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2018: General Discussion

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Katy said:
So they have removed the ticket kiosks that last year's TLC put a new roof on?
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The tiles on the booths were replaced in the 2015/6 closed season I believe.

I suspect they will have saved the tiles for use on other buildings in the area that hadn’t yet been re-tiled so not really an issue.

Merlin announced in their trading update in Oct 2017 that they would roll out a programme of replacing manned ticket desks with automated machines after a successful trial at the London Eye over the summer. Looks like AT is one of the first to see this happen.
 
The entrance plaza has been a mess for ages, with the kiosks looking tired and the individual queue lines for each one a really inefficient way of organising people. Provided they've thought of a way of ensuring the myriad types of vouchers can be accepted this should be a good system - there's potential to fit in a lot more ticket machines than they ever had ticket kiosks.
 
I would think that structure is staying, just removed the walls and place some supports up and then they’ve got a covered area for the self service machines. It was next to the schools entrance wasn’t it?
 
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Katy said:
So they have removed the ticket kiosks that last year's TLC put a new roof on?
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Exactly what I thought! Like the TLC on the Ice Age queue line the year before it closed. Do any departments in this company actually talk to each other?

I'm surprised they haven't done this year's ago to be honest. Ticket machines are hardly new technology.

If you include the abundance of unused kiosks flanking the plaza by the coach park, there's no need for these central plaza ones anymore even if they weren't installing ticket machines.
 
It's good that Towers are finally catching up on something I've seen in some theme parks 10 years ago!

When it comes to the new roofs, obviously they didn't envision them being knocked down one year later! They had been there since the 80s after all.
 
And installing a dedicated path to the carpark perhaps hints that on off peak days, the monorail will not be running.
 
IanSR said:
And installing a dedicated path to the carpark perhaps hints that on off peak days, the monorail will not be running.
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I think one of the most frustrating starts to any theme park day is parking in the Air car park, having to walk all the way to the main entrance because the monorails either closed or too busy, getting in the park to discover the Skyride is shut, to then have to walk all the way to Forbidden Valley.

You essentially waste an hour walking in a massive loop to end up next to where you parked, just because AT can’t properly operate their own infrastructure.

Great start to a day.
 
Yes you'd think they'd see the advantage now of severely limiting ERT to also having a dedicated entrance for hotel guests and MAP holders at the Galatica's gate, even if FV was shut it wouldn't be so bad walking from FV to Wickerman inside the park rather than out, and it might save their gate staff at the main gate an earache from entitled arses who see a MAP/hotel guest walk past them and get waved in while they're not allowed (saw an incident last year where some poor girl was getting some serious grief from a bloke who wanted to be let in with the "VIP c****" and didn't want to listen to why we were allowed in and he wasn't ).
 
Nice to see they are investing in the entrance plaza. However, I do feel that replacing human interaction with machines is a little sad! It is the first impression of the park you get after all...
 
WallisDan said:
Does anyone think screens will be installed in the plaza like at Thorpe
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Let's hope not, because based on recent evidence their outdoor AV installations have not been of good quality. I can't think of an outdoor TV they've installed in the last 5 or so years that hasn't broken within a couple of months of it being "brand new." Also, they recently installed an INDOOR speaker OUTSIDE, covered with a small tarpaulin to function at the end of the path between the hotels and RRR.
 
Looking at the pictures on FB, it looks like this entrance remodeling is mainly security related as they seem to be limiting access to the plaza, whilst clearing out space in the plaza itself.

So they can install a queue system and sell all tickets from the coach park ticket building and set up a security checkpoint in the main plaza itself similar to how they did at Thorpe last year.

The work is also being carried out at the same time as the installation of the security posts indicating it's all part of the same capex project.
 
I hope they don’t copy Thorpe Parks permanent-temporary structure security layout. It’s been a nightmare in terms of getting into the park since it was introduced. Basically, a massive crowd of people for the park around opening are shuffled through usually two security officers which can take anything between 30mins-1hour if you’re near the back of the crowd.
 
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