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2018: General Discussion
- Thread starter MakoMania
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Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
You joke but it's probably true!
"A period of colder than anticipated weather along with the poisoning of Russian's in the UK had a major impact on our Resort Theme Park performance. As usual, there is no way that we can put any blame on ourselves, our operations were in fact exemplary." Nick Varney, Q1 Trading Update.
And I would not hold out for 7pm ride closes either - they are unlikely to happen. Back in the early 2000's all of August was a 7pm ride close when they had the Marines display team doing the show on the main lake each day at 7pm. Come 6pm each day Nemesis was practically walk-on & it was just the same few people going round and round for the last hour. Or course, this was when all the rides opened at 10am so by 6pm most people had had a decent fill of rides and were heading home (unless they wanted to stay for the show, which many did not). These 7pm ride closes & the Marines display team show was very much a marketing-led event and probably lost the park quite a bit of money keeping everything open until 7pm.
As we all know, the accountants are very much in control now and anything that may cost more money is examined in minute detail to see if it will generate a suitable return. Announcing 7pm ride closes before you are certain the park is absolutely chokka with guests on the day in question is not the modus operandi of accountants.
bluesonichd
TS Member
10 am and WM has 3h queue and the two coaster that were to open at 10 Blivvy and Smiler are unavailable.
Good start to the day
Good start to the day
Austin Towers
TS Member
Reviews on Tripadvisor are saying it all. Complaint after complaint regarding queues. They may have a good season this year but guests will not return if the shambles continues.
They'll be rubbing their hands at the fastrack sales but the negative is that it's a short term gain. Some people travel long distances for a day or two at the park and may part with their cash for fastrack if there's huge queues just to make the most of their visit. The extra cost will make them think twice about visiting again though.
They'll be rubbing their hands at the fastrack sales but the negative is that it's a short term gain. Some people travel long distances for a day or two at the park and may part with their cash for fastrack if there's huge queues just to make the most of their visit. The extra cost will make them think twice about visiting again though.
Matt Creek
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
2018 should be the year Towers is sparkling in greatness.
A major brand new attraction, finally giving the park a wooden roller coaster (and first in the UK in over 20 years) amongst what is arguably the most immersive park attraction since Hex. The TLC which has seen updates to Duel, Towers Street and The Gardens are additional plus points.
However unfortunately corporate greed and desperation for profit has impacted next to everything else not listed above.
Further reduced budget and staffing has led to staggered openings, reduction in ride capacities, no entertainment, poorer crowd control and even more shops and food outlets being mothballed.
People may be stamping their feet on social media of their negative experiences, but unfortunately Merlin won’t take any notice as they don’t care for visitor experience and only for profit, their share holders whilst trying to offer as little possible for as much possible.
Whilst 2018 (in terms of guest numbers) may be one of the park’s best years, we are probably going to see yet more cuts in 2019 because the attitude is that people are still visiting and can get away with it, instead of looking what went wrong this year and fixing it. They’ll probably have a bad year in 2019 (due to ongoing trends) but put it down to something like bad weather or too many leaves. Rather admit they’re lust for profit is their downfall.
Towers has the potential (if run and looked after properly) to be on a similar league to Europa Park, Efteling and Liseberg. However with the way it’s currently being operated it is much closer to the likes of Drayton Manor and Pleasure Wood Hills. I can’t see that changing anytime soon.
A major brand new attraction, finally giving the park a wooden roller coaster (and first in the UK in over 20 years) amongst what is arguably the most immersive park attraction since Hex. The TLC which has seen updates to Duel, Towers Street and The Gardens are additional plus points.
However unfortunately corporate greed and desperation for profit has impacted next to everything else not listed above.
Further reduced budget and staffing has led to staggered openings, reduction in ride capacities, no entertainment, poorer crowd control and even more shops and food outlets being mothballed.
People may be stamping their feet on social media of their negative experiences, but unfortunately Merlin won’t take any notice as they don’t care for visitor experience and only for profit, their share holders whilst trying to offer as little possible for as much possible.
Whilst 2018 (in terms of guest numbers) may be one of the park’s best years, we are probably going to see yet more cuts in 2019 because the attitude is that people are still visiting and can get away with it, instead of looking what went wrong this year and fixing it. They’ll probably have a bad year in 2019 (due to ongoing trends) but put it down to something like bad weather or too many leaves. Rather admit they’re lust for profit is their downfall.
Towers has the potential (if run and looked after properly) to be on a similar league to Europa Park, Efteling and Liseberg. However with the way it’s currently being operated it is much closer to the likes of Drayton Manor and Pleasure Wood Hills. I can’t see that changing anytime soon.
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Austin Towers
TS Member
They deserve all the bad publicity they get. It's not that they don't know how to run the park properly it's down to greed that they won't.
Poopoohead
TS Member
BBC is saying wind of around 12mph surely this isn’t enough to shut x sector? Seriously nothing to do before 11 and even then operations seem shocking. Very concerning
That's what they need, there was a AP one there over the weekend, but I'm afraid it's neither his department nor concern because he bought fast track (his words, not mine).
