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2020: General Discussion

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Disappointingly the crowds are no quieter than a normal weekend despite the weather. Shame I was expecting 10 min queues but you don't get if you ask!
 
Ethan said:
Disappointingly the crowds are no quieter than a normal weekend despite the weather. Shame I was expecting 10 min queues but you don't get if you ask!
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I think that would be down to the capped gate numbers and that you have to pre-book in advance. Before covid, pass holders would make a decision last minute whether to visit or not based on the weather, now you be lucky if you can get a pre-booked ticket booked weeks in advance let alone last minute.
 
Just thinking out loud. Most people who go to Towers for Scarefest seem to go for the night rides in the dark etc and scaremazes. This means that people who have pre-booked day tickets already will most likely still be there into the evening. So how can Towers release extra thousands of PM (evening) tickets when the people with day tickets already will still be there? There's supposed to be a maximum capacity at the moment so how have they suddenly 'magicked' more room for visitors when they've been upsetting passholders for months by strictly limiting their access?
 
Danscott22 said:
The full day tickets have probably been capped even further to allow for the evening tickets.
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1. Why would you get rid of a full day ticket place and replace it with a half day ticket place?

2. Is there any evidence that they have even done this?

The only thing that we know is that all passholder day tickets were sold out (hit capacity) and now they've added additional PM tickets, so on an evening you'll have the majority of the day ticket holders still on park plus extra thousands of passholders with PM tickets. I doubt they will have cut the availability to full-paying day ticket buyers to make these PM tickets available but I have no evidence of that so couldn't say for sure.
 
There’s no way they were selling out of on the day full price tickets so reducing the allocation and allowing PM tickets and also factoring in people who don’t spend the whole day at the park means naturally there’s a reduction of people in the park late afternoon.

Just have to ask why Merlin weren’t doing reallocation or AM / PM tickets from July as it could have lowered some complaints.
 
They will have years worth of data on how many people generally leave the parks in the afternoon, I imagine this has been used as a guide to work out the allocation of evening tickets.

Despite a big draw for some guests being late night riding, equally there are many guests who don’t care for Halloween scares who choose to leave early. Even if this is a small fraction, say 1000 guests. It still means there is extra capacity to fill.
 
Had a fantastic few hours on park today. Was there 4-8 and got on 13 rides! Amazing for a Saturday I take what I said earlier back it was very quiet towards the end of the day. I even had a night ride on oblivion with a staff member as I was the only one there! Great experience never done that before
 
Swarm Chris said:
Anyone want a new job? Towers are hiring for a new Marketing Director.

Responsibilities include:


They also highlight the need to develop a succession plan, which gives me all the right feels of job security there.

https://merlin.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/4/home/requisition/6781?c=merlin
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Job role - marketing

Job description - developing new product strategy across entire resort.

Marketing led ride and attraction development. This company continues to be upsidedown.

BarryZola said:
Just thinking out loud. Most people who go to Towers for Scarefest seem to go for the night rides in the dark etc and scaremazes. This means that people who have pre-booked day tickets already will most likely still be there into the evening. So how can Towers release extra thousands of PM (evening) tickets when the people with day tickets already will still be there? There's supposed to be a maximum capacity at the moment so how have they suddenly 'magicked' more room for visitors when they've been upsetting passholders for months by strictly limiting their access?
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My guess is they consider that once the mazes open there is a greater capacity for guests to be safely accommodated within attractions and queue lines so the capacity of the park can raise to reflect this.
 
I recall John Wardley describing Nick Varney as a marketing man. If Merlin are to make a new ride then marketing must come up with a USP and a 'killer image'.
I therefore am not surprised that a marketing person at Alton Towers would also be involved in planning.
 
pluk said:
Job role - marketing

Job description - developing new product strategy across entire resort.

Marketing led ride and attraction development. This company continues to be upsidedown.



My guess is they consider that once the mazes open there is a greater capacity for guests to be safely accommodated within attractions and queue lines so the capacity of the park can raise to reflect this.
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Are they forgetting their track record with getting mazes open on time...
 
While I am not saying merlin/alton approach to new attractions is the right strategy. I teach business and it is however an important part of the market department responsibility within any company. Product is a key part of the marketing mix (often listed as the most important as if that's wrong the other elements won't help), as well as new product development, the current product portfolio and product life cycle all fall under responsibilities within Marketing. Other departments need to be involved through and not just left to marketing, which sometimes seems to be the case at Merlin.
 
Thameslink Rail said:
I recall John Wardley describing Nick Varney as a marketing man. If Merlin are to make a new ride then marketing must come up with a USP and a 'killer image'.
I therefore am not surprised that a marketing person at Alton Towers would also be involved in planning.
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That's right, and it's given us Doreen Brown's Ghost Lame, Angry Birds Land, the worlds most psychology damaging waiver signing kiddie coaster Thirteen, the world's second most psychology waiver signing kiddie coaster The Walking Dead, GalacticAir (defunct), etc etc.

All very marketable, all very poor. Yes, there's things that could be considered hits along the way, but the miss rate is remarkable and you have to be someone with a startling lack of imagination to look at the hits and not see they could have been so much better if they were experience rather than marketing led in their design.

You think they'd learn is what I'm saying.
 
Incase people haven’t seen, fastrack is now available on even more rides, now including nemesis, wicker man, the smiler, oblivion, spinball, Galactica, Rita and randomly the runaway mine train! And the biggest shock, each one costs £10!

Also looks like it will be added to TH13TEEN soon as plastic screens have been placed in the queue line.
 
djtruefitt said:
Also looks like it will be added to TH13TEEN soon as plastic screens have been placed in the queue line.
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Thought RAP guests were already using the Fast Track queue? They can't use the usual RAP entrance so I don't know how they'll re-intergrate Fast Track, unless they both use the Fast Track entrance.
 
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