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WTF Merlin?

I’m not up on my ride knowledge (as I suck in that area of knowledge) but can the boat ride be reversed inside the Charlie building? If so, they can easily make it so you enter via the exit and use the elevators to simulate the descent that happens in the London version.

I’m excited over the prospect of an Alton Towers Dungeon, but I’m anxious over how they are actually going to do it. Merlin don’t have a great history when it comes to things requiring actors at their uk theme parks.
 
Such a shame to use the Charlie building when the Towers would literally be perfect for a Dungeons! Although it makes sense in that the boat ride is already there.. Maybe they could add a VR section where you board a Victorian train which is actually a London tube train which inexplicably gets attacked by demons? :)

Still, Dungeons could actually be pretty good fir for Alton if it's done right.. However so strange that they are adding an actor based experience when they are cutting back everywhere else across the park.. Wonder how long before it becomes Scarefest only..
 
spicy said:
Such a shame to use the Charlie building when the Towers would literally be perfect for a Dungeons! Although it makes sense in that the boat ride is already there.. Maybe they could add a VR section where you board a Victorian train which is actually a London tube train which inexplicably gets attacked by demons? :)

Still, Dungeons could actually be pretty good fir for Alton if it's done right.. However so strange that they are adding an actor based experience when they are cutting back everywhere else across the park.. Wonder how long before it becomes Scarefest only..
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Short term: no development cost, will probably be slapped onto the creative team of Dungeons without any additional budget
Long term: ****, actors actually require to be paid on a regular basis
 
Maybe they could move the drop towers in NST to C&tCF as part as the experience. I doubt it will happen, but it's possible.
 
Can kinda see it but cant really work out how having these midway attractions located inside parks actually helps the company? Unless they have it as an up charge.
 
I can see The Dungeons being included in the park entry but only if it's heavily ride based and shorter than the traditional 60 minute dungeons we all know.

Also I really don't think N:ST will be relocated into Charlie's building, It would cost loads as they would have to dig a huge foundation in the Charlie building as well as fitting a simulator lift, a boat ride and dungeons scenes in there.
 
d0m1n1c said:
I’m not up on my ride knowledge (as I suck in that area of knowledge) but can the boat ride be reversed inside the Charlie building?
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Sure, it's just powered by a water wheel like River Caves so it could easily be reversed.
 
Upcharge will pay for the actors, like at Warwick Castle I guess. Whether a Towers audience would go for it, I’m not so sure.

Regarding moving Sub-Terra - well, they have rotting drop towers at the moment so may as well move them across the park. But they don’t have to dig down again - just build a two-storey Tower on the side of Charlie and it’s sorted.
 
Popping branches of other brands into Alton (as they've already done with their Sea Life Centre) seems to be the direction they want to take things. That's probably in keeping with them trying to make it more of a 'resort' than a theme park with a waterpark attached. Gives more people a reason to turn up. An upcharge wouldn't surprise me and I can see the public accepting it - I've always been rather surprised that the Sea Life they have is included in a standard ticket.
 
Hate the general direction Merlin is going in to be honest. Especially with Alton as I have a soft spot for it and it has always been the UK’s flagship park.

Can just see the Dungeons being another quick investment to generate a short term profit and no long term goal. This will have the same lifespan as Sub Terra.

It’s all sort of reflecting how Tussauds was in its latter years when we saw the likes of Rita and Spinball installed... No long term goal just short term investments.. Instead this time they aren’t trying to sell on..

So what’s sad is the Merlin parks aren’t going to get a new investor in like Tussaud’s were trying to back then, so there won’t be any turnaround for these parks coming any time soon..

This is just how it is for Merlin now which is rather depressing for the UK theme
park scene. Makes me want Icon to succeed.
 
What annoys me the most about all of this is how ****ing blessed Alton Towers should be with the location they have. A goddamn castle with gardens and an enourmous piece of land with landscaping and everything? How is this not the most iconic theme park in the world?

