Alton Towers today through there blogging site have announced the Towers Loving Care (TLC) scheme, A three year plan which aims to renovate overlooked areas of the park. The blog explains that the scheme will tackle several areas of the park:
“From repainting whole areas of the Theme Park, relaying pathways and improving signage, to complete redesigns or refurbishment of attractions. Over the next 3 years, it is our desire to bring you new and exciting attractions for all ages, develop our accommodation offering and to ensure that the existing areas of the Resort continue to feel our love.”
The above paragraph asks a couple of questions; What attractions will be redesigned / refurbished and what areas will be repainted?
It is probably a good guess that the redesign / refurbishment is talking about the renovation of the Air rollercoaster opening next year but the fact that it says attractions possibly hints that there will be more to come over the next few years.
But what attractions? Well a few months back it was rumoured that due to budget cuts, next year would see the closure of many attractions such as Hex, Driving School, Ripsaw, The Flume, Nemesis: Sub Terra and Charlie and the chocolate factory. However maybe some of these attractions will be closed due to refurbishment works? (A refurbished Hex! Yes Please!)
This is further supported by the following sentence in the blog:
"As part of this scheme you will see changes to our line up in 2016 but we’ll bring you more news of this in January."
As Charlie and Driving school are both in Cloud Cuckoo Land, maybe this area will be the first to be refurbished?
However there are many other places that could be up for a potential redesign / refurbishment such as Towers Street, Nemesis and Gloomy Wood’s Haunted Hollow which has had broken effects for many years.
The TLC scheme also mentioned a development on the accommodation offering. This could be talking about the plans to extend the Alton Towers Hotel, which will see the hotel extended to accommodate 76 more rooms and add additional entertainment areas with a new stage, soft play area, restaurant, bar and reception.
The long and short of it is any renovation is a good thing, the park have nothing to gain renovating the park as it would not attract more guests to the park (Imagine marketing a repainted Charlie!) but it does show that the park cares about the customer experience and keeping the magic in the park which some enthusiasts say has been missing from the park in recent years.
However, It comes at a cost, along with the announcement of the TLC scheme the park also published there calendar for next year, which included no Feb Half Term park opening, only two days of Fireworks and several days closed midweek throughout the quieter periods of the year.
