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2020: General Discussion

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To be fair, a lot of people will be questioning whether it's worth paying £150 at all for a pass that you can hardly use because the booking system sucks a**. I'm another one in the 'I won't be renewing until Covid restrictions are over or until pass booking restrictions are totally lifted' camp. There will be plenty more. Towers are targeting the £1 booking fee as an issue but I think they've missed the main point which is the lack of available chances to be able to use your pass to book a day AT ALL.
 
What do people think the queues will be like when the park is only open til 4 this week. I'm sure it will obviously be quieter but can still see 60 min queues which on a 6 hour day is terrible
 
I haven't really had any problems getting most of the dates that I want and don't mind the £1 charge but I don't think it would deter many for block booking. Towers is pretty good compared to the Southern parks in terms of availability. I've booked a few days in advance for Oktoberfest and Scarefest but didn't go crazy.

Blackpool seem to have a good system where you can only book 7 days in advance. I've had no issue at all. I could probably get tickets on the day 99% of the time. But I suspect they have given up having any restrictions whatsoever. But I suspect that BPB don't have nearly as many passholders a Alton Towers.
 
Ethan said:
What do people think the queues will be like when the park is only open til 4 this week. I'm sure it will obviously be quieter but can still see 60 min queues which on a 6 hour day is terrible
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I think opening will be extended personally to 6pm.
 
Opening will almost certainly be extended this week.

To be honest, why bother visiting this week? There are *plenty* of dates this season where the park is open till 6, 7, 8 or 9pm... just go on one of those! The difference in guests will be fairly small, I should think!
 
Worst case scenario is there's 16 4pm closing times for the rest of the reason, which yes probably will be extended, if not, as you've rightly pointed out, there are plenty of 6pm, 8pm and 9pm still to come!
 
Danscott22 said:
I'd love to think it will continue next season, just don't know how much faith I've got :tearsofjoy:
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If Oktoberfest proves successful (which I have a good feeling it will), I think it could very well continue!

It’s worth remembering that Merlin is now in private hands again. They may well see benefits in providing longer opening hours. I seem to remember hearing that closing times were often longer in the seasons before Merlin first went public, and events were also far more frequent, so it wouldn’t surprise me.

Is it true that the park’s opening hours were much longer in the initial Merlin years (maybe up to about 2012?), and events were far more frequent?
 
It's nothing to do with the buyout that ATR are opening later. As much as it would be nice to think so.

There were more events in the initial years under Merlin. Till they started slashing costs at every corner from around 2013 on.
 
AstroDan said:
It's nothing to do with the buyout that ATR are opening later. As much as it would be nice to think so.

There were more events in the initial years under Merlin. Till they started slashing costs at every corner from around 2013 on.
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Merlin first went public in 2013, it isn’t a coincidence that costs were cut around the same time onwards.

We’ve seen this time and time again with Merlin, SEAS, Parques Reunidos etc... Going public starts the cost cutting.

I’m glad the company is no longer public as we may begin to gradually see more budgetary flexibility and risk taking depending on the investment philosophy of the new owners.
 
AstroDan said:
It's nothing to do with the buyout that ATR are opening later. As much as it would be nice to think so.

There were more events in the initial years under Merlin. Till they started slashing costs at every corner from around 2013 on.
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Merlin was privately owned when they bought Tussauds.

There does seem to be some correlation between the ownership of the Tussauds/Merlin group and the type of investment. The years when Tussauds were owned by DIC were quite poor, the Merlin/Blackstone years were better, the Merlin/public years were worse. Hopefully the Merlin/Blackstone/Kirkbi ownership will see improved investment eventually once the Covid issues gone. But given what Chessington did this year I'm not holding my breath!


The fact that Thorpe and Alton are both doing Oktoberfest seems to think that even if AT came up with the idea there was some sharing of ideas at group level. But it does feel like its Alton Towers coming up with the good ideas and good operations, even if some of the ideas are shared.
 
Quiet day today, if the car park was anything to go by that is. Ride availability slacking this morning though. Wickerman, smiler, Spinball and enterprise all closed currently.
 
Connor98 said:
Quiet day today, if the car park was anything to go by that is. Ride availability slacking this morning though. Wickerman, smiler, Spinball and enterprise all closed currently.
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Enterprise was closed yesterday as well I think. Could be having technical issues again, I think it's on it's last legs.
 
My feeling is that Enterprise is on an unofficial late opening.

I think it has been opening between 11am and 12pm since it was fixed (as it did yesterday).
 
Wicker man closed again! Not great reliability for it at the moment. Shame as it was one of the most reliable rides on park last season
 
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