2019: General Discussion

[Rob]

I'm sure AT did it in the past ....... I think it was for Thirteen when it had that period of downtime not long after it opened....

I epxect they would for a new ride not long after opening, yes. Theme parks are not in the business of promoting when their rides are down for a period of time, all it will do is put people off from going which does not make sense.

It's not hard to know that Wicker Man is down anyway. The media have picked up on it.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

TS Users: Wow Alton Towers should be more engaging in social media like Thorpe Park and Universal.

Alton Towers: *announces meme competition to increase social media engagement*

TS Users: bUt WhY nO oNe AsKeD fOr ThIs!!!1!

 

[IanSR]

Pretty sure Thorpe did when Swarm broke last year, same for when the launch mechanism broke on Stealth, I distinctly remember them tweeting that it would be closed for at least six weeks while they waited for the part, they also have a scroller across the top of their website that details any known ride closures that day.

 

[ringo]

Even a small park like Oakwood let’s people know the ride availability each day / announce rides with ongoing downtime.

Merlin parks have done it before as well as mentioned Thorpe have.

Someone will point out ride availability is covered by the T&Cs but it’s just common courtesy to let people know if something is unavailable for a while.

 

[stealthyjim]

Thorpe definitely used to years ago, remember doing stealth watch ahead of my first ever visit

I do remember Thorpe posting detailed updates on stealth's repair a couple of years ago. I think it's reasonable not to expect them to massively publicise it, but a bit of transparency from towers would go a long way.

 

[ringo]

It doesn’t need to go into specific detail, just a simple “we apologise but ***** ride is unavailable today”

Given the 2019 priorities for guests it’s amazing we’re even having this conversation, product excellence should of already implemented it, enterprise has been down so far all season but the website makes no mention of it.

 

[stealthyjim]

It doesn’t need to go into specific detail, just a simple “we apologise but ***** ride is unavailable today”

Given the 2019 priorities for guests it’s amazing we’re even having this conversation, product excellence should of already implemented it, enterprise has been down so far all season but the website makes no mention of it.

Completely agree, just some sort of indication before people might have to leave to get to the park. At least it allows them to make a decision - and stops them having to answer hundreds of questions about wicker man every day!

 

[stealthyjim]

Always good to see some positive news about AT, in a time where news are only interested in sensationalism

They've already jumped on the wicker man closure for clicks

 

[GothMonsieur]

Considering this year was supposed to win our confidence in the park back, at least to a certain extent, I think they've done a pretty poor job in living up to our expectations thus far. With poor communication about ride closures, enterprise failing to reopen almost halfway into the season and the 'power of the towers' being nothing more than a marketing gimmick that the park themselves hasn't seemed to use since the beginning of the season, my enthusiasm for every visit seems to be fading gradually which is a huge shame. The park looks straight up dead in some areas with the empty space and closed food stalls everywhere. The rapids, which could almost certainly run as they used to, especially now that the modified boats have been implemented, remain the sole water ride which often fails to get you even a little wet and operations are still pretty inconsistent. Opening hours are still pathetic for a park this popular and Merlin really comes across as a business who doesn't know what to do with the place. Thorpe park has been treated much better this year with all of their smaller, almost festival-like seasonal additions which actually add incentive for some to revisit multiple times throughout the year. Towers doesn't seem to be offering any sort of reason to make repeat visits this year other than some tacky meme challenge thing and a rather tired sounding scarefest with more or less the same line-up as the last few years and, despite guest feedback about the lack of atmosphere on park, still no scare-zones. It's honestly embarrassing and it's causing me to become very cynical about a place I still love and hold very close.

End rant.

 

[imanautie]

Considering this year was supposed to win our confidence in the park back, at least to a certain extent, I think they've done a pretty poor job in living up to our expectations thus far. With poor communication about ride closures, enterprise failing to reopen almost halfway into the season and the 'power of the towers' being nothing more than a marketing gimmick that the park themselves hasn't seemed to use since the beginning of the season, my enthusiasm for every visit seems to be fading gradually which is a huge shame. The park looks straight up dead in some areas with the empty space and closed food stalls everywhere. The rapids, which could almost certainly run as they used to, especially now that the modified boats have been implemented, remain the sole water ride which often fails to get you even a little wet and operations are still pretty inconsistent. Opening hours are still pathetic for a park this popular and Merlin really comes across as a business who doesn't know what to do with the place. Thorpe park has been treated much better this year with all of their smaller, almost festival-like seasonal additions which actually add incentive for some to revisit multiple times throughout the year. Towers doesn't seem to be offering any sort of reason to make repeat visits this year other than some tacky meme challenge thing and a rather tired sounding scarefest with more or less the same line-up as the last few years and, despite guest feedback about the lack of atmosphere on park, still no scare-zones. It's honestly embarrassing and it's causing me to become very cynical about a place I still love and hold very close.

