CBeebies Land Hotel

[Burniel]

I guess I'm not alone when I say oh no, not CBeebies again!

I'm sure the hotel will be fantastic for families, but the Resort seriously need to start looking at their priorities ...

[Aidan Lowe]

I'm sure the hotel will be fantastic for families, but the Resort seriously need to start looking at their priorities ...

And who's to say those priorities haven't changed for the time being?

For as long as anyone can remember AT has been the thrill capital of the nation with teens & adults returning year after year, that's never going to change no matter how scarce the ride lineup.

Now they've decided to cater for the very young family age group which has proven a success, it's only natural they expand this partnership with BBC seeing how children are subjected to all these characters and shows on a daily basis. Parents love taking their young sprogs to meet their favorite characters in person and no doubt will be returned custom for when those children get to 1.3/1.4 heights if the parents & children have had fond memories of earlier trips.

And with the UK on the verge of EU exit within the next few years it'll probably be harder to afford to take a whole family abroad so an alternative is a short stay at a resort like AT which has a good variety of things to do now.

It's good business, it'd be illogical not to take advantage of it.

[lewis97]

The development of new hotels and other forms of accommodation is a Merlin-wide strategy, with them announcing in February their intention to add 2000 new rooms by 2020 to their Resort Theme Parks - hence why we've also seen the application for an expansion to the Enchanted Village as part of this aggressive plan.

Whilst hotels aren't the most exciting additions for the majority of those on the forum, it makes sense from a business perspective to invest it something which will continue to directly bring in money in the long term. Once the EV is expanded I'd be surprised to see any more accommodation added for quite some time and then the focus will be back on the theme park and other resort attractions.

[Burniel]

Naturally, it's necessary to take advantage of a successful trend. I'm not against CBeebies Land by any means. However, I think it's time to re-shift focus if only for a year or two.

As it stands, no brand new ride has been put into any other area that CBeebies Land for the past four years now. It's not just the enthusiasts and white-knuckle thrillseekers who this affects, but also many slightly older families who, just like the younger families who spend most of their time in CBeebies Land, are looking for a magical journey of discovery. They too are disappointed when they see that their favourite area looks identical to how they saw it last year (aside from being slightly more run-down and possibly having fewer rides).

This is not to say that I don't think the park should be improving and expanding their clearly popular area. But for over three decades, the resort has successfully provided innovation and magical experiences to people of all demographics - why is it changing now? I have no problem with something small being added to CBeebies Land every year, but it seems logical that they also add something more thrilling or at least something for slightly older families quite frequently as well so that they don't lose their faithful customers. I also have no problem with the resort building more accommodation, but why CBeebies? The current accommodation lineup is very family-friendly, so why not just have some CBeebies-themed rooms here and there in what is overall a family-friendly new hotel which represents the whole park?

I wouldn't usually complain about a year of less exciting (yet essential) business strategies coupled with a small attraction for young children, but it seems like we've been saying "hey, it's not for us, but it's good for business and for young families" far too much recently.

[Ladyofthelake]

I have to say I do have mixed feelings about this announcement.

On the positive side, given the huge popularity of CBeebies Land, I have no doubt that the CBeebies Land Hotel will be a big draw for young families and prove to be successful for the Resort. It's nice to see that there is planned to be a full, year round programme of entertainment and it will be interesting to see if there's going to be more winter openings of the CBeebies Land area of the Theme Park. It will be interesting to see how the opening of this hotel affects Splash Landings and if we see more families opting for the CBeebies Land Hotel instead, although I suspect Splash will still be attractive on the basis of its cheaper price point. I also wonder if the opening of a dedicated CBeebies Land Hotel will mean the re-theming of the current CBeebies bedrooms in the Alton Towers Hotel.

