[Danzaw*nk]

2007 has been a strange season for me. My first visit this season didn't exactly get off to a great start, yeah sure with TTF but with the park it wasn't special what with the Nemesis problems and the fact that the park was lacking in atmosphere and.....spark. It was great to get on some decent rides for the first time since October and be back, but it wasn't great. That was all blown apart by the April meet up at the non existant Chocolate Towers. The park was fantastic then, I couldn't get enough of any ride after doing ERT all 3 days and getting on every single ride in the park at least twice I think. It was fantastic, everything was perfect and the golf had just opened which was excellent too!

May. May was where I began to get a little bit bored of the place. After two days I was. I was all for skipping the day as the park was boring me. Mid August I was supposed to be going but woke up rather late but also, I then could of made my train but instead thought, can I really be bothered? Instead I just totally couldn't be bothered with it and had a normal day at home which just goes to show how the appeal of Alton was lacking, there was nothing more bringing me back there except the thought of a TTF Meet and Nemesis.

Late August just rounded up the season for me, on the first day I was bored within a few hours, I skipped out a ride on Nemesis which is bizarre and just generally couldn't be bothered and instead chilled out at the hotel for most of the day after having my first ever stay in Splash Landings and doing Cariba Creek. It was fantastic, much more entertaining than the park I thought! So although I had a great time on my summer visit, it was mainly due to off-park activities which shows that the park definately needed something new this season!

And the Scarefest was no different after only doing 4 different rides and spending most of my Saturday in the hotel watching football, and the Sunday morning sitting in Splash Landings reading the paper. If a theme park is supposed to have an appeal wanting you to return, surely it's failing if i'm one of the many people that were sitting in the hotel?

Yes I know, you're thinking, well don't go so much, however I only go simply for the meet ups because of the banter and the great people there. Were it a suggestion by a friend, I wouldn't bother.

Events wise, it's been awful and disappointing in my opinion. Chocolate Towers I can't even say about because it was simply non existant, basically was just given a creme egg every day and then the music event was just a shambles because obviously it was cancelled. And then to top it off, a rather disappointing Scarefest.

I'll review Scarefest in more depth. Ok, so it was good yes, I enjoyed myself but it didn't feel like a proper event. With all that money they had to spent on it, it's very disappointing. All you can get included in your standard ticket is Terror of the Towers and a couple of other non-scary shows/features. I personally didn't find Terror of the Towers scary, more fun and also I was disappointed to see that it seemed as though theming wise, they'd only made an effort in Towers Street. There were two things which really annoyed me though.

1) The fact that Room 13 closed 5 days before the end of the event. I thought that was terrible because they're advertising this event but it's like saying you've got to come a week before it ends otherwise you won't have as much fun?

2) Charging for the mazes! It's an event they're advertising but in order to go into the Field or Room 13, you had to pay an extra £5 each on top? I find it disgusting!

I couldn't help but think, where has all the money gone?!

Overall I did enjoy the Scarefest but I expect a much better improvement for next season if it returns.

Reliability wise I can't really fault the park, they've been fantastic! On pretty much every visit this season, every ride has been open which is brilliant. Thorpe can only dream of that. Yes they've had the routine breakdowns and closures such as Rita back in July but other than that they've been awesome.

And obviously the biggest disappointment of any theme park of 2007 is next; YourDay. What an absolute shambles and waste of money! I won't even begin to imagine how much money they lost from advertising it when it wasn't even running properly. And even so, the videos are terrible! Why would you want to buy a DVD of you sitting on lift hills or brake runs when you can get an on-ride photo with a much more exciting facial expression?! It really was a total waste of time if i'm honest. Not opening till August was it when advertised as Spring? Terrible move Alton.

Then Alton have suffered from some unfortunate events such as the fire of course but it all happens. But overall, it's been an average season for the park, not good, not terrible though. Just.....disappointing where they've shown their money grabbing attitude a lot more. It's shown me that the park is turning into one which doesn't have much of a re-visit appeal which means they desperately need something new and I hope Merlin's new themed area will create this.

So, overall, my season rate of Alton this season is:

5/10.

Sounds harsh yes, but they do need to do something to lose the money grabbing attitude and create more reason to re-visit.

