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2018: Park Operations & Ride Availability

I'm back from a lovey day at Alton today.

Disappointing to see that the staggered opening times are back in place. It was great to see that Oblivion was on ERT.. Ride operations were a lot better to day than my previous trips this season and the queue waiting was down to the best minimum that I've seen all season. I must have just had a lucky day as when I went on Rita, everyone went straight pass Rita's front row queue line, so I manage to get straight on front row without queuing :)

Manage my first re-ride (one boat!) on the rapids this season today due to short queue line.

Would have like to have seen DF rides open at least by 10.30.

The cable cars were running by 11am too.

Nemisis was running on two trains.

So overall, not a bad day today :)

I also notice that there wasn't many single riders in the queue lines compared to what would have normally be in the single riders queue, which goes to show how many groups were using the SRQ in previous seasons as a means to using it as a free fast track on the basis that they were prepared for their group to be split up, however in previous seasons, I did see many groups entering the SRQ line manage to wrangle it so that they did ride together. So I can see that this was one of the reasons for Alton to justify in getting rid of the SRQ

I was speaking to one of our staff friends (no names or what department mentioned), they pointed out to us that this season is the first time that they have had ride closing of 4pm in June and how ridiculous it is. Take in consideration that ERT was also cut as well as most rides opening at 11am, ride opening times is very poor for June, this staff member went on to say that Merlin are to blame as they have considerably slashed the budgets this season.
 
RoyJess said:
I'm back from a lovey day at Alton today.

Disappointing to see that the staggered opening times are back in place. It was great to see that Oblivion was on ERT.. Ride operations were a lot better to day than my previous trips this season and the queue waiting was down to the best minimum that I've seen all season. I must have just had a lucky day as when I went on Rita, everyone went straight pass Rita's front row queue line, so I manage to get straight on front row without queuing :)

Manage my first re-ride (one boat!) on the rapids this season today due to short queue line.

Would have like to have seen DF rides open at least by 10.30.

The cable cars were running by 11am too.

Nemisis was running on two trains.

So overall, not a bad day today :)

I also notice that there wasn't many single riders in the queue lines compared to what would have normally be in the single riders queue, which goes to show how many groups were using the SRQ in previous seasons as a means to using it as a free fast track on the basis that they were prepared for their group to be split up, however in previous seasons, I did see many groups entering the SRQ line manage to wrangle it so that they did ride together. So I can see that this was one of the reasons for Alton to justify in getting rid of the SRQ

I was speaking to one of our staff friends (no names or what department mentioned), they pointed out to us that this season is the first time that they have had ride closing of 4pm in June and how ridiculous it is. Take in consideration that ERT was also cut as well as most rides opening at 11am, ride opening times is very poor for June, this staff member went on to say that Merlin are to blame as they have considerably slashed the budgets this season.
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Did the park close at 16:00 today? And if so we're the queue lines kept open up to that time?
 
Most of the park replies you see on TripAdvisor are all copy & paste jobs full of marketing guff that I'm guessing people are slowing starting to see through...

I think half the issue is that the response are always the same... People don't think their comments are being dealt with because it's always "we'll pass it onto the relevant department", which of course is what should be happening (whether it is or not is a different matter entirely, though I have visions of the complaints department effectively being a furnace to fuel the Poole HQ central heating)...
 
speedy said:
Did the park close at 16:00 today? And if so we're the queue lines kept open up to that time?
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Officially the ride closures were 4pm. However the area that I was in, I came off what I thought would be my last ride of the day, the entrance on the LED time board said that the ride was closed, but the ride host were still letting people on for another 5 to 10 minutes after 4pm, so I manage to sneak one more last ride in :)
 
Closing at 4pm in this weather is simply ridiculous. This is our summer now in May/early June. July n August never seem to be as good.

Worst thing about the 4pm close for me is that I have a 90 minute journey up the M6 to Manchester and all the work people are on the road too for rush hour. Used to prefer waiting till after 6 to leave to let the traffic die down.
 
Staggered openings and reduced capacity are fine as long as you give your guests a full day out and give them a chance to get round most of the rides, enjoy some food and enjoy the park surroundings at their own leisure.

But reduced operations and closing at an INSULTING 4PM is laughably amateur, even small fun fairs and local leisure parks outdo towers on this.
 
Wonder what people's opinions would be if the parks started doing the American approach, close most midweek days in the off-season and then longer hours (say 10-8 for Towers) on weekends/holidays?
 
It's a bit awkward because the bus doesn't leave until 17:20 so unless we get in a long queue at 4pm what do we do except stand for an hour?
 
speedy said:
It's a bit awkward because the bus doesn't leave until 17:20 so unless we get in a long queue at 4pm what do we do except stand for an hour?
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That's what I've done when getting the x52 (17:30 departure) on a 16:00 close day.
I've also roamed around the site for an hour.

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
 
Benzin said:
Wonder what people's opinions would be if the parks started doing the American approach, close most midweek days in the off-season and then longer hours (say 10-8 for Towers) on weekends/holidays?
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Maybe Thorpe is the trial site to see if it works in the UK? They closed a few more days this year but have added Thurs - Sat 10pm close.
 
Nemesis down for most of the day today, only opened late afternoon. Oblivion failed early afternoon and didn't seem to come back again. Apart from that the park coped ok on a busy day today, I did see a WickerMan train stuck on the lift hill for a few minutes too, but it didn't impact operations for long
 
Mikw said:
Nemesis down for most of the day today, only opened late afternoon. Oblivion failed early afternoon and didn't seem to come back again. Apart from that the park coped ok on a busy day today, I did see a WickerMan train stuck on the lift hill for a few minutes too, but it didn't impact operations for long
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We were on it when it stopped. Ride op climbed up to us and said.
“Tech services are on the way. So just sit back and chill and enjoy the view”
:D :rolleyes:
 
bluesonichd said:
We were on it when it stopped. Ride op climbed up to us and said.
“Tech services are on the way. So just sit back and chill and enjoy the view”
:D :rolleyes:
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Well it's a nice alternative to using up a golden ticket!
Super jealous of you!

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
 
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