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2021: General Discussion

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The park typically had around 2 or 3,000 guests on a weekday. Meanwhile, a Saturday stands to have around 10 or 11,000. It stands to reason there are significant opening hour uplifts given the park has three or four times the guests.

That said, ride operations and staffing are weaker on off peak days. If any maintenance work is needed - they'll do it on an off peak day. Some food outlets and kiosks will be closed.

Clearly with the X Sector issue today, they should have extended. But, I imagine their budget is entirely used up by the generous 8.00pm close on the weekend.

I'd never choose to visit on a 4.00pm as I'm well aware that often these days are second rate. I just feel for the folks who have no choice.

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pluk said:
And what use us that to those who can't?

Yet again, your lack of empathy and thought about others circumstances is rotten.
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Most people are able to visit at weekends but just choose to go on weekdays as it'll be quieter, not because they simply can't go at weekends. How many people work on sundays, probably a very small percentage
 
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Opening hours should be good all around - weekdays or not, for those who have to visit in a weekday and have no other choice. There's no justifying a 4pm close, as I've said many times before. Why should someone who can only visit during a weekday have to rush around a park the size of Alton Towers in a six hour day and potentially have to queue for 40 minutes plus in ride queues? It's absolutely ridiculous.
 
Ethan said:
Most people are able to visit at weekends. Most people choose to go on weekdays as it'll be quieter, not because they simply can't go at weekends.
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Bit of a sweeping generalisation. What about all of our emergency service workers? What about a significant amount of NHS staff such as doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals? Prison officers? Those who work in retail? What about our train and bus drivers? Or those looking after our infrastructure such as electricity, gas and water? It's not an insignificant number.

In any case, why should those who go on a weekday be penalised? Shouldn't everybody get the opportunity for a good day whenever they go?
 
Everybody should be entitled to a good day out irrespective of when they visit. 4.00pm closes should be 5.00pm as they were some years ago - a park the size of ATR is just not achievable which such dire hours.

This argument has, however, been taking place for some time now. People, rightly, moan about it. But the fact is: it is not changing. And frankly, as much as it pains me to say it, you half expect these 4pm closes to be pretty rubbish. So, if it really matters that much to folk, just don't plan on visiting on those days. Even if it means booking a day off work to visit on a Sunday, which is probably the best day of the week to go right now.
 
I'm not much of a 'power rider' so not sure if I am a good test case, but I've ridden more on a 16:00 close than I have on an 18:00, for example. The atmosphere is certainly different, but if you're with a good group and you're not jaded, I think it's more than possible to have a good day out.

Perhaps the 20:00 means more rides overall given the drop off in the final couple of hours, but the waits throughout the day put me off, personally.
 
Personally, a good day out for me is a couple of rides first thing, a coffee and cake, another ride, lunch and a beer, a ride or two, another beers and a couple more rides at the end of the day :p

If a park is medium or busy, then your day can just become one 45 minute wait to the next, with some longer - and it starts to get a bit arduous.

But this is ATR. I mean, it's always been known for queues right from when I was a kid and we went in 1989/1990. As most parks are. The difference now is that they close at 4pm on some days... which is not good enough.
 
I was there today...but only planned to be there for 2 or 3 hours before driving home as we visited sunday and stayed over at the chained oak

Was a bit of a disaster for us tbh but only because i had it in my head we'd fly around the park in that time like usual

Started at smiler as its the only ride we didn't do on sunday (including cbeebies land:D)

A few trains went around and then the ride stopped just as we entered the building...waited a while but then walked backwards through the queue to oblivion...which was down

Walked up to rita,Th13teen and rollerdisco then got in the queue for spinball...which went down just as we got near the station and announcment went out that tech services on the way and they'd advise to leave the queue

So we decided as a family it was monorail and home!

Great weekend all in all...but i did say on the way out today if i was a day visitor who'd travelled i'd have been extremely unhappy
 
Ethan said:
What are you talking about. Most people are able to visit at weekends. Most people choose to go on weekdays as it'll be quieter, not because they simply can't go at weekends. How many people work on sundays, probably a very small percentage
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Nope, around a third of people work Sundays, many more Saturdays. All of retail, entertainment, emergency services, health and beauty, gyms, carers. The list is pretty much endless. Those in those jobs will disproportionately be ATs core target markets of younger adults. The friends and families of those same visitors may also then be looking at midweek visits to stay with their group.

My wife is a hairdresser, I'm police. The chance of us not working weekends without using up leave is pretty much zero. We are are not at all unusual.

Like your arguments about the stupidity in your eyes of people joining long queues, you seem to lack the ability to see the world from others eyes. You'd think you might have learned by doing the exact same thing yourself a few days later and then moaning about it on here, but apparently not.

