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2020: General Discussion

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TPJames said:
I mean I would agree, but it’s not like the ride closures are specific to Alton towers, it’s consistent year upon year across all merlin parks. Let’s face it, half the rides are closed due to budget cuts, not due to social distancing. If tomb blaster at chessington can open, there’s no reason hex for example can’t.

You may be a merlin annual pass holder, but I’m not, and I wouldn’t be happy paying 40 quid for that many non advertised ride closures. These closures weren’t advertised on the website in advance so I wouldn’t be happy paying full price to turn up and half the park to be closed off.

Most european parks have been able to offer their full offerings(as advertised) for their opening weeks, all of these ride closures should have been advertised in advance before people being mislead by all the rides on the website and no specific mention of which rides are closed. Furthermore, rides Rita and 13teen “require masks”, which would indicate to the common guest browsing the website that they would actually be open.

How are blackpool doing with ride availability today, that’s a good comparison to towers as they are similar locations in the uk, with similar weather conditions etc.
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Tomb blaster is a controlled flow, Hex is people milling around a building in the dark. I imagine the issue with Duel is the loading platform but I find that a little more baffling.

If the reason for those closures was budget cuts they would have shut down more staff heavy rides.
 
Dave said:
Tomb blaster is a controlled flow, Hex is people milling around a building in the dark. I imagine the issue with Duel is the loading platform but I find that a little more baffling.

If the reason for those closures was budget cuts they would have shut down more staff heavy rides.
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What about Duel then?
 
Dave said:
Tomb blaster is a controlled flow, Hex is people milling around a building in the dark. I imagine the issue with Duel is the loading platform but I find that a little more baffling.

If the reason for those closures was budget cuts they would have shut down more staff heavy rides.
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Okay and why is Rita closed, and Congo river rapids.

And Thorpe park has rumba rapids, rush, storm surge, depth charge, timber tug, rocky express and tidal wave closed.

They are just trying to cut back on their losses, which is fine in all respects, but I would expect these closures to be advertised online in advance before visiting, not just turning up to find half the park closed, that’s cheating guests out of their money.
 
TPJames said:
Okay and why is Rita closed, and Congo river rapids.

And Thorpe park has rumba rapids, rush, storm surge, depth charge, timber tug, rocky express and tidal wave closed.

They are just trying to cut back on their losses, which is fine in all respects, but I would expect these closures to be advertised online in advance before visiting, not just turning up to find half the park closed, that’s cheating guests out of their money.
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Well based on today any future guests know what to expect so they don't have to go if they don't want
 
Ethan said:
Well based on today any future guests know what to expect so they don't have to go if they don't want
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Yes, but it’s still not fair that today’s guests are “guinea pigs” and weren’t notified of all the ride closures.

Its typical merlin, but I just think it’s really unprofessional.
 
Ethan said:
What about Duel then?
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I mentioned Duel in the post.... read it.

TPJames said:
Okay and why is Rita closed, and Congo river rapids.

And Thorpe park has rumba rapids, rush, storm surge, depth charge, timber tug, rocky express and tidal wave closed.

They are just trying to cut back on their losses, which is fine in all respects, but I would expect these closures to be advertised online in advance before visiting, not just turning up to find half the park closed, that’s cheating guests out of their money.
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River rapids you can’t stop one boat bouncing into another boat and if it does that you are pretty damn close. I suspect as always Rita is technical issues,
 
I take it the queue times are likely down to enhanced cleaning procedures and lower ride capacities?

Apparently Wicker Man is leaving a row between each group (which I find strange given that the guy on BBC Midlands said that it could theoretically run at full capacity with 1m+ distancing). Nemesis, however, is loading people in each row but separating people within the rows; I’d assume the other 4-across coasters are the same.

Most interestingly of all, Wicker Man’s pre-show is still running, but you just queue through the room while the effects go off instead of all being batched in.
 
Dave said:
I mentioned Duel in the post.... read it.



