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2026: General Discussion

I think it’s quite evident that the strategy of banking on the novelty and “prestige” of working in a theme park isn’t pulling people to work at Alton Towers, or at very least work there and stay there long-term, anymore.

This might have worked when times were, relatively speaking, “better” a decade or two ago and people could afford to do jobs out of passion alone, but in an era where bills are going up and money doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, I think doing a job out of passion alone is a lot harder and people want something in return for their labour.

When you take the novelty of the theme park environment out of the equation, I see very little that would attract a skilled engineer, or even a teenager or young adult wanting a part-time job, to work at Alton Towers. If we look at it coldly and objectively, Alton Towers pays lowly, frequently offers unstable and inconsistent seasonal work, requires employees to work outdoors for large parts of the day whatever the weather, offers poor career progression, often requires employees to work unsociable hours (e.g. weekends, later nights, earlier mornings), often requires employees to be up on their feet and moving around for large amounts of the day and practically requires you to drive there or get lifts (and frequently long distances at that, if we go by the distance from the nearest cities or even moderately sized towns). If I were a local skilled engineer, I’d be putting my CV into somewhere like JCB over Alton Towers, where I could earn a likely larger salary, work sociable hours, be in a nice warm indoor environment, have better job security through guaranteed year-round employment and not drive as far, to name just a few plusses. If I were a local teenager or young adult, I’d be putting my CV into a supermarket or restaurant, where the establishment offers guaranteed year-round work, is likely closer to my house and keeps me indoors at very least. Or maybe one of those remote call centre-type jobs on LinkedIn, where I can sit in my bedroom and earn similar amounts of money!

The simple truth is that parks like Alton Towers thrive on having experience and employees with inbuilt years of knowledge. To ensure this going forward, they need to make the package more compelling to attract the right people in the first place and make them stay there!
 
MattL27 said:
Monorail is a non issue and buses put on instead. I think even though it’s cool to have a monorail, the buses are a suitable more reliable replacement if they can buy a few and wrap them.
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Minor comment on this point - the buses ran at peak arrival/departure hours only. We ended up walking back to the car park after discovering the bus wasn't running
 
Matt N said:
I think it’s quite evident that the strategy of banking on the novelty and “prestige” of working in a theme park isn’t pulling people to work at Alton Towers, or at very least work there and stay there long-term, anymore.

This might have worked when times were, relatively speaking, “better” a decade or two ago and people could afford to do jobs out of passion alone, but in an era where bills are going up and money doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, I think doing a job out of passion alone is a lot harder and people want something in return for their labour.

When you take the novelty of the theme park environment out of the equation, I see very little that would attract a skilled engineer, or even a teenager or young adult wanting a part-time job, to work at Alton Towers. If we look at it coldly and objectively, Alton Towers pays lowly, frequently offers unstable and inconsistent seasonal work, requires employees to work outdoors for large parts of the day whatever the weather, offers poor career progression, often requires employees to work unsociable hours (e.g. weekends, later nights, earlier mornings), often requires employees to be up on their feet and moving around for large amounts of the day and practically requires you to drive there or get lifts (and frequently long distances at that, if we go by the distance from the nearest cities or even moderately sized towns). If I were a local skilled engineer, I’d be putting my CV into somewhere like JCB over Alton Towers, where I could earn a likely larger salary, work sociable hours, be in a nice warm indoor environment, have better job security through guaranteed year-round employment and not drive as far, to name just a few plusses. If I were a local teenager or young adult, I’d be putting my CV into a supermarket or restaurant, where the establishment offers guaranteed year-round work, is likely closer to my house and keeps me indoors at very least. Or maybe one of those remote call centre-type jobs on LinkedIn, where I can sit in my bedroom and earn similar amounts of money!

The simple truth is that parks like Alton Towers thrive on having experience and employees with inbuilt years of knowledge. To ensure this going forward, they need to make the package more compelling to attract the right people in the first place and make them stay there!
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Fantastic post Matt. I completely agree with every single point.

Times have changed and Britain has changed with it for sure. Sentiment alone isnt enough any longer. They need to pay better wages and offer more job security somehow. Having to hire and retrain new staff every single spring because 30-40% move on is not a good business strategy. Its probably why the start of the season goes so poorly as too many new faces to get up to speed in a short amount of time.
 
Skyscraper said:
Full video of the light show, courtesy of TowersTimes;


From: https://youtu.be/eBX9z9O2a04?si=-k04WrPffA-HCDlH


I think it looks cool, would be great if they did a spooky-themed one for Scarefest!
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It's good to see the IMAscore fireworks music back in the park again. We've seen it before, but too good to go to waste I say.

I'm supposing this can run fairly cheaply - there's nothing more to it than whats obvious?
 
Skyscraper said:
Full video of the light show, courtesy of TowersTimes;


From: https://youtu.be/eBX9z9O2a04?si=-k04WrPffA-HCDlH


I think it looks cool, would be great if they did a spooky-themed one for Scarefest!
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What a cool reuse of an old Fireworks soundtrack, this is slowly becoming the definitive Alton Towers soundtrack and watching that genuinely gave me chills. This looks like the brainchild of one of the Ents techies, so I hope we get more rolling night-time stuff like this in the future as it’s that bit extra that the park needs.

