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2018: Park Operations & Ride Availability

AstroDan said:
Yes, that was me. Gosh was that really all those years ago!

Oblivion's Fanta sponsorship seems like nothing compared to the issues now!

:)
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Thought so!

And yes, I agree that Oblivion's Fanta sponsorship seems like a rather minor nitpick compared to the issues people are complaining about now!
 
N Varney (2011):

"Late 1990’s to 2006 : stagnating visitor attendance is not rescued by the odd ride launch. Cost cutting removes shows and contributes to significant falls in customer satisfaction. Family groups fall off again and the park loses its national market"

Ermm...

Did someone say cost cutting?
 
From TS Facebook:

Ride Close extended till 6pm today, tomorrow and all weekend.

:)
 
AstroDan said:
From TS Facebook:

Ride Close extended till 6pm today, tomorrow and all weekend.

:)
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Woohoo! Hopefully this means longer opening hours in the future!

With regards to opening hours, I've got a suggestion to make about what they could do. They could do it like:
Winter weekdays:10am-5pm
Winter weekends & holidays:10am-6pm
Summer weekdays:10am-6pm
Summer weekends & holidays:10am-8pm
Scarefest & Fireworks:10am-10pm

What do you guys think of my ideas for opening hours?
 
Matt N said:
Woohoo! Hopefully this means longer opening hours in the future!

With regards to opening hours, I've got a suggestion to make about what they could do. They could do it like:
Winter weekdays:10am-5pm
Winter weekends & holidays:10am-6pm
Summer weekdays:10am-6pm
Summer weekends & holidays:10am-8pm
Scarefest & Fireworks:10am-10pm

What do you guys think of my ideas for opening hours?
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Calm down, dear.

They will only extend when they feel it makes business sense to do so, or there's been some major problems with availability.

Sadly 8pm or 10pm is totally unlikely.
 
I'm all for positivity when I feel something warrants it - Wicker Man, for example, is fantastic (though that is already succumbing to the wrath of Merlin with fire effects already broken).

Unfortunately, I simply have nothing positive to say about park operations at present. Ride staggered opening times are terrible, actual opening times are farcical. Reliability issues parkwide and seemingly not enough resources to rectify these. 6pm extension is good, but shouldn't this be the standard closing time during weekends and holidays? Sarcastic responses on social channels. The list goes on...

I reiterate my point made earlier on in this thread, this is NOT what people pay for.
 
Matt N said:
Woohoo! Hopefully this means longer opening hours in the future!

With regards to opening hours, I've got a suggestion to make about what they could do. They could do it like:
Winter weekdays:10am-5pm
Winter weekends & holidays:10am-6pm
Summer weekdays:10am-6pm
Summer weekends & holidays:10am-8pm
Scarefest & Fireworks:10am-10pm

What do you guys think of my ideas for opening hours?
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Would never happpen.

Why open in winter when rides can’t operate in poor weather due to “enhanced safety”
These extended hours for tomorrow / weekend will only be to fend off negative aspects of how the park is currently operating.

Less of a rush at plaza, the staggered rides opening less of issue etc.
 
ringo said:
Why open in winter when rides can’t operate in poor weather due to “enhanced safety”
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I should probably rephrase that. By "Winter", I meant the colder months of the park's present operating calendar, like say March, April, September and non-Scarefest days in October, for example.
 
Coaster said:
I'm all for positivity when I feel something warrants it - Wicker Man, for example, is fantastic (though that is already succumbing to the wrath of Merlin with fire effects already broken).
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What wrath? Explain to me, I am curious. Are you suggesting that....
  • Merlin deliberately have switched them off to save money
  • Merlin deliberately selected a supplier who was cheaper - but who they knew was going to provide them with substandard kit?
Or something else? Please, I am genuinely curious.
 
Coaster said:
I'm all for positivity when I feel something warrants it - Wicker Man, for example, is fantastic (though that is already succumbing to the wrath of Merlin with fire effects already broken).
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To be absolutely clear, the flame effects are being worked on and will be back in use as soon as they are fixed. Them being out of use is nothing to do with budgets, cost or anything.
 
Again, while it is good to see that ride closes are being extended, I personally feel they do very little to compensate for days full of poor operations, ride availability and late openings.