Dan

[dstone_uk]

2007 season review

As I approached Alton Towers on a cold snowy morning back in February for the steam fair I didn’t dream what a season it was going to be!! My first ride back all that time ago was oblivion, walking down towers street and the your day shop was being developed, little did we know what a farce that was going to be for the year. First stop was around in merry England, I didn’t know it at the time but I met my future bosses that day on the games, won a prize on jesters and got a kebab. Then I bought my tokens and had a look around the steam fair, yet the only ride I went on was Oblivion. Two visits were on during this week, and I thougrelly enjoyed the Magic of Alton Towers in the snow. Now lets fast-forward a bit to the begging of March, my first and currently only (that will change soon no doubt) visit to the water park for the year. The water was warm and thought it was still chilly outside me and my dad had a venture into the gardens and the towers ruins, little did I know that this was the last off season that I would pass the sky ride as it was!

Now it’s Mid March, opening day, I meet TTF outside the gates as ushall and we rush strait for the awesome Nemesis, first time of the season is always special and see a good friend, sponge, who has worked at the towers for many years stood on the entrance gate then meet matt in the station. The next event of the year was the first adrenalin week, which unfortunately I missed due to uni commitments. Next at the end of march (and the early part of April) we walk down towers street full of hope for a brilliant chocolate towers, like the previous year, only to be met by (although they were good) entertainers who had very little to do with Easter and were only bought in to gloss over the fact that the circus wasn’t ready. It is now a few weeks into the season and is becoming clearer the changes that have happened in the off season, your day still no signs of opening and Towers Street is now littered with Picsolve signs telling you the rides with on ride photography and £15 photopasses. Also the changes in games is becoming apparent with the new Forbidden Valley unit gone up and different games with bigger and better prizes than before in all the old unit’s (I’m not biased promise!!) I am only writing about contractors here to gloss over the fact that chocolate towers was a big letdown on previous years, no farther chocolate, no chocolate volcano no choco holics!

Now we are into June and uni is drawing to a end, I have applied and been turned down by rides, and am now visiting the park 3-4 times a week out of bordom, now my summer and season is about to change, a mate of mine who was X ride turned HB put me into contact with Tim, who was then a HB manger and I got a job working on the games. A new unit had just opened up at Katanga, much to the displeasure of a lot of the theme park community, but it isn’t all that bad, there are worse stalls out there! From the start I start on the smaller games, then I find my Game Dunk The Jesters and Topple the Tower, and that’s where I truly learnt to operate a game well. We are now getting into the school trip season and the park is getting busy day in day out, I’m now working hard but still find time to visit at least once a week but a lot of people say that this was the begging of the end of my Theme Park infusasum, in my opion it’s still there thought. Also just after I started working for HB a nice little surprise came about one day I was on park and the mine train reopened, after about a little time out! It was a nice surprise and needles to say it was a great thrill to get on it again!

As we finish the school trip season, with YourDay still showing no signs of opening, we get into the non event of the year, the Great Big Bucket And Spade event is returning to the park for it’s second year. After last years success everyone is exspecting to see the beach back with the volleyball and all the fun that was there last year, yet all that make a reappence are the deck chairs!! Yet a great new kids show makes it appearance in the cred street theatre! ATTV and hopefully it will be long lived. There was fun, gundge, games and prizes for kids with all of the fun of a Live television studio!! It was sooooooooo good I saw the show 7 times over the summer!!
It was around the time that HB decided to try me on the big games, so I’m thrown in at the deep end and put on witch’s cauldron for a day. I enjoyed it and they agreed and I was kept on in Merry England on one of the big three games all summer. I also step up to working six days a week at this point, cutting down my park visiting time quite drastically!

