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2018: General Discussion

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Yeah, the ones going towards Hex and from Duel to Rapids are other ones that I particularly stuggle to push, sometimes it's just as hard going down them as it is going up!
 
Re the staggered openings. they're not a problem when the park is quiet as you can, with planning, get on everything, even if you arrive late.

But i dread to think what they'd be like on a busy day. Hopefully these changes will stick and we'll have full availability for the busy period ahead
 
Mikw said:
Re the staggered openings. they're not a problem when the park is quiet as you can, with planning, get on everything, even if you arrive late.
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Have you visited the park this season on a quiet day? I have twice and the gate numbers were very low, but the queues were like as if you were visiting during holiday time. Very hard to plan a day when the staggered opening times dictates which rides you can and can't go on, forcing the crowds to flow around the park in one direction. The queue-lines have always peaked around lunch time and the whole point in getting into the park early is to beat the crowds. Also the fact that they also failed to get the rides open on time on top of the staggered opening times also exacerbate the problem.

Having most of the major thrill rides opening late really undermined the whole point of having ERT.

Mikw said:
But i dread to think what they'd be like on a busy day. Hopefully these changes will stick and we'll have full availability for the busy period ahead
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That was the other issue, these staggered opening times where being implemented on some of their busiest days this year including weekends, Bank holidays and Easter. I would have hated to have been on park on these days.

Thankfully the park has seen sense and have put in place more sensible ride opening times for this weeks half-term, like you said, lets hope this will continue for future peak days like weekends, school holidays and the lead up to the summer holidays when they have school trips.

These staggered opening times were not popular, even with the positive reviews on Trip adviser.
 
But Alton says that staggered openings were applied because of guest feedback, though? Why would they want to lie to us?
 
Matt N said:
But Alton says that staggered openings were applied because of guest feedback, though? Why would they want to lie to us?
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From what I've been told, it's because customer feedback were saying that the park was quiet and lacked atmosphere, so the solution was to implement staggered opening times, to deliberately force more people into one area to create the illusion of a busy park to give it a better atmosphere (***cough**** cough*** sell more fast track***cough***cough***). As far as I'm concern, it's not my fault that most of the guest can't be bothered to turn up to the park before lunch time. I make the effort to get up and out in the mornings to make the most of my day at the themepark, so don't punish me or reduce my ride time just because other people can't be bothered to turn up at the park before lunch time.
 
RoyJess said:
Have you visited the park this season on a quiet day? I have twice and the gate numbers were very low, but the queues were like as if you were visiting during holiday time. Very hard to plan a day when the staggered opening times dictates which rides you can and can't go on, forcing the crowds to flow around the park in one direction. The queue-lines have always peaked around lunch time and the whole point in getting into the park early is to beat the crowds. Also the fact that they also failed to get the rides open on time on top of the staggered opening times also exacerbate the problem.

Having most of the major thrill rides opening late really undermined the whole point of having ERT.



That was the other issue, these staggered opening times where being implemented on some of their busiest days this year including weekends, Bank holidays and Easter. I would have hated to have been on park on these days.

Thankfully the park has seen sense and have put in place more sensible ride opening times for this weeks half-term, like you said, lets hope this will continue for future peak days like weekends, school holidays and the lead up to the summer holidays when they have school trips.

These staggered opening times were not popular, even with the positive reviews on Trip adviser.
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Yes, i usually only visit on quite days. Days when queue times are low. I can have at least one ride on everything in the six hours the park is open. Sometimes more, Got four walk on rides on the Smiler in a row a few weeks ago.

I don't like staggered opening times, and you have to plan it well to get a decent day's riding.

I'm glad they've abolished them for the most part for this week, long may it continue. Otherwise i probably won't visit again until September.
 
Mikw said:
Yes, i usually only visit on quite days. Days when queue times are low. I can have at least one ride on everything in the six hours the park is open. Sometimes more, Got four walk on rides on the Smiler in a row a few weeks ago.

I don't like staggered opening times, and you have to plan it well to get a decent day's riding.

