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2019: General Discussion

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Lurker said:
But they don't do very well with food and beverage. I've not seen any food that is photo worthy in Alton towers, it mostly looks quite sad.
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They have tried a little, Rollercoaster Restaurant of course is very Instagrammable and the burger buns have the logo on the top. Also the toadstool themed burger buns at Crooked Spoon. Both are a good start but there is a lot more they could do.
Decent ice cream sundaes or similar would be good for photos.
 
Lurker said:
One area Alton towers could really improve is creating social media moments, the kind of things that people want to take photos of, and share them with their friends.

One example of Alton towers doing really well on this recently is their large theming centerpieces - who hasn't taken a photo of Wickerman!

But they don't do very well with food and beverage. I've not seen any food that is photo worthy in Alton towers, it mostly looks quite sad.

Themed walls for Instagram photos, interesting benches and things to pose by also work.

These kind of things help show off the best side of the park, it's marketing. It's also how people look back on their trip, and the photo that can inspire them to come back. There is plenty of room for improvement in 'memory' making - maybe they could work on this, it's a win-win.
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I bet you a fiver someone at Towers has just written this down on their ideas pad. Well said.
 
Could I add I haven't taken any pictures of Wickerman...not a one.
Food wise, the standard has dropped over the years for me...we used to eat out at the Swiss Cottage, later on mum used to queue for the railway carriage while I queued for the Corkscrew, she got quite skilled at monitoring both queues for getting a table as I got on the ride.
Standards dropped overall when they kicked the brands out...now I generally just eat from Eastern Express.
For the last decade a posh picnic in express parking has been the solution to queues and lower standards on park.
The issues for me now are the loss of single rider queues, coupled with the "dead day closures"...no more days of thirty ride counts.
Once the smart m6 is finished I might get a pass.
 
Kraken27 said:
Just a reminder - Merlin claim to be second only to Disney Corporation. The latter are experts at extracting money from you [lots of it] but they run parks that have plenty of rides, reliable rides, very high standards of theming / maintenance, decent opening hours, decent hotels, a wide range of food & beverage offer etc.... I could go on.
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I’m a big Disney fan but ride reliability is not a strong point. Every time I’ve been to a Disney park over the last few years, there’s been a major ride getting a refurb. I went to DLP recently and space mountain broke down 3 times, it’s lucky they are open late as otherwise I wouldn’t have got on it at all, I think it was about 9pm I finally got on. I also remember regular break downs for pirates of the Caribbean and one or two others.

The queues are also absolutely horrendous at Disney.

Again, I’m a fan of Disney parks, but let’s not cloud the truth.
 
2019 ticket prices (2018 prices in brackets):

Adult Gate: £56 (£55)
Adult online 5+ days ahead: £33 (£33)

Child Gate: £48 (£48)
Child online 5+ days ahead: £27.50 (£27.50)

Express parking is now booktable for 2019 and remains at £16 which suggests standard parking has probably been held at £6 but is by no means a guarantee.

So not much change at all, I suppose since they are adding an upcharge attraction as their main draw for 2019 it’s to be expected.
 
ringo said:
:D How though when you have to get out the car and walk to the plaza to get a ticket and then go back to car to put it on windscreen.
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Towards the morning if they expect it to be busy they have someone standing at the express entrance with a chip and pin machine

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Is there even a source to suggest this figure? Feels like it was just a random number thought up on the spot
 
As much as I get what Alton are trying to do here, I'm not sure if links to economical spending and Brexit is the best way to go about it. I thought theme parks were supposed to be places where you could escape politics?
 
This is so ironic. Literally a brexit style figure pulled out of the air and then the figure is based on the effects of brexit :)
 
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