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Traveller day?

Just had to remove a large volume of quite strongly...shall I say prejudiced posts? Could we perhaps keep the more hardline opinions, however humorous the intention, to ourselves and keep more on the topic of their visiting Towers :) Thanks.
 
We were on park yesterday. Jess and I have never had any problems with the Travellers in the past. Yesterday was the worst trouble that we have seen them caused.. They were very mischievous.

Smoking in the queue lines, inside the station buildings
Queue jumping
Polystyrene balls everywhere
Climbing over Oblivion entrance cadge roof
Climbing over fencing
Climbing inside restricted ride areas causing the rides to temporary close down (Oblivion)
All day we also recived abuse from them, especially my wife who is wheelchair bound, they kept coming up to her, invading her personal space as well as inappropriate comments and intimidation about her disability. Because she is immobilised, she is vulnerable on the best of days, but yesterday she was very vulnerable and was reduce to tears because of the way the travellers treated her.
The police were useless and they advised us not to visit the park in the future on the weekend during the Scarefest due to the fact that the Travellers are renowned for turning up. Doh! So when can we visit the Scarefest? We used to visit during the Scottish half term week, since that has been scrapped, we have very little choice but to visit on a weekend for the Scarefest or event the half term week which can be very busy, and if the last 2 years are anything to go by, trying to predict when the travellers will turn up is like trying to predict the weather.

They need to bring back the Scottish half term week for the scarefest.
 
trying to predict when the travellers will turn up is like trying to predict the weather.

Some of us did find out the date they were due to arrive and posted it on here, but unfortunately it would appear we were being prejudiced in doing so, and indeed about complaining about their behavior. But anyway, lets not go into that anymore, their bad manners, behavior and trouble they caused on the day can be read on all the social media channels from members of the public who were unfortunate to visit yesterday.

With regards your point about predicting when they may arrive, the only thing you can do really is keep an eye on the local racecourse for major events as they tend to time their visit with this. The dates may also be posted on some forums.

We were in Secret Garden two weeks ago for the first weekend of Scarefest and a fight nearly broke out between a traveler family and a couple sat opposite until a member of the public stepped in to break it up. Not sure what AT can do about it, dare I say but they may even make a lot of money from them visiting. The family in question told us they had spent over £10k for 10 hotel rooms for families for 2 nights that weekend!!

If I , or you, or someone else was to climb into the ride area and get caught, I am sure we would be banned from the park, annual pass revoked, and possibly prosecuted.
 
Some people need to look up the definition of prejudicial it seems.

I'll save you the trouble, 'an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge', saying a traveller is violent, rude, inconsiderate or all of the above, and is likely to cause trouble when they descend on a place on a specific date isn't prejudicial, it's fact, especially true given the horrendous number of complaints elsewhere online about it, and even more so if witnessed in the past.

Perhaps if we spent less time pandering to snowflakes who spend their life getting offended on other peoples behalf without even bothering to find out if said person is even offended, and more time calling out these people for the awful way they act, then maybe the message might get through that actually, acting like a idiot and reducing people to tears for the fun of it is not acceptable.
 
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For me, if Alton brought back the Scarefest for the Scottish Half term week, I would not even touch the weekends (or the English Half Term week) with a barge pole.

I will never tarnish the whole traveller community with the same brush, as we did bump into some respectful travellers yesterday. Unfortunately this year, we notice a lot more trouble than normal.

Idiots reducing people to tears for fun is not acceptable and idiots who do that to some defenceless disable person, that is beyond words and for the police to just brush it off was also not acceptable.

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I don't think the argument revolves around the stereotyping prejudice. More about how far people have gone with jokes.
We need to understand jokes in the same comedy area as 'fixing the issue with neutering'
Are best left to the few people what have a humour that can take dark jokes.

I have a dark dry humour and i thought that was over the line.
 
I won't go into it here but there's usually a reason for the way the younger ones tend to act, most pikeys I know don't even mind being referred to as such, it's usually just a minority that loose control. It's quiet funny but one particular family I know, their eldest son is built like a BSH, and you certainly would think that meeting him in a dark alley would not be a good idea, but the kid is genuinely petrified of anything with more than two legs, he would freeze up like a corpse whenever our cat would try to snuggle up, it was so funny, yet to look at him you'd be the one running scared if you didn't know him.
 
I will never tarnish the whole traveller community with the same brush, as we did bump into some respectful travellers yesterday. Unfortunately this year, we notice a lot more trouble than normal.

I do agree with you on this, but unfortunately it is also truth that a lot of problems are caused on this day, and given the size of Alton, it cant just be one or two people causing it all over the park. So yes, you cant ban everyone, but at the same time, what can they do to stop the ongoing problems. Not a lot I don't think unless they have security in EVERY queue line and in EVERY restaurant, maze, etc etc etc. I know this does cost Alton a heck of a lot of money each year.