End rant.

The park very much has been using power of the towers, one notable thing is randomly gifting guests with freebies.

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[Alastair]

Considering this year was supposed to win our confidence in the park back, at least to a certain extent, I think they've done a pretty poor job in living up to our expectations thus far. With poor communication about ride closures, enterprise failing to reopen almost halfway into the season and the 'power of the towers' being nothing more than a marketing gimmick that the park themselves hasn't seemed to use since the beginning of the season, my enthusiasm for every visit seems to be fading gradually which is a huge shame. The park looks straight up dead in some areas with the empty space and closed food stalls everywhere. The rapids, which could almost certainly run as they used to, especially now that the modified boats have been implemented, remain the sole water ride which often fails to get you even a little wet and operations are still pretty inconsistent. Opening hours are still pathetic for a park this popular and Merlin really comes across as a business who doesn't know what to do with the place. Thorpe park has been treated much better this year with all of their smaller, almost festival-like seasonal additions which actually add incentive for some to revisit multiple times throughout the year. Towers doesn't seem to be offering any sort of reason to make repeat visits this year other than some tacky meme challenge thing and a rather tired sounding scarefest with more or less the same line-up as the last few years and, despite guest feedback about the lack of atmosphere on park, still no scare-zones. It's honestly embarrassing and it's causing me to become very cynical about a place I still love and hold very close.

End rant.

Agreed. Didn't renew my MAP/season pass this year and will likely only go for fireworks. First time I won't have visited in the main season for many years. The place just isn't worth visiting nowadays - there's no incentive to go beyond reriding the old favourites.

 

[Steve74]

There's one fairly significant difference between Thorpe and Towers that people are forgetting when talking about publicising ride closures: Thorpe hasn't had a high-profile accident in recent years.

It's only a matter of time before the Daily Mail and others get hold of the news - the Derby Telegraph/Derbyshire Live has already - https://www-derbytelegraph-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org.

Alton Towers really don't want to help that along by announcing their signature ride is closed - and giving reasons. You can imagine the comments on those sites, referencing the Smiler etc. So I'm on AT's side on this one.

 

[Dan19F1]

And also adding to this, Thorpe haven’t exactly been great this season at advertising ride closures! Quantum hasn’t yet opened this season and that’s not mentioned on the website anywhere.

 

[Austin Towers]

There's one fairly significant difference between Thorpe and Towers that people are forgetting when talking about publicising ride closures: Thorpe hasn't had a high-profile accident in recent years.

It's only a matter of time before the Daily Mail and others get hold of the news - the Derby Telegraph/Derbyshire Live has already - https://www-derbytelegraph-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org.

Alton Towers really don't want to help that along by announcing their signature ride is closed - and giving reasons. You can imagine the comments on those sites, referencing the Smiler etc. So I'm on AT's side on this one.

I'm not. It's only right to keep paying guests informed that the ride is closed for an extended period. A broken theme park ride is hardly big tabloid news whether it's Alton Towers or not. The world knows about the smiler incident and any tabloid referring to it must have little else to print plus I'm sure most folk are fed up reading the same old news over and over again.

Towers should be advertising that Wickerman is unavailable until further notice so folk can make a decision on visiting or not. Yes it may hurt Towers a bit short term but guests turning up to find it unavailable and then finding out that has been down for some time, well that just hacks people off and affects return visits long term.

Enterprise should be advertised unavailable until further notice too.

 

[Doublethink]

I'm not. It's only right to keep paying guests informed that the ride is closed for an extended period. A broken theme park ride is hardly big tabloid news whether it's Alton Towers or not. The world knows about the smiler incident and any tabloid referring to it must have little else to print plus I'm sure most folk are fed up reading the same old news over and over again.

Towers should be advertising that Wickerman is unavailable until further notice so folk can make a decision on visiting or not. Yes it may hurt Towers a bit short term but guests turning up to find it unavailable and then finding out that has been down for some time, well that just hacks people off and affects return visits long term.

Enterprise should be advertised unavailable until further notice too.

Agreed. Disney (who let's not forget merlin claim to be second to in the industry) clearly list rides that are down for extended periods on their app...

 

[Kraken27]

Agreed. Disney (who let's not forget merlin claim to be second to in the industry) Disney clearly list rides that are down for extended periods on their app...

In slight defence to Towers, the Disney Parks do not have a closed season, so rides do have to be closed for maintenance / rehabs during the open season. I do agree that Disney plan this well and communicate it well in advance to guests. Also in Florida, they only ever close one water park at a time, in low-season, and again, this is communicated well in advance.

Back to Towers - there is simply no product excellence in the place. The park is just seen as a cash-cow by Merlin who cut the OPEX budget they give the park year on year, which leads to shorter hours, ride closures, food & beverage closures etc.

