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2019: General Discussion

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Good day at towers. Nemesis and Rita were the best today. I rank the rides I did in this order today:
1. Nemesis
2. Rita
3. Smiler
4. Oblivion
5. Galactica
6. Th13teen
Didn't manage to get on wicker man or spinball due to queues

You’ve been robbed of that’s all you managed to do
 
One thing I did notice from spending far less time at AT this year than usual and far more time at BPB is that the staff at Alton this year are on the whole a right miserable bunch compared the Blackpool staff. They need a few lessons in customer service and how to make a visit pleasant for the visiting (and paying!) public ... especially the arrogant lad batching Wickerman (although I did get my front seat in the end as his skill at counting in twos was worse than his attitude)

Maybe I'm getting old but I was seriously underwhelmed by 75% of the staff I encountered on Sunday :(
 
One thing I did notice from spending far less time at AT this year than usual and far more time at BPB is that the staff at Alton this year are on the whole a right miserable bunch compared the Blackpool staff. They need a few lessons in customer service and how to make a visit pleasant for the visiting (and paying!) public ... especially the arrogant lad batching Wickerman (although I did get my front seat in the end as his skill at counting in twos was worse than his attitude)

Maybe I'm getting old but I was seriously underwhelmed by 75% of the staff I encountered on Sunday :(
Well, if you worked for that corporation, on minimum wage, never knowing what time you have to stay until because they can't manage their opening hours properly and had to endure complaints from disgruntled guests for things that aren't your fault, would you be happy?

I'm sure they've had loads of training in customer service but there's very little incentive I would imagine. Although I would question why some would choose to work there for the summer knowing what the job entails and then still be miserable anyway.

What Towers needs in order to kick the company up the ass, is a good old fashioned recruitment crisis, supply and demand coming straight back at them. That way they'd have no choice but to pay people a good wage on decent terms and conditions. Although I must say, out of all the Merlin parks, Towers have by far the better staff. Chessington and Thorpe seem very miserable places to work.
 
I don't know much about how much advertising works but I suspect this isn't down to Merlin. They probably employed an advertising company who then organises when and where their adverts are played out. RockFM owned by Bauer Media Group, and it is in the Hits Radio group (https://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands-network/hits-radio-brand). Bauer own a lot of national and other regional radio stations so my guess is this was played in error, or played out to all of their stations blanket-style. Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong?
Well my main point is its a poor situation when a major theme park has to advertise a giant bouncy castle to the public after spending approximately £13 000,000 on a ghost train. Can you explain that one?
 
Well, if you worked for that corporation, on minimum wage, never knowing what time you have to stay until because they can't manage their opening hours properly and had to endure complaints from disgruntled guests for things that aren't your fault, would you be happy?
The same could be said for staff at BPB, probably more so, but they really are on the whole a pleasant bunch dealing with the same complaints from the public

At the end of the day, minimum wage or not, AT staff are being paid to do a job working with the public and being the face of the park. If they can't do that with a pleasant manner then something needs sorting. Without coming across as a grumpy old moo they need some more senior staff supervising in my opinion, maybe that does need better pay? Probably not helped by AT being in the middle of nowhere and only offering seasonal work

Just my observation from my limited visits this year, maybe I've been unlucky!
 
The industry runs on low paid staff who have few incentives to look happy...minimum wage, limited, non regular hours on shifting rotas.
Not much to be cheery about when you know your working year is more than half over, with a four month unpaid break looming in less than three months.
BPB staff generally get more hours, in a smaller staff team, and are supported by a family firm...not faceless corporatism.
 
Well my main point is its a poor situation when a major theme park has to advertise a giant bouncy castle to the public after spending approximately £13 000,000 on a ghost train. Can you explain that one?
The main reason I see them advertising Bouncezilla over the Ghost train is that it is new this year, Ghost Train is not. You didn't see Towers advertising Nemesis or The Smiler last year, it was Wicker Man all the way because it was the newest attraction. This year, no big new attractions (The Dungeons aside) so the adverts you see for Towers are much more generic showing many of their attractions (and the Dungeon was shown in some versions of the adverts).
 
The industry runs on low paid staff who have few incentives to look happy...minimum wage, limited, non regular hours on shifting rotas.
Not much to be cheery about when you know your working year is more than half over, with a four month unpaid break looming in less than three months.
BPB staff generally get more hours, in a smaller staff team, and are supported by a family firm...not faceless corporatism.

Back in 2002 Alton Towers HR team revitalised the recruitment process, with an aim to end the "there's always a job at the Towers" attitude in the local area. Applicants supposedly had to demonstrate world-class customer service in order to be hired. They even bought in someone who had worked at Disney to head-up the training / induction of new staff. (He didn't stay long!)

This was the HR Team whose boss left rather rapidly amid talk of more exotic internet content being accessed on a work computer. It made the local paper (the Sentinel) and an AT spokesperson released a statement about the sophisticated firewall they had in place.
 
What I don't understand is in the advert Stealth and swarm was mentioned but not DBGT . Anyway if people are happy with bouncy castles as the future for theme parks so be it. RIP John wardleys legacy of the theme park vision and welcome to the merlin funfair
The main reason I see them advertising Bouncezilla over the Ghost train is that it is new this year, Ghost Train is not. You didn't see Towers advertising Nemesis or The Smiler last year, it was Wicker Man all the way because it was the newest attraction. This year, no big new attractions (The Dungeons aside) so the adverts you see for Towers are much more generic showing many of their attractions (and the Dungeon was shown in some versions of the adverts).
 
That is because stealth and swarm are reasonably decent rides, while the ghost train was a massive waste of time, planning and money, that led to little more than long queues and disappointment.
And a Merlin fun fair is precisely what the place is.
 
Tree Top Quest prices have been reduced - £15 for Challenger (High Ropes) course and £10 for Explorer (Low Ropes) course. This brings the price down to the same as the special offer they ran during the re-opening weekend. It is significantly cheaper than the prices from a couple of seasons back when it was £25 for high and £20 for low.

The opening times have been amended too, from the previous 1pm-7.30pm to now being 3pm-8.30pm.

Hopefully the later opening and cheaper prices will appeal to people staying over to save this being mothballed again.

Is it being advertised on the theme park at all out of interest?
 
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Towers are running an event next weekend for National Rollercoaster Day, and more importantly to celebrate Nemesis 25th Anniversary.

More details to be announced...
 
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