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2018: Park Operations & Ride Availability

A couple of remarks from today.

Wickerman was running well (train on brake run and train on lift simultaneously). The Smiler had fairly long queues all day, whereas whenever we did Oblivion it was walk-on!

Galactica wasn’t using any VR at all (perhaps there’s a problem with it, or simply understaffed?), regardless, in the middle of the day, the queue was pretty short.

Meanwhile, over at Rita, a whopping throughput of 450pph was being reached! Well done Alton Towers, going above and beyond! Didn’t help that the trains was being filled with 4 Fastrack guests each. That queue was painfully slow, and took about 45 mins from the scaffolding.
 
I’m sure this must be a mistake - but ridetimes is currently stating that the Rapids, Duel and RMT are on the ERT line up, with all rides scheduled to be open for 10am at the latest.
 
As well as Wickerman and The Numtums Number-Go-Round saying they will be open at 9:30, not saying ERT? This is strange...

Update: Wickerman now says ERT. The summer 11 O'clock rides are still saying ERT and The Numtums is saying 'Come Back Later'. Maybe they are moving towards what Thorpe are doing with there queue times, giving more accurate infomation when it comes to rides ceasing operation. (Such as Weather Delay or Guest illness)
 
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Riding Oblivion yesterday we were told by the ride op as we came into the station to pull our restraints back down if we wanted to stay on :eek:
Even though there were people waiting at the gates.
The first and only time I’ve had a reride on Blivvy

Think the sun must have gone to their head or something.
 
I'm not going say much more on this because I pretty much said it all in the other thread.

Everyone wants something for free, I guess that's a societal thing.

If it works for Center Parcs, good luck to them.
 
I wouldn't say everyone wants something for free, but in the past, companies used to treat their employees with some respect. Pay your employees a decent wage, look after them and in return they will go above and beyond for you. When you are paid a poor wage, work very hard and get very little out of it, then why do a good job when just satisfactory will do? Its evident looking at the state of housekeeping this year.
 
@GaryH Alton are offering subsidised transport which is far and away a step up from what the majority of workers in that industry/role are getting. I think it's ok that there is a cost associated with earning money. I'll stretch to you finishing at 4AM and your boss scoring you a taxi so you don't have to walk.

Again, it seems to be inconsistent. I can only refer to my own experiences and housekeeping was fine for my three nights this season (2 EV, 1 ATH).
 
I agree with you fully that it's unfortunate that jobs are not in some cases meritocratic in this country @GaryH , but at the same time, I think that if it is highlighted to jobseekers that the bus is not a fully paid expense, then should they choose to apply, they have no right to complain.
And I do think @Rick is correct on the culture of everyone wanting everything for free. We can't let anyone get in to that mindset, as it could have worrying implications on our economy. As a large company with heavy influence on global markets, I certainly wouldn't want to instill those values and start giving employees too much for nothing. As much as I am a hard critic of their business practice, I believe subsidizing may be the right approach in this instance.
That being said, I'm not defending Merlin's overall business practice by any means, and I don't think we should be shocked that confidence in the company is still in decline. Merlin should be thankful that this is the 'high investment' year of their CAPEX cycle and that we've had some of the best weather in recent times, else I think the RTP branch would be stagnant or declining too.
 
Rick said:
I'm not going say much more on this because I pretty much said it all in the other thread.

Everyone wants something for free, I guess that's a societal thing.

If it works for Center Parcs, good luck to them.
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It’s not getting something for free it’s just economics, centreparcs is located in the countryside with minimal public transport, it’s almost certainly cheaper to pay the transport costs for minimum wage staff than it is to pay an increase in wages and associated on-costs such as NI to a point where commuting becomes viable for staff.

I’m no capitalist but I always thought the whole point was demand drove the market, if you can’t attract staff then you have to make the job more tempting. Towers have depended on cheap European labour for the hotel side of the business and a certain idiotic national decision has dried up that workforce.

