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2020: General Discussion

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Opening the park when it’s not suitable is something Towers have form for, few years back opening day heavy snow was forecast all week for that Saturday morning yet Towers maintained the “its business as usual” approach when really they should of been telling people to not travel.

Then when it was too late to announce the closure they let people in just so they could make money on hot drinks and food but it did give us the infamous “it’s better than nothing” reply to paying customers.

Of course lack of water is out of control but it’s certainly something they would have known before opening time.
 
Further to my initial post, I find the "offer" to annual pass holders who visited today of a free pre booking (literal value £1) to be an insult ten times worse than offering nothing at all.

It entirely misses the point that people have travelled considerable distance only to be greeted by poor customer service and confusion. It also totally ignores the value of my time.

My cost of visiting was not £1. It was considerably more and, more importantly, a full day of my life. Throwing refunds at people doesn't solve the issue (especially when the amount is so tiny). A proper apology for the confusion and poor communication today would, on the other hand, have gone a long way.
 
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I was told by a member of staff at Nemesis earlier today that due to the electrical issues last night, Nemesis will be down for a little bit but would open in the afternoon.

I was there today, we only got 2 hours in the park and with the toilets not working, no water or food it wasn’t a great combination. They seemed to have a gradual closure closing the dark forest first then heading forwards towards the park entrance, with all rides closing by around 1pm.

It was a shame they had to close, but glad everyone is able to come back for free later this year.
 
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When did they find out there was no running water I wonder. If it was before park opening and they opened up anyway then that's terrible practice and they deserve everysingle bit of a abuse they are getting.

Sure the people who were queuing outside would have been gutted and upset but at least they could see its not the parks fault. But by opening up that just makes it seem all is fine and for people to go in and enjoy their day.

Sounds an absolute shambles. Something we are sadly becoming used to with Merlin parks. Not fit for purpose.
 
The only issue if they closed all rides at once in the current circumstances is that the crowd wouldn’t be able to distance if everyone left at the same time. Better to slowly close rides and get people out gradually.

I do agree the contradictions etc weren’t good, but announcements one ride at a time to slowly let people out is sensible in current circumstances
 
skyscraper said:
I'm surprised Towers don't have a park/resort-wide PA system.
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I'm not at all surprised - it would cost money to implement & we know how much Merlin likes spending money. All the big rides have queueline PA systems & most of the smaller rides have PA systems that can be heard by most of the guests in the queueline.

All Alpha Control have to do is phone each ride Op and ask them to make a PA announcement. Sure, this is not as quick as a park-wide PA announcement, but with a couple of managers helping make the calls to ride Ops, the word could be spread pretty fast.
 
Benjsh said:
When did they find out there was no running water I wonder. If it was before park opening and they opened up anyway then that's terrible practice and they deserve everysingle bit of a abuse they are getting.

Sure the people who were queuing outside would have been gutted and upset but at least they could see its not the parks fault. But by opening up that just makes it seem all is fine and for people to go in and enjoy their day.

Sounds an absolute shambles. Something we are sadly becoming used to with Merlin parks. Not fit for purpose.
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I think that’s one point, there is no guarantee they knew when they opened. Existing Water pressure may have kept water flowing until guests started entering and using on mass.

That said the communications sound and looked dire, didn’t appear that the left hand knew what the right hand was doing. You also have to wonder if the infrastructure supplying the water is fit for purpose as this isn’t the first time they have had this issue (though might be the first time it’s happened across the entire park).
 
Benjsh said:
When did they find out there was no running water I wonder. If it was before park opening and they opened up anyway then that's terrible practice and they deserve everysingle bit of a abuse they are getting.

Sure the people who were queuing outside would have been gutted and upset but at least they could see its not the parks fault. But by opening up that just makes it seem all is fine and for people to go in and enjoy their day.

Sounds an absolute shambles. Something we are sadly becoming used to with Merlin parks. Not fit for purpose.
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We were told as we entered the park at about 10:50, the staff were pretty confident it would come back on, and said it was gradually coming back to the park. I guess not...
 
Joel3 said:
We were told as we entered the park at about 10:50, the staff were pretty confident it would come back on, and said it was gradually coming back to the park. I guess not...
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So they might have gambled that it would come back on then perhaps......

I sympathise with them for having the issue to begin with and its the last they needed with making huge losses from the pandemic but no way should a theme parks gates open up to people (or more people if they found out after the first bunch had gone in) before running water was readily available. The fact they knew it was off and still let you in and others is really poor. And in the midst of a pandemic its even worse.
 
Benjsh said:
So they might have gambled that it would come back on then perhaps......

I sympathise with them for having the issue to begin with and its the last they needed with making huge losses from the pandemic but no way should a theme parks gates open up to people (or more people if they found out after the first bunch had gone in) before running water was readily available. The fact they knew it was off and still let you in and others is really poor. And in the midst of a pandemic its even worse.
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Yeah, it wasn’t great. With no food in the park, and limited places you could get drinks it was a bit chaotic. The first we heard about the park closing was the ride operator of TH13TEEN saying the final decision had been made and the park was closing, and to close the queue lines. However, after that we still got a ride on The Smiler. They were very good getting the Porta-Potties out however, they did that very quickly.
 
D4n said:
I'm not usually one to complain but communications today were shocking. Absolutely shocking.

Honestly, if we hadn't had one eye on social media we wouldn't have known a thing about the potential closure of the park until running into a closed entrance at 1:30pm.

There were mixed messages on social media, when we asked the staff answers varied from "definitely closing" to "absolutely fine now". Even when the decision had been made to close the park no accounement was made over the PA system in any of the queue lines explaining the situation, the queues were almost closed by stealth as if they didn't think people would notice it was 5 1/2 hours early.

I appreciate that the water supply issue wasn't necessarily their fault (as so! so! so! many! people! who weren't at the park today were eager to say on Facebook) but dearly me communications were horrible.

They must have known about the issue before opening. Guests should have been pre-warned about the toilet situation and provided with free bottled water. At the very least.

Guests should absolutely have been kept up to date regarding the situation via the PA system. Not just by some messages on an app / Facebook that are quickly taken down and contradict each other. Communication absolutely shocking right up until the angry mob reaches Towers Street on the way out (where in fairness there were plenty of staff explaining what had happened). Sod waiting 2 hours for Box Office to complain. It was a shambles.

Day visitors will get a full refund, which is only fair. No doubt pass holders will be shunned however. Sent a message outlining my issues with the communications today and already had a generic response to say that they "appreciate the feedback" and it will be "passed on".

Nemesis, Rapids, Hex, Runaway Mine Train all closed without explanation but that pales in comparison really.

A shame, because operations today were actually good.
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When we arrived at Dark Forest at 0930 the staff had only just realised that the toilets there were out of action.
 
We had one hell of a thunderstorm on Tuesday night to be fair, possibility the worst I have experienced in 45 years and I live 5 miles from AT.
Also had a big one last night but nothing like Tuesday night.
 
AT86 said:
Anyone for another ride close update?

Ride close has been extended until 7pm for every day in August.
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Good decision. Not only does it help to get more into your day during the busy summer holidays. It also allows the surrounding motorways to quieten down before you travel home in the evening (for people not staying over) which can be a massive bonus.

Would be nice if there was a few late night closes in the holidays though. If they did 3 or 4 10am till 10pm opens it would be great.
 
Benjsh said:
Would be nice if there was a few late night closes in the holidays though. If they did 3 or 4 10am till 10pm opens it would be great.
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More likely 9pm as that's the latest the queues close at Scarefest/fireworks. They don't want to close too late as they still have the run the rides till the queues are empty.
 
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