New Park Entrance

[haydn!]

Whilst I think money will be a big deciding factor, I'd like to think Merlin would do their research and planning before moving the entrance. Yes, it would cost probably £15-20m to replace the monorail fully, and maybe only £1-2m to move the entrance, but what price do you put on the view, or the organic flow and spread of guests around the park? Guests naturally spread out into all the main areas now because the entrance location puts most at equal distance from the start of your day. If the entrance was over near Forbidden Valley or Gloomy Wood then guests would flow in a much larger group. This would in turn have an impact on wait times for rides, restaurants, shops  as everyone would be in the same place at the same time of day!

[schmatt]

As others have already said a second entrance/exit from the park would be most likely to happen with the development of the entertainment complex as it would feed guests from the park right into it.

However if this is the case, I would like to see the entrance being used only for those that have either booked in advance or are staying at the hotels. This was it can be marketed as a VIP entrance along with ERT. This would also mean that Towers Street can be blocked off for those that don't have ERT and allows them to browse the shops before entering the park itself. This would be a major improvement to the current design where I believe guests are held at the entrance gate.

The exit however, will be open for all guests to 1) minimize monorail queue lines and 2) feed guests quickly into the entertainment complex.

[A]

Whilst I think money will be a big deciding factor, I'd like to think Merlin would do their research and planning before moving the entrance. Yes, it would cost probably £15-20m to replace the monorail fully, and maybe only £1-2m to move the entrance, but what price do you put on the view, or the organic flow and spread of guests around the park? Guests naturally spread out into all the main areas now because the entrance location puts most at equal distance from the start of your day. If the entrance was over near Forbidden Valley or Gloomy Wood then guests would flow in a much larger group. This would in turn have an impact on wait times for rides, restaurants, shops  as everyone would be in the same place at the same time of day!

Merlin don't care about sentimentality or spread around the park. They care about money

[jmed]

There is a lot of pessimism about merlin. Yes they want to make money, who doesn't, but they wouldn't of survived very long as a business if they didn't also plan for the long term and know when to spend money to make money.

Schmatt makes some good points. Basically there are pro's and con's to moving the entrance.

Cons - the iconic towers street view would be lost and never replicated elsewhere in the park.
        - any entrance leading into a built up area such a FB would be a disaster, crowds would build up and busy days especially would be a nightmare.
        - with the inevitable expansion over the next 20/30/40 years the grass meadow car parks would become the main car parks and the current car parks would be expanded upon, so an entrance  near FB could eventually end up in an equally inappropriate location as towers street.

Pro's - They could save by having a shorter monorail or more likely no monorail at all.
        - the space of towers street added to storybook land etc could make a decent sized area for a proper 'kids' land.
        - exiting nearer the car parks could speed up exit and reduce queues.

Basically i think towers street is the best location. Although there are pro's, the crowds that would fill FB would be ridiculous. there isn't much space for the additional facilities that come with an entrance and as someone said, the current towers street entrance does spread the crowds quite evenly.  I think an upgraded monorail could help ease crowds, and reduce costs if only slightly.

[haydn!]

Whilst I think money will be a big deciding factor, I'd like to think Merlin would do their research and planning before moving the entrance. Yes, it would cost probably £15-20m to replace the monorail fully, and maybe only £1-2m to move the entrance, but what price do you put on the view, or the organic flow and spread of guests around the park? Guests naturally spread out into all the main areas now because the entrance location puts most at equal distance from the start of your day. If the entrance was over near Forbidden Valley or Gloomy Wood then guests would flow in a much larger group. This would in turn have an impact on wait times for rides, restaurants, shops  as everyone would be in the same place at the same time of day!

Merlin don't care about sentimentality or spread around the park. They care about money

That's a little naive. If they only care about money, then they will care about how guests move around the park. Longer queues reduces the 'free' time guests have to spend money in shops and restaurants. Plus, if a guest spends longer queuing, it impacts their impression of their day, and reduces the likelihood they'll want to return. 

[Danny]

I would love a hotel back entrance like chessington for forbidden valley. This would help with early ride time and still keep the iconic towers street. I mean c'mon taking away towers street is like taking away Main Street USA at Disney, it would be a bad move

[Themeparksandy1981]

Is that back entrance still used by hotel guests to Enter the park by FV? 

[Danny]

Is that back entrance still used by hotel guests to Enter the park by FV?

There isn't one?

