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2020: General Discussion

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jon81uk said:
Opposite way round, it was Friday, Saturday, Sunday of half term and then just Satuday and Sunday of the last weekend of the season (usually closest to bonfire night).
This is why since the noise restrictions ScareFest has now filled the half term week instead, so the Friday fireworks were usually very quiet as most kids were in school.
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I'm not sure this is right. The reason I can be so certain is because of what happened in either 2002, 2003 or 2004 (I forget which). Basically the first weekend of fireworks were hit by bad weather. It rained all day on the Saturday from start until about half an hour before the fireworks show. (It was estimated that over half of the guests had left to head home before the fireworks due to the dreadful weather).

On the Sunday, rain had been swapped for very high winds. The park opened with a handful of indoor rides open, but the entire park was closed by lunchtime. (I can remember this as we all got sent home & were paid until 8pm). As a result of this closure, the park had a fireworks show in hand, so they ran fireworks on the following Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. (i.e. added a Thursday show onto the planned last 3 days of season shows).

You are correct when you say the Friday fireworks were the quietest as kids were in school... which would not be the case if it was the Friday of the first fireworks weekend, which as you say normally fell in half term.

I always used to go for at least the late afternoon / early evening & fireworks on the Friday as it was quieter and quite bearable. Also, the Friday fireworks was the only one of the 5 firework days when local resident tickets were accepted, they could not be used on any weekend fireworks day as the park could fill the place to capacity with paying guests.
 
Kraken27 said:
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I'm not sure this is right. The reason I can be so certain is because of what happened in either 2002, 2003 or 2004 (I forget which). Basically the first weekend of fireworks were hit by bad weather. It rained all day on the Saturday from start until about half an hour before the fireworks show. (It was estimated that over half of the guests had left to head home before the fireworks due to the dreadful weather).

On the Sunday, rain had been swapped for very high winds. The park opened with a handful of indoor rides open, but the entire park was closed by lunchtime. (I can remember this as we all got sent home & were paid until 8pm). As a result of this closure, the park had a fireworks show in hand, so they ran fireworks on the following Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. (i.e. added a Thursday show onto the planned last 3 days of season shows).

You are correct when you say the Friday fireworks were the quietest as kids were in school... which would not be the case if it was the Friday of the first fireworks weekend, which as you say normally fell in half term.

I always used to go for at least the late afternoon / early evening & fireworks on the Friday as it was quieter and quite bearable. Also, the Friday fireworks was the only one of the 5 firework days when local resident tickets were accepted, they could not be used on any weekend fireworks day as the park could fill the place to capacity with paying guests.
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I remember that as an additional Friday being added the following week due to the weather as I recall driving up late in the day and only just making it in time for the fireworks on the extra Friday that was added.
 
AT86 said:
The 5 night fireworks were definitely the Sat and Sun on the first weekend, and then the Fri, Sat, Sun of the 2nd weekend. As an example here is a post from 2004 with the details and the dates:

https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/blog/2004/10/28/fireworks-2004/
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although those dates still confirm that it would be Friday Saturday Sunday of the end of half term week and that year Saturday Sunday of the weekend that starts half term.

I’m pretty certain that before scarefest was the main event, the fireworks Friday was always in half term.
 
Apologies if this has been asked previously but is there a reason why 13 has got water dummies all in the back? It's not a weight issue as you could otherwise just fill the rows. It's not a social distancing measures as the other rows are still being filled without gaps. Any ideas?
 
TPC said:
Apologies if this has been asked previously but is there a reason why 13 has got water dummies all in the back? It's not a weight issue as you could otherwise just fill the rows. It's not a social distancing measures as the other rows are still being filled without gaps. Any ideas?
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It's a weight issue, in short the trim breaks are either on or off so needs a certain amount of weight to operate which with social distancing they cannot meet with just passengers.
I'm guessing they put them all in the back for some operational reason, maybe it makes batching easier?
 
It does seem like they are loading all the other available rows so surely couldn't they just fill up the entire train with guests,to prevent the weight issue?
 
