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2017: General Discussion

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If they don't open up the monorail surely they are putting off older OAP's who want to bring their grandkids to CBeebies land and spoil them!
 
What a mess this all is. Reduced opening hours, different opening hours displayed on different websites, Splash listed as closed but with no confirmation, and still no 2017 ride lineup!
 
Disabled parking is at express, but I imagine they will move it to the top of the coach park to make more revenue in express.
The majority of older oap's that I work for have blue badges.
 
Tell you what this place now reminds me of....... Rollercoaster Tycoon.... you know, the park which is poorly run, extortionate prices, extra ice in the drinks and extra salt on the fries, where guests are really unhappy and fed up ..... as in Rollercoaster Tycoon.

I dont even know if i'll bother visiting at all this year to be honest.
 
It's hard to believe that this is a real life company.

That website is still shocking but I think the intention is to confuse people enough so they either part with more cash or don't notice the poor ride line up.
The new opening times will be great, you can have breakfast off park and then spend nothing all day and leave at a reasonable time to get a nice meal in a local pub. Great move!!

It's a bit dangerous offering people pre-booking on all these different 'Extras' By the time you've added your tickets, fastrack, parking, all day dining (which has T&C written up by a prison warden), games tokens and photo pass; you will see how much your 6 hour day out will really cost.

I just priced it up 2 adults, 2 kids

4x Day tickets (online discount price)
1x standard parking
1x Photopass
4 x Dining (can be used anywhere on park except everywhere on park)
1x £10 games token
4 x Bronze Fastrack

£370 - Have a nice (half) day.

It's unbelievable
 
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Does anyone have any idea about how much it costs to run Alton towers per day? That would be interesting to know!
 
I'm actually fairly happy with the 2017 pricing structure. Yes the on the day price has risen and is a total rip off however the reductions in online prices is significant, over 11% cheaper in 2017 if you book over 5 days in advance. The gap between the cheapest online price and the BOGOF price is now only £5.60.

So are Towers deliberately reducing the size of this gap with a view to removing the vast majority of BOGOFs in the next few years? With BOGOFs gone they can then reduce the on the gate prices to a more sensible level. I'm sure they would much rather all guests book their tickets online as it gives management a better idea of how many people are going to turn up each day.

The biggest shock in the ticket structure this year is the apparent removal of family and senior tickets. Now this might just be an error at this stage and prices may not have been finalised but if they have been scrapped a senior, over 60 years of age, will have to pay up to 50% more for a ticket in 2017 than they did in 2016.

:)
 
Poopoohead said:
Does anyone know if splash is even open next year?!
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There was discussion of Splash Landings not taking bookings January to May. This does seem to be the case, I can book Splash in June or August, but not in May. ATH and the lodges are available.

Hopefully they are updating/painting the rooms. But if it is just cost saving it still makes sense, January to May is a quiet time for the parks. Although it would for me make more sense to keep the lodges closed as I wouldn't want a room that goes straight outside in the cold!
 
It seems like it's being run like American Adventure when it was on its last few years, but it's safe for now purely because Merlin are such a big company. Anyway where have the rumours of the monorail being closed next season come from and would it be every day? I remember seeing the Galactica pathway being built last year and people thought it was gone then. If it closes permanently then they'll have to be a new entrance closer to the car park or some form of replacement. There is a few visitors that won't be up to walking all the way, the problem with the monorail is the windows!
 
I'm not sure where the monorail rumours have come from, I'm guessing it stems from the warning of a 15 minute walk when booking parking online. As far as I am aware the mororail is meant to be operating in 2017.

:)
 
Croftybaby said:
It's hard to believe that this is a real life company.


The new opening times will be great, you can have breakfast off park and then spend nothing all day and leave at a reasonable time to get a nice meal in a local pub. Great move!!


It's unbelievable
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Thats what ive been doing for the last few years.
 
Looking at Crofty's post above showing a day out prices, I thought i'd price up 2 night stay for a typical family during the school holidays in July while there is the "up to 30% off" offer. Naturally, they want to make the most of their time while there so they want to visit the waterpark, do the tree tops course, fast track the main roller coasters and of course have ride photos. The accommodation cost includes the park tickets . Based on arrival on 28 July 2017.

Extras:
Waterpark entry £60
Tree Tops course for them £80
Bronze Fast Track £80
All Day Dining £98.80
Digipass £24.00

Splash Landings (£480.50) + above extras = £823.30
Alton Towers Hotel (std room) (£539.50) + above extras = £882.30
Woodland Lodge (£630.50) + above extras = £973.30
CBeebies Hotel (£812.00) + above extras = £1154.80
Woodland Treehouse (£1933.00) + above extras = £2275.80

While the £480 isnt too bad for 4 people in Splash with theme park tickets, the price of staying the CBeebies hotel is just astonishing!
 
GaryH said:
Looking at Crofty's post above showing a day out prices, I thought i'd price up 2 night stay for a typical family during the school holidays in July while there is the "up to 30% off" offer. Naturally, they want to make the most of their time while there so they want to visit the waterpark, do the tree tops course, fast track the main roller coasters and of course have ride photos. The accommodation cost includes the park tickets . Based on arrival on 28 July 2017.

Extras:
Waterpark entry £60
Tree Tops course for them £80
Bronze Fast Track £80
All Day Dining £98.80
Digipass £24.00

Splash Landings (£480.50) + above extras = £823.30
Alton Towers Hotel (std room) (£539.50) + above extras = £882.30
Woodland Lodge (£630.50) + above extras = £973.30
CBeebies Hotel (£812.00) + above extras = £1154.80
Woodland Treehouse (£1933.00) + above extras = £2275.80

While the £480 isnt too bad for 4 people in Splash with theme park tickets, the price of staying the CBeebies hotel is just astonishing!
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Even taking all of the extras away still leaves it a ridiculous price! I suppose if the pound falls against other currency's then people will be looking to holiday closer to home.
 
i can't believe people are willing to spend that sort of money on such a sub standard product.

We've already got our flights booked for 3 Europa Park visits, I doubt we'll even get to a Merlin park this year.
 
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