Looking at it from the opposite side, it is perhaps a little disappointing to see another CBeebies focused development as when coupled with the proposed flat ride for CBeebies Land, this makes two CBeebies additions to the Resort for 2017. It would seem that Merlin have identified the CBeebies market as one that has been proving hugely successful for them and therefore worth further investment. It does worry me that with 76 additional rooms on Resort that will mean potentially additional pressure on the Waterpark which is already full to capacity the majority of weekends in the main season - without some form of refurbishment or extension the Waterpark simply won't be able to cope with the additional demand potentially leaving lots of disappointed guests.

With the planned Enchanted Village expansion to come too, we can only hope that the Resort is anticipating a need for this additional accommodation as a result of planned additions across the theme park. I am aware that the evening offering is something the Resort want to develop, in fact we have already seen the first step in this side of things with the evening openings of the Rollercoaster Restaurant. It's certainly going to be interesting to see how things develop from here with both the accommodation and the Theme Park.

[NemesisRider]

I reckon the CBeebies Land Hotel will be very popular. Merlin have essentially plugged the final gap in their hotel lineup: Alton Towers Hotel for adults/older families, Splash for families with children about 6-12 (or people benefitting off the cheaper prices), EV for families looking for something unique and now CBeebies for their youngest visitors. I would expect to see CBeebies rooms leave the other hotels, possibly an SW8 room will go in of them for 2018?

However, I've got concerns. Not so much about the Hotel, but this focus on CBeebies Land instead of everywhere else on Resort! There are some areas which need TLC and new attractions, especially Mutiny Bay and Dark Forest. X-Sector I've heard is meant to get some work done on it this closed season so that isn't as much of a worry to me.

Also, I'm quite conscious that Merlin also haven't opened a fully new thrill installation since 2013 (Galactica was just an upgrade). Alton Towers has relied on Passholders a lot more since the 2015 incident and I think not adding something new on the thrill front risks alienating them. Let's hope 2018 is a good year and possibly more than just one thrilling attraction is added!

EDIT: Something else just occurred to me. Towers seem to be putting all their eggs in one CBeebies themed basket. Especially with the funding cuts the BBC has received/will receive, doesn't that put Towers in a risky position? After all, CBeebies Land attracts people who like the IPs, if the IPs disappear then Towers don't get as many customers.

[The Nemesis Fox]

I too fell that Merlin are choosing to make CBeebies more dommanant. I do not think this is good. This is because aside from coasters the park is failing. It has two flats of which one is a pirate ship that are classed as thrill. Alton needs thrill flats desperately!!! I think another thing is family rides. I'm talking about rides that everyone likes and those aimed at 5/6 - 11/12 year olds as well as people who don't like thrill rides. This I believe is a big issue among top uk theme parks. An example is Drayton manor. They are do using too much on Thomas when they could be doing something with the Cartoon Network theme for older families

[OhShambhala]

All I'm saying is that this will make a fortune for the resort! All you have to do is look at the Facebook comments and realise Alton are on for a winner, however CBeebies land should stay open all year so families get the whole CBeebies experience not just the hotel.

[Themeparksandy1981]

They looked at how well Thomasland and Peppa Pig world have worked at family resorts and jumped on the band wagon. They know that ip bring in families with young kids and world 1sts coasters the thrill seekers.

[Horras64]

I think it's a shame that us thrill seekers aren't going to get anything until most likely 2018 at AT. From out perspective it seems that Alton Towers is going overboard on the hotels, compared to the number of attractions excluding CBeebies land. As there are few flat rides since many have been closed for TLC or plain removed.

From a business standpoint, the move is great. However many returning visitors of AT, also need to be catered for.

Closing down the older kids rides such as Hex, Charlie and Driving School (temporarily) whilst removing 2 flats: Ripsaw and Submission, without anything new for 4 years, is rather annoying. Since Galactica is a fail from my point of view.

So to me, I don't like the fact that they're making another 2 hotel expansions, after doing one the previous year or so. And therefore hope they'll be some sort of announcement that a thrill flat or 2 will also be coming for 2017.


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[smokenmirrors]

Don't blame the resort for jumping on the IP bandwagon. At the end of the day, SW8 is around the corner for thrill seekers.

