2018: A Year In Review

[GothMonsieur]

After a rocky start to the 2018 season, I think Towers surprised many of us throughout the year. Some of these surprises were positive, such as Wicker Man being as good as it is, and some were definitely less positive (operations this season being a big one). I'm intrigued to know what all of your highlights from this season are, what you think went wrong and what you hope Merlin will do next year to improve upon these failures.

 

[Austin Towers]

Positives: Wickerman. Great weather this year.

Negatives: Cutbacks. Deliberate queue building to push fastrack. Removal of baggage holds and SRQ. They haven't got rid of VR yet on Air. Rapids are rubbish now. Ride effects not working (especially the mist on Oblivion)

 

[AT86]

Good: Wickerman, far exceeded my expectations, best addition to the park since Hex in my view.

Bad: Poor operations, reduced throughputs, single rider lines removed, shoddy state of significant parts of the park (Smiler & CCL in particular), general lack of attention to detail and care, continued poor opening hours and extended number of closed days.

I visited once this season, I didn’t renew my pass and have no intention of visiting the park in 2019 based on the only addition being an upcharge attraction that can already be found in various city centres around the country.

 

[RoyJess]

what you think went wrong

M£rlin greed

Where do I start? I don't think I can add anything that hasn't already been said or posted on here or TripAdvisor.

Bad = Ride operations and put through, removal of SRQ, Baggage holds etc... the list goes on...
OK = Scarefest
Awsome = Wickerman (especially in the dark) and the fireworks

Despite a bad year, I can't thank the staff enough, who are aware of Jess' situation that have gone out of their way to ensure that Jess' needs are met throughout the season and especially over the fireworks weekend.

2018 was simply "Better than Nothing"

 

[Kraken27]

I strongly doubt Towers will do much - if anything - to improve things next season as they won't be given the budget to do so by Merlin HQ. Uncle Nick (& the shareholders) will be happy as attendance was up this year, along with associated revenues, despite the obvious cuts in operating budget that they gave the park. 2019 will probably still have a bit of a Wicker Man "honeymoon" effect, so that along with the £55 season passes will probably ensure at least similar attendance levels to this year.

I suspect Merlin / Towers will test the water pre-season & early season with what further cutbacks they can get away with operationally, then true to form withdraw the ones that really make the guests complain. Seems to be a bit of an annual pattern!

Oh, they *MAY* invest in a better social media response team [doubtless outsourced in India]. Whilst I realise something is "better than nothing" - if you read TripAdvisor they seem to have about 5 boiler-plate replies they use & just pick the most appropriate one to the guests review.

 

[Mikw]

For me, bad start, but got a lot better!

Kudos to all the ride staff as well, found them to be very happy and professional this year. No real complaints after some teething troubles earlier in the season.

Was conversing with Shaun from Theme Park Worldwide, he agrees it's been one of the better years in recent times.

 

[RoyJess]

Was conversing with Shaun from Theme Park Worldwide, he agrees it's been one of the better years in recent times.

Really?

I mentioned to a regular guest on Wednesday that it's been an awful season, he corrected me and told me it's been a Sh!t season

 

[Laura91]

It’s been my first full season so I was going in with no expectations as I’ve never been before 2017.
That being said I’ve had a great season, we’ve had some great days getting on a load of rides, however on the super busy days we’ve just chilled out on the lawn and around the gardens.
Highlight would be riding wickerman on opening day in the dark and again at scarefest. (And scarefest as a whole)
Low points have been poor operations and removal of SRQ (other half hates oblivion) but again this didn’t put a dampener on the day and we just found other things to do.other low point was staggered openings and closing at 4pm.
But as a first season it’s been great I can’t imagine how amazing it was back in the day

 

[RoyJess]

If you haven't already seen it, Alton has released a video of their 2018 year in review

 

[Mikw]

Really?

I mentioned to a regular guest on Wednesday that it's been an awful season, he corrected me and told me it's been a Sh!t season

Yes, that's what he said on Facebook just today. I must admit, i've been well into double digits this year. Had one bad day with massive queues and muliple ride failures. The others have ranged from good to excellent. Mind you, i tried to avoid busy days whenever i can

 

[Alsty]

I'm intrigued to know what all of your highlights from this season are...

Wicker Man - I remember how impressive it was when I first saw it. It was a good ride when I first rode it, but it seems to have bedded in nicely and the last few rides I had were excellent. I think it's possibly the best ride the park have added since Hex in terms of experience. (I don't rate The Smiler, personally)

...what you think went wrong...

I think probably the staggered openings, the ridiculously early ride close times on some days, and the unreliability issues with the rides... either getting them open in the first place or them becoming unavailable due to technical issues. This was mainly a problem towards the start of the season and seemed less of an issue towards the end, although there were some questionable issues with Thirteen being closed due the cold weather in the last couple of weeks.

...and what you hope Merlin will do next year to improve upon these failures.

When the park opens, open the rides. People have paid and are entitled to have all the rides open for them to choose from. I don't see any reason why they should have staggered ride openings, with the exception of ERT.

Sensible closure times. I don't think 4pm is acceptable on any day, and 5pm is not acceptable on a warm weekend day when the rides have still got 1hr queues at ride close...

On a personal note, I'd also like less attitude from the Wicker Man bay loaders and the freedom to choose what row I can ride in .

 

[Error]

Agree with everything Alsty has stated.

I'd expect a Theme park with a status like AT to shut no earlier than 6pm and for the love of god staggered openings, just get rid of the frigger.