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2019: General Discussion

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All I can say is the BT private hire day back in the early 2000's was the best day both I & many other [Alton Towers] staff had whilst working there.

Basically the visitor profile demographic changed completely. The park was busy - but queues were short, as the visitor profile had changed. You had to have been working at BT for at least 20yrs to get an invite, so this put parents at a certain age where most were uninterested in a lot of the rides - they say on the main lawns enjoying the entertainment. As at least one parent had been with BT for 20yrs, this put their children at a certain age (generally late teens at least) so there was zero trouble. Queues were short / non-existent. Atmosphere was great. The litter pickers even had guests picking up litter with their hands and putting it in their litter bags.

As one staff member said... "amazing what a difference it makes when you only let people in who have worked for a living for years".

The only thing BT got wrong was mobile phone reception. 99% of attendees on that day were on Cellnet and no additional temporary capacity was added. Yes, you'd get a signal, but don't try making or receiving a call as it would fail.
 
Justo picturing all those little w*****s on RCT2 flocking towards the new coaster you built and then walking into the queue and walking back and making it look like a riot. Off topic soz.
 
Just to clarify as there's a hell of a lot of hyperbole going about about guest numbers at fireworks.

These days, fireworks are less busy than the busiest day of Scarefest. This is because at fireworks they want guests to have a good time after the debacle of the 2016 event when the park failed big style and they cap the numbers. Hence passholder pre-books and ticket prices being slightly higher, with no BOGOF etc.

These days, roughly 20,000 will be the limit on each day. Whereas with Scarefest, the peak days may say a couple or so more thousand.

The days of the park accepting any more than about 22,000 are gone for now, though - they don't have the ride stock, food/beverage outlets nor car parking to cope anymore.

:)
 
AstroDan said:
These days, fireworks are less busy than the busiest day of Scarefest. This is because at fireworks they want guests to have a good time after the debacle of the 2016 event when the park failed big style and they cap the numbers.
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What happened at that event Dan, too busy?
 
I think that was the year when they decided on the day to just start turning away annual pass holders who had travelled for hours without advertising that they may be turned away if the park was too full. I can remember the fallout on social media. People were not happy. It was the debacle that year that brought about the pre-booking system we have now.
 
Im going on Friday, and to be honest im not that bothered about it. I am sure i will enjoy it when I am there but just in general im not going to go to the dungeons and other than that there is no pull for me to go. Im still hoping for a quiet day though
 
Log Flume's Dennis said:
5,000 o2 customers queuing all day for Heave-ho then just going home (presumably in a 5,000-seater minibus)
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I went to the o2 day should of been nearly 7000 people. Two members of staff told us only 950 people turned. Everything was walk on, the longest we waited was on the break run of oblivion and waiting for enough people to queue up for the dungeons (free for the day). The ride staff on Galactica was doing a quiz while waiting on people.
 
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Beth2306 said:
I went to the o2 day should of been nearly 7000 people. Two members of staff told us only 950 people turned. Everything was walk on, the longest we waited was on the break run of oblivion and waiting for enough people to queue up for the dungeons (free for the day). The ride staff on Galactica was doing a quiz while waiting on people.
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See this is why it's a disadvantage to go to towers when it's really quiet, you have to wait for the rides to fill up, and that could take ages. Best off going when the queues are 5 mins cus at least you know there's enough people
 
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