If you are having a poor day and are disappointed by or before 2/3pm, especially if you have a fair journey home, you are likely to just go home. I certainly didn’t feel like staying through another hour when I visited the other week. While it is a good gesture, the park should be open until 6pm anyway, and it certainly didn’t make me think ‘Wow! Alton Towers really care!’.
 
Ollie said:
Again, while it is good to see that ride closes are being extended, I personally feel they do very little to compensate for days full of poor operations, ride availability and late openings.

If you are having a poor day and are disappointed by or before 2/3pm, especially if you have a fair journey home, you are likely to just go home. I certainly didn’t feel like staying through another hour when I visited the other week. While it is a good gesture, the park should be open until 6pm anyway, and it certainly didn’t make me think ‘Wow! Alton Towers really care!’.
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I think the park need to apologise more obviously.
 
Rick said:
What wrath? Explain to me, I am curious. Are you suggesting that....
  • Merlin deliberately have switched them off to save money
  • Merlin deliberately selected a supplier who was cheaper - but who they knew was going to provide them with substandard kit?
Or something else? Please, I am genuinely curious.
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The same wrath that sees once world-class dark rides decrepit and unimpressive (Tomb Blaster, Bubbleworks in its last few years, Duel - yes, even after the refurbishment), error screens on The Smiler's projectors, clear water in the "blood" waterfall, pieces of theming torn out of ride stations and general poor maintenance of anything other than the required maintenance of the ride hardware. The Swarm's station looked great back in 2012, anyone seen it this year? It's a disgrace.

Of course, there are exceptions to this - Nemesis' station looks fantastic this year.

If Wicker Man's fire effects genuinely have an unavoidable issue then that's a different story, but taking into consideration the track record Merlin parks have of maintaining thematic elements and effects, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume this is more of the same. With previous investments, Merlin have done BOTH of the bullet points you have raised - Derren Brown's Ghost Train anyone?
 
Despite having a MAP i've only been once this year so far...the day wicker man officially opened

I queued twice (i say i...it was me the mrs and 2 kids) for about 3.5 hours in total and didn't get on unfortunately

The rest of the day was a total waste of time and we left early afternoon for our 100 mile drive home

As each following weekend approaches i think about a return trip but i just can't bring myself to do it....hopefully i'll feel different after the school holidays when they'll hopefully sort themselves our...or maybe if i look at ride times on my phone at 10 and 11 and everything has opened on time!

I've been visiting Alton Towers every year without fail since the mid 80's and i've never felt like this...trust it to happen the year after i introduced my kids to the place and they got the bug like i did many years ago
 
Looking at the weather for next week, it s forcast to be breezy. Could that affect the operations of Wickerman and the other coasters?
 
skyscraper said:
Looking at the weather for next week, it s forcast to be breezy. Could that affect the operations of Wickerman and the other coasters?
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It has to be pretty windy to stop rides.

Oblivion and The Smiler will be first to suffer in high winds.
 
rob666 said:
Sorry Matt, that came across as rather harsh, I shouldn't have expressed myself as bluntly, other things on my mind recently.
Absolutely nothing wrong with being a happy clapper.
And there is nothing better than a healthy debate.
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That's absolutely fine @rob666, don't worry about it! I know that on some other forums, I would have been treated much more harshly than that!

For example, I was having a fun little read through TTSP's Thirteen reviews topic from 8 years ago, and a member in there linked to a review on another forum that I am not going to name, where the head of said forum rode Thirteen and said that it was "a Vekoma Rollerskater with a cheap gimmick at the end" and that "the only psychological challenge involved with it is "how long are we going to wait for it?"" Now, someone disagreed with the head of this forum, saying that the families riding the attraction seemed to like it, and that it was a good ride. The head of this forum then told them to "Shut the hell up with [their] Alton Towers fanboy attitude." and warned that if anyone else countered their "expert opinions", then they would be banned. If I were like this on the forum I just mentioned, then I would likely have been banned a long time ago. So thank you to everyone on here for putting up with me, and sorry for getting on everyone's nerves.

Anyway, on a more on-topic note, operations actually got very good towards the end of the day today. Nemmy had just a 5 minute queue!
 
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