• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

2019: General Discussion

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Could this mean that the park perhaps wasn't as successful as we thought in 2018?

If you ask me, 10am-4pm is still reasonably adequate time to do everything major in the park on a weekday. Sure, it's not the longest opening hours in the world, but it's enough to do everything, if you ask me. The park is probably very quiet on those days, and it's better than the park not being open at all, in my opinion! Many American theme parks only open on peak days (during weekends and holidays) with shorter operating seasons, so we definitely don't have it too bad; at least the park is still open on some days during the week!

The thing with later openings is that many British people simply don't want to stay at the park late, so Merlin probably can't justify opening later than 4-6pm. I read somewhere online that British people tend to treat a day out like a day at work (i.e. leave at 5pm), and I'd probably say that that's true from my experience. Whenever I query staying after about 5pm, my family normally says no.
 
Matt N said:
If you ask me, 10am-4pm is still reasonably adequate time to do everything major in the park on a weekday. Sure, it's not the longest opening hours in the world, but it's enough to do everything, if you ask me. The park is probably very quiet on those days, and it's better than the park not being open at all, in my opinion!
Click to expand...
Having only been able to visit once last year on a 10-4 day it seriously is not. It was still rather busy (hour for Galactica and 45 mins Wicker Man in particular stands out in my memory). Combined with how large the park is to just get from one end to the other takes up extra time.

It's truly pathetic.
 
Matt N said:
Could this mean that the park perhaps wasn't as successful as we thought in 2018?

If you ask me, 10am-4pm is still reasonably adequate time to do everything major in the park on a weekday. Sure, it's not the longest opening hours in the world, but it's enough to do everything, if you ask me. The park is probably very quiet on those days, and it's better than the park not being open at all, in my opinion! Many American theme parks only open on peak days (during weekends and holidays) with shorter operating seasons, so we definitely don't have it too bad; at least the park is still open on some days during the week!

The thing with later openings is that many British people simply don't want to stay at the park late, so Merlin probably can't justify opening later than 4-6pm. I read somewhere online that British people tend to treat a day out like a day at work (i.e. leave at 5pm), and I'd probably say that that's true from my experience. Whenever I query staying after about 5pm, my family normally says no.
Click to expand...

Like I said it's useless to those traveling from afar and only get to visit once a year. I want to stay as late as possible and do multiple rides if I can as it will be a year before I'm back again.
 
10-5 Should be the bare minimum. 10-6 for weekends and 10-7 for summer holidays. Instead we get awful opening times. I cannot defend a park for doing this.

Once again, this is said to be 'better than nothing' by enthusiasts and people wonder why the park doesn't change for the better
 
ihaveaspergers said:
Just because something is scheduled to open at 10 doesn't mean it will...

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
If a ride is scheduled to open at 10am, then I'm sure the only thing stopping it from opening at 10am would be technical difficulties, which every ride has from time to time.
 
Tbh I expected the opening times to be how they are. And it's just what it is, they're not gonna change them so no point moaning about it. Not happy with the ERT lineup though that is poor.
 
I'm surprised; I expected far worse. As long as they are actually willing to extend during the busier periods, it's a start.

Doubtful as ever that Wicker Man will actually open at half 9 however.
 
Ride close was extended 45 times last season. So that's certainly an improvement on the years before.

Rides opening late in the first half of last season was due to technical services. It improved from July onwards and I know the park are acutely focussed on avoiding a repeat of those issues in 2019.

Staggered openings are as they were at SF/fireworks (Duel/Rapids/Skyride/RMT).

:)

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 
Sometimes I wish this thread was in Pet Hates so I could curse to my hearts content.

Screw you Merlin with your god damn 10:00 - 16:00 open days and I can't believe, other than March (obviously), there's more CLOSED days in September than any other friggin month.

Damn it!...
 
Matt N said:
Could this mean that the park perhaps wasn't as successful as we thought in 2018?

If you ask me, 10am-4pm is still reasonably adequate time to do everything major in the park on a weekday. Sure, it's not the longest opening hours in the world, but it's enough to do everything, if you ask me. The park is probably very quiet on those days, and it's better than the park not being open at all, in my opinion!
Click to expand...
Successful or not, removal of 4pm closures was always unlikely, though I had hoped to see fewer. The problem with them is that though the park is quieter, several rides still attract long queues: WM as its new but Oblivion, Galactica and Smiled all run on lower capacity during the week which can result in long waits. A 45-60min queue on a 4pm close is a huge chunk of your day. Also remember that not everyone gets there for opening, people are usually still arriving at 11.30, fine for a 6pm close, rubbish for a 4pm. The majority of guests would have no chance of doing all the major rides - most of us would struggle even with a knowledge of how to plan the day to avoid the longest queues.
 
Matt N said:
Could this mean that the park perhaps wasn't as successful as we thought in 2018?

If you ask me, 10am-4pm is still reasonably adequate time to do everything major in the park on a weekday. Sure, it's not the longest opening hours in the world, but it's enough to do everything, if you ask me. The park is probably very quiet on those days, and it's better than the park not being open at all, in my opinion! Many American theme parks only open on peak days (during weekends and holidays) with shorter operating seasons, so we definitely don't have it too bad; at least the park is still open on some days during the week!

The thing with later openings is that many British people simply don't want to stay at the park late, so Merlin probably can't justify opening later than 4-6pm. I read somewhere online that British people tend to treat a day out like a day at work (i.e. leave at 5pm), and I'd probably say that that's true from my experience. Whenever I query staying after about 5pm, my family normally says no.
Click to expand...

Remember that people are PAYING for a visit to Alton Towers. It’s not some kind of charity for a free day out so people should be ‘grateful’ that the park is open at all. Purely based on the cost of entry, parking, food, etc etc the park is poor value. They continue to charge premium prices and deliver a service that is nothing like that. It’s BA prices and Ryanair service.

4pm closes will always be an embarrassment for the ‘UK’s largest theme park’.

They certainly won’t be getting any of my money this season :)
 
Last edited:
The likelihood is that now the hype for wicker man is over, the smiler will have the biggest queues. I expect wm to be 2nd most popular obvs tho and still get big queues
 
It's very mediocre for a park that saw a decent level of success with Wicker Man last year, 10am - 5pm in a park on Towers' scale is just poor value for money unless the park is dead; which isn't ideal.

On the four visits I had last year it was a struggle to get on everything even when the park was open until 6pm due to crowds, poor operations and/or not enough time; the rapids always had to be left due to having ridiculous queues and without all the features working anyway, it wasn't really worth waiting.

In relation to the ERT lineup, did it not used to be a much larger selection of coasters open from 9am - 10am? May be wrong but sure that's how I remember it initially.

It's just not fun having to spend your whole day rushing around to make sure you get on everything, and even then missing out on some of the filler attractions. Alton ideally needs to be open at least 10am - 6pm to offer a well rounded day out; either that, or operations need to improve hugely.
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top