Attraction Source Forum

The misters are a bit hit and miss, some days they're making the track invisible, others they're barely noticeable.

The blood rivers aren't coming back anytime soon.

What's going on with this?! There was supposed to be a total repaint on Twirling Toadstool, new audio and theming in DF, TowersStreet posted a photo of CBeebies Land looking a total mess, still no news on the closed rides, have they given up?! The last Twitter update we got from them was regarding a wooden fence which personally I can't get very excited about. I appreciate they can't do as much during opening hours but I hope they realise they've got plenty left to do!

Df just had more speakers

ThemeParkCrafter wrote:Df just had more speakers

Ah that must be what they meant when they said it will be sounding great soon. I thought it might have been new audio all together. Still hasn't got any vines growing over the fences like they said it would though has it?

The Sky Sailor wrote:

ThemeParkCrafter wrote:Df just had more speakers

Ah that must be what they meant when they said it will be sounding great soon. I thought it might have been new audio all together. Still hasn't got any vines growing over the fences like they said it would though has it?

They said 'A few weeks' a few months ago now. If I'm honest I think it will be at least another month until we get vines, if at all. A nice touch would be if they're real vines - if that's the case then the delay is understandable due to possible problems.

I'd imagine a lot of the TLC things have to occur when the park is closed. If that is correct I doubt we will see TLC for a while as the park is open pretty much every day. We could see more TLC occur around September/October time - this is just a thought.

I looked at the work the TLC team done so far around the resort and it looks good but looks so out of place with the rest of the buildings as the Iceage painted buildings look so badly faded and cracking. I don't understand why they still need the old Nickelodeon theming on the buildings.

After having been at AT for the weekend, Twirling Toadstool really needs that repaint - it looks awful and one of the kids in the queue were even put off by its appearance!! Looks like the fence around it may have been painted though but not sure.

During Merlin's Interim Results presentation this morning, Nick Varney confirmed what we pretty much knew in that 'non-core rides' across the group's Resort Theme Parks (although primarily at Towers) have been closed this season in order to reduce operating/employment costs as the recovery from The Smiler incident continues. He also said that once revenue begins to increase the first steps will be to extend opening hours and reduce the number of closed days before then reopening these so-called 'non-core rides'. Interestingly, despite these changes customer satisfaction has actually improved at Alton Towers so it has been the right strategy as far as they're concerned.

Therefore, as many suspected, it would appear that Towers Loving Care is a convenient reason to give for these closed attractions, with really not too much being done in the way of refurbishment although there have been a variety of minor but welcome improvements around the resort.

If there are no improvements/refurbishment to the "non-core" attractions, then I find the TLC message regarding these attractions misleading. It is obvious that this was due to operating costs, but I think having launched 'Galactica' which actually demands more staff, contradicts their message/aims/findings.

As someone who up until know has been fairly forgiving of Merlin for The Smiler incident, this really rubs me the wrong way.

Closing rides for the season to save costs whilst raising the ticket prices then telling at best half truths to cover up why a significant number of them are being closed. 7 rides closed for the season, 5 family, 2 child rides. That's significant for a park which is liked because of the wide range of rides.

It's less noticeable when you're looking over the park map but once you're there with a family, especially one where everyone is too old for cebeebies, you realize how few rides some people end up going on. They're minor rides but they're still attractive ones for people who can't take the more intense rides.

If they're doing much needed emergency work like Disneyland Paris are doing (although even they staggered the closures) it's more forgivable but if they're primarily doing it to save money whilst charging £50 a ticket, it annoys me.

The Smiler was Merlin's screw up. Merin's a giant, rapidly expanding company they should absorb the costs, not make their loyal customers foot the bill.

I wouldn't be bothered if they just said 'We took a big dip in profits so some rides are closed to save money while we recover', It's a businesses, that's what they do. Instead being told rides are closed due to 'refurbishment' definitely seems like purposefully lying to customers. I'm hoping we see some obvious maintenance has been done to Hex especially when the rides reopen or I'll be kind of put out.

Sawboss wrote:I'm hoping we see some obvious maintenance has been done to Hex especially when the rides reopen or I'll be kind of put out.

I've heard Hex might have had some improvements but I can't be sure. It's just hearsay. As for the other rides like Sub Terra, no idea. However I hope the other rides have had some improvements, but I don't think it's hugely likely.

EDIT: if/when Sub Terra eventually reopens, I hope they've sorted out the restraints :lol

I have heard of a few things happening to Hex but it doesn't seem like anything that couldn't have been done during closed season if they were actually wanting to have it open. As for some of the other attractions, I could see them just remaining closed until they get round to replacing them as seems to be the case with CATCF. It's the lack of reopening dates which is quite telling, as if they were genuinely just closed for improvements they'd have a time-frame to work to.

When these closures were announced it was seen as a clear case of mothballing by most and I for one refused to believe that to be the case, I didn't want to believe it. Needless to say I'm disgusted it is, I understand its a business and for Merlin the £ will always be #1 priority over customer satisfaction but the way the Merlin social teams were told to respond has just been blatant lies to an extent and under the guise of a TLC program..

Andy Mc wrote:When these closures were announced it was seen as a clear case of mothballing by most and I for one refused to believe that to be the case, I didn't want to believe it. Needless to say I'm disgusted it is, I understand its a business and for Merlin the £ will always be #1 priority over customer satisfaction but the way the Merlin social teams were told to respond has just been blatant lies to an extent and under the guise of a TLC program..

That's a tiny bit harsh. For all you know, they might not have known the truth and were told it was part of TLC. But I can fully understand why they have done what they have done. We look at the park from a different perspective to how they look at the parks. We look at them from an enthusiasts point of view where as they look at them from a business point of view. Yes I agree that the way they have done it isn't great, but when I visited I didn't feel that any of the ride closures affected my day and I doubt the general public would have noticed either.

Dom wrote:For all you know, they might not have known the truth and were told it was part of TLC.

I mean higher up within the business has obviously told the social teams exactly that, that the closures are part of the TLC program when clearly it wasn't and they relayed that message across endless times when this news broke and even stated on the website they are closed for refurbishment. I'm one who believes honesty is the best policy and what they've done is clear lack of respect to be truthful to their paying guests.

A business as big as Merlin Entertainments should never have even resorted to such drastic measures as to close these attractions for an undisclosed period of time.

The trips I've had this year have only been marginally affected, it would have been nice to have wobble world up and running as my girls love that area. I miss Hex and Sub Terra but not enough to detract from the rest of the park, and my other half misses Charlie, but TBH I'm delighted it's closed as it was always a chore going through that ride.

It doesn't phase me that it was cost cutting and we're generally wiley enough to get around the price increase so the news is interesting but not devastating. As this season seems to be moving in the right direction so far we'll hopefully see these things relax and be back to normal for next season

lewis97 wrote:I have heard of a few things happening to Hex but it doesn't seem like anything that couldn't have been done during closed season if they were actually wanting to have it open. As for some of the other attractions, I could see them just remaining closed until they get round to replacing them as seems to be the case with CATCF. It's the lack of reopening dates which is quite telling, as if they were genuinely just closed for improvements they'd have a time-frame to work to.

What things have you heard about Hex?

I can't say I'm surprised by this.

After the incident on The Smiler we all knew that the following years would be difficult and unlike anything we've been used to from Towers.

At the end of the day Merlin are a business and they have to make ends meet. Whatever they did to cut costs would have been met with universal damnation from the enthusiast community so they were in a no-win situation.

I think sometimes we forget how lucky we are to have a park like Alton to visit. Had it not been for Merlins financial backing the crash (and subsequent media storm) could have been the end of the park.