This is going to be a bit of a mega post, but I have the answers to quite a few of the above questions... and a fair few pictures you might be interested to see.
[quote=""PeteB""][quote=""Cobra_Roll""]One from me this time!
Whatever happened to the old childrens play area that sat above the swimming pool in the Alton Towers Hotel? Is it still there/being reused for anything?[/quote]
I guess that's from the era before the Spa came along. I have never seen the old swimming pool, but can just remember a couple of promotional images from the hotel brochure during that time.
Would be nice if anyone had any info on it.[/quote]
Here are a few images of the old swimming pool, including the games room mentioned above.
Thanks to Altonator for those. I have no idea what happened to the games room, but it's probably not too far fetched to imagine it became the offices/storage for the Spa after the conversion.
[quote=""jomo1993""][quote=""Joe Koopa""]Whatever happened to..
The sealion pool, the paddling pool or the old aqaurium?[/quote]
Not sure about the other 2, but the paddling pool is underneath where the goalstriker game is now, next to the hole in one came. The building which houses the goal striker is a perfect square so im guessing either the pool is still intact (just covered up) underneat the goal striker, or it has been filled in which is probrably most likely to be the case[/quote]
The paddling pool was indeed just filled in. In fact if you're ever stood by the goalstriker game, if you look at the floor you can see where the edges of the paddling pool used to be as there is a large rectangle of slightly different bricks set inside the bricks which used to make up the pavement around the paddling pool.
The Sea Lion pool had much the same fate. When the sealions moved out it was used as a games area for a while (I believe they put some remote control boats in it) and the it was filled in. Sometimes if you're on top of the towers mid summer if you look down to the lawns you can still see the outline of the pool, which sits just below ground level, as the grass on top of its walls goes brown due to lack of nutrients.
And as for the Aquarium, it just wasn't a very popular attraction. Aquariums never are really, and are relatively expensive to keep going. Ironically, it was just two doors down from where Sharkbait Reef now is, as the building still exists today as Pirates Quest Arcade
I have another couple of pictures folk might find interesting relating to Toyland Tours and Nemesis, but I need to dig them out, so will hopefully post them later.
Edwardo..... move me!