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2018: Park Operations & Ride Availability

PhantaDad2017 said:
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Or, in the worst case, they have huge numbers of new visitors, or those returning after a long time, to see the nice new roller coaster, who then experience rides open only for a short time, long downtimes, long queues (in parts deliberately, goodbye single rider queue for best fill-up) and tricks to push them into expensive fast track purchases, if they want more than just waiting and frustration.

snip.
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Count me in this. New member to this forum and I have recently returned to Alto towers after several years. This time im now going with my kids of 6 and 4. I am one of the target audience now looking for fastpass, so your statement above would make perfect sense, if it were not for the fact that they wont even add me to the vip waiting list. Apparently the waiting list is full. So now I dont have to earmark that 3 grand for Merlin VIP passes, and can choose to spend it elsewhere.

Todays conversation between me, Merlin rep and the wife has gone pretty much like this:

Customer: please could you add me to a list so I can spend several thousand pounds with you..
Company: No. the list is long enough.
Customer: Wife - we cant go on that list, its full. Do you fancy Disneyworld with that few grand instead?
Wife: Lets check the ride heights in Florida and see whether they can go on plenty of stuff.
 
Rick said:
Count me in this. A guy in his 30s who stuffed some of his hard earned money from his two jobs into that company. You know, that kind of fat cat. Merlin have a responsibility to make money, to themselves and their shareholders. They don't operate as a charity, neither did Pearson.

If it's "your" money, I think you'll find it's "their" park.
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Honey, I’m afraid you’re very much apart of the problem if you think this. Of corse Merlin isn’t a charity- but a healthy business shouldn’t just focus on immediate profit and shareholder returns. There’s no longevity in that whatsoever.

Merlin only really hold on to their theme parks because they sell the most MAPs there, brining return guests, and therefore their companions, into the much more profitable Midway attractions and Legolands. The most major theme parks adopt a similar model. Disney ensure their parks are built to a rediculously high standard, as they’re representing the brand. They’re part of the business’ overall promotion. I’m sure they could cut corners with the park’s maintenance and upkeep, and therefore make more money out of the parks themselves, but they choose not to because it would damage the overall brand.

There’s no reason why Merlin cannot do this with their RTPs. If the parks mainly exist to push guests towards visiting their other attractions, they can hardly do so by shutting half the place till midday and having terrible reliability. It’s not sound business logic. Sure, they’ll make less of a return in the short term if they invest more in technical services and park operations, but that shouldn’t matter if the parks are only a springboard for accommodation and MAP sales. Their biggest mistake is trying to turn the parks themselves into cash cows, resulting in these horrible cuts, rather than accepting the limited returns and recognising how instead it’ll lead to increased custom across the board.

Also- all that hard earnt money you got from two jobs and the best thing you thought to put it towards was shares in Merlin? :p
 
I don't think anyone can buy 51% of share of a company. This is to stop hostile takeover.

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Matt N said:
Good to see that operations are improving. Seems like Merlin are listening to feedback, which is gratifying to see. We can only go onwards and upwards from here!
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It's important to stop with 'Merlin are listening' etc.

Alton Towers are entirely responsible for how they spend their budget. Day to day changes are nothing to do with Merlin whatsoever.

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Yesterday seemed to be the best day so far for general lack of breakdowns. Smiler opening slightly late but no noticeable breakdowns.

Monorail operations are to be desired. How can there be a 30 minutes wait after 11am? Oh yeah, only 2 trains running. Which is not the way you want guests to be starting their day, especially when walking is not an option.

It's also sad to see numerous closed outlets and a general lack of rides still prevalent throughout. Least the staff were all decent and in high spirits, likely because of it being dead of course but it's always a good thing to see.

If this is an improvement then it shows the real sorry state the park was in.
 
No reason for a thirty minute wait for the monorail, even when on two trains.
They could still provide a ten minute service on one train, just constantly circling the route, let off, pick up, move on.
No wonder we always use express parking...maybe that is what they are doing, run a shabby monorail to gently push more to express.
 
I very rarely get the monorail now following the loading procedure changes, unless there is little to no queue. It simply is not worth the wait and tends to be quicker to walk.

The monorail should always be run as well as it can be with as many trains on as possible. You do not want a load of upset or angry guests before they have even stepped foot in the park!

