Just visited Alton towers again after a long time and felt it was a little tired. With universal on the way, what do you all think they could do?
I did a video exploring this and I think they need to keep Thorpe on the big rides and Alton on the unique storytelling. Merlin has just a spread, if they play it right Alton could still be such a unique park away from established IP.
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Long story short lm a proper scariest cat and wicker man was too intense for me I'd prefer no loop de loops and for the ride to be as flat as possible heard good things about runaway train
The OG Time to Get Corrected slogan is playing again in The Smiler shop, it plays every after few loops of the smiler shop theme song. Various other phrases are there too such as “the smiler will marmalise your body and mind”
With the needle imagery and marmalisation being added back to the video screens and Marmaliser leg. It looks like Alton Towers is slowly working towards restoring The Smilers OG theming. It would make sense given all the time that has passed, the fact tabloids seem to have shut up recently even when the smiler has technical issues and all the feedback recently with everybody asking for the theming back.
There’s also a video with evidence pointing to the smilers theming being restored which I will link here:
https://youtu.be/DDB5RtkI6JU?si=uAFlv4ccA9Z6gdDx
According to others, Howard Ebison (manager of Alton Towers) has states they do want to restore The Smilers correction theming, but they’re relying on guest feedback.
What are your thoughts? I personally am over the moon seeing these things come back and it’s definitely an awesome move. I personally believe The Smiler has the absolute best storyline of any coaster and it’s absolutely criminal that a big chunk of its storyline had been removed.
We went yesterday (Friday 9th).
We normally go midweek when it's quiet. It's good because it's quiet enough to get everything done, but we never enjoy the race against time with the meagre opening hours, and the fact that not everything is open when it's quiet (we've been a few times when there's no monorail, no sky ride, and most of the food options are closed). So we thought we'd change it up and come for Scarefest.
I have to say it really made me miss the days when Alton Towers was open for longer! I have memories as a kid/teen of not only getting on all the rides, but also having time to play arcade games, stop for lunch, walk around the gardens and generally enjoy a fully rounded day more! These days it feels more like a military operation!
The queues were obviously longer, but we decided we were more focused on soaking up the atmosphere for this visit rather than ticking off all the rides. We were going to save most of the rides for when it got dark, to experience the difference in riding at nighttime. We didn't join any queue that was longer than 25 minutes and still managed Nemesis, Oblivion, Smiler, Th13teen, Spinball, Galactica, Hex, Curse and Marauders Mayhem (haven't been on that one in about a decade because there's never time to even consider the smaller rides, so that was nice!).
We got face paints done (not the best, but we just wanted to do something different) watched a couple of the shows and generally took our time exploring, it was a welcome change!
The only thing that really spoilt it a mishap with Th13teen. I'd been going on to my friends about how great it is to ride in the dark, so it was the main reason we came to Scarefest.
We timed it perfectly - joined the queue with the last bit of daylight fading and by the time we got to the front of the queue it was pitch black. Great! We got loaded on to the train, all ready to go. Then it broke. It broke and they couldn't get us out of the train until the engineers got there.
So now the relaxed approach to the day was gone, with us being trapped on Th13teen with closing time looming and still a handful of rides we wanted to do in the dark.
Eventually we were freed and the ride operator told us she would radio ahead to Smiler to tell them to let us through the Fast Track as compensation, just give her name to the queue attendant there.
So we legged it over to The Smiler and the queue attendant said no! They weren't letting anyone through who'd been trapped on Th13teen and the attendant shouldn't have offered us fast track! We were fuming as we were going to save Smiler til last (60min queue) and join the queue just before 9, which would've allowed us enough time to do every ride in Forbidden Valley plus the Mine Train before that, but the fast track offer made us trek across the park! No time to trek back again so we joined The Smiler main queue. It ended up taking 30 mins instead of the advertised 60 (thank god!) so we speed walked back to Forbidden Valley and did Nemesis and Galactica just before closing.
The only rides we wanted to do but didn't were Runaway Mine Train and Wickerman. So not bad, but frustrating as if it hadn't have been for the Th13teen incident and the Fast Track lie, we probably would've been able to do those too.
So overall it was a great day, it's just a shame one incident put a spanner in the works at the end! And I really miss the longer opening hours!
Going to Alton Towers tomorrow and want to book a scare maze for the first time ever. I’m ok with scary corridors like the Walking Dead ride in Thorpe Park, but I’m
not a fan of claustrophobic mazes. Any ideas which one I should book?
Me, my partner and our kids got merlin platinum passes this summer. Since then we've been to towers 7 times, our youngest is the only one under 1.4 m (but just over 1.3m) and is desperate to ride the 1.4 rides to the point he asks to be measured 3x a week, we would love to get him on them before the end of season but even after lots of vegetables and good nights sleep and even him standing in the sun seeing if he could grow like a flower he is still a good 8cm off. Had people advise sticking heightening insoles in his shoes but worried it might be dangerous. Also to add we went to Thorpe Park recently and he rode hyperia with no issues at all and any big rides he goes on he sits with either me or his dad.. Opinions on whether 8cm would make any difference safety wise 🤔 thanks in advance
hi my merlin annual pass expires on the 8th october and I’m in two minds as to if i want to renew it. Does anyone know if i can still use my bring a friend for free vouchers from my pass after it has expired for the year? i’ll technically be using the bring a friend to bring myself if this does work
Was absolutely amazing today! All the rides were basically walk on for me and my mate! Spinball even opened today which surprised both of us!