TPC said:
It does seem like they are loading all the other available rows so surely couldn't they just fill up the entire train with guests,to prevent the weight issue?
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They try to leave gaps between groups on rides like wickerman and TH13TEEN, obviously there's what the policy says and what actually happens.
 
imanautie said:
They try to leave gaps between groups on rides like wickerman and TH13TEEN, obviously there's what the policy says and what actually happens.
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Is it starting to look like they've given up with distancing on Th13teen? Because that's mildly terrifying if that's the case.
 
imanautie said:
It's a weight issue, in short the trim breaks are either on or off so needs a certain amount of weight to operate which with social distancing they cannot meet with just passengers.
I'm guessing they put them all in the back for some operational reason, maybe it makes batching easier?
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If they're all in the back where are RAP guests sat? Just crossed my mind.
 
It is a weight issue, number depending per group there might not end up being enough weight for it to run everytime, where as it’s a surefire bet if the back three rows are water dummies.
 
Danscott22 said:
It is a weight issue, number depending per group there might not end up being enough weight for it to run everytime, where as it’s a surefire bet if the back three rows are water dummies.
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I suppose that's fair enough. A train could be dispatched with a single me in one row and the other rows occupied with a parent/child or two skinny teenage girls. Luck of the draw. We might need those dummies to help it around. I'm not sure too many people would be pleased if they were skipped in the queue because they need to grab a few rugby players from further back in the queue to give the train more weight.
 
Went to the park today and operations were absolutely brilliant. Wickerman first up and they started sending the first people round at 9:50. Don’t think i’ve ever known them to start sending non ERT people round that early b4? Staff were really friendly and helpful and queues were really reasonable. Had Wickerman, 13, Rita, Hex, Oblivion and Smiler done by 1:30pm.
Really great day out despite the relentless rain.
 
The park certainly looked a lot quieter on queue times today, but that might have been to do with the bad weather rather than less ticket allocations. We’ll have to see over the next week or two if the park feels any quieter. It’s usually the end of August when the park is busy, with start of August quieter but with people not going on holiday and the with the park being closed for so long that’s all gone out the window!
 
djtruefitt said:
The park certainly looked a lot quieter on queue times today, but that might have been to do with the bad weather rather than less ticket allocations. We’ll have to see over the next week or two if the park feels any quieter. It’s usually the end of August when the park is busy, with start of August quieter but with people not going on holiday and the with the park being closed for so long that’s all gone out the window!
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Further demonstrating the need to change the booking / priority system if, as I suspect, this was largely caused by people booking and then not showing up.

Either £10 booking with an equivalent voucher on arrival.
And / or two strikes and you're out (no more reservations all season) policy.
BUT season ticket bookings are unrestricted - (until the park hits capacity).

No nonsense, no messing about, much fairer system.
 
D4n said:
Further demonstrating the need to change the booking / priority system if, as I suspect, this was largely caused by people booking and then not showing up.

Either £10 booking with an equivalent voucher on arrival.
And / or two strikes and you're out (no more reservations all season) policy.
BUT season ticket bookings are unrestricted - (until the park hits capacity).

No nonsense, no messing about, much fairer system.
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That is the ideal system but only if there is a mechanism via the website or Towers themselves to cancel your booking if you genuinely cannot make it and then those tickets are put back in the pot and made available again
 
Steve74 said:
That is the ideal system but only if there is a mechanism via the website or Towers themselves to cancel your booking if you genuinely cannot make it and then those tickets are put back in the pot and made available again
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Not really, if you buy tickets and can't make it you lose the money, no reason pass holders should be different.
 
evilcod said:
Not really, if you buy tickets and can't make it you lose the money, no reason pass holders should be different.
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Yes but if the system of "3 strikes and your blacklisted" was used, that is unfair on pass holders if there was a genuine reason why they couldn't use their booking, eg illness. There would be no such blacklisting for full paying guests. Yes they'd lose their money but they wouldn't be stopped/restricted from buying tickets again in the future.
 
One thing everyone is missing here... to implement such a system relies on investment in infrastructure - which at Towers does not happen.

Anyone who has worked there [me included] will attest that in the vast majority, the underlying infrastructure all dates back to the 1980's. Mr Portakabin has played a blinder throughout the park, behind the scenes.

Whilst I am absolutely no fan of Disney, you would hear Mickey Mouse laugh if he was taken behind the scenes at Alton Towers.
 
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