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Park Hours: Updates and Discussion

Even an increased rate after a certain time, or hours worked in a day would help I think (or at least ease the pain). Say an extra £2 an hour or something after 6pm.

If McDonalds can pay higher rates for overnight shifts, then surely Towers can implement something along those lines. I know I would have appreciated it when I used to work on park.
 
The problem lies with the 6pm closes during school trip season in July. The 4pm weekdays usually see queues of no more than 30 mins, so how towers justify just 2 hours more when queues are 90+ is crazy. Ride close for school trip season should be 7pm to allow guests to get on more rides in the later hours. Schools tend to leave by 4:30 so that leaves you with barely any time for quieter queues
 
Ethan said:
There's 4 days of fireworks, season is a week longer than this year, all Saturdays in September are 7pm and you still look at the negatives. How many years have people on here moaned about 4pm closes and its never changed. Nothing you can do about it other than not visit on those days
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Mainly me actually. Because closing at 4pm is poor and even lesser outfits like Chessington and Thorpe, who are operated by the same group, can manage to find some spare change to have a standard close of 5pm. No, there isn't anything I can do about it and that isn't my intention (what a strange comment to make?). But then there's also nothing you can do to encourage me to subscribe to your fanboyistic view of accepting low standards either. So here we are.
 
Matt.GC said:
But then there's also nothing you can do to encourage me to subscribe to your fanboyistic view of accepting low standards either.
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Low standards? I've been to 10+ 4pm weekdays this season and they've been my best trips. One of those visits I was on park 1-4 and managed 14 rides in 3 hours. Most the weekdays that are 4pm are very quiet and longer opening hours arent needed. A lot of the time I don't make it to 4 because I've done so many rides and have had enough. You'll get twice as many rides on a 4pm close than you will a busy 6pm close
 
Ethan said:
Low standards? I've been to 10+ 4pm weekdays this season and they've been my best trips. One of those visits I was on park 1-4 and managed 14 rides in 3 hours. Most the weekdays that are 4pm are very quiet and longer opening hours arent needed. A lot of the time I don't make it to 4 because I've done so many rides and have had enough. You'll get twice as many rides on a 4pm close than you will a busy 6pm close
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Oh Jesus, not this again.

Well good for you. As in you personally. It's great that you, as a passholder who lives on the park's doorstep can do solo visits whenever you like and get as many of the core things you personally want to get done as many times as you like. Let's hope for the park's sake that there's thousands of clones of you out there who like all the same things as you and see the park in the exact same way as you.
 
Matt.GC said:
Let's hope for the park's sake that there's thousands of clones of you out there who like all the same things as you and see the park in the exact same way as you.
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The most important thing to most people visiting a theme park is the ride count. How many rides can you get on in the opening hours and is it value for money. The shorter the opening hours= the shorter the queues and therefore the higher the ride count. So you may have less time at the park, but you're more likely to have a better day out and get better value for money
 
We. Do. Not. Need. This. Argument. For. Yet. Another. Closed. Season.

We don't need to go round and round with the same talking points that have been argued year upon year. It's been pointed out time and time again why 4pm closes are an issue for a lot of people who travel far to get to the park. If you live locally, then good for you that's great that you get something out of it, but for those that travel - it's a real factor in not bothering to visit. It doesn't need to be regurgitated on an annual basis. I'm not gonna travel 7 hours round trip for 6 hours at a theme park no matter what my ride count will be.

I'm sure we're all capable of discussing ride opening hours objectively considering the majority of visitors, rather than just our own individual circumstances.

On the 4pm closes, my only hope is that they are able to extend early enough to avoid it having too much of an impact if the weather and pre sales show it necessary.
 
I think the main problem with the 4pm closes is that they aren’t always as quiet as is implied. I’ve heard of 4pm close days where rides are still getting queues of 45 minutes or so.

Having the park shut at 4pm when it’s deserted is one thing, but having it shut at 4pm when some rides still have considerable queues is quite another. On those days where some rides are still pulling notable queues, I think it could definitely be argued that 4pm is perhaps too early to be closing.

