Dar said:
I think this is another sign of the park being considered a business venture more than a customer-based attraction. When money taken and other KPIs are used instead of actual guest feedback and enjoyment as the basis for decisions, something is very wrong.
Well the park are a business. Why's that such a problem. If they're opening these rides at 10am and getting barely anyone riding them in the first hour is it really worth paying all that money in staffing costs every day? I would say no.
It's interesting that you mention KPIs rather than guest feedback. If the park are still recieving positive KPIs even with these late openings, then that is the closest indication that, on the wholem guests don't mind. You say they're ignoring actual guest feedback, but KPIs are the best indication of how guests as a whole feel. If you mean "actual guest feedback" as one or two individula complaints, then I would point out, having spent 10 years working face to face with customers in the leisure industry, that there are some people who will literally complain about ANYTHING. One time at Thorpe Park, I overheard a man complaining to a staff member about having to share a boat on Storm Surge when the queue was an hour and a half, I overheard a man complaining about the length of the queue on Infusion when the only queue was in the air gates, his complaint was that there was only one train, this being on a day when there were only around 200 people on park. In the nicest possible way, some individual feedback from guests is just sillyness from people who like to complain. However if KPIs are affected by any decision that a park makes, this is when changes need to be made. If opening rides late does not affect KPIs and they don't get mass complaints about it, then it makes perfect business sense to do it if you ask me.
Ian said:
In an ideal world everything should be open at 10, but I appreciate that cuts do need to be made from time to time. I just wish they'd think about the guests a little in the process, rather than just the budget savings. What needs to be remembered here is that, no matter what Alton want to call it SkyRide is not just another ride. It's an essential part of the park infrastructure, which many of their guests are reliant on to enjoy and make the most of their day.
Having given it some consideration, some very valid points are made about Skyride, so maybe Battle Galleons and CATCF would have been better options for 11am openings.
spinba11 said:
pre-09 Skyride never opened on off-peak days, and I only use the monorail 3 or 4 times a year but if that didn't open until 9:30am I won't be like "It's only opening 1 hour later".
Thanks for this spinba11, I was sure AT used to close it for the whole day at quiet times, I thought maybe I was going mad. If they used to do this as a regular thing but then stopped, this would suggest that many complaints were recieved so the decision was reverted. I highly doubt that opening it 1 hour late is going to generate anywhere near as many complaints, but I guess for people with mobility issues it is needed for that hour.
IanB said:
Might as well move ERT to 10am and open the park at 11am if you think the delayed opening is a good idea.
All rides on the park should be available from 10am. If that means hiring more staff to make it happen, than so be it, or at least keeping staffing levels the same as last year.
This is another annoying example of how badly Merlin is running its Theme Park division, there is enough revenue generated by Towers, that money is available to have these rides open, but when its taken from Towers and split between the other parks, Towers suffers.
So you really think that it's worth opening a ride which requires 5-10 staff to run for an hour when less than 10 people are going to ride it? I can't say I share this view and I have seen days where the park is this quiet.
It's not as simple as "just hire those staff". Each park department has daily staffing budgets based on number of guests in the park and they need to be able to justify how may staff they bring in and why. I can imagine that the Rides Operations Managers will have a tough time trying to explain to their bosses why they have 5 staff opening a ride which isn't even getting hourly throughputs in double figures. If they used your argument of "well everything should open at 10", this wouldn't wash. In the same way that F&B units don't all open at 10am, it's to show that they are doing what they can to meet their allocated staffing budgets based on guest demand and footfall.
You're probably going to say "well they should think of their guests", well I would say that, with the exception of maybe Skyride they are. These are rides which are known for not being busy first thing and I must emphasise that this is only a very small selection of the park's rides and it's only for an hour. I've been to parks where less that half the park is open in the first hour and some rides don't open until 12:00, in light of these experiences, what AT plan to do is pretty minimal I would say.