If Merlin are still claiming to be second only to Disney, then I am amazed that Disney have not got their legal team onto Merlin. Take Alton Towers and compare it to one of the Disney Parks in Florida - ever such a slight difference! One is a serious money-making machine & one is being run into the ground.

 

[venny]

Considering this year was supposed to win our confidence in the park back, at least to a certain extent, I think they've done a pretty poor job in living up to our expectations thus far. With poor communication about ride closures, enterprise failing to reopen almost halfway into the season and the 'power of the towers' being nothing more than a marketing gimmick that the park themselves hasn't seemed to use since the beginning of the season, my enthusiasm for every visit seems to be fading gradually which is a huge shame. The park looks straight up dead in some areas with the empty space and closed food stalls everywhere. The rapids, which could almost certainly run as they used to, especially now that the modified boats have been implemented, remain the sole water ride which often fails to get you even a little wet and operations are still pretty inconsistent. Opening hours are still pathetic for a park this popular and Merlin really comes across as a business who doesn't know what to do with the place. Thorpe park has been treated much better this year with all of their smaller, almost festival-like seasonal additions which actually add incentive for some to revisit multiple times throughout the year. Towers doesn't seem to be offering any sort of reason to make repeat visits this year other than some tacky meme challenge thing and a rather tired sounding scarefest with more or less the same line-up as the last few years and, despite guest feedback about the lack of atmosphere on park, still no scare-zones. It's honestly embarrassing and it's causing me to become very cynical about a place I still love and hold very close.

End rant.

I think you’re at Stage Three Merlin exhaustion. Don’t worry, we’ve all been through it. In a couple of years, you’ll have given up entirely and started to swap Merlin trips with visits to other parks.

When you do visit a Merlin park on the odd occasion, you’ll initially think “this isn’t as bad as I remember”, only to then be slowly worn down throughout the day by all the upselling, closed attractions and poor maintenance.

You’ll leave remembering why you stopped visiting and yearn for the days when Towers was run properly.

Then you’ll buy a Europa-Park Clubcard and forget it ever happened.

The Circle of (enthusiast) Life.

 

[GothMonsieur]

While that might be true, there seems to be littl

I think you’re at Stage Three Merlin exhaustion. Don’t worry, we’ve all been through it. In a couple of years, you’ll have given up entirely and started to swap Merlin trips with visits to other parks.

When you do visit a Merlin park on the odd occasion, you’ll initially think “this isn’t as bad as I remember”, only to then be slowly worn down throughout the day by all the upselling, closed attractions and poor maintenance.

You’ll leave remembering why you stopped visiting and yearn for the days when Towers was run properly.

Then you’ll buy a Europa-Park Clubcard and forget it ever happened.

The Circle of (enthusiast) Life.

I've been going through this exhaustion for at least two years now, only reason I visit is to ride my favourites and stroll around the gardens because they seem to be the only part of the park that are kept up to a high standard (and only because they are forced to keep it that way). Unfortunately, personal issues have prevented me from getting out to some parks in Europe but after doing a few more parks out in the states in October, it only further highlighted my problems with the way Merlin runs their parks.

 

[rob666]

Shame you didn't see the gardens about thirty years ago, compared to how they used to be, they are now an absolute disgrace.
Renovation work on some of the structures has been good (though Merlin were obliged to do so), but the actual gardens have been neglected very badly, especially under Merlin.
A large mass of ramble, bracken and St John's Wort has choked out literally hundreds of top quality specimen Azaleas, Camelias and alpine plants.
You can barely get to the stepping stones, and the ponds have been in desperate need of a proper dredging and clearing for about twenty years.
No wonder people don't stroll the gardens any more, they used to be stunning.

 

[Doublethink]

I think you’re at Stage Three Merlin exhaustion. Don’t worry, we’ve all been through it. In a couple of years, you’ll have given up entirely and started to swap Merlin trips with visits to other parks.

When you do visit a Merlin park on the odd occasion, you’ll initially think “this isn’t as bad as I remember”, only to then be slowly worn down throughout the day by all the upselling, closed attractions and poor maintenance.

You’ll leave remembering why you stopped visiting and yearn for the days when Towers was run properly.

Then you’ll buy a Europa-Park Clubcard and forget it ever happened.

The Circle of (enthusiast) Life.

Yep think I just reached stage 3/4 only did one visit to towers in April and the other merlin parks in the UK. Then my florida happend and I have no desire to visit any merlin RTP this year again. Off to Sweden for Lisiberg and kolmården. Hope to do Europa and PA either this or next year and already planning our next Orlando trip for the 2022 of 23 season

Would rather do one Euro trip a year or a Disney trip every couple of years than multipe merlin parks multiple times a year (not having a Merlin AP will save enough for that)