And as others have said, the 4pm close days may not be a terribly compelling proposition if you don’t live locally. It takes me 2.5 hours to get to Towers on a good run, which can sometimes go up to nearly 3 hours on a bad day. As such, I might not even get into the park for opening time depending on traffic and when I leave the house. On a 4pm close day, that would leave me less than 6 hours. And I know that many are certainly further from the park than I am.

Yes, you could argue that that issue could be prevented by good forward planning and leaving the house early or staying the night in a local hotel beforehand. However, not everyone will have that instinct and not everyone wants to get up at the crack of dawn or shell out for a hotel room to come to Towers.

It’s all very well and good if you live locally and the park is quiet on a 4pm close day, but not everyone lives locally, and the park isn’t always quiet on the 4pm close days, from what I can gather. Also, not everyone will know the park and know how to optimise their day like some on here might, and those folks will be much more adversely affected by a 4pm close.
 
4pm is just a bad look, end of. I've never been on a 4pm day mind and probably never will.

Good to see that 7pm closures for Saturdays of Oktoberfest are back, they were badly missed this year. The atmosphere once it gets dark is fantastic!
 
Although as has been said it probably isn't great for driving hotel sales, but I think closing on Tuesday during April/September off-peak weekdays when its not school holidays and then opening 10-5 all other weekdays feels better to me. Having one closed day feels better than many short days.
 
Pleased to see 7pm closes for Oktoberfest again. 4pm closes remain absolutely ****. 6pm probably not long enough for summer holidays. Scarefest now being an unbroken event running until 3rd November is a positive for me. 4 nights of Fireworks also? Positives and negatives to take from it all at first glance.
 
Danscott22 said:
4pm closes remain absolutely ****
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Suppose a possible reason for 4pm closes is that towers are open every single day from March-November. Thorpe have multiple days where they're shut so maybe that allows them to open til 5 on the weekdays they are open
 
jon81uk said:
Although as has been said it probably isn't great for driving hotel sales, but I think closing on Tuesday during April/September off-peak weekdays when its not school holidays and then opening 10-5 all other weekdays feels better to me. Having one closed day feels better than many short days.
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I agree with this, as much as closed days are not ideal either, if you can't offer a good 7 hours at least then why are they even open? I imagine the reason is accommodation as a night in a hotel is worth more before and after an open day than it is a closed one.

Just seeing that time on the website is not a good look and certainly puts people off. I didn't last year for other reasons, but I normally get a midweek visit in early season and I've often struggled to find someone to go with me. Even if I manage to convince them that most of the rides are walk on (but as Matt has pointed out, that's not always the case like it used to be, and casual visitors are unlikely to spend all day refreshing an app to know this anyway when there are better things to do), the journey just doesn't seem worth it to many people I know.

People shouldn't have to be convinced by nerds that Alton on a 4pm close is worth visiting, they should be looking at an inviting website with their credit card in their hands planning a full day out.
 
BarryZola said:
I doubt that they'll get a 50% increase in visitors for just re-opening a ride that was closed for a season.
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Well you never know it may be a reason for people to come back who haven't been for years. One of the best rides coming back better than ever will certainly push the attendance up somewhat
 
Rob said:
Alton Towers simply wouldn't cope with 3 million guests like they were able to in 2010. Nemesis should increase guest numbers, but these days season-on-season increases are more likely to be 100,000 - 200,000 maximum.
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True 3 million is a lot. I've just looked at attendance upto 2022 and Towers have only hit 3 million twice since 1980. Those years were 1994 and 2010. Confirmation that Nemesis and Th13teen are towers most successful investments? I was shocked that 2019 attendance is higher than 2018. I seem to remember queues being much bigger Wicker man opening year. Maybe operations weren't as good as 2019. 2016 being lower than 2015 also surprised me given the fact barely anyone visited Towers after June in 2015
 
We had the Beast From The East cold weather event in Wicker Man's opening year, so that could have been a dampener on attendance in the early stages of the season. It was very cold and icy and there was still ice and snow on the track when I turned up on 'opening day'. They then pushed back the official opening day to some days later when it was a bit less treacherous.
 
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