If you had to have 3 park starting from scratch. One park is getting Phantasialand's plot of land, another one is getting Cedar Point's peninsula and the third one is getting Alton Tower's property. You'd think that the third one would overcome the other two like 98% of the time just by looking at the hard location factors.

This place is supposed to have at least 6 million people attending yearly. What a ****ing joke.
 
Fluorineer said:
This place is supposed to have at least 6 million people attending yearly. What a :emoji_zipper_mouth:ing joke.
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What? Alton barely scrapes two million. And that was only last year.

As for the Dungeon thing though, doesn't sound great. I just wish money was going into maintenance and generally making the parks nicer places to be.
 
Ethan said:
What? Alton barely scrapes two million. And that was only last year.

As for the Dungeon thing though, doesn't sound great. I just wish money was going into maintenance and generally making the parks nicer places to be.
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I didn't express that properly. Yes, the Alton Towers in it's current state can consider itself to be happy with 2 million visitors, but that's because they don't actualize any potential the place might have (well, without the proper investment capital, that potential is worthless but maybe Phantasialand's management gives seminars about investing money properly). It's the small things like leaving a Log Flume to rot and then replacing it with Wicker Man, even though they are drowning in empty space. With the parks history, potential and already invested capital it's ridiculous how they are still not offering the full package.
 
Fluorineer said:
I didn't express that properly. Yes, the Alton Towers in it's current state can consider itself to be happy with 2 million visitors, but that's because they don't actualize any potential the place might have (well, without the proper investment capital, that potential is worthless but maybe Phantasialand's management gives seminars about investing money properly). It's the small things like leaving a Log Flume to rot and then replacing it with Wicker Man, even though they are drowning in empty space. With the parks history, potential and already invested capital it's ridiculous how they are still not offering the full package.
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So where did you pull this 6 million figure from? ;)
 
The Towers Dungeon won’t go into the Charlie building. That’s reserved for David Walliams Gangsta Granny dark ride.

I’d place my bets on it going into a part of the towers not currently occupied by anything as part of a shot at opening up more of their biggest asset. If not, Hex retheme.
 
Fluorineer said:
If you had to have 3 park starting from scratch. One park is getting Phantasialand's plot of land, another one is getting Cedar Point's peninsula and the third one is getting Alton Tower's property. You'd think that the third one would overcome the other two like 98% of the time just by looking at the hard location factors.

This place is supposed to have at least 6 million people attending yearly. What a :emoji_zipper_mouth:ing joke.
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This is almost too obvious to even bother pointing out, but Alton Towers has incredibly tight planning regulations. They weren't even allowed to keep Thunderlooper because of its height and noise. Comparing it to Cedar Point is ludicrous. As for Phantasialand, they are possibly the very best in the world at what they do, so comparing any other park to it is going to make that park look bad.

Another issue they have is access. They are not allowed to attract significantly more visitors than they already do because of the stress on local roads. They had plans to build a new access route a while ago but that got shelved. Until access is improved, they won't be able to expand significantly.

In my opinion Alton Towers does an outstanding job of maintaining the heritage and unique setting, while adding a great collection of world class roller coasters, many of which are iconic and/or household names in the UK.
 
streetmagix said:
Efteling gets just under 6 million visitors a year and (on paper) they look fairly similar. The only difference is that Efteling is a 365 day park.
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What has this got to do with Efteling? He said 6 mil for Alton, no mention of Efteling.

And well... Efteling invests well and new additions are actually good. Tbh apart from the greenery and a lake in the centre, I don't think the two parks are comparable. Also, I still don't know where this 6 million attendance for Alton has come from? It's never got anything close to that.
 
Peet said:
Another issue they have is access. They are not allowed to attract significantly more visitors than they already do because of the stress on local roads. They had plans to build a new access route a while ago but that got shelved. Until access is improved, they won't be able to expand significantly.
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While I get what you're saying, you make it sound like Alton are deliberately under-performing in case the local infrastructure gets too stressed. As if they keep designing amazing rides but then have to take it down a notch in case they're too popular! Like a meeting for Wicker Man had a boss go "well I love all the airtime but can we have a bit less due to congestion on the B5147?"
 
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