Regular visitor SaraAB87 (the one who is so interested in the games at the Skylon Tower) visited the Skylon Tower Fun Centre this week and emailed me the following:
I visited the Skylon Tower on Tuesday this week. There was quite a bit of construction going on, they had orange banners up where most of the shops were and when I was in the arcade I could hear a lot of very loud noise coming down from the construction area. It looks like they turned one of the shops into a temporary contractors office and the one shop was just restocking its shelves and putting up the shelves. It should be interesting to see what it turns out to be and it looks like they are making improvements.
The one thing that needs A LOT of work at the Skylon is the walkway bridge and stairs that are in the back parking lot B I think it is. This must have sustained a lot of damage this winter from the ice and the snow. This is an accident waiting to happen as the stairs are very cracked and some of the bottom stairs are so cracked they have the bare metal of the stairs showing. Be very careful when using this entrance to the Skylon!
The arcade was good, all the games I was looking for were intact and there was not any obvious damage anywhere from the fires that occurred over the summer. The arcade actually looked quite good, they have definitely added more machines since my last visit and I wish I could retract the comments I made about the Skylon not caring about their arcade because its clear to me now that they do care (although the rest of the arcades on Clifton Hill is another story). The arcade looks so much better than it did just a few years ago when it had that dirty, dungeon basement feel to it, but now everything is painted even the floor and it no longer looks like a half-done arcade, it looks like a nicely done arcade, and it is very clean. I like going around this time of year because its nice and quiet in the arcade and easy to concentrate on the game you are playing.
Although this fact isn’t made painfully obvious if you are spending money in the arcade and need help recovering lost tokens just grab a random maintenance worker (the guys in the dark blue shirts) or go into the office under the escalator, someone would be happy to help you. Even though the token machines say no refund on purchased tokens, if you lose them in a game they will still return them. All the staff at the Skylon is very friendly.
The only thing I have not figured out yet is when they give free parking in that lot. Its strange because on Tuesday I arrived at like 12:30 and there was free parking, as well as when I left at around 2:15pm. But last year when I went to the tower the last time we had to pay to park, it was like 4$. It’s a little annoying paying for parking when you’re a local just wanting to visit the arcade because between the 3$ bridge fee, 4$ parking and money for tokens makes for an expensive trip to the Skylon! Maybe it has something to do with when spring break is scheduled or maybe they start charging later at night, I am not sure. I usually park in the back lot because its more likely to have free parking than the front lot plus its easier to get to.