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2018: General Discussion

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I recall Alton used to have a "rainy day guarantee" where if it rained, you got a ticket to visit on another day. Not sure if they still do this.

How about a "minimum ride guarantee". If a person does not get on "Wicker Man", "Nemesis", "Oblivion", "Smiler" during their visit, then they can get a free ticket to go back another day. I list those 4 as I consider those to be the 4 key major rides in the park at the moment, Rita and Thirteen debatable....
 
They should just focus their time and effort into providing a day out that matches the expectations of their guests and gives value for money on the ticket price. No gimmicks or guarantees, just solid operations and decent opening times. You know brain surgery/rocket science level stuff.
 
GaryH said:
I recall Alton used to have a "rainy day guarantee" where if it rained, you got a ticket to visit on another day. Not sure if they still do this.

How about a "minimum ride guarantee". If a person does not get on "Wicker Man", "Nemesis", "Oblivion", "Smiler" during their visit, then they can get a free ticket to go back another day. I list those 4 as I consider those to be the 4 key major rides in the park at the moment, Rita and Thirteen debatable....
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It dose exists, it's called the £55 season pass "pay for the day and come back all season spend the rest of the season queuing for free" ;)
 
AT86 said:
They should just focus their time and effort into providing a day out that matches the expectations of their guests and gives value for money on the ticket price. No gimmicks or guarantees, just solid operations and decent opening times. You know brain surgery/rocket science level stuff.
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Sounds like an excellent description of how Europa Park operations to me. Rides run with ruthless efficiency and they do all they can to ensure guests get a decent fill of rides in the day in return for their admission fee. I could go on to mention the standard of the Europa Park hotels compared to the themed Travelodges that Alton offer... but there is no need.
 
Alton Towers isn't Europa Park, and even as a massive fan of the latter, I am tired of the comparisons. EP is in a unique situation, and a league of it's own. However, Alton is clearly failing to deliver even on it's own terms at this moment in time. The problems we have seen this season are new, and worrying. No matter what was going on at it's Southern sisters, you could always guarantee Alton's rides would be reliable and offer good capacity, reflecting the huge popularity of the park. Obviously attendance suffered a serious blow, but now, as ground has regained, operations and customer service are getting increasingly worse. It's a visible shambles.
 
isn’t all this poor service just a show so they can go cap in hand to HQ for more money next year?

People on here claimed that’s what the leaked staggered openings and other reductions were before opening week and that negative feedback and threats of not visiting would twist HQ’s arm to give more money due to the backlash
 
The fact the annual fast track doesn't include park entry is incredible.

"Check it out, this gets me unlimited fast tracks. No queuing for me"
"Nice, do you use it often?"
"Haha what? No. I spent all my money on this. But it's nice to know I could skip the queues if I was inside the park"
 
Went today, It wasn't too bad to be fair. The Wicker Man was on and off as usual, Thirteen had a bit of downtime and Spinball Whizzer died sometime in the afternoon, but everything else was running ok all day as far as i could see.

Special mention to the Nemesis and Smiler crews. Both rides were working great all day, the latter with long queues but they kept moving due to quick dispatches and no downtime.

And finally, a blue ribbon divider to seperate Vr riders from non Vr riders on Galactica, that seemed to work quite well.

Despite not arriving until about 11am, and taking it very easy for the last couple of hours, i managed to get 9 rides in, so quite satisfied
 
Mikw said:
i managed to get 9 rides in, so quite satisfied
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Is that all? o_O

Considering that the park has a total of 10 rollercoasters (counting Octonauts) it don't really leave much time for some of the filler rides as well as re-rides. A park that is boasting that it has over 50 rides and attractions, in theory you should be able to do one of each attraction within a day trip.
 
Alton Towers guest ticket is probably worth around £15-20pp average.

The park simply cannot provide a £55 product when they get such minimal revenue from gate prices.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 
RoyJess said:
Is that all? o_O

Considering that the park has a total of 10 rollercoasters (counting Octonauts) it don't really leave much time for some of the filler rides as well as re-rides. A park that is boasting that it has over 50 rides and attractions, in theory you should be able to do one of each attraction within a day trip.
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Do you think that's true at every time of year? That feels like a fairly tall order and not just at Alton, but a good number of 10 coaster parks - particularly in the height of summer and school trip season!

Not you specifically @RoyJess - but I do think that some people are forgetting what the park was like not that long ago - before the post-Smiler dark days. Granted the number of rides has changed and the capacity on some rides has dwindled, but I recall the park being as busy as this and busier not that long ago.
 
RoyJess said:
Is that all? o_O

Considering that the park has a total of 10 rollercoasters (counting Octonauts) it don't really leave much time for some of the filler rides as well as re-rides. A park that is boasting that it has over 50 rides and attractions, in theory you should be able to do one of each attraction within a day trip.
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I probably could've got all of them in if i'd arrived at 10am to be fair. I was an hour late getting there. The rides i did do, Hex excepted, were all the big coasters
 
On one hand, if they were to offer a similar unlimited Fast track ticket at Towers, then combined with a PMAP it would almost become a so called "VIP" pass but without you having to endure the ghastly "VIP" branding.

Other than that, it's a pretty horrific idea. Could you imagine this season with a handful of unlimited fast trackers on top? Would be awful.

Or you've got my preferred option of simply not visiting the park at all until they at least have reasonable opening hours and not handing them any more money until they've learnt to appreciate your custom.
 
matthewgcole said:
Or you've got my preferred option of simply not visiting the park at all until they at least have reasonable opening hours and not handing them any more money until they've learnt to appreciate your custom.
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I think this is where enthusiasts differ from other members of the general public. If we go and have a bad day, we'll whine about it but the reality is, we'll probably still end up visiting again. It would have to be something really bad to make us stop. Compare that with other members of the general public - if they have a bad day then it really could be their last visit because they have no loyalty or desire to keep going back.
 
Alsty said:
I think this is where enthusiasts differ from other members of the general public. If we go and have a bad day, we'll whine about it but the reality is, we'll probably still end up visiting again. It would have to be something really bad to make us stop. Compare that with other members of the general public - if they have a bad day then it really could be their last visit because they have no loyalty or desire to keep going back.
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You're right of course. The main damage will be from members of the public who will be majorly disappointed with their experiences.

From us lot, you have to ask the question - if it has to be something "really bad" to make you all stop going, just how bad does it have to get?
 
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