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2018: Park Operations & Ride Availability

For me Merlin have been making cuts since the moment they brought the group.
Under Tussaud’s the only SBNO ride was the Black Hole and when a ride was removed it was replaced the following season.
If you think about it CBeebies area just reopened with the same ride line up but just rethemed. There 2 more rides and a another show added since then.
X sector gained the Smiler but we lost Submission
Cloud cuckoo land has the Twirling toadstools in Pieces and Charlie,4D cinema and Wombleworld all SBNO.
Dark Forest lost the Ug swinger such a wasted space.
Forbidden Valley Ripsaw replaced by a games stall and Sub Terra looking like a Screamfest attraction/maze only
Mutury Bay is the only area to have more rides and attractions in it now.
So if guests are happy to pay £55 to get a season pass or pay £55 with a 2 for 1 voucher it’s up to them if they want to spend more money on fast track tickets or Risk queuing all day just for all the SW coasters.
 
spinba11 said:
Regarding off peak closing, I think if they really cared about us they would open the park on the days that it makes a loss but the busy times like summer and scarefest would more than make up for it.
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I fully agree, the part and parcel of any bushiness is that you don't always make a profit, you will also have days that you make a loss.

It's all been down hill since Merlin was floated on the stock market.

Just out of interest, how much of the shares do Merlin own? Is it more than 50% or less? If it's the latter, then its the share holders that are running the parks
 
It feels as though Merlin are subscribers to Friedman's theory of Shock Capitalism. Absolute throttle funding, leave decisions to private investors in hope of everything will even itself out eventually.
 
I know ride times can be inaccurate and us folk that observe them occasionally are deemed to be sad, blah, blah, blah. Galactica is busiest on park currently showing 45 mins and Wickerman showing 5 mins.

I know what queue I'd be in, again and again.
 
Well after 3 days of park closure at any given time there have been 3 rides down from opening so far today.

Mustn't have been enough fastrack sold this morning.

Poor show.

EDIT:

Down to one now, Nemesis. Maybe staggered openings are back and they're keeping it secret.
 
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What happened to September weekdays being one of the best times to visit!? I guess with the park being closed on some days during the week, more people are there on the days they are open.

:)
 
Rob said:
What happened to September weekdays being one of the best times to visit!? I guess with the park being closed on some days during the week, more people are there on the days they are open.

:)
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That's one of the reasons I won't be visiting this September midweek like I always have done in the past as they are condensing 5 days worth of trade into 2 days, ok some people will be like me and won't be able to go due to midweek days off falling on the wrong day. But quite a few will just change the planned day of visiting.

On Tuesday in 6 hours at BPB I managed to get on 43 rides without really trying, granted BPB is a lot smaller and you can get off one ride and onto another far quicker, but today at Alton Towers I would be lucky to have got on 10 rides and thats bypassing the hour long wait some have had just to get tickets with my season pass.

Sad to say but Alton Towers just isn't fun anymore and certainly not worth the petrol money form Bolton and the food and drinks for the day.
 
Don't forget that guest could also get a season ticket for the price of a day's entry, so I should imagine many would be making use of the pass.

I too also have concerns for Scarefest and Fireworks this year, I doubt that I will be pre-booking any overnight stays for these events next season.
 
At the moment it's 100mins for The Smiler, 70 mins Th13teen and average around 40mins for the others with Nemmy still closed, on a 6 hour day as well!!
 
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