[RCandrew]

They should make a new enterance in forbiden valley (from the back of the hotel!) that only hotel guests can get in with their ticket and hotel pass, this would be a lot easier for people to purchase tickets at the enterance etc  and would be better for ERT

[bensaund]

Towers Street is a little dead most of the time, if you look at the flow of traffic, everyone goes through it in the morning, only stopping for Fast Tracks at the Box office or height bands/exit passes at Guest Services, then its the last call of the day to go to Towers Trading or Guest Services. As some of the shops are not used, they need to bring some life back into the place. Converting Towers Family restaurant into a Nandos or one of the vacant shops into a Subway would bring hundreds of people back to the area.

For me, once I am in the park, there is nothing for me at Towers Street, so if they did remove it facilities wise I would not notice the difference as a replacement Guest Services, Box Office and Towers Trading can be erected anywhere in the park. The only thing I would miss would be the fantastic view on the entrance to the park in the morning.

Ask yourself this, if there were two entrances 1) Duel and 2) Towers Street, which one would you use?

Duel as its closer to FV for Nemesis or TS which is the furthest from FV/GW and only  slightly closer to the X Sector.

[tallicay2k]

Is that back entrance still used by hotel guests to Enter the park by FV?

There isn't one?

Bahahaha,  better start jumping over some fences my friend

[SmilingMonkey]

Is that back entrance still used by hotel guests to Enter the park by FV?

There isn't one?

Yes there is, and was there earlier this year for my hotel stay. It's called the Woodland Walk and is open from 10am - 12pm (sometimes earlier if AT allow for ERT)

[Danny]

Is that back entrance still used by hotel guests to Enter the park by FV?

There isn't one?

Yes there is, and was there earlier this year for my hotel stay. It's called the Woodland Walk and is open from 10am - 12pm (sometimes earlier if AT allow for ERT)

So where does this walk take you to exactly?

[SmilingMonkey]

There isn't one?

Yes there is, and was there earlier this year for my hotel stay. It's called the Woodland Walk and is open from 10am - 12pm (sometimes earlier if AT allow for ERT)

So where does this walk take you to exactly?

Forbidden Valley

[Danny]

Yes there is, and was there earlier this year for my hotel stay. It's called the Woodland Walk and is open from 10am - 12pm (sometimes earlier if AT allow for ERT)

So where does this walk take you to exactly?

Forbidden Valley

No no no, I've just realised what your talking about, I mean a park entrance into FV! Not through the park there!

[stu1980]

Hand cuffs set to go cos im chaining myself to the fence

[stu1980]

Towers Street is a little dead most of the time, if you look at the flow of traffic, everyone goes through it in the morning, only stopping for Fast Tracks at the Box office or height bands/exit passes at Guest Services, then its the last call of the day to go to Towers Trading or Guest Services. As some of the shops are not used, they need to bring some life back into the place. Converting Towers Family restaurant into a Nandos or one of the vacant shops into a Subway would bring hundreds of people back to the area.

For me, once I am in the park, there is nothing for me at Towers Street, so if they did remove it facilities wise I would not notice the difference as a replacement Guest Services, Box Office and Towers Trading can be erected anywhere in the park. The only thing I would miss would be the fantastic view on the entrance to the park in the morning.

Ask yourself this, if there were two entrances 1) Duel and 2) Towers Street, which one would you use?

Duel as its closer to FV for Nemesis or TS which is the furthest from FV/GW and only  slightly closer to the X Sector.

Towers Street i would use but thats just me

[Maseyg123]

I really don't want Towers Street to go, even if it isn't an entrance anymore. If they do make a new entrance they should either make a new area from it (keeping the street,) keep it as an entrance, or turn it into a functioning street with shops and a museum about Alton Towers...

[A]

To be honest I couldn't care less if towers street went, as long as I can get into the park I don't care where the entrance is

[roary01]

Moving the main park entrance doesn't seem right, i can see where people are coming from in terms of moving it but i still see some points...
- Corkscrew monument - what was the point in putting it at towers street if they have plans to remove this entrance?
- Box office & Towers Trading - They spent money doing both of these units up, and there would be no space to recreate these if towers street was removed
- Office space - the offices in towers street would need to be moved, which would take a lot of work and planning if towers street were to be removed
- Concerts/fireworks - Easiest and most open space for crowd control and to disperse crowds after events which would be lost if towers street doesn't exist
- Limited planning permission - Towers street is close to the proximity of the park, so would be difficult to get permission for many attractions. (look at the plans for when sonic is removed, they said they would enforce a strict height restriction to that area when sonic is removed)

My opinion would be to keep towers street as the main entrance to the park, and create exit points in both forbidden valley for hotel guests and by duel & towers street for regular guests. This with a new car park layout, moving them to the meadows and using the mini bus/coach park more to there advantage would allow for more development space to the rear of the park.