Bert2theSpark
TS Member
There has been a big improvement this year on entertainment with the budget they had, They brought back the ATTP for the first few and last few hours of the day whilst midday the actors double up as The Beornen and Forbidden Valley has seen Ripsaw's site set up for a stage for Wasteland Bash, Replacing the infamous Forbidden Sweep (RIP).
Someone put this photo on Towers Facebook page of the queue for the Resort Box Office at 11am this morning...!!!! They need to reopen the various Information Points around the park and sell fast track and basic inquiries from them again
Edit : Maybe add the resort box office queue time to the app
Edit : Maybe add the resort box office queue time to the app
Benzin
TS Member
State of that queueline...
I get that having everything under one roof is helpful, but that queue does not help those who need to get Child Swap/Height Checks/RAP/etc. at all...
Maybe should re-open the old Guest Services and make it a dedicated centre for one of those things... In fact why not make every building a point for something? One for disabled, one for child related things and one for Fastrack... Then all the queues are spread over rather than that hellish thing...
I get that having everything under one roof is helpful, but that queue does not help those who need to get Child Swap/Height Checks/RAP/etc. at all...
Maybe should re-open the old Guest Services and make it a dedicated centre for one of those things... In fact why not make every building a point for something? One for disabled, one for child related things and one for Fastrack... Then all the queues are spread over rather than that hellish thing...
So I'm going next Saturday 14th with a friend. Haven't been for years and have yet to ride The Smiler, Galactiga with the VR and of course Wicker Man.
Slightly regretting our choice of date now given that is the last weekend of the Easter school holidays for most places (although not Derbyshire and Leicestershire if that is any saving grace) and it sounds like this week has been pretty horrific for busyness, poor operations/staffing, fastrack overselling, ongoing maintenance and ride closures/late openings leading to queues like it was the height of summer. But anyway, I've already booked the tickets with a 241 so c'est la vie.
Obviously would like to get the most rides in as possible and queue as efficiently as possible if there is such a thing so a few questions if anyone is able to help.
1) What time should I aim to arrive be at the carpark to be at the turnstiles for opening without excessive queuing? Are there still roadworks affecting things? How much time do I need to add to the journey time my satnav says? (I need to tell my friend to arrive an hour before that because he is always late for everything...)
2) Any strategy tips for what order to head to rides? (obviously depending on whatever rides are randomly down....Oblivion and The Smiler still closed this morning)..
3) Looks like this weekend is 6pm closing but next weekend still advertised as 5pm closing. Any chance of that changing closer to the time or is it set in stone?
Slightly regretting our choice of date now given that is the last weekend of the Easter school holidays for most places (although not Derbyshire and Leicestershire if that is any saving grace) and it sounds like this week has been pretty horrific for busyness, poor operations/staffing, fastrack overselling, ongoing maintenance and ride closures/late openings leading to queues like it was the height of summer. But anyway, I've already booked the tickets with a 241 so c'est la vie.
Obviously would like to get the most rides in as possible and queue as efficiently as possible if there is such a thing so a few questions if anyone is able to help.
1) What time should I aim to arrive be at the carpark to be at the turnstiles for opening without excessive queuing? Are there still roadworks affecting things? How much time do I need to add to the journey time my satnav says? (I need to tell my friend to arrive an hour before that because he is always late for everything...)
2) Any strategy tips for what order to head to rides? (obviously depending on whatever rides are randomly down....Oblivion and The Smiler still closed this morning)..
3) Looks like this weekend is 6pm closing but next weekend still advertised as 5pm closing. Any chance of that changing closer to the time or is it set in stone?
Someone put this photo on Towers Facebook page of the queue for the Resort Box Office at 11am this morning...!!!! They need to reopen the various Information Points around the park and sell fast track and basic inquiries from them again
Edit : Maybe add the resort box office queue time to the app
Could not agree more - the centralised Box Office is a big mistake. Last season on the August Bank Holiday the queue was almost as bad as in the picture above. There were only four tills on the "upsell side of the Box Office and one of them could not issue annual passes of any kind. Add to that there were only two staff on duty on the "up-sell" side too - it was a complete joke. Alton Towers need to reopen the other information points & sell FastTrack in more than one location to improve the guest experience - it won't happen.
As suggested above, we need a journalist to visit "undercover" ie. without contacting the parks press office in advance and photograph the never ending queues / chaos everywhere and then run an article. The Sun won't do it due to their tie-in with Merlin, but I could see the Daily Mail or Mirror (both rags which don't like Towers much since the Smiler crash) being more than happy to expose the value for money that Alton Towers is not delivering this season. You can just see the headline "Alton Towers - where the queues never end!"
If a few people send them some photos and screenshots from TripAdviser the Mail will scramble a piece together
Get into the car park for 08:30. Monorail I believe opens at 09:00 so get in the queue for that. Should be ready then to get into the park at 09:30 once the gates open. Alternatively, get into the car park a little earlier and walk to the park entrance instead of the monorail. Didn't have any roadworks when I went last month.
Depends on what is open unfortunately. If it is known that WM will open in the morning then I would suggest getting in the queue for that as this is the ride which will have the biggest queues all day, plus, who knows if it will stay open all day!!
Depends on how busy it is and what the ride availability is like. If the rides are frequently down and the park is busy with big queues then they may extend the opening, impossible to say really.
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