Attraction Source Forum

Right now The Smiler ride ops are the only ride ops that wear a costume that I can think of (other than N:ST).

So I have a few questions...

Is this a temporary thing for the opening season? Are there any other ride ops wearing costumes? Did other ride ops have costumes in the early days, if so does anyone have photos?

I think themed uniforms are something that are slowly been introduced to the park by doing the new rides first! You are correct it is only the smiler and NST that have them ATM. But they are something that will stay and won't just be a first season thing. As for the other rides Im unsure on whether the plan may be to introduce them in a few years, but a lot of planning goes into uniforms. For example hot and cold weather, a waterproof option, footwear, cost, size, amount of stock. So all in all there great but not an easy thing to introduce to a ride instantly, hence the new rides first.

When hex first opened the staff wore high vis jackets with some tree logo on the back (never found out what that was) and some even had hard hats.

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, all staff used to wear white lab coats.

Basically it's not something new. It will probably wear off again. But, it's something they should do on ALL rides.

The hi vis jackets have "heritage restoration" on it under the tree logo which is a nice touch I think as it ties in with the story

During the construction of Oblivion, the staff in the area wore those orange overall type garments but I'm not sure whether they wore them when the ride opened as I wasn't born in 1998

Luce wrote: The hi vis jackets have "heritage restoration" on it under the tree logo which is a nice touch I think as it ties in with the story

I think the hex staff should wear some sort of builder/excavator clothes with like hard hats to give it that sort of feel "look what we have uncovered"

Some hosts still do wear the high vis jackets on Hex.
Also its not AT but The SWARM staff also wear custom high vis jackets.

The problem is the weather is so damned unpredictable in the UK. I can only spare a though for the poor guys working outside on Sub-Terra in all that gear right now. Its probably hard finding a costume that works with the overall theme, but is also functional.

Im sure that eventually the smiler will lose its costumes but nst relies on the costumes for the full effect, but at some point they will bring the special costumes back if the ride gets lots of visits or summin' like that.

Jammydodger wrote: The problem is the weather is so damned unpredictable in the UK. I can only spare a though for the poor guys working outside on Sub-Terra in all that gear right now. Its probably hard finding a costume that works with the overall theme, but is also functional.

I've always wondered this, but came to the conclusion that they are probably the luckiest staff. The uniform they have is most probably fully breathable and temp controlled, meaning they won't too too hot or too cold 

As for themed uniforms, it's something Towers really need to invest in. The only valid hesitation I can understand as to why Towers don't so much, is staffing levels. Having a generic uniform allows the staff to work across all sectors of the park.

It would be great if the ride ops wore costumes like:
Mutiny bay could wear pirate hats
Cloud cuckoo land could wear toadstool themed hats
Forbidden valley could wear nemesis sub terra eye patches
Katanga canyon could wear explorer hats
Dark forest could wear hats saying dark forest in the style of the thirteen logo
Gloomy wood could wear dishevelled top hats or witch hats
X sector could wear smiler or oblivion hats
Cbeebies land could wear hats with the cbeebies land logo on it
The rest of the staff like in food outlets could wear hats with the alton towers logo on it.

An alternative would be that the rides with medals should be operated with an ride op wearing the medal

I really think they should introduce costumes, if they want to rival Disney. It would mean though that ride ops would have to operate only one area or ride uniforms would be really expensive. I think all of FV should wear phalanx uniforms, MB not just pirate hats but complete pirate uniforms and speaking like a pirate, Hex should have construction uniforms etc. It is little thinks like that which makes a park truly magical and amazing.

Back in the late 1990's / early 2000's, there were themed costumes for certain areas of the park.

Forbidden Valley was sort of dark terracotta coloured uniform, with big barcodes on, silver body0warmer & black waterproof coat with Forbidden Valley logo on the back. This uniform was dropped in favour of the black+beige generic uniform when Air opened in 2002 - although they did keep the black Forbidden Valley waterproofs for a year or two.

X-Sector had a black & orange uniform from 1998 when Oblivion opened. Again, this was dropped gradually from about 2002 onwards.

Ug-Land had it's own twist on the generic uniform. Uniform trousers were the generic beige, but with a purple Ug-Land top / waterproof coat.

Am fairly certain that Old MacDonalds Farm had it's own uniform too. I know that Nickleodeon Outta Control had it's own during it's spell at the park.

I can fully understand why Alton go for a generic uniform - it saves a lot of money & gives staff flexibility at very short notice, but it does detract from the theming a little.