At the end of the year there is another canalled event, Rhythm and Rides, yet by this time the big event of the year is being hyped up, the Alton Towers Scarefeast, which was set to be the most haunted event of the year . As the summer nears it’s end, schools and collages are about to go back and HB recrute I’m given a new girl to train on Rebound, it was one of my best days ever, there was a TTF meetup going on, and I showed you all how to do the ladders and then laughter at your feeble attempts, also (I think) your day desided to show up and open the few rides they had got going!! But anyways, back to me well we made a lot of money that day and something clicked because a week later we were going out, a bit of a surprising twist but it all happened at towers so it’s going in my season review! Also tom was now also working for HB leisure, who would of thought that one of our number would work for this great company at the start of the season, let alone love the work, I’m pretty sure non of us thought two would be working there!
Now it’s time to get back to university and actually do some studying (yeh right) yet I’m still managing two days on park a week!! And working 3 lol. Nemesis is starting to show her age now and I really stated to notice the roughness on the back towards the end of the season, yet ripsaw has had a very good season and not really been temprental at all! Ma baby (AKA the corkscrew) is running as well as she ever dose yet the season is drawing to a close, and I still haven’t mentuned the new attractions!! Well lets start with the haunted hallow, which is one of the biggest disappointments that I have ever scene, it is basically a pathway with a few sideshows on and isn’t really scary at all. There was also the dung heap, a new children’s play area which I admit I don’t know all that much about, yet the best new attraction this year is the Extortionately Golf, yes you guessed it a pay attraction! It is basically a mini glf course themed around Alton towers, yet unlike most of the parks recent attempt it’s very well themed. You have to put your way into oblivion, avoid being eaten by nemesis, play your way into a plug and around tomb stones! It really dose sum up where the magic once was, there is even the old Ug Land music! There’s even a hold where you have to play around ripsaw, it really is a pure magic course!
Now it’s time to get onto the event of the year, the hyped up Scarefeast replacing the legendary Alton Towers fireworks extravagance! Well where to start, My only full day on park was with ma girlfriend Letia due to work commitments, first there was the ATTV Halloween special, it really was magical and count spodler was just the best ever! Also intended for kids was trick or treat doors. All of the original music which was somehow lost (gah!!) for most of the season also made a reappearance, which was great long may it stay. Now onto the real scarefeast for only the most brave hearted scares, first up the haunted hollow with live actors making the tame pathway into somewhere where you could buy a coffin, have a grave digger dig you a grave and much much more! There was also terror of the towers where you heard the story of the evil earl who had been driven nuts and the cornfields, which is said to have been on of the best attractions of it’s kind! Also the park was open till 9 with plenty of dark riding avelbul. During the event there was also unfortunately a large fire at the skyride drive station causing it to close for at least the remainder of the season. It was a big fire and could be scene over on UG basketball and we recon we could smell it as well!

HB leisure was still plodding along nicely with my job still being fun, I was now on UG basketball day in day out and I did get sick of tigersharks by the end but still it was fun. Now onto the final week of the season, adrenalin week 2007, the park closed today at 6 with the final week the big rides open 12-6. This was a good week with lots of riding (most days) very short queues and next to no staff! My final visit was on Wednesday, with me working Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Overall it has been a experience for me and (hopefully) I’ll be back with HB next season and with the addition of the new splash battle 2008 looks like it is to reignite the Magic at Alton Towers, it is still there just but hopefully this will be the spark it need to get going again!

Park rating 2007: 8/10

One last thing guysss “ONE BALL IN TO WIN ^_^”

[Dr Pop Rocket]

Alton Towers 2007

Well, it's been an interesting year, very mixed feelings about it as there have been some really bad decisions but at the same time there have been some good ones, as well as some rather surprising changes and news such as the Merlin takeover which took place earlier this year. So here's my thoughts:

New For 2007

Well Alton Towers received plenty of new changes and new additions this year, some of which were really fantastic decisions while others were rather dire and certainly puzzling, but first up possibly the best addition of 2007 is "Extraordinary Golf", it's a fun and enjoyable crazy golf course that utilizes theming to theme each hole around a ride within the park, it's a unique and exciting addition to the Alton Towers resort and will prove as a nice way to end anyone's visit to the park, it's faultless.

Next up there is "The Dung Heap" which certainly lives up to it's name, it's basically your average council estate playground with the odd piece of theming, the only thing that really stands out is "The Soil Albug Hall". When first hearing about this it could lead to so much in terms of theming and exciting features but sadly it's a huge let down, but younger children will enjoy it none the less, it's a shame it just does not seem to offer much different than most guests local playgrounds though.

Another new addition was "Haunted Hollow", this certainly was a rather exciting development and it all sounded interesting, then when it finally came round to opening day it was received with very mixed feelings, people either seem to love it or hate it, there is not really an in between with it. Whether you enjoy it or not it does leave a feeling of "Is that it?" whenever you go through it, but possibly the thing that most people remember the "Haunted Hollow" for is the vandalism problem, after the first day of opening things had been broken already but luckily Alton Towers worked quickly in fixing anything as soon as possible. Hopefully this is one of those additions that improves with age and gets a few nice and new features and items each year.

2007, also saw two new food outlets within the park which meant the removal of two older outlets, the first new outlet was "Fresh Fish and Chips" in Forbidden Valley, although the food is nice it just looks terribly out of place next to Nemesis and really spoils the area. The second new outlet is "Rita's Chicken n Ribs" which without a doubt is one of the best food outlets on park, it offers a nice place to sit down and have some really lovely food, this certainly is a fantastic place to eat.

