2018: General Discussion

Only 3 months late.

What is wickermans exprcted throughput?

Seems to be only doing around 600-650pph (fag packet maths).

Admittedly, ride reliability does seem to have gotten a lot better recently, the only problems I saw last Sunday where Wicker Man just re-opening at 11 when we first got to it, and after we'd come off Galactica, the craft wasn't lowering properly, meaning the floor was down, so being with a wheelchair we were stuck at the exit gates waiting for a fix, granted which only took 5 minutes.

This is certa

Danscott22 said:

If they really have to keep doing it, perhaps stagger openings on quiet days, but not weekends, easter, school trip season, summer holidays, scarefest or fireworks. Offpeak days in March, April, May & September they could probably get away with.

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I agree with you except that if they implement staggard opening times on quiet days, they need to open DF at 10.30, because just having X sector (+Spinball) open for us thrill seekers who don't want to spend the whole morning queuing for Wicker Man, an hour of X sector and Spinball is too much re-rides on the same rides especially on a quiet day.

I think the opening pattern has been influenced by the maintenance teams shortages rather than guest flow. Assume techies are more confident in getting rides open now.

It is great news that Alton Towers have finally been able to address the issues which caused the staggered openings and poor uptime, whether this be due to guest flow or staff shortages. I think this is a massive turn in the right direction, I'm hoping this is evidenced through less complaints over social media and enhanced Trip Advisor Rankings, so that the park can clearly see that this was the correct decision to make.

It is clear that they have put the guest in mind when extending these hours, by choosing to put Mine Train, Duel, etc. on 11am openings - as these rides generally tend to cope well anyway. The next step in the right direction would be extending ERT to an hour.

In my eyes, they're half way there now - whilst it is amazing that this is implemented over May Bank Holiday, I would love this to be put on either constantly (although I do see why the staggered openings are there on weekdays / low activity days as this does not really have a detrimental experience to the average guests day) or on all peak days, including weekends. Alton Towers indisputably have some of the best rides in the UK, and is a flagship UK park - surely now that the staff shortages have been remedied, it can now have the operating hours of a flagship park.

I fully agree with the majority of what you have said in the above post, but I have to disagree with the following.

DW_0505 said:

(although I do see why the staggered openings are there on weekdays / low activity days as this does not really have a detrimental experience to the average guests day)

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Despite going on very quiet days during our 2 visit this season, the staggard opening times meant that we had an hour of very little choice and when all the other rides did open, they were extra busy than what I was used to for the amount of guest on the park. Instead of us enjoying the park at a leisurely pace, it mean't that we had to rush around the park to fit all our usual rides in.

Apparently the Skyride now opens at 12 noon

RoyJess said:

Despite going on very quiet days during our 2 visit this season, the staggard opening times meant that we had an hour of very little choice and when all the other rides did open, they were extra busy than what I was used to for the amount of guest on the park. Instead of us enjoying the park at a leisurely pace, it mean't that we had to rush around the park to fit all our usual rides in.

Apparently the Skyride now opens at 12 noon

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I hadn't even thought about this, it's been a while since I was at Alton Towers on a quiet day. For a park with the reputation Alton Towers has, there shouldn't really be any staggered openings whatsoever, as it does have a prolonged implication as the day goes on.

Skyride at 12 is ridiculous, it's the main way of transportation around the park and surely makes it harder for guests in wheelchairs and pushchairs to access Forbidden Valley on time.

Despite this, as I said before, the adaptations made is a major step in the right direction (and could be even better with a few tweaks) in my opinion.

One major issue for me, the skyride opens at 12 this week.

But you have wheels ... how about all us poor people who have to walk

I did get from WM to Galactica in just over 5 mins without the skyride, when I use it that’s when I have my lunch.

spinba11 said:

One major issue for me, the skyride opens at 12 this week.

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bluesonichd said:

But you have wheels ... how about all us poor people who have to walk

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@bluesonichd i would love to see you doing the cross valley path in a wheelchair.

Now being serious. The late opening of the skyride is going to cause problems for ease of movement around the park for some guests.

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bluesonichd said:

But you have wheels ... how about all us poor people who have to walk

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I'm going to stick up for spinba11 on this, have you tired to wheel yourself in a wheelchair using your arms up hilly terrain and Alton is quiet hilly and I know that from pushing Jess around it. And also going down hill in a wheelchair can also be just hard work as you are trying to slow your self down, wheelchairs don't have brakes to use for slowing down (they are only there for parking).

Jess and I don't use the cable cars, but I still feel for those that do rely on them.

Going down hill is great fun unless my rims get wet in which case i can’t stop, I literally snapped the vertical axel for my big wheel on the front after crash into the side of the path just in front of where ripsaw was due to not being able to stop. can we get back on topic?

I bet you have some stories over stuff like that

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I was there on Tuesday and the skyride was open at 11am, and all rides seemed to open and stay open. It's definitely getting better as we go on

As far as I'm concern, when you visit an attraction, everything should be open (except for unforeseen circumstances or schedule shows) when the gates are open and all should remain open to the public until the advertised closing time. None of this staggered opening times bullsh*t

Also, having to push a wheelchair round there myself last week, I can safely say it's more than hard work! The worst hill for me is the one just round the corner from Buy The Smiler, as we have to use the lift in the shop, it took all of us to hold the wheelchair as it was hard to keep hold of it! X Sector in general is a nightmare though hill wise.

Also I find the other tough inclines for pushing a wheelchair are

Exiting The Haunted Hollow towards Duel and also the new path leading out of the Haunted Hallow pass the cable cars in FV

Pathway leading from Duel to Conga Rapids

Path going from X sector directly in front of the Towers going towards Hex

The paths either side leading out of the park just before the turn styles, however there are less gradient inclines either side of these.

Also pushing a wheelchair from the Hotels to the park entrance or vise versa

At the end of the day, the park keeps me fit, I've nice strong muscles

RoyJess said:

As far as I'm concern, when you visit an attraction, everything should be open (except for unforeseen circumstances or schedule shows) when the gates are open and all should remain open to the public until the advertised closing time. None of this staggered opening times bullsh*t

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I fully agree though it’s actually quite common around the world to have staggered openings.