:)
 
rob666 said:
No reason for a thirty minute wait for the monorail, even when on two trains.
They could still provide a ten minute service on one train, just constantly circling the route, let off, pick up, move on.
No wonder we always use express parking...maybe that is what they are doing, run a shabby monorail to gently push more to express.
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We stopped in the hotel as a special night/day out for my sons 6th birthday. We had early access to the park included and thought it would be great for both our son and his 3 year old sister (well 4 in a couple of weeks or so).

When we got to the monorail, it wasnt open. No idea when it would. So we had a 20 minute, mile long walk with the two young children to start the day. Thankfully they dont complain, but it still ate into the day and the cherry on the cake was that about 100 yards before we finally got to the entance, the monorail pulled in before us and unloaded.

It may be pushing more people to express parking, but Ill be thinking twice before accepting the benefits of staying in the hotel and getting early access at face value. Im honestly struggling to see any benefit we had over staying in the hotel on site vs a local travellodge and premium parking which would have been a cheaper overall deal.

In fact we live an hour away, so I could have just driven over in the morning. Stopping in the hotel really didnt feel all that special or part of the experience.
 
yes it may be cold and wet at Towers, but everything is open and those q times
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I had a bit of time today so decided to tally up the TripAdvisor scores from 19th March onwards (to avoid some of the snow complaints which Towers couldnt control).

The majority of complaints revolve around closed rides, queues and Easter but overall, it would seem that guests are just about happy with their experience although a theme park generally which is getting it right should have a significant sway towards the "happy" side.

Those who rated it:

1 star = 71 people (23.7%)
2 stars = 51 people (17.1%)
3 stars = 41 people (13.7%)
4 stars = 60 people (20.1%)
5 stars = 76 people (25.4%)

(unhappy - 1 + 2 stars = 41% happy - 4 + 5 stars = 45%)

So its basically two opposite ends of the scale here, you are either really unhappy, or very happy with your day out. I bet if there was further research the people who gave it 4 or 5 stars are those who went in the week, while those who gave it less are those who went over the Easter holidays and on the weekends.

Will be interesting to see how these scores change during one of the peak summer months.....
 
There is that, but aren't people who have had a bad time more likely to stop by TripAdvisor and leave a bad review, than people who have had a good time, who are just less likely to leave a review at all? I think it's possible that the true figures for guests who were satisfied with their visit to Towers are probable slightly higher than what you've calculated from the reviews on TripAdvisor @GaryH.
 
I often struggle with five star reviews...I often feel they are false reviews set up by professional reviewers for the benefit of the business involved, or placed by staff at the instruction of management.
Not saying that Merlin would stoop so low, but I know of two local restaurants that suddenly received a number of five star first reviews from brand new reviewers.
There are also the lowlife reviewers who request extras on the threat of a negative review after a minor issue...I've had horror tales from more than one Blackpool B&B owner.
 
Robert.W said:
There is that, but aren't people who have had a bad time more likely to stop by TripAdvisor and leave a bad review, than people who have had a good time, who are just less likely to leave a review at all? I think it's possible that the true figures for guests who were satisfied with their visit to Towers are probable slightly higher than what you've calculated from the reviews on TripAdvisor @GaryH.
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Very true and I don't think any system is 100% accurate however, a lot of people do actually go to TA to leave a positive review. Would be very interesting to compare this against Towers own data from their touch screens across the resort!
 
Yeah. There has been a few times when we've been asked if we'd like to leave a review on the iPads at Towers. There was also one time when we left a rather bad review after a seriously underwhelming lunch at Woodcutters, although the staff didn't ask us to leave a review that time! Generally I think people are much more compelled to leave a review when they've had a bad experience, so even at the resort, I imagine there are still quite a few negative reviews left on the iPads.
 
GaryH said:
Very true and I don't think any system is 100% accurate however, a lot of people do actually go to TA to leave a positive review. Would be very interesting to compare this against Towers own data from their touch screens across the resort!
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Robert.W said:
Yeah. There has been a few times when we've been asked if we'd like to leave a review on the iPads at Towers. There was also one time when we left a rather bad review after a seriously underwhelming lunch at Woodcutters, although the staff didn't ask us to leave a review that time! Generally I think people are much more compelled to leave a review when they've had a bad experience, so even at the resort, I imagine there are still quite a few negative reviews left on the iPads.
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According to Head of Product Excellence, Wayne Burton,

Although I can’t reveal numbers, Alton is already up there among the best in the Merlin KPI league tables.
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https://blooloop.com/features/wicker-man-alton-towers-wooden-coaster/
 
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