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2015: General Discussion

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Seen the queue times, it says the longest thrill ride time is 5 min for air. Hoping to go next week so I want it to stay like this for only 7 more days...
What are the queues normally like this time of year?
 
Rob said:
That's not the point though is it? It's about promoting the park as best as is possible. I don't think footage that is over 10 years old does this. Every time it is the same old stock footage.
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That's exactly the point - no one will notice other than you guys, so why go to the expense of shooting new footage? Not least because, as pointed out by several members in this thread - things look better when they're new. Why reshoot the Oblivion footage to show that there is less mist, why does that need to be done? I don't understand.

It's a basic business principle, examine the cost of doing something and understand the potential return associated with the investment.

Option 1 - spend nothing/very little
Use old footage. Normal guests don't notice. Upset some nerds on a Saturday night.

Option 2 - spend £x
Reshoot the whole thing. Normal guests don't notice. Plus, reshoot it all again when Blade is removed and replaced.

Outcome
The same for either option, sans this discussion.

Of course, there is a side discussion to ask why some of the stuff in the video looks so tired, compared to when it was new.

Rob said:
I still can't understand why they have released a video without sound as well!
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Absolutely. Weird.

josht said:
24430baa54500bfd1fbf18b078b75b5f.jpg

One very quiet towers street this morning with no monorail queue are traffic getting into the park but there's still street entertainment on towers street which is a positive
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ZOMG! Is that photo from 1994? Reshoot!
 
I just think they can make a video that shows off the park far better than that one does. Many other theme parks do it. Heck does it cost that much more to add sound? Some new footage now and then would also be nice.

You seem to continually use a 'them and us' tone in your posts - as if you know better. Why you continually choose to call all on here nerds is beyond me and I don't see how it adds to your posts.

:)
 
I'm not sure why there isn't any sound, perhaps an oversight. Not sure. As I said, weird.

I was using the term 'nerd' to differentiate between regular guests and members of the roller coaster community who would notice that something hasn't been painted a certain colour since 2007 and therefore the video is old, or there is too much mist on Oblivion! etc.

Sometimes you have to take your enthusiast hat off and ask "Does it really matter?", and often the answer is a resounding "No".

Check out the queue times. I'm not sure a Martin Scorsese 120 minute, £1bn epic would inflate those too much at the moment.
 
Rick said:
Sometimes you have to take your enthusiast hat off and ask "Does it really matter?", and often the answer is a resounding "No".
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It doesn't matter that much, it just seems lazy and a half-effort by people (us) who can see that they have used old footage. To me, it's not that the video looks bad, or it doesn't advertise well (although some music would help) it's the fact that it can't be that hard to shoot new footage or add music. It shows that they are either to lazy to do this, or desperately threw together footage from the last 20 years last minute.

And if we only posted on here about things that "really matter" a very quiet forum.
 
With the advancement in consumer video technology ie DSLRs which shoot pretty good quality video it's a wonder why they haven't shot any new footage. What with all the DSLRs they have on site with the photographers that hang about on Towers Street.

On a side note there was a video crew filming something on Thursday. I saw them in the morning around Duel and again on Towers Street later in the day. They looked young so I would presume students.
 
The use of stock footage doesn't really bother me, at least not for the shoots for Air or Nemesis for example. The one for the shot of the Blade is so weird though, you clearly can't see Air there. Surely they had something newer?

What does bother with that video however, is the lack of sound. Couldn't they have just used In The Hall Of The Mountain King or some cover? No sound effects either and it just makes the video seem unprofessional.
 
I quite like that video to be honest... all it lacks is audio (could have easily got some ITHOTMK played over it).

The only thing that really stood out was The Blade really, the rest of the video is fine. It's one of the better pieces of video they have put together of recent years.

Like this



Looks better than this mess where you can tell straight away what was shot 15 years ago and what was shot 3 years ago.



New footage is always nice to see though. Towers have DSLRs at hand and I've seen staff and Pete Cliff wandering around the park filming ents stuff before. So surely it's not that difficult of a job for the marketing team to do the same every now and again.
 
Some of the reused footage stands the test of time. Hex, aquarium, flume are ones in both videos and dont look out of date
 
They've recently had a lot of their archive footage digitised so don't expect it to disappear anywhere soon
 
I understand why they've used old footage, and I'm betting there's no budget to get in a crew to shoot some new footage - which can be a lengthy process - or they'll do it in line with a bigger marketing campaign. Asking people with DSLRs is not that simple either.

I however don't understand why there is no sound, could have just stuck ITHOTMK on there easily enough.
 
Really quiet today. Only queued for hex and that was because they were waiting for more guests to get enough numbers up.
Appalling weather, absolutely soaked now :(
At about half 5 spinball operator told us there was only 1 person in dark forest.
On the upside the towers were open and I got a good look around the garden today :)
 
Pre-call trading statement has been released

The accident at the Alton Towers Resort resulted in the temporary closure of the park, the suspension of UK
theme park marketing and temporary ride closures at two of our other UK theme parks. The combination of these
factors has significantly reduced volumes at Alton Towers Resort and, to a lesser extent, the UK Resort Theme
Parks estate.