And the brits won’t get out of bed for what they are offering.......
 
We could always argue why the carpark charges were first introduced? New bypass and for enviromental transport. A staff bus would cost <25 cars fees a day to run?
 
@Dave Agreed - but they're trying not to inflate the wage bill and pay some of the transport fee, rather than all. If retention hits levels where it causes big problems, I guess they'll make a decision as to which approach they take.
 
Dave said:
It’s not getting something for free it’s just economics, centreparcs is located in the countryside with minimal public transport, it’s almost certainly cheaper to pay the transport costs for minimum wage staff than it is to pay an increase in wages and associated on-costs such as NI to a point where commuting becomes viable for staff..
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Whilst I agree that this true, I don't think this answers the point I was trying to make. What you are essentially saying is based the assumption that commuting is not already viable. Even on the wage they are currently on, I'm pretty sure all things covered, there is no need to raise wage levels or pay for free transport, ergo it is affordable. Either way, they have subsidized bus travel, is a good decision that is enough to make signing up for the company attractive.
Essentially, I was defending Rick's point that them subsidizing it to the extent that it is free is not necessary, not making any point about them needing to change wages or subsidize further (as much as this may be wanted in the ideal world where a meritocracy exists)
 
Rick said:
@Dave Agreed - but they're trying not to inflate the wage bill and pay some of the transport fee, rather than all. If retention hits levels where it causes big problems, I guess they'll make a decision as to which approach they take.
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As someone who manages a pretty big area of an organisation if my Chief Executive had to make excuses for something so trivial as getting what is bluntly a low skilled role in an employee rich market in the team I doubt I would be in the role much longer and thats the public sector.......

I know you feel different but Merlin just feel to me to be a badly managed organisation even before you add the issues geeks like us have with them.

Sauron97 said:
Whilst I agree that this true, I don't think this answers the point I was trying to make. What you are essentially saying is based the assumption that commuting is not already viable. Even on the wage they are currently on, I'm pretty sure all things covered, there is no need to raise wage levels or pay for free transport, ergo it is affordable. Either way, they have subsidized bus travel, is a good decision that is enough to make signing up for the company attractive.
Essentially, I was defending Rick's point that them subsidizing it to the extent that it is free is not necessary, not making any point about them needing to change wages or subsidize further (as much as this may be wanted in the ideal world where a meritocracy exists)
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I think you give the company too much credit, my mother used to work for their parant organisation and they are not that altruistic to their staff base.
 
Oh don’t worry I can 100% believe that, and fully empathize! @Dave I loathe them as a company too, and I agree that top down decisions have been awful. But on this particular issue, I don’t believe they are at fault/made the wrong decision.
 
Unfortunately, shoddy treatment of minimum wage staff is all too common within businesses such as Merlin, which is why they get a sub par work ethic much of the time.

We have a Romanian cleaner for our department who works for an agency.

When she first started, I introduced her to the team as I would with any new employee, making sure everybody made her feel welcome and she had a tea ready for her when she arrived every morning.

She's always on time and regularly stays beyond her allocated hours voluntarily to make sure everything is done and to a high standard.

I was shocked when she told me that many of the other places she'd worked had never given her thank you and some barely even knew her name.

You need to give people a reason to want to work for you regardless of wage, not just expect them to which I suspect is going on at most Merlin attractions.

There's no additional cost to treating employees like human beings instead of commodities and it makes for a happier place to work.
 
Really poor to see what appears to be deliberate queue building on both Rita & Thi3teen this morning. holding full trains for a few mins and empty trains going round on both.
 
Atrocious operations on Rita today, extremely slow dispatches and it has broken down twice (we have been in the queue both times so haven't got on yet).

Typical unreliable Intamin.
 
Coaster said:
Atrocious operations on Rita today, extremely slow dispatches and it has broken down twice (we have been in the queue both times so haven't got on yet).

Typical unreliable Intamin.
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According to Ride Times it's on a 30 minute queue at the minute. ;)
 
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