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2025: General Discussion

Just an observation, but (in my experience and viewing only) Bianca was quite a prominent figure with all things Alton Towers after her arrival and throughout her stay, until maybe the re-opening of Hex (and probably before that too, to a degree). In the years of the Curse and Nemesis Reborn she was all over it and you got the impression that she was happily working towards making the whole place better. But then, for quite a while, and certainly this season and a little before that, she definitely hasn't been as visble on park or on socials. I think she finally gave up against the Merlin machine last year. It happens. I don't blame her.
 
It is amazing how many experts in the inner workings of Merlin and Alton Towers have piped up in this thread.......

@Blackrock, specifically, I will call you out because your comments clearly show, you are an absolute expert in the subject.
This is not Disney, we are not in Fantasy Land or watching the parade, so let's look at a few facts....please.

Don't take this personally, not at all!! 🙂 I mean no harm, but because you have voiced so many points as 'fact' in this thread. I am curious to see what you have to say.
 
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Highly skilled professionals tend to move on every few years as they shin up the greasy pole.

Lots of people are making out that Merlin is the world's worst employer, they aren't, there are many just as bad.

Most large scale companies do not regard individual members of staff as indispensable...only thoosies.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

People move on, no further information given, nobody is required to give any further information, it is a personal, and personnel, matter.
 
rob666 said:
Highly skilled professionals tend to move on every few years as they shin up the greasy pole.

Lots of people are making out that Merlin is the world's worst employer, they aren't, there are many just as bad.

Most large scale companies do not regard individual members of staff as indispensable...only thoosies.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

People move on, no further information given, nobody is required to give any further information, it is a personal, and personnel, matter.
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Exactly this.

I know ex Merlin managers who already work for Universal. Their day to day management isn’t really very different, and even universal and Disney are cutting their operating budgets recently, it’s just they are starting from a higher bar.

Fact is Merlin operate to a budget set by Blackstone and Kirkby, the best CEO in the world can’t go against their corporate owners. That doesn’t mean having good CEO’s are not important, as they set the strategy but you can’t make gold out of iron.
 
Was she really much of a breath of fresh air? Or was it just because she did a few public facing videos that people thought she was as such?

End of day if your management aren't holding up their end of the work bargain, you can leave. Done that enough times already myself.
 
The Next question is who comes next as director ideally it would be beneficial for someone with equal experience but also is an enthusiast with knowledge in business and a bit of maintenance experience.

Alton really needs to shift to focusing on guest experience rather than chasing the bottom line it has shifted way too far. Listen to guest feedback and implement changes
 
Hid said:
The Next question is who comes next as director ideally it would be beneficial for someone with equal experience but also is an enthusiast with knowledge in business and a bit of maintenance experience.

Alton really needs to shift to focusing on guest experience rather than chasing the bottom line it has shifted way too far. Listen to guest feedback and implement changes
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I believe Bianca was a one in a kind and I'd say it may be a hard act to follow.

Hopefully Merlin will pick the right person although will they push through the projects and changes she did?
 
Just noticed on his LinkedIn that Russ Gaines also left Thorpe Park last week (with Bianca congratulating him on his new job in the comments of his post). Does seem with senior management leaving, along with the recent cut backs and redundancies at Ents and MMM, aquarium sell offs, etc. means a big restructure is likely happening in the background.
 
Dave said:
You didn’t read my post whilst also being rude 🤷‍♂️

I never said some of her motivation for looking for a job wasn’t Merlin’s culture, I said it didn’t look like she was actively pushed out, if she had had an active falling out with Merlin they would have almost certainly put her on gardening leave.

No one will ever know whether she disliked working for the company but it doesn’t look like a massive falling out has occurred.
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I think time will tell on this one dependent on her next job. Say if she went to Universal you’d understand why
 
I definitely think that Bianca has decided to leave of her own accord. As she is working her notice (i.e. not on garden leave) I think we can 99.99% say there has been nothing untoward going on.

I think she came in with quite big plans for Alton Towers, and certainly excellent industry experience. I suspect (and note the use of the word suspect) that she started to become disillusioned when Merlin HQ started cutting the budgets. Even the best VP cannot pul a rabbit out of the hat when it comes to budgets.

