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Alton Towers Discussion Thread

p. 235: Nemesis Reborn announced for Spring 2024!

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^Chessington are listed for a large investment along with Heide Park in 2017 though and without Merlin, we'd have been waiting a very long time for a thrilling coaster to be added at any park here in the UK. They are making investments, so i certainly don't think they're destroying anything.

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Chessington hasn't built anything significant since 2004, the park looks awful and tatty.

 

All Merlin are interested in is accommodation.

 

Is mothballing 6 attractions for a season really the best way to keep people happy that are visiting your park?

 

It's not all about thrilling coasters, it's about great coasters that the whole family can ride, there are very few of these at Merlin parks.

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Most of Merlin's attractions are style over substance, anyway. I don't think they care so much about visitor numbers anymore, it's just a case of extracting as much money out of each guest, and things like accommodation help them do this. I, meanwhile, haven't had a Merlin pass for several years now (many of the things on it I was just visiting for the sake of visiting), I've not been to Chessington for about 4-or-5 years now, Thorpe Park for about 3 years (both are my closest parks at the moment) and Alton Towers only once a year, and if the reviews of Galactica aren't incredible, I might take a year off from there, too.

 

Having said all that, if that's how they want to do business, that's fine. Every operator has a different business model. I just think their way of running parks is pretty cynical and goes against the whole spirit of entertaining visitors, which is why it's a free market and I'm lucky to live in Europe with so many other great parks, and with easy, relatively cheap access to long haul flights elsewhere too.

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But at least Merlin does seem to invest in the other parks each year or so, so there are updates across the parks periodically. Merlin own 3 of the biggest parks in the country so they probably realize they can get away with adding less without the biggest impact on numbers. Yes it sucks for guests but at the end of the day they are a business and trying to profit while cutting expenses will sadly be their priority if the same money is still coming through the gates.

 

Here in Korea we haven't had a big thrill ride or attraction since T Express almost 8 years ago and a lot of thrill rides from the other parks have disappeared over the last 8 years without replacement. Some parks haven't had anything new added since they opened 20 years ago or have had 1 big investment and a couple of smaller ones in 15 years and the biggest parks have had all their replacements be rides for the whole family instead of coasters or thrill rides. Why? Because they know they can use cheaper investments but still keep the numbers coming in. If they can cut their operations down and still keep numbers up so be it One park alone has removed a Chance Double Inverter, Huss Frisbee, S&S twin towers and a drop ride until their biggest rides are now a viking and a tagada with 0 replacements.

 

Even Everland,one of the highest visited parks in the world, will, in winter and the hottest time of summer when people are in the water park, operate the rides on half day schedules during the weekdays during quiet season so 1 ride in each area of the park will run only in the morning (10-2) and another will run the afternoon (3-8). Feel lucky Merlin hasn't reached that stage when days are quiet.

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Of course there are issues all over the world it's just difficult not to feel jealous when you see what is happening in Europe at the minute.

 

They seem to be some very well run parks over there at the minute. They seem to focus on what the parks need rather than gimmicks and heavy marketing. Plopsaland, Europa Park, Phantasialand, Hansa, toverland, efteling, a number of the northern Denmark parks. I guess the difference is the are independently owned and don't have to make money for shareholders.

 

JJust wish they would at least sell Chessington.

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Most of Merlin's attractions are style over substance, anyway. I don't think they care so much about visitor numbers anymore, it's just a case of extracting as much money out of each guest, and things like accommodation help them do this. I, meanwhile, haven't had a Merlin pass for several years now (many of the things on it I was just visiting for the sake of visiting), I've not been to Chessington for about 4-or-5 years now, Thorpe Park for about 3 years (both are my closest parks at the moment) and Alton Towers only once a year, and if the reviews of Galactica aren't incredible, I might take a year off from there, too.

 

Merlin do still care a lot about visitor numbers internally and really like to keep their attraction staff updated on gate figures. Of course once those people are in the park they then switch to putting you through the ringer and extracting every little penny out of you, but thats just how business is. Disney do the same really you just don't notice because its Disney.

 

I think the thing people can forget that when you have a Merlin pass, Disney pass, Universal and so on you can become easily jaded with the parks and they lose the appeal they once had. I know Thorpe Park and to a lesser extent Chessington have both done that to me.

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They seem to be some very well run parks over there at the minute. They seem to focus on what the parks need rather than gimmicks and heavy marketing. Plopsaland, Europa Park, Phantasialand, Hansa, toverland, efteling, a number of the northern Denmark parks. I guess the difference is the are independently owned and don't have to make money for shareholders.

And that also means they're all competing with each other. Merlin has the UK all to itself when it comes to major parks. There's really no need to step up your game when you know the consumer has no good alternative.

 

The only thing that would really shake things up would be if that Paramount Park in London gets off the ground. What's the current status on that btw?

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Merlin do still care a lot about visitor numbers internally and really like to keep their attraction staff updated on gate figures. Of course once those people are in the park they then switch to putting you through the ringer and extracting every little penny out of you, but thats just how business is. Disney do the same really you just don't notice because its Disney.

Yes, sorry, didn't mean to suggest that they don't care about visitor numbers full stop, just that their priority is the bottom line and keeping shareholders happy. Of course I understand that this is how businesses work, and that they're completely entitled to run their parks how they feel fit, but I think the difference between Merlin vs Disney (and a lot of other parks) is that Disney seem to want to entertain guests (who will then go on to spend money), whereas Merlin just want to make money even though their 'business' is to entertain people. Merlin are like second-only to Disney, though, so obviously it's working for them and their shareholders.

