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2018: General Discussion

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The £55 season pass is seemingly proving to be very popular. Interested to see how this translates as far as attendance is concerned.
 
ll unavailable though.
Rick said:
The £55 season pass is seemingly proving to be very popular. Interested to see how this translates as far as attendance is concerned.
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I'm thinking of getting one before i visit in two weeks. £33 for an odinary ticket, £55 for a season pass- just two visits will cover the cost.Plus, what takes the biscuit is that i can get a free, interchangable carer one. :)
 
Rick said:
The £55 season pass is seemingly proving to be very popular. Interested to see how this translates as far as attendance is concerned.
Click to expand...
It will be interesting to see the complaints when people have bought them without looking at T&Cs and try using them on restricted days

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Found myself in RBO for a short time this afternoon, I was earwigging some of the complaints being made. Quite astonishing!

One couple were complaining that their quencher was somehow defective and had caused it to spill on the bloke's white shirt - they demanded a full refund of their park ticket and 'some fastrack', after about 15 minutes, they left empty-handed having furiously tapped on an iPad.

A few groups were complaining about Wicker Man's availability, which is perhaps not surprising given what was going on today. Another couple were complaining that fastrack is 'too expensive' and that it 'should be cheaper so everyone can buy it'. Staff were seemingly quite sympathetic in some cases and quite firm when the complaints were bordering on idiotic.

There was a great sense of entitlement in the air, it's perhaps fair to say. I almost wonder if it is now known too widely that if you claim to have had a sucky day, that if you construct a fairly well-framed argument, chances are you will get something out of the park - whether that be some fast track vouchers, or a £10 return etc.

I suspect the demand to make a complaint is influenced by a reputation that the parks have begun to garner and I also wonder if the parks have serial complainers.

It felt today that a good number of people thought them having to wait 1h+ for attractions, being 'misled' by Ridetimes ("It said 45 mins but it was an hour :mad:".... o_O) or generally not getting on all the rides - that that was enough to justify some sort of compensation and I am not sure that it is (unless you do some real RCA and 'prove' that the park is completely liable for this).

Theme parks more than any other kind of entertainment are very much 'what you make of it' - rather than grabbing your popcorn and sitting down in the cinema. The park plays a role, but so does the visitor.
 
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It honestly astounds me when I hear some the complaints being made at guest services throughout the Merlin parks.

It makes me wonder just where we're going as a society when fully grown adults are behaving like spoilt brats over such petty things.

As for the Fasttrack comment, just wow. Make them cheaper so everybody can have them! :laughing: Makes perfect sense...
 
Hi everyone!

I’ve only just found this forum today. I have always been a MASSIVE Alton Towers fan and used to be a member on the Towers Almanac forum (not sure if everyone or anyone moved here from there?!)

Anyway, it really saddens me to see what’s happening to AT. I visited last Tuesday with my husband and three children and purchased annual passes before we arrived after I persuaded my husband they’d be well worth the money as we’d be visiting regularly throughout the year...
I can’t tell you how disappointed I was with the day. It breaks my heart to slate AT as it’s such a special place to me, but Tuesday was not good.
Even though we arrived early- before 9.30am, by the time we’d queued in the huge monorail line it was almost 10.30 when we arrived at the entrance. There we were met with what can only be described as bedlam! The most enormous queue I’ve ever seen, and as we were collecting passes we had no choice but to join it. After an hour we reached the front (and I feel we were lucky as the queue doubled in size after we joined it- no one seemed to know where to stand and arguments were breaking out between people over queue jumping.)
It was after 11.30 when we arrived in the park- although is that such a bad thing now rides aren’t opening until 11?! What on earth?!
Anyway, after an HOUR (!!!) queueing for The Octonaut ride I decided to boycott CBeebies land and we headed for the Frog Hopper. It took over 45 minutes for my sons to ride due to each ride being filled with Fast Track riders. Utter greed!! Every ride we tried to ride (grand total of five all day!) took us forever to get on because of all the Fast Trackers getting on! The park closing at 5 didn’t help, it just felt like a very short day! We never even made it to Nemesis, although it was showing as unavailable on the app all day so I’m not sure we missed much!
I was hoping to hop into the SRQ as I’ve done before to board the bigger rides quickly, but was saddened to see they have disappeared in favour of FT queues. This meant I couldn’t ride anything as I didn’t want to leave my husband with the kids for over an hour!
For the first time ever, I left the park feeling really sad.
I’ve emailed AT but had no response yet.