IanB said:
I just wish Merlin would put its focus on Customers first, ensuring people had the best visit they could have. I wish they would realise that spending a little more, and giving customers a magical day out, will benefit the bottom line far more than cutting corners, and trying to save money here and there.
I would say they still are putting their customers first. Apart from Skyride I doubt this will generate mass complaints. All businesses have to save money here and there, it's just how it works. Opening less popular rides at 11am makes far more sense than opening major coasters late like Blackpool do. Alton Towers still offers one of the most magical days out in the UK, opening a few rides an hour after official opening isn't going to change that. Let's not forget that, unlike any other UK parks, we always see two trains on Nemesis and Rita even on off peak days and the other coasters all run pretty close to maximum capacity, short of maybe one or two Oblivion shuttles. Other parks simply don't do this and run rides at extremely low capacity on quiet days. It's a credit to Towers that they still make the effort and this is done for no reason other than guest experience.
IanB said:
Rip Saw might not be a big pull at 10am, but people still went on it, and even more people who did not want to go on the big rides would stand around watching people on it. This is one of those non ride experiences that keeps people busy, and stops them being stood around bored waiting for those on other rides to finish.
Sub-Terra is 2 years old this year, and its already been cut. It is the perfect pre story for guests coming to ride Nemesis, and it sets up the story for Nemesis. Nemesis is celebrating 20 years this year, so this ride should really be opening at 10am to give guests the full Nemesis experience. The fact that Nemesis is 20 years old, and it has had no TLC applied to it this closed season is another embarrassment for Merlin. As Disney has shown with its older rides, Big Thunder Mountain, when you give it some TLC, you can bring it up to a modern day standard. Sadly for Nemesis, while she is celebrating her 20th Birthday, the station, track, queue line and surrounding area are looking in a dire state.
Hex is my second favourite ride on park, it has a fantastic story, it feels like you are joining in and experiencing part of Alton Towers history. No other ride I have been on makes me feel as connected and involved with the history of the park as Hex does. While it does not get that big a queue in the morning, it is still going to be sad wondering past the area, and seeing the doors closed.
Ripsaw, as you've said is under used in the mornings, as with any water ride, so it makes sense to open it late. It's not just about the staff on the ride, it also gives Engineers more time to focus on getting other rides ready rather than having to rush their morning checks to open a ride for 10am which very few people will use.
Sub-Terra and Hex are both rides which rely heavily on guest reactions and are much better rides when all the seats are full, they are in many ways more like shows than rides. Thorpe Park's decision not to open Saw Alive during the main season was partly for this reason, they weren't getting enough people so guests were going round in groups of two making it less fun. Sub-Terra with only two or three people on, or even only 10, would be a less thrilling experience. On these rides it's all about sharing emotions so having the rides running with half the people on would not be the same. Plus they require loads of staff, so again from a business point of view, it makes sense to delay their openings a bit and save that cost.
Overall on the issue of late openings, I'm all for it. And yes I would actively support a park who decided to open rides late as long as this was a carefully thought out decision based on guest demand. I really don't understand what's so strange about me having this opinion.
Obviouslt if they decided to open big coasters late (like they did last year) I wouldn't support this decision, but opening rides which are less popular first thing at 11am is a decision which I totally supporrt and I'm certainly not going to get worked up about turning up at a ride, seeing a closed sign and saying "oh it's shut, we'll come back in an hour, let's go on this open ride next to it", that's no big deal to me or, I would say, to your average park guest.
I know that there are some people on here who want every park in the world to be run like Europa Park, but to those people I would very politely ask them to come in to the real world. Businesses don't like to waste money and staffing will always be a huge cost. One of the nice things about Europa is that they are one of the few parks in the world who don't seem to worry about costs, however I would say that for parks run by businesses who have strict staffing budgets to keep to (and will be in serious trouble if they over spend) a decision like this is 100% justified. I've seen late openings work well at parks all over the world. I've also seen it doen badly at a few (BPB, PortAventura, Chessington). It's really not as big a deal as alot of people are making out!