 

I think the thing people can forget that when you have a Merlin pass, Disney pass, Universal and so on you can become easily jaded with the parks and they lose the appeal they once had. I know Thorpe Park and to a lesser extent Chessington have both done that to me.

Oh yes, I totally get that. I don't think anyone can argue there's been a distinct drop in quality though. I've been visiting Chessington and Thorpe Park for years now, but it's only been the last few years that I've just totally lost interest. I think Chessington really started turning a corner and then ever since they started tearing down theming that was falling apart and not replacing it, and then also not really installing anything new, then I just fell out of love and honestly, haven't really missed it since.

 

Anyway, none of this is a huge deal to me really, I was mainly just responding to 1aflack. Like I say, they're making money and the shareholders are happy, and there's plenty of other parks for me to visit so it's no biggie

 

Oh, cookiex, they're making progress with Paramount and more land has been purchased, but the opening date has been pushed back to 2021. There's a lot of red tape!

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I think the Paramount park will happy, there is a crazy amount of jobs riding on it, also the area needs to be built up, they built the station with excellent links to London except no one lives there.

 

Does anyone know what the visitor numbers are for Chessington, they can't be good?

 

I also think drayton manor has hone down hill, I visited for the first time in maybe 5 years over Xmas and it's seems the park spent all there money on a great looking hotel and Thomas land and forgot the rest of the park, looks pretty tatty and dated now.

 

A lot is riding on Blackpools new coaster next year, it won't have any themeing but hopefully it will be excellent.

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There's a long road ahead for Paramount but there seems to be good momentum behind it, it's a solid project and the majority of locals seem to be very positive about it. Chessington had 1.6m in 2014, not sure about last season. I'm really excited for Blackpool's new ride, whatever it ends up being. Anything to keep Merlin looking over their shoulders is a good thing, and I think Blackpool is a really, really, REALLY underrated park. Unlike Drayton and Merlin parks, they've spent so much money on tidying the place up!

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There's a long road ahead for Paramount but there seems to be good momentum behind it, it's a solid project and the majority of locals seem to be very positive about it. Chessington had 1.6m in 2014, not sure about last season. I'm really excited for Blackpool's new ride, whatever it ends up being. Anything to keep Merlin looking over their shoulders is a good thing, and I think Blackpool is a really, really, REALLY underrated park. Unlike Drayton and Merlin parks, they've spent so much money on tidying the place up!

 

I agree about Blackpool with how much they have done to tidy it up and am really looking forward to their new coaster next year (hopefully). Although it was recently voted the 6th best park in the world, so can't be that underrated.

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It's not going to be staying white. Judging by the cover picture of this unused "Towers Loving Care" Twitter profile, the ending colour will be more of a rusty brown.

5IJL3wf.png.04031518bade39baef82b2933f56bf0f.png

Very left = Pre-Paint, Middle = Primer (I'm guessing), Right = What looks to be the final colour

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While I'm not personally pleased about the re paint of Nemesis I am at least hopefully we will see a complete revamp, clean up and repaint of the station to bring it back to it status as arguably the best roller coaster station in the country!

 

I would have preferred to see them repaint Air/Galactica than Nemesis but maybe they have/are doing that also and I didn't notice.

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Hopefully they go through with adding the rusty effect to the entire track. It's one of those little features that made Nemesis so special. The white is so bland and doesn't fit the ride IMO.

 

I do wish they would repaint Galactica a light green color or different color to fit the space theme. It doesn't even seem like they're committed to replace the trains, and just slapping on headsets.

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I guess the rust is applied in a completely separate stage, possibly even by a different company (eg, Studios might be doing this). Plus even if they are painting it white, don't worry, with the way Merlin are with looking after their rides, it'll be rusty again within a couple of seasons

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I guess the rust is applied in a completely separate stage, possibly even by a different company (eg, Studios might be doing this). Plus even if they are painting it white, don't worry, with the way Merlin are with looking after their rides, it'll be rusty again within a couple of seasons

 

Merlin do actually take good care of their rides. Name one which is not taken care of.

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I guess the rust is applied in a completely separate stage, possibly even by a different company (eg, Studios might be doing this). Plus even if they are painting it white, don't worry, with the way Merlin are with looking after their rides, it'll be rusty again within a couple of seasons

 

Merlin do actually take good care of their rides. Name one which is not taken care of.

 

Smiler.

 

Too soon?

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I guess the rust is applied in a completely separate stage, possibly even by a different company (eg, Studios might be doing this). Plus even if they are painting it white, don't worry, with the way Merlin are with looking after their rides, it'll be rusty again within a couple of seasons

 

Merlin do actually take good care of their rides. Name one which is not taken care of.

 

Octonaut's station and it's not exactly old.

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Merlin do actually take good care of their rides. Name one which is not taken care of.

 

While the engineers do their best to maintain the rides to the highest standards the fact of the matter is they are not given the money to take care of theming etc.

 

Prime example of rides that until recently have not been taken care of as well as they should do due to funds are Safari Skyway, Tomb Blaster, Loggers Leap, Colossus, Nemesis (station mostly), Hex, The Dragon. That's a few rides that have been left to get in an absolute state due to the money not being granted to allow them to fix it. I've spoken to engineers at various parks over the years and they all take immense pride in what they do but they can only do so much with the resources given to them.

 

As for Octonauts station well the less said about that the better........

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