I might be mad but we’re going back again tomorrow. My plan is to be at the gates by 9.30 and to hopefully get straight in and onto The Wickerman queue before it breaks down (wishful thinking?!)
 
MaxPower said:
As for the Fasttrack comment, just wow. Make them cheaper so everybody can have them! :laughing: Makes perfect sense...
Click to expand...

It's quite possible that the guest remembers when FastTrack used to be FREE on certain rides and available to all (until the tickets had all been issued for the day).

Also a certain company - one that Merlin claims only to be second to - operates an amazing free FastPass+ system at it's parks in Florida... you can book 3 rides per day 30 or 60 days in advance (depending on where you're staying) and it's all free. The Disney FastPass system in Paris is more in line with the old free FastTrack at Alton - but still free. More than a few Towers visitors have done Disney, be it in Paris or Florida and people do make comparisons.

That said, I do agree that some of the things people complain about are bordering on stupid. When I worked at Towers guests would complain if it rained all day / rides stopped due to lightning. I also remember one guy kicking off on Easter Sunday because it was busy & the queues were long. Err, he'd chosen to visit on the one day of the year when just about all large shops have to stay closed! (This was before Easter Sunday became a "family friendly" day).
 
Jenemesis said:
Hi everyone!

I’ve only just found this forum today. I have always been a MASSIVE Alton Towers fan and used to be a member on the Towers Almanac forum (not sure if everyone or anyone moved here from there?!)

Anyway, it really saddens me to see what’s happening to AT. I visited last Tuesday with my husband and three children and purchased annual passes before we arrived after I persuaded my husband they’d be well worth the money as we’d be visiting regularly throughout the year...
I can’t tell you how disappointed I was with the day. It breaks my heart to slate AT as it’s such a special place to me, but Tuesday was not good.
Even though we arrived early- before 9.30am, by the time we’d queued in the huge monorail line it was almost 10.30 when we arrived at the entrance. There we were met with what can only be described as bedlam! The most enormous queue I’ve ever seen, and as we were collecting passes we had no choice but to join it. After an hour we reached the front (and I feel we were lucky as the queue doubled in size after we joined it- no one seemed to know where to stand and arguments were breaking out between people over queue jumping.)
It was after 11.30 when we arrived in the park- although is that such a bad thing now rides aren’t opening until 11?! What on earth?!
Anyway, after an HOUR (!!!) queueing for The Octonaut ride I decided to boycott CBeebies land and we headed for the Frog Hopper. It took over 45 minutes for my sons to ride due to each ride being filled with Fast Track riders. Utter greed!! Every ride we tried to ride (grand total of five all day!) took us forever to get on because of all the Fast Trackers getting on! The park closing at 5 didn’t help, it just felt like a very short day! We never even made it to Nemesis, although it was showing as unavailable on the app all day so I’m not sure we missed much!
I was hoping to hop into the SRQ as I’ve done before to board the bigger rides quickly, but was saddened to see they have disappeared in favour of FT queues. This meant I couldn’t ride anything as I didn’t want to leave my husband with the kids for over an hour!
For the first time ever, I left the park feeling really sad.
I’ve emailed AT but had no response yet.

I might be mad but we’re going back again tomorrow. My plan is to be at the gates by 9.30 and to hopefully get straight in and onto The Wickerman queue before it breaks down (wishful thinking?!)
Click to expand...
Welcome to TowersStreet! :)
 
@Jenemesis My advice would be to do Wicker Man at 9.30 (if you can) or if not, forget about it until ten mins before ride close and make the most of the rest of the park, rather than be a willing participant in the farce.
 
Rick said:
@Jenemesis My advice would be to do Wicker Man at 9.30 (if you can) or if not, forget about it until ten mins before ride close and make the most of the rest of the park, rather than be a willing participant in the farce.
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Rick, I wouldn’t be entitled to ERT so couldn’t get in until 10. I’ll leave it until the end if the day then. Thank you!
 
delta79 said:
It will be interesting to see the complaints when people have bought them without looking at T&Cs and try using them on restricted days

Sent from my SM-J320FN using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I often thought that, I do feel that the TV advert "Pay for the day and come back free all year" is very misleading considering that the park isn't open all year and that you will have to pay extra for the Scarefest and firework events as well as the restrictions on certain dates

 
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