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2021: General Discussion

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AstroDan said:
Completely unrelated, but possibly useful.

Priority Ride Passes are no longer distributed nor accepted at Alton Towers. These passes were historically given out to guests in a queue line or on a ride that went down for technical reasons and had to be closed. Their use has been stopped as the park seek to limit the number of Fastrack guests using the rides.

I have several here from over the years - here's an example of a more recent one:

200803267_397964921495693_3570439962312073642_n.jpg
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Do they still give out annual pases to those who have to be evav'd from rides?
 
Ah yes, "only valid on date of issue"

Meanwhile towards the end of season all the geeks would rock up with wallets bulging with priority passes collected over the course of the entire year from a combination of breakdowns, trips to guest services and friends with access to the cupboard where the passes were stored
 
John said:
Ah yes, "only valid on date of issue"

Meanwhile towards the end of season all the geeks would rock up with wallets bulging with priority passes collected over the course of the entire year from a combination of breakdowns, trips to guest services and friends with access to the cupboard where the passes were stored
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Back in 1998 (when the breakdown exit passes were the coloured laminated ones) for about half the season you could buy Oblivion & Black Hole ones in the petrol station in Waterhouses. The "supplier" was easily identified by Towers as only one X-Sector staff member lived in Waterhouses & was not an X-Sector staff member for very much longer (i.e. just long enough for the disciplinary process).
 
Alsty said:
They'll compensate somehow, surely?
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Complimentary drink. Hilarious that the customer service is that bad that if you end up queuing for 1+hours for a ride and then it closes, all you get is a bloody drink. How they get away with it I don't know
 
Ethan said:
Complimentary drink. Hilarious that the customer service is that bad that if you end up queuing for 1+hours for a ride and then it closes, all you get is a bloody drink. How they get away with it I don't know
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Well back in 2000 at fireworks Ripsaw would not park properly and guests were stuck on it in the cold (with some rain thrown in for good measure) for close on half an hour (it was late in the day so exit passes were pretty useless). Towers pushed the boat out and bought each guest a McDonalds value meal.

By contrast, I had issues with Universal Orlando back in 2019. I emailed the Universal CEO, who passed my complaint onto one of his customer service "fixers". 35min international phone call followed at bang-on the pre-arranged time a few days later. We discussed all my issues & he comped me 2x14 day 3-park tickets for my next trip to Florida, with no expiry. Also threw in 2 days of Universal Express for both parks & a special Express ticket to avoid the queue on Hagrids Motorbike Adventure (which is not on express). I emailed the "fixer" the other day and he's also added a special Express ticket for VelociCoaster too as I have been unable to visit due to Covid.

How different park operators attitudes towards guest issues / service recovery differ!
 
I'd say a one-shot Fastrack would be the closest equivalent to the old exit passes, with the advantage that it's only valid on the day of issue. I wonder why they didn't go down this route?
 
To be honest i reckon most would be able to get the Ride Access pass with a bit of effort which is a virtual queuing card but thinking about it, it would be good to have a virtual Que System introduced i think
 
Alsty said:
I'd say a one-shot Fastrack would be the closest equivalent to the old exit passes, with the advantage that it's only valid on the day of issue. I wonder why they didn't go down this route?
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Probably because of issuing hassle. The exit passes used to be handed out by a Team Leader. To have all the Team Leaders walk round with a wad of printed & dated one-shot fastrack tickets in their pocket is not environmentally friendly as they would just go in the - hopefully recycling - bin if no rides broke down that day.

If you go to one-shot fastracks that have to be manually dated by hand, you can't date them fast enough when faced with a queue of p155ed off guests who just want to move onto their next ride.
 
David Allen said:
To be honest i reckon most would be able to get the Ride Access pass with a bit of effort which is a virtual queuing card but thinking about it, it would be good to have a virtual Que System introduced i think
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Read the relevant page on the Towers website. For a RAP they need a letter from your Doctor on headed paper stating why you are unable to queue as normal, or proof of certain benefit entitlements related to medical conditions.

They have clamped down a lot on RAP issue over the years, but it is still clear they are way too easy to obtain & the ride hosts frequently don't bother completing the virtual queue card with the time of your next ride.
 
Alsty said:
@Kraken27 aren't Fastrack tickets issued electronically now? That's what I had in mind.
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I believe they are... but that would mean each team leader having to have a smartphone / hand held unit of some kind to send the fastrack to the guests mobile phone. Even slower than a paper based option as they'd have to take each guests mobile number & click send.

What happens when a guest doesn't have a mobile? And what when the system falls over, like VQ Mobile did for most of the 2002 season!
 
God I wish the single shot fastracks were a little cheaper. There's been days where I've been at the park for just a few hours and I've had to miss out rides as the option is either spending money on fastrack, or waiting in a 60+ minute wait when I only have 3-4 hours to play with
 
Kraken27 said:
I believe they are... but that would mean each team leader having to have a smartphone / hand held unit of some kind to send the fastrack to the guests mobile phone. Even slower than a paper based option as they'd have to take each guests mobile number & click send.

What happens when a guest doesn't have a mobile? And what when the system falls over, like VQ Mobile did for most of the 2002 season!
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It's literally just a barcode, just a photo would do.
What THORPE do is they have a massive stack of priority passes valid for a few years they can just get the manager to grab some and hand out.
 
With the social distancing one week trial supposed to end tomorrow, do we think:
It will stay the same
They’ll go back to spacing out
Distancing will be removed on all rides

I’d love to see the latter but who knows?
 
Danscott22 said:
With the social distancing one week trial supposed to end tomorrow, do we think:
It will stay the same
They’ll go back to spacing out
Distancing will be removed on all rides

I’d love to see the latter but who knows?
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I think it could be the latter; it’s drastically reduced queue times, and there’s been no huge outcry about it, as far as I’m aware.
 
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