River rapids you can’t stop one boat bouncing into another boat and if it does that you are pretty damn close. I suspect as always Rita is technical issues,
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It doesn’t even matter why these attractions are closed, my point is the closures should be clearly advertised on the website before visiting. Day passes are £40+ and you simply aren’t getting any value for money whatsoever if you aren’t being clearly told what’s going to be open and what’s going to be closed for the whole day (last minute unexpected closures of course are not relevant to this).

It’s a typical merlin strategy, don’t advertise the full offering to get people through the gates and get the cash, and then disappoint them when they arrive with half the rides unexpectedly closed as it wasn’t advertised on the website before arrival.

This is exactly why I haven’t been to a merlin park in 5 years. I was thinking about going to chessington next week but after seeing ride availability today across the merlin parks, it’s not worth the £34.50 price tag anymore.
 
rob666 said:
Would there be anybody in the whole country who would expect a full provision of rides and attractions on the morning of the first day of a theme park, after six months of closure, in the current virus circumstances?
Oh yeah...enthusiasts.
Good job I'm just a Beach happy clapper.
Give em a break!
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If you actually read what people are saying, the main point isn't that they're closed, it's that they're not advertised as closed.

But as I said, if parks outside of the Merlin group can open all / the majority of their attractions then there's no excuse Merlin can't.
  • Pleasure Beach have re-opened with all attractions bar a select few that include touching a lot of surfaces / social distancing cant be implemented ,i.e Impossible, Chinese Puzzle Maze.
  • PortAventura are opening with attractions bar children's play areas.
  • Disneyland Paris are opening with all attractions bar children's play areas and shows.
  • Universal have opened with all attractions bar shows.
  • Europa Park have opened with all attractions bar children's play areas and shows.
...and on a slightly different note, Chessington and Legoland have opened with indoor attractions meaning some indoor attractions meaning there is no need for Duel to be closed at Towers.

So actually, yes, I would expect the majority of attractions to be open, and if not they should be advertised as such.
 
rob666 said:
Would there be anybody in the whole country who would expect a full provision of rides and attractions on the morning of the first day of a theme park, after six months of closure, in the current virus circumstances?
Oh yeah...enthusiasts.
Good job I'm just a Beach happy clapper.
Give em a break!
Click to expand...

Because that’s what every professional and respectable park would do?

Europa park, efteling, Drayton manor, Phantasialand, I could go on. They all posted the list of attractions which would and would not be available when they reopened this season? Actually even chessington and Legoland did, so there’s no reason why alton towers and Thorpe park had to just leave their customers blind as to what’s actually going to be open.

By the sound of your tone, you’re probably a merlin pass holder. You can stick up for them all you want but I’m highlighting fundamental issues in the way alton towers and Thorpe are operating right now. Not advertising what is closed is effectively lying to your full paying customers (£35+) and that’s going to leave a sour taste in their mouth. It’s hardly good for customer service and satisfaction.
 
rob666 said:
Would there be anybody in the whole country who would expect a full provision of rides and attractions on the morning of the first day of a theme park, after six months of closure, in the current virus circumstances?
Oh yeah...enthusiasts.
Good job I'm just a Beach happy clapper.
Give em a break!
Click to expand...

No, you wouldn’t but looking at that list it’s reasonable to expect there to be less closures than there currently are.

Whilst I take the mitigating circumstances point, the inverse of that is that they’ve had months to get everything running smoothly and they haven’t done, if on the other hand the closures are forced on them due to social distancing measures then these should be advertised beforehand as it would have been known.

This is exactly why I’ve got little by way of plans to go to a theme park this year as if I was there today I’d be gutted. Why can they not open Thirteen, for example?
 
The throughputs are not very good today. Combine social distancing and then big gaps to clean the rides and it's making for large queues. This is with probably the smallest allocation of guests allowed in for a day as well. People are going to have to get used to very big queues this season if they bother going. Just left myself and didn't bother waiting for any rides.

Edit - Or maybe there will be some quieter midweek days or something? Who knows.
 
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