Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

[MakoMania]

Merlin have stated that they are to reduce investment in the Resort theme parks and midway attractions (most of the cuts will happen in midway and smaller cuts in RTP) by £100 million from 2018-2021 but the Legoland parks budget will not be affected.

 

[vaugc002]

Some info on the future funding:
"Chief executive Nick Varney said his decision to redirect capital expenditure from 2018 to 2021 away from existing plans towards building more accommodation was a sensible reaction to the tough market conditions."

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/10/17/merlin-shares-plunge-terror-fears-hit-attractions/

 

[Smithy]

Cheers guys.

Bollocks.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Darren Brown's ghost replacement bus service
PMSL @Psycoshark1

 

[Bert2theSpark]

And guess where that lost £100 mill is going...

Spoiler: Guess

Hotels...

 

[CrashCoaster]

^If it includes a hotel at Thorpe Park then fair enough. If it includes multiple new hotels at Alton Towers, then **** off!

 

[Will]

^
Not at all convinced Thorpe needs a hotel to be honest - makes sense at Alton as it's in the middle of nowhere, and Chessington as it's family orientated.
While I can see that hotels are probably becoming more profitable than the parks themselves, I find it hard to imagine the bulk of Thorpe's clientele want to/can afford to stay on site?

 

[Pink Cadillac]

Ok so I understand this properly... Smaller amount of money is going to the 5 proper theme parks and with this smaller amount of cash to spend, hotels will be a bigger focus than before? A double whammy?

 

[JoshC.]

What is happening is that Merlin are reshuffling their budgets for the 2018-2021 period. So, £100m of money that was going towards Capex investments at the theme parks and current midways is now being redirected to focus on new accommodation (ie hotels), new Legoland parks (New York in particular being a focus) and new midways.

There is still money that will be invested in the parks. There will still be new rides and stuff. And this budget reshuffle doesn't affect things like current staffing levels / operational costs. It's a case of there will be a less of it, and not as large an investment. It's major - effectively £25m a year across the parks and midways is A LOT - but it isn't a case that investment will stop completely.

 

[Ben]

Basically you’ll get stuff, it’ll just be poo.

 

[Robbie]

Basically you’ll get stuff, it’ll just be poo.

No change there, then.

 

[Pear]

The top of the Wicker Man was spotted.

I hate to repost this image but it's how I feel after every update of this ride

 

[Pink Cadillac]

Wow is that the ride's theming behind it!!!
Is this before it was constructed or a different, smaller one. I'd be cool with a charred wood look but it's reminding me of a charred corpse - not cool.

 

[Sandman]

Is that the top? My first thought was an additional bit of theming. Maybe it's the photo, but it doesn't look that big or interesting.

 

[Pear]

Apparently it's a scaled down version of what the top will be. Maybe it's for a mini version in the queue or something. Either way the topper will look like that only a bit bigger.

 

[Sandman]

I'll have to reserve judgement until I see the full thing. I'm still wondering how extensive the theming will be for this.

 

[Lofty]

LOOK AT ITS ****ING CHIN.

 

[Robbie]

Apparently it's a scaled down version of what the top will be. Maybe it's for a mini version in the queue or something.

The queue line needs to be Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland with pitchforks, pushing customers to their inevitable let-down.

 

[CrashCoaster]

LOOK AT ITS :emoji_zipper_mouth:ING CHIN.

I couldn't help myself...

 

[Sandman]

Better still