Now onto the disaster that is "YourDay", I'm surprised it actually opened in 2007 as the way things were going it did not seem like it would even open in time for the new year, after the long wait you'd have thought it would of been worth it, but far from it, the entire thing is a joke, the DVD is far from being worth the money with it basically just being really well edited stock footage with about 3 seconds of you. Really disappointing, one of the worst decisions of 2007.

Another new addition is the HB Leisure games outlet in Katanga Canyon, now when I first heard about this I was over the moon to see the golf go, but now I wish the golf had stayed, the new outlet just looks hideous, it seems like it was made with left over material from Nemesis Inferno, it has no theming at all and looks hideous, if only that could of burnt down instead of the Sky Ride station.

Now, onto the changes that have occurred this year, first up would be "Extraordinary Toilets" which is interesting, it's a laugh to say the least and a good change, although I've not experienced them in their entirety.

Now onto another rather major change that happened this year and that was the music changes throughout the park that happened earlier in the season, without a doubt this was for me the most shocking news of 2007, the fact that they had got rid of the likes of the Nemesis music is hard to comprehend and certainly had myself and many others infuriated. But luckily a lot of the music changes that took place have now been reversed so originally it was a terrible decision but at least they made a fantastic one most of the music all back.

Another change that really pleased me at the start of the season was the new animatronics and features in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", although the ride is far from being a good dark ride in my eyes, it still vastly improved it and made the first few rides of the season on it a bit more enjoyable.

Finally it was just nice to see a lot of things had been fixed over the closed season, was fantastic to see all of the effects in Hex working and the changes to Oblivion such as fixing the mist and the new televisions in the station were fantastic to see, certainly was great to see.

Events

Chocolate Towers returned for a second year, but even worse, the event basically was confined to Towers Street, with a few themed items and Creme Eggs being given out as you left the park, apart from that it really did not feel like an event, it mainly felt just like an excuse to raise the price, but the hotels like always managed to do a few things at least worthy of event standards, such as "Rabbit Warren". Was overall a terrible event, in fact it's hard to even call it that as it really felt and looked like Alton Towers had put no effort into it.

There then was "Rhythm & Rides" which was cancelled and after that we just had one event left of the season, "Scarefest". Certainly it was exciting to see the return of a Halloween event to Alton Towers, even though it meant no fireworks.

Scarefest overall was an enjoyable event, but there were a few things that really let it down, the first was the fact that as soon as you left Towers Street it felt like there was no event on at all, it was like it was a repeat of Chocolate Towers, really let the entire event down, but the theming they did have in Towers Street and the music changes really created a great atmosphere as soon as you walked into the park, shame as soon as you left Towers Street it vanished.

As for the things going on in and around Scarefest, first up was Terror of the Towers, which had a lot of hype surrounding it, but would it live up to the hype? Basically, no, it contained no scares it was more about telling a story which has been said by many others, it was just a bit dull at times, certainly more scares are required for it to deserve it's five pumpkin rating as well as for it to live up to the hype it once had.

Then there was Field of 1000 Screams and Room 13 which both were far superior of Terror of the Towers, a lot more scares and generally more exciting, both mazes were pulled off well and proved to be the highlight of the event. Shame the extra charged proved to annoy a lot of people such as my family, even though I felt it was worth it no one else in my group seemed to enjoy the fact of the extra charge after they've paid already to get into the park.

Finally onto Fright Lights, it was an enjoyable show and was something a bit different, it was a lot better than what I was expecting and sort of gave the area a bit of atmosphere that was lacking in most areas. Overall a good event, but a lot of improvements need to be made to make it great, hopefully next year it will improve, I'm sure it will.

Merlin Takeover

Was rather surprising to hear about this but personally I think it will be better in the long run for the park, Tussauds really had let the park slip in recent years and Merlin seem to be dedicated and passionate so without a doubt it should be a good change.

Overall

Like I've already said it's been a mixed year with good and bad choices, so it's hard to really sum up the year in one when so much happened, but the year ends on a high with the excitement of Mutiny Bay and Battle Galleons, although we did also end on a low with the Sky Ride station fire but that seems to be getting resolved and it will return for 2008.

So overall, this year for me scores a 7/10, I've visited Alton Towers more than I ever have before in one year and this year has been really enjoyable but due to quite a few bad choices I possibly cannot rate this year any higher.

Roll on 2008!

[nicolah]

the 2007 season has been great for me because it was the first time i went on rita queen of speed and the haunted hollow i think the haunted hollow isn't that good.

I really will miss merrie england and the splash kart challenge it ill be a tragedy for me because i've never been on it

i wonder if the flume will be re themed because everything else is being rethemed.

i'm sure that battle galloens will be great :yohoho: