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2021: General Discussion

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Alton Towers say a lot of things - I doubt the Monorail had any meaningful "refurbishment" for 2020. Alton Towers and refurbishment are, upsettingly, not the norm. In fact, given ATR's reputation for running rides fairly well vs. most UK parks and the improved hours and events this year, (the lack of) refurbishments really are the main dark cloud over the park at the moment.

RE: The Monorail - I think it will run again. There were plans afoot to get it running for Scarefest. There was no drive to cut staff from that ride and I believe it was operable and had had all its usual checks. The main reason the system didn't run was due to the social distancing issues on the plaza. Given that the queue often stretched back hundreds of metres towards the car parks, then using the monorail simply wouldn't have (easily) worked unless they took up one of the car parks in that area with a temporary queue pen - which would have looked dreadful.
 
AstroDan said:
Alton Towers say a lot of things - I doubt the Monorail had any meaningful "refurbishment" for 2020. Alton Towers and refurbishment are, upsettingly, not the norm. In fact, given ATR's reputation for running rides fairly well vs. most UK parks and the improved hours and events this year, (the lack of) refurbishments really are the main dark cloud over the park at the moment.

RE: The Monorail - I think it will run again. There were plans afoot to get it running for Scarefest. There was no drive to cut staff from that ride and I believe it was operable and had had all its usual checks. The main reason the system didn't run was due to the social distancing issues on the plaza. Given that the queue often stretched back hundreds of metres towards the car parks, then using the monorail simply wouldn't have (easily) worked unless they took up one of the car parks in that area with a temporary queue pen - which would have looked dreadful.
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Fair point re: monorail at Scarefest - using it would have made the queue at the plaza impossible to manage. Towers probably just re-deployed the staff from the monorail to help manage social distancing at the entrance plaza, which makes sense.
 
I reckon the monorail has stood unused for a whole season with very little maintenance. I'd be surprised if it's even been powered up since fireworks in 2019, but then I am cynical when it comes to Alton Towers and maintenance...

In any case I imagine they'll have fun getting it running. You know what it's like if you leave your car unused for several months.
 
An interesting gradient of approaches here across the companies.

Towers: we don't want a repeat of last year so we're sitting this out.

Merlin: we think we have a solution, but we're still figuring it out.

Thorpe: "you get a season pass, you get a season pass, you all get season passes!!!! Now make sure no one looks at TripAdvisor."
 
Swarm Chris said:
An interesting gradient of approaches here across the companies.

Towers: we don't want a repeat of last year so we're sitting this out.

Merlin: we think we have a solution, but we're still figuring it out.

Thorpe: "you get a season pass, you get a season pass, you all get season passes!!!! Now make sure no one looks at TripAdvisor."
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Thorpe have at least switched to an annual pass (so if you buy halfway through a season you can come back for half of next years season) and put the price up to £99. That's the highest price a Thorpe only pass has been for probably at least five years. They obviously think they have more to lose by not offering a pass at all, whereas Alton is more confident about getting day guests.

I am a little surprised AT isn't offering any form of single park annual pass at all, just with a higher price. But then there is the new Merlin pass for those locals that want to do a lot of weekday visits. I'm guessing the park is confident they will sell enough regular tickets for those who don't want a Merlin pass.
 
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I think it’s a good idea . Gives the young ones something to look forward to with their mates after what’s been a crappy year for everyone.
 
Matt878787 said:
I think it’s a good idea . Gives the young ones something to look forward to with their mates after what’s been a crappy year for everyone.
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I don’t think any one is suggesting the idea in itself is bad. Just that ride availability during these pre-season buyout weekends is often pretty poor, so specifically advertising this as ‘all the rides’ is kind of asking for trouble.
 
AT86 said:
I don’t think any one is suggesting the idea in itself is bad. Just that ride availability during these pre-season buyout weekends is often pretty poor, so specifically advertising this as ‘all the rides’ is kind of asking for trouble.
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Ahh I see! My bad.

Yes they’re kind of opening the gates for complaining if certain rides aren’t available as stated. It’s not like Merlin and transparency go hand in hand o_O
 
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