Action is being taken to rebuild momentum and re-engage with our customers. However, based on most recent
trading and our assessment of the likely trajectory over the key summer trading period, the 2015 EBITDA for the
Resort Theme Parks Operating Group is now expected to be in the range £40 to £50 million (2014: £87 million).
The magnitude of the financial impact is the result of both a significant reduction in revenue and the requirement to maintain an appropriate investment in customer service and marketing through peak season.

Although difficult to assess at this stage, we believe that there may be some continued adverse impact on the
Resort Theme Parks Operating Group profitability in 2016.

The lower expectations for the Resort Theme Parks Operating Group in 2015 will be partially offset by better than expected financing costs, now expected to be between £40 and £45 million, central cost savings and trading in the wider Group. Therefore, we would expect 2015 underlying profit before tax to be broadly in line with the prior year (2014: £249 million).
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Indeed, and here are some quotes from Nick Varney:
Nick Varney said:
The accident at Alton Towers in June was a devastating event, for which we have accepted responsibility and are deeply sorry. We have been humbled by the grace and fortitude of those who were injured, and their families, and will continue to do whatever we can to support them.

As a result of the accident, we took the immediate decision to close the park and temporarily suspend a number of rides across the UK Resort Theme Parks estate. We firmly believe that this was the right course of action reflecting the seriousness of the incident, the impact on our staff, and to allow the team to focus on supporting all those affected and on the implementation of the new safety protocols, where necessary. In addition, we felt it appropriate to significantly reduce UK theme park marketing activity, in what is a critical period in the run up to the peak summer season. Alton Towers Resort was reopened on 8 June 2015, but as a result of the material loss of momentum, trading at the park and, to a lesser extent, the broader UK Resort Theme Parks estate has been adversely impacted.

Alton Towers has a proud track record as the #1 theme park in the UK, a position endorsed by its consistently high customer satisfaction scores and the recent recognition as Trip Advisor‟s best UK theme park. The resort continues to offer world class family entertainment provided by its amazing staff and I am confident that it will rebuild its position as the nation‟s favourite theme park.

Elsewhere in the estate, there have been strong performances from new attractions and accommodation, and the LEGOLAND Parks Operating Group has maintained its strong momentum. There have been specific challenges within the Midway estate, particularly in London where a weaker Euro has impacted the relative attractiveness of the city as a tourist destination. However, our strong brands and diversified portfolio continue to support a robust Group performance and provide confidence in the medium and long term outlook.
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As others have pointed out, it is a good job that Alton Towers is owned by Merlin. Without the financial backing of such a major operator the park would be in a lot of trouble right now. A near 50% fall in profit for the Resort Theme Parks group is a drastic change.

It does not surprise me though, guest figures are down far more than even I imagined. I expected them to be down by about 10% to the end of the season; I believe they could well be down by over 50% (based on 2010 daily guest numbers which I admit was a very successful year for the park).

This season is a total write off and I doubt that they will fully recover in 2016. SW8 in 2017 is key going forward.

:)
 
A lot of people are talking about how quiet it is at the park right now, and they are not wrong. Attendance has been, and still is, shockingly low since The Smiler incident.

Almost everyday of the week right now the major attractions are all walk on, including weekends and sunny days. A busy day right now, seems to consist of 20m queues for Spinball and Rita, and everything else walk on. A quiet day you won't even find a queue at any attraction.

Here is the average queue time for the major attractions posted by Alton Towers for the past 10 days:

DJyNFhS.png


Monday and Tuesday last week were slightly busier due to the number of end of term school trips. There were even a few school trips boosting attendance on the Friday and Wednesday, But at the weekends, and even now with the the summer holidays starting from Thursday, you can see attendance remains rock bottom. Indeed it would seem since the incident school trips have been the only major driver of attendance at the park, as they were likely planned and moneys paid before the incident took place.

It will be interesting to see if attendance slowly rises over the summer, particularly if we get a period of sunny weather.
 
Just checked the app - everything in the 'Thrill' category is walk-on, apart from Air, which has a five-minute queue. Longest queues on park are for 'In The Night Garden' and 'Postman Pat's Parcel Post', at 25 minutes for both. Octonauts is currently closed. The weather probably isn't helping much - it's currently rather grey and miserable up here in the Staffordshire Moorlands. I do hope it picks up soon. I think we all do!
 
Looking on the AT website, the photos of ripsaw on there are really old to.
ripsaw-high.jpg

ripsaw-2.jpg

Them using old footage/photos isn't anything new.

It said on BBC news this morning and it said that merlin only made 40/50 million. Half of what they usually get. We might complain about merlin a lot, but right now it is the only thing saving the park :(
 
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