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2018: General Discussion

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RoyJess said:
It look like Thirteen has closed for the night, probably due to the low temperatures. Unless they decided to add thirteen to the list of rides that can't be operated after dark. That's the M£rlin way for you :rolleyes:
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Ah okay thanks - it’s been closed a lot of the time the past few days when I’ve been - just found it odd how they were labelled differently.
 
I'm sure they will; numbers have allegedly been up substantially during 2018, so I personally think that we'll see many of the cutbacks put into place during Alton's period of recovery from the Smiler incident reversed for 2019! Merlin have said that they predict overall EBITDA (I think that's some indicator of profit.) for 2018 to be between £80million and £90million for the Resort Theme Parks operating group, so the company have seemingly recovered from the impact of the Smiler incident; for reference, 2014's EBITDA for RTPs was £87million, so 2018's is predicted to be back to pre-Smiler levels! So I'm optimistic that we will see the reversal of the cuts in 2019!

Merlin do not want Alton Towers to fail; I'm sure they don't want to be making cutbacks! Nick Varney always seems very dedicated to his theme parks whenever he's interviewed, and he seems to be just as passionate about Alton as we all are!
 
Unfortunately @Matt N that is just more wishful thinking and not how business works, the mere fact numbers are up will only go to reinforce managements belief that cutbacks are acceptable by Joe Public (especially so when the Government are singing from the same song sheet for everyday life), and will likely mean even more cuts are made next year because the bean counters attitude will be, if customers were not deterred by our cutbacks this year, we didn't cut enough.
 
Sorry for the double post.

It has been announced that minimum wage is increasing by 4.9% in April so expect further cut backs at the park next year in order to pay for it. Merlin’s strategy over the past few years has been to make staff/operational reductions to counter balance any wage bill rises.
 
RoyJess said:
Thirteen marked as closed again, strange that they are closing this ride for night time riding :mad:
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I wonder if the 5 degrees limit is supposedly due to the drop mechanism using a form of hydraulic fluid that could freeze much below 5 degrees or if it’s in case ice has formed on the wheel powered lift hill leading to a roll back if the car couldn’t grip to the rubber due to ice crystals.

Either way, I don’t remember the 5 degree limit being a thing last season and it seems highly precautionary!
 
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