal point of the 'Resort' during Christmas with a Giant Christmas tree and markets, Santa's grotto, some of the CCL rides and of course the market itself.

But I think that's a bit optimistic to be honest...
 
I actually think the current Christmas offering is right.

Day guests, particularly MAP holders don’t make as much money for the resort. Things like meeting Santa are always going to be relatively low capacity. It’s better for them to offer a high quality low capacity event to hotel guests rather than opening it to everyone and getting complaints about queues and some children missing out on meeting Santa.
 
I remember a few years ago, (in 2014?) There was a Christmas Market held at the bottom of Towers Street, I remember seeing a few fellow TSTers there as well, not sure it was particularly successful.
 
I actually think the current Christmas offering is right.
I agree entirely. I virtually have no interest in visiting Alton at Christmas, I used to do the Winter Weekends at the Pleasure Beach because I could get there in 20 minutes. It'd be a serious investment in time and energy to head to Alton for a (further) reduced ride line up, I don't think I would bother.

In terms of a Christmas market, those things are reaching saturation level at this point. For many, the appeal is surely the boozing, which lends itself to hotel guests and not day guests?

I am glad for a winter break. I don't feel the need to fill my winter with theme parks, personally.
 
I have always found it strange that the UK's premier park only has an event for Hotel Guests and that they haven't extended their season like many other parks around the World have. The park has a limited opening already with rides, attractions and shops open, so why not let paying guests attend? Do they not want peoples money !! :) Surely its only going to be a few more people to employ? Some on the ticket desks, parking attendants and some on the turnstyles.

Paultons Park and Drayton Manor have hugely successful winter openings, so its even more of a surprise that Alton doesn't.

Maybe the reality is, that they don't want to open it to the public because some of the people who attend then wont stay at the hotel and that's really where the money is? Less money at the hotel = Less profits = Less money for shareholders.

Of course that's my cynical side of things, but I bet I am not too far away from the truth. :)
 
What they need to do is, open RMT, Duel, battle galleons (with the guns turned off obviously) make a Christmas overlay for Hex and open that, And open SW8 (from next year onwards)

They won't though...
 
I was thinking, a quest to find Santa, with the vault being rethemed into the inside of Santa's magic sack or something.(something that has nothing to do with the Hex story)

My (admittedly, VERY obtuse) point, was that they need something unique, so its not just a crap knock off of DMP's event!
 
I agree entirely. I virtually have no interest in visiting Alton at Christmas, I used to do the Winter Weekends at the Pleasure Beach because I could get there in 20 minutes. It'd be a serious investment in time and energy to head to Alton for a (further) reduced ride line up, I don't think I would bother.

In terms of a Christmas market, those things are reaching saturation level at this point. For many, the appeal is surely the boozing, which lends itself to hotel guests and not day guests?

I am glad for a winter break. I don't feel the need to fill my winter with theme parks, personally.

You may well be glad of it, but the majority of comparable parks to Alton Towers around Europe offer fairly large scale winter events.

Indeed, Phantasialand ensured that Intamin built Taron in order for it to run it temperatures down to -10C!

As far as I can work out, the only reason Alton Towers don't offer a much bigger winter event, with far more rides opening than at present, is the risk of it not being an immediate success.
 
As far as I can work out, the only reason Alton Towers don't offer a much bigger winter event, with far more rides opening than at present, is the risk of it not being an immediate success

And for a proper opening to be a success, more indoor attractions would be needed. Just so you can get out the wind again after riding a coaster if nothing else. As I said before, the current offering works for what it is jd they do offer a proper show in the hotel. But to offer something worth it for day guests I would re-open Cloud Cuckoo theatre and see if another indoor show could be done, even something fairly temporary in the Towers.
 
If the park had something like an ice show, a variety of indoor attractions, a Christmas market, Christmas themed shows and one or two coasters open on a rotation, I think it would entice guests in.

With how they run things at the moment and the lack of indoor attractions/shows on park, it's just not appealing at all. FHT has never appealed to me because of this. Since Alton Towers isn't the easiest of places to get to, if they tried a winter event they would really need something amazing to get people interested. Most people don't want to travel for hours for very little on offer.

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They really need a major event at Alton Towers to draw the visitors in, if people are to travel distance that time of year. Ok Winter Wonderland is hard to compete with but maybe a ice rink and some ice sculptures a bit like the ice kingdom.

One thing I really think Alton missed out on some years back was something like Longleat's Festival of Light. That kind of event would have been perfect for the Towers and grounds. Longleat now draws the crowds in the masses over the winter period.
 
Festival of Light is a great event, Longleat have done brilliantly with that.

It's something that would suit Towers, although I could imagine them keeping the same lanterns/themes each year and reusing them, so I'm glad Longleat bagged that idea first as they do bring in a complete new set of lanterns each year.
 
They really need a major event at Alton Towers to draw the visitors in, if people are to travel distance that time of year. Ok Winter Wonderland is hard to compete with but maybe a ice rink and some ice sculptures a bit like the ice kingdom.

One thing I really think Alton missed out on some years back was something like Longleat's Festival of Light. That kind of event would have been perfect for the Towers and grounds. Longleat now draws the crowds in the masses over the winter period.
I don't think Winter Wonderland is a competition problem outside of London not many people make the effort to visit.
If the park had something like an ice show, a variety of indoor attractions, a Christmas market, Christmas themed shows and one or two coasters open on a rotation, I think it would entice guests in.

With how they run things at the moment and the lack of indoor attractions/shows on park, it's just not appealing at all. FHT has never appealed to me because of this. Since Alton Towers isn't the easiest of places to get to, if they tried a winter event they would really need something amazing to get people interested. Most people don't want to travel for hours for very little on offer.

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In terms of Coasters, I think they could look into an offering similar to the Febuary half term event in 2015. Nemesis, Spinball, potentially Galactica and the Runaway mine train might be a good offering although I think RMT and Spinball would do. The Ice skating show could work obviously they would need some form of entertainment but especially a big Santas Grotto with multiple Santas (potentially just hotel guests and an upcharge). Ice skating would be the obvious thing to have which I think would attract people and loads of decorations.
And for a proper opening to be a success, more indoor attractions would be needed. Just so you can get out the wind again after riding a coaster if nothing else. As I said before, the current offering works for what it is jd they do offer a proper show in the hotel. But to offer something worth it for day guests I would re-open Cloud Cuckoo theatre and see if another indoor show could be done, even something fairly temporary in the Towers.
I think if they were to do an event they should wait until they have a replacement for Charlie and a refurbishment of Duel. They might as well open hex if Cloud Cuckoo is on offer.
 
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