I'm glad they've abolished them for the most part for this week, long may it continue. Otherwise i probably won't visit again until September.
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Sounds like you were lucky to pick the right day. Don't forget I've my wife in toe who is wheelchair and needs her medical needs seen to several times throughout the day, which can take 10 to 20 minutes of my time each time, plus I don't like leaving her alone for any length of time.

It's very hard to judge what would be a good day, I've visited Alton before now on two consecutive days in a row during off peak to know that the queues can be very much a big contrast between the two days, there are many different things that can make the difference, the weather, school trips, ride down time and even just simply how the host are implementing the through put on each ride, my last two visit this year, I kept thinking that the staff haven't had their Weetabix that morning.

On a positive note, they have reversed the staggers opening times for the half term and I'm hoping that this will continue for the rest of the season, or at least for the peak days. I did have worries for these staggered opening times will be implemented during the Scare-fest and Fireworks, otherwise I wouldn't have booked a stay for these events. I'm now feeling a bit more optimistic about the rest of the season

:)
 
As I suspected at the beginning of the season, I think they were just saving up operational budget for later in the year due to the pittance Merlin give them to operate the park.

No one should get the party poppers and champers out and pretend that this season has seen "better than expected attendance". They've driven many people away by giving them a bad experience so far this season and we must remember that attendance has been decent at the last 2 scarefests (allegedly) yet they still continued to butcher the operating budget regardless, green shoots or not.

This crisis has always been home made. The crash had an massive impact, the crap recovery was brewed in house.
 
RoyJess said:
Sounds like you were lucky to pick the right day. Don't forget I've my wife in toe who is wheelchair and needs her medical needs seen to several times throughout the day, which can take 10 to 20 minutes of my time each time, plus I don't like leaving her alone for any length of time.

It's very hard to judge what would be a good day, I've visited Alton before now on two consecutive days in a row during off peak to know that the queues can be very much a big contrast between the two days, there are many different things that can make the difference, the weather, school trips, ride down time and even just simply how the host are implementing the through put on each ride, my last two visit this year, I kept thinking that the staff haven't had their Weetabix that morning.

On a positive note, they have reversed the staggers opening times for the half term and I'm hoping that this will continue for the rest of the season, or at least for the peak days. I did have worries for these staggered opening times will be implemented during the Scare-fest and Fireworks, otherwise I wouldn't have booked a stay for these events. I'm now feeling a bit more optimistic about the rest of the season

:)
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I didn't know about your wife. I have a life long medical condition, but luckily - on a good day - it doesn't affect my mobility. I can understand how staggered opening times would be a very bad idea for someone in your wife's position.

I've been lucky so far, visiting on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Did make the mistake of going in the Easter Holidays and don't think i'd risk a busy day again if i can help it. Hopefully the reduction in staggered opening will help this week
 
Well I guess that means Splash night stay open this time round, but not so much Enchanted Village.

The evergoing cycles of Merlin Magical Cutbacks never ceases to amaze me.

They could run the park on twice it’s current budget and still turn over a large profit. But they won’t because they want to exceed Disney through the addition of hundreds of Legoland clones.
 
NemeTime said:
Source? It would be a much needed addition to the park once summer hits
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Waiting to confirm with the source so take it with a massive grain of salt. I’ll keep you all updated if I hear anything else but it would certainly be an exciting development.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The following was posted on the MAP FB group by one of our forum members (video wont embed, but you can view it on the MAP facebook page)

"Sub Terra announcements are on (you need to listen carefully)"

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A birds eye view of the queue was posted back in February from attraction images from what I remember and it looked like it needed lots of work doing which is interesting but perhaps they have been sorting it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
matthewgcole said:
As I suspected at the beginning of the season, I think they were just saving up operational budget for later in the year due to the pittance Merlin give them to operate the park.

No one should get the party poppers and champers out and pretend that this season has seen "better than expected attendance". They've driven many people away by giving them a bad experience so far this season and we must remember that attendance has been decent at the last 2 scarefests (allegedly) yet they still continued to butcher the operating budget regardless, green shoots or not.

This crisis has always been home made. The crash had an massive impact, the crap recovery was brewed in house.
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Guest numbers are up a lot, Budget has increased to match.

I agree it’s the wrong way around and the recovery would have been a lot quicker if they hadn’t devalued the product but they have seen a significant numbers rebound this year.
 
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