Going back to the Scarefest dates though, I may be wrong, but isn't only the past 3 or so years that they have been visiting over Scarefest. I recall in the past it was only over Easter.

I am curious however how they organise their day out here..... I mean, there has to be some central point of organisation amongst the community. Its a shame (and maybe impossible) for Alton to get into this, and speak to whoever is organizing it and (1) get definite confirmation of the date of their arrival so plans can be put into place (at the moment its guess work)) and (2) give some sort of statement to them about behavior - although this may fall on deaf ears!
 
Going back to the Scarefest dates though, I may be wrong, but isn't only the past 3 or so years that they have been visiting over Scarefest. I recall in the past it was only over Easter.

I'm sure it's been for quiet a few years now. I first accidentally turned up on Travellers Scarefest a good few years ago when my kids were young and that was way more than 3 years ago.

I've been back many time since. Last years Friday and yesterday were the only other two times that I visited the park while the Travellers where there.

Next year, I'll have to plan my dates differently
 
Absolutely terrible people behave like that. Last year I had no problems it's just a shame the small minority feel inclined to behave like that.
 
The only why to deal with the antisocial group with the travellers is to have expected behaviour signs at the entrance and to remove trouble makers and prosecute where required.

This will also tackle antisocial chavs, and self righteous people that thinks physical threats will get them what they want.
 
They are there if they don't read them and get remove its their own tough luck

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I'm pretty sure "expected behaviour" is covered in the park's T&Cs that you agree to by entering, even if the only place to read them is hidden deep in the website, in a hidden page with a sign saying "beware of the leopard".
 
To be fair, I think it's one of those things that you just have to live with now. They're gonna turn up at least for one weekend a year and there will likely be more anti-social behaviour than is normal (some years it doesn't appear to be too bad). There is no easy answer really. If it is likely to upset yourself or your party to the point that it will spoil your visit, maybe it will be be wise to attend on a different day if possible. It's just life unfortunately.
 
Thing is with this whole problem, there is no solution without discriminating against somebody. On one hand, you can't possibly have big burly blokes at the gates of a family theme park charged with making decisions of a social cleansing type nature. It's also wrong for a company to make public generalisations to its potential customers by labelling these days publicly as "traveller day" as a warning to others and it's my firm belief, especially in the current political climate, that such things can actually make the problem worse in the long run (although I would strongly defend every individuals right to do so in a free country as long as we're talking about facts).

On the other hand, it's downright unfair to expect unaware customers, particularly families with small children to have to experience this kind of thing when all they did was turn up for a good day out. If you plan and pay for a trip to Towers, you have every right to expect a safe and friendly day out with your family. You shouldn't have to trawl through fan forums and search the Internet high and low to "research" what days are safe for you to visit or not.

The park is private property at the end of the day and there must be a better solution than the current one of just bracing themselves for the worst. But the solution is probably far more complex than much of what has been already discussed in this thread.

The argument of "we just have to put up with it", as if abusive hooligans should be allowed to run around abusing and intimidating people and causing criminal damage on PRIVATE property is something to be tolerated grates me almost as much as the argument for "a pikey ban", whatever that's supposed to mean.
 
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Thing is with this whole problem, there is no solution without discriminating against somebody. On one hand, you can't possibly have big burly blokes at the gates of a family theme park charged with making decisions of a social cleansing type nature. It's also wrong for a company to make public generalisations to its potential customers by labelling these days publicly as "traveller day" as a warning to others and it's my firm belief, especially in the current political climate, that such things can actually make the problem worse in the long run (although I would strongly defend every individuals right to do so in a free country as long as we're talking about facts).

On the other hand, it's downright unfair to expect unaware customers, particularly families with small children to have to experience this kind of thing when all they did was turn up for a good day out. If you plan and pay for a trip to Towers, you have every right to expect a safe and friendly day out with your family. You shouldn't have to trawl through fan forums and search the Internet high and low to "research" what days are safe for you to visit or not.

The park is private property at the end of the day and there must be a better solution than the current one of just bracing themselves for the worst. But the solution is probably far more complex than much of what has been already discussed in this thread.

The argument of "we just have to put up with it", as if abusive hooligans should be allowed to run around abusing and intimidating people and causing criminal damage on PRIVATE property is something to be tolerated is just as moronic as the argument for "a pikey ban", whatever that's supposed to mean.

So basically, I'm moronic for suggesting that it's a situation that is not ideal, but it happens every year and we live on regardless, and everyone else is evil if they suggest banning this certain section of society (or something similar). However, you don't even have a solution yourself but feel it acceptable to talk down to us .............

Please enlighten us with your solution which is so much better (in the real world) than accepting to some extent that it'll be a bit more lively on certain days, but having extra security and maybe police. Remember, I said, in the real world............ Looking forward to it.
 
....yeah, and definitely not the ones standing in the middle calling either side morons but not offering a realistic alternative themselves :)
 
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