Bottom line is blaming the choices of the visitor, who does not have your enthusiast level knowledge on theme park opporations, on the parks failure to deliver a decent day out to a paying guest is dumb. It's the parks fault if the park is failing, not the person who pays to find out how bad it is.
 
pluk said:
You'd think you might have learned by doing the exact same thing yourself a few days later and then moaning about it on here, but apparently not.
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I joined a queue for wicker man that said 90, I didn't expect to wait 45 longer. But that was due to it being on 2 trains at the time, which I was unaware of until I was halfway through the queue and noticed. If I'd have known it was operating 2 trains before joining the queue, I would've known it would be over the stated 90. But these things happen so it is what it is I guess. I think anyone would moaning though if they ended up waiting over 2 hours for a ride. I'll happily stand in hour queues per ride as the weekends are always busy, but 2 hours is pushing the line. People will say that those sort queues are normal for a new ride like wicker man, but I don't think the park should be letting in as many as they are in order for queues to get so long
 
The parks exists primarily to make money. They’ll have as many guests as they can legally into the park, they won’t stop selling fasttrack, and they probably won’t invest too much into fixing RAP and ride capacity as long as it acts as a secondary driver to FT sales. Most guests are oblivious to poor capacity and chalk it up to the park being busy, and most still have a decent day out and come back. Enthusiasts should probably be listened to a little more, but primarily be thankful you have the knowledge to get more out of your day than most.

Moving on from this in circles topic , let’s talk RetroSquad

Roller Disco - this is my least favourite of the new rides, but it’s location is perfect for something permanent in the future , with lots of space around it for thematic elements and queue space. I’d opt for something indoors if possible here, as the dark forest isn’t all that dark right now, but anything Leo to the ground with decent capacity would do well here.

Funk n Fly - again a great location for a flat , the ride experience is good and a good family ride. The restraints however are far too restrictive. I’m a slim guy and even I had trouble closing the bar. There should be an inverting flat here to compliment Blade


MixTape - easily the best of the three additions with a great ride experience. This should be upgraded to a larger park model, with 4 across seating and higher bounce height . A great attraction.

Flats should be a priority for 2022, with 2023 being time for a Dungeons retheme to a Williams property, a new 4D or Theatre show , and a family flat ride on the lawn opposite Burger Kitchen
 
Ethan said:
Most people are able to visit at weekends but just choose to go on weekdays as it'll be quieter, not because they simply can't go at weekends. How many people work on sundays, probably a very small percentage
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Over 20% of the UK population are at work on any given Sunday.
Source...University of Sheffield weekend working Study in the 21st century.
As most weekend workers are rotation shift workers, 40% of the working population work Sundays on a repeat regular basis...
I trust you don't work weekends.
 
rob666 said:
Over 20% of the UK population are at work on any given Sunday.
Source...University of Sheffield weekend working Study in the 21st century.
As most weekend workers are rotation shift workers, 40% of the working population work Sundays on a repeat regular basis...
I trust you don't work weekends.
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Well that's fair enough! I was just pointing out that more people can go at weekends than weekdays, hence why weekends are always much much busier
 
Irrespective of the debate here, Alton has 4 to 5 x the guests on Saturday and Sunday than your term time weekday.

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Let's think of Alton Towers as an Ice Cream. On weekdays you just get the cheap cone and the basic vanilla ice cream, and not that much of it. However, on the weekend, you get the waffle cone, a generous helping of ice cream, strawberry syrup, a flake and hundreds and thousands. As long time enthusiasts, most of us know this and make our decisions armed with this knowledge.
 
BarryZola said:
Let's think of Alton Towers as an Ice Cream. On weekdays you just get the cheap cone and the basic vanilla ice cream, and not that much of it. However, on the weekend, you get the waffle cone, a generous helping of ice cream, strawberry syrup, a flake and hundreds and thousands. As long time enthusiasts, most of us know this and make our decisions armed with this knowledge.
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The experience is normally better at weekends yes. For me the best thing about weekends is the operations, rides operating at full capacity meaning the hourly throughput is much higher. It really frustrates me when I see Galactica and oblivion on 1 station during the week, especially if it is a busier weekday than normal. From my experience the other day with wicker man, it needs to always be on 3 trains. 2 trains slows the throughput down significantly to a point where the queue crawls around. I'm assuming it was on 2 trains when you were there @Matt N, as it took you some time to get on aswell
 
I do think making the 8pm closes 7pm and scrapping the 4pm closes would be a better overall plan. 4pm is just too early for any park to close.
 
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