Wicker Man - General Discussion - Part Two

Looking at the ride times, all the coasters are unavailable and all rides beyond Mutiny bay including duel is unavailable too. Looks like they will be sectioning off the area beyond Mutiny bay

But Wicker Man is in Mutiny Bay, so if they can get staff, then it could always open. Or is it just my optimism taking over?
EDIT: TowersStreet's FB now says that it's chilly with light snow in Alton.

Benjsh said:

I understand people's disappointments I really do but I think you're letting your eagerness to ride WM cloud your judgement. Why would the park not want to go ahead today if they could? Of course they would as everything has been geared around today. The weather may be okay right now but the mini storm is moving in and lots of places nearby do have snow. The temps are supposed to be 1 degrees all day with a wind chill factor of -4 / -5.

I know you're all disappointed guys but cut them some slack. Saying things like they don't have the staff etc is just pure lunacy. Of course they have the staff. They've had to make a very difficult decision which Thorpe have done too don't forget. Can you imagine if they'd said nothing and hoped for the best and then droves of people arrived and were absolutely gutted? It's a no win situation for them.

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I think a lot of people are more annoyed at the fact that until about 15:30 yesterday they were saying everything would be open as normal so many people set off, Ive travelled in good faith and paid for fuel and £150 for hotel based on this advice. This decision must have been made prior to that and I understand it’s not one that will have been taken lightly, it’s the utter shambolic and misleading communication that’s wound me up

This seems pretty conclusive, and final. They could not get away with opening it now they’ve said it won’t be open on social media.

Matt N said:

But Wicker Man is in Mutiny Bay, so if they can get staff, then it could always open. Or is it just my optimism taking over?

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I'd say there's a 0% chance now. They've even put stuff on their SM sites about grand opening next Saturday with soft openings midweek. I think this weekend is a total write off now but for Cbeebies and parts of Mutiny Bay.

Benjsh said:

I understand people's disappointments I really do but I think you're letting your eagerness to ride WM cloud your judgement. Why would the park not want to go ahead today if they could? Of course they would as everything has been geared around today. The weather may be okay right now but the mini storm is moving in and lots of places nearby do have snow. The temps are supposed to be 1 degrees all day with a wind chill factor of -4 / -5.

I know you're all disappointed guys but cut them some slack. Saying things like they don't have the staff etc is just pure lunacy. Of course they have the staff. They've had to make a very difficult decision which Thorpe have done too don't forget. Can you imagine if they'd said nothing and hoped for the best and then droves of people arrived and were absolutely gutted? It's a no win situation for them.

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The issue isn't the decision, it's that people weren't given any definite notice like they were by Thorpe Park. Up until about 45 minutes ago it was still "unlikely" that the coasters would be open, when they've realistically known for longer.

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Just arrived at the park. They are still clinging to the "extremely unlikely" story about the coasters. The girl I've just spoken to says the coasters can't operate at less than two degrees, and unless it gets warmer there's no chance.

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I agree that Alton Towers need to be cut a little slack here. It is plainly obvious that Wicker Man (unlike some previous Secret Weapon rides) is fully finished & ready to open on time. Whilst the weather may seem like a lame excuse, I'm in Nottinghamshire & one minute it's blue skies and 5mins later it's snowing hard.

If Alton Towers ran the Wicker Man (or any of the other coasters for that matter) in the extreme cold weather & something happened - the media would seize on it and you can imagine the headlines that certain sections of the press would run. This is just what Alton Towers does not need as it continues it's recovery.

Back when I worked at Towers, many staff came in via staff transport. If the provider / Alton Towers decided yesterday not to run these services, it's hard to reinstate them & communicate the updated timings to all the staff. It's the same with schools closing in the snow... often the school wants to stay open, but the transport provider pulls the plug on services so they have to close.

I don't know what the situation is with seasonal staff pay now that zero-hour contracts are commonplace. I do know when I worked there and the park closed on a fireworks day to high winds we were all sent home by Noon & got paid until either 7:30 or 8pm (at the time they had to pay a certain %age of the money you'd have reasonably be expected to earn on the day - so it was a costly day for the park).

Fingers crossed Wicker Man may start to soft-open on Monday when I'll probably pay the park a visit.

Poopoohead said:

I think a lot of people are more annoyed at the fact that until about 15:30 yesterday they were saying everything would be open as normal so many people set off, Ive travelled in good faith and paid for fuel and £150 for hotel based on this advice. This decision must have been made prior to that and I understand it’s not one that will have been taken lightly, it’s the utter shambolic and misleading communication that’s wound me up

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I don't have that much sympathy I'm afraid. They have to give it every chance and the weather is something that can change dramatically pretty quickly. They don't call football matches off days before. Sometimes they do that on the morning of the match or even a few hrs before KO and that also includes fans travelling sometimes a long long way.

It's just one of those things that can't be helped. It's horrendously frustrating for punters I know but booking a hotel in March is always a risk in this country at this time of year. We are technically still at the very end of Winter after all so snow and ice aren't exactly that uncommon are they?

I'd probably feel same as you in your shoes in fairness but I think you will have to see it from their point of view.

Poopoohead said:

I think a lot of people are more annoyed at the fact that until about 15:30 yesterday they were saying everything would be open as normal so many people set off, Ive travelled in good faith and paid for fuel and £150 for hotel based on this advice. This decision must have been made prior to that and I understand it’s not one that will have been taken lightly, it’s the utter shambolic and misleading communication that’s wound me up

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That’s the one thing where I think Towers has let people down - the weather reports have been known for days, so they should’ve made an announced much sooner. I’ve been in touch with AT about this, and thankfully they’ve been able to resolve the issue for me.

Although, people being annoyed at Towers not being clear on opening the rides this morning - despite the messages yesterday that it would be highly unlikely - is where I feel they need to be cut a little slack. From the comments on here, it seems that Towers must have its own microclimate as all the weather reports are saying that the temperatures in that area are around 0*. It’s not unreasonable for them to be relying on what must be several weather reports - despite them going against what people there are saying.

Well 5 years ago I was riding Rita with fairly deep snow around, today, not so much

Was last night considerably warmer than today for the VIP event?

Managed to get the weekend off for this but I'm full of cold so was only going to travel if it opened, got a week to get better and work out an excuse to get next Saturday off.

POV from last night, very dark but from what you can see looks decent

So we may get an opening tommorow!

On an unrelated note, is it only me who thinks we might see a Smiler-style rush job in terms of SW9's construction, as this will basically have proven to Merlin that however prepared you are, your ride might still get delayed.

No. Because Smiler was a nightmare for them. Why would they want a repeat of that when the reasoning behind today is beyond even Merlin's control?

Sun's out now, and it's actually warmed up a little bit. Let's see if they stick to their story if it goes above 2 degrees

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Alton Towers would never rush a ride construction on purpose. The Smiler was hampered by a number of unforeseen difficulties.

I've not got a lot of sympathy with people who are now moaning after it was announced yesterday at 3pm that the park was planning a reduced lineup of attractions. It seems people were clutching at straws hanging on every word for hope.
Posting the latest weather from where you are currently standing and stating it's OK to run the rides won't really make any difference.

Reading this topic has reminded me of when I was a kid asking my parents for something and they said no and i just kept asking in different ways in the hope of a different answer. The decision was made yesterday, if you have turned up to ride today then that decision should be respected.

Is it really that important to ride something on it's "opening day" particularly after we know it's been ridden by hundreds of people already?

Rushing to complete a ride early would make no difference if the weather is the reason you cannot open on time.