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2019: General Discussion

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Ethan said:
Its pointless as no one would be there past 7
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If GaryH is saying its incredibly busy today, I cant see what makes you think its pointless and that there would be no one there? + if its a nice evening I always think people are more inclined to stay.

I always think this hence why I harp on about crappy opening/closing times over the summer period. If its a gorgeous evening people aren't going to go "blimey look at the time, nearly time for bed." at 16:00pm 17:00pm whatever. Its more to do with Towers just wanting to usher the paying guests out.
 
Error said:
If GaryH is saying its incredibly busy today, I cant see what makes you think its pointless and that there would be no one there? + if its a nice evening I always think people are more inclined to stay.

I always think this hence why I harp on about crappy opening/closing times over the summer period. If its a gorgeous evening people aren't going to go "blimey look at the time, nearly time for bed." at 16:00pm 17:00pm whatever. Its more to do with Towers just wanting to usher the paying guests out.
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I am not trying to defend Merlin's woeful opening hours at Towers... however I can attest to the following, from back in the early 2000's under the Tussauds era when I worked there.

For all of August it was a 7pm ride close, with a Royal Marines Team Extreme show on the main lake at either 6:30 or 7pm (my memory fails me - getting old!) These 7pm ride closes / Team Extreme shows were very much lead by Towers marketing team, i.e. not the accountants.

Come 6pm most days, even with good weather, the park was very quiet. Often the last hour was just the same handful of hard-core people going round and round on the rides. In fairness, it must have cost Alton Towers a lot to keep the park open until 7pm back then, before the cost of hiring Team Extreme.

Given the relatively limited ride offering / location of Alton Towers, the park needs to provide something really different to keep people on park for longer - i.e. riding in the dark / a firework show. They are very limited as to when they can do this.
 
Kraken27 said:
Given the relatively limited ride offering / location of Alton Towers, the park needs to provide something really different to keep people on park for longer - i.e. riding in the dark / a firework show. They are very limited as to when they can do this.
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Could they offer discounted evening tickets?
 
Ethan said:
What were the operations like for the other rides today?
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Nemesis was open about an hour and a half late, Air was single station, everything else wasn’t too bad but que times were over an hour for everything most of the day. They did put an extra train on Oblivion though which helped!


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Half price, no discounts after 2pm.
My sister was a regular user with 2 kids living locally.
Drop them off on a 2 for 1 offer, then go back at 2 with the picnic.
 
Ethan said:
What were the operations like for the other rides today?
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It was only Rita and Galactica which were poor. Rita in particular. Nemesis was just flying out of the station, one in one out. Wickerman was on 3 trains and it was really good operations, fast dispatches.

We had a good day but only thanks to fasttrack. More flat rides are needed desperately to soak up the queues.

Plus thirteen being down for most of the day I don't think helped.

What was good however was staff at the entrance plaza letting everyone in at 9.45 because the queues were so big!
 
It doesn't help that the park are busy when they are only prepared for a certain number...

They need to get better at predicting guest numbers.
 
AstroDan said:
It doesn't help that the park are busy when they are only prepared for a certain number...

They need to get better at predicting guest numbers.
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It's impossible to predict really though. Yes they can base it off what it normally is like on that day but if it can easily be different
 
It isn't *really*. They have years of resources in terms of guest figures. Also, they should have prepared better for this weekend given it's the first weekend that season passholders have been able to get in since July...!
 
Ethan said:
It's impossible to predict really though. Yes they can base it off what it normally is like on that day but if it can easily be different
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It's much easier now than it once was, with online (and other committed visitors in the resort etc) making up a higher percentage of guests than before.
 
Which year was it they surprised towers by turning up on a different weekend? I can deal with them, I’m going with some friends on the 6th of October and I’m a bit worried I’ve picked the wrong day for them to go.
 
Galactica is often staffed for 1 station if the park is expected to be quiet, or maybe 1 station until a certain time on medium days. Less visible low staffing will no doubt be going on elsewhere, with varying impact on guests if it turns out to be busier than expected.

I wouldn't be surprised if the large number of season pass holders and people using vouchers on the day means that online sales make up a relatively low proportion of total guest numbers, which may not always translate accurately to a final figure. They probably don't have much idea of how the end of the season pass blackout days affects things either, given this is a relatively new phenomenon for them to consider. Maybe they're tracking all this and will plan accordingly next year. Or maybe they'll be caught off guard again like they have been this weekend.
 
The problem is it’s still cheaper to turn up with a BOGOF on the day than to pre book, I’m not actually sure why you would pre book, as you are tied down to a day (weather could be awful) and you will pay more than just buying a packet of crisps and using a voucher. And this is where towers won’t ever be able to predict how many guests they will get.

You only have to look at the 100s of people stood in the cattlepen waiting to buy tickets. If you book online you get a ticket on your phone/print at home so you don’t need to queue. So can only assume majority of these people are using BOGOF or buying season passes.

I do think towers need to make online the best value entry, they will be able to predict guest figures far better than they can now.
 
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