If we look back, Bianca started to build up the Shows / Ents offering & oversaw investment in rides that had been SBNO for a while to bring them back into use. For reasons unknown - but highly likely financial - the Ents & Shows had to be canned this year.

Finally, it should be noted that Bianca may not have been actively looking to leave. People at her level with her level of industry experience will certainly be on "corporate head-hunters" radar. It could be that she received contact from a head-hunter & was made an offer she felt was too good to turn down. As she is not a UK national, she is familiar with relocating internationally. The big corporations can all sort relevant work visas / permits for the right candidate.

Wherever Bianca goes onto work, I wish her well & hope she can use her passion for the industry elsewhere. I'll further add that is is working her notice at Towers, it is likely she is moving onto an employer who Merlin do not view as a potential threat to them. This very likely rules out the likes of Universal or Disney.
 
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AT86 said:
Given all the cut backs it wouldn’t surprise me if someone who wanted to implement more improvements felt their hands had been tied and looked to go elsewhere.
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I can believe that. I have been in (rare) situations where circumstances have restricted my ability to be creative so far, that the only way to come out looking good, is to walk away from the job while you still can. To stay on the sinking ship and take the blame for the inevitable car crash would be career suicide.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I can believe that. I have been in (rare) situations where circumstances have restricted my ability to be creative so far, that the only way to come out looking good, is to walk away from the job while you still can. To stay on the sinking ship and take the blame for the inevitable car crash would be career suicide.
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Exactly. Its not difficult to understand - I could take on Bianca’s job, and I could do a glossy Insta vid saying that I’m here to take Towers back to the glory days, I’ve read every tripadvisor comment, I’ve read TS forums from start to finish, I’ve stopped and interviewed people on resort and know exactly what they want to see.

If when I submit my first PO to get the ball rolling on some improvements, it gets declined due to budget restrictions, what is anybody supposed to do? If I’ve worked to build the events and entertainment side to a point where it’s become a huge part of the experience, and those above decide to cut all of it….sorry but I’m not going to stick around for long.
 
Poisson said:
It could be even simpler. If you get a better job you don't hang about do you? Most job changes have been for salary, but my last one was conditions. If the offer comes in, why stay?
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Get to that level and you don’t even have to look for jobs do you, the head hunters do the leg work.

I don’t think she will be taking up a position at the new Six Flags purely based on her gender because I can’t see that sitting well in that part of the world but there’s plenty of demand round the rest of the world for entertainments directors in all industries
 
From what I have heard Merlin aren't particularly competitive when it comes to the salary of management level positions. They tend to leverage the fact that it's an appealing industry to work in, so it could be as simple as she's been made a very good offer from elsewhere and feels too restricted in her current position.

What we don't want to see now is the park rushing into to hire a replacement who turns out to be the wrong fit, in a similar vein to Scott O'Neil's appointment.

Wish her well though, she's a loss not only to the park but Merlin overall IMO.
 
I think this is a real shame, and a real loss for Alton Towers. She very obviously came in with big ideas and a fresh vision and instead of upper management going along with it, she ended up having to deal with budgets and cuts everywhere instead and probably realised she wasn't going to be able to see whatever she had planned go ahead, the changes she managed to make were positive and customer focused, something that Towers hasn't been bothered about for a number of years, so wherever she ends up will be lucky to have her.

I dont know what the future for Towers is, but i cant help feeling at the minute its not a positive one at all, it doesn't matter who replaces Bianca when its obvious the problems are higher up, short of wishing for a miracle where some multi-billionaire with an attachment to to Towers swoops in and snatches it off Merlin, and with Universal looming on the horizon...I just dont know where Towers go to stop the rot and turn themselves around.
 
DistortAMG said:
It is amazing how many experts in the inner workings of Merlin and Alton Towers have piped up in this thread.......

@Blackrock, specifically, I will call you out because your comments clearly show, you are an absolute expert in the subject.
This is not Disney, we are not in Fantasy Land or watching the parade, so let's look at a few facts....please.

Don't take this personally, not at all!! 🙂 I mean no harm, but because you have voiced so many points as 'fact' in this thread. I am curious to see what you have to say.
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She hasn’t exactly been in the job for long and to be frank she hasn’t really achieved that much, far less than I imagine she envisioned and that’s obviously not down to her.

She’s leaving because there’s no point beating a dead horse, that’s the way I see it
 
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