Hopefully we get more stuff like this going forward, especially as rolling entertainment offerings. Non-ride offerings is what the park needs, would love to see the Garden Lights Walk brought back as a walkthrough at Christmas and Scarefest in particular. It all got kind of ditched when Lightopia went bankrupt.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
What a cool reuse of an old Fireworks soundtrack, this is slowly becoming the definitive Alton Towers soundtrack and watching that genuinely gave me chills. This looks like the brainchild of one of the Ents techies, so I hope we get more rolling night-time stuff like this in the future as it’s that bit extra that the park needs.

Hopefully we get more stuff like this going forward, especially as rolling entertainment offerings. Non-ride offerings is what the park needs, would love to see the Garden Lights Walk brought back as a walkthrough at Christmas and Scarefest in particular. It all got kind of ditched when Lightopia went bankrupt.
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The Gardens Lights Walk was a separate thing to Lightopia.
 
Skyscraper said:
The Gardens Lights Walk was a separate thing to Lightopia.
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I’m fully aware of that, but Lightopia was a replacement of the Garden Lights Walk functionally speaking, after they ceased with Lightopia the whole concept of a night-time walkthrough got canned.

Maybe even Fireworks/Alton After Dark could get something similar to Garden Lights, but themed to Steampunk/Stargazing. Would work if they want to make the themes of those events more prevalent, nothing too deep though if they mostly want to draw crowds from passer-by’s.
 
Hid said:
I feel sorry for the frontline staff, they have to bear the brunt of the general publics wrath. If anything goes wrong and any poor/stupid decisions happen from management they get all the moans from guests.

As a new season never blame a situation on them
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Howard seemed to be out front and centre in the morning and saw him wandering around Towers Street in the afternoon. I can imagine a few people gave him an earful of what they thought of their day!

We had an on running joke all day when saw something wrong we yelled HOWARD! Actually nearly accidentally summoned him in a queue for donuts when we saw the prices- he was literally right in front of us 😂😂
 
Bert2theSpark said:
I’m fully aware of that, but Lightopia was a replacement of the Garden Lights Walk functionally speaking, after they ceased with Lightopia the whole concept of a night-time walkthrough got canned.

Maybe even Fireworks/Alton After Dark could get something similar to Garden Lights, but themed to Steampunk/Stargazing. Would work if they want to make the themes of those events more prevalent, nothing too deep though if they mostly want to draw crowds from passer-by’s.
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Yes that's what the Christmas event really needs, although they'd probably have to have it shorter due to curse opening at christmas now
 
Secret Weapon said:
Does anybody know why there was a line of staff greeting visitors whilst wearing high-viz vests yesterday? (see screenshot below)

Was this a tribute to John Burton's final day??

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Screenshot 20260315 203413 You Tube hosted at ImgBB

Image Screenshot 20260315 203413 You Tube hosted on ImgBB
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We ended up giving them all a high five running down towers street- think some people then started doing it and filming. Think they were just normal staff supporting with opening day and helping set the atmosphere.
 
I think it was done with the best of intentions and purely to be welcoming, but from every vlog I’ve seen , the vloggers are just bemused about it, and half the staff looked very awkward doing it (as I would too tbf!)
 
I don't ever bother with opening weekend as I expect things not to go well, but I will be visiting next week. I have watched a few Vlogs; the staff in high-vis I can understand might have been a nice idea at some meeting, but it looked very strange and awkward.

I don't think we expect the service received a decade or two ago, with the way the whole of the UK has gone. Without trying to be too gloomy, the UK is in a very different place and running a business costs a hell of a lot more. Let's face it, Merlin wants their nice chunk still, so whatever happens, the guest experience has to take the hit. I think the experience has taken a hit anywhere you go. I mean, who's gonna be jumping for joy working minimum wage and trying to make ends meet?

I can understand stagging openings on David Walliams' world on off-peak. You could probably just open that for the afternoon. Battle gallons could also wait until May/June (at least make it look presentable, though). Even the rapids could wait a bit if they have to. But not even opening it on Fridays/Sat/Sun is taking the mick.

Quite shocked about Thirteen / Galactica / Spinball. Maybe the rides are just getting so old and need extra maintenance time, and maybe they're thinking it's better to set guest expectations and give them a nice surprise on the odd day it opens early. We can then all thank our lucky stars for the days they manage to exceed our expectations of opening a ride near the start of a day.

I think for Merlin, they don't really know if they want AT or not with Universal coming up. I don't think they know if they wanna invest or not, or what they see the long-term of Alton Towers as. I suspect that with Thorpe Park/Lego/Chessington, aka The London Cluster, will be the biggest focus. With those calling for new owners, a certain French company is doing its rounds on the forums. I don't think they will want something they don't even own the land for. Maybe the strategy is to run it as cheaply as possible, and add in a mid-investment every 10 years or so.
 
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