Claiming a world's first is a tad optimistic though....

[Liam.W]

I keep questioning why it is called the 'Cbeebies Land Hotel' and not just 'Cbeebies Hotel'...

[Count-Vonduel]

All aboard the Vinyl Express-

"this train is for Corporate America, stopping at The (now redundant) child friendly option Splash Landings Hotel, Empty Hotel Room Land, The Legoland Hotel (now only £500 pp/pn), Alton Towers Spa (Worlds first spa with "screaming walls"), Alton Towers Resort (Worlds first lifeless world class theme park) and Corperate America"

Did I get my point across?

[wamdue]

to be honest this is a safe bet for Merlin, who kinda need it at the moment. Alton Towers has had some really bad PR, and ride closures for this season are not helping, meanwhile there is a corner of the park, which continues to do really well, it there is no harm on doubling down on it for a few years, the hotel im sure can easily be repainted once the IP license expires, and whilst like just about everyone here (im sure) I would like to see a big new coaster, that is a big investment that Merlin cant make/rush right now.

My concern would be, that Alton Towers just expands Cbeebies Land, and becomes a park aimed at children, but there are so many big rides rides there already, I just dont see that happening.

[Adam.W]

I'm happy with this - less people filling up the queues for the 'big' rides

[RobHand]

Take in mind that Alton Towers are always reading their reviews to improve guest satisfaction. If you read the splash landings reviews on trip advisor, while most of the reviews are generally positive, nearly all of the negative ones usually include something along the lines of "terrible nights sleep due too thin walls and screaming babies". Rather than re-enforcing the walls to prevent the noise of younger children it makes sense that they would dedicate a hotel purely to "babies, and toddlers (not to say only this age range watch CBeebies but you get the point). Where now at least parents and families who go to the CBeebies are fully aware that there are probably going to be crying babies in the hotel.
This is of course not the only reason they're creating the hotel as there is many other reasons such as their partner ship etc, but i still think it plays a strong factor

[RollercoasterRob]

Alton Towers need to think how many people actually come specifically to visit Cebeebies Land and research how many of them would like to stay in such a hotel! At worst this hotel could end up extremely un popular; parents wouldn't want to endure a whole evening of Cebeebies torture, families with younger and older kids would be better of staying at a hotel which best caters for all their interests.

[Liam.W]

Alton Towers need to think how many people actually come specifically to visit Cebeebies Land and research how many of them would like to stay in such a hotel! At worst this hotel could end up extremely un popular; parents wouldn't want to endure a whole evening of Cebeebies torture, families with younger and older kids would be better of staying at a hotel which best caters for all their interests.

Judging by people's comments on social media, this hotel will be very popular

[RobHand]

Alton Towers need to think how many people actually come specifically to visit Cebeebies Land and research how many of them would like to stay in such a hotel! At worst this hotel could end up extremely un popular; parents wouldn't want to endure a whole evening of Cebeebies torture, families with younger and older kids would be better of staying at a hotel which best caters for all their interests.

I think AT would have thought about this long before announcing their plans to build a CBeebies hotel.

families with younger and older kids would be better of staying at a hotel which best caters for all their interests.

And I understand your point about a family with both younger and older kids, as my parents have both 3 smaller girls and 3 older boys. However we came to the conclusion that the splash landings is probably more aimed at families (just our opinion).

However I do think the decision to build this was a good one as it now gives people a wide range of both age and options to chose their stay

[Ladyofthelake]

Construction on the CBeebies Land Hotel site is picking up pace now with a fair amount of progress on the foundations for the main building. TowersTimes News has the latest construction update.

One thing that strikes me with the location of the hotel is just how dramatically the views from both the Alton Towers Hotel, and the end Luxury Treehouse will change. Many of the rooms facing the gardens in the Alton Towers Hotel now look out over a building site, and will eventually look directly out to the CBeebies Land Hotel. The Treehouse now looks out over to what will become the